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Let’s pray.
Thank you, O Lord, for your word.
May we be a people of your word.
May we hide your word in our hearts so it would not sit against you.
We do pray now, O Lord, that your word and spirit would have its work in our hearts.
That we would die more and more to sin and live more and more to righteousness.
That your name would be praised.
In this we do pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
I have three questions for you this morning from the Epistle to the Hebrews.
The first question is, how much does the world to come mean to you?
Heaven, the world to come, how much does it mean to you?
Is it one of your chief concerns?
Does it play a role in your thinking?
The second question, how much does the church mean to you?
Is it optional or is it all important?
And the third question, how much do your brothers and sisters in Christ mean to you?
Do you love them?
Do you seek to share their burdens and prefer them in love?
Three questions then from Hebrews.
The first question, we find out very quickly what the writer to the Hebrews thinks about
the world to come.
In his second chapter, Hebrews 2.5, he tells us this is the entire reason why he’s writing.
This is his theme in the Epistle.
He says, it is of the world to come, of which we are speaking, added to this is the clear
testimony throughout Hebrews that at the center of the world to come is Jesus.
Hebrews 3.1, therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider
Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession.
Hebrews 8.1 and 2.
Now the point of what we’ve been saying is this.
We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty
in heaven, a minister in the holy places in the true tent that the Lord set up not man.
The world to come, heaven, means everything to the writer to the Hebrews because heaven
is where the risen Christ dwells.
Heaven is where Jesus Christ is right now.
Heaven is where Jesus Christ is right now as he intercedes for us.
Or in the wording of Hebrews, it’s where he ministers as the high priest of our confession.
It’s an amazing thing.
Our savior right now, he’s leading us in worship.
He’s the one who leads us in worship.
He’s the one who intercedes for us.
He’s the one who prays for us.
And his prayer is that where he is, we might be also because we are the apple of his eye,
those for whom he laid down his life.
So question and answer one, the focus of the writer to the Hebrews is on the world to come
and it means everything to him because that is where Jesus Christ reigns.
So what does heaven mean to you?
What does the world to come mean to you?
Are you like Abraham and the patriarchs?
Do you seek a better country that is a heavenly one?
If so, the promise of Hebrews, the promise of Hebrews 11, 16 is that God is not ashamed
to be called your God, for he has prepared for you a city above.
Second question from Hebrews, how much does the church mean to you?
And consider what the writer to the Hebrews declares, in Hebrews 10, 25, he commands,
do not neglect to meet together, do not neglect to assembly together as is the habit of some,
but encourage one another all the more as you see the day approaching.
In Hebrews 13, 7, he declares, obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch
over your souls as those who have to give an account.
Let them do this with joy, not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
Now why is the church such a necessity to the writer of the Hebrews that he would admonish
us, Hebrews 10, 25, not to forsake assembling together, and then in Hebrews 13, 7, to obey
our leaders and to submit to them?
It’s because in the church, it’s in the church that the word of God is proclaimed.
In the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper rightly administered.
To reference Hebrews 12, 28, which we have just read, the church is the God-ordained
way in which we offer worship, pleasing to God with reverence and awe.
In life in a faithful church, life in a Bible-believing church, life in a Christ-affirming church
is not something that we can leave out of our lives because the day of the Lord is drawing
near and our God is consuming fire, Hebrews 12, 29.
So how much should the church mean to you?
Everything.
You can’t live the Christian life on your own.
You don’t have the ability to live the Christian life on your own.
Your power, your strength in living the Christian life, your power daily in dying the sin and
living to righteousness comes from being joined by faith to Jesus Christ, the head of the
church.
Just an example in regard to this.
It’s a little bit like praying.
You know, when you don’t pray, you’re actually saying something.
When you don’t pray, you’re saying, I can live the Christian life on my own.
You’re saying, oh Lord, I don’t need your help in this.
But when you don’t pray, you experience the same thing that Martin Luther experienced
in the Reformation.
You become to realize that all your righteousness is but filthy rags apart from Jesus Christ
and trying to look to your own works, it’s crushing.
Going through your days without praying only increases guilt because you know what you
have done is not pleasing to God.
