Final Thoughts in Hebrews
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Good evening. Tonight we are going to be wrapping up our series on the book of Hebrews. Our passage for tonight is going to be broken up into two parts, Heb 13:7-17 and Heb 13:18-25. We will see how he gives his final instruction and then in the final greeting we will review (briefly) what his main points were through out the book in order to help us apply it in our lives.
7 Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
9 Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.
10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.
11 For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp.
12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
13 Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.
14 For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.
15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
16 But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
17 Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
We see he opens and closes with a discussion of rulers. Lets take a quick look at that as we dive in.
7 Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.
The first verse talks about their former leaders and the last verse talks about their current leaders. In your English translation the first phrase is likely translated as present tense like here in the NKJV or something like the ESV where it says “remember your leaders.” The word for leaders or rulers is a verb that is in the form of a participle and therefore the tense should be taken from the next verb. While the NKJV recognizes it is a verb they did not put it in the same tense with the next verb (Spoke). The ESV just translated it as the noun form “leaders.” The NASB translates it better saying “remember those who led you,” but I think the best translation is in the Good News Bible, which reads “Remember your former leaders.” My point in bringing this out is that he is talking about leaders who lead them, but have since passed away. In chapter 11 he points to the OT saints and their examples. Here he is pointing to more recent leaders who remained faithful and died. Some of them probably died as a result of persecution. They are to be examples to the readers. In the same way he is saying to follow their example we can do the same thing today. When we see a leader who is following Christ and remaining faithful we can follow their example. We need to be careful not to worship these leaders, but we can follow their example.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
For the most part this is self explanatory. Christ doesn’t change. Because he doesn’t change we can be assured that his teachings (and all right and wrong for that matter) never change. Lets take a moment and remember one of the 5 commands from last weeks passage. We are to honor marriage. This is saying the biblical marriage because God and his design for marriage don’t change just because the supreme court decided to change the differentiation of marriage. The Supreme Court and American law in general are not the same yesterday today and forever, but Jesus and his teachings are. Therefore the examples of the leaders of the past is still useful for today. But even more to the point the scripture is firm so we. . .
9 Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.
Because Christ doesn’t change we need to be careful not to be carried away with strange doctrines. The idea here is to stay firm on the biblical doctrines. The second half of this verse is referring to a specific teaching they were dealing with. Probably a suggestion that they need to follow a specific diet as part of their faith. However, Christ said in Matt 15:11 and Mark 7:20-23 that it is not what goes in the mouth that defiles a man but what comes out. The author is warning against the same thing Jesus warned against, which is the legalism of those who taught the following of tradition that was based on OT Law.
10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.
In the same line of thinking he now turns his attention to reminding his readers that Jesus is better than the old covenant. The “altar” that those who follow the OT Law have no right to is that of Christ. His sacrifice is greater than the OT sacrifices.
11 For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp.
This is another reminder to them that Jesus is better than the OT sacrifices. Those following the Jewish religion had their sacrifices on the day of atonement that the author of the book of Hebrews has already talked a lot about. Those animals bodies were burned outside the camp.
12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
In the same way Christ was crucified outside the city. The OT animals were burned outside the camp because their dead bodies were unclean. Even though their blood was use to purify. In the same way Christ was lead out of the city and crucified by those who rejected him as Messiah!
13 Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.
This is rich in meaning both to the original readers and to us today. The imagery here is that they were being called to go outside the camp, or outside Judaism and identify with Christ even though it brings the reproach of the ones who have rejected him as Messiah.
We are called to go outside of our culture and identify with Christ even though it brings reproach from the world.
14 For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.
The reason we are called to do this is because we are seeking our place not in this earthly kingdom but rather we are seeking to inherit a place in Christ’s Kingdom.
15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
The proper response for us to what God has done is to continually praise (or confess) him. This is the sacrifice of the new covenant. Under the OT covenant they continually offered sacrifices but if their heart was not right they were worthless. We see that over and over in the OT where God says he did not desire sacrifices but their obedience and love. One commentator put it this way:
“To leave behind the Old Covenant does not mean giving up sacrifices to God. There are appropriate and better New Covenant sacrifices than that of animals. (Of course, the foundational sacrifice has already been offered once for all by Christ Himself). Even Old Covenant sacrifices were meaningless, unless the worshiper was praising God in his heart. So, to offer praise to God is to capture the heart of real sacrifice.”
