Changeless Truths in a Shifting World
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introduction
Change is constant. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said “There is nothing permanent except change.”
Like the water in a meandering river to the roaring waves of the oceans, things are constantly in motion. Although we don’t see it, things expand and grow.
Las Vegas, for example, has grown and changed over my lifetime. Growing up, when I was a kid, if you looked west, there was nothing past Buffalo. Casinos that were popular are gone and replaced. Wet n Wild, which was one of my favorite places to go, was located at Sahara/Las Vegas Blvd just south of the Sahara Casino.
People change. Clothing styles change. Music changes. The world has changed. The universe expands and changes.
There is a constant flux of endless fads and fashion, politics and morality, philosophy and religion. Some things move very slow and are almost imperceivable.
Like a tree growing from a little sapling or getting older.
Other times change can come fast. Losing a job, someone dying, a relationship forming.
With all this change we are grounded in the fact that we are finite, mutable, mortal beings who, like the universe, have a beginning, middle and end.
With all this said, we are called to look at things through the eyes of faith. When we do this, we will see God’s perspective on this issue.
Even though we live in a world that is constantly in motion, a created reality, the triune God-His nature and character, His plans, purposes and promises-are like an immovable rock.
He never has a bad day, never learns something he didn’t know before, isn’t moody, doesn’t go back on His word, and doesn’t start something he can’t-or won’t-finish.
These verses that we are going to look at turns our eyes from the shifting world to a cluster of changeless truths concerning Jesus and the plan and purpose of God.
The message is clear: In an unreliable, changing world, Jesus remains the same.
If this is true, why shouldn’t we put our trust in something that is constant and never changing?
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Don’t be led astray by various kinds of strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be established by grace and not by food regulations, since those who observe them have not benefited.
God’s immutability has been defined as God’s inability to change His divine nature or character or be altered by finite circumstances or events.
He never differs from himself.
This doctrine comes from different parts of the Bible:
“Because I, the Lord, have not changed, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.
But you are the same,
and your years will never end.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
So when the author of Hebrews says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, we are given another glimpse of his superiority.
He is fully divine, he has all the attributes of divinity which is immutability.
This leads us to a very common question concerning the humanity of Christ: If doctrine that says Christ is fully human does that mean that now, in some sense, God the Son has changed and therefore is changeable?
How can the eternal, divine God assume a human nature?
The answer is: although united to a finite human nature, the Son’s divine nature remains unchanged..His attributes, perfections, purposes and promisees never change.
Therefore, Jesus is unchanging in this way, He is superior for pressing on with stability in a constantly changing world.
The unchangeableness of Christ keeps believers who are in him from being swept away by the currents of various kinds of strange teachings.
Don’t be led astray by various kinds of strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be established by grace and not by food regulations, since those who observe them have not benefited.
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The word varied comes from the word poikilos.
ποικίλος -ου, ὁ; (poikilos), adj. various; diversified. having great diversity or variety.
In other words, false doctrines come in all shapes and sizes because they spring from people’s shifting imaginations, not from the unchanging person and work of Christ.
Not surprisingly, false teaching attacked the fundamental principle of grace.
Don’t be led astray by various kinds of strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be established by grace and not by food regulations, since those who observe them have not benefited.
God granted the gifts of salvation and spiritual strength through Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.
False teachers, like the ones trying to bring the new christians back to the Law, were attempting to enslave believers.
Believers who were saved by grace through faith.
These types of actions were constantly addressed throughout the Bible.
You foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell on you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh? Did you experience so much for nothing—if in fact it was for nothing? So then, does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law? Or is it by believing what you heard—
Therefore, don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day.
If you died with Christ to the elements of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”? All these regulations refer to what is destined to perish by being used up; they are human commands and doctrines. Although these have a reputation for wisdom by promoting self-made religion, false humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.
They forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods that God created to be received with gratitude by those who believe and know the truth.
It is grace which strengthens the believer’s heart, not subscription to rules and the avoidance of prohibited foods. There is no room now for material sacrifices, animal offerings, sacred meals and hallowed altars. All that is over and gone.
We have an altar from which those who worship at the tabernacle do not have a right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the most holy place by the high priest as a sin offering are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, so that he might sanctify the people by his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing his disgrace. For we do not have an enduring city here; instead, we seek the one to come. Therefore, through him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Don’t neglect to do what is good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices. 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.
The Jews had an obsession with altars, sacrifices and sacred meals. The author throughout the book of Hebrews repeatedly compared and contrasted the rituals of the old covenant and the new one.
