Thank you.
We shall be in Hebrews chapter 13 this evening, and if you turn there, it will help me a little later on.
But first let me tell you of the assignment that I was given at the Evangelical Ministry Assembly just the week before last.
I was asked to speak at the last session. There were three evenings, and that was three evening sessions.
And I can tell you that I was very reluctant, partly because I'm old and I've spoken at the Ministry Assembly many times,
and I thought it was quite time for the younger men to be on the platform,
but partly because I was being invited to be a kind of exhibit.
On the first evening, a young minister was meant to speak and explain why he'd been able to persevere.
On the second evening, a sort of middle-aged man was asked to speak on how he had persevered,
and how the Lord had kept him.
And then on the third, an ancient relic like myself was meant to come onto the platform and explain the same thing.
Well, I'm very reluctant to be an exhibit.
You know, it's rather like these London marathons when they wait at the end for the last people to arrive.
You know, there's some aged man who arrives at last, and the commentator is so excited and says,
at last he's come, it's taken him eight days and four hours and three seconds or whatever it is,
let's give him a clap and all the rest of it.
Well, I decided not to be an exhibit, but I felt I must speak on perseverance,
and these texts in Hebrews 13 have meant a great deal to me in the last fortnight as I worked on them.
I was speaking, of course, in the Barbican to hundreds of Christian leaders,
and as you saw or heard in the reading, this chapter has three verses about leaders.
Quite an unusual title, of course.
Not the title of pastor or steward or minister,
but the title of leader.
And so I'm going to read the three verses, if I may,
and then we'll get to work on them.
Verses 7,
verse 17,
and verse 24.
Verse 7.
Remember, your leaders,
who spoke the word of God to you.
Consider the outcome of their way of life,
and imitate their faith.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Verse 17.
So that was a look into the past.
Now we go to the present.
Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority,
because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account.
Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden,
for that would be no benefit to you.
And then finally,
verse 24,
which we will spend time on this evening.
Greet all your leaders
and all the Lord's people.
At any rate,
what verse 24 shows
is that the Lord's people
need leaders.
Of course they do.
All groups need leaders,
all institutions need leaders,
and we know,
all too painfully at the moment,
countries need leaders too.
And I guess you're praying about that,
at least I hope you are.
We were speaking in the car.
It is very remarkable, isn't it,
of the five or six
whose names are in the hat.
At least three or four
seem to be churchgoers
or God-fearers,
and one of them a real Christian.
That's something to be very thankful for
in these days, isn't it?
And we need to pray for them,
and especially for the one
on whom the lot falls.
So, what are the leaders' responsibilities?
This is what I gave my mind to
as I prepared for the ministry assembly,
and what I've been giving to my mind
ever since.
I think the person who learns most
from speaking, of course,
is the speaker.
Well, in verse 7,
the work of the church
or Christian leader
is to speak the word of God.
He's to be a preacher.
And in verse 17,
the work of the church
or Christian leader
is to be a shepherd.
That is a pastor.
It's a very succinct and clear pattern,
isn't it?
He's not a politician.
He's not a social activist.
He's not an ecclesiastical functionary.
He's a speaker,
a shepherd,
a preacher,
and a pastor.
But who,
and I'm talking to people,
I guess,
who know their Bibles
quite well,
indeed very well,
who is the speaker
par excellence
in the letter,
the sermon,
whatever you like to call it,
of Hebrews?
As you turn back
to chapter 1,
you'll soon find out
who the real speaker is.
Chapter 1,
verse 1,
In the past,
God spoke to our ancestors
through the prophets,
but in these last days,
he has spoken to us
by his Son.
So the great speaker,
according to Hebrews,
is our Lord Jesus Christ
himself.
And the importance of that
is really quite terrifying,
I think,
at the end of the letter,
chapter 12,
verse 25,
we get this exhortation
that shows how important
it is to listen
to the one who speaks.
See that you do not
refuse him who speaks.
If they did not escape
when they refused him
who warned them on earth,
how much less will we
if we turn away from him
who warns us from heaven.
