A Word about the Greatest Priest

Today we will continue in a series of sermons I have entitled The Greatest of All Time as I share a word about the Greatest Priest and as I comment on Hebrews 4 and 5.
 

I don’t know if you have noticed, but whenever a religious leader is featured in some way in modern media, as in television shows or in cinema, that the character is most often a Catholic priest? When I see such a character appear in a television show or in a movie, I will say to my wife, “Just watch. That priest will either be a victim of a crime or the criminal.” Usually, regarding 21st Century media, I am right.

This lack of respect for priests is a post-modern phenomenon. Traditionally, our culture treated priests with respect, and Biblically, priests were honored and respected. I suspect that many reasons exist for this apparent fall from grace, but today we want to return to the Biblical perspective on priesthood.

We must obtain a Biblical view of the priesthood, because the writer of Hebrews has asserted that Jesus is the Greatest Priest in Hebrews 4:14-5:10.  Let’s begin with Hebrews 4:14-5:4:

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to the confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time. For every high priest taken from men is appointed in service to God for the people, to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he is also subject to weakness. Because of this, he must make a sin offering for himself as well as for the people. No one takes this honor on himself; instead, a person is called by God, just as Aaron was.

The Ministry of the High Priest:

In our lives, we are familiar with the idea of an intermediary, or someone who stands in-between two parties in a transaction. A common example of that might be a real estate agent. When people sell a property, they engage a real estate agent to conduct the negotiations for that transaction. Their agent communicates with the buyer’s agent until an agreement on a purchase price and conditions is agreed upon that is acceptable to both parties.

I found it interesting that the last time we bought a home, my wife and I were scheduled to arrive at the attorney’s office at a different time than the sellers were scheduled to arrive. It was as if the real estate agents were afraid that we might get in a contention with the sellers over the deal they had brokered. I think they imagined one of us saying, “Hey, I’ll arm wrestle you for that extra $5,000.00 on the price.” I am not sure why it was necessary to keep us separated, but they did, and all the details were processed through their offices.

Another example of an intermediary, one with which a westerner would not be familiar, but which the people of Biblical times might be, is found in the Mandinka People of West Africa. My wife and I worked among the Mandinka People when we served with the International Mission Board, and we learned that in their culture, marriages were arranged between the parents of the bride and the groom. All these arrangements were negotiated by a man called a silañtonko, which word essentially means way maker. 

Again, one of the issues that a silañtonko, must carefully deal with is money, specifically the details of the bride’s dowery. As our local language coach told me, “No money goes from the hand of the father of the bride to the hand of the father of the groom without going through the hand of the silañtonko. Not even a penny!” The goal is to maintain harmony and avoiding direct confrontation between families.

As we see in the Scriptures in general, and in our specific passage for today, the role of a priest was also to be a go-between, or an intermediary. In the priest’s ministry, the stakes were much higher, however:

• Instead of standing between the buyer and seller of a property, and instead of standing between the family of a groom and the family of a bride, a priest stood in the gap between God and people. 
• Instead of dealing with human commerce or human culture, a priest dealt with human culpability, human sin. 
• Instead of concluding his work by presenting an acceptable cash settlement, a priest presented an acceptable sacrifice to God for the remission of human sin.
• Instead of negotiating the details of human society, a priest negotiated the salvation of the human soul.

Thus, the priest’s role was a serious one, and God’s law required that he was chosen for it, and that he had to meet certain criteria. That’s why Saul sinned by making an offering instead of waiting for Samuel. Also, Nehemiah records that, at the time of the return from exile, some men were acting as priests in the Temple who were not qualified, and so he excluded them until they could provide proper credentials. When you stand between God and people with their souls in the balance, no random person off the street will do!

If the priest’s role was a serious one, the role of the high priest was even more serious. While the priests would offer sacrifices for sin daily, they only did so in what was called the Holy Place in the Temple. Even they were banned from the inner-most court of the Temple which was called the Holy of Holies. This was where the Arc of the Covenant was kept, and this was also the place where the Jews believed that God resided with them.

Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest, and only the high priest, could enter the Holy of Holies. The only reason that the high priest could enter into the Holy of Holies was to present to God a sacrifice for all the sins of God’s people during that year. This was such a high-stress and tension-filled task that legend has it that some high priests were afraid that, instead of presenting the offering for sin, they, themselves, would be struck down by God for their own sin.

The priestly ministry, and particularly the ministry of the high priest, was all about making atonement for human sin, and acquiring God’s forgiveness and pardon for it.

The Model High Priest:

Now, let’s read verses 5:5-10:

In the same way, the Messiah did not exalt Himself to become a high priest, but the One who said to Him, You are My Son; today I have become Your Father, also said in another passage, You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. During His earthly life, He offered prayers and appeals with loud cries and tears to the One who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. Though He was God’s Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. After He was perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him, and He was declared by God a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

We have seen the importance of the ministry of priests, but next we will see the importance of the character of priests. Not every line of priests is the same. 

To illustrate this point, let’s consider the law enforcement agencies in your community. It would be surprising to tally the number of agencies in your local area with the powers of arrest. In many ways they are the same, but at the same time they are different. The police of one town have a certain jurisdiction, while those in a different town have a different jurisdiction. Some sheriff’s deputies may patrol like city police officers do, while some may only support the courts and operate a jail. St. Louis County, MO is unique in not having an office of sheriff, with other agencies fulling that role. Thus, all law enforcement agencies are the same, but at the same time they are all different. The same is true for priests.

The Bible records at least three different lines of priests. One line of priests that are found in the Bible are pagan priests.  These, of course, served false gods and they led people astray. A modern example of these false priests and prophets would be the political commissars in the Soviet Army in the last century. Instead of chaplains, the Soviet Army had political commissars who were responsible to indoctrinate their troops with godless communism. Now, in the 21st Century, our society is still replete with people who lead others astray.

Another line of priests was established by the Mosaic Law, and these are the priests we most often think of in terms of the Jewish faith. Many of these priests were God-fearing men, but some were not. As I mentioned before, some men who were not qualified to be priests were serving in the Temple during Nehemiah’s time, and the rot became so bad that by the time of the New Testament, the high priest was appointed by the Romans, of all people. This priesthood no longer served God, or God’s people.

I know of a small town in Alabama whose police department turned rogue. The officers fraudulently wrote speeding ticket after speeding ticket to both the citizens they were sworn to protect, as well as other members of the public who were passing through on their way to other places. People who were minding their own business were stopped without cause and cited for violations that they did not commit. The town’s coffers swelled, as did the number of police officers. The police chief had become a minor warlord, and the police force was an occupying army.

Eventually, state authorities became aware of this situation. After a thorough investigation, the agency was judged to be unredeemable, and it was disbanded. Not long after this, the former police chief was arrested for impersonating a police officer by displaying his badge to try to avoid receiving his own speeding ticket in another part of the state!

Jesus was obviously superior to the pagan priests, and He was also superior to the Mosaic priesthood as well. In fact, He was a priest of a superior lineage, the line of Melchizedek. But who was Melchizedek?

Let’s read Genesis 14:17-20.

After Abram returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine; he was a priest to God Most High. He blessed him and said: Abram is blessed by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and I give praise to God Most High who has handed over your enemies to you. And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

As you can see, we don’t know much about Melchizedek, but what we do know is impressive. First, he was a priest before the Mosaic law. His priesthood came first, and it never degenerated into the hot mess that the Mosaic priesthood became.

