Micah McCormick: I'm going to read the first four verses of this book Hebrews, chapter 1, verses 1 to 4.
Micah McCormick: Long ago, god spoke to our ancestors by the prophets, at different times and in different ways.
Micah McCormick: God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways.
Micah McCormick: In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son.
Micah McCormick: God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him.
Micah McCormick: The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
Micah McCormick: After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
Micah McCormick: So he became superior to the angels, just as the name he inherited is more excellent than theirs.
Micah McCormick: Lord, we want to see Christ.
Micah McCormick: It's our prayer.
Micah McCormick: Lord, show us your glory.
Micah McCormick: Show us your glory in the face of your son, that we might be satisfied in knowing him more deeply.
Micah McCormick: What a glorious book this is.
Micah McCormick: All the scripture is given and it's profitable for us.
Micah McCormick: So let us find great profit in this book tonight.
Micah McCormick: In Jesus' name, amen, name, amen.
Micah McCormick: If you're struggling to read the book of Leviticus, take the book of Hebrews and read that alongside the book of Leviticus.
Micah McCormick: If you're struggling to read the book of Leviticus.
Micah McCormick: To read the book of Hebrews, you got to read the whole Old Testament.
Micah McCormick: The writer of Hebrews we don't know who the writer is, but the writer of Hebrews does a masterful job of showing readers how all the Old Testament scriptures are pointing forward to Christ and to his greatness.
Micah McCormick: And the writer mentions you don't have to turn over there right now, but the writer mentions in chapter 13, verse 22, that he's writing a message of exhortation.
Micah McCormick: What is that message of exhortation in the book of Hebrews?
Micah McCormick: Here it is in a nutshell Because Jesus is greater than everything else, we should keep trusting in him.
Micah McCormick: Because Jesus is greater than everything else, we should keep trusting in him.
Micah McCormick: So we're going to look first at the greatness of Jesus and then we'll consider several of these exhortations throughout the letter to keep trusting in him.
Micah McCormick: So here's how I have it broken down and there's more complex outlines that you could look up and find.
Micah McCormick: But I have chapter 1, verse 4, through chapter 2, chapter 2, verse 18, as Jesus greater than the angels.
Micah McCormick: Then especially chapter 3, verse 2, to chapter 4, verse 11 Jesus as greater than the priests.
Micah McCormick: So first angels.
Micah McCormick: If you look there at verse number four, I just read verses one through four of Hebrews, chapter one.
Micah McCormick: It says that he became superior to the angels, he inherited a name more excellent than theirs, unless we think, okay, so Jesus was a human and then he did such a great job that God gave him a raise, so to speak.
Micah McCormick: That's not what the writer is saying, because if you look down to verse number 8, to the Son, this is what the Father says your throne, god, is forever and ever, and the scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of justice.
Micah McCormick: So Jesus is greater than the angels because only Jesus is equal with God.
Micah McCormick: He is a son to the Father, a son to the Father from eternity past, a son to the Father renewed and announced in his work.
Micah McCormick: In coming into the world as the God-man, as the human mediator, an angel didn't take on human flesh.
Micah McCormick: An angel's not equal with God, an angel's not the Son of God in the way that Jesus himself is the son of God and, importantly, angels don't redeem.
Micah McCormick: Jesus is greater than angels because only he can redeem.
Micah McCormick: Look over in chapter two.
Micah McCormick: There the writer speaks of Jesus as the preeminent human.
Micah McCormick: Jesus as the preeminent human, still God, from chapter 1, but now taking on this role of Adam in subduing the earth, and you see Jesus crowned with glory and honor in verse number 9 of chapter 2, suffering death.
Micah McCormick: And then look at verse number 10.
Micah McCormick: In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, so we can be a son of God, not in the same divine sense that Jesus is, but truly in him.
Micah McCormick: It was entirely appropriate that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings, of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Micah McCormick: So Jesus is the pioneer of salvation.
Micah McCormick: Only he redeems.
Micah McCormick: Verse number 13,.
Micah McCormick: I will trust in him.
