The Book of Hebrews 7. " Exhortations to Endure"

Last time we completed the first section of Hebrews that pictured for us the greatness and uniqueness of Jesus Christ. The writer has taken us deeper and deeper in theological reflections.

Just how great is Jesus according to the writer of Hebrews?

•  He is greater than any angel of God.
• He is greater than any prophet of God, including Moses and Abraham.
• He is greater than any priest of God, even the Levitical High Priests.
• The priestly line from which He is descended is the great line of Melchizedek.
•  He has a superior ministry to any who came before or who will come after.
•  He is the minister of a ‘new’ covenant, written not on tablets of stone, but hearts of flesh.
• He has made a greater sacrifice … the sacrifice of His own body and blood.
•  He is in the highest place, the holy of holies, having passed through the veil.
•  He is the Son of God, eternal and victorious over all enemies, at the right hand of the throne of God.
•  He is the One who having walked amongst us understands completely what we face.
• He is the savior and redeemer through whom all things came into being and in whom all things find their ultimate purpose.

Through placing our faith in who He is and what He has done we have forgiveness for our sins, access to God and can find strength to live through His Holy Spirit.  There will come a glorious day when He takes his rightful place and all recognize His Lordship.

With all this rich teaching it is hardly surprisingly that along the way the writer has warned us to pay attention!

• If Jesus were the greatest messenger of God (greater than any angel) we should listen more to what He has to say than to any others words.
• If Jesus promised us a Kingdom (described as the ‘Rest of God’) we should be sure that we don’t fail to enter the things of that kingdom through unbelief.
• If we want our faith to be a living, growing thing then we have to move from babyhood to maturity and feed on solid spiritual meat.

The first section, some 10 chapters, picture for us the greatness of Christ. The second section that begins at verse 19 of chapter 10 asks us to consider what all this rich theology might mean for our lives. How should we respond?

Hebrews 10:19 -25 invites us to three specific things.
•    Draw Near to God,
•    Hold Fast to what you have learned
•    Consider how to help each other along the road.

Hebrews 10:19 - 25 1Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh),  21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,  22 let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  23 Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.  4 And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds,  25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.  

We are firstly bid to draw near to God with the full confidence of faith. The imagery is that of the tabernacle and the temple. Verse 20 recalls the moment in the temple when Jesus died and the curtain that separated the holy of holies from the outer courts was torn in two. ‘the … way that He opened for us through the curtain (that is, through His flesh)’.

We are also reminded in that verse that this way is the way of the new covenant, the covenant that we celebrate around the communion table, a way made possible through His sacrificial death on the cross and given power through His resurrection from the dead, that this is a living way that offers a new way of living.

We are reminded that He is the ‘great priest over the house of God’.  Just as under the old covenant the believer had to come before the priest and the priest ministered on their behalf, so we come to Jesus and He intercedes on our behalf, His own life becoming the sacrifice that makes His intercessions acceptable.

We are bid to approach with ‘our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water ’ thought to be a reference to both the inner working of the Holy Spirit that cleanses and renews our inner selves and the sacrament of baptism, an outward sign of the inner reality of our cleansing through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Above all things we are called to approach God ‘with a true heart in full assurance of faith’. No pretending. No game playing or role playing. But to come before God just as we are, aware both of our need and the ability of Christ to meet that need. 

A praise song by David Fellingham captures these verses;

“Let us draw near to God, In full assurance of faith,
Knowing that as we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us.
In the holy place, we stand in confidence,
Knowing our lives are cleansed in the blood of the Lamb,
We will worship and adore”

The second thing we are bid to do is hold fast to what we have learnt. “23 Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.” Get a grip. Don’t let go. Cling on for dear life to that hope that Jesus has given us. When life knocks the stuffing out of us, as it will, look beyond the circumstances to the eternal hope that Christ died to give us. Remember that the promises of God are just that, “Promises”. Though right now we can not see, though right now we don’t understand, just hold on to what we believe. As we are reminded later this was a congregation who had been through some tough times and was facing difficult days ahead. ‘Hold on’.

Thirdly, we are to consider how we can help each other along the road. ‘Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds’. The greatest way to get others to do something good, is to do that good yourself. The most proven way of provoking others to higher things is for them to see you going there and they then gain the desire to want to follow.

In a similar fashion we are told that we should avoid ‘neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but need to be ‘encouraging one another’. Again, the best way to get people to be regular in church attendance is leading by example. If people see that we don’t think it’s important, why should they think it matters?

Finally we are asked to remember that we don’t have all the time in the world ‘you see the Day approaching.’  This may be a way the writer is getting us ready for another warning. We haven’t had a ‘wake up and pay attention’ passage for a while, but here it comes....

Warning number 4 … Now hold on…“The Danger of Apostasy”

26 For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,  27 but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.  28 Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy "on the testimony of two or three witnesses."  29 How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace?  30 For we know the one who said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people."  31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

One of the many mysteries of salvation is the question “What happens to people who fall away from the faith?” This passage raises such a question and then never fully gives us the satisfaction of answering it, but rather suggests that we shouldn’t take any chances by playing with fire. 26 For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,  27 but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.”

Under the old covenant of the Mosaic law there were certain actions that could not be atoned for, but rather the punishment was death. Aside from acts that were simply wrong, there were also those that fell into the category of “You knew this was wrong but you went ahead and did it anyway”. Such acts were attested to by ‘two or three witnesses.’

In the gospels (aside from John) we are given the question of the ‘unforgivable sin’ described as ‘blasphemy of the Holy Spirit’ and thought to be related to the fact that amongst those that testified against Christ were those to whom God had revealed the truth, but they chose to call it a lie and went against what they knowingly knew was right, attributing to evil what was genuinely the work of God’s Spirit.

So we find the writer warning us “29 How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace?” Descriptions such as, “spurning the Son of God,” “profaning the blood of the covenant,” and “outraging the Spirit of grace” are different ways of expressing not having faith in Jesus Christ,or not trusting in Jesus Christ. Paul uses similar terminology.

This passage does not refer to sins in general, but specifically the sin of apostasy, which means the willful rejection of the Son of God. This is a warning to those who may have been headed in that direction because being a Christian was hard! They are cautioned in a manner that says, “Hey… if you think that holding onto faith is tough, consider what the outcome of the alternative might be! 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Having if you like, sought to scare the unfaithfulness out of us, our writer returns to a more pastoral mode offering further exhortations to endure. 

Exhortations to Endure

 32 But recall those earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,  33 sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.  34 For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting.  35 Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward.  36 For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.  37 For yet "in a very little while, the one who is coming will come and will not delay;  38 but my righteous one will live by faith. My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back."  39 But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.  

Verses 32 -34 invite them to consider how far they had come. It is as though the writer is saying, “You know, remember how it was when you first got on aboard this Christianity thing? Life wasn’t exactly easy. Indeed it cost you a lot! People didn’t like it. They spoke bad about you. You were persecuted, some of you even had things that were rightly yours taken from you. But you didn’t give up. You cared for each other. When one of you was in trouble you visited them. When folk were hurt for what they believed you stood by them. Why did do you do that? Because you knew that something greater had captured your souls! That ‘you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting’”

Then in verse 35 he counsels them quite simply…. "Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward". In other words, having tasted something you know that made you strong, don’t give up on it, because the rewards down the road outdo anything you could imagine.

Then comes 38, a key verse that will transition us into the next section. ‘my righteous one will live by faith’ or as the King James version has it ‘the just shall live by faith’. Hebrews 11, to which we will turn next time, is one of the greatest chapters in all scripture about faith.

