Acceptable Worship (Hebrews 13)
June 7, 2020
How can we make God happy? We have been looking at Hebrews with an understanding of Leviticus and Numbers to try to answer this question. From Hebrews 10:19-25, we can see three answers to that question. The first two we have already studied from Chapters 11 and 12. God is happy when we draw near to his throne with confident faith and hope. Amid troublesome times I think this reminder is so valuable. God wants us to keep believing in his goodness and to never give up on his promises. The world may fail us, but God never will. He is preparing a city for us that is eternally better than anything in this world.
Tonight, we will talk about the third answer to this question, "How can we make God happy?" We make God happy when we stir up one another to love and good works.
Hebrews 10:24--25 (ESV) --- 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
God wants to see us thinking about one another and considering what is best for each other. He doesn't want us to abandon our brethren in their time of need. He wants us to stick it out. We looked at verses 33-34 and saw how these brethren were standing side by side with one another as they were mistreated. Chapter 13 picks up that line of thinking and adds to it.
Twelve Commands (13:1-19)
Let's read the final words of Chapter 12 to set the stage for Chapter 13, which contains twelve commands for worshipping with love and good works. We will go through these briefly and discuss worshipping God in this way at the end.
Hebrews 12:28--13:3 (ESV) --- 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire. 1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
The writer wants his readers to show brotherly love, love strangers with hospitality, and especially love those brethren who are being mistreated in prison. He ended the last section by encouraging his brethren to be grateful for their hope and to "offer God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe." Then, he starts to explain acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, as love. We worship God through loving others.
1. Love Brethren
How difficult is it for us to continually love our brethren? There are many different ways to show love for them. We can cook for them, send them a note of encouragement, mentor them, or even provide them with some necessities in their hour of need. There are a million ways we can love our brethren, but things so often get in the way.
2. Love Strangers
The same thing goes for loving strangers. There are so many scam artists out there trying to take advantage of Christians. It's easy to get a cold heart and refuse to help anyone we don't know. But we worship God by giving strangers a chance. Maybe we find out that they are deceivers, but if not, we would do good to show them love and hospitality while encouraging them with the gospel.
3. Love The Mistreated
We don't currently have a government that is throwing Christians into prison for being Christians, but that is not too hard for us to imagine. Will we put our livelihoods at risk to show love and assist those who are wrongfully in prison? Will we show love when it costs us?
This is the worship that God enjoys and takes pleasure in. When we love others, God finds satisfaction. He is pleased to see his children walking in love as he is love.
From verse 4 to verse 19, we have a series of commands that help us see worshiping God by doing good works. God wants his worshippers to be holy and respectful.
4. Flee Sexual Immorality (4)
Hebrews 13:4 (ESV) --- 4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
The next section encourages us to hold marriage up in honor. Marriage is the ultimate way out of sexual immorality. If we hold marriage up and honor it as a God has ordained it to be honored, this is proper worship to God. If we break the marriage covenant and pursue sexual immorality, we can expect judgment.
5. Flee Idolatry (5-6)
Hebrews 13:5--6 (ESV) --- 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
Often joined with sexual immorality is the idea of idolatry or the pursuit of created things in place of God. Here he says to free yourself from the love of money and be content. We have to fight for pure hearts as we live our lives and spend our money. Money is not the issue, but loving money is an issue. Notice the phrase attached to this, "He has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'" We don't have to love money because we have something higher than money. We can let our money go to serve God faithfully.
6. Imitate Leaders (7)
Hebrews 13:7 (ESV) --- 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.
Verse 7 encourages people to consider the leaders who are making sacrifices to serve Christ. They are working hard with faith and hope in God. Imitate their lives and follow their paths. This is an indirect statement to leaders that they must live exemplary lives. They should not be immoral or idolatrous. They must show love to others and follow all of these commands to lead the people in the right way of worshipping God.
7. Believe The Truth (8-12)
Hebrews 13:8--12 (ESV) --- 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.
These verses encourage us to believe the word of God and stick to what it says. We are not gathered here to learn some special trick to worship activities that make him feel better about us. They would eat certain foods to feel more holy and righteous for God, but he says that it is better to be strengthened by the truth about God's grace than to focus on food.
Verses 10-12 are some of the more difficult verses in this section. He is making a statement here that those who want to worship God under Christ don't eat animal sacrifices. Jesus is like the atoning sacrifice of Leviticus 16 that was taken outside the camp and burned up for God to remove sins. He says that we don't focus on eating the sacrifices for our relationship to be strengthened (though the Lord's Supper is commanded, offering bulls and goats for peace offerings is not). We rely on the grace of God that makes us clean.
8. Go Outside The Camp (10-14)
Hebrews 13:14 (ESV) --- 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
After clarifying how we are strengthened with grace, he commands us to go to Jesus outside the camp. Grace has strengthened us to bear the reproach of Jesus. By refusing to give in to pressures to conform to society and worship God in ways he does not approve, we are worshipping God in ways he does approve. We must not be conformed to the world, but transformed by the renewing of our minds
Romans 12:1--2 (ESV) --- 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
9. Acknowledge God's Name (15)
Hebrews 13:15 (ESV) --- 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
If we want to give a sacrifice to God, here is what he wants us to do. He wants us to acknowledge him when things are going great. He wants us to acknowledge him when people might be offended to hear his name because of their sins. He wants us to acknowledge him when things are falling apart. We worship him by telling the world about how great he is and has always been to us. This is a sacrifice we can give to God.
