“Let’s Go Outside the Gate”
[Hebrews 13:7-16]
March 2, 2014 Second Reformed Church
Last week we considered ways in
which we are to respond in love to others, our spouse, and our blessings. We saw that we respond to the world around us
in the light of Who God is and what He has done. We live differently because we know the Holy
God and we have received the Only Savior, Jesus Christ, and His Gospel.
In this morning’s text, the author
of Hebrews again looks at how Jesus has fulfilled the Old Testament Sacrificial
Law and urges his readers to understand that the Law is fulfilled, so the only
rational and safe thing to do is to hold on to the Gospel and believe in Jesus
and what He has done. Turning back to
the Sacrificial Law would be even more fruitless than before Jesus came,
because it was never intended to be a way of salvation and now it is fulfilled,
so going back to it is a denial of its fulfillment – of Jesus and His Gospel.
We see:
First, we are to remember the preaching
and teaching of faithful pastors and teachers.
Second, Jesus is the fulfillment of
the altar.
Third, Christ calls us to leave
everything behind and pick up our cross.
Fourth, we are to respond as people
seeking a permanent city.
First, we are to remember the preaching
and teaching of faithful pastors and teachers.
“Remember
your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of
their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday
and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for
it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have
not benefited those devoted to them.”
The
author of Hebrews tells his readers that they are to remember what their
faithful preachers and teachers taught them from the Word of God. He is referring both to the preachers and
teachers that make up that cloud of witnesses that have gone on before us and
surround us as we run the race of faith, as well as those preachers and teachers
who are still living and faithfully preaching and teaching the Word of God.
If
you have ever sat under a preacher or teacher who faithfully preaches and
teaches God’s Word, do you remember what he taught you? The preaching and teaching of the Word of God
faithfully is not merely what we have to suffer through to get to coffee
hour. It’s not what we do to merit our
salvation. Paul tells us in the book of
Ephesians that we sit under preachers and teachers who faithfully explain God’s
Word so we will be equipped for the life of faith – so we will be able to live
as Christ has called us to live. If we
do not make an effort to understand and remember what teachings of the faith
have been delivered to us faithfully, we are effectively walking around naked.
Yes,
the Holy Spirit will remind us, as Jesus promised, but we ought to make an
effort as well. If we love Jesus, we
will make an effort to know Him – we will make an effort to know the Trinity –
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – as they are taught about in the Word of God and
expounded on by faithful preachers and teachers.
I
hope when I’m gone, some of you will say that there were times that I preached
and taught the Word of God faithfully and that you learned things about our God
and Savior that now strengthen you and give you joy as you look forward to
Jesus’ Return and the coming of the Kingdom of God in all its fullness as
believers in the Gospel.
The
author of Hebrews also tells us to look at the lives of our preachers and
teachers – are they living lives that mirror what they are teaching and
preaching? If they are, then in those
ways, we ought to be like them – if a preacher or teacher lives before us
something that he has faithfully taught from the Scripture – use that example
and follow it that you also might be living according to the Word of God. And when we see preachers and teachers not
living up to the Word of God, when they preach and teach one thing and then act
in opposition to it – do not follow that example.
David
said, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me” (Psalm 51:3,
ESV). And the same is true for me: I have not lived faithfully in all things
before you, and I hope you continue to pray for me that I will advance in my
sanctification – in becoming holy – that I would be a better and more faithful
pastor to you. And I hope when I am gone
that you forget my sin and unfaithfulness and remember some way that I lived
faithfully that you can emulate – something that I did that was right and good
and pleasing to God that you can also do.
The
author of Hebrews told his readers to also look at the faith of preachers and
teachers – do they believe and confess – outside of the pulpit – what they do
in the pulpit? Are they sound in their
theology? Where they are not, pray that they
would be taught and strengthened. And
where they are right and consistent – strive to be like them in holding firm to
the doctrines – the teachings of the faith.
I
have misinterpreted the Scripture, and when I have come to understand that I
have, I have told you that I was wrong.
