Christ is Our Hope

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because he has become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

In previous weeks, the author of Hebrews has spoken of the surety we can have of our salvation because we have a God who keeps his promises. Because of this assurance in God’s truthfulness, we are encouraged to take hold of the hope set before us. That hope firmly anchors us to God in salvation.

As we will see throughout our passage today, Christ is that hope to which we can take hold. It is Christ who anchors us to the Father. And that hope is available to us because of God’s love for us.

Big Idea: Christ is our hope.

Hebrews 6:19a

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

The author describes this hope as an anchor for our souls. He is describing Jesus as this hope that anchors us. I have said in previous weeks that our Christian hope is not some fanciful wish that may or may not come true. My usual example is that I hope the Mariners will one day make it to the World Series.

But when we talk about hope for the Christian, we are talking about a trust in the faithfulness and truthfulness of God. Dr. R.C. Sproul notes in his commentary on Romans:

"Hope is not taking a deep breath and hoping things are going to turn out all right. It is assurance that God is going to do what he says he will do."

When we drop an anchor from our boat down into the water, we are trusting that it is going to hold the boat in place and not allow the boat to drift away with the current. However, that anchor could slip, the rope could get cut, or a myriad of other things could happen that would prevent the boat from staying in place.

I have spoken often about how Jesus is the Word of God.

John 1:1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

We refer to our Bibles as the Word of God because the entire volume points to Jesus. The Word teaches us, corrects us, rebukes us, and trains us in righteousness, as we have seen many times looking back at 2 Timothy 3:16-17. I am sure that many of us have experienced that corrective training from Scripture.

The Word holds us firm and secure, keeping us from chasing after myths.

2 Timothy 4:2-4

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.

We must hold securely to the Word of God as our anchor. The author of Hebrews warned his readers to pay attention to the truth about God as found in Scripture so that they would not drift.

Hebrews 2:1

For this reason, we must pay attention all the more to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away.

Warren Wiersbe said in his commentary on Hebrews that:

If we start to drift from the Word, then we will also start to doubt the Word.

If we look back at Hebrews 3 and 4, the author is warning his readers about falling away by doubting God. He used the examples of the Israelites not entering the Promised Land because they doubted God’s provision for them, even though they had all the evidence they needed to see that God would provide for them.

God had brought them out of Egypt through the ten plagues, through the Red Sea, given them manna and quail to feed them, and provided water so that they would not go thirsty. God had done everything for this nation of people and yet, they still found ways to complain against God and his provision.

Going back to Warren Wiersbe, he said:

If we start to drift from the Word, then we will also start to doubt the Word. Before long, we will get dull toward the Word and become lazy believers.

This is what these last 5 weeks have been looking at. The readers of this letter had been neglecting Scripture and had halted in their spiritual growth because of it. The writer of Hebrews called them lazy, immature, and infants. When we are not regularly in the Word, we will forget what it says.

Growing up, I was part of the Bible Quiz team in Jr High and High School. I studied a lot of Scripture. I studied and worked on memorizing large portions of 10 different New Testament books. As I approached the end of each of those years in Bible Quiz, I could have answered just about any basic question on most of those books. That was what I did best. I was the equivalent of the old school baseball leadoff hitter that just found a way to get on base. I could answer the simple 10 point questions that only required a few words, but you had to be fast to buzz in on them.

As I have gotten older, there are passages that I can still remember, that really stuck out to me at the time and had an impact on my life. I can do an okay job of giving an “in essence” quote of some of those passages. But I cannot quote verbatim hardly any of those passages anymore. Why? Because I have not spent the time making sure those passages were still hammered in place.

Even during the Bible Quiz season, if I had Galatians chapter 1 memorized after our first week, but then neglected to review it as I continued to learn more of the book and moved on to other books for the year, I would begin to forget the specific wording in Galatians 1. I may have the basics of the passage down, but I would not be able to answer any questions that asked me to quote a verse word-for-word.

As I have grown, I have studied Scripture, dug into different books of the Bible, and can read something in Hebrews and say, “I know that Paul said something like this in Galatians or Romans.” Or, “This lines up perfectly with this parable that Jesus told, but I can’t remember which chapter of Matthew that was in.”

