Hebrews 6 teaches us about the characteristics that Christians should display:
• Love to the Brethren – your work and labour of love v10
• Diligence and perseverance vv 11-12
We have looked at these previously and the end of the chapter goes on to talk about hope. This should be a key characteristic of a Christian. This gives Christians a real hope in total contrast with many others around us. I find it amazing that a chapter that has caused so many to doubt their salvation (v3-6) ends with such a focus on a hope which is an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. This reinforces my conviction that it wasn’t written to cause us to doubt our salvation, but rather to make us rely on God to keep us and also to challenge us to live lives that are worthy of Him.
We don’t exactly live in an optimistic world, do we? In contrast the was an age of optimism in the West with great development in scientific knowledge and invention. Industrial production rose dramatically, bringing greater wealth – at least to some! Education increasingly became available to all sections of society. Many believed that, as men and women became better educated, they would choose more noble pursuits and take pleasure in literature and in arts like music and painting. The result would be a higher moral tone in society, with improved behaviour – eventually resulting in world peace.
Politicians promised a new social order of justice and equality for all. As wealth increased, people would be better off and would no longer envy one another. "Banish poverty and you’ll banish crime" people claimed. The finest powers of the human mind would be developed and world peace would result. Church leaders joined in and confidently predicted that in process of time all nations would accept "the gospel of Christ". The world would be conquered by preaching.
What a contrast if you open a newspaper or listen to the news on radio or TV nowadays! Invariably it makes depressing reading or listening, doesn’t it? This depression isn’t only at a national or international level, it extends to touch virtually all of us in one way or another. What has happened to turn us from optimism to hopelessness in the space of a little over 100 years?
• The dream faded under two world wars, the Cold War (with its Mutual Assured Destruction from nuclear weapons). Numerous other, smaller, wars sealed the disillusion.
• Our world is also beset by numerous problems – pollution of land, water and air, global warming, extreme weather conditions (droughts, floods, hurricanes and even tsunami’s)
• Then there is terrorism, violent crime, over-crowded prisons; increasingly drug resistant diseases and drug addicts and alcoholics with increasing death rates.
• Far from poverty being eradicated the gap between rich and poor is widening!
- The world’s 225 richest people now have a combined wealth of over £500 billion. That’s equal to the combined annual income of the world’s 2.5 billion poorest people.
- Three billion people live on less than £1.10 per day while 1.3 billion have to get by on less than 55p!
- 30 years ago, the people in well-to-do countries were 30 times better off than those in countries where the poorest 20% live. By 1998, this gap had widened to 82 times.
- Yet we could fix it! For example everyone on earth could have clean drinking and improved sanitation for less than a quarter of what people around the world spends on bottled water!
• Are human minds developing as the prophets predicted? The A-level pass rates and grades may be the highest ever, but I see far greater evidence of a dumbing down.
H. G. Wells, one of these prophets , expressed his disillusion in two books published at the end of his life (Mind at the End of its Tether and The Fate of Homo Sapiens). He declared that there was no hope for humanity: "There is nothing but the dark". And that was back in 1945, before the first atomic bomb was dropped!
Jean-Paul Sartre wrote: Man can count on no one but himself; he is alone, abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than the one he sets himself, with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth.
Enough with the depressing statistics already!
Is there an antidote to the hopelessness (Eph 2:12) that pervades our world? We all need hope.
In a rather cruel experiment some rats were put in a tank of water to see how long they would survive before drowning. The average time was just 17 minutes. Then the experiment was repeated, but this time the experimenters "rescued" the rats just before they drowned, dried them off and returned them to their cages. A few days later they repeated the experiment. This time, the average survival time for these rats increased from 17 minutes to 36 hours! The second time around, the rats had hope. They thought that the scientists would pull them out, because they had done so before.
Our passage sets out a marvellous hope that does not depend on the pity of heartless experimenters! It tells us to: 18 lay hold of the hope set before us. 19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
This hope is clear and strong! When your neighbour says they hope that they will win the lottery it doesn’t mean that they expect to. When they say that they hope to go to heaven then it means that they would rather like to think that they will get there somehow, but quite how they have no idea! In contrast when a true Christian says that we hope to go to heaven then it means that we expect to be there when we die, or sooner if Jesus returns first. Do we all expect to go to heaven?
But hope doesn’t save us any more than it did the rats in the experiment or an anchor saves a ship in a storm. It doesn’t matter how big the anchor is, how well polished or even if it is gold plated and encrusted with diamonds! As Socrates said, "To ground hope on a false supposition, is like trusting to a weak anchor." Pythagoras pointed out that riches are a weak anchor, glory: is yet weaker; the body likewise; principalities, honours, all these are weak and without strength. He went on to suggest that stronger anchors were prudence, magnanimity and fortitude. While these are much better this passage talks about a hope that is both sure and steadfast. Isn’t that something worth having? Security and stability in a mad, unpredictable world.
A group of Communists confronted a Christian and ridiculed his testimony, insisting that all that’s important is the here and now. They declared that a violent revolution was a must, and claimed they were ready to lay down their lives if need be.
Upon hearing this, the believer said, "You say you’re ready to die. Well, so am I. And you can kill me right now if you like. But remember, if you die, it is for nothing. If I die, it is for something lasting!"
Some of these young men began to examine their commitment to communism. They admitted that they had no eternal hope and that a revolution would not necessarily bring about a utopia. They concluded that maybe they would be giving their lives for nothing. As a result, they listened to the gospel, and a number of them were marvellously saved.
