Hebrews 12:3-13:25
Notes
Transcript
Hebrews 12:3-13:25
Hebrews 12:3-13:25
Good morning church! We are going to try to move a bit more rapidly through our remaining section of Hebrews. But before we do, we have some important business to take care of. We have a baby dedication this morning. This is one of my absolute favorite things to do as your pastor, because I get to pray over your children and ask our Lord to bless them.
Aaron Miller
For those that don’t know what this is, we don’t believe in baptising babies. Why does this church take this stance? For a couple of reasons…the first the bible instructs us to repent and to believe and be baptised. In that order. That we must be forgiven and baptism follows that. Baptism is part of the public profession of what has already occurred between us and God. Young children haven’t yet reached an age of understanding that allows them to repent and choose to follow Jesus.
Secondly, we see zero examples of babies being baptized in the bible. There are plenty of baptisms, Jesus Himself was baptized, just no babies. We do however see child dedications. Jesus’ parents took Him to the temple to dedicate him. Hannah took her son to the priest to dedicate him. And now Jeremy and Alahandra are bringing Aaron before the Lord and before their church. By doing so, they are committing to God, making a covenant with Him to raise Aaron in His ways, to teach him about Jesus and to train him up in the Word of God. They are doing it before the church for both accountability, and support.
Accountability in that we will hold them to what they are committing to do before God today, and support them by coming along side them as they do so...
So lets pray and we will begin...
3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.
Hebrews chapter 12 is and interesting passage, and if you haven’t memorized the first two verses of this chapter already, consider doing so as they are good ones. I say interesting, because those first two verses begin, let us, let us, let us, but this verb that we see in verse 3, consider, is our first imperative, or command that we have here in this chapter.
And talk about modern day relevance, lets look at it again…Heb 12:3
3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
Consider Him, consider Jesus who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
Are we living in a day and age where both inside of the church and outside of the church people are weary and discouraged? Sadly, we see it all the time, and hear about it all of the time. What is the remedy? To follow this command consider Jesus! Think about Jesus, not yourself. Think about what He endured, not to be discouraged, but to be encouraged that we can endure.
Rather than focus on hostility against us consider Jesus and how sinners treated Him, and that He endured, and will give us the strength to endure too.
I mean after all, you’re not dead. Have you ever seen that bumper sticker…But did you die?!? Because that sounds allot like verse 4...
4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.
So keep going, keep fighting, endurance means one foot in front of another. You can downshift if you need to. You might need a tow through the muddy stuff,... sometimes when you are limping through life it is necessary to put an arm around the shoulders of a brother or a sister...the only thing you can’t do when you are enduring, is to quit. So if you haven’t yet resisted to bloodshed, Keep going and consider, think about, abide in Jesus and you can actually be encouraged through it.
Verse 5
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”
and then the explanation in verse 7...
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
Just as our earthly fathers correct, so does our heavenly father correct those that are His sons and daughters. The differences are many between the two however, most earthly fathers correct doing the best that they can, but their discipline is not perfect and it isn’t always right. The correction from our Heavenly Father is not only perfect, and righteous in every way, it is truly for our good, our benefit.
It causes correction and change, not injury. Injury comes as the result of abuse, not Heavenly correction, and He Himself is perfect in all of his ways. Rather than complain about the correction we receive, we should with gratitude allow ourselves to be corrected and be thankful for having received it, as the alternative is identified in the next verse...
8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?
10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
Some of us are so quick to whine and to cry about spiritual warfare and how Satan is attacking us every time we don’t get our own way. When things get difficult…, no I’ll call it what the Bible calls it…when we are out of order, when we are wrong, or have fallen into sin, our loving Heavenly Father chastens us, corrects us, because we are and as evidence that we are, sons and daughters.
You may think it is the devil, it may feel like you are being attacked, but if it is not outright abuse causing injury then maybe check and see who signed off on that rebuke, who allowed that correction. And in your protest, in your cries or tears, or pity party... ask God what is going on, ask God why. If you listen... you might hear something like, because I love you. Because I gave my only begotten Son to die for you, because you belong to Me, and I want you to partake of my Holiness and this is the path!
