Keep Hope Alive

Hebrews 6:1–20 ESV

1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. 9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. 13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Introduction

There are some of us in here who are old enough to remember Rev. Jesse Jackson’s campaign for the 1988 presidential election. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party nomination. I remember when he made his campaign stop in NYC. I was a 19 yr. old college student at the time. Me and some of my friends went to a campaign rally at a hotel in Manhattan to hear his speech. It was electric, but what’s funny is that now, over 30 years later, I don’t remember anything he said in the speech. The only thing that I remember is that at the end of the speech he said, “Keep hope alive!” He brought down the house in July 88 at the Democratic National Convention when he did the same thing, “Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive!”

In fact, there’s a book about his 1988 campaign, and it’s titled, “Keep Hope Alive!” I didn’t wonder this at the time, I was caught up in the emotion of it all, but sometime later I remember asking myself the question, “hope in what?” Keep hope alive, but hope in what? I think that the hope Jesse was referring to was the hope that those who had been oppressed, those who were impoverished, lacking education, lacking the necessities of life, whether individuals or groups of people, could still hope in the American dream. They should still hold on to the hope that in this country there would be opportunity to overcome their circumstances. There’s no doubt that 20 years later, in 2008, many in America saw the election of Barak Obama as at least a partial fulfillment of that hope.

Hope, though, is a tricky thing. Everybody is hoping for something. In this case we could that the hope was for justice, equality, and opportunity. But hope for something has got to be based on something if the hope is going to be valid.

In her book, Unfettered Hope, Marva Dawn writes,

“We use the English noun and verb hope in many ways—to signify what we anticipate or expect, what we would recommend if we could control things, what we most earnestly desire or wish for if we could have our own way, or what we truly believe in or in what or whom we have confidence.” (xii)

I have to have some reason to be hopeful or I’m just wasting my time. When Jesse was saying, “Keep hope alive,” what was the basis for the hope? You could say that the hope for justice and opportunity was the Constitution. If the Constitution was going to be followed then the hope for justice and opportunity was valid for everyone in the country regardless of race or class. But I said hope was tricky. Even if the Constitution is the basis for your hope, you’re still dependent on people to adhere to it if your hope is going to become reality. And as we know, people can be unreliable.

That’s reason to be glad for Hebrews 6, especially verses 11-20. The greatest hope we can have is to hope in the promises of God. And hoping in the promises of God is a hope that cannot disappoint because that hope is validated by God himself. Hope in the promises of God is hope that is not conditioned on the decisions of people at all. Therefore, hoping in God is not pie in the sky thinking. See, Jesse was not the first to say, “Keep hope alive!” The Pastor says it to the Hebrews in his own way here in our text. I love the way he does it. We’re going to look at three things this morning, The Unreasonableness of Hope (vv. 13-15), The Validity of Hope (vv. 16-17), and The Encouragement of Hope (vv. 18-20).

The Unreasonableness of Hope

We don’t have anywhere near enough time to engage this whole chapter in detail. Some of the most difficult verses in the Bible are found in Hebrews 6:1-8. And we’re not going to dive into them at all. Sorry. We need to know the context, though, of the second half of the chapter. This chapter actually marks the end of the Pastor’s digression from what he began to talk with them about in 5:1-10. He had been talking to them about the fact that Jesus was a great high priest. In 5:10 he said that Jesus was a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. And he says the same thing in v. 20 of chapter 6, at the end of our text. At the beginning of ch. 7 he’ll dive headlong into that subject. But in between he’s wanted to address three things. He chastised them for their spiritual immaturity in 5:11-14. He told them that they needed to grow up. He said, we have much to say about Jesus as a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, but it’s difficult to explain because you’ve become hard of hearing. Then, in the first part of chapter 6, he warns them that some of them may be on a dangerous path, the road of no return. He says in v. 11 that he longs for them to show this eagerness for the assurance of hope until the end. I want to see each one of you have that same diligence about the full assurance of your hope all the way to the end of your lives. What is this assurance of hope? It is the absolute conviction that God will keep every one of his promises. It is the conviction that no matter how hard it is to follow Jesus, God is still faithful. There is a sense of diligence and earnestness that the Christian should have about the assurance of God’s faithfulness.

Notice he says in v. 11, we want this for each one of you. He does not want any of them to be without the assurance of hope. He says, if you have this assurance, you won’t be sluggish about faith in Jesus, but you will be like those who through faith and endurance inherit the promises of God. And now, for the rest of the chapter, he wants to encourage them in the hope that has been set before them. So, this digression was about chastisement, warning, and now encouragement.

