WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.500 Let me read this passage for us. 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:11.460 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 00:00:12.679 --> 00:00:18.660 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to 00:00:18.660 --> 00:00:25.060 be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them. 00:00:25.059 --> 00:00:32.019 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat, for the bodies 00:00:32.019 --> 00:00:36.119 of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice 00:00:36.119 --> 00:00:38.100 for sin are burned outside the camp. 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:45.420 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own 00:00:45.420 --> 00:00:45.780 blood. 00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:53.019 Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 00:00:53.020 --> 00:00:59.560 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:06.560 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:08.379 of lips that acknowledge his name. 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:16.120 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to 00:01:16.120 --> 00:01:16.439 God. 00:01:18.420 --> 00:01:19.460 Let's pray together. 00:01:19.459 --> 00:01:24.879 God, we ask your blessing upon the reading and the preaching of your word this morning. 00:01:25.139 --> 00:01:31.359 God, would you guide our thoughts and our hearts to see you and to behold you afresh 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:34.019 in your majesty and in your mercy. 00:01:35.139 --> 00:01:40.139 God, we ask that the message of this passage from Hebrews would strike a chord within us. 00:01:40.919 --> 00:01:46.299 Lord, so that your purposes might be carried out in our hearts and our lives, in our church, 00:01:46.299 --> 00:01:47.899 and our community, God, we pray. 00:01:49.219 --> 00:01:52.019 For your name's sake, in Jesus' name, amen. 00:01:56.200 --> 00:02:02.140 When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. 00:02:04.519 --> 00:02:10.919 Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote those words in 1937 in the work that we now call The Cost of Discipleship. 00:02:10.919 --> 00:02:17.280 Less than eight years later in 1945, Bonhoeffer would be executed in Flossenburg, a Nazi concentration 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:17.699 camp. 00:02:19.019 --> 00:02:24.759 For Bonhoeffer, the call to follow Christ faithfully meant literally following him to death. 00:02:27.519 --> 00:02:29.419 Now, it isn't that way for every Christian. 00:02:29.560 --> 00:02:34.859 Not every follower of Christ will be called to literally lay down their physical life for 00:02:34.859 --> 00:02:35.099 him. 00:02:35.099 --> 00:02:40.400 And yet, the call of Christ to come and die is the same. 00:02:41.819 --> 00:02:47.180 The call to leave our old life, the call to leave our old ambition, the call to leave 00:02:47.180 --> 00:02:54.180 our old ways of justifying ourselves before others and before God, to die, as it were, 00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:56.199 to these things and give all to Christ. 00:02:56.199 --> 00:03:03.379 This call is the same for everyone who hears Christ saying, come. 00:03:07.299 --> 00:03:11.379 Bonhoeffer goes on to explain it this way, the cross is laid on every Christian. 00:03:12.459 --> 00:03:17.759 The first Christ suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:18.739 of this world. 00:03:18.740 --> 00:03:25.180 It is that dying of the old man, which is the encounter with Christ. 00:03:26.700 --> 00:03:32.800 As we embark upon discipleship, we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death. 00:03:33.620 --> 00:03:35.980 Thus, it begins. 00:03:37.420 --> 00:03:42.560 The cross is not the terrible end of an otherwise God-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:45.379 the beginning of our communion with Christ. 00:03:45.379 --> 00:03:53.680 And then comes the famous line, when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. 00:03:57.340 --> 00:04:04.639 Now, our passage this morning is full of references and images that at first may seem obscure or 00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:12.859 confusing, but at its heart, it is issuing to us in a fresh way Christ's call to discipleship, 00:04:12.860 --> 00:04:20.780 to go to him, to follow him, and to do so even in the face of great cost. 00:04:21.840 --> 00:04:24.840 The central command of the passage is found in verse 13. 00:04:24.939 --> 00:04:25.600 Look there again. 00:04:26.020 --> 00:04:33.600 Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 00:04:33.699 --> 00:04:40.240 In other words, it's a call to us to leave the comforts of the old for the reproach of the new. 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:51.379 To leave what's safe, familiar, secure, and to go out where there's reproach, where we'll be misunderstood, 00:04:53.259 --> 00:04:57.500 possibly disliked, despised, derided, insulted, maybe even forgot. 00:04:57.500 --> 00:05:07.139 And if we pause to think about it, isn't this where and why our discipleship so often wavers? 