The Book of Hebrews 13:15-18 Offering Sacrifices In the Church?

Good morning. We're going to be venturing into this passage that Randy just read for us here. Between this Sunday and next Sunday, we'll be wrapping up the book of Hebrews and proceeding on in October with the Gospel of Luke. So that'll be a shift coming up here. And if you thought last week was rather amazing and the things that it brought forward, you're going to find this week's passage amazing as well. Last Sunday's passage we found out that we have rights to an altar, and that altar is Christ. Today's passage we're going to see that we in the body of Christ ought to offer sacrifices.

Okay, are you ready for that? You can imagine, it's going to be Mike blowing the shofar while Roger and Vern are working at the barbecue, I mean the altar. And we'll have it right up here. So, are you ready for that? After all, if the Bible says it, we've got to do it, right? So anyway, brace yourself.

We're also going to discover something, an interesting sidelight, outside of the book of Hebrews, and that's the Apostle Peter agrees that we ought to offer sacrifices, and that everyone in the body of Christ is a member of a holy priesthood. So, fascinating revelations here. Let's dig in. Hebrews 13, 15 through 16, through him then let us continually, so this is not a one time or iterative even, continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name. Now if you're wondering what that fruit of lips thing is all about, Here you go. Okay. All right. So anyway, let's dig into the content here.

Him is whom? Here, we got to ask the question because you got this pronoun. Anytime you see a pronoun, and wait a minute, who is that? Right? Hebrews 13, 12 through 13 that precedes us then gives us the context. Therefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the gate. So let us go out with him." There's the use of the pronoun, and so that continues on into the present passage. There's the him-is-whom answer for you. There's a consistent message throughout the New Testament regarding how we approach God in three persons in prayer, and that is three personal beings, one essence. And it's interesting, this scripture is not at all inconsistent, but rather very definitely consistent in this message.

We see it here in Ephesians 2.18, through him, you get the question of what's the pronoun here, Christ, in context. We both, because he's talking about Jewish and Gentile believers, so we both, have our access in one spirit to the Father. So you see Christ and the Spirit and the Father all in one verse. That's one of eight times in Ephesians where all three persons of the Trinity are mentioned in different passages. This is one of them. This word access, let's talk about that for a minute. I think you'll find this fascinating.

These are Persian palaces at Persepolis, and some different views there of some of the archaeological remains. This is where the king of Persia had his courtroom set up. And as you might guess, you could not simply walk in informally into the king's palace and into the king's throne room and expect to live, right?

What's going to happen? These soldiers are going to say, hey, wait a minute, what are you doing? And they'll take you out. That's the soldier's job. You know, you're coming in here, you're unauthorized. They'll take you out. You could not walk in and say, hey, you old king, you old buddy, old boy, right? Good to see you. Give him a slap.

That's just not going to happen. You're going to get perforated long before that happens. So what would happen here is, here's the king of Persia and his soldiers guarding the throne room. One couldn't simply walk into that throne room of the king at will. That would likely bring instant death. That's exactly what Esther was facing. If I perish, I perish.

The king would have to hold out his scepter. in order to acknowledge that your approach is accepted. So someone with authorized access to the king, however, could make an introduction. And it so happened in those days that there was a particular person assigned to make authorized introductions. And you had to see that particular person. That person who would make that privileged royal introduction was your access. And that's the Greek word here. That's the Greek word Paul uses when he says we have access. We have a privileged royal introducer.

And who is that? Christ. Christ, our privileged royal introducer, introduces us into the throne room of the Father, and there is another complementary person involved in that process, and that's the Holy Spirit. So through Christ to the Father by means of the Spirit is one way we could summarize it. So through Him we both have our access, that's the special word, the required authorized introduction to supreme royalty. Having that introduction, we go to the Father, not with all the bowing down and fearful approach and all that. we run up and say, Abba, Father, Papa. Isn't that amazing? We have our privileged royal introduction that takes us to the Father, not with all kinds of fear and trembling, and I hope he doesn't have me pierced through, but instead of familiarity, Abba, Papa.