If we do not continue to exercise our minds in God’s Word, we will forget what he has said. We will forget his promises. We will begin to doubt truths about who God is. When that doubt creeps in, it keeps us from wanting to be in God’s Word at all, and we begin to drift from the faith.

The best way to keep from drifting is to lay hold of the anchor!

James 1:5-8

Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, being double-minded and unstable in all his ways.

Take hold of the anchor, and be secure in our Savior.

This last week, I listened to an interesting podcast. The show is called Diary of a CEO with Steve Bartlett. On this particular show, the discussion was on whether humans can actually find purpose and meaning in life. His guests were an atheist named Alex O’Connor, a psychiatrist and Hindu who goes by the name of Dr. K, and a Christian apologist named Greg Koukl.

It was fascinating to see how these different worldviews clashed. As Greg Koukl was defending the Christian worldview of humanity’s purpose of being in right relationship with God, but through the sin of Adam and Eve, that relationship has been broken. Dr. K gave his thoughts about how you can find purpose through having faith in “something,” while possibly using psychedelic drugs to move you out of your depressed state of feeling like you have no purpose.

Alex O’Connor then jumped in with discussions about how various philosophers and thinkers have challenged the ideas of purpose because we do not know specifically how the universe began. Now, I believe Alex O’Connor to be a brilliant man, who is very knowledgeable, well-read, and extremely articulate. However, he only seemed to ask questions that would poke holes in the other guests’ arguments, without trying to prove a position.

Why is that? Because when pressed by the host of the show asking how fulfilled Alex feels with his life on a scale of 1 to 10, all Alex would say is, “I don’t know how to answer that question.” Alex O’Connor’s worldview does not believe that there is a purpose in anything. He believes that everything is random. He believes that religion is man’s way of trying to create purpose for himself because we see death in the future and don’t want our lives to feel meaningless.

But if everything is random and there is no purpose in anything in this life, that means there is no point to anything. This also means there can be no morality. There can be no right and wrong. If this is the worldview that you adhere to, you have no standing to declare anything evil. Under this worldview, Hitler was just misunderstood, the Roman Emperors Nero and Diocletian were just following their own feelings in killing Christians, and prisons should no longer exist because murder, theft, vandalism, and other violent crimes are just doing what feels good at the time.

If humanity is only here by chance, with no design and no purpose, there is no hope.

But if we are part of a world that was designed by a loving God who made us for a relationship with him, but we broke that relationship through sin and disobedience to a set standard of morality created by God, and God still does all of the work for us in restoring that relationship, then there is hope for you and me! That hope is the work of Christ in his perfect life, his death, and his resurrection. Without these, especially the resurrection, we are lost.

1 Corinthians 15:13-19

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain, and so is your faith. Moreover, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified wrongly about God that he raised up Christ—whom he did not raise up, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Those, then, who have fallen asleep in Christ have also perished. If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone.

If this book is a bunch of lies and gibberish, then we are to be pitied. If Christ has not come, then we are to be looked upon with shame, as we are fooling ourselves that there is hope. This week someone commented on one of our sermon videos saying, “You should watch this documentary that proves Jesus was made up by the Roman Empire to keep people under subjugation.” If that were true, again, those who put their faith in Christ are to be pitied.

But if Christ has risen from the dead, he is our hope. And if Christ is our hope, then that hope is both firm and secure. It will not be shaken. Last week, we spent a lot of time talking about how God is trustworthy. Humans make these extravagant oaths to assert our truthfulness only because humanity is so deceptive and sinful that we have a hard time trusting each other. However, God does not change.

James 1:17

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

What tends to be the scariest parts of movies? It is where someone is in the dark with only a little bit of light available, making the shadows look like they are moving or shifting. It is the change in the shadows that helps to create the fear. Those shifting shadows give the illusion that there is something or someone there, ready to pounce. Shadows create a fear response that the devil and his minions love to play on. Change and shifting bring fear and uncertainty.

So how do we combat this fear and uncertainty? The way you check the shadows for danger is by exposing them to the light. Spiritually, we bring those fears and doubts into the white-hot light of Scripture. The Word of God shines so brightly that nothing can hide from it. In Revelation, we read that in heaven, there is no sun because the glory of the Lord shines so brightly that there is no need for another source of light. God cannot change like shifting shadows because there are no shadows in God!

