Don't Choose the Stew (Hebrews pt.17)

  • The story of Esau gives us a vivid picture which brings clarity to life’s choices.

 

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Video cover image by Pixabay Pixabay

Last time in Hebrews: Spiritual Growth

  • Hebrews spends so much time on Jesus work being finished, and we don’t have to atone for our sins by works.
  • All kinds of ideas were coming into the church from paganism—what was called “Neo-Platonism”
    • The idea that physical pleasure is bad, and extreme self-denial is what pleases God.
  • But some of the ideas are making a comeback today through new-age ideas getting into the church

Hebrews 13:9 & 12:13

  1. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings,
    for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace,
    not by food issues, which have not benefited those devoted to them.
  2. and make straight paths for your feet,
    so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but be healed.
  • So how does Hebrews define spiritual growth?
  • Just about every positive command in Hebrews is about loving other believers

Hebrews 6

  1. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.
  • Hebrews 12 & 13 describes “Straight Paths” which turn out to be all about loving one another

Hebrews 12 & 13 “Straight Paths”

  1. and make straight paths for your feet...
  2. Pursue peace with everyone...
  3. Let brotherly love continue.
  4. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
  5. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
  6. …Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
  • So how are we able to do this?
    • Rest in Jesus strength so you can do all this:

Heb 4 – Rest in Jesus’s strength

  1. For the person who has entered his rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from his.
  2. Let us, then, make every effort to enter that rest...
  • And now an incredible verse
    • It is like a summation of the whole book

Heb 13 – The Power for Spiritual Growth

  1. 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,
  2. 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.
  • I can’t do this without you Jesus!
  • Here is how today’s passage, Hebrews 12:14–24, fits into the flow of the whole of Hebrews

Structure of Hebrews

✓✓ Jesus! his throne is forever and ever 1:5–14
warn Pay attention to what you hear, don’t drift away 2:1–4
smiley Brothers & sisters of Jesus, living in his victory 2:5–18
hand Therefore: fix your thoughts on Jesus 3:1
warn O.T. warning—don’t follow negative examples 3:2–4:13
heart Approach God’s throne with confidence—find grace 4:14–16
snow New High Priest after order of Melchizedek 5–7:28
snowsnowsnow The point of what we’re saying: New Covenant 8
snow A New way to God and a New sacrifice 9:1-10-18
heart Draw near to God with sincere heart, full assurance 10:19–25
warn O.T. —be inspired by positive examples 10:26–39,11
hand Therefore: Let us fix our eyes on Jesus 12:1–2
smiley God’s sons and daughters! live in New Covenant 12:3–24
warn Don’t refuse him who’s speaking and turn away 12:25
✓✓ Jesus! The same yesterday, today and forever 13:1–20

2. Esau’s Choice

Stew

Stew

Image source: pixabay

Don’t Choose the Stew

  1. Last time: Rest in Jesus strength so you can do all this
  2. Esau’s choice
  3. Our choice
  • Summary of today:

The story of Esau
gives a vivid picture
to bring you clarity
in life’s choices.

Hebrews 12:14–15

  1. Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness, for without it no one will see the Lord.
  • He starts off telling them to pursue peace and holiness
  • “Pursue peace with everyone” —not just other Christians
    • This doesn’t mean you stay quiet when they are doing wrong
  • There’s a lot of confusion about what the word “holiness” means, particularly in Christian songs
    • It does not mean purity
    • It means total dedication
    • In O.T. times, pagan temples sometimes had female prostitutes who were totally dedicated to the god
      • The Bible uses the Hebrew word, “holy ones” for these women
        • clearly not about purity, but dedication
    • God says in Hosea 11 to the wicked tribe Ephraim
      • You are so sinful, if I was not holy I would destroy you.
    • God’s holiness is is perfect commitment to his promises & plan
  • Christians in the N.T. are very often called “saints” literally “holy ones”
    • This does not mean we are sinless, but that we have dedicated our lives to God

Our Holiness

  • 100% commitment to God because he is 100% committed to us
  • For us to be holy is to be God’s treasured possession.
  • But we belong to him for a purpose, and that is to reflect his goodness, love & truth to the universe
  • So we dedicate our lives to that

Hebrews 12:14–15

  1. Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness, for without it no one will see the Lord. See to it:
  2. that no one comes short of the grace of God,
    that no one be like a bitter root springing up and causing trouble, and through him many become defiled.
    • Quote from Deuteronomy 29:17–18
  3. that no one becomes an immoral or unholy person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. 17(For you know that later when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no opportunity for repentance, although he sought the blessing with tears.)
  1. “come short of the grace of God”
  2. Bitter root springing up (will come back to this)
  3. Esau: tell the story...