Next, his name meant king of righteousness. This meant he had authority, but that he would never abuse his authority. He would be upright, honest, and an honorable priest and king. Also, he was king of Salem, which means peace. Many scholars believe he was the king of the area where Jerusalem was founded years later. 

Another factor we can see here is that he blessed Abram, and he brought to him the elements of what became the Lord’s Supper. He is also the only person to whom Abram paid a tithe offering. In addition, we don’t know where he came from to bless Abram, and we don’t know where he went after this event. Melchizedek was certainly a unique priest from a unique line of priests. 

All the evidence we see adds up to Melchizedek being a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus. This makes perfect sense when we remember that the ministry of Jesus was all about making atonement for human sin and providing God’s forgiveness and pardon for it.

The Matchless High Priest:

Because Jesus was a high priest from His own line, He was unequalled; He was matchless. First, He was just like us, only different. Hebrews 4:15 says:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin.

Jesus has lived our lives. He has walked our path. He has experienced the joys and the frustrations of living with people. He knows what our lives are like, but unlike us, Jesus never sinned.

Jesus never got tired along the way and quit, nor did He leave the path. Jesus never became angry with someone over the way that they treated Him, and He never got depressed and defeated either. Jesus never gave into to the temptations which we all face, and that made him a perfect match to be our high priest, and that made Him the matchless high priest.

Next, let’s read Hebrews 5:2:

He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he is also subject to weakness.

As I have said before, a major challenge in ministry is to balance conviction with compassion. Humanly, it is nearly impossible to keep those two elements of ministry in balance, but Jesus did. Many scriptures refer to His great compassion.

• In Matthew 10:29, Jesus said that a sparrow does not fall in the field without God’s knowledge and care.
• In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said that His yoke was light and His burden was easy.
• In Matthew 23:37, Jesus said that He longed to gather God’s children together, like a hen gathers her chicks.
• Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 and the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. All of these focused on kindness to those who were lost and needed saving.
• Jesus even healed the ear of the high priest’s servant in John 18, and He healed the soul of the thief on the cross in Mark 15.

Jesus balanced compassion and conviction perfectly. He could be compassionate towards us, because He came to fulfill the law and He did fulfill the law. He did for us, what we could not do for ourselves and set the conditions so that He could be compassionate towards us.

Let’s also read Hebrews 5:7-9,

During His earthly life, He offered prayers and appeals with loud cries and tears to the One who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. Though He was God’s Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered.  After He was perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.

Because of His righteousness, the compassion of Jesus was not temporary, but permanent. Priests made sacrifices daily, and every year the high priest had to make the offering in the Holy of Holies. Jesus came, lived a perfect life, and He permanently fulfilled God’s law.

If the law was fulfilled there is no more guilt as Paul said in Colossians 1:21-22,

Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions. But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him — if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.

The matchless ministry of Jesus was all about making permanent His atonement for human sin and providing God’s forgiveness and pardon for it.

We Must Magnify our High Priest:

So, what does this mean for our daily lives? What difference does this make to us? What difference should it make? Let’s go back to Hebrews 4:14,

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to the confession.

We have a great high priest who is our loving advocate with our Father in Heaven. We must hold fast to Him! This means that:

• Jesus must be more precious to us than the most precious things in our lives. 
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• Jesus must be more powerful to us than the most powerful things in our lives.
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• Jesus is more perceptive of our needs and wants than the most perceptive people in our lives. 
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• Jesus wants to be more personal to us than the most personal things in our lives.
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• Jesus can perform for us what no one else can perform in our lives.

Because ministry of Jesus was all about making atonement for our sin and providing God’s forgiveness and pardon for it we must make much of Jesus in our lives and in the lives of those whom we love.

Conclusion:

The invitation to us is clear,

Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time.

What will our response be?

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word abpout the Greatest Promise

Today I want to share a word about the Greatest Promise as I comment on Hebrews 4:1-13.

 

We are continuing in a series of sermons from the Book of Hebrews that I am calling the Greatest of All Time. In this episode, we will see that Jesus is the Greatest Promise. In our last episode, we noted that a person’s voice is one of the most distinctive elements in their personality. Another distinctive part of our lives is whether or not we keep our promises. How we deal with the promises we make and how we keep our word, or not, will cast either a ray of sunshine or a shadow of cloud on our reputations. During World War Two, solemn promises were made by two different men, and both kept them, but in very different ways.

It is a well-known event in history that the Japanese began hostilities with surprise attacks on the United States at Hawaii and at the Philippines. Though great damage was done in Hawaii, Japanese forces invaded the Philippines, and after a four-month-long struggle, they captured it.

The American Commander was General Douglas MacArthur, who was ordered to Australia to organize a counterattack. When he arrived there, MacArthur, without consulting Washington, pronounced, "I came through and I shall return".

To fulfill that promise, MacArthur had to fight the Japanese, the horrible Southwest Pacific climate, and the power structure in Washington, where many leaders did not think that it was worth the effort to return to the Philippines and free them. It took about three years, thousands and thousands of troops, and MacArthur’s absolute determination, but it did come to pass.

On the other side of the war, a young Japanese officer, Hiroo Onoda, was sent to a small Philippine island to conduct guerilla warfare against the American counterattack. He promised never to surrender and to hold out until his commander returned and released him from his assignment. He determined to be faithful to the promise he had made.

In fact, his commander never returned, the war ended, but Onoda soldiered on. He continued to fulfill his duty for almost 30 years, until a man named Norio Suzuki found him and told him the war was over. Still, Onoda refused to quit his post. Suzuki returned to Japan, found his former commander, and brought him to that small island. Only then did Onoda put down his weapons and returned home, saying, “I was ordered to fight, and I fought. I kept my promise.”

These are great examples of keeping a promise, but today we will see a greater example from Hebrews 4:1-13. Let’s begin with Hebrews 4:1-3:

Therefore, while the promise to enter His rest remains, let us fear that none of you should miss it. For we also have received the good news just as they did; but the message they heard did not benefit them, since they were not united with those who heard it in faith (for we who have believed enter the rest), in keeping with what He has said: So I swore in My anger, they will not enter My rest. And yet His works have been finished since the foundation of the world, for somewhere He has spoken about the seventh day in this way: And on the seventh day God rested from all His works.

The Promise of Rest:

We begin by observing that Christ has given us a promise of rest. If time is a precious commodity, as we saw in our last episode, rest is nigh unto it.

Sometimes rest is scarce because of our sin. Not so much our individual sin, but because of the sinful state of mankind as a whole. Adam and Eve had a lush garden at their disposal, but when they sinned, God said that they would have to work by the sweat of their brow.

The very day before I wrote this message, I had an experience that illustrates why rest is scarce. A few days before, the cable broke on the footrest mechanism of our couch; specifically, it broke on the side of the couch where my wife sits. So, I had to repair it. 

I searched for the part on-line, and I found two items which looked like they would work, but which were listed as having different lengths. I bought both, just to be sure, only to find that they were identical!

That cable was never intended to be replaced, and so I had to disassemble the entire couch to fit the replacement part. It took over two hours to complete the job, but with bruised and bloodied hands I could say that not only did I repair the cable, but I had no parts left over, and it worked. On the other hand, I felt like I had been runover by a truck! Things in life are just hard, and they are harder than God intended them to be.

