066 - Citizens of God’s City Live like This

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there something here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages.

Welcome to More Than Ink. Hey, have you ever entertained angels? What? Not to my knowledge. Not to your knowledge. Well, you would be surprised to find out that in today's passage in Hebrews, it could very well be that you've entertained angels without knowing it. You think?

Well, let's find out about that today on More Than Ink. Well, good morning. This is Jim. And I'm Dorothy.

And we're delighted that you're back with us on this wonderful fall day. We were just reminiscing about seeing what is a tradition in Brigham City. Oh, yeah, the sheep. The running of the sheep. Yeah, there's a herd of sheep that they actually walk them right through town.

Right through the middle of town. Every fall. And it's kind of a crazy view when you see all these sheep just completely filling these residential streets like edge to edge, curb to curb, right down in front of all these houses. It's crazy stuff.

It's lovely, though. I look forward to it every year. And it kind of just sets me thinking about sheep in a fresh way since we don't live on a farm and we don't have any access to these kinds of things on a regular basis. So it just I love to hear that little scuffle of their feet on the pavement and watch how the shepherds move them and guide them through this.

Yeah, guide them through this neighborhood that's totally out of their normal experience. So it's always good in the fall to watch the sheep come through town. So we know we're in the fall right now.

So we hope you're enjoying the change of seasons as well. And as the calendar comes down to a close in 2021 here, Hebrews here is coming down to a close. We're in the last chapter Hebrews. And then we're going into Exodus. And then we're going into Exodus.

I'm very excited about that. Yeah, if you've never read Exodus, it's really fun. And it actually will make a really excellent next place to go after studying Hebrews. We might even be able to dip back and forth a little bit because Hebrews is so full of the Old Testament pictures that Exodus recounts. Yeah, I mean he's appealing to Hebrew Christians, to Jewish Christians who know their Old Testament history. And so we're just going to go back to the Old Testament history.

I mean it's really, really good stuff. So we're into Hebrews 13. You remember when we got to the previous chapter, the beginning of chapter 12. He says you need to fix your eyes on Jesus. There's this promise that comes all the way from Abraham from God to us for those who live by faith that there's life, there's rest, there's a great thing. So he says, so from here until then, fix your eyes on Jesus and don't let all the stuff of this world entangle your feet.

Right? That's what he said in the beginning of chapter 12. Well, and then toward the end of 12 he had said, you know, remember that you haven't come to a flaming mountain and a voice that scares you. You've come to the city of the living God. You've come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, which of course is what he's been talking about all the way through the letter. To the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. And to this unshakable kingdom. So that's kind of the summation of the whole book and now he's going to get very practical and just make some really pointed applications. Since that is the reality and our God is a consuming fire, then we should be living a certain way. So these are practical, these are practical helps for us about how to walk in life.

And they're just really good. So how do we walk as citizens of this new kingdom? You know, this city designed and built by God that we're headed towards. How are we supposed to walk and carry ourselves in such a way that we reflect the fact that we are actually citizens of another place?

Another place. Yeah, because we've just come through this season when even those in the church, those blood bought ones indwelt by the Spirit of God have many behaved themselves like their citizenship in this place is the eternal finish important thing of everything. Right, when in reality we're passing through this place. Yeah, we're passing through. So how are we to conduct ourselves as citizens of another place or are we just jumping into Hebrews 13?

So take it for us. Okay, so right at verse one he says, Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can confidently say, The Lord is my helper. I will not fear.

What can man do to me? Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Excellent. That's the whole passage. That's the whole thing for today. Yeah, there's enough to talk about right there.

Then we'll wind back and take a look. How do citizens of this other kingdom who follow Jesus, how do they conduct themselves? Well, it's no mistake that he starts right out of the box with love. Let brotherly love continue. And this is not the agape word that we so often expect. This is Philadelphia. This is brotherly love.

This is because you are related and connected to one another. Abide in that. That word continue is mino.

