April 25 Sermon: Seeking the City to Come

As we consider Hebrews 13:1-16, think on these questions:

1. How does the author of Hebrews emphasize the importance of holding fast to the original teachings of Christianity and not compromising for the sake of gaining worldly approval?

2. What are the specific ways believers are encouraged to demonstrate love and support within the church community, according to the passage?

3. How does the unchanging nature of Jesus serve as a foundational truth for believers, especially in the face of changing cultural norms and worldly influences?

Transcript:

One of the greatest temptations that we face as believers is to desire approval from the world. We like to think that if we could soften up the hard edges of the message of scripture then more people would believe. Our motives are good we want people to believe. We want churches that are full. We want more people to hear about who God is. There is an issue that comes from this though. If we start to whittle away at the some of the harder parts of scripture we will find that what we create will no longer look like the original. The Christian faith is not a renovation project. We are not trying to remodel it and make some of it more user friendly. The Christian faith is founded on the revelation of God in his holy word and we are to desire to hold fast to what we have received, not warp it into what we desire it to be. This has been a temptation since the earliest days of the church. In many of Paul’s letters we see that he is addressing ways in which false teachers have distorted the teaching of the Apostles. As we look at our passage this morning from the book of Hebrews we see the author encouraging his audience to hold fast to the faith and to stay the course.

‌As we come to this passage we are going to divide it up into three main points as we navigate it this morning.

‌The first section we will look at this morning will address life within the church. We will see how we are to bless others and how we are to live contrary to the world. There is a way that we are to build one another up and care for each other and this is a vital part of who we are as the people of God.

‌Secondly, we see how we are to live in an unbelieving world. As I mentioned we are tempted to desire the approval of the world. The author of Hebrews reminds us that our Lord himself did not find favor in the eyes of the world and so we should not expect anything different for ourselves. We are to seek the Lord and not the favor of the world.

‌Finally, we see that we are to seek something greater. We have already seen that the heroes of the faith have always looked to and hoped for what they could not yet see. We are called to seek the city that is to come just as they have. This leads us to praise God and offer our lives as a sacrifice to him.

‌And so with those points lining out where we are going today we begin head to verse one of this final chapter of Hebrews.

‌As we have seen throughout the book the author of Hebrews is calling the people to stick with the faith in Christ they have received. In the face of persecution they are tempted to abandon the faith and go back to the rites and rituals of the old covenant. We have seen the case unfold as the author has spelled out clearly how all those things of the old covenant were just pointing to Jesus in the first place.

‌Having made this case convincingly we are now seeing how they should live in the body of Christ as they continue in the faith. And the first thing we see is that they are to let brotherly love continue. If they are going to remain strong they have to do it together. Christians are brought into the family of God because they have been united to Christ who is God the Son. Therefore God is our Father and all of us are brothers and sisters. We are to love one another and again, it is not just a casual care for one another. We love one another as family and this gets fleshed out in real tangible ways for us here. The first thing we are to do is to show hospitality to strangers. This would have been something that they would have been familiar with. Back in this time the Jewish people had been spread out by exiles and the people who were faithful to the Hebrew faith would return to Jerusalem for the three big feasts each year. There was a custom that people would house fellow Hebrews traveling for these feasts. The author of Hebrews is encouraging this general practice to continue in the early church. If you see sisters and brothers in Christ who are in need show hospitality to them. Care for them as though they are family. We wouldn’t turn family away if they were in need. We should do the same for our family in the faith.

‌And the author of Hebrews makes an interesting statement. That those who have shown hospitality have entertained angels. Remember Abraham who showed hospitality to the three men who came to him. The idea here is not for us to be hospitable in hopes that angels come over for roast and potatoes. The big point is that we should take in others and be hospitable for who don’t know who we are helping and I think this is an important message for us. We’ve lost this in our culture. Hospitality is a lost art because we have closed ourselves off from the world in so many way. As Christians we should be looking for opportunities show hospitality that we might not only be a blessing to others but that we might actually be blessed ourselves by sharing with others.

