Epiphany Sunday - Hebrews 13:8 - Pastor Jeremy Haynes

You.

We'll be reading today from Hebrews. We'll be in Hebrews, chapter 13. I'm going to read starting in verse five. I'm going to go all the way down to verse eight. It says this, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

So we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Remember the outcome of their way of life.

Imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Take your seats.

Let's pray. God in heaven, we thank you for this day. We thank you that you have called us to this moment in some amazing way. Every step of our life, every season of our life, every change we faced, every moment we've encountered, every affection of our heart, everything that we've faced in life, everything that we've desired in life, everything that's brought us to this point in life, has been somehow ordained and ordered by you and by your hand. And so we now come to you believing that everything you've done is done for our good.

It's done to shepherd us toward you and to walk with you and to be with you. And so now we ask you to bless this time, this teaching, and our hearts. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. Well, it's a new year.

If you're anything like I am, you're deliberately seeking to manage the changes that you're experiencing already this year or the changes you hope to see happen this year. New year is a time that brings about changes in our lives. In fact, changes are everywhere I notice in my life. I think about changes in my body as I'm beginning older, I have tightness in my elbow these days. I've noticed changes in my family.

This year, my parents will both be 70. I feel a growing sense of responsibility for my parents. So much change there, even for my own marriage with Lexi, we now can go on date nights without a babysitter. That's an amazing change. Praise God.

That's right. All these changes, even with my career over the last few years, I used to be in some ways committed to the idea of serving full time, a vocational pastoral ministry. I thought I'd be in one church the rest of my life, but God changed that. And now I do something completely different. With the majority of my week, changes are always happening.

It almost seems that change is the only consistent thing we experience in life, is change. We manage change. Changes. When we come to the Book of HebrEws, we're looking to a people who is experiencing tremendous change. They're experiencing change because they've gone from being mostly a JeWish Community, from now changing into a christian community.

They've gone from people who have been, in the beginning of their faith, mostly faithful, it seems, to now doubting.

They've gone from a people who were confident in what they knew about the law into now a group that is unsure about how the law plays into their life, a group that was confident that the work of Moses was their sure place, now has to find their confidence in the grace that comes from Christ. All of these changes are taking place in their lives. And that's why the author of the Book of Hebrews is preaching to them, seeking them out to preach a word of the superiority of Christ in their life, that no matter what changes happen, Christ is the one who is greater than all the things you've known in the past, all the things you've held on to. ChRIsT is the one that you must grasp and hold fast to. His first goal he's had in this book, in this sermon, the second kind of goal he's had, as he's been teaching these people in this immense amount of change, is that he wants them to hold fast and be faithful to the things that God has taught them through ChrIsT.

All these things are happening. They're experiencing all these things. This SermoN's BeEn covering so much important data that they need to know about their faith. And now we come to this last chapter of the BOOk of hebrews, and he goes into 19 principles for ChrIstian Living. So all this lofty, amazing things they need to know about ChrIst.

But now we get into some nitty gritty principles that matter. I'll break them into three categories. The first category is really in relation to others. We're in chapter 13. I'm not going to go through all this, but in the first few verses, verse one through four, this relation to others talks about having hospitality and the importance of hospitality.

He talks about visiting prisoners. He talks about the importance of keeping the marriage bed holy and staying away from sexual morality, being content. Then the last section, last few verses, kind of going from verse nine all the way down to verse 1617. He looks at relation to God and he's saying to these people, separate yourself from the system of the Jews and move into this grace of God and step outside of the camp, step outside of the system that's in place of the Judaism, and step into the grace of God and offer sacrifices and prayers to him as an offering. These are the two categories now, right in the middle of these two categories, relations to other, in relation to God, we have relation to self.

Right in the middle, in relation to self, he's going to focus on having a steadfastness and a faithfulness in your heart. That's what we're going to focus on today. The two verses that we're going to look at today are going to be verse seven and eight. I have two points. Point number one is, remember your leaders.