It's the same word that was used in John 15 when Jesus says now abide, abide, abide. Stay put, drive in your tent pegs and let this be your dwelling place. Continue on doing what you're doing. Don't don't drift away from that. Yeah. And it makes me think that, you know, Jesus said in the in the latter days, men's love will grow cold because life becomes hard. And Paul's letter to Timothy said essentially the same thing.

You know, men will become lovers of self instead of lovers of one another. Well, and Jesus says, if you love one another, you'll know you're my disciples. Right. So I mean, that's just the key. That's the key distinctive of citizens of the kingdom of Jesus is the fact that they love. And, you know, we could say that all these other encouragements kind of flow out of that one.

Let brotherly love continue. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because he goes on. I think this is astonishing. I would change the order of these next five things. And it just seems like there's more important stuff than this.

But this is really not it. We underplay this next one verse two, don't neglect to show hospitality to strangers for thereby some of the entertained angels unawares. So we talk about hospitality. Yeah, Christians ought to be hospitable.

You know, you ought to be nice. invite people over for dinner and stuff like that. But this is this is a deeper issue than just being nice to each other and eating dinners together. Well, and I think perhaps that the writer of Hebrews has in mind Abraham who, because he's talked about Abraham so much in this letter, who saw these visitors coming not knowing they were angelic visitors, and greeted them at the door here, sit under the tree, sit linger a while you've been walking across the dry.

Yeah, at the dry desert, and go and and he fed them well, he fed them well and encouraged them to linger, don't be in a hurry to go. You know, we, hmm, we have a hard time sometimes opening our homes to that degree. And especially in this crazy pandemic season that we're just coming out of and to strangers to people we don't know.

We don't know whether they're clean, according to our current health standards. Are they one of us or not one of us? You know, yeah, strangers, strangers are clearly and this is a big deal in the Old Testament, especially strangers are people who have no one, you know, they're wanting to go through your area. They have no family to support them in the area. They're passing through, and they're alone. And yet hospitality was one of the characteristics that God had said to his people at the very beginning that you need to show hospitality to the strangers to those who have nobody who don't belong.

Yeah, it's a it's a it's a gigantic deal. And it is very much the heart of God. So those who follow Jesus ought to be displaying the same heart having a having a genuine and not just a, you know, put on but a genuine affection, and love and concern for those who have nobody.

God does. Yeah, because just like that, we only love because he loved us first, right? God came to us, right offered us a welcome. And that's, that's the idea here to hospitality is a welcome, an openness of heart and home.

Well, and I would actually put it it's a it's an elevation of the I don't really call it the, the humanity of the stranger. Oh, sure. I mean, we're like you. Exactly.

Yeah. And so it's, it's, I can't, or we were like you. Well, you know, that, that verse and was an exodus where the Lord says, Now you show hospitality to strangers because you were strangers in Israel. I wasn't Deuteronomy.

Well, yeah, I'll read one of them. Okay, I brought one of them up in Deuteronomy 10, or I've got this one from Leviticus. Oh, right. You know, you shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you and, and you shall love him as yourself.

Right. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I'm the Lord your God. So you were once strangers as well. So love others like I loved you and you were strangers. Well, and that is so important that you remember when that young man came to Jesus and said, what is the most important law? And Jesus quoted this very one from Leviticus second, he's first love the Lord your God, right? The Shabbat from Deuteronomy six, and then he said, and the second is just like it, love your neighbor as yourself. Well, in that instance, he goes on to tell the story of the Good Samaritan and the neighbor in view being the other, the unclean, the needy, the one who cannot help himself who requires something of you in order to reclaim his humanity, essentially. Exactly.

Great respect, great dignity. Yeah. And, uh, Jesus, when he's talking about the final judgment, remember in Matthew 25, he says, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

Right. So this is, this is at the core of the heart of God. He loves those who cannot qualify for his love, but, but they're alone and they're, uh, they're poor spirit is what he said in the Beatitudes. I mean, you, you just, without any other hope and God says, well, you've got me. And so for the stranger who has no one, we should be displaying God's love to them and not just being kind to them or talk to them.