Micah McCormick: Here I am with the children God gave me.
Micah McCormick: Jesus came with this mission of redemption.
Micah McCormick: Verse 14,.
Micah McCormick: Since the children have flesh and blood in common, jesus also shared in these so that through his he might destroy the one holding the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by fear of death.
Micah McCormick: Verse 17,.
Micah McCormick: He had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way.
Micah McCormick: He had to become human in order to become a merciful and faithful high priest, and we're already moving ahead to that third way.
Micah McCormick: Jesus is greater than the priest.
Micah McCormick: We'll come back to that in a few minutes here.
Micah McCormick: But just note right now he did it to make atonement, verse 17, for the sins of the people.
Micah McCormick: So we have Jesus greater than angels.
Micah McCormick: I've never had a direct encounter with an angel, that I was at least aware of.
Micah McCormick: Whenever that happens in scripture, they're awesome, awe-inspiring creatures, and yet Jesus is more awesome and awe-inspiring than even the greatest angel.
Micah McCormick: Second category of examples of things that Jesus is great he's great in everything.
Micah McCormick: Angels things that Jesus is greater he's greater than everything.
Micah McCormick: Angels also prophets.
Micah McCormick: God says it at the beginning here.
Micah McCormick: In this contrast, in the opening verses, I read chapter 1, verse 1, he spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times, in different ways.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah we're going through on Sunday morning, very important prophet.
Micah McCormick: And yet verse 2, in these last days he's spoken to us by his son.
Micah McCormick: Do you hear how it heightens?
Micah McCormick: There's the prophets.
Micah McCormick: As great as they are, christ is greater.
Micah McCormick: Look over to chapter 3.
Micah McCormick: Jesus is faithful chapter 3, verse 2, to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was in all God's household.
Micah McCormick: Moses, great man, faithful, prophet of God.
Micah McCormick: And then the writer goes on to say in verse 5, moses was faithful as a servant in all God's household, as a testimony to what would be said in the future.
Micah McCormick: But Christ was faithful as a son over the household, servant son, lesser, greater.
Micah McCormick: It's all God's plan, it's all God's house.
Micah McCormick: But Jesus is greater than Moses.
Micah McCormick: This goes all the way back to Deuteronomy where the Lord said even through Moses, I'll raise up a prophet like you from among your brothers.
Micah McCormick: You'll listen to him, looking ahead to Christ, who fulfills that.
Micah McCormick: So he's greater than Moses.
Micah McCormick: I'll raise up a prophet like you from among your brothers.
Micah McCormick: You'll listen to him, looking ahead to Christ, who fulfills that.
Micah McCormick: So he's greater than Moses.
Micah McCormick: And then, as the writer goes on, he describes the history of Israel going into the promised land under Joshua.
Micah McCormick: Joshua not spoken of quite as directly as a prophet, but a leader of the people, one who was giving God's word to the people at different times.
Micah McCormick: And so the whole nation, under the guidance of leaders and prophets, is going into the promised land.
Micah McCormick: And yet they struggled to find their true rest.
Micah McCormick: And the contrast in chapter 4 is Joshua who, as a great spokesman and leader of God, he gives partial rest, temporary rest in the land, but not the final rest.
Micah McCormick: So look at chapter 4, verse 1.
Micah McCormick: Since the promise to enter his rest remains.
Micah McCormick: Let us beware that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.
Micah McCormick: So he takes the promise from the Old Testament and says that's still applicable for you people that I'm writing to the rest, there still remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God and he it's a bit of a complicated argument, but he's reading his Bible and putting in order God's history of dealing with his people and he says well, wait, if David says in Psalms later, after Joshua there's rest, that even though Joshua did get them into the land and the land was called the place of rest, they got in there.
Micah McCormick: But David later is saying about rest, so that means Joshua couldn't have given him the final rest.
Micah McCormick: Aha, there's a pattern of rest from the creation of the world to Joshua, to David, to the greater son, jesus Christ, and, as he says in chapter four, those who verse 10, enter into Christ's rest rests from their own works.
Micah McCormick: We believe and trust the words of Jesus.
