Hope Ain’t A Hustle (Denver Pres)

Introduction

Hebrews 6:1–20 ESV

1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. 9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. 13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

I gave to Hope a watch of mine: but he An anchor gave to me. Then an old prayer-book I did present: And he an optic sent. With that I have a vial full of tears: But he a few green ears. Ah Loiterer! I’ll no more, no more I’ll bring: I did expect a ring. – George Herbert

17th century poet and clergyman, George Herbert, succinctly describes the dismay we experience when our highest hopes remain unsatisfied. The speaker gives hope three things, his watch, his prayer-book, and his tears. Hope gives the poet three things in return, an anchor, a telescope, and unripe ears of grain. The speaker says to hope, “Time’s up! I’ve been waiting far too long for you to fulfill my desire for relief!” Hope says to him, “Be steadfast! You’ve got to wait a while longer.” In an attempt to demonstrate how patient he’s been the speaker declares, “Look at my prayer journal! See how much I’ve endured patiently waiting for you to come to my aid!” Hope has further counsel. “It’s wonderful that you’ve been praying. Please continue. You don’t need to stop praying, you need a telescope to enable you to keep the long view in mind.” In a final effort to sway Hope he brings his tears. “Do you understand how much I’ve suffered, and for how long? Can you grasp the depth of my pain and sorrow?” Hope simply says, “The day of harvest will come, when everything is made right. But it’s not time yet.” In seeming utter frustration, the speaker has given up on Hope. Hope’s new name is “Loiterer!” “My expectations are dashed! You take too long for my tastes! In fact, I think Hope is an imposter. I’m going to have to look elsewhere for relief. I thought we were bound together in an intimate relationship. I expected you to give me a ring, signifying your commitment to me! But I’m left alone at the altar.” As Bruce Bryant-Scott points out, the ring isn’t Hope’s to give. All Hope can offer is patience.

If we’re honest, sometimes we feel like that poet. Hope is just a loiterer, hanging around and not really pulling its weight. Hope, though is a tricky thing. Everyone is hoping for something. And holding on to hope for seemingly impossible things like justice and peace and righteousness in the world can feel like we’ve hustled. We can feel as though we’ve been hustled by God.

That’s reason to be glad for Hebrews 6, especially verses 11-20. The greatest hope we can have is to hope in the promises of God. And hoping in the promises of God is a hope that cannot disappoint because that hope is validated by God himself. Hope in the promises of God is hope that is not conditioned on the decisions of people at all. Therefore, hoping in God is not pie in the sky thinking. Hoping in God ain’t a hustle.

I want to talk about three things this morning, Feeling the Hustle of Hope, Facing the Unreasonableness Hope, and Finding the Encouragement of Hope.

Feeling the Hustle of Hope

We don’t have anywhere near enough time to engage this whole chapter in detail. Some of the most difficult verses in the Bible are found in Hebrews 6:1-8. And we’re not going to dive into them at all. Sorry. We need to know the context, though, of the second half of the chapter. This chapter actually marks the end of the Pastor’s digression from what he began to talk with them about in 5:1-10. He had been talking to them about the fact that Jesus was a great high priest. In 5:10 he said that Jesus was a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. And he says the same thing in v. 20 of chapter 6, at the end of our text. At the beginning of ch. 7 he’ll dive headlong into that subject. But in between he’s wanted to address three things. He chastised them for their spiritual immaturity in 5:11-14. He told them that they needed to grow up. He said, we have much to say about Jesus as a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, but it’s difficult to explain because you’ve become hard of hearing. Then, in the first part of chapter 6, he warns them that some of them may be on a dangerous path, the road of no return. He says in v. 11 that he longs for them to show this eagerness for the assurance of hope until the end. I want to see each one of you have that same diligence about the full assurance of your hope all the way to the end of your lives. What is this assurance of hope? It is the absolute conviction that God will keep every one of his promises. It is the conviction that no matter how hard it is to follow Jesus, God is still faithful. There is a sense of diligence and earnestness that the Christian should have about the assurance of God’s faithfulness.

Notice he says in v. 11, we want this for each one of you. He does not want any of them to be without the assurance of hope. He says, if you have this assurance, you won’t be sluggish about faith in Jesus, but you will be like those who through faith and endurance inherit the promises of God. And now, for the rest of the chapter, he wants to encourage them in the hope that has been set before them.

Here’s the point. They are feeling like they’ve been hustled by this Christianity thing. They are suffering for their faith in Jesus and wondering whether they’ve been duped. This is why his warning is so strong. He uses the language in v. 6 of falling away. Rejecting the temptation to believe that they have been sold a bill of goods in following Jesus is so crucial that it comes up again and again.