He says in Leviticus, we need to love them like you love yourself. I mean, that's an astonishing amount of, and you know, at today, uh, we won't dwell on this too much, but we're such a divided culture, especially in the United States, worldwide too. And we divide over such what seemed like surface things. We are a divided church in many ways right now. How many of you who are listening are acquainted with, and maybe in your own church, there have been deep, deep divisions over secondary issues.

Secondary issues. And, and what that does is it causes you to ask yourself with every encounter, are they, are they one of me or are they one of them? And it's a, is it a mirror them thing? Are they, you know, are they stranger to me or they like me? And so, and that's just really wrong with what he's saying right here. You shouldn't make that determination with people. Are you like me or are you not like me? If you're not like me because of what I've seen you post on Facebook, then I can't talk to you anymore. Or because of the way I suspect you voted. Exactly.

Yeah. And so, you know, so we actually separate ourselves into strangers. You are a stranger to me. You are not one of me. So you don't deserve not only my attention, but now you don't deserve my hospitality. I mean, you don't deserve my respect. And that's, that's all very wrong. He's saying here, here's people who are at the bottom of the barrel in terms of no relationship.

You need to love them like yourself. Yeah, it's astonishing. So this is really, I debated, you know, when the writer of Hebrews put this first, but I think this really ought to be first. Well, let's go on to the next one in verse three. So remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them and those who are mistreated since you also are in the body. Yeah. So this is another category of people who are kind of forgotten in the culture and even forgotten in the body. But there's this emphasis on their humanity, right? You also are in a body that could be subject to imprisonment or mistreatment. But I wonder here if there isn't also a reference to in the body of Christ, right? Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, if one suffers, all suffers because we're members of one another.

So, you know, we have it very easy in this country in so many ways. And it's easy out of sight, out of mind to forget our brothers and sisters who are genuinely being mistreated and even killed worldwide for their faith in Jesus. And I think that out of sight, out of mind, that's kind of the key issue here. Those who are in prison are ones, kind of like strangers. Right, you can't see them. But you can't see them. So this really begs the point about not just the stranger you can see who's traveling through your area, but the one who's locked up and you don't see. And so to what degree do you actually pursue people that are not in your face? You don't see them. Do you actually go looking for them? Do you realize there are people that are poor and they're lonely and they're separated and they're locked away?

Do you have any heart for those kinds of people? And, you know, again, this reflects a gigantic character of God's heart in that he came to, you know, break us out of prison, the prison of sin. I mean, in so many respects, even in Exodus, he came, he took the initiative to boot them out of the enslavement of Egypt. So this is very core to God's heart. He's there to free you from the things that keep you isolated and which remove you from the eyesight of other people. Do you care about those people?

Do you take the initiative for people like that and those who are mistreated? Because they're in the body. I think that really is a sharp kind of rebuke to a lot of us where we get content with, well, I've got my stuff. I'm living in my home.

I've got all my stuff in my life figured out. You know, I don't need to go outside of my own self-created bubble. Especially now. Has that become a reality? Yeah.

And what he's saying right here is, no, you do have to get out of your bubble. You have to go find these people who are in places you can't see them. And you don't have the sense of reminder that they exist because you just don't see them. Well, he says remember them, right?

Consider them. Bring them to mind and commemorate what they are experiencing and see how that then would require you to act in their memory. And I might remind you there are more prisons than just a civil prison.

There are people who are imprisoned by emotional issues, depression issues, close themselves into their own homes just like it was a prison. So the people you don't see, that's what he's saying, the people that you don't see, keep a heart for them and remember them. Well, let's go to the next one, verse 4. So let marriage be held in honor among you and let the marriage bed be undefiled for God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulterous. Now see, I would have put this first.