Indeed we see how the author is setting a slightly different tone. He has moved from explaining why Jesus is the greatest to drawing out some of the implications of Him being the greatest. They are encouraging us, having discerned the truth, to know set about living into that truth, by not giving up, by encouraging one another and being bold to approach God in prayer, trusting in the sufficiency of who Jesus is, to get us through.

And next comes.... a chapter that reads to me more like a sermon than a bible study... and  focuses on  the stories of some great characters of faith from Hebrew history.

The Book of Hebrews. 8. " The Primacy of Faith"

We are in our second section of the Book of Hebrews. The first section outlined for us the surpassing greatness of Jesus Christ. Our second section seeks to apply to our lives what that greatness should mean for those who believe in Him.

Last time we looked at how one of the things that it meant was that we should develop a faith that is prepared to endure. If you recall the Hebrews situation, they were traveling through some difficult times. They had lost some of their early fire and along with it some of their folk. Things weren’t like they used to be.  

My theory of the authorship of the book is that it is the work of an editor who has been present at some great bible studies and sermons and is keen to pass on what they have heard. The book contains a variety of different styles, and the passage we consider tonight is a case in point for it reads like a sermon rather than a study. It is more like a separate unit than part of the whole.

That is not to say it doesn’t fit in with the rest of the book, rather to say that it sticks out from the rest of the book! If this section needed a title to put in the church bulletin then it could be confined to one word. ‘Faith.’ Hebrews 11 is all about faith.

Firstly, we are given a brief explanation of what faith is. Following that we are given a chronological description of people and experiences of faith that begins with Creation and culminates in the lives of those whom were contemporaries of the writer... the saints and martyrs whose lives they had witnessed.

And the whole thing ends, not with an altar call or confession, but on a cliff hanger! But we are not there yet. Let us begin where our writer begins, with a definition of faith.

Faith Defined - Hebrews 11:1-2

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval.  

A little boy was once asked what he thought faith was. The little one replied, “It’s believing in things that you know aren’t really true.” The accusation is sometimes made against Christians that our faith is nothing more than self-delusion. In reply Hebrews chapter 11 gives us the stories of folk who lived faith. The implication is that faith is not so much a proposition either to be accepted or dismissed but that faith is a lifestyle marked by active trust and dependence on God.

As such it contains elements of hope, dependence and mystery. Hope here is not wishful thinking, but a sense of conviction that because one has a relationship with God one can trust God to do things God has promised. It is this deep trust that stems from relationship that defines the lives of those about whom we will hear of as shining examples of faith.

We begin with examples from the earliest stories of faith, indeed with Creation itself. The writer declares that faith is a way of knowing and living based on the confident assurance that God is the one who has ordered all of creation and history. Using the repeated phrase ‘By faith…’ we are taken character by character through a history of what living faithfully before God looks like!

Faith Before the Flood - Hebrews 11:4-7

3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.  4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain's. Through this he received approval as righteous, God himself giving approval to his gifts; he died, but through his faith he still speaks.  5 By faith Enoch was taken so that he did not experience death; and "he was not found, because God had taken him." For it was attested before he was taken away that "he had pleased God."  6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 7 By faith Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected the warning and built an ark to save his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith.

Abel, Enoch and Noah are cited as examples of faith before the flood. The ‘living out’ of faith is what makes these peoples lives acceptable to God.

The reason why Abel's sacrifice was one more acceptable to God than Cains, is one of those mysteries of the Bible that is maybe best answered by saying “Well that’s the way it was!” Various theories have been put forward. To my mind the most satisfactory is that Cain offered a sacrifice out of desire to receive something in return, whilst Abel offered an offering that came out of His thanksgiving and desire to give of his best.

In Genesis Abel’s offering is described as being ‘first fruits', whilst Cain’s is simply giving something of what he had. In our stewardship minute for mission, Howard Batsford spoke of the difference between giving “off-the-top” (as one does with paying your mortgage or car payments) or giving from our left overs. Abel’s offering expresses devotion and thankfulness, it's “off-the-top”, whilst Cain seems to be just doing what he felt was the minimum necessary. Cain offers his left overs. The one is superior to the other; hence the one was more acceptable than the other. Abel 'pleases' God because his actions indicate he took God's Lordship over him with all seriousness.

Enoch, whom like Melchizedek mysteriously disappears from the scene is also described as having a life that ‘pleases’ God. We know about as much about Enoch as we do about Melchizedek … they were both taken by God because of their 'pleasing' and exemplary lives of faithfulness.

Noah, is declared righteous because he had developed a relationship with God so trusting that when God asked him to do what seemed like a ridiculous thing… build a big boat… he got on with the job and ultimately Noah was right, the rest were wrong. Noah exemplifies the definition given earlier that faith is ‘the conviction of things not seen’. The flood came… life started over again and our next character to consider is Abraham, followed by a passing reference to Jacob and Joseph.

The Faith of Abraham - Hebrews 11:8-22

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.  9 By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.  10 For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.  11 By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old-- and Sarah herself was barren-- because he considered him faithful who had promised.  12 Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, "as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore."  13 All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth,  14 for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.  15 If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return.  16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.  17 By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac. He who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only son,  18 of whom he had been told, "It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you."  19 He considered the fact that God is able even to raise someone from the dead-- and figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.  20 By faith Isaac invoked blessings for the future on Jacob and Esau.  21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, "bowing in worship over the top of his staff."  22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions about his burial.

The writer of Hebrews talks more about Abraham than they do about any other character from the Old Testament. We saw earlier his account of Abraham's dealings with the mysterious Melchizedek to whom he gave a tenth of all he had.

Abraham’s life is highlighted.
•    He listened to God’s directions and heads for a destination unknown
•    He lived in the land as a traveler and as an alien
•    He trusted God to provide him with a child of promises, against the odds.
•    He offered up Isaac as a sacrifice, even though he couldn’t understand why!
•    He invoked blessings for the future of his children, Jacob and Esau, and through them his grandchild Joseph.

Significant in this list of achievements is that they are all... achievements. Mentions of Abraham’s lapses and those moments when he took wrong actions are simply not mentioned. This surely gives us hope! God measures our lives by the times we get things right, rather than by the times that we mess up. We get it right. God notices. We get it wrong. We learn, we carry on and it’s over. Think of the thief on the cross. He messed up all his life. But one time… he got it right and Jesus promised him paradise!

All the time, the emphasis is on the fact that Abraham had a future in mind, a future being shaped by God. God would direct him to the right place. God would give a child. God would bring him to a new home. God would bring the descendants into being. Abraham never looked back. So we have those words in verse 16 “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them. “

This heritage he even passes on to his descendants and the example is given of Joseph who looked beyond the circumstances of his old age, and reiterated the hope that had been passed down to him of their being a homeland for his people that wasn’t Egypt!

God’s people of faith are a pilgrim people. We do not make this pilgrimage alone. We are surrounded by a great cloud of unseen witnesses, who through their faithful lives show us what is possible and urge us to imitate their example.  This was important for the Hebrews to understand. Their church was going through difficult days. Persecution. Loss of faith. Discouragement. By faith… the writer is urging, keep on keeping on. Keep trusting. Keep traveling.

And we’ve only got as far as Abraham! There’s a whole lot more. Consider Moses… our next character.

The Faith of Moses - Hebrews 11:23-29

23 By faith Moses was hidden by his parents for three months after his birth, because they saw that the child was beautiful; and they were not afraid of the king's edict.  24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called a son of Pharaoh's daughter,  25 choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.  26 He considered abuse suffered for the Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to the reward.  27 By faith he left Egypt, unafraid of the king's anger; for he persevered as though he saw him who is invisible.  28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.  29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned.  

