- Joined
- Apr 25, 2006
- Messages
- 17,518
31 May 2007
Hebrews 13:7-16
Remember your leaders who taught God's message to you. Remember how they lived and died, and copy their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not let all kinds of strange teachings lead you into the wrong way. Your hearts should be strengthened by God's grace, not by obeying rules about foods, which do not help those who obey them.
We have a sacrifice, but the priests who serve in the Holy Tent cannot eat from it. The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place where he offers this blood for sins. But the bodies of the animals are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the city to make his people holy with his own blood. So let us go to Jesus outside the camp, holding on as he did when we are abused.
Here on earth we do not have a city that lasts forever, but we are looking for the city that we will have in the future. So through Jesus let us always offer to God our sacrifice of praise, coming from lips that speak his name. Do not forget to do good to others, and share with them, because such sacrifices please God.
Who are the people you admire and model your life on? Who is it that you see God in and sometimes think "if only I could be as close to God as him/her" or "that person is holy"? Are any of them your church leaders or youth minister?
We are reminded today to model our faith on those who taught us God's message and not to be led astray by false teaching. The ultimate model for our lives can only be Jesus, and to try and live our lives by the morals and standards he would live by today. Whilst all Christians will try and do this, we are all human, and our church leaders and ministers are just as human, and like me, and like you, they will sometimes fail or fall short of God's standards.
It is likely that the writer of this passage was trying to counter some false or bad teaching that was being given by some in the church, which may have led people into ways of rules and regulations (about food) rather than focussing on the sacrifice and forgiveness of sins by Jesus.
Whilst order and discipline are clearly important parts of maintaining orthodoxy in many of our churches today, we are warned not to focus on rules and regulations at the expense of focussing on Jesus. Jesus' whole life, death and resurrection challenged the religious establishment to focus back on God, not on themselves. We must do the same - look to God and do good, even when it costs, so that we can praise Him and share Him with others.
Lord Jesus, it is you I want to model my life on, you I want to follow, you I want to share with others. Help me do what you would do, and help me pass on your love through all I do. Amen.
Written by Neil Thomson
Hebrews 13:7-16
Remember your leaders who taught God's message to you. Remember how they lived and died, and copy their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not let all kinds of strange teachings lead you into the wrong way. Your hearts should be strengthened by God's grace, not by obeying rules about foods, which do not help those who obey them.
We have a sacrifice, but the priests who serve in the Holy Tent cannot eat from it. The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place where he offers this blood for sins. But the bodies of the animals are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the city to make his people holy with his own blood. So let us go to Jesus outside the camp, holding on as he did when we are abused.
Here on earth we do not have a city that lasts forever, but we are looking for the city that we will have in the future. So through Jesus let us always offer to God our sacrifice of praise, coming from lips that speak his name. Do not forget to do good to others, and share with them, because such sacrifices please God.
Who are the people you admire and model your life on? Who is it that you see God in and sometimes think "if only I could be as close to God as him/her" or "that person is holy"? Are any of them your church leaders or youth minister?
We are reminded today to model our faith on those who taught us God's message and not to be led astray by false teaching. The ultimate model for our lives can only be Jesus, and to try and live our lives by the morals and standards he would live by today. Whilst all Christians will try and do this, we are all human, and our church leaders and ministers are just as human, and like me, and like you, they will sometimes fail or fall short of God's standards.
It is likely that the writer of this passage was trying to counter some false or bad teaching that was being given by some in the church, which may have led people into ways of rules and regulations (about food) rather than focussing on the sacrifice and forgiveness of sins by Jesus.
Whilst order and discipline are clearly important parts of maintaining orthodoxy in many of our churches today, we are warned not to focus on rules and regulations at the expense of focussing on Jesus. Jesus' whole life, death and resurrection challenged the religious establishment to focus back on God, not on themselves. We must do the same - look to God and do good, even when it costs, so that we can praise Him and share Him with others.
Lord Jesus, it is you I want to model my life on, you I want to follow, you I want to share with others. Help me do what you would do, and help me pass on your love through all I do. Amen.
Written by Neil Thomson