Micah McCormick: Come in here, come unto me all you that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you rest.
Micah McCormick: He's greater than Joshua, greater than Moses, greater than all these Old Testament prophets.
Micah McCormick: He's also greater than the priests.
Micah McCormick: A good chunk of Hebrews is taken up with Jesus as the final and great high priest.
Micah McCormick: Look at chapter 5, verse 1.
Micah McCormick: Every high priest taken from among men is appointed, in matters pertaining to God, for the people to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.
Micah McCormick: And this is where, in this section of Hebrews for sins, and this is where, in this section of Hebrews Leviticus, you know why all these sacrifices, why all these animals being slaughtered.
Micah McCormick: Hebrews helps to give us a theological accounting, a divine interpretation of why those events were necessary.
Micah McCormick: But if you're just reading through your New Testament Bible and you just read Hebrews, you might be a little confused as to what priest, what sacrifices.
Micah McCormick: Well, that's going back to the whole Old Testament structure.
Micah McCormick: So in the Old Testament, in the Old Covenant, god established various human priests through the line of Levi and they were a kind of mediary, a go-between between the nation of Israel and God.
Micah McCormick: People would bring gifts and sacrifices.
Micah McCormick: The people would offer those on their behalf.
Micah McCormick: They would communicate in different ways God's blessing to the people.
Micah McCormick: The Lord bless you and keep make his face shining.
Micah McCormick: So these priests were go-betweens, and it says that there.
Micah McCormick: And it says that there.
Micah McCormick: And then it says in verse number three that those old covenant priests had to make an offering for their own sins as well as for the people.
Micah McCormick: As important as the priests were, you couldn't.
Micah McCormick: In the Old Testament it wasn't like you know, johnny from the tribe of Benjamin, what do you want to do when you grow up?
Micah McCormick: I really think I'd like to be one of those priests.
Micah McCormick: I'm going to train for that.
Micah McCormick: That wasn't an option.
Micah McCormick: You had to get called and selected by God and it was really only one tribe.
Micah McCormick: So this is a special group of people, but as special as they were.
Micah McCormick: You read through Leviticus, other parts of the Old Testament.
Micah McCormick: They couldn't presume to stand between people and God as though they were a pure channel of connection.
Micah McCormick: They had to purify themselves.
Micah McCormick: They had to offer sacrifices for themselves.
Micah McCormick: So already in the Old Testament there were signs that these priests are not all that's necessary.
Micah McCormick: Even they themselves need redemption.
Micah McCormick: Verse number five and this is the humility of our Lord.
Micah McCormick: Even Christ himself did not exalt himself to become a high priest, but God said to him you are my son.
Micah McCormick: Today I become your father, and also in another place, you are a priest forever.
Micah McCormick: According to the order of Melchizedek, jesus didn't come from the tribe of Levi, so he must be disqualified from being God's priest.
Micah McCormick: Not so fast.
Micah McCormick: The writer again is reading his Old Testament so carefully and saying, yes, during the old covenant time the priests were from this specific tribe.
Micah McCormick: But is that all that the Old Testament has to say about priests?
Micah McCormick: What about this guy, melchizedek?
Micah McCormick: And you might miss it.
Micah McCormick: It's a story in Genesis that doesn't get pages and pages of attention, although the name of Melchizedek is brought up later in Psalms.
Micah McCormick: So there's a repeated already in Scripture, this pattern of biblical writers, like the psalmist in Psalm 110, looking back to Melchizedek and saying there was a picture there of something greater.
Micah McCormick: So he summarizes some of these events of God's work through Melchizedek in chapter 7.
Micah McCormick: And if you go back and look at the story, there's a battle and then, after the battle, this man, this priest of the Most High God, this king of Salem, a king and a priest, this royal priestly figure, melchizedek, comes out to bless Abraham and then he kind of goes off the scene and we don't know exactly where he came from or where he's going.
Micah McCormick: And the writer makes a comparison, an analogy to Jesus and says that Melchizedek, we never learned who his parents were, we never learned about his death.
