Strong Encouragement to Hold fast to Our Hope

The below are very rough, unedited, speaking notes from the message, followed by some potential application questions.

Hebrews 6:13-20 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,  ¹⁴ saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you."  ¹⁵ And thus Abraham,¹ having patiently waited, obtained the promise.  ¹⁶ For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.  ¹⁷ So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,  ¹⁸ so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.  ¹⁹ We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,  ²⁰ where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. 

·         Martin Luther, who 495 years ago last week boldly tacked up 95 theses about the abuses of the indulgences of the Catholic church was not always bold.
·         Ten years after his protest, he wrote, "For more than a week, I was close to the gates of death and hell. I trembled in all my members. Christ was wholly lost. I was shaken by desperation and blasphemy of God."
·         But shortly after he wrote of this dark and hopeless time, he then penned the hymn, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" which says that “we will not fear for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us”
·         As we know, Luther had some serious failings was challenged by despair and was at times desperate to cling to hope.
·         But he could write the words of this hymn because He knew that what God had promised was true. Satan was defeated at the Cross, no matter what it seemed like.
·         He knew his feelings couldn’t be trusted. He knew he couldn’t trust circumstances to be a reliable interpreter of God’s faithfulness in the long term.
·         He knew that even the worst trials and temptations could be used for our good and these promises of God gave him hope.
·         Luther later wrote, "If I live longer, I would like to write a book about… [assaults upon the soul], for without them no man can understand Scripture, faith, the fear or the love of God. He does not know the meaning of hope who was never subject to temptations."
·         At times, we too can feel overwhelmed by the evil one and tremble in desperation.
·         Indeed, we are all subject to temptations and as Luther said, our temptations are meant to help us understand the true meaning of hope.
·         You see, we need hope. We need something or someone to rely upon. We were made to need hope, we were made to be reliant creatures, whose hope is outside of ourselves. We need to understand the true meaning of hope.
·         When we become hopeless, it is very dangerous.
·         When we feel like we don’t have hope or when our hope in something or someone seems to be fading, we can tend to search for other things to give us hope.
·         Without hope, we can look for something else to live for and to hope in.
·         People often begin looking for hope in pleasure. That why sometimes people turn to alcohol abuse, drugs, pornography, fornication, or other sexual sins – they are hoping these things will satisfy or provide some kind of hope
·         Sometimes people hope in a career, thinking that if they can climb the corporate ladder or get to a certain level or a certain kind of job or position, then, things will be better.
·         People can hope in relationships with other people. Thinking that if only they had a spouse or sadly, some hope they won’t have a spouse, thinking that then they would be able to make it – then they would be better off.
·         If only I had a better relationship with my friend, my classmate, my roommate, my parents, my sibling, then I could endure, then things would be better.
·         We can even hope at times that if we do something to change our appearance or shape or physical fitness, then we will be able to endure
·         Parents, hope our kids will not only be smart-enough or able-enough to face what the world will challenge them with, but most of all I hope that they will be Christians. But if my hope is in my parenting ability, or a certain methodology or practice, then it is a false hope, an uncertain hope.
·         We all have a tendency to hope in a methodology or practice to sustain us, to keep us, to give us assurance.
·         We can look to others who have gone before us and see that they seem to have been successful with a certain practice and just follow that practice, hoping it will work for us as well.
·         When we find a practice or a remedy for our problems, we can latch onto it and place great hope in whatever practice or remedy we find.
·         Then, we can tend to preach to everyone around us about the superiority of what we’ve found.  But this can subtly shift our hope from Jesus, where it really should rest and when that solution or remedy or methodology fails us and doesn’t live up to our expectations, we can become hopeless.
·         When one is hopeless, one is prone to give up entirely.
·         We really aren’t left without hope though – but we must cling to our hope constantly. And our hope is not in this life or its rewards, nor in our own strength or ability, nor in circumstances. We have hope in God through Jesus Christ His Son.

Main Idea: God’s faithfulness to His promises gives us confidence to hold firmly to our hope.

·         And there are three points that the author makes to show us that we can have confidence to hold firmly to our hope.
·         And the first reason that we are given is that God is faithful to His promises.
·         We can have confidence to hold firmly to our hope because God is faithful to His promises.

