A Word about the Greatest Mentor

Today I want to share a word about Jesus as the Greatest Mentor as I comment on Hebrews Chapther 5 and 6.

From time to time, someone will be described as an overnight success. In other words, like we saw in our last episode with Melchizedek, a character will suddenly appear in the spotlight, seemingly from out of nowhere and make a huge splash. One example was basketball player Michael Jordan.

Michael Jordan burst on the scene when he hit the game‑winning shot in the 1982 NCAA championship as a freshman at University of North Carolina. Suddenly, commentators began talking about his seemingly natural abilities, his maturity, and his poise during clutch moments. It was as if he appeared from nowhere as a fully formed basketball star. Most people viewed him as a phenom, with unnatural talents and skills.

What many people didn’t know was that Jordan had been cut from his high school’s varsity basketball team by his Coach, Clifton “Pop” Herring. But instead of tossing Jordan to the side, Herring became his mentor.  Herring played him on the junior varsity team and demanded that Jordan become a disciplined player who focused on the fundamentals, not flashy and risky movements and actions. Jordan later said that Herring’s insistence on complying with his standards were the first time someone treated Jordan like a player who could be great, and not just a kid who liked basketball.

Like Mike, mature Christians do not appear from nowhere. Like Jordan, we are blessed to have a mentor who will coach us into maturity. In our Scripture for this episode, we will see that Jesus is the Greatest Mentor. Let’s begin with Hebrews 5:11-14:

We have a great deal to say about this, and it’s difficult to explain, since you have become too lazy to understand. Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food. Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature—for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil.

We Need Milk:

One thing that we can overlook in this passage of Scripture, is that we all start our life in Christ as babies, as spiritual newborns. Of course, it follows then, that newborns need milk.

A baby cannot thrive if it is not fed the milk that it needs, because nothing else will do. Babies don’t have teeth, so they cannot eat solid food. Also, babies can’t digest solid food, so even if they could eat it, it would not help them grow, and they’d probably become ill. In fact, if honey is fed to newborns, it can make them grievously ill with a disease called infant botulism. So, babies need milk.

Not only do babies need milk, but they also need the right kind of milk. Immediately after birth, mother’s milk contains colostrum, which helps to reinforce a baby’s immune system. Besides that, some babies need special formula mixtures to thrive or overcome colic. Both of my children needed to be shifted to a soy-based formula enhanced with a dollop of Cairo syrup before their stomachs settled down and before their mother and I could get any sleep! So, what is the proper milk for a newborn Christian?  It is nothing more than the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

• The newborn in Christ must know from John 3:16 that God loves everyone in the world.
• The newborn in Christ must know from Romans that all of us have sinned and that we have fallen short of God’s perfection.
• The newborn in Christ must know from Ephesians that the wages of sin is spiritual death, but that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
• The newborn in Christ must know from John 3:16 that God loved everyone in the world so much that He gave His Only Begotten Son as a sacrifice for our sin.
• The newborn in Christ must know from Romans 10 that if they trust in what Christ did for us, and confess that openly, that they will be saved.
• The newborn in Christ must know, that like the thief on the cross, we can be with God in heaven only because, “The man on the middle cross said I could come!”

So, today, before we go any further, let’s ask each of us: have we got milk? Have we drunk the milk of the Gospel? We must do this before we can move on to anything else!

Now, let’s read verses 6:1-8:

Therefore, leaving the elementary message about the Messiah, let us go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, faith in God, teaching about ritual washings, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And we will do this if God permits. For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, became companions with the Holy Spirit, tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age,  and who have fallen away, because, to their own harm, they are recrucifying the Son of God and holding Him up to contempt. For ground that has drunk the rain that has often fallen on it and that produces vegetation useful to those it is cultivated for receives a blessing from God. But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and about to be cursed and will be burned at the end.

We Need Meat:

When we see the Scriptures saying that as Christians we must eat meat, God is not excluding vegans or vegetarians. The writer here is simply pointing out that for children to grow and thrive, they must eventually transition to solid food. Milk is required for a healthy start, but solid food is required to grow a healthy body.

When my wife and I were appointed as missionaries with the International Mission Board, we, and our children also, had to attend an orientation at the Missionary Learning Center in Rockville, VA. This was a full-service campus, including providing daycare or preschool for small children, as well as a school for older children and youth. The children ate separately for lunch, and we had been told to bring baby food for our daughter, who was just one year old at that time. So, we packed several cases of baby food and took it with us to Virginia.

Of course, you can guess what happened. Only days after we arrived, our daughter decided that she wanted to eat regular people food! We were told that as soon as the Missionary Learning Center staff tried to feed her the baby food, she turned up her nose at it! So, she moved on to solid food, and we donated all that baby food for use by future missionary families!

An observable fact in nature is that every healthy creature reproduces, and that every healthy baby grows and matures. For over a decade while my wife and I lived in rural Alabama, we kept a small flock of goats to reduce the amount of grass I had to cut. Over those years we saw several kids born, and invariably, their mothers weaned them from nursing. Sometimes, a nanny goat would just walk away from an older kid who tried to nurse from her. If they didn’t get the message, however, the mama goat would, more or less gently, butt the kid away who needed to be weaned. The point is that growth and maturity is a natural process and it is also a spiritual process as well.

James, the pastor of the Jerusalem church, wrote to his congregation this counsel in James 1:1-8,

Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. An indecisive man is unstable in all his ways.

Paul also urged the church at Rome to grow up in Christ. In Romans 13:11-14 he wrote,

Besides this, knowing the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is nearly over, and the daylight is near, so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk with decency, as in the daylight: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no plans to satisfy the fleshly desires.

