Hebrews 13

In some very important ways, Jesus Christ is not the same today as he was yesterday.

! Think about in his incarnation when he took on flesh.

! He became one of us.

So Augustine said, you know this quote,

Without ceasing to be what he eternally was, he became what he eternally was not.

Without ceasing to be what he eternally was, he became what he eternally was not.

He has become one of us.

And the word that was with God, John 1, the word that was face to face with God,

that word was made flesh, took on skin and bones, and dwelt amongst us.

And we have beheld his glory, the glory of the one and only, of the Father, full of grace and truth.

And after his earthly career, after he was raised from the dead and he appeared over 40 days,

he ascended on the clouds bodily to heaven.

And so that tonight, there is a man in the glory, isn't there?

At the right hand of the majesty on high, he seats the risen and ascended and glorified Lord Jesus Christ.

And it's a man.

He didn't discard his humanity when he ascended to heaven.

He didn't get rid of his humanity like a set of clothes that were shed as he went up on the cloud.

When he returned to his Father's presence, he returned as a man where he sits tonight.

I love the words of Martin Luther.

He said something like this,

I live as though Christ died yesterday, rose again today, and is coming back again tomorrow.

Christ died yesterday.

He bled and died on the cross.

He suffered abject shame and pain and humiliation.

Yesterday, he died on the cross.

Today, he is alive from the dead.

And we proclaim him as his church in word and in sacrament.

But tomorrow, he's coming back again.

And with all his holy angels unto salvation to all who look for him.

So it's not true to say that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So clearly, you can't take this verse just on its own, pull it out as a kind of Chinese cookie verse, whatever it is,

and apply it in an unqualified, unlimited way.

And so we need to put it into its context because it is a wonderful verse.

And there are three things that it teaches us about the unchangeableness of Jesus Christ.

What does this verse really mean that you're going to learn this week?

The first thing I want to say is this.

Jesus Christ is always the same yesterday, today, and forever in his own person.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever in his own person.

The context is interesting, isn't it?

So look with me at verse 7.

Look at verse 7.

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God.

Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

And then compare it with verse 17.

Obey your leaders and submit to them.

For they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that will be of no advantage to you.

And so verse 7, we're told to remember.

Remember your leaders, we spoke the word of God to you.

And then verse 17, we're told to obey the leaders and to submit to their authority.

So the context is really interesting, isn't it?

The context is about leadership.

Leadership that is past and present.

Verse 7, it's present leaders that they're told to obey.

Verse 17, it's present leaders.

Sorry, verse 17, it's present leaders.

Verse 7, it's past leaders.

Now who are they?

Well, we don't know, do we?

We don't know exactly who they are, but they were probably people like Stephen, the first Christian martyr.

Probably people like James, the brother of our Lord.

And the leader of the Jerusalem church who was beheaded.

Remember those leaders who spoke faithfully the word of God to you.

And so whenever there's new leadership within a church, or a change of leadership,

there's a tendency, isn't there, I think, to compare.

I think that's a great tendency in London churches, to kind of compare your church leaders,

to kind of play top trumps with them.

And there's a tendency, certainly, to romanticize leaders of the past.

To idealize the heroes of the faith, those who've gone by.

To put those men on pedestals and venerate their memories.

To look back with rose-colored spectacles.

I think I've used this quote in the past with you about the pastor, the minister.

If he visits his flock, he's nosy.

If he doesn't, he's a snob.

If he preaches longer than ten minutes, it's too long.

If he preaches less than ten minutes, he can't have prepared his sermon.

If he runs a car, he's worldly.

If he doesn't, he's always late for appointments.

If he tells a joke, he's flippant.

If he doesn't, he's far too serious.

If he starts the sermon on time, his watch must be fast.

If he's a minute late, he's keeping the congregation waiting.

If he takes a holiday, he's never in the parish.

If he doesn't, he's a stick in the mud.

If he runs a bazaar or a gala, he's money mad.

