The Anchor Holds

Open: Planning for May 16th ODWG camp at Central Prison. Past week of ups and downs with volunteers not being approved. Will not know until tomorrow if we will have a camp. As of now - confidence is low! I am still hopeful of holding the camp, but my hope lacks confidence.

Transition: This type of hope is so unlike the hope we have in Christ. Our world is so full of uncertainty that it is hard to know who or what we can trust in. But we have an extremely high level of confidence in God’s Word. Our confidence is high because of His unchanging nature - The Anchor holds!

Read the Text: Hebrews 6:13-20

Intro to the passage:

The writer is going to illustrate what he meant when he shared his desire for the listeners to “have the full assurance of hope until the end” (Heb 6:11) and he does that by talking about Abraham. His reference is to Abraham’s testing by God as revealed in Genesis 22 (the account of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah). This was Abraham’s supreme test of worship and he was successful in that his hope was anchored in God’s promise. God had promised to give Abraham descendants through Isaac, and Abraham rested in that promise. The Lord God had sworn and oath by Himself that this would be so. This promise is repeated in v. 14 of our text: “surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.”

The writer then simply states, “after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise” (v. 15). Be careful to note that what is in view is not the glorifying of Abraham’s patience; the focus is on what gave Abraham the ability to hope when all hope seemed to be gone - his ability to trust was based on the Promise of God.

The writer is using this example to show his listeners that they can have the same level of hope in their current struggles because Jesus is their High Priest who intercedes for them. He expounds on this truth in several ways:

God made the same promise to Abraham’s descendants (Hebrews 6:16-17)

The writer reminds his listeners that they are part of the same promise. God promised that He would bless Abraham’s descendants. God promised that He would use Abraham’s seed to be a blessing to the entire world (Gen 12:3) and this is a reference to the Messiah (Jesus). God also promised Abraham that his descendants would be uncountable (Gen 15:5) and that He (God) would establish an everlasting covenant with Abraham’s descendants (Gen 17:7)

That same promise is given to all who believe, not only those to whom the writer addressed, but it applies to us as well

Romans 4:16 “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,”

This promise is to be trusted because God is unchanging (Hebrews 6:18a)

The writer reaches the heart of his argument for the believer’s ability to having an enduring hope when he rests that hope on the immutability of God.

The writer informs us that when God made that promise to Abraham he bound it with an oath. Consider how we emphasize our promises when we want to be believed by others - we take an oath or we swear by someone or something greater than ourselves.

Taking the witness stand in a court of law - the witness is sworn in

When I entered employment at CNSYD, I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the USA.

I swear that I am telling you the truth.

I promise by all that is holy that I am not lying

I swear to God that I am going to do this thing (whatever the thing might be)

God, having no one greater, sealed His promise to Abraham with an oath and He swore by Himself. Because He is God, the fact that He made a promise to Abraham was enough. In order to reassure Abraham of the seriousness of the promise, God sealed His already sure Word with an oath.

Illustrate: Bumper sticker with the following:

God said it - I believe it - that settles it

Take out the 2nd phrase: God said it - that settles it

Argument: God can be trusted because of who He is. God is incapable of lying - He is TRUTH itself. If God embraced anything outside of truth, He would no longer be God. If God ever failed to keep a promise he would become a liar and that is NOT possible. God’s promises are completely trustworthy!

Believers who seek refuge in Christ will endure because of who Christ is. (Hebrews 6:18b-20)

Explanation: the writer brings it home with verse 18b-20. He includes himself in the group who “has fled for refuge” into Christ. He states that they have strong encouragement, a steadfast anchor that gives hope because the forerunner has entered into the Holy of Holies on their behalf!

Illustrate: Refugees from Ukraine or Nigeria. Fleeing from war / poverty / persecution. Looking for shelter & safety. Living in very unstable and uncertain conditions.

Argument: The original audience were refugees of some type. The text does not specify refugees from a specific thing, but they had sought refuge in Christ. In commenting on this phrase, Phil Hughes makes this statement in his commentary on Hebrews:

we are all strangers and pilgrims in this world on our way to the heavenly city. For every Christian, whether exiled or in his homeland, imprisoned or free, to “flee for refuge” is to turn to Christ and in Him to find salvation and security... Our hope in Him, as the next verse declares, is “a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.” “The hope set before us” is the assurance that at last we shall be with Christ and be like Christ . . . that ours will be the ultimate joy of witnessing and sharing in his eternal glory (Jn. 17:24), the experience, in short, of that imperishable inheritance which is ours in Christ . . . This is indeed a hope worth seizing; and, while it is appropriated by faith, it is far removed from all the uncertainties and disappointments that attend merely human hopes, for it is founded on the infallible and irrevocable verities of God’s promise and God’s oath.

The writer describes how Jesus, as a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, has gone behind the veil as our forerunner. This is symbolic language that demonstrates that on the Cross, Jesus acted as High Priest in a manner similar to the Levitical HP on the Day of Atonement. Jesus’ entry behind the veil (entering the Holy of Holies) on our behalf was similar but SUPERIOR.

The writer adds that Jesus did this as our forerunner - meaning that He goes before us, with the implication that we will one day follow Him!

Conclusion

The world we live in is constantly changing. The only sure thing we can state about world conditions is that they will experience change! Not only is change constant, the rate of change is increasing exponentially! All of this can be overwhelming.

In the midst of chaotic upheaval there is still, however, the One who is unchanging and steadfast. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8). He is the Anchor that holds, He is our sure and constant Rock. He is the ground of our stability