Pressing Our Privilege

Introduction

Hebrews 13:1–16 ESV

1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. 4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” 7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

As a native New Yorker and a New York sports fan there are certain places I’m supposed to despise. Boston, certainly being tops among those places. But a close second, and maybe even first, depending on the sport is Philadelphia. There’s a problem, though. I don’t have this problem with Boston, but I do have it with Philadelphia. As much as I’d like to despise all things Philly, my faith in Christ won’t allow me to do so.

Why is that, you ask? Is it because I’m growing in holiness; because the Lord is changing me on the inside and I can no longer harbor those harsh thoughts about all things Philly? I’d like to think that’s true. I’d like to think that one day I won’t have a problem with my children eating cheesesteaks. Truth be told, the reason isn’t my sanctification. It’s the fact that Philadelphia is biblical, at least in name. They might not act like it, but the name of the city has biblical significance…

The City of Brotherly Love, an ambitious name for a city. Throughout this letter to the Hebrews, and particularly in the latter chapters, the Pastor peels back the veil to show his congregation the glory and reality of heaven. His reason for doing it is to encourage them with the truth of heaven. The heavenly reality should make all the difference in the world to how they live now. The dominant and determining factor in how they live now should not be the difficulties, the suffering, and the pain that they are currently experiencing. He wants to see them endure through those things because, as Christians, they have a better and more lasting possession.

One of the things he said is that they have come to a city. This city is the city of the living God. It is the heavenly Jerusalem. It is the very kingdom of God. This kingdom cannot be shaken. It is stable, permanent and secure. So, he says in 12:28, “Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let’s be grateful, or let’s hold on to grace. By this grace we offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe.” What he shows us in these verses is that the life of worship for God’s people is the privilege of living in Philly; the real Philly, not the place where the Eagles play.

This heavenly city he’s been talking about could also be called Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, because one of the things that will not be shaken is brotherly love. So, I want to talk with you in this message on the subject, Pressing Our Privilege. I pulled this title from what he says in v. 10

Hebrews 13:10 ESV

10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.

The altar the Pastor is speaking of here is the cross of Jesus Christ. The altar of the temple was temporary. And it was temporary because it was particular. It was for Jewish people only. Even more it was for the priests only. If you weren’t a priest you had no access to it. Gentiles had no access to it. So, there was a need for another altar; a better altar. That altar is the cross of Jesus Christ, the new and living way (10:19-22). The cross is the altar for the whole world. It is the place where the perfect sacrifice was made to redeem, to buy back, to reconcile all peoples to God.

There are some privileges he presses in our passage that come from our union with Christ. I want to share them with you under these three headings. Because of the cross we can Press Our Privilege to Prioritize. Because of the cross we can Press Our Privilege to Persevere. Because of the cross we can Press Our Privilege to Praise.

Pressing Our Privilege to Prioritize

The language of love dominates these first few verses of chapter 13. Pressing Our Privilege to Prioritize means striving by God’s provision to prioritize the life of brotherly love. This chapter is full of exhortations, and we could rightly say that the guiding exhortation is v. 1, “Let brotherly love continue.” Everything seems to be an exposition of what that looks like in practice. It’s bookended by vv.2 and 16, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.” And, “Do not neglect to do good and share what you have.”

Note with me that the exhortation in v. 1 is not a suggestion. He’s not saying, “If you feel like it, when it suits you, let brotherly love continue.” He’s saying, “this is how it is in the kingdom of God. So, since we are receiving that kingdom right now, this is how it needs to be with you.” The word “continue” has the sense of remaining or abiding. I like that word “abide.”

To abide is to stay, remaining, continue in something. I heard someone give this analogy for “abiding” and I think it fits, because I’ve seen it in my own household. Sometimes I’ll see that Kim has already started preparing dinner a few nights ahead. There’ll be some meat in a ziplock bag. But the meat isn’t in there alone. It’s dwelling in the middle of a special marinade that she’s made; a combination of sauces and spices and flavors. And the meat is just abiding in that marinade, soaking it all up. The marinade is abiding so well in the meat that the two become inseparable. When she finally cooks it, all of that flavor and juices and seasoning that’s been abiding…

Brotherly love is supposed to abide like that. It’s supposed to be such a part of the Christian community that it’s inseparable. Just like that marinade abides so well in the meat that I taste it in every bite, brotherly love is supposed to be the flavor that permeates the church.

