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We turn now, if you would remain standing for our reading.
Our reading for our text this evening is Hebrews chapter 13, verses 7 through 16,
and that’s found on page 1197 of the Pew Bible, if you need that.
Hebrews chapter 13, verses 7 through 16.
This is the Word of God.
Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God.
Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings,
for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace,
not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them.
We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat,
for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places
by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.
So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.
Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.
For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
Through him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God
that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have,
for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Amen.
Let’s pray.
Our Father in heaven, our Lord God,
we ask that as you have inspired this word and preserved it for us,
you might bless the proclamation of it and you might give us your spirit
that we might hear it with faith, with understanding,
that it might be life to us and not death, that we might be alive to your word.
We ask that what is spoken, you may empower these words to be words from you
and not words of men only.
Lord, we ask these things in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
May be seated.
Imagine for a moment the ancient Israelite camp in the wilderness,
the tents arranged in perfect order around the tabernacle,
the center of God’s presence.
Inside those boundaries, everything felt secure.
The priests performed their rituals, the people offered sacrifices,
and life followed the familiar rhythms of the Old Covenant.
But outside the camp, that was the place of refuse,
where the bodies of the sin offerings were burned after the blood had been sprinkled,
defiled ground far from comfort marked by rejection and shame.
And yet, that is exactly where the ultimate sacrifice took place,
not in the holy sanctuary, but outside the gate on a hill called Golgotha.
Jesus, our great high priest, the perfect lamb, suffered outside,
bearing the full weight of reproach, scorn, and separation,
so that through his blood we could be sanctified, made holy,
and brought into an intimacy with God, that no old ceremony could provide.
The writer of Hebrews does not leave us watching that scene from a distance,
but he turns to us with a bold, urgent invitation.
Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach that he endured.
Today, in a world that prizes comfort, conformity, and self-protection,
Jesus stands outside, calling us to join him there.
Our passage this evening contains three key responses that the author longs to see in us.
Number one is appreciation for our position of incredible privilege in Christ.
Number two, of willingly pressing in to discomfort to be with him.
And number three, action in profession, speaking up for Jesus,
and philanthropy, or doing good and sharing.
We have a lot to get into, so we’ll jump right in this evening.
Number one, appreciation for our position of privilege, verses seven through ten.
And I get this from verse ten, which says,
We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.
This is the privilege which the author of Hebrews has been emphasizing throughout the entire letter.
The New Covenant, in Jesus’ blood, offers incomparable privilege
above what the Old Covenant ceremonies could provide.
Adherence to the now-defunct Old Covenant ceremonies, rather than combining with the New Covenant
and giving you extra credit, so to speak, actually excludes you from the New Covenant, he’s saying.
The New Covenant provides the privilege of an intimacy beyond what even the high priests had.
And here the author speaks of that as an altar from which the Old Covenant priests are excluded.
In the New Covenant, we all become priests who eat from the heavenly altar
because we have access through Jesus into heaven.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s go back and trace this author’s thought in our passage.
Starting verse seven, look at verse seven.
Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God.
Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
The author starts by telling his audience to remember their leaders who spoke to them the word of God.
This is most likely a reference to leaders who are no longer alive.
There are several reasons for thinking this.
One, the call to remember seems to imply that they are gone in some way.
And this is in contrast to verse 17, where he says, obey your current leaders.
Also, the word outcome that we have in the Greek is more literally their exit or their departure.
So the author is calling his audience to consider their leaders who perhaps founded the community of faith of which they are a part
through preaching and teaching God’s word and to remember and imitate the legacy of faith that they have.
The author doesn’t specify whether these leaders were killed for their faith.
His point is simply that they were an example of faith all of their lives.
And he tells his audience to do three things to remember, consider and imitate.
Remember them, who they were and what they did for you.
And then consider, think carefully about how they lived their lives all the way to the end.
And then put that into practice.
Do what you saw them do, imitate their faith.
And in order to help them do this, he reminds them that Jesus, the Jesus whom their leaders trusted, is the same.
The same one with them now.
We see this verse eight.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Their leaders may have passed on to glory who first taught them the word of God, but the Jesus whom they believed in has not changed.
He hasn’t gone anywhere.
In fact, he is the same one for us today.
We may not know the leaders who are being referenced in this letter, but we can share their faith in our Savior,
who is the same yesterday for them, today for us, and will be the same for those who come after us.