And incidentally,
to show you how severe
the New Testament can be,
look at that last phrase
in verse 29,
Our God is a consuming fire.
That is the verdict
on those who won't listen.
So in this
sermon letter of Hebrews,
the speaker is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Question number two,
Who is the great shepherd of Hebrews?
Well, you read it just now.
It's a wonderful verse.
We need only look at one verse,
verse 20,
of the 13th chapter.
Now may the God of peace,
who through the blood
of the eternal covenant
fall back from the dead,
our Lord Jesus,
that great shepherd of the sheep.
So here's a remarkable background
to the leader's work.
The great speaker
that God has sent into the world
is none other than Jesus Christ.
Oh, we know that, don't we?
He's the word.
He's the teaching.
He comes to preach the gospel.
The soldiers
who are sent to arrest him
said,
No man spoke like this man.
Well, we know that, don't we?
The teaching of Jesus Christ
is the wonder of the world.
Still is.
Would that we obeyed it
and listened to it.
And who is the great shepherd
of the sermon letter?
Well, it's our Lord Jesus Christ,
there's no doubt about that.
He himself said so,
did he not?
He said,
I am the good shepherd.
The one who really pastors
the universal church
and all the churches
in the universal church.
So in this remarkable letter
to the Hebrews,
quite different, isn't it,
from almost anything else
in the New Testament.
The Lord is the speaker
and the Lord is the shepherd.
But,
as you sometimes see
written on the holy table
in Protestant churches,
he is not here,
he is risen.
He's returned to the Father's throne.
He is not with us,
in that sense, bodily.
He is bodily raised from the dead.
So the question arises,
who is to do the speaking now
and who is to do the shepherding?
Who is to preach the word?
Who is to speak the word of God?
And who is to pastor,
verse 17,
the flock of God?
And the answer,
are you ready for it?
Frail,
weak,
mortals.
Described by Paul
in one of his letters
as jars of clay.
You don't even turn to look at it.
I was speaking at the ordination
of a Presbyterian church
in Scotland,
in Glasgow,
two Sunday nights ago.
and in preaching,
I said to Paul,
the young man
who was being ordained,
talking about speaking
the word of God
and shepherding the flock of God,
I said,
I hope that in view of this,
you are more than
a little terrified.
I don't think anybody
was expecting that,
you know.
I think they thought
I was going to say,
it's a wonderful responsibility
and it's a great work
you're going to it.
And all these
rather flattering things,
but I really do believe that,
don't you?
He ought to be feeling
on the evening
in which he's set apart
from this work of leadership,
he ought to be terrified.
Not least,
because of that 17,
you must give an account.
God,
well,
that's enough
to make me tremble.
And might not
the members of the church
tremble too
to think that
your pastor,
your youth leader,
your Sunday school teachers
are in this position
of doing what actually
is the work of Christ.
You have this heavy,
of course it's a great privilege,
but a very,
very heavy responsibility
of actually speaking
the word of God
and looking out
to the flock of God.
You know,
the work of a,
I thought of this young man
a fortnight ago,
very able young man actually,
but quite brave,
I think,
to venture into this work
because the minister today
in our society
is a very marginalized character,
isn't he?
He's regarded as somebody
who can't do any other job,
really.
And here was a young man
committing himself to that.
What did his great namesake
say,
Paul the Apostle?
He asked a great question,
which expects the answer,
who is equal to this task?
So that's the first truth
that seems to me
to emerge from this.
That Christian leadership
is an enormous responsibility.
It is actually the work of Christ
which is delegated to us
and we might well tremble,
we who speak,
we who shepherd,
whether in a church
or whatever.
The second truth
that I think emerged,
there are many truths
that emerge,
and the more I look at this,
the more truths
that seem to come out
and hit me
and make me think.
The second truth
that emerges
is that Christian leadership
demands a reliable
teaching ministry.
Look back,
if you will now,
to the past
in verse 7.