Many people have a vague hope others, like suicide bombers have a false hope that their self-sacrifice (cruelly exploited by their masters) will take them to paradise. If you are on a sinking ship you don’t need a false hope that everything will turn out all right. You need to get in the lifeboat!
How can we have such a sure and steadfast hope? There are two sides to this. The passage paints a picture of an old ship that is caught outside the harbour in rough seas and strong winds. It is at risk of being blown away to the middle of nowhere. To prevent this they put down an anchor, but perhaps it drags in the mud. They need an anchor that is really secure. So a brave member of the crew takes a line, jumps into the waves and struggles to take it ashore. There he pulls over the anchor rope and he ties it off securely to hold the ship securely to prevent it from drifting out to sea.
Our sure and steadfast hope is provided by Jesus who braved the storm at Calvary and took the lifeline through death to secure it behind the veil where He is right now, in Heaven pleading on behalf of His people. Jesus is the only anchor that can hold us secure in this life and make sure we do not drift away. (Heb 2:1) He has gone ahead into the glory, but the hope and faith that He gives us can bind us firmly to Him, whatever storms we face in this life.
V18 tells us that this hope belongs only to those who flee to God for refuge. The writer is probably mixing his metaphors a bit here. In OT times someone accused of murder could flee to one of the cities of refuge sure of protection from the family and friends of the deceased and a fair trial.
Nu 35:15 ‘These six cities shall be for refuge for the children of Israel, for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills a person accidentally may flee there.
So too, we are all guilty and deserving of death and must flee to the one who gave His own life for us if we are to enjoy this secure hope. The Bible tells us "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved." Ac 16:31 And if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Ro 10:9
But such passages are not talking about some anaemic, wishy-washy belief. In the words of v18 we have to lay hold of the hope set before us. This means that we have to grab hold and hang on with all of our strength and determination. This is how the accused murderer held on tight to the altar in the Tabernacle or Temple when the friend or relative who wanted to avenge the dead person caught up with them. This is how those on board the ship held on to their end of the anchor rope until they got it properly secured.
1Ti 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.
Do we believe in Jesus as if our very lives and, indeed eternal souls depend on Him? Have we fled to God for refuge? That is what these verses mean. If so then we can be certain that He will hold us fast. If we slip into the sea then He will reel us in, even through death and into heaven itself. This is an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast – v19 and God will never allow us to slip.
A woman was having trouble understanding the way of salvation and what it means to receive Christ. When she told an evangelist he said: "Your last name is Franklin, isn’t it?" "Yes," she replied. "How long has it been that?" he asked her. "Ever since my husband I were married 30 years ago," she replied.
"Tell me," the preacher continued. "How did you become Mrs. Franklin?" "The minister asked me, `Will you have this man to be your lawful, wedded husband?’ and I said, `I will.’ With those words I became his wife, and his name has been mine ever since.”
The evangelist went on to ask, "Didn’t you say, `I’d like to,’ or `I’ll try to’?" "No," the woman answered, "I said, `I will,’ and that’s all there was to it." The minister then explained that God wanted her to give herself to Christ as her Lord and Saviour in the same way.
The woman finally saw the point and exclaimed, "How simple!" At last, wondering why she hadn’t said "I will" long before, she accepted Christ as her Saviour. Believing what the Bible says about Him-that He died for her sins-she placed her trust in Him for salvation.
Our security
Can we really have such a strong and reliable hope? Yes! Firstly because our security rests on God’s promise and He is faithful – that means He is utterly reliable and does what He promises. God has promised eternal life to his people and He cannot prove false to his word: Tit 1:2 in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began. More on that next time, DV.
Secondly our security is proved by Jesus. Not by His death, for we all die, but by His resurrection and ascension. This means that, if we truly trust Him, we are following in His path – where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus. Forerunner (prodromos) does not just mean someone who goes ahead, but also someone who scouts out the way for others to follow.
This strong consolation is stronger than any that we might imagine for it does not rest is in our own strength. Our hope of heaven does not rely on our own powers. It rests in Jesus Christ and His almighty power and love! (The Lord Jesus Christ, our hope 1 Tim 1:1) Jesus went ahead through death and back into heaven. He led the way; v20 reminds us that He entered Glory for us – just as He died for us – to prepare a place for us, John 14:3. Having such a friend and advocate in Glory we truly have a strong consolation v18 and a real hope that is an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. We can be secure and calm in the hope of eternal life, even amid the storms and tempests of the mad world around us.
In the light of this hope then what can we do, but hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. Heb 10:23
A pastor had just received the news that he had a terminal illness. The next Sunday he said to his congregation, "I walked the 5 miles from the doctor’s office to my home. I looked toward that majestic mountain that I love. I looked at the river in which I rejoice. I looked at the stately trees that are always God’s own poetry to my soul. Then in the evening I looked up into the great sky where God was lighting His lamps and I said, ’I may not see you many more times, but mountain, I will be alive when you are gone. And river, I will be alive when you cease running toward the sea. And stars, I will be alive when you have fallen from your sockets in the great pulling down of the universe."’ A wonderful hope lies beyond the grave for all who are trusting Christ as their Saviour. Death is not the end. Innumerable, indescribable, eternal glories await the child of God.
Leigh Richmond, in his "Dying Cottager," tells of his last visit to the death-bed of a young convert that he had led to Jesus. He asked the girl in the valley of the shadow what was her hope for eternity. Putting her thin, wasted fingers on the Bible that lay beside her she said, "Christ here!" Then, placing her nigh transparent hand on her heart she said, "Christ here!" And then pointing upward, she said, "And Christ there!" Glorious hope!
Tit 2: 11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
