A Call to Action
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
We have made our way to the conclusion of the book of Hebrews. This has been a journey that has taken us the most part of 2020 to arrive at. Throughout this study we have examined how Jesus Christ is greater and how Jesus Christ did what no one else ever could do. He died on the cross for our sin and offers us eternal life with Him in glory. While our world would love to think that all people inherit this wonderful gift of salvation, the Bible reminds us that we are responsible for what we do with Jesus Christ. We must accept Him as our Lord and Savior and place our faith in Him and in Him alone. As we do that, we are changed from the inside out and we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and literally we are “born again” as Jesus talks about in John 3. If you have been born again, some natural changes will transpire in your life. These changes will not necessarily be easy, but they are necessary nonetheless. We have examined some of these changes during our study and let’s think of some of them now!
As a follower of Jesus Christ, you are called to love God rather than love money.
As a follower of Jesus Christ, you are called to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
As a follower of Jesus Christ, you are called to persevere through hard times and remain faithful.
In our text this morning, we will examine a few final exhortations that we must live out as well!
As a follower of Jesus Christ, you are called to praise God and offer up a sacrifice of praise.
As a follower of Jesus Christ, you are called to obey and submit to your leaders.
As a follower of Jesus Christ, you are called to pray for others and to follow Christ wherever He calls you to go.
Many people like to sit on the sidelines and allow other people to do the heavy lifting. This is not our call, though, as Christians. We are called to act and we are called to do so immediately. Having been stuck in COVID quarantine the last few weeks as many of you have had to go through recently and as many in our country have had to do over the last few months, we get restless whenever we are stuck with little to do in our homes. That’s not the way that we are called to live our lives longterm! We are called to have fellowship with one another and to act. 2 week quarantine sessions are one thing, but some Christians are tempted to become a lifelong “quarantiner” of sorts as they sit on the bench waiting for Kingdom come. Friends, don’t be like this. We are called to act and we are called to do this today.
15 Therefore, through him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.
16 Don’t neglect to do what is good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
18 Pray for us, for we are convinced that we have a clear conscience, wanting to conduct ourselves honorably in everything.
19 And I urge you all the more to pray that I may be restored to you very soon.
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
22 Brothers and sisters, I urge you to receive this message of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.
23 Be aware that our brother Timothy has been released. If he comes soon enough, he will be with me when I see you.
24 Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who are from Italy send you greetings.
25 Grace be with you all.
Bring a Sacrifice of Praise (15-16)
Bring a Sacrifice of Praise (15-16)
Throughout the book of Hebrews, there has been a lot of ink devoted to talking about the Old Testament sacrifices that were offered to atone for the sin of the people. The Jews literally brought with them a sacrificial animal and that was their duty per the Old Covenant. Thankfully, we are under the New Covenant. What are we expected to bring to the table, though? Thanksgiving was just a few days ago and many of you gathered with families and whenever this happens, each person is usually responsible to bring something. Usually someone cooks the meat, others bring desserts, others bring sides and salads, others bring rolls. It’s a team effort! When it comes to church, it’s the same way. It’s not a one person show because worship isn’t about us - it’s all about God! Therefore, what do we bring to the table? We are called, in verse 15, to bring a sacrifice of praise.
How do we do this? How can we bring a sacrifice of praise continually? Firstly, we do this through Jesus Christ. We mentioned this last week as many people think that God accepts the worship of all religions and that there is nothing special about being a Christian. Church, what does the Bible share? The Bible is clear that the only way that we are able to worship God and approach the throne is through Jesus Christ. This is why we pray in Jesus’ name. This is why we worship and praise Christ for what He has done! He has given us access to God and He deserves our praise.
So we do this through Jesus, but how can we bring this sacrifice of praise to God, though? In a season of life such as this one, how are we to worship whenever there is doubt and disappointment around us? Simple. We remember the reason that we worship in the first place. Consider the early church and how they lived under the constant threat of persecution, death, and torture. Even though this was their reality, they continued to praise and worship God. Why? Was their worship based on their circumstances or based on their comforts? No. It was based on the reality that God is worthy of our praise and worship because He is Holy. To quote the early church father Tertullian, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” What does this mean? The blood of those died for the faith cause the faith to grow. You cannot kill Christianity - Christ will build His church and nothing will stop it. Yet, we can fail to praise God appropriately and when we do this, we fail to do our job. Don’t give into this, friends. Even in difficult moments. Even when it’s hard to worship - bring a sacrifice of praise because God is worthy.
Not only are we to worship, we are called to do good and share with others. What does this look like? We live in a world where leaders don’t play well with others. Turn on the news or simply talk with some other people and you find this to be true. People don’t act nicely with others and they certainly don’t share with people they disagree with. Is that how Christians should act, though? Should we be known as people who love others, as people who do good and as people who share what we have with others? What does the Bible speak to this point about the church?
44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common.
