October 12, 2003
When you read about the Christians who were caught in the nightmare of the
Nazi occupation of Europe, you will find a variety of responses.
Some Christians sold out their faith and sold out innocent human lives to
save their own skins.
Some Christians denied their faith, allowing the message of the Bible to
be shaped by the Nazis.
Some Christian pastors simply ceded their pulpits to become parrots of Nazi
propaganda.
Some Christians turned on and rejected other people, both friends and strangers,
simply because they were Jews or in some other way an enemy of the Nazi
regime. They did this to insure their own safety. In so doing, they denied the Savior they professed.
On the other hand, many remained true to their faith.
They risked their lives in order to save the lives of innocent Jews. Some of them hid Jews and were involved in all sorts
of dangerous plans in order to obtain false passports so that Jews could escape
the Nazi death camps. Some of these people, already
free of the Nazi menace themselves, voluntarily went back into Germany in
order to free others.
In doing these things, they knew that they risked every minute, certain
that one miscue, one mistake, one misword would lead to a horrible end in
a Nazi death camp. And for many, many of these
brave people, this is exactly what happened.
Such stories point up the difference in people’s faith.
The faith of some people does not stand up in testing.
The faith of other people does.
Some people who claimed to have faith in Christ, when the pressure was on,
saw their faith collapse.
Under such severe testing, what would you and I do?
How can we make sure that our faith is the kind of faith that will persevere
to the end, even if we have to risk our lives to be true to Jesus Christ?
Our text this morning, and indeed the whole book of Hebrews, speaks to this
issue.
First, let me remind you again of the situation these people were in.
They were strong Christians who had undergone testing of their faith. They had been persecuted, some had their property
seized, and so forth.
But they had been living under such threat and such tension for a long time,
and it appears that they were being worn down. They
were being tempted to compromise their beliefs a bit.
And in particular they were being tempted to compromise Whom they believed
the person of Jesus to be.
Read 3:1-6.
Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly
calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.
He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful
in all God’s house.
Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder
of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built
by someone, but God is the builder of everything. Moses was faithful as a
servant in all of God’s house, testifiying to what would be said in the future.
But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house,
if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.
In the first paragraph here, verses 1-6 of chapter 3, the main focus is
a comparison between Christ and Moses.
Because this is not an issue that we face, this doesn’t exactly grab us. But the principle that is relevant to us is this:
If we are to have a faith that will persevere, we must be sure that trusting
completely in Jesus Christ is the right thing to do.
One of the criticisms Jewish Christians always raised by their Jewish friends
was, “You are not being faithful to Moses. By
believing in Jesus, you are denigrating Moses. You
are bringing dishonor to the law.”
Now, you can understand that this accusation would have a terrible emotional
impact on Jewish Christians. After all, they did
have a tremendous respect for Moses. They had
great regard for the law of God. So this kind
of accusation hurt.
This accusation was nothing new. Jesus encountered
this kind of mindset quite often. Perhaps the
best example is found in John chapter 5. Turn there please and I want to read
to you two short responses by Jesus to what was basically the same accusation
thrown at him.
In verses 39 and 40: “You diligently study the scriptures because
you think that by them you possess eternal life. These
are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to
have life.”
Then drop down to verse 45: “But do not think I will accuse you before
the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your
hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would
believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you
do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”
Jesus is countering a common objection to people’s putting their faith in
Him.
And Jesus is telling them the very best way to honor Moses is to do what
he said to do.
If you really want to honor Moses and honor the law, do what they say.
If you do that, you will come to Jesus. Because
that is what Moses said to do.
Now, returning to Hebrews, the writer makes the same point in verse 5: “Moses
was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be
said in the future. But Christ is faithful as
a Son over God’s house. And we are his house if
we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.”
First, He does not take anything away from Moses. He
was faithful in God’s house. And we should be
thankful to God for His life, His example, and His service to God.
But Moses was just part of the house as you and I are.
But the builder of the house is Jesus.
Now the house is the people of God. Not buildings
and so forth but people who trust God and believe God.
And in both the OT and the NT the builder of those people is and was Jesus
Christ. He is the right One in Whom to put our
faith.
Jesus is the One of Whom Moses spoke. Jesus
is the One in Whom Moses trusted. Jesus is the
One in Whom all the Old Testament people trusted.
Trusting in Jesus is the right thing to do! We will never, never be ashamed
if we put our trust and our confidence in Jesus Christ.
That brings us to the next section that teaches us too about how our faith
is to persevere.
Read Hebrews 3:7-19.
The author is obviously referring to something that happened in the Old
Testament, an incident in which people’s faith failed, and then
using this as a warning so that we don’t make the same mistake.
Briefly let me explain the incident. The quotation
is actually from Psalm 95:7-11, which refers to an incident that happened
to the Israelites after Moses had led them out of Egypt and through the Red
Sea.
The account of this is found in Exodus 17. The Israelites were traveling
from place to place as God commanded them. At
one point they came to Rephidim, but they found no water to drink there.
And so they began to grumble against Moses. And
they said to Moses: “’Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and
our children and livestock die of thirst?’”