Remember your leaders
who speak the word
of God to you,
consider the outcome
of their way of life
and imitate their faith.
And so it would be good,
wouldn't it,
just for a moment
as we sit here,
to do just that.
Will you just for a moment
cast your mind back
to the people
who first told you
the word of God,
the gospel,
it's a debt
you can't repay,
isn't it?
Maybe a pastor,
maybe a parent,
maybe a class leader,
maybe a friend.
Let's just think
for a moment.
Remember those
who spoke the word
of God to you.
An enormous debt
is what we owe to them.
I'm thinking of
two men at least
and a crusader leader
in whose class
I simply misbehaved.
Well, I suppose
I learned something.
Now, I don't think
we can get the full import
of verse 7
without verse 8,
which is why
I read it.
What does verse 8 mean?
It's a glorious verse,
isn't it?
It's one everybody knows.
Christ the same
yesterday and forever.
And I'll tell you
what I don't think
it means.
I don't think it means
something fairly
conventional,
that whereas
verse 8,
the Christian leader
comes and goes,
those men that I think
of who led me to Christ
to preach the gospel
to me long ago,
gone to be with Christ,
long, long ago.
I don't think it means
that the human leaders
come and go,
but the Lord is still
with us,
whether in the past
generation today
and in the future.
I don't think that's
the point at all.
I think verse 8
is summing up
the essential
Christian message
as taught
by the writer
of the Hebrews.
And that is
the same gospel message,
of course,
as all the writers
are talking about,
but it's very distinctive,
isn't it,
in Hebrews.
It takes him
two-thirds
of the letter
to describe
in chapters 3
to chapters 10.
Chapters 3,
4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
are all taken up
with one thing,
and that is
Christ the High Priest.
In fact,
it's all taken up
with one day
in the Jewish year
in the Old Testament times.
It's taken up
with that great day
of atonement
when the High Priest,
I hardly tell you this,
took the blood
of the sacrifice.
He would go trembling
through the curtain
into the Holy Polis.
The blood would be
sprinkled there.
He would stand there
for a few minutes,
and then he would return,
having ratified
the covenant
between God
and his people
for one more year.
In a year's time,
he'd have to do the same.
And then the next year,
and the next year.
And at very great length,
it's an incredible detail.
And I'm not sure
how many Bible readers
take trouble
to go through
all the detail.
He points out
how Christ has fulfilled
that once and for all,
in virtue of his own
sacrifice,
going through the
Holy of Holies
into the presence of God.
Opening that way
once and for all,
so that the covenant
between God
and his people
is firm forever.
Just an amazing
passage
and an amazing description.
It's very interesting to me.
I'd like you,
if you will,
it'll mean that you're
still with me
if I hear the pages turned.
Just turn to Mark 15
for a moment.
The earliest gospel,
and when you come to
the critical passage
on the death
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
all that he tells you
is that Christ
laid down his life
and sacrificed
bearing the sins
of the world,
verse 34,
that he cried,
a loud cry
in verse 37,
grieved his last,
and the curtain
of the temple
was torn in two.
So there we go
to the very earliest
strata of the Christian
gospel in the New Testament.
You can't go earlier
than that.
So the very essential
gospel that they
were preaching
was the gospel
of a Savior
who takes,
by virtue
of his sacrifice,
takes himself
as a representative
into the presence
of God
and opens that way
forever.
So coming back
to Hebrews,
when we get at last
to the application
of those
many chapters,
look at chapter 10,
verse 19,
I'm sure you know
it well,
and if you don't,
you ought,
because this is the
climax of the whole
letter,
and it's so wonderful,
really.
Therefore,
brothers and sisters,
since we have
confidence to enter
the most holy place
by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way,
and since we have
a great priest
over the house of God,
let us draw near
to God with a sincere
heart,
and so on.
Let us draw near.
And you've got
that same drawing
here,
don't you,
in chapter 12.
Just turn over the page.
I love the contrast,
don't you,
in chapter 12,
verse 18.
