Finally
Jesus is Too Good (Hebrews) • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 8 viewsNotes
Transcript
Who do I want to be?
Who do I want to be?
NYE. 2024. Self improvement.
Here on NYE - must have god-ward hopes.
Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
What is pleasing to him? What does he want in us and from us?
Go backwards a little.
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.
And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
In fact - the ‘and’ is not there - the fruit of professing lips is doing good and sharing.
These are the pleasing sacrifices. [can be all a bit of an anti climax - normal life]
(Not amazing, impressive)
Not mostly found in a church service -
Please God by Godly Loving
Please God by Godly Loving
loving on another, hospitality to strangers, remember prisoners and mistreated, honour marriage, don’t love money.
[Not about buildings and services at all -]
Each is difficult and not just feeling/thinking but acting:
Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.
· Insider: Church Family (hard)
You don’t get to choose family.
You can’t love in abstract.
Not about feeling nice about people.
Doing good for them.
Local church.
Share your lives, share the life of Jesus with them, pray with/for them -
this is hard:
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
· Outsider: Hospitality to strangers (inconvenient)
Sharing your lives and your stuff - welcoming them into your life [not entertaining] [think hospital]
Those who can’t pay you back, without a relational claim on you - enemies! (who is my neighbour?)
How else will unbelievers come to see and know Jesus’ love?
this is hard and inconvenient (easy to forget and become insular, club-like)
Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
· Sufferer: Prison, Persecution (risky)
Most likely about Christians shamed and suffering. One body.
[When Christians stand up for Jesus and are ridiculed - do we show we’re not at all like them and avoid shame… or link with them even if we wouldn’t do it the way …
Not so risky for us… [Barnabas, Anrew Thorburn Essendon - ]
A follow up implication - do we avoid situations that will bring shame, discomfort if they knew we were Christians.
Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
· Sex and Money (shame and society)
This is very domestic. Sex and worship and money are very closely related.
A special particular love within the church family. A special warning of judgment. Not popular - not then, not now.
Honoured by all - chaste singleness; against the tide
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
A love to avoid. If only I had.. a scarcity metality……
This is marketplace and household and neighbourhood and workplace and school and bedroom.
// those people who discover a link with royalty, come into inheritance, win the lottery - now I can do what I’ve dreamed of… scarcity mentality .. if only God gave me………
God’s Grace for Pleasing God
God’s Grace for Pleasing God
From lesser to the greater -
Human helps: church family
Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.
God has given us each other. It’s why missing out on gathering is bad for your Christian health.
Human helps: past leaders
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
God gives us leaders. Not just any leaders. Not even just any church leaders. Those who spoke God’s Word to you - whose way of life had godly outcomes.
Who in your past spoke God’s Word to you ? Who can you thank God for and imitate THEIR faith (notice not specifically imitate their way of life).
Biographies of dead Christians too.
[Can also help you avoid being carried away by strange teachings - v9 - Jesus hasn’t changed - reliable for them, reliable for you now and forever]
Human helps: current leaders
Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.
This presumes you’re in a local church. Not podcasting/youtubing/watching church on TV as your primary input - but God has given you leaders who stay awake overnight in care for you, in prayer for you.
If you aren’t getting the word of God from them - they’ve no authority and are no true leaders.
This will be no help if you don’t put confidence in and submit to them - ‘of no benefit to you’ (and a burden).
[Love your pastor]
Divine help: present help
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”
How can we love each other in all the hardship and risk and inconvenience and danger -
You are not alone. Not helpless. God is your helper who never abandons you.
What can anybody do to you then?
Divine help: Grace for disgrace
And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.
Jesus gave himself to suffering and disgrace to make you holy. To give you his grace.
[Danger of adding things to Jesus’ work - ceremony, behaviour, performance, pomp -
[The finished work, as a free gift, can be embarassing - make us and our gatherings look unimpressive]
Shame and standing out for ‘wrong social reasons’ (marriage,money, love of strangers)
Divine Help: At work in us
First - to get our understanding right on prayer:
I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.
[What does this tell us about praying to God? - God answers and acts and intervenes. Prayer is not mostly about changing my attitude, making me calm, thinking like God thinks - but calling on God to act for his kingdom - ]
Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
Our Lord Jesus - our Great shepherd - has made a permanent deal of peace between you and me through Jesus’ blood.
He’s committed to you - for better and for worse. [a new start, not about your performance but Jesus death and resurrection - ]
equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Look at the prayer.
How will we ever be able to do what pleases God?
God will equip you (like fitting out a house, renovating it, supplying all the fixings)
God will work in you what is pleasing to Him (making it so in us)
This is a prayer to memorize and to pray for ourselves and each other through 2024.
Remember: pleasing God is godly loving - that’s genuine religion and worship
God make it so.