Now we look on to Colossians 3.17, whatever you do in word or deed, so whatever you say, whatever you do, Do all in the name, and we're going to talk about this name thing here, in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him. Through who? Through the Lord Jesus to God the Father. So a consistent message. The Holy Spirit is not mentioned in this particular verse, but still we have access through Christ to God the Father.

Now, let's look at Hebrews 7.25, which is one we looked at some months ago, and it goes like this, Therefore he is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through him. Through whom? Christ. Since he always lives, there's the clue about the pronoun, he always lives to make intersection for them. Notice the pattern, through him, through him, through him. Who's the him? Christ, in every case. So scripture is, from Paul's letters on into the book of Hebrews, is quite consistent in this message. And that's what we see here in the passage we're looking at now.

What we see here are two kinds of sacrifices. The two different kinds of sacrifices that are called for are one, sacrifice of praise and giving thanks to God so that's pointed Godward right so that's that's one but there's another one and that is in the interaction between believers and Doing good and sharing and we'll talk about that Why do I say between believers as the primary thing and we'll talk about that in a minute we give thanks to God because God is has been and will be gracious to us and Thanks as an appropriate response God does not say here's your salvation and now here's your invoice, right? You can pay it off over time God does not do that. We cannot owe our Now, unfortunately, some of the hymns make that mistake, and so we'll actually drop out verses or change the words, but we don't sing here about owing God. As a matter of fact, the song we sing from time to time, Jesus Paid It All, the chorus says, All to Him I owe. Uh-oh. Problem, okay? Can we ever pay God back? No, we could never. We don't have what it takes to pay it back.

It's all by immense, unfathomably deep and great grace. Grace that is going to take forever for us to catch up with. You see, down here on planet Earth, I don't care how much you study, the Bible reveals a lot, but we're just scratching the surface of grace. We have not even begun to see The infinite, in case you remember, riches of His grace, multiple wealths of grace. Massive, awesome grace. We're going to be gasping for eternity. So, no chance of paying it back. Thanks is the only way we can respond. Because we can't pay it back, not even one bit. And we're not expected to. God doesn't want us to.

Doing good and sharing is an expression of that grace, and it's primarily focused upon us in the body of Christ. That is, within the body of Christ, believers sharing and expressing good works within the body of Christ. Here's where I said Peter agrees with the message here in this passage, and it comes out in 1 Peter 2, 4, and 5. And the way we title it is this, spiritual sacrifices offered to God through Jesus Christ by us.

A holy priesthood, each one of whom has access to God. Because each one of us believers here today has access to God, We have a priesthood relationship, not just one or two of us, or Mike and Roger and myself. No. Every single one of us has direct access to God. Therefore, we, the entire body of Christ, have a priesthood role. The entire body of Christ. And so 1 Peter 2, 4, and 5 reads like this.

And coming to him as to a living stone, okay? Feel like a rock? Living rock a living stone, which has been rejected by men But his choice and precious in the sight of God you also as living stones. Are you a living stone? Yep This says so right are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood Now are you a spiritual or we being built up as a spiritual house and each one of us is a spiritual stone? Yes, but there's more for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God, here we get this again, through Jesus Christ.

Same message. Our approach to God is through Jesus Christ. Our approach to God the Father is through Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has then a complementary ministry, a complementary ministry in this offering up. Now one of the things that comes out here, God is pleased.

What's God pleased with? Offering a sacrifice of praise, which is focused upon giving thanks, is focused upon Him. It glorifies Him. And it's not focused upon ourselves. Our doing good for others in the body of Christ and sharing with them is also pleasing to God. So what we do for others is actually God-directed too. It's God-directed too. We see that in both these activities, our focus isn't upon ourselves. It's always to the Lord and to others. To the Lord and to others within the body of Christ.

