Hebrews 13
Notes
Transcript
Hebrews 13
Hebrews 13
Introduction
I had a boss once who had this habit of over-explaining.
Anybody here know an over explainer?
Is anyone here guilty of being an over explainer?
An over explainer is someone who gives way too much information to a simple question or request.
For example, this boss of mine, an over explainer, I would go in to work, and I would ask, “hey boss, what do you want me to get done today?”
And the answer I was hoping to get was a list. Something like, “yeah, first check the oil and fluids in the vehicle. Then you need to go to this address and drop some things off for this client. Then when you’re done with that you need to go by and pick up some supplies, then you need to come back and clean up the work shop.”
That’s a nice list. That’s something you can write down on a sticky note, check things off.
It’s clear and concise direction.
And while I wish I would have gotten that list, usually what I got was something like,
Well, I was going to have you go do some work for this one client, but then they called and cancelled, they’re the one’s who live off of 29 road…oh actually it was 28 road, well, it’s kind of that little side road in between 28 and 29 road, you know the one that has the big yellow tractor out front
That was one of our biggest clients we had this year, and I was on my way over there this weekend, and I noticed that the truck needed to have the oil changed.
I usually take it in to the co-op because they give us a better deal than I could afford to pay in labor, but the last time I had it in they had raised their prices,
I think we’ll probably have to look at some of the contracts we’ve had with other clients, because if the cost of fuel and maintenance keep up this way it’s not going to be sustainable to do these smaller jobs anymore....
And he would go on like that for like 5 minutes straight, and he’d never actually tell me what I was supposed to be doing that day.
He would just keep explaining, and never actually give me work to do.
So I’m there with my notebook, and my pen, trying to catch what it is that he wants me to do, but it’s nearly impossible because he keeps over-explaining.
And then usually he would finish up, and be like “ok, so do you need anything else from me?”
And I’d be like…yeah…um…what do you want me to do?
Because I don’t know about you, but I do so much better if I have a list. I do so much better if I can have 10 things, and I can put them all on a nice little list, and I can just know that all I need to do is check these 10 things off, or these 5 things, and then I’m done for the day.
And I think what I didn’t realize, about my boss, the over explainer, is that there was a reason for the disconnect.
My boss was the owner operator of a landscaping company. He had a million different things flying around at any given moment.
He had clients calling, he had vendors that he needed to contact, and employees that he needed to pay, and taxes he needed to do, and equipment he needed to take care of.
And me, I was a low level laborer at this time. I didn’t need to worry about any of that stuff. I didn’t need to know about the price of maintenance on the equipment, or how much we needed to charge for the clients.
I didn’t understand any of that stuff. I needed simple, straight forward explanations. Who, what, when , where, how.
That’s why books like “12 rules for life” are so popular, and “7 habits for highly effective people.
Because far too often we want things short and sweet. Put it in a list for me
It’s how we approach our faith a lot of the time too. We want simple faith, but when we read scripture, we find that the Bible doesn’t lay things out in nice neat lists that are easy to follow all the time.
Transition
We’re on our final chapter of the Book of Hebrews, and if you’ve kept up as we’ve gone through this book, you’ll know that what we’ve gotten has been anything but simple, anything but straight forward.
The book opens up as a warning to the jewish audience to follow after christ, not their old ways in judaism, because Jesus is greater than moses, greater than the law, he’s an eternal priest.
They’re warned not to be like the israelites rebelling against God, but instead to hold on to their faith and inherit God’s eternal rest.
They’re told about how Jesus is an eternal priest who was perfected through his suffering, and became the source of eternal salvation to all who believe him.
They’re warned to move on to mature spiritual teachings, not like babies who are only talking about the initial phases of faith, who have plateaued,
Because again, as he reminds them, Jesus is a high priest, an eternal priest, one worth obeying, who has instituted a new covenant.
that hte old ways have passed away, that Jesus is intervening on our behalf, so don’t go back to your old way of life
Come near to God, draw near, approach the throne with confidence..something they had never been able to do before.
But now we can because doggonit, we are among those who live by faith. The great cloud of witnessess the heroes of the old covenant , and we are among them so we press on and we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.
And this is just hitting the wavetops of all that hebrews discusses
That’s not
But as we get into 13, the book of hebrews, the sermon, it’s starting to land the plane
And we’re starting to get a little bit of that simple stuff we like.
Roadmap
We’re going to see seven different actions that the book of hebrews is asking us to take
In response to God’s love for us, in response to the new covenant, to all the theology, and sacrifice, and atonement, and tabernacle stuff.
At the end of the day what everybody really wants to know....
Yeah but how should I act? What should I do? What does a Christian look like?
If you have your bible’s I’m going to label this
Seven Habits for Highly Effective Christians
Love
Show Hospitality
Manage your love life
Don’t be Greedy
Read your Bible and Do what it says
Live with hope for the Resurrection
Pray
Point
Statement
Brotherly love must continue.
