This Sunday marks the crescendo of our WatchWeek here at Grace. Hopefully you have been able to spend time this week reflecting on what God has done in 2012, while experiencing His light and revelation for your 2013 year. Many of us are familiar with making resolutions for the New Year, but the writer of Hebrews exhorts us as God’s people to consider Jesus above all else. Hebrews 5:11 goes on to say, “concerning Him we have much to say”. I can’t think of a better way to start the new year than to consider Jesus as a church, and when we think of Jesus we will have much to marvel about!
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Matt Reynolds
January 6, 2013
Consider Jesus
Hebrews 1:1-4; Hebrews 12:1-3
It’s been two years since I’ve preached out here. It’s good to be here with you. I was supposed to come preach this summer and I got pneumonia so I couldn’t. I was recovering from that for a while. Then Buddy was supposed to preach at Midtown before he had his fall, so we’re just trying to work out the kinks.
I really feel so connected here and connected with the leaders and connected with so many people who I even got to see at the last service, that it really speaks to how we do live in this covenant community, and we do have the same heart, the same DNA. God is doing different things but they’re kinds of the same things here, in downtown at Midtown, and out in Monroe. Next week we’re going to be launching a church in Athens. It’s next Sunday night at 7:00 p.m., so I’m going to talk to you a little bit about that later.
It’s just amazing what God has been doing, and I just wanted to start off by reading from Hebrews. If you’ll turn to Hebrews, chapter 1. I can’t think of a better passage to open our time. This is the first time we’ve gathered for this new year, so I really believe God has multiple messages for us. He wants to speak some stuff to us individually, but he also wants to rally us as a tribe, as a congregation, around the person of Jesus. I’m going to read the first four verses in Hebrews, chapter 1. I’m going to read it out of the NIV. Your translation might be a little bit different, but I think this flows the best.
It says, “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, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.” (Hebrews 1:1-4)
This is such an awesome passage to me, that this is how this amazing book of Hebrews opens up, that God has spoken all through history, at many times, in many ways, through many different kinds of people, through many different kinds of mediums. He spoke through a donkey. He spoke through men and women, through dreams, visions, through prophecies, through stories. This is who our God is.
But in these last days he has spoken to us through his Son who is the exact representation of his nature. Jesus is the face of God. He shows us what God is really like. Even this morning I’m just going to be sharing with you some of what has been coming out of Hebrews. We’re going to study through this in the spring. More than even teach, I just want to preach, if that’s okay. Is that all right for everybody in the house?
I mean, I’m going to say some stuff, and you can clap. You can say amen. Buddy is a big verbal “amen” guy. I notice that when I sit around him in services. I’m not a big verbal “amen” guy. I say it in my heart and I mean it. So you don’t have to do anything that’s out of the ordinary for you, but I just want you to be able to get into it a little bit this morning.
Here’s what Hebrews continues to say. In the NASB there are two times where it says, “Consider Jesus.” It starts off saying, “God has spoken in many ways, at many times, but he has spoken through his Son, and that’s the most important thing. What does Jesus tell us about God?” Then the writer says, “Consider Jesus,” and it calls him the Apostle and High Priest of our faith, of our confession. It says, “Consider Jesus who scorned the shame of the cross and for the joy set before him sacrificed himself for our sakes.” It was for the joy he did it.
So let’s consider him, consider Jesus. I want to show you one passage that just stuck out to me as I’ve been reading this and trying to consider Jesus. If you turn to Hebrews 5:11, this even gives us a clue as to who this book was written to. We need to find out how we find ourselves in this letter that tells us to consider Jesus. I think this is, again, a perfect thing to consider at the beginning of this 2013 year.
Hebrews 5:11 says, “Concerning Jesus we have much to say.” The book of Hebrews, if you read through it, is pretty long, and it’s very complex and meaty, but at the end of it the writer (we don’t fully know who it is) says, “I have only written to you briefly about these things.” I would encourage you to just listen to the Bible. Listen to the whole book of Hebrews. A lot of the Bible apps now will do that.
There’s an audiobook called The Bible Experience. When I first came on staff at Grace they gave me an iPod, and it had the whole Bible in audiobook form. It’s all these African American actors, these famous black actors, who read it with passion. Samuel L. Jackson for the voice of God, so you kind of have to get over that. Then you get kind of used to it. You’re like, “There he is.” A guy is Jesus. Moses has his own guy. Laurence Fishburne is in there somewhere. Morpheus, so that’s great.
