Hebrews5

Why this verse: There is this amazing little verse in Hebrews that always stands out to me. It almost stands out like a lighthouse on a rocky outcrop and at first sight you might wonder why it is here in this particular place. Well, first of all, it comes after the verses that said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (v.5) and “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid”, (v.6) and then, “Remember your leaders…imitate their faith.” (v.7) and so when we are told that Jesus is unchanging it is like saying, you need to do these things because he is the same Jesus who challenged and chided his disciples and looks for our obedience. Second, it is followed by “Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings,” (v.9) which again is a requirement to follow the faith without wavering and the fact that Jesus is still here as head of the church overseeing us, should encourage us to remain firm.

Overall: When it says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever,” it says to us, have no doubts because the Jesus you read of in the Gospels is the same Jesus who presides over the Church today and will be the same Jesus we will have dealings with every day of our lives.

Jesus – the big picture : But earlier in these studies we say, first in the prologue of the first verse verses, that this Jesus is the Son of God who has existed from before the beginning of time, who was involved in Creation with his Father, who upholds this world by the word of his power and who, after having fulfilled his work of redemption through the Cross, ascended into heaven and is now seated at his Father's right hand, ruling over the end times until the time when he overcomes all his enemies and hands back the kingdom to his Father. Nothing has changed! That is still how it is. He is ruler. We also saw, in a later study, that he is the Lamb in heaven. Overseeing the last times until the time when he will return as a conquering king.

Encouragements: What particular things might encourage us, knowing he is the same today as we see in the Gospels? Perhaps the first thing is the way Jesus loves, accepts and has compassion for his children who feel low or weak. The one thing we can know as his children is that he still loves today and accepts sinners who come to him in exactly the same way he accepted the likes of Zacchaeus or the woman caught in adultery or even his disciples who stumbled over their feet spiritually speaking. As long as we are willing to be strictly honest with him about ourselves, he is there with open arms, full of compassion and understanding.

Challenges: One of the less comfortable things, perhaps, about Jesus is that he chides those closest to him when they lack faith, and yet watching him in the Gospels we see that even when Jesus chided someone like Peter that didn't mean he excluded Peter from his company. In fact, quite to the contrary, we find that those who are willing to face Jesus with their failures, like Peter, are prime candidates for promotion in the kingdom. The worst we can do for Jesus is nothing. He doesn't mind us trying and stepping out with mustard seed sized faith as long as it is faith. He understands that we are like little children who have a long way to go and therefore he isn't put off when we don't quite get it right. This Jesus that we see in the Gospels is exactly the same as the Jesus we encounter today and he will be the same tomorrow and the next day.

Jesus who changes people & circumstances: Now there is a slight challenge to all this because the Jesus we find in the Gospels is a Jesus who did things and changed lives. For instance, he said to John the Baptist's disciples, “ Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor .” (Mt 11:4,5) But then he also said, “ whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing.” (Jn 14:12)

Now please note this was a general teaching and he didn't say, “whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing – for the next forty years but after that I will stop being me because I can't trust my body, the church, so these things will stop happening.” I would suggest that any teaching that says after the canon of Scripture was completed, Jesus stopped doing these things through his body, denies our verse above and is an excuse for unbelief.

Overcoming Unbelief: Now I believe there is a difficulty here and that is that where there is a culture of unbelief (e.g. the leader or elders denying the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Gospel and failing to teach and lead appropriately) it is very difficult for the individual to break through on their own (though not impossible). If you feel frustrated like this, pray and ask the Lord to put you in contact with people of like heart who will seek the Lord with you and step out in faith as he leads. Remember Jesus Christ IS the same yesterday and today and forever. Let's live accordingly.

Meditations in Hebrews 13: 63. The Experience of Prayer

Heb 13:18,19 Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.

A personal touch: Verse 19 is unusual in this letter in that twice the writer refers to himself with ‘I'. Although, as we said in an earlier study, there is an element of mystery as to who the writer actually is, it is clear that his readers know him. This is one of the rare pointers in the letter that this might be the apostle Paul, for suddenly this is his style and the sort of thing he would say. He has been with the recipients of this letter but is now away from them but hopes to return with the help of the Lord (implied).

The Purpose of Prayer: What is fascinating is that after his initial, “ Pray for us,” we find a sort of self-justification: “ We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way.” i.e. we are sure that we haven't got ourselves into any trouble but we just need the Lord's help to get back to you soon.

