A Greater Leader
Jesus is Greater: An Exposition of Hebrews November 16, 2025 Hebrews 13:7-17 Notes
When it comes to leadership, people today are both skeptical and searching. Many have seen leaders fail, whether in politics, business, or even the church. The result is a growing distrust of authority. Yet, God designed His church to be led, not by celebrities or dictators, but by faithful shepherds under the authority of the greater, unchanging Leader, Jesus Christ.
The Hebrew background believers were tempted to turn back to old covenant forms of religion and to disregard their Christian leaders. Today, believers still face the temptation to resist spiritual authority or follow popular voices instead of faithful shepherds. We need to remember that Christ Himself has appointed leaders for the good of His flock.
In the book of Hebrews 13:7-17, the author exhorted Jewish background Christians, who were tempted to be led away from the gospel of grace, to faithfully follow the spiritual leaders that Jesus, the greater, unchanging leader had set over them.
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Good morning, church. Hey. We're going through the book of Hebrews and we're almost finished. We're in chapter 13. We've only got one more sermon next Sunday and we will have completed our journey through the book of Hebrews.
And I have to admit that I'm a little sentimental about it. I've really enjoyed this series going through verse by verse, the book of Hebrews. In the sermon series we've entitled, “Jesus is Greater.” And we find this theme in the very first chapter, verse four. Hebrews 1:4 (NLT) “This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.”
And so the purpose of the book of Hebrews is to show just that, that he's superior, he's better, he's greater. He's greater than the Old Covenant. He brings the New Covenant. It's called Hebrews because it's written to a Hebrew background, Jewish background group of people who came to Christ who are trying to figure out how to read their Old Testament and how to understand it through the New Covenant. And so the book of Hebrews is really, as I've been saying over the past few weeks, it's like the reader's digest version of the Old Testament, showing us how to read the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament, even better through the lens of Jesus and through the Gospel.
And so this book is about his superiority, that he's greater. And now, as we begin to come to the last part of the book of Hebrews, chapter 13, we have a message today. We've entitled, “A Greater Leader.” “ A Greater Leader.” Because Jesus is our great shepherd, our great leader.
But we live in a day today when people are skeptical of authority, they're skeptical of leadership. They've seen leaders fail in politics, they've seen leaders fail in business and even in the church. And the problem is, leaders, human leaders, are sinners too. And so when we look to them alone, they always fail us. But when we look to Christ, and then we look to those leaders that Christ has appointed over us, recognizing their frailty, but depending not on them, but on Christ, we get a right understanding of what it looks like to follow and obey and submit to the leaders that Christ has put over us in life.
And we're not to be led by dictators, we're certainly not to be led by celebrities, but to be led by God appointed spiritual leaders, shepherds that Christ puts over the church. Now, the Hebrew background believers had to be tempted, you know, to fall back to that which they were accustomed to. They knew the old covenant. They knew the sacrificial system, they knew the kosher laws. And now they're coming to Christ and they have this new freedom, this new grace.
But yet they were tempted to fall back and to give up the liberty that they had received. And so the voices of these apostles speaking to them, some of them apparently were turning away from that and trying to mix it together with their former teaching. And so we see a correction here as we begin to finish up the book of Hebrews, that the Lord is really calling us to listen to those who preach the word of God faithfully and to line up under them as they line up under Christ. And so that's what this final exhortation is about. I believe today that we can faithfully follow spiritual leaders that Christ has appointed for us, not blindly, but humbly.
And as we look at the text today, I think we'll see four ways that we can do so that we can faithfully follow the spiritual leaders Christ has set over us. So let's look at the text. We'll start at verse seven of chapter 13. Hebrews 13:7-17 (ESV) 7 “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.
12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” This is God's word. Amen. We're looking for four ways we can faithfully follow the spiritual leaders Christ has set over us.
1. By remembering the example of our former leaders.
By remembering the example of our former leaders. Look at verse seven. It begins with the word, remember. Remember.
This is in the Greek imperative. In the Greek language of the New Testament, it's a command not to forget, but to remember who your leaders, those who spoke to you, past tense. So these are former leaders. These are leaders in your past that have spoken the word of God to you. Remember them.
Now, for the Hebrew background believers, it probably is referring to the apostles. They're still alive during the time of this writing. So don't forget Peter and Paul and John and Matthew and Luke, and don't forget James and Jude, the ones that are leading you. Don't forget the faithful word of God that they've been preaching to you. Remember them.
But it also, I think, refers to, well, we just had Hebrews, chapter 11, which refers to all those faithful people back in the Old Testament, right? So don't forget them. Remember them. So what's that look like, not forgetting those who have passed the word of God on to you? What does it look like to remember them?
Well, he gives you further instruction in verse seven. He says, “consider.” So that means to think about it carefully. Verse 7, “... Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.” Okay, so they're preaching the word of God.
How is it changing their life? In other words, does their walk line up with their talk? Consider that. Okay, so it's given us really kind of a criteria of the kind of leader that we need to remember and the kind of spiritual leader we want to follow. Does their talk and their walk line up?
Does it match up like that? And anybody can be good for a day, right? Anybody can look good for a day. But over time, have they been faithful? And those are the kind of leaders.
And so to remember them, to call them to mind, to recall them. And then it says, “...and imitate their faith.” to follow them as they follow Jesus. The Greek word there translated imitate is where we get the English word mimic. It's the same word in Greek. And so it's the idea of being faithful
the way you've seen them be faithful. You keep the faith and you follow them. Now I want you to think about who led you to Jesus. Who told you about Jesus? Was it a Sunday school teacher when you were in kindergarten?
Maybe you were at church in fifth grade, something like that? Or was it your mom, or was it your dad? Or maybe your parents weren't churchgoers and it was a neighbor who took you to church; maybe they just told you. Maybe it was when you were a teenager and one of your friends at school started talking to you. Maybe you were already in college.
Hey, my goodness. It might be that you're here today and God's been speaking to you for your whole life, but you've never committed to him. But you could think back about the many times, who are those former leaders? Those leaders who have spoken the word of God to you and they've lived a way of life that was attractive to you, showing that they actually walked out what they taught? Who are those people?
Well, here's what Paul says about imitating him. He says in 1 Corinthians 11:1 (ESV) “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” He was bold about it. He didn't say, as some have said, don't do as I say, not as I do. No, he says, follow me as I follow Christ.
Imitate me as I imitate Christ. He was bold about it because he said, I'm doing my best. I'm pursuing Jesus, so chase after me because I'm chasing Jesus. And that's the kind of person we want to look to. Who are you thinking of right now?
Who are those people that you should call to mind that have been examples to you? I want you to think about it. I've already mentioned Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 11 begins with a man named Abel. He was the second born son of Adam and Eve.
It says this in Hebrews 11:4 (ESV) “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.” And so he does.
The example of Abel, who offered a blood sacrifice that pointed to the fulfillment in Jesus still speaks. We still look to him as a former leader who spoke the word of God and lived it out and became the first martyr for his faith, the first one who was murdered for his faith and for the jealousy of his brother. Paul, when he was talking to Timothy, Timothy was getting, apparently, a little timid. He was young, and Paul left him in charge of this big old church in Ephesus. And so he writes this second letter to Timothy telling him, you know, God's not giving you a spirit of fear, Timothy, but of love and of power and of a sound mind.
Don't get timid. And remember your mom and your grandmother. He says this in 2 Timothy 1:5 (ESV) “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.”
And so he's reminding him. We don't know anything about Timothy's dad. We think his dad was a Greek, was a Gentile, but his mom was a Jewish background Christian, and so was his grandmother. And their names, by the way, sound a little odd in the Bible to me. Lois and Eunice. Sounds like they're from Black Creek or something instead of from a Bible land.
They sound very familiar. Lois and Eunice. Somebody here has probably been named that. But he says, hey, just remember it was your grandmother and your mother that brought you up from your infancy in the Scriptures.
So be faithful to what you've heard. Remember them. Remember your upbringing. Remember, be faithful to that. Now, I was very similar to Timothy.