1.       God is faithful to His promises (13-15)

¹³For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,
·         The author of Hebrews has been warning the readers and exhorting the readers all along.
·         He has been telling them of Jesus and showing them the superiority of Jesus to any tradition, any religion and any other place of hope.
·         The original readers of Hebrews were beginning to wane in their assurance, they were starting to waver in their belief and as a result, they were tempted to lose hope when trials, suffering or temptation came.
·         They were tempted to turn back to the rituals of the past. They were tempted to go back again to what they felt like was safer and more stable, because it was more acceptable, more mainstream. They were tempted to go back and just fit in and have a safe life.
·         The author has shown how Jesus can be trusted though because He is better than the law.
·         Jesus is better than then prophets of old
·         Jesus is better than any king or earthly ruler.
·         In the first 5 chapters, He has shown us that Jesus is faithful in every way and Jesus can identify with us, He sympathizes with us and He can truly help us, giving us His unlimited grace and mercy in our time of need.
·         But the readers had become dull of hearing; they had begun to lose sight of Jesus. They had failed to study and apply God’s Word and actively guard against unbelief.
·         So the author warned them to not be dull of hearing, which leads to unbelief and then he shows them the extreme danger of unbelief.
·         But he is confident that they won’t stay there, because he knows them, he has seen their fruit and he wants to encourage them to be diligent and active listeners, to constantly fight unbelief and to actively put on hope.
·         Then, in verses 11-12 of chapter 6, the author exhorts them and says,

“And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end,  ¹² so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

·         What he is saying is that they need to earnestly pursue the full assurance of hope until the end.

·         This is how we know if we are really in Him – we will persevere. Persevering in the full assurance of hope is evidence that we have not fallen away.
·         But we must earnestly desire and earnestly pursue the full assurance of hope, not being sluggish but imitating those who through faith and patience inherited the promises of God
·         Then, in our text this morning, he reminds us of the example of Abraham and explains why it was that Abraham could hope in God’s promises and he gives the readers two reasons why they too can follow Abraham’s example and be imitators of Abraham’s hope.
·         Abraham hoped in God’s character and God’s oath and God was faithful to His promises.
·         So what were God’s promises? Look at verse 14, it tells us God said,
¹⁴ …"Surely I will bless you and multiply you."
·         God promised that He would surely bless and multiply Him
·         Now, the first hearers of this letter would have known that God was faithful
·         God first made the promise to bless Abraham and multiply him when he was 75 years old
·         Although Abraham didn’t see God’s blessings right away and God’s promise to multiply him through many offspring didn’t begin to be carried out until 25 years later.
·         But the words that are quoted in verse 14 are from Genesis 22, where the Lord speaks to Abraham just after God had commanded him to kill his only son.
·         You see, God swore by Himself after Abraham was tested, so that Abraham would be doubly certain that God’s promises would come true and God said in Genesis 22:16

Genesis 22:16-17  "By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,  ¹⁷ I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,

·         These Hebrew readers would have known that God indeed had blessed Abraham and his descendants, through dark time, through perilous times and over the long haul.
·         Abraham’s faith was severely tested but God was faithful to His promises and gave him back Isaac and through Isaac, Abraham would be multiplied.
·         Any Hebrew, any first recipient of this letter, would have known that God did multiply the descendants of Abraham and Abraham was blessed not only in his lifetime but through all of his descendants from Isaac onward.
·         The people of Abraham had been blessed with the promises and covenant of God. They were the recipients of God’s word, His prophecies and they were enabled to come to Him.
·         Now, through Jesus Christ, as a man, he was a descendant of Abraham and through Jesus, all the nations are blessed. In Jesus, all of the promises of God are realized.

¹⁵ And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

·         Abraham didn’t see the promises right away. He had to wait patiently and he had to endure severe testing of his faith – but God was faithful to His promises.
·         We have to wait patiently at times don’t we?
·         God has promised to set us free us from sin completely, to sanctify us, to bless us. He has promised that all things will work together for the good of those who love Him.
·         He has promised to make us into His image, He has promised that he will never allow us to be tempted with more than we can bear, He has promised that we will overcome, He has promised to restore us, to give us a glorified body and to make all things new. And there are many other promises that are ours in Christ – but at times those promises can seem a long time coming and we cant see how they are true.
·         But we are to follow Abraham’s example of patiently waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promises even when we don’t see them.
·         Because we can be sure that like Abraham, we too will obtain the promise.
·         And verse 16 -18 give us the second reason why we can have confidence to hold firmly to our hope
·         We can have confidence to hold firmly to our hope, because God’s promises are guaranteed.

2.       God’s promises are guaranteed (16-18a)

¹⁶ For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.

·         No one swears by himself. Everyone swears by someone or something greater.