‌And as the passage continues we are encouraged to care for those in prison and though in prison with them and also to remember those who are mistreated because we are all one body. As we think about this verse we are reminded of the persecution that the early Christians are facing. They are in prison for the sake of the gospel. This is one of the reasons that they are considering abandoning the faith. They are being persecuted and the author here encourages those reading this to imagine they are there with them. The reason for this is because they are one body. Again, we see this idea that Christians are all connected by their union with Christ. In many ways this challenge to us is really difficult because we are so removed from persecution. We hear stories of those mistreated for the faith but it is difficult for us to fathom the persecution that some of our brothers and sisters are experiencing. Yet we are called to remember them. It is important that we think of all believers and pray for them as we consider their circumstances.

‌And as we move on to verses four through seven we continue to see how those in the church are to live.

‌We are to hold marriage in honor. We look at where marriage has fallen to in our times and perhaps think that these issues of sexuality and unfaithfulness are somehow unique to the time in which we live but as you have heard me say so many times before this is not the case. The early church lived in the midst of a pagan culture and in that culture, spirituality was deeply connected to sexuality. Those in the early church would have felt the same temptations that we have today. It would have been easy to compromise on what God ordained as the standard for sexual practice. What we face today is not something new and enlightened as it is presented to us. It is a return to the pagan practice of the past and a deviation from the standard that God placed for sex between a married couple for life. The church existed in the midst of this and instead of succumbing to it the church spoke into these things and over time changed the ethic. It wasn’t easy but it happened and we can see what the author of Hebrews has to say about these things here. We need to hold marriage in honor among all. This union between a man and women is to be held high and supported and we are to keep the marriage bed from being defiled. God meant it when he commanded his people to be pure and not commit adultery. And there some strong language here as it tells us that God will judge the sexually immoral an adulterous.

‌Why is this such an emphasis over and over in the New Testament and the rest of scripture? Notice, it isn’t telling people to abstain completely and deny themselves. Instead God establishes parameters that reflect his nature and the created order. We are called to be faithful because God is faithful. We are to follow the created order because God ordained what this relationship looks like. We have to remember the commands of God are not arbitrary. They reflect his nature and we are called to obey them because he knows what is best.

‌And from that topic we see a quick switch from the topic of sexuality to finances. We are called to trust God and keep our life free from the love of money. We are not to find our security in money but instead trust God for he has promised to never forsake us or leave us. We can trust God to keep his promises and when we reject the love of money we acknowledge that we trust in the benevolent nature of God.

‌And we see this with the citations the author uses from the Psalms. We trust God and acknowledge that God is the one who ultimately helps us. We don’t need to fear what people can do to us because we have a loving God who provides all we need.

‌And one of the things that God provides for us is leaders within the church. Now, it would be easy to spin this as only being about respecting leaders and following them but look at what the emphasis is on here. It is on imitating their way of life and that is a humbling statement for those of us in authority within the church. Are we as those in positions of leadership within the church showing a godly lifestyle? Before we can say that people should follow leadership we need to be thinking about how we follow Christ ourselves and this doesn’t only apply to pastors, elders, and deacons. It also applies to teachers and others in the church in positions of leadership. And this should not only humble us but it shows us how we should pray for those in these positions. We need to be lifting them up in prayer to lead holy lives and that the Holy Spirit would give them a desire to grow in grace through the power of the Word. At the same time, seek out those that you can emulate in the faith and learn from them. I guarantee you that if you ask they will be honored to help disciple you and foster growth in the faith.

‌And so, we have clearly seen our first point about life in the church and now we will see how we are to live in an unbelieving world.

‌And I want to start out looking at this point by focusing on just verse 8. The call to all of these things is rooted in who Jesus is. He is the same yesterday and today and forever. He does not change with the current of the culture. He is who is and we know who he is because of the revealed word of God. We aren’t going to get some new revelation that will let us know that God has changed his mind. This is why we look to the Word alone to know who God is. In our age and every age there have been those who claim to have secret revelation from God. We do not look to these fallible human voices but instead to the unchanging, infallible word of scripture. We know that we can trust God’s Word and the truth that Jesus does not change. His word will not fail and so when the world comes to us we want to stand with our feet firmly planted on the rock instead of the shifting sands of the world.

‌And with truth under our feet we want to look at the big idea in the next several verses.

