Be Still And Know

Hebrews 11:17-18 It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” This is a really tough passage. The idea of God apparently asking a parent to kill their child is hard enough. But it is infinitely more difficult when you consider that, on this occasion, God was asking Abraham to murder the son who was going to be the start of the great and mighty nation he had promised. It’s all very perplexing. But we are invited to focus our attention on Abraham, the man of faith, because he was willing to do whatever God called him to do, knowing that it would all work out wonderfully. The writer observes that Abraham had worked out that if Isaac had actually been killed then God would have been able to raise him from the dead so that his plans could be fulfilled (v19). He was absolutely convinced that God

Hebrews 11:12 And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them. The writer to the Hebrews described Abraham as being “as good as dead”. That’s not flattering, but he was describing a 99-year-old man who was married to Sarah – a woman decades past child-bearing years. The whole situation looked hopeless. But God had promised that Sarah would have a baby from whom a mighty nation would be born. In human terms this was laughable nonsense. But God was at work, and so something which was humanly impossible was exactly what happened. Isaac was born and the nation came into being with descendants as uncountable as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore. We are continually tempted to domesticate God. We try to make him fit into the world that we understand and make him like us. Long ago Voltaire, the French philosopher, expressed this powerfully when he s

Hebrews 11:8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. At the age of 75, Abraham headed out from his home in Haran without having a clue where he was going! What an incredible moment. People, in my experience, just don’t do things like that. Usually, we have a clear idea where we are heading – and a whole lot of planning happens first too. But Abraham was called by God so off he went. We have to conclude that Abraham was absolutely confident in God. In human terms he was taking the most enormous risk, but in spiritual terms he was clearly completely convinced that he was doing the right thing. In our risk averse culture, you can imagine people lining up endless very sensible reasons why Abraham should play it safe and stay at home. But his confidence in God was all that he needed to step out into the unknown. I have spent a huge number of hours in recent years working

Hebrews 11:7 It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. The account of Noah building an ark and saving his family together with vast numbers of birds and animals is a story of enormous courage. The world had never seen a flood like this before, so the idea of Noah building a vast boat would have seemed absurd to all those around him. And the idea of packing the boat with smelly wildlife would have appeared even more ludicrous and challenging. But Noah did these amazing things for one reason: he was a man of faith. In this chapter the writer to the Hebrews unpacks what it means to live by faith, and Noah offers us an inspiring example. Most of us spend much of our lives conforming. We fit in with society and the people around us and just get on with life. I’m not criticising that approach, but it makes me wonder how we would respond if God asked us to do something that everyone else would conside

Hebrews 11:1 Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Many people think of faith as being a rather weak, sentimental way of thinking and are inclined to say that they would rather trust the facts. Some philosophers have compared faith with taking a leap in the dark. Personally, I would never encourage anyone to take a leap in the dark. That sounds extremely dangerous and is only likely to result in disaster. I firmly believe that God calls us all on a journey of faith and that amazing adventure is a leap in the light. First of all, God reveals himself to us through creation. Just by opening our eyes to the amazing world around us we see constant evidence of how majestic and powerful God is. Looking at creation doesn’t force us to believe in God, but it is a powerful indicator of how great he is. God has also given us the 66 books of the Bible to show us how he has worked in the lives of men and women through thousands of years. Within it, we learn that God

Hebrews 10:36 Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. There is a wonderful prayer which runs: “O God, grant me the courage to change what I can, the patience to endure what I cannot change and the wisdom to know the difference.” There are many things we are powerless to change, and God wants to give us the patience to live with them. That’s far more easily said than done because, as we all know, patience is extremely hard work. We would all like to see an instant removal of the problems and difficulties of life, and the news that we need to live with them is the last thing we want to hear. But the writer to the Hebrews knew they needed to learn the language of patience. We cannot be sure exactly what challenges they were facing, although we know that they faced recurring waves of persecution and were living in a society that was fundamentally opposed to their Christian values. John Chrysostom, one of the great le

Hebrews 10:24-25 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. The New Testament has no understanding of a lone Christian. Time and again we are reminded that we have responsibilities for one another, and here the writer uses very striking language. The Greek verb used literally means that we should try to provoke one another to do acts of love and good works. That is to say, we should look for imaginative ways of stimulating one another to live for God. It won’t just happen. We need to love one another so much that we will take responsibility for encouraging one another to live out the Christian life. That encouragement will only take place if we meet together, and so he stresses the importance of not neglecting this. When the Christians had gone through a time of suffering they had spent much time together and their fellowship