This passage is the only one in the Bible that describes Moses as being a beautiful child. The beauty spoken of here though should not be considered as merely that of outward appearance, but more in terms of the blessing of God that rested upon his life. We sometimes sing a hymn that declares “Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness’ and it is in that sense Moses life had a peculiar radiance.

That brightness was not just from Moses, it was something that surrounded his life, present in his parents, present even in the lives of his two mid-wives Shipra and Puah who refused to carry out the Pharaohs orders and spared the lives of many Israelite children.

The achievements of Moses are highlighted.
•    He rejected the claim of Egypt on his life in deference to sharing the plight of his people
•    He persevered in obtaining the peoples release from Egypt and was ‘unafraid of the Kings anger.’
•    He instituted the Passover
•    He led the people through the Red Sea.

As with Abraham Moses is praised because he looked beyond his immediate circumstances in verse 27 ‘as though he saw him who is invisible.’ Prior to that in verse 26 we are told ‘he was looking ahead to the reward.’

Again, just like Abraham, it is the achievements of Moses that are remembered. Not his violent attack on the Egyptian soldier, or his stammer and inability to stand in front of a crowd that led to God recruiting Aaron to have to do his talking for him. Not his anger or the failures that led to him never actually reaching the Promised Land! Hardly surprisingly. All of that was not considered as evidence of faith!

The verdict on his life is that he pleased God… in fact he was so close to God that often people had to look away! And it is a tribute to his life that some of the enormous things he did do… like deliver the 10 commandments… aren’t even mentioned here in Hebrews. For sure… he was a man of faith. As were many others, for our sermon continues.

Miscellaneous Examples of Faith - Hebrews 11:30-38

30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days.  31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace.  32 And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets--  33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,  34 quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.  35 Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection.  36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.  37 They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented--  38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

We move quickly from Moses to his successor Joshua… who actually doesn’t get a name check, but rather the whole nation is praised for their unusual way of bringing down Jericho’s walls. Rahab the Prostitute, however, does get a mention. The emphasis seems to be that this was a time when the nation threw all their hopes on God, as well as did those who perceived what God was doing who were outside of the nation. Faith is an indiscriminate quality that could be found in the body as a whole and in those outside of the community.

Sometimes as churches we forget that God does not just work through the lives of faithful fully committed church members. Sometimes God throws us a curve ball and faith springs up in unlikely places. The whole faith community can sometimes become so focused on a thing as being the will of God that they come together as one. When things aren’t happening, God can always raise up people in the unlikeliest of circumstances to see that things happen. The Old Testament bristles with unlikely characters that are outside of the conventional ‘person of God’ mold. Think of the stories of women like Rahab, Esther, and Ruth.

Whoever first spoke this sermon was a wise preacher. He knew when it was time to finish! Verse 32 says “And what more should I say? For time would fail me”.  I suspect there are many occasions when the folks in the pews pray for their preacher to have such wisdom and restraint. Once you have lost somebody’s attention, you’ve lost them!

His point however is not that he’s wearing his listeners out, but rather that the Old Testament bristles with so many characters of faith that time is not enough to tell us about everyone of them. And in each case it was the trust they had in God’s promises that carried them through and shaped their lives. None of them were perfect, but their obedience to God defined their lives, not their failures.

It’s an impressive crowd that gets a mention.  Verse 32: ‘Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets-- who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,  quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight."

Hebrews 11 offers two images of the life of faith. One image is filled with triumph and victory over all enemies, with dramatic deliverance's from all threats and dangers, even death; the other is marked by torture, public mocking, imprisonment, beatings, stoning, homelessness, destitution, hiding in caves, and violent death. Popular names for the two conditions are 'triumph' and 'tragedy,' or 'success' and 'failure'.

Both are descriptions of the life of trust in God. The New Interpreters Bible Commentary observes;

‘Faith does not calculate results and so believe, nor can an observer look at one's lot in life and thereby measure the depth of one's faith. The writer is simply reporting on what has always been true among God's believers, and the reasons for the differences are hidden in the purposes of God. To offer both examples to the readers is in the service not only of truth but also of encouragement. The readers have suffered a great deal. To offer them only examples of suffering faith could add to their discouragement; to offer only examples of victorious faith could produce feelings of guilt and self-doubt. But both are presented, and the readers must locate themselves among them.’

Our sermon draws to its conclusion.

The Conclusion of the Matter - Hebrews 11:39-40

39 Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised,  40 since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.

Again the New Interpreters Commentary is helpful here as the author points out that there are at least two ways to understand these last verses. They may be read in a triumphal manner or a humble manner.

The triumphal manner fits in with the whole theme of the first major section of the Book of Hebrews, that Christ is the greatest example of faith that there has ever been. Those who came before Him pointed to the great salvation He achieved. God, in God’s time ‘provided something better’, the Good news of Jesus Christ. Jesus alone is the fulfillment of faith and bearer of the fullness of God’s promises. Christ is the triumphant one who leads the parade of faith.

It may be read in a humble manner, recognizing that those who came before us were living the earlier chapters of one continuous story and that the last chapter will be the greatest yet written. The “something better” in verse 40 has been prepared for them as well as for us. The humble hope is that we, too, might be included among those who, in the words of verses 13 and 16 believe, but who die, “without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them....Therefore God...has prepared a city for them”

Probably we need to hold to both the triumphal and the humbling ways of reading these last verses. Yes, the lives of these great examples of faith did foreshadow the greatness of faith that we see in Christ, but they also invite us to be on the journey of faith for ourselves. Together, pilgrims and saints, past, present and future, seen and unseen, we are travelers towards God’s promised glory! And all of it is made possible through the love of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 11:1 provides the raw material for drawing a profile of faith as it has characterized the people of God throughout their history. Faith is not simply belief that there is a God but trust that God “rewards those who seek Him”. Faith has a long memory and profits from the experiences of those who traveled the road before us.

Faith dares to look beyond the immediate crisis to a future created by God. Faith is tenacious and enduring, able to accept promises deferred in the conviction that death itself is not the end but a new beginning.

Faith cannot be forced on a person. People always have the option of, as it says in verse 15, returning to “the land that they had left behind.” Faith is courageous, acting often against the tide of opinion. Faith is something inside of us, a deep conviction firmly held, but it is not just an emotion but a hope that transforms the way we walk through life, the way we deal with the things life throws at us and something which shapes our priorities.

And what is faith? All of the above and more. A mystery. A gift. A way of life that pleases God. Our next chapter, Chapter 12, will be a motivational message inviting us to apply faith to our lives.

The Book of Hebrews 9. "The Motivation To Endure"

A brief reminder where we have been!  The Book of Hebrews appears to be written to a church that was struggling to find its way. They were a church that had received some great teaching and ministry. The authors concern in the face of opposition is not to dumb down the faith but dig deeper.

We are firstly given a picture of the greatness of Christ. He is greater than angels, greater than any prophets such as Moses or Abraham, greater than any priest as He is the mediator of a greater covenant. We are taken down the path of considering the mysterious Melchizedek and given to understand that even the priestly line from which Christ has come from is of a greater significance than that of the Levitical priesthood.

Through His death on the Cross Jesus has offered a greater sacrifice, a ‘once and for all’ sacrifice for sins. The curtain in the temple is removed and we are free to worship God, not in our own righteousness but through Christ’s greater righteousness that forgives, renews and restores.

In chapter 11 we are taken through a wonderful sermon that outlines the lives of great people of faith. We are encouraged to follow their example and see things through to the end of the race. Now in Chapter 12 we are given further motivations to endure.

1. The Example of Christ (12:1-4)
In these verses the writer urges the readers to follow the example of those who have gone before and to focus on the person and work of Christ.