I’ve been listening through it, and this passage just so sticks out to me. “Concerning him we have much to say” That’s what I want to talk about this morning. What does the writer of Hebrews say about Jesus? Because at the end of it he says, “I’ve only talked briefly about it.” He goes on to say, “But it is hard to explain it to you because you’ve become dull of hearing.” I wonder for us this morning…
This book was written to believers. This was written to people who knew Jesus. They were Jewish believers, but they had become dull of hearing. He says, “I want to talk to you about Jesus. I want to consider Jesus with you, but you can’t really hear because your ears are dull.” I think about Watch Week. I think about Passion. It just met this week…50,000 college students. I think about an IHOP gathering in Kansas City where there’s praying and fasting.
Why do people do that? Why do we do that as a church? It’s so we can clean the cobwebs out of our ears. Maybe it’s not that we’re walking in sin, you know, deliberately disobeying God. We’re saying, “I just need to hear better. I’m dull. I want to take some time and pull back. I’ve heard all of these different voices. I want to hear from God afresh. I want to soften my heart. I don’t want to be dull inside.”
I wonder this morning if that’s what we need to do, to say, “Lord, make it fresh for us again.” We don’t want to go back to the elementary things. He lists the elementary things. He says it’s repentance from dead works, it’s about washing, it’s the laying on of hands, it’s the resurrection, and it’s eternal judgment. He talks about the basic things and I think, “Man, we need to learn about those things. How can we go on to eat the meat if we can’t even handle the milk?” Some of us in the room might need to just acknowledge, “I’m still a baby. I am a baby in the Lord.”
I think about my spiritual birth. I got saved about 11 years ago this February. What does an 11-year-old look like? What’s an 11-year-old person, spiritually speaking, supposed to look like? Are we going on to the greater things? Are we becoming mature in the faith? I would just challenge you this morning. Concerning him, do you have much to say? Concerning him, would you be able to say, “How much time do you have, because I can talk for a while?”
Is it just stuff we’ve heard other people say? “Well, Buddy says this. Well, this person in my life I really look up to says Jesus is like this.” Do we personally have much to say concerning Jesus? Could we be like the writer of Hebrews and say, “I’ve only talked briefly about what he has done in my life. I’ve only talked briefly about what I’ve seen him do in my community of faith.” This morning we can even say, “Lord, I want to be like that. I want to be that kind of person. I don’t want to be dull. I want to be sharp with what you’ve been doing in my life.”
I love it. Even in the book of Acts after Jesus is resurrected he spends 40 days, and it tells us in Acts 1:3 he spoke to his disciples, his friends, about the kingdom of God, the things concerning the kingdom for 40 days. Buddy and some of the leaders and I have talked about these verses. We love this verse. We asked the question, “Could we talk about the kingdom of God for 40 minutes?”
Could you talk about the things of the kingdom for 40 days? There’s a depth in the kingdom of God. There is a length and a width. There’s so much he’s doing, not only in our lives but also in the world. Are we aware of it? Do we know what Jesus is up to, and do we have things we can talk about him? This is the joy we have.
Now there are a few things I want to share with you that Hebrews does say about Jesus. If Hebrews tells us concerning Jesus, what does it say? What do we learn? One of the things is it says he’s heavenly. These are three of these big ones I’m going to give you. Jesus is heavenly, Jesus is perfect, and Jesus is better. I’ve been thinking lately about perfect things because we just recently had our first baby, Jude Reynolds.
My wife Margaret and I got married about five years ago. We met at Clemson University. We were on the same Young Life team, and we would drive out to the school to do ministry, and that’s when the love started to grow. More in me at first. I put it out there first, and she was like, “Oh, I just want to be friends.” So I was like, “Okay. Thought this was going to go differently. I thought we’d be dating by the end of this conversation.”
I had to dig in a little bit, win her heart, but we have married, and we have become fruitful and multiplied. I want to show you some pictures. This is Jude. I really want you to see him. I mean, I know everybody loves their kids and their babies, but that’s a good-looking baby. That is almost perfect. We’re afraid to have another kid because we don’t want to mess it up.
