back to index2019-02-03 Jesus Is Better Than
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11, sorry, Hebrews chapter 1. And again I want to read just the first couple verses 00:00:11.520 |
before we jump into the text. Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. God after He spoke long 00:00:19.320 |
ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways. In these last days 00:00:24.180 |
has spoken to us in His Son whom He appointed heir of all things through whom also He made 00:00:29.100 |
the world. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we want to thank you again for the privilege 00:00:36.480 |
to be able to come and worship you. We pray Father God that your grace would truly be 00:00:42.400 |
sufficient for us. May your name be honored and glorified through our time, our singing, 00:00:48.760 |
our giving, teaching of your word, the fellowship of your saints. We pray Father God that our 00:00:55.320 |
distracted hearts Lord may be focused on you. Those who are discouraged may find encouragement 00:01:01.040 |
in Christ. And those who need perseverance Lord God that we would find it through the 00:01:07.320 |
strength and sanctification of the Holy Spirit. May this time be honoring and lifting to you 00:01:14.360 |
in Jesus name we pray, amen. So as you guys know last week or the week before that we 00:01:21.480 |
were out in India and our brothers and sisters came and they did a great job sharing and 00:01:26.400 |
gave you a highlight of what happened. And again you probably heard and we asked you 00:01:30.760 |
to pray that I was part of the India team and then you know I think the most common 00:01:35.840 |
question that I got when I came back was how was Paris? Right? So the whole time I was 00:01:42.280 |
in Paris you know I can't tell you what Paris was like but I can tell you what kind of hotels 00:01:46.120 |
they have because I was basically stuck in a hotel for two days and then as soon as I 00:01:50.520 |
got my visa I was out. So other than my time from the airport to the hotel and back I know 00:01:56.960 |
nothing else. But that was my experience. But just to kind of give you a recap of a 00:02:02.600 |
brief recap of what happened was here the visa says 07-01-2019. So obviously we read 00:02:10.040 |
that as July 1st and then my ticketing agent also read that July 1st and then went to the 00:02:15.400 |
airport the Delta airline read that as July 1st and then went through custom they read 00:02:19.960 |
that as July 1st and then so all throughout this side of the world they read that as July 00:02:24.720 |
1st until I got to Paris and got through the first screen and they read that as July 1st 00:02:29.520 |
and then right before I got on the plane they said no this is not July 1st this is January 00:02:33.000 |
7th. And then they said what are you talking about I got through half the world you know 00:02:38.000 |
and they were okay with it and they said no if we send you to India now they're going 00:02:43.720 |
to send you right back so it's better for you to find out here than out in India. So 00:02:48.080 |
I was kicked off the airplane grabbed all my bags and went to the ticket counter at 00:02:52.440 |
Delta or Air France was the flight that we're taking from there and then that and then one 00:02:57.560 |
of the managers there looked at my visa and she said why did they kick you off. This is 00:03:02.560 |
July 1st. So she was actually trying to get me back on the airplane and then her supervisor 00:03:07.880 |
eventually came in who works out in India and she said no the guy on the plane he did 00:03:13.520 |
the right thing because in India it's read the other way. It's actually January 7th. 00:03:18.840 |
So I ended up having to stay. So I was there for about a day and a half about two days 00:03:23.000 |
trying to figure that out and I got my visa and then I was able to get back in and join 00:03:26.120 |
the team. And you know it was a valuable lesson hopefully you know I'll never make that mistake 00:03:33.040 |
again I've double checked but to think that this half of the world you know read that 00:03:37.420 |
date one way and then as soon as I got to that you know you have to understand the context 00:03:42.160 |
right without that without understanding the context of how they read those numbers you're 00:03:47.520 |
gonna get stuck in Paris right. Now why am I telling you the story I mean that's basically 00:03:51.840 |
what happened in Paris but you know we're jumping into the book of Hebrews and Hebrews 00:03:56.640 |
is one of those books that if you don't understand the context you're gonna end up getting stuck 00:04:01.920 |
in Paris basically right. This is one of those books where so much is it's almost like a 00:04:07.640 |
part two of book of Leviticus and so one of the main reasons why I chose the book of Hebrews 00:04:15.080 |
is because we just got finished studying the book of Leviticus and so much of it made sense 00:04:20.320 |
if you connected to what Christ was doing. So what's happening in the book of Hebrews 00:04:25.200 |