16 But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
He finishes the list of sactifices that we can offer that are what God wants from us. The sacrifice of praise (v15), to do good, and to share with others. Those are the sacrifices that God desires from us. This is a reminder of Heb 10:25, but also a reminder that the commands from Heb 13:1-6 are also part of our way of worshiping.
17 Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
Verse 7 told us to remember and follow the example of the former leaders. Verse 17 reminds us to follow our current leaders. Now, we know that these leaders have responsibility to God for their shepherding. So what does it look like to obey our leaders?
Support the ministry
Show up
Volunteer
Listen and support
weigh what they say against scripture
if right, support and follow
if wrong, correct in love
No one is perfect, I remember in Germany how offended people were when I said that we should not hold the pastor as infallible, that I knew pastors were imperfect because I lived with one for 19 year. The reality is that if we put our church leaders in a place that they don’t belong to we give them expectations that they cannot live up to.
While it may sound mean to point out their imperfections while I’m telling you we should follow them, it is important. One way that people give their pastors grief is through unrealistic expectations. Honestly, most of the petty complaints are caused by unrealistic expectations. If all we do is frustrate our leaders, what good is it for us? We impede their ability to serve us if we do that.
18 Pray for us; for we are confident that we have a good conscience, in all things desiring to live honorably.
19 But I especially urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.
20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
22 And I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words.
23 Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you if he comes shortly.
24 Greet all those who rule over you, and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you.
25 Grace be with you all. Amen.
18 Pray for us; for we are confident that we have a good conscience, in all things desiring to live honorably.
The author has included himself in all the warnings and commands throughout the book. Here he asks for prayer that he can live honorably, in other words that he can remain faithful as he has been extorting the readers to.
19 But I especially urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.
The author and the readers knew one another. This is a clue about who may have written the book or who didn’t. It rules out Paul.
20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
He then prays for them that the Lord who raised Jesus from the Dad and who sets him up as King of the universe (great shepherd) and reminds us of his role as priest (the everlasting covenant) will make us complete or faithful in the works that he has called us to so we can be pleasing to him. He is praying for them to be given the grace they need to gain the inheritance or become partners with Christ as he has talked about throughout the book.
22 And I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words.
He is asking that they not be upset by his exportation which has been strong but short.
verses 23 and 24 are greetings and 25 is his final blessing
25 Grace be with you all. Amen.
The whole of this evenings passage is a reminder to follow the examples of those who stay faithful and to strive in our spiritual life based on the teachings of the book. We should strive to obtain the name companion/partner/partaker if/with Christ.
to properly understand the message of the Book of Hebrews, we must clearly understand two basic truths of Scripture. The first is that the believer in Jesus Christ has been eternally saved once and for all. The second is that the eternally saved believer can fail and fail miserably.
Hebrews 10 clearly teaches the wonderful assurance of eternal salvation for the believer in Jesus Christ. The Christian has been sanctified, or made holy once for all. These sanctified ones have become perfect forever (Heb 10:10, 14).
If you do not have this eternal salvation I would urge you to put your faith in Christ for eternal life. But for those who have put their faith in Christ the good news is that our eternal life is secure.
But the bad news is that in our spiritual walk when it comes to rewards failure is an option. The author of the book of Hebrews points out that we can. . .
drift away from our faith (Heb 2:1)
fail to enter the “rest” that God provides his children (Heb 3-4)
deny the faith (Heb 6:4-6)
withdraw from the Church (Heb 10:22-25)
ignore what God said to us through His Son (Heb 12:25-29)
Each failure comes with the warning of discipline. Therefore we are called to faithfulness in order to avoid these consequences. The good news is that if we avoid these failures we can have eternal rewards. We can be “medicoi” or companions/partners/partakers with Christ.
But faithfulness is possible if we persevere by. . .
Ask Christ for grace and strength (Heb 4:16, 10:22)
Encourage one another in church (Heb 10:24)
Follow the examples of faithful believers (Heb 11)
if we are faithful we will gain our eternal reward and become companions/partners/partakers with Christ.