Go to the next picture. We just recently got these done. This is Jude and me, and then the last picture is Margaret, Jude, and me. Look at those shoes. Isn’t that awesome? He started to get a tooth, and we’re like, “We have to get the pictures before he gets teeth,” because there’s something about just those gums, you know. A baby and their gums. We thought, “When kids get their teeth, sometimes they start looking kind of weird, so let’s just go ahead and get that picture cemented in our minds.”
We are so proud of our family and Jude, and he is perfect to us. But Jesus is the perfect One, and that’s what we’re going to talk about this morning. He’s also the heavenly One. We’ve just had Christmas. We’ve talked about this at Midtown and meditated on this, that Jesus came down, that Jesus left the glories and the riches of heaven to dwell among us, to walk among us, to show us what God was like, to put the kingdom of God on display.
This was really kind of special for Margaret and me. What did it it look like for Jesus to come down? Her uncle is an astronaut. Tom Marshburn is his name, if there are any NASA nerds in the house. He has gone up to the International Space Station before, and the Wednesday before Christmas he actually went up on Expedition 34, got shot up in a Soyuz rocket from Russia, went up with a Russian and a Canadian, and he’s going to actually be living in the International Space Station for six months. Pretty incredible. I can’t believe I’m kind of in the family of an astronaut.
We watched the docking and all this kind of stuff, and we did some research on it. It takes so much for us to just go up a little bit. What does it cost us to go up? It costs someone’s whole life. I mean, he has trained and sacrificed his body quite literally to serve humanity in this way. If you think about all of the energy, just the fuel that’s needed, the power that’s needed. If you think about the money that’s needed.
Do you know how much the International Space Station costs? It got launched in 1998. I know the figure of how much we’ve spent on it up to this point. Does anybody have any guesses in the house? How much have we spent on the International Space Station? Think “Bs” not “Ms,” though luckily not “Ts.” Any guesses? A hundred billion. That’s right. If you’re from the United States of America and you pay taxes, you’ve paid for half of that, so pat yourself on the back. You sent my uncle (kind of) to the space station.
You think about that. We think it’s worth it. We sacrifice for that. There are all sorts of experiments going on, and we’re expanding and growing and learning about the universe. But have we considered what it cost heaven to send Jesus down? It costs us a lot just to go up about 200 miles in orbit. What did it cost heaven for Jesus to come down? What did it cost the Father to know the destiny of the Son?
What did it cost the Spirit who once brooded over the waters before the creation, brooding over the fact that Jesus would be crucified, that he would suffer at the hands of evil men and women, but on the third day the Spirit would raise him up, God would raise him up from the dead, as Romans declares, conquering sin, conquering death, conquering evil, that he would put his Spirit in us. The same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the Spirit that lives inside of us if you claim the name of Jesus Christ. It was a costly sacrifice. So as we considered Jesus coming down this verse stuck out to us.
At Midtown, just to kind of give you an update, we’ve moved into our new property. We are on the outskirts of, statistically, the worst neighborhood in Atlanta. There are 50 percent abandoned homes. There’s tons of poverty. There’s a lot of crime. There are a lot of drugs. There are a lot of broken and hurting people. Second Corinthians 8:9 says of Jesus that he became poor, made himself poor, so that we could have the chance to become rich in him. He left the glories of heaven to humbly offer us the seat we gave up, the seat we turned over.
So we really read about this and said, “What can we do? How can we be like Jesus? He’s perfect. He’s heavenly. He’s better. If we’re disciples, we need to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We’re in this neighborhood. We don’t just want to have services. How do we actually minister to the people in this community?” So what we did is asked what the needs were. We asked ministries. We asked other churches. “What are some tangible needs?”
The stuff that came back was amazing. It was, “We need clothes. Some people can’t buy Christmas presents. We want to sponsor some families. We need ovens to cook food for the ministries we run.” All of these very practical, tangible needs. So what we did on Christmas Eve is we said, “We want to do an offering just for the neighborhood. We want to be like Jesus. Let’s become poor, in a sense. Let’s sacrifice some of our richness. We live in great riches in this country. Most of us live very good lives. How can we sacrifice that and be like Jesus?”
