Hebrews- Encouragement for a life of faith
Part 13
“Peace, love and Jesus”
Hebrews 12:14-15
In the winter of 1914 all along the western front of World War 1 in an area that covered some 27 miles a strange and very unusual event occurred on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.
Books
Movies
And even commercials have been written about this event
It is commonly known as the Christmas truce
On a very cold night after 5 months of heavy fighting
The men of both the German army and the British army
Refused to continue fighting though Christmas
The event started with the Germans singing Christmas carols
With The British soon returning the favor with their own songs
At some point in the night both sides sang silent night
The next day, Christmas day
Soldiers from each side began making their way into what is commonly known as no man’s land
The area between the German trenches and the British trenches
Throughout the day the soldiers from opposing sides
Exchanged gifts of hats, coats, buttons, tobacco and food items
It is reported all up and down the line
Impromptu soccer games broke out
It is also reported that in the heart of a terrible a bloody war
No shots could be heard
And the sound of laughter and singing filled the air
For a short time
There was peace
Today we are going to continue our study of the great book of Hebrews
Our writer has taken us though much soul searching
Toe stomping exhortations
He has mashed on us and stepped on us
And as a result I have done the same to you and to myself
All of this mashing is to get us to a place where God wants us
As we studied last week
Discipline is designed to mold us
Shape us
Into
Better Christians
In the hard topics prayerfully we saw ourselves in a clear light
And prayerfully we took stock of our lives
Took stock of our commitments
And we have been encouraged by what we are doing right
And convicted by the things that the two edged sword of scripture showed us we were doing wrong
-------
In an effort to cause spiritual growth in the readers of Hebrews
Then and now
Our writer moves to another bit of encouragement
Let’s open up to Hebrews 12: 14
In an effort to help us truly receive all God has for us
And in order to get us doing what he has called us to do
He tells us
Verse 14
14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.
Work at living in peace with everyone
Work at living at peace with everyone
Even those we don’t like, there are some
Even those who hate us
Even those who have different views
Opinions
Beliefs
Even those that----
God through our writer does not say
Work at living at peace with those in your church
Or those in your family
Or those you like
He says
Work at living at peace with --- EVERYONE
When we talk about peace in church
When we peach on peace many times we focus on peace with God
We do know that this is important
We need to understand how to have peace with God
Without Jesus we are enemies to God
But Jesus makes us friends
But more importantly Family
God’s children
Next we want to focus on our peace
Peace of heart
Contentment
Peace that comes with a true and life changing relationship with the savior
We need this peace
This peace is a fruit of the spirit
This peace is what helps keep us focused
This peace is what lets me personally get up every morning without fear
And go to sleep at night with contentment
Peace with God is life changing
Peace within is amazing
But
Today our writer is talking about peace that crosses borders
Peace that crosses differences
Peace that causes others to see Jesus when they look at you
Wednesday night we continued our study of Matthew
In this study we heard how Jesus when asked what is the greatest commandment
Say
Matthew 22:36-40
“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’[e] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[f] 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Love God above everything, with all you have
And Love your neighbor as yourself
Loving others as we love our selves develops peace
Jesus tells us to live at peace with others
He says we are to love our enemies
He says we are to pray for our enemies
He says we are to show concern
Compassion
For everyone
Including our enemies
He says the peacemakers will be blessed
We as believers are to work at
Work at
Work at
Living at peace with everyone
That means with our families
Those at church
Work
School
Those who believe in Jesus
And those who do not
All still means all
So we see that we are to live at peace
We see that our Lord and savior places great value on living in peace
So how do we do that?
Let’s go back to Hebrews 12:14b to the first way
“And work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.”