If he doesn't, there's no social life in this parish.

If he has the church painted and decorated, he's extravagant.

And if he doesn't, the church is shabby.

If he's young, he's inexperienced.

If he's getting old, he ought to retire.

But when he dies, there's never been anyone like him.

And the tendency is, isn't it, and I find this in my own heart,

I make too much of men and too little of the Lord Jesus.

So remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you,

and consider the outcome of their way of life.

Do remember them.

Imitate their faith.

But Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Leadership is really in vogue, isn't it?

There's lots of good things about that.

There are many books, many conferences in leadership.

Sometimes feels there's more chiefs than Indians around.

And sometimes Christian books on leadership get more bizarre and more eccentric,

the more original.

And the more people seem prepared to follow.

But I think we need to say this, don't we?

Originality in the leadership of the church

is not a mark of Christian leadership.

True Christian leaders don't strike out by themselves.

True Christian leaders, I don't think, are great innovators.

They keep in line with Jesus Christ.

They follow well-worn paths of those who've gone before.

And I think tragically, in conservative evangelicalism,

which is a bit broader than us,

pastoral practice over the past 13 years

has kind of gone away from the well-worn paths

of Christian leadership and pastoral practice,

and we're reaping the fruit of that.

And so when you look for elders,

don't look for original minds.

And if you're going to look for a leader in Christ's church

and follow a leader,

you better make sure he knows where he's going.

And you better make sure that they know where they're going

in as much as they follow Jesus Christ.

And the writer of the Hebrews is saying,

you follow them, imitate their way of life,

their faith,

because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, forever.

And don't follow them blindly.

Follow them in as much

as they follow Christ.

Because in the end,

he is the only king.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only head of his church.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only leader

it is safe to follow.

Always himself.

Apparently, you can translate it like this,

Jesus Christ always himself.

Always himself.

And that can be said of very few people, isn't it?

Very few of us.

As we grow older,

as we change,

we see that with people, don't we?

In your workplace,

new young people,

full of zeal and idealistic.

And that is the more cynical people

who've been through it all.

Been around a bit.

It's got to them.

They become cynical.

There are very few people

who are always the same, aren't they?

Those kind of people are like gold

when you meet them.

We know, don't we,

as a church family,

circumstances change us.

Life situations change us.

Some of us are affected by the weather.

Some of us have been greatly affected by hard things.

We're affected by all sorts of things,

but Jesus Christ is always himself,

always the same.

Earth did not change him.

Heaven has not gone to his head.

He is the same yesterday,

today,

and forever.

He's unchangeably the same.

He's always himself.

The arm of flesh,

it will fail us.

The best of men,

the best of leaders,

are men at best,

and they have feet of clay,

but Jesus Christ is always himself.

He's always the same.

He's unchangeably the same in his own person,

but secondly,

he's unchangeably the same in his message,

in the message that we preach.

Again, look at the context.

Remember your leaders

who spoke the word of God to you.

Jesus Christ is the same

yesterday,

today,

and forever.

Don't be led away,

verse 8,

verse 9,

by diverse and strange teachings.

You see,

Jesus Christ is not only the leader

that we are to follow,

but he's also the message

that we are to proclaim.

Him we proclaim,

Paul says in Colossians.

The word that the New Testament spoke

was all about him.

And that message,

which you've heard from your leaders,

was the same.

That message about Jesus

is the same yesterday,

today,

and forever.

Error changes.

Can you notice that in verse 9?

Truth is singular.

So,

verse 7,

they spoke to you,

the word of God,

that's singular.

But in verse 9,

do not be led away

by diverse and strange teachings.

That's plural.

Because once you move away

from the faith

that's been delivered

to all the saints,

you have to keep reinventing

the gospel for every generation.

One of the hallmarks

of God in the Bible

is that nothing needs changing.

Nothing needs to be revised

or adapted

or rewritten.