10. Share What You Have (16)
Hebrews 13:16 (ESV) --- 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Another sacrifice we can offer to God is found in this verse. He says that when we share what we have with others, we are pleasing God. God wants to see us sharing and loving each other.
11. Lift Up Leaders (17)
Hebrews 13:17 (ESV) --- 17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
In verse 17, he returns to the topic of leaders to say that we ought to submit to them and consider their work is to keep watch over our souls. This is another indirect command for those who would become leaders. They must understand that their job is not to keep watch over people's belongings, to manage the church's money, or to organize events for people to have a good time. Their work is to look out for the souls of those in their care. They will give an account for that. Everything else is secondary.
But the direct command here is that those under the leadership have a submissive attitude. Unlike so many in the time of Numbers, we are called to help our leadership find joy in their work. We do not need to drag them down as Israel did to Moses. We need to lift them up so that they can be even more effective in their work!
12. Pray For Messengers (18-19)
Hebrews 13:18--19 (ESV) --- 18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. 19 I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.
The last two verses of this section encourage the readers to pray for those working in the kingdom to remain pure and righteous. This is something that is needed for all messengers of God's word. We know that the immorality of God's messengers hampers the spread of God's word.
What Hinders Our Worship?
All twelve of these commands show us how we worship God. But God does not want us just to take one command and focus on it. He wants us to keep them all. He wants us to become a holy people who love others and do good works. That glorifies his name and pleases him.
What keeps us from doing these things? I want to suggest three things that will keep us from worshipping God as we should.
1. Selfish Living
To worship God acceptably, we have to stop making life all about me. Notice that he never says we should seek our own good in this life. We do not worship God by doing things for ourselves. But how easy is it for us to make our lives all about ourselves and our families? When we focus solely on ourselves, we don't love people as we should, we engage in sexual immorality, we pursue idols instead of God, we pursue false teaching instead of grace, we fail to acknowledge the name of God, we do not share our blessings with others, and we often rebel against those who lead us. Selfishness is at the heart of our failure to worship God and please him.
2. Willful Sinning
Possibly the biggest hindrance to our worship is the constant temptation to sin. We live in a world that is relentlessly pursuing our hearts. Can we worship God while loving the world? When we go back to Hebrews 10:26, we find out that God is not okay with us sinning willfully. If we choose to stop having faith in God, to give up on our hope, or to pursue a selfish and sinful lifestyle instead of a life of love and good works that worships God, he will remove the grace that he offers us. Does that scare you? Satan tempts us to walk down this road when things are the most difficult, but we must resist. Willfully living in sin is not sacrificial worship.
3. Self Righteousness
Another thing that hinders our worship is the vain pursuit of self-righteousness. These Hebrews wanted to offer animal sacrifices, but by doing that, they were failing to see the sacrifice that was made on their behalf. When we think too much about what we are doing, we lift ourselves up instead of lifting God up and praising him. That is self-worship, not God worship.
What Helps Us Worship Acceptably?
So I have brought up three of our biggest failures to worship God as he desires. How does the Hebrew writer give us a solution?
"I Will Never Leave You Nor Forsake You"
The first solution is found in verse 5-6, where God says that he will never leave us or forsake us. He is right here with us and willing to help us throughout life. When we go through tough times and suffer, these words should reassure us and keep us focused on worshipping him.
"Jesus Christ Is The Same"
The next solution is found in verse 8, where the writer says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Think about this for a moment. The Jesus we saw in the gospels is the Jesus we serve today. He is compassionate toward the repentant sinner, and he is full of love and mercy towards those who suffer. This is found right after a section that tells us to imitate our leaders. This consistency of Christ is supposed to motivate us to be like him and worship God with our lives as he did.
It is hard to love others sacrificially, but Jesus hoped that we would learn from him and follow in his footsteps.
God Equips Us
The final element of help that this writer provides us is in verses 20-21.
Hebrews 13:20--21 (ESV) --- 20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
He says, "May the God of peace... equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ." God can give us what we need to remain faithful and to worship him pleasingly. When we think about it, Israel was wholly reliant on God to provide them with animals to sacrifice. In the same way, God will give us the means and the opportunities to sacrifice with love and holiness.
Conclusion
I pray that this brief series has helped you half as much as it has helped me. We see in these few chapters what makes God truly happy. God wants all of our hearts, souls, and minds to be devoted to him every day. Worshipping him is not just about our occasional gathering. God also wants us to have faith, hope, and love with good works that glorify his name every day. The assembling of ourselves together is just a time where we can demonstrate that love, encourage others, be encouraged, and do some good works for God’s praise. Let's bring God praise and adoration with our lives.