Point number two is the sameness of Christ. Remember, he's speaking to a group of people who are struggling with all the changes they're facing, with the tribulations and the challenges. And now he's going to point to them in their relationship to themselves and say, inside your heart, inside who you are. These are the things you need to hear to stay strong. Two things.

Remember your leaders. Remember the sameness of Christ. Verse seven. Hebrews 13, verse seven. Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God.

Consider the outcome of their life and imitate their faith.

Remember your leaders. We don't know all of who their leaders were and who they were talking to or who they were thinking about. We don't have their names. We don't have their stories. But the principle remains, remember those leaders.

Some of them may have. May have already died. You remember them because they're not with you. But then some of them might be present. But the point is, remember the leaders who spoke the word of God to you.

A chapter earlier in the chapter eleven. Why don't you turn there? Chapter eleven. We have an example of a leader who came before that they should remember. His name is Moses.

Chapter eleven. Turn with me to verse 23.

By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith, Moses left Egypt not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. And by faith, he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood over the doorpost that day so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

This is clearly a leader. They want to remember this leader. They want to remember his name is Moses. And what I love about Moses is that it says a few times here, not only were his parents not afraid, but he was not afraid. He decided not to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter and to take on the reproach or to give up the privilege of having that name.

He decided to take on the reproach of Christ and to give up the fleeting pleasures of Egypt. He decided to take on a life of struggle, because he believed there was something more in God for him and for his people. He did all these things in all the movements and phases and seasons of his life by faith. And I think about the outcome of his life. It was a good outcome.

Maybe it wasn't what he hoped, or maybe what we might have hoped as we read the story, but this was a man who was faithful till the end. Remember your leaders. Those who spoke the word of God to you, imitate their faith. Moses was one of those people. And I wonder, as they think about these leaders that are in front of them, like Moses.

I wonder if they were wondering if he could do it. We could do it. And I think the author was encouraging them and hoping that if they could see that Moses could do it in Christ, that they could do it in Christ, that's probably why he was encouraging them to do this, because then they could see it. Then they could do it. That's the parallel.

I had the privilege some time ago, to go to a memorial of a dear brother of ours, Chris Jenkins. Not his memorial, but his father's memorial. And at that memorial, I opened up the bulletin that day. And the bulletin had a picture of Chris Jenkins'father on the front of it. And his hair was silver, and he had this amazing smile.

And it almost seemed like he'd been laughing when they took that picture. And I enjoyed it. And I was really there because I'm Chris's friend, pastor in his church, and I want to be there when it counts. And I love my brother, but I love you, too. And that day, I was surprised, though.

And what I was surprised by was the stories they told about his father. It was almost like they rehearsed it. Each person got up and they said, he told us not to talk about his past and what he did in his life, but to only talk about Jesus. It was like every single person knew what they were to say, as though they were handed notes for their talk. He was a man of faith.

He was a man of honor. Both of his sons got up. Both of his sons and his family, they stood up and praised his faithfulness. And they spoke words of their own faith that they saw in him that was handed down to them.

I listened. I felt. I believed that if he could do it, Mr. Jenkins, I could do it. I could have that day where I stand, not stand where I'm in the ground and my kids are there telling the story of my faithfulness.

If he could do it, I could do it. I felt that.

What will they say when you're in the ground?

Will you be the person that was holding on to the leaders that spoke the word of God to you in a way that you're imitating their faith so that those who come behind you can hold your hand as they look to you?

This is what the author is talking about. The relation to self is that I remember the leaders who spoke the word of God to me. When the challenges come, when the seasons change, when I lose my way, I remember what they told me, and I hold on.

This is what the author wants them to do.

Second point, the sameness of Christ.

Back to verse. Chapter 13, one sentence that will echo in our hearts for eternity.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Here's the question we must ask to this one sentence. In what sense is he the same? In what sense is he the same yesterday, today, and forever? In what sense?

Well, if you would turn with me to Hebrews, chapter one. And I want to answer that question with us.

Long ago. This is verse one. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son Jesus, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. Jesus.

