The Outcome/Fruit of Servant Priests in the
New CovenantTemple of God
Hebrews 13:7-25
I. Vs 7-8 The Object and Goal of Servant Priests/Leadership.
We are all kings and priests in Kingdom of Christ (Rev 5:9-10), a royal priesthood (I Peter 2:8), but God has given gifts to His church, servant priests for the edification of the body. (Eph 410-16)
Vs 7 Rule = lead. Remember the Biblical way these leaders are set apart to their duty.
Acts 6:1-7, 13:1-3 (Titus 1:5-9 must be understood in the Acts context)
(1) The only authority they have is the Word of God, the only job they have is to speak the Word of God to you. (See Titus 1:9)
(2) Follow their faith! It doesn't list personality, eloquence, charisma, scholarship, leadership training & skill.
(3) Pay attention to where their faith is taking them to see if they are worth following!
Note: "outcome'", "end" in KJV, is the same word as "escape" in I Corinthians 10:13. #1545-ek'basis=a way out. Remember that as we go on!
Vs 8 "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever"
(1) Jesus Christ, our Eternal God/Man, our Great High Priest, is where faithful, God appointed leadership will take you! And they can only do this by faithfully "giving themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word."
Vs 9 Compare this to Ephesians 4:13-14
(1) The ministry of the Word by these "gift ministers" is to bring "unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God", and is the means of growing us up out of infancy, no longer the prey of tricky teachers and their false doctrines. This "gift ministry", which is only by faith, is the "end", "escape" from "strange and various doctrines". The "escape" is only through the Word of God which they "speak"!
(2) In 13:9, we see that tricky men and false doctrine always lead to some form of legalism, whether food rituals from the OT or something you have to do to be really "spiritual" today!.
Notice: Legalism occupies!! It takes you over, wears you out, chews you up, and spits you out! It always leads to failure and condemnation and always dangles a carrot of "doing better" before you.
(3) The goal here and in Ephesians is to establish the heart by grace! You can discern grace establishment by the constant focus on the finished work of the Never Changing Jesus! Only because of Jesus, are you ceasing from your own works as God did from His?? Heb 4:10 Only by "LEARNING CHRIST" IS BEHAVIOR CHANGED!!!!!!!!!!
II. Vs 10-14 We have the ultimate altar!
Vs 10 This is the altar of grace, Christ Jesus our Sacrifice and therefore, we are living sacrifices. We nourish one another through these sacrificial feasts on the Total Sufficiency of the Body and Blood of our Lord. I Cor 9:13;10; 10:16-18; John 6:53-58
VS 11-12 The sin offering is in view here. Lev 4:1-21; Heb 10:5-14
(1) Vs 11 The blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled before the curtain before the Holy of Holies, put on the horns of the altar and around the bottom of it. The carcass was then burned at a place outside of Israel's campground.
(2) This prefigured our Lords' suffering on Golgotha, outside the walls of Jerusalem.
(3) True Christianity always has the stigma of the "outside suffering". Grace always flies in the face of world and its' god—"man will be king". It also flies in the face of Christianity and its myriad forms of legalistic sanctification.
(4) To be established by grace, to refuse fleshly sacrifices—doing penance, making resolutions, abstaining from this or that, memorizing this, or repeating that, pursuing greater knowledge—is to be outside the camp of flesh and it's attempts at legal perfection, building temples for God with our own hands! The camp of the flesh has walls of failure, guilt, defeat, anxiety & frustration, but beware, it is deceitfully attractive at the outset!
(5) But our Jesus suffered outside those walls in visibly His Own apparent failure—death and mockery. He took all of our doomed fleshly efforts with Him to the tomb, arose Victorious from the grave, ascended to the Right Hand of Power that we might live at the Throne of Grace. It is from this Throne of Victory and Satisfaction that all Mercy and Grace flow.
(6) Vs 13 Faith is the only "conduit" through which Mercy and Grace flow! Faith is the most humbling of God's Gracious Gifts. There is no room for flesh in it! Therefore, true "grace ministry" leads us to "escape" the flesh camp and it's failure and requires us to suffer the "outside" experience of our Lord and Savior, with Him and IN Him!
(7) Vs 14 Remember, there is nothing in this world that we can cling to as our hope & security. Remember, the stones of Solomon's temple were quarried finished "outside the camp". I Kings 6:7. No sound of "perfecting the stones" could be heard in the temple or its' surroundings.
Beloved, this life, this world, is the quarry! We are being prepared, hammered & chiseled, for the GloriousTemple that is the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21. The Holy Spirit is the "hand", His Word is the "chisel", and God's Providence is the guidance that determines the angle at which the Gracious Word by the Spirit conforms us to the slot intended for us in the Eternal Temple of Praise to our Triune Jehovah God! (Hebrews 4:11-13)
III. Vs 15-17 Our "outside the camp" lifestyle.
(1) Vs 15 Remember, all things outside the camp are "by Him", by Grace. Fleshly initiated praise & worship is of the lips, but the heart is far from Him. This heart generated praise!