is Leviticus points to the Christ that is coming. Hebrews points to Christ who came 00:04:31.720 |
and points us back to Leviticus of what happened. So the best time to study the book of Hebrews 00:04:38.880 |
would be now right after we studied the book of Leviticus while it is still fresh in our 00:04:42.720 |
mind while your perspective from the Leviticus is still you know fresh and we just studied 00:04:50.040 |
it and so much of it is going to make so much more sense now that we study it in light of 00:04:55.680 |
certain things that we wrestled with in the book of Leviticus. But it's the only reason 00:05:01.520 |
why we're studying the book of Leviticus. If it was simply to connect the dots from 00:05:05.240 |
the Old Testament to the New Testament then we would be wasting our time. You can just 00:05:09.760 |
read a book and read a commentary and says this is how Jesus fulfilled this and this 00:05:13.600 |
is what Jesus did. Oh that's interesting. But the ultimate goal of the book of Hebrews 00:05:18.560 |
is not to simply connect the dots with the Old and the New Testament. It is important 00:05:22.880 |
much of what we're going to study is going to be doing that. But there is a greater purpose. 00:05:28.640 |
There is a reason beyond just theological knowledge of who Jesus is. This letter was 00:05:37.400 |
written around 65 to 69 AD. Anybody know what was happening? Something very significant 00:05:46.280 |
was happening during this period particularly for Christians. Anybody know? Persecution 00:05:53.080 |
of Christians under Nero got ramped up in AD 65. So we're not talking about any like 00:06:00.880 |
normal persecution like you know talk about going to India and you know we say that the 00:06:05.680 |
Indian pastors and the Christians they are getting persecuted and it is getting bad. 00:06:09.960 |
You know in the persecution meter I remember the first year we went in it was on it was 00:06:14.520 |
like number 33 or 34 and last year was number 11 and then it went up a notch this year it 00:06:19.920 |
was number 10. And now they're the the Hindu radicals are targeting even missionaries. 00:06:26.640 |
They're trying to eradicate missionaries out of the country and so even foreigners are 00:06:30.240 |
not completely safe in that country. But as bad as that is compared to what was happening 00:06:36.960 |
to these Christians at this particular time. In fact most commentators believe that the 00:06:42.040 |
recipients of this letter were Christians, Jewish Christians in Rome. Those of you who 00:06:48.840 |
are with us in the study of the book of Rome, the book of Romans ends in chapter 16 with 00:06:54.320 |
a list of Christians who are in Rome. So the book of Hebrews is actually written to a lot 00:07:00.640 |
of those people that Paul mentions at the end of chapter 16 in Romans. But the context 00:07:07.360 |
in which these Christians are in, these Jewish Christians are in, they went through the first 00:07:12.400 |
round of persecution and they passed with flying colors. You know when Paul was in prison 00:07:19.120 |
the first time, remember he writes Philippians and he says because of his chains most of 00:07:23.720 |
the brothers were beginning to preach the gospel with boldness. It didn't squash the 00:07:28.240 |
church at all, it actually caused them to reproduce. But in AD 65 through 69 during 00:07:36.040 |
this period the persecution is so intense it actually begins to test their faith and 00:07:42.120 |
those who are nominal and even those who had genuine faith were starting to compromise 00:07:47.000 |
and drift back to the Judaistic way of life. In Hebrews chapter 10, 32-34 this is how they 00:07:54.760 |
are described. "Remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a 00:07:59.800 |
great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches 00:08:05.720 |
and tribulation and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed 00:08:11.480 |
sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that 00:08:16.120 |
you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one." So these Christians, 00:08:21.440 |
the first generation Christians here, he said they were persecuted, they were dragged into 00:08:27.440 |
prison, their possessions were confiscated and he said they did all of this joyfully, 00:08:34.520 |
the first generation. This letter is written to probably the second generation Christians 00:08:39.520 |
in this area but the persecution has become much more intense. We're not just talking 00:08:45.920 |
about the threat of imprisonment, we're not just talking about taking of their possession, 00:08:51.600 |
we're literally talking about people being crucified for following Jesus Christ. So when 00:08:57.160 |
Jesus said to his disciples, "If you want to follow me, take up your cross and follow 00:09:01.360 |
me." The way we contextualize it is, "Well what does the cross mean to me? What do I 00:09:05.960 |
need to sacrifice? I need to be more bold and share my faith. I need to be more generous 00:09:10.560 |
and those are the crosses that I need to bear." So we symbolize it in application. The recipients 00:09:17.840 |
