I. Introduction
A. Every week we talk about what the Epistle to the Hebrews is about and why it was written. We do this because it is important in the interpretation of most every passage. And it is very true again for today’s passage.
1. It seems that the author writes this letter to a group of Jews who have come to Christ, and yet are now being fiercely pressured by their former friends to leave Christ and return to Judaism.
2. And in this letter, the author marshals a long list of reasons to try to dissuade them from falling away.
3. In Hebrews 6:13–20, our passage today, the author introduces yet another reason to cling to Christ and not let go.
B. He picks up on something he mentioned in Hebrews 6:11–12 where he spoke of wanting them “to have the full assurance of hope until the end” and to be “imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
1. He’s saying something like this: What you’re going through is the same thing all people of faith have had to go through! You need to hang on to God’s promises and be patient like they did.
2. He knows that their wavering is a result of not being confident in the promises of God, and he is eager to build that confidence. That’s what he’s trying to do in 6:13-20.
3. In 6:12 he has pointed them to the example of those who through faith and patience have held on to God’s promises and received what they were promised.
II. Explanation of Hebrews 6:13–20
A. Now, in 6:13-15, he cites the example of Abraham as one who received God’s promise, waited patiently for God to fulfill it, and finally obtained the thing promised.
1. 13-14 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.”
a. Abraham is a key person to introduce here, since he is the father of the Jews, since he is the supreme example of trusting in the Lord in spite of things not seeming to work out, and since Melchizedek is found in his story.
b. In Genesis, God came to Abraham and promised him He would bless him and multiply him into a great nation. The problem was that Abraham was an old man with an old wife, so much so that his wife Sarah laughed when she heard God’s promise. But Abraham had to believe God’s promise.
2. 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.
a. Abraham actually waited patiently at least three times for God to fulfill His promise.
(1) Once after God promised a son through Sarah but took a long time — even though they were already way past child-bearing age — to give them that son.
(a) “In hope he believed against hope... He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about 100 years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” – Rom.4:18-21
(2) And again, when finally God did give Abraham a son through his wife Sarah, God then came and commanded Abraham to take his son Isaac and sacrifice him on the altar at Mt. Moriah. So again it looked like God’s promise was in jeopardy. But Abraham had to do what God said while waiting patiently for God to somehow fulfill His promise concerning Isaac in spite of the fact that he was moving towards killing him.
(3) But neither of these instances contain an oath being added to God’s promise. For that story, we must go to Genesis 22:16–18 “By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
(a) So even after Isaac’s birth and even after he is restored to Abraham, he still didn’t receive the fulfillment of the promise immediately.
(b) And what was that promise? The promise to create a great nation through that child and to bless all the nations of earth through the promised child.
b. (This isn’t just a nice Bible story given to us as an example. The promise to Abraham is about our salvation. Ultimately it was through an offspring of Abraham named Jesus that all nations on earth were blessed. And through faith we become part of the great nation promised to Abraham. This is why the author of Hebrews so quickly turns from the story of Abraham to the salvation of his readers in Hebrews 6.)
B. Then, continuing with the story of Abraham in 6:16-18, he points out characteristics of God’s promises, again to help them come to grips with how firm and trustworthy they are, so that they might no longer waver in faith.
1. 16-17 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,
a. Over the ages, man developed the practice of taking oaths to convince others of what is being said: “I swear to God, it is true.” Jesus discouraged the practice because it was being used to justify lying, as if you don’t need to tell the truth unless you’re under oath (Matt.5:33-37).
b. God wants to assure His people that He will keep His promise. So instead of merely telling us what has been done to secure our salvation, He binds Himself by an oath.
c. Of course, it’s impossible for the God of truth to lie. Nevertheless, instead of just promising us salvation and demanding us to believe it, remarkably He stoops to our weakness, guaranteeing His promise with an oath. Why? Because He “desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose.”
2. 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
a. “two unchangeable things” = the promise + the oath added to it
b. “in which it is impossible for God to lie” = both of these two are rock solid because it is impossible for God to lie. So, now the foundation of our faith is doubly rock solid.
c. And why has He gone to such great lengths to make His promise so rock solid? “so that we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.”
d. When you become a Christian, it involves fleeing to Jesus for refuge: refuge from the wrath of God, refuge from our enemy the devil, etc.
e. Think of being in the open water during a storm, and grabbing onto something for refuge. After you get battered by wind and waves for a while, you begin to wonder whether this refuge is really going to provide you with the protection and safety you need.
f. That’s exactly what’s happening to these Hebrew Christians. They have fled for refuge to Jesus, but the persecution they’ve experienced has made them begin to think that this refuge isn’t really a safe place. They need “strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before” them.
g. So in this passage the author is showing what a solid, trustworthy, secure refuge they have grabbed onto by taking hold of Jesus.