See, this word that’s translated as “continue”in v. 1 is the same word the Pastor used a few verses before our passage in 12:27.

He repeats the Lord’s promise from Haggai 2:6 that he would not only shake the earth, but the heavens also. Then he says in v. 27 that there’s a reason God is going to shake the entire creation. It’s so that the things that cannot be shaken may abide. He’s making an intentional connection, then, in 13:1 by his use of this same word. One sure thing that will abide, indeed the primary sure abiding attribute of God’s unshakable kingdom is Philadelphia.

The reason for this brotherly love is not presented to us in Hebrews as “just because.” He has been describing the current heavenly reality for Christians. And he’s applying truth to practice. He’s at the end of the letter and leaving them with the implications of offering to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe. If there is faith in Christ, then there will be an ongoing life of love within the church. He gave us the basis of this brotherly love in 2:10-13.

Hebrews 2:10–13 ESV

10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” 13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.”

This is not new news to you, but it bears repeating. Through Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection God has created an eternal spiritual family. We may live in different homes, but we are a part of the same household. “Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.(3:6)” It doesn’t matter what country you were born in. It doesn’t matter what your race or ethnicity is. It doesn’t matter what your economic status is. It doesn’t matter what language you speak, how old you are, what kind of table manners you have... The determining factor for the family you will have forever is faith in Jesus Christ. It cannot be understated that we who are joined to Christ are joined to one another eternally. We are family! And the Pastor’s command to let brotherly love abide means we don’t wait until the glory of heaven to start loving one another in very real ways right now.

Understand that it is a privilege and blessing for you and I to pursue brotherly love with one another in Christ across every line of difference. He lays out four practical priorities of brotherly love: Hospitality, Compassion, Holiness, and Contentment.

Brotherly love is hospitable. One aspect of the ancient world is the same as it is today. Most of our hospitality is focused on family and friends. The Pastor says, “that’s cool, but don’t neglect showing hospitality to strangers.”

Love will not be satisfied with only words. Verse 2 is given in the context of life in the ancient world, and because inns were sketchy places, the Pastor says you guys have got to be willing to open your doors not just to family and friends, but strangers who are traveling through. The gospel can be described as God’s love for strangers. The gospel is God’s love, directed at, poured out upon those who were estranged from him. Not only were we estranged from him, but we were his enemies. And through faith in Jesus Christ we are welcomed into his house, not as guests but as members of the family. The Pastor is pointing out that those who have received such love also give that love in a tangible way. Hospitality in Jesus’ name is an attribute of the unshakable kingdom.

I love the way Rosaria Butterfield puts it in the opening lines of her book The Gospel Comes With A House Key:

Radically ordinary hospitality—those who live it see strangers as neighbors and neighbors as family of God. They recoil at reducing a person to a category or a label. They see God’s image reflected in the eyes of every human being on earth...Those who live out radically ordinary hospitality see their homes not as theirs at all but as God’s gift to use for the furtherance of his kingdom. They open doors; they seek out the underprivileged. They know that the gospel comes with a house key. They take biblical theology seriously, as well as Christian creeds and confessions and traditions.

Here’s the point. The point is not, make sure you show hospitality because you might be hosting an angel. The point is don’t discriminate in your hospitality. Brotherly love is not demonstrated in deciding who is worthy of your hospitality and who isn’t.

The Pastor goes even deeper in v. 3. He says,

Be mindful of those who are prisoners as if you were prisoners with them. Be mindful of those who are mistreated as if you were experiencing the same suffering.

