Steadfast Savior | Hebrews 13:7-14
Hebrews • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 3 viewsWe must remember the steadfast nature of Christ as we endure in this life together.
Notes
Transcript
Main Idea: We must remember the steadfast nature of Christ as we endure in this life together.
Intro
Good Morning dawgs hour of sleep negated
Thanks you church
Kids I want you to listen for the word Jesus and Christ, how many times do I say them?
Let’s get in to it
6 years ago this weekend, where were you?
6 years ago was my call weekend
Over those 6 years, lotta change
Got married, Graduated seminary
Had two kids
Went back to school
Whole world lots it mind and shut down
The students have pretty much fully flipped over
We’ve gotten to baptize about 50 something students
Sent out a couple missionaries
Sent a few to seminary to prepare for ministry
Got two former students who are married and have children
Got like 3 more getting married soon
Also walk through some very tough and challenging moments
Even in the church
Lot has happened
Staff changes, polity change
But also
Growth, spiritual depth
Over the last 6 year there has been a lot of ups and a lot of down
We’ve been on the mountain and in the valley
Ebb and flow
The whole time, Jesus has been steadfast and faith through all of it
The Lord has been in the highs and lows of all of, shaping us and growing us as the body of Christ
That’s where we are gonna be this morning
Idea of steadfastness - Steadfast nature of Christ’s love and how we live in light of that
How his steadfastness forms our understanding of the Gospel
Steadfast He
Faithful,
immovable,
unchanging,
even keeled,
long suffering
We serve a savior who is steadfast with us in all things
Context
Where have we been?
First 12 chapters are the convincing you Jesus is better
13 is how to live in light of that fact
Refresh Hebrews
Don’t know who wrote it
Written to Hebrew people
Probably written right before the fall of Jerusalem
Maybe during Nero Persecution
Also re-surging nationalism in Israel
Possible the priests who converted in Acts 6 are part of the audience
We have couched in the idea: “For those who doubt”
For us to see Christ as greater.
When Life gets difficult we have a savior who is better.
What we need to know
helps us understand this scripture
Last week - Be Normal in an abnormal world
How do you stand in difficult times? How do you stay grounded? How do we endure
What does it look like to be steadfast as our savior is steadfast
This week: IF you have a bible open up to Heb13:7-14
Gonna be there this morning don’t have a bible, there is one in the pew
Main Idea, if you get nothing else out of this get this
We must remember the steadfast nature of Christ as we endure in this life together.
How do we press on in abnormal times?
How do we endure?
Let’s read the text
before we do that, lets pray
Pray
Read this with me
7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
What’s going on?
EXG/APP:
First read this passage seems disjointed
Like a list
Statements of action
Then some thoughts about blood and food
no flow to it
not sure how these verses connect
These are the culmination of the whole argument of Hebrews
The author is making the case for a rule of life
He knows following Christ is going to be costly
This is probably in the middle of Nero’s persecution
Right be for Rome destroys Jerusalem.
For us, following Christ is going to cost us something
Hasn’t gone away
So he is giving the pillars for a steadfast endurance in life.
He is giving the foundation for a rule of life that is steadfast and endures to the end
Rule of life
Rule comes from latin word means trellis
Trellis supports growth of a plant
Jimmy’s tomatoes
Tomatoes need the trellis to grow
It’s our framework for our life
Truth, prayer, community, the church
All
This passage is foundation for one
All the elements for spiritual formation are here
All the elements of discipleship are here
Look at it
Lets look at
4 things to see from the text
Hebrews 13:7–14 (ESV)
1 Remember Those who have gone before you
Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
What’s going on?
Lots of ways to read this, but what did the author mean?
Easy to immediately jump to reading this in church leadership.
You can and we’ll get there
But, that’s not exactly what the author is talking about
Who are the leaders that brought the word of God to these people?
Remember here connotes that the leader has passed on.
They have died, “outcome of their life”
So it’s not the current person over them at their church, but those who have gone on before them
Who is this then?
Some of the apostles and early church leaders
Remember your leaders, consider the outcome of their life.
How did their lives turn out?
