The Supremacy of Jesus (Hebrews 6)

The Supremacy of Christ
Hebrews 6:9-12

INTRODUCTION:
When I was in junior high school, I was involved in 4-H. My 4-H advisor, Mr. Walker, was very much an out-door kind of guy. He was the one who inspired me to go tent-camping when Rachel and I got married. He introduced me to white-water rafting and to rock climbing. I have been rock-climbing twice. For safety, you are on a rope, with a belay, and you have someone whom you trust holding onto the rope to keep you safe. At least, when you are a junior high school kid in 4-H.

All those safety features are designed to keep you safe. In Christianity, Jesus has designed several safety features to keep us safe from Satan and to try to ensure that we make it to heaven.

To use another metaphor, Satan is on one side of a wall and we are on the other side of the wall. The handful of Bible verses that we know when we first become a Christian and the short, shallow prayers that we say when we are young Christians can provide some protection for us against Satan. But, the more of God’s word we know, the more frequently we talk to God, the more we have fellowship with other Christians and the more we worship with fellow Christians, the thicker our wall of defense gets.

In our text for study this morning, the Hebrew writer will mention three of those “walls of defense” to keep us faithful to God: the Word, Christian fellowship, and Jesus Christ.

The writer of Hebrews is encouraging his audience not to walk away from Christ or His gospel or His church. You cannot separate the three: Jesus, the Truth, and His church. To be dedicated to one means you are dedicated to the other. And we see those three integrated in this specific text.

When we left off last month, in chapter 5, we saw where the writer wanted to talk to Christians about Melchizedek, but then he said that they were too immature to grasp the subject. And he criticizes them for not growing more in their knowledge of the word of God so that they would understand what he was talking about.

From that point, here in chapter 6, the writer will challenge Christians to press on to maturity and don’t forget their Bible study! And he will challenge Christians to be diligent in sharing with each other (don’t forget Christian fellowship)! And then he will point out that Jesus is the object of our hope, so Christians should not forget Jesus. Both Bible study and Christian fellowship, in this context especially, is designed to help us stay faithful to Jesus.

Let’s feed our spirits on Hebrews 6…

LET US PRESS ON TO MATURITY (Don’t forget Bible study!) - 6:1-8:
We have to leave the “elementary” principles of the Christ in order to mature in our faith. If we try to live our lives based solely on a handful of Bible verses, then our defense against the trials of life and the doubts that Satan throws at us will be extremely thin. But the more we know of God’s word and the more we walk with Christ in prayer, Bible study, fellowship with fellow Christians, and in worship, then the stronger and thicker our “wall of defense” will be!

You see, in verses 4-6, the Hebrew writer is basically saying that if your knowledge of God’s will is shallow, then you don’t have the defense against Satan that you should have. And the downfall into sin becomes a spiral until you reach the point where it is impossible to change your life. The human mind can believe anything. That’s why we must constantly fill our minds with the word of God so we will have the proper view of the world and spiritual matters.

The illustration in verses 7-8 shows that the rain falls on the crops and is beneficial to the farmer, if he tills the ground! The farmer has to work if he wants to take advantage of the rain. If he doesn’t till the ground, he can get all the rain he wants, but then weeds will grow up and the crop will not be beneficial to him. So Christians have to mature in our faith or our knowledge that we do have will not be beneficial to us!

My mom was considerably overweight. I do not at all want to imply that being overweight is somehow a sin against God. But, I want to illustrate this spiritual point. At least with Mom, her weight caused her health to spiral downward until a blood infection took her life. She got to the point that she just could not move much more and that exacerbated her poor health.

If you and I do not keep our spirits in tune with the word of God, our spiritual lives can spiral downward and we can lose control of our spiritual health so that we can get to the point where biblical teaching does not phase us anymore. Those are the ones for whom it is impossible to “renew them again to repentance.”

SHOW THE SAME DILIGENCE (Don’t forget Christian fellowship!)- 6:9-12:
But the Hebrew writer is hopeful for the Christians he is writing to (ver. 9). They were already serving each other and Christian fellowship and service are some of the most important things that Christians can do to stay faithful to Christ! God will not forget our service (ver. 10)! God is diligent to remember and to bless Christians who are active and faithful.

We need to show the same diligence in maturing in our faith so that we will realize the full assurance of our hope when Jesus comes again (ver. 11). We don’t want to have a “sluggish” faith; we want a strong and active faith! A faith that is growing and maturing. To do that, the Hebrew writer encourages us to imitate those who have gone before us and inherited the promises God gave to them. He will give us a list of those saints in chapter 11.

WE WOULD HAVE STRONG ENCOURAGEMENT (Don’t forget Jesus!)- 6:13-20:
In this paragraph, the Hebrew writer wants to encourage Christians to stay faithful to Christ because God is faithful to His promise to help His children!

As biblical writers, especially Paul, often do, the Hebrew writer uses Abraham as a great example of perseverance in faith. God promised, in fact, God swore an oath to, Abraham that He would bless Abraham with a son and he quotes Genesis 22:17. Abraham did not receive that promise immediately, but he persisted in trusting God and staying faithful to God and eventually he received that promise (ver. 15).

Speaking of swearing an oath, okay there is no word in the Hebrew language for “promise.” So if God wanted to emphasize His word, He swore an oath. He could not say, “I promise.” He would swear an oath. Men swear oaths, like we still do today in the courts. We place our hands on the Bible and swear to tell the truth. In that sense, we are swearing by One greater than ourselves and that oath is supposed to assure that what we are saying is the absolute truth.

But when God wanted to encourage His children that He would absolutely fulfill what He had told them, He could not swear by someone greater than Himself. He could only swear by Himself and that’s what He did. Jehovah God swore an oath to show that His purpose was unchangeable and God cannot tell a lie in any way, shape or form.

So the situation with Abraham is given as an illustration of the fact that Christians can also rely on God to fulfill His promises. That’s why we can take refuge in Jesus Christ and be strongly encouraged to find our hope in Him (ver. 18)!

The bottom line is this: we have a hope that is like an anchor that is cast into Jesus Christ (ver. 19) who, like Melchizedek (whom we will study next month!), lives as a priest forever and ever and ever. That’s why Jesus is dependable and why we dare not walk away from Him and His plans, including His church.

Take home message: We need to mature in our faith and knowledge so we will have the diligence we need to stay faithful and find our encouragement in Christ and His promises.