Take, for example,

I don't want to get into,

well, I don't mind

getting into controversy

about it,

but take into the creation account,

Genesis 1 and 2.

It stands for all time.

It can be understood

in any age,

the plain reading of the text.

It does not have to be rewritten

and revised

for the 21st century.

It can be understood

by a caveman,

it can be understood

by an Oxford scientist.

It's one of the hallmarks

of God,

but error is constantly

being rewritten

and revised

and updated.

John Stott,

in his lovely little book

and the contemporary Christian,

identifies 13 different

interpretations of Christ.

13 different attempts

of the church

to fashion Christ.

And we could probably

come up with some more.

It's been a few years

since this was written.

So you have Jesus the ascetic,

the pale Galilean,

the cosmic Christ,

the teacher of common sense,

the clown of God's spell,

the star of Jesus Christ,

superstar,

the revolutionary,

the socialist,

the mystic,

the magician,

the carpenter,

the management consultant.

And you name it,

people are always trying

to reinvent Jesus

and adapt him

for their own age,

but he is not.

Jesus Christ is always the same.

The message which you heard

and read in your scriptures

is the message

that we are to preach today.

It's the same yesterday,

today,

and forever.

And Jesus never needs updating

or revising.

He's always new,

if I can put it like that.

Not in the novelness kind of way,

but in the sense of freshness.

It's why it is,

isn't it,

a wonderful thing.

It's a great,

great privilege

to be a preacher of the gospel

because the core thing

is to introduce people

to the Lord Jesus Christ.

To bring people to Christ.

I can't think of anything better.

There's nothing more reviving

than when that happens.

And when you see someone

meeting Christ

for the first time

during the preaching

of the gospel,

Jesus is always new,

not novel,

but always fresh,

always relevant.

Just look at

the direction of this

exhortation.

I wanted to do a bit more work

on this,

but I haven't enough time really,

but see if you can

stick with me here.

What happens

in the church today,

it's the exact opposite

of what Paul is,

of what the writer

to the Hebrews

is kind of exhorting us here.

So he's saying,

remember your elders,

who were these leaders?

Well, they were the apostles

of Jesus Christ.

Remember your leaders

who spoke the word

of God to you.

Remember them

who first spoke

the word of God to you.

Now what do we have

in today?

We have the reverse

of that,

don't you?

It's not we

who remember

people like Peter

and what people

like Paul preached

about Christ.

Today,

they have to remember

what we have discovered.

And they have to remember

what we have suddenly discovered.

So to make it

even more controversial,

let's talk about

women's ordination

for a minute.

The ordination of women

to the office of elder

and minister.

What is that about?

It's about the authority

of the Bible.

And it basically

comes down to this.

Are we going to follow

the New Testament?

Are we going to remember

what the apostle Paul

spoke to us

and what Paul wrote?

Or does he have to remember?

Does he have to remember

what we think today?

Does he have to follow

our view on things?

And so do we follow Paul

in the first century AD

or does he have to fit in

with our modern culture

and our political correctness?

so that what he wrote

then needs to be

reinterpreted

in the light of today.

People say it has

to be contextualized.

It has to be lifted

out of the first century setting

and dropped

into the 21st century.

And the amazing thing

is that when you do that,

Paul is made to teach

the exact opposite

of what he actually taught.

And he agrees

with our culture,

amazingly.

And that's not

where we're to stand.

We stand under the authority

of the word of God,

under the authority

of the apostles

and of our Lord Jesus Christ

and we're to remember

those who spoke

the word of God to us.

They don't have to remember

what we think.

We have to remember

what they have spoken,

what they have said.

That kind of twisted thinking,

if you go down that track,

what it does is it takes

the Bible away

from you altogether.

So remember,

remember that word

that has been spoken to you.

We are Protestants.

We don't use that very well.

It would be a good word

to kind of actually reuse.

But I used to think

that means someone

who protests.

But the word is from

the word protestare,

which means to confess.

