Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Review

In the last lesson, we saw that the author of Hebrews encourages the Christians to press on to maturity so that they will remain faithful to Jesus.

These Christians were thinking about giving up on Jesus

This Lesson

So, in this lesson, the author of Hebrews gives the Christians two reasons to hang on.

Hebrews 6:13-20.

So, the author tells the Christians that there are two unchangeable reasons why they should hold fast to hope.

There is a lot of debate about what those unchangeable things are… We aren’t going to get into that debate, but I do want to talk about two unchangeable things that should give us hope.

So, this is what we are going to talk about in this lesson.

We are going to talk about two unchangeable things that should give us hope.

We Have An Unchangeable God

Abraham

The author begins with God’s promise made to Abraham.

Hebrews 6:13-15.

Here, The author references God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 22. Genesis 22:15-19.

So, we see that God makes three promises concerning the offspring of Abraham, but this isn’t the first time that God made promises about Abraham’s offspring.

Genesis 12:1-4.

Abram is 75 years old when God first promises him offspring, and the author of Hebrews tells us that he waits patiently for God to fulfill that promise.

When we look at Abraham’s story, we see that he struggled with his faith at times.

In Genesis 12, we see how faithful Abraham was, but we also see him struggle with his faith.

When he’s in Egypt, he lies to Pharaoh because he thinks he might die.

Maybe Abraham thinks that God has changed his mind.

Genesis 16:1-2.

Maybe Sarai thinks that God has changed his mind, so they have to take matters into their own hands… Just like Adam and Eve.

Genesis 3:17.

So, throughout Abraham’s life, he had to be taught that God is the unchangeable God who keeps his promises.

This all culminates when God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.

Genesis 22:1-5.

At this point in Abraham’s life, he is sure that God is going to keep his promise.

He held fast to hope.

Us

So, the lesson for us is that we must learn the same lesson that Abraham learned.

We have an unchangeable God who keeps his promises.

Why should this give us hope?

Romans 8:18-25.

God has promised us that while we suffer in the present day, we look forward to a day of redemption.

Don’t you long for that day?

When thinking about this day, it’s important for us to remember that we have an unchangeable God who keeps his promises.

When we realize this, we – like Abraham – will wait patiently for the hope that’s waiting for us.

We Have An Unchangeable High Priest

In this section, the author of Hebrews moves on to talk about Jesus as a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

There’s a lot to talk about, but I’m just going to summarize one of the main points.

Hebrews 6:19-7:3.

Here, the author tells us that Melchizedek has no father, mother, genealogy, beginning of day, or end of days and so continues a priest forever.

The author is not trying to say that Melchizedek had no parents and didn’t die.

His point is that these things aren’t recorded in scripture for us, and that’s surprising.

For a Jewish priest, genealogy is extremely important.

Without it you cannot be a priest because every priest must be from the tribe of Levi.

Furthermore, a genealogy was necessary for a Jewish high priest because they kept dying.

If the high priest didn’t die, then they wouldn’t need to keep a detailed genealogical record.

The genealogical records were used so that they could pass the priesthood from one generation to the next.

So, since Genesis doesn’t record Melchizedek’s genealogy, the author of Hebrews tells us that his priesthood doesn’t need to be passed on to the next generation… In other words, he has an eternal priesthood that only consists of one person: himself.

In the same way, Jesus has an eternal priesthood that only consists of one person: himself.

So, the author of Hebrews tells these Christians that Jesus’ priesthood is greater than what we see in the OT.

How would you feel if you had a really great boss/supervisor who got replaced by a horrible one?

I imagine that this is how the Israelites felt whenever one of their great high priest died and was replaced by his horrible son.

The author of Hebrews is reminding them that Christians don’t have to go through this.

Hebrews 7:15-17, 23-24,26-28.

Application For Us

That’s the lesson for us: We have an unchangeable high priest.

Do you see how this should give us hope?

We talked in an earlier lesson about how we can approach God’s throne with a bold frankness because we have a high priest who is able to understand what we go through.

Hebrews 4:14-16.

In Hebrews 7, we learn that this sympathetic and merciful high priest isn’t going anywhere.

He’s the unchangeable high priest.

What does this mean for us?

Have you ever felt like Christ is just done with you because of your mistakes?

In those moments, we need to remember that Christ himself is unchanging.

He is always ready to show us mercy when we repent, and he’s not going anywhere.

Have you ever gone through so much felt like Christ has just left you?

I saw this question on an internet forum: After 13 years of trials and difficulties in life, I’m starting to lose my faith in God.

I still pray because I’m told to do so, but I don’t feel the same trust that God wants to help me.

I feel abandoned and lost.

What should I do?

This person felt like Christ had left them.

This is probably what some of the Jewish Christians thought going through persecution.

Do we ever feel this way at times?

In those moments, we need to remember that Christ isn’t going anywhere.

He’s our unchangeable high priest, and he never leaves us… Even when going through persecution.

Conclusion

We all have gone through those times when we felt like our soul was shaken because of the storms of life.

Hebrews 6:19-20.

We have reason to hold fast to hope because we have an unchangeable God and an unchangeable mediator in Christ.