Fasten Your Thoughts Fully
Hebrews • Sermon • Submitted
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1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, you are now made holy, and each of you is invited to the feast of your heavenly calling. So fasten your thoughts fully onto Jesus, whom we embrace as our Apostle and King-Priest.
Do you see that first statement? YOU ARE NOW MADE HOLY. You. Are. NOW. MADE. Holy. We’ve talked about this so many times! Quit trying to place holiness in the future! It’s not there! It’s now in your present! If you live from that reality and revelation, you will ACTUALLY live holy! It’s irresponsible to place your current condition of holiness into the future because it disempowers you to live as Jesus did on the earth. His blood and now His nature inside you has made you holy.
But the next phrase is amazing. “Each of you is invited to the feast of your heavenly calling.” The ESV phrases it, “…you who share in a heavenly calling.” But listen to the Aramaic:
Or “you participate as partners in the heavenly calling.” The Greek phrase, “heavenly calling” implies an invitation to a celestial feast. It could also be translated “you are called to share the life of heaven.” This calling originates in heaven and draws us into heaven. However, in the Aramaic this phrase can be translated “called with a calling [from heaven],” which is the Aramaic title of the third book of the Torah, Leviticus, and refers to the calling of the Levites as priests.
Remember that Paul’s audience are Hebrews, and it appears that he is tying their current priestly role as believers to the third book of the Torah, which was a calling of the Levites as priests. This makes sense because Paul go into the priesthood of Jesus of the tribe of Judah versus Levi, a much greater and more complete priesthood and work. And what Hebrew priest would even think of rejecting God—only those who were idolators like we saw in the OT and was the cause of the current problems of being governed by the Romans.
But I like the other translation of “you are called to share the life of heaven.” Our calling originates in heaven not in man. Our calling isn’t sourced from a denomination or even church. It’s sourced in heaven. The body of Christ’s job is to recognize the calling on you and come into agreement when it’s time to commission you into that ministry. And when I say ministry, I don’t mean you quit your job and go into full-time ministry (although that might be the plan of God). It’s the recognition and the laying on of hands that sends you as one now in that office and dominantly in the marketplace like we saw with the apostle Paul (Acts 13-19).
But the main idea I love about this translation is the we can SHARE THE LIFE OF HEAVEn while on earth. That takes us back to the idea of John 3 that Jesus shared with Nicodemus that because of His work we can be born again and restored to a life that is no longer separated from heaven. We are now joined back to heaven with our new natures and through the agency of Holy Spirit. And, man, heaven is full of life! Because of that, Paul then says, “So fasten your thoughts fully onto Jesus.”
Fasten Your Thoughts
Fasten Your Thoughts
Fasten is translated “consider,” in the ESV and means “to give careful consideration to some matter—to think about very carefully, to consider closely, to observe, contemplate.” Contemplate in the dictionary means, “to look at or view with continued attention; observe or study thoughtfully: to consider thoroughly; think fully or deeply about.” This shows the depth we are to consider Jesus. We are to keep our attention on Him, observe Him, thoughtfully study Him, think fully and deeply about.” It’s the study of a Person Who is also the Word implying that our careful attention isn’t just in our thoughts about Him but also in our study of the Word because when we thoughtfully study the Word, we are thoughtfully studying Him, especially the “redemption realities” or what He’s done for us. That will blow your socks off!
Paul then defines Him as “the apostle and high priest of our confession.” I like how the Passion phrases it as “embrace as our Apostle and King-Priest.” The word “embrace” is “with whom is our LEGALLY binding agreement.” And listen to the terminology for King-Priest!
God joins the apostolic and priestly ministries together in Christ. An apostle will always release God’s people into their priestly calling of entering into the holy of holies without going through a system, a church or a person. The word “King-Priest” is from the Aramaic, which uses a word for a priest not of the Levitical order. Jesus could not be a “High Priest” for he was not born in the tribe of Levi, or a descendant of Aaron, but was of the tribe of Judah. So the word here for priest is not, cohen, but the Aramaic word, kumrea, the word used for Jethro and Melchizedek.
Man! There is so much here. Let’s break it down:
An apostle will ALWAYS release God’s people into their priestly calling of entering the holy of holies WITHOUT going through a system, a church, or a person.” Think about this. The church (not the ekklesia) has systems you must go through in order to even be a greeter. And I understand you don’t want idiots hurting people but what I have found is that these systems, churches, and people have actually prohibited many from fulfilling their call so they sit in a chair or on a pew Sunday after Sunday languishing from a lack of purpose. We weren’t designed for that.
A true apostle will release God’s people not only to enter their calling but also His manifest presence. The holy of holies is also where we are to administrate our duties as His ruling council on earth. You are part of His ruling council. The end. As such, no system, church or person should keep you from that. Now if you’re in unrepentant sin, absolutely you shouldn’t be going on like everything is ok.
This places the responsibility of your relationship with God squarely on your shoulders. You are responsible for your prayer time, your study time, your ministry time, your obedience, your giving, your employment, etc, not the pastor of some church, your spouse, or others that you think should “help” you.
As you “consider carefully” Jesus, you see a picture of who you are and what you are called to do as well as the freedom to do it! The role of the five-fold ministry is to EQUIP YOU to do it not hold you back because of some system.
13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
Jesus is not of this system. He was of a different tribe and of the ORDER of Melchizedek, which we’ll get into. We are not of the system either. Each believer is a member of the ekklesia, the ruling body of Christ on earth. Are we to submit to one another? Absolutely. But not to a system or mindset that not only prevents but also opposes the autonomy and stature of each believer. We need interdependence not independence or codependence.
13 “Great sorrow awaits you religious scholars and you Pharisees—such frauds and pretenders! You do all you can to keep people from experiencing the reality of heaven’s kingdom realm. Not only do you refuse to enter in, you also forbid anyone else from entering in!
He Was Faithful
He Was Faithful
2 For he was faithful to the Father who appointed him, in the same way that Moses was a model of faithfulness in what was entrusted to him.
The reason Jesus was successful in ministry wasn’t because He was faithful IN or TO ministry but because He was faithful to Father. His faithfulness to Father made Him faithful in ministry.
Faithful is “pertaining to being trusted—trustworthy, dependable, reliable.” It’s pistos, an adjective form of “pistis,” which is the Greek word for faith. In Strong’s it’s defined as “worthy of belief, trust, or confidence.” It’s also defined as those who “are faithful in the performance of duty.”
Appointed is “to cause someone to assume a particular type of function.” But there’s also the idea of “making, forming, producing…any external act as manifested in the production of something tangible, to cause to exist, as spoken of generative power.” What does this mean? It means that when God appoints you for a particular task (a.k.a. ministry), He makes you into the person that is able to complete the task. He creates the circumstances, the conditions, and the situations that produce something tangible, a generative power, that molds you into the person for the task. I.e. contained within the calling is the power to execute.
Moses didn’t quite understand this when the pre-incarnate form of Jesus manifested in the bush that doesn’t burn.
English Standard Version Chapter 3
Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
Note the first thing out of Moses’ mouth, “Who am I?” God’s response: “I will be with you.” Your “who am I” with “I will be with you” is all you need to successfully fulfill your call!
10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” 11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” 13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” 14 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.
Don’t let how you see yourself stop you from the reason you were born! First, it’s stupid. Second, God doesn’t like it. Why? Because it’s unbelief. It’s not believing what He says or who He says you are. And that unbelief stops the impartation of activity needed to make you into the one who is fit for the appointed task.