You have not drawn
near to the mountain
that can be touched
that is burning
with fire and darkness.
That is,
in the Old Testament,
terrifying.
No animal allowed near,
gloom,
storm,
trumpet blast.
But,
verse 22,
you have come
to Mount Zion,
to the city
of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem.
You have come
to thousands of angels.
We really ought to say
that at the beginning
of our meeting.
It's all great.
When we started,
when Paul stood here,
he might easily
have said to us
these words,
because they're true.
Because of that sacrifice,
we have come
to thousands of angels
in Joyful Assembly.
You can't see them,
but they're there.
We've come to the church
of the firstborn.
We've come to God,
the judge of all.
We've come to the
sprinkled blood
that speaks a better word
than the blood of Abel.
Now,
why do you think
that he spends
so much time on this
in this letter?
You don't find it
anywhere else
in the New Testament,
though,
of course,
the message of the Gospel
is the same.
Well,
I think that verse 8
has the clue within it.
Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday,
and for ever.
And once you see
those words for ever,
the Bible student
knows exactly
what he's talking about.
Because that is the theme
of those great chapters
in the middle of Hebrews
about the high priest
who is the high priest
after the order of Melchizedek
forever.
Chapter 7,
seven times,
six,
seven times,
the same phrase
is used.
So,
why does he tell us
that our priest
is a priest for ever?
Well,
of course,
he's telling us
because we don't need
any more priests.
Now,
there's some controversy
as to what verse 9 means.
I want to tell you
what I think it may mean
and possibly does mean.
Hebrews was not written
to Jews.
It was written to Christians
and has been read
by Christians
for 2,000 years.
But,
in the first century
there were many
Jewish Christians.
And I think
that many of these Jews
towards the third quarter
of the first century
when people
are getting discouraged
were finding it
so difficult
to live by faith
in an invisible Lord
and an unknown future.
It was also
apparently empty
and you just had
to believe.
But how many
supports they had,
hadn't they,
in their time
as Jews?
They had endless
supports.
The priest,
the sacrifice,
the temple,
the altar,
and so on.
And I think
probably these
Jewish Christians
were saying
we need something
that we can see,
something to support us,
something to give us
confidence
about these
great truths.
Why I think that
is because
throughout this
letter to the Hebrews
you have a constant
word being
almost shouted out.
We have a great
high priest.
Again and again
and again.
You follow it through.
It's worth reading
right through the letter
once in half an hour
and counting the number
of times he says,
he almost shouts it out.
We have a great
high priest.
And there you have it
in verse
10, don't you?
We have an altar.
Why is he saying
this?
Well he's saying
be assured
we have a high priest,
we have an altar.
You cannot see
these things
but the cross
of Christ
was the altar
and the high priest
in heaven
is caring for you.
The God man.
Once a year
the churches
in the city
have an open Sunday
and it's amazing
the number of tourists
who come in
to see the churches
and we're encouraged
to tell them
what goes on
in the churches.
And there's a
I mustn't call him
a lad
because I think
he's probably
getting on to 45.
A young man
on the staff
called Charlie
who is absolutely
brilliant at doing this.
And one of the
first questions
that's asked
in question time
what Charlie does
is to take them
around the building
and preach the gospel
through the various
parts of the building.
And after he's
finished his talk
the first question
is nearly always this
where's the altar?
And what a wonderful
opportunity
for explaining
Hebrews 13.
We have an altar.
The way is open.
It's a majestic
statement isn't it?
So these are words
of enormous confidence
to these young
Jewish Christians
that in Christ
we have a high priest
who has
made that
permanent
and full
and perfect
sacrifice
and is still
today with us
and we won't read
those wonderful
chapters at the
beginning of Hebrews
where we're told
that he cares for us
and has mercy upon us
and draws near to us.
We don't often
hear that do we?
We hear Christ
as a friend
a saviour
a lord
but it's so important
to see him too
as a priest.
So leadership
demands a ministry
of truth
that enables us
to walk
by faith
in an invisible
lord
and a far
distant future.
