“Remember, Remember, Remember!” Heb.
13:1-17
Intro.: Most
of us have felt the effects of forgetfulness.
It happened to me the other day when I went to the hospital. First, I forgot who I was there to visit and
called back to the office, then by the time I got up to the floor, I had forgotten
the room number I was given, and had to go back down to the front desk and
start all over again.
More difficult than the inconvenience and
frustration of momentary forgetfulness is the spiritual absentmindedness that
leaves us in a perpetual state of confusion.
Look at the horrible consequences of memory loss that came upon God’s
Old Testament people when, after He delivered them from their slavery in Egypt,
they fell under the influence of their pagan neighbors. This same amnesia continues to overtake many
of us who, after being delivered from our bondage to sin for a new life in
Christ, seem to forget the LORD in our everyday life. Instead we allow ourselves to conform to the
patterns of this world.
For all of us who occasionally suffer from
this kind of spiritual absentmindedness and feel the consequences of it in our
lives the writer of Hebrews says, “Remember, Remember, Remember!”
First of all…
I.
Remember The Holy Life You Are To Live. (vv. 1-5a)
A. At all times and in every place we are called
to remember who we are in Christ and the kind of lives He intends for us. In our epistle we are reminded that we are
called to live in love and obedience.
1. We are called to demonstrate the genuineness
of our faith by showing love to others everyday in every way. We are reminded to, “Let
brotherly love continue.” and are told
“Do
not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained
angels unawares. Remember those who are
in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since
you also are in the body.” (vv. 1-3) Our lives are
not held back only for those we consider worthy nor our love reserved for those
who love us or might repay us. We are
called to a life of sacrificial love in which we treat everyone as if they were
an angel sent from heaven.
2. In the midst of an immoral and selfish
society we are to be noticeably different.
We are called to an obedience and purity of life that will cause others
to wake up and take notice. In a world
that abuses and degrades God’s gift of sex and marriage our epistle reminds us,
“Let
marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for
God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” (v.4) In an environment that worships wealth and
rewards egoism we are reminded to “keep [our] life free from love of money, and be
content with what [we] have.. not neglect[ing] to
do good and to share what [we] have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God”
(v.16) In the
midst of this culture of self-made religion and spiritual anarchy we are
finally told to “obey [our] leaders and submit to them, for they are
keeping watch over [our] souls, as those who will have to give an
account..” (v.17)
B. Understandably the Early Christians found it
difficult to live such holy lives in the midst of a pagan world, this is
precisely why they are reminded and encouraged to do so in our epistle.
1. Those poor people were being asked to live
in ways that were completely foreign to the people around. Daily they were made to feel that they simply
did not belong in that world, and they really didn’t. At work, at play, in the marketplace and at
home beside their neighbors they were constantly under the influence of those
around them, and found that the more they tried to live a holy life the more
they were mistreated and despised by those around them.
2. In addition to the daily influence and
ridicule of their pagan neighbors the Early Christians also risked great loss
in this life for following Christ. Their
religion was clearly unwanted and its practice eventually declared illegal,
which resulted in many losing their property and even their lives. Under such pressure is it any wonder that
some turned away and forgot to live holy lives to the Lord?
C. The world we live in is really not all that
different. We continue to find it
difficult to live holy lives to the Lord and need to be reminded again and
again who we are and how God intends for us to live.
1. Today, the world in which we live brutally
ridicules and ferociously attacks the Gospel of Jesus Christ, strong biblical
teaching, and every attempt at holy living.
As in the days of the murderous emperors Christians, their teaching and
their way of life have been labeled enemy number one and targeted for
annihilation.
2. If the outright attacks of our faith and life
are not enough, we all daily come under the influence of a pagan world that
challenges us to conform and fit in. The
moral standards of the society in which we live continue to crumble and erode
so that every day we, like our brothers and sisters of old, are made to feel
that we just do not belong. We are pressured
to abandon our Christian faith and way of life and to think and live like
everyone else. So, some of us chose to
conform to the pattern of this world, instead of be transformed by the Holy
Spirit. It’s like the grandmother who
gently suggested to her granddaughter that she think of marrying the young man
with whom she was living. The girl
responded, “Oh, Grandma, times have changed!”
How can we continue to be faithful in such
a climate? Even if we remember the holy
lives we have been called to live, how can we in the changing times of this
pagan world? The epistle writer again
encourages us to remember -
II. Remember The Promises And Gifts Of
God. (vv. 5b-6,
8, 14)
A. He tells us to remember that the Lord
promises that He will always be there for us.