I give an example here. Here's a picture of our family meal, which we'll have in a couple of weeks. That's a sharing together. And then Mike is discovering the love of the body since having gone in for his surgery several weeks back. And it is a matter of both of these things are things that are sacrifices, are sharing together and expressing good and doing good within the body of Christ. Those are things that are pleasing to God and that are sacrifices. Now, we have a grace-motivated opportunity in this pair of verses, and there's an imperative in there.

And one of the things we make clear, let does not mean allow anywhere in the New Testament, okay? Because it says let, but that's not what it means. Continually, so this isn't just, hey, I'm going to do it this year, and they're not going to do it until next year, right? It's not that. It's not the annual cycle of the Mosaic law.

Continually offering up a sacrifice of praise is presented in the Greek text as a grace-motivated opportunity. Remember we said, just like the prosecutor's trio, Motive means an opportunity, right? Sounds like you're guilty, right? But in this case, motive means and opportunity are important to take note of. Motive for the believer is always grace.

Remember in the Sermon on the Mount, if you want to be forgiven, what do you have to do? Forgive. But if you don't forgive, guess what? It's under law, and so you're not forgiven, unless you forgive. Under grace, Paul writes in Ephesians 4.32, Forgive one another as God in Christ has forgiven you.

Grace-motivated forgiving, not law-motivated forgiving. There's a difference. So we have here a grace-motivated opportunity. Grace is our motive. The means is by God's doing. Empowerment, enabling, and energizing. And here's the opportunity laid in front of us, the opportunity to be used of the Lord and to have His life lived in and through us.

There's a negative imperative here, isn't that interesting? A negative imperative, yes, telling them and us that we must not neglect doing good for other believers and sharing with them, which is always grace motivated. Is there ever a threat? No, you're supposed to share with other believers and do good things for them or else we'll stone you to death. Right? Is that the way it works? No. It's grace motivated. Because you've been shown grace, show it to others. Because you've been shown grace, show it to others.

So then, while we have opportunity, Paul wrote in Galatians 6.10, let us do good to all people and especially of those who are of the household of the faith. So does it mean, I'm sorry, I can't do anything good for you because you're not a believer? No, it doesn't mean that, but especially the priority is those of the household of the faith, most certainly to those of the household of the faith, and as there is opportunity to others as well. Now, when we talk about in Jesus' name, are we name-dropping? Dropping names. So when we say a prayer, ending it with, in Jesus' name, we're not just name-dropping, nor are we using magic words and incantations.

One of the things that happens, you see various magic books and whatnot, you have to say some particular combination of words, right? It may be something in Latin, it may be something backwards, but some particular combination of words. And they actually used to sell magical documents and amulets and things like that during New Testament times. The book of Acts even talks about getting rid of a lot of those. And a lot of those had special incantations. We're not using, in Jesus' name, as an incantation.

The biblical use of the word name, which you find frequently, including some verses we've already read, is not just the sounds that make up a person's name. That's frequently how, in our culture, we're inclined to think of it. We'll ask somebody, what is your name? What is the combination of sounds that makes up your name?

But rather, it refers to the person, all of who he is, And I'll add to that, and what he has done and accomplished. All of who he is and what he's done and accomplished. So, in Acts 10.43, for example, of him, that is Christ, all the prophets bear witness that through his name, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins. What does it mean by his name? All of who he is and what he's accomplished. So let me read that in. Of Him, Christ, all the prophets bear witness that through who He is and all of what He has accomplished, everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins. So that's what, when you see name, it's got a lot packed into it.

All of who He is and all of what He has accomplished. So here's an example in Philippians 2, 9-11. For this reason also God highly exalted Him, Christ, and bestowed on him, on Christ, the name which is above every name. Now, was he named Jesus Christ before? Yes. So it isn't that he gave him a set of sounds. He acknowledged who he is and what he's accomplished, what he's done.

So that at the name, here it is again, the name, all of who he is and what he's done, of Jesus, every knee will bow. There will come a time, there will come a time, when every knee will bow. Doesn't mean everybody's saved, but they will acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord. Including Richard Dawkins. Including Sam Harris.