Like the way that milk builds healthy bones, the milk of the Gospel is our spiritual foundation. We must exercise our spiritual muscles, however, if we are to mature and grow closer to God every day and in every way!

Now, let’s read Hebrews 6:9-12.

Even though we are speaking this way, dear friends, in your case we are confident of the better things connected with salvation. For God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you showed for His name when you served the saints—and you continue to serve them. Now we want each of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the final realization of your hope, so that you won’t become lazy but will be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance.

We Need Motivation:

I knew a fellow once who had many witty and pithy sayings. One that has always stood out to me was what he said about work. “Work fascinates me,” he would say wryly. “I can sit and look at it all day long.”

We must not be lazy in our spiritual growth and development. As I mentioned above, when Michael Jordan relied on his natural talent, he was a flop. After he had worked long and hard to develop his skills and to learn discipline, however, he became the best basketball star we will probably ever see.

Diligence is not a flashy word, but God does affirm it as an important quality for growth. In the Parable of the Talents, Jesus did not correct the man who only doubled the funds given to him by his master. Jesus did, however, commend him for his diligence.

Laziness is not the only factor that keeps us from growth in maturity. Fear can also keep us from moving forward.  I remember the first steps our son took. We were visiting with my aunt, and he was standing next to us, holding onto the couch where we were sitting. He saw my aunt across the room, whereupon he turned loose of the couch and staggered across the room to her chair. It scared him so badly that he did not walk again for two weeks!

The third man in the Parable of the Talents gave into his fear. He was so afraid of doing something wrong that he did nothing at all with what his master had given him. We must not bury our talents, but instead we must use them, and yes, we will fail when we use them. Again, Michael Jordan failed before he succeeded. As the saying goes about the turtle, he doesn’t get anywhere until he sticks his neck out. 

When we take risk for God, we are not walking a tightrope without a net. God will catch us when we fall, and then He puts us back on our feet, and pushes us out of the nest again. I know these are mixed metaphors, but they help explain that when we embrace growth and maturity in the Lord we have nothing to fear but fear itself (sorry . . . yet another cliché!).

So, sometimes we are lazy, and sometimes we are fearful, but sometimes we just tell God, “No.” That is a risky thing to do but we still do it. We need to develop the same understanding and wisdom that a high school friend had. He told me once that instead of praying, “Lord help me want to be more like Jesus,” he had to pray, “Lord, help me to want to want to be more like Jesus.” 

We must remember what the writer of Hebrews said in chapter 2:1ff:

We must, therefore, pay even more attention to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away. For if the message spoken through angels was legally binding and every transgression and disobedience received a just punishment, how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

Blessedly, we have someone who can help us with all these failings. Let’s read Hebrews 6:3-20,

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater to swear by, He swore by Himself: I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply you. And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham obtained the promise. For men swear by something greater than themselves, and for them a confirming oath ends every dispute. Because God wanted to show His unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. We have this hope as an anchor for our lives, safe and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because He has become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

We Need a Mentor:

As we already observed, Michael Jordan did not blossom as a basketball player until he had the help of a coach and a mentor. The same is true of Christians. We cannot achieve maturity on our own, but we need help outside of ourselves. That help comes to us from Jesus, who is the Greatest Mentor.

Jesus, of course, was a rabbi, which means teacher. It actually means more than that, because He chose disciples who would live with Him, learn from Him, and become like Him.  We are to become His disciples too, and He can teach us in the same way that He taught those who followed Him on this Earth. We have records of His lessons, and how He applied those lessons in the lives of those who followed Him. When we read and meditate on the Gospels, we, too, can sit at the feet of Jesus. We can ask Him questions in prayer, and like James said above, He will give us wisdom.

If that is all we had, it would be enough, but in fact, Jesus multiplied Himself. He sent out his disciples to make more disciples and to teach these new disciples all that He had taught them. In modern sports, we would call this a coaching tree.

The coaching tree that I am most familiar with is that of Nick Saban, the retired head coach from the University of Alabama. At one point, over two dozen former assistant coaches who were mentored by Saban were head football coaches at the collegiate or professional levels. When the 2025 NCAA National Championship playoffs reached eight teams, five of them were coached by former Saban assistants. Of course, Nick Saban did not materialize out of the ether as a coach; he was mentored by Bill Belichick, when Belichick was head coach of the Cleveland Browns and Saban was one of his assistants. 

Jesus has a coaching tree also, as we see in Hebrews 4:11-13:

And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.

Paul was our model for how God’s coaching tree works.  As 2 Timothy 2:1-2 tells us,

You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Finally, we need to remember that Jesus sent to us the Holy Spirit, to mentor us from inside our lives. The Spirit enlightens God’s Word, and He reassures us of God’s Presence. He also gives us spiritual gifts to do ministry that no coaching or practice will qualify us for. 

In all these ways, Jesus transforms weak babes in Christ into people of faith who Paul says are “more than conquerors in Christ Jesus our Lord!”

Conclusion:

The invitation to us is clear:

• Have you got milk?
• Have you begun eating solid spiritual food?
• Have you reignited your motivation?
• Have you committed yourself to coaching by the Greatest Mentor?

What will our response be?

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

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. 
• 
  
• Jesus must be more powerful to us than the most powerful things in our lives.
• 
  
• Jesus is more perceptive of our needs and wants than the most perceptive people in our lives. 
• 
  
• Jesus wants to be more personal to us than the most personal things in our lives.
• 
  
• 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