They became so upset that they were almost ready to stone Moses.
Moses called out to God, God had Moses strike a rock, and water flowed out
of the rock for the people and livestock.
Now at the end of this account, we have this summary.
They tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Going back to Hebrews, this becomes a stern warning that the people failed
to inherit God’s promises because they did not have faith.
And so God did not cause these people to inherit the land He had promised
to them because of their lack of faith.
And the whole problem they had with their faith is summarized in these words:
“Is the Lord among us or not?”
What are we to learn from this?
If we are to have faith that perseveres, WE MUST focus on God’s promised
goodness, not the obstacles before us.
The Israelites had the promise that God would bring them out of Egypt and
give them a land of their own.
And they had seen God’s faithfulness.
They had seen God bring Egypt to its knees through the plagues.
At the Red Sea, when it looked like they would all be killed, they had seen
the salvation of God in rescuing them.
God had promised them, “I’ll take care of you.”
However, EVERY TIME a crisis developed, they would panic, blame God for
bringing them out of Egypt, and forget about the promises.
Understand that even though the passage quoted was from this one particular
incident that we explained, God was upset NOT because of one incident but
because of the pattern of unbelief.
In verse 9: “Where your fathers tested and tried me, and for forty
years saw what I did, that is why I was angry with that generation, and I
said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’”
Again, and again, the people, when faced with obstacles, refused to trust
in God’s promises but instead questioned God’s goodness and faithfulness and
His presence with them.
God said, “Their hearts are always going astray and they have not known
my ways ...”
What ways does God mean?
The way of living by faith. That is what God
has called us to. And that means trusting in
His promises and in His goodness and faithfulness behind the promises, rather
than blaming God and panicking when we face obstacles and trials of various
kinds.
When we read this kind of stern warning, however, when we read that God
was angry with His people because they questioned whether the Lord was among
them, it hits us hard because we all know that at times we have thought that. We have had that same attitude that displeases God.
Does it make God angry when obstacles confront us, when unexpected trials
happen, or when tragedy strikes, and our first reaction is “Is the Lord among
us or not?”
To answer that question I want to look at two places in the gospel of John,
one a response on the part of Jesus, and another an instruction by Jesus to
the disciples.
First, the response in John 12:27.
Jesus has just arrived in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, at which He knows
He will be crucified.
Some Gentiles come to meet Jesus, and Jesus responds by saying that the
hour has come for Him to go to the cross.
And then He says this in verse 27: "Now my heart is troubled, and
what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour."
Jesus, looking at the trial that was coming upon him, says His heart is
troubled.
Now, turn to John 14:1 and look at what Jesus tells His disciples: “DO
NOT LET YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED. TRUST IN GOD,
TRUST ALSO IN ME.”
And a few minutes later in verse 27b He repeats that instruction: “Peace
I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives to you. Let not your hearts be troubled.”
Is there a contradiction here?
Jesus says as He faces a terrible trial that His heart is troubled. And yet upon hearing that Jesus is going away, the
disciples’ hearts are troubled, and Jesus tells them not to let their hearts
be troubled.
Now, in each of these situations, the temptation being faced is that of
unbelief. We are not told what was troubling
Jesus, but it is not hard to guess.
First of all, just the terrible emotional and physical suffering that was
looming for Him.
Secondly, it might have been accusations about the whole idea of going to
the cross.
“You have been telling everyone how much the Father loves you. But is this love? God
doesn’t love you. You are a fool. This is cruel. This is
stupid. This will mean the end for you. You will have thrown your life away for nothing.
What about the disciples?
They had enjoyed three years of following Jesus around, seeing Him meet
all kinds of difficulties, and now He says He is leaving.
Their hearts are troubled about the future. This
was not at all what they expected. This was a
real curve ball. How does this fit in with what
they thought they had been learning about God’s love?
Think about the Israelites. They come to this
camp and there is no water. They know they will
not last long without water. They panic. Their hearts are troubled. They
don’t know what to do. And they begin to question
in their minds what God’s intent is for them.
You see all of these temptations could be summarized the same way. Difficult and foreboding circumstances arise, leaving
us with hearts that are thinking, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
If God really loved us, could this be happening?
If God really is with me, why would this happen?
Was Jesus sinning when His heart was troubled?
Was Jesus setting forth a double standard when His own heart was troubled
but He told His disciples to not let their hearts be troubled?
Were the Israelites not to be very concerned when they learned that there
was no water to drink?
No, Jesus was not sinning.
No, Jesus was not advocating a double standard.
No, God was not angry that His people entertained doubts and fears.
No, the emotional reaction of fear or panic or unbelief is not sin. Emotional reactions are often so sudden we can’t even
control them.
What Jesus was warning His disciples against was giving into such thoughts
and feelings of unbelief.
Jesus says, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.”
Don’t give them permission to keep going down that path.
Jesus, although His heart was troubled, didn’t give into it. He didn’t give His heart permission to move in unbelief.
He fought the temptation. He fought the fear. He did so by rehearsing the promise of God.
He says, “What should I say, Father save me from this hour?’ No. It
was for this reason I came to this hour.”
