The Call to Imitate

Recap:

Last week we saw that our assurance does not rest on the strength of our faith, but on the strength of God’s promise. In Hebrews 6, the author pointed us back to Abraham to show us that God is a promise-making and promise-keeping God, who swore by His own name because there was none greater. We saw that this promise was not merely about land or descendants, but about Christ Himself—the true offspring of Abraham. And we were reminded that God bound Himself with both a promise and an oath, not because He is untrustworthy, but because we are weak. He desired to give strong encouragement to trembling believers, that we might flee for refuge and hold fast to the hope set before us.

Section Overview:

This section we have spent a few weeks in is one of the exhortation section in hebrews which starts in Chapter 5:11-6:20. The Last Exhortation is seen in verse 12, which tells us what to do Or rather how to do (stake our life on Gods promises) what we covered last week. Verse 12 helps us tangibly respond to verses 13-20.

Intro:

When I was in 8th grade, I loved playing soccer. I loved it because I have always loved being pushed mentally and physically in anything. I loved and have always loved a challenge. One day while the Jv and Varsity Team were practicing, my coach said “Tomorrow at practice we are going to run a two mile run.” This wasn't new for us, in-fact we ran a 5k regularly for some of our practices. But then he said, “And whoever can run the two miles in under 12 minutes, will start varsity, regardless of skill level.” I perked up instantly and my heart began to race because I wanted to get on the field with those guys. But I knew that I couldn't do it, and hadn't come close to that so far in my two mile run. Yet my coaches word was his word, and I knew if I could do it, I would be starting varsity the next game. So I came up with a plan. There were three upper class men who were the fastest best distance runners we had, and I had made up my mind, to stick behind Johnathan Woody, the slowest of the three, no matter what happened. Not to think about anything else but to follow Woody. So the next day we showed up, stretched and started our run, and just like I had made up my mind, I stuck behind Woody. His pace was unheard of and I after the first lap was cooking. The pain was intense but I kept my eyes on him, watched how he ran, calmed my mind, and welcomed the pain. Before I knew it, the run was over. I had ran two miles in 11:45 seconds…

After the run, I collapsed in the grass, my vision was blurry, I started dry heaving, and I felt like I was going to die..But I cant begin to express to you the joy I had felt in my heart after that run. I went on to start varsity, not only the next game, but for the rest of my soccer season. By my senior year, I could run a two mile run in 10:35 seconds, and a mile run in 4:50 seconds. All because something clicked in my brain that day in eighth day that would have never clicked on my own. I had no idea I could push myself like that, until my goal was to keep my eyes on someone who could do it. It was through imitating Woodys pace, stride, Confidence and composer in the midst of pain that gave me patience, endurance and the belief that I could do this. I stayed so close to woody, I could read the tag on his shorts, and felt little to no wind resistance. (Which no doubt looked silly)

Now Im not recommending anyone do this if you're trying to get into running. Like I said, I was pretty miserable after that run, and very sick. But theres something that I would recommend doing in the spiritual run that we who have faith in Christ are in, and not only me but the apostle of this Letter. His recommendation and desire, is that his listeners become imitators of those who have recieved the promises of God.

Wait why are we going Backwards in the text?

Well as we saw Last week, Father Abraham was mentioned. And one of the reasons that Abraham was mentioned was because he was and is one of many faithful men and women who have obtained the “promises” of God through death. Last week we saw that in verse fifteen “As thus Abraham having patiently waited, obtained the promise.” And we said “that promise (singular) was the promise of the messiah.” Yet there are in our text “the promises” (plural) which means “all the promises of God to his children”, which can only be recieved in glory, through death. We who are by faith united by Christ, have recieved THE promise of hope, redemption, restored restoration, and the future hope of life everlasting, in THE promised Christ. Another Reason I believe that Abraham is mentioned, is because he has also recieved all the promises of Christ, by dying in Christ, and the author wants to set before us the pace of the believer, the prize set before us, and the reminder that we are not the first ones to run this race, nor will we be the last. Thats why the phrase “until the end” in verse 11 is there. Be faithful till the end. Imitate those who have been faithful till the end. Press on to the grave, unwavering in your faith, because as believers, thats when our life begins. And we need to remember that the family of God, is far greater than the visible family we see. Now I wont be preaching the Hall of Faith, but I do believe this verse serves the believers as a teasing of it, in order to encourage them in their pursuit of the full assurance of hope till the end. And although it may not seem like thats what subtly just happened here but it is! Albert Mohler - “ He encourages them to be imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises. Throughout the book of hebrews, the writer encourages believers to imitate saints from the old Testament. In chapter 11 which 6:12 anticipates, we find an impressive list of old Testament saints whose faith and practice is worthy of our emulation. The author charges his readers to face their difficulties with faith and perseverance, just as those saints who came before them faced theirs. Only earnestness in the faith until the ends guarantees the reception of God’s promises.”