Once again we see the words “work at”
Work at living a holy life
A holy life
First off I need to tell you
On our own
No matter how good we think we are
We are not holy
We are sinners
Who struggle
Sometimes with the simplest of things
On our own we are we are just about the polar opposite of Holy
But though Jesus we are made holy because he is Holy
A few months ago we preached about pure hearts
How we
As we strive----Work at
Becoming
More like Christ
Can begin developing pure hearts
We can develop holiness in the same way
By keeping our eyes on Jesus
And imitating him
By imitating his responses, reactions and interactions with the world
We become holy though him
But this takes much work – not salvation
Salvation is by grace not by work
But sanctification is by work
Peace does not just happen
All of the Generals and commanders on both sides were against the Christmas truce
Some even ordered the fighting to continue
But the Men worked at Peace
Holiness does not just happen
Holiness starts with Jesus
Salvation
And continues with study and prayer and growth and interaction with other believers
Holiness and peace grows even more as we take these outside of our comfort zone of people like us
As we show love to those in our lives
Those in the world
Those with different beliefs
We become more like Christ
And peace is often one of the outcomes
But it takes work
Let’s go back to Hebrews 12 for another way we can develop Peace
Hebrews 12:15a
“Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God”
Look after each other
Show concern
Show compassion
Show respect
Show love
So
That none of you
No one fails to receive the grace of God
You see though our work at peace
Though our work at being holy though our work of love for others
Many have the chance to receive grace
-------
Though our witness
Many will have the chance to receive Grace
God does not want any to perish
That means he wants all to come to salvation
We know not all will
But
It is our job to present the opportunity
We can’t take advantage of the opportunities
If we are not striving for peace
We can’t take advantage of the chances if we are fighting with ourselves due to lack of holiness
We can’t reach others if we don’t show them love and compassion
Verse 15b
“Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.”
Bitterness causes a loss of peace
When you harbor resentment against someone
Against a certain type of people
Different color
Different language
Different belief
When you harbor resentment against those who have done you wrong or hurt you in some way
When you harbor resentment against anyone or anything
That resentment turns bitter
And bitterness takes root in your heart
Bitterness is poison
Bitterness is like a dark black cancer growing within
Bitterness steals joy
You can’t have joy if your heart is in turmoil
Bitterness steals peace
You can’t have peace with the world if you don’t have peace with God or with yourself
Bitterness steals holiness
Harbored bitterness is sin and there was no sin in Jesus
And apart from Jesus we are not holy ---not even close
Most of you are familiar
With the story of the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s
A horrible
Feud that caused the death and torment of many for many generations
It all started with bitterness
The two men- the founders of this feud
Ance and Randal had been friends
They had served in the war together
But a belief by one that he had been wronged by the other turned into bitterness in his heart
And the rest is history
Peace can’t exist in the presence of bitterness
We must get rid of it
We must forgive as we are forgiven
We must love as Jesus loves
Then we will find peace with God
Then we will find peace within
Then we can work at living at peace with everyone
Verse 16
6 Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son for a single meal.
You may be asking
Preacher
How does being immoral get in the way of peace
I am glad you asked
Last week we talked of God’s discipline
How he is molding us
Shaping us
And training us
How he is teaching us
To be more like Jesus
Remember there is no sin in Jesus
And remember that sin causes a separation from God
And remember that when we chose to sin we are not living in God’s will
And if we as his children are not living in his will the peace in our hearts if we are truly his children will become turmoil
We can’t have peace with God while blatantly choosing to sin
Think about the feeling you have when you know you have wronged someone or owe them money
How the relationship changes until the issue is resolved
That’s how sin affects our peace with God
And if we can’t have peace with God
We can’t have peace with ourselves
And if we can’t have peace with ourselves
We can’t live in peace with everyone else
You see Esau traded his birthright for a single meal
He lost what was most important to him
For a bowl of stinking stew
A fleeting moment of pleasure
Immorality
All types of immorality and godliness
Cause us to trade the good stuff
For a stinking bowl of Beans
You see Christians
True Christians
Who choose immorality
Are putting up a road block to peace in their hearts and peace with the world
Very few people can truly say that they can be happy with those around them if they are not happy with themselves
So in real simple terms
How do we live at peace with everyone?
First
Love God
Love like Jesus
Act like Jesus
Care like Jesus
Forgive like Jesus
Live like Jesus
We are to show the love and light of Jesus to the world
A world that desperately needs him and his grace
If we want No peace
We can keep fighting
Keep arguing
Keep judging
Keep the disunity
Division
Dissension Going
We can allow unforgiveness and bitterness to grow and poison our heart
We can whack people over the head with our bibles and preach hellfire and brimstone
Or we can love them to Jesus
By showing love and working at living in peace
Living at peace does not mean compromising our beliefs
Living at peace does not mean embracing theirs
But loving them through the differences
No Jesus
No peace
Know Jesus
Know peace
Close from the heart
Pray