And I sin – I am no one to put on a pedestal – I am just like you – even
as I preach and teach, I am under the Word of God, being taught – it often
seems to me that I need to hear the sermon more than you do, because I know how
much more I need to come into conformity with the Word of God. And it is my hope that when I am gone, you
will remember – not my sin and inconsistency – but those times when I held fast
to the Word of God and consistently upheld what I have taught you from the
Scripture.
So,
we are to look at the preachers and teachers who have faithfully preached and
taught the Word of God, and we are to remember what they taught us from the
Word of God and follow them in life and doctrine insofar as they lived
faithfully to the Word of God.
The
foundational truth that we are to remember is that Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. Notice
that the author of Hebrews calls Him, “Jesus Christ,” not merely Jesus. In doing so, he is alerting his readers to
the fact that he is not talking merely about Jesus and His humanity, but about
Jesus the Incarnate Son of God as Savior – the Gospel message.
He
is telling us that Jesus Christ is the intended and Only Savior from before the
Creation and through the age until the Restoration – there never has been and
never will be another way to be right with God – there is Only One Savior – His
Gospel has always been the same – and He and His Gospel remain eternally
faithful and true. There is only One Way
to be right with God and that is through believing and receiving the Gospel of
Jesus Christ – His Incarnation, Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension. The Old Testament saints believed and
received the Savior Who would come and make the Way, and now we believe in the
Savior Who has come into history – spelling out the Gospel in all its fullness.
And
the author of Hebrews tells us the most important things to avoid are “diverse
and strange teachings.” And he
specifically gives the example of people who think the food you eat plays a
part in your salvation. And before you
say, “O come on!” Have you ever heard of
the Jews, the Mormons, and the Seventh Day Adventists? They all have teaching about the necessity of
eating certain foods and abstaining from other foods in order to be right with
God.
“But,”
someone is thinking, “Didn’t God command the kosher laws of the Old
Testament?” Yes, He did, but it was
never about salvation; it was about being set apart – and it may be a healthier
way to eat. However, in Acts chapter 10,
God presented Peter with a whole bunch of non-kosher foods and tells him to eat
them. Of course, the main point of the
vision is that Gentiles – non-Jews – are welcome into the Kingdom, but it also
has been understood to mean, secondarily, that the kosher laws have been
fulfilled in Jesus and we don’t have to follow them any longer. Certainly, they don’t have to be followed for
salvation, because that was never the intent of the kosher laws.
The
church I was part of in high school taught us that listening to certain types
of music will send you to Hell. That’s ridiculous. Even though we can argue that some music is
better than other music, the music we listen to has nothing to do with salvation.
We
have been saved by grace: “For by grace
you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the
gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9,
ESV). And we must remember we are saved
by grace when someone tries to tell us that we have to do something or not do
something in order to be saved. It’s not
true.
So,
believe those things that preachers and teachers have faithfully taught from
the Scripture – especially the Gospel and how all other things relate to Jesus
Christ and the Gospel. And don’t be led
away by teachers and preachers who say something else is necessary for salvation
other than the Gospel.
Second,
Jesus is the fulfillment of the altar.
“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. So Jesus also
suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own
blood.”
In
Leviticus 16, we find the instructions for the sacrifices for the Day of
Atonement. As we looked at the Day of
Atonement – Yom Kippur – in the past, we remember that a bull, a ram, and two
goats were involved in the sacrifice to make atonement – to make the people
right with God.
We
remember that this was a yearly sacrifice for the sins of the people of
Israel. Once a year, all the people of
Israel would gather to repent, sacrifice, and receive forgiveness for their
sins. And let keep in mind what the
author of Hebrews already told us: “Indeed,
under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding
of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22, ESV).
The
major problem with the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement is that – at best –
they were for partial, temporary forgiveness of sins. The sacrifices could not and were never
intended to make a person completely and eternally right with God. The sacrifices covered the sins confessed for
the moment – nothing that was forgotten and nothing that happened the next
second. So, it could never function as a
way of salvation.
