Yesterday, Today, and Forever - Hebrews 13:8

Welcome:

We come to worship the one true and living God — the Father who loved us, the Son who gave Himself for us, and the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.

One God, blessed forever — He who calls us out of darkness into His marvelous light welcomes you.

Announcements:

Next week SS is divided between men and women for discussion on our growth focus.

Lunch today

Prayer on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month

We need volunteers to host our Flourish meetings for February and March. If you are interested, please email Stacey and she will help coordinate a date!

†CALL TO WORSHIP based on Isaiah 57:15

Pastor Austin Prince

Minister: Who may approach the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy?

Congregation: He dwells not only in the high and holy place, but also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit.

Minister: Why does he dwell with us?

Congregation: To revive the spirit of the humble and the heart of the contrite.

Minister: Then come, all who are humble and contrite, and be revived. Let us worship God!

Congregation: We come to worship the Lord who dwells with his people.

†PRAYER OF ADORATION AND INVOCATION

Let us pray.

O Father Most High, whose dwelling place is beyond the heavens,

O Lord Incomparable, far beyond our loftiest thoughts,

Gather us together in the name of Jesus whom the angels adore as the Son of the Most High, for his name is above every name.

Lead us in our worship, that all that we do might be undertaken at your bidding, filled with your grace, directed by your wisdom, informed by your truth, and accomplished to your glory.

Through Christ, our Lord, whom with you and the Holy Spirit, O Father, we constantly bless and glorify.

One Eternal God, age after age. Amen.

†OPENING HYMN OF PRAISE #374

“All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!”

†CONFESSION OF SIN AND ASSURANCE OF PARDON

based on I Tim. 1:15; I Pet. 2:24

One of the great gifts God gives His people is the freedom to be honest. So now we practice what Christians have always practiced: we confess our sin. If you’re new here, this is simply us agreeing with God about what is true—that we need mercy—and asking Him to change us. We are not earning forgiveness by confessing; we are receiving it by faith in Christ.

Because God is holy and God is kind, we can tell the truth about our sin without fear.

Minister: Let us confess our sins to our Holy God:

Congregation: Eternal God, you do not change. You have revealed yourself to us in your Word. You call us to worship in spirit and in truth. We confess that we often worship not your true self, but who we wish you to be. We ask you to bless what we do, rather than seeking to do what you bless. We seek concessions when we should be seeking guidance. Forgive us, O God.

Forgive us for selfish and half-hearted worship - worship that tries to shape you into what we want, rather than shaping us into what you want us to be. You have drawn near. Help us to meet you here. Give us love and reverence for you, bowing before your majesty, and living for you now and ever, in Christ. Amen.

Minister: The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

Congregation: Thanks be to God!

CONTINUAL READING OF SCRIPTURE Psalm 128

Elder Steven Hoffer

THE OFFERING OF TITHES AND OUR GIFTS

PASTORAL PRAYER & THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

†PSALM OF PREPARATION #138B

“With Grateful Heart My Thanks I Bring”

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION

O Lord, as we open now your word, we pray that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened, so that we may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that we may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

SERMON Hebrews 13:8 // Yesterday, Today, and Forever

AFTER SCRIPTURE

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Amen.

INTRO

We are creatures of change.

A new year makes that impossible to ignore. Time itself moves and all things grow older. For some, this week and the changes it brings comes with gratitude—new opportunities, new plans, new enthusiasm. Others stepped into it with a knot in your stomach—new unknowns, another year of expectations. In one way or another, we all feel it: things shift.

Our bodies change. Relationships change. Jobs change. Culture changes. Moods change. And our own hearts change. We can be bright and bold one day and heavy and hesitant the next. We can feel strong on Sunday and then by Tuesday feel like we’re made of paper.

And that’s why there’s a particular kind of glory in experiencing something solid.

It’s like the great satisfaction a mariner feels after being tossed around for days on rough water and finally puts his foot on the solid shore. That’s the Christian’s relief in Christ. It’s the strong hold upon our shifting lives when the anchor grabs rock.

Hebrews 13:8 is that rock under your feet:

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

Of course, this single verse is set within a context. In the verses around it, the author is talking about two things that can make Christians unstable.

Last week, from the text immediately preceding this, we were told not to forget faithful leaders—the kind of leaders who preached the stabilizing word of God to you and modeled endurance.

And what’s ahead is a call from this verse to stay anchored amidst false teachers—voices that pull you toward novelty, toward fads, toward “new” versions of the faith.

So the author says, in effect: Remember your leaders. Don’t be led astray by strange teachings. And here is the center that holds you steady—Christ does not change.