That night we said, “If you didn’t come planning to give a gift, maybe give a watch. Maybe give something of value that you have. Maybe give your car, you know. Let’s find someone who needs a car. As the Spirit would move you.” My wife Margaret was up front, and Nathan Gallentine, our missions director, was up front. A girl in her 20s came forward and gave my wife an antique diamond ring. (I brought this with me. I thought it was so powerful.)
This is 14 karat gold. I don’t know how much it’s worth. It actually doesn’t really matter. She said, “I collect these, and I have this, and I feel led to give this ring. I want you to give this ring to a couple from this community who wants to get married and wants to do it right but doesn’t have the money to purchase a ring. I want to be able to bless them.”
We’re taking this even just as a promise, as a seed that, “Lord, you’re going to restore families in this community. Lord, you’re going to bless people who can’t even do it themselves.” This is our God. This is what he does. So we want to be his disciples. That’s just one of the small stories of what it has looked like for us to learn how to minister in this community.
Again, as we consider Jesus this morning, what does Hebrews say about him? This whole idea of Jesus being better. I don’t know if you’ve ever read through the book of Hebrews or listened to it with The Bible Experience (again, great investment; please do that). There are about 14 or 15 things that say, “Jesus is better than this. Jesus is better than that. Here’s the better thing Jesus offers.” I’m going to read these off to you.
This is for you personally. This is the offer Jesus makes to all of us. If we’re a part of his kingdom, if we’re under the banner of his name, Jesus says, “This is what I gave up. This is what I came down to proclaim to you.” So Hebrews. This is kind of an overview of the book. It says Jesus is a better revelation of who God is, of what God is really like.
Jesus gives a better expectation of what God has in store for those who love him until the end. Jeremiah says he gives us a hope and a future. He’s always giving us a hope and a future, no matter how badly we screw it up. He gives a better expectation. He entered into a better priesthood. He has become our perfect High Priest who is constantly making intercession for you and for me at the right hand of our God.
That’s what Jesus is doing right now. He’s not worried about it. He’s not anxious about it. He is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, making intercession for you personally, because that’s how much he cares for you. Hebrews says he offers us a better hope in the goodness and in the surety of our place…your place…in God’s kingdom. Do you know this morning that in Jesus you have a seat at the great banqueting table of the Lamb?
You have a seat at the table. It’s not just going to be endless praises. We’re going to be doing tons of that, but Jesus says, “Come have a seat at my table. I’m going to prepare a table in the presence of your enemies. I want you to feast with me. I want you to share in my victory.” That’s what he has done. No one can take that seat at the table away from you. No enemy, no lie, no person, no backstabbing, can take that away from you. He says, “I’ve gone and prepared a place for you, and if I said it, I’m doing it.” You can take that to the bank.
He goes on and says he offers a better covenant. There’s a new order. There’s a more perfect way we can be in relationship to God. We do not live under the Old Testament law. We’re not working to please him. We’re not working to earn his favor. He says, “You live in the new covenant. My law is written on your heart. I put it in your mind. I want you to walk with me in relationship. You don’t have to make constant sacrifices.”
He offers better promises. Think about this. He gave promises to Abraham, to Moses, to Joshua, to all of the fathers and mothers of the faith written about in Hebrews 11. He gave them promises, and he has given us better promises. Think about that for a second. Moses looks at the new covenant and the New Testament people and says, “I’m jealous of you.” Second Corinthians says we have a better opportunity than Moses. We have better promises.
What are the promises God is speaking to you and your family and your community uniquely? You have a responsibility to take hold of those things and say, “God, I didn’t make up this promise; you gave me this promise, but I’m going to put my faith in it. I’m going to take this to the bank and believe you’re good for it.”
Jesus offered himself as a better sacrifice with better blood, a sacrifice made once and for all. Hebrews 5 says Jesus has become the source of eternal salvation. He’s the only One who can claim to be the source of eternal salvation. I don’t care what New Age religions, what Buddha, what other prophets can offer us. Jesus offers the source. “I am the source.” He’s the well of living water. He’s the bread of life.
Jesus offers better possessions. This is important for us. Hebrews says we would not be lovers of money, lovers of our stuff. It’s deceitful; it’s deceptive for us who have much. Jesus says, “I offer you better possessions that are eternal rather than fleeting,” and he gives us an inheritance that he promises to those who are called according to his name.
