Hebrews, Part 6 of 6

[00:00:00] I will begin with a word of prayer. We do thank thee, our kind Father in heaven, for thy mercy and thy grace to us. We thank thee that we have this privilege of looking into thy holy word together. We pray that by thy Holy Spirit, thou wilt make up whatever we may lack in insight into the meaning of thy holy word. Be pleased to bless us in this hour for Jesus' sake. Amen now we've divided the book of Hebrews into six main topics there's a [00:00:38] little bit of working for the answer here we could have made it longer or shorter one is the superiority of Christ the first chapters Christ is superior to the prophets to the angels and to Moses second we saw the threefold meaning of of rest in the Bible, national rest in Israel, spiritual rest at present in Christ, and future rest, our heavenly rest, in the future. [00:01:09] Thirdly, we made a study of Christ, our high priest. He's like Melchizedek, this Old Testament character who was priest to the Most High God in Genesis 14, and whose birth and death are not recorded. that is to say he he simply stands in the record as not having beginning or end of days as a matter of fact he did but it isn't recorded and so in in that sense he's a feeble picture of the Lord [00:01:42] Jesus Christ and Christ is superior to Aaron then we have the glory of the new covenant It's vastly superior to the old covenant founded on better promises and so on. Finally is the meaning of faith. And now tonight we have a confident Christian life, chapters 12 and 13. Let me ask first of all, does anyone have any questions on the first 11 chapters of this book? The question is, do we have any Sabbath laws for our day? [00:02:19] and I think the answer is not in terms of legalism. The Old Testament did have legalistic regulations. You are not allowed to go more than a certain distance on the Sabbath. You are not allowed to kindle a fire on the Sabbath, etc. The Christian is guided rather by basic principles. Anything that would give a testimony against legalism is good. anything that gives a testimony against materialism is good [00:02:52] so if a person works seven days a week instead of six he's too materialistic I talked to a businessman about this 40 years ago and he said Sunday's my biggest day in other words I make more money on Sunday than any other day and we had an alumnus of Goshen College Anabaptist, Anabaptist, Anabaptist, Anabaptist, [00:03:44] So we give a testimony against materialism and we give a testimony against secularism by keeping voluntarily. Did you all hear that word? Voluntarily. The Lord's Day. My father was very strict in this respect, but I don't think he was legalistic. He threw down enough hay on Saturday so we didn't have to throw down hay on Sunday. Some people throw down hay on Sunday for all week. It's a good way to invest their money, I think. [00:04:18] Any other questions? Now we come to a confident Christian life, chapters 12 and 13. And we can divide these chapters into a number of sub-points. The first is the joyful news in verses 1 to 13. that God is at work to enable us to reach the glory world. God is at work for our spiritual good. [00:04:52] He wants us to reach the glory world. Has this ever hit us? Or do we think it all depends on us? I was down in Fort Wayne one time and an old man said to me, Now when you go home, get down on your knees and pray that I may be faithful. Well, that's a good attitude to have, but I wish you would have said, I'm so glad that our Lord is faithful, and I'm so glad that our Lord will continue to work in my life for his glory and for my ultimate salvation. [00:05:27] that would have been biblical now I'm not saying it wasn't biblical to ask for prayer but I wish there could be in our Mennonite church a little more of an optimistic attitude that the grace of God is adequate and that God is at work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure and I don't think it's only Mennonites that have this problem I won't name any other denomination I think that's right. It's human nature. [00:06:01] Now he tells us in verse 1 that we're to strip off our handicaps and run with endurance. Maybe each of us ought to ask ourselves the question what is it that holds me back? What ought I get rid of in order to run a better Christian race? That's a good thing to think about. What holds me back? what what actually serves as a slower down in my Christian race secondly says fix your eyes on Jesus you'll allow a farm illustration when I was a boy I was about I suppose 16 and we had a large grain hay field rather grass field and my [00:06:54] You know how boys are and I figured I'll show my father how straight I can drive and there were two horses pulling the mowing machine and the lines made an X between the two horses mouths and I fixed that X on a tree way down the other side of the field and I didn't take my eye off of that X or that tree the whole way. I'll tell you it was pretty straight and I was pretty proud of it now apply that spiritually are we running a good race are we fixing our eyes on Jesus there are all kinds of distractions that hinder you and me from running the right kind of a race we read things in the newspapers which we ought to see