Micah McCormick: I don't think the writer is saying that he wasn't a human being, but, just in the way the story is told, he's just there.
Micah McCormick: Well, jesus, in a much greater way than Melchizedek, truly never had a beginning, truly will never, ever have an end.
Micah McCormick: So the old covenant priests kept dying.
Micah McCormick: That's why they had to get more people, because they would serve for a time.
Micah McCormick: Then death Jesus himself died, but he didn't remain dead.
Micah McCormick: He's even at God's right hand.
Micah McCormick: So if you look over to chapter 10, look at verse 19.
Micah McCormick: Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus, he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.
Micah McCormick: There was a curtain that divided the most holy place from the rest of the temple complex when Jesus died.
Micah McCormick: This curtain is torn in two and we have access into the true sanctuary of heaven, the spiritual place where God dwells, to have communion with him.
Micah McCormick: Again, let us draw near with a full heart and full assurance of faith, and then he'll go on, and I'll come back to this exhortation.
Micah McCormick: But Jesus has ascended to the true tabernacle of heaven.
Micah McCormick: That's the original copy of which that old covenant temple was just a shadow.
Micah McCormick: He's ascended there living forever.
Micah McCormick: How much greater is he than the priest that he lives forever?
Micah McCormick: And he offers a sacrifice not of lambs, bulls, goats.
Micah McCormick: He's greater than the priest because he offers a sacrifice of himself.
Micah McCormick: Go back, if you will, to chapter eight.
Micah McCormick: Go back, if you will, to chapter 8.
Micah McCormick: The main point of what is being said is this this is verse 1.
Micah McCormick: We have this kind of high priest who sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven, verse 6.
Micah McCormick: But Jesus has obtained a superior ministry and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant which has been established on better promises.
Micah McCormick: Chapter 10 emphasizes he's offered a perfect sacrifice, without blemish, without spot.
Micah McCormick: So he lives forever.
Micah McCormick: He's offered the perfect sacrifice.
Micah McCormick: He's this once for all, great high priest in the order of Melchizedek and he brings in a whole better covenant.
Micah McCormick: The old covenant was administered by those priests.
Micah McCormick: So the writer's logic here in these chapters if there's a change in the priesthood, now, this eternal order of Mechazik, this Christ, there's going to be a change of the covenant that the priests administered and the new covenant is better than the old covenant.
Micah McCormick: The writer takes the words of Jeremiah and says it's here it's been inaugurated and begun in Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: It's true, and it's not just, as we heard this morning, for Jews.
Micah McCormick: It's true for all who turn in faith and repent and believe and trust in Christ's sacrificial work on their behalf.
Micah McCormick: So look at chapter 8.
Micah McCormick: You can see this, verse number 7.
Micah McCormick: If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second one.
Micah McCormick: But finding fault with his people, he says the days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel.
Micah McCormick: And then he goes on to speak of forgiveness of sins, of intimate knowledge of the Lord, of hearts being written and engraven with the law.
Micah McCormick: Without Christ, none of this is possible.
Micah McCormick: Without Christ we'd have remembrance of sins year after year, temporary passing over, but in Christ we have fullness, we have joy.
Micah McCormick: So Jesus, this one who is greater than angels, greater than prophets, greater than priests, and of course the covenant he brings in is greater in its effectiveness and the ministry of the Spirit and the power of work in our hearts.
Micah McCormick: These are examples of the main point the writer is making.
Micah McCormick: How marvelous is the Lord.
Micah McCormick: We think of the words of John's gospel.
Micah McCormick: Time would fail to tell of even more ways that Jesus is greater than prophets and priests, ways that he's greater than kings.
Micah McCormick: That's not focused on as much in the book of Hebrews, it's more of a priestly focus.
Micah McCormick: But he's greater than everything else, everything you could imagine.
Micah McCormick: And so what do we do with that?
Micah McCormick: We should keep trusting in him.
Micah McCormick: The logic is not merely it's the right thing for you to do, just to trust, that's true.
Micah McCormick: But he's giving you all these reasons.
Micah McCormick: He's painting this portrait of, in light of the glory of Christ.