I think, in this, we see one of the basic motivations for prayer : we find ourselves in circumstances that we feel ought to be changed but we feel they are beyond us and only God can do it, and so we petition Him to step in on our behalf. Yes, we worship and we praise and we give thanks, but ultimately I suspect that so much of our praying is that we see wrong circumstances and want them changed by God and our prayers are petitions for Him to do that. Let's look at similar examples in the New Testament, particularly noting what is being asked for.

First, to the church at Rome : “I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed.” (Rom 15:30-32) The struggle the apostle Paul speaks about is the ongoing conflict or battle against the enemy who seeks to thwart our plans. Thus is request in these verses is twofold: first, to be delivered from the hands of the unbelieving Jews he so often encountered and then, second, that what he does in Jerusalem will bless the believers there. Again, it is for an enabling by the Lord, that he asks.

Then to the church in Corinth : “Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong. Not that people will see that we have stood the test but that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed.” (2 Cor 13:7) There was conflict and even disagreement with him there and so he prays that God will enable them to resist bad responses to him and act well.

Then to the church at Ephesus : “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” (Eph 1:15-19) i.e. he asks the Lord to help them mature, giving them wisdom and revelation of the truth, to be able to know Him better, realizing more fully the wonder of what they have been called to and the power that is available to them.

Again I that same letter, “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power , together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Eph 3:16-19) Twice here he asks the Lord for them to have power through the Spirit. The first time was for them to be strengthened spiritually to be full of faith and love, and the second time was that they may comprehend the depth of God's love for them. Again only things God could really do.

Finally, in that same letter , “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” (Eph 6:19,20) i.e. that God would make him bold in declaring the Gospel.

Then to the church at Colosse : “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.” ( Col 4:2-4) Again, similarly, that God would open the way for them to share the Gospel and that He would give Paul the ability to do it well.

To the church at Thessalonica : “With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.” (2 Thess 1:11) i.e. that their lives would live up to their calling with God's help, so that they would fulfil God's will for them. Again, later, “Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith.” (2 Thess 3:1,2) i.e. that their sharing the Gospel will be fruitful and that they would be protected from opposition.

Finally to his friend Philemon , “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.” (Philem 1:6) i.e. for Philemon to be able to share his faith and in so doing make it even more real.

Keys to Petition-Prayer: In every case we have considered there is first of all an awareness of a goal to be achieved, something that needs changing. Second, implied within that but not expressed in what we have said, that goal is to be something we believe Jesus would want for the kingdom. Third, there is also implied in all this, the recognition that the goal can only be achieved by God's help, i.e. there is the recognition of our inadequacy.

Practicalities: Because I believe our prayer meetings are so often full of random praying, I teach groups, “Unfocus on answers, focus on God.” i.e. first and foremost focus on the Lord and then out of that pray as He leads, with His wisdom and revelation; don't assume anything in prayer. Second, ask, is there a part you want me (us) to play in fulfilling this prayer? We are in partnership with the Lord and there maybe something we should be doing . May it be so.

Meditations in Hebrews 13: 64. Holding the Truth

Heb 13:9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.

Conflict: The first century of the Christian Church was much involved in intellectual conflict. Not only were they having to battle against outright heresies but also against simple distortions of the truth of doctrine agreed by the apostles: “ They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching,” (Acts 2:42) and when there were major questions over doctrine the apostles got together in Jerusalem to consider it and make a decision (see Acts 15) which would be followed: “ As they travelled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey.” (Acts 16:4)

Church Sayings: In the early days it is clear from the writings of the apostle Paul that there were a number of ‘sayings' that the early church used to teach basics of the truth, for example, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” (1 Tim 1:15) and “Here is a trustworthy saying : Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task,” (1 Tim 3:1) and “Here is a trustworthy saying : If we died with him, we will also live with him;” (2 Tim 2:11) Each one conveys a nugget of doctrinal truth and it is clear there are at least a half a dozen of these sayings that Paul uses. We just don't know how many more there might have been.

Gospels: As the years passed questions were raised and it soon became obvious that the basics of what had happened with Jesus needed to be written down. It is thought that Mark (aided by Peter) was the first to put together his Gospel somewhere between AD50 and 56, then Matthew the tax collector, somewhere between AD56 and 58, then by Luke somewhere between AD58 and 60, and finally many years later after many more years reflection on what Jesus had said, John wrote his somewhere about AD95.