Explanation
Explain what you mean
Argumentation
It’s the simplest command that the bible gives us, and yet it’s often the one we struggle with the most.
But here’s the thing, if we understand all of Hebrews chapters 1-12
If we have a solid theology, if we understand the trinity, we understand atonemnent, and the history of the Old testament and the covenants, and the mysteries of the faith
But we don’t show love…what are we even doing?
There’s a reason why when the Pharisees came to test Jesus, and they asked him, “what is the most important Law” he said there’s two. 1. Love God 2. Love your neighbor
He could have talked about the sabbath, he could have talked about keeping the covenant, he could have talked about idolatry, he could have talked about a million other things but Jesus, so brilliantly said “All that stuff hangs on love.
There’s a reason why Paul says
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I receive no benefit.
Illustration
And there’s a reason why here in Hebrews it’s specifically “brotherly” love.
Christians: 3 times in the bible
Belonging to the way: 5 times
Believers: 9 times
Brothers (by extension that includes brothers and sisters) 108 times.
Do brothers and sisters always get along? of course not. The new testament gives witness to that, the early christians were always having disagreements.
You ought to see my kids go rounds with each other
They will roll and tussle, and fight, and pull hair, and pinch and shove
they will fight over toys, they’ll fight over the tv remote.
They’ll fight over toys that they don’t even like
But I’ll tell you what, when a bully at school starts picking on one of them?
mmm mmm.
they’ll go to bat for each other.
That’s my brother. That’s my sister.
Application
We’re family. Church should feel like family.
Transition
And that’s great for those who are in the family, but what about those outside the family?
2. Show Hospitality
Point
Statement
Show hospitality to all
Explanation
Do not neglect hospitality, because through it some have entertained angels without knowing it.
Remember those in prison as though you were in prison with them, and those ill-treated as though you too felt their torment.
Argumentation
Make a case for the idea from the text and overcome the objections, concerns, skepticism, and doubts that keep us from embracing it
Illustration
My parents, for whatever reason, always had people living at our house
We had an old single wide trailer on our property
It wasn’t in the best condition, it was probably from the 70’s
Showing a little bit of age.
they ran some water lines to it, they ran some electricity to it, and it made a nice little living space
Every summer we had someone who lived in that trailer
We started calling it the Gypsy trailer, because it seemed like there was always someone who was down on their luck, trying to get back on their feet
Or just traveling across the country and needing a place to stay
There was Chaz, he was a Native american fellow who was, I kid you not, riding a horse across the country, and his horse got sick or something outside our property and he needed a place to stay while his horse got better
There was Stephanie, she was an interesting character, nose ring, tattoos, tie-died hippie shirts
she was a friend of a friend who was looking for a job and had gotten evicted
There was Steve he was a carpenter by trade but he had been in prison and was having a hard time finding work
There was theresa, she had just gone through a divorce and was trying to get her life back on track and go back to school to become a massage therapist
And my folks would just bring them in, let them stay in the gypsy trailer
pay them to do chores and cut firewod, pull weeds,
They were just part of the family.
Application
Hospitality: Bringing those outside the family in to the family. because we are brothers and sisters in Christ and that is what we do.
Transition
We show brotherly love
We show hospitality
We manage our love life well
Point
3. Manage your love life
Statement
Marriage must be honored among all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge sexually immoral people and adulterers.
Argumentation
This gets to be a controversial subject in today’s culture, but as much as we might wish he didn’t , God does care about what goes on in the bedroom.
It’s not because God likes to make arbitrary rules, it’s not because he likes to take the fun out of every thing
Illustration
The relationship between men and women has serious consequences.
It brings life into the world. That’s a big deal
It brings people to a place of vulnerability
4 out of 5 women and 2 out of 5 men in america experience sexual assault or sexual harrasment in their lifetime
Nearly 1 in 6 married couples have cheated on their spouse
57% of divorces happen because of infidelity
Anyone who says that what happens in the bedroom is “no big deal” has never been the victim of sexual assault. Adultery. Sexual harrassment.
It matters.
Application
Christians are supposed to be different
Transition
The next habit for highly effective Christians
Statement
Your conduct must be free from the love of money and you must be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you and I will never abandon you.”
So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid. What can people do to me?”
4. Don’t Be Greedy
Explanation
Greed is inherently saying to God: your provision is not enough for me
Illustration
It’s saying “God I know that you made me and you love me, and you sent your son and he died for me, and you put the air in my lungs and the food on my table, and the blood in my heart
You know every hair on my head
But you know, I really think I need a little bit more
Argumentation
Don’t get me wrong money can do a lot of great things
Money can feed the poor, heal the sick, put a man on the moon, cure diseases, bring a smile to the face of a child
But the love of money, the hungering and thirsting after money, that’s where we run into problems.