and other things which I don't need to go into [00:07:54] Well, he says, fix your eyes on Jesus. He is the pioneer. He's the author of our faith. He's the perfecter of our faith. And he set a good example. For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising its shame. that's a marvelous statement that the Lord Jesus Christ had to reckon with the shame of the cross and yet he looked beyond the cross to the joy that he would have of bringing many sons to glory [00:08:28] and he accepted it for our sake and we want to do the same thing I wrote down here are we ready are we ready to suffer with Jesus that's that's the appeal of this verse verse 2 are we ready to suffer with Jesus verse 3 he tells us don't lose heart as you suffer don't lose heart as you suffer we're to think about Jesus and the suffering that he went through and realize that we're not better than he and we're called upon to suffer [00:09:08] unjust suffering when you realize that it's somebody else's meanness that is and making you suffer like this that's the hardest thing to bear but by the grace of God we can do it can't we by the grace of God we can do it by the grace of God we can accept whatever suffering may come to even though it's unfair Laverne here will forgive me if I use an illustration from her father there was a time when shop woods over here was empty except for trees there were no houses where there were shops woods is is that the name of it I think so well he says he said SC Yoder said that maybe I better explain he was elected president of a rather difficult [00:10:01] In a rather difficult situation, the college had been closed for a year, the constituency had lost faith in the college, but everybody had faith in him. But there was a multitude of expectations, and he couldn't meet all those expectations. And he said, one day, I went out and got down on my knees in the snow, and I buried my reputation. in other words I wasn't living to be well recognized I was living for the glory of God I was living for the advancement of his cause and kingdom are you getting the illustration that's what every Christian has to do every Christian has to bury his reputation every Christian has to endure as seeing Jesus and in verse [00:10:56] to the point of martyrdom to the shedding of your blood and verses 5 and 6 if you are discouraged that's the implication of the question of the statement if you are discouraged you have forgotten god's encouraging word what is that well here he quotes proverbs 3 11 which says my son do not make light of the lord's discipline and do not lose heart when he rebukes you In other words, discipline is a part of the Christian life, divine discipline, and I think we could push that one notch farther and say that sometimes the hardest thing to bear is not what we know comes from God, but what comes from some of God's children. [00:11:46] they're very unreasonable and they can be very harsh maybe some of you don't know what I'm talking about but I think some of you do some of you know what it's like to experience harshness and unkindness and meanness from some of God's children for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines and scourges everyone he accepts as a son and therefore he says in verse 7 endure the Lord's [00:12:21] discipline for God is dealing with you as his sons when when you know that God loves you and it's because of his love for you that he allows you to suffer like Job then it makes the suffering more bearable God is dealing with you as sons verse 8 divine discipline he says is a mark of true sonship divine discipline is a mark of true sonship and just as we were submissive to our earthly fathers who briefly disciplined us as they saw best God wisely disciplines us in [00:13:07] human fathers human fathers in their limited knowledge can discipline us for things that we really don't deserve or at least we think we don't deserve I remember one time I was approaching the barn bridge that's the name we use in Pennsylvania for this sharp incline that goes up into the barn and I had a heavy load of hay and it was a question whether the horses were going to be able to pull us pull the wagon up the barn bridge and I saw that the angle that I would have to approach would never do it was much too sharp so I figured I'll go around the other side of the barn turn around and then go up the more natural way into the barn bridge my father I don't think ever could see why I went around the barn like that he thought that was a stupid thing to do well maybe it was [00:14:07] It was. But I didn't quite think that he realized why I did that. That's just an illustration. I'm just trying to make this thing live. It's hard for us to accept discipline from finite people. People that don't use the judgment which they might use. This tells me, and this is reinforced, I must say, by a course I'm teaching in the present time at the seminary. [00:14:41] It's called The Devotional Life, and I ask each student to give a spiritual autobiography. And frankly, I am impressed how many hurting teenagers we have in the church. teenagers who suffer because they have not had an understanding pastor a pastor who looked at the rules and then looked at the teenagers and saw they