(2) Vs 16 James' "Pure Religion" is in focus here. No record keeping, this unselfish living is only before our Father in Heaven. (Matthew 6:1-4)
(3) Vs 17 As in vs7, follow the faith of those set apart to lead, be submissive to the Word that they speak to you. This will make them joyful, and will profit your soul for Eternity. They must give an account to the Lord for their faithfulness in the Word of His Power!
IV. Vs 18-19 All that the Apostles did, they did in tandem with the prayers of the saints. So too, grace ministers need that same "tandem ministry" of prayer!! It is not optional.
V. Vs 20-21 All is of the Gracious Eternal God!
(1) Vs 20 It is our God Who has done EVERYTHING ESSENTIAL for our Peace and Salvation! Everything required for our Eternal fellowship and communion with Him, both now and forever, has been accomplished through the BLOOD OF THE EVERLASTING COVENANT! That is the only source of Peace that the God of Peace will allow, our Resurrected Jesus, our "outside the camp" Jesus, exalted to the place of ultimate blessing!
(2) Vs 21 He only makes us complete in our being and in our works! We are only complete in Christ (Colossians 1:9-10), and our works were before ordained that we should walk in them! (Ephesians 2:10) We will only and ever be pleasing in His Sight through our Eternally Glorious Jesus Christ!
Vi. VS 22-24 This book and it's glorious truths wasn't written to the "grace ministers" as it was to "Joe Christians".
(1) Vs 22 The author considers this epistle to be "few words". Wow! It is an exhortation, not a mere suggestion. Pay attention and follow his faith!
(2) Vs 23 Perhaps a hint that the author is the Apostle Paul.
(3) Vs 24 Here is the evidence that this isn't for the "teachers' in it's primary intent. It was written to "Joe Hebrew Christian". There is no room here to avoid the wrestling with the book's truth just because we are "mere" Christians! There is no such thing as "mere Christian's" the temple of the Lord. Heed your responsibility!
VII. Vs 25 And here is the "means"—ALL IS OF GRACE! The Book of Hebrews is crammed full of Grace! It is given by the God of Grace to bring us to a consuming dependence upon the God of Grace through His Gracious Son, relying on His Gracious "outside the camp" work, and His present Eternal ministry on the Throne of Grace for His Blood Bought People!
Do you believe Him? John 6:29
New CovenantTemple of God
Hebrews 13:7-25
I. Vs 7-8 The Object and Goal of Servant Priests/Leadership.
We are all kings and priests in Kingdom of Christ (Rev 5:9-10), a royal priesthood (I Peter 2:8), but God has given gifts to His church, servant priests for the edification of the body. (Eph 410-16)
Vs 7 Rule = lead. Remember the Biblical way these leaders are set apart to their duty.
Acts 6:1-7, 13:1-3 (Titus 1:5-9 must be understood in the Acts context)
(1) The only authority they have is the Word of God, the only job they have is to speak the Word of God to you. (See Titus 1:9)
(2) Follow their faith! It doesn't list personality, eloquence, charisma, scholarship, leadership training & skill.
(3) Pay attention to where their faith is taking them to see if they are worth following!
Note: "outcome'", "end" in KJV, is the same word as "escape" in I Corinthians 10:13. #1545-ek'basis=a way out. Remember that as we go on!
Vs 8 "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever"
(1) Jesus Christ, our Eternal God/Man, our Great High Priest, is where faithful, God appointed leadership will take you! And they can only do this by faithfully "giving themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word."
Vs 9 Compare this to Ephesians 4:13-14
(1) The ministry of the Word by these "gift ministers" is to bring "unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God", and is the means of growing us up out of infancy, no longer the prey of tricky teachers and their false doctrines. This "gift ministry", which is only by faith, is the "end", "escape" from "strange and various doctrines". The "escape" is only through the Word of God which they "speak"!
(2) In 13:9, we see that tricky men and false doctrine always lead to some form of legalism, whether food rituals from the OT or something you have to do to be really "spiritual" today!.
Notice: Legalism occupies!! It takes you over, wears you out, chews you up, and spits you out! It always leads to failure and condemnation and always dangles a carrot of "doing better" before you.
(3) The goal here and in Ephesians is to establish the heart by grace! You can discern grace establishment by the constant focus on the finished work of the Never Changing Jesus! Only because of Jesus, are you ceasing from your own works as God did from His?? Heb 4:10 Only by "LEARNING CHRIST" IS BEHAVIOR CHANGED!!!!!!!!!!