Even when the whole world turns against you and you feel that you do not
belong the Lord says "I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (v.5b) Jesus repeated this promise to us when
before His ascension He told us, “I will be with you always to the very end of the
age.” (Matt. 28:20) When you remember the Lord’s constant
presence, along with His mighty power and tender love at work for you, you can
face this world and its challenges with great boldness and absolute confidence. After all, “if God is for us, who can stand against
us.” (
God, who never lies, promises that will
help you so that you never need to be afraid of the things of this world. In our epistle the writer reminds us, “So we can
confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do
to me?" (v.6) With the saints who
have gone before us we are empowered by the promise of God’s presence to help
us in every situation we might face.
Armed with this promise we can face the lions of our world just as they
did those in the arena knowing that the worst this world can do is kill this
body, so that we may be at home with the Lord.
We have this confidence because the Lord also promises us that His love
and plan for our salvation will never change.
B. The strength to live faithful and holy lives
even in a pagan world comes when we remember that God’s Son who gave Himself up
for us will never change. What the girl
told her grandmother is true, the times have changed and they will continue to
change, but “Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, and forever.” (v.8)
(vv.8 & 12)
Yesterday, Jesus shed his blood on the
cross to make sanctify us. Yesterday He
established a lasting will and testament in His body and blood that cannot be
broken. Yesterday, Jesus rose from the
dead in victory over sin, death and the power of the devil, securing for us
forgiveness and salvation to eternal life.
Today, that same Jesus sits at the right
hand of the Father to intercede for us.
He still comes to us through faithful leaders who speak His Word to
us. He continues to make us holy as He
unites us with His death and resurrection in the waters of baptism, and gives
us His body and blood of the lasting testament so that by eating and drinking
in faith we are forgiven and sanctified.
His love and His will to save us has not changed, nor will it, because…
Tomorrow, or the next day,
or the day after that He will come again to take us to be with Him forever. His redeeming power and His divine love for
us will never fail. No matter what
changes occur in this world or in our lives, Jesus Christ our Savior remains
the same.
C. To help us our Lord has given us faithful
witnesses and leaders as examples of faith and life. Our epistle reminds us to “remember
[our] leaders who spoke the word of God to [us]..[to] consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate
their faith.” In an
age that would have us build our faith upon strange teachings, gimmicks and
catch-phrases, we are warned not to be “led away by diverse and strange
teachings” nor
turn to a religion of works and empty sacrifice, but to have our hearts
strengthened by the grace that comes to us through Christ.
To help us in our struggle in this world
our epistle calls us to remember the outcome of their way of life which is the
fruit of their faith. Consider the
generations before you, your parents or grandparents who truly walked the talk
of their faith. Think about the lives of
some of your old pastors, Sunday school teachers and church leaders, who
committed themselves in service to the Lord, His Church, and their
neighbors. Remember how much they loved
to come to this place to receive God’s gifts and offer their praises. How unashamedly they shared their faith with
others, and taught that faith in their homes, and how they offered the
sacrifice of love as they did good things and shared with others, so that you
might imitate their faith.
Finally, the writer to the Hebrews invites
us to remember that …
D. The Lord promises us a life and home that
will last forever. He writes: “Therefore let us go to [Christ] 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.” (v.14)
Brothers and sisters, we must always
remember that this world with all it’s pagan ideas and
carnal desires will not last.
Philosophies come and go, empires rise and fall, societies emerge and
fade away, but the Word of the Lord and His kingdom endure forever.
We can risk being different in this
world. We can accept the truth that we
don’t really belong. We can even suffer
ridicule and reproach for Christ and our faith from this world, when we
remember that we have the promise of eternal life and that we are looking
forward to the everlasting city of God, where we will join in joyful assembly
with angels and archangels and all the company of God, to live with the Lord
forever.
Remembering God’s Gospel promises and His
work in the life of those who have gone before us and the example of their
faith will strengthen and empower us to live the faithful and holy lives for
which we have been called so that our hearts may be strengthened by grace, so
that we can “continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God”, and “do good and share what we have with others”.
Concl.: May all of us who recognize that we have been suffering from spiritual amnesia and fail to remember the Lord in our daily lives be brought to remember the holy life we are to live and the promises and gifts He has given us to sanctify us to His glory. Amen.