Right after love the brothers? Yeah, it seems like this is a bigger problem. It's a bigger issue in a way. Well, but not everybody is married. But this is instruction to everyone to honor and recognize the value and really the sanctity of marriage. And I don't know if you've made this connection before, but when God created the relationships of mankind and created this relationship of marriage, it was deliberately for the purpose of illustrating for us in a way we could understand what our relationship with God is like. Right, that mutual exclusivity.

Yes, I'm yours, you're mine. And when I was thinking of the marriage vows that are so traditional, right, forsaking all others and cleave only unto this one, this covenant relationship that is sacred. Dare I say covenant? So for those of you who are listening, if you've never really camped on this and thought about this, you might go and read Ephesians 5 where Paul talks about this relationship of marriage being a mystery that speaks very clearly but in a very mysterious way of that deep, deep unity within God himself. And so it's not an accident that when we talk about spiritual warfare and what Satan wants to do to pervert our understanding of our relationship with God as it's intended, he will actually pervert this particular relationship model that tells us all about that.

So as a result, a fallen community of people will fall in terms of their sexuality almost first, almost first. It's an indication of the destruction of what God's trying to communicate to you in this mutual kind of covenanted relationship. And you mentioned Ephesians 5. Another great place, if you want to look more about that, is Galatians 5. He talks very strongly as well about what he calls the works of the flesh and what's immoral, what's impure. And God will judge those things. He will judge sexual immorality and adultery regardless of what guise they carry now. And all this redefining and re-expressing of marriage that's been going on for the last number of years. God will sort that out.

So we as his people need to be honoring and recognizing the value of this unique relationship that God designed and God put in place. Yeah, whether you're a participant in it or not. Exactly. That's what the big deal is. In fact, one of our children once told us, he said, you know, you make marriage look pretty good. That was the sweetest moment. I know.

And that was a very honest thing. And that's true because in our culture right now, marriage just doesn't get very good rep. In fact, people are hesitant to get married because they see the train wrecks in their own parents' lives with divorce and stuff like that. Or their own lives. Or their own lives, yeah. So it's really, marriage as designed by God is just an incredibly great relationship. He even created the relationship by how he designed us individually as males and females. So anyway, let's move on. First five.

Oh, keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have. Oh, we could stop right there. But he just says that's the beginning place. For he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Right? The bottom line there is that Jesus is enough. If you have him, then you don't need everything that perhaps you think you need. But his urging here to us is keep your life free from the love of money. What does the love of money look like? Yeah, and when you love something like money, what you're doing is you're investing all of your hopes and dreams in it, providing for you what you want. And when you do that with money, unfortunately, you know, you can look at celebrities and stuff like that who actually have an unlimited amount of money.

And it doesn't seem to increase their happiness. Well, when you love something, you fix all your attention on it. You pay attention to it, you treasure it, you guard it.

It's front and center all the time. You know, so it's not only people who have an excess of money who love money. It's people who have very little money who are very often focused on it completely. Like if I only have X more dollars, I will be content.

Yeah. So the love of money is, money is not bad intrinsically. It's the love of money.

No, the love of money. But the issue is that he's saying that when you love money as the source of life, then you have usurped God's position in your life in terms of bringing life to you. And the word we use for that is idolatry.

Idolatry. We have placed something or someone else in the position that only rightfully belongs to God. And it deliberately, it deliberately rebukes this phrase he says in the end of verse five where God says, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

But then you go running after money instead. Right. So it really is a rebuke against God's promise to provide for you.

Well, and earlier in Hebrews, he had, the writer had cited Moses and said he counted the riches of Christ greater wealth than everything Egypt had to offer. Yeah. Right.

And even Paul says in the beginning of Philippians, hey, I don't know whether to choose to stay here or to go home. I, you know, one is, one is good and the other is better. Is better. Yeah. So, you know, do we really regard what we have in Christ as greater riches than any material thing we could have here? Yeah.

