[Prayer]
Today’s message is from Hebrews 13:15-25. I’m actually including the last two verses from the passage I spoke on two weeks ago. Those would be verses 15 and 16. I covered them kind of briefly two weeks ago and want to say a little more.
Remember as always as we read the passage that we are reading the word of God. The writer of Hebrews is writing to Jewish believers in the early church, but God is also speaking to us through what he has written.
Also, as always, I want to remind all of you to read and to study your Bibles every day. (How many of you read the Bible other than on Sunday and when we have a Bible study on Wednesday?) Jesus told his disciples, “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (John 14:26) The Holy Spirit also will remind us of everything God has said to us. But that can’t happen unless we know what he has said to us. We won’t know unless we read the word of God!
So now let’s read the passage—Hebrews 13:15-25. Remember that we are reading the word of God.
15Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. 16And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
17Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.
18Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. 19I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.
20May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
22Brothers, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written you only a short letter.
23I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you.
24Greet all your leaders and all God’s people. Those from Italy send you their greetings.
25Grace be with you all. (Hebrews 13:15-25)
The first two verses in today’s passage, verses 15 and 16, say, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”
Two weeks ago I talked about the passage in Hebrews that comes immediately before today’s passage. (We departed from Hebrews last week when Tom talked about the extreme importance of forgiveness.) The writer of Hebrews compared the sacrificial altar that Christians have with the altar that those who were still following the Law of Moses had. (Remember, this was written to Jewish Christians who no longer followed the sacrificial Law of Moses.)
The Law of Moses required that an animal sacrifice be made to atone for sin. The blood of the animal was sprinkled on the altar. But the blood of the animal didn’t really take away sin. After the sacrifice, they were still sinners. The sacrifice had to be made over and over again.
But we have an altar on which a much better sacrifice was made. Jesus sacrificed himself for our sin once for all time. He offered his own blood to take away our sin. Those who were continuing to offer the blood of sacrificial animals were rejecting Jesus’s sacrifice, the only thing that could really save them. They were rejecting God’s salvation!
The bottom line is that if you think you can be saved from your sin, saved from God’s wrath and judgment, by performing some sort of ritual, you are horribly mistaken. And if you think you can be saved doing good deeds, you are horribly mistaken. If you think you can be saved by Christian ministry—by teaching or preaching the Bible—or even by leading others to Christ, you are horribly mistaken.
I heard a story a long time ago: A man had accepted Christ at an evangelistic meeting and became a Christian. Years later he met the evangelist who had preached on the street and recognized him. He wanted to thank him for leading him to Christ so he stopped and talked to him. It turned out that the evangelist had taken up a different line of work. He said to the man, “Did you really believe that stuff I was preaching? I was just making a living.” As it turned out, the evangelist was lost and without hope. But the man who had listened to his message was saved! We are not saved by the deeds we do, but by trusting in the sacrifice that Jesus made for our sin. We are saved by trusting in Jesus! And this is not to say that we shouldn’t do good deeds. We are continually being told to do good deeds. The writer of Hebrews, in fact, says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” (Heb. 10:24) But we are not saved by good deeds, but by God’s grace and through faith.
Verses 15 and 16, say, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” We can make sacrifices at our altar, too—not to take away sin—Jesus has already done that once for all time—but because it is pleasing to God for us to make sacrifices. Do you want to please God? Do you think God is pleased with you? And this has nothing to do with your salvation. Salvation comes through your entrusting yourself to Jesus.
Some people say that when God looks at you he sees Jesus, so he must be pleased with you. The truth is that God looks at you and sees a son (or daughter)—a brother or sister of Jesus. He may look at you and see a son that needs some discipline—who needs to be taught to be unselfish and to love his neighbor as himself. Are you pleased with your kids when they’ve done something wrong and need to be corrected? Do you love them? God loves us and treats us as his children. When we do what he wants us to do, he is pleased with us. When we don’t do what he wants us to do, he is not pleased. But he loves us. And love is something God does more than what he feels. (I talked about love and feelings two weeks ago.) When we respond to God’s love, that’s what pleases him.