Why? Because thats what mature Christians do. Thats what the preacher exhorts us to do in the beginning of the chapter by saying “Lets us…go on to maturity.” Imitate those who not only lived lives professing Christ. ANYONE CAN DO THAT! No Imitate those who DIED professing Christ. Thats a strong hope. Thats an Strong anchor to the soul. We ought to want that.

Transition to Text:

Hebrews 6:12 “so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

Hebrews 6:15 “And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.”

The Danger We Face

The Danger of Sluggishness

“That you may not be sluggish.”

If you were to spend your christian life without learning how other christians live, what do you think your walk would look like?

You would determine whats right and wrong.

Judges 21:25 “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Christian isolation, and limitation on influence, stunts Christian growth.

Left alone we grow lazy

The Solution, is not “buckle down and try harder. But instead, its look to godly saints.”

John Owen Duties of Christian Fellowship - “It is obvious that every person should make every effort to contribute to the culture and knowledge of his or her family. But it is just as obvious that we should labour to do so in the church also, the family of God.”

The Call To Imitate

Be Imitators (Mimetes - “Imitator, Follower”)

We See this exhortaion throughout Scripture and the Church Fathers

Christ calls his disciples to this

Matthew 4:19 “And he said to them, “Follow me, (imitate me) and I will make you fishers of men.”

Paul urges the Church to Imitate him

1 Corinthians 4:16 “I urge you, then, be imitators of me.”

1 Thessalonians 1:6 “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,”

Clement

Discipled by the Apostles

Philippians 4:3 “Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.”

1 clement 17:1 Let us also be imitators of those who walk around in the skins of goats and in sheepskins,  preaching the coming of the Christ.

1 Thessalonians 2:14 “For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews,”

We have forgotten that we are a following people. An imitating people. A congregation of many people, that operate as one Body, one person. Christianity is not meant to prop up the individual, but for the individual to prop up the Body of Christ

Imitation in Scripture is not Pretending. Its not Impersonation. Its experience in learning how faith breathes under the pressures of life.

This is against our Culture

This flies against everything the world is throwing at us. With the rise of social media, and the deep desire to be seen and known, the only thing we seek to imitate is to rise above the status quo. Our Imitation consists of being successful, useful, praised, known, looked up to, to have others imitate us, to be influencers. Not Imitators. ..

This is what this text is reminding us. If you miss everything today don’t miss this…Christianity is not originality, it is continuity

There is so much freedom in this beloved because in order to be original, you have to pave your own path, go your own way, carve out your own spot. Not in Christianity. In Christianity, there is one runner, and we all get to draft off of him..

The Object of Imitation

Faith and Patience

“Imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promise.”

Faith = clinging to God’s promises daily

Patience = staying right where you are until you receive them

When we are told to Imitate those who have gone before us, theres something unique about each one of them. They all possess Faith and Patience. Chapter 11 will shows us this is what unites them all, but right here see that its Through faith and patience, they inherited the promises. Which I want to submit is what the author of hebrews is drawing attention on. He will go on to go into more detail about these men and women, and here he will instantly move to speak about Abraham, but every one mentioned from here on out, what is highlighted is their faith. In the Text the Person who serves as our Example is Father Abraham.

Abrahams faith

Abraham is the Example here given to the Hebrews to imitate. And If you know anything about Abraham, he was a sinful man.

Fear of Man by offering his wife to Pharoah to save his own life

Impatience towards God promise by taking hagar as wife

Passive leadership by not wanting anything to do with the justice of hagar being sent away

Fear of man again is offering his wife to Abimelech

In spite of all this, he is most certainly worthy of our imitation because why? “Having patiently waited, (he) obtained the promise.” It was not his life we are to imitate, but something deeply true, and only true about genuine children of God

Because of peoples sins, we feel scared to examine the life of many saints of old, either in the old testament or throughout church history. Yet we must look closely at broken, men and women, and see what their professed faith does. We need to do this, so that our faith is strengthened.

The Reason

Saints serve as Living Testimonies

“Those who inherit”

I love that when we are called to imitate, the list of those we are to imitate is innumerable. The Text says “Imitators of Those.” Plural. The reason for this I believe Is so that we don’t end up being copies of the wrong thing. God is not in the business of making millions of little Abrahams, or St. Augustines, or Martin Luthers, or John Pipers, or any of us. Yet hes given us saints like father Abraham, David, ,Ezekiel, John, Paul, Augustine, Ambrose, Perpetua, Tyndale, Calvin, Bunyan, Owen, Edwards, Douglas, Martin Lloyd Jones, C.S. Lewis, Elizabeth Elliot, D.L Moody, Ravenhill, Mcarther, Piper, and those in the pews of this Church because Hes in the business of Making an unuermerable amount of litttle Christ’s.. Christ and his character is too big for anyone sinful human to reflect. Thats why we need the body, the universal Church. Its not only the Saints who have gone before (which you really should look at your family tree) its the saints in this room that we get to imitate the works of Christ in them.