00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:12.779 Isn't this where so many of us falter, as it were, on this race of following Jesus? 00:05:14.139 --> 00:05:14.740 Think about it. 00:05:14.740 --> 00:05:21.459 On the one hand, we don't really want to go outside the camp, as it were. 00:05:21.459 --> 00:05:25.159 We don't want to leave the comfort of the old. 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:30.560 You know, in the ancient world, a city or a camp was a place of protection, of security. 00:05:31.560 --> 00:05:37.240 You could come into the walls and not have to fear the danger of thieves on the highway 00:05:37.240 --> 00:05:39.959 or of wild, ravaging beasts in the field. 00:05:40.039 --> 00:05:43.439 You could come into the city and you could be safe. 00:05:44.799 --> 00:05:46.599 But cities were also places of identity. 00:05:46.600 --> 00:05:51.320 You weren't just safe in a city, you were also someone in the camp, in the city. 00:05:53.020 --> 00:05:54.300 It gave you a story. 00:05:54.439 --> 00:05:55.220 It gave you a people. 00:05:55.340 --> 00:05:56.200 It gave you a network. 00:05:56.320 --> 00:05:58.180 It gave you a set of aspirations. 00:05:59.520 --> 00:06:02.240 For instance, if you lived in a Roman city in the first century, 00:06:02.420 --> 00:06:06.300 then you would be swept up into the story that Rome was telling 00:06:06.300 --> 00:06:10.680 about how they were going to bring peace and justice to the world. 00:06:10.680 --> 00:06:16.680 The story of how Caesar was Lord and how the barbarians were being subjugated 00:06:16.680 --> 00:06:19.340 and how civilization was triumphing. 00:06:21.900 --> 00:06:25.199 So to go outside the camp, to go outside the city, 00:06:25.280 --> 00:06:31.420 was to leave behind the protection and the identity of your former life. 00:06:33.220 --> 00:06:36.480 And what Hebrews here is saying is that that's what it means, 00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:42.360 part of what it means, to give your trust to God in Christ, 00:06:42.420 --> 00:06:46.860 to leave behind the comfort of the old, the old securities, the old identities. 00:06:48.140 --> 00:06:50.879 And for the original audience of Hebrews, this meant leaving behind the comfort, 00:06:51.020 --> 00:06:53.960 the security, the identity of Old Covenant, Old Testament Judaism. 00:06:54.580 --> 00:06:58.200 The very thing that has sustained their families for generations, 00:06:58.680 --> 00:07:02.460 the sacrifices, the altar, the priests, the temple, the city of Jerusalem itself, 00:07:02.460 --> 00:07:05.140 they were being called to step out. 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:09.480 Into the fulfillment of God's plan. 00:07:11.840 --> 00:07:15.259 Into the fulfillment, into what all those things were actually pointing towards. 00:07:15.420 --> 00:07:16.200 Step out. 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:21.160 They were being called to do the unthinkable, to actually go outside the camp 00:07:21.160 --> 00:07:26.620 and realize that all those things that they had structured their life around were provisional. 00:07:26.759 --> 00:07:29.379 They were signposts of the greater thing to come. 00:07:29.379 --> 00:07:36.259 They were called to give their full allegiance to the one who brought those signs and ceremonies 00:07:36.259 --> 00:07:37.699 to their appointed goal and end. 00:07:40.839 --> 00:07:43.879 And of course, for us today, to leave behind the comfort of the old, 00:07:43.980 --> 00:07:49.420 those old securities, those old identities, is no easy thing. 00:07:49.420 --> 00:07:56.020 Many of us maybe are struggling with just that this morning. 00:07:57.660 --> 00:08:01.500 Maybe some security that we fear to lose. 00:08:02.319 --> 00:08:05.600 Some pattern, some habit, some relationship 00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:09.800 that we just couldn't think to live without. 00:08:09.800 --> 00:08:17.860 Maybe some identity that we don't think we could actually lose without losing who is essentially us. 00:08:23.139 --> 00:08:26.819 But it's not just leaving the comfort of the old that causes us to waver in our following of Christ. 00:08:26.900 --> 00:08:31.300 It's also the prospect of the reproach of the new. 00:08:31.300 --> 00:08:35.700 You know, for the original audience of Hebrews, just think of what it meant for them 00:08:35.700 --> 00:08:38.500 to maintain their confidence and confession in Christ. 00:08:39.220 --> 00:08:44.639 At the very least, it would mean putting themselves in a place of familial disapproval and rejection 00:08:44.639 --> 00:08:48.740 as parents and brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins 00:08:48.740 --> 00:08:54.879 accused them of betraying the heritage, of betraying the family, 00:08:55.379 --> 00:08:58.080 of betraying their people, of betraying even their God. 00:08:58.080 --> 00:09:04.720 And it would also most likely have meant social reproach and exclusion. 00:09:05.320 --> 00:09:09.759 Think of how their Greco-Roman neighbors would have viewed them with suspicion. 