In v. 2 he said, don’t neglect, now he says, “remember” or “be mindful.” Have certain people in mind. This is a compassionate remembering of those who are not physically present. So, in v. 2, I’m welcoming people into my home, not based on their being worthy of entering through my door, but because I was a stranger and God welcomed me into his house. Now he says, there are some folk who you can’t show that kind of hospitality to. They’re in prison so you can’t just invite them over. But it’s no less important that you have an active compassion for these people.

Two things to point out. First, he’s talking about people who were thrown in prison because of their faith in Jesus Christ. These are people who are paying the price of suffering because they belong to Jesus.

The second thing to point out is that prisoners in that day were dependent on others for their basic needs. The government wasn’t concerned to make sure that prisoners had three square meals, time for recreation, proper clothing, medical care. If it was bad for travelers to stay in inns, where they were paying for shelter, imagine what it was like in prison. The Pastor’s message is, “It’s not enough to just pray for them.” This “remembering” is not simply “bring them to mind.” It’s, “remember to have the type of compassionate concern that expresses itself in practical care.” They can’t come to you, so you go to them. Don’t be so wrapped up in yourself and your issues that you can’t go and care for them.

Look at how he describes it. Remember the prisoners like you were in prison with them. Identify with them so intimately that it’s like you were locked up too. Let’s be real. Those of us who go and minister in the jail every month are glad when we leave. You don’t want to imagine yourself living there. So let’s grasp what he’s saying to them. Don’t see yourself as free while your brothers and sisters are in prison. Go and meet their needs just like you would want them to meet your needs.

It’s the same message in the second part of v. 3, remember those who are mistreated since you are also in the body. In other words, you are also flesh and blood. Imagine how you would feel if you were suffering the same treatment as them. Jesus so identifies with the sufferings of his brothers and sisters that when Saul was persecuting the church and Jesus met him on the road to Damascus, he asked him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” There is to be an intense identification with those who are suffering.

Mark Casson is the Executive Director of MNA’s Metanoia Prison Ministries. He spent 11 years in one prison and never saw a Reformed Christian visit the prison chapel. He had written to Reformed churches, he says, but no one ever came. When he was released, he believed God called him to his current ministry in order to call the Reformed world to prison ministry. There are approximately 150,000 evangelical brothers and sisters in prison in the United States, and he says, “we have, by and large, neglected them.”

It seems like he makes a huge jump and change of subject in v. 4 to talk about marriage.

Hebrews 13:4 ESV

4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Here’s the deal. The privilege of brotherly love is not only hospitable, and compassionate, it is also holy. He’s been talking about holiness this whole letter, and he’s not going to stop now. He called them holy brothers and sisters in 3:1 and said that they shared in a heavenly calling. He said in 12:14, “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see Lord.” And he’s letting us know here that a practical outworking of this striving for holiness should be seen in marriage. Francis Shaeffer,

“The Christian really has a double task. He has to practice both God’s holiness and God’s love… Not His love without His holiness - that is only compromise.”

The sad fact is that one of the primary areas of comprising the holiness of God in the daily life of the church is within marriage. Do you know what was going on in the society the Hebrews lived and worked in everyday? It was full of sexual indulgence and perversion. Only a few verses ago, right after he says to strive for holiness, he says in 12:16, see to it that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau. How is life different for those who are receiving the kingdom of God? One of the things that should stand in stark difference between what you see in society and what you see in the lives of those who say that they follow Jesus Christ is the view of marriage.

That’s what the Pastor is getting at in v. 4, marriage is to be held in honor, literally, it’s to be held as precious, as a jewel among everyone. That’s whether you’re single or married. Marriage is not held in honor simply because it’s the place where you find companionship, or because it’s the place where your sexual desires are satisfied, or because it’s the place where you get to experience the joy of having children and a family. All of those things are true, but at it’s root, marriage is held in honor because it is God’s chosen way of imaging his relationship to his church for the world to see. Marriage is a kingdom attribute. The love between a husband and wife demonstrates God’s love for his church and his church’s love for him.