Hebrews 9:27-28 And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. The quotation, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes” is attributed to many different people but especially Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain. However, it is such an obvious observation that it actually dates back long before them. The simple truth is that death is a fact of life. Unless the Lord returns first, we will all die. But our death stands in marked contrast to Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross. When he died he brought to an end the elaborate sacrificial system that was established in the Old Testament Law. The whole notion of sacrifices is very unfamiliar to us these days, but God established it because of the seriousness of sin and the need to find a way of making things right. The offering of sacrifices was a way of life for the Jews; every single day animals were slaughtered as an integral part of t

Hebrews 6:18-19 We who have fled to God for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. I suspect that if you spoke with most people about the future they would be full of fears and uncertainties. We live with the continual threat of international terrorism and the wildfires, floods and hurricanes that batter our world remind us of the appalling challenge of climate change. Wherever you look, there are monumental problems to face in our own society and throughout the world, and I think that most people would assume that there is no hope. Indeed, they would conclude that anyone who speaks the language of hope has chosen to ignore the facts. The writer to the Hebrews, however, was full of hope. He was confident as he looked to the future because he knew his God so well. He knew that God was a place of refuge amid the storms of life, and that he provided an anchor that could be entirely relied upon. He never claim

Hebrews 6:1 So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. If you saw a group of learned professors of mathematics earnestly talking about the fact that two and two make four, you might think it rather strange. You would imagine that they would have moved on to more complicated matters. That is not to say that the fact that two and two make four is unimportant. Far from it. Every day of their working life depends on it. But there comes a day when you need to move on, and that’s precisely what the writer is saying in our verse today. He wasn’t saying that the basic teachings about Christ were in any way unimportant. Indeed, everything depends on those truths. But he was eager that his readers should grow up in their faith, applying the key principles of the Christian faith to every aspect of their life and society. So, how can we go on to become mature in our understanding of the Christian faith? If we were talking

Hebrews 5:11 There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. Ouch! The writer of Hebrews didn’t pull his punches. He was frustrated with the spiritual dullness of his readers and let them know it. He had hoped that they would have developed much more in their faith so that they could, by this stage, have become teachers but clearly that isn’t the case. They were still needing to drink milk because they hadn’t progressed on to solid food. One of the big mistakes that people make is to think that when you have become a Christian that’s it. You have received the amazing gift of forgiveness and God’s promise of eternal salvation, and you can now sit back and enjoy them. There is nowhere in the New Testament that would support that view! New birth in Christ leads to a new life in which we need to be constantly growing and maturing. Sadly, all too often Christians get stuck. They learn the basics and leave

Hebrews 5:8-9 Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him. The high priest was the most important person in the Jewish faith. He traced his family line back to Aaron, the brother of Moses, and his life and ministry are described in huge detail in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible). When he went into the temple he had to wear specific clothing. In common with all priests, he had to wear priestly undergarments, tunic, sash and turban but in addition he wore a sleeveless blue robe, a richly embroidered apron, a breastplate with twelve gems representing the tribes and on his turban there was a golden plate inscribed with the words “Holiness unto Yahweh”. He would have nothing on his feet but had to have a ceremonial bath before going into the temple. Just once a year, on the Day of Atonement, he was permitted to go into the ho

Hebrews 4:16 Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. I only spoke with HRH Queen Elizabeth II on one occasion. I had the privilege of attending a reception at Buckingham Palace to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee and afterwards there were refreshments. I was chatting with a couple of friends and suddenly saw the Queen approaching us. It became clear that I was the person who needed to speak first. I anxiously tried to call to mind the correct way of addressing her. She then asked various kind questions and I felt frankly overwhelmed. I had never imagined that I would actually get to speak with her. However, as the Queen herself would have acknowledged, our God is of infinitely greater power and significance. In our verse today we are told that we can enter his presence with boldness. This is an almost incredible word to use. How can we, as weak and unholy human beings, possibly come boldly into the presence

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. If you thought that the Bible was just another piece of literature you have totally missed the point. The Bible is the way in which God speaks to us and he does it with devastating power. It can, and frequently does, turn people’s lives upside down. Through it, God is able to speak to the deepest places of our lives and can bring us forgiveness and renewal. It is the most exciting library of books imaginable. When I started to train for ministry, one of my real fears was that through studying the Bible in depth and then ministering week by week, the Bible would lose its wonder and power for me. I would like to report that the exact opposite has happened. Through the decades the Bible has become more brilliant, exciting and powerful and I enjoy studying it more now than at any time in my life. Why?