00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:14.800 Here's this group of people that never participated in the civic cults, 00:09:15.620 --> 00:09:18.540 that never took part in the local temple sacrifices, 00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:23.160 and after all, what exactly were they doing when they got together on Sunday morning? 00:09:23.800 --> 00:09:27.700 I heard that they're eating flesh and blood and calling each other brother and sister. 00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:29.340 What is this thing? 00:09:33.980 --> 00:09:37.259 To hold on to their confession of Christ would have meant social ridicule and suspicion. 00:09:37.379 --> 00:09:41.540 But third, it could have possibly even meant legal vulnerability, 00:09:41.540 --> 00:09:46.700 because unlike Judaism, Christianity wasn't a protected religion by the Roman state. 00:09:47.720 --> 00:09:49.660 And we see this as Christian history progresses. 00:09:49.800 --> 00:09:54.280 If the local authorities needed a scapegoat, there were always the Christians to blame. 00:09:54.279 --> 00:10:02.000 Now, we know from reading the headlines today that there are some places in the world right now 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:08.620 where identifying with Christ means facing the very same threats—family, social, legal. 00:10:09.500 --> 00:10:14.339 And we Christians should be praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ in those places 00:10:14.339 --> 00:10:16.899 that they would hold fast to their confession. 00:10:16.899 --> 00:10:25.179 And we should be praying for governments and cultures to change so that the gospel can be freely proclaimed and believed. 00:10:25.179 --> 00:10:31.120 But friends, lest we think that this is just some problem in another part of the world, 00:10:31.959 --> 00:10:35.419 is it not a problem in our own hearts as well? 00:10:37.279 --> 00:10:41.359 Don't we fear the reproach of identifying with Christ? 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:50.620 Don't we fear what our peers would say if they found out that we had given our full allegiance to Christ? 00:10:52.899 --> 00:10:56.320 No intelligent person believes the Bible. 00:10:59.320 --> 00:11:02.659 Or you don't really believe that Jesus rose from the dead, do you? 00:11:02.700 --> 00:11:08.279 You're telling me that a guy 2,000 years ago went into a tomb and came back out. 00:11:08.279 --> 00:11:14.299 Or maybe, look, if there's a God, why can't he just forgive? 00:11:14.779 --> 00:11:16.360 Why send his son to die on a cross? 00:11:19.259 --> 00:11:20.559 Don't we fear the reproach? 00:11:21.379 --> 00:11:27.199 What would my friends and family and neighbors and co-workers and bosses and roommates really think of me if they knew I was a Christian? 00:11:28.699 --> 00:11:30.000 We don't want to be excluded. 00:11:30.139 --> 00:11:32.939 We don't want to be seen as weird and close-minded. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:35.620 So we hesitate in our commitment to Christ. 00:11:35.620 --> 00:11:40.840 We try to stay inside the walls of our old cities, of our old identities, of our old securities, 00:11:41.120 --> 00:11:44.820 and we're afraid to embrace Christ with the reproach that may come. 00:11:48.960 --> 00:11:54.200 But friends, if this is the call, how do we do it? 00:11:55.659 --> 00:11:57.460 How do we heed the call of Christ? 00:11:57.560 --> 00:12:01.560 How do we leave, actually leave the comfort of the old for the reproach of the new? 00:12:01.580 --> 00:12:02.940 It's a critical question, isn't it? 00:12:02.940 --> 00:12:13.440 You know, because some of us as followers of Christ, we're wondering why, as we look at our lives, there's no growth, there's no spiritual change, there's no joy in our walk with God. 00:12:14.100 --> 00:12:15.920 We feel stagnant and stuck. 00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:23.260 And friends, perhaps it's because we keep retreating back to the comforts of the old. 00:12:23.259 --> 00:12:31.340 We keep finding our security and our identity inside the walls of that old city, of that old camp that we thought we left behind. 00:12:33.419 --> 00:12:35.039 And so we need to know how. 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:41.139 We need to know what strength there is for us to go out, to move out, and to leave that behind for the new. 00:12:43.100 --> 00:12:48.000 But, you know, it's also a critical question if you're spiritually seeking this morning, if you're here and you're exploring Christianity. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:13:03.679 Because, you know, as the claims of Christ begin to make more and more sense to you, there will come a point in your spiritual searching when you realize that what's going on is not just you seeking God, but actually God summoning you. 00:13:03.679 --> 00:13:25.639 And there will come a decisive point when the summons is just this, to go to Him outside the camp, leaving behind the comfort of the old, whatever that may be for you, and to embrace Christ wholeheartedly, along with whatever reproach may come as a result. 00:13:25.639 --> 00:13:36.139 And how, friend, in the world, when it gets to that point, will you make the impossible step? 00:13:41.080 --> 00:13:43.539 Well, that's exactly what the rest of our passage is about. 