So, the pursuit of holiness as an aspect of the priority of love is followed by a fourth priority, and it’s a biggie, “Contentment.” It could be seen as a second example of holiness, but it ought to stand alone because the charge in v. 5 is a major challenge for us. “Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have.” Proverbs 27:20 is true, “Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and never satisfied are the eyes of man.” Times change and seasons change, but people don’t. The charge in v. 5 resonates with us just like it did with them because money has always been a problem.

Contentment is an attribute of brotherly love because it is evidence of a heart that is resting in God. The right manner of life is not loving money or possessions, but loving God. It’s tricky isn’t it? Because things are not right. We do have money problems. We do have health problems. We do have relationship problems.

The reason for the contentment, however, is not because those problems go away. The reason for the contentment is that in Christ we have someone far greater than those problems. We have God himself. The Pastor wants to transform their and our thinking away from the magnitude of our problems to the greatness of our God. He says, be content with what you have because he has said, I will never leave you or forsake you.

Christian, be content with what you have because you have God. What we find in the second part of v. 5 is called an emphatic negation. It’s a triple negative. Never will I leave you, nor never will I forsake you. What an emphatic negation does is deny a potentiality. So God says there is absolutely no possibility that I will leave or desert my people.

WCF 26

26.1. All saints, that are united to Jesus Christ their Head, by His Spirit, and by faith, have fellowship with Him in His grace, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory:1 and, being united to one another in love, they have communion in each other’s gifts and graces,2 and are obliged to the performance of such duties, public and private, as do conduce to their mutual good, both in the inward and outward man.3

26.2. Saints by profession are bound to maintain an holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God, and in performing such other spiritual services as tend to their mutual edification;4 as also in relieving each other in outward things, according to their several abilities and necessities. Which communion, as God offers opportunity, is to be extended unto all those who, in every place, call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.

Pressing Our Privilege to Persevere

In this barrage of practical exhortations he continues in v. 7 saying…

Hebrews 13:7 ESV

7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

There are actually three charges in this verse, remember, consider, and imitate. Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you. Who are these leaders? The Pastor doesn’t mention them by name, but the Hebrews would’ve known who he was talking about. These are the people who first brought the Good News of Jesus Christ to these Christians. He’s calling them, like he did in ch. 10:32, to recall the former days when they were enlightened.

Remember these people who were so grabbed by the Gospel, the good news of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ, that they came to you and brought you this message. You never forget those people.

This is not some nostalgic reflection, “remember how sweet it was back in those days. Those were the good old days.” No, “remember those leaders who spoke the word of God to you. As you remember, make careful consideration of their faithfulness to the Lord even to the end. And imitate their faith.” Don’t grow weary. Perseverance is a crucial component of faith in Jesus Christ. From beginning to end of Hebrews, the clear application of the Pastor’s teaching has been hold firm to our confession all the way to the end. Here again at the end he reinforces their need to endure by pointing to their first teachers who persevered by faith all the way to the end.

Immediately after that we get the establishment clause in v. 8. If we were following the word order of the Greek text. Here’s how it would be translated. “Jesus Christ yesterday and today is the same, and forever.” This verse is not an isolated thought. The same Jesus who spoke the word of God to your former leaders also enabled them to remain faithful to that word all the way through to the end of their lives. I can tell you to imitate their faith because I know that Jesus Christ is the same way today. He is still in the business of enabling his people to persevere in the faith. But he doesn’t stop there right? The reason I translated v. 8 for you according to the word order of the Greek text is because the emphasis is on “forever.” This word is for us. Guess what? He hasn’t stopped enabling his people to persevere in the faith. He hasn’t stopped enabling his people to hold firmly to this same word and base our very lives on it all the way to the end.

The confession of v. 8 doesn’t just make v. 7 more forceful. It also forms a connecting bridge to v. 9…

Hebrews 13:9 ESV

9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.

Their leaders who “spoke the Word of God” were able to endure because they had Jesus Christ as their great high priest. Since Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and into eternity, the Hebrews are also able to endure. He has not become less powerful, less loving, less helpful than he was for their teachers. He is just as powerful, present, loving, and helpful.