were not keeping all the rules the way they should and I'm trying to say [00:15:13] I wish we could have more of the milk of human kindness in the church I would like to be that kind of a person and I think all of us here tonight would We'd like to be that kind of a person. I'm not pleading for no discipline at all. The whole point of this passage is discipline. But he says, Our fathers disciplined us as they saw best. God disciplines us wisely so that we share in his holiness. That's the climax. [00:15:44] We share in the holiness of God if we allow him to transform us into his image. which may mean suffering which does mean suffering and he says in verse 11 that at first discipline is painful or unpleasant but later it brings righteousness and peace that's a challenge that God's discipline in the [00:16:15] long run brings righteousness and peace now we have a word missing in verse verse 12 it says wherefore blank the weary hands and straighten the paralyzed knees but you can't say straighten the weary hands but it means something like strengthen strengthen the weary hands understood and straighten the paralyzed knees 12 12 verse 13 make straight tracks for your feet lest the lame be turned aside [00:16:53] And then again, there's something missing here in terms of fullness of expression. So I think what's missing is this. Act in such a way that the lame are healed. Act in such a way that the lame are healed. Do you know what that often means? Confidence. If we can put confidence in children. I remember a student came to me one time at the college [00:17:28] and just poured out and poured out and poured out and I listened to the whole thing. It took about an hour. And then at the end I said, well, let's have prayer and you can go. And later this student came back and said, you have no idea how you helped me. and I hadn't said anything but the student said the fact that you could sit there and listen without seeming to be shocked helped me immensely some so that even the friends of that of that student commented on how happy the student [00:18:02] looked well this raises the question in my mind how can you and I best help how can we best help those who are spiritually handicapped how can we best help those who are spiritually handicapped how about the discouraged one time at a big banquet in Chicago connected with the NIV there was a scholar sat to my left at this banquet and I had faintly known him when he taught at [00:18:40] seminary down here at Winona Lake. His name was Dr. Ray, R-A-E, I think. And trying to make conversation, I said to him, do I remember correctly that your wife was an invalid? And he just beamed. He said, she used to be. And he said, we had four sons, and half the time when she should have been up and about and caring for these boys, she was lying in bed with chills and fever. And he said we were in Detroit one Christmas season and the people where we were [00:19:17] visiting said, do you know there's an Episcopalian rector here of the Order of St. Luke. Did you ever hear of it? The Order of St. Luke. It's a healing group. And this man conducts prayers for the sick nothing emotionally or anything exciting about it why don't you go so Dr. Ray and his wife went to this Episcopal service and then after the service he dismissed the audience and he said those that wish to can remain behind and come forward for prayer [00:19:53] so he said my wife and I went forward and knelt at the rail a whole lot of other people did too and eventually the rector got to Dr. Ray and his wife and he said to her the rector what is your trouble now ordinarily a life companion knows pretty well what the other person will say but Dr. Ray said I was shocked by her answer what do you think she said I guess [00:20:28] he didn't know that and so the minister prayed with them and asked God's blessing to be upon them and so on and to make a long story short eventually but not not immediately she was healed so that the chosen fever disappeared and she quit being an invalid how can we best help those who are spiritually Handicapped, those who have avarice. If any of you speak German, do you know what geizig means? When somebody is unduly attached to money? Well, that's what avaricious means. Only it's not a common word in English. But the German word geizig is very common. And it speaks so vividly to people that can't get enough money. [00:21:17] what about the people who are carnal or those who are timid or those who are jealous or those who are critical that's an awful disease because the critical person thinks he's really spiritually superior to everybody else he's more he's more spiritual than the pastor and so on now the second section he says all always cultivate submission to God verses 14 to 28 always cultivate submission to God he starts out [00:21:59] with a very brief exhortation 12 14 live in peace with all men Romans 12 is slightly more realistic It says, as much as lieth in you, live at peace with all men. In other words, there are some people that are pretty hard to make peace with. If I may use an illustration, I don't think Glenn Yoder's wife is here tonight, is she? Glenn Yoder worked for many, many years for Mr. Wolf, ran a grain company in Ship Shawana. [00:22:36] and