We have to observe that these dates, and even the order [Matthew & Luke being reversed] are open for discussion. All we can say is that we have these four accredited records, the first three of which each have similarities, using common sources for part of each of their Gospels. Over the next hundred years all of the writings (of what we now call the New Testament) were collected and read in the churches and in the following hundred years they were carefully examined and compared with dubious writings and between 300-400 AD complete agreement was arrived at as to which books were to be included in what we now call ‘the canon' of scripture. It is little wonder that while this process went on, there would be those who questioned the truth.

The beginning of Luke is especially good at showing us the care that these men took in compiling these ‘Gospels': “ Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. ” (Lk 1:1-4) Note the integrity of this doctor (a professional man) and particularly the words, “so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” i.e. you can be assured there is no question as to the truth of what you have been taught by the apostles.

A Body of Truth: Thus we come back to our beginning; there was a body of truth being passed on by the apostles to the early church which comprised the truth about Jesus' coming, his ministry, his life, death, resurrection and ascension, and the teaching about what he had achieved and how it is applied into our lives. Thus the apostle Paul was to eventually write, “ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work,” (2 Tim 3:16,17) meaning both the Old Testament scrolls and the new writings. There is, therefore, this established body of truth and we need a) to know how it came it to being and why it can be trusted, b) to know what it teaches, and c) obey its teachings and finally, ensure we d) do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, that run counter to the truths that we have before us. May it be so!

Meditations in Hebrews 13: 65. Strengthened by Grace

Heb 13:9b It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them.

Relevant? I suspect that for many of us, when we come to a verse like this we think it is of little relevance because it talks of something – ceremonial foods – that was part of their lives back then when this was written but is not something for today. Fair enough. However, as this verse has stayed on my radar I conclude that actually it is very important for our lives today. Perhaps we should deal with the Jewish-Christian context language and pictures that are used, first of all, and then go on to see modern parallels.

Clean? I like the version of verse 9 that says: “ Your spiritual strength comes as a gift from God, not from ceremonial rules about eating certain foods—a method which, by the way, hasn't helped those who have tried it!” i.e. there were various of Moses' Laws that referred to clean or unclean foods and, although people like the Pharisees insisted these were important, they didn't seem to work very well and Jesus insisted that ‘cleanness' was about an inner thing not an outward observance and, anyway, keeping those rules had not produced a holy people.

In the Tabernacle? But then our writer says something even more irrelevant by today's standards: “We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.” (v.10) Pardon? What does that mean? Well the priests ate at the altar and so in this analogy the writer says we have a place where we eat (or fellowship) with God that those who served in the tabernacle in the Old Testament under the old covenant, could not eat. They went through the outward rituals (like the cleansing and worshipping rituals) but in reality that did not seem to bring them closer to God. Our ‘altar' is the Cross. The physical altar was the place where the sacrifice was offered and the NT teaching is that Christ was the ‘Lamb of God' offered for the ‘sacrifice of sins' that we have considered previously. Altars have no place in Christianity for they are reminiscent of the old covenant.

Blood & a Carcass? He goes on, “The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp.” (v.11) It gets worse! But remember this was originally for a Jewish-Christian congregation, so let's try to understand how they would have understood it. Yes, there were two parts to this procedure. The blood of the animal, which represents its life power, was taken into the Most Holy Place to say to God, a life has been given to allow this access. That was to prefigure the work of Christ, giving up his life on the Cross. But then the remaining physical body of the animal was taken outside the camp and burned there, almost as if to say, the physical body of this creature is of no importance, it is its life that is important.

The writer then explains the application: “And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.” (v.12) Jesus' physical body was taken outside the city and there he was crucified in a place of disgrace, as a criminal. It appeared, we might say, that God was giving up on the body of Christ, allowing it to be destroyed just like the old covenant practice, but in reality what was happening on the Cross was that Christ was giving his eternal life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, taking our punishment there.

The writer concludes this little cameo of doctrine by saying, “Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.” (v.13) i.e. let us identify with Christ, accepting (contrary to the derision of the world) that his death on the Cross bought our forgiveness. “ The preaching of the cross is, I know, nonsense to those who are involved in this dying world, but to us who are being saved from that death it is nothing less than the power of God.” (1 Cor 1:18 JBP version) It is that simple.