Including Buddha Will acknowledge Jesus Christ is Lord there will come a time it will be too late for them But they will see him as he is and they will acknowledge who he is and what he's accomplished his name of Those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth and that every tongue will confess any exceptions. Nope that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Isaiah 45 is the prophecy that tells about this in advance by centuries, only refers to God. So we got some questions to answer, but let me read it first. Isaiah 45, 22 and 23, Turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth. So that's not just the Jews, right? For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by myself, the word has gone forth from my mouth in righteousness, and will not turn back, that to me, God, every knee will bow, and every tongue will swear allegiance."

Now we've got a few questions to ask here. Does this not mean that Jesus is deity? Does it mean that Jesus is deity? Yes, it does. It means that he's deity. One more thing, is confession always telling all the things you did wrong? No. In fact, the word that's translated confess means to say the same thing. So, confessing our sins, even, is not a matter of, boy, I've got to list them all. You know put them out on the table and think about them and contemplate them No, it just means you agree with God about your sins in this case every tongue will agree with God Okay, say the same thing that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father All right now Hebrews 13 17 obey your leaders and one of the things we find at the end of all many of the epistles is especially the ones that are kind of medium to longer, many of the epistles will have various kinds of, you know, greet this one and greet that, and will also have little short pieces of wisdom to pass along.

Directions. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. That is, the grief would be unprofitable. Now there are some unusual words in this verse. Obey and submit are both imperatives. You must obey, you must submit. So that's one thing to take a look at.

But the Greek words behind them are not the same ones that the Apostle Paul typically used. So it's a different set of words by choice. There are a number of times in the book of Hebrews where the original Greek word is used only in that one time in the book of Hebrews. This passage has some of that same flavor. The Greek word is used one time right here.

The word leaders is referring to the elders in the church. It's not the usual words for overseer and elder and shepherd that the Apostle Paul used. But the meaning is there. Interestingly, keep watch over is a word that literally means they don't sleep. So we're talking about insomniac elders here. What do they really mean?

Keeping watch was typically done by shepherds. They would do it particularly at night because that would be a time of attack of a predator. Not always, but frequently. And so that's where the term comes from. They keep watch carefully. They keep watch and they're standing guard. They're willing to take on, if need be, those who would come and cause damage.

I can remember one time, and it was before coming here, where as an elder I needed to challenge one of the guys who has just recently come into the church body. And I told him, I said, you may not come in here like a wolf after our women. And that's what he was doing. I said, you may come in here and worship with us, but if you're going to come after the woman like a wolf, where they feel like they're being eaten, you're not welcome. And that's the last time I saw him.

So there are times where it actually means protecting the flock in various ways. But this keeping watch is, why do you keep watch? To look towards the spiritual health of the body, whether that's by provision and nurturing and spiritual nourishment, or whether it's a protecting and healing and correcting mode.

So it includes all those things. as those who must give an account. Now the inclination of some leaders in the world, and unfortunately of some church leaders, has been to lord it over those that they lead. And we have different ways that that gets done. Sometimes you get people who are real commanding and demanding. and start telling people what they ought to do. Nancy and I were aware of a situation. We weren't in it directly, but the situation where the elders of the church demanded to look over everybody's checkbook register. Creepy, huh? Right?

Yeah, that's lording it over. That's too much. But one of the other ways that lording it over gets done these days is with the prosperity gospel, prosperity doctrine. You know, they're lording it over. Boy, if you give to my offering plate, if you give to my offering plate, you know, the Lord will just pay it back like crazy. See? So this is why Joel Osteen has a ten and a half million dollar mansion he just moved into. Right?

I don't imagine everybody in the congregation has that. So, he's telling them a lie. It's a false doctrine. And he's lording it over them with promises that are not really from Scripture. Elders in the church are not to do that. That's specific direction from Peter.