Application
What is it that you’re chasing after that’s getting in between you and your relationship with God
Statement
5. Read the Bible, and do what it says
Remember your leaders, who spoke God’s message to you; reflect on the outcome of their lives and imitate their faith.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever!
Do not be carried away by all sorts of strange teachings. For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not ritual meals, which have never benefited those who participated in them.
An this gets reitterated a few verses down in verse 17
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls and will give an account for their work. Let them do this with joy and not with complaints, for this would be no advantage for you.
There’s one of two ways you can understand this verse
I think it’s important for us to remember this verse from their point of view, not ours
Who are the “leaders” that we’re talking about?
Most likely it’s the people who walked and talked with Jesus Christ himself.
If not them, then it was someone who walked and talked with a direct disciple of Jesus Christ himself.
We’re talking James, John, Matthew, Peter, Paul .
And the reason I bring this up is because there are two ways that Christians generally think about “authority” in scripture.
The first way, and in my opinion, the wrong way
Is the idea that Authority in Scripture is passed down from generation to generation
Jesus gave authority to the disciples, the disciples gave authority to their disciples. it gets passed down the line again and again, until you get to today.
That is “A” way to think about the Authority in the Christian Church
There’s a lineage.
Illustration
Anybody ever play the game “telephone”
Explanation
I’m a big fan of getting back to the source
I’m not sure if you’re aware of this or not, but those first Christians, those first apostles who received instruction from Jesus actually wrote a lot of stuff down
We have copies of it, it’s called the Bible.
And so when I read “obey your leaders” I don’t think “obey your preacher”
I don’t even really think “obey your elders”
If we’re thinking about the leaders they were obeying, we should be thinking “obey the bible” Obey the written word of the apostles.
Don’t be carried away by strange teachings
90% of the weird teachings, the strange teachings, the “ideas” that we have would be null and void if we would simply stick to the word
And commit our selves to doing what the Bible says
Read in the context of when it was written,
Transition
The next one, comes from verse 10
6. Live your life with hope of the resurrection.
We have an altar that those who serve in the tabernacle have no right to eat from.
For the bodies of those animals whose blood the high priest brings into the sanctuary as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp.
Therefore, to sanctify the people by his own blood, Jesus also suffered outside the camp.
We must go out to him, then, outside the camp, bearing the abuse he experienced.
For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
Sixth habit of a highly effective Chritian
We have no city here on earth, this place is not our home
So we don’t need to spend our lives being wrapped up in the worries and struggles.
We don’t need to spend our lives stressing about political elections or economic recessions
That’s just the world doing what the world has always done
Illustration
I watched the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson Boxing match a few weeks
If you don’t know who either of those people are, the short of it is, Mike tyson was a world champion boxer in the 90’s
He was the one who bit Evander Holyfield’s ear off
they called him “iron mike” he was the knock out king.
All total in his career 50 wins, 44 knockouts
And Jake paul is a younger guy, who is trying to become an up and coming boxer
He’s been scheduling boxing matches with top names in boxing, trying to get some recognition
And every one was wondering about this fight
Tyson’s 58 years old
Does he still have it in him?
Here’s what nobody realized until after the fight was over
The payout for the fight: close to 40 million dollars if the fight goes all 8 rounds without a knockout
If there’s a knockout early in the match, the payout was only going to be somewhere around 10 million
In other words, both fighters knew exactly how the fight was going to end.
no knockouts, nothing craxy
they both kind of danced around each other for 8 rounds, tyson lost on points.
the fight went down as one of the most dissapointing matches in boxing
And they both laughed all the way to the bank because they had insider knowledge of how it was going to end.
In this world, a lot of people worry. A lot of people stress. A lot of people wonder. What’s going to happen in the future
What is going to be my fate. What happens if this country invades this country
What happens if a great depression hits
What if, what if, what if.
Christians you have insider knowledge.
[EXPAND]
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Final one:
7. Pray
Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to conduct ourselves rightly in every respect.
I especially ask you to pray that I may be restored to you very soon.
And then he finishes
Now may the God of peace who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus,
equip you with every good thing to do his will, working in us what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, bear with my message of exhortation, for in fact I have written to you briefly.
You should know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he comes soon, he will be with me when I see you.
Greetings to all your leaders and all the saints. Those from Italy send you greetings.
Grace be with you all.
Conclusion
7. Pray
Pray
Talk to God.
The number one indicator, for me, if someone is heading in good direction or a bad direction, is almost always, whether or not they pray.
People who are distant from God, one of the first things they will do when they start to grow closer to God is to pray.
And people who are going through crisis, who are starting to turn away from God, one of the first things that goes is prayer.
Prayer is your life line to the almighty. When you don’t understand something, when you need help, when you are joy ful, when you are scared, when you are anxious,
pray.
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