Therefore, it is good for the heart to be strengthened, to be established by the grace that is found in this unchanging gospel message. It is a privilege, not a right, to be a recipient of this grace. Because Jesus doesn’t change, his message doesn’t change. Trying to mix the gospel of grace with the regulations of the old covenant are diverse and strange teachings. It is not the gospel. It cannot save, and it will not enable them to endure all the way to the end.

He says, your heart needs to be strengthened by grace, not by foods. Indeed, those who gain their sense of godliness, good feeling, religious assurance or affirmation by their adherence to certain foods/dietary laws actually gain nothing. Paul said in Romans 14:17,

“The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Listen, this idea of having my heart established, having my heart strengthened is the language of assurance. It’s that calm assurance that my life is right, and it’s is a desire everyone has. Every person has this desire because we were created in God’s image.

Where does your sense of confidence that the life you’re living is what it’s supposed to be? I’m referring to your heart confidence, that internal sense of assurance that the God of all creation is pleased with where my life it. If that sense of assurance comes from anything other than the fact that you are trusting in Jesus Christ alone for your right standing with God, then you are believing a lie. Those who gain their sense of godliness from following certain rules, regulations, ceremonies, whether they made it up themselves or they got it from someone else, gain absolutely nothing when it comes to God. They lose out. The human heart loves to make up our own reasons why we’re doing alright in God’s eyes. It’s a lie. Don’t be carried away by various and strange teachings.

The Pastor unashamedly points to Christian privilege in v. 10. Far from being a statement of arrogance, it is a clear explanation of why you should never dream of turning away from the gospel (v. 10…).

Hebrews 13:10 ESV

10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.

The cross is the altar for the whole world, yet it’s still exclusive. Those who serve the tent have no right to partake of this altar. That’s because they’re putting their assurance in temporal things that do not benefit instead of in the Christ who is the same yesterday, today and forever. The privilege doesn’t belong to them because they’re trusting in foods. But, if they transfer their trust to Christ and his sacrifice, the privilege to partake from his altar can belong to them as well (Hughes, p.575). That’s why it’s not about arrogance. Anyone who comes to Christ by faith has the privilege to partake of this altar.

What’s likely is that these Jewish Christians were being criticized for avoiding the Jewish feasts, for not putting any spiritual stock in participating in these feasts. Remember, before coming to Christ these religious feasts and sacrifices meant everything to them spiritually. The criticism probably when something like this, “You left us for this? Y’all don’t offer sacrifices. Y’all don’t even have an altar… “The Pastor says, “Oh but we do have an altar, it’s the cross.” His need to tell them this is the persecution they’ve had to endure for being associated with Jesus. That’s our third “P.”

What we see in vv. 11-14 is magnificent. But it lets us know that those who have responded to the grace of God in Jesus Christ and turned to him in faith should not expect to become popular by standing firm in the faith. Look at what he says…

Hebrews 13:11–14 ESV

11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

These verses are magnificent because he sparking in their minds that all significant day in the Jewish calendar, the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. Burnt offerings were not only sacrifices, but they were food for the priests. But the bull for sin offering that was sacrificed to make atonement for the Holy Place, no part of it was to be used as a sacrificial meal for the priest. The blood was brought into the Holy Place and the body was taken outside of the camp and completely burned.

The Pastor says this annual ritual was a foreshadowing, it was a picture of Jesus. We get that. Jesus is called the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. But what we see here is that it wasn’t just the sacrifice of the animal itself that pointed to Jesus. The fact that the body was burned outside the camp was just as significant.

When Israel was in the wilderness, the land that was “outside of the camp” was unsanctified territory. It was unholy land. Jesus’ sacrifice took place outside the gates of Jerusalem on Calvary. This was earth shattering for these Hebrews to be told that in order to make people holy, in order to sanctify them through his own blood, Jesus suffered on unholy ground. The very ritual on the Day of Atonement pointed forward to its own end. The burning of the bull’s body outside the camp pointed to the fact that in order to deal with our sin God was going to identify himself with the world in its unholiness.