Micah McCormick: How would you not want to keep trusting in him?
Micah McCormick: So let's survey a few of these words of exhortation.
Micah McCormick: Go back to chapter 2, verse 1.
Micah McCormick: For this reason, we must pay attention all the more to what we've heard, so that we will not drift away.
Micah McCormick: For if the message spoken through angels was legally binding and every transgression, disobedience, received the just punishment, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?
Micah McCormick: We must pay attention all the more to the words that we hear, to the words that we hear when we hear scripture being read.
Micah McCormick: It's not tradition, it's not merely to give us a moral compass.
Micah McCormick: It's the words of the living God that are bringing our souls along to glory and helping inform and fuel and motivate our faith.
Micah McCormick: Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word.
Micah McCormick: Let's go over to chapter three.
Micah McCormick: Another example of this he's talked about how Israel was largely unbelieving.
Micah McCormick: They didn't get to enter the promised land because of unbelief Verse 12, watch out, brothers and sisters, so there won't be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
Micah McCormick: He's he's giving a sincere warning.
Micah McCormick: He's not trying to make people believe they're not saved when they are.
Micah McCormick: He is trying to encourage them.
Micah McCormick: Christ's greatness doesn't mean you should be less urgent about your faith.
Micah McCormick: That means you should be even more urgent about your faith.
Micah McCormick: And then he brings in, at more than one place in this book, the importance of our work together to be trusting in the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Look at verse 13 of Hebrews.
Micah McCormick: 3.
Micah McCormick: Encourage each other daily.
Micah McCormick: Yes, we should read the Bible on our own.
Micah McCormick: Yes, we've got access to it.
Micah McCormick: But part of this walk of faith is grabbing someone else's hand and saying let's walk in faith together today.
Micah McCormick: When you're discouraged, letting someone else take your hand and say let's walk in faith together today.
Micah McCormick: I want to keep trusting in Jesus, don't you want to keep trusting in Jesus?
Micah McCormick: Over to chapter six.
Micah McCormick: Let's go to chapter six.
Micah McCormick: Well, let's go to chapter four first.
Micah McCormick: Chapter four first, verse 14,.
Micah McCormick: Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.
Micah McCormick: That's not just the words that we articulate, that's the heart expression of what's true about Jesus and our trust in him.
Micah McCormick: He's perfected in glory.
Micah McCormick: We're going to meet him, keep confessing him and trusting him.
Micah McCormick: Just like Walter gave us a wonderful example of that with his ride with the tow truck driver, we want to keep that confession before us.
Micah McCormick: And then he goes on to say we do not have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but has been tempted in every way, as we are yet without sin.
Micah McCormick: Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace.
Micah McCormick: We need help in our walk of faith.
Micah McCormick: We're called to continue believing.
Micah McCormick: We need grace to continue believing.
Micah McCormick: So ask for grace to continue trusting in God.
Micah McCormick: And he gives it.
Micah McCormick: He's generous, he doesn't chide us.
Micah McCormick: Okay, now let's go over to chapter six.
Micah McCormick: Chapter six and this is a passage there's a couple of these in Hebrews that are particularly sobering and they can trouble Christians sometimes that are particularly sobering and they can trouble Christians sometimes.
Micah McCormick: But he says here in verse number four of chapter six it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, who shared in the Holy Spirit, who tasted God's good word and the powers of the coming age.
Micah McCormick: It's impossible to renew them to repentance.
Micah McCormick: Is the writer saying someone who's truly saved can lose their salvation?
Micah McCormick: No, he's not saying that.
Micah McCormick: We know that because of so many other scriptures, including scriptures right here in Hebrews, that when we're in Christ's hands we can't be taken out of his hands.
Micah McCormick: He's the author and finisher of faith.
Micah McCormick: But I do think we want to put warnings like this together with the rest of the warnings of Hebrews.
Micah McCormick: I don't think this is a different thing than the regular staccato pattern he's given throughout the book of keep trusting, keep trusting.
Micah McCormick: I believe better things, he's going to say even in chapter six I believe better things of you, things that accompany salvation, keep trusting.