In a world of constant change, a world where we may suffer insults and injury, where the future is uncertain,
we have someone who is always constant.
But one of the reasons in this passage to remember that Jesus is the same is so that you will not be led astray by enticing suggestions of new teachings.
Verse nine.
Do not be led astray by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace,
not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them.
Jesus has not changed.
He does not change and he will not change.
So don’t get confused by newfangled teachings that propose a new understanding of salvation or faith or Jesus himself.
And in particular, for this audience, the author has in mind the temptation to try to go back and add in Old Testament ceremonies and sacrifices to their faith in Jesus.
Because in that case, they would not be trusting Christ alone, but would be trusting in the temporary ceremonies,
which are now defunct now that Christ has come.
Faith needs to be strengthened and built upon grace by a firm confidence in an unchanging, all-sufficient Savior.
The ceremonies that they’re tempted to turn back to aren’t benefiting the current practitioners, and they have actually become obstacles to true faith.
Now, it is unlikely that many of you are tempted to try to return to practicing the Jewish worship ceremonies and sacrifices here today, this evening.
But you may still be tempted to ground your faith subtly more in your practices than in the grace of your Savior.
If you’ve been at this church very long at all, you’ve likely heard the terms, the means of grace.
And this is the way to speak about the things through which God often works in our lives to make us more mature in faith.
And the three big categories are the word, sacraments and prayer.
God’s word, when read, studied, sung and heard, is used by the Holy Spirit to convict us about our sin,
to encourage us to believe in God, to provide wisdom and insight about God, ourselves and the world.
And the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are used by God’s Spirit to strengthen our faith by physically demonstrating spiritual realities.
And finally, prayer is our communion with God.
And by engaging it, we are changed and shaped into conformity with Christ.
Worship on the Lord’s Day, as we’re doing now, is important for shaping us, especially as it is here that we experience the means of grace
uniquely like the preaching of God’s word and the sacraments which are unavailable elsewhere.
And yet, as with all good things, even things as holy as Bible reading and prayer can become a subtle object of our trust rather than a means to anchor our trust in God.
Of course, it is really a form of self-trust when we’re exhibiting a trust in our performance of certain practices rather than the one that they point to.
The Pharisees are example, exhibit A of people who trusted in their own prayers rather than the God they were praying to.
And so we all need to hear this warning that it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace,
not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them.
And this then leads to the author’s punchline under this first point that we’re considering of acknowledging the privilege.
Verse 10, we have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.
The author is reminding his readers of their incomparable privilege.
The author is using priestly imagery, which he comes back to repeatedly in our passage this evening.
The priests in the Tabernacle were given the right to eat of certain parts of certain sacrifices.
After God’s portion was set aside and burned up, the priest could either eat it right there or send it home for his family.
And this was actually one of the ways that God provided for the priests and their families.
It was, in a sense, supplementing their grocery budget.
The author of Hebrews is making a reference to this practice, but then inverting it.
He’s saying that the members of the New Covenant, those who are in Christ, have the privilege of eating from the heavenly altar,
while the priests who remain or those that go back to serve in the defunct Tabernacle are excluded.
They have no right to eat from the altar that we have a privilege of eating.
And this literally flips the previous situation on its head.
Before it was the priests in the Tabernacle who alone were allowed to eat from the altar,
while the ordinary Israelites were excluded from eating from the altar.
Now it’s the priests of the Tabernacle, now it is the priests of the Tabernacle who are excluded,
while the ordinary believers are given the privilege of eating from the heavenly altar.
And it is this privilege that the author wants his readers to have an appreciation for,
so they will realize there’s nothing that they could return to that would be better than what they already have.
In Jesus, they have the highest privilege.
It is only through Jesus’ own priestly ministry that we enjoy the priesthood as believers.
So now the author now turns in our passage to speak of Christ’s priesthood.
Number two, the attitude that the author wants us to develop, the attitude, press into pain, verses 11 through 14.
Continuing with the priestly practices, the author mentions another aspect of the sacrificial ceremony.
Verse 11, for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest
as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.
The author is preparing to draw a comparison between the high priest in the Tabernacle and Jesus.
So he sets up the parallel by explaining the practice on the Day of Atonement, which we read earlier in the service.
The high priest would take the sin offering and burn it outside the camp.