Jesus gives us a better country. We want to have a legacy. We want to live lives of significance. That’s not bad, but Jesus says, “Don’t trust your country and what you’re building more than what I’m building for you.” He offers a better country. It doesn’t matter who the president is. Jesus is offering a better country.
He offers a better city. He is the architect and builder of an enduring city, not one that’s fleeting. He offers us a greater significance. This is so important for some of us. I find hope in this a lot of times. I want to build something that’s significant, and oftentimes we end up building our own Babels to make our names great. Jesus says, “Don’t trust in that. I’m building a city for you. Trust me for that. Invest in my kingdom.”
He offers a better finish to the race of faith. He says, “All of the people who came before you, the fathers and mothers of faith, are waiting for you to take the baton, for you to do what you can in your generation.” The race isn’t complete. The race is not complete without us, without our involvement in it. He offers a better finish. I love it.
Jesus offers a better word than the words the world or the Enemy has spoken over our lives. A lot of us have believed a lot of lies, curses, deceitful things, things people said on purpose and things people said in passing that actually have a lot of power over our lives. Jesus says, “I want you to listen to me. I want you to consider me, because I speak a better word over your life. I speak a word of blessing.” This is huge. He speaks a word of blessing. He gives us a new name. For those who overcome, he gives us a place to rule and reign with him.
Finally, Jesus offers a better resurrection. Can I get an amen? We will live forever if we’re found in his name. He offers a better resurrection if we die confessing his name with our mouths and believing in our hearts that Jesus Christ is Lord, because we believe God raised him from the dead. He’s the name above every name, in this age and in the age to come. He says, “I will give you a better resurrection.” It doesn’t matter how mistreated you are. It doesn’t matter what kind of persecution you face.
I think this is important for us. We have the world over there we prayed for during Watch Week. There’s more persecution happening to the church now than there ever has been before. We can read the stories of the early Christians, but there’s more persecution happening now. Maybe God is not going to call you to resist to the point of shedding blood, but we need to sympathize with those and say, “There’s a better resurrection.”
“Why didn’t God save me from this? Why did I go through this trial? Why did I go through this suffering? Why am I going through this hardship?” We’re not going to know the answers to all of those questions, but this is where our hope is: “Jesus offers me a better resurrection because he is the resurrection and the life.” Somebody just cheer for Jesus. This is good news! Jesus is better.
Now, I don’t know what’s kind of going on in your life, but I really believe that if we see him clearly it changes everything. All of us can probably attest to a time where we said, “I know these things are true, but why is it so hard? I know these things are true. Why do I keep tripping up?” I want to offer a solution from Hebrews.
If you turn to Hebrews, chapter 12, the writer says, “This is where it gets hard for us. This is what we need to encourage each other in as we meet together. Don’t get isolated. Don’t stop gathering together. Don’t stop encouraging each other.” Hebrews 12 says, “Since we have a great cloud of witnesses…” I think that’s what we’re in the midst of this morning. This is a cloud of witnesses. “…let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1)
What keeps us from actually considering Jesus? What keeps us from learning about him and speaking things concerning him? It is the sin. It’s the idols. It’s the things we look to a little more than him sometimes. Maybe they’re not even bad things in and of themselves, but we have a love for God, and we have a love for our entertainment, our friends, our activities, our passions, and we need to up that love. Jesus has to take the highest spot. That’s where it has to be.
Anything. It could be a little sin that just kind of builds up over time. It makes you bitter. It makes you cold. It makes you unwilling to be openhanded before God. It might be a big thing, an impulsive thing, that you go, “I can’t even believe I did that.” But this is what is going to happen to us that takes our eyes off him. This is what he gives us afterwards.
Hebrews 12:2: “Fix our eyes on Jesus…” This is what we need to do. “…the author and perfecter of the faith.” He’s the one leading us in our faith journey. He’s the shepherd we’re following. We’re not leading ourselves. We’re not making it up for ourselves. Fix your eyes on Jesus, and he will lead you out. It says, “…who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God. Consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:2-3)
Maybe 2012 for some of you guys has been incredibly discouraging. We’ve faced incredible discouragements as a family, things I don’t even feel at liberty to talk about, because they’re that terrible, and they’re that discouraging. Here is our answer. It is so simple. Consider Jesus. Keep your eyes on him. Consider Jesus every time. What are the promises of God you just can’t seem to believe because, “What about this? What about this?”