Another reason that rest is scarce, is due to our own, individual natures. As a child, my mom would send me to bed at a good hour, but I knew that she and my father and my oldest sister were still awake and watching television or listening to music. I couldn’t sleep because I felt like I was missing out on parts of life that others were enjoying. FOMO was a thing with me before it was a thing!

Rest is more than physical, of course. Paul said he had learned to be content in whatever state in which he found himself, but he also admitted that his concern for the churches that he planted weighed heavily on him. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul describes all the troubles and tribulations he had had in ministry, concluding with this in 1 Corinthians 11:28,

Not to mention other things, there is the daily pressure on me: my care for all the churches.

This is like the conversation I had with the father of a groom in a wedding I performed. I asked him, “So, I guess now that your son is married and out on his own, you don’t have to worry about him anymore?” He replied, “No matter how old they are, you never stop being a father.”

Here’s the good news for us: Christ has prepared a rest for us. If we trust Him and invest our faith in Him, we will someday hear these words, 

Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.

Jesus offers us rest, and it is a greater rest than any rest offered on this earth. This is because it is a perfected rest.

The Perfection of Rest:

Let’s read verses 4-10:

For somewhere He has spoken about the seventh day in this way: And on the seventh day God rested from all His works. Again, in that passage He says, They will never enter My rest. Since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news did not enter because of disobedience, again, He specifies a certain day—today—speaking through David after such a long time, as previously stated: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.  For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people. For the person who has entered His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His.

If humans can’t find rest, we need God to help us and give us His rest, and He has promised to do so. We know He can because He has perfected His rest.

The example that the writer of Hebrews has given us is God’s work of creation. As we know, Jesus created everything, and when He finished, it was perfect and complete. Then, because He was finished, He rested because there was no more creating to do. 

When I was active in Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, we knew our workday was complete when our team leader told us, “Let’s go get a shower and get ready for supper.”  No one would take a shower and then go back out and run chainsaws and pull limbs, but the thing is, that respite was just temporary, because on the next day, we’d be back out running chainsaws and pulling limbs and getting hot and sweaty and dirty, because the job was not yet done.

Although it is beyond human ability to find rest, Jesus not only completed creation, but He also completed the process of salvation. On the Cross Jesus proclaimed, “It is finished,” and then He went to sit at the right hand of God. Then, because He was finished, He rested because there was no more to do to provide us salvation. He is enjoying His sabbath and He is looking forward to giving us that eternal sabbath also!

Joshua may have led the Children of Israel into the Promised Land, but he could not lead them to capture it and subdue. The task was not completed. And Israel has never been at rest in their own land. Jesus perfected His rest because it is complete. He also showed us how to have that rest by giving us a manual to find it.

The Manual for Rest:

Let’s read verses 11-13:

Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience. For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart. No creature is hidden from Him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.

As I have said before, God does not play peek-a-boo with his children. He does not play hide-and-seek, nor does He play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. He is open and honest with us, and in fact, we are the ones who hide from Him, just as Adam and Eve did after they sinned. 

Jesus told us plainly how to find the rest that we need in Matthew 11:28-30:

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

In John 14:27, Jesus also said,

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

So again, as we have seen before, the rest that we seek is not found through the accumulation of wealth, or by following a list of mystic principles, or by discovering “one weird trick” on the internet that will radically change our lives. We find rest in none of these, but we find rest in a person, Jesus. This is what the Word, our manual for finding rest, teaches us.

The writer of Hebrews discovered another facet about God’s Word in addition to it being the source of our rest and peace.  Yes, God’s Word reveals to us how to find rest in Jesus, but it also reveals the truth about us also. Paul also discovered this as we have seen previously in passages from Romans.

The Word of God is able to pierce our very soul and to expose all that is in it. In fact, the writer of Hebrews says that we stand naked before God. As much as Adam and Eve tried to hide their nakedness, and despite the fact that God had to kill animals to give them physical clothing, spiritually they, like we are today, were totally exposed to God.

When we served in England with the International Mission Board, our assignment was in what we now call church revitalization. The church we served there had gone through hard times, not the least of which was losing their church building because of dry rot. 

A hidden part of the wall of the church had gotten wet from a leak in the roof, and a dry rot started growing. In fact, its tentacles slowly wrapped around the outer walls of the building, destroying their soundness, but silently, hiddenly, inexorably and definitively. By the time the problem was discovered, and the original source of the dry rot was exposed, it was too late. One deacon described it as a horrible, alien-looking thing. In truth it was just dry rot, but it destroyed their beautiful Victorian chapel building.

This is just like an infected abscess in one’s body. The symptoms can be treated, but the infection cannot be cured until it is exposed and excised. It is painful, but to be healed it must be done. Sometimes this is what the Word is like in our lives. In fact, it must be that way, so that our spiritual lives can be healed.

The Japanese officer that I mentioned above, Onoda, took advantage of the jungle to hide from his adversaries. Sadly, it also hid from him the truth of the end of the war.  Jesus is the Word of God and He was given to us so that we can know about the rest that God has offered us. 

The problem of knowing how to find rest is not with God but with us, because we hide from Him and His Word.

The Rejection of Rest:

Finally, let’s look at some verses that reveal a real tragedy.  Let’s read verses 2-3a,

For we also have received the good news just as they did; but the message they heard did not benefit them, since they were not united with those who heard it in faith  (for we who have believed enter the rest), in keeping with what He has said: So I swore in My anger, they will not enter My rest.

It is a tragedy that some people have heard the message of the promise of rest, but they ignore it. Again, the Japanese soldier Onoda is a sad example. 

When Japan surrendered, leaflets were dropped on the Jungle where Onoda and his small band of followers were hiding. Onoda rejected them, and when one of his soldiers decided that he was going to surrender, those who remained considered him to be a traitor.

Even after all of his followers died or left him, Onoda refused to believe the word of Japan’s surrender. He would not even believe the testimony of Norio Suzuki. Suzuki had to bring Onoda’s former commander to him. This is an apt illustration of what many people have done with the message of rest in Christ.

• First, when God’s Word came to them, they refused to believe. 
• Next, when prophets, God’s messengers came to them, they also refused to believe.
• Finally, God Himself came to them in Christ, and unlike Onoda, they continued to refuse to believe!

If anything can be more tragic than living in the jungle for 30 years because of a hasty promise made to the representative of a corrupt and morally bankrupt cause, it is to reject the opportunity to find the rest that no human can provide.

Verses 10-11 also say,

For the person who has entered His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His. Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.

It is a tragedy that some people have thought that their own works are equal with God’s work. This is simply not the case. 

• God is sinless, and we are sinful.
• God gives us rest, and all we give ourselves is strife.
• God has quit His work, because His task is complete. 
• People quit work because they have made a mess of it.

In some ways, this was Douglas MacArthur’s situation. He reclaimed the Philippines, and he reformed the Japanese government and society. Surely that was enough, right? No, it wasn’t.

He continued on serving through the first months of the Korean War. Again, MacArthur had success, but then he pushed things too far. He had always thought highly of himself, and he always valued his own opinions above those of others. When the Chinese intervened in the Korean War, MacArthur developed strong opinions about how the United States should react. The leadership in Washington disagreed, and unlike during World War Two, he ran into a President who was not reluctant to fire him. And so, he did.