And now look at verse 12.
So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his blood, through his own blood.
Jesus, as the ultimate, the high priest of all high priests, offered the ultimate sacrifice for sin, which was himself.
And he offered it appropriately, the author of Hebrews says, outside the camp.
The author of Hebrews is pointing to the significance of even the place in which Jesus was crucified.
We read the account in John 19, verses 16 and 17.
John recounts, So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull,
which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.
Jesus was crucified outside Jerusalem, just like the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement,
because he was the ultimate sacrifice that all the other sacrifices had foreshadowed and pointed to.
Jesus was actually paying the full price for sin.
And so it was fitting, the author says, that in his death he was burned.
He was crucified outside the camp, like the sacrifices that were burned.
But then in the next verse, the author states a surprising implication.
Verse 13, Therefore, therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach that he endured.
Jesus suffered as an offering for sin outside the camp.
Therefore, you ought to see in this an example for you to follow.
The author is seeking to stir up an attitude within his audience that instead of shrinking back from discomfort,
follows Christ’s example and moves towards it.
Christ’s sacrifice made a people holy so they would become like him, following his example of pressing into pain.
And we saw a similar exhortation in Chapter 12, Chapter 12 of Hebrews, verse two,
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus pressed into the pain, the pain and the shame of the cross.
And if we’re following him, we must have the same attitude.
The author wants to develop in his audience an attitude of stepping out towards reproach.
And his first reason is the example of Jesus.
But that’s not his only reason.
The author has a second reason in verse 13, which is so obvious it can be easy to miss.
It says, therefore, let us go to him outside the camp.
This means that Jesus is not sitting back telling his followers, you go out there.
Let me know when you get back, when you’ve proved yourself worthy of following me.
No, the call to go outside the camp, away from safety and comfort, towards danger and discomfort, is a call from Jesus to come.
Come experience the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings.
Christ is outside the camp, getting rained on by the reproaches, and he’s calling you to join him.
Fellowship with Christ is not found by shrinking back from suffering, but by boldly stepping out into discomfort.
Christians are not those who cling to comfort, who run away from discomfort.
But following the example of their savior, they step into discomfort.
Notice that the author does not speak of stepping into bodily harm, but of the reproach and the ridicule that Jesus endured.
The author does not tell his audience to seek out death, to jump on a cross or ask to be killed,
but to be willing to boldly step into reproach and ridicule.
We see Jesus commending this in Luke chapter 6, Luke chapter 6, verses 22 and 23.
Jesus commends this attitude saying, blessed are you when people hate you,
when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice in that day, leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for so their fathers did to the prophets.
This is countercultural.
Kids, do you like it when your friends kick you out of your friend group or talk bad about you behind your back?
Do you like being called names?
Does it feel good when people exclude you?
These things are not enjoyable, and sometimes this happens when you’ve done nothing wrong.
But Jesus is telling you, telling us that even when this happens, he’s there with you.
And then the author of Hebrews piles on one more reason not to cling on to comfort inside the camp.
Verse 14, for here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
This is the reason that Abraham was able to leave his home in Ur, and his son Isaac and grandson Jacob were all able to live a nomadic transitory life in Canaan.
If we remain inside the camp, avoiding uncomfortable conversations, avoiding uncomfortable situations,
then we will miss out on many opportunities to participate in what God is doing.
The word seek is a Greek word here that speaks of intense, eager longing, intense desire.
We, who are the citizens of the city to come, are called to express that intense longing through going outside the camp,
where Jesus is, and get hit by the reproach that’s hitting him.
We can stay in where it’s safe and comfortable, or we can go out to where Jesus is,
where people are maligning him, ridiculing him, and insulting him, and say, I’m with him, I’m with him.
The author of Hebrews is reminding his readers that the comfortable camp they might be tempted to stay in is passing away.
It’s scheduled to be shaken. It’s not capable of permanence.
It’s not part of the unshakable kingdom, and so they should not place their hope in it.
They should look, they should not look to the camp for comfort and security.
They should look instead, find their comfort in the city that is to come, which transcends earthly comfort zones.
Believers have received an unshakable kingdom, this city which is to come.
And while we can do nothing to merit the gift of this kingdom, it is by grace alone, based on the work of Christ alone,
and received through the instrument of faith alone, we demonstrate our possession of it through our desire for it.