There are thought patterns a lot of us have that just hold us back. They entangle us. They keep us from moving forward. The writer of Hebrews says, “You know what? It’s really simple. Look to Jesus. Fix your eyes upon him.” Some of us have been entangled by sin or idols. Again, it might not even be a bad thing, but I keep looking at this. The gaze of my soul (as A.W. Tozer would call it) keeps staring at this more than Jesus.
Maybe it’s a good thing. I just think about my investments. I think about how I want my kids to be safe. I think about what our future holds and how I’m responsible for that, and that steals the gaze of my soul more than it looks to Jesus. We need to deal with those things. James says, “Confess your sins one to another and pray for each other so you’d be healed.” We want wholeness to come.
A lot of my job at Midtown has been just walking toward Jesus with our staff. We’ve all been through stuff. We all have baggage. We all have things that, “Man, this keeps entangling me. I can’t get past it.” We need to be vigilant about banding together and saying, “You know what? We’re going to beat this. We’re going to come together, and Jesus is going to be in the middle of this, and he has overcome everything. Jesus is not surprised by this. This is not something he has never faced before. Those are all of the stupid lies that will entangle us, and we need to pursue him.”
I really believe even these groups… I mean, there might be some of you guys who say, “I think I’m supposed to join this group,” and you have no clue there are going to be some people God is going to band you together with, and you’re going to run toward Jesus. You’re going to be freed from those things that have entangled you. This is the will of God. He clearly says, “This is what I have for you.”
There’s a man, Charles Spurgeon, who has been a dear friend of mine. Isn’t it interesting? Sometimes you can read people from history or read characters in the Bible and feel like, “I feel closer to this person than my real friends.” I think it’s a sweet thing God does by his Spirit. Charles Spurgeon has been someone I’ve really just seen Jesus in. When I look at him, when I hear his words, when he says, “Consider Jesus in this way,” when he says, “How much time do you have? I want to talk to you about some things Jesus has done in my life,” it just stirs my heart.
I remember before Margaret and I went down to Midtown and kind of accepted that new responsibility… That was at the beginning of 2009, so the end of 2008 we went to Jordan and spent a month there. This is one of the books I read. There was this part where he started talking about Jesus, and it has always stuck with me. I want to read this to you because, again, my hope this morning is to stir your heart and to say, “Consider Jesus. He’s the greatest. He’s the best. He’s better. He’s the One we want to think about.”
This encourages my heart. I like hearing other people talk about Jesus. Challenge me. Make me think about Jesus in a way I haven’t thought about him before. Make me consider an aspect of his character I’ve never thought was there. This is what Charles Spurgeon says of Jesus. He says, “[If you seek him], you will find him so meek and lowly of heart that you will find rest unto your souls. He is the most magnanimous of captains. There never was his like among the choicest of princes. He is always to be found in the thickest part of the battle. When the wind blows cold he always takes the bleak side of the hill.”
Again, this might be important for some this morning. You feel like you’ve been in a dirty battle. Maybe you’ve been fighting a battle for years and say, “Where is God? He said he would never leave me or forsake me.” This is the truth about Jesus. He always takes the bleak side of the hill. He’s always found in the thickest part of the battle.
“The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on his shoulders. If he bids us carry a burden, he carries it also. If there is anything that is gracious, generous, kind, and tender, yea lavish and superabundant in love, you always find it in him. […] His service is life, peace, joy. Oh, that you would enter on it at once! God help you to enlist under the banner of Jesus [Christ].” I love that. It’s such good news.
Why would Jesus say, “Come to me if you’re weary and heavy-laden. Come to me. Take my yoke upon you. Let me take that yoke you’ve put on yourself. Let me take off that yoke you’ve received from somebody else, some kind of expectation I never called you to meet. Let me take off that yoke the Enemy has given you. Take my yoke upon you, and it will be easy. I will give you rest for your soul” if he actually didn’t mean it?
I think a lot of us live under a lot of burden and stress and say, “This is just my cross to carry. This is just what I’m supposed to be bearing.” That’s not what the Bible says. Jesus says, “Even if you’re in the thickest storm, even if you’re in the worst battle, even if you’re in the most confusing season, I am an anchor for your soul.” Think about that! Think about that reality, that Jesus is the anchor.