of this letter, the cross wasn't symbolic, it was literal. When Jesus said, "You have 00:09:22.440 |
to pick up your cross," it was literally some of these men and women were being crucified 00:09:26.440 |
for their faith, burned at the stake, being torn apart by lions. And as a result of that, 00:09:32.120 |
some of these people who are bold in the lesser persecution were beginning to drift back because 00:09:37.840 |
all they needed to do to avoid this persecution is not to reject Christ but to simply keep 00:09:45.100 |
their mouth shut. And that's why over and over again, the author of this letter doesn't 00:09:51.480 |
talk about rejecting Christ. He doesn't talk about abandoning your faith. He talks about 00:09:58.040 |
drifting. He talks about neglecting. Even for us, even though it's comfortable for us 00:10:05.240 |
as Christians living in Orange County, wherever it is that we live, if you're anywhere in 00:10:09.640 |
the United States, obviously the idea of persecution, really in comparison to what we see around 00:10:15.800 |
the world, it doesn't exist. We get made fun of, we can't say Christmas in certain areas, 00:10:21.120 |
that's not persecution. It's just annoying. But the way that we can avoid even that is 00:10:28.560 |
just keep our mouth shut. Just go to church, have great friends, participate in small groups, 00:10:34.880 |
maybe even go to short-term missions, and be good. Be a good Christian. See, persecution 00:10:42.280 |
even in India, they can easily avoid it if they stay in their village, meet with a bunch 00:10:47.140 |
of Christians in their home, sharing their lives together. But the reason why persecution 00:10:52.880 |
is coming is because they're trying to proselytize. They're taking the light into the darkness. 00:10:58.440 |
And as a result, the darkness is pushing back. What was happening to these Jewish Christians 00:11:04.140 |
was they were simply beginning to embrace their old Judaistic life. They were, you know, 00:11:12.000 |
because the Jews got along with the Romans fine as long as they kept their religion and 00:11:15.520 |
they just practiced what they believed, they just kind of allowed them to exist. They didn't 00:11:20.880 |
want them to make trouble. So if they drifted back and they kind of embraced some of Christianity 00:11:25.560 |
and some of the legalism or Judaistic way of life, they would have just blended right 00:11:30.440 |
in. But their problem was they were trying to proselytize. Apostle Paul and all the apostles, 00:11:35.860 |
their primary work was to make disciples of all the nations. And so the warning that the 00:11:42.520 |
author of the book of Hebrews constantly gives is, "Do not apostatize." He doesn't say, "Do 00:11:48.720 |
not reject Christ." He says, "Do not drift from what God has given you." Hebrews chapter 00:11:56.080 |
2, 1, "For this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard so that we 00:12:01.640 |
do not drift away from it." He uses that language over and over again, drifting. You ever get 00:12:09.520 |
in a tube, you know, and just sat and relaxed and during the weather and just kind of close 00:12:14.520 |
your eyes for a couple minutes and you open your eyes all of a sudden you find you're 00:12:17.360 |
two, three hundred yards away from the shore, right? You don't want to do that in the ocean. 00:12:22.280 |
You might, you know, you might die if you do that, right? But if you're sitting in a 00:12:26.760 |
tube you never drift to safety. You notice that? You don't get on a tube and then you 00:12:33.960 |
close your eyes for a few minutes, next thing you know you're in your bedroom. Like that 00:12:36.460 |
never happens. You close your eyes, you drift far away into danger. And that's the image 00:12:41.040 |
that he gives. That they weren't anchored in Christ. They were just kind of neglecting 00:12:46.280 |
their salvation and they began to drift back into their old way of thinking and back into 00:12:51.800 |
their old way of life. He says, "Pay very close attention." In Hebrews 2, 3, "How will 00:13:00.720 |
we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" He says, "There's consequences for not paying 00:13:08.120 |
attention and allowing ourselves simply to drift." If you have small children and you've 00:13:15.080 |
ever been at the pool, you know, I think with the exception of Isaiah, all three of our 00:13:21.860 |
children were in the pool and they fell in with their face down and it shocked us. Obviously, 00:13:27.480 |
if you have small children, that ever happened to you. Anytime you're near the pool, you're 00:13:32.160 |
on high alert, right? Because they don't make any noise. You don't hear them say, "Oh my 00:13:39.520 |
gosh!" You don't hear nothing. They just kind of slip in. They just sit there quietly and 00:13:43.160 |
the next thing you know they drown. You can have a conversation with somebody with your 00:13:47.320 |
kid in your peripheral and just two minute conversation. You turn around, they're floating 00:13:53.080 |
upside down in the pool. So anybody who has small children at home, you know that. When 00:13:57.400 |