Back to Grace: So now we need to come back to our starting point: “ It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods.” (v.9b) We, like the Old Testament saints, need strengthening, need encouraging. The Old Testament believers resorted to sacrifices and offerings to get their consciences right before God and yet somehow it left doubts and the overall picture of the spiritual life of Israel throughout the Old Testament is mostly not good.

Today we have these concrete facts declared throughout the New Testament – that Christ died for the forgiveness of sins on the Cross, a specific historical event, the specific plan of God for our salvation. This comes to us freely so that we have to do nothing but accept the truth of this. THIS is what grace is all about so when the enemy comes against us with doubts and fears, we simply turn to the facts of the Gospel and rely on them.

No ‘Doing' to Impress God: Now the problem is that many of us like to DO things to make us feel right with God, so we resort to such things as ‘trying to be good' or ‘performing religious rituals' (Sunday by Sunday) or ‘trying to make up for our bad aspects' (doing charitable things) but the truth is that when we do that we put ourselves on a par with those Old Testament people worrying about ceremonial food. We look to ‘things' to put us right with God, but Christianity is all about receiving freely from God.

If you are trying to be good to get on God's good side, if you are going to church to get on God's good side, or if you are doing charitable things to get on God's good side, then STOP IT! Simply believe that He loves you and is for you and HAS made you right with Him through the Cross, and believe that He HAS given you His Holy Spirit who is the source of all power, all wisdom, all guidance, and all teaching. Learn to listen to Him and enjoy the wonder of being His child. Amen? Amen!

Meditations in Hebrews 13: 66. A City to Come

Heb 13:14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

At times the Christian life is a strange contradiction of feelings. For example, we have already considered the subject of contentment in an earlier study but now we come, in our verse above, across a familiar experience that is unhappy about the status quo and longs for something better. Perhaps we should first put this verse in context.

Recap Context: The writer has taken us through a number of practical issues, for example, marriage (v.4), avoiding love of money (v.5), realizing that Jesus is our helper and is always with us (v.5,6) and is always the same (v.8), but that we have leaders to act as examples for us (v.7) as we struggle to counter false teaching (v.9), remembering we have a much better access to our Saviour than the people of old did (v.10) and yet one who was rejected thus brining us a life that is often one of rejection (v.11-13). All of these things speak of a Fallen World in which we live where we have to resist temptations and battle untruths and opposition.

Something Better? It is not surprising, in the light of all this, that sometimes we are left feeling, “There must be something better than this!” Indeed there is something inside us that yearns for something better that God has for us and it is in respect of these feelings that the writer now says, “ For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.” (v.14) Much of the struggle is to do with people. Even within the church there are people who seem to fall far short of what we might expect of the people of God, and outside it there are certainly people with whom we often do not feel comfortable.

Desiring Real Community: We long for a community (for that is what a ‘city' is) that is not constantly changing, that is not constantly expressing stress and conflict. In one sense it is good that life is constantly changing and we are glad that circumstances change and we're able to move on, but the next set of circumstances so often are little better. It is true inside church and outside it. The bigger the church the less obvious are the tensions but look deeply into any smaller church over a period of time and you will see the stresses and strains of being human beings; delivered from being in bondage to sin, yes, but nevertheless so often handling life in a less than perfect way. There must be a better way!

Back in chapter 11 we have the gallery of faith, the heroes of faith from the Old Testament, headed up by Abraham who had an amazing relationship with the Lord, only exceeded by that of Moses with the Lord, but when he received his call to go to a new land, he went as a nomad looking for something better, a city or community or people built by God: “For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” (Heb 11:10) Thus now we have an exact echo of that. Just like Abraham we have received a calling and we have responded to it and gone and followed the Lord, and yet as wonderful as that is, we are so often left feeling, there must be something better than this. In chapter 12 we caught a glimpse of ‘this': “But you have come to Mount Zion , to the heavenly Jerusalem , the city of the living God.” (Heb 12:22) The ‘City of God ' is in fact heaven, the dwelling place of God. That is our destiny.

Back in chapter 11, the writer explained this all more fully: “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” (Heb 11:13-16) Let's examine this passage more fully.