Here he takes another swipe at the inferior practices of Judaism. This time he makes the comparison more practical.
There are those who find Christ superior for pressing on and those who opt to return to an empty religion.
In these verses we find 5 things believers have as they abandon the uncertain beliefs and practices of a shifting world to hold firm to the unchangeable grace of Jesus.
First,
We have an altar to use.
Hebrews 13:10
The old tabernacle accomplishes nothing eternal, spiritual and nothing that can contribute to our salvation and sanctification. It never has in a permanent way.
Christians have an altar that is completely distinct from the system of animal sacrifices at the tabernacle.
Here the word altar is used to represent the perfect sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Those who exchange the full atonement of the cross for the temporal, thumb their noses at God.
To them, the crucified Christ means nothing. But to us, He is everything.
When we sin, we don’t need to run to a priest with an animal on a leash; we turn to God himself, whose blood paid for our sins-past and future.
Second,
We have a reproach to bare.
Hebrews 13:11-13
The author makes the comparison and a contrast between animal sacrifices and the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
Just as the bodies of the animals were burned outside of the camp, as if to banish sin, Jesus was crucified outside the gate of Jerusalem as if he were a sinner.
The rules for the animal sacrifices are found in Leviticus.
The man who released the goat for an uninhabitable place is to wash his clothes and bathe his body with water; afterward he may reenter the camp. The bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought into the most holy place to make atonement, must be brought outside the camp and their hide, flesh, and waste burned. The one who burns them is to wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; afterward he may reenter the camp.
Both animals and Christ shed their blood and died, but that’s where the similarities end.
The blood of Christ was to sanctify the people, while the blood of the animals were not able to take away sin.
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Therefore I will give him the many as a portion,
and he will receive the mighty as spoil,
because he willingly submitted to death,
and was counted among the rebels;
yet he bore the sin of many
and interceded for the rebels.
Christ’s death outside the city gate was a mark of reproach. Although he was innocent of all sin, he was numbered with the transgressors.
He endured ridicule and mocking while he hung on the cross, though he deserved worship and praise.
When we stand firm on the unchanging truths of the gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection, we should brace ourselves for the same reaction from a constantly changing world.
As we grow in our faith, we become more aligned with Christ’s sufferings.
When that happens, the rapidly changing world can’t stand a stick in the mud that refuses to go with the flow, to keep up with the latest progressive trend, or to bend its morals with the breeze of a feel-good philosophy.
Third,
We have a city to seek.
Hebrews 13:14
No matter where we live on this Earth, we’re still temporary residents.
You may move all around the city, country or world, it doesn’t matter.
Nations, kingdoms and empires are fleeting.
A voice was saying, “Cry out!”
Another said, “What should I cry out?”
“All humanity is grass,
and all its goodness is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flowers fade
when the breath of the Lord blows on them;
indeed, the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flowers fade,
but the word of our God remains forever.”
Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are considered as a speck of dust on the scales;
he lifts up the islands like fine dust.
Lebanon’s cedars are not enough for fuel,
or its animals enough for a burnt offering.
All the nations are as nothing before him;
they are considered by him
as empty nothingness.
But, here we do not have a lasting city.
For we do not have an enduring city here; instead, we seek the one to come.
This is why we long for an unchanging reality grounded in God-the city which is to come.
Fourth
We have a sacrifice to offer.
Hebrews 13:15-16
Although we have no physical, earthly altar, no bloody animal sacrifices, no position worthy of the world’s praise and no permanent place of earthly citizenship, does this mean that we have nothing to offer God?
Absolutely not!
We are to continually offer a sacrifice of praise, or thanks to God.
As he always has, God is more interested with the attitude of the heart. These are expressed through words and deeds, not obligatory tradition.
He says to do good and share as authentic, spiritual worship. Paul says this:
Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.
Finally,
We have leaders to follow.
Hebrews 13:17
False teachers has its leaders too. Jesus warned us his disciples of them.
“Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves.
Paul did the same.
There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves.
John too.
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
These false teachers had various and strange teachings that differed from each other, they all had the same goal:
To alter the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.
To fight off these people, Jesus gave the church gifted leaders-apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. These leaders are to equip the church for for the ministry and help them grow into the image of Christ.
This is done to mature believers so they aren’t tossed here or there.
And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.
Without these leaders, the church’s growth would be stunted and its members would be easily led astray into false teachings.