you're on the pool, your eye has to be on them 24/7 because it's just that quick. Because 00:14:03.720 |
the consequence of not paying attention is your kid might drown. So if you're a single 00:14:10.680 |
person and you're not used to being around children, if you ever get a chance to take 00:14:14.400 |
the kids to the pool, know that. So you have to be high alert all the time. The imagery 00:14:20.360 |
that's given in the book of Hebrews to these Christians is that you've taken your eye off 00:14:25.140 |
of your salvation and now you're starting to drift. And because of this drifting, you 00:14:32.360 |
don't ever drift toward God. Nobody ever just like, "Oh I'm saved." And you just kind of 00:14:37.600 |
relax and you wake up on fire for God. It just doesn't happen. You typically drift away 00:14:43.240 |
from God. Drift toward the things of God. Not a single one of us drifted toward God 00:14:49.560 |
and got saved. It was a supernatural act, interference of God to break us and move us 00:14:57.520 |
to a direction contrary to the world. So when he uses the imagery of drifting and neglecting, 00:15:03.760 |
it's simply doing nothing. Just allowing ourselves to be, just go with the flow. That's why he 00:15:10.700 |
says over and over again, Hebrews chapter 3, 7, "Today if you hear his voice, do not 00:15:16.160 |
harden your hearts, and when they provoked me, as in the day of the trial in wilderness." 00:15:21.880 |
He says over and over again, "Today." Now is the day of salvation. "Today if you hear 00:15:26.200 |
his heart, do not harden your heart." You know, when you hear the Word of God, and if 00:15:32.320 |
you're convicted in any way, if the Word of God makes any sense to you, we may have the 00:15:37.620 |
temptation to think, "Right now is not a good time. I just got my job, just had a kid, just 00:15:44.160 |
bought a house." And you say, "Well, you know, maybe next year I can take my faith 00:15:48.840 |
more seriously." There's two problems with that. One, you may not be here tomorrow. You 00:15:55.680 |
may not be here tomorrow. Most likely we will be. Most of us, at least tomorrow. In ten 00:16:02.840 |
years, who knows, right? But that's not the biggest problem. Because tomorrow you may 00:16:08.180 |
not be here, but the odds are, you know, say, "Okay, my chances are good that I will be 00:16:12.600 |
here." But the other part of that equation is, tomorrow your heart may be so hardened 00:16:18.600 |
that the Word of God makes no sense. If you harden your heart, when God convicts you and 00:16:25.480 |
you say, "Hey, tomorrow," your heart will become that much harder. It's kind of like 00:16:29.200 |
clay and you leave it out and you don't use it to mold what you intended. Next thing you 00:16:33.560 |
know, you have a clay that you can't mold anymore. And what you don't realize, you and 00:16:38.520 |
I don't realize, is when God convicts us, it is the grace of God that brings us to repentance. 00:16:46.400 |
And when we resist the grace of God to bring us to repentance, you may wake up tomorrow 00:16:51.680 |
and no longer have a desire to repent. And that's a typical thing that happens when somebody 00:16:56.520 |
postpones obedience. They wake up three weeks later, three years later, and all of a sudden, 00:17:02.960 |
no desire. It's just not there. They become so numb, not realizing that you've drifted 00:17:10.600 |
far from God. And that's why He repeatedly says, "Today, if you hear His voice, if God 00:17:17.560 |
is being gracious to you today, if God is bringing you to obedience today, do not postpone 00:17:24.040 |
it till tomorrow." So there is a sense of urgency, not simply to connect the dots between 00:17:28.800 |
Christ, the Old Testament, and the New Testament, but there's a reason why these dots are connected. 00:17:32.920 |
It's to bring us to obedience, to repentance. Hebrews chapter 3, verse 12, "Take care, brethren, 00:17:40.680 |
that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the 00:17:45.920 |
living God." To fall away, to neglect, to drift, simply by what? Doing nothing. You 00:17:55.080 |
become hearers and not doers. Whenever we hear about the Word of God, we feel convicted, 00:18:00.640 |
we have warm feelings about encouragement, we look forward to go to heaven, but that's 00:18:04.760 |
it. And we begin to drift and our heart becomes hardened. So when our hearts become hardened 00:18:11.760 |
toward the things of God, toward our own salvation, Hebrews chapter 13, "Do not neglect to show 00:18:17.000 |
hospitality to poor strangers." Do not, verse 16, "Do not neglect doing good and sharing." 00:18:23.080 |
Because if we neglect our salvation, the natural response is to neglect the application of 00:18:28.120 |
that salvation. So he says, "Do not neglect hospitality." Do not neglect good works. So 00:18:35.520 |
the reason why I chose Hebrews, obviously, is because we just finished Leviticus, and 00:18:41.080 |
so we're trying to connect the dots, and it'll make a lot more sense to you. But the real 00:18:45.720 |