If MacArthur had not been proud and arrogant, he could have been the old soldier who could fade away in dignity and honor. Sadly, he was proud and arrogant, and he paid the price. Even more sad are the ones who value their opinions more highly than God’s. They will never see the rest that God offers those who listen to Him!

Finally, let’s read verses 5-7,

Again, in that passage He says, They will never enter My rest. Since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news did not enter because of disobedience, again, He specifies a certain day—today—speaking through David after such a long time, as previously stated: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

If we think carefully about the actions of Onoda and MacArthur, we might find a different motive for their actions. Instead of keeping promises, they may well have just been stubborn. 

In the movie Gettysburg, Tom Berenger plays the role of Lieutenant General James Longstreet, Robert E. Lee’s “Old War Horse.”  In a reflective moment, the Longstreet character admitted that maintaining the institution of slavery was a losing strategy for the Confederacy saying that, “We should have freed the slaves and then fired on Fort Sumpter . . . we’d rather lose the war than admit the mistake.”

The biggest mistake we can make is to be stubborn and hard-hearted, and to refuse to admit our needs. A mistake that is like unto it is to admit our mistake but stubbornly insist that Jesus is not that answer to our problems. Either way, our stubbornness robs us of the promise of rest pledged to us by Jesus.

Conclusion:

Are you sick and tired?  Are you sick and tired of trying to do the right thing, but failing?  Are you sick and tired of trying to make your own way in the world?  Are you sick and tired of trying to justify yourself to everyone, even God? Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Our solution is to find rest in the Greatest Promise: Jesus!

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about the Greatest Voice

Today I want to share a word about the greatest voice as I comment on Hebrews 3:7-19.

One of the most distinctive elements to our personality is our voice. We can actually be identified by our voice print. In fact, some customer service telephone systems will analyze your voice to give you access to your account. More and more we are using our voices to access computer systems, just like they did on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise on television almost sixty years ago.

Besides having practical uses, voices can also entertain. We are amazed by the voices of singing artists like Susan Boyle, Tennessee Earnie Ford, Frank Sinatra, Adelle, and Celine Dion. Those voice actors that narrate books and documentary presentations have a special sound, as do radio presenters as well. If you have ever known someone with a true “radio voice” you will always be impressed by its deepness and its clarity.

I usually say that I have a face for the radio and a voice for the newspaper, but I was complimented on my voice, once, while I was in seminary. Our preaching professor told us that, after a sermon, people want to be kind and compliment you, but they often don’t know what to say. For example, it is awkward to tell a preacher that you enjoyed a sermon about hell.

During seminary, I had the opportunity to give the devotional at a church fellowship meal. We ate first, and I served in the role of the “after-dinner speaker.” I think I did an adequate job, considering my youngness in the ministry, so I took my professor at his word when an older lady shook my hand on the way out of the church and said, “Well . . . you have a nice voice, anyway.”

Our voices have great use to us, and many voices are great in their tone, but we will see that Jesus is the Greatest Voice of all. 

Let’s read Hebrews 3:7-11:

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me and saw My works for 40 years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation and said, “They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known My ways.” So I swore in My anger, “They will not enter My rest.” 

The Voice of Instruction:

We must begin by seeing that the Psalmist, who is quoted here, clearly saw that God’s people had rebelled against Him. The thing to remember here is that before people can rebel, something must exist to rebel against. No one can be put in jail for violating a law that does not exist. No one can be penalized for a rule that isn’t in the rule book.

In the 2021 National Football League season, Seattle Seahawks punter Michael Dickson had a punt blocked in a game against the Los Angeles Rams. The ball landed behind the line of scrimmage, and Dickson was able to kick it a second time, resulting in a 68-yard kick. Almost everyone thought that was a penalty, including the retired official who was the rules analyst for the television broadcast. The fact was, however, there was no rule in the book against doing what Dickson did, and strangely, at least one commentator has called that the greatest play in modern football!

So how does a punt apply to God’s people? Just this: they had been taught the rules. God gave them His Word, and Jesus, of course, is the Word. We need to remember what Paul taught us in 2 Timothy 3:14-17,

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from childhood you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

God’s people had been given His Law, and they had no excuse.

Not only did they have God’s Law, but they had also seen it acted out as well.  Jesus not only talked the talk, but He also walked the walk. We must remember the saying by Alcoholics anonymous, 

If what you say and what you do don’t match, then what you say is a lie and what you do is the truth.

We know that acts speak louder than words, and the children of Israel saw God act on their behalf time and time again during the 40 years that they wandered in the desert because of their sin. Again, another saying is seeing is believing, but the Jews saw, and yet they did not believe.

While it is incumbent upon God’s people to obey His Word. It is incumbent upon God to enforce His Word. A rule that is not enforced has no power. An infamous example of that is the phantom tag of second base during a double play in baseball. Trying to tag a base while the runner is sliding into it can be dangerous, so umpires often allow the fielder to make a stab at the base with their foot without actually touching the base. Of course, technically, that runner would be safe, but it is a commonly ignored rule in those circumstances, and so it has no effect.

God, of course, enforces His Word. How do we know? The rebellious generation who was rescued from Egypt died in the desert because of their sin. Even Moses was banned and only the two faithful spies, Joshua and Caleb entered in. What God says, He does!

Jesus is the Greatest Voice of Instruction, but He is also the Greatest Voice of Warning.

The Voice of Warning:

As we continue on in this passage, we see that Jesus issued a warning to His people. Let’s read verse 12:

Watch out, brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. 

When I was in Iraq, every base there had a plan to respond to incoming fire. We had radars to detect incoming rounds, and we had Close In Weapons Systems borrowed from the Navy that could shoot rockets and some shells out of the air. We also had bunkers made from concrete culverts to take shelter inside, and our buildings were surrounded by concrete walls. The keys to the system, however, were the radars and the loudspeaker system.

The loudspeaker system, called “The Big Voice,” could be heard anywhere you were in camp. If incoming rounds were detected, it would start broadcasting, “Incoming. Incoming. Take cover. Take Cover.” This would repeat over and over again until the threat was resolved. Jesus is the Greatest Big Voice, because He warned against eternal threats. 

First Jesus warned us about evil. We must avoid evil because just when we think we can control it, it takes control of us. This is like the limerick, “There Was a Young Lady of Niger,”

There was a young lady of Niger who smiled as she rode on a tiger;

They returned from the ride with the lady inside, and the smile on the face of the tiger.

Like playing with fire, if we play with evil, we get burned. Like parents who warn their children about a hot stove, Jesus has warned us about evil.

Jesus also warned us about unbelief. The key to our faith is believing in the love of God and placing our trust in Him and His love for us. As we read in our last episode from Romans 10:13-14,

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher?

Evil works to undermine that trust. We saw that in the way the serpent enticed Adam and Eve to sin. He attacked their trust in God, and he continues to do so today. Jesus warns us to reject unbelief, and that also means that we must actively cultivate our belief through prayer, Bible study, worship, and fellowship with like-minded believers.

The bottom line here is that when people entertain evil, they damage their faith. When our faith is damaged, we then start to seek the help and comfort we need from places other than Jesus. 