C. Finally, in v.19-20a, he draws together all that he has said into one concluding statement: “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20a where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.”
1. We have this promise of God confirmed with an oath as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul! Our hope is solid and immovable! What else could possibly be known any surer than what God promises with an oath?
2. You know that the Bible word for hope is somewhat different in meaning than our English word, right?
a. When we say hope in English, we often mean something we want to happen but aren’t sure if it will: I hope I find my wallet; I hope it doesn’t rain today.
b. But the Bible word for hope refers to the glorious things God has promised us in the future. There’s no uncertainty about it. It is our promised, fixed, certain hope. It is not wishful thinking. It is as certain and fixed as the God who promised it. And this hope is the anchor of our souls.
3. There is something else said about hope here that’s a little strange: “a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain”
a. “the inner place behind the curtain” refers to the OT holy of holies.
b. There is in heaven a holy of holies, as well, one pictured by the earthly version in times of old. This is where Jesus is now, at the Father's right hand. And because Jesus is there, that’s where our hope resides, since He is our hope.
4. So, we have “a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.”
a. In other words, not only is Jesus coming here, but we’re going to go there too. He is there as “a forerunner on our behalf.” He’s gone there first for us, so that we can follow Him later.
5. 20b having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
a. He brings up Melchizedek again in order to return to what he had been saying before he digressed in most of chapter 6, because the material required a maturity of thinking beyond them.
b. And that’s where we’re going next — to the land of Melchizedek. Hebrews 7 says more about Melchizedek than the whole rest of the Bible.
III. Application
A. The promise of God sounds better than it looks. He goes to great lengths to make His promise SOUND sure. But He doesn’t do as much to make it APPEAR sure.
1. He calls us to walk by FAITH and not by SIGHT. (2Cor.5:7)
2. What is faith? “Faith is...the conviction of things NOT SEEN.” – Hebrews 11:1
3. All of us are familiar with how things often don’t appear as they really are. We come into a house and it seems like there’s no one home. But when we go down into the basement or up into a bedroom, we find a roomful of people. We constantly get false impressions.
4. The faith of these Hebrew Christians was wavering because what they had been told didn’t seem to correspond with what they were seeing.
5. God said emphatically that it was true, but their former friends were all agreed it wasn’t true. And things weren’t going the way they should go if Jesus is really Lord of all. Things were hard, and confusing. People were being mean to them, and ridiculing them. They were saying they were foolish — and unpatriotic — for following Jesus. They were saying it was just a phase they were going through, and that they’d eventually come around to see how ludicrous it was.
6. When they had first come to Christ they had had youthful idealistic conceptions of what it would be like to follow Christ, and it just wasn’t happening the way they had imagined. It seemed like their hopes were being dashed. Christ had seemed so real to them at first, but now He seemed distant.
7. You see, Christ is as real as real can be, but the NT tells us that Christ is also hidden. (Col.3:3)
8. And so the author is writing to tell them, “No, my friends, this is really true! God’s promise can be trusted. It may not seem like it now, but in the end it’s going to be just like He said it would, and all those who gave up will look like the foolish ones.”
9. You see, when you suffer, you need to really believe that it's worth it. You need to really believe that things are going to work out. You need to really believe that there will be a happy ending.
10. Over the last month I’ve been going to the PT for rotator cuff issues in my shoulder. She lies me down and moves my arm in ways that feel like she is injuring my arm, not healing it. But who am I to know? She’s the one with the training and experience. So I tell her: “Look, if this is going to help make my problem go away, then go ahead and hurt me. I can live with the pain right now, if it helps me be without pain long-term.”
11. If we are smart, we don’t care too much if it hurts right now. What we care about is our long-term health or pain. We can take the trials and sufferings of this life if indeed it will result in eternal health and peace and salvation.
B. Friends, what an amazing God we have!
1. First, He ordains our salvation.
a. This is not just a sparrow falling kind of determination. This is something He is absolutely determined to accomplish.
2. Then, He promises us salvation.
3. But then He adds an oath, knowing we would need help to believe His promises.
4. And then when our faith still wavers after all that, He doesn’t yell at us and walk away in disgust. He assures us. he reminds us. He reasons with us.
C. Let’s review the facts. You have a great inheritance coming. It is imperishable and unfading. It’s as solid as solid can be. But it’s not yet here. It’s being kept in heaven for you, ready to be revealed in the last time. For a little while, you are being tested in various ways so that the genuineness of your faith might be proven. Though you have not seen Jesus, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice in Him with inexpressible joy. And by believing in Him and enduring the trials without giving up on Him, you eventually receive the result of your faith, which is the salvation of your souls. -1Peter 1:4–9