32 Now the entire group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common.
We see from the very inception of the early church, the early church shared what they had so that they could minister to those around them! Sharing things isn’t communism, it’s Biblical! This pleases God and this is something that we are called to do today. Likewise, this is something that we are called to do here at Morgan Baptist Church. We are called to worship God and we are called to do good and share with others. Consider, how can you do a better job at worshipping God and sharing with others? In a season of difficulty, how can you continue to worship God? How can you continue to share the love of Jesus with others? How can you share with those around you? Friends, the only way that we can do these things is to keep our eyes upon Jesus - the author and perfecter of our faith. If we take our focus off of Him for even a moment, we will be tempted to look our for ourselves and stop worshipping Christ. Don’t give into temptation, persevere and bring a sacrifice of praise to God because God is pleased with these acts of love.
Submit to Leaders (17)
Submit to Leaders (17)
Not only are we called to love others, share what we have and worship God, we are called in verse 17 to submit to and obey our leaders. Back whenever COVID first hit the Midwest hard in March/April, this was one of the hot topic subjects that many pastors and churchgoers talked about. Romans 13 talks about Christian duty to rulers and the government and Paul lays out some principles that all Christians should abide by. Here in Hebrews 13, we see the preacher give a simple exhortation - obey your leaders and submit to them. Friends, is it easy to obey and submit to others? Even friends and family members can be difficult to obey because we have disagreements with them. How about someone who thinks differently than we do? Is it easy or difficult to obey that person? It can be very hard. In this season of life, it has been extremely difficult to follow the rules and regulations laid out by our leaders. Some rules have been brought into question because they are unBiblical and we know that when a leader causes us to sin, we are to disobey that law or rule, but most of the rules in place today are not strictly unBiblical, they are simply difficult for us to comprehend because we never imagined we’d be in a situation like this!
So, what can we learn about obedience from Hebrews 13:17? This verse is not giving us information about submitting to government leaders or presidents, this verse is giving us information about submitting and obeying leaders in the church. How do we know this? Because of what follows. Why do we obey and submit to these leaders? Because they keep watch over your souls and will give an account to God one day.
We live in a world where everyone wants to be a leader, until they are a leader and they have to deal with everything associated with actually leading! What does the Bible say about being a teacher?
1 Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will receive a stricter judgment.
The pastor or leader will receive stricter judgment from God. Therefore, the preacher of Hebrews notes that the congregation is to obey and submit to their leaders. In the Greek text, obey is in the present tense. This isn’t just something we do whenever our leader agrees with us or says something that we agree with. Rather, we submit and obey because God has a plan and part of that plan is the leader that He gives us.
I listened to a sermon by David Platt several months ago and Platt (former president of the IMB) mentioned a pastor by the name of Charles Simeon in his message. He talked about the testimony of Charles Simeon and how he served at a church that genuinely didn’t want him to be there. Simeon pastored at Holy Trinity Church in Cambridge and started this at the age of 23. The congregation, though, wanted a different man to be their pastor and as a result, there was a lot of conflict that ensued. Back in the 1700s, you rented a pew at least in this church and many of the “normal” churchgoers locked their pews so that no one could sit in them during church. If someone attended Holy Trinity Church during Simeon’s first few years, they were forced to stand in the aisle for the whole service. Friends, consider Hebrews 13:17 and the church that Charles Simeon pastored at? Did they make his ministry a joy or did they bring much grief to his ministry? Safe to say they did not make ministry a joy - yet, he continued to pastor and preach the Gospel, faithfully. I am grateful that you all did not treat me like Holy Trinity Church treated Charles Simeon.
Let us continue to obey the leaders that God has given to us.
Seek to Pray for others (18-19)
Seek to Pray for others (18-19)
Ultimately, though, our Christian life isn’t primarily about us. It’s about God and His plan. Consider the Lord’s Prayer, or the model prayer in Matthew 6. Let’s look at part of this prayer
10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
We pray not that our will be done, but God’s will be done. This is a good reminder for us that our faith is not a private one where it’s all about us. Rather, it’s all about God. Therefore, whenever we pray, it shouldn’t be primarily about me. It should be about God’s kingdom coming and that requires me to pray for other people as well. Think about what you often pray about.
We talked about these types of things during our Wednesday night Bible study a week and a half ago regarding prayer. According to LifeWay, 82% of people who pray typically pray for their family or friends. This is a good thing and maybe you are good at this: maybe you are good at routinely praying for others. In general, though, we have much room to grow in praying for other people and doing so genuinely.
The preacher of Hebrews implores these people to pray for him. He asks them to pray for he and his companions as they strive to conduct themselves honorably and he also asks them to pray for him as he hoped to return to them in person soon. Consider the people in your world. How can you do a better job of praying for others? Pray for them to continue to live honorable lives in the Lord. If you find yourself in need of prayer, friends, reach out! This is one of the amazing things about Christian community - we’re not in this alone! We have brothers and sisters to pray for us. We all need one another in this season of life!
