Dear Saints, as we cross the threshold into the last chapter of Hebrews, remember how far we’ve come.
Consider Christ who endured the cross for the joy set
before Him.
Remember the faith giants who searched for the city
whose Builder and Maker is God.
Run the race, cherish chastening, stay the course.
Finally, dear family, love like this.
Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not forget to
entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly
entertained angels. 3 Remember the prisoners as if chained
with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also.
4 Marriage is honorable
among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will
judge.
5 Let your conduct be without
covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself
has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So
we may boldly say:
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
OUTLINE:
1. Abiding Love
2. Strangers And Angels
3. Prisoners Like Me
4. Most Honorable
5. Total Contentment
6. Faithfully Fearless
Abiding Love
Let brotherly love continue,
The first verse is just two words in original text.
Menó: To
remain, to abide, to stay, to continue, to dwell, to endure.
Philadelphia:
Brotherly
love, love of brothers.
Abide in brotherly love.
John 15:4-5. Abide
(Menó)in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it
abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I
am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him,
bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
This abiding, enduring, familial, brotherly
love keeps on loving them even when not liking them. You simply keep loving,
because you’re family.
This love doesn’t give up, doesn’t quit.
This is not the passive shallow love that only tells what
you want to hear, but the deep love that says what you need to hear, and doesn’t
quit, even if hated for it.
This is the special and spiritual love the family of
God is called to carry.
Here we see the Hebrews had this kind of love and are
told to abide, remain, continue, in it.
Which is quite a statement because at the time, they
were under the iron-fisted rule of Rome. Plus, their own nation, Israel, was
terribly divided.
Divisions indicate distance from God.
They disagreed about religion.
Families split over politics.
Christians were called heretics, haters, they were persecuted,
prosecuted, falsely accused, imprisoned, martyred.
The time and place and methods have changed, but the
demons remain the same.
Imagine a mob busting into our service screaming at us
for not joining them.
In Minneapolis we’d be on our own. Law enforcement would
be ordered to stand down. The mayor, the governor, the attorney general,
the congresswoman, would defend the lawbreakers.
Thankfully here in Florida our law would show
and throw the evil doers in prison.
Thank God, one day, He will show and throw evil doers
in an eternal prison.
Justice is Rising.
Justice is Coming.
His name is Jesus.
By His great grace and love and will that no one
perish, that no one be deceived, He’s giving a sneak peak of the justice to
come.
He is making it abundantly clear, so those who do not acknowledge the Truth, do so, willingly, and are finding themselves given over to a strong delusion, a corrupt and reprobate mind, unable to discern right from wrong, law from lawlessness, male from female.
God soundly rebukes
those who call evil good and good evil. Isaiah 5:20.
The point is, our family, in the book of Hebrews, lived
in an environment hostile to Christians.
Hate was strong and mocked the song of peace on earth
good will to men.
Still does.
Yet, they kept a true, Menó Philadelphia, enduring,
abiding, brotherly love.
Love so strong, all the might of the Roman Empire
couldn’t extinguish it.
Love so enduring, that thousands of years later, it still
burns bright and strong, here and now, in the hearts and minds of His remnant.
Church, there is an enemy that is doing everything in
its power to divide and conquer the Church.
A house divided cannot stand.
We must stand, united, against the wiles of the devil.
Not only stand against but be on offense.
We must do everything in our power to love the Lord
our God with ALL our heart, all our soul, all our mind, all our strength... and
love our neighbor with Menó Philadelphia, enduring, abiding, Truth
speaking, Good doing, brotherly love.
Love like this:
1
Cor. 13:4-8a. Love suffers long and is kind; love does
not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not
behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6
does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8
Love never fails.
Put your name where “love” is and read it again.
Now put the name of that unlovable person in your life
and pray it, by faith, again, and again...
Love is a verb.
Strangers and
angels.
2 Do not
forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly
entertained angels.
Do not forget
means, be sure to remember, to entertain strangers.
Intentionally, on purpose, make it a point to
entertain strangers.
This is strange, even scary, in our culture.
But hospitality was a big deal in the Jewish culture. It
went all the way back to the Old Testament.
Deuteronomy
10:19
Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Our first century Christians relied heavily on hospitality
for lodging.
Many were poor, because being a Christian often led to
their business being boycotted, even excommunication from family.
So, they traveled place to place picking up work where
they could.
Okay, now, just to be clear. To intentionally, on
purpose, make it a point to entertain strangers, does not
mean we need to take in every stray cat that comes our way.
It means to love like this:
Intentionally, on purpose, show hospitality to those
the Lord points out to you.
The stranger, the stranger, the better... they might
be angels.
Remember in Genesis 18:2, Abraham looked up and saw what
the Bible calls “three men.” He jumped up, invited them in to wash their feet
and feed them a feast. Turns out it was two angels and the Lord.