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,  2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.  3 Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

The image of our lives being surrounded by ‘so great a cloud of witnesses’ is one of my favorite images from the Book of Hebrews. It places our lives, the lives of those who have gone before us and the lives of those who will come after us all into the same framework. It gives us a picture of the Church as this living body that spans not only all geographical places but also all chronological situations. Past, present and future we walk together in the promises of God. Those who have gone before urge us on. The time will come when we take to the bleachers to urge others on.

When faced with the immediacy of ones local church it can seem such a small concern. We can name most if it’s members. We know our way around. We can sometimes be overwhelmed by its activities, aspirations and ambitions or sometimes be frustrated by its lack of deep concerns or spirituality.  

But then we remember it’s never been all about us. It’s all about Jesus, and those who followed Him in the past, whose legacy we enjoy and stories we sometimes still tell. It’s about the Jesus who is leading us in the present and through our faithfulness may inspire others to follow in the future. We are surrounded by ‘so great a cloud of witnesses’.

In the light of their example we are to examine our own lives. Sin is here described as something ‘that clings so closely’. Discouragement is pictured as a ‘weight’ that drags us down. Christian life is pictured not as 20 yard sprint but a life long marathon race. The obstacles are considerable. Sin holds on and won’t let go. Problems and misunderstandings push us down. Yet… the writer shouts from the side lines… carry on… persevere… keep on traveling to the end.

Whatever you do as you run this race don’t fix your eyes on your fellow runners! Do that and you are doomed to failure. You’ll see their sins. You’ll see the things weighing them down. And you’ll make those sins and problems your excuse for holding back. Instead fix your eyes on Jesus ‘the pioneer and perfecter of our faith’.

When we fix our eyes on each other we see mostly our struggles. When we fix our eyes on Jesus we see His victory. We are invited to consider just how much He faced. Shame. Hostility. The Cross on which He died. And that He faced it all for our sake. That we may not ‘grow weary or lose heart’.

‘And you know’ the writer seems to say, ‘What is asked of you is not really comparable to what Jesus faced’ and an allusion is made to the struggle Jesus faced in the Garden of Gethsemane as He wrestled with God, asking that the cup of suffering may pass from Him, a wrestling so intense that He sweated blood. That’s what the writer is talking about. When you’ve reached that stage you have something to say. But until then, keep your lips sealed and keep trying to move on down the road, with eyes fixed not on each other, but on Him.

And if the way seems rough and hard – take heart. As the athletes say… ‘No gain without pain’. Discipleship is all about discipline. Indeed a sign of being truly a member of family is that you can expect to be put right when you are going wrong.

2. The Encouragement of Discipline (12:5-11)

 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children-- "My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him;  6 for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts."  7 Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline?  8 If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children.  9 Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live?  10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness.  11 Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.  

If God didn’t care about us then God could let us go our own way without ever interrupting the flow of our lives. But God is here described as a parent. And loving parents don’t let their children go whichever way the want to go but provide them with correction and guidance. From the child’s perspective, at the time, it seems unfair. Hopefully later in life they realize that if action hadn’t been taken things would not have worked out so good for them. As verse 11 puts it ‘Discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.’  

The writer encourages the hearers and readers to approach the rough spots in their lives with a particular attitude. An attitude that accepts that whatever comes along, somehow God is there in the midst of it, trying to teach us something, trying to correct something that’s not right about our lives. To trust that whatever God permits to befall our lives is ultimately in our best interests.

It has been suggested that when trouble comes our way, (as it surely will) it is best not ask ‘Why?’ but ask ‘How?’ Not ask “Why this happened to me?” but rather seek to understand how to get through this time in such a way as we learn whatever it is that God can teach us in and through the situation.  Don’t ask 'why' ask 'how'!

In his commentary Matthew Henry makes the following observation regarding the persecution endured by the church… ‘Men persecute them because they are religious; God chastises them because they are not more so: men persecute them because they will not give up their profession; God chastises them because they have not lived up to their profession.’  Such is again a contrast in attitudes. Outsiders think we  are too religious, God says we are not spiritual enough, those who doubt our beliefs question the truths we hold dear, God meanwhile simply would like us to live them better!

The point is also made that under the discipline of those that love us we learn to respect them and honor them. Because we have learned to honor and love them for setting us on the right track, so we live in a way we hope they would approve of. If that’s how it is with earthly guardians and parents then how much more so should it be the case with God, our heavenly Father. Verse 9 in the Message Bible puts it this way;  “We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live?”

Whilst God does seek for us to live disciplined ‘disciple-d’ lives, God doesn’t just leave us to get on with it all alone. He sends His Holy Spirit to help us.

3. The Enablement of Grace (12:12-15)

12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,  13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.  14 Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.  15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and through it many become defiled.  

In this great passage of encouragement our weakness in running the race is acknowledged, but the ability of God to heal and strengthen is lifted up. We all have those times in life we just don’t know how we’ll get through. We walk with shoulders down, stumbling along, heads hung low. The writer encourages us to not continue along that twisty turning road but  ‘make straight paths for your feet.'

The danger in not doing so is of course that we may stumble and fall. It’s hard to see where you are going when you are hanging your head walking along a bumpy road. If you are not walking surely and firmly, you can mess up your joints. Ask a chiropractor! Part of their work is to get people out of habits of moving and doing things that are damaging, and take up actions that bring health and strength.

In terms of a Church fellowship, the author seems to suggest that it is those who are dragging their feet who create trouble and create fertile soil for bitterness. There’s an old saying that ‘the devil makes work for idle hands’. I’d adapt it and say that the devil also finds opportunities to create discord through those who drag their feet when it comes to their commitment to Jesus Christ.

So the author urges the readers ‘Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.’ That verse also reminds us that fellowship with one another and diligence in our Christian walk isn’t just for our own sake, but for the sake of the gospel. It was said of the earliest Christians, “See how these people love one another!” When people outside of the church hear of Christians squabbling and arguing over things that are of little importance it is hardly surprising that they never darken our doors.  Pursue the holiness ‘without which no one will see the Lord!’ And to bring the point home we are given;

4. The Example of Esau (12:16-17)

16 See to it that no one becomes like Esau, an immoral and godless person, who sold his birthright for a single meal.  17 You know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, even though he sought the blessing with tears.  

Esau is chastised for the fact that he ‘sold his birthright for a single meal.’ He is described as ‘immoral and godless’ as he succumbed to fleshly desires for security. A theologian by the name of Oberholtzer points out that Esau’s inheritance “was lost because of his lack of future perspective and because of his present physical distress.”

In other words Esau was one who had his head drooped down, who wasn’t looking ahead but only at the ground in front of him. He had no future perspective. He didn’t realize how what seemed like a trifling little decision to get something to calm his hunger, could affect his future destiny.

How often in life do we also lose our perspective? We focus on immediate needs rather than thinking of God’s Kingdom. We live for today rather than for eternity. We miss the sacredness of every moment, and sometimes make decisions on the spur of the moment without thinking through their consequences further down the road.

Esau discovered that in missing that sacred moment he was placed in a position where nothing he could do could get it back again. There was no chance to repent. The reality is that life does bring those moments to us where we make decisions that we cannot reverse. We are told that ‘even though he sought the blessing with tears’ still nothing could be done. Our regrets are not enough to reverse our negative actions. Yes… there is grace for the people of God, but even grace cannot undo every action and whatever we do creates consequences that we have to face.

I wonder if at this point the writer is wondering, as he’s laying all this talk about discipline and actions that even tearful repentance can’t fix, if he’s laying down the law a little too heavy! For we are given now a picture of the relationship between the New covenant and the Old covenant, that contrasts two of the great mountains of Israel, Mount Sinai and Mount Zion.  