Hebrews 3:12–14 ESV

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

He does it here in the first part of ch. 6. Then, in ch. 10 he says,

Hebrews 10:23 ESV

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

Hebrews 10:28–29 ESV

28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

It’s one thing to be the victim of a hustle if all I’m going to lose a few dollars or face some minor embarrassment. It’s another thing if I’ve given my life to something. If I’ve gone all in, committing myself body and soul to something and find out that things are not as I expected them to be—that puts me in a different place mentally, emotionally, spiritually.

When you’ve said, Lord Jesus, I trust you. You are my life. You rule and reign over the heavens and the earth. No one is stronger than you. Then, your life turns upside down. Friends become enemies. You heard the psalmist say,

Psalm 89:14 ESV

14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.

Yet all you see is injustice in your community; injustice and unrighteousness in your country; injustice and unrighteousness in the world; when you see the church divided by political partisanship, bearing false witness to the unity we have in Christ—you wonder, “have I been hustled?”

In his book, Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power, Andy Crouch asks whether the deepest truth about the world is a struggle for mastery and domination, or collaboration, cooperation, and ultimately love. He makes the point that what seems more realistic is that the world is in a pitched battle for dominance. Who really has the power?

Unmet expectations make us feel like we’ve been hustled. It is exactly at the point when we’re feeling the hustle most that we need to be reminded of who Jesus is. He is God, who upholds the universe by the word of his power. He is prophet, the final word of God. He is Great High Priest, who made purification for sins. He is King, who is seated at the right hand oft he Majesty on high. The confession of our faith is required when our lives are in the pit and we wonder if we’ve believed a lie. Can I tell you something? Christian doctrine is not reserved for the halls of academia and peace-time reflection. No. Our confession of who Jesus is and what we believe is for life in the valley!

Facing the Unreasonableness of Hope

So, Jesus is the one who enables us to reject the temptation to give into the feeling of being hustled. And he is the one who enables us to live by an unreasonable hope.

Have you noticed that I haven’t yet defined hope. I’ve just been going along assuming that you all know what I’m talking about.

In her book, Unfettered Hope, Marva Dawn writes,

“We use the English noun and verb hope in many ways—to signify what we anticipate or expect, what we would recommend if we could control things, what we most earnestly desire or wish for if we could have our own way, or what we truly believe in or in what or whom we have confidence.” (xii)

In our common, colloquial use of ‘hope’ what we really mean is what life would look like if we could control things. My hopes are regularly tied to what I wish I could make happen. And, that’s regularly a fool’s errand because, as we just saw, I’m not the one who upholds the universe by the word of my power. My hope, biblically speaking, has to be tied to the one who is actually in control. It has to be married to the one who can actually change hearts and lives and circumstances. I’m using the word ‘hope’ in the last sense of Marva Dawn’s definition, our hope is tied to “what we truly believe in and in whom we have confidence.” And this kind of hope in God can seem unreasonable.

In the first 8 verses of this chapter the Pastor chastises them about their spiritual immaturity and warns them that some of them may be on a dangerous path, the road of no return. But then, in v. 9, just as he does with every other warning he gives in this letter he turns and says,

Hebrews 6:9 ESV

9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.

Try and try as we might, in our own strength, there doesn’t seem to be any unassailable reason to be hopeful about justice, about joy, about shalom. Can I tell you something? The hope of the gospel is unreasonable.

His example of the unreasonableness of hope is Abraham. He says in vv. 13-15

Hebrews 6:13–15 ESV

13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

God first made a promise to Abraham in Gen. 12. He told Abraham to leave his father’s house in Ur of the Chaldeans, and go to a land God was going to show him. He promised to make Abraham a great nation. That he would bless Abraham and make his name great, and in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. But there was a problem. Abraham and his wife Sarah had no children because Sarah was barren. She couldn’t get pregnant. But the Lord makes another promise to Abraham in Gen. 15, right after Abraham was blessed by Melchizedek. He told him that his very own son would be his heir. Miracle of miracles, Isaac was born to Sarah in Genesis 21. The son of promise is born.

In v. 14 of our passage, the Pastor is quoting God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 22:17. Do you remember know what happened in Genesis 22?

Genesis 22:2 ESV

2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

Abraham responded to God’s word in faith and obedience. The Pastor says of Abraham in ch. 11,

Hebrews 11:17–19 ESV

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

The apostle Paul says in Romans 4:18 that in hope Abraham believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations. Why would Abraham have to believe in hope, against hope? Because apart from faith it is unreasonable to hope in God. So the Pastor says in v. 15, “and thus” or “in this way,” Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. In what way? In the way of faith! By faith Abraham having patiently waited, obtained the promise. By faith and patience he obtained the promise that God would bless him and multiply him.

Hoping in God requires faith and patience because hoping in God seems unreasonable to our natural minds. He takes to long for our tastes. He doesn’t respond the way we want him to respond, when we want him to respond. God is not operating on our agenda. We have to operate on his agenda.

So, what is going to keep you going?

