067 - The Sustenance of Grace

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. Okay, I've got good news and bad news for you. About what?

About the city you live in. The bad news is it's not going to endure and it's not going to last. Oh, so what's the good news? The good news is there's a city to come whose designer and founder is God himself, and that will last.

We'll look at that today on More Than Ink. Well, good morning on this wonderful fall day. I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. And we are delighted you've come back with us.

It's just unbelievable to me. Oh, we're always here. We're always here, yeah. And we literally are sitting at our dining room table, and I literally do have my coffee. Yep, there it is in front of me.

It's getting a little cool, though, so I'll drink it as we move along. It's because you talk too much. I think that's what it is.

You talk too much. This is an exciting part of Hebrews for me, I think for a lot of people, because we're coming to the end, and he does a fascinating thing here as he sort of closes the door on these 13 chapters of discussion that bring together the Old Covenant and the New Covenant and how they merge together. He even will, and we'll look at this next week, he calls it the Eternal Covenant, kind of melding the two of them together. So he does a little of that here.

It's a fascinating thing. So I hope you've got a few minutes to sit with us and just to kind of chew on these next verses. We're in Hebrews 13, and we're going to be starting in verse 8. Well, and verse 8 picks up right after verse 7, right? This is a continuation.

This is not a new topic. He's going to continue to urge us toward a particular way of life because of who we are, because we've come into this New Covenant relationship with Jesus, our mediator. And so we'll unpack that a little bit as we go on. But if you didn't, go back and reread those first seven verses of this chapter. And then just read right on, because he so seamlessly stitches together his urgent encouragement to us to live this way, together with this sound, deep theology about why we live this way. Yeah.

He even closes this by bringing us back to the scene at the temple. Oh, yes. It's very interesting. So, I mean, it's like, yeah, let's just read it. Let's just read it.

Okay. His flagship statement right from the top in verse 8. Okay, starting in verse 8.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it's good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.

For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. You know, maybe we should stop there. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

I was going to stop before 11, but that's okay. Okay, let's go back to Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So don't be led away.

Well, yeah. And I think the temptation from a Jewish believer is to say, well, this guy's talking about Old Covenant and New Covenant, and so there's like a line between them. And Jesus is central to both of them.

But, I mean, what? You know, it seems like two eras. And he's saying right here, actually, we're not talking two eras. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Right. So the Jesus that we know about was also operable, believe it or not, in the Old Testament, in the Old Covenant. And everything pointed to him forward in history, even for us now, 2,000 years hence from the first century, points backward to him. So Jesus is the same. Jesus hasn't changed. Jesus didn't change, and so hence you go from Old to New Covenant.

That's not what changes Jesus. Well, and, you know, if you remember back, and we'll get to this when we do Exodus in a few weeks, when God introduced himself to Moses, Moses said, well, who are you? What's your name? And he said, well, I am. Right. I am.

I am. Which is the same thing that Jesus said, which caused the crowds to pick up stones to stone him. He said, before Abraham was, I am. He claims for himself that same name of God. And so, you know, the writer of Hebrews here is saying, Jesus Christ is the same.

He is I am. Yesterday, today, and forever. If Jesus can say, before Abraham was, I am, then he hasn't changed. Even in the minor prophet Malachi, he says that the Lord doesn't change. Right.

The Lord doesn't change. Right. So even though we're kind of bringing to an end this New and Old Covenant thing, there actually is a seamless connection between them because God doesn't change, Jesus doesn't change. Right.

And so don't fall sway to that if someone comes to you and says, well, you know, you're in a new dispensation or something like that. Right. And I was flashing back as well to the fact that, you know, in Revelation, Jesus says, I'm the first and the last. Right. Repeatedly, actually, he says that.

Over and over again. And he is actually using the same words that Isaiah uses when he quotes God. Right. In the chapter 41 and 44, I think it is.

44, actually, I have it open right in front of me here. Yeah. 44, 6 says, I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides me. Right.

Well, that actually refrain occurs several times in the Isaiah 40s. Yeah. Yeah.

To demonstrate the superiority of the real God to all the false gods. Right. Yeah.

So that's how he starts us out. So don't be confused. I mean, he's anticipating the fact that people will confuse you and say, well, you're believing a new gospel, a new Jesus.

Right. And he's saying, nope, same Jesus. So now he'll look at three things here in a second where he'll actually tie together your understanding of the old covenant, the old practices, and the new with Jesus.

It's an interesting kind of weaving. So we already read that in verse 9. You know, he says, so don't be led away by diverse and strange teachings. It's good to be strengthened by grace and not by foods.

Now, this is what we need to do. What do you mean by not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them? We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. Now, he's going back to the sacrifices.