·         When I was a kid, we used to swear on our grandmother’s grave. I’m not sure why it was a solemn and sacred oath at the time, but it sure seemed solemn, even though we had no idea what we were saying but it meant we were serious, that we meant business.
·         Today we have contracts and if you’ve ever bought a house, you understand that we write down our oaths on paper now.
·         We promise and pledge using our name. We sign on the dotted line and when we bought our house, we signed a document about a hundred pages long in what seemed like 50 places.
·         We are agreeing to take the penalty of the law on ourselves if we don’t keep our oath too.
·         Back when the Hebrews would have received this letter though, they would have been very accustomed to the practice of swearing solemn oaths verbally.
·         We still have remnants of this idea in our society as well.
·         When you go before the judge, you are asked, “Do you solemnly swear that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”
·         And by answering yes, you mean are affirming that you are swearing by God’s name and by implication you are willing to incur His wrath and punishment for lying. You are calling God as your witness and the guarantor of your oath.
·         The highest public office that a person can hold in this country is the Office of the president and nearly every President has always ended his oath of office with the phrase, “so help me God”.
·         They are swearing by someone greater and when they many this oath, it is final for their confirmation into office.
·         So, God having no one higher to swear by swore by Himself when He swore to Abraham, effectively saying “so help Me, Me”.
·         And God’s oath using His own name was and is final. He is holding Himself accountable; he is promising by all of His divine Might, Power, Knowledge and Character. He is swearing that according to all of His divine attributes, He will do what He said.
·         God’s oath is final and reliable because He calls on Himself to make it final.

¹⁷ So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,

·         But we have not only God’s oath, we have all of God’s character that is being sworn by. His oath calls His unchangeable character as the confirmation of His purposes and promises.

¹⁸ so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

·         And because of God’s character and all that His name means, as well as His final oath based on His name, we have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
·         We do not have a weak encouragement; we have strong encouragement to hold fast to the sure hope that is set before us, because there is no way that God either will or can go back on His promises.
·         When God says that all who come to Him will be saved, He means it and we don’t have to wonder if this applies to us.
·         Maybe you don’t feel like you even know how to believe enough – here is the good news, you don’t have to be sure of your feelings, you can hope in God despite your feelings.
·         Maybe persecution or people making fun of you tempt you to wonder if God has forgotten about you – but God’s all-knowing, eternal nature and His unfailing love should convince you that you have a sure hope set before you.
·         You may not feel strong enough to fight temptation or sin and you may feel like it is too much for you, but you can be sure that He will never give you more than you are able to bear.
·         We need to flee to God for refuge. We must flee to Him for refuge from His own wrath
·         We must flee to Him from the devil and all of his temptations.
·         We must flee to Him for refuge in the trials and storms of life.
·         Because sometimes the storms of life seem even bigger to us than the most recent super storm Sandy that pummeled the Northeast last week.
·         But we can flee to Him for refuge.
·         No one is bigger than God. No one is stronger than God. No one is wiser than God; No one is more loving than God. No one is more able. No one has more grace and mercy. No one is more reliable and faithful. No one is more trustworthy.
·         Where do you flee for refuge when things get tough?
·         Where do you run to take cover?
·         The Great East Japan Earthquake hit the Tohoku area on March 11, 2011.
·         The Quake was followed by tsunamis that devastated many cities in the area, created large aftershocks, and triggered the emission of radiation from the nuclear power plant in Fukushima.
·         Many took refuge on higher ground, but most were not safe from the effects of the 55 foot high wave that slammed against the Tohoku region.
·         15,811 people were killed by the Quake and its aftermath,
·         I remember when I first saw this picture of 9 people who were saved, as they clung to the radio mast and railing on the rooftop of a building. The people beneath them had been swept away but they survived as they held fast to the mast and railing.
·         Often, storms in life come unexpectedly don’t they?
·         The residents of Tohoku didn’t expect the tsunami and those that did, didn’t expect the massive wall of water to be so high.
·         Only those who clung to a safe place of refuge were safe.
·         Sometimes, it can feel like we’ve been slammed with a massive wall of water in life. It can feel like there is no hope, it can feel like we are going to be swept away and drown
·         But we can run to God for refuge. God is no flimsy mast or railing either.
·         And the Good news is that God promises to keep us, even if we die and not only would He never want to break His promises to us, He cannot ever break His promises.
·         You see, scripture tells us that it is impossible for God to lie.
·         He has sworn to all who flee to Him for refuge that He will save them. He has sworn that He will never pour out His wrath on His refugees. He will never let temptations be more than we can bear, although it feels like it, as the waters of life rush all around us.