I would suppose it might have been 30 years ago, maybe more. David Bontrager, the bishop of the Beachy Church, Beachy Amish, locally they're called Burkholder, out on Ford, you know where that church is, came to see me and he said, Mr. Wolfe asked me to build him, he was a contractor at that time, a grain bin 40 by 40. So I did it. And Mr. Wolf said, that's fine. He said, put another one on top. He said, I can't do that. I didn't put in pilasters. Now, I don't know what a pilaster is, but something important. And he said, I can't put a bin on top. [00:23:22] And Wolf said, I'm telling you to put another bin on. So he said, I put one on. And the first time he filled it, it crushed the bottom. And then Wolf said, you either pay me $8,000 or I'll sue you. and David Bontrager the bishop said to me I don't think I owe that man a cent but he said what can I do in this circumstance and I said well why don't you propose to Mr. Wolfe that he appoint a man and you appoint a man and those two choose the third man and then both of you agree to accept whatever settlement the three men agree on well Wolfe wouldn't do it [00:24:03] and at this point Glenn Yoder heard about it. Glenn Yoder's now gone and Glenn Yoder called up the local bank he said loan Dave Bontrager eight thousand dollars on my say-so and the bank did because Glenn Yoder had a good name. Six months later Mr. Wolf heard about it who was behind this and he almost worshipped Glenn Yoder and Wolf was so smitten in conscience he called in [00:24:33] Dave Bontrager and paid the eight thousand dollars back with interest now people say you know that non-resistance doesn't work I think that's right it isn't tried this commandment is live at peace with all men in other words accept even injustice in order that the cause of Christ may go forward and secondly he says be holy we need holiness to enter the glory world [00:25:03] I was out in one of the states to the northwest, it may have been Minnesota, I can't remember right, and there was a man, I was at a certain brother's home for the evening meal, and he had a good sized farm, and he told me that he had a hired man who worked for him, and he said that one day the hired man backed the tractor up to a heavy piece of machinery, Thank you for watching. [00:26:00] I think that's beautiful and that's exactly what it takes to get into glory make me as pure as the angels so we need holiness without which no man shall see the Lord we need holiness to enter the glory world and he says see that 1215 see to it that no one fails of the grace of God I think the modern versions say that no one misses the King James says fails of the grace of God especially says 1216 look out for any root of bitterness which defiles many believers they grow bitter at this and bitter at that and all I know is life is too short [00:27:00] to carry bitterness. It eats like a canker in a person's inner soul. And we can't afford to do it. It's too short. And then he says that we should avoid, it's translated in the King James, fornication. The Greek word is not limited to any particular sin sexually. It can be used of incest, it can be used of adultery, it can be used of a lot of things. So in in modern English we would say keep sexually pure don't stoop to that which [00:27:36] is defiling or of a secular or godless spirit and he uses Esau as an example don't be like Esau Esau for one meal surrendered the rights of the firstborn for one meal there's no doubt whether he was hungry but what a pity that he would sell the rights of the firstborn for one square meal part of the blame [00:28:08] goes to Jacob of course because he took advantage of his brother's hunger you remember how Esau came to Jacob and he said what's that red stuff here you got He said, give me some, I'm famished. And Jacob said, sell me your birthright. He said, okay, I'll sell it. He said, swear it to me. So he said, he swore. Now, the Greek says at that point that Esau found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. [00:28:40] Let me say right away that I agree with the American Standard Version of 19.1. It says Esau found no place for a change of mind in his father. That is to say he could ball all he pleased and it was too late. It had been sold and so he could not change his father's mind. the word repent is a change of mind of course [00:29:13] and this is not talking about repentance from sin it doesn't say that Esau wanted to turn to Christ and couldn't do it no, there's nothing like that him that cometh to me our Lord said I will of no wise cast out there's no such thing as wanting to repent and not being able to but Esau could not change his father's mind because it was done he had sold his birthright tears could not undo what he had rashly done [00:29:47] now he makes a big contrast beginning at verse 18 and running down through the end of the chapter between ancient Mount Sinai and the Christian coming to Mount Zion in conversion. You Christians, he says, 1218, did not come to Mount Sinai. Then he refers to what things were like at the giving of the law. [00:30:19] He says the mountain was burning with fire. At the same time, there was deep darkness and gloom. There was even a storm, NIV, or a whirlwind, Dr. Marshall, trumpet