Hebrews 3:13 You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. I still vividly remember the warnings that my mother used to give me when I was a child. They had to do with what I ate, how I crossed the road, the people I spoke to, the way I cycled my bike and so on. I suspect that many of you have similar memories. And the reason we were given all those warnings was because we were loved. If our parents or carers hadn’t been bothered about our safety and wellbeing they would have kept quiet. The warnings weren’t always welcome, but they were good for us and I am sure that we all look back with gratitude for them. In today’s verse, the writer was encouraging his readers to keep on warning one another. He was conscious of how easily they could slip away from the Christian faith, and didn’t want them to go the same way as the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings. Time and again they had refused to listen to God’s word an

Hebrews 3:6 Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ. Confidence is important in every part of life isn’t it? I find it interesting that many people who are supremely confident in one area of life have no, or very little, confidence in another. We can probably all think of an area where we don’t feel confident, but here the writer speaks about an area in which we all need to be confident – our faith. The word he used here for confidence is sometimes translated as boldness. He knew that as we look to the future we all need to be strong in faith. Everything depends upon it. Here the writer talks about being confident in our hope in Christ. Hope is a very important concept in the New Testament and we need to make sure that we are understanding it correctly in this context. Donald Coggan, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, once described the word hope as we use it in normal life as “a weak and flabby word

Hebrews 2:18 Since Jesus himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested. For many years I have suffered from back pain, which I have in common with many of you because 60 to 70 per cent of people have back pain at some point in their lives. I find that people are very caring and sympathetic, but there is such a difference between those who are kindly sympathising but have never had back pain, and those who have. I am, of course, grateful for anyone’s kindness but when it is clear that the person I am speaking to has, in some measure, shared my experience it is a particular blessing. Here in Hebrews the writer is keen to show that Jesus really understands the challenges that we face in life because he himself went through suffering and testing. Later in this letter the writer makes it clear that the Church had suffered terribly for the faith. It must have been so difficult for this group of relatively new Christians to have suffered so much. He wrote that the

Hebrews 2:14 Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. The fact that Jesus was fully human was of crucial importance to the writer of this letter. Salvation depended upon it. In the first chapter, the writer spoke of the fact that Jesus was the divine Son of God; now he wanted to explain that Jesus was also fully human. This meant that, in common with every other human being, he experienced death and this enabled him to break the grip of the devil. Through the centuries many people have struggled with the idea of Jesus’ humanity. This was a particular problem in the Greek world where gods were seen as being completely detached from this world. The idea of a god becoming human was nonsensical. All sorts of different approaches have been adopted to try to explain away Jesus’ humanity. Some have suggested that he wasn’t really

Hebrews 2:1 So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. We can be sure that this letter was written to Christians from a Jewish background and that it was written to a particular church. Later in the letter we learn that the believers had suffered for their faith soon after they came to faith in Christ, but now they had become complacent and lazy. The writer was anxious that they might drift away from the truth. The expression “drift away” is one that is well known in Greek literature – it is used to refer to a ring slipping off the finger, some food slipping down the wrong way or a ship carelessly slipping past a harbour because the person at the wheel wasn’t paying attention. The writer wants the congregation to realise that in just the same way it is possible to drift away in their faith In my experience when people stop attending church it is rarely because they have come to a conviction that Christianity is wrong. They have simply drifted away. Perhaps

Hebrews 1:3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honour at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. None of the original manuscripts of the New Testament exist today. But there are many very early copies still around, and on a number of them this letter is titled “to the Hebrews”. Therefore, there can be no doubt it was written specifically for Christians who had a Jewish background. The writer wanted them to realise that Jesus was the perfect fulfilment of everything that they had heard about in their Old Testament scriptures. Jesus revealed the very character of God and so, having been present with his Father in creation, he was able to sustain everything by his command. Then, having made the perfect sacrifice of himself on the cross, he was able to return to the right hand of his Father in heaven. In short, the letter to the Hebrews