I just picture a boat, and you say, “You know what? I’m hedging my bets on Jesus. I’m going all in. I’m not keeping 10 percent of it back and saying, ‘Let’s see what Jesus can do with this and then I’ll give him more.’ I’m going all in.” You drop that anchor, and you basically say, “This ship, my life, is going down before this anchor is coming up. I don’t care what storm comes, this ship will go down before my anchor, my hope, comes up, because Jesus is the best Person I can possibly trust in. Jesus is the best Person I can pray to. Jesus is the only Person I can be totally confident anything I trust to him he’s going to guard it, he’s going to take care of it.”
That has to be the reality of what we do in our souls toward our God. Who is like him? Who is like our Jesus? Who is like him? I mean, if there was someone better, that’s who we’d be talking about. If there was another God who came, that’s who we would be considering, but there’s only One who came. There’s only One who was the face of God. There’s only One who has been the glory of the Father. There’s only One who has gone to the lengths of love just that you would have a place in his kingdom.
Our response is…Will we receive him? Will we fix our eyes on him? Maybe this morning you’ve lived a crazy life and you’ve never come into the kingdom. You’ve never received Jesus. Romans says, “Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart and you’ll be saved.” That happened to me 11 years ago.
I believe there might be some people this morning who need to just say, “You know what? I’m going to hedge my bets on Jesus. I’m going to surrender. I want him to be my Captain, my Prince.” It’s a really important thing that you would go ahead and do it. Today is the day of salvation. Start this year off and say, “I want to give myself to Jesus.”
Maybe, just like the audience of this letter, some of us have just become dull in our hearing. We’ve become dull in our faith and we need to make a resolution, one that’s going to count, and say, “You know what? I’m going to get up and spend time with Jesus. I’m going to intentionally fix my eyes upon him. I’m going to intentionally put the things before him that I’m always worried about, that I’m always trusting in more than him.”
Again, an idol is anything that takes our gaze off of him, something that’s more admirable than him. Maybe you just want to say, “Lord, teach me how awesome you are this year. I don’t want to hear someone else talk about it. That’s great, that’s encouraging, but I want to know for myself that you are who you say you are in this Book.” Maybe you need to just go ahead and write that down and say, “I’m committed to this. I’m going to do this with God’s help.. With the leading of his Spirit, I’m going to see differently this year.” I’d encourage you to do that.
The last thing I want to do is just proclaim to you the greatness of Jesus in even a different way, because Hebrews says he’s better than all of these things. He’s better than everything that came before, everything that was pointing to him. Then Hebrews says he’s better than certain people we really look up to.
Again, I’ve told you I look up to Charles Spurgeon, but Jesus is better than Spurgeon. We look up to celebrities we like, people who write cool songs, and there are certain actors we think are amazing, and certain people have gifts we’re just shocked by. Did anybody see Johnny Football play in that bowl game? Oh my gosh! How does he do it? There are people we look up to and we think are so great.
Hebrews is very specific (this is the exhortation I want to leave with you). It says every person, every hero of the faith, every person you could look up to who has been used by God… Jesus is actually the true and the better. They are the pictures that were really pointing to Jesus. He is the One who takes the top of the cake. He’s the icing. He’s the cornerstone. He is the everything that actually made that person’s life worth living. I just want to read this out to you, because this is what Hebrews says.
Jesus is the true and the better Abel, whose innocent blood was shed, murdered at the hands of his brother. It says in the Bible his blood cried out from the ground, seeking vengeance, seeking some kind of solution, and Jesus’ blood was spilled to speak a better word. Jesus’ blood is so powerful it can speak a better word to even those who have committed murder themselves and forgive them and give them that innocence. That’s what the blood of Jesus does.
Jesus is better than Abraham. Abraham was the father of the faith. Abraham was called the friend of God. What an amazing promise he was given. What an amazing relationship he had. Jesus says, “I am the greater Abraham. I existed before him.” Jesus is better than Moses, the great deliverer of Israel, who led the people of God out of slavery into a land of freedom and gave them a new covenant to walk with God. Moses is the one, it said, who spoke to God as a man speaks to his friend.