‌Knowing that Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever we are called to not be led away by diverse and strange teachings. As we look at this we see the author of Hebrews telling them that their hearts are better off being strengthened by grace than by food. Now, this seems like a pretty obvious statement for us. How could food possibly strengthen their hearts? Remember what the temptation is for those receiving this message from the author of Hebrews. They are considering returning to practices and rituals of the old covenant. We don’t know exactly what was going with what is being described here but I think our best guess is that those trying to get Christian believers to return to the Old Covenant rituals were saying they weren’t getting the benefits of God because they weren’t eating the feasts. The author of Hebrews reminds them of what has been said throughout this book. Those rituals were just pointing to Jesus in the first place. There is a better altar where Jesus was sacrificed and without faith in him the priests are not welcome to come to it and eat.

‌These people were unbelievers who rejected Jesus as Messiah. They are an influence outside the church and they are to reject it and once again the author of Hebrews goes to Old Testament imagery to make his point like we have seen so many times in this book.

‌In the Old Covenant when the animals were sacrificed the bodies were taken outside the camp to be burned. The imagery in this was that the animals had the sins of the people on them and so they were unclean and had to be taken outside the camp to be burned.

‌And so the author of Hebrews tells them to reject this influence from outside the church by going away from this false teaching. Jesus suffered outside the city gates and he made his people holy through his precious blood so let us go to him and away from those from outside the church trying to lead us astray.

‌While we don’t have the same situation it still applies to us. Why would we listen and follow unbelievers when we can go to Jesus. Yes, it means that we go against what the culture tells us. Yes we will outsiders in an unbelieving world but Jesus is there. The one who suffered and died for us is there so let us go to him and away from the allure of the world. It may mean that we are persecuted but we remember that Jesus suffered on our behalf and so we should not expect the world to love us. If they hated our savior, they are not going to like his followers and so may we turn away from the unbelieving influence on the church and cling to the one who suffered and died on our behalf.

‌And as this passage closes up we see our final point. We are called to seek something greater.

‌Why do we do this? Because this isn’t our home anyway. The city of man isn’t our final destination. Instead we seek the city that is to come. The city of God. It is what the heroes of the faith sought after and we are called to seek the same thing.

‌And truly this only makes sense, right? When you have a destination in mind that is better than where you are you don’t look back. If I’m travelling to a vacation destination my mind isn’t on what is behind me. My mind is on what is in front of me. Why would I look back to the city that rejected my savior when I can look to the city that he has secured for me in his precious life, death, and resurrection? Why would I desire the city that hates the one who made me and redeemed me? We seek the city to come because he has secure it for us.

‌And that leads us to continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. When I look to the city to come I can more clearly see the evil of this world and the deficits of this world and so I praise God that he has made me a citizen of the city to come. And what else do we do? We do good and share with others. We’ve come full circle to where we started. We are being admonished to do the same things we saw at the start of the chapter but now we are told that these are sacrifice of praise that please God. But these sacrifices are not like the sacrifices in the Old Covenant that were for the forgiveness of sins. Instead, they are sacrifices of praise given to God for who he is and what he has done to save us. These things please God and they honor him for who he is and what he has done.

‌And so, in light of these great truths that call us to hold fast to the faith and seek the city to come I want us to leave here today with two applications as we step out into an unbelieving world this week.

‌First, remember that Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever. I think this is such an important truth for us in our time. The world moves fast. It’s hard to keep up with what we are supposed to feel, think, and do by the world’s standards. If you want to be someone who pleases the world you are going to struggle to keep up and frankly it will never be enough. As I said earlier. Jesus was rejected by the world we shouldn’t expect anything less as his followers. What we can do is realize that the one who was rejected by the world did so for us and it was to bring us to himself. That status as his children will never change if you are in him. You have been united to him and he will not let you go. There is such great assurance in this truth. Jesus is the same forever and so we can trust that his word is forever and it will not fail. Trust in Jesus and the power of his word for that is where peace and hope come from. These are things that the world cannot offer and so cling to the eternal one who gives these things abundantly.

‌Finally, a challenge. Look for new ways to live out the love God has shown you in Christ. Our passage this week started out with the admonition to let brotherly love continue and to show hospitality. As I mentioned. These are things that we see less and less of in our day but they are to be things that believers in the Lord Jesus are dedicated to. As we strive to look more like our savior and less like the world this is one of the places that it can be glaringly obvious that we serve King Jesus. But, it doesn’t come easy. Finding ways to love our brothers and sisters in Christ takes work. It means that we seek out ways to build one another up in faith. It means we are hospitable to one another and care for one another. May we be a people of God who seeks to build one another up as we seek the city that is to come where together we will praise our savior who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.