I hear so many people, and I honestly and thankfully don’t mean at this church. But I hear a lot of people when the heat gets turned up, say well if God can’t keep me from this, or stop this or that from happening in my life, then I’m not going to follow Him. As if they just have the smallest of threshold tolerance for God not doing things their way.
You and I need to know that that is not how this whole thing works. Jesus died to save us, resurrected from the dead so that we can live for eternity in Heaven, rather than the Hell that we deserve. Hear it again, He saved us, our lives now belong to Him. When He becomes your Savior and gives you spiritual life, your life now belongs to Him. He becomes Lord over it, not you. That is what it means to be a Christian. If that’s not the deal that you have, you have the wrong deal. If you are without chastening, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Sons and daughters are chastened, corrected for our profit, that we might be more like Jesus, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
Does that mean correction will feel awesome, probably not, in fact the bible says not…Verse 11
11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Keep your eyes on the prize, keep looking ahead to the finish line. Don’t be distracted by the distractions around us. Last week we called them weights. It doesn’t seem joyful, but it yields peaceable fruit, if... we allow ourselves to be trained by it. Too many of us don’t respond to the training. We get one taste, say it’s yukky and we spit it out.
We need to remember that He who has begun a good work in us will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. All the way from now until we are in Heaven. We received a great reminder yesterday at the Men’s conference about keeping our eyes on Heaven. Several of the examples in Hebrews 11 , our witnesses on faith in action, showed us that they were faithful, because they put the eternal over the present.
The reminder from yesterday…Pastor Danny Hodges related a story shared by Randy Alcorn. He said, “In 1952, young Florence Chadwick stepped into the waters of the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island, determined to swim to the shore of mainland California. She’d already been the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways. The weather was foggy and chilly; she could hardly see the boats accompanying her. Still, she swam for fifteen hours. When she begged to be taken out of the water along the way, her mother, in a boat alongside, told her she was close and that she could make it. Finally, physically and emotionally exhausted, she stopped swimming and was pulled out. It wasn’t until she was on the boat that she discovered the shore was less than half a mile away.
At a news conference the next day she said, “All I could see was the fog.…I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.”
If you’re blinded by the fog, let someone take your hand, stop and catch your breath, just don’t quit.
Verse 12
12 Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees,
13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:
15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;
I know gang that the wages of sin is death. It doesn’t matter how grave or how many sins you have, the cost remains the same…death, separation from the Holy God, forever. So, sin separates, but I don’t know that I’ve seen a more destructive sin, this side of eternity as bitterness. Here we see that it is one that defiles many.
There is such a good picture here of how vigilant we need to be against bitterness. A couple of years back I lost my mind and thought that it would be a great idea to clear some of the trees on my property, so I could mow more grass. Dumb I know.
Some of the trees were big trees, and we took out several of the stumps, but we didn’t get all of the roots. Everywhere that there was a root left under the ground, guess what happened? Little shoots of that kind of tree shot up. If I knocked them down, or mowed them over right away, they were pretty easy to deal with. If I got lazy, or complacent, or ignored them while on vacation…After just a week or two, they would shoot up several feet and I’d have to saw them down, or dig them up down to the root.
Sometimes we can have rotten trees in our lives and knock them down, getting them out of sight and out of mind…or maybe it’s not a rotten tree, but a rotten person, or rotten situation, and by one means or another we can remove ourselves from it or them, but it doesn’t mean that we’ve dealt with the roots. Church, love each other enough to call out bitterness when you see it because it is a toxic poison that can wipe you out, bitterness can destroy a marriage, bitterness, just a little bit, can destroy a church.
I dead serious about this. Love each other enough that when you see it, stop it. Meaning, you have enough love, that your faith would take action and say, you know brother or sister, that sounds like it could be bitterness. We should just stop and pray so you can give that to Jesus. You don’t need to talk about it, or process it. It’s not OK to hang onto bitterness, even if you want to hold on to it a little longer. It’s more toxic, more deadly than fentanyl. None of you would let someone in here hold onto just a teaspoon of fentanyl, don’t do it with bitterness.