Hebrews 6:17–20 ESV

17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God made the oath for our benefit! The Pastor talks about those who are the heirs of the promise, that is, those who inherit the promises of God. Who are those people? The heirs of the promise are those who put their faith in God through Jesus Christ. He says, the promise of God is for the benefit of these people. God didn’t have to make any promises at all, but because he is gracious and full of mercy, he wanted (notice that word), God wanted to make it crystal clear to his people that even though people change all the time; situations change for better or worse all the time, but his purposes never change, ever.

Hebrews 10:35–36 ESV

35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

So every time you hear the promise of God in Scripture,

“And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” (Jeremiah 30:22 ESV)

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28 ESV)

“I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20 ESV)

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 ESV)

“I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against” (Matthew 16:18–19 ESV)

God wants us to be crystal clear that his purposes and promises are rock solid and there is no power that can do anything to change them. And every promise of Scripture was confirmed by God when he sent Jesus to the cross. That’s why Paul can say in 2 Cor. 1:20 that all the promises of God are “Yes” in Jesus Christ.

Finding the Encouragement of Hope

The Pastor wraps up this section by saying, God confirmed his promise with an oath, so that… the two unchangeable things are God’s promise and the oath that confirms the promise…

He has called the followers of Jesus, heirs of the promise. Now he uses another descriptive term. He says that we who follow Jesus are those who have fled for refuge. Christians are those who have fled for safety in God. Not out of fear, but because of God’s promise. Christians are those who have realize that there is security only in the promise of God. There is no other promise that is more solid than his. So the Pastor says that what God wants is for his refugees to have strong encouragement to seize hold of the hope that God has set before them.

He uses an active term. Hope has been set before you. Seize hold of it! Grab onto it and don’t let go! In other words, he saying, “Keep hope alive!” Don’t let go of your hope! He’s just building on what he said in v. 11 when he longed for them to have an earnestness about the full assurance of hope all the way to the end. What the Pastor knows is that hope is a decision that must be made continually. If I have turned away from entrusting my life to myself, and have turned to God in faith entrusting my life to Jesus Christ, I belong to him forever, and that will never change. However, my confidence and hope in God can waiver dramatically. So the Pastor knows that we have a daily need to hold on to our hope. He’s saying that God wants you to have strong encouragement to do just that.

He doesn’t just leave it at that. He tells both why to have this strong encouragement and how to have this strong encouragement.

Why should we have this strong encouragement to seize the hope that God has set before us? Because we have this hope as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. A ship that is anchored firm and securely will not move from its location no matter what the waters are like. Whether the sea is calm or the storm is raging, the firmly anchored ship holds steady. The Pastor says it’s like that for your soul, for your life. Be encouraged to keep hope alive, to hold to God’s unchanging hand, as we sing, so that you will not be thrown into a frenzy when the storms of life are raging.

The second reason to have strong encouragement to seize this hope is not simply something that is out there somewhere. It’s not just a distant hope that you can’t taste right now. It’s both and. It’s already and it’s not yet. The fullness has yet to come, but we taste it now because Jesus has come! Jesus is the fulfillment of our hope and he has already come and gone ahead of us on our behalf. He says that this hope enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.

How can you have this strong encouragement to seize this hope daily? Family, we go where the hope takes us. This hope, the Pastor says, enters into the inner place behind the curtain. That is, by this hope we enter into the very throne of God.

Jesus has opened up the way to live beyond the veil in the presence of God and he calls us to follow him there.

That is why the Pastor said in 4:16, “Let us continually draw near, let us continually approach the throne of God with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” That’s how he can say in 10:22, “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,” and in verse 25, “let us not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

Hope takes us to prayer and hope takes us to worship and fellowship with others who want to keep holding on to the hope.

The assurance of hope has a practical, on the ground application that’s implied by what the Pastor said to them back in vv. 9-12,

Hebrews 6:9–12 ESV

9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

What does the assurance of hope look like? It means a public faith that shows our love for God in the way that we love our sisters and brothers in Christ. It’s certainly the case that our love for God as Christians is shown in the way that we love all people, but the Pastor is making a particular point about how Christian hope bears witness to the world that Jesus is real and worthy of worship. He reminds them that they have demonstrated time and again their love for God’s name by the way that they’ve earnestly served their brothers and sisters in Christ. And they haven’t stopped. They’re continuing to do it. This love that they’ve demonstrated in serving the saints is a costly and self-sacrificial love.

Sacrificial Christian love demonstrates to the world that as unreasonable as Christian hope might appear to be, as much of a hustle as it appears to be, it rooted in something far better than what this world has to offer. And this something better is that he’s bringing reunion, renewal, reconciliation to humanity through Jesus Christ. When we feel like that’s a hustle, we look again at Jesus, the radiance of the glory of God. We face the impossible, holding to his promises, and we find our encouragement in the privilege of his presence behind the veil.