This verse is a load-bearing wall holding up these ideas. And it’s given as an axiom — a matter-of-fact, theological declaration that deserves our meditation. It’s a theological truth that we might take for granted, thinking it obvious. But Jesus’ immutability, His unchanging nature, is a particular diamond that needs to be picked up and held and examine.

Because, if Christ is stable, you can be steady.

So I want to take that one sentence and let it do its work at the start of this year.

Let it steady the anxious. Let it quiet the accusing conscience. Let it expose the itch for novelty. Let it warn the unbeliever. And let it draw all of us to the same Christ at the Table.

Structure

1. Christ the Same Yesterday — the finished gospel you must be tethered to

2. Christ the Same Today — the living Christ you must cling to right now

3. Christ the Same Forever — the future you can face (and the warning you must not ignore)

4. So Be Steady — applications: doctrine, prayer, endurance, and the Table

1) Christ the Same Yesterday

“Yesterday” here means who Christ has revealed Himself to be. As we have been recently meditating upon at Christmas of the incarnation, Christ is God with us: Immanuel.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14, ESV)

Hebrews has already used that phrase: “in the days of his flesh” (Hebrews 5:7). Meaning: He truly entered time. He truly took a body. He truly suffered. He truly obeyed. He truly died. He truly rose.

Knowing that Christ is the same as He was yesterday is not of much use unless we know who He was yesterday and what He did. But He has shown us. He has revealed Himself.

As the opening salvo of the book of Hebrews reads:

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power..….” (Hebrews 1:1–4, ESV)

And that matters supremely because you cannot stand today, and you cannot take strong and informed hope for the future, unless you are anchored to yesterday.

You must be tethered to yesterday.

He is the same Christ who calms the storms with a word

He is the same Christ who feeds His flock

The same who heals those who are afflicted

The same Christ who gave His life on the cross, and the same that took it up again

There is a reason Hebrews keeps pressing us backward into the completed work of Christ. Because when life shifts, we don’t just lose stability “out there.” We lose stability in here.

We start to reinterpret God based on our week.

We start living like as if Christ changes like the weather.

And that’s why the author—just a few verses earlier—tells us to remember faithful leaders. He says: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God.” Those leaders are not peddlers of novelty. They are not scratching itching ears. They are men who proclaimed and defended the doctrine of the unchanging God—men who put the anchor down into Christ, not into trends.

Right after this verse comes the warning:

“Do not be led astray by diverse and strange teachings…” (Hebrews 13:9)

So here is the point: Christ’s doctrine has not changed.

The world changes and insists theology must change with it. But Jesus is the same. And the gospel is the same.

We must have the old gospel. The gospel of yesterday, not the cheap ones that you can find being brought “up to date” by those who would try to help Jesus out or soften His message. We don’t need a teacher with charisma. We don’t need novelty or the pragmatism of “what is working now”.

We need the same Jesus. The Jesus that preached the sermon on the mount. The gospel that preaches repentance of sin, real atoning blood for real sins, an eternal hell for the unrepentant, steadfast, abundant, and scandalous grace, the assurance of our pardon, and to take heart in His victory and sovereignty — that He has overcome the world.

A church becomes unstable when doctrine becomes negotiable.

But Christ yesterday is the Rock.

Application:

Dig deep to know the Christ of yesterday this year. Read the Bible, meditate upon it. Know who Christ is.

There is a way to hear this negatively: to do more or try harder. But put it the way that this text is putting it. Know the Christ of yesterday to feel His stability. Know who He actually is and not what our hearts and our shifting circumstances often project Him to be. Here’s what will happen: with our shifting, we will think Him cold sometimes, His word old, hard to read, or stale. We will think our situation unique. But when we come to the word, we find that our assumptions of His grace were far too low. We find that our assessment of our situation was skewed and off. We find a light unto our feet, bread and water to our souls. Digging in to God’s word to know the revealed Christ of yesterday is a necessity for stability today and tomorrow.

2) Christ the Same Today

This is where we live and move—and we need a living Christ

“Today” is where we wake up. This is where we get the phone call you dread. This is the bill you don’t know how to pay. This is the hard medical update. Today is where we worry about our children or have a lurking anxiety that we can’t quite name.

And Hebrews does something beautiful: it refuses to leave Christ in the past tense.

Jesus is not only the Christ of “yesterday”—a figure of history. He is the Christ of “today”—our living Priest, our Advocate, our reigning King.

Hebrews has labored to show us this: He is our eternal High Priest. He is not like a human priest who ages, weakens, and dies. He holds His priesthood permanently. He intercedes permanently.