blast, a divine voice speaking words, which scared the daylights out of the Jews so that they said, don't let that voice speak to us again. No more words from God. what Israel heard 1220 was unbearable and God said that if even an animal touches the mountain it shall be put to death and even Moses 1221 declared that he was terrified and trembled in other words the giving of the law was accompanied by a fantastic natural phenomenon [00:31:13] Now, in contrast with that, 1222, he says, you Christians have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to thousands of angels, to the church of the firstborn. Now, this is called the church militant. You and I are in the church militant. The church which is already in glory has another name. Can anybody tell us? triumphant the church triumphant to God the judge who's of all men to the [00:31:54] spirits of righteous men who have been made perfect now that's the church triumphant to Jesus we have come 1224 the mediator of the New Covenant to the sprinkled blood with a better word than the blood of Abel in the Old Testament The Old Testament, this godly man who was murdered. So he says, 1225, see to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If Israel did not escape from the warnings of the earthly voice they heard, how much less will we escape if we refuse or turn away from the heavenly voice. [00:32:34] and then he remarks 12 26 and 7 that at Mount Sinai God's voice shook the earth but he says God has now promised to shake not only the earth but earth and and heaven as well at the last day understood God will remove 12 27 the material that cannot be shaken that can be In other words, the eternal realities stand. [00:33:07] Now I'm going to let you stand for a minute, and then we'll finish the book. Now we come to the last chapter, the final words of this epistle to the Hebrews. He tells us in 13.1-6 that there are a number of virtues that we should cultivate. You'll be a little bit surprised, I suppose. In 13.1, he tells us to cultivate Philadelphia. [00:33:38] That is to say, the Greek word for brotherly love is the name of the city in eastern Pennsylvania. Cultivate Philadelphia, brotherly love. In other words, see to it that this happens. See to it that you behave toward the other members of your society the way God intends that you should do so. It still bothers me to pass up a hitchhiker. [00:34:09] The only reason I don't stop is the police tell us not to do it. That we're liable to be murdered and our car will be taken and so on. there are some brave souls that still practice this brotherly love the second thing to cultivate is hospitality now I suppose we are in in a so different world than our grandparents were that we shouldn't use comparisons but when I think of the way we used to [00:34:47] all visitors that would show up and even regular members of the church on on the sunday sunday dinner my wife's parents and grandparents lived in a lane and they would always invite people for sunday dinner and then sometimes people would come uninvited and they'd have the table about set up and there'd be a team coming in the in the lane yet they'd say well we have to clear off the We're not complaining. I'm just saying we're in a different world at least. [00:35:43] I guess it costs a lot more now than it did then when people lived on farms and so on but somehow I wish we could recapture the hospitality we used to have. This was beautiful and the Amish carry this so far that they don't have church every other Sunday so they have one Sunday for visiting. yeah yeah that's the other side well anyhow I wish we could do it I wish we could have more hospitality it's biblical and maybe we should maybe we could have simple meals maybe wouldn't wouldn't have to have seven sours and [00:36:43] seven sweets and all the other things that went along. Thirdly, he says cultivate sympathy. First, brotherly love. Second, hospitality. 13.3, sympathy for prisoners and the persecuted. If you have never visited the Goshen jail or any other jail, you ought to go down sometime and hear the finality with which the big The great doors slam shut and the many locks, the great big locks and the great big keys are put into them. [00:37:19] Paul, whoever the writer was, here says, cultivate sympathy for the prisoners. And then 13.4, cultivate social purity. Avoid the judgment of God. 13.5, cultivate contentment with a simple life. It's the opposite of love for money. And you can live a simple life. We all can live simple lives. Because we're not living for the sake of money. We're concerned, rather, for the good that we can do in the one time that we are passing through this world. [00:37:57] and here he quotes Deuteronomy 31 6 where God promises to stand by us God's promise to stand by us what is that promise he says I'll never leave you nor will I forsake you now that's that's security you know what that's Christian security this is not security in sin it's security in God [00:38:27] so he says we can say with confidence and then he quotes Psalm 118 6 the Lord is my helper I will not be afraid what can man do to me well men can imprison us they can persecute us they can torture us as far as God allows and and that's pretty