The people of faith: “ All these people were still living by faith when they died.” (v.13a) It is a life of faith right up to the end (or the beginning!!!) That is what they were and that is what we are, people of faith, and in that we are not failures and we do not fall short.

And yet! “They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.” (v.13b) Despite being people of faith they had not received the full package, everything promised by God. That is how it is this side of eternity.

Still looking: “ People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ” (v.14) All these people had this same feeling of life falling short of what they wanted, of there being something better ‘just over the horizon' we might say.

A Different Country: “ If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one.” (v.15,16a) It wasn't as if they yearned to have a ‘retake' of their past years. No, they wanted something better.

Accepted: “Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” (v.16b) It didn't matter that they were dissatisfied with their past experience, they were people of faith and indeed it was their awareness and their faith that pleased the Lord. So many other people are content with the world that they know and just want more of it – more money, more prestige, more fame, more possessions, more experiences. The fact that all these things are tainted with sin which makes life ‘second best' doesn't appear to matter to them and until the Holy Spirit comes and convicts they rarely say, “There must be something better than this.”

So where do these thoughts leave us. First, with a reminder that we live in a fallen world where things go wrong, circumstances are sometimes bad and people even worse and, it seems, life seems ‘second best' i.e. it could be better! Second, it is not wrong to yearn for a better experience, indeed it is an awareness not only of this world but of the world God has put on our hearts, the world yet to come. So, third, despite this we need to take hold of the grace of God to remain faithful and true to Him while we live and work out our time on this earth. Reach out for the better where you can and don't accept second best if that is possible.

Meditations in Hebrews 13: 67. The God of Peace

Heb 13:20,21 May the God of peace , who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

There are some things that are so fundamental to our faith that I believe we often forget them and the whole issue of peace and God being a God of peace, being one of them. Now we will look at these two verses in more depth in the next study where we will consider ‘God who equips', but for the moment we will simply focus on ‘the God of peace' because it is so simple, so obvious and yet so fundamental to our Faith.

The God of Peace: Sometimes it comes to us so simply in scripture, for example, “ The God of peace be with you all.” (Rom 15:33) It was also there is the message to the shepherds by the angels heralding the coming of baby Jesus: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” (Lk 2:14) i.e. God's desire for all mankind is peace for everyone and Jesus is His way of bringing peace to everyone. The apostle Peter brought this same message to the first Gentile converts: “You know the message God sent to the people of Israel , telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.” (Acts 10:36)

Lacking Peace in the world: But this all supposes that peace is lacking from mankind – and of course it is! Now the Hebrew word that is used for peace is ‘shalom' which does mean peace but it is bigger than that and really means ‘wholeness', or ‘completeness'. We are made to have a relationship with God but where that is missing, we are incomplete and we lack peace. It is simply how mankind is designed. Of course it is sin that separates us from God and keeps us from being whole. It is only the teaching of the New Testament that reveals this in the world. Nowhere else is there this realization. Various other world religions recognize that there is dysfunction in us but no other declares that it is because of our Sin and that God has provided an answer through His Son.

Jesus makes peace: The apostle Paul spoke of this: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood , shed on the cross.” ( Col 1:19) God is the maker of peace by reconciliation. He reconciled us to Himself by Jesus taking our punishment for our sins, and satisfying justice.

Zechariah declared it: This message was delivered right at the beginning of the Gospel story when Zechariah was filled with the Spirit and prophesied over his son, John, later to be known as ‘the Baptist', when he declared, “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace." (Lk 1:76-79)

What an amazing word! John would go before his Lord to prepare the people to receive the salvation that God had planned for them, a real salvation that provided for forgiveness of their sins so that no longer need they feel guilty and apart from God. Previously it had been as if they were living in darkness, a place of fear and questions and doubts, but once this salvation came it would be like they were living in a new world, in the light where everything was visible, seen by God but no longer fearful of His judgment, death coming on them, because He had provided a salvation that included being a peace between them and Him.

Palm Sunday: One fascinating place where peace is referred to is when the crowds welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem at the beginning of his last week (Palm Sunday) before Passover (our Easter): “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" (Lk 19:38) The crowds welcomed Jesus as their Messiah, the conquering king who had come to save them (from the Romans they thought). Their cries signified that they recognized, for a moment at least, that Jesus had been sent by heaven to bring God's blessing to them which meant ‘peace in heaven'. Now they may not have realized what they were saying but that was exactly what he had come to do by taking the punishment for all sin and thus bringing peace in heaven, peace in God's heart as He could receive sinful men to Himself.