Hebrews 6:19b

It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.

The “it” here, again, is the hope that he was talking about earlier in this verse. That hope is Christ. He enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.

Every year on the day of Atonement, the high priest would go behind the curtain inside the temple, having offered a bull for the sins of himself and his family, as well as a goat for the sins of the people. He would take the blood from those animals and sprinkle it on the ark of the covenant. He was the representative to God on behalf of the people.

This imagery describes the Holy of Holies in heaven, which the earthly temple and tabernacle were copies of. We will go deeper into this when we get to Hebrews 8, but in verse 5 of Hebrews 8 its says:

Hebrews 8:5

These serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was warned when he was about to complete the tabernacle. For God said, Be careful that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.

So when we see in the Old Testament that the high priest brought the blood of the sacrifices into the Holy of Holies to sprinkle on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant, that is a copy, or a shadow, of what Jesus eventually did as he sacrificed his own life for our sins, having his blood poured out on the cross, dying for this sins of those who would trust in him for salvation. When he died, he entered into the throneroom of heaven, showing the Father the blood of his own sacrifice for sins. That sacrifice is what washes away our sins when we trust in Jesus.

Hebrews 6:20

Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because he has become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Christ is now our great high priest who enters into the presence of God on our behalf to petition God as our representative. Though the high priest in the Old Testament needed to offer a sacrifice for his own sins, Jesus did not. He was already holy before the Lord.

Jesus, though human, lived the perfect, sinless life and did not need to provide a sacrifice for himself. Instead,

Christ was the sacrifice for our sins.

The author of Hebrews also says that Jesus has gone before the Father as our “forerunner.” In the Old Testament, no one was allowed to follow the high priest into the Holy of Holies. If anyone went behind the curtain on a day other than the day of Atonement, they would be struck dead in the presence of God, even the high priest. The ONLY day he was allowed to enter was on the day of Atonement.

But Jesus entered into the presence of the Father so that we may follow him. In Luke 23, as Jesus is on the cross, one of the thieves who was crucified next to him scorned the other thief for insulting Jesus. Then, he turned to Christ and said this:

Luke 23:42-43

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

And he said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Jesus would not have said this to the thief on the cross if it were not true. We talked extensively last week about the truthfulness of God, how he does not change his mind. That thief stood before the Father with Jesus that day after their deaths.

Jesus gave the same encouragement to his disciples during his last supper with them in John 14.

John 14:1-4

“Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. You know the way to where I am going.”

Jesus is telling his disciples that they will be with him again one day with the Father. Christ is our forerunner, preparing a place for all who trust in him for salvation, that we may be with him and the Father forever. That is something to be excited about. That is a hope that we can believe in when we submit ourselves to God!

The author of Hebrews talked about Jesus as our forerunner in chapter 4 as well.

Hebrews 4:14-16

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.

Jesus entered into humanity. He suffered, was tempted, and died the same as us. Because of that, we can approach the throne of grace, the throne of God the Father. We can do this with boldness because of our hope in Christ. When we are submitted to Christ, we have been washed of the guilt of our sin because he already took the punishment for it. We can approach God, filled with the righteousness that Christ has given us through our submission to him, to ask him for help in this life. And because God is not a tyrant, we can receive mercy and grace from God in our time of need.

But why? Why is this possible? Why can we have hope in Christ? We can have this hope, anchoring our souls to Jesus, because of God’s love for us. The reason for this Christmas season is God’s love.

Jesus told the Pharisee Nicodemus in John 3:

John 3:16-18

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

God showed his love for humanity by sending his Son to earth as a baby, wrapped in fragile humanity, to be the sacrifice for the sins of those who would trust in him.

Have you accepted that love? Has that love so enveloped your heart, mind, and soul that you have submitted your life to Christ?

Jesus said that if anyone would follow after him, they must deny themselves. To follow Jesus means not following the world. It means sacrificing your own wants, sinful desires, and ever-changing feelings to the Creator of the universe, allowing him to reshape you and mold you into something glorious for his kingdom. In doing so, we take up our cross, facing the scorn, shame, and repudiation of a world that hates Jesus, hates God. And yet, we carry that cross in following Jesus, who took the shame, guilt, and punishment we deserved for our rebellion against him.

Next Step: I will repent and submit my life to Christ.

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