• We look to human relationships, but those are never perfect.
• We look to money and possessions, but those are never enough.
• We look to drugs and alcohol, but those are never controllable.
• We look to power and influence, but those are never permanent.
• We look to anger and frustration, but those are never comforting.

The only place we can look for true help is the Throne where Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. Jesus warns us to accept no substitutes!

Jesus is the Voice of Instruction, and He is also the Voice of Warning. Next we will see Him as the Voice of Encouragement.

The Voice of Encouragement:

The Voice of Encouragement urges God’s people to encourage each other daily, because time is short. Let’s read verses 13-14:

But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception. For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start. 

Time is always a precious commodity, because as every second of our lives goes by, it is lost forever. Football coaches study time management for the last five minutes of a football game, trying to discern when it would be appropriate to take a time out, or to clock the ball, or maybe, when enough ticks are on the clock, that their team could afford to run the ball.

Napoleon famously said, “My generals can ask anything of me, except time.”

No one knows when Christ will return, except that it is closer today than it was yesterday. When He does return, time will be up, so as the saying goes, we “need to make hay while the Sun shines.”

Time is short, and so is encouragement. It is not encouraging when your month is longer than your money. It is not encouraging when you get in trouble for trying to do the right thing. It is not encouraging when you are juggling three different projects at work, and none of them are working out. It is not encouraging when you want to walk closely with God, but you find that you can’t. Remember what Paul said in Romans 7:19-24a,

For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me. So I discover this principle: When I want to do what is good, evil is with me. For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God’s law. But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. What a wretched man I am!

It was a good thing, then, that Paul was appointed a missionary along with Barnabas, whose name means “Son of Encouragement.” No doubt, he was an encouragement to Paul and many others.

Time is short and encouragement is short, and so is truth. Truth is short, and while we have more ways to get access to information, it seems as if truth is less readily available than ever before. That is probably not true, however, because Satan is the author of lies. He and his demons can appear to us as angels of light, when they are really lies from the pit of hell.

To overcome the lies that try to ensnare us, we need to encourage people to find the truth. What that means is to point them toward the truth, as we know that Jesus said,

I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by me.

In John 8:31-32 Jesus also said,

Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, you really are My disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Sharing spiritual facts with others is encouraging, but the Truth that Jesus was speaking of here was Himself. He is the most encouraging Truth of all!

The Voice of Correction:

The final voice we can see in this passage of Scripture, is the Voice of Correction. As we have noted several times in this series, a loving father will correct his children out of love for them. God, of course, is Love, and out of His love for us, He corrects us. Let’s read verses 15-19.

As it is said: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it really all who came out of Egypt under Moses? And who was He provoked with for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And who did He swear to that they would not enter His rest, if not those who disobeyed? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”

Some authors have proposed that we should never tell a child, “No.” Instead, we should find other ways to help them mature and become socialized. In other words, we should let our children define their own boundaries.  Child psychologist and author James Dobson would disagree.

Dobson pointed to a study of school playgrounds. When the playground had no boundary fence, the children did not venture far from the building or from where their teachers were. On the other hand, if the playground had a boundary fence, the children were observed roaming the entire area, and they even played at the foot of the fence. Dobson believed this meant that children were more secure when their boundaries were clear. 

Our God does set boundaries for us and his boundaries are consistent.  Again, one factor that can cause a child to act out is when they are subject to the discipline of parents who don’t set the same standards. The children never know what is allowable or appropriate, and so they begin to act however they want. Our God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever, and His boundaries never change. 

Jesus is the Voice of Correction because He is a consistent voice. Jesus is also the Voice of Correction because He is a patient voice. 

Forty years is a long time, and during that time God could have destroyed the Children of Israel many times over because of their sin. No doubt, during these years His people caused God frustration on many occasions, and in fact the Bible records that this is so. Yet, God was still patient, and He has taught us to be patient also. 

Proverbs 14:29 says,

A patient person shows great understanding, but a quick-tempered one promotes foolishness.

James 1:19-20 says,

My dearly loved brothers, understand this: Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for man’s anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.

But . . . why is God patient? In 2 Peter 3:9 He has told us that as well:

The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

Jesus is also the Voice of Correction because He is a patient voice. However, that patience is not unlimited. 2 Peter 3:10 tells us, 

But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed.

One day, time will run out on God’s patience, and we will see that Jesus is also the Voice of Correction because He is a judging voice. Again, the Children of Israel who were rescued from Egypt died in the desert because of their sin. They tried God’s patience, and they lost.

Jesus is the Greatest Voice because He is the Voice of Correction, which He shows by His consistency, His patience, and His judgment.

Conclusion:

As the writer of Hebrews understood, Jesus is the Greatest Voice. How well do we listen to Him?

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about the Greatest Missionary

Today I wast to share a word about the Greatest Missionary as I comment on Hebrews 3:1-6.

In our last episode, I began by asserting that a huge difference exists between being a preacher and being a pastor. Preaching is only one dimension of ministry, while being a pastor is a much more holistic role.  When Jesus came into the world, He pursued a holistic ministry, including preaching, teaching, counseling, and addressing the physical needs of people. As we reviewed Hebrews 2:5-18 we discovered the reasons why Jesus was the Greatest Minister.

In the same way, we must realize the difference that exists between pastors and missionaries. Pastors are shepherds living among and nurturing the sheep. Missionaries leave the flock to go create new ones.

One way to think of missionaries is by way of a slogan of a battery vendor with whom my father did business, the EBCO battery company. Their logo as a little boy with a black eye, and their slogan was, “Always starting something!” This is what missionaries do, they go and start something . . . new for God!

In our passage for today, we will find that Jesus is the Greatest Missionary. Let’s read Hebrews 3:1-6:

Therefore, holy brothers and companions in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession; He was faithful to the One who appointed Him, just as Moses was in all God’s household. For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house. Now every house is built by someone, but the One who built everything is God. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s household, as a testimony to what would be said in the future. But Christ was faithful as a Son over His household. And we are that household if we hold on to the courage and the confidence of our hope.

We Have a Missionary God:

To understand God, and to understand this passage, we must understand the word apostle.

Apostle is a term that is often misunderstood. We often confuse it with the word disciple, but they are very different terms.  Part of the confusion comes from us calling the twelve primary followers of Jesus as His Disciples as well as the Apostles. Both terms are accurate, but they describe different roles. 

A disciple is a learner, and a devoted follower of a teacher or a master, whereas an apostle is one who is sent out on a mission. So, the Twelve were disciples from the beginning and remained so throughout the rest of their lives, but they were only apostles upon their receipt of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. Disciples receive instruction and discipline, while apostles give of themselves to accomplish a purpose.

The key element in apostleship is going. When I was a state missionary with the Alabama Baptist State Convention, I remember a colleague telling about a conversation he had with his father. When his father asked him once how his day had gone, he said, “Well, I drove for three and a half hours to the northwest corner of the state to have lunch and counsel with a local church leader for about an hour. Then I drove three and a half hours back home.”  His father said, “That’s crazy to drive that far for a one-hour meeting.” His son, my colleague replied, “But that’s what we do. He needed to see me, and so it was worth the trip.” This is the essence of apostolic ministry, going to those who need us.

So, then, what about God? Did He come to us on a mission? Of course He did!