The effect of Justification: The apostle Paul spoke of this work or process of putting us right with the demands of the Law and of justice as ‘justification' which some have paraphrased as “just-as-if-I'd” never sinned; that is the effect of the work of Jesus on the Cross, and the end outworking of that work is peace for us: “since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom 5:1)

The outworking of Sanctification: But it isn't just about what happens when God puts us right with Himself through Christ and we first receive it, it is also about how God views us throughout our following lives and what He intends for us, His changing us, which theologians call ‘sanctification': “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through,” (1 Thess5:23) and His overall intent for us: “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.” (2 Thes 3:16) In every aspect of our lives, God intends that we should be at peace.

From before the world: Now our writer is going on to say what is an outworking of this peace – that God equips us to live as He wants – but in so doing he summarizes all that we have been saying in a power packed verse that we saw at the beginning: “May the God of peace , who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep….” (v.20) Note, first, He has done what He has done because as we have noted earlier in this series, the plan of salvation was decided upon by the Trinity before time-space history came into being, i.e. it was an ‘eternal covenant' set up right back then. Note, second, this covenant involved Jesus' blood being shed, his life being given up, again agreed before the foundation of the world. Note, third, once he had given his life it opened the way for the Father to step in and raise up the body from the dead because it had achieved what it was sent to achieve. Note, fourth, Jesus had been sent to do what he did, and that included to act as a shepherd to collect and return to the Father, all who would hear his voice and return to him and follow him (“ When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” Jn 10:4)

Conclusion: God wants your life to be founded on peace. Peace is to be the bedrock of your life. Know it, live in it and rejoice.

Meditations in Hebrews 10: 68. God who Equips

Heb 13:20,21 May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will , and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

So Jesus, the great Shepherd has come to earth and drawn us to himself and sometimes some of us just focus on our conversion as if that was all there is, but of course the truth is that our conversion, our being ‘born again', was merely the start of a life with Christ. We may have before us, years and years of living out the Christian life.

God's Initial Purpose for us: Now because God has given us free will, I believe a lot of the things to come are things we choose but behind whatever we plan and want, the Lord is working in and through us to bring about His plans and purposes. These are spoken about by Paul to the church at Ephesus in general terms: “ For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph 2:10) Add to that his words to the church at Corinth: “we… are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit,” (2 Cor 3:18) and we can see that God's initial purpose in us is to change us to be more Christ-like which, I would suggests means both in character and in service. Add to this another important truth, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it,” (1 Cor 12:27) and the teaching that goes with it in that chapter, and we see that God gifts us in particular ways that harmonise with the gifts of other believers, so that together collectively we express the life and ministry of Christ which, in itself, was to fulfil the will of the Father.

God's Primary Resource : So there is our target to become like Christ and do his works as he leads; that is the will of the Father. So how does He quip us to go about this, for this is what our verses above are all about? I think different Christians would put this order in different ways, but I am convinced that THE primary resource that He gives us, is Himself, His own Holy Spirit. The New Testament is quite clear that when we are born again we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit who remains in us for the rest of our existence. Jesus taught that the Holy Spirit would teach us and guide us and empower us. I have often said that I believe every practical expression of God's grace is in fact an expression of the indwelling Holy Spirit. He is, without doubt our first resource.

God's Second Resource: But then coming a very close second is God's revealed word, the Bible. Those most famous of Paul's words speak of this: “ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16,17) As we take and allow the Holy Spirit to apply God's word to us, we are changed and that change makes us morel like Jesus in character and service as we said above.

Put on equipment: But how does this work? Well, the apostle Paul explained it in his graphic ‘warfare passage in Eph 6: “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace . In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith , with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God .” (Eph 6:11-17)

There are certain aspects of the Christian life that we have to ‘put on' (v.11) just like a soldier puts on armor. We have to realise that all these things we are talking about, whether it be in respect of equipping or to do with armor, are all in the spiritual realm (v.12) so we are not talking about material or physical things here, we are talking about expression of the life of the Spirit in and through us. These things that we have to ‘put on' are things that will equip us and enable us to stand in the face of the attacks of the enemy. (13). The things we are to ‘put on' or apply to our lives to equip us are truth and righteousness (v.14), ready with the Gospel of peace (v.15), faith (v.16), the fact of our salvation and God's word itself. (v.17). In Paul's analogy truth and righteousness protect the upper body, covering the heart. The fact that the soldier's feet are covered with the readiness to bring the Gospel of peace says that we are constantly ready to be God's ambassadors, peace bringers, and as such we will come with the authority of God. Both faith and the facts of our salvation equip us to ward off the lies of the enemy and then, as the Holy Spirit directs us, we can wield His word to defeat the enemy, release captives and generally do the will of God.