reason behind that is, and the more significant reason is, this is usually where most Christians 00:18:52.160 |
will land. You go through your faith, you get baptized, you remember when you first 00:18:59.000 |
got saved and how excited you were, and then after two, three, four, five years, disappointment 00:19:05.000 |
with yourself, disappointment with life, disappointment maybe with church and friends, and then you 00:19:10.200 |
just kind of learn to exist. And when we get to that point where our heart is no longer 00:19:16.200 |
excited for the things of God, and after a while you just accept that as being normal, 00:19:22.760 |
and you begin to drift. Now, drift doesn't mean that you physically leave the church. 00:19:29.240 |
You've never apostatized, you've never said, "I don't believe in God." You still make the 00:19:33.160 |
same confession, but in your worship, in your heart for God, in your love for Christ, you 00:19:40.160 |
have drifted so far away, you can't even see where you were. That's usually the struggle 00:19:46.640 |
of most Christians, whether we are here or abroad. So what the author of Hebrew addresses 00:19:55.640 |
is relevant to every single one of us, including myself. That we don't neglect our salvation, 00:20:02.000 |
that we do not drift. Because the consequence of this drifting is not simply just feeling 00:20:08.960 |
bad or not having passionate worship. He says in Hebrews chapter 6, 4-8, "For in the case 00:20:15.760 |
of those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have 00:20:19.600 |
been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God, and then 00:20:24.280 |
the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them 00:20:29.240 |
again to repentance, and since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put 00:20:34.920 |
Him to open shame." A lot of people read this passage and they get confused. Is this 00:20:39.920 |
talking about Christians who lose their salvation? Now, again, we said you have to understand 00:20:46.680 |
in the context, in the context of the New Testament and Old Testament, because you didn't 00:20:50.840 |
choose salvation, you can't lose salvation. Then what does he mean here? That if you've 00:20:56.680 |
tasted the goodness of God and the Holy Spirit, and then you fall away, there is no other 00:21:00.080 |
repentance. Again, even in the context of the book of Hebrews, that wouldn't fit. He's 00:21:06.120 |
talking about people who confess their faith. He's talking about people who probably were 00:21:12.160 |
baptized. Maybe even leaders in the church at one point. People who went to short-term 00:21:18.800 |
mission, maybe Sunday school teachers, worship leaders, leaders at one point. And they don't 00:21:25.480 |
persevere in their faith, and they begin to put their hope in something else outside of 00:21:29.820 |
Christ. He said there is no other way of salvation but Christ. So if you drift from Christ, there 00:21:36.720 |
is no repentance. That's what he means. Verse 7, "For the ground that drinks the rain, which 00:21:44.940 |
often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is tilled, 00:21:51.040 |
receives a blessing from God." In other words, here's the same rain that falls on the ground, 00:21:55.320 |
but this ground comes up and it bears fruit and the Lord blesses it. But the second ground, 00:22:01.320 |
but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed and it 00:22:06.100 |
ends up being burned. Both soils receive the same blessing. One turns into fruit, the other 00:22:12.000 |
one turns into thorns and thistles, bitterness and anger. How many of you know people who've 00:22:17.360 |
been in church at one point, was excited about their faith, and then they're no longer walking 00:22:22.280 |
with God? We've all experienced the same disappointments. We've all experienced the struggles, and 00:22:29.760 |
yet one produced fruit, the other one produced bitterness and thorns and thistles. He says 00:22:36.760 |
the consequence of not persevering and just drifting from your faith, there is no other 00:22:44.400 |
repentance, there is no other salvation. So the moment we no longer cling to Christ, we 00:22:52.800 |
are lost. So he's not simply saying, "Hey, if you want to have an easy life, make sure 00:22:58.320 |
that you cling to Christ. If you want to have greater fellowship, make sure you cling to 00:23:03.080 |
Christ." He says our salvation hinges upon our connection to Christ, past, present and 00:23:09.840 |
future. And just like John says in 1st John, "They left us because they were never of us." 00:23:18.240 |
They drifted from us because they never belonged to us to begin with. Perseverance of the saints 00:23:27.440 |
is not an option, because the scripture clearly says. One of the evidences, one of the biggest 00:23:33.320 |
evidences of a Christian who's been a Christian for a long period of time, that he perseveres 00:23:37.640 |
through the trials. That's why in Hebrews chapter 12, he says to fix your eyes upon 00:23:47.440 |
Jesus. He is the author and the finisher, the perfecter of our faith. If we got in the 00:23:56.440 |