But when you pray, but when you pray, to borrow from the words of the Heidelberg Catechism,
you’re acknowledging that you’re not your own.
When you pray and come into yourself and look to the Lord, you’re acknowledging that
you belong body and soul both in this life and the one to come to your faithful Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ.
Well, the same principle applies to the church.
You can’t live the Christian life apart from the church.
The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 25 on this chapter on the church states that
there’s no ordinary possibility of salvation outside of the church.
Yes, there are situations like the thief on the cross and praise the Lord that that is
the case.
But that’s not to be normative for us.
Again, it’s in the church that the Word of God is lawfully proclaimed and in the church
that the sacraments are rightly administered and discipline upheld.
And so that’s why the writer of the Hebrews can admonish us not to forsake assembling
together Hebrews 1025 and can command us to obey our leaders in the church and submit
to them Hebrews 1317 and instruct us to offer to God worship that is pleasing to him with
reverence and awe, Hebrews 1228.
So question one, do we love the world to come?
Question two, do we love the church?
But it’s question three that I want us to focus on this morning.
Do we love one another?
And the writer of the Hebrews answers that question.
How important is it to love one another?
At the start of Chapter 13, where he declares that we’re to let the love of the brethren
continue.
Now notice how the writer got to that grand imperative.
In Chapter 12, he starts out by saying that Jesus Christ is the founder and perfecter
of our faith.
He being the one who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame and is seated at the right hand of God.
And as a result of his work, and this is where we pick the text up in Hebrews 1218, a result
of Jesus Christ’s work, the writer of the Hebrews declares that we who believe the church,
the called out ones, we have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God and
to the heavenly Jerusalem.
We have come to innumerable angels and festal assembly and to the firstborn enrolled in
heaven and to God, the judge of all and the spirits of the righteous made perfect.
We have come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkle blood that speaks
a better word than the blood of Abel.
So that’s the reality.
That’s what Jesus Christ has accomplished in history.
That is what he has brought about through his death and resurrection from the dead.
And to use the words at the end of Hebrews 12, he is the one, Jesus is the one who speaks
to us in these last days and the word, his word is that we’ve received the kingdom that
cannot be shaken.
What good news this is, a kingdom that is historical and irreversible because of the
work of Jesus Christ and a kingdom in which we are members already in that because of
his grace.
So the question is, the theme of the offer to the Hebrews is the world to come and the
essential nature of the church.
The question then is how do you live in that kingdom?
How do you live in that kingdom?
Well, you keep your eyes upon heaven above.
You love the world to come because that is where Jesus Christ reigns.
You love that body, the church, which he laid down his life for and he now rules as its
head and you love the brother.
And so our focus this morning is going to be those opening six verses in light of this
great imperative here in Hebrews chapter 13.
Now we’re called elsewhere in scripture to love all people, but in Hebrews 13, one, the
focus is on loving our brothers and sisters in Christ.
The Greek word used here is undoubtedly familiar to you, Philadelphia, brotherly love.
In antiquity, that referred to blood relations.
But the New Testament, it’s the confession of Jesus Christ that marks us as brothers
and sisters.
So it’s not just that our solidarity derives from Jesus, our love also derives from him
and we’re to love one another as he has loved us.
So to put this in other words, Hebrews 13 one then is an appeal for you to love one
another in the new covenant community that Jesus Christ has purchased with his blood.
It’s an appeal to you to love one another in the church.
So here at Grace Church, do you love one another?
Do you pray for one another?
Do you lift one another up in love?
It’s the love of the brethren continuing here.
Moving to first two, first two tells us that our responsibility also includes showing hospitality
to strangers.
You might ask why this particular imperative?
So the writer has this grand imperative and then he moves to this particular one.
You might recall what Jesus said to his disciples, I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty
and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.
Your paths will cross with those outside of this place.
You will come into contact with other believers who are in need and sometimes in dire need.
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church has a refugee ministry corporately that seeks to help Christians
throughout the world.
We’re called to show love and hospitality to believers that are strangers to us, to those
who providentially come into our lives.
Now does this make us vulnerable to frauds in the modern world?
Of course, yes.
Does this mean that we’ll sometimes be taken advantage of?
Yes.
Does this mean we’re to neglect such hospitality?