Those who are citizens of the city to come have transformed desires,
and now, instead of seeking earthly treasures and comfort as ultimate, are eagerly pursuing the eternal city through the embrace of suffering.
Stepping into comfort, discomfort, for the sake of witness, becomes easier when you see that the kingdom of self that idolizes the current comfort
has a limited shelf life, while the kingdom of God never expires.
There is an earthquake coming that will flatten all earthly cities, but there is a city to come which is unshakable and lasts forever.
This second point of our passage involves a negative push to realize that the city we’re tempted to stay in of comfort and self-centeredness will crumble.
So, get out of it.
But then, on the other side, we have the positive painting of the possibilities.
Consider the cost of staying, and then appreciate the possibility of going.
When we go outside the camp, we join Jesus in his work of building that city.
We participate in the Holy Spirit’s population plan for his permanent province.
And finally, in our passage, we have number three, action, profession, and philanthropy, verses 15 and 16.
The author of Hebrews picks back up his priest analogy in verses 15 and 16 with the mention of sacrifices.
Look at verse 15.
Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
We just considered the kind of attitude or mindset that believers ought to have.
You and I ought to be willing to press into pain, to go outside the camp to meet Christ, where the insults and reproaches land on us as well.
And now we see the author spelling out two kinds of actions that he has in mind, speaking and serving.
Speaking is in verse 15.
What started the whole discussion of going outside the camp to meet Christ was the fact that he had gone outside the camp to offer a sacrifice for sin.
Then believers were told to go out and join him despite the cost.
And now that we’re out there, outside the camp, the author says that we are to join Christ in his priestly service by offering sacrifices ourselves.
But we’re not offering animals.
Verse 15 says that we’re offering a sacrifice of praise.
At first, that sounds like worship.
And in a sense, it is.
This is the language of worship.
But then the author specifies further.
He says the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
The Greek word translated acknowledge here is homologeo.
And it shows up all over the New Testament.
And in most places, it’s translated confess.
Here are some of the examples.
John 922.
His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be the Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.
John chapter 12, verse 42.
Nevertheless, many, even of the authorities, believed in him.
But for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.
Romans chapter 10, verses 9 and 10, famously.
Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
It’s also sometimes translated acknowledge, like we have here in our passage, or also in Matthew chapter 10, verse 32.
And the parallel passage in Luke, Matthew 10, 32.
So everyone who acknowledges me before men, Jesus says, I will acknowledge before my father, who is in heaven.
The Apostle Paul uses it in First Timothy, chapter 6, verse 12.
Fight the good fight of faith.
Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made or confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
The point is, the author of Hebrews is using a word that means more than praising God in a worship service.
He qualifies that the sacrifice of praise, which we normally associate in a worship service,
and says what he means by a sacrifice of praise to God is our confession of faith before others.
The going outside the camp and bearing Christ’s reproach involves opening our mouths, speaking about our faith to others.
Because if we stayed silent, we might avoid being ridiculed or ostracized.
The author of Hebrews is saying, don’t stay quiet, because when you speak of your faith, it is a sacrifice of praise to God.
Have you considered your testimony, your witnessing to others as an act of worship to God?
When we stay silent and avoid sharing about our faith, we’re holding back in our worship to God.
And God sees it when we do speak out and receives our confessions as worship.
So as a priest with the privilege of access to the intimacy of God’s presence through what Jesus has done for you by suffering outside the camp,
offer a sacrifice of praise to God by sharing your testimony with others around you, even if that exposes you to scorn and insult.
One of the most tempting ways to hide from ridicule is to hide our Christian convictions or avoid sharing about our faith.
No matter how friendly you are naturally, how good of a people person you are,
sharing the true gospel with sinners will always involve crossing a pain point.
There will always be a point of uncomfortability that never goes away.
The author of Hebrews knows that for his audience, just like for us today, there’s a temptation to shrink back from that pain.
What will others think of me?
Will they think I’m a weird Bible thumper?
Will they label me and group me in with others that they had bad experience of religious people?
Will people at work shun me?
Do I risk getting fired for letting others know I’m a Christian?
The author of Hebrews is telling his audience and us to lean into those situations of discomfort,
the possibility of being ridiculed for our faith by actually expressing our faith, sharing the gospel,
letting others know about our convictions and about the one to whom we owe our lives and allegiance.