Follow the Great Shepherd (20-21)
Follow the Great Shepherd (20-21)
In the final few verses the preacher arrives at a benediction and he prays for these Jewish Christians. His prayer is one of remarkable confidence in the providence and plan of God even in a situation where the preacher was away from this congregation. He loves this church, but most of all, he knows that Jesus loves this church even more and he encourages them to follow Christ - the Great Shepherd.
The preacher begins in verse 20 by saying the “God of peace.” If you are a Christian, what is awaiting you? Eternal life with God. Therefore, there is peace between you and God. How? Through what Jesus Christ did on the cross and in His resurrection from the dead. If you are not a Christian, though, is there peace? No. There is wrath. Some people hope that God will be peaceful towards them if they do enough good things and are a nice person. Do we have to hope for this, though or can we know for sure? We can know for sure! If you belong to Jesus Christ, if you are His sheep, you can have full assurance of your destination right now. It is remarkable to say that our God is the God of peace because only the true Christian can know true peace. Do you have peace today? This isn’t to say that things are easy - but do you have peace even in the storms of life? I pray that you do because if you belong to Jesus, you have this peace. If He is your great shepherd, if He bore your sins on the cross, you should have hope and peace today! Why? Because He lives and intercedes for you right now.
Living in Conway/Morgan/Lebanon/Marshfield, Missouri, you know that we are surrounded by cattle nearly every direction we turn. We know all about cattle, but we don’t know as much about sheep. In the Holy Land, things were opposite. Sheep were very common and the analogy of Jesus being the shepherd and we being His sheep made much sense. To many in our world today, though, they don’t understand the analogy. Sheep are dumb animals. They need a caretaker - a shepherd - to watch out for them or else they will be in grave danger. In the Gospel of John, we see a beautiful picture of Christ as the great shepherd and those who are in Christ as His sheep. Consider what John 10 states
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Not only this, but
17 This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again.
18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
He laid down His life for who? For His sheep. Are you His sheep? Do you belong to Jesus Christ? If you do, then you have the hope of eternal life with Him. Not only do you have this eternal hope, but you also have the hope that Christ is with you and working inside of you right now. The preacher prays that these believers would be equipped to do God’s will. Friends, we have the Holy Spirit inside of us and we are called to not do what is right in our own eyes but instead to follow after what God says is right. To quote Al Mohler, “The only way we can please God is through Jesus. No one can please God without him.”
Are you pleasing God with how you are living your life right now? Friends, this is a call to action and we must strive to please God as we rely on the Holy Spirit that lives inside of all God’s children. Follow the great shepherd wherever He leads you.
Postscript (22-25)
Postscript (22-25)
Our final 4 verses are what scholars call a postscript with some personal notes. We would expect the prayer in verses 20-21 to conclude the letter but the preacher continues with a final greeting. These final few verses fascinate scholars because of the context of the letter in general and the audience this sermon was intended to in the first place. First, in verse 23, we see that the preacher notes that, “Our brother Timothy has been released.” Whoever preached this sermon viewed Timothy as a brother. To the people who presume that Paul is the preacher of Hebrews, this presents a problem because Paul assumes more of a mentor role to Timothy rather than a brother. Certainly they are brothers in Christ, but Paul is mentor of sorts to Timothy. Because of this, this seems to be an argument against Pauline authorship of this book.
What is the instruction from the preacher? To note that those in Italy greet you. Again, where is the intended destination of this letter/sermon? We don’t know! The likely options include Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome. For the preacher to say that those in Italy greet you, only one of those cities is in Italy - obviously, Rome. As a result, some take this to mean that the preacher is intending this message for Jewish Christians in Rome. Again, we don’t know this for sure but we can at least speculate after reading the entirety of this book.
Conclusion
Conclusion
This is the letter of the Hebrews. Likely a sermon preached by this anonymous preacher to an audience of Jewish Christians who were tempted to revert back to their old way of doing things as Jews who rejected Christ as Lord. What does the preacher keep on saying? Persevere. Hold fast. Stand strong! What is the message for us 2,000 years later? Persevere. Have faith in Jesus Christ and stand strong on the authority of God’s Word! Why? Because
12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The Word of God is active and its commands are still relevant today. What will you do with Scripture? Will you allow Scripture to have the final word and determine your allegiances and actions or will you let Scripture to only matter sometimes or whenever it makes you feel good?
As this book has taught us, Jesus is greater. He brings about a new covenant and He writes it upon our hearts and minds. He is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. He paid it all on the cross and He is seated in the throne room of heaven interceding on my behalf right now. Is He interceding on your behalf as well? Friend, I pray that He is. I pray that you have received Christ as Lord and that you are living for Him today. This is our call to action. Will you obey the commands of Scripture and follow after Jesus Christ, or will you reject what the Bible says and in doing so, reject Jesus Christ as well? I beg of you, do business with Jesus today. Bring a sacrifice of praise to God through Jesus Christ, submit to you leaders, pray for others, and follow Jesus wherever He is calling you to go.
We are not saved to sit, we are saved to serve. This is our call to action, even in such a time as this. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Be a worker this week and share the message that Jesus saves and Jesus satisfies.