5. The Explanation of the New Relationship to God (12:18-24)

18 You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest,  19 and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them.  20 (For they could not endure the order that was given, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death."  21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I tremble with fear.")  22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,  23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,  24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.  

Mount Sinai was a fearful place causing people to shrink from God’s presence. Even an animal that touched the mountain had to be destroyed! But Mount Zion was a place of celebration where all those set free by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ could come with rejoicing.

Mount Zion is described as ‘the city of the living God’, and ‘The Heavenly Jerusalem’. It is the place ‘innumerable angels gather in festal gathering’. Lest we doubt that these are images of heaven, allusion is made to ‘the assembly of the firstborn  who are enrolled in heaven’. These are images that would fit comfortably in the Book of Revelation. The impression given is that the author is drawing from a larger source, maybe a sermon or bible study.

God is pictured as the righteous judge. All those made righteous through the death of Christ are there. The New Covenant is mentioned, possibly an allusion to communion. The theme of the greatness of Christ reoccurs as the final verse proclaims ‘the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.’

Mount Sinai, the place of the Old Covenant, is a fearful place. A place where people who heard the voice of God begged not to hear another sound. A place of gloom and darkness. Who would want to be headed there? You couldn’t get near to God through that way.

Instead we are encouraged to make a pilgrimage to Zion. This is an image the original hearers would be familiar with as it appears many times in the Psalms as the rich poetry invites the follower of god’s way to ascend the holy mountain. For example: - Psalm 48:1-2; “Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King.”

Now cast your mind back to our very first sessions. Do you remember we talked about how the Book of Hebrews was interspersed with a number of warnings?

• In chapter 1 we were warned that if Jesus were the greatest messenger of God (greater than any angel) we should listen more to what He has to say than to any others words.
• In Chapter 3 we were warned that if Jesus promised us a Kingdom (described as the ‘Rest of God’) we should be sure that we don’t fail to enter the things of that kingdom through unbelief.
• In chapter 5 we were warned that if we wanted our faith to be a living, growing thing then we have to move from babyhood to maturity and feed on solid spiritual meat.
•  In chapter 10 we were warned of the danger of apostasy and that to treat our faith lightly was playing with fire.

Now in chapter 12 we have our fifth and final warning.

WARNING 5 But hold On! (12:25-29) – Don’t refuse to listen!

25 See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven!  26 At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven."  27 This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of what is shaken-- that is, created things-- so that what cannot be shaken may remain.  28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe;  29 for indeed our God is a consuming fire.

When God spoke people were expected to listen! If they failed to do so then they paid the price. In the days of Mount Sinai, when God spoke the earth shook. Now Christ has come the earth and the heavens are shaken up. Remember that Elvis song… “All shook up”. As we are ‘all shook up’ we better wake up and pay attention.

Yet actually the Kingdom of God is beyond shaking. We’re the shaking ones, not the things God has set in place.  The Kingdom is firm and solid, like a rock that doesn’t roll. Jesus has established it fast. And the love of God is a consuming fire that can purify our lives through the action of the Holy Spirit. The image of Pentecost, and the flames that touched the heads of those gathered in the upper Room, empowering them for service, is here evoked.

And the purpose is not to scare us but to create thanksgiving towards God for all God has done for us in Jesus Christ. It is that story of redemption… Christ lived, Christ Died and Christ is Risen Again … that should inspire us and move us to Christian service that should fill our lives with reverence and awe.

Maybe that is particularly true during the Christmas Season when we contemplate that the Savior of the world came to us as baby in a manger, born to humble parents, welcomed by shepherds and worshiped by the wise.

So hold on… don’t refuse to listen to the songs the Christmas angels proclaim, ‘Christ is Born in Bethlehem!”  

The book of Hebrews 10. " Concluding Exhortations"

As the author of Hebrews draws his letter to a close, in style similar to Paul, he offers some concluding remarks. We should read them against the background of all that has come before. We have had an extended study on the greatness of Christ, (including the mysteries of Melchizedek), enjoyed a magnificent sermon on ‘What is faith?’ and in our last chapter were given some strong motivations to ‘finish the race’ with an enduring hope in the grace of God guiding our steps.

So now the concluding remarks. Verse 1-6 speak of duties that the reader is invited to excel in. Love, Hospitality, Empathy with those who suffer, Purity, Chastity and Christian Contentment are all lifted up as virtues to be lived out in practical ways.

Practical Virtues

Hebrews 13:1 Let mutual love continue.  2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.  3 Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.  4 Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.  5 Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, "I will never leave you or forsake you."  6 So we can say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?"

The word used for brotherly love is here “philadelphia’ (same as the U.S. city). Love of one another was to be the defining characteristic of the early church, and should continue to be so as we seek to be faithful to Christ’s call.  To quote Matthew Henry on this verse, “The spirit of Christianity is a spirit of love. Faith works by love.”

The church addressed in Hebrews is a church under siege from forces outside of them and amongst them. Internal conflicts could be even more destructive than external ones. In the face of outside persecution they need to pull together and lift each other up. This has been a concern of the author throughout the letter, “Do not give up meeting together as some have done! Build each other up! Remember those great examples of faith that have come before you!”

The love that they mutually shared was not to be kept for themselves but extended to strangers. We are given that lovely phrase regarding extended hospitality ‘for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.’ The allusion here is most likely to the Old Testament story of Abraham and Sarah welcoming three strangers who bought to them the news that Sarah was to bear a son of promise in her old age. They entertained ‘angels unawares’ as some translations have it.

How easy it is in church life to neglect to be hospitable. To become so concerned with us and ours that we forget it isn’t about us and none of it is ours! All that we have is a gift of grace from God to be passed onto others. As one commentator has observed, “The church is the only institution that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.” The Lord we seek to follow came to serve and offered too many the world refused to recognize the dignity and worth of a child of God. That’s the one we follow!

Another feature of Christ’s life that we seldom dwell upon (and indeed of his disciples) is the fact that He was both unjustly imprisoned and tortured. Such was a fate that was befalling some within the Hebrews congregation. The reader is encouraged to stand by them in their suffering. This could be costly, as it would also mark them out as belonging to Christ.

Two of the commandments, relating to adultery and coveting are lifted up in the next verses. ‘Let marriage be held in honor’ and ‘Keep your lives free from the love of money’. In our contemporary world these injunctions do not sound out of place. We still live in a world where money, sex and of course power, are ever present.

The way to resist such temptations is, as the writer suggests, to ‘be content with what you have’, which can apply to relationships as much as possessions, and to find ones strength in having a living relationship with the God who promises "I will never leave you or forsake you." Likewise, when faced with trials, because of the promises we are given ‘we can say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?" ’

In chapter 12 we were given that inspiring picture of heroes of faith. Lest we forget that ‘angels are amongst us’ the reader is bid to remember those who had bought the gospel to them and the influence their belief in the everlasting love of God in Jesus Christ had upon their lives.

Past, Present and Future
 
7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.  8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  

Jesus Christ being ‘The same yesterday, today and forever’ is yet another of those biblical verses that a lot of people seem to know, but fewer can quote where it is from. Placing it in context, we know that some of the leaders in the church had by the time Hebrews was written had passed on. Others just passed through! Still others had been imprisoned.

Whilst the congregation should give thanks for each one, they had one true leader, Jesus Christ, whom had passed through death, was present with them in the Holy Spirit and would guide them to their future. Leaders come and go, but Christ’s presence was a constant reality that had always, was always and would be always there for them.