And are you willing to really put it into real shoe leather action. Right. Relying on the Lord. He quotes Psalm 118 or Psalm 27 can be one, either one, but the Lord is my helper. I won't, will not fear. What can man do to me? So he's saying you can, you can put your love and trust in one of two things. You can put it in God who promises to you. You know, he's going to come through or you can put it in money and that will, that will always betray you. And man can take your money. Right.

How many of us have lost resources or finances to a, you know, a bogus deal or to theft or, you know. Yeah. Jesus says moth and rust. That's right.

It'll decay the things you own. So, you know, don't, don't fall for that. Right.

Yeah. Don't fall for that. The Lord's your helper. So put your trust in him. So it's interesting, even this point about the love of money, it really is something that strikes at the heart of wrecking your relationship with God. Who do you love? Love the Lord your God. Love the Lord your God.

With all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Yeah. Big deal.

Big deal. And it's a particular problem we have in, in the Western culture and in the United States. We got a lot of stuff. We got a lot of stuff. Yeah.

And, and that yields an ungratefulness in us because we expect, we just assume we're entitled to a lot of stuff. Yeah. That's normal life. Yeah.

Well, let's move on to this last one in verse seven. Yeah. Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

Yeah. Consider your leaders, right? And he defines leaders as those who spoke to you the word of God, right?

Those who initially brought you the gospel and unfolded it to your understanding. Yeah. I think that's an interesting connection. We go past it really fast that the leaders are the ones who bring the word of God to you.

Right. And, and again, you know, I don't want to be too abusive here, but there's a lot of leaders in the Christian community that hardly ever touch on the word of God. So there, there is a, there is a leadership. But if your leader almost never talks about the word of God, then are they leading you based on their own personal abilities?

Or maybe you need to find another leader. Leading you to truth. Yeah. So it's, it's really a very big deal. He equates us here just in passing and that's just an enormous thing.

It's an enormous thing. But he says, consider the outcome of their way of life, right? The fruit will tell you what their, what their life is life.

Consider the outcome, the result, the effect, how do they live and imitate their faith. Right. Well, I mean, we just talked about one of our children who said, you make marriage look good. There's the outcome right there.

You know, they saw the outcome and they said. Not because we were trying to make marriage look good. We just have found that the independence upon Christ, marriage is good. Marriage is good.

Very good. But imitate their faith. Again, we're not just talking generic religious term when we say faith. Faith again, remember this is putting your trust in God's promises that he's going to bring life to you.

Right. It's a forward looking, it's an outside of yourself looking kind of thing. So those that, that walk and lead among you with the word of God, those who constantly set their sights on Jesus and toward those promises of God. You need to imitate that attitude, that outlook on life and look at the outcome of their life as a result of it. Well, and that as he had discussed in some length in chapter 11, look, yeah, 11, what is there, what is faith? What is faith, yeah. That deeply rooted confidence in God delivering on his promises because it's real. And what God has said. And looking to him, looking to him for life. Right, right.

So, you know, that begs the question, who do you imitate? Because we will become like that which we focus our attention on. Yeah. Yeah. And there's a marvelous thing called sanctification. It's a $10 word, but it really just talks about the fact that God, once you put your trust in him, he goes through the slow process of weeding out your connection to this world and the sins that are with that. So it's nice to just see how those lives change right in front of us as God proves that. Well, we're out of time.

Oh my goodness. And we hope you join us again next week. We're going to look at the other half of Hebrews 13 and it's a remarkable passage all by itself. And for me, it's interesting because he makes connections back to the old covenant. Well, he's wrapping up this whole idea.

Yeah. So we're glad you're with us. Hebrews is a blast and we'll take two more shows and finish it and then we'll be into Exodus. So I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. And we're delighted that you want to look at the Word of God with us.

You can do this. And that's why we're doing it. So join us next week on More Than Ink. More Than Ink is a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City and is solely responsible for its content. To contact us with your questions or comments, just go to our website, morethanink.org. We'll see what happens. We're good off the cuff. So in three, two, one.