• It was God who took the initiative to create the world and to populate it with all good things. Then He created us, so that we could have fellowship with Him.
• It was God who came looking for Adam and Eve after they sinned. They were ashamed, and they hid from God, but God sought them out.
• It was God who saw that humans were rebelling at Babel and attempting to make a name for themselves instead of exalting God’s name. He intervened and confused their language so that they could not cause themselves more harm.
• It was God who saw that human sin was rampant, and so He sent a flood to purge the world.
• It was God who came to Moses in the burning bush, as well as on Mount Zion. It was also God who came to Egypt in the form of the Death Angel to free His people from bondage.
• It was God who came to Elijah in the still small voice, but it was also God who came in the form of fire from heaven on Mount Carmel.
• It was God who descended upon Jesus like a dove, and who came upon the apostles on Pentecost with a violent wind and tongues of fire.
• It will be God who, at the end of this age, will create a new heaven and a new earth.

Our God is clearly both an active and a missionary God, but He did not keep that role to Himself. We also have a missionary sending God. 

We Have a Missionary Sending God:

One of the key techniques followed by missionaries, and by other ministers as well, is to multiply oneself. The idea is to avoid keeping the ministry to yourself, but instead to share it with others. This is a powerful process, because not only does it mean that more work can be done, more small groups can be started, and the Gospel shared more often, but it also helps people feel ownership of the ministry.

A great example of this is found in the Book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah didn’t build the wall by himself, nor did he bring in outsiders to do the work. What Nehemiah did was to involve as many of the local citizens as possible in the task of rebuilding the walls. They did so in record time.

Another example is a trend that can be seen in church plants. Many church plants, when they begin, meet in rented or temporary spaces. Most of them will need to set-up that room for church on Sunday and take it down again after worship. That means that a new church start will recruit people for set-up and take-down. The members of that team or teams become very committed to being present at church because they are needed. 

When the day comes that such a church plant can afford having a space to itself, the need for a set-up and take-down team becomes excess to requirements. What commonly happens next is that some ex-members of that team become sporadic in their attendance, and it is common for some to stop attending at all. Setting-up and taking-down is hard work, but they had committed themselves to it, and so their emotional buy-in was high. When the work they were committed to went away, so did much of their emotional buy-in.

The saying “many hands make light work” is not in the Bible, but Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says,

Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm; but how can one person alone keep warm? And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.

So, who came up with this brilliant idea? God did, of course.

We all know the saying, “Go big or go home,” and God launched His efforts to multiply Himself with a bang, creating a missionary people. When God called Abraham to create a nation, God planned to bless them so that they could be a blessing to the world. 

When God’s people lost their way and got in trouble, God sent Moses to redeem them and bring them into the Promised Land. He did this to bless them, of course, but also so that they might pursue the mission of bringing God’s Word and His grace to all the peoples of the world.

When His people were reluctant to follow His lead, God sent individuals out to share His message. For example, God sent Jonah to the Ninevites in Assyria to preach repentance. What today we would call a great revival broke out in the city, and an entire generation of heathens did repent and began to follow God.

Jesus, of course sent out the twelve, and then the seventy, two-by-two. When they came back, praising God for what He had done through them, Jesus told then that He saw Satan falling from heaven like a lightning flash.

Jesus gave us the Great Commission and the Acts 1:8 challenge, and then on Pentecost, the twelve Disciples truly became Apostles. We often forget that Paul wasn’t the only missionary church planter in the First Century. We know more about him because a large portion of his ministry included writing letters, and of course, because Luke was a member of his missionary team. The other Apostles planted churches and shared the Gospel also. We just don’t have the same documentation for them as we do for Paul.

Of course, Jesus did call Paul and Barnabas to go to Asia, and then He called Paul and Silas to go to Europe to share the Gospel and make disciples. Because He did, Christianity has spread across the globe.

Our God is clearly a sending and missionary God, but while the work of those He sent was blessed by Him, there was still one better. It is good for us that we have a missionary Savior. 

We Have a Missionary Savior:

The theme of Hebrews, as we have discovered, is that Jesus will out-shine anyone to whom He is compared. For the Jews, their greatest hero is Moses. So naturally, the writer of Hebrews compared Jesus to him.

This type of comparison is very common in our world. In sports, current players are compared to Bo Jackson, or Tom Brady, or Larry Bird, or Michael Jordan, or Tiger Woods. Every President of the United States will be compared to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, especially at the one-hundred-day point of his administration. Many husbands compare their wives to their mom, and strangely, so do many wives compare their husbands to their mom also!

The writer of Hebrews is not denigrating Moses in the passage. You can’t build up heroes by talking down those to whom they are compared. The terms servant used to describe Moses is not the one used for an ordinary field hand. In fact, it is a term used to describe the role that Joseph and Daniel played when they were promoted to lead the nations where they were held captive. In their day, no one was more powerful than them, except for the pharaoh and the king. This same thing is true for Moses, except that his King was the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords.  Moses was the number two to the greatest principal in world history.  Moses was not just a Prince of Egypt; he was the prince of the Kingdom of God. It is hard to beat that, but someone did.

So, who could be better and more powerful than Moses was? Only his Boss, God himself.

When we think about Jesus as a missionary, we can easily see His superiority to Moses and all other human missionaries.

• Missionaries travel. Moses travelled from the back side of the desert to Egypt and then to Canaan. Jesus travelled through time and space, and He took human form to be a missionary among us.
• Missionaries leave their homes and their families. Moses did also, but he had killed an Egyptian, so he was actually on the run. He reminds me of a church pastor who went to prison for running a Ponzi scheme. He told the church he was going on a six-month mission trip and that he’d see them when he got back! Jesus, of course, left His home in heaven, and in doing so, He left the right hand of God.
• Missionaries work cross-culturally. Moses had one foot in the Hebrew culture and one foot in the Egyptian culture, and a hand in the Bedouin culture of his father-in-law Jethro. He was the first example of a multi-cultural person, but Jesus had to cross a far greater cultural divide. He was perfect and without sin, yet He had to learn to identify and work with frail sinners without becoming one of us.
• Missionaries share the Gospel and plant churches. Moses shared the Word that he was given, but though he reformed Israel as a congregation, he did not create them. Jesus did not receive the Word, He is the Word, and He created the first church and then told the members of that church to go and make others.
• Missionaries multiply themselves. Moses did, but only after he had been corrected by Jethro. Jesus called to Himself disciples from the beginning of His public ministry, and as we will see below, He has also included us in His missionary work as well.
• Missionaries, like Moses, represent God in the world and to the world. Jesus is God.

Our God is a Missionary God, and a missionary sending God, and a Missionary Savior God. He is also a missionary commissioning God.

We Have a Missionary Assignment:

The last words people speak to us have great impact, and the same was true in the case of our Lord Jesus. His last words gave us a missionary assignment just like God’s first words to Abraham did.

Every Christian should be aware of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. Jesus has assigned the church the task of going into all the world and making disciples of all people. 

Likewise, every believer should remember what Jesus said in Acts 1:8. Everywhere we go, and in everything that we do, we are witnesses to Christ. In word, in deed, and in our attitudes, what we are reflects back onto Christ.

Of course, we know that the Twelve transformed from disciples to apostles, and they spread the Gospel across the Roman world. We can also look back in the past and see that Baptists and other evangelical churches have pursued God’s missionary assignment.  