You know how sometimes when you write something down, you want to go back and put things in a different way? Like you’ve missed out an important point? The letter here appears to go back into teaching mode, in particular a reconsideration of the sacrifices of the Old Covenant in comparison with the one sacrifice Jesus had made that sealed the New Covenant. It’s almost as if the writer is saying, “Now just because the letters getting chatty, don’t forget to keep digging deep with your doctrine!” In particular the nature of Christ’s sacrifice is revisited.

The Altar of Christ

9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings; for it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food, which have not benefited those who observe them.  10 We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat.  11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.  12 Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood.  13 Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured.  14 For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.  15 Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.  16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

We know from other New Testament letters, such as Romans, that discussions over such things as eating food that had been offered to idols and as to how much Christianity should adhere to its Jewish origins in terms of rules and regulations were ongoing. The Hebrew community was not strangers to these debates.

Yet rather than entering into them at a surface level, the writer attempts us to see an underlying issue, stated in verse 10 as being ‘We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat.’ The Message Bible transliterates this passage so well!

“ Don't be lured away from Jesus by the latest speculations about Him. The grace of Christ is the only good ground for life. Products named after Christ don't seem to do much for those who buy them.  The altar from which God gives us the gift of Himself is not for exploitation by insiders who grab and loot. In the old system, the animals are killed and the bodies disposed of outside the camp. The blood is then brought inside to the altar as a sacrifice for sin. It's the same with Jesus. He was crucified outside the city gates—that is where He poured out the sacrificial blood that was brought to God's altar to cleanse His people.
     So let's go outside, where Jesus is, where the action is—not trying to be privileged insiders, but taking our share in the abuse of Jesus. This "insider world" is not our home. We have our eyes peeled for the City about to come. Let's take our place outside with Jesus, no longer pouring out the sacrificial blood of animals but pouring out sacrificial praises from our lips to God in Jesus' name.
     Make sure you don't take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship—a different kind of "sacrifice"—that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.”

I love the way Eugene Petersen gives us that phrase ‘The ‘insider world” is not our home’. Christianity is not about staying inside to argue about what we believe, but taking what we believe to those who are out in the real world! Christ is the true altar of our faith and calls us out with Him beyond our comfortable walls.

Such is the message that Christ seeks for us to embrace! Our next passage suggests we mustn’t forget the messengers.

Pray for Us!

17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls and will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with sighing-- for that would be harmful to you.  18 Pray for us; we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.  19 I urge you all the more to do this, so that I may be restored to you very soon.  

The greatest encouragement that those who lead in the Church have is when they see folk actually taking onboard their lives the things that they have sought to teach them.  It’s kind of like when a teacher meets a pupil later on in life, and that pupil says, “Remember what you taught me? Well I wouldn’t be where I am without that!”

The most harmful thing in church leadership is constant disappointment. The kind that makes a leader leave a church meeting and think, “Oh… why do I even bother?” And once a person gets into that kind of mindset, you can bet they are not going to give themselves heart and soul to the nurture of folk they think couldn’t care less about going deeper into the faith they once thought was important.

So the writer of Hebrews makes a simple request. ‘Pray for us’ Pray that the leaders don’t lose heart. Pray that they keep their faith sharp. Pray that they have times of encouragement and rejoicing that keep them fresh and bursting with good news! Pray that you’ll have the opportunity to sit under their teaching often.

Our letter closes with a benediction that is as ‘soporific’ (to use William Barclay’s words) as the opening statement of the Book.

Benediction

20 Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,  21 make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, working among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Barclay in his commentary claims this benediction gives us a perfect picture of God and of Christ.
i) God is the God of peace, who brings peace to individuals and communities when they seek to live according to His ways.
ii) God is the God of life. Nowhere is this more clearly demonstrated in that God brought Christ to life and resurrection following His death and Crucifixion.
iii) God is the God who shows us His will and equips us to do it. When God sends us out He does so equipped with everything we need.

The picture of Jesus is also threefold;
i) Jesus is the Great Shepherd of the Sheep.
ii) Jesus is the One who established the New Covenant and revealed, as none has ever done before or since, the love of God.
iii) Jesus is the One who died to show what God was really like and open the way, through His blood, into God’s presence.

Then there is an ‘Amen!’ Now you’d think the letter would end there, but just like some preachers sermons, you think it’s safe to leave the building and they throw in a few extra remarks.

Closing Thoughts

 22 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.  23 I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been set free; and if he comes in time, he will be with me when I see you.  24 Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those from Italy send you greetings.  25 Grace be with all of you.

After 13 chapters the writer tells us ‘I have written to you briefly’. I guess brief is a relative term! However he also says “bear with my word of exhortation”.

We’re told some facts about Timothy, presumably the same Timothy who was a friend of Paul, namely that he had been in prison but was now free again. Also that the writer hoped that when he came to visit Timothy would be with him. All the leaders are greeted… and Italians offer them special greetings.

Finalé

I hope you have gained some insight into this awesome book that takes us down fascinating theological paths. The greatness of Christ. The mysterious Melchizedek. The primacy of faith. The encouragement to keep pushing onwards. The promise of God’s strength and love.

Our letter… and our study conclude…

"Grace be with all of you."
(Hebrews 13:25)

SUFFERING Session 1: Why Do Good People Suffer?

Why must we Suffer?
Can Pain possibly have meaning?
Can God exist in a world so full of pain and suffering?

These questions will not go away.
They have found their echoes in the hearts of millions of people throughout the centuries. Every age is marred by hate and suffering. And so we continue to ask the question. In these sessions we’ll be using some material from Chris Wright and Sue Haines book “Matters of Life and Death” that ask the question “Why, silent God, why?”.

We’ll look at the nature of the problem, the way other religions have approached the dilemma, question the mystery and purpose of suffering, look at the dark side, the experience of the Holocaust and other atrocities. We’ll review the Bibles teaching – ask what Job may teach us and conclude by presenting some specifically Christian perspectives on suffering.

The Nature of the Problem:  WHERE IS GOD?

"I'd like to see God.
I'd like to tell him a few things.
I'd like to say:

'God, why do you create people and make them suffer and fight in vain,
and have brief unhappy lives like pigs,
and make them die disgustingly, and rot?

God, why do
the beautiful girls you create become whores,
grow old and toothless,
die and have their corpses rot so that they are a stench to human nostrils?

God, why do you permit thousands and millions of your creatures,
made in your image and likeness,
 to live like crowded dogs in slums and tenements,
 while an exploiting few profit from the sweat of their toil,
produce nothing, and live in kingly mansions?

God, why do you permit people to starve, hunger,
die from syphilis, cancer, consumption?
God, why do you not raise
one little finger to save mankind from all the.., suffering
on this human planet?.'

That's what I'd say to God
if I could him him hiding behind a tree.
But God's a wise guy. He keeps in hiding!"

Christian minds have been vexed with this problem. It is one that cannot be ignored and will not go away. It raises questions about the very existence of a loving Creator God. C.S Lewis, in his book “The Problem of Pain”

“If God were good, he would wish to make his creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty he would be able to do what he wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness or power, or both.”

In her book Celebration, Margaret Spufford raises the problem in relation to the suffering of her daughter from cystinosis, a very rare, genetically-caused, metabolic disease. It is life-threatening. The following extract is taken from the part of the book where she is recounting the time spent in the Hospital for Sick Children:

“Now the existence of Belsen and its like, that is, of humanly created evil, I could, as a historian, cope with  intellectually. Genetic evil, creation malfunctioning from birth or from conception (as it was in my daughter's case), was more than I could account for or understand. These children suffered - and small children suffer very acutely, and worse, because no explanation is possible to them - because they were made wrong.