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the power of his word.

One of the ways he's the same is that he's the same nature, the exact imprint of God the father and God the son. They have the sameness. The rock of ages, the God of old, the God who created all things, Jesus was there creating with him. He's the same. He was not a man.

That's merely a prophet that lived and died, and his story was over. He existed before that. He's the same as the eternal God. That's part of the sameness. Another part of the sameness that I believe is important is it's over in Malachi.

Malachi. Three, six. You don't need to turn. Let me just read it for you. For I, the Lord, do not change.

Therefore, you, o children of Jacob, you will not be consumed, because I do not change.

He's connected to that God that does not change. He's the unchanging God. Some theologians say the immutable God, that's the sense in which he does not change. And the fact that his divinity is the same as the Godhead, the Trinity, the son, the spirit, the Son and the father, they are the same. And then another point.

Even thinking back with me to Hebrews, I kind of missed it. But let me just kind of say it again. Hebrews one. It says this whole statement here after it talks about him being the exact imprint of the nature of God. In chapter one, verse eight, and actually chapter one, verse five, it says, the author says, for to who?

To which of the angels did God ever say these things? Say it again. The author of Hebrews is asking a rhetorical question. For to which of the angels did God ever say this? Dot, dot, dot.

Here he goes, verse eight. But of the sun God said, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You, the Son, have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed to you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.

So God calls the Son God. The throne is his forever and ever. He's the same in his divinity, in his truth, in his grace, in his mercy. His everlastingness is the same as the triune God. He's also the same in his compassion and kindness and love.

He sympathizes with us. This is his sameness, that he has that ability to know us intimately. I think about a moment in the life of Saul where Saul had sinned and failed, and God had raised up Saul to be king. Saul in his haste failed, and he stole the spoils of a battle and God judged him. And this is what Samuel said to Saul about the nature of God.

He says, saul, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you and also the Lord of glory, the glory of Israel. He will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man that he should have regret. So it's interesting. God is this everlasting same God, and yet he responds to the things that are happening in time.

I think it's beautiful picture of this Jesus who is half man or fully man and fully God. There's a part of God that is the same, the same, and yet responding to what's happening, Jesus being fully man and fully God, exemplifies to us the sameness of God, the triune God. That's a sense in which he's the same. Next question is, what do these three different time periods mean for us? Yesterday, today, and forever?

Well, yesterday, I think I've kind of already said it. He was there in the beginning, pulling forward all the details, all the things that have happened to this point, even the story about Moses, how he chose the reproach of Christ. It said, over the pleasures, every single prophet, every single detail, Jesus was somehow a part of these things all the way until now. That's yesterday working and then today. Today is today.

Today is always today. The day you're seeing, the day you're feeling, the day you're experiencing. Today is the day where you are strengthened by the grace of God, where you hold fast to the truths of God.

Today is the day. And so Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and he's also the same today. He helps us to live by faith today, to trust him today. We think about our confessions. We do every single week here.

Those confessions are part of us being strengthened by the grace of God. Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever shall believe in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. For he didn't send his son in the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Therefore, there is no condemnation for those of you who are in Christ Jesus.

Broad is the road that leads to death and destruction, but narrow is the road that leads to life. Jesus is the truth, the life and the way, and no one gets to the father except through him. These truths we hold on to, and they strengthen us every single day. That is the todayness of Jesus. And then tomorrow and forever is the fact that there is a day where he brings us to himself, and he will wipe away every tear and every burden, every concern, every temptation, every sensitivity, every insecurity will be gone, where all things will be made new in him, with him, for eternity.

This is a part of what it means when God says and then what the Bible says and what the author says. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow and forever. He is the God that is the same. When the world seems like it's changing fundamentally, he's the same I think about in my life, just the ways that I remember him being the same through my journey, I think about being a five year old and my mom singing Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. I was five and I remember him calling me deeply in my early twenty s and singing Jesus Messiah, name above all names, blessed Redeemer, Emmanuel, early twenty s.