I don't have a Paul testimony. I wasn't walking down the road and lightning struck me blind. I have always admired people, maybe you have a testimony like that. You were just really going this way and God got ahold of you.
I was brought up in a Christian home. And instead of it being Lois and Eunice, it was Ettie and Wilda, my grandmother and my mother. And they weren't from Black Creek or Israel, they were actually from West Virginia. But they knew the Lord and they talked to me about the Lord. I mean, my mama wouldn't let a day go by that she didn't talk to me about Jesus.
I remember those two women more than my dad. My dad died when I was eight years old. He was a good man. He was a believer, but he was quiet about his faith.
The World War II generation, you know, fought in the Korean War, took us to church. But when it was time to even pray over the meal, he would elbow my mom and she would pray. I never heard him pray. But the year he got cancer and began to decline, he went from a quiet faith to an out loud faith. He saw the finish line, but I didn't get to know him as an adult.
But boy, I saw my mom and my grandmother and they didn't just talk the talk, they walked the walk. And they're in glory now, waiting for me, to see how I'm going to finish this race. And I have not forgotten them. Who do you remember today? I'm not saying that you should idolize them.
I'm not saying that they were perfect. They weren't. But they were following Jesus and that's what they taught me.Who do you think of, who do you consider and how do you want to imitate and follow faithfully on that path they set up for you? And so that's the first way we can faithfully follow.
2. By refusing to follow false teachers.
So we move into a section of warning. In fact, as you look at 7 through 17, I've titled it, “A Greater Leader,” because it begins in seven about leadership and it finishes in 17 about leadership.
But you could almost call this an inclusion, that there's a start and a finish. But in the middle, it's like he summarizes the stuff he's already taught us in Hebrews as the basis for his instruction. But he's moving now to a warning. We'll see it in verse nine.
”Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.” So we have a warning. Remember what you've been taught, and be careful not to be led away from what you've been taught. From the old story, from the true story. For the good news.
Be careful not to be led by some stranger to diverse teaching. Now he sets it up with verse eight, which comes at you unexpectedly because he has given us an instruction about obeying and following and remembering and considering and imitating here, right? And then all of a sudden, he tells us this in verse 8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” He just makes this pronouncement right here, suddenly like that.
And I think it's the basis for what he's teaching us here. That he is unchangeable. His gospel is unchangeable. His truth, his character is immutable. He's the unchanging God.
And so he tells us this because we want something new, don't we? We want something new. I used to run drugstores, and every year Crest Toothpaste would come out with a new minty flavor. Dentist approved new. New.
New. And they wanted you to give them new space on the shelf. Because people love new things. It's still just toothpaste, but we'll buy it if it says new.
I better get some of that. Because we're forgetful people. We have a hard time remembering. And we like new things. Christian,
you can be that way too. You won’t be caught up by some new wind of doctrine just because you like the flavor, because it seems exciting, because you want an experience, because you want a feeling. No, you just need the old gospel truth. Jesus saves.
I need to know that it was by his blood that I was saved, and it was by his atonement. And going back to that, we never outgrow the gospel. We never outgrow that. And so I think that's why verse eight sits there, then followed by the warning about, “Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings.”
Now, here's what I see today in the church. I see that we either listen to legalism, and we try to make tradition our model. And so we decide to make the method holy rather than the message. And so we fall into legalism. And so then the pastor can't dress like I'm dressed right now, right?
Because you have to wear a suit and tie and you have to look a certain way or even a higher church, where you have to have a robe. In other words, I'm not preaching against any of those things. You can wear what God's calling you to wear, but that's an outward thing.
The kind of music we play, the fact that we bought an old movie theater and converted it, I mean, that doesn't seem righteous, does it? No, you're worried about the method.Yeah, we took Hollywood's temple and turned it into God's temple. What's better than that? Right?
We freely will grab methods that we're learning in order to reach more people with the gospel. We're not legalistic about that. And so the church can sometimes fall into the side of ritual and religion. They fall into that over here, which I think was what the Hebrews author here is concerned for the Hebrew background believers, that they would fall back into Judaism.
They'd fall back into worrying about what dietary laws they were following. That's legalism. That's one ditch. You're on the road to life. You can fall into legalism.
Here's the other ditch that I see a lot of churches, a lot of church people, a lot of Christians falling into. And that's the ditch of license. That's the other extreme ditch. Over here is legalism; over here is license.
And that's where you say, I'm going to believe what the culture, not the methods, but the message of the culture. Now, that's far more dangerous, in my opinion. They're both very dangerous. This one's very dangerous. And so I'm going to believe what the culture is saying about marriage.
I'm going to believe what the culture says about gender. I'm going to believe what the culture says about human sexuality. I'm going to believe. Keep on feeling. I'm going to believe what the
culture says about life and about the origin of life and the value of life and the sanctity of life. Do you see where I'm going? So that's about the fuzzy thinking of the culture that the church sometimes embraces and then departs from the good news. I see this and I see the warning here. Do not be led away, Christian, by diverse and strange teachings.
Strange to what? Strange to the gospel of grace. Well, Gary, how do you know he's talking about that? Because of the next sentence, “... for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace,”
And what's grace? It's unmerited favor. It's the gospel. It's that you deserved what Christ took in your place. You were separated from God, you're a sinner, you're headed for death.
And Jesus took all three of those on the cross for you. He took your separation. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He took your separation. He took your sin upon himself and he took your death so that he could offer you what ,his sonship with the Father so that you could be at one with the Father.
His righteousness. He took your sins so you could receive his righteousness. And he took your death so you could receive his eternal life. Glory to God. That's the gospel of grace.
You didn't get what you deserved. You got what Christ deserved and he took what you deserved. There's no other faith like this. And the warning here is don't be sidetracked by either ditch. Stay out of legalism, stay out of license.
Stay on liberty and grace and love with Jesus. Stay on the straight and narrow. So do not be led away. “...be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.” Now, what is he talking about?
He's talking about kosher food laws. He's warning the Jewish background people, what you eat doesn't save you. If you eat pork, you won't die and go to hell. Praise God, that’s good because I really love bacon.
I really love bacon. I mean, I'd give up bacon if the Lord told me to, but that'd be hard.
So it's not foods that are going to give you salvation. Now, there might be some foods you ought to avoid or maybe an amount of them that you should avoid, but it says here, “...not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.” Here's what he's saying to them. Even though you followed those laws and you did all those sacrifices, that wasn't what saved you. That's not what benefited you.
It's what they pointed to; it pointed to Jesus. And if you don't have Jesus, you don't have life. Verse 11. Okay. We're working through it, right?
Are you still with me? Verse 11, “For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.” Now, what's he talking about here? What's he talking about? He's talking about this, that in Leviticus, chapter 16.
Look at this, in Leviticus 16:27 (ESV) “And the bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy Place, shall be carried outside the camp. Their skin and their flesh and their dung shall be burned up with fire.” So here's the instruction from the book of Leviticus. Remember, this is the reader's digest version of the Old Testament.
The Hebrew author is telling them, here's what your stuff meant. Here's what it all meant. So when you had the sin offering and the high priest would put his hand on the bull or on the goat and all of the sins of himself because he was a sinner too, and the sins of the people would be put upon that bull, and then the bull would be offered. Then they would take the blood, the high priest would, and sprinkle it before the mercy seat, right?
But he was not to eat of it. Now, the other offerings the priest could eat of, but he was not to eat of it. But because sin had been ascribed to it, they were to carry that body outside the camp and burn it to ash because it represented the sins of the people. And so that's what he's referring to here. He says,
10 “We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.” And then he talks about how they were burned outside the camp. And so the altar. Now, who's “we?”
That's us believers. We have an altar, not the one that they were talking about, that was inside the tent, which represents the tabernacle, which is only a copy or a shadow of the true one in glory. And basically all of that. So here they are in the Old Testament, they're offering all these animals, which are really like checks written on a future deposit.
They're all placing their faith in some provision of God that will make all of those sacrifices good. They were pointing to it. But left to themselves, if Jesus doesn't come and die, none of this has any value. It’s just worthless. Whereas we, we stand over here on the other side of the crucifixion, past the New Testament, and we look back to what Jesus did.