important to believe that that God somehow is sovereign God [00:38:58] is in charge and that God allows wicked men to go only so far and I don't want to bore you with all kinds of stories but this has been so abundantly demonstrated in history that it's moving that God watches over his own and Martyrs Mirror for example tells about how the authorities came to a certain Dutch home and the husband talked so loud to the officers who came to Warnie's wife. She fled out the back door and got away. Now that was very kind on his part. [00:39:42] And that was led by God. God was in charge. The Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Now, secondly, in this chapter, religious practices. First of all, we have this section on virtues to cultivate, 13.1-6. And now, secondly, religious practices, 13.7-17. Now three times he uses the word which is translated in the King James Version, those that have the rule over you. [00:40:21] But I don't think the Greek actually means that. And I concluded on the basis of my study of the Greek that it means your leaders. And then I looked what Luther has in the German Bible. And he says your Lehrer, your ministers, your teachers literally. Obey your teachers, honor your teachers, greet your teachers. So remember your leaders, your Lehrer, it's 13.7, 13.17, and 13.24, bear in mind he says that they spoke the word of God to you, this is a tremendous responsibility that the minister is supposed to stand between God and his people and represent God. [00:41:09] God, by declaring his word to them, something that none of us are worthy of. And he says consider the outcome of their life. I think we would say today their influence. Their influence is on the good side, on the side of the good. Imitate their faith. Don't imitate their weaknesses. They're weak the same as the rest of us, but he says imitate their faith. Christ is unchangeable. the same yesterday and today and forever in other words the character of our Lord is beautiful the character of our Lord is absolutely reliable so he says 13 9 I want you to be stable too and we want to be don't we we want to be stable we don't want to be cast all around by every wind of doctrine and sleight of hand that people use against us don't be [00:42:08] carried away by all sorts of strange teachings. Let your hearts grow strong in the grace of God. Don't trust in ceremonially clean foods. That's pathetic when people seem to think that it's a matter of what you eat. We Christians, he says, 1310, have an altar. Now I put the word altar in quotes because I don't think that this is altar in a literal sense. We Christians have an altar from which the Levitical priests dare not eat what does he mean by this I looked it up in the big [00:42:45] commentary by Philip Hughes to see what he would say and he says this is a I'm not going to quote him now I'm just going to give you the gist of it spiritually by faith we are nourished by the by the crucified Christ spiritually we are nourished by the crucified Christ we have an altar to eat from that the Old Testament priests didn't have they didn't have a crucified Christ we do and he nourishes us in faith in 1311 to 14 he says we identify therefore with our suffering Lord although the high priest he says [00:43:29] The high priest takes animal blood into the Holy of Holies. Notice the present tense. It implies the sacrificial system is still operating. The high priest takes animal blood into the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur. The bodies of the animals are burned outside the camp. That's Leviticus chapter 4. If you want to look it up sometime. Now he says, 16.12, that Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make us holy through his blood. [00:44:04] 16.13, let us therefore identify with this disgraced Jesus who had to suffer outside the city. He was taken outside the city to be crucified. And our city is not the city of Jerusalem or the city of Chicago. Our permanent city is not on earth. Our city is the one that we are seeking, the one that is to come. So let us therefore offer up, that means let us live in a spirit of praise. [00:44:45] Let us live in a spirit of praise. Let us make that kind of a sacrifice to God. this is the fruit of being Christian of having lips that confess his name 1316 he puts it like this two things we should cultivate one is we should do good and the other is we should share there's always a lot of needy people around us and we share the word we share financial resources we share whatever word of [00:45:21] encouragement we have with the people that we associate with secondly he says we should obey our leaders the first word was we should keep in mind our leaders and the Anglican translation the King James says those that have the rule over you but Jesus said no Christian shall have the rule over any other Christian in other words it's all right to teach it's all right to set a good [00:45:56] example but not to rule so he says obey your leaders be submissive what a beautiful church this would be if everybody in the church would obey biblical instructions because he says these leaders serve as unto God they're watching over your welfare and your immediate your obedience will make their work a joy 13 18 