II. Vs 10-14 We have the ultimate altar!
Vs 10 This is the altar of grace, Christ Jesus our Sacrifice and therefore, we are living sacrifices. We nourish one another through these sacrificial feasts on the Total Sufficiency of the Body and Blood of our Lord. I Cor 9:13;10; 10:16-18; John 6:53-58
VS 11-12 The sin offering is in view here. Lev 4:1-21; Heb 10:5-14
(1) Vs 11 The blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled before the curtain before the Holy of Holies, put on the horns of the altar and around the bottom of it. The carcass was then burned at a place outside of Israel's campground.
(2) This prefigured our Lords' suffering on Golgotha, outside the walls of Jerusalem.
(3) True Christianity always has the stigma of the "outside suffering". Grace always flies in the face of world and its' god—"man will be king". It also flies in the face of Christianity and its myriad forms of legalistic sanctification.
(4) To be established by grace, to refuse fleshly sacrifices—doing penance, making resolutions, abstaining from this or that, memorizing this, or repeating that, pursuing greater knowledge—is to be outside the camp of flesh and it's attempts at legal perfection, building temples for God with our own hands! The camp of the flesh has walls of failure, guilt, defeat, anxiety & frustration, but beware, it is deceitfully attractive at the outset!
(5) But our Jesus suffered outside those walls in visibly His Own apparent failure—death and mockery. He took all of our doomed fleshly efforts with Him to the tomb, arose Victorious from the grave, ascended to the Right Hand of Power that we might live at the Throne of Grace. It is from this Throne of Victory and Satisfaction that all Mercy and Grace flow.
(6) Vs 13 Faith is the only "conduit" through which Mercy and Grace flow! Faith is the most humbling of God's Gracious Gifts. There is no room for flesh in it! Therefore, true "grace ministry" leads us to "escape" the flesh camp and it's failure and requires us to suffer the "outside" experience of our Lord and Savior, with Him and IN Him!
(7) Vs 14 Remember, there is nothing in this world that we can cling to as our hope & security. Remember, the stones of Solomon's temple were quarried finished "outside the camp". I Kings 6:7. No sound of "perfecting the stones" could be heard in the temple or its' surroundings.
Beloved, this life, this world, is the quarry! We are being prepared, hammered & chiseled, for the GloriousTemple that is the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21. The Holy Spirit is the "hand", His Word is the "chisel", and God's Providence is the guidance that determines the angle at which the Gracious Word by the Spirit conforms us to the slot intended for us in the Eternal Temple of Praise to our Triune Jehovah God! (Hebrews 4:11-13)
III. Vs 15-17 Our "outside the camp" lifestyle.
(1) Vs 15 Remember, all things outside the camp are "by Him", by Grace. Fleshly initiated praise & worship is of the lips, but the heart is far from Him. This heart generated praise!
(2) Vs 16 James' "Pure Religion" is in focus here. No record keeping, this unselfish living is only before our Father in Heaven. (Matthew 6:1-4)
(3) Vs 17 As in vs7, follow the faith of those set apart to lead, be submissive to the Word that they speak to you. This will make them joyful, and will profit your soul for Eternity. They must give an account to the Lord for their faithfulness in the Word of His Power!
IV. Vs 18-19 All that the Apostles did, they did in tandem with the prayers of the saints. So too, grace ministers need that same "tandem ministry" of prayer!! It is not optional.
V. Vs 20-21 All is of the Gracious Eternal God!
(1) Vs 20 It is our God Who has done EVERYTHING ESSENTIAL for our Peace and Salvation! Everything required for our Eternal fellowship and communion with Him, both now and forever, has been accomplished through the BLOOD OF THE EVERLASTING COVENANT! That is the only source of Peace that the God of Peace will allow, our Resurrected Jesus, our "outside the camp" Jesus, exalted to the place of ultimate blessing!
(2) Vs 21 He only makes us complete in our being and in our works! We are only complete in Christ (Colossians 1:9-10), and our works were before ordained that we should walk in them! (Ephesians 2:10) We will only and ever be pleasing in His Sight through our Eternally Glorious Jesus Christ!
Vi. VS 22-24 This book and it's glorious truths wasn't written to the "grace ministers" as it was to "Joe Christians".
(1) Vs 22 The author considers this epistle to be "few words". Wow! It is an exhortation, not a mere suggestion. Pay attention and follow his faith!
(2) Vs 23 Perhaps a hint that the author is the Apostle Paul.
(3) Vs 24 Here is the evidence that this isn't for the "teachers' in it's primary intent. It was written to "Joe Hebrew Christian". There is no room here to avoid the wrestling with the book's truth just because we are "mere" Christians! There is no such thing as "mere Christian's" the temple of the Lord. Heed your responsibility!
VII. Vs 25 And here is the "means"—ALL IS OF GRACE! The Book of Hebrews is crammed full of Grace! It is given by the God of Grace to bring us to a consuming dependence upon the God of Grace through His Gracious Son, relying on His Gracious "outside the camp" work, and His present Eternal ministry on the Throne of Grace for His Blood Bought People!
Do you believe Him? John 6:29