"The cross is not throwing my life away. The
cross is why I came. The cross will mean the
salvation of the people I love. The will of my
Father will prosper in my hand. I will see the
light of life and I will be satisfied."
What should the disciples do? Just let their
hearts become riddled with fears and doubts and unbelief?
No.
Jesus gives them promises.
He tells them that He is going to send the Holy Spirit to live in them. He tells them that He is going to prepare a place
for them.
He promises that they will not be left as orphans.
Jesus is urging them to take the promises of God and believe. Don’t give into unbelief!
In the same way, this is what God expected of the Israelites. He wasn’t angry that they had an initial reaction
of fear and doubts. But they didn’t fight it. They didn’t take the promises of God and fight their
unbelief and their fear and their doubts.
They could have reminded themselves that God had told them, “I will meet
your needs as you travel through the desert.”
They could have reminded themselves of all the desperate situations they
had faced in the past, when things had looked bleak.
But they didn’t. Instead they gave into their
unbelief. They gave into their fears. And they treated God with contempt and charged Him
with evil motives and unfaithfulness.
Faith, to grow strong, must be exercised.
We have to fight our feelings and our fears with God’s promises. Everyone has to do this. No
one escapes this battle.
But some people give up. They just let their
hearts become full of unbelief and then the unbelief affects their actions. They stop obeying God.
We see examples of this battle to trust in God being worked out in many
of the Psalms. This is why when we have a hard
time praying, often the Psalms will help us because we can identify with
the struggle.
Psalm 42, which we read earlier, is just one of many examples.
Don’t turn there now, but a couple of excerpts give us an idea of the battle
of faith.
“My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all
day long, ‘Where is your God? .... Why are you in despair, 0 my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me?’ Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the
help of his presence.” (Ps 42:3,5)
The psalmist, faced with great difficulty, faced with circumstances that
make him say in his heart, “Is the Lord among us or not?” fights back!
He doesn’t give into despair.
He takes hold of the promises of God.
He remembers how God has been faithful in the past.
He remembers God’s promise to be with him.
And he takes the promises of God and fights the battle of faith.
Martin Lloyd Jones commenting on Psalm 42 had these words about this battle.
Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact
that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you
wake up in the morning. You have not originated
them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday,
etc. Somebody is talking.
Who is talking to you? Your self is talking.
Now the psalmist’s treatment was this: instead of allowing this self to talk
to him, he starts talking to himself, ‘Why art though cast down, 0 my soul?’
he asks. His soul has been depressing him, crushing
him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for
a moment, I will speak to you .... Why are you cast down? - what business
have you to be disquieted?’
And then you just go on to remind yourself of God, Who he is, and what God
is, and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy
yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and
say with this man: I SHALL YET PRA1SE HIM FOR THE HELP OF HIS COUNTENANCE!
Back in Hebrews, in verse 12, we have this warning: “See to it brothers,
that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart, that turns away from the
living God.”
See, if we don’t enter the battle of faith, our hearts will gradually turn
away from God. We will trust him less and less. And we will turn to other things and other people
for our confidence. Most often we will just turn
to ourselves and say, “I’ll just handle it myself. I’ll
rely on myself.” And we turn from God as our source
of courage and hope.
The warning is followed with these instructions in verse 13: "But
encourage one another daily as long as it is called Today, so that none of
you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness."
We see here that we need each other to fight the battle of faith. It should be our daily work to encourage each other.
God has designed us to need each other in the battle.
As one friend of mine puts it, “Often what I know to be true in my own mind
or even in the Bible has a deeper impact when I hear the same thing through
the words of a friend.”
We need each other. We have to have each other’s
encouragement. And this is why using our words
to tear each other down is so serious. When we
do that, what should be our food becomes our poison.
As I think about those people who risked their lives, and often gave their
lives, for the sake of saving innocent people in Nazi Germany, the thing that
speaks most deeply of their faith is that most of these acts of courage were
done knowing full well that their individual acts, EVEN IF SUCCESSFUL, would
not stop the Nazi thirst for blood. In other
words, they knew that their actions maybe at best would save a life here
and there, but could never alter or even impede the Nazi juggernaut.
They believed the promises of God in the face of overwhelming evil.
They acted in faith that God was with them and that God was good, even when
the whole world seemed to be in the hand of the Evil One.
And so I can imagine those who gave their lives so a few children could
go free being commended by Jesus even as the report of the Nazi rifles that
took their lives was still echoing around the hills of Ravensbruck. I can imagine Jesus’ saying to them, "Thank you for
believing me. Thank you for saving these children, for as you did it to
them, you have done it for me."
Or I think of the delight of that the Father had when a handful of people
gathered in the darkness and stench of a death camp, and risked immediate
execution for singing the praises of Jesus Christ. For
believing his promises and his goodness when others cursed God.
Our faith, to persevere, must be the kind of faith that knows that trusting
in Jesus Christ is the right thing to do.
Our faith, to persevere, must be the kind of faith that focuses on the promises
of God, not the obstacles that loom before us.
When our hearts cry out, “Is the Lord among us or not?” our faith must answer
and fight in alignment with the promises of God. We
can be sure because He has promised.