He's going back to the law. And remember, when people brought sacrifices for their sins, they brought it to the priests. The priests, you know, there would be a bloodletting right there, and then they'd many times burn them and stuff like that. But the priests, that was their dinner. That was their dinner. The priests, the privileged class in that sense who served at the temple, they benefited from what was brought to sacrifice at the altar. Yeah, they had an assigned portion that came to them. And that's how they stayed alive. From certain sacrifices. They didn't raise flocks to feed themselves.

They didn't have crops in the field. So that's how they did that. So they benefited from the sacrifices on the altar. And in an interesting way, we benefit from the sacrifice on the altar of Jesus, what he did for us. You know, the writer of Hebrews had already said back in chapter nine, the washings and the ceremony only relate to the body.

That anything you eat or put on your body doesn't affect your inner person. It's just an indicator of something. And so I think that maybe he's hearkening back to that here, too.

Can we go back to the don't be led away by diverse and strange teachings? Because aren't we very often we're intrigued by something new and colorful and varied and someone has come along and embroidered on the truth that we've always known. And we're, look, it's shiny. It's fresh.

It's new. Let's believe that. Let's add that to the gospel. And so he says, you know, and the writer has urged people all along through this letter. Now don't drift, don't neglect. And here he says, don't be led away. Don't be led away.

Don't line up after some new, fresh, colorful, shiny thing. Because it's good for the heart to be strengthened by grace. Right. It's all about what God has done for us. Yeah, exactly.

Strengthened by grace, by the way, too. In contrast to eating ceremonial food. Or submitting yourself to eat this, wear this.

A religious diet thing. Right. Exactly. So it is a way of departing from the that old ceremonial law.

Because that's not going to change you internally. Right. But strengthened by grace. And that sounds, again, just like a religious term. But you've got to look at the words literally and realize that your life can be strengthened like how your life is strengthened with food.

Your life can actually be built up and energized, strengthened, given life, by dwelling on the issue of what God has given you that you don't deserve grace. Yeah, because we have an altar to eat from. Right. Which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. Right. Those who are engaged in the ceremonial practice. Right.

And have separated out the heart of their practice. Yeah. Have no right to this. What is this altar that we are invited to eat from? Well, you know, the writer of Hebrews had said this is the altar where the blood of Jesus was sacrificed. Right. Right. And Jesus had said there at the Last Supper, now, as you eat this, this is my body. My body broken for you. Eat this in remembrance of me.

Right. The altar at which we eat is Jesus himself. Is Jesus himself. And he's this, well, he's the sacrifice lamb.

He's the lamb of God. The lambs were all sacrificed on Passover on the altar there. And then they took the meat home to eat.

And then they took the meat home to eat. Right. So that's the benefit from that altar. But he says there's an altar where the lamb of God, Jesus, was sacrificed and we benefit. Right.

And we benefit. And he even came right out in John 6 and said if you don't, you know, eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part of what I'm doing. Right.

And people freaked out. But that's what he's getting at is that here's the supreme sacrifice of the real lamb of God. Right. And look at the benefit that we get from that.

That's far superior than any great, you know, roasted meal that the priests at the temple used to get back at that altar. Right. Well, and if you think back through the book of Hebrews, he had elaborated in chapters 5, 6, 7, all in there about how Jesus entered the real holy place. Yeah. Right.

And his blood was poured out on the real altar in the spiritual reality, the concrete reality that's greater than anything that the earthly temple could indicate. Right. Which was just a model of it. Right.

It was just a picture. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And he really seduced back to that stuff because now we have the reality and the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf and we benefit.

Yeah. If you just stand back and look at this phrase here in 9 and 10, he's really kind of merging together the reality of the old covenant and the reality of the new covenant. And so it's really nice. I think it's a great thing he just did. And then when you get into verse 11, he does a similar kind of thing.

Why don't you start from 11, read only like to 14. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore, let us go out to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

Right. So just to go back to the history, hearkening back to the sacrifices that took place. There was principally a particular sacrifice done on the Day of Atonement. We have the two goats and the sin is put on one and then let out outside the city to go away to carry the sins away outside the city. The scapegoat. The scapegoat.

Yeah. And that's what he's alluding to here. And now he's saying that Jesus is not only the sacrifice lamb we just looked at, but he is that scapegoat as well, let outside the city. Well there also is instruction in Exodus and Leviticus about how the waste parts of the animal that weren't included in the sacrifice are then taken to another place and burned outside the camp. So there's a lot of Old Testament pictures here that he's assuming a lot of his readers that they understand because they're still seeing this happening. The temple is still standing when this letter has been written and so this is their very current experience.

Yeah. And they're linking in a lot of these multiple connections into the Old Testament sacrifices and stuff in this. But his point is that Jesus suffered outside the gate, kind of outside the community. Literally outside the gate.

Literally outside the gate. So if you are suffering because you're following Jesus, which is presumably what's going on, that's why Hebrews 11 is there, then you need to go outside the gate as well. Which is a way of saying you need to go outside of this place. You need to set your sights outside of this place in order to find life.

Go outside the camp, bear the approach there. And to identify with him at the cross. And identify with him. And it's a way of saying that Jesus himself said this place is not my eternal destiny, it's someplace else. And it is yours too. So in your suffering go outside of this place and we're going someplace else. Right. Yeah, he said that to Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world. Not of this world.

Yeah, not of this world. And then he clinches that thought in 14 when he says, here, here we have no lasting city. But we seek the city that's to come. So in your present age right now, this is that city which is not lasting. Right. Wherever you are right now, this is not a lasting city.

So in your reproach and in the persecution you're under, you know, why don't you start leaving the city now, because this place is not lasting. That's what he's getting at. Well, and he had said back in chapter 11 that Moses and all of those models of faith were seeking the city whose architect and builder is God. Right.

Right. Any city or governmental structure here on earth is, yes, ordained by God, but it's built by men. And sometimes we get confused about that.

And yes, righteous men should be rightly influencing the places in which they live through government, through social action, through all of that. We're not devaluing that. We're saying that is not our eternal dwelling place. Right. Right. And we know enough of what a city is to appreciate its value in terms of what it brings to life.

I mean, and especially back then. This place brings people together. Yeah. I mean, it's a place of protection. There's walls around it. Marauders outside can't come in, you know, and there's protection. It's provision.

There's water. And there's law. There's an expectation of a certain way of living if you're inside the wall.

Yeah. And then when you're outside the wall, you're in a wild and woolly Western land. It's just like the Wild West for us.

There was no justice. It was just everyone did what they wanted to do. So that's interesting when he urges believers to go outside the wall, outside the camp, to Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of a faith in a different place. Right. Right. Right.

And identify with him with that city whose builder and architector is God. Right. Right.

So you might as well start disconnecting from this place now, is what he's saying, because you're a citizen of that other city. So a city is just a marvelous, it's a marvelous metaphor for this joint community of the followers of God that want to be together. So it's no mistake, then, that in Revelation we have this incredible picture of the city, the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven. Right. Built by God. Designed by God. Clearly designed by him. Yeah.

Oh, listeners, go and read that. Yeah. In my father's house, there's many places to live. But go and read in Revelation 19, 20, 21, the description of the city. Yeah. It's just a great picture of community as designed by God. With God as its center.

With God as its center. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

That's why it's such a great metaphor. So the sooner you realize that where you live today, it may be a city, but it's not a lasting city. Right. Then put your hope and trust in his promises for your inclusion into his city to come. I mean, your name is written, is enrolled in heaven.

So that's where you're going. You know, you only have to do a little bit of world history study to realize that human cities simply don't last. Human civilizations come and go from the highest view, right, the meta view, you realize how sporadic and how unlasting human civilizations are. They're well-intentioned, too, usually.

Oh, certainly. But in the end, you know, you've got fallen people who are running these cities, and it always happens, you put together laws and stuff which bring justice and good for a lot of people, and then you realize, hey, I've got some real power here in doing this stuff, and then you start lining your pockets, and it gets corrupt, and then things just go down. How often do the borders change on whole countries, right? I mean, just in my lifetime, I have owned a series of globes where the country lines have all been repainted in large portions of the world, right? I can't keep track. Is Congo in or out these days? These things don't last.

Yeah, they don't last. But there is a city coming that's a lasting city. So when you see Jesus going outside the camp to suffer and to die, it's also a way of him saying he's gone outside of this place because there's another city coming. And so we ought to also follow him out. That's the whole process. This is a great merging, again, of the imagery of the Old Covenant teaching us something powerful about the New Covenant.

It's the reality of it. So through him then, verse 15, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

So the first characteristic, once we recognize that we are on our way to another place, ought to be praising God, recognizing his name, his identity. He's the ruler. He's the king. He's the one who has rescued us and given us this citizenship in another place. And that is the sacrifice that God requires of his people. Great phrase, a sacrifice of praise. A sacrifice of praise, yeah. And it turns out that the sacrifice is even back in the Old Testament. You brought an animal to atone for the sin that you had done, that was even still a sacrifice of praise because what you were making known is the fact, not that you were paying for your sin, but you're acknowledging the fact that God was quick to forgive. And so it really was a praise to God for who he was.