It means to attest

to something.

It means to proclaim.

To be a Protestant

is to proclaim Jesus Christ.

It's the old, old story

of Jesus and his love.

He is unchangeably

the same in his person.

He's unchangeably

the same in his message.

And he's unchangeably

the same in the message

that we preach.

And thirdly and lastly,

he's unchangeably

the same to his people.

He's unchangeably

the same to his people.

And it's all very well,

isn't it,

to look back to the past.

Some of the great heroes

of the faith,

people like Luther,

Athanasius,

Wesley, Calvin,

Whitfield, Spurgeon,

Amy Carmichael,

people like that.

But that can be a form

of escapism,

can't it?

I'm a great fan of

Martin Lloyd-Jones.

I'm a kind of preacher

from the last century.

He would often say to people,

I don't agree with everything

he said,

he would often say,

well, I'm an 18th century man.

And you know what he means.

He means that

if there was any period

in church history

that he'd like to have

gone back to,

it was in the TARDIS.

He would go and visit

George Whitfield,

preach.

But there is a danger

in that.

And that is,

the danger is that

many of the people

who followed Dr. Lloyd-Jones

actually preached

like they were

in the 18th century.

And believe it or not,

we don't live

in the 18th century.

We live in a very

different time

and a very different place.

And we have to serve Christ

here and now in London.

And there were giants

in the land

in those days

and so much of church history.

And we are a race

of little people

in comparison.

But don't forget

those men

who spoke the word

of God to you

and sealed their confession

with their own blood,

they were just flesh

and blood,

weren't they?

These people,

they were just men

and women like you and me.

And times have changed

but Jesus hasn't.

And what he was to them,

he will be to you.

Jesus Christ

is the same.

That word

that's used there

in verse 7

is an interesting word.

There's only two places

where you find that word

in the New Testament.

In verse 7,

he talks about

these leaders

who spoke the word

of God

consider the outcome

of their way of life.

And the word

that's used there

means

a coming out of it.

It's the same word

that Paul used

in 1 Corinthians 10

1 Corinthians 10:13

verse 13

where he's referring

to the wilderness

wanderings

and he's reminded

the Corinthians

that it was Jesus Christ

who was actually

leading the people

out of Egypt.

the rock

in the wilderness

was Christ.

And then he says this

in 1 Corinthians 10

1 Corinthians 10:13

verse 13

he applies it to them

and he says

God is faithful.

You will not be tempted

beyond what you can bear.

And when you are tempted,

when you are tried,

when you are like those people

in the wilderness

between a rock

and a hard place

as they came out of Egypt

with Pharaoh's troops

breathing down their necks

and the Red Sea

in front of them

they're surrounded

by hills and mountains

it's a trap

there didn't seem

to be any way out.

And just as Jesus

opened up the waters

of the Red Sea

and they crossed

on dry ground

Paul says

when you are tempted

when you are tried

like that

what will he do?

He will provide

a way out.

An exodus

that's the word.

That's the word

that's used here

in Hebrews.

Remember what Jesus

was to these people

at the Red Sea

when they were entangled

in the land

and the Egyptians

are in hot pursuit

and they're trapped

and there didn't seem

to be any way forward.

I frequently find myself

in that kind of situation

I'm sure we all do

don't we?

And in those situations

what are we to do

when we're trapped

and we haven't got

a clue what to do

will we remember

that Jesus Christ

is the same yesterday

today and forever?