We can live like God has moods. Like we’re trying to catch Him on a good day.

But Christ today is not moody. Not fickle. Not capricious.

We have steady Christ for a changing conscience.

And here is where we have to talk honestly about how we change.

Correct the misread of providence

Think of how often we perceive changes in Christ’s love for us because of the small shifting things in our lives. We have a headache and we think that God has abandoned us. We didn’t get that raise, or we received a huge tax bill — maybe God is upset?

Many of us wouldn’t say that out loud because we know that this kind of theology is wrong, but it is how we feel.

We joke sometimes about the Calvinist TULIP—so much grace, so much certainty—and then we live like the Arminian daisy: He loves me, He loves me not. He loves me… He loves me not.

The large and small things that occupy today: the conversation didn’t go the way I wanted it to, the dishes that are stacked up, the feeling of never getting ahead, the last prayer at the hospital bedside, or the I failed again and gave in to lust.

These small and large moments can make you feel that God has changed.

But what we often mean is:

“My situation changed.”

“My energy changed.”

“My health changed.”

“My relationships changed.”

“My sense of God’s nearness changed.”

We must name it honestly: my circumstances shifted.

But don’t accuse God of shifting.

For the weary Christian: when God feels far, don’t conclude God has flipped.

Your sin may be fresh

Your fatigue makes you feel unbalanced

Your shame may feel louder some days

Your regret more intense

Hebrews 13:8 is about stability in the midst of those competing voices.

Time does not dilute the cross.

You are not “beyond” the reach of Christ’s blood. If anything, time proves it. The cross doesn’t get weaker with age. It does not dry up. It does not go stale.

So don’t measure Christ by your inner volatility. Measure yourself by Christ.

Assurance

When you keep replaying failures. You keep thinking, “Surely I’ve exhausted His patience.”

Hear Hebrews 13:8 like a direct word to your soul:

Christ’s mercy isn’t stale. It doesn’t grow older or get weary after the ages.

The prodigal son felt this way and came home rehearsing his speech only to be met by the father running to Him.

Do you think Christ has grown colder since then? Do you think He has become less willing to embrace you today than he was at first? Is He less ready to extend to you love and mercy? Less merciful?

See His unchanging love for you afresh.

If you are in Christ, you are not relating to a changing Savior. You are relating to the same Savior who saved you in the first place.

Come to Him today. Not when you feel better. Not when you “get it together.”

As Hebrews has beckoned us over and over, listen and come today.

3) Christ the Same Forever

Now “forever” is where our fear often lives.

We can handle yesterday because it’s done.

We can sometimes manage today because we’re in it.

But tomorrow? That’s where the mind runs wild.

Health. Money. The next loss. The next grief.

So Hebrews 13:8 takes Christ and stretches Him over your whole timeline:

Yesterday: revealed and finished

Today: present and interceding

Forever: unshakable and final

And we have to say it plainly: if Christ is the same forever, then His promises do not expire.

The Christ that we know will always be there with us.

His advocacy for us will never stop, his compassion will never grow weary or thin or aged in decay. It will never run dry.

What is it in our days that holds us back from attacking life with bold veracity?

Is because we are worried? We are told to be anxious for nothing. He has overcome the world. What holds us back from living boldly or having deep rest? Do you think that the government is not going to be on his shoulders or that he will not be with us And he will not accept us or that we might bother him or be dropped by his care? It cannot happen. He will always be the same.

Transfer the weight of the future

When you fear the future, transfer the weight from your predictions to Christ’s sameness.

You are not called to foresee everything. You are called to trust Someone.

And He is the same forever.

But also—if Christ is the same forever—then His warnings also hold.

The same Christ who preached the grace of coming to Him is the same Christ who preached condemnation for rejecting Him.

The same Christ who preached that His Father has prepared a place for us is the same that preached that hell was a place of eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Some people hope that God will change.

They hope that in the end, holiness won’t matter.

They hope judgment won’t be real.

They hope unbelief will be waved through.

But He will not change.

And that does not mean there is no mercy. It means the mercy is real—and it is offered now.

So don’t harden your heart.

If you are hoping God will become more permissive later, you are gambling with your soul. The same Christ who welcomes the humble will also judge the proud. The same Christ who forgives sinners will also condemn unbelief.

So the call is urgent: take mercy today.

4) So Be Steady

Because Christ is stable, you can be steady

Nearness to Christ steadies us.

We are infants who know nothing, grow to learn, have the vigor of our youth, but decay and decline. But Christ is always wise. He isn’t learning but knows all. He is always in His youth.