And so both Old Testament and New Testament saints are believing in the same sacrificial offering of Jesus. We have the same faith. And so he's looking at this now. He's going to draw a comparison. Remember how they used to have to carry the sin offering out and burn it up outside the camp?
Verse 12, “So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.” He even brought meaning to that. That was not an accident.
He wasn't crucified within the walls of the city of Jerusalem. No. He had to drag his own emblem of sacrifice, his own cross, on his shoulder. He had to drag it down the Via Dolorosa and outside the city gates and up Calvary, up the hill called Golgotha, the place of the skull. He had to carry it outside the gate and be crucified there.
He became a sin offering. His blood was presented before the Father in the true sanctuary, in the true mercy seat before the Father, but his body was offered outside the gate. Now we have an altar. But our altar is not the one inside the tent. Our altar is the cross.
Our altar is the empty tomb. Our altar is Jesus.
So Jesus also suffered outside the gate. Let's remember the true teaching of the Gospel. You can't earn it. He already earned it for us. Don't be caught up in cultural strange teachings and bring them whole into the church and somehow lose the good news of the Gospel.
Don't be bogged down by legalism and dress codes and food and dietary ideas. Don’t let either of these ditches keep us from the gospel truth, which is we have liberty and salvation and grace in Jesus. Refuse to follow false teachers. Here's number three:
3. By responding to the sacrifice of our greatest leader.
How do we faithfully follow the spiritual leaders that he's given us? By responding to the sacrifice of our greatest leader. We're at verse 13 through 16 now. And 13 begins with a word that we talk about at church a lot. Right? “Therefore”
and we should always ask when we see the word, “therefore,” “what's it there for?” And it tells us that what was said previously results in what is now to be said. Now, I've taught you some things about Jesus and how he was led outside the gate and crucified on the hill of Gol Golgotha, and how it was emblematic of the sin offering that was taught in the Old Testament. Therefore, now we're going to apply it. Let us go to him outside the camp.
He's outside the camp. He's not in the city. He's outside your camp. He's outside. It's hard to be cool at school talking about Jesus, isn't it?
Young person that's still in school, you're still in college, still in high school, still middle school. It's hard. Start talking about Jesus and you're outside the camp. You understand what I'm saying? You're outside the camp and he doesn't say
that'll happen, you'll be outside. No, he's saying go there. He's actually saying let us go there. Let us just willingly go outside the camp. Let's not worry about being cool at school.
Let's not worry about whether or not we get invited to the after work parties at the workplace. Let's not worry about what our neighbors or the people think about us. Let's just go ahead and willingly say, I'm going outside the camp to be with Jesus and knowingly know this and bear the reproach he endured knowing that people are going to shame you, people are going to make fun of you, people are going to say things about you because they did it to Jesus. Here's what the author of Hebrews is saying to us. Look what he did for you.
Join him out there. Go ahead, go ahead outside the camp and bear the reproach that he bore. Identify yourself with him boldly, openly. I'm on his team. Think what you will about me.
I'm a follower of Jesus and to be bold about it, therefore let us go. Let us identify with Jesus even when it means rejection by the world. I will identify with Jesus because he was sacrificed outside the religious system. He was sacrificed outside the world system. He offers us the grace and the gospel of liberty.
And so I go outside to follow him. What it will mean sometimes is religious people won't like you and worldly people won't like you because you're following Jesus and the law of liberty and love and you're following him and you're not turning back. He keeps going in verse 13, “Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” Remember in chapter 12, when he said that this world's going to get shaken, but we're part of an unshakable kingdom. This city's not going to last, this world's not going to last.
So you might as well go outside the camp because the city's going to be judged. Go on out there because we're looking for something better. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. We're seeking a better city. He talked about this in chapter 11, when he was talking about those people in the faith hall of fame.
He said this in Hebrews 11:16 (ESV) “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” And so we go ahead and go outside the camp because the people inside the camp that stay there are lost. And we're going to go out there because it's good for us, but it's also good for them because now we're preaching the gospel and we're sharing the good news with them.
If we really love them, that's what we'll do. And we go outside the camp to be with Jesus because we're looking for a better country, a better city, a greater city. It reminds me of a hymn that we sang growing up. I could still hear my sweet mother sing it in my head as I'm thinking about it. “I'm bound for that city, God's home, that bright city. Oh yes I am. I'll never turn back to this world anymore. No matter how rough may be the way, no matter how long I stop to pray. I'm bound for that city on God's evergreen shore.” I've sung that a couple of times in Hebrews, but I can't stop because I'm bound for that city.
How about you? I'm looking for a city that's not here. It's a city four square, not built by human hands. But it's that city that Jesus said, “I go there to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may be also.” And so he has gone to prepare a place for us.
And so what's our right response? Well, we should join him outside the camp and we should identify with him. We should seek his place, his city. And then what kind of sacrifices should we offer? We don't offer blood sacrifices anymore as believers.
What's our sacrifice? Verse15, “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” Well, let's look through him then. Let us continually offer up. Now that's sacrificial language. Going to offer up something.
What are we going to offer? “...a sacrifice of praise to our God that is the fruit of our lips.” Oh, so our sacrifice is to talk about him, “...the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” What name?
Jesus. What name? Jesus because he's greater. And that's the name that we're to offer up as an offering of sacrifice, of praise before the world.
And we're to come outside the camp and boldly do it. Not quietly, not trying to be a OO7 Christian and keep it a secret. We don't want anybody to know; we keep it on the “down low.” We don't want anybody to know I’m a believer.
No, we get out loud about it. But Gary, if I do that, you know, people gonna think I'm a fanatic. Good, good. You're enthusiastic about the Lord.
I'm not saying to be too weird.
I don't know what that means.
All my kids. My kids and especially my grandkids say, “Papa, first of all, all of your jokes are kind of lame.”
I know, but I used to be so cool a long, long time ago. I was a legend in my own mind.
But no, that doesn't matter, you know? What matters is are you offering up a sacrifice of praise to Jesus. Are you talking about him everywhere you go? And so that's one of the sacrifices that you can offer. You talk about Jesus and then verse 16 gives you another sacrifice.
And that's to do good and to share what you have. Let you walk in your talk. Line up.
Romans 12:1 (ESV) says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” What does your altar look like? What does your altar look like? Is it Jesus? Is it the cross?
Is that where you bow down and say, that's my altar? I bow down before King Jesus. I identify with him publicly. I willingly bear his reproach because I bear the name. Here's number four.
Here's the fourth way that we can follow the spiritual leaders that Christ sets over us:
4. By respecting the authority of our current leaders.
It's by respecting the authority of our current leaders. We've talked about our former leaders. We've talked about Jesus and his leadership. And now we're at verse 17. We're at our last verse. I told you that it does this. It started with seven, introduces the idea of leadership, and then kind of gives us some background. Then it comes back to the topic of leadership in verse 17,
“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” This is present tense language. It's in the Greek imperative.
Again, obey and submit. Submit means to line up under your leaders. This is the conclusion of this passage, and it's a direct instruction. And we live in an age where we're suspicious of leaders, we have a hard time with authority.
We live in a skeptical and a thought resistant age. It's hard to be a schoolteacher these days because children don't respect authority. Teachers are leaving, they're leaving the teaching profession in droves because they can't manage the children, because the parents think the child is always right. Man, I don't think my mom ever thought I was right.
But that's parents today. They take their child's side. So the police officer,
you know, every time you pull someone over, it's a problem. It's hard to be a flight attendant, to get somebody to sit in their seat and do what they're told at the airport or on the airplane. You can go on and on. I mean, all you have to do is go on one of these social media sites and look at Twitter or X or whatever it's called. Now look at any of these videos that go by and see the crazy rebellion against authority.
But the church is not supposed to look like that. We're supposed to be unified. We're supposed to line up under the leaders that God puts over us. Not blindly, not as a dictator. But if they're following Jesus, we give them the grace to lead.