Jesus' Mission: Let us again put God's will in context as we consider Isaiah's words that Jesus read out declaring to be his mission: “ he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.” (Lk 4:18,19) THAT is why we need to be equipped by God, for this is His will for us to bring to the earth. That is why we pray with the writer, “ May the God of peace,… equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” As we receive His equipping, so we will glorify Him. Indeed, may it be so! PS. Just note in that His equipping it will be with “everything good”. The God of peace, the God of goodness, equips us with all good things to bless us and make us a blessing. Yes? Yes!

Meditations in Hebrews 13: 69. God working in me

Heb 13:20,21 May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him , through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

As we have often commented, it is so easy to pass by words or phrases in Scripture and ignore them or skim over them so that we do not take in the wonder of them. I was about to do that with the end of verse 21 when I believe He arrested by attention with the words, “ and may he work in us what is pleasing to him.”

Now throughout recent studies we have been noting the fact that God works in us to change us to become like Jesus in both character and service and so you might be forgiven for wondering why I should pause up with these words that just accentuate what we have covered already a number of times recently. Well, I believe the reason for doing this is that whenever we have noted this recently it has been as part of others things and looking at them means we haven't focused on these words.

Throughout this book the writer has been bringing warning after warning to hold to the faith and hold to the plan of God for our lives as laid out in the apostles' teaching. All of these things speak about our lives being changed. Now, yes, I am aware that this has come up more than a few times but as we draw near to the end of the book we need to hold to this focus, that the Christian life is all about change, and it is change, as we saw in the previous study, because He equips us to conform to His will, His plans and purposes for us. All that follows below is an expression of that.

Change of Perspective: At various times within this book we have had put before us, by this Jewish-Christian, the fact that there are major differences between the Old and New Covenants. The Old Covenant was all about keeping to the Law, but the Israelites had found it impossible to do that and so law-keeping is always accompanied by a sense of failure and guilt. Keeping to the rules, abiding by and following various religious rituals just doesn't bring about transformation of being, a holy person. No, the New Covenant isn't about keeping rules, about trying to be good, about trying to impress God, it is about simply receiving His love and His goodness, receiving His Holy Spirit and the Lordship direction of Jesus as the head of his body, the Church, as he rules from beside of his Father in heaven. It is now all about receiving his love and goodness and knowing the joy of being one of his children. The first change therefore is of a change of perspective, which brings a change of life and behaviour.

Change in thinking about God: The second change which flows out of his must be in respect of how we think about God and how we respond to Him in daily life. We have already spoken about receiving God's love and goodness and implied within that must be that we appreciate and understand it more and more. Many Christians just don't take in and absorb the fact that “God is love.” (1 Jn 4:8,18) and everything He thinks, says or does in respect of us is an expression of love. When we truly come to understand this, then whenever we need help we will all the more eagerly come into His presence in prayer, all the more will we seek understanding of Him and His ways through His word, and all the more find ourselves expressing worship in respect of Him.

Change in thinking about others: The third change that takes place in us, that God is working in us, is in respect of everyone around us. His word is very clear on this and so His Holy Spirit will be working in us in this area. Suddenly we start seeing people in new ways and we find such things as compassion and care or patience and tolerance where we had not known them previously. We find ourselves listening to people rather than wanting to hear only our own voice. Where once we were selfish and purely self-concerned we find a strange warmth, love and concern rising in us for others.

All of these things are “pleasing to him”, pleasing to God, because they are His heart for all people and He delights when He sees His children expressing the same characteristics as His Son, Jesus Christ, and as we live our lives like this, so we will glorify Him as well as blessing others. Change in us, bringing change into the world, all these things are the things on God's heart that brings Him pleasure as He works in us and through us to restore people to Himself and bring more and more love and goodness into His world.