Esau

Esau

Image source: Dixie Yid

  • Note it is not saying he tried to repent and failed
  • He values a bowl of soup more than all of God’s promises!
    • A gift that his grandfather Abraham had lived his life for.

Stew

Stew

Image source: pixabay

  • It smells so good and it is right in front of you!
  • He is the opposite to Moses, who saw all the sensual pleasures of Egypt
  • We are tempted to this
    • So were they—they could have no persecution and a comfortable life for a few years
    • The trouble is that you can see, taste, smell the delicious stew
      • But Jesus is invisible
  • Back to 2. Bitter root springing up previous slide
    • He is quoting from the Greek translation of Deuteronomy 29:16–19

Deuteronomy 29:16–19

  1. You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed.
  2. And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them.
  3. Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit,
  4. one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.

ESV

  • This is not talking about the Christian who is falling into sin
    • It is talking about someone who is living a double life, pretending to follow God, but really following the “detestable things”
    • He or she thinks that they are safe because they are with God’s people
  • They are a danger because they poison our minds
  • So what actually is the poison here in this text (as opposed to Deut)
    • It is choosing short term comforts and physical pleasure over following God
    • We all affect one another a lot. Sin is like that.

3. Our Choice

  • We now move on to a comparison between approaching God now, and approaching God in the O.T. before Jesus made a new way
    • Closest in Greek to a “bulleted list”

Hebrews 12:18–21

  1. For you have not come
    • to something that can be touched,
    • and to a burning fire
    • and to darkness
    • and to gloom
    • and to a whirlwind19
    • and to the blast of a trumpet
    • and to a voice uttering words such that those who heard begged to hear no more.
  2. (For they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.”
  3. In fact, the scene was so terrifying that Moses said, “I shudder with fear.”)
  • Explain story…
    • That is what coming into God’s presence without Jesus is like
    • Note that these images are all to do with the senses.
    • Which senses are involved?
      • touch, smell, sight, sound

Hebrews 12:22–24

  1. But you have come
    • to Mount Zion
    • and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem
    • and to myriads of angels24
    • and to the feast-gathered assembly of the firstborn sons & daughters, who are enrolled in heaven
    • and to God, the judge of all
    • and to the spirits of the righteous, who have been made fully perfect,24
    • and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant
    • and to the sprinkled blood that speaks of something better than Abel’s did.
    • the very first sacrifice recorded
  • How would you contrast these two?
    • visible vs invisible
    • terrifying vs joyful presence of God
    • fear is replaced by feasting-
  • Which do you want?
    • Why would anyone chose the first?
  • We have to see the value of what we have!!!
  • You won’t defeat the temptation of the stew by focusing on it—that is why the motivation here is a positive one
  • These are not directly perceived by our senses, but by faith
  • What kinds of things are stew for us today??
    • food, alcohol, sex, binge-watching, binge-spending
    • Don’t focus on the smell of the stew, focus on the goal of life (as above)
    • There is nothing wrong with delicious stew, when does it become wrong?
      • Nothing wrong with a super-size coffee unless you are trying to finish 100m race
    • Think of the prize!!

The story of Esau
gives a vivid picture
to bring you clarity
in life’s choices.

  • Final question:

Challenge: Are you an Esau?

  • You value the visible more than the invisible—it smells so good!
  • What is the stew in your life?
    • am I better off choosing the stew, because at least it’s something, and maybe the promises are all empty.
    • That is a poison!
  • Are you coming short of all you could have of God’s grace, simply because you are not taking the gift
  • Challenge to both Christians and non-Christians!
  • If you are not a Christian, the gift is offered. Don’t be like Esau who didn’t value it
    • We are human, have bodies of flesh, and the stew is calling out to us. It smells so good.
  • Pray for our faith to be strengthened now.

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