No.
The reference here in verse two is to one of the great episodes in the Old Testament.
The example that the writer of the Hebrews provides that we might show hospitality to
strangers is from the events of Genesis 18 and 19 where we’re told in that second verse
that there were those who entertained angels unawares.
Well Abraham, Genesis 18, showed hospitality to three strangers.
One of them turned out to be the Lord and the other two angels.
And what did the Lord promise Abraham?
This is when he promised Abraham and Sarah that they would have an heir, that they would
have a son.
What about the two angels?
The two angels were told, Genesis 19, they went ahead to Sodom and what happened there
is that Lot showed hospitality to them and the next day when destruction came over Sodom
Lot was delivered.
Now it’s not that we should expect if we show hospitality that we’re showing hospitality
to angels.
I think the point here is that the Lord uses, are extending ourselves to bring blessing
into our lives.
When you seek to love others, when you seek to show hospitality to strangers, you’ll find
that it is as much if not more a blessing to you than to the person you’re serving.
Verse three, we’re to remember those who are in prison and those who are mistreated.
This also recalls what Jesus says to his disciples, I was in prison, you came to me,
I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me.
Now there’s a little phrase there in that third verse that should catch our attention,
at least it catches my attention, we’re to remember those in prison, and here’s the phrase,
as those in prison with them and those who are mistreated.
I have a pastor friend who shared with me something that happened in his congregation.
He told me about a new member in the church and they had gone through the worship and
he had gone and he was shaking everyone’s hand in the back and greeting everyone and
he came back in to the sanctuary and he noted that this individual was still seated and
so he went up to her and he asked her if she was okay and she said that she had a condition
in which her hip would go in and out of socket and it had gone out of socket and she was
unable to get up and he asked her if there’s anything that the church could do
to help. Well first of all he asked the immediate help to get her up, but she said to him,
well in my previous church the pastor had told me that I would always be a diaconal case and so
that’s why I didn’t want to come to you for help, but when I moved here I didn’t have enough money
for a mattress and I’ve been sleeping on the floor and he, well first of all his heart was broke
and he thought of this verse and other verses like this and he told her when your hip is
dislocated, our hip is dislocated. When you’re hurt, we’re hurt and for her to know that this
is the bonds that exist in the body of Christ and so they went and got her a mattress to sleep on,
they got her a special chair for her to sit on at worship. Now I know that’s an example from the
second clause in verse three, but hopefully you get the point in regard to those who are imprisoned
around the world for their faith in Jesus Christ. We are to pray for these believers and be those
who, that sense of when they’re suffering, were suffering and so to remember those,
remember those in China who are imprisoned for their faith, to remember and pray for those
who are imprisoned in Eritrea for their faith, or those who are mistreated for their faith in
such places as Ukraine or Haiti, just to name missions that are familiar to us.
This is the identity we have with Jesus Christ, with others. Verse four, the writer continues
that marriage is to be held in honor among all for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
Marriage is divinely ordained by God. We live in a society that does not hold marriage in honor.
In our prayer is that society would honor marriage between male and female, but the admonition here
is to believers in the church that we would be faithful in our marriages, that we would know
that marriage is a blessing from God, and that a marriage where the marriage bed is undefiled
shows our thankfulness to God, and it shows our thankfulness to God that he has brought our spouse
into our life. Adultery and fornication here goes entirely in the other direction.
They are self-centered, and they are not innocent. We’re told here that such sexual
immorality incurs the judgment of God, and so there is the guilt when you’re sexually immoral
of knowing that what you’re doing is wrong before the living God,
and there’s the pain and the sorrow that you bring to others.
Verse five, keep your life free from love of money and be content with what you have.
There are pressures living in a fallen creation with scarcity. What will I wear? What will I eat?
Where will I sleep? The temptation is to think that if I only had enough money I would be okay.
There’s a great short story by Tolstoy, the Russian author Tolstoy,
it’s how much land does a man need, and the story starts with the protagonist, the main character,
overhearing a debate, and the debate is between the wife in a village, sort of established,
versus life on a farm, a peasant sort of existence, and the man, you know, things to himself
as he’s overhearing this debate about life, he thinks to himself, if I had plenty of land,
I shouldn’t fear the devil himself, and so the rest of the story becomes his obsession
with getting wealthy, his obsession with gaining land, so much so that his obsession, I won’t spoil
the story for you, just to tell you that his, I will spoil it in this sense, his greed kills him.