00:13:44.279 --> 00:13:54.480 Up to this point, we've been considering the exhortation in verse 13, but the rest of our text actually gives us powerful reasons, powerful motivations to go to Him outside the camp. 00:13:54.480 --> 00:14:06.460 The whole passage is constructed to propel us in that outward movement as Hebrews makes one last shot at His audience to get them to embrace Christ. 00:14:06.860 --> 00:14:07.639 Here it is. 00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:14.139 Three powerful motivations to go to Christ outside the camp. 00:14:14.139 --> 00:14:16.740 And the first is this. 00:14:16.840 --> 00:14:28.639 We can go to Him outside the camp, leaving the old comforts, bearing His reproach, because in Christ, there's actually a feast of heart-strengthening grace. 00:14:30.059 --> 00:14:31.519 Look again at verses 8 through 10. 00:14:31.519 --> 00:14:36.439 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 00:14:36.439 --> 00:14:46.379 Don't be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it's good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 00:14:47.299 --> 00:14:51.799 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 00:14:51.799 --> 00:15:11.159 You see, one of the great spiritual theological issues that the original audience was wrestling with was whether they should take their understanding of who Jesus is and fit it under their understanding of the law of Torah or whether they should take their understanding of the law of Torah and fit it under their understanding of who Jesus is. 00:15:11.159 --> 00:15:17.319 And verse 8 couldn't be more emphatic. 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:19.399 It's not the law. 00:15:19.819 --> 00:15:20.699 It's not Torah. 00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:22.639 But Jesus Christ. 00:15:23.379 --> 00:15:26.259 He is the eternal and unchanging one. 00:15:26.339 --> 00:15:29.079 He has not and does not and will not change. 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:35.360 Everything else in God's plan of redemption from beginning to end revolves around Him. 00:15:36.360 --> 00:15:40.639 The sending of the Son wasn't plan B when plan A seemed to fail. 00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:43.819 It was the plan from the beginning. 00:15:45.639 --> 00:15:52.299 And that means that Jesus didn't just come along because we needed a little push to get us over the line morally and spiritually. 00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:52.740 No. 00:15:53.480 --> 00:16:03.299 Christianity is not a message that we're basically good and that we do our part and if we've done our part, then God will come along and give us the little boost that we need. 00:16:04.980 --> 00:16:05.500 No. 00:16:05.500 --> 00:16:05.539 No. 00:16:06.539 --> 00:16:15.460 Jesus came to rescue us by sheer grace, by unmerited favor. 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:20.320 He came to do what the law and what Torah could never do. 00:16:20.320 --> 00:16:27.300 And Hebrews is saying that fact is not only central, but it's unchanging. 00:16:28.780 --> 00:16:41.640 And because Jesus and His grace never change, then any teaching that diverges from that, Hebrews says in verse 9, is diverse and strange. 00:16:41.639 --> 00:16:43.740 In other words, utterly foreign. 00:16:45.379 --> 00:16:50.819 Now, you have to see that when Hebrews says that, he's being somewhat ironic. 00:16:51.639 --> 00:16:52.139 How so? 00:16:52.860 --> 00:16:53.600 Because think about it. 00:16:53.819 --> 00:16:59.360 What the Hebrews were being tempted, what they thought they were going back to, was the biblical Mosaic covenant. 00:16:59.620 --> 00:17:02.720 Something that God Himself had thought up, had put in place. 00:17:02.919 --> 00:17:04.539 They thought they were going back to follow the Bible. 00:17:04.539 --> 00:17:04.599 No. 00:17:06.279 --> 00:17:08.200 But Hebrews says, no, don't you realize? 00:17:09.579 --> 00:17:16.579 If you don't see the law, first and foremost, as really being about Christ and what He's come to do for us, 00:17:17.579 --> 00:17:20.819 then your teaching is utterly foreign to what God intended. 00:17:22.019 --> 00:17:25.399 If Christ isn't at the center, then you don't really understand the Bible. 00:17:25.579 --> 00:17:26.639 In fact, you've totally missed it. 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:28.619 It's like you're reading an utterly foreign book. 00:17:28.619 --> 00:17:34.719 And you can put into place all sorts of regulations and rituals. 00:17:34.839 --> 00:17:37.239 Hebrews mentions foods in verse 9. 00:17:37.939 --> 00:17:41.199 Probably referring to the Jewish food laws and fellowship meals like Passover. 00:17:41.539 --> 00:17:46.299 You know, you can put all those things in place, and they won't do you any benefit. 00:17:46.799 --> 00:17:53.619 In fact, you can eat from the very altar in the temple itself, and it won't do a thing for your heart. 00:17:56.739 --> 00:17:58.379 So what does strengthen the heart? 00:17:58.619 --> 00:17:59.059 Grace. 00:18:00.259 --> 00:18:00.619 Grace. 00:18:02.379 --> 00:18:04.059 And how do we feast on grace? 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:06.399 Faith. 