We support them if they're doing their best to follow Jesus, because none of us are going to be perfect at it, but we give them room to do it. And so he says here to obey your leaders and submit to them. Why? Because they're keeping watch over your souls. They've been called to be shepherds, to watch out for your spiritual maturity and recognize the high and holy calling.
And it's not just me. This is not me trying to build myself up. I'm just preaching the next verse. Right? But if you're a small group shepherd, we call them community groups,
then you're to watch over everyone in your community group. You're to keep an account over them. How are they doing? Did anybody miss this week? I need to check on them.
Is somebody sick? And you watch out for them and you see how they're progressing in their faith. And if one of them is not talking in a small group, this one's talking a lot, but this one never talks, then how can I get this one to talk more, so they're expressing their faith. How can I shepherd?
If you're a mom or a dad, you're a spiritual leader. Hey, when you had that kid, you signed up for spiritual leadership. You think it's, you know, to feed them and clothe them and put a roof over their heads. Yeah, that's your job too. But you know, the most important job you have on planet Earth is to introduce them to Jesus so that they know the One who made us, and they are ready for his future for them. Whenever all of us are called to this leadership, what we learn is that we need to obey the ones that God has put over us.
And there's a season for that. So obey them, do what they tell you as long as they're telling you the word of God, and to submit to them because they're keeping watch. And by the way, they have to give an account. Wow, that's heavy. They have to give an account someday.
I've been at this for 34 years. This month, we started in my living room, in November 1991. Our first public worship service was in January of 1992, and that's the church's anniversary. But we started out as a small group before we formally became a church, in my living room.
We started with seven people, counting me and Robin. Five people showed up. It was a big Sunday.
That's how we started. Someday, if the Lord delays his coming, I'll give an account. And to one he gave five, and to one he gave two and another he gave one. And he wants you to give an account for what he entrusted to you.
I don't know how many are entrusted to you. How many people in your circle of influence has he entrusted to you? Is it your workplace? Is it your friends at school? Is it your neighborhood?
Is it your family? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. That's your circle of influence. Are you going outside the camp and talking about Jesus, offering up the sacrifice of praise so that they know what you're about, so that when the opportunity comes, you can share your faith with them. Because you and I will give an account of those souls that he's put under our circle of influence, our circle of accountability.
Jesus has given us different kinds of leaders. It says in Ephesians 4:11-12 (NIV) 11 “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” We have all kinds of leaders in the church, all kinds of ministers, but Christ gave them all to equip the church to grow up to be like Jesus.
That's our goal, that's our job. And we give an account for that. Verse 17, “Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
Whenever someone comes towards you, maybe it's someone under your circle of influence and you see them coming, does it bring a smile to your face? Or do you go, oh boy, there she comes. She's going to say something that's going to be hard to hear. It's an unusual instruction here, isn't it? Make the people that are over you, your boss at work, your pastor at church, your small group leader, your mom, your dad, whoever, your teacher at school, the police officers that pull you over for speeding.
Make it a joy to lead you and don't grumble about it. That's the instruction. Make it a joy for the ones that God has put over you. Make it a joy for them to be able to lead you and to give you a good word and to watch over you, because it would be of no advantage to you to make them grumble about you. How can we do this?
Well, I think we can pray. Pray for your pastors, pray for your shepherds, pray for your parents, pray for your boss at work. Pray for those that God has put in leadership over you. And pray for obedience and submission and to be a joy to those that God has put over you. Why?
Because we all are under a greater shepherd. Look at what it says in 1 Peter 5:1-4 (NIV) 2 “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.” Amen. Someday I want to hear him say, don't you want to hear him say this? “Well done, good and faithful servant. I entrusted you with a little.
Now I'm going to entrust you with much.”
That's a good word. Remember the example of the spiritual leaders who invest in you. Refuse to follow false teaching, respond to Christ's sacrifice with praise and good works, and respect the authority of those that he's placed over you in this season of your life. Let's pray. Lord, thank you. But thank you most of all for the chief shepherd.
Thank you for Jesus who gave his life for us, that we might have eternal life. I pray for that person that's here today. And you've never surrendered your life to Jesus. You've never said to him, I'm a sinner and I want to be saved and I want to follow you. I want to give you a chance to do that right now.
You can do it through prayer. Just pray along with me. Right in your seat. Maybe you're watching online. You're in the next room, right where you're at right now at this very moment.
Pray like this. Dear Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner, but I believe you died on the cross for my sins, that you paid the payment. I believe that you were raised from the grave on the third day and that you live today. Come and live in me. By your spirit.
Forgive me of my sins. Adopt me into your family. As a child of God, I want to follow you all the days of my life. I give you my life. I make you my king and my Lord.
If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing he'll save you, that's the most important thing that you could do today. And what about you, my dear beloved believer? You're a follower of Jesus, but you would admit today, many of you would admit today, that you have not been going outside the camp. You've been trying to have one foot in the world and one foot in the Lord. Would you go ahead and just start living out loud for Jesus right now?
Would you just say, lord, forgive me, Lord, forgive me for not having your praise on my lips, for not telling my lost friends and family about Jesus. Lord, help me, help me to be more bold in my faith and give me the love for people so I know when to speak and when not to speak. So I know how to speak and how not to speak, Lord, so that I can ably talk about you. Lord, we thank you now for answering these prayers in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Audio
Good morning, everybody. So thankful you're here today. Very thankful to see you this morning. We're going to start with a couple of things. I just want to celebrate with you for just a moment.
Those of you who have been with us for a season of time know we did some incredible things together earlier this year, late last year really where we made a large commitment together to try to see God's hand move in our city and see. And see what God might do through our church. And so we made some commitments as a family earlier in the year. And I just want to celebrate for a moment that we've hit another mark. That's why you've got M and Ms.
In your seat. Not just because we love you, although we do love you, but we wanted you to celebrate with us. And so we've just crossed the 300k line. You can pop up where we're at now. And so give God a hand, everybody.
That the faithfulness of his people. And so y' all help me. Tell me when I hit 300. All right, y' all gotta help me hit my mark.
Am I there?
One singular. One more.
Praise the Lord. Hey, y'. All, this year has been just incredible. We've been able to do a lot of things together this year as a result of this commitment together, one of which some of you may have come as a result of. And that's this year we put a lot more effort into our outreach, especially in the social media realm.
And so some of you I've been interacting with for a while. But a right. Many of you have come because we first talked online before you ever came to church. And so I'm very thankful for that opportunity this year. Also, you're sitting in a place that was a big reason we did this commitment together.
And so we really praise God for what he did. And just a miraculous move of God in getting us in this place. And so this shouldn't have happened. It was totally a God thing. Also, we've brought on a few new people for us very recently.
So in the Wilson campus, you can pop this up. Well, that's interesting. Double up for everybody. I know why that happened. I'm not going to worry about that.
So we actually hired two Michelle mentors. She's a clone. And you'll see we also hired. Bring the next. We hired two Josh's, which is gonna be, I think.
Did we? Yeah. See? Very helpful. Josh, wherever you are, you got a clone.
But up here, we just brought him on a couple weeks ago and he's already really been A big help to us. I pray this morning. Again, I just want to remind you he's new around here. And so if you've been here for a while, go introduce yourself, say hi, and expect him to know your name by next week. All right.
And so I'm very thankful for you, Josh. We're thankful for Michelle. But so much of what God has done this year has been the result of your faithfulness. So thank you so much. Do I have more?
There is that. Oh, well, see, that's my next step. All right. So you'll notice also in your seats, and some of you were here with us next last week and you know that some of you already did this. But I wanted to give an opportunity for another group to take a journey with us.
On December 21st up here, we're going to do a big Christmas service. We're going to do two services for the first time in our church's history, at least at Rocky Mountain. So it's a big step. And what we're praying for is that you'll trust us with your friends and your loved ones and your co workers, that you'll trust that we're going to have a powerful gospel centered service on that day. And what we want to begin to do with you is be praying for people that you're inviting.