All died horrific deaths
Peter - crucified
James - beheaded
Stephen - stoned
Other James - thrown off the temple, then stoned
Bartholomew - tradition says he was flayed alive
This text says imitate there faith,
Remember those leader’s faith and how their life turned out
thats the faith that is endures
For us as we sit here we have 2000 years of church history to look at
2000 years of enduring faith to imitate
But — there is practical advice in here and a warning
Remember those who have gone before you
2 things that are helpful practices
One - remember church history
I know, sounds boring
What i mean, find you some dead guys, champions of the faith from different eras
Learn about how they endured
For me:
Spurgeon - a preacher’s preacher, theologian
Lewis - Intellectual giant of the faith, helped proclaim the truth of God during the Blitz of London
Tolkien - how should Christians make beautiful art, storytelling and the gospel
Wilberforce - convictional leadership when it was not easy and against the norms
Two - remember the faith journey of your life
Who are the people who poured in to you
Discipled you
Don’t forget what they instilled in you
Mom & Dad
House
Professors
The baton
In this who can you pour into and years from now who’s dead guy can you be?
But then also there is a warning - some discernment
Consider the outcome of their life
How did it turn out?
Make sure they endured and their faith is worth imitating
We hear all the time of Leaders in the church, Christian leaders writing and speaking but behind closed doors their not the same person
It all comes out and it hurts the church
For us, consider the out come of our life
are we living a faith worth imitating?
are we enduring
The kids in here are going to be molded and shaped by the out come of our lives
It’s weighty and heavy thought
We can’t do it on our own
But we serve a savior who gives us the ability to endure
2 Remember the steadfastness of our savior
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Straightforward
Jesus is the same. yesterday, today, forever
He is unchanging
If this were a theology course, you say this is the immutability of God.
God is unchanging - His will is fixed for His Glory and our good
He is sovereign over all things
The way I want you to see this is he is steadfast
Ps 33:18 - Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,
Heb 6:19 - Sure and steadfast anchor
Steadfastness means steady, it means level headed
It means convictional
assured
trustworthy
1 Cor 15:58 - Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Above Turner’s crib - want him to have that foundation
Immovable
What this tells us is that there is nothing we can do, if we are His, that will separate us from him
once we are his, he is steadfast to love us
He is steadfast in his grace towards us
That is the savior we serve, one who is steady, sure, sovereign, immovable in his grace, mercy, and love for us
Here is what that means, as we follow him he does not change toward us, but changes us to be more like him
Blacksmith
Christ is the hammer and the anvil
Molds and shapes us to be like
Pounding, removing, purifying,
And we rely on this steadfastness and unchanging nature
That when life gets tough, or people let us down
Christ is there and will not let us down
Remember the steadfastness of our savior
3 Remember the truth
Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.
This one seems both straightforward an strange
So context is key,
Hebrew’s argument is Christ is better.
Better Priest, Prophet, King
The author is warning them - don’t be carried away.
All of Hebrew history in the OT is them being carried away by other gods an belief,
Babylon took them away
Empires up next to them, they followed their gods, not Yahweh.
God has to bring them back
Don’t go chasing the shiny new thing or thought
That is our society today
We are exposed to more competing philosophies and worldviews today than in any other time in history
For the people this is written to at the time there was a resurgence of Jewish Nationalism
Some people who grew up jewish and had converted to Christianity were going back to the old way
Getting caught up in the excitement of revolt against the Romans
How did that turn out?
The author is saying, the law is not what fortifies you, the law is not what makes you better
You can’t earn it
It’s grace that restores you, not your works, but the grace of God.
Even today, there are so many thoughts and ideas pulling society in so many different directions
We have seen some wild thoughts
For us, the low hanging fruit is the leftward sprint of society we have seen over the last 20 years.
It is predicated on the fact that you have to work to atone for your sins of whatever privilege you have,
Did you say the right words, make the right moral statement, does your instagram bio have enough pronouns in it?
Its easy to dunk on that, cause it’s objectively ridiculous -
not making light of it, its a problem the church needs to have Godoy reasoned arguments against it
And they are a people who also need the gospel.
But - let’s look with in, are we remembering the truth first, as the church do we remember the truth??
This isn’t written to society, its written to the church
a far more insidious thought has come into the church that we need to deal with
That faith in Christ is purely intellectual
That being a Christian is a cultural identity more than a faithfully submission to Christ
There are no spiritual grandchildren, only children.
You can’t get in on your grandma’s faith
That spiritual growth stops at baptism
I hear all the time, people will come up and say, “I want to be baptized.”
Praise God
What does that mean?
If the desire to get in the water greater than the desire to know Jesus
You have missed something.
Baptism is a way station not the destination.
Following Jesus requires your full submission to his lordship
we love Christ as savior, but we struggle with Christ as King.
One of the things us as elders are praying for is a cultivation of spiritual depth in our church
That is the kind of truth that endures
Remember the truth
Live in its depths
grow both your mind and your body in the faith.