Think about the kind of intimacy Moses had with God, and Jesus says, “I am the better Moses. Moses was a servant in my house. I’m the Son of the house. I reside over the house. I speak a better word than Moses.” He’s better than Joshua, the general of the armies of the Lord, the one who sought to give God’s people rest. Jesus says, “I am the true Joshua. I’m the true and the better. I’m the general of the armies of heaven, and I give my people a rest that lasts.”
Jesus is the better David, the man after God’s own heart, whose victory against Goliath became the people’s victory, though they never lifted a stone themselves. Jesus has slaughtered the true Goliath, the true Enemy of our souls. He gives us an overwhelming conquer. He gives us the spoils of victory over death, hell, and sin.
Jesus is the better Solomon. He is the richest and the wisest of kings. The Donald Trump of the ancient days in Solomon can’t compare with the majesty, the power, and the riches of our Jesus, who puts on display in his people before the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places the manifold wisdom of God. That’s what Jesus wants to do in your life as the greaterthan Solomon.
He’s the true and the better Jonah. Jonah spent three days in the belly of the whale to be a picture of Jesus, who would spend three days in the belly of the earth, only to burst forth, resurrect with the power of God and put a new life in you. The same Spirit that raised Christ lives in you. He’s the better Jonah.
Jesus is better than angels. There might be some other beings we’re impressed by, some non-humans who look so glorious that people throughout time have fallen down on their faces to worship. The angels say, “No, we are only servants. We glow and look amazing because we stand in the presence of God.” Jesus is better than angels. He’s the greatest being in the universe. He’s the greatest One who took on flesh, but he’s the greatest being that is out there. Can we give it up for Jesus?
Hebrews says Jesus holds all things together by the power of his Word. At the end of the book it says, “Let’s look to the great High Priest. Let’s look to the great Shepherd of our souls. Let him equip you with everything to do the works he has called you to do.” That’s my prayer over you this morning, that the great Shepherd would equip you with everything he needs to give you that you would advance the kingdom of God in this generation.
This is our time to partner with him. This is our chance to say, “We will overcome the darkness because of what you’ve put in us, Jesus. We will honor you in all we do.” I don’t care if you’re a full-time missionary, if you’re a full-time minister, if you’re part time, or if your job has nothing to do with ministry. Jesus gives us all the same opportunity. Colossians says it’s whatever you do in word or deed. Whatever you do.
You’re sitting up with a baby in the middle of the night because they’re sick. (I’ve been spending a lot of time doing that.) He says, “You think what you’re doing has nothing to do with my kingdom. No, whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as your reward. It is Jesus you are serving.”
It is about Jesus. That is the proclamation. I would encourage you this morning as we respond in worship… We want to take Communion. Not say we’re sorry for anything, just say, “Lord, I’m broken. Lord, I can’t offer you anything, but you offer me everything and I receive that this morning.” We want to take Communion, his body and his blood, and let that restore our lives afresh.
If you’ve never given yourself to Jesus, do it, please. Come talk to me. I’m going to be down here to pray with anybody who wants to. Do it today. Today is the day of salvation. There are all sorts of stuff in the wings that you can go and interact with these kinds of things. We’re going to take a few minutes to respond. We’ll obviously do the offering as we normally do, but let’s just ask the Lord what he wants us to consider about himself this morning.
Lord, we’ve considered you, Jesus. You are awesome. You are fresh. You are amazing to the eyes of our hearts. You open our ears, Lord. You stir our souls. Lord, I pray right now that you would even show us what the things are you want us to know concerning you this morning. Even in this time of worship, Lord, bind us together. Show us new things about yourself we didn’t know, Lord.
We will eternally be learning amazing things about you. We will eternally be praising you for how awesome you are. So Lord, would you make that real to us? Take away the distractions. Lord, as we’re in this great cloud of witnesses, let the sin and the idols that so easily get us… Just remove those things, Lord, in the name of Jesus.
Help us make the right decisions at the beginning of this year, that by the end of this year we can say, “I have much to say concerning Jesus.” Lord, we ask these things in your name. It’s the only name worth praying in. It’s the only name worth trusting in. It’s the name that when we trust in you, you give us a name that’s significant and that’s valuable. We thank you for that. We pray these things in your powerful name, Jesus, amen.