00:18:07.959 --> 00:18:10.699 Faith in Jesus and in what He's done. 00:18:12.359 --> 00:18:17.099 You see, friends, if you stay in the old city, you know, you can stay there. 00:18:17.299 --> 00:18:18.439 You can stay in the old city. 00:18:18.779 --> 00:18:20.399 You cannot venture forth to Him. 00:18:20.399 --> 00:18:25.000 And to stay in that place is to stay in a place where there are lots of externals. 00:18:26.179 --> 00:18:28.439 Not just religious ones, but your religious ones, too. 00:18:29.579 --> 00:18:35.019 Lots of regulations and rituals that can make you feel good about yourself for a time. 00:18:35.219 --> 00:18:35.399 Right? 00:18:35.559 --> 00:18:39.879 In fact, you can play the game just right and have everything. 00:18:39.880 --> 00:18:43.320 The job, the car, the spouse, the kids. 00:18:43.320 --> 00:18:47.300 You can be devoted to all the right things and all the right causes. 00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:50.820 And you can center your life on all the right principles. 00:18:50.819 --> 00:19:02.299 But in the supposed comfort and security and identity that those things give you, your heart, 00:19:03.259 --> 00:19:08.539 the very core of who you are, will grow weak. 00:19:08.539 --> 00:19:19.399 Even if you lack nothing, materially, relationally, vocationally, if you've got it all still, the heart will starve. 00:19:19.400 --> 00:19:27.759 And you will bite down on something to make the hunger go away. 00:19:27.759 --> 00:19:33.779 Your job, the success of your kids, your good deeds. 00:19:33.779 --> 00:19:37.920 You will put all the weight of your soul into them. 00:19:38.119 --> 00:19:43.500 All your expectations, all your hopes, all your dreams, trying to get a morsel for your heart. 00:19:43.579 --> 00:19:47.180 But in the end, you only come away more hungry than before. 00:19:47.180 --> 00:19:57.019 And what's worse, you'll find that you've utterly consumed whatever it is that you've tried to feed your heart upon. 00:19:58.779 --> 00:20:01.380 After all, what career could feed the depths of your heart? 00:20:01.460 --> 00:20:03.580 Won't you crush it with your expectations? 00:20:04.519 --> 00:20:10.980 What child, what humanitarian project could possibly bear the weight of a human heart? 00:20:13.720 --> 00:20:14.440 None of them. 00:20:14.440 --> 00:20:20.380 Because, friends, you were made to feast on His grace. 00:20:22.220 --> 00:20:30.779 And if you go to Him outside the city, the table of His grace is always set for those who come in faith. 00:20:31.600 --> 00:20:33.240 Because He doesn't change. 00:20:33.960 --> 00:20:36.900 And He's the same yesterday and today and forever. 00:20:36.900 --> 00:20:41.380 And at His table, at His altar, there's a feast that you could never empty. 00:20:41.380 --> 00:20:45.600 Where your heart will be made strong. 00:20:46.260 --> 00:20:48.620 Where it will be revived from its weakness. 00:20:48.760 --> 00:20:50.080 Where it will come alive again. 00:20:51.760 --> 00:20:56.360 Where your eyes will be brightened as if you had just taken a good meal. 00:20:58.140 --> 00:21:02.300 Friends, aren't you tired of feasting on things that just don't feed your soul? 00:21:03.940 --> 00:21:05.540 Go to Him outside the camp. 00:21:05.539 --> 00:21:08.039 Leave the old comforts. 00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:09.940 Yes, bear His reproach. 00:21:10.099 --> 00:21:12.859 Because with Him, there's a feast of heart-strengthening grace. 00:21:14.759 --> 00:21:16.240 That will never leave you hungry. 00:21:19.399 --> 00:21:20.259 But that's not all. 00:21:20.839 --> 00:21:22.259 Look at verses 11 through 14. 00:21:22.519 --> 00:21:23.700 Especially verse 14. 00:21:24.379 --> 00:21:27.559 That's where we find the second motivation to go to Him outside the camp. 00:21:27.639 --> 00:21:32.740 If it weren't enough that there's an unceasing feast of grace, Hebrews hits us again with another thing. 00:21:32.839 --> 00:21:34.440 Look at me with verse 13. 00:21:34.500 --> 00:21:35.079 We'll start there again. 00:21:35.079 --> 00:21:38.819 Therefore, let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach to the endured. 00:21:39.099 --> 00:21:41.720 For here we have no lasting city. 00:21:42.579 --> 00:21:45.919 But we seek the city that is to come. 00:21:47.619 --> 00:21:48.759 There it is. 00:21:50.099 --> 00:21:54.699 Going out to Christ, we seek a lasting city. 00:21:54.700 --> 00:21:59.279 Just as He remains the same. 00:21:59.279 --> 00:22:01.279 Just as His table is never emptied. 00:22:01.440 --> 00:22:05.559 So His city to come will always endure. 00:22:06.180 --> 00:22:07.720 Will forever last. 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:13.680 And that's not the case with the cities of this world, is it? 00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:16.900 With our identities and our securities. 00:22:16.900 --> 00:22:23.900 It seems almost too obvious to even point out that the things of this life don't last. 00:22:24.400 --> 00:22:26.900 And yet, how often do we live our lives as if they do? 00:22:26.900 --> 00:22:27.460 Rome. 00:22:27.460 --> 00:22:27.560 Rome. 00:22:27.560 --> 00:22:27.759 Rome. 00:22:27.759 --> 00:22:29.720 Rome. 00:22:29.720 --> 00:22:34.560 The center of the political universe in the first century. 