Well I think
that's enough
probably for this
evening.
I'll finish by
telling you
what my last
point was
in the
Barberkin
ten days ago.
This leadership
was committed
to me
at St.
Helen's Church
in Bishopsgate
38
well for
no not 38
years ago
in 1961
and I can't
do the
mathematics
but some
of you
can do it
it's a long
time ago
isn't it?
And it
seems to me
that I was
given the
responsibility
of doing
these two
things
week by
week
and if I
was not
to be a
humbug
it meant
that first
if I was
to speak
the word
of God
I'd got
to listen
and I
think that's
one of the
great privileges
of the
pastor
or the
teacher
the leader
in any
part of the
church
that they
cannot speak
until they
have listened
and it's
one of the
ways in which
God keeps
us I think
and secondly
if I was
not to be
a humbug
I had to
watch myself
verse 17
if I was
to watch
over others
so that
actually
being a
church leader
is a
very great
privilege
because you
are bound
to listen
and bound
to watch
over yourself
if you're
to do
your job
and so
in the
Bible
can I
finish
by giving
three of
the great
warnings
of Hebrews
which I
think the
Christian
leader has
to take
apart
just as
much as
anybody
else
first
not to
be ashamed
many
times
in this
letter
we're
told
of the
disgrace
there is
in believing
the words
of Christ
and I can only
speak for the
Church of
England
in saying
that many
gifted young
men
who were
evangelical
in their
origins
who were
thoroughly
converted
people
who knew
the word
of God
before very
long
were tempted
to be ashamed
of where
they stood
over against
the
liberalism
and the
worldliness
of the
Church
and so
I tried
to make
an appeal
in the
Bible
and do
pray about
this
to those
who are
particularly
gifted
I thought
to myself
there are
1500
Church
leaders
and
amongst
them
there will
be some
peculiarly
gifted
in mind
personality
gift
and they
who will
be tempted
to be
ashamed
they whom
Satan
will try
to move
away
in order
that they
might find
popularity
preferment
promotion
influence
whatever you
like to
call it
it's a
warning for
all of us
of course
but it's
especially
a warning
for Christian
leaders
the second
warning that I
chose to
give to
those
men
ancient
leaders
who are
there is
not to
be
hardened
by sin's
deceitfulness
it's a
strong
message
in
Hebrews
it applies
to all
of you
of course
but in a
very powerful
way it
applies to
the minister
because on
those very
basic things
like
marriage
verse 4
money
verse 5
well
I'm bound
to say
because of
my age
that I
look back
and I
can see
quite a
number of
men who
lost their
ministry
because of
sin
in marriage
and money
matters
and the
the
importance
of this
as I
tried to
say to
them that
evening
was
that for
the minister
you only
need one
strike
and you're
out
a man
can lose
his
ministry
if he's
hardened
by sin's
deceitfulness
in these
matters
and the
third warning
I gave them
that evening
was not
only to be
unashamed
but not
only to be
careful about
sin's
deceitfulness
but to be
careful in
the face
of increasing
persecution
not to
shrink back
if you read
Hebrews 10
and we
haven't
time to
do that
now
it's very
very strong
about not
throwing
everything
away
because of
the bitter
opposition
you face
I think
those three
applications
apply to
you
they apply
to all
our church
leaders
in this
country
today
I think
there's a
tremendous
pressure
on our
leaders
especially
perhaps in the
established
church
to be ashamed
of the
gospel
to be ashamed
of the
standards
of sex
and marriage
to shrink
back from
the constant
secular
sniping
that goes
on today
so this
letter has a
great deal
to say to
us
the work
of the
leaders
is of
unique
importance
isn't it
to speak
the word
of God
and to
look after
the flock
of God
but the
warnings
are equally
great
and I pray
that many
of those
leaders
there
and leaders
perhaps that
you know
and pray
for
and ought
to pray
for
may be
kept
from
shame
and sin
and shrinking
back in
the light
of so
much
opposition
let's
pray