So often, our attitude towards suffering, especially in countries where there is such minimal risk to sharing our faith,
is to avoid it at all costs, to shrink away by minimizing our witness, keeping quiet or downplaying our faith when others ask about it.
And the author of Hebrews wants to change that.
Kids, that might mean making difficult choices around your friends to honor your parents when the other kids think it’s weird.
It might mean talking to your friends or your cousins about Jesus when they don’t know him.
It might mean asking your friends to pray or to read the Bible with you.
Ask yourself, do I care more about whether my friends think I’m cool or whether I’m honoring Jesus?
Jesus says he’s ready to meet you where it might feel uncomfortable, where your friends might not think you’re cool anymore,
where you might not get invited to certain gatherings.
Don’t be discouraged. Remember that Jesus is right there with you when people don’t like you for being a Christian.
Before we close, we have the second action in verse 16.
Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
In case you were confused by the word philanthropy in my third point, I simply mean it in its most general sense of doing good to others.
And this is most likely connected back to what we saw in Chapter 10, where the believers had previously, by their kindnesses to persecuted brothers and sisters,
become recipients of persecution themselves.
So they would have been tempted to hold back material support from those who were receiving persecution.
But the author reminds them that such generous support of those who are persecuted,
which might invite reproach, is a beautiful sacrifice of worship to God, much like their testimony it was.
For us today, it’s a good reminder of the place that hospitality can play in our witness.
The original audience had shown hospitality to fellow believers and experienced persecution as a result.
Rosaria Butterfield has written several books on God’s story of bringing her to himself despite her being a most unlikely convert.
One of the most powerful tools God used to soften her heart was the hospitality of a minister and his wife.
Rosaria was someone definitely outside the camp.
At the time, she was unbelieving.
She was an unbelieving feminist literature professor set on discrediting the Bible, living in a homosexual relationship.
And yet this pastor and his wife welcomed her and her partner into their home to dinner and discussion with them.
Pastor Ken’s friendship with Rosaria took years to bear fruit, but eventually led to her conversion.
Don’t underestimate the power of serving others as part of your witness to Christ and recognize that God considers it a beautiful sacrifice offered ultimately to him.
In conclusion, brothers and sisters, the author of Hebrews calls us to three essential responses as we stand on the unshakable foundation of our unchanging Savior, Jesus Christ.
First, appreciate the extraordinary privilege we have in the New Covenant.
We eat from a heavenly altar that the old covenant priests could never even touch.
Through Jesus’s once for all sacrifice, we enjoy direct access to God, intimacy, grace, security that no ritual or performance can match.
Don’t trade this supreme gift for anything lesser.
Let grace alone strengthen your heart.
And second, cultivate an attitude of pressing into pain rather than clinging to comfort.
Jesus suffered outside the gate, bearing reproach to sanctify us.
Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach that he endured.
And this isn’t a call to seek suffering for its own sake, but to join Jesus where he is.
To willingly face ridicule, exclusion, or scorn for his namesake, because here we have no lasting city, but we eagerly seek the one that is to come.
Don’t shrink back into safety.
Step out towards him, finding true fellowship in shared reproach and the promise of an eternal unshakable home.
And finally, respond with concrete action.
Continually offer the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess and acknowledge Christ, his name, even when it costs you social comfort.
Speak boldly for Christ and don’t neglect doing good and sharing what you have through generosity, hospitality and service to others, especially those who suffer for the faith, because these are pleasing sacrifices to God.
So go to him outside the camp, bear his reproach, confess his name, serve in love.
For doing so, you honor the same Jesus who was and who is and who is to come forever.
So may we live as those who belong to the city that is to come, faithfully following our unchanging Lord until we arrive home.
Amen. Let’s pray.
Our Lord and our God, our Father, who sent his one and only Son, whom he was well pleased to suffer outside the camp for our sakes and who now calls us to follow him outside the camp,
where the reproach, where the reproach is, but where the fellowship with Christ is sweetest.
Lord, we ask that you would give us that same desire, that same spirit, that same, that faith to see Jesus where he is and to seek after him.
We ask that you would give us the spirit of Jesus by the Holy Spirit.
And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
Well, in response, let’s turn and sing him five eleven.
Let’s stand. Let’s stand as we sing and sing him number five eleven.