Anchored Part 1: Anchored In Hope

Four Strong Anchors Sermon by Jamie Wright, Acts 27:14-44 - SermonCentral.com

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Introduction

This morning we are going to start a series on being anchored. While we will talk later in the series how to practically be anchored in our daily lives, this morning I want to talk to you about why we need to be anchored and what we need to be anchored to.

This morning we will be in Hebrews 6:13-20. While you are turning there, I want to give us context to our passage.

Hebrews was a letter written to encourage the Jewish Christian facing trials and temptation to relapse back into Judaism by attaching too much importance on ceremonial observances.

Did Paul think about shipwrecks while writing this?

Insert more background here

Hebrews 6:13-20

I want to make some observations from our text this morning.

Hebrews 6:13–20 NLT

13 For example, there was God’s promise to Abraham. Since there was no one greater to swear by, God took an oath in his own name, saying: 14 “I will certainly bless you, and I will multiply your descendants beyond number.” 15 Then Abraham waited patiently, and he received what God had promised. 16 Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. And without any question that oath is binding. 17 God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. 18 So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. 19 This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. 20 Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.

Key text for this week is:

Hebrews 6:13–15 NLT

13 For example, there was God’s promise to Abraham. Since there was no one greater to swear by, God took an oath in his own name, saying: 14 “I will certainly bless you, and I will multiply your descendants beyond number.” 15 Then Abraham waited patiently, and he received what God had promised.

I. Foundation of Hope (v. 13)

II. Unwavering Nature of God’s Promise (vv. 14-15)

III. Anchor of Hope in Difficult Times

When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. (6:13–20)

The book of Genesis tells us that after Abram set out from the pagan city of Ur to go to the land of Canaan, he was delayed for some years in the city of Haran until the death of his father Terah (cf. Genesis 11:27–32). Genesis also records that though Abram and Sarai had been married for some years, Abram being seventy-five when he left Haran (12:4), they were still childless. So we understand that the great Abrahamic Covenant (God’s promise to Abram when he departed Haran, recorded in Genesis 12:1–3, that he would make a great nation from Abram and bless all the peoples on earth) was made to a man who had no physical offspring.

We also understand that the reiterations of the covenant promise were made when he still had no children. After the tragic separation from Lot, God told him:

Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you. (Genesis 13:14–17)

He had no children after being in the land ten years, and on that fateful day while suffering from post-battle fatigue incurred in defending the land from four kings (Genesis 14), he drifted off to sleep, perhaps dejectedly reflecting that after all this he had no heir to carry on, when suddenly God spoke: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward” (Genesis 15:1). Rallying words! Nevertheless, Abram, still discouraged, voiced his fear that because he was childless his estate would go to his servant.

At this low point, the word of the Lord came to him: “ ‘A son coming from your own body will be your heir.’ He took him outside and said, ‘Look at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be’ ” (Genesis 15:4, 5).

We do not know whether Abram’s response was immediate or came after some thought, or whether it was verbal or mental, but we do have this immortal record: “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). He believed that he would become a father, and that his offspring would have children, and that his line would go on and on like the visible stars. The aged patriarch rested everything on God’s word. As a result, he was declared righteous apart from works, fourteen years before circumcision (Genesis 17) and hundreds of years before the Law!

This was one of the greatest events in the history of salvation, and the Lord commemorated it with a further sign when he ordered Abram to make sacrifices and divide them into two piles. Then, when the sun had set, God appeared in the night as “a smoking firepot with a blazing torch… and passed between the pieces” (v. 17) in the traditional figure-eight pattern of covenant, signifying that his promise was unconditional and that he (God) would be torn asunder like the pieces if he failed to keep his promise.

To be sure, Abram’s unwavering faith displayed at this great moment (cf. Romans 4:10ff.) did suffer some future lapses, but his faith also grew to towering proportions through the hard times that were to come.

Finally, Abraham and Sarah were given their dream in baby Isaac (literally, “laughter”)—and in that little boy, soon grown to manhood, they saw the promise in full bloom. Yet there was one more test and perfection awaiting the patriarch’s faith. Abraham was well over one hundred years old, according to Genesis 22, when God said to him, “ ‘Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about’ ” (v. 2). Easily, this is the most shocking command ever given to any human being by God! We can imagine the numbing horror that must have spread over Abraham’s soul. This makes his ready obedience almost as equally shocking, because with the first glow of dawn, without a word to aged Sarah, Abraham saddled his donkey, quietly called for two servants and his son Isaac, split wood for the sacrificial pyre, and began the terrible journey (v. 3).

How could he do it? we wonder. Our text gives us the answer: “On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, ‘Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you’ ” (vv. 4, 5). Abraham was confident they would return together! This was because, as the writer of Hebrews reveals, “Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death” (11:19; cf. vv. 17, 18). Abraham so believed that God would bless him through Isaac, giving him offspring as numerous as the stars, that he was sure God would resurrect his son!

The poignant exchange between father and son as they ascended Mt. Moriah—Isaac’s dawning realization that he was the sacrifice—the construction of the altar—Isaac’s voluntary submission to his aged father as he was bound—the sobbing, the kisses, the tears, the terrible blade in the father’s trembling hand—the nausea, the darkness—the imminent convulsions of his only son—all this shows only the tip of Abraham’s emotions as he faithfully carried out God’s will.

Then with the blade poised for descent, the angel of Heaven called, “Abraham! Abraham!” and we know the rest of the story in all its tender redemptive glory. But do we remember the final pronouncement of the angel of the Lord—because it has everything to do with our text in Hebrews:

I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me. (Genesis 22:16–18)

The significance of this from the perspective of the writer of Hebrews is that whereas God had repeatedly promised Abraham he would make a great nation from him, he here swore an oath to do so. Hebrews 6:13, 14 tells us: “When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, ‘I will surely bless you and give you many descendants’ ” (quoting Genesis 22:17). God was so pleased with Abraham’s supreme act of faith that he did something he had never done before—he swore that the promise would come to pass. James offers further insight into why God was pleased: “Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did” (2:21, 22).

The pertinence of this to the little Hebrew church as it braced for the tempests ahead is expressed in the next line: “And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised” (v. 15). This is an implicit call to the church for a faith that is so firm it enables steadfastness through the uneven seas of life. Abraham’s faith saw the unseen. He saw a living God who was sovereign in all of life—he saw his sacrificed son resurrected and living on—he saw himself fathering a sea of humanity—he saw blessing for the whole earth. And because he saw this, he was gloriously long-suffering through many years.

III. An Assurance (6:9–20)

The writer closes with as solid a passage on eternal security as we will find anywhere in the Bible. He points, first of all, to their own lives (vv. 10–12) and reminds them that they had given every evidence of being true Christians. We find faith, hope, and love described in these three verses, and these traits are the characteristics of true believers (1 Thes. 1:3; Rom. 5:1–5). But he cautions them in v. 12 not to be “dull of hearing” (or “slothful,” same word as in 5:11). God has given His promises; they need only exercise faith and patience to receive the blessing.

He then uses Abraham as an illustration of patient faith. Certainly Abraham sinned—and even repeated one sin twice!—yet God kept His promises to him. After all, the covenants of God do not depend on the faith of the saints for their certainty; they depend only on the faithfulness of God. God verified the promise of Gen. 22:16–17 by swearing by Himself—and that settled it! Abraham did not receive the promised blessing because of his own goodness or obedience, but because of the faithfulness of God. Abraham experienced many trials and testings (as did the original readers of Hebrews), but God saw him through.