·         Not only is God’s character unchangeable – meaning that He is the same yesterday, today and forever, He isn’t trying to trick us either.

·         God doesn’t say one thing and do another
·         He doesn’t call us and tell us that we can flee to Him for refuge only to trap us.
·         He promises steadfast love to us, and even though we may not understand circumstances – and we may indeed endure some horrendous trials on this world that is fallen, full of people who are fallen.
·         God promises are steadfast and immovable, even though we may experience the sometimes brutal effects of sin and the curses of the fall.
·         Look at the second half of verse 18, it says,

“we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.”

·         In the face of the deepest waters of life, we have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

¹⁹ We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,

·         Here is the final point the author is making to show us why us we can have confidence to hold firmly to our hope.

·         You see, God gave His own Son as the guarantee of all His promises. He gave His own Son as the fulfillment of all of His promises. He gave His Son, so that we might have an immovable hope that is not based in us or our own faithfulness but in the steadfast, perfect faithfulness of Jesus. Our hope is not in our own righteousness but in the fact that all of Jesus’ perfect obedience has been given to us and all of our sins and failures and weaknesses were counted against Jesus and He was punished fully for us.
·         He was the ultimately pure sacrifice and He took the ultimate penalty for our sins and He stands forever anchoring us in God
·         And the third thing that author is saying is that

3.       We can trust our anchor to keep us (18b-20)

·         Hope penetrates behind the curtain that once separated us from God’s presence
·         And we can in hope enter into where Jesus has already gone – into the heavenly sanctuary of God
·         Jesus went into the heavenly sanctuary on our behalf and He has opened up the curtain for us now to follow after Him. He has secured the cleansing from our sins and He represents us before God, enabling us to come into God’s bountiful presence.
·         This is a sure hope that we can trust isn’t it?
·         And don’t we need a sure and steadfast hope?
·         You see, no one is ultimately reliable in and of themselves and even if we tried to rely on someone or something, it would eventually fail by growing old and dying or wearing out.
·         We can hope in the reliability of a new car and enjoy it for a time, but after 20 years, and a million miles it is highly unlikely that the car will be as reliable as it once was.
·         My grandmother was a very strong and proud German woman. She was born in wartime Germany before the end of World War One, which was one of the most brutal wars of modern times. She later immigrated to the US only to live through the great depression and then she continued to go on through some of the most tumultuous times in modern history. She survived an abusive, alcoholic husband and the death of her young son and her oldest adult daughter. But in the end, she succumbed to a virus and wasted away because she couldn’t eat.
·         She was a kind and generous woman but she never seemed particularly happy.
·         Towards the end of her life though, before she died, while her body was wasting away, she found a lasting hope.
·         The last words my grandmother spoke to me were not words of stubborn resolve or words of fear for her impending death. She wasn’t even sad.
·         In fact, my grandmother was happier than I had ever seen her and her last words, and she spoke her last words to me with the biggest smile I had ever seen on her face and a sparkle in her eyes that I had never seen. And she just said simply, “I’ll see you in heaven”
·         You see, she didn’t have a false hope. She had finally found a real hope. A hope that brought her the first real joy she had ever known and she was unshaken by the last and biggest storm she would ever face
·         She had finally clung to an anchor that would not give way. She truly had found an anchor for her soul in Jesus
·         We need assurance that we can draw near to the throne of grace.
·         We need to sure that we will not receive wrath in God’s holy presence but that we will receive the mercy and grace in our time of need that the end of Hebrews 4 told us about.
·         You see, the biggest doubts we can have are not always the ones that come because of trials and storms of suffering and even persecution.
·         The biggest storms and troubles we will face are the temptations to doubt our faith.
·         We are tempted at times to doubt our forgiveness. We are tempted to doubt that God’s wrath will never fall upon us. We are tempted to doubt that we will make it.
·         We feel unworthy. We can feel as if we will never escape our sins. We feel naked and ashamed at times.
·         We are aware of our weaknesses and our continual failings. It can seem at times as if the whole ocean is pouring over us.
·         But our text tells us that we have an anchor for our souls
·         Now, an anchor is something that holds a vessel secure.
·         An anchor keeps a boat from drifting when the seas are rough.
·         I remember the first time I saw an aircraft carrier up close when we were visiting in the Norfolk, Va area.
·         It was 24 stories tall and its flight deck was over 4.5 acres. It was a massive ship.
·         And when this massive ship goes to sea, it is built to withstand the worst storms at sea. And in order to keep the ship stable in a storm, they can deploy two massive anchors – one at the bow and one at the stern.
·         Each anchor weighs 60,000 pounds. Each link of anchor chain weighs 365 pounds. Each anchor and chain weighs a total of 735,000 pounds and is over 1,000 feet long.
·         It takes a big anchor to secure a big ship like an aircraft carrier
·         The anchors are reliable
·         But we have an even more strong and reliable anchor. We have Jesus Christ.
·         So how do we apply this? How do we put it to work? How do we deploy the anchor we have?
·         We must remember that as Disciples of Jesus Christ, our identity is found in Christ alone.
·         And to grow as Disciples of Christ, we must constantly apply what God says to our lives.
·         We need to be on guard, whenever we are tempted to put our hope in ourselves or in someone or something else.
·         Sometimes hoping in ourselves, or someone or something else other than Jesus can be seen in self-sufficiency and prayerlessness.
·         It can be seen when we get angry quickly when we don’t get our way.
·         It can be seen when we are deeply discouraged when we get bad news or when people don’t accept us.
·         When other people don’t understand you or misrepresent you or even slander you, where is your hope? Is it in vindication, in revenge, in being understood? Or is it resting in knowing that Jesus was misunderstood and misrepresented and He can help you. He can give you the strength to endure, to forgive, to seek reconciliation and then to be content even if it doesn’t come, because your hope is resting in the Almighty.
·         When relationships are going badly or not going anywhere at all and you become depressed, it is a sign that you are hoping in someone other than Jesus – maybe yourself or another person
·         When you find that you are getting angry when your kids don’t respond the way you want when you want, you may be hoping in something else
·         When you become stressed out when you hit a financial difficulty, you might be putting your hope in something or someone other than Jesus.
·         When you sin again and you feel condemned, it can reveal that your hope is in your own ability and because you aren’t able, you can lose sight of the fact that Jesus has done what you could never do and condemned your sins by taking them on Himself.
·         In times when our hope is challenged, we must actively work to think about who Jesus is when we are tempted to doubt.
·         And the author of Hebrews tells us just who Jesus is.
·         The author tells us that Jesus created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of His nature and He upholds the universe by the word of His power
·         And this Jesus Christ has made complete purification for the sins of all who place their trust in Him.
·         He is the One whom angels worship and laid the foundations of the earth in the beginning – the heavens are the work of His hands. He is eternal and will roll up the heavens like packing up a robe and change them like a garment
·         He is eternal and He has no end. All of His enemies will be made a footstool for His feet.
·         He is the one who was attested to us with signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit
·         Everything has been subjected to Him.
·         Even the world to come has been subjected to Him
·         And Jesus is eternally faithful and He sympathizes with our weaknesses and He is merciful to us