The same Jesus Christ

who opened up

the Red Sea

and brought his people

safely through

that Jesus Christ

is the same

today

as he was then

and what he can do

for them

he can do for you

and he can provide you

with a way

through the challenge

that you are facing

and you don't know

how am I going to

cope with that

I don't know

if I've got the resources

to get through this week

and he is the same

he can provide you

with a way through

how else do you explain

someone like Stephen

the martyr

how do you explain

the way he died

with his face

like that of an angel

as it's smashed in

by rocks

remember what we're told

in Acts 7

that as the rocks

were raining down

on him

he fell on his knees

and he cried out

Lord do not hold

this sin against them

and when he said this

he fell asleep

how do you explain that?

how do you explain

a man like Peter

who denied the Lord Jesus

with oaths and curses

before a servant girl

he says I don't know

the so and so

and he swears

how do you explain

that man

just a few weeks later

boldly proclaiming Christ

and 3,000 people

are converted

how do you explain that?

how do you explain

Paul and Silas

singing hymns

at midnight

in a rat infested

prison hole

in the ground

in the stocks

a Roman instrument

of torture

and we're told

they sang hymns

at midnight

think of Athanasius

and he is told

the world is against you

and he says

well it's Athanasius

against the world

the courage of

Martin Luther

when it seems

the whole might

of the church

is against him

and he says

here I am

I can do no other

how do you explain that?

the only way

you can explain that

is in the terms

of our text

that Jesus Christ

is the same

yesterday

today

and forever

and what he was

for Athanasius

and what he was

for Luther

and what he was

for Stephen

and what he was

for Peter

and what he was

for Paul and Silas

he is the same

for us

I don't know

if you know

it's a daft story

of a man

painting a stripe

down the middle

of the road

and that was his job

and on his first day

at work

he paints

two miles

of the road

people are amazed

no one's ever

painted so much

before

on the second day

his production

dropped to one and a half miles

which is still far

above average

on the third day

it was only

one mile

fifth day

it was even less

apparently his boss

went to him

and asked

why has your production

fallen off so sharply

and he said

I'm just getting

so far from the bucket

it's a rubbish

story

isn't it

that's the trouble

with our society

our society

has drifted

from its heritage

hasn't it

a very very long way

it's the problem

with the Christian church

that wants Christian values

but actually doesn't want

the radical teaching

of Christian

of the Lord Jesus

and you can't have

Christian values

without the Lord Jesus Christ

you might want

a traditional

Judeo-Christian ethic

but you won't have that

without the Lord Jesus

people need Jesus Christ

and it's the gospel

that they need here

and Jesus Christ

has not passed

his sell by date

he never will

he'll never be superseded

!

and he'll never be replaced

and kingdoms will come

and kingdoms will go

and empires

will rise and fall

and whole civilizations

will disappear

but Jesus Christ

is the same yesterday

today and forever

I've told the story

haven't I

of Lord Reith

and the founder

of the BBC

and he is

late for a meeting

and as he walks

into a room

all the board

of directors

are talking

at the BBC

and as Lord Reith

comes in

they fall silent

Lord Reith

is quite a fiery man

he's a really interesting

man to read

and Lord Reith

wants to know

what they're talking about

and they're very reluctant

to tell him

and in the end

he loses his temper

and they tell him

and they say

Lord Reith

we are planning a program

on the funeral

of the Christian church

Lord Reith

smacks the desk

and says

the church of Jesus Christ

will stand at the funeral

of the BBC

that is true

because Jesus Christ

is the same

yesterday

today and forever

Charles Spurgeon

said

there is the same water

in the well

still

and if we've not

drawn it out

it's our own fault

we've come away

from the fire

and that's why

we're cold

let's return

to him

and he will

receive us gladly

as gladly

and as warmly

as he did

when we first believed

isn't that why

there's so many

ups and downs

in your Christian life

and mine

yesterday you could pray

tomorrow you can't

today you know

a measure of victory

over the temptations

that you've struggled with

tomorrow you're

totally overwhelmed

by them

why

why is that

because we take

our eyes off Jesus

and if you're anything

like me

you've turned to men

and movements

and books

and programs

and it's Jesus Christ

you need

not another book

of all him

but the living Christ

who is always the same

always himself

yesterday

and forever

here is solid ground

there is the same

water

in the well still

and if we've not

drawn it

it's our own fault

we've come away

from the fire

and that's all we're cold

let's return to him