And then I remember standing here just even six months ago singing, he will hold me fast, he will hold me fast, for my savior loves me so, he will hold me fast.

I've gone through so many terrible, amazing things and he has held me fast all the way through it. Five years old, ten years old, 1520. You keep counting. Here I stand. Not because I'm amazing, because he's been the same, holding me, putting these songs in my heart so that I could sing them, so that my affections can rise for him.

My intellect can remember him, but my affections live for him. I get to move by faith. I get to remember the leaders who've come before me on my weekdays. I get to go, he's the same even when I'm not. I get to reach back, hold on to him.

I get to read my Bible and I get to have my human days. And remember that God sees me in the sense of what he put in the Bible so that I can remember that I can be weak and he could be strong. I was even meditating and reflecting and thinking about this sermon, and I stumbled onto psalm 102, and I think it was a great reminder of all the changes that are happening and all of what I think this church in Hebrews is experiencing and all of what we might experience, and it comes back to this sameness. And I want to read this psalm 102 to you as we kind of come to this end of Jesus being the same yesterday, today, and forever. Let me read this for us.

And I want you to think about the tension in this psalm between the humanity of the person praying this prayer and the reality of God's sameness and God's power. Psalm 102 hear my prayer, O Lord, let my cry come to you. Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress, incline your ear to me. Answer me speedily in the day when I call, for my days pass away like smoke. My bones burn like a furnace.

My heart is struck down like grass and has withered. I forget to eat my bread because my loud groaning, my bones cling to my flesh. I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places I lie awake. I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop. All the day my enemies taunt me.

Those who deride me use my name as a curse, for I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink because of your indignation and your anger. For you have taken me up and thrown me down. My days are like an evening shadow. I wither away like grass. But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever.

You are remembered throughout all the generations. You will arise and have pity on Zion. It is the time to favor her. The appointed time has come for your servants. Hold her stones dear and have pity on her dust.

Nations will fear the name of the Lord. All kings of the earth will fear your glory. For the Lord builds up Zion. He appears in his glory. He regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer.

Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord that he looked down from his holy Height from the heaven. The Lord looked at the earth to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die, that they may declare in Zion the name of the Lord in Jerusalem, his praise when peoples gather together and kingdoms to worship the Lord. He has broken my strength in mid course. He has shortened my days. O my God, I say, take me not away in the midst of my days.

You whose years endure throughout all the generations.

The tension is there and the reality is there. A weak man praying to an eternal God who he knows will never forget him.

While our minds might fade and dull and our strength may go away, our goals may never be achieved, our weakness may overtake us. The seasons may hurt. The seasons may bring joy.

But no matter what happens, he is the same in his faith. His hope and his love will remain forever. And I've got good news for you. As we close this down today, you are not the changeless one that everything hinges on.

You are not the changeless one that everything hinges on. There is a lot of concerns. There's a lot of things you want to pull together. You want to keep your family intact, you want to keep your friends intact. You want to keep your church intact, your job intact, your finances intact.

All these things do not hinge on your changelessness. But all of these things hinge on the changelessness of Christ. And for that reason, we can rest. And for that reason we can rejoice, because he's the one that will always remain strong in every season. Let's pray.

God in heaven, we thank you. We thank you that it does not depend on us. It depends on you. You are the one. You were there when Moses decided to put off the fleeting pleasures of Israel to pursue you.

You were there when this author penned the book of Hebrews and wanted to challenge these people to remember their leaders and to remember you and how you are the same God. You were there when we first prayed to you. You were there when we first sang that song to you. You were there when we fell down. You were there when we got up.

You were there. You are here now.

You are here now. We bring this to you now. We bring you our life. We bring you our worries. We bring you our concerns.

We bring you our anxieties. We give you our jobs. We give you our families. We give you all the things that we carry. We cast them at your feet because you care for us.

You are the God of the last generation. You are the God of this generation. And you will be the God of the next generation. And every generation that will ever come will praise you by faith. We pray in the name of Jesus.

Amen.