00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:35.220 Rome. 00:22:35.220 --> 00:22:37.099 Eventually began to call itself what? 00:22:38.299 --> 00:22:39.779 The eternal city. 00:22:39.779 --> 00:22:47.980 And yet, by the fifth century, Rome itself would fall to the so-called barbarians. 00:22:48.059 --> 00:22:51.059 The very barbarians that they prided themselves on conquering. 00:22:54.180 --> 00:22:58.639 Friends, don't you see the comforts that we fear to lose by leaving your old city, by going 00:22:58.639 --> 00:22:59.420 outside the camp? 00:22:59.619 --> 00:23:00.859 Will they ever really last? 00:23:00.859 --> 00:23:04.039 Take the best case scenario. 00:23:04.799 --> 00:23:08.759 Even if our finances stay intact to the end of our days. 00:23:09.039 --> 00:23:12.259 Even if our family and our friends stay in touch. 00:23:12.359 --> 00:23:15.899 Even if our reputations are esteemed to the very last. 00:23:16.219 --> 00:23:19.740 Eventually, we've all got to face the grave. 00:23:21.479 --> 00:23:27.659 And what comfort wouldn't you trade to no real comfort on that day? 00:23:30.859 --> 00:23:33.299 But even at the everyday level, isn't it true? 00:23:33.939 --> 00:23:36.939 The things that we cling so tightly to, how fleeting they are. 00:23:37.659 --> 00:23:41.719 That friend whose approval you just couldn't imagine living without. 00:23:42.939 --> 00:23:46.679 In a year or two, who knows where they'll be in your life? 00:23:47.319 --> 00:23:49.299 A different college, a different city perhaps. 00:23:51.259 --> 00:23:56.740 Or that great new cause, or that exciting intellectual movement that makes Christianity seem so 00:23:56.740 --> 00:23:57.639 unfashionable. 00:23:57.640 --> 00:24:01.040 In a few short years, it'll be just that. 00:24:02.320 --> 00:24:05.259 A fashion that came and went. 00:24:06.140 --> 00:24:07.980 Like flannel shirts in the 90s. 00:24:10.580 --> 00:24:12.180 I had flannel shirts in the 90s. 00:24:14.040 --> 00:24:15.340 I don't wear any of them anymore. 00:24:17.500 --> 00:24:21.380 And of course, none of this is to say that relationships or the life of the mind are unimportant. 00:24:21.520 --> 00:24:26.380 But friends, it's just to say that perspective is often something that we sorely lack. 00:24:26.380 --> 00:24:28.880 None of these comforts we fear to lose. 00:24:28.940 --> 00:24:33.840 And friends, none of the reproaches that we fear to gain will really ultimately last. 00:24:33.839 --> 00:24:36.899 But the city to come. 00:24:38.399 --> 00:24:41.319 Where God dwells in the midst of His people. 00:24:42.179 --> 00:24:46.220 Where all creation is set free from its bondage to disease and death and decay. 00:24:46.459 --> 00:24:48.039 That city that is coming. 00:24:49.399 --> 00:24:55.619 Where the things that have been done for His glory in every city of the world come streaming in and find the rightful place. 00:24:55.839 --> 00:24:56.519 That city. 00:24:56.519 --> 00:24:59.079 That will last. 00:24:59.079 --> 00:25:06.019 And in Christ, by His grace, we are granted a place in that city. 00:25:06.960 --> 00:25:08.819 Where all things are made new. 00:25:09.660 --> 00:25:11.920 And where the works don't crumble. 00:25:12.059 --> 00:25:13.359 And where the glory doesn't fade. 00:25:13.460 --> 00:25:18.420 And whose citizens never again fear sorrow and sickness and sin and death. 00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:22.460 Friends, so go to Him outside the camp. 00:25:22.460 --> 00:25:30.680 Leave the fleeting comfort of the old for that glorious reproach of the new. 00:25:32.319 --> 00:25:37.400 Because we're going out not just to a feast of grace, but to a city to come that will endure forever. 00:25:37.400 --> 00:25:47.660 And as we come to the last two verses of our text, we see something important. 00:25:49.160 --> 00:25:50.680 That seeking the city to come. 00:25:51.519 --> 00:25:53.980 That feasting on grace in our hearts. 00:25:54.900 --> 00:25:56.920 These things have a surprising effect. 00:25:59.019 --> 00:26:01.900 You know, rather than sort of going outside of the camp. 00:26:01.900 --> 00:26:07.440 And that making Christians withdrawn and useless to the world as it now stands. 00:26:07.660 --> 00:26:09.620 Which is what some of us fear. 00:26:10.740 --> 00:26:12.180 It does just the opposite. 00:26:13.860 --> 00:26:20.300 It creates a people who are joyful and generous no matter where they live. 00:26:21.580 --> 00:26:24.740 No matter what actual city they find themselves in. 00:26:24.740 --> 00:26:31.060 They actually create a counter movement that brings good to those around them. 00:26:31.059 --> 00:26:35.220 They become a distinct people for the life of the world. 00:26:37.339 --> 00:26:38.779 And this is our third point. 00:26:39.159 --> 00:26:39.879 It's right here. 00:26:40.500 --> 00:26:41.679 How can we go out to Him? 00:26:42.859 --> 00:26:45.960 Because as we leave the comforts of the old for the reproach of the new through Christ, 00:26:46.099 --> 00:26:51.539 we actually offer sacrifices that are pleasing to God and that bring good to those who are around us. 00:26:52.460 --> 00:26:53.700 Look at verses 15 and 16. 00:26:53.700 --> 00:26:58.379 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. 