      The evidence of divine activity in, and through, creation and the minute ways we share in it has always been particularly important to me. Now here I was, living week after week surrounded by the evidence of failed creation, the rejections of our heavenly Father, the pots on which the potter's hand did indeed seem to have slipped.

       I think the bottom came for me one day when I tried to comfort a tiny anguished child (words are useless, only touch will do), and as I reached out to stroke his head a nurse said hastily, 'Don't touch him, his skull might fracture.' That same day a 'pious' friend called, and said enviously, 'Your faith must be such a comfort to you.' It was not. Belief in an omnipotent and all-loving Creator who is capable of producing results like those I was observing, produced for me at least as many problems as it solved.

       So there was I, a Christian, committed to the doctrine of a loving, omnipotent Father, a Creator. And there was I, living in surroundings which persistently denied this omnicompetence, amongst the 'failures' of God’s creation.”


QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Some people say that there cannot be a God if there is so much suffering. What do you think?

2. What reasons could a good God have for allowing a world to exist with both good and bad in it?

3. Look again at the poem ‘Where is He?’
 How does this make you feel?
 If you were able, what questions would you like to ask God?

SUFFERING Session 2: "Ours Not To Question Why: A Buddhist perspective on suffering"

“I could not help but ask; I had no hope of an answer, having always known that there is no answer, but it seemed to me that this woman would at least understand the terms of my question” Margaret Drabble in “Millstone”  

Rosamund, the questioner in the quote above, is sitting helplessly in a hospital canteen while her innocent baby suffers in a nearby ward. In Rosamund we are confronted with the agonies of an anxious mother; as she waits for her little baby, she recognizes the uselessness of explanations but cried out for comfort, for understanding.
 
There is a great difference between talking about the 'issue of suffering' as a detached observer, when we are comfortably healthy, and the agonized cries of the sufferer. In the midst of suffering we cannot afford the luxury of debating the pros and cons of the ‘logical problem of suffering’. The sufferer needs a more practical way of dealing with his or her own suffering, of coming to terms with it.

The Buddha recognized this need. His response to suffering was a practical way of coping with the facts, rather than a theoretical attempt to explain or justify the presence of so much suffering in the world. An incident from his life, ‘The Story of the Mustard Seed’ illustrates this shift in emphasis.

There was a woman, named Gotami, whose child had just died. She was so upset by this that she lost her reason completely. She went everywhere trying to bring her child back to life. Her friends felt sorry for her and said, 'Gotami, you should go and see the Buddha. Perhaps he can help you.' Thus she went before the Buddha still holding her child in her arms. 'Please bring him back to life for me,' she cried. Very gently the Buddha answered her: 'I can help you, Gotami, but first you must bring me something. I need one small mustard seed. However, it must come from a house where no one has ever died.'

Gotami quickly went in search of a mustard seed. Wherever she went, though, the same thing happened. Everyone wanted to help her, but in every family she visited someone had died. One person told her, 'Three years ago I lost my daughter.' Another said, 'My brother died here yesterday.' It was always the same.

 At the end of the day she returned to the Buddha. 'What have you found, Gotami?' he asked. 'Where is your mustard seed? And where is your son? You are not carrying him any longer.' She answered, 'O Buddha, today I have discovered that I am not the only one who has lost a loved one. Everywhere people have died. I see how foolish I was to think I could have my son back. I have accepted his death, and this afternoon I buried him. Now I have returned to you to hear your teachings. I am ready to listen.' 

 RISING ABOVE SUFFERING

 For the Buddha, theoretical questions on suffering serve no useful purpose. It is like the wounded man who refuses to have the arrow removed from his side until he knows who fired it, from what distance, with what kind of bow, etc. That man would die without knowing any of the answers. This approach to suffering reflects the Buddha's own life-experiences, his sudden confrontation with the existence of suffering in the form of a sickness, an old person and a corpse. His response was not to ask theoretical questions but to look for a way to rise above suffering.

        In this teaching on suffering the Buddha saw himself as a doctor who diagnoses the illness and then offers a cure. His teaching is contained in the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS:

1.    Suffering (Dukkha) touches everything in life. Instead of running smoothly, life is filled with disappointments, illness, death, and conflict. There is a general feeling of unsatisfactoriness and restlessness. For example, to want something badly is suffering.

2. Unsatisfactoriness (suffering) is caused by desire (i.e. craving after things). If we didn't become attached to things (our health, our wealth, other people) we wouldn't suffer when they are taken away. It is the feeling that we have a right to things that makes us suffer when they are no longer ours. The Buddha pointed to a 'stop craving and relax' mentality.

3. Suffering will end when we stop craving after things.

4. The cure. To stop craving, and thus suffering, we must follow the ‘Eightfold Path’, which aims at disciplining our life in a positive way.

Questions

1. Looking back at what Rosamund said: How might understanding someone's suffering differ from providing an explanation?

2. According to the Buddha, if we did not become attached to things we would not suffer when they are taken away. It is the feeling that we have a right to things that makes us suffer when they are no longer ours. Try examining the truth of this idea by listing examples of suffering that fit this explanation

SUFFERING Session 3: "The Dark Side of the Picture"

As you look around the world you can collect evidence of so much that is wrong: wars, injustice, oppression.., the list is endless. Certainly at times the world can appear to be a very dark place. How could a loving God have created such a world?

      The Bible does not formulate a theory to explain where all this darkness comes from. Instead, it tells a story known as “The Fall”. The origin or reason for suffering is traced back to the beginning. The first chapters of the Bible present a story of how a perfect world created by God was spoiled.

      The story of God creating a world that is good is told in the first two chapters of Genesis: 'In the beginning God created...and God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.' However, chapter three describes the darker side of the picture: people rebel against God's creative authority and are forced to bear the consequences.

A number of important things emerge from these stories:

• God designed and made a world that was perfect.
• God created men and women with free will - the ability to choose. He did not want them to be senseless robots.
• Mankind chose to rebel-they wanted their own way, not God's.
• The price was conflict, suffering and death - a spoiling of the relationship between God and humankind which had fatal consequences for the whole of creation.

David Watson wrote 'Fear No Evi'l during the last year of his life. As he lay dying of cancer he attempted to write of his beliefs in an attempt to explain why he had to suffer:

“God can do anything, and theoretically could have programmed us as robots, impervious to pain and unable to inflict it on others. Had he done so, life might have been simpler, but there would also have been no feeling, no freedom, no relationships, no love, nothing of those human qualities which make life worth living. Instead, God has made us with a genuine freedom of choice to go his way or ours; and because we have all naturally gone our way instead of his, we live in a fallen world which is still often staggeringly beautiful but which is sadly marred by sin, suffering and death. God has therefore entered our world in Christ and suffers with us.”

Jayne Grayshon – a young woman with a family – has had twenty operations in the last fourteen years. She asks in her book “Encounter” Is it wise to trust in a loving God?”

“I sometimes feel that maybe God has asked me to be prepared to go through the suffering to show that when we do have very bad times it doesn’t mean that God has deserted us, but that it’s part of the fact that we are on earth and not in heaven.”

      These quotations speak of what it is like living in a spoiled world. However, the consequence of the Fall is more far-reaching than individual suffering. This spoiling has three strands;

• Broken relationships between humanity and God. Instead of living in harmony with God, men and women are only too aware of their alienation from him- often aware of an attraction towards God and yet feeling a chasm of separation. This relationship could be restored only when God himself stepped into human history in the person of his Son, ]esus Christ (something we’ll look at again). So people often feel as ff God is hidden from them, and that they are offered only hints and glimpses of his presence. No longer do they walk together through the Garden (Genesis 3:8).
•  Broken relationships between people. Instead of living as one family, people have become rivals and enemies.
• A spoiled relationship with the good earth. The harmony which God planned has been shattered. Instead of being stewards of the earth we abuse it, pollute it and threaten to destroy it!

      On one level it is correct to say that these are the consequences of humanity rebelling against God, illustrating their ability to choose freely. However, to leave the explanation at this level would be to miss out part of the total picture. According to the biblical story, it was Satan, a rebellious angel from God, who prompted human rebellion.

THINKING IT THROUGH

Evelyn Underhill , in her book “Letters” questions the free-will argument in the following way:

“We can't, I think, attribute all the evil and pain of creation to man's rebellious will. Its far reaching results, the suffering of innocent nature, the imperfection and corruption that penetrate all life, seem to forbid that. The horrors of inherited insanity, mental agonies, the whole economy of disease, especially animal disease, seem to point beyond man to some fundamental disharmony between creation and God. I sympathise a good deal with the listener who replied to every argument on the love of God by the simple question, 'What about cancer in fish?'”

Questions:   

1. How well do you think the argument from free will explains all forms of suffering?

2.  In view of mankind's free will, how are we to picture God? Can God really be omnipotent? (All powerful)


WHY DOESN'T GOD STOP WAR?

Why doesn't God stop war? How?
What options are open to Him?
He's tried reasoning with mankind!
He even said once “Come, let us reason together!'
He has tried law and order, introducing laws such as 'Thou shalt not kill', and 'Love your enemies'.
Has mankind taken any notice?

So, what other options are open to God?
Two? Exterminate all persons responsible for war,
or turn mankind into a race of robots?

God could only stop war this way by stopping people, and he'd have to exterminate us all.

Or, God could turn us all into computerized beings, capable only of doing what is good and right. He could rob each of us of our freedom to choose to do wrong. After all people do choose to make war! God's big problem, however, is that He loves us! Despite what mankind is, despite all that we have done, God loves us too much to take up either of these two options.

So, He continues to try gentle persuasion.
He sent Jesus to show mankind that it is possible to love one's enemies! Jesus forgave and prayed for the men who were putting Him to death!

Our problem is that we think we can solve our problems without God's help.

But history, especially recent history, tells us just how well we are doing - YUK!

SUFFERING Session 4: "The Mystery of Suffering"

Some people argue that it is impossible to find any meaning to suffering… it is a mystery. This session sets out to explore the mysteriousness of suffering. Some of the extracts mentioned chosen presume a belief in God, others do not.

       The quest by some for meaning in the midst of suffering becomes a heartfelt cry:

“I do not beg You to reveal to me the secret of Your ways - I could not bear it. But show me one thing; show it to me more clearly and more deeply: show me what this, which is happening at this very moment, means to me, what it demands of me, what You, Lord of the world, are telling me by way of it. Ah, it is not why I suffer, that I wish to know, but only whether I suffer for Your sake.”
Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, quoted in Cicely Saunders, “Beyond All Pain”

Peter Lippert wrote:
“There are some who know everything, who penetrate even your great thoughts and decrees and give a nice tidy explanation of them all. They explain and prove to me that it has to be just so and is best as it is. But I cannot endure these people who explain everything, who justify and find excuses for everything you do. I prefer to admit that I don't understand. That I cannot grasp why you created pain, why so much pain, such raging, crazy and meaningless pain. I bow down before your glory indeed; but I do not now venture to raise my eyes to you. There is too much grief and weeping in them. So I cannot look on you.”
Quoted in Ladislaus Boros, Pain and Providence

       In the following extract, Margaret Spufford attempts to tease out why suffering is a mystery.

“I was surrounded on the metabolic wards by the failures & of creation, the drop-outs of natural selection. But the language of science, and of natural selection, and the language of theological belief in a loving, omnipotent Creator, have to be reconciled. Can they be? Here was the crux of my problem. These dropouts were human babies, with all the needs of normal babies. I am never going to be able to forget the sound of those screams.

       I cannot reconcile the images of tiny, deformed children with old men's eyes, in great pain (children who shrank from human contact because so often it represented more pain, the stab of a therapeutic needle which they could not recognize as therapeutic) with what I am bound to believe of a loving, omnipotent Father. I will not assent to all this pain as anything but a manifest evil. One of the commonest Christian heresies is surely to glorify suffering as somehow 'good'.

       In three successive generations- my mother's, my own and my daughter's - I have known physical evil. Two of those three times it was caused by fundamental metabolic defects, and of those two times one was caused by an error in the genetic coding itself. I have searched for a theological answer. I do not believe there is one. Would, or can, any theologian produce any answer other than that we are here in the presence of a mystery, insoluble in human terms?

       Why is suffering stamped indelibly all through creation like this, endemic everywhere?”

A Jew responded to the atrocities of Auschwitz in these words;

“The executioner killed for nothing, the victim died for nothing. No God ordered the one to prepare the stake, nor the other to mount it. At Auschwitz the sacrifices were without point. If the suffering of one human being has any meaning, that of six million has none.”
       
While it is sometimes possible to see a cause for the suffering, it often seems to happen completely at random. For example, in the case of a plane crash killing 300 people, how can we account for the 301st passenger who missed the flight because of a flat tire?

       Rabbi Harold Kushner, When bad things happen to good people, in a chapter entitled 'Sometimes there is no reason', paints the following picture of humanity being still in the on-going process of creation, the creative act being seen as the creating of order out of chaos (Genesis l: 1-3ff)

   “Just suppose God didn't quite finish by closing time on the afternoon of the sixth day? Suppose that Creation, the process of replacing chaos with order, were still going on... In the biblical metaphor of the six days of Creation, we would find ourselves somewhere in the middle of Friday afternoon. Man was just created a few 'hours' ago. The world is mostly an orderly predictable place, showing ample evidence of God’s thoroughness and handiwork, but pockets of chaos remain.”

       In Milton Steinberg's words, we live amongst 'the still unremoved scaffolding of the edifice of God's creativity'.

Summary

In this Chapter we have been looking at the idea that suffering is a mystery. Along the Way, Some important concepts and questions have been raised which will need to be considered later as we read other extracts:

• Is there any purpose to suffering?
• Is there such a thing as innocent suffering?                                       
•  If so, what does the existence of innocent suffering say about the nature of God?         

Thinking it through

1.What do you think about the three observations?

'I cannot endure these people who explain everything, I prefer to admit that I don’t understand”

2. Why do you think explanations sometimes repulse the sufferer?

For Reflection

Rabbi Kushner wrote this tender postscript two years after his 14-year-old son, Aaron, died from progeria, a disease producing rapid ageing and death in children:

"I believe in God. But I do not believe the same things about Him that I did years ago... I recognize His limitations. He is limited in what He can do by laws of nature and human moral freedom. I no longer hold God responsible for illnesses, accidents and natural disasters, because I realize that I gain little and lose so much when I blame God for those things.

I can worship a God who hates suffering but cannot eliminate it, more easily than I can worship a God who chooses to make children suffer and die, for whatever exalted reasons. I guess my (car) bumper sticker reads 'My God is not cruel; sorry about yours'. God does not cause our misfortunes. Some are caused by bad luck, some are caused by bad people, and some are simply an inevitable consequence of our being human and being mortal, living in a world of inflexible natural laws.

The painful things that happen to us are not punishments for our misbehavior, nor are they in any way part of some grand design on God's part. Because the tragedy is not God's will, we need not feel hurt or betrayed by God when tragedy strikes. We can turn to Him for help in overcoming it, precisely because we can tell ourselves that God is as outraged by it as we are."

 (When bad things happen to good people)