So last week, and my staff can tell you, you can talk to Joe or Josh or Michael or my wife and you'll know we actually did this. We took several, we took a good portion of our staff meeting to pray for the 20 some names that y' all put in last week. And it's pretty powerful to get to do that with you, to get to pray for people, some of which we know, we would read the names and go, I know who this is. And we felt a heart for you. And so if you didn't get a chance to do that last week, write somebody down here that you're planning on inviting, maybe a loved one, maybe a co worker, somebody that you're praying for and you're hoping will come to Christmas with you.
Here's the good news. If they're gonna come to church, they're probably gonna come on Christmas. They might just give it a shot. And so write somebody down here that you're gonna invite. And this week our staff will be praying over those names.
And we're thankful for what God's going to do. Big day coming, y'. All. So trust us with your friends. All right, let's get into it.
We're going to be in the book of Hebrews. We're nearing the end. We're almost complete. I'm kind of sad to see it go as we finish it up. It's been such a pleasure to study and to understand and to try to imitate the things that God is doing here.
We're going to be in Hebrews chapter 13:7 through 17. And remember this whole series, which we're finishing up, it's been several years in the making. We've been taking on this area of scripture in Hebrews for the last couple of falls. And the whole series was called Jesus is Greater. It's based on Hebrews chapter one, verse four, where it says, this shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names, is greater than their names.
He has been a greater something. Every week we've talked about his kingdom and a greater sacrifice, a greater. A greater salvation. This week we're going to talk about the idea that he is a greater leader, a greater leader. And this book is really ending this way with a whole lot of instructions which I pray will be helpful to each and every one of you.
These wonderful instructions that point us to Jesus. We have to admit something when we're coming to Jesus, the greater leader. It should give us great encouragement. Because when we look around us, here's what we all know to be true. The leaders around us constantly fail.
The ones that you put in power, the ones that are over you in your workplace. Constantly people in leadership over you are frustrating, will fail, will make mistakes. Sometimes they're doing the very things that you hope they would do, but other times it's a big mess. Whether we're talking politically, we're talking about business, sometimes even in the church. And some of you have experienced hurt there, where leaders have failed you in every single capacity of life.
Sometimes it's parents who were leaders for you when you were young, and they let you down on many levels. Sometimes it's other leaders in your life. The result then becomes a distinct kind of distrust for authority which begins to apply itself some sometimes to Jesus himself. So I want to push past that today with you, that as we dig into this text, that we would see that Christ Jesus is our greater, unchanging, perfect leader. The mistakes that we fear from others, he does not make.
And he leads us always to the place where he desires for us and purposes for us. And so the Hebrew here we're in the Book of Hebrews. In case you're wondering if you've been asking yourself all along, why Is it called Hebrews? Initially, this book was written to Jewish background Christians. These were people who had come out of Judaism and had now given their life to Christ and were doing their best to walk with Him.
But because of their past, they felt a tension that we're going to feel today with them, that sometimes the ways in which they used to be led, some of the ways in which they believed they were to get authority, they actually had to give up. They actually had to put to death, if you will, in order to follow Jesus. This is still true today. Believers are constantly. Today, Jewish background or not, believers are tempted to resist spiritual authority because of something else, some popular voice they're following some other shepherd.
We need to remember something today, and I pray that the text will really preach this well, that Christ Himself has appointed leaders for our good and that we can follow Him. In the book of Hebrews, chapter 13, the author here exhorts Jewish background believers to be led not by their food laws, which is kind of where they're going to spend a little time today, but more based on the gospel of grace. We have a new and better and greater salvation in Christ Jesus, a greater gospel than what they had in the law, and. And that's what he's pointing them to. But they have to continue to follow him so we can faithfully follow our spiritual leaders that Christ has put over us.
As we dig into this text, Hebrews chapter 13, let's read it together. It says in verse seven, Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and don't miss this church. Imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings. For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the camp in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.
Therefore hear this. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come through him. Then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of our lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing To God.
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. This is God's word. Amen. I pray this helps and challenges and encourages you where you need these things.
We can faithfully follow the spiritual leaders that Christ has set over us. We can faithfully follow them first by remembering the example of our former leaders, spiritual leaders, that is remembering the example of our former leaders. This word, this is where it begins for us today. Chapter 13, verse 7. It begins with the word remember.
This is an imperative word. It's a command. He's saying, do this. This isn't, hey, just optional. This is, please do this.
Pay attention to the people who have spoken into your life. He goes on to give some direction as to who these people are. He says, those who specifically spoke the word of God to you. So when you reflect back on your life, I want you to reflect back and remember those people who have poured into your life the word of God, the gospel. Perhaps it's a pastor, but perhaps it's a whole lot of other people.
Maybe it was a parent. For me, it was a parent that was most of my early childhood was being poured into by parents who loved the word of God and who wanted to walk with Jesus. Grandparents for me, and sometimes youth leaders and other ministry leaders that would speak into my life. The Bible here says, remember them. Why?
Why? Why should I put them in my mind? It seems that he's primarily talking of past leaders, perhaps those who have deceased, who have faithfully proclaimed the gospel. I believe this is why in chapter 11, he spends all that time talking about by faith, Abraham, by faith, Noah, by faith, Abel. He tells us about these past spiritual leaders and he says, remember them.
Consider them. And what do I consider? It says, consider their way of life and imitate their faith. Imitate their faith. So, church, just so you know, in case you've been wondering, I'm going to give you the greatest hint when it comes to reading your Bible.
When you're reading about these famous people of old, when you're reading about Moses or Noah or you're reading about Abraham, you're reading about King David, know this. You're not those people, and I'm not either. However, we are called to imitate their faith and the faith in which they showed. Paul says it really plainly. He says, imitate me as I imitate Christ.
So when you see faithful leaders, either scripture in scripture, or those around you when they're walking closely with Jesus. You ought to say to yourself, I want in on that. I want some of that in my life. I see what you're doing. You should take the time and walk up to people that you're observing in this way and go, what is it you're doing that's getting you on track with Jesus like this?
What does your daily walk with Christ look like? What's your prayer life? I would be seeking these things. It's like looking at someone that's in incredibly good shape and thinking, man, I'd kind of like to look like that. No, I promise you, here's what you're going to find out.
Everything they're doing, you're probably not doing. That's probably going to be the case. You know what you're going to find out? This person probably doesn't drink as much soda as you drink. They probably don't eat the same things you eat.
They probably get up and move their bodies a lot more than you move yours. Those are the kinds of things you're going to discover. This is what this verse is implying when you see somebody, man, I like the way that you and your wife get together and spend time in God's word. I like the way that you guys seem to have a godly marriage, a godly family. I like that.
Just know there's a cost. Some things have to be let go. Some things. No more of this goofiness because this won't help me get to where I'm trying to get to. This is the same truth here.
And this is why he's brought up all these faithful leaders of old. And he says, consider their way of life. Get right what they got right. You don't have to make the exact same mistakes again. Guess what?
You can learn, believe it or not, you can learn from the mistakes of others. Did y' all know that you don't have to do them yourself. Now I've had a hard time with that. I'm what you might call a very hard headed person. I've spent much of my life making the same mistakes that I could have learned from many others, even from my parents, even from my friends.
And yet I stepped right into some of those same holes. It says in Hebrews chapter 11, in fact, that we're as we're remembering these faithful leaders. It speaks of some interesting ones, like verse four. It says, by faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous God, commending him by accepting his gifts and through his faith. Though he died, he still speaks.
This is the nature of chapter 11 is that we would consider what they did. He offered a faithful sacrifice and what he did still speaks to us. We still, Even outside of the church, people have heard of Cain and Abel. Isn't that wild? Even outside of biblical things, people have heard of this young man.
Paul reminds Timothy of his own spiritual leaders. He says to Timothy in second Timothy, he says, I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. And now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. Why would Paul take the time to remember these random women in the Bible who we know nothing else of other than the fact that they apparently spoke the word of God to Timothy? This is incredible news for some of you in the room who may feel like I've never been in the limelight.