00:26:58.700 --> 00:27:00.559 That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name. 00:27:00.559 --> 00:27:06.839 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. 00:27:07.220 --> 00:27:07.740 Now, look. 00:27:07.919 --> 00:27:16.720 One of the things that made Christians very, very odd in the first century was the fact that they didn't offer any animal sacrifices as a regular part of their religion. 00:27:17.720 --> 00:27:20.419 It's hard for us to appreciate how strange that would have been. 00:27:20.420 --> 00:27:24.120 But everyone else was offering sacrifices of some sort. 00:27:24.340 --> 00:27:27.680 Jews, pagans, Romans, Greeks, male, female, slave free, everybody. 00:27:29.580 --> 00:27:35.860 And yet here were Christians saying, running totally against the stream of everyone else, 00:27:37.200 --> 00:27:42.860 that because of what Jesus had done, they didn't need to offer those sorts of sacrifices anymore. 00:27:42.859 --> 00:27:50.479 They had the true and better sacrifice, the once for all death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for them. 00:27:50.480 --> 00:27:57.920 And these two verses then answer a sort of implicit question. 00:27:58.920 --> 00:28:04.900 Well, if that's the case, what sort of sacrifices do we offer? 00:28:04.900 --> 00:28:13.019 Now that Jesus has completely done what every animal sacrifice ever hoped to do but never really could do, what now? 00:28:13.019 --> 00:28:24.599 And the writer of Hebrews says in his own incredibly artistic way that here are the sacrifices that you offer. 00:28:26.220 --> 00:28:29.440 Here are the new sacrifices, if you will. 00:28:30.200 --> 00:28:36.539 And the first is continual, joyful praise of God through Jesus. 00:28:36.539 --> 00:28:43.700 And the second is continual, practical doing of good to others. 00:28:46.899 --> 00:28:48.960 Sounds a lot like the greatest commandment, doesn't it? 00:28:49.700 --> 00:28:52.759 When Jesus was approached by an expert in the law and asked what the greatest commandment was, 00:28:52.799 --> 00:28:53.359 do you remember what he said? 00:28:53.379 --> 00:28:57.500 He said, well, the first is this, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. 00:28:57.500 --> 00:29:02.720 And the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. 00:29:02.720 --> 00:29:13.380 Love of God, love of neighbor, joyful, continual delight in God, and practical, generous good towards our neighbors. 00:29:14.799 --> 00:29:22.220 These are the sacrifices that flow from the lives of those who embrace Christ. 00:29:23.400 --> 00:29:27.759 Going outside the camp, leaving the old comforts, bearing his reproach. 00:29:27.759 --> 00:29:34.000 On the surface, don't you think that that would make people just sad and mean, having lost so much, having to bear so much? 00:29:35.119 --> 00:29:35.839 But no. 00:29:37.599 --> 00:29:41.339 Because at the cross, we find grace. 00:29:42.859 --> 00:29:44.559 And a city that lasts. 00:29:45.539 --> 00:29:47.879 And a sacrifice that's sufficient for us. 00:29:48.259 --> 00:29:51.319 That meets our deepest needs for all who believe. 00:29:53.200 --> 00:29:55.140 Because that's what we find there. 00:29:55.140 --> 00:29:59.820 It's a life of joy and generosity. 00:30:01.360 --> 00:30:05.480 And friends, isn't that exactly what our city needs? 00:30:06.100 --> 00:30:06.640 This city. 00:30:08.380 --> 00:30:11.280 The one where if you walk two blocks that way, you're in a dorm. 00:30:11.580 --> 00:30:14.120 And if you walk two blocks that way, you're in the grad school ghetto. 00:30:14.540 --> 00:30:18.060 And if you walk two blocks that way, you're in an ethnic Italian neighborhood. 00:30:18.200 --> 00:30:21.720 And then if you keep going a few more blocks, you're in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood. 00:30:21.720 --> 00:30:25.220 And if you go three blocks that way, you're in an African-American neighborhood. 00:30:25.299 --> 00:30:30.059 What does this city in all of its incredible diversity actually need? 00:30:32.680 --> 00:30:42.680 It needs a group of people who are so enthralled by the gospel of Jesus Christ that they've left their old comforts to embrace him. 00:30:42.680 --> 00:30:49.680 And have become a people who bring joy to despair and who bring generosity to need wherever they go. 00:30:54.840 --> 00:30:57.100 But friends, only if we leave our old camp. 00:30:57.680 --> 00:31:02.799 Only if we let those old identities and securities behind and take hold of Christ in faith. 00:31:02.860 --> 00:31:04.480 Will we be that kind of people? 00:31:04.480 --> 00:31:12.680 You know, in other words, spiritually speaking, you'll only be able to love the city if you leave the city. 00:31:13.420 --> 00:31:15.259 And I don't mean moving to the suburbs of the country. 00:31:15.360 --> 00:31:24.299 What I mean is only if you make Christ the full-fledged center of your life will you be able to then love the city the way it needs to be loved. 00:31:26.339 --> 00:31:27.299 After all, think about it. 00:31:27.299 --> 00:31:32.759 You can only pull someone out of the water if you've got a firm grip on the shore. 