1 Peter 5.3, don't lord it over. Instead, lead by example.

The elders, or overseers, shepherds, leaders, as the Book of Hebrews calls them, who are fulfilling their role biblically realize it is their place to submit to, see they obey and submit, to submit to, obey and submit to Christ and that there is accountability to Him. An elder who is biblical realizes that he also has a responsibility to submit to and obey the Lord. in his eldership. That's one of the reasons why frequently I'll use the word under-shepherds, because Christ is the chief shepherd. A couple things about elders in the New Testament.

The title shepherd, the Latin form is pastor, the title shepherd in the New Testament is only used of Christ, period. Not once is it used as a title for a man. One of the reasons why we'll address each other is under shepherds. Christ gets the title of the chief shepherd. He gets that title.

One other thing, and it's consistent, throughout the New Testament there's much teaching about elders. It starts in the book of Acts. Go in and appoint elders. You see it in the epistles. Why was Timothy sent into Ephesus? One of the reasons. appointing elders. Titus goes into Crete. Why?

To appoint elders. Elders are spoken of all the way into the book of Revelation. So it's an important thing, but here's one other thing. Throughout the entire New Testament, with one exception, James, Jesus' half-brother, we don't know for sure the name of any elder in the whole New Testament. And one more thing. If elders are shepherds, What did the general culture think about shepherds? Was it an exalted position?

No. No, not. One of the things that the elders during the time when the Roman Empire was persecuting Christians, one of the things that the elders are written of as having done, is if one of the people in their congregation was picked up by the authorities for persecution, maybe even death, It is written that the elders would say, take me instead. Take me instead. This is a servant, not somebody trying to exalt themselves and take advantage. This is a servant, even to the point of laying their life down, if need be. We presented this before.

We have five crowns revealed in the New Testament, and three things that are called rewards. Feeling on this is probably not exhaustive. I think we will we will get you know past heaven's gates and We may find that there's crowns and rewards For things we've never even thought of I get it. I get a crown for that Wow, I never knew But one thing that is mentioned is passage I've made reference to in first Peter first Peter 5 and is there's an elder's crown for service.

Now, I don't think that just because someone gets the title that that's going to do it. I don't think that's going to do it. But it's for action. It's for service as an elder, not just because you get a title. This is the kind of crown. It's a victor's crown in an athletic competition. That's the word that's used. So here for this Elder's Crown for Service, we have what is the emphasis, not titles.

In fact, of elders and shepherds, pastors, overseers, whatever term you want to use, it is only used once, Ephesians 4.11, as a noun, not as a title. Instead, what you find is this pattern. Very interesting. Acts 20, 28. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Greek word episkopos. Okay. To shepherd. Verb. See that? To shepherd. It's the verb form that he talks about.

The church of God, which he purchased with his own blood, in 1 Peter 5.2, shepherded the flock of God among you. Both Paul and Peter talk about the verb and put no emphasis at all on titles. Get shepherding! So let's draw this conclusion. God is far more interested in action than in words. He's far more interested in action than in titles. Then the distinction. Joy not grief.

It's kind of like you go to the optometrist, which is better, this or this? This or this? This or this? Sometimes you can't tell. But here, you can tell. An elder must meet initially and continue to meet a number of character qualifications and must also be willing to serve voluntarily. 1 Timothy 3 verse 1 talks about an elder. There's actually two different words for an elder desiring to be an elder. Peter puts it the other way. He says, not under compulsion. An elder must desire to be an elder.

And one of the words that Paul uses, 1 Timothy 3.1, actually means to pant after. An elder has a desire to do this given from the Lord. And frankly, it won't make any sense. Why would you want this? Well, it's something that the Lord puts in the heart of the one who is truly an elder. Over the course of the time, the shepherd will encounter a wide variety of people and situations. The author of Hebrews is saying here that believers have a choice as to how they impact those elders in the way that they relate to the elders. With joy, not grief.

Now the next thing here, there's a word translated unprofitable, conveys the idea that there's nothing to be gained. You don't get anywhere out of it. You have nothing to be gained from that. So there's nothing to be gained by believers living such that the church's shepherds have grief. Nothing to be gained by it. So between joy and grief, I would say joy is better, wouldn't you? I would say so, yeah.