“those who inherit” . Those who are inheriting, happening now, and not necessarily have inherited.

The Hebrews had Living Examples

Hebrews 13:7 “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.”

The church has been given to you beloved for you to learn and grow, and imitate your faith after.

In your church are people who are hurting and need you who have walked through suffering to come alongside them and remind them of the promises of God, and be a visible representation that God will bring them through. Why?

We need physical, living examples of faithful men and women for us to imitate and strengthen our faith after.

We cannot keep our eyes on Christ without the help of godly saints

Its true that we must “Look unto Jesus” as we will come to soon in the book of Hebrews. But The Question that leaves so many wondering, HOW?

God gives us embodied proof that faith works — not in theory, but in war torn saints, in saints who still sing through their pain and scares, and who's tomb stones serve as monuments and reminders of the never ending promises of God.

“When this poor lisping stammering tongue lies silent in the grave, yet in a nobler sweeter song, Ill sing thy power to save.”

I was with my grandpa when he passed 3 years ago. He was drunkard who used to abuse my grandma and my Dad. He was thrown in Jail. struggled with sexual sin. And then he met Jesus. And his life, although was different because of Christ, he still had years of sin and baggage he carried, and still had so much sanctifying left. Yet I saw him Sunday after Sunday sing to the Lord with shouts of praise and tears of Joy. He loves Jesus, because Jesus loves sinners. On his death bed he wasn't scared at all. He said to us “Im at peace with God, and Im ready to see Jesus.” He died about 3 minutes after that.

Christ made manifest

It is through godly imitation, where glimpses of Christ are regularly seen

There was a reality that has always been true, and that is “God loves his children.” Yet because of our fallen nature we struggle to see and believe this. So what did God do? He made this truth, his Word, Manifest to come to earth and display this reality for all of mankind in the most tangible way.

John 1:14 “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.”

God still works this way, because we as humans are still in need of visible representations of the truths of Scripture, and realities of Jesus.

Paul was a visual representation of the Suffering Servant

Ephesians 2:17 “And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.”

Christ never physically came to Ephesus, but was himself the one seen through Pauls preaching.

Colossians 1:24 “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,”

John Piper - “he chose to come into the world before there were DVDs or tapes or internet, and appoint people like Paul to fill up what is lacking, namely, to take the sufferings of Christ to the world, to take the afflictions to the world. The afflictions are there for someone but they don’t know it, and he means for them to be completed by being taken somewhere.”

In other words, its one thing to say you love God, but its another thing to see a saint lose everything and still be able to say that. Its one thing to say the there's no way you would abandon Christ, and a totally other worldly thing to see saints actually do that in the face of suffering. They example a supernatural faith and patience that every christian need in order to finish the race.

Closing:

So what is the preacher to the Hebrews calling us to, at the end of this long exhortation? He is not calling us to manufacture stronger faith. He is not calling us to look inward and try harder. And he is not calling us to originality, novelty, or spiritual heroism.He is calling us to imitation.

“So that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

In other words: Don’t slow down. Don’t drift. Don’t grow dull. Fix your eyes on faithful saints—and through them, fix your eyes on Christ.

Just like that run in eighth grade, I did not finish because I suddenly became a better runner. I finished because I kept my eyes on someone who could run the race. I borrowed his pace. I imitated his stride. I followed him through pain I did not think I could endure.

And that is exactly what God has given us in the Christian life.

He has given us Abraham. He has given us the saints of old. He has given us faithful men and women in our own lives. He has given us embodied proof that faith works, that patience endures, that the promises of God are worth waiting for—even unto death.

But make no mistake—these saints are not the finish line. They are not the anchor. They are not the promise.

They are pace-setters.

They show us what it looks like to run by faith and patience because they themselves were looking to someone greater.

Abraham patiently waited—and obtained the promise. But Hebrews has already told us: the promise was not ultimately Isaac. It was not land. It was not legacy.

It was Christ.

And Christ is the true and final object of our imitation.

He is the faithful Son who trusted His Father perfectly. He is the patient Savior who endured the cross for the joy set before Him. He is the One who ran the race all the way into death—and came out the other side victorious.

And now He stands before us, not merely as an example, but as our anchor. An anchor that holds within the veil. An anchor that does not slip when our strength fades. An anchor that does not fail when our faith trembles.

So church, this is the call of Hebrews 6:

Do not be sluggish. Do not give up. Do not run alone.

Imitate those who have finished well. Imitate those who have died clinging to Christ. Imitate their faith. Imitate their patience.

And as you do, you will find that you are not merely following saints— you are being carried by a Savior.

And when this poor, lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave, you too will sing—in a nobler, sweeter song— of the power of Christ to save.

So let us press on. Let us go on to maturity. Let us hold fast to the hope set before us. And let us run—eyes fixed on Jesus—until the end.