I don't know, I feel like I struggle in the shadows. Here's the great news. Sometimes you're Lois and Eunice getting to speak quality words into someone who's going to be a faithful minister in the first century church who's going to have books named after him. We don't all get to be Timothy. Some of us get to be Eunice.
I'm okay being Eunice. Don't call me Eunice. That's weird. But I'm okay with that. I'm probably not Timothy, I'm not Paul, but I'm okay to be somebody behind the scenes that helps you get there.
Maybe someone in the room is the Timothy is the Paul. I'm just amazed by this idea that Paul takes the time to say, hey, Timothy, don't forget the people ahead of you who have have done such faithful work in your life. Consider them and imitate them as you imitate me. Because all I'm doing, guess what I'm doing. I'm trying to walk desperately with Jesus every day.
And if you want to walk that path and get behind, let's go. I wonder, friends, do you have a list? I pray right now. You would do this. The first command is remember your leaders.
Think back to the people in your life who have moved you towards Christ Jesus. Maybe you're not walking with him all that clearly right now, but that's okay. Think about the people in your life who have tried to push you and urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord Jesus. I'm thinking of some people I mean for me and I know how blessed I am. I recognize this.
I had parents who Took this very seriously. A Gary and a Robin in my life. Those were my initial spiritual leaders. I saw my mother do a lot of things right. She's one of the most hospitable people you will ever meet.
She's a sweetheart. And my dad would come upstairs and read Bible stories to us. I don't think he did it every night, but the way that I remember it, it seemed like it was every night. That's the good news. Parents, I got great news for you.
You don't have to get it right every day. Your kids will remember the good stuff, right? You're not called to perfection, but you all are called to try to lead people to Jesus. And so I remember those moments, and that's where I got most of my early Bible knowledge, is Gary. And then I had these other guys that pushed me in some unique ways.
There was a guy named Greg Gregoni, who, some of y' all know, he took me from, you know, one point where I at least was saved to, hey, you know what? You shouldn't consider spending all of your life thinking about video games and girls. I mean, I feel like there's more to life than that. That was Greg in my life, right? Some of you have teen boys right now.
You know, that's all they're doing. It's games, sports, girls. I mean, at some point they have to recognize, no, I was made to worship a holy God. There's something so much bigger. I'm not saying I got it right at 15, but there was another young.
Another young man named Anthony Valhalla who would show up at my house. I began to call him the persecutor. And he would show up at my house to make me run. And a whole time we were running together, he would be telling me about how God had stirred in his life. He had been an atheist, had come to Christ.
He is now a missionary in the Czech Republic. That was some incredible men of God that moved me from point A to wherever I am now, maybe somewhere on B. I don't know.
Take a moment to consider those people. And he says, why? So that you might imitate them, what they did right? What would it look like for me to follow in them? Not to idolize them, but to imitate their faithfulness, honor their memory by living that truth.
Here's the second. This might be the most important piece of today, to be honest with you. It really might be the most important piece is that you would decide to follow the leaders Christ has put in front of you. You have to do this part to do that, well, you have to refuse to. To follow false teachers.
By refusing to follow false teachers, there's a reason that he just does this really hard shift that almost makes no sense. When you first read it in verse eight, he just suddenly says to them, hey, guess what? Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I don't know what that has to do with remembering your leaders or being led astray. You just nestled that in the middle of all that.
I think there's an absolute reason for this. There's something that happens within the church or within Christianity where at some point, and I'm not saying this is you, but at some point you begin to believe. I need something like, more mystical than what we're doing right now. I need something a little beyond. It's not enough for me to pray and read my Bible every day.
It's not enough for me to spend time in worship and go, I need something more. There's something else. I need my. This is an itch that needs scratching. This is, I think, why the writer here, the apostle puts this in.
He says, guess what? Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. I have really bad news if that's you. Today, he doesn't change. There's not some, like, new way that makes him more happy.
There's just walking with Jesus like the guys did in the first century. Nothing has shifted. Culture has. I'm thankful there's not outhouses anymore and plumbing has improved. I mean, things have gotten better.
But the way in which we interact with Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. This is why the Apostle Paul, who writes most of the New Testament, he says, I have determined to know nothing except Christ crucified. He makes his whole ministry about that.
So you may have some kind of drum you want to beat. Some kind of. I just want you to know there is a true gospel that's walking with Christ, Jesus. Everything outside of that. We're going to fight it like we have never fought anything in our life.
He says, I want you to run away. Don't be led towards diverse and strange teachings. These are teachings outside the biblical norm, outside of Christian doctrine. I know there's a hunger for this at times, but he says, run, don't be led there. Instead, verse nine, be strengthened by the Gospel of grace.
I heard this recently from a very strange source, Phil Robertson, who's gone on to be with Jesus now. Very odd guy. Some of you might have watched his show back in the day, Duck Dynasty. Very strange but hilarious show. I saw him Getting interviewed before he passed.
And this lady was asking him, hey, what's the thing you do every day to kind of spend time in your Bible or whatever? And he says, every day I get in the Gospels every day I want to hear the voice of Jesus every single day. And so he spends time in either Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John every day. Now, I'm sure he reads in other places or read in other places, but the lady said, well, that's really great. How long do you do that?
I mean, at what point do you move on from that? And he said, I don't move on from that. I'll do that till the day I die. Although that doesn't sound very profound. That's very profound.
The thing you could do best right now is to spend time in the Word with Jesus every day until you die. Oh, I want something new and special. Too bad that's not how it works. Spend time with Jesus every single day. Get so stinking good at it.
Spend time on your knees in prayer. I promise you this. When you read the same words, when you come back to that text in a month or in a year, it will say something new. Why? I don't know.
I don't totally understand this. I think it's because we're growing and looking more like Jesus every day. So that next year, when I come back to the book of Hebrews or the book of James, it says something I needed to hear now. And every time I spend time in prayer, I feel God moving my heart. It's not so much that I hear an audible voice.
It's that God is moving me towards his will. So that the very things I'm praying, I begin to go, I probably shouldn't pray that because I know that's not who you are. You ever been in that kind of prayer life with God, where you go, why am I even saying that out loud? I feel silly even saying that out loud. And you feel God shifting you in the way you read and the way you pray.
He says, be strengthened by grace. Instead of. And this is obscure. I know it's obscure. Verse 9, it says, instead of foods.
I don't know if you've ever felt like you were idolizing foods, but perhaps that's been possible. I imagine all of us have, on some level, maybe dealt with that. But that's not the nature of what he's speaking of here. He's speaking again to Jewish background believers who are feeling like returning to the old systems, the sacrificial systems. This is why he says in verse 10.
Those who serve the tent, they have no right to eat. They have no right to eat of the Christian food, if you will, what that means, the tent he's talking there about is the tabernacle. Those who return and determine to serve the law rather than the gospel of grace, they won't find they have the right to eat there at the table because we have a new sacrifice. Do you understand this church? I mean, most of us in the room.
I don't know if there are any people of Jewish descent in this room. Most of us aren't aware of what changed. Something massive changed. No longer are we under this law that we could not obey. Instead we are under grace, where we come by faith to Christ Jesus and who has his sacrifice has paid.
Not just one or two of your sins, but all of them. They are done, they are dealt with. And so now you don't live according to your own will anymore, but because of the just, I guess the amount of appreciation and thanksgiving you have for a God who would do that, you would determine, alright, wherever you want me to go, I'll go. Not out of a sense of earning or guilt or shame, but out of a sense of thanksgiving. That's what shifted.
So now he says to these people, hey, if you're going to go back to that, you have no right to eat at the table. You've determined what you've determined that the sacrifice of Christ isn't good enough.
Now, sometimes we're guilty of that. As Christians, we forget that it's Christ Jesus outside of the camp who has sanctified the people. This is very biblical language here. Hebrews, chapter 8. It says of the people who serve the ten.
It says in verse 5, they serve at a sanctuary. That is a copy, a mere shadow of what is in heaven. We ought not to go back to the shadows. We have the real thing. Do you understand this?