Micah McCormick: So these warnings, and this very serious warning is meant to urge us on to believe, not to make us think man, I'm probably not a believer.
Micah McCormick: This is how Spurgeon talks about some of these passages, this one in particular.
Micah McCormick: Charles Spurgeon says that someone might say well, you say they cannot fall away.
Micah McCormick: In other words, a true Christian will never completely abandon Christ once and for all.
Micah McCormick: They won't lose their salvation.
Micah McCormick: What is the use Spurgeon says, of putting in this if, if it's like a ghost that has no existence?
Micah McCormick: My friend God has put it in.
Micah McCormick: He has wise reasons.
Micah McCormick: It is put in if you do this, you won't, et cetera.
Micah McCormick: It is put in to keep you from falling away.
Micah McCormick: God preserves his children, but he keeps them by the use of means.
Micah McCormick: There is a deep precipice.
Micah McCormick: What is the best way to keep anyone from going down there to the deep precipice?
Micah McCormick: Why?
Micah McCormick: To tell him, if he did, he would inevitably dash to pieces.
Micah McCormick: You understand the logic of what he's saying there.
Micah McCormick: He's not saying well, what if I really went down there?
Micah McCormick: Would I really be killed because god says I couldn't be?
Micah McCormick: It's not to give you that kind of reasoning.
Micah McCormick: There's the precipice If you go down there, you'll be dashed to pieces.
Micah McCormick: Well, I don't want to go down there, I want to keep trusting in Jesus.
Micah McCormick: That's what he's doing here.
Micah McCormick: He's motivating our faith, encouraging us on in the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Over to chapter 10.
Micah McCormick: One more example of this word of exhortation that the greatness of Jesus over everything means we should keep trusting in him.
Micah McCormick: Chapter 10, verse 23.
Micah McCormick: Let us hold on to the confession of our hope.
Micah McCormick: The second time that language of holding on to the confession has been used here.
Micah McCormick: The confession of our hope, without wavering, since he who promised is faithful, tied back into God's faithfulness.
Micah McCormick: The writer never says you've got strength on your own to persevere in the faith.
Micah McCormick: He says God's faithful and he's worth trusting in continually.
Micah McCormick: And then, once again, the writer brings us back to the need of one another, christians, in our life.
Micah McCormick: Verse 24,.
Micah McCormick: Let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works.
Micah McCormick: Have you thought this week how could I provoke love in someone else?
Micah McCormick: We do a good job of provoking other things besides love, don't we?
Micah McCormick: But it takes intentionality right.
Micah McCormick: That doesn't happen just accidentally.
Micah McCormick: You've got to make it your aim and ambition to have Christian friends, that you're going to provoke them to love and good works.
Micah McCormick: And the whole context these letters that were written, or perhaps this was even a sermon, some of the justice that was written down, but these were read aloud in churches.
Micah McCormick: Church is a very basic and first place to be able to express these one another commands.
Micah McCormick: So if you really want to keep trusting in Jesus, you're going to want to be committed to a church, you're going to want to be regularly gathering with the saints to worship, to encourage, to exhort to comfort, to speak about the glories of Christ the King, to exhort to comfort, to speak about the glories of Christ the King.
Micah McCormick: So that would be a part of what it means to provoke to love.
Micah McCormick: If you're very eager to speak to someone when they're out of line in your eyes, but you're not eager to speak about the greatness of Jesus, then you miss the flow of Hebrews.
Micah McCormick: We're always pouring out the greatness of Jesus and then, in light of the greatness of Jesus, there are going to be occasions where we say look, this is how great Jesus is.
Micah McCormick: Don't go that direction, keep following Christ, keep trusting in him.
Micah McCormick: Chapter 11 gives us these amazing examples of people who have trusted in Jesus and his greatness, and there's actually some encouragement here.
Micah McCormick: There's some people we think of as great saints, but then some, like you know, aren't mentioned, and some that are mentioned kind of like whoa.
Micah McCormick: That was a saint News to me.
Micah McCormick: It mentions Samson.