In the early 1700’s, a Moravian Bishop in Germany, Nicolaus Zinzendorf (yes, that is a real name and a real person), recruited and trained missionaries to go out into the world and share the Gospel. This is what he told them: Preach the Gospel, die, and be forgotten.

Early missionaries would often use coffins to ship their supplies as they traveled to far away lands. They never expected to return to their homes, and so they brought their coffins with them.

Not long after that, William Carey, a pastor in England, was convicted that British Baptists were ignoring the Great Commission. He began preaching missionary sermons until he preached himself into becoming the first Baptist international missionary, the first missionary to India, and the father of the modern missions movement. 

In the early 1800’s Adoniram Judson and his family became the first Baptist missionaries from America. He worked in Burma. It took them 12 years to make 18 converts to Christianity. He spent 37 years overseas with only one trip back to America during that time.

At the same time that Judson went to Burma, Luther Rice was a Baptist minister in America who was called to missionary service as well, but in a different way. He devoted his life to sending missionaries. He traveled across the United States by horseback to raise funds for the cause of sending missionaries. He almost literally died in the saddle. According to an article by Charles Jones in the January 17, 2022, edition of the Christian Index,

Rice was traveling in South Carolina in 1836 when his recurring illness struck him down. He lingered for several days in the home of friends before dying and was buried in a nearby church yard in Edgefield, South Carolina. His only worldly possessions at death were a horse, the sulky, a few books . . . and little more than the clothes on his back.

Of course, Southern Baptists have a long history of missions as well. Like Judson and Rice, we have notable people who have gone on mission, as well as people who have sent out missionaries. 

The international missions offering that Southern Baptists receive at Christmas time is named for Lottie Moon, a young woman who was appointed a missionary to China in 1873. She wrote back to America urging greater support of the missionary effort, and in response the Woman’s Missionary Union of the SBC was formed in 1888. Lottie wore herself out for the cause of Christ in China, and when she died in 1912, she only weighed 50 pounds.

The home missions offering that Southern Baptists receive at Easter time is named for Annie Armstrong. She was one of the women who had been motivated by Lottie Moon’s urgent letters, and in 1888 she led the creation of the Woman’s Missionary Union. She dedicated her life to the cause of supporting missions.

Yes, Baptists and other evangelicals have a long history of missions, one we should be grateful for. But the task is not yet complete, and as we look back on our history, we see two roles. One role is the role of going.  The other role is the role of sending. This division of effort is not only historical, but also practical, as well as Biblical.  Romans 10:13-15 tell us:

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who announce the gospel of good things!

So, our assignment is simple if it is not easy. We either send, or we go! We have an assignment from our Missionary God. We cannot reject it!

Conclusion:

Our God is a missionary God. He sent us a Missionary Savior. If we are going to honor Him, we must become a missionary people.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbiitt

A Word about the Greatest Minister

 

Today I want to share a word about the Greatest Minister as I commment on Hebrews 2:5-18.

Today we will continue in a series of sermons from the Book of Hebrews that I am calling the Greatest of All Time. We have already seen that Jesus is the Greatest Revelation, that He is the Greatest Agent, and that He is the Greatest Savior. In this episode, we see that Jesus is the Greatest Minister.

A huge difference exists between being a preacher and being a pastor. Preaching is only one dimension of ministry, while being a pastor is a much more holistic role. Billy Graham preached to many thousands of people as a part of his ministry, but he was a pastor to only a few dozen people at best. That is no criticism of him by any means, but it reminds me of a story related to our class by one of my seminary professors.

A church pastor realized that a family in his church has stopped attending and so he made a visit. They told him that they for worship, they now watched the broadcast of a well-known television preacher from California, saying, “We just love him! He’s such a wonderful preacher!”

 The same pastor ha heard that some church member had just been told of a death in their family. He reached out to them, and they invited him to come to their home, and so he made a visit on the same day as he visited the family above. He counseled with the grieving family, helped them organize the arrangements for a funeral at their church, and prayed with them.  As the pastor left he thought, “I wonder where that television preacher is today?”

When Jesus came into the world He pursued a holistic ministry, including preaching, teaching, counseling, and addressing the physical needs of people. In our passage for today, we will find that He was the Greatest Minister. Let’s read Hebrews 2:5-9.

For He has not subjected to angels the world to come that we are talking about. But one has somewhere testified: What is man that You remember him, or the son of man that You care for him? You made him lower than the angels for a short time; You crowned him with glory and honor and subjected everything under his feet. For in subjecting everything to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. As it is, we do not yet see everything subjected to him. But we do see Jesus—made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace He might taste death for everyone—crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering in death. 

His Humble Authority:

Jesus did something remarkable, and unique among the stories of gods in our world. He voluntarily demoted Himself to minister to us.

When I refer to the stories of gods in our world, I am in no way implying that any other so-called god compares with Jesus Christ. There is no other name by which people can be saved, because Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. As Jesus claimed Himself, He is one with the Father. If we have seen Jesus, we have seen God, because He is God.

Jesus is both Creator of all things as well as God’s Heir, and everything that exists does so because of Him and everything that exists is subject to Him. He rightfully and righteously owns all things, including all of us. Today He is sitting at the right hand of God in Heaven where He reigns for eternity.

All of that is true, but it is also true that Jesus did something that no god, and very few, if any, ministers would do. Jesus demoted Himself. He became a little lower than they angels, and He walked on the earth as a man. Philippians Chapter 2 says that He emptied Himself, and that He thought this action was nothing remarkable. He demoted Himself, because He loved us.

The closest human story I that might compare to what Christ did is from the American Civil War. Gouverneur Warren was the Chief Engineer for the Army of the Potomac, and on the second day at Gettysburg he was scouting the line of battle. He discovered that the two hills on the south flank of the Union line, Little Roundtop and Big Roundtop, were unoccupied. On his own authority, Warren diverted Union troops to those places just minutes before the Confederates attacked there. He was an unsung hero of that battle. For the last two years of the war, Warren, now a Major General, was a corps commander over a major portion of the Army of the Potomac. That is, until one of the last battles of the war.

During a battle in the Appomattox Campaign, Warren was under the command of Phillip Sheridan. Sheridan was hot-headed and decided that Warren had moved too slowly. He sought permission to relieve Warren, and when it was received, he did so. Just days before the end of the Civil war, Warren, a faithful and effective commander, was fired and sidelined.

After the war, Warren reverted to his permanent rank of Major, a fall of four grades. He served as an engineer in the Regular Army for another 17 years, being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1879. Warren worked faithfully and diligently all those years. He was finally exonerated by a court of inquiry, but by that time he had died. His last words were, "The flag! The flag!"

Warren was humble. Although he was demoted, he served faithfully and effectively all the rest of his life. A difference between Warren and Jesus was the element of authority. Warren worked for Sheridan, and Sheridan had the authority over him. No one has authority over God, and Jesus was not demoted by a higher authority. No! Jesus demoted Himself so that He could exercise authority for us by defeating death and hell on our behalf. Then, He ascended back to the right hand of God the Father.

Jesus is the Greatest Minister because He exercised His humble authority to do for us, what we could not do for ourselves. Indeed, He did what no one else could do for us, even at the cost of his voluntary, if temporary, demotion.

Now, let’s read verses 10-12:

For in bringing many sons to glory, it was entirely appropriate that God—all things exist for Him and through Him—should make the source of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying: “I will proclaim Your name to My brothers; I will sing hymns to You in the congregation.” 