In
brief, the bull, the ram, and one of the goats, was slaughtered, and their
blood was flung around to symbolize forgiveness of sin through the blood. The second goat had the sins of Israel
symbolically laid on its head, and it was sent into the wilderness to
perish. Then the slaughtered animals
were taken outside the camp: “And the
bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was
brought in to make atonement in the Holy Place, shall be carried outside the
camp. Their skin and their flesh and their dung shall be burned up with fire.
(Leviticus 16:27, ESV).
In
most of the offerings, the priests and the people participated by eating some
of the offering. In the sacrifices of
the Day of Atonement, the animals were burned completely – no one ate of the
sacrifice – no one participated in the sacrifice. The priests were not even allowed to eat any
of the animals of the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement.
Jesus,
in fulfilling the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement, was also sacrificed
outside of the gate – outside of the city of Jerusalem. Jesus was sacrificed – crucified – on Golgotha
– on the Place of the Skull.
And
like the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement, Jesus’ Blood was shed for sin,
but, it was shed not merely for the sins remembered and for a particular
moment, but for every sin we every commit – we have full atonement through
Jesus’ Blood – we are truly made right with God for all of eternity through His
Blood.
Yet,
unlike the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement – when the people and the priests
did not participate in the sacrifices – they didn’t eat the sacrifice – as they
normally did – in Christ, we do participate in the sacrifice –
spiritually. Paul wrote, “We know that
our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be
brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (Romans 6:6,
ESV), and “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but
Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in
the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, ESV).
We
participate in the sacrifice with Christ spiritually, because Christ functions
not only as the Sacrifice, and the High Priest Who offers up the Sacrifice, as
the author of Hebrews has already explained, but He also functions as the Altar
on Whom all our sins are laid to be burn up – skin and flesh and dung – through
the shedding of His Blood for the forgiveness of our sins and the making of us
righteous and holy – into His Own Image.
Christ
fulfilled all the aspects of the Day of Atonement and we are joined with Him spiritually,
so we are crucified with Him, and our sin is put to death in Him, and through
His Blood, we are made right with God, righteous and holy, and He raises us
from the dead with Him, and pledges to bring us with Him into His Kingdom on
the last day.
Third,
Christ calls us to leave everything behind and pick up our cross.
“Therefore
let us go 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.”
Is
it any wonder we are now called to respond to such great news?
We
are called to go “outside the camp” with Jesus “and bear the reproach he
endured.” What does that mean?
It
means that we leave the Old Testament Sacrifices behind – they have been
fulfilled in Jesus – it is a denial of the Gospel – and useless – to turn back
to them. (Remember – the first century
Jewish Christians who were suffering severe persecution under the non-believing
Jews and the Romans were wondering if they should turn away from the Gospel and
back to the Old Testament Sacrifices – such that the message of the author of
Hebrews is – hold fast to the Gospel!)
Following
Christ means leaving Judaism – and anything and everything else behind that
hinders the pursuit of the Gospel – to take up the cross – endure reproach,
exile, afflictions – even to death – for the sake of the surpassing worth of
the salvation Jesus Christ merits for us through the Gospel.
Peter
wrote, “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because
the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Peter 4:14, ESV).
Paul
wrote, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children
of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,
provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him”
(Romans 8:16-17, ESV).
If
we are Christians, we should expect to suffer for Christ’s Sake. We are called to go outside of the gate –
willingly – joyfully for the sake of Christ and His Gospel – not because we
enjoy suffering – but because it proves we are His.
Are
you willing to go outside the gate? Are
you willing to hold fast to the Gospel and endure whatever comes your way for the
sake of Christ? Are you willing to
suffer for Christ? Are you willing to be
lied about, tortured, and put to death for confessing faith in Him? Not to seek out suffering – but to be ready
for it – and to receive it that you might be united with Him in suffering?
If
you are not, let me urge you to make sure you really believe the Gospel. If you are not willing to go outside the
gate – if you are not willing to suffer for Christ, should suffering come,
search your heart and see if you are really a Christian.
How
do we prepare ourselves for suffering?
Hold fast to the Gospel and remember the teaching and preaching of
teachers and preachers who have faithfully delivered the Word of God to us –
believing what God has said in His Word and living as He has called us to live
– being like those teachers and preaches who have showed us what faithful
living and belief look like.
Fourth,
we are to respond as people seeking a permanent city.
“Through
him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the
fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share
what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”
Again
and again throughout the Scripture, God reminds Israel and all those who
believe that they are sojourners, exiles, strangers in a strange land. This fallen, corrupt, and sinful world is not
our home – this world restored with the fullness of the Kingdom of God all
around us is our home. We are looking
for the New Jerusalem – for the new heavens and the new earth – when Jesus
returns and banishes sin and death and evil and restores the Creation to how it
was before the Fall – and even better – makes it impossible that we and the
Creation should ever fall into corruption again.
The
author of Hebrews explained this: “These
all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen
them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were
strangers and exiles on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13, ESV).
Paul
tells us who were are and who we are becoming through Jesus: “So then you are no longer strangers and
aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the
household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ
Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined
together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built
together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22, ESV). That is what we are to keep before us as we
run the race of faith and endure whatever suffering we suffer for the sake of
Christ.
The author of Hebrews continues by
telling us that the acceptable sacrifice from us is not animals – those
sacrifices have been fulfilled once – and for all who believe – in Jesus – but
praise and thanksgiving through Jesus.
The psalmist tells us: “And let them offer sacrifices of
thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!” (Psalm 107:22, ESV).
The acceptable sacrifice comes from our
mouths and hearts now, not from the blood of animals. We sacrifice to God through praising Him for
Who He is and what He has done and by thanking Him for Who He is and what He
has done. Now that we are one with Christ
through His Life, Death, and Resurrection, we come before God speaking our
words, helped by the Holy Spirit, so we can glorify Him – uplifting His Name
and His Gospel above all things and all people.
Are you thankful for what God has done
for you? Do you have reason to praise
God as you know Him better and better through His Word and through the work of
the Holy Spirit in you? As you go
outside the gate and suffer for Christ, do you have reason to thank and give
praise, lifting up the Name of Jesus?
This past week, I have felt lost, sad,
and angry, as I have begun to mourn the death of my beloved, Cali. I am mourning, but I thank God that I had
almost nineteen years with her, and I have hope and believe that God is
faithful and will keep His promise to restore the Creation, as One Who loves
His Creation.
Finally, this morning, the author of
Hebrews tells us to seek the good of others.
As we saw last week, we are to love others – both our brothers and
sisters in Christ, and all people, first proclaiming the Gospel to every
creature, and then doing everything we can to better others.
Micah, writing against those who hoped
in animal sacrifices, wrote, “’With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow
myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with
calves a year old? Will the Lord be
pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my
transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’ He has told you, O man, what is good; and
what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and
to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:6-8, ESV).
And so, we see that God is pleased that
we sacrifice ourselves for the good of others – whether that mean time, care,
supplies, comfort, or whatever we can share with others to help them and make
them better off, especially through the proclamation of the Gospel.
Love God by praising and thanking Him
for Who He is and all He has done. And love
others by proclaiming the Gospel and meeting their needs in that way that God has
enabled you to meet needs.
Let’s go outside the gate. Let us go, proclaiming the Gospel, rejoicing
and thanking Him for His salvation, enduing suffering for His name, holding
fast to the Gospel, and all we have learned from preachers and teachers who have
faithfully preached and taught the Word of God.
Let us understand that Jesus fulfills
the Old Testament Sacrifices – and most importantly, the sacrifices of the Day
of Atonement. He is the High Priest, the
Sacrifice, and the Altar for all those who will believe in Him.
And let us love God and our
neighbor.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we are weak-skinned, and
we think far too well of ourselves. We
think little of Your Sacrifice for our sins and foolishly want this life and
this world to be our glory. Open our
eyes and help us to run the race of faith.
Help us to understand Your Word.
Make Your pastors faithful in preaching and teaching, in life and
confession. Revive our hearts and minds
and help us to see You for who You are, rejoicing, giving thanks, and
responding lovingly to all people, as we look forward to the coming of Your
Kingdom in all its fullness. In Jesus’
Name, Amen.
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