He dies in the process of securing his earthly fortune, and the reader finds out just how much
land is needed. How much land does a man need? In this case, it turns out to be six feet of the
earth to bury him. You see, it is not money that brings about peace and stability in this life,
it’s godliness with contentment. Jesus says, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness,
for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
You know, we’re to be anxious for nothing, and when we are, contrary to God’s word, when we are
anxious, we often think that the solution is found in money or resources. The answer is in God’s word,
we often think that the solution is found in money or resources. The answer is found in God,
and in God alone. For he is the one who has said, I will never leave you,
nor forsake you. We have read that great passage from Genesis chapter 28, this is what the Lord
says to Jacob when he’s sent out to find a wife, and he falls asleep at Bethel and dreams about
God’s blessing, and God promises to be with him and not to leave him. Same thing when we come to
Deuteronomy, the end of Deuteronomy, and you find Moses leaving the scene, and you find the Lord
speaking to Joshua, and Joshua is sitting there thinking, how can I ever fill the shoes of Moses?
And the Lord promises Joshua, I will never leave you, nor forsake you. It’s the answer that comes
to Solomon when his father David is soon to depart, and Solomon is going to become king,
and he’s going to have this great task of building the temple. The Lord through David tells Solomon,
do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, is with you. He will not
leave you nor forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord be finished.
It’s the promise of God to every generation, and it’s the promise of God to us.
In a world that is so corrupt, in a world that is so fallen, in a world that is so unstable,
we have the assurance that he will never leave us nor forsake us, and because God has promised,
we can reply with confidence to the words of Psalm 118-6,
the Lord is my helper, I will not fear, what can man do to me?
And even in the citation of that verse, there’s such comfort. If you go back actually
in the Hebrew and you look at Psalm 118-6, it actually starts, that verse actually starts
with the Lord, Yahweh, and in the Hebrew it ends with Adam, man, and it’s almost like
this is the entirety of life, in that the Lord is the one who has created us and he sustains us,
and all of life is to be lived for him, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear, what can man do to me?
That’s the promise of God. Now understand, and you know this would be another sermon,
doesn’t mean that we won’t suffer in this life. Sometimes the suffering is because of the sin of
others and our identification with the Lord, sometimes the suffering is because of our own sin,
and there’s also the greater sense of the word of God and even of the epistle to the Hebrews,
the path to glory is through the cross, humiliation precedes exaltation,
but the promise of God is the Lord is with you, and no one can pull you out of the Father’s hands.
So that’s what you’re to take to heart in this pilgrimage. So my appeal from Hebrews with these
three questions has been to put before you the centrality of Jesus Christ in the world to come.
In the world to come, the centrality of the church in which the worship of God with reverence and all
takes place and the centrality of the love of the brethren, that’s how you live, that’s how you live
as kingdom members now. You’ve been so blessed, you’ve received a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
you’ve received the kingdom in which Jesus Christ reigns, and the promise is that you will reign
with him forever, not that you are worthy of that, but because he has been gracious
and he has done everything for your salvation. And so to wrap this up with a little bow from
the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms, another way of saying this is that
let us seek to glorify and enjoy our God in everything that we do,
and that as we seek after the world to come. For here Hebrews 13-14,
we have no lasting city, but we seek that world which is to come. And so my plea to you from the
word of God, as you seek that world that is to come, and as you seek to glorify and enjoy your
God in everything you do, love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, strength, and mind.
Love your neighbor as yourself and love the church. And if you do those things and trust the Lord,
the Lord will use you. You will be salt and light in this wicked generation.
You will be going in the opposite way of the world. You will be showing forward that you are
a new creation. You will be showing forth that you are joined to Jesus Christ. And you do have
the assurance that the Lord being with you, he is all-powerful. Because each and every one of you,
you know personally that the Lord has done that which you could never have have done.
He’s changed your hard heart supernaturally that you might believe in that you might rest in him.
Praise be to his glorious name. Amen. Let’s pray.