This is off of the main point, but I’m setting this context because it’s instructive for how we deal with people. The Pastor repeatedly calls them “beloved.” He loves them and sees that they are not living in accord with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yes, he chastises them sternly, and gives them sober warning, but his goal is not to beat them down. His goal is to see them have strong encouragement in the hope that is set before them in Jesus. How do we respond to those whom we love when their lives are not in line with the truth of God’s word? Often we respond with anger and harshness. But we have to check our motives. The Pastor is disappointed with how they’re living, and he needs to address what’s wrong, but it’s not because they’ve messed up his plans, or embarrassed him, or made him look bad. It’s not about him at all. It’s about them and their relationship to God in Christ. He wants them to live in the fulness of that relationship. That’s his motive. And we have to respond by examining our own motives when we deal with folks who aren’t living in line with the word of God. Are we motivated by a desire to see them in right relationship to God, or is there something else going on?

If you really understand the gospel, you can have a heart of compassion towards those who don’t because you get the fact that the hope of the gospel seems unreasonable. His example of the unreasonableness of hope is Abraham. He says in vv. 13-15

Hebrews 6:13–15 ESV

13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

God first made a promise to Abraham in Gen. 12. He told Abraham to leave his father’s house in Ur of the Chaldeans, and go to a land God was going to show him. He promised to make Abraham a great nation. That he would bless Abraham and make his name great, and in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. But there was a problem. Abraham and his wife Sarah had no children because Sarah was barren. She couldn’t get pregnant. But the Lord makes another promise to Abraham in Gen. 15, right after Abraham was blessed by Melchizedek. He told him that his very own son would be his heir. Miracle of miracles, Isaac was born to Sarah in Genesis 21. The son of promise is born.

In v. 14 of our passage, the Pastor is quoting God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 22. Do you know what happened in Genesis 22?

Genesis 22:2 ESV

2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

Abraham responded to God’s word in faith and obedience. The Pastor says of Abraham in ch. 11,

Hebrews 11:17–19 ESV

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

The apostle Paul says in Romans 4:18 that in hope Abraham believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations. Why would Abraham have to believe in hope, against hope? Because apart from faith it is unreasonable to hope in God. So the Pastor says in v. 15, “and thus” or “in this way,” Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. In what way? In the way of faith! By faith Abraham having patiently waited, obtained the promise. By faith and patience he obtained the promise that God would bless him and multiply him.

Hoping in God requires faith and patience because hoping in God seems unreasonable to our natural minds. He takes to long for our tastes. He doesn’t respond the way we want him to respond, when we want him to respond. God is not operating on our agenda. We have to operate on his agenda. Do you know what his agenda is? In Acts 14:20 it says that Paul and Barnabas went to Derbe. Then Luke says,

Acts 14:21–22 ESV

21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

That’s the unreasonable hope of the gospel. That’s the sure hope of the gospel; that we enter the kingdom of God. Through the gospel we become citizens of God’s kingdom, but we enter through many tribulations. That’s what the Hebrews are experiencing. They’re experiencing the many tribulations. The Pastor points to Abraham to point out that his hope may have seemed unreasonable, but he obtained the promise because this unreasonable hope is a valid hope.

The Validity of Hope

The hope is valid because, the Pastor says, when God made a promise to Abraham, he swore by himself because there was no one greater by whom to swear. Then he says in vv. 16-17

Hebrews 6:16–17 ESV

16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,

In the ancient world for legal contracts, you would take an oath. And you would confirm the oath by swearing on something greater than yourself. To use Abraham as an example again, in Gen. 24, when he sends his servant to find a wife for Isaac, he says in vv. 2-4,

Genesis 24:2–4 ESV

2 And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh, 3 that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, 4 but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”

Over and over again in the OT we see the phrase, “as the Lord lives,” when people make a promise. It’s not that far removed from what we do when someone testifies in court. “Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God.” You’ve got to swear by something greater than yourself before you’re allowed to testify in court. You’ve got to take an oath. And lying under oath is a crime in the American court system. You can go to jail. So we still take oaths very seriously. So when the Pastor says that in any dispute or lawsuit the oath is the final proof for validation to settle the matter, we get it.

If you have placed your hope and trust for life upon Jesus Christ, your hope might seem unreasonable, but that doesn’t make it invalid. It has more validity than any other hope you can have because it is based upon God’s word and promise. God cannot swear by anything or anyone greater than himself! But it gets even better than that. Do you notice what he says in v. 17,

Hebrews 6:17 ESV

17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,

Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God made the oath for our benefit! The Pastor talks about those who are the heirs of the promise, that is, those who inherit the promises of God. Who are those people? The heirs of the promise are those who put their faith in God through Jesus Christ. He says, the promise of God is for the benefit of these people. God didn’t have to make any promises at all, but because he is gracious and full of mercy, he wanted (notice that word), God wanted to make it crystal clear to his people that even though people change all the time; situations change for better or worse all the time, but his purposes never change, ever.

So every time you hear the promise of God in Scripture,

“And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” (Jeremiah 30:22 ESV)

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28 ESV)

“I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20 ESV)

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 ESV)

“I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against” (Matthew 16:18–19 ESV)

God wants us to be crystal clear that his purposes and promises are rock solid and there is no power that can do anything to change them. And every promise of Scripture was confirmed by God when he sent Jesus to the cross. That’s why Paul can say in 2 Cor. 1:20 that all the promises of God are “Yes” in Jesus Christ.