habit of celebrating his justification and just coasting through our sanctification, 00:24:04.200 |
and kind of fixed our eyes upon Christ when we first met him, and then just started to 00:24:07.640 |
drift along and neglecting our salvation, that passage is relevant. That warning is 00:24:12.880 |
for you. Do not neglect such great salvation. So over and over again, he's the perfecter 00:24:20.400 |
and the finisher. He's the author and the perfecter of our faith, beginning, present 00:24:27.840 |
and future. And that's exactly what he's going to do in the book of Hebrews. He's going to 00:24:34.320 |
fix our eyes upon Christ. So if you notice your program, the title of the book of Hebrews 00:24:40.120 |
is "Jesus is better than..." because that's a central message of the book of Hebrews. 00:24:46.280 |
Whatever is distracting you to think that that's better than Jesus, if Super Bowl is 00:24:52.120 |
better than Jesus, then you're going to drift toward that. If money is better than Jesus, 00:25:02.280 |
it may not happen today, but you're just going to drift. You're not going to make a decision, 00:25:05.200 |
I'm going to worship money. You're not going to do that. You're just going to drift toward 00:25:09.960 |
that. If your family is your primary idol, you're not going to say, I'm going to worship 00:25:15.720 |
my kids. You're just going to drift toward that. By neglecting your salvation, you're 00:25:21.720 |
going to drift toward what we naturally end up drifting toward. So the theme and the primary 00:25:30.720 |
teaching in the book of Hebrews is Jesus is better than... So chapter 1, he begins by 00:25:36.720 |
saying Jesus is better than the angels. In the Old Testament Jewish mind, there's nothing 00:25:42.120 |
higher than the angels. It's God and then the angels. So he starts out from the very 00:25:47.000 |
beginning with a bang. He doesn't start out and say, Jesus is better than your mom, he's 00:25:51.000 |
better than your grandfather. He starts from the top. He's greater than the angels. And 00:25:58.320 |
then he kind of goes down the list. Chapter 3, Jesus is better than Moses, the greatest 00:26:04.000 |
leader in Israel's history. And then chapter 4, it says Jesus is better than Joshua. Because 00:26:10.400 |
these people were constantly living, thinking like, man if we had another Joshua to deliver 00:26:14.840 |
us from the Roman grasp. He says, Jesus is better than Joshua. And then Hebrews chapter 00:26:22.360 |
5 and on, he says, Jesus is better than Aaron and his priesthood. And so that's where he 00:26:29.360 |
begins to connect us to the book of Leviticus and all the sacrificial system. Because he's 00:26:34.760 |
better than Aaron, he comes in the order of the priesthood of Melchizedek. His priesthood 00:26:40.680 |
is better, his sacrifice is better, his covenant is better, and his salvation is better, and 00:26:48.080 |
his rest is better. And so his whole theme of the book of Hebrews is Jesus is better. 00:26:56.240 |
And so the goal of our study in the book of Hebrews is for you who believe, those who 00:27:01.480 |
have ears to hear and eyes to see, to be reminded again, who is Jesus to you? I know what they 00:27:12.440 |
say, I know what the pastors say, I know what the leaders say, but who do you say I am? 00:27:18.760 |
Is Jesus really better? Is he really better than your family? Is he really better than 00:27:24.000 |
your hope? Is he really better than your job? Is he better than your wife or your husband? 00:27:29.940 |
Better than your children? Is he better? That's the argument and that's the premise of the 00:27:36.320 |
book of Hebrews. But the goal is not simply to ask the question, is he better? Because 00:27:43.120 |
we can say, yes he's better. But that's not where the author of Hebrews leaves us. Because 00:27:48.960 |
we confess that every single time we come to church on Sunday. We sing songs. And every 00:27:54.960 |
single one of these songs says, it's a confession, Jesus is better. He's better than the lily 00:28:01.840 |
of the valleys. Right? He's better. We sing it all the time, it's our confession. But 00:28:06.840 |
the goal of Hebrews is not simply to get us to confess. Over and over again we'll see 00:28:11.900 |
the word therefore. Remember? In interpretation when you see therefore, you have to ask, what 00:28:20.520 |
is the therefore, therefore? Why is that there? Because therefore connects us to what he's 00:28:25.820 |
been saying. So every time he would tell us about Jesus being better, he says, therefore 00:28:32.080 |
you ought to do this. Chapter 4 verse 1, therefore let us fear while a promise remains of entering 00:28:39.860 |
his rest. You know that idea of fearing in the New Testament? For whatever the reason, 00:28:46.880 |
we have erased that vocabulary in the New Testament. And it almost sounds like heresy 00:28:53.060 |
when somebody says, we need to fear. Because it sounds strange. But if you've read your 00:29:00.740 |
Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one of the primary things that God tells his people is 00:29:09.640 |