Let your faith result in action
Last bit
4 Remember the End
We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
For us to endure in this life, if we are to stay steadfast, if we are going to live in light of the steadfast love of the gospel.
We have to remember the end.
There is a lot going on here, but for our purposes, 12, 13 and 14 are the key
The author is drawing a line back to this idea that Christ is better
Christ is the better sacrifice.
We don’t have to continually make sacrifice as they do in the tent, the tabernacle
A High Priest doesn’t bring in some blood for us but The Great High Priest brought himself and gave his own blood for us.
13 and 14 are prophetic and practical
They are pointing toward the fact that we are going to endure the same reproach in this world as Christ.
Remember the people he is writing to
Persecution is happening
People are being crucified
Its going on today
maybe not here but around the world its happening.
for those in persecution it is saying suffer well
Thinking of what is going on in Nigeria, it is tragic, but even in that tragedy, the gospel is being preaching by their martyrdom, by there witness.
Endure, let the steadfast love of Christ strengthen you, and be the rock
But that ain’t here for us, nobody is busting here trying to kill us, praise God.
For us, we face a different thing, we have to get outside the camp.
The allure for us is to try and remake the camp
If we aren’t careful we will want to try and stay insiders, we want to stay in charge,
We want to remake the nation but do it our way, with out much thought to remaking souls
Use the world’s avenues for power and change
Thing is, it’ll work for a little bit
I know right now, things are looking up
We haven’t seen a resurgence of Christianity in the national conversation from leaders like this in a long time.
But if we are not careful we will operate under our own power.
Where does sanctification take place? In this text?
Outside the camp
We are most effective in changing a culture and expanding the kingdom when we are not in charge.
When we suffer well and live convictional lives
When our eyes are not fixed on the here and now but on the end
verse 14 , we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
We know how this ends
Our lives must be lived with eternity in mind.
That is ultimately where we are going
If we know where we are headed then we aren’t going to try and stop on the way and settle.
Imagine if you told your kids, we are going to Disney.
You’re going to see mickey
You’re gonna se Toy Story land,
We gonna get a second mortgage
We are doing Disney
and you get on the road
And you see the sign for Rigby’s down there,
Nothing wrong with Rigby’s waterpark
But like, it’s not Disney
You can’t stop and Rigby’s and Buccees and say yeah this is just as good.
Bucces has ears and the teeth
Maybe people watching is same level
Your eyes were not on the destination
You didn’t make it to where you were going.
You got distracted by brisket and some water slides
but you were carried off
I think culturally we are obsessed with making a mark on this world,
Leaving a legacy
And there is a place for that in our theology
But if we are going to make a mark in this world or leave a legacy
let it be a legacy of steadfast faithfulness
A legacy marked more by who Jesus is than what we have done.
A legacy of faith is not marked by plaques on a pew or names on a role
Its marked by the people we have poured into and raised up to keep taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.
So what do we do with this?
So what do we do with this?
this passage is calling us to remember the steadfast nature of Christ as we endure in this life together.
What do we do?
1- Don’t neglect the impact of prayer on our lives.
Prayer is where your soul interacts with your theology.
Martin Luther spoke of prayer as the
sweat of the soul.
Martin Luther (Founder of the German Reformation)
Prayer connects us with the divine and is where Jesus meets us and changes us.
Prayer is where we wage war for the souls of those who are lost
I love those quote from, one if my dead guys Spurgeon
406 If sinners are [to go to hell,] at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.—7.11
Charles Spurgeon
We are brought in to the will of God through prayer
Who are we leading? What is our legacy?
Cultural Analysis: We want to make our mark. The culture is geared at leaving your mark, leaving a legacy. What is a biblical legacy? Steadfast Legacy?
Cultural Analysis: We want to make our mark. The culture is geared at leaving your mark, leaving a legacy. What is a biblical legacy? Steadfast Legacy?
If we are going to be a a steadfast people who endure together
If we are gonna make it to that eternal city
We have to Remember the truth of the gospel found in our steadfast savior
Remember the truth of the gospel found in our steadfast savior
P2Christ
Remember the truth of the Gospel
to remember is to know in the first place
So this is the gospel
The steadfast love Christ took your place on the cross.
The steadfast love of Christ made a way for you through his blood to have relationship with him
The steadfast love of Christ means he is going to come back again and redeem and restore all things.
If you get nothing else out of this morning get that, understand who Jesus is
If you can’t answer the question what saves me from my sins
Or if that answer begins with because I did what ever…
reevaluate your life and your eternal destiny
its not what you did but what Christ has done.
Invitation
I want to invite you in the kingdom