We have the real thing in Christ Jesus. We can approach the Holy of Holies, where God is in prayer. We have the high priest. And then he says, and they did this sin offering outside the camp. This is in Leviticus 16.
That's in your bulletins. You can read that for yourself. But Jesus does the very thing. And I love how the writer points to this. He has become the sacrifice that suffered outside the camp.
The reason we're seeing this is because this is describing what's called the sin offering. There are a lot of offerings. If you go back and read the system of ceremonial law, there's thanksgiving offerings, there's grain offerings, there's many Offerings. Here, though, we're talking about the sin offering which Christ Jesus has become for us. It's a clear projection to the people here that, hey, this is done with now.
No longer do you have to take the blood and the body and burn it. Outside the city, Christ has done that. He was crucified. Where outside the city. There's a new altar and it's shaped a little different.
There's a new altar, really, in fact, that has always been. But we can see it now, and it's in heaven. Everything on this earth was a copy of what was really there. And Christ Jesus has paid the ultimate price so that we can be there now. This is new.
So don't go back where you were.
There's no other gospel. Friends. Some of you might have come here today, and there's various things that you consider or want to believe, and maybe you've got friends and family in this. The truth is, the Jewish way is no longer the way. There's only one way, and it's by the sacrifice of Jesus.
Galatians 1, it says, I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. There are a lot of different things floating around in modern Christian world that are not Christian doctrine, that are not the truth of Jesus. And I could spend a great deal of time on that.
But I just want you to know there's a North star in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And if you kind of think of him that way and think of this book, this is my north star. This is the story of salvation of the gospel. I'm going to keep this thing as being the direction I follow. I don't allow anything else to guide me.
Because if I was to do that, I would no longer be heading north. Even captains of ships know back in the day I've got to set my eyes on this, not every other flickering light. And there's a lot of bright, twinkly flickering lights in our life. Oh, I could do this. I could do this.
I could follow this. There's only one Jesus and one unchanging gospel. Are you being led by the unchanging truth? Are you chasing some kind of trend, some emotional high, some strange doctrine? The third way in which we do this is by responding to the sacrifice.
Responding to the sacrifice. This means identifying with Jesus, rejecting what's outside. This is a hard step church. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm not going to pretend like what Christ has called us to.
Here is light. He says, come to me all who are weary, and my burden is light. My yoke is easy. That's true. But we also have to recognize something, that there's an action that has to take place on our part.
Here's what he says here in verse 13. Don't miss this. This might seem subtle, but it's real big. He says, therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. What is he saying there?
We have to now decide, friends, every single day. But certainly an initial step. We have to decide. I am going to connect my life to the Savior. I'm going to go outside of the camp where it's uncomfortable.
Everybody in here, they've got it figured out. They know what they're doing. But I'm going to go outside of the walls. And then it says, I'm going to bear the reproach he endured.
Here's the honest truth. Some of you are new around here today. Some of you are guests today. I just want to share the truth and also the grace of that truth. The truth is this.
When you walk closely to Jesus and devote your life to him, you, you will stand out. And it won't always be in ways you love. You will, in a sense, as it says here, bear the reproach he endured. You will look funny, you will look strange. And when you encourage your kids to do the same, you'll have other parents saying, your kid's not very normal, they're abnormal.
And to that you should say, praise God. Cause normal doesn't look right anymore. Normal's looking real off. And you, my friend, will look different. When you don't get in the water cooler conversation and tell all those jokes and let your mouth run.
When you begin to change your lips, when you begin to change the way you live, the way you spend your money, the way you talk to your wife, the way you raise your kids, you're going to look strange. And sometimes you'll bear a reproach for could be far worse. Christians in other parts of the world lose life and limb for this. Here we just get made fun of, persecuted in a way that could change, we don't know.
He says, go to him outside the camp. This means you make the decision first and forevermore. I Identify with Jesus. Have you done that, my friend? Today?
Would you do it again tomorrow? I don't think this part ends. We do this till the day we die, too. There's the initial. Hey, I'm in Jesus and he's in me.
I abide in Him. I got to wake up and do it again tomorrow. I'm going to walk with you. I don't care what happens. I don't care what people say.
Go to him outside the camp. Bear the reproach. Why? Because guess what? This is where he ends this thought.
Verse 14. He says, the cities of this world. Here, he's speaking of Jerusalem. There are no lasting cities. I know you long to go back to that holy city where we once had temple worship.
It's long been destroyed. And even if it hadn't been, that is not the altar of the high and holy Christ Jesus. That is no longer where he lives. That's not where the Holy Spirit resides anymore. Guess where he resides.
In the believer, there's no longer that lasting city. Hebrews 11. It says, but as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. We long for something more.
We don't get our eyes stuck on stuff of this world. This stuff is dust we look up. And what we do while we do that is all in verse 15. So in case you're wondering, some of you come to church and you go, why do we do that weird singing stuff? I don't blame you for that.
You know, it is kind of strange that we would get together and raise our arms and clap our hands and sing these notes and go, what in the world are we up to in here?
Except for the fact that I know you guys are already doing this already. Everywhere you drive, you're probably singing along. Guess what? God put worship deep in the heart of man. We're worshiping stuff all the time.
We're singing loud. I bet most of you if you went to a concert this weekend of your favorite artist, you'd be singing real loud and clapping your hands and cheering here. It feels weird, though. I don't know why that is. Just ponder that for a minute.
Why is the most holy God deserving of less praise? That's kind of strange. This is where he. He begins to kind of unpack. All right, what do we do with this?
If we bear the reproach and we're destined for heaven, look at verse 15. He says, Then let us continually offer. Oh, but I Was hoping just to do it on Sunday mornings. Bad news, friends. You better wake up tomorrow and do it all over again.
And the people around you in your workspace, your families, they need to see you praising. I'm not talking about being a weirdo like Jesus talks about that in another place in the Sermon on the Mount. No, I'm talking about having a heart of praise that we used to sing a song around here. Your praise is always on my lips. It will ever be on my lips.
There was something kind of sweet about that idea.
Not always in song. Does the gospel, does praising God? Does thanksgiving, does it reside on your lips continually? If I asked your wife or your husband or your children, would you consider your dad or your spouse, your dad, your mom, would you consider them to be thankful? Praising.
You might get some hard information if you ask that question. He says, let us continually have a sacrifice of prayer. Praise. Verse 15. The fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
Does the way you speak acknowledge the name of Jesus? I don't want to be weird all the time. I'm not talking about. You're constantly. Every conversation becomes another evangelistic moment.
I'm not saying that. Although there are more moments like that than you probably realize. However, here's what I am saying. That the praise of God would be on your lips consistently means I don't partake in the same kind of stuff anymore.
No longer do the words of my mouth praise false gods. And what I mean by that is money and wealth and other things. The praise is only about God. So he immediately goes to the way in which you speak, the way in which you sing, which really has to do with the way in which you live. Should model a praise of a holy God.
Have you changed like that? He says in verse 16, then do not neglect to share what you have. Oh, but I don't really want to be generous. Oh, then you don't really want to be Christian. I don't want to speak with less foul language.
Well, I'm sorry. That's not how it works. We are set apart. That's what it means to be holy. That sounds so legalistic.
No, it just sounds so Jesus.
I don't really want to look so strange. I do. Jesus was really weird.
I don't think you're supposed to say that at church. I might need to repent of that. I don't know. But compared to the leaders of his day, he looked strange. Guess what?
He still looks strange to people.
And Christian means little Christs.
Y' all want to look strange with me. That the way in which you speak, the way in which you give, that I would look at your wallet and go, why is so much of it going to others? Generosity is real in your life. Look at that. Don't neglect to be offering up praise and giving and being generous.
Since Jesus offered himself for us, an appropriate response would be, let us be a living sacrifice. Paul says this in Romans 12. He says, I appeal to you therefore brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
What does your altar look like? Are you willing to identify with Christ publicly with your mouth, with the way in which you live, bearing whatever reproach comes with joy? And here's the final. And this is going to sound self serving, but I didn't write it, so deal with it. I didn't write this.