to fear him. In fact, the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon says, the chief end of man is to fear 00:29:15.700 |
God and obey his commandment. The apostle Paul says, live out your salvation with fear 00:29:22.580 |
and trembling. So we've somehow made, we took it, taken one verse where it says, love casts 00:29:30.420 |
out fear. So anything that causes any kind of fear is heresy. Completely unbiblical. 00:29:36.680 |
Look at scripture all over the Bible. It tells us to fear God because fear is necessary. 00:29:44.500 |
You know, we've equated fear just universally all being negative. Without fear, you get 00:29:50.940 |
fired, you get hurt, you die. Fear of getting hurt causes us to stay away from danger. If 00:29:59.440 |
you don't fear pain, you don't fear getting hurt or losing your limbs, I mean, there are 00:30:03.620 |
a lot of things we could do. If you don't fear losing your job, a job that you loved 00:30:09.460 |
and prayed for, and you go, I don't care if I lose my job, then you're going to lose your 00:30:12.300 |
job. You're probably not going to be a good worker. Fear of being a bad parent causes 00:30:18.340 |
you to examine the way you parent your kids. Fear of being a bad husband or bad wife causes 00:30:25.300 |
you to look at your life and make sure that we're doing and saying what is right. So there's 00:30:32.380 |
a healthy fear. There is a bad fear, and that's what he was talking about when he says, love 00:30:38.100 |
casts out fear. In other words, if you are assured with the love of God, then it casts 00:30:42.260 |
out the fear of judgment. But fear in and of itself, fear of the Lord in particular, 00:30:49.020 |
is necessary. He says, "Therefore, fear while a promise remains entering his rest." If you've 00:30:54.900 |
seen yourself drift and you've been neglecting your faith for periods of time, it should 00:31:03.100 |
be fear that you feel, not comfort and encouragement, because that fear is what will bring you to 00:31:10.860 |
Christ. It is that fear that will cause you to repent. Chapter 4, verse 11, "Therefore, 00:31:18.380 |
let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall through following the 00:31:22.660 |
same example of disobedience." Let us be diligent. For whatever the reason, we're diligent in 00:31:27.820 |
our justification, and then we're passive in our sanctification. It's legalism if we 00:31:32.980 |
try too hard. Absolutely contrary to what we see in Scripture. He said, "Let us be diligent." 00:31:39.460 |
Paul himself says, "I buffet my body, making my slave, lest possibly after I have preached 00:31:43.860 |
to others that I may be disqualified." Paul says, not Paul, the author of Hebrews, says, 00:31:51.260 |
"Let us be diligent that we do not neglect and drift." Chapter 4, verse 14, "Therefore, 00:31:57.780 |
since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, Son of 00:32:01.340 |
God, let us hold fast our confession." You know what was interesting? The word for "hold 00:32:06.020 |
fast" here means to own it. Okay? And what does it mean in our culture when we say to 00:32:11.820 |
own something? Don't just do it, own it. What does that mean? Don't just play football, 00:32:19.060 |
own it. Meaning to dominate, to conquer, to be the best, give all you have, own it. That's 00:32:28.300 |
the word here, to possess it. Not simply to hold on to it loosely, not simply to confess 00:32:33.420 |
it, but make that your primary objective in life. Make the gospel, loving the gospel, 00:32:41.660 |
preaching the gospel, bringing non-Christians to Christ, encouraging other Christians to 00:32:46.780 |
persevere, to hold fast to this confession. Chapter 4, verse 16, "Let us draw near with 00:32:54.740 |
confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help 00:32:58.820 |
in time of need." Let us draw near, because the whole point of salvation is that the access 00:33:04.060 |
to God that was blocked because of our sins were made clear by the blood of Christ. That's 00:33:10.860 |
salvation. Now we have access, so we talk about adoption. Why is the talk of adoption 00:33:16.700 |
so good? Why does it give us warm feelings? Just simply because you have the title? No, 00:33:25.540 |
because to be adopted means everything that belonged to Him is yours. God is yours now. 00:33:32.940 |
You can enter the inner sanctuary without somebody saying stop. I'm going to my father's 00:33:40.540 |
room. I can go into my dad's room, because that's my dad's room. But it would make absolutely 00:33:46.340 |
no sense if you have front row seats to the Super Bowl today, and you've been telling 00:33:52.500 |
all your friends that you have, you have free tickets, and then what's the next question 00:33:57.140 |
they're going to ask you? What are you doing here? You really have tickets to Super Bowl? 00:34:07.700 |
Those are 20, 30, 40 thousand dollar tickets. You're going around telling everybody that 00:34:14.300 |
you have access? You can get front row seats to the best show in town today? What are you 00:34:21.940 |
doing here? I don't think you have it. No one's going to believe you have it, because 00:34:28.740 |