Hebrews 13 is aiming at a kind of Christian stability:

stability in doctrine

stability in endurance

stability in worship

stability in love

stability in prayer

We don’t grow more volatile.

A greater nearness to Christ tends to produce:

more endurance

a steadier temperament

less anxiety

a more holy conversation

truer eyes

lighter burdens

quicker forgiveness

Not because you become emotionally unbreakable—but because your anchor is deep.

Stabilizes our prayer life

If God were capricious, prayer would be gambling.

If God were a moody deity, prayer would be trying to catch Him in the right frame of mind.

But immutability means prayer is not gambling—it is communion with a steady King.

So pray steadier.

Not because you feel steady—because He is.

Conclusion: Build on the Rock

This is an almost inexhaustible verse, but I hope that you have received the start of some meditation and comfort from it.

A changing world demands an unchanging Christ.

If you build your life on feelings, on trends, on “what’s working,” on your own strength—then when the water rises, it will shift.

But if your anchor grasps the Rock, you can stand.

Living here is the difference between building on rock and building on sand.

And Hebrews gives you that Rock in one sentence:

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

With Him there is no shadow due to change. He is the great “I AM”: that was, that is, and is to come.

The most steady of things we know, Sun, with all of its constancy, will be rolled up like a scroll when God is ready. Know the supreme comfort of His unchanging love and strength.

And take this into the new year, into the next trial, into the next temptation, into the next fear:

Because Christ is stable, you can be steady.

Amen.

†HYMN OF RESPONSE #265

“In Christ Alone”

THE MINISTRY OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

Minister: Lift up your hearts!

Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord.

Minister: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

Congregation: It is right for us to give thanks and praise!

CONFESSION OF FAITH Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A’s 32, 34

Minister: Christians, confess your faith in Christ!

Congregation: I am called Christian because by faith I am a member of Christ and so share in His anointing. I am anointed to confess His name, to present myself to Him as a living sacrifice of thanks, to strive with a good conscience against sin and the devil in this life, and afterward to reign with Christ over all creation for all eternity.

We call Him ‘our Lord’ because - not with gold or silver, but with His precious blood He has set us free from sin and from the tyranny of the devil, and has bought us, body and soul, to be His very own.

INVITATION TO THE LORD’S TABLE

Communion movement: Fresh blood for fresh sinners

“But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:12–14, ESV)

Some of you come to the Table thinking, “I’m not sure I’m welcome today.”

And Hebrews 13:8 answers: He is the same.

Fresh blood for fresh sinners—because the sacrifice is eternally potent.

As fresh as the sin is, as fresh is the sacrifice.

It hasn’t dried up for you.

It hasn’t gone stale for you.

It hasn’t weakened over time.

The cross is not a fading medicine.

The same Christ who gave Himself for you yesterday is the same Christ who welcomes you today and will keep you forever.

So come.

This meal is for those who are sorry for their sin and hate it. This table welcomes all who belong to Christ through repentance, faith, baptism, and continuing union with his Church. If you do not repent of your sin, you must not come. If you do not believe you have sinned, you must not come. But if you know your sin, and confess it, he is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness and this table is for you. Come, touch, taste and see the faithfulness of God.

PRAYER

DISTRIBUTION OF THE ELEMENTS

After elements are distributed read the WOI while congregation is partaking.

WORDS OF INSTITUTION AND SHARING OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

Minister: The Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread,

and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said,

"This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying,

"This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

†OUR RESPONSE #567

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;

Praise him, all creatures here below;

Praise him above, ye heavenly host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

†BENEDICTION: GOD’S BLESSING FOR HIS PEOPLE

The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever more. Amen.

Grace Notes Reflection

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

Because Christ is the same yesterday, we are anchored to a finished gospel. We do not reinterpret God by our week or measure His faithfulness by our circumstances. We return again and again to the Word to know the Christ who has already revealed Himself, suffered, died, risen, and conquered.

Because Christ is the same today, we cling to a living Savior. Our conscience may accuse, our strength may fade, and our sense of God’s nearness may fluctuate, but His mercy does not. Time has not weakened the cross. So we come to Him today—not when we feel composed, but because He is steady.

Because Christ is the same forever, we release the weight of the future. We are not called to foresee everything, but to trust Someone. His promises will not expire, and His warnings call us to receive mercy now.

This sameness reshapes our lives. Prayer is no longer gambling with a moody God, but communion with a steady King. Nearness to Christ produces endurance, quieter anxieties, quicker repentance, steadier love, and patient faithfulness. Not because life becomes easier—but because our anchor is deep.

Because Christ is stable, you can be steady. Build on the Rock.