Verse 15 says, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.” There are several points here. First the praise has to be through Jesus to be pleasing to God. We come together on Sunday and sing hymns and worship songs. We sometimes read Psalms and doxologies and give thanks for God’s answers to prayers. Why do we do these things? Do we do them because God says to do them? Do we do them because it makes us feel good to do them? Do we do them just because we do them? The first two reason, at least, are valid reasons. But if these things don’t rest on the love and mercy and sacrifice of Jesus, they are meaningless.
Verse 15 says, “...let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise...” Continually doesn’t mean just on Sunday morning. This is something we need to do all of the time—all through the week and all through the year. And, you know, this sacrifice of praise, this concept of making praise a sacrificial offering to God is not something new in the New Testament. I looked up the Greek phrase sacrifice of praise in the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint. It’s there in the Old Testament, only it’s translated as “a sacrifice of thanksgiving”. Here’s an example. This from the New American Standard Bible—Psalm 107:1-22:
1 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary,
3 And gathered from the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south.
4 They wandered in the wilderness in a desert region; They did not find a way to an inhabited city.
5 They were hungry and thirsty; Their soul fainted within them.
6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; He delivered them out of their distresses.
7 He led them also by a straight way, To go to an inhabited city.
8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men!
9 For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, And the hungry soul He has filled with what is good.
10 There were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death, Prisoners in misery and chains,
11 Because they had rebelled against the words of God, And spurned the counsel of the Most High.
12 Therefore He humbled their heart with labor; They stumbled and there was none to help.
13 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; He saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, And broke their bands apart.
15 Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men!
16 For He has shattered gates of bronze, And cut bars of iron asunder.
17 Fools, because of their rebellious way, And because of their iniquities, were afflicted.
18 Their soul abhorred all kinds of food; And they drew near to the gates of death.
19 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; He saved them out of their distresses.
20 He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions.
21 Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men!
22 Let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, And tell of His works with joyful singing. (Psalm 107:1-22 –NASB)
Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving! And tell of His works with joyful singing. That’s the sacrifice of praise!
Verse 16 in today’s passage says, “...let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.” How often do you talk about Jesus? How often do you think about Jesus? How often do you confess his name? (Remember, Jesus’s name represents all that he is—that he is God who came in the flesh to save us from our sin, that he is our Savior and our intercessor, that he will come and destroy death and make everything right.) We’re told to continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God. It’s the fruit of lips that confess his name. How often is the name of Jesus on your lips? If you acknowledge Jesus—acknowledge and confess are the same Greek word—then you will praise God. These things go together.
Verse 16 says, “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” Do you see how closely helping others and praising God are connected? You can’t have one without the other.
Let’s look at verse 17:
17Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Hebrews 13:17)
Leaders must give an account before God for what they teach and what they do. James 3:1 says, “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”
Tom has said that when he was teaching the Bible in China, he realized that he was the only source of the word of God that his students had. They had no printed Bibles to check out what he said. They took it for granted that what he said was absolutely accurate. (We do have Bibles here, though, so you can check out what we say to make sure it’s accurate—and I highly recommend that you do just that. However, we are still held accountable before God.)
The writer of Hebrews also gives a reason for us to obey our leaders. It’s to make their work a joy not a burden. Do you think God will commend you if you are a burden to your leaders? The writer of Hebrews says that it would be of no advantage to you to be a burden to those in leadership. (That means it would be a disadvantage to you in Bible terminology.)
And, you know, it says “Obey your leaders” and “submit to their authority.” But I noticed that the words translated obey and submit to authority were not the usual Greek words. The word translated obey is actually be persuaded to—be persuaded to your leaders. You can obey someone out of fear. But the writer of Hebrews seems to be telling us to be persuaded that our leaders are right and that they have our best interests at heart.