While we are unable to draw near to God because of our sin, God draws near to us in the person of his Holy One who on our unholy ground makes his holiness available to us in exchange for our sin which he bears and for which he atones on the cross.

The truth of vv. 10-11 is not just a matter of doctrinal precision. It means something for those who follow Jesus. Since he suffered outside the gate, let us go out to him, outside the camp to bear his reproach. Here’s the thing. This cross of Christ, which is the altar of grace and privilege where we are reconciled to God and have peace with God, is located outside the camp. The cross was too shameful to be located inside the gates of Jerusalem. There is an unavoidable shame, an unavoidable reproach that comes with belonging to Jesus Christ.

The privilege and the persecution are connected family. The blood of bulls and goats that was offered inside the camp could never take away sins. But Jesus sanctifies through his own blood. So neither the sacrifice of his body nor the offering of his blood took place in the camp. So, his people, who are sanctified, bear his reproach “outside the camp.” In fact, they go to him there. They’re not looking to be “on the inside” so to speak, accepted and unified with those who have diverse and strange (un-gospel) teachings. Yet at the same time the call to go out is a call to engage. Christians tend to want to build secure walls, impenetrable holy huddles that protect them from being defiled by the world. You know what happens? We never bear any reproach or persecution because we’re always preaching to choir. It’s respectable inside the camp. I get amens inside the camp. I don’t risk shame or rejection or suffering or persecution inside the camp. But I’m not with Jesus. He got up close and personal with sinners, never for one moment compromising God’s holiness or God’s truth. His eyes were merciful and gracious. He didn’t isolate himself from sinners because he knew what they needed. But it wasn’t safe. It cost him dearly.

Jesus bore reproach because his message was not comfortable nor conformed to the acceptable teaching of the day. His people will, therefore, also bear reproach because they carry his same message. Yet they endure because they understand that here they do not have any abiding city; not Jerusalem, not Jackson, not Washington DC. They seek after the city that is to come. Before (11:13) he said that Abraham was looking for a city with foundations, whose designer and builder is God. Now he says that we are seeking that same city.

Here’s the flow of the Pastor’s points based on this establishment clause that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Look at the way the faithful messengers who brought you to Christ endured all the way to the end. Imitate their faith because just like Jesus carried them through, he’ll carry you through. Have your heart assured by the grace you’ve received, and thus, the amazing privilege that you have to partake of Christ. So embrace the temporal reproach that follows from having that privilege. Live now with your gaze fixed on the city of your citizenship.

Pressing Our Privilege to Praise

Then he ends the paragraph not with persecution, but with praise.

Hebrews 13:15–16 ESV

15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

The Hebrews stood out because they didn’t have an altar and they didn’t have sacrifices. He said in v. 10, we do have an altar. Now he says, we do have sacrifices but they have nothing to do with animals. Christian sacrifice is spiritual worship through Jesus Christ. What we offer, he says, is a sacrifice of praise. Because Jesus Christ is the same, he always lives to make intercession for his people. So it’s only through him that any acceptable sacrifice can be made. Anything other than a sacrifice of praise is rendered obsolete and worthless. This sacrifice of praise is the fruit of lips that confess his name.

Serving and worshipping God through Jesus Christ is an everyday deal that goes far beyond just coming to church on Sunday. That point is driven home again in the first six verses and right here. “Let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God. This worship is done with my lips, my deeds, and my stuff. After saying this is the fruit of lips that confess his name, he says, “do not neglect…”

Hebrews 13:16 ESV

16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1 ESV)

The entirety of our lives, what we say, what we do, what we have is to be a sacrifice of praise to God. The entirety of our lives is freely offered to God for his service. The entirety of our lives is the privilege of praise. All of life, work and play is really religious. All of life is really about worship. The only question is who are we worshipping with our lives? Everyday you’re worshipping something or someone. It’s only Jesus who turns self-worship or worship of things into worship of God.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17 ESV)

Why? Because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.