Why do I emphasis this so much? Because by this many have become defiled. I’ve been defiled by it in the past and if I’m not vigilant against it, shoots can spring up and I need to ask the Lord to kill that root, no matter the cost, because I want to and get this, He wants me to partake of His holiness, because without it, I won’t see the Lord.
16 lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.
17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.
The wording here is very telling. Now we covered the story to some degree about Jacob and Esau last week in regard to their father Issac and him being tricked to give the birthright to Jacob, rather than the first born Esau. Remember, Esau was his favored son, he was the manly man in his eyes, and when he feared he was close to death, Issac sent Esau out to hunt some wild game and prepare a meal for his father. Meanwhile back at the ranch, Jacob and his mother cook up a plan to deceive Issac, what we didn’t talk about was what happened between the brothers.
If you’d like, turn with me to Genesis 25:29-32
29 Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary.
30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was called Edom.
31 But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.”
32 And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?”
33 Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.
34 And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Here, it talks about birthright....Jacob said sell me your birthright, Esau says, I’m dying here what’s a birthright to me, there’s some swearing and he sold his birthright to Jacob…and then Esau despised his birthright.
See in this time, culture, and tradition. The eldest son, would receive the birthright when the patriarch of the family passed on. With the birthright, there was both blessing and responsibility. The blessing was simple. It was a double portion. If there were other son’s each would get a portion, but to the eldest, the portion would be doubled. Six sons, break it into 7 shares and the eldest would get two and the rest would receive one.
The responsibility of the birthright was to assume the role of patriarch. To take responsibility to lead the family. Lead them in times of blessing and in times of burden. It also meant carrying the responsibility to lead the family spiritually, and having that role of influence in the family. It was the birthright that Jacob wanted…why was Esau called the profane person…it went beyond the selling of his birthright…let’s look again at Hebrews.
17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.
He didn’t want the birthright, he never cared about the birthright, he just wanted the blessing, it wasn’t the birthright he mourned it was the blessing that he sought diligently and wept because he coveted the double portion. These Hebrew believer received a new birthright as sons and daughter of the Father in Heaven, but when the blessings in their lives were being stripped away, they no longer cared about the birthright…and were tempted to go back. That is being an Esau. Sorry for your loss, sorry you got caught. True repentance results in change. Repentance actually means a change of mind. Specifically changing your mind about Jesus.
How do you know when it’s real? You see it. Not just whining, not just crocodile tears, but true repentance results in a changed life. Does true repentance also result in tears? Yeah, almost always. Tears of realization of shame of sin, and tears of joyful gratitude. Let’s keep going....
18 For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest,
19 and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.
20 (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.”
21 And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)
You can read of this terrifying account in Exodus 19 and 20. The scene is this, Moses receiving the Law from God on Mr. Sinai. There is lighting flashing, smoke billowing, the reaction of this mountain, this mountain that was part of the fallen earth, to the presence of God was to shake, and it was a terrifying scene for the people, it was a terrifying sight in the eyes of Moses. No man or no animal could touch to mountain and live, because God is Holy and they were not.
So it was a scene that was marked by fear and trembling. A reminder that the Holiness of God and the sinfulness of man, meant separation. But not for us under the new covenant, verse 22
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,
23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
When the bible speaks of the blood of Abel it is not talking of his martyrdom, that he died because of his faith. Abel was the first to offer a blood sacrifice to God, through the death of an animal. But we have more, our relationship with God is not based on a legalistic system of sacrifice, and us doing enough of this, and less of that. Ours is based on what Jesus did, and us simply receiving that.
25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven,
26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.”
27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
Grace, let us have grace, it’s all grace. It is so easy gang for us to look at ourselves, condemn ourselves thinking I don’t pray enough, I don’t read enough, I don’t serve enough, or give enough... all of those things are good things, things we are told to do, but they don’t make God love us any more, or any less. That thinking even is legalism. God says, every other thing you might be thinking of going back to, everything that doesn’t come from Jesus, everything that isn’t a part of the kingdom of Jesus is going to be shaken, and go away, we will be talking about this more as we get closer to the end of the book, it is talking about the tribulation period, when God pours out His wrath on a Christ rejecting earth. It will all be shaken.
Let’s go back to verse 25 for just a second…Heb 12:25
25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven,
See that you do not refuse Him who speaks....Do you guys remember how the book started?