to 25 final appeals he says pray for the author 13 18 he has a good conscience he wishes to live right especially pray that he may come soon and then we have in 13 20 the the what the German calls the Sagan the [00:46:45] blessing. The English is a big word based on two Latin words, benediction. But blessing is a very natural translation. This blessing is in the name of the God of peace. By his blood he inaugurated an eternal covenant and God raised his obedient son, the Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified for us. Christ is therefore our great God. Great Shepherd. The 1527 earliest Mennonite confession of faith called Schleitheim designates the one who we would say pastors the congregation as Der Hirt, the shepherd. Der Hirt. I think that's a beautiful word for a pastor. [00:47:37] A shepherd who has a shepherd's heart, who loves every member of the flock, every lamb of the flock, who loves those who are strong and those who are weak, and so on. Christ is our ultimate shepherd, the over-shepherd. 21. May God equip you to do his will. May he work his work in us. May he do his pleasure in us. may he bless us in Christ so we can be with Christ forever and ever now in 1322 he says bear this this word of exhortation literally it's just a few words I think a number of translations use the word letter but there's no word letter in the Greek it just says few words and I almost wish that [00:48:36] very understandable phrase had been kept bear with these few words and then he has the joyful news 1323 that Timothy has been released and he says I hope to visit you with him so this is somebody in the Timothy circle the Paul circle that has written this letter and then in 1324 the third mention of the leaders the Lehrer in German give greetings to all your leaders and to all the saints or all the holy ones meaning all the Christians now 1324 is not clear the Greek literally says that I bring you greetings from the Italian Christians now does that mean the saints in Italy or does it mean the Italian Saints in some other city like Rome we don't know and [00:49:33] so it's it's somewhat ambiguous greetings from the italian christians either from italy or in italy or they came from italy and finally the best of all is the word of grace grace means we do not deserve what we have people sometimes raise the question am i worthy of the of the grace of God. That's a contradiction in terms. We are not worthy. We're not worthy of the least of all God's mercies. And God in his grace fully, did you hear that? Fully accepts us. That's what grace means. Grace means that God fully accepts us. And if God forgives us for our sins and shortcomings, dare I say that, then I think we ought to also [00:50:29] I know somebody, not from this immediate community, who fell into sin, and I wrote him a letter of encouragement, and he did not answer. I didn't see him for maybe six months after that. The first time I saw him, though, he could hardly talk. He came over to me and he almost whispered, he said, you'll never know how much your letter meant to me. [00:51:02] That's the way we Christians ought to act, isn't it? We ought to forgive one another because we're all in grace. And if God deals with us in grace, we ought to deal with one another in grace. I'm not excusing sin, I'm just saying grace is greater than sin. Now, have any of you any questions on the whole book of Hebrews? Anything you'd like to raise? What are some of the disciplines we receive from God? [00:51:34] Or do they come to us via people? What do you folks think about that? Do the disciplines come to us from God direct? Or do they often come through people? In other words, it could be both. I think it is both. There are some disciplines that come directly from God, where God withholds from us some good thing temporarily, [00:52:10] or God allows suffering to come to us, or poor health, or financial troubles, or whatever it may be. but oftentimes these disciplines come in a way that's harder to accept because we know who's to blame for the difficulties that we are in and that's hard and this is precisely where the Christian spirit shows through [00:52:43] do you remember what Joseph said to his brothers When they were so scared that he was going to take it out on their hide now, that he had what looked like omnipotent power almost, they turned to one another in Hebrew, forgetting that he could understand them, and they said, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, and would have no mercy. And Joseph fled from the room because he had to cry when he heard what they were saying. [00:53:14] but the thing I'm getting to is this Joseph told his brothers you meant it to me for evil and God meant it to me for good now that's what you call victory when we can say that even if people are wrong in what they have done and the brothers were certainly wrong yet Joseph could say God had a good hand in this God can bring glory to himself out of even the sinful acts of people [00:53:46] any other questions or thoughts I'm just looking at this communication very beautiful card well it says this brings warm thanks and gratitude to doing nice things comes natural thank you very much I'll give this to my wife. You're excused.