So, even though hope in God might seem unreasonable, it is valid and, therefore, we should know the encouragement of hope.

The Encouragement of Hope

The Pastor wraps up this section by saying, God confirmed his promise with an oath, so that… the two unchangeable things are God’s promise and the oath that confirms the promise…

He has called the followers of Jesus, heirs of the promise. Now he uses another descriptive term. He says that we who follow Jesus are those who have fled for refuge. Christians are those who have fled for safety in God. Not out of fear, but because of God’s promise. Christians are those who have realize that there is security only in the promise of God. There is no other promise that is more solid than his. So the Pastor says that what God wants is for his refugees to have strong encouragement to seize hold of the hope that God has set before them.

He uses an active term. Hope has been set before you. Seize hold of it! Grab onto it and don’t let go! In other words, he saying, “Keep hope alive!” Don’t let go of your hope! He’s just building on what he said in v. 11 when he longed for them to have an earnestness about the full assurance of hope all the way to the end. What the Pastor knows is that hope is a decision that must be made continually. If I have turned away from entrusting my life to myself, and have turned to God in faith entrusting my life to Jesus Christ, I belong to him forever, and that will never change. However, my confidence and hope in God can waiver dramatically. So the Pastor knows that we have a daily need to hold on to our hope. He’s saying that God wants you to have strong encouragement to do just that.

He doesn’t just leave it at that. He tells both why to have this strong encouragement and how to have this strong encouragement.

Why should we have this strong encouragement to seize the hope that God has set before us? Because we have this hope as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. A ship that is anchored firm and securely will not move from its location no matter what the waters are like. Whether the sea is calm or the storm is raging, the firmly anchored ship holds steady. The Pastor says it’s like that for your soul, for your life. Be encouraged to keep hope alive, to hold to God’s unchanging hand, as we sing, so that you will not be thrown into a frenzy when the storms of life are raging.

The second reason to have strong encouragement to seize this hope is not simply something that is out there somewhere. It’s not just a distant hope that you can’t taste right now. It’s both and. It’s already and it’s not yet. The fullness has yet to come, but we taste it now because Jesus has come! Jesus is the fulfillment of our hope and he has already come and gone ahead of us on our behalf. He says that this hope enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.

How can you have this strong encouragement to seize this hope daily? Family, we go where the hope takes us. This hope, the Pastor says, enters into the inner place behind the curtain. That is, by this hope we enter into the very throne of God. The curtain is a reference to the curtain in the temple that separated the most holy place in the temple from the people. It is the place of life in the unadulterated presence of God. When the high priest entered that place, he only entered once per year, and he didn’t come empty handed. He came with the blood of a sacrificial lamb.

Hebrews 9:11–14 ESV

11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Hebrews 1:3 ESV

3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Jesus made purification for sins and he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (1:3, 10:12). He’s there right now. It is a reality, and we experience right now the benefits of Jesus, our great high priest, interceding, mediating with God the Father for us. That’s reason for strong encouragement.

Do you understand the privilege you have if you’re a Christian? We’re so bedazzled by the here and now, by modern technology, that our eyes are dimmed by the unequalled privilege to follow the Savior into God’s presence. Jesus has opened up the way to live beyond the veil in the presence of God and he calls us to follow him there.

That is why the Pastor said in 4:16, “Let us continually draw near, let us continually approach the throne of God with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” That’s how he can say in 10:22, “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,” and in verse 25, “let us not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

Hope takes us to prayer and hope takes us to worship and fellowship with others who want to keep holding on to the hope.

The assurance of hope has a practical, on the ground application that’s implied by what the Pastor said to them back in vv. 9-12,

Hebrews 6:9–12 ESV

9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

What does the assurance of hope look like? It means a public faith that shows our love for God in the way that we love our sisters and brothers in Christ. It’s certainly the case that our love for God as Christians is shown in the way that we love all people, but the Pastor is making a particular point about how Christian hope bears witness to the world that Jesus is real and worthy of worship. He reminds them that they have demonstrated time and again their love for God’s name by the way that they’ve earnestly served their brothers and sisters in Christ. And they haven’t stopped. They’re continuing to do it. This love that they’ve demonstrated in serving the saints is a costly and self-sacrificial love. He reminds them of this same thing in 10:32-34

Hebrews 10:32–34 ESV

32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

Sacrificial Christian love demonstrates to the world that as unreasonable as Christian hope might appear to be, it rooted in something far better than what this world has to offer.

Have you fled for refuge? Is your hope in the security of God’s promises wavering? Does your hope in God seem more and more unreasonable or more and more valid? You’ve come to the right place. When we gather for worship we enter into the holy place beyond the veil in the very presence of God. And he has set before us the meal for refugees. This table, the bread and the cup are a means of grace for refugees. As we eat and drink in faith, the Spirit of Christ gives us strong encouragement to seize the hope that is ours in him.