His Suffering Perfection:

Jesus called Himself the Good Shepherd for a reason. Shepherds are responsible for the safety and security of the sheep, and they do so by living among them. When the English translation of the Christmas Story in Luke says that the shepherds were “abiding in the fields,” that is exactly what he meant. The shepherds were living with the sheep and experiencing everything that the sheep experienced. They suffered or were blessed in exactly the same ways that the sheep suffered or were blessed.

Paul recorded his sufferings as a minister in 2 Corinthians 11:21-28:

I say this to our shame: We have been weak. But in whatever anyone dares to boast—I am talking foolishly—I also dare: Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I’m talking like a madman—I’m a better one: with far more labors, many more imprisonments, far worse beatings, near death many times. Five times I received 39 lashes from Jews. Three times I was beaten with rods by the Romans. Once I was stoned by my enemies. Three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the open sea. On frequent journeys, I faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the open country, dangers on the sea, and dangers among false brothers; labor and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold, and lacking clothing. Not to mention other things, there is the daily pressure on me: my care for all the churches.

Before Paul had these experiences, however, Jesus had already had them. Because Jesus walked with people, and because He suffered with people, and because He put-up with people, He understands us and we understand Him. He was hungry and thirsty. He walked miles upon miles of dusty roads. He was in danger upon the water, and on land as well.

Jesus has walked in our shoes, and He calls us His brothers and sisters. The difference between us and Jesus is His perfection. Despite all the frustrations of this imperfect world, Jesus never sinned. Despite all the testing and temptation of Satan, Jesus never sinned. Despite experiencing everything we have experienced, Jesus never sinned, and that made Him the perfect sacrifice for us.

Jesus is the Greatest Minister because He is the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd laid down His perfect life for His sheep.

Next let’s read verses 13-17:

Again, I will trust in Him. And again, Here I am with the children God gave Me. Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through His death He might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the Devil—and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. For it is clear that He does not reach out to help angels, but to help Abraham’s offspring. Therefore, He had to be like His brothers in every way, so that He could become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 

His Merciful Faithfulness:

In my ministry career, I have known many different church pastors, but in terms of this passage of Scripture, two of them stand out, but for opposing reasons.

The first one was a man of strong convictions. He was convinced of the absolute righteousness of God and of the infallibility of God’s Word. If God said it, that settled it, regardless of if anyone believed it or not. When an issue arose in his church his response was, “What does the Bible say about it?” And then, “O.K., that’s what we will do!”

The second pastor was a man of great compassion. He loved God, and He loved God’s people, and He loved everyone who was ever created by God. His watch word was “God is love,” and he acted accordingly. When an issue arose in his church his response was, “What is the loving thing to do?” And then, “O.K., that’s what we will do!”

In some measure, both of those men were right, and yet both of those men were wrong. For the first pastor, his convictions overwhelmed his compassion. For the second, his compassion overwhelmed his convictions. Both were limited by their inability to balance the two.

This is not so with Jesus. He is the Greatest Minister because of His merciful faithfulness. Jesus always acted out of compassionate conviction. He always kept conviction and compassion in balance, and He still does today.

• Jesus could heal the centurion’s servant from a distance, but He could also turn-over the tables of the moneychangers in the Temple in person.
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• Jesus could be compassionate to the woman at the well, while calling out Peter and saying that he was doing the work of Satan.
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• Jesus could sit with the scholars in the Temple, meditating with them upon God’s Word, while He also could turn water into wine so that a wedding would not be spoiled.
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• Jesus can sit at the right hand of God in Heaven, while also interceding for us.

One thing we must remember, is that indulging sin is not the most loving thing to do. Later in Hebrews 14:5-11 we will read,

And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly or faint when you are reproved by Him, or the Lord disciplines the one He loves and punishes every son He receives. Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline—which all receive—then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had natural fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but He does it for our benefit, so that we can share His holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Jesus is the Greatest Minister because He can be faithful to us while also being faithful to God in perfect balance.

Finally, let’s read verse 18:

For since He Himself was tested and has suffered, He is able to help those who are tested.

His Victorious Sacrifice:

One of the most memorable lines from a popular television show that tested the validity of myths and urban legends was,

Don’t try this at home. We’re what you call professionals

Considering the different experiments that were highlighted on that show, many of which were explosive, that was sound advice. Yet, until you have tried to do something, you really don’t know you can do it.

Ted Williams, the greatest technical hitter in baseball was quoted as saying, “The hardest thing you can do in baseball is to hit a round ball with a round bat, squarely.” Hitting therefore is simple, but not easy. I found this to be true when I was a child.

One spring, parents gave me a plastic baseball bat and ball set. My sister and I went out to our driveway for my first attempt at hitting a ball with a bat. I said brazenly, “Mickey Mantle has stepped up to the plate, and he is going to hit a home run.” My sister threw me the ball, and it was a swing and a miss. This happened three times in a row. I was embarrassed, but what made it worse was my sister was throwing the ball underhanded!

The National Football League for many years had a slogan, “On any given Sunday!” That was shorthand for, “On any given Sunday, any one team can beat another.” If it all came down to statistics and other data, there would be no need to play the game, but it doesn’t just come down to numbers. The intangibles can often outweigh the quantifiable, and so that’s why you must play the game, and that’s why you must play the game until the final gun. Many underdog teams have left the playing field victorious, and many last second miracle wins have been recorded.

When the time comes to put up or shut up, many people who talk the talk can’t walk the walk. Jesus came to that point in the Garden of Gethsemane. He faced certain death, and He sweat drops of blood over the prospect, but He moved forward and leaned into the events of the next day instead of running away.

On the day Jesus was crucified, He was condemned by a court for crimes that He didn’t commit. He was rejected by His countrymen, the ones He prioritized for His ministry and the ones He came to save. He was beaten and abused, and He was publicly humiliated by the first ever recorded perp-walk. He was executed between two common thieves. Even then, He had the grace and love to ask God to forgive those who had done this to Him. He invited the thief who repented to join Him in paradise that very day.

If offered this opportunity, few people would take it. If this opportunity was thrust upon them, most people would flee. Jesus not only accepted it, but leaned into it, because just when the Jews and the Gentiles and Satan were celebrating Jesus’s death, so was He, because He had them right where He wanted them.

Jesus experienced the ultimate test, and He passed with flying colors. He suffered and bled and died, but He rose again the third day to defeat death and hell and offer us eternal life. 

None of us have ever experienced the horror of the Cross, and the horror of having God the Father turn His face away from us, but Jesus has. What this means for us is that whatever we may experience, Jesus has experienced worse, and He came through it victoriously. Because of this, regardless of what we face, we have a helper who has been there before.

Recently a man I knew had a heart procedure. He was concerned about this delicate procedure, and he asked his cardiologist if he had ever performed it before. The doctor told him, “Oh, about 3,500 times.” The man was reassured, of course. Jesus has far more experience than any human, and far more power to help us!

Jesus is the Greatest Minister because wherever we go, He has been there before. He knows the way, and He will help us get there as we walk with Him!

Conclusion:

Who is your favorite minister? I am sure he was a wonderful pastor and a good preacher. The truth is, however, he couldn’t hold a candle top Jesus.

Jesus is the greatest minister because He is better than all other ministers and because He will pursue His ministry for eternity!

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt