KASUMIGAOKA
2018/01/21
SERMON: “The Word of God and Our Faith”「神のみことばと我らの信仰」
TEXT: Hebrews 4:12-16
I. INTRODUCTION
Today we return to our study of the letter to the Hebrews. When we last studied Hebrews, we read about Israel’s failure to enter into God’s promised “rest.” Hebrews 3:19 says, “So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.” The writer of Hebrews tells us that long ago the ancestors of the Jews had heard the “good news” of God’s salvation, just as his own generation had heard it. But their ancestors had hardened their hearts and would not believe God’s Word. Therefore, that generation of Israelites died in the wilderness, without enjoying the blessings that God had promised. Hebrews 4:2 says, “For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.” Today, God continues to offer “rest” to people who will trust and obey His Word. Hebrews urges us in 4:11, “Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.”(NIV) As we continue reading through Hebrews, it is clear that the “rest” God offers us today is His promise of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.
In our passage today, Hebrews emphasizes two things: the importance of obeying the Word of God, that is, the Bible, and the necessity of trusting Jesus Christ in order to receive all the blessings of salvation. Verses 12-13 explain the unique power and authority of God’s Word. And verses 14-16 explain why we must never fall away from our faith in Jesus Christ, our great “high priest.” Christianity is concerned with both “truth” and a “Person.” It is really impossible to separate one from the other. If we believe the Bible as God’s Word, we will accept it as true, and we will obey its teaching. And as we learn what the Bible teaches, we will come to know and love Jesus Christ, and to depend upon Him alone for our salvation. Well then, what does our passage tell us about God’s Word, and how does it introduce our Savior, Jesus Christ?
II. GOD’S LIVING WORD
The writer of Hebrews would certainly agree with what Jesus said about the Bible. In John 17 Jesus prayed to His heavenly Father for His disciples. He said, “They were Yours; You gave them to Me and they have obeyed Your Word. . . . For I gave them the words You gave Me, and they accepted them.” (v. 6b, 8) And in v. 17, Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your Word is truth.” The words of Jesus were the true Word of God to His people. But Jesus also accepted all of the Scriptures as God’s infallible Word. For that reason, He said in John 10:35, “Scripture cannot be broken.” And when Jesus had risen from the dead, He scolded two of His disciples, saying, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” “And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:25, 27) The Scriptures must be fulfilled, because they are God’s infallible word to us. Disciples of Jesus must accept the Scriptures and trust what they teach. The resurrected Lord Jesus explained to His astonished disciples in Luke 24:44-45, “‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.’ Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” The very first thing Jesus did after He rose from the dead was to teach His disciples to respect and believe “everything that is written” in the Scriptures, God’s infallible Word! That shows how important it is for us to trust what the Bible teaches.
Hebrews also teaches that the Bible is God’s infallible Word. The opening verses of Hebrews describe the contents of the Scriptures: “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son.” (Heb. 1:1-2a) The Jews all knew what God had “spoken” to their ancestors, because those words were written in the Bible. The words God had recently spoken through His Son Jesus Christ were already being recorded and collected in the four Gospels, the Acts of the apostles, and the other letters and writings of Christ’s appointed apostles. So the opening words of this letter are really describing God’s word that is recorded in the Bible!
Like all books, the Bible was written by the hands of men and reflects the experiences and the thinking of the writers. But Hebrews tells us that the Bible is different from every other book written by men. Other books can be minutely analyzed by literary scholars who want to learn about the authors and their society during the period in which they wrote. Many books less widely known than the Bible are the objects of such scholarly study. The books are sometimes “dissected” into little pieces and rearranged according to the literary theory of the scholars who are studying the composition. Many scholars who adopted the critical literary presuppositions of the 18th and 19th centuries tried to “cut apart” the Bible and re-arrange the pieces. Some pieces of biblical teaching they liked; other pieces they hated and discarded. But none of their attempts to explain the existence of our Bible was successful. The Bible has been extremely resistant to such attempts to study it by “dissection,” that is, as a scientist might study a biological specimen. Hebrews tells us why those attempts have failed. It is because the Bible is no ordinary human composition. The Bible will not submit to men’s efforts to study it by dissection! According to Hebrews, the Bible is not the “passive” object of man’s study; rather, it is the “living and active” word of God. It is “the word of God” that produces change in anyone who will read it with an open, receptive mind. Without a willingness to listen to and believe its message, no one can rightly understand the Bible. When we read the Bible seeking understanding, it will challenge us, summon us, convict us of sin, and guide us to a true knowledge of God and of man. “For the word of God is alive and active!”
How does the Bible accomplish this work? Hebrews tells us that the word of God is “sharper than any two-edged sword.” The Bible accurately depicts both God’s character and man’s true condition. The words of the Scripture can “penetrate” deeply into a person’s conscience and reveal to him his own thoughts and motives. “It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” So, as we read the Bible as God’s word, we are confronted with both the physical and the spiritual realities of life. We can see ourselves in the characters recorded in the Scriptures. And we can see how God judges people who have motives and values like our own. The word of God is sharp and penetrates deeply into man’s soul. That is why, when Peter preached God’s word to an assembly of Jews in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, “they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’” (Acts 2:37) Of those who heard the preaching of God’s word that day 3,000 were converted and put their faith in the Savior Jesus Christ. But not everyone who hears the word of God will be saved by the power of that word. When Paul and Barnabas preached the gospel in a synagogue in Antioch in Pisidia, many of the Jews opposed their message. So, “Paul and Barnabas spoke out loudly and said, ‘It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.”. . . “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.’” (Acts 13:46, 48) When God’s word is proclaimed, the sharp sword of the Spirit of God often causes a division between people. Those who hear and believe are brought into the safety of Christ’s eternal kingdom; but those who harden their hearts and reject the word are shut out of the kingdom of God and lose the hope of eternal life.
But one thing is sure: God, who sees the heart of every person, does not make any mistakes. “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.” When God’s word is preached, everyone whom God chooses to save will be saved. It is the “living and active word of God” that calls to us and causes us to be born again. Peter wrote to Christians scattered through the towns of Asia Minor, “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. . . . And this is the word that was preached to you.” (1 Peter 1:23, 25b) God’s word has an amazing transformative power! It accomplishes exactly what God intends it to accomplish. God’s word will show us the true condition of our heart and break through our stubborn pride. It lays bare the corruption of man’s soul, and shows us how much we need God’s mercy and forgiveness. To the prophet Jeremiah, God said, “Is not My word like fire?” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?” (Jer. 23:29) Likewise, the Lord said to Isaiah, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth, and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth. It shall not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” (Isa. 55:10-11) It is no ordinary word which does this! It is the living and active word of God!
If we will listen to the Bible’s teaching, and receive it as “the word of God”—and not just the partial and imperfect words of men—it will challenge us, change us, and it will give us hope.
III. JESUS CHRIST OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST (vv. 14-16)
The word of God will pierce your heart and shatter your pride. But when it has accomplished this, it will also lead you to the glorious hope of the gospel. That hope is rooted in the Person of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. He is “a great high priest” who is able to lead us safely into the presence of Almighty God, the holy one of Israel. The purpose of a priest is to undertake the supremely “risky” work of seeking reconciliation between man and his Creator. A priest is fundamentally a “mediator.” Hebrews will have much to say about the role of the priest in the next few chapters. But here at the close of chapter 4, we are told simply that we have such a high priest, who has come to help us. Jesus the Son of God has come before the throne of God on our behalf. He understands us thoroughly and knows how we have offended God by our disobedience. Yet He also knows the power of temptation and He is able to “empathize with our weakness.” But unlike us, Jesus has withstood every temptation and has never been defeated by the power of evil. He “has been tempted in every way, just as we are”—in fact, more severely than we have ever been tempted! Yet He has never, ever sinned against His Father. This is the “great high priest” who has volunteered to seek mercy for us before the throne of His heavenly Father. Next week we will consider why Christ’s efforts as a priest on our behalf are successful. Today we will only take note that this great high priest is our only hope for escaping the dreadful consequences of our sins. Therefore, Hebrews urges, “let us hold firmly to the faith we profess!” (v. 14) It is only our faith in Jesus that offers us any hope of escaping the wrath of our holy Creator God. By faith we commit ourselves into the care of Jesus our high priest. Jesus Himself is our hope. And He has promised to remain with us, to defend us, and to reconcile us to His heavenly Father. What we could never accomplish, He has done for us. Because of Jesus, we have confidence to approach God’s throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
IV. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, let us remember that our faith in Jesus Christ is the reason why we have confidence to appear before the throne of God. Jesus has gone before us into the presence of His Father. “After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb. 1:3). He was welcomed by His Father because He had done everything that His Father required. He committed no sin, despite all the temptations that He endured as a man living among men in this fallen world. He completed the work of redeeming His people, so our faith and our hope are in Him alone. Our Christian faith is faith in Jesus—the Person—and not in a system of teaching or doctrine. It is Jesus Christ, God’s Son and our Savior, whom we worship and serve.
Yet we also believe the Bible and the system of doctrinal truth that it teaches. Our faith in Jesus is the reason why we trust the Bible. We believe the good news declared in the Scriptures because Jesus Himself trusted the Scriptures. Jesus taught His disciples to accept the Scriptures as the infallible word of God that “cannot be broken” and that “must be fulfilled.” Because Jesus trusted the Scriptures, so do we. And this includes all of the Bible, not just some parts of it. We must reject the temptation to pass the Scriptures through our critical “grid” before accepting it as God’s inerrant word. It is not only the words of the prophets, or the words spoken by Jesus that we accept as the word of God. It is not only the parts of the Bible that agree with our opinions that are God’s authoritative word. It is “the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments” that are the word of God, given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and endorsed by Jesus God’s Son. Let’s never forget the words of the apostle to the church in Thessalonica: “And we thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe” (1 Thess. 2:13).