Micah McCormick: You read the Old Testament and judges you think it wasn't exactly a burning and shining light of wonderful, consistent faith, but there was some kind of seed of true faith in his heart.
Micah McCormick: That must have lasted, Otherwise he wouldn't have been put in here.
Micah McCormick: So hey, we're weak, we're going to falter, we're going to stumble, get up and keep walking.
Micah McCormick: Altar, we're going to stumble, get up and keep walking.
Micah McCormick: And in this chapter they're hoping.
Micah McCormick: Not in the near term.
Micah McCormick: It's all oriented towards the future.
Micah McCormick: They knew they would attain a better resurrection.
Micah McCormick: Moses yeah, there was treasures in Egypt, but he wanted to suffer with the people of God because he was looking ahead to the reward.
Micah McCormick: They were looking for a city that has foundations as builder and maker, as God.
Micah McCormick: As you read through this chapter all throughout, it's future, future, future, better resurrection, better hope, better city, better glory to come.
Micah McCormick: Chapter 12.
Micah McCormick: We're going to be winding down and conclude here, but really I think the whole book of Hebrews is nicely summed up in chapter 12, verse 2.
Micah McCormick: Keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
Micah McCormick: How great is Jesus who began the good work?
Micah McCormick: How great is Jesus that he's going to complete it?
Micah McCormick: Where else can we go?
Micah McCormick: Lord, you have the words of eternal life.
Micah McCormick: Who else can I look to besides you?
Micah McCormick: That's our focus, the place, and I want to.
Micah McCormick: I'm not going to take more time with this, but just read Hebrews 12 sometime, maybe even this week, and it talks about us coming to the heavenly Mount Zion, some of those things Isaiah talked about.
Micah McCormick: That's beginning now.
Micah McCormick: It's not just future, but it's beginning now.
Micah McCormick: And then the writer wonderfully leaves the people with this reminder again of what Jesus has accomplished.
Micah McCormick: So if you look down to verse 12, jesus Hebrews 13, jesus also suffered outside the gate that he might sanctify the people by his own blood.
Micah McCormick: Let us then go to him.
Micah McCormick: There might be opposition, that comes along with it, but if we're standing next to Jesus, we can't be in any better place.
Micah McCormick: He's verse 20, the great shepherd of the sheep.
Micah McCormick: If you had Moses as your pastor, shepherd of the sheep, if you had Moses as your pastor, how great would that be.
Micah McCormick: If you had David, as you know, your king, how great might that be.
Micah McCormick: But we have Jesus as our prophet, priest and king.
Micah McCormick: We have Jesus as the great shepherd who never sleeps.
Micah McCormick: You might have trouble sleeping because you're worried.
Micah McCormick: Jesus doesn't sleep because he's not worried in the sense that we are, but he is caring, he's watching over his people day and night, and a fundamental way that he's watching over us is to keep us in the faith, firm to the end.
Micah McCormick: So keep trusting in him.
Micah McCormick: Let's pray.
Micah McCormick: Lord, how awesome are your works, how awesome is the son who's the radiance of your very glory, who reveals the image of God to us?
Micah McCormick: And Lord, we have in Jesus the greatest of all shepherds.
Micah McCormick: Thank you for our Lord, who has come to sacrifice himself, who has opened up this new and living way, that even now we're spiritually in the heavenly Jerusalem, alongside redeemed saints like Marge, who can worship before you in unhindered glory.
Micah McCormick: Lord, give us a sense and an experience, a taste of eternal things.
Micah McCormick: Forgive us for looking back at Egypt.
Micah McCormick: Forgive us for listening to the tempter and, at times, to our own hearts.
Micah McCormick: Lord, we want to grow strong in faith, giving glory to you.
Micah McCormick: We want to never underestimate the greatness of our Christ, but to speak of him, to love him, to trust him.
Micah McCormick: And, lord, let this be a regular pattern of our life, not a once a week pattern, not a once, even a once a day pattern, but the meat and drink and breathing of our souls would be.
Micah McCormick: Christ is all in all, and we ask this in Jesus' name Amen.