Now, let's look at Hebrews 13, 18. Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things. Now, as we read that, we may say, hmm, OK. Now, it starts off with pray for us. I have a question or two or three, and it's not in your handout. It's something for you to ponder.

Do we ask people to pray for us because we hope to change God's plans for us? Do we ask people to pray for us because God is impressed by numbers of people? Do we ask people to pray because it takes a lot of people to keep God fully informed? You know, hands on the ground, ears, all that.

Do we ask people to pray for us because we believe in the power of prayer or of God? Is there power in prayer? Or is there power in God? Where does the power of prayer come from? Is it because all of us get together and pray and we make something happen spiritually? Something to ponder. Okay, now let's look at the next part. The Apostle Paul wrote these same words, pray for us, in both 1st and 2nd Thessalonians.

We don't know exactly what's behind the words that follow here in Hebrews 13.8. These words likely point to some false accusations, as was common, relating to persecution.

That idea is also carried along by Hebrews 13.23. We see that Timothy has been released from prison.

It was not uncommon for the Jews to make trumped up charges of some kind that would get them in trouble with the Roman government. The Jews would come along and say, these people favor a king other than Caesar. Well, of course, yes, but no, right? But it was enough of a charge that it could get him in trouble. And so that accusation was common. That was what was used to cause Pontius Pilate to finally act against Christ. Now he says, us, we ourselves.

The author of Hebrews is writing about a ministry team that he hopes will include Timothy. So this letter is being written in advance of at least the author, possibly others, coming to see these believers. And the picture that we get here, the author has been away from these Jewish believers, maybe having to deal with this persecution issue, maybe even being a part of it. and wants very much to be back with them. So he's not someone writing from afar who's heard some things and wants to just say some words to these people who live elsewhere. But he wants to be back with them. He has been with them for some time before. He actually has a close connection with them.

So let's look at verse 19, and I urge you all the more to do this so that I may be restored to you sooner. So the author of Hebrews was one of this very group of Hebrew believers, Hebrew himself, had been called away for some reason, was hoping to be restored to them, ASAP.

Now, we don't know who this author was. It was probably not Paul. It doesn't have Paul's language and doesn't use Paul's means of arriving at sometimes the same doctrines. We're not under law but under grace. Paul will arrive at that differently. Probably not Paul. Other guesses have been made. I guess my favorite guess is Barnabas. Barnabas because Barnabas was a Levite and would therefore be very familiar with the sacrificial system and the priests.

So he wanted them to pray so he would be able to get back together with them sooner. He'd given them strong warnings and exhortations. But what you see here, the strong warnings and exhortations, isn't because he was ticked off at them. It's not because he was angry with them or held some grudge against them. The strong warnings were there because he loved them. That's why the strong warnings and the exhortations. He loved them.

Now in Hebrews we've seen that Christ is our heavenly high priest going through the book of the order of Melchizedek and if we're offering up sacrifices then we are all priests and we've seen that Peter agrees with this. We saw last Sunday that we have an altar as well who is Christ himself. Today we saw that we can offer sacrifices of praise and thanks to God and doing good and sharing. And those are all sacrifices we saw earlier in the passage here.

The Mosaic Law priests serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. But if what we have is heavenly things, then that means the Mosaic Law is copy and shadow, but our involvement with Christ the High Priest, are acting as priests, are having Christ as our sacrifice, are having an altar, are having sacrifices that we offer, those are the real deal.

Those are the real thing, not copy and shadow. It's the real thing. What the priests were doing in the temple in Jerusalem was just to picture what we have as the real thing. Isn't that great? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for what you have revealed here, some amazing and astounding things. And things that we say, well, I don't have something I can see. Yeah, but it's the real thing. And what we can see is just copy and shadow.

Thank you for what you've revealed here, that we have insight into who you've made us to be, and into the character of the ministries that you've called for us to carry out. And we just thank you that you've revealed these things because you love us and care for us. We just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.