Then, Genesis 19, the two angels went to Lot in Sodom,
and Lot also thought they were two men. He invited, actually begged, them to
his house and showed them hospitality as well.
Mary Magdalene saw two angels in the tomb of Jesus and
thought they were men.
Angels can appear as men. So much so that you might invite
a stranger for dinner and not even know you entertained an angel.
So, just in case, whenever you invite a stranger for
dinner, be sure to have...
Angel food cake
for dessert.
Extend compassion, show hospitality, put yourself in
someone else’s shoes.
Which brings us to verse three...
Prisoners Like Me
3 Remember
the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you
yourselves are in the body also.
We’re talking about prisoners chained, not for crimes
they committed, but mistreated for being in the Body of Christ.
So, remember them, as if chained with them, for
you are also in the Body of Christ.
Prisoners like me, but by the grace of God
go I.
They are still in chains, still mistreated, the blood
of martyrs still flows today.
More Christians were martyred in the 20-21st
centuries than in all previous centuries combined.
Between a hundred and a hundred and sixty thousand
Christians are martyred each year.
According to Opendoor.org
the worst countries against Christianity are these:
1.
North Korea … where owning a Bible can get you killed
2.
Somalia … where
following Jesus makes you the enemy
3.
Libya … where
evangelism is a death sentence
4.
Eritrea … where
imprisonment for following Jesus in inevitable
5.
Yemen … where
Christians are on extremists’ “wanted”
lists
6.
Nigeria … where a
Christian dies nearly every two hours, on average.
7.
Pakistan … where
every Christian is a second-class citizen
8.
Sudan … where
Christians are caught in the crossfire.
9.
Iran … where
being a Christian is a “crime against national security.”
10.
Afghanistan … where
there “are no Christians.”
https://www.opendoorsus.org/en-US/stories/10-most-dangerous-places-Christians/
Lord Jesus, we pray for our family, Your children, in
places of persecution. We pray for Your provision, Your protection, Your conviction
unto salvation to saturate those nations. Come quickly Lord Jesus and deliver
us from evil.
Help us Lord to Love like this:
1 Cor. 12:26, If one member suffer all the rest suffer with it...
Galatians 6:2, Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Romans 13:8-10, Galatians 5:14, Love fulfills the law of Christ
Most Honorable
4 Marriage is honorable
among all, and the bed undefiled...
The first half of Hebrews 13:4 is wonderful.
Marriage is honorable (precious,
most valuable, esteemed, beloved) among all, and the bed (koité:
marriage bed, sexual relations) undefiled (unstained, pure).
What a beautiful picture.
It reflects the first marriage at the very end of
Genesis 2:
Genesis
2:24-25
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined
to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
25 And
they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Awesome.
The purest picture of undefiled innocent, wedded
bliss.
God’s plan was pure and simple.
Charlie Kirk loved to repeat it.
· Know
the Lord.
· Get
married.
· Have
lots of kids.
Raise the kids to:
· Know
the Lord.
· Get
married.
· Have
lots of kids.
God initiates and honors marriage from the beginning.
Jesus honors marriage by performing His first public
miracle at a wedding.
A husband is called to love his wife as Christ loves
the Church.
The Church is called the Bride of Christ.
If only the Bible ended at the end of Genesis 2 with
the words: “and they all lived happily ever after.”
But the Bible is no fairy tale and the next thing we
see is Genesis 3 which starts with the words: “Now the serpent...”
Which is why we have the last half of our text in Hebrews
13:4:
Heb. 13:4b; ...but fornicators and adulterers God will
judge.
...but fornicators (pornos:
(root:
pornography), fornicator, sexually immoral person) and adulterers God will judge.
The pure and awesome undefiled Divine design of sex is
to be reserved for marriage between one man and one woman for life.
Sex outside the pure undefiled marriage bed is impure,
defiled, lewd, will not be blessed, but judged.
Flee such foolishness, and find...
Total Contentment
5 Let your conduct be without
covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself
has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
The content can’t be bought.
Having Christ, knowing Him, is more than enough, so
therefore, the world has nothing to offer.
Love like this:
1
Timothy 6:6
Godliness with contentment is great gain.
Faithfully Fearless
6 So we may boldly
say:
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
1
John 4:18
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out
fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made
perfect in love.
Romans
8:31
What then shall we say to these things? If God be for
us, who can be against us?
Love like this:
John
13:34-35
A
new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved
you, that you also love one another. 35 By
this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one
another.”
Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, help us to honor You by abiding
in Your Love, intentionally entertaining strangers, and perhaps unwittingly, Your
angels, remind us to remember the prisoners, help us to honor marriage, be
completely content and boldly proclaim the You are our Helper, we will not be
afraid. In all this Lord, we ask You to shine though us, so of all those You’ve
given us, none will be lost.
We trust and love You, forever.
Amen.
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13:1-6
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13:1-6
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