00:31:32.759 --> 00:31:36.359 However, if you're floating downstream with them, you're no help. 00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:45.579 If we're still captive to the same fears and worries and comforts as our loved ones around us, 00:31:46.460 --> 00:31:50.700 we won't actually be able to provide for them something new. 00:31:52.220 --> 00:31:52.920 Joy. 00:31:54.379 --> 00:31:54.980 Generosity. 00:31:56.180 --> 00:31:59.619 These are the sacrifices that please God and bring good. 00:31:59.619 --> 00:32:06.459 And this is what the gospel rightly grasped always produces. 00:32:08.419 --> 00:32:14.279 For when we go out of the camp, when we leave our old comforts, our old identities, our old securities, 00:32:15.279 --> 00:32:18.399 we're going out to Him. 00:32:18.400 --> 00:32:22.000 We're not going out to an idea. 00:32:23.120 --> 00:32:24.759 We're not going out to a principle. 00:32:25.780 --> 00:32:27.560 We're not going out to a system. 00:32:28.920 --> 00:32:30.340 But we're going out to Him. 00:32:32.019 --> 00:32:35.960 To the one who Himself went outside the city. 00:32:36.560 --> 00:32:38.680 For the good of the city. 00:32:39.160 --> 00:32:41.100 For the good of us. 00:32:41.099 --> 00:32:44.439 Look again at verses 11 and 12. 00:32:46.439 --> 00:32:53.759 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought to the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 00:32:54.819 --> 00:33:01.379 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through His own blood. 00:33:02.719 --> 00:33:03.939 Therefore, let us go to Him. 00:33:03.940 --> 00:33:07.779 On the Day of Atonement, once a year, the priest used to make a sacrifice. 00:33:08.660 --> 00:33:14.360 And after sprinkling the blood, instead of eating it, the rest of it, in the temple, like all the other sacrifices, 00:33:14.500 --> 00:33:17.799 God told them to take it outside the city and burn it to ash. 00:33:20.480 --> 00:33:26.700 And Hebrews is saying, don't you see in that image a picture of the true and better sacrifice? 00:33:26.700 --> 00:33:30.539 Those sacrifices were offered once a year. 00:33:31.140 --> 00:33:38.100 But when Jesus Christ was crucified and consumed outside the gate, it wasn't just once a year. 00:33:38.180 --> 00:33:39.440 It was once for all. 00:33:41.400 --> 00:33:45.519 You see, He went out of the city gate bearing our reproach. 00:33:46.539 --> 00:33:50.299 Being mocked and insulted and excluded and rejected. 00:33:51.200 --> 00:33:54.799 Having His very identity thrown back in His face. 00:33:54.799 --> 00:33:59.279 If you're the Son of God, if you are the Christ, come down off the cross. 00:34:00.919 --> 00:34:02.639 Where's your Father now? 00:34:04.859 --> 00:34:10.159 Having His security stripped away as He was hung up between two criminals. 00:34:14.800 --> 00:34:23.579 Being made fundamentally unclean outside the city, outside the camp. 00:34:24.800 --> 00:34:30.700 So that you and I could be made clean. 00:34:31.640 --> 00:34:33.700 So that He could sanctify us. 00:34:35.180 --> 00:34:43.600 That He would be consumed and rejected so that we could know His favor forever. 00:34:45.200 --> 00:34:53.700 Friends, don't you see that any reproach that we now bear with Him is nothing compared to the favor that we receive because He suffered for us? 00:34:53.699 --> 00:35:00.319 And when you see how He won the Father's favor for us at such cost going outside the gate, 00:35:00.320 --> 00:35:08.400 when you see that, then the sacrifices of joy and generosity continually flow. 00:35:08.600 --> 00:35:12.740 Joy because no matter who reproaches you, you know that you're loved in the eyes of God. 00:35:14.539 --> 00:35:19.360 Generosity because you no longer need the things of this world to give you comfort and happiness. 00:35:19.480 --> 00:35:20.440 You can give them away. 00:35:20.440 --> 00:35:31.240 In chapter 11, Hebrews told us that Moses considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than all the treasure of Egypt, 00:35:31.900 --> 00:35:34.440 for He was looking forward to the reward. 00:35:36.139 --> 00:35:37.380 And so it is. 00:35:39.340 --> 00:35:41.260 Friends, go to Him outside the camp. 00:35:41.400 --> 00:35:43.159 Let nothing hinder you. 00:35:43.159 --> 00:35:48.299 Yes, when Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. 00:35:48.359 --> 00:35:50.119 But as another 20th century martyr said, 00:35:50.379 --> 00:35:55.539 He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. 00:35:56.299 --> 00:36:02.659 A feast of grace, a city that lasts, sacrifices that actually please God and bring good. 00:36:02.659 --> 00:36:11.619 So friends, for the good of our city and for the good of your own soul, go to Him outside the camp. 00:36:13.839 --> 00:36:14.440 Let's pray. 00:36:19.319 --> 00:36:24.779 Oh, Lord Jesus, we confess that we need Your grace to do what this passage is calling us to do. 00:36:25.139 --> 00:36:29.679 Lord, to step out of our old comforts and to wholeheartedly embrace You. 00:36:30.980 --> 00:36:32.539 God, make that so. 00:36:32.659 --> 00:36:33.899 In us by Your Spirit. 00:36:34.619 --> 00:36:42.019 And God, make us a people who will bring life and good to our city because we have found a city to come. 00:36:43.579 --> 00:36:45.159 Lord, we pray this in Christ's name. 00:36:45.339 --> 00:36:45.579 Amen.