And, by the way, I looked up all the places where the English word obey is used in the New Testament in the NIV. It occurs 46 times. Usually, obey is either a translation of the Greek word for keep, as in “keep the commandments” or it’s actually the Greek word for obey as in “Children obey your parents” or “slaves obey your masters.” They is only one other place where the word used by the writer of Hebrews is translated as obey. Usually it’s translated persuade in the active sense or trust (be persuaded to) in the passive sense. I think the message the writer of Hebrews is giving us is closer to “trust your leaders” than it is to “obey your leaders”. Of course, if you have any sense, you will be likely to obey someone you trust. And I have to add that that does not mean blind obedience. Leaders don’t necessarily have all the answers.
(I also looked up the word that’s translated submit to their authority. (It’s just one word.) Hebrews 13:17 is the only place it’s used in the entire Bible. The writer of Hebrews did not use the usual word for submit.)
So let’s be persuaded to our leaders. Let’s show trust for our leaders.
Let’s look at verses 18 and 19:
18Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. 19I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon. (Hebrews 13:18, 19)
“Pray for us.” The writer of Hebrews is a leader in the Church, probably the apostle Paul (although it doesn’t say). We have to pray for our leaders. (Do you guys pray for Tom and for me? Do the kids pray for Delphine and Kim?) We should all pray for our leaders? How should we pray? How should you guys pray for Tom and for me? Well, for one thing, pray that when we are called to give an account, we will have done everything well. Also, pray that our work may be a joy, not a burden.
The writer says, “We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way.” (We probably includes Timothy whom the writer mentioned in verse 23.) The NIV says, “We are sure..., We are sure that we have a clear conscience...” but it actually says, “We are persuaded...,” the same word that’s used in verse 17, “Be persuaded to your leaders...” The King James says, “We trust that we have a good conscience...” One of the commentaries I looked at made a big point that the writer was stating the fact that he believed that he had a clear conscience in a more humble way than if he had said he was sure that he had a clear conscience.
And by the way, just what is a conscience. Here’s what it is: Your conscience refers to what you perceive about yourself—what you find out by self-examination. It has to do with whether or not you are obeying God. (Do you remember? If we judged ourselves, we wouldn’t come under God’s judgment.) Your conscience, however, is somewhat subjective, so you have to be careful.
I believe that God gives each person a general sense of what’s right and what’s wrong. We also have the word of God to refine that sense. But if you continue to ignore your conscience, you will become hardened and it will stop functioning. It’s possible for your conscience to become seared. The apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 4: 1, 2: “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” So don’t let that happen!
Let’s look at verses 20 and 21:
20May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20, 21)
This is actually a prayer. I repeated these verses two weeks ago when I talked about Hebrews 13 and three weeks ago, too. We should pray like this for each other continually. This is also a summary of all of the rest of what the writer of Hebrews has written.
God is the God of peace for those who trust him. He is not our adversary. (The devil is our adversary. Satan means adversary.) For those who trust God—those who don’t rebel against God, he is the God of peace. But for those who don’t trust God—those who do rebel against him, he is their adversary and fearful judgment awaits them.
And this is all about Jesus. It’s Jesus who provides the way for us to have peace with God. Without Jesus, we would certainly be under God’s wrath. But now, because of Jesus, we have peace with God.
Let’s look at verse 22: “Brothers, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written you only a short letter.”
We’re told again to listen what the writer of Hebrews has said—to listen to what God is telling us. He says that he has written briefly. He could have said much more. There is much more to be said! The writer says to bear with his exhortation. So I say, “Bear with my exhortation. Read the whole Bible!”
I’ll read the last three verses:
23I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you.
24Greet all your leaders and all God’s people. Those from Italy send you their greetings.
25Grace be with you all. (Hebrews 13:23-25)
It’s important to keep in touch with other believers and other congregations that are part of the church—to encourage them and to find out how to pray for them.
Next week, the Lord willing, we will start on 1 Corinthians.
May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
[Prayer]