it doesn't make sense for somebody who says that they have it, not to go. The whole point 00:34:34.260 |
of our salvation is to have access to God. So if you have this access to God, He says 00:34:39.900 |
let us draw near to the throne of grace with confidence, because that's the goal, that's 00:34:46.860 |
the point of salvation. Chapter 6 verse 1, therefore leaving the elementary teachings 00:34:51.260 |
about Christ, let us press on to maturity. Don't accept the fact that you've been stagnant 00:34:57.660 |
for a long period of time. Stop making excuses and press on toward the goal. Let us draw 00:35:03.740 |
near with sincere hearts. Chapter 10 verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our 00:35:08.340 |
hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 10 24, let us consider how to 00:35:15.380 |
stimulate one another on toward loving good deeds. If this is so significant, not only 00:35:19.780 |
for ourselves, but for the brothers and sisters. How do we stimulate them, encourage them? 00:35:24.780 |
Chapter 12 verse 1, therefore since we have so great a crowd of witnesses around us, let 00:35:28.460 |
us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles. Don't accept 00:35:35.180 |
the compromises in your life that has caused you to drift away from God. Whatever has entangled 00:35:40.700 |
you, he says lay it aside. And then 12 verse 1, let us run with endurance the race that 00:35:46.100 |
is set before us. It's not enough that you started the race, but to continue the race. 00:35:50.860 |
Verse 28, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service. Chapter 00:35:56.460 |
13 verse 3, let us go out to him, outside the camp bearing his reproach. If what Christ 00:36:02.300 |
has done, if Jesus truly is better than everything else in our lives, then let's go where he 00:36:09.740 |
is. Let's go after him. You know, people travel to uncomfortable places, enduring intense 00:36:22.220 |
heat, eating food they don't like, being surrounded by people that they don't like, all for the 00:36:28.720 |
purpose of making money. People will pack their bags, go to foreign countries, endure 00:36:38.660 |
awkward situations for years in the hope that they're going to make it big. They're going 00:36:46.020 |
to make money. Because that's where their hope is. That's where their passion is. And 00:36:53.500 |
so they go there. But if Jesus is better than that, if Jesus is better than all that that 00:37:02.300 |
we confess, shouldn't we also follow him outside the camp? Whether that takes us to China, 00:37:12.140 |
whether that takes us to Japan, whether that takes us to India, whether that takes us to 00:37:17.960 |
your co-workers or your neighbors, wherever it is that God has placed you. If Jesus is 00:37:26.960 |
better, let's go outside the camp. And then verse 15, through him then let us continually 00:37:31.640 |
offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, to be worshippers who will worship him in spirit 00:37:36.180 |
and in truth. See, this is the ultimate goal of the book of Hebrews. It's not simply to 00:37:41.120 |
connect the dots and say, "Oh, I know Leviticus now, and I know the Old Testament and New 00:37:44.860 |
Testament, and I know all this theological things that I can tell you." But therefore, 00:37:52.240 |
let us go, let us fear, let us be diligent, let us draw near, let us consider how to stimulate 00:37:59.560 |
one another, let us persevere, let us go outside the camp. So my hope is that through the book 00:38:07.760 |
of, study of the book of Hebrews, that we would be able to confess with our mouth and 00:38:15.120 |
with our lives that Jesus is better. Because if Jesus is not better, whatever is better 00:38:23.360 |
than Jesus will cause you to drift toward that. Before we open up the communion table, 00:38:30.060 |
I want to sing this song together. So I'm going to ask the praise team to come up. You 00:38:33.600 |
guys probably all know this song, but I want to sing this together because this is pretty 00:38:38.520 |
much the theme of the book of Hebrews. "I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold." I 00:38:46.480 |
want to sing this as often as I can to remind you that this is really the point of the book 00:38:52.940 |
of Hebrews and why we're studying this. "I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold." And 00:39:00.200 |
let me stop right there. Okay. Don't worry. I'm not going to give another sermon. "I'd 00:39:04.480 |
rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I'd rather be his than have riches untold. I'd 00:39:10.360 |
rather have Jesus than houses or lands. I'd rather be led by his nail pierced hand." I 00:39:16.480 |
pray that the study of the book of Hebrews would cause us to confess this and mean this 00:39:20.760 |
with all our heart. That these aren't just words that we sing. These aren't some doctrinal 00:39:27.040 |
statements that we say, "Oh, we adhere to." But this is actually a confession of our mouth 00:39:32.320 |
and our lives. Let's sing this song together. "I'd rather have Jesus."