This is what it ends with in verse 17. And this is the idea we came up with by respecting the authority of your current leaders. So remember, those who have poured into your life, refuse and reject false doctrines, recognize the sacrifice of Jesus, and then respect the authority of your current leaders. It says in verse 17 two really clear imperatives. It says, obey your leaders.
Submit to them. Both words we love, right? We love those words. Obedience and submission. The best words we can think of.
And you'll notice also it doesn't have anything to do with like, how much you like them. If you like your leaders, obey them. Not there. Now I will say this, here's a caveat. I am currently the Lord's called pastor of this church.
This is his decision. I've questioned it just as many times as you have, probably maybe more. It's where I'm supposed to be. I'm feeling more and more confident of the calling of God on my life. And for now, this is apparently where he wants me to lead him.
Pastor, if you have a struggle with me, personally, trusting me, following me, being able to obey and submit to me, I give you freedom right now. I give you freedom. Go somewhere where you could. Go somewhere where you could trust and submit to a leader. Hopefully they're not leaving for that very reason right there.
I'm just kidding.
But I mean that, I mean that sincerely. Because a person should be able to really walk under and be led by someone they trust. And I pray I will always be worthy of that kind of trust. I'll never feel worthy of it, I can promise you that. He says, obey and submit to.
Why, this is one of the spookiest things in all of scripture. Josh, you Just joined our body. I want you to hear this text and run if you want to run. Now. Verse 17, it says Submit to them.
Why? Because they are keeping watch over your souls and will have to give an account. You know how scary that is? Because I look around at some of you and go, I don't want to be really responsible for that, But I am. And if you stick around, this is why sometimes I'm going to tell you things that don't feel good.
Why? Because I am in a sense responsible for you. If you call yourself an Eastgate church member, I'm responsible for you. So when I say hey, you probably should stop.
You can be mad if you want to, but just know this, I'm doing it out of a sense of I want to bring you to heaven with me, as holy and blameless as I can. That's my goal. So when I say, hey, you know what? You probably shouldn't treat your spouse that way. You probably shouldn't spend your money that way.
You probably shouldn't parent your kids that way. I don't like him, okay? But just know I'm trying to do this seriously and it's scary keeping watch of your souls. And this is for all of you in the room. And it's for me too because I have spiritual leaders as well.
I have people that I line up under as well. And it says in verse 17 of something that sounds ultra self serving, but I pray you can hear it. Let them do this with joy and not groaning.
You could probably apply this to every part of your life where you're being led. It would be pretty great for your boss to not have to deal with you being just the worst employee ever.
If you think that's a fast track to getting raises and getting ahead, it's not being an absolute piece of work and causing your boss to constantly be frustrated about you. Probably not the way of progression here. The writer of Hebrews says it's of no advantage to you because guess what? Here's what I'm going to do. As the one that God has called to be a shepherd, I'm going to faithfully try my best to live lead and I'm going to try my best to tell you truth with grace.
I do indeed love you and I do indeed want to bring you whole to heaven with me. But if you make it hard, I'm going to do it begrudgingly. Because guess what? I am. I hate to say it, I'm a human and I have real feelings and I think things I should not think and some of you make me think more of those things.
Some of you make me so happy.
He says, no, let them do this with joy. What would it look like? Friends, let's go outside of the church for a second. What would it look like for you to be a joy to be led? What would that look like?
Guess what that's going to start looking like? Coming to work on time. Ew, no. That's a lot easier on your boss to not have to reprimand you every single week for being late. That's what it looks like to be a joy to say, hey, I don't totally understand everything we're trying to do here, but I'm going to do my best, you know?
Would you guide me? Hey, I think I'm doing this wrong, like getting help instead of constantly being come behind and going, why do you continue to be the way that you are? You know? What would it look like to be a joy to lead? It is Christ, friends, who gave spiritual leaders to equip.
This isn't accidental. This is how God designed it. Ephesians, chapter four, it says Christ gave himself. He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and the teachers. God did this.
Jesus did this. Why? To equip his people for works of service so the body of Christ might be built up. We do church not because we're just a bunch of power hungry people. We do it because God called people to do it.
He called them from the first century to now with various giftings. I don't have all of these giftings, but some of you might. He's calling some people, more people in this room to ministry, to spiritual leadership of which we will give an account.
Christ's under shepherds are to serve him until he returns. This is what it says. This is what Peter writes in chapter five of 1 Peter. He says, Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, watching over them not because you must, but because you are willing as God wants you to be. Not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve.
Not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
This reminds me a little bit of what it's like to be a parent too. I'm not saying I'm a parent to you, but this is kind of how it feels to lead. Well, anywhere you're leading is that you would lead willingly, not for gain, but to see them grow. The good parent wants to See that child become something amazing, not the thing that they desire them to become, but the thing in which God has made them to be. And I want to do everything in my life to try to mold that and push that child to be the very thing God's called them to be.
That's what it's like to lead. This is what it's like to pastor friends. I pray that this is the way in which you would lead your homes. Hear this today. Remember the people in your life that led well, that parented well, that walked with Christ well, and imitate them.
Do the things they did. They were hard things. Do them well, put off false teachings and you will hear them plenty and there will be more that haven't yet even come determine. No. I'm going to spend time with God every single day until he comes or takes me home every day and be a joy to lead and be a joy as a leader to others.
Let's pray now together. Church Heavenly Father, we ask that you would help us as a people to first be led well by you, that we would no longer buck against the things you've called us to do. There may be some people in the room today who you've called to something great and they've said no. They've determined, not me, God. Maybe you called them to a mission field.
Maybe you called them to ministry. Maybe you just called them to something where you wanted them to be more outspoken about their faith and they've said no every time. God, I pray for myself and for your people that our yes would be on the table with you, that when you lead us, we would say, wherever you go, God, I go. When you say jump, I say how high? Because you're a good God who loves me and has an ultimate purpose for me that I can't even imagine.
That's greater and more joyful and more thrilling than anything I could possibly imagine. God, we put our yes on the table today. We also ask Lord Jesus, that you would help us to lead others well, whether it's our families, our kids, maybe it's employees, maybe it's co workers. Maybe there's some areas of our life where we truly lead. I pray that we would do this with eagerness and not begrudgingly.
I pray that we would do this not for a sense or eagerness to gain, but out of a heart of service. I pray for all of us today, Lord, who are being led, that we would help our leaders do it with joy, that we would represent all holy people in a very dark world by doing the little things like being a joy to lead God. I recognize somebody may have come in today and all of this is very difficult to even consider because they've not even yet said yes to the initial leading of Christ Jesus, which is towards salvation. That's where we begin. Friend, if that's you today, that's where it starts by first saying, yes, Jesus, I will follow you.
I will go where you go. That's step one. If that's you today and you're feeling that God impressing that on your heart, would you pray with me? Simply this, Jesus, I believe today that you are Lord of my life. You're in charge.
I believe that you died on the cross for my sin, my shame, my guilt, my brokenness, my wrongdoings. You have paid for those things by the sacrifice of the cross. So I lay them now at your feet. And God, I believe that you raised Christ Jesus from the dead. The cross and the resurrection give me incredible hope.
Not only that you've done the great work of saving me, but also that you have a purpose for me eternally. So I'm asking now, Lord, would you guide my life, guide my steps, help me to be the leader I need to be in those areas, but also help me to follow you in everything.
Dear friend, if you prayed that with me just now. Welcome to our family as we walk, all of us with the Lord Jesus in our own ways, and we try to follow his leading in our lives. We're praying right along with you. Lord Jesus, please guide our steps today to tomorrow as we go to work. Lord, that our lips would praise you.
They would no longer spout vulgarity and other things. No, they would be lips of praise. That our actions would be generous, that the way in which we look to others would be obscure because we're actually encouraging. We actually love God. God, would you do these things in your people?
Help us to be a lighthouse in our city. And God, I do pray for what's coming, Lord, that you would bring many far from you into this place over the next few weeks. And that we would be so good with honoring you with the gospel message, God, that you would bring many lost souls to yourself. We pray all these things in Jesus name, Amen.