Author: Ryan Hale

Today we are starting the book of James, and it is completely full of practical wisdom that is important for any believer to put into practice.

But this book starts, immediately after the introductions, with this statement:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

James 1:2-3

And we’re off…

That’s quite a way to start as you write to other believers. Let me paraphrase:

If you face trials, make sure that you are joyful.

That’s a pretty long way from some of the discussions of our day:

But, why do bad things happen to good people?

Why would God allow this bad thing to happen to me?

But this guy never did anything wrong, why would God allow him to get sick?

James takes the exact opposite approach. He tells the readers of his letter that they should be joyful. Or let me rephrase… It should be PURE joy.

How could that be? If I am facing a trial, shouldn’t I be upset? Shouldn’t I be worried?

And what is more, shouldn’t God be protecting me? Shouldn’t I have received God’s blessing and He watches over me, preventing bad things from happening?

On the contrary, according to James: We should understand that we should be joyful that those things have come into our lives because it is a test for our faith. It is an opportunity for us to truly put our faith into practice and make sure that it is real. This trial can be an opportunity to purify our faith.

Have we been depending on things instead of upon God?

Have we been depending on other people instead of upon God?

This is our opportunity to know. We should consider this trial to be a test for our faith because as we go through it, it will help us to see where we actually put our faith.

If we have thought that God should protect us from bad things, we are wrong. God wants to use those bad things to strengthen us. If we have thought that God should protect us from difficult times, we are wrong. God wants to use those difficult times to teach us to persevere regardless of the difficult time.

And this is the way that James starts his letter. The believers of that time have just as many – and I would dare say, many MORE – trials that we ever could imagine, especially in our western culture and Christianity today. Yet James is calling the believers to consider these trials, these difficult times, to be joy.

Now, this doesn’t mean happiness. No one is ever happy when we have trials. This is not some stupid, artificial, superficial, put-on-a-happy-face attitude. No, James isn’t talking about this.

James is talking about a deeply-rooted contentment. Not just a fleeting feeling but an exalting of Christ and peace within the context of the difficulty.

But why? Because we are working toward perseverance. Perseverance means something that lasts in the long term. Not a moment. Not for a period of time. We’re talking about the long term. From here on out. That is what perseverance does. Perseverance doesn’t reach a point in the future and give up when times are difficult. Perseverance continues in the face of difficulty.

When we have headwinds, we keep going. We persevere.

When we have competition. When we have opposition. When those war against us. When it seems that nothing goes right. We persevere.

And we do that because we have joy. We are joyful because our perspective is no longer just today, or even just this life. We are joyful because our perspective is now for eternity. We start today, but we live tomorrow, next year, the next decade, and the rest of our lives persevering in Christ.

But in truth, at that point, we are still just getting started. This life is nothing in the light of eternity. A blip on the radar. A tiny dot on the timeline…if that. Christ gives us eternal life, so we must persevere to not only grab ahold of that life, but to live it for all that it is worth for eternal consequence and for eternal joy. We live for what gives us joy and so James calls us to perseverance in the face of trials, and in this way we have joy because our faith has been tried and tested and found to be true.

How many trade-offs do we make?

How many times to we choose what is expedient, or what feels better in the short-term, instead of what is right and will last forever?

The writer of Hebrews gives an important warning to us to not do this.

What did Esau do? Esau was Jacob’s older brother, the first-born of Isaac and Rebekah. As the first-born, he should have received the birthright from his father. He should have been the one to receive the blessing of God and the blessing of the family.

But what did he do? He came home from hunting and was hungry. He didn’t care about his rights within the family, which would have given him a double portion of the inheritance and a place in the eternal line of Christ. The scriptures even say that he despised his birthright.

So Jacob, seeing his opportunity, tells Esau that he must swear to him that he, Esau, would give him, Jacob, the second-born, his birthright. And that is what he does. In Esau’s foolishness, in his search for an expedient solution to his hunger, he swears to Jacob that he will give his birthright…and it is over. Jacob now takes Esau’s place.

And for what?

A bowl of soup.

Later on, we see that Esau regreted what he had done. In fact, with Rebekah’s help, Jacob also deceives his father Isaac and takes Esau’s blessing. Jacob will be the one who will carry on the blessing of God, not Esau. Esau cries bitterly, but it is done. Jacob has the birthright and he has the blessing. For the longer-term rewards of the family, Jacob has it all. Esau has none.

Here is how the writer of Hebrews says it:

See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.

Hebrews 12:16-17

So let’s return back to the initial questions… How often do we do the same? How often are we like Esau?

To answer that question, let’s look at a couple of ways that we could imitate Esau.

First, we could despise what we have been given. We have been given a pathway into eternity, if we are willing to look to Christ as Savior and Lord.

But instead, we want to be the ruler of our own lives. We want to manage it on our own. We want to be the ones who lead our lives. We want to be unique. Rich. Powerful. We want to lead our own lives, kings ourselves instead of worshiping the King.

So as a result, we have more important things to do. We don’t have time to think about God. We have work to do.

I’ve had people tell me these exact words. Someday… In the future… Maybe… Once I am rich, then I will think about God. But for right now, I have things to do. I have to work. Right now, no. Maybe one day.

Even if we don’t say it, we often live it. We think primarily about the things of the world, not the things of God. We think more about what will please other men, not about what will please God. And our actions reflect these things. We are acting like Esau, thinking about today, those things that are temporary, not that which will last forever.

In a similar way, our sin does the same. In reality, what we have said above is sin because we walk away from God, from loving Him with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. We walk away from a desire to please Him.

But then it just continues to get worse. Because we don’t have a desire to please Him, to love Him, then we are willing to do much more. To go further. To break other commandments and find ourselves mired in sin even more deeply. And this is the same. This is the same thought process that Esau had.

Now.

What I want is what I want. And that is what I will have. The rest, that which is eternally important be damned. I will have what I want now. And we despise the birthright that God has offered to each of us through Christ. We are blinded by our desires of today so much that we only think about those things, not the truths of eternity.

Let us not despise the birthright that God offers us through Christ. Let us instead grab ahold of that which is eternal. We all know that this life will end. Let’s live wisely today to invest in what is eternal, not just living in the moment for what is temporary.

Previously, I wrote about how the temple curtain was torn in two. Then just recently, I noted that the writer of Hebrews says that Jesus himself, as our high priest, was able to enter into the the Most Holy Place himself, making a way for each of us to follow him into God’s presence.

Now, we bring that conversation forward even further because the writer of Hebrews says that we, ourselves, are able to enter into the Most Holy Place as well. Jesus offered his blood, