Hebrews 13:1-14
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Illustrations- Slogans
Illustrations- Slogans
Save Money Live Better - Walmart
Think Outside the Bun- Taco Bell
The happiest place on Earth- Disney
There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s Mastercard.
Better Ingredients, Better Pizza.
I’m lovin it. Macdonalds- They Should change their to- “Its aight.” “Or the Ice cream machine is broken.”
Taste So good, Cats ask for it by name- Meow Mix.
We will move on with that meow.
Those are pretty recognizable I think
Hopefully the slogan for Hebrews is clear as well. What we have seen in Hebrews so far has largely been theological in nature.
I think I have made the point of Hebrews clear- if it had a catchy slogan it be- Jesus is better.
He is better than the angels. Better than Moses. Better than Joshua. Better than all the priest. Better than all the sacrifices.
He really has left no stone unturned when it comes to proclaiming the supremacy of Jesus over all things.
He is the greater priests, the greater leader, and the greater sacrifice. From His sacrifice, we get a better rest. And if we reject what is better, we will be judged with greater judgment.
It has been clear that has been the goal. To present Jesus as supreme. Supreme Son, Supreme Prophet, Supreme Priest, Supreme King, Supreme Judge.
But knowledge of the supremacy of Jesus is not the stopping point. Coming to the understanding that Jesus is better, that is the starting point for us.
So as we turn the page on the final chapter of this book, the author expects us to do something with the knowledge that Jesus is better.
He is going to answer the question:
Why does it matter to my life that Jesus is better?
What does the supremacy of Jesus demand I do?
What does it mean for the church?
I believe he answers these questions in this passage.
Look with me at verse 1.
Let love of the brethren continue.
First thing-
Because Jesus is better, it ought to transform the way we love each other.
When it speaks here of the brethren, it is speaking to the whole congregation that is the church.
Let that love continue. Love each other.
Which means, There ought to be a love in the church that transcends failures and faults. It must continue.
There should be a purity to the way we love each other as the body of Christ.
I believe that this is a matter of obedience.
I believe love is a choice. Scripture assumes love is a choice by virtue of the fact that God so often often commands us to do it so often.
In other words, follow the logic here- If we could not help who we love or show love to, we would not see the commands in Scripture so often that inform how and who we are to love.
Biblical love- is an inward affection that flows from a heart that desires to obey God.
Biblical love by nature is sacrificial, It is the act of giving up yourself for the good of someone else.
Peter writes this-
Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,
It is from a transformed heart that we love each other, and it is in response to the Love that was shown to us on the cross.
Again- Biblical love- is an inward affection that flows from a heart that desires to obey God.
Dennis and Sue- this week
That shouldn’t have been surprising to Facebook or Dennis and Sue. That what we are expected to do. Thats what the supremacy of Jesus demands.
We must love those in our midst.
But its not just those within the church that we are commanded to love.
Look in verse 2.
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.
Now this is an interesting verse- And most people probably skip right over the first part to ask questions about the second part.
Look at the command- do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.
In other words, we are not just to show love those within our congregation but also to others outside this congregation.
We ought to love our neighbors and even strangers.
Jesus came to us when we were strangers. We ought to love others when they come to us as strangers.
(Brief application point- When we have a visitor come to the church, our first thought ought not be- “What are those people doing here?” “Who is that?”
Our first thought ought to be, “This is a person made in the image of God that ultimately may need to be saved and hear the Gospel. How can we love these people well?”
We are a close nit group of people here. Our size as a church lends to that closeness, and that is a real benefit to being a part of a small church, but we ought not let our closeness with each other come off as unwelcoming to the stranger.
In other words, Visitors ought not ever sit by themselves here in our church. Sit by them. Love on them. You’ll see your family later at lunch. We are called to reach out to the stranger.
Now he says here in passing, this is not the main point. But he does say, “For some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
I think the clear reference is to Abraham in Genesis 18 where unbeknownst to him, he had three angels come and visit him and he took them in. He showed hospitality to them without knowing they were angels.
Now, He is not teaching here that we show hospitality because we have a chance to have an angelic encounter.
R Kent Hughes said this-
Hebrews Vol 1&2—An Anchor for the Soul Volitional Hospitality (V. 2)
By presenting the delectable possibility of hosting a real angel, the preacher was not promoting hospitality on the chance that one might “luck out” and get an angel, but was simply saying that the possibility of its happening indicated how much God prizes hospitality in his people.
We don’t show hospitality because “Oh maybe it was an angel.” We show hospitality because we have been commanded to do so and because we have been shown hospitality by the Creator of all the earth whenever we were strangers.
We love each other, and we love the stranger. We never know who it might be.
But he goes on-
The supremacy of Jesus demands we love those who are suffering for the sake of Christ.
Verse 3
Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.
As the church of Christ, it ought to burden us that there are places in this world where Christians are treated harshly, simply because they follow Christ.
Those people who suffer are apart of the same body of Christ that we are.
These people here in the original context most likely would have known people among their congregation that currently were imprisoned for their faith.
Admittedly, we don’t have that problem yet. Yet. You probably don’t know anyone personally who has gone to prison for their faith.
And because of that, we tend to get caught in our own little bubble of American bliss, and forget our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world who are sitting in prison right now because they dared attend a worship gathering.
The supremacy of Christ demands we see our brothers and sisters suffering across the world as members of the body of Christ with us.
Because of Jesus, we must love well. People in our midst, outsiders and strangers, and people in prison for Christ. We must love them well.
But there are other demands that come from the fact that Jesus is supreme.
Look at verse 4
Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
The supremacy of Jesus demands we hold fast to His design for marriage.
For clarity, that means marriage is to be between- One biological man and one biological woman for a lifetime.
Church, God cares how marriage is treated and defined. It literally is one of the most popular subjects that Jesus and the apostles teach on.
Satan knows that, and seeks to infiltrate the church with his lies and deception. In other words, Satan loves it when we adopt worldly and ungodly thinking when it comes to marriage.
Satan would have us not preach against divorce, because God hates divorce. Satan would have us sweep adultery under the rug. Satan would have us be silent upon addiction to pornography. Satan would have us not preach against homosexuality, because Homosexuality is an abomination against God. Satan would have us be silent on issues surrounding gender in our society. Satan would have us to become soft on that issue.
I’ve heard pastors begin to waver upon these issues. They contend that we need to think differently about how we approach people who struggle with sexual sins, and that we should speak themes of love rather than judgment.
And I do believe we ought to speak the truth in love. With all my heart I believe that, but we ought not ever think it is more godly or more loving to leave out the part that God will judge them if they do not repent. Thats not loving. Thats willfully withholding the truth. The author here doesn’t do that.
Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
In other words, he says here that those who operate outside God’s sexual ethic and commands (regardless of what sexual sin it is) are subject to the judgment of God.
Now at the same time, we hold out with both hands the Gospel of Jesus Christ and proclaim the forgiveness that can be found in Jesus, but we must proclaim the whole truth and never leave out the truth of God’s judgment on sin.
As the church, we must preach and practice God designed marriage as the only option.
Why? Because there will come a day when God will judge, and he will not judge on the basis of cultural standards. He will judge on the basis of His Holy Word.
The supremacy of Christ demands we hold His design for marriage with honor.
Next, the supremacy of Christ means we must be content in Christ.
Look at verses 5-6
Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?”
Jesus transforms our understanding of a good life.
Keep your character free from the love of money.
Be content with what you have.
This one hits close to home for us. The one about persecution is distant right now, but this one is in our kitchen.
What do we associate with a good life?
Lots of Money? A clean bill of health? Lots of things.
Or the presence of Christ in our lives?
Money is fleeting. Things will burn up.
He will never desert us or forsake us.
The implication here of verse 5-6 is that Being content in Christ will alleviate worldly fear. It will help us resist the urge to adopt the world’s understanding of a good life.
In other words, the supremacy of Jesus leads us to be content in Jesus. Jesus is better than financial stability. He is better than a clean bill of health. To have him is to have all we need. Nothing this world can do can shake that.
The supremacy of Jesus transforms our understanding of a good life.
He piggy backs off of this into his next point.
Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.
We have said previously that the people here were going through some persecution and pain.
They have had leaders who suffered and from the text, it looks like they are no longer with them.
He says to them, look at the faithful leaders, imitate their faith.
Look at the result of their conduct. Imitate their faith. They finished well. They were content in Christ. They held Jesus as supreme. You do the same.
And if you hold him to be all that you need, he will hold you up. Why?
Because verse 8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Now that verse is often quoted by itself, with really no context to what he is talking about.
But listen to why he says it.
Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.
In other words, Jesus is supreme, holy, and better, and that won’t change.
The message of Jesus nor His supremacy ever changes because the person of Christ never changes.
He is the same yesterday(the past), today(the present), and forever (tomorrow).
The Jewish people and culture around them were attempting to impress upon them that they needed to be partaking in the Jewish feasts. Faith in Christ wasn’t enough, you must eat what the Jews were telling them to eat.
There was something else they needed to do, and in doing so, what they were implicitly doing was effectively they were denying the supremacy of Christ.
Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.
You need grace. Food is irrelevant toward making your heart clean.
They were being urged to bend and bow to the cultural standards of these Judaizers and to add something to what they had in Christ.
The author of Hebrews is saying is if Jesus was enough yesterday, he will be enough today, and he will be enough forever.
The same is true today. The church needs to preach Jesus and make disciples. Because he is supreme.
Don’t get distracted by the whims and cultural pressures that demand you say this or say that about every political and social topic. No.
Our job has always been the same. It doesn’t change with the times.
Our message and work is linked to the person and work of Jesus who does not change.
And by the way, the message of Jesus and proclaiming Jesus and suffering with Jesus is better anyhow.
Look in verse 10-
We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.
Don’t get lost here.
It was levitical law that the priests has a right to eat a portion of every sacrifice made as a peace offering. Explain-
But he says here, we have right to eat of something they don’t.
Christ followers and believers in Christ have access to partake of Christ. Because he offered up Himself for us.
The priests and those who continued to offer sacrifice had ultimately rejected Jesus as the only sufficient sacrifice. While they reject him, they have no right to benefit from Him.
So while they got to eat the sacrifices of Jewish feasts, every believer has a better portion in Christ.
Jesus is the better portion for us, because Jesus is the better sacrifice.
He goes on to further this argument.
Look 11-12
For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
This speaks of the Day of Atonement.
Where the priests would bring the blood of an unblemished lamb to sprinkle on the mercy seat and this was a very clear reminder, in order to approach God, something perfect would have to be offered up in order for sinful man to approach a holy God.
Then they would take the animal sacrifices and they would take them outside the camp of Israel and they would burn them. This taking of the sacrifices outside the camp, indicated the removal of sin from the people through the work and sacrifice of the substitute.
The lambs of the Old Testament pointed to the true Lamb of God.
Look at verse 12
Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
Jesus would be offered up on a cross. He would be a sacrifice and he would do so outside the gate.
They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between.
Golgotha, the place of the skull was located just outside the Damascus gate. It was on a hill just outside the walls of Jerusalem.
Its amazing to me to think that the Romans would have set this place up not knowing they would fulfill Scripture by taking the true sacrifice to this place and offering Him up outside the gates of the city.
And he suffered there, that he may sanctify us and that he might give us an example to follow.
What does this lead us to do then?
So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.
Because Jesus is supreme, we gladly go with him to Calvary. We take up our cross.
We gladly bear the shame and reproach associated with bearing the name of Christ, because this city we have here is passing away, but the one to which we look is eternal.
Jesus is supreme. He is better. And that changes things:
It changes how we love each other, strangers, and prisoners.
It demands we uphold his standard for marriage.
It transforms our understanding of the good life and fosters contentment in Him.
It leads us to die to ourselves and follow Christ.