Sermon Tone Analysis

THE KEYS TO GREAT WORSHIP           HEBREWS 13:9-16

 

 

            I hope that you have brought your copy of God’s Word with you this morning.

I want to remind you that everything we do around here is based on the Word of God.

It is our compass, tool, instrument for doing things God’s way.

We try hard not to do things our way, but the Lord’s way.

This is why the songs we sing are based on the Word of God.

This is why we pray and give is because the Lord has instructed us to do these things.

I hope you can see why we put so much emphasis on Scripture.

It is the only book that can instruct us in how we are to appropriately respond to the Lord, because of all that He has done for us.

So if you have your Bible, I invite you to turn to the thirteenth chapter of Hebrews.

This morning’s sermon comes from this great book that stresses the superiority of Christ over Moses, angels, and the Old Covenant that God gave to the children of Israel.

To read this book, I believe is to invoke worship because Christ is the main subject and points us to how He is better than anyone or anything.

I want to begin reading in verse 9 and read through the 16th verse.

As we continue our theme for the month on what is genuine and true worship, I believe this text helps us discover some three keys to great worship.

But before, I give you the three keys to great worship; you need to know a very important truth or you cannot offer great worship or any form of worship that would be acceptable to the Lord.

In verses 9-14, the writer of Hebrews, who wrote mostly to a Jewish audience (some of which had accepted Christ, others who knew Christ intellectually, but not in the heart, and those who have completely rejected Christ).

In these verses, encourages his readers and us that a relationship with the Lord is our only reason for worship.

RELATIONSHIP IS OUR REASON TO WORSHIP – 9-14

            In the previous chapters, the writer is building a case for why Christ is superior over those who have gone before and over anything that has gone before.

Now, in chapter 13, he exhorts his audience to consider their actions in light of the truths that have been expounded upon.

In the first five verses of the chapter, he gives the practical side to Christianity.

You see Christianity is not a passive religion in that you believe a few facts.

No, Christianity is about a transformation that takes place in our hearts because of what Christ has done for us.

Therefore, it will help us be better neighbors, better ministers, better family members, and better stewards.

And we do all these things with the promise and help of God, who promises never to leave us or forsake us.

So if we believe these promises of God by faith, then we will live a transformed and normal Christian life.

In verse 7, the author of this letter encourages his readers to remember their leaders, who have taught them the Word of God and modeled the Christian life before them.

Can I say that we ought to learn from those who have gone before us in the faith and learn from their experiences in the Lord?

For you, it might be a family member; he could be a good friend, or a pastor or Sunday school teacher or even curling up with a great biography of those in the faith.

There is much to learn from those who are consistent and constant in their faith.

Yet, in verse 8, he says the things you were taught in the past by the great leaders about Jesus had not changed.

Remember, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Jesus is unchanging or if you want a technical word, immutable.

He is the same today and in the future as he was in the past.

There is nothing in his character or essence that will evolve over time or dissolve over time.

Jesus is an eternal being, unlike us who are created.

In other words, he has always been, is and will continue to be.

These statements lead us to our text this morning and the presence we need in our lives in order to properly worship the Lord.

As the writer of Hebrews explains in verse 9, he says in knowing that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, then don’t think the teaching about him has changed.

The message you received when you first believed has not changed just like Jesus has not changed.

Christianity is built upon the truthfulness of God and we know from the Bible that God cannot lie nor will ever lie because he can’t.

It is impossible for him to do so.

Evidently from reading verse 9, there is some type of strange teaching that was impacting the church and it had to do with food.

So we read that our hearts are to be strengthened by grace, not foods.

Let me ask you a question “Is your heart strong?”

Now, I am not talking about your physical heart.

Not that organ which beats inside the walls of your chest.

No, I am speaking and the author of this letter is speaking about the inner man.

The part of you that thinks, feels, grieves, rejoices, rages and trusts.

So is your heart strong?

Does it have the strength to be the kind of person that is described in the first five verses?

This has nothing to do with the power to put on a show or the ability to clean the outside of the cup and leave the inside filthy, dirty like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day.

This is strength that comes from the inside and cleans up the outside naturally.

So verse 9 tells us where to turn and not to turn to have this kind of strength.

He says be strengthened by grace, not foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.

So in other words, don’t go after alien teachings that promote diet or certain foods.

Remember the Jews had dietary laws and certain things were declared clean and unclean.

So there were individuals promoting this kind of teaching, even when Jesus said it is not what goes into the body that defiles, but that which comes from the heart.

Instead feed on grace day after day, morning and night.

John Piper, in a sermon, instructs us how we ought to do this?

How do you do that?

If you don't eat food to strengthen your heart, how do you eat grace?

If you wake up in the morning and feel guilty and defiled because of something ugly you did yesterday, or you feel like a failure because of how poorly something went yesterday, what do you do?

The "strange teaching" might say, "Eat a good breakfast.

Get the right nutrition pumping through your blood.

Do some exercise and get out into the sunlight."

But God says, "Get your heart strengthened by grace.

On a morning like that, eat grace for breakfast."

We can feed on grace because of what verse 10 says.

“We have an altar from which serve the tent have no right to eat.”

What does this mean?

Well, the writer takes us back in to the life of the priests in the Old Testament in Jerusalem.

Those who have not received the Messiah (Jesus) continue serve the tabernacle, which was meant to point to the final sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

Instead these have rejected Christ and continue to serve something that is of no benefit for them.

So this verse declares where we are to go to get this grace.

The altar is a reference to the cross on which Jesus died for our sins.

It is there that forgiveness and hope is offer.

So instead of going to the kitchen for some type of food to settle your guilt, go to the cross where grace is dispensed.

It is only through the cross that grace is offer and not through works or diets or even the law.

As we continue to read in verse 11, the writer directs us to the most important day on the Jewish calendar which is the Day of Atonement.

He explains that on the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16, after the blood of the sacrificed bull and goat is taken into the holy of holies, and sprinkled there to cover the sins of the people, the bodies of the bull and the goat are taken outside the camp and burned (Leviticus 16:27).

"For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp."

The point he is making is that these sacrifices are not eaten, as with some other sacrifices.

The nourishment the people received on the Day of Atonement was forgiveness and hope, not meat.

Yes, but all of that was meant to point to Jesus, the final sacrifice for sin.

There was a lesson in that.

The writer draws out the comparison in verse 12: "Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate."

In other words, Jesus has fulfilled the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement; they are completed in him; they find their final meaning in him.

And the meaning is: All there was to eat on the Day of Atonement was forgiveness and hope.

That's all there is to eat from the altar of Calvary where the body of Jesus was consumed with suffering.

So the point is: When you feel like a failure, when you feel discouraged and hopeless and dirty, don't turn to food.

It's an alien remedy, and verse 9 says, it has not benefited those who walk in it.

It only makes things worse.

Instead go to the altar of grace.

We have an altar.

And there is food.

And the food is grace - the grace of forgiveness and the grace of hope.

The only way to be strong is to come back to this table again and again.

The only way for us to have our heart strengthened by grace is not by works or some religious system or following a set of rules; it is only by going to the altar (the cross).

It is the only help to make us better in every aspect of our lives.