²⁰ where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. 

·         But not only that, He is our great High Priest, who has gone into the true Holy of Holies – the presence of God, bearing His own wounds, showing His ultimate sacrifice to the Father on our behalf eternally.
·         He stands behind the veil which once separated us from God and He forever bears nail-scarred hands and feet and a spear-scarred side, demonstrating His eternally sufficient sacrifice on our behalf.
·         Now, He provides access for us into God’s presence as a forerunner.
·         And the word for forerunner tells us that He has gone before us and made a way for us. He has cleared all of the obstacles out of the way, He has removed our sins, and he has taken away God’s wrath, so that we too can follow after Him into God’s presence.

·         And we are held securely by Jesus as our immovable anchor forever.

·         We can have hope to not become dull of hearing and hope that we will persevere, anchored by our hope in Christ
·         Isn’t this strong encouragement indeed for us to hold fast to the hope set before us?
·         Don’t you want to tell others about our great reason for hope and go and make disciples of Jesus Christ?

·         God’s faithfulness to His promises gives us confidence to hold firmly to our hope in all of life, no matter what we face and no matter what we do.

Potential Application Questions:
1.       How can you diagnose when your hope is somewhere else? What are the early warning signs? (Anger, discouragement, bitterness, resentment, etc.)
2.       Where are we tempted to place our hope in someone or something other than Jesus Christ?
3.       What methodologies or practices do we trust in and why? How would this passage of scripture apply?
4.       Are you familiar with all of the times when God was faithful to His promises in the Bible? List all of the ways you are aware of aloud.
5.       Read Exodus 34:5-7 aloud. How does God describe His own character to Moses in Exodus 34:5-7?
6.       Why is it significant that God swore by His own name? Why should that give us confidence?
7.       How do we flee to God for refuge?
8.       When you think of our hope being anchored in God’s presence, behind the curtain, how does it affect your hope?