I'm still included in God's plan in God's city. But a sacrifice costs you something, right? And so let us then offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.

Well that one times are hard when God may not immediately appear to be praiseworthy when I think he's blameworthy because my circumstances are crummy or I'm suffering. But the writer of Hebrews says, no, because of who he is and what he's done and where we are going in him, it may be costly, but let us be characterized by this sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that recognize his name. Yeah, yeah, recognize his name. Acknowledge who he is. So when you say acknowledge or recognize his name, always name means reputation and character. He's king. So yeah, you need to acknowledge who he is and what he's known for. That's what a name means, what he's known for, his reputation, his accomplishments, which is why God used to always say to the Israelites, hey, I'm the guy who brought you out of Egypt. That's my reputation and I'm still on your side.

So that's his reputation. So in 16, so don't neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Again, sacrifices.

Put this time in action. What you have, he doesn't say share out of your abundance, share out of whatever you've got. Whatever you've got. So if you say, well, I don't have enough really to share with someone, well, if you've got something, you've got enough.

Yeah. Well, you know, that's the whole point of the feeding of the 5,000, right? It sure looks like we don't have enough, but we have Jesus and he's breaking the bread and whatever we have, we share. Peter said, you know, I don't have silver and gold, but what I have, I give you. Get up and walk in the name of Jesus.

So here, even in 15 to 16, it's like, it's a great connection again. There was worship that went on in the temple. There was sacrifice that went on in the temple, but it was pointing to the fact that the real sacrifice we do now is praising God with our lips, you know, proclaiming who he is, his reputation, his name, and even following through in doing good, which is God's the only one who's good, doing good in the actions of our hands as well. And that's another sacrifice. So these are the true sacrifices in the true temple that the old temple were just a picture of. And he's actually going to repeat those things toward the end of chapter 13, and we'll get to that next week. But yeah, this whole idea of verbally, vocally acknowledging God is worthy, God is praiseworthy, because he's doing something greater than here and now.

Yeah. That's the sacrifice of praise. So here and now, with what little I've got, I can give, I can share. Well, let's finish off this section, I'll read for us in 17. So he comes back to the leader issue. Obey your leaders and submit to them for their keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account, let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. And I'll just read this last section, 18 and 19. So pray for us that we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things, I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner. So in a way, in 18 and 19, he's giving them instructions about how they can help the leader who just wrote this, that he says in 17, you need to obey your leaders and submit to them. Because they're keeping watch over your souls. For your benefit.

Yeah. And so, you know, that's a huge statement about spiritual leaders right there. Do you, are they keeping watch, guarding, and as he said before, those who brought the word of God to you, watch their way of life, consider the outcome of your conduct. Obey them and submit to them for their keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

Right? Because your pastors, your spiritual leaders are not those who own you. You are the sheep who belong to another shepherd and they are under shepherds, they will have to give account. Yeah, that's a very important distinction, they are under shepherds and shepherds never owned the sheep that they watched.

They will seldom did they and they were they were they were keeping watch over someone else's flight. And that's what your pastor, your local pastor, which by the way, the word pastor in Greek comes from the word about being a shepherd, taking care of sheep. Which you know, in the benediction that the writer is going to give us in the very last section which we're not going to address today, but in his benediction he says, now to the great shepherd of the sheep. So you are a precious and beloved sheep in a flock that belongs to God and your pastors are there to kind of keep watch over you.

And shepherds always kept watch over these sheep based on looking for like wolves and attacks and not only dangers, but also bringing them to food and to water. I mean, they're there for your benefit. So he's saying right here, so obey them and submit to them because you know, they're engaged 100% on your good. And let them do this with joy and not with groaning.

Not with groaning. It's of no advantage to you, right? Don't make their life harder than it has to be. Exactly. Yeah. Now, we laugh about this because we say it from a pastoral perspective, you know, sheep can be hard.

Yeah. When my brother was raising sheep, he's thinking, I'll never do that again. But it's a wonderful job that God gives. But we're all in this process as sheep of being protected and fed and cared for until the great shepherd comes back.

Look at the humility of this last verse. Pray for us. We're sure that we have a clear conscience desiring to act honorably in all things, right? So the writer here says that praying for us, we do have a clear conscience. We're sure of ourselves, but we need your prayers. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Well, we're out of time again. And next week, we're going to look at this wonderful benediction closing. It's one of my favorite couple of verses in the entire Bible. And he's going to close the entire book and we're going to spend some time reminiscing about what we've gone through in the rest of Hebrews. So I'm Jim.

And I'm Dorothy. And we're glad you're with us. We'll be back for the crowning benediction 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. Boy, leave it alone.