1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,
You could almost take verse 1, comma add Jesus is better than everything and everyone, verse 25…See that you do not refuse Him who speaks…and if you don’t heed my 12 chapters of warnings that nothing else will save, let me shake you up with this…verse 29
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
There is no salvation in anyone other than Jesus, and the consuming fire of His judgement will be poured out on anyone outside of Jesus, anyone in Jesus and enter boldly into relationship with God because that consuming fire of his wrath has already been poured out on Jesus on our behalf.
Chapter 13 is a series of closing instructions that all flow out of verse 29, God is a consuming fire, so...
1 Let brotherly love continue.
In the Greek this verse is three simple words. The Brotherly, literally the Philadelphia, remain, stay, reside - its the same word Jesus uses when He says abide, abide in ME. The Brotherly love abide.
2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.
Who is the stranger? Well in this case, with the instruction to abide in brotherly love…It’s Christians that we don’t know. It is the non-familiar. It could be the people on the other side of the church, or the ones that sit behind you instead of in front of you. And worse than that…when you are huddled up with your little group of friends and just ignore the stranger that walks in...
Can you imagine that awkward conversation some day…so, this is Heaven....yup. Don’t pretend you don’t recognize me. I saw you make eye contact with me when I visited OTCF. I looked right at you, you at me…and you just ignored me…I had NO IDEA you were an angle!!!
This was actually a bigger deal in their day and age than in ours, and it’s talking about more than saying hello to someone, or having a coffee with a visiting stranger. Today, there are hotels off of nearly every exit off 95. There’s the Black Bear Inn that way, the Milford Motel that way…but they didn’t have that. So the idea was if there is a stranger that’s a brother or a sister visiting your town, invite them to your home, entertain them.
3 Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also.
4 Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
6 So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
Verse 7
7 Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.
The word rule over you is actually lead you. Speaking of Christian leaders in the church. Remember them consider where they way that they live leads..
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
9 Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.
10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.
Strange doctrine does exactly that…it carries us away. Foods don’t take us closer or farther away from God, every once in a while a strange doctrine like that will blow through the church…but then verse 10, is reminding the Hebrew believers of what we have in Jesus. You who are thinking of heading back to the sacrificial system of the temple.
Our alter is the cross, and by that cross, actually by what Jesus did on that cross, I don’t want to glorify the cross itself as it was just an instrument of death. We have access to God that those of the tabernacle never did or would. Again, we have a better high Priest. One that is not limited to access to the Holy of Holies one day per year, but right now is at the right hand of the Father in The Holiest of Holies, the presence of the Father.
11 For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp.
12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
13 Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.
14 For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.
15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
16 But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
17 Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
This is always a little awkward, but I teach it because it is here, and it’s important. Those that lead in the church aren’t doing so for selfish gain. They teach from the Word, they counsel from the bible, so when they say something, it is in affect with a thus says the Lord. So the idea is that God has given them authority, not weird stuff, like the Shepherding movement, or even weird stuff I’ve seen in other churches where you need to get the elders permission to get married, to buy a house or a car, change jobs, etc. That’s cult like behavior.
But when those that lead give you instruction, as Christians you should obey, and be submissive in that obedience. That means don’t just do it grudgingly, or with an attitude. Or like, well I haven’t caught you doing anything wrong yet bub, but I’m eyeballing you, just waiting for you to mess up. Why should we do that with our church leaders?
for they watch out for your souls. If your pastor, or one of the elders is giving you counsel or instruction and you don’t like it or don’t agree with it, consider you might be wrong before the Lord. They are watching out for your souls as those who must give an account. Do you know that I have to answer to God for you? That I have a stricter judgement placed on me than you do?
The rest of this basically says, so don’t give them a hard time with it, don’t bug them with your constant resistance, rejection and continually challenging of their counsel, let them lead with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you.
18 Pray for us; for we are confident that we have a good conscience, in all things desiring to live honorably.
19 But I especially urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.
20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
22 And I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words.
Hebrews 13:23–25 (NKJV)
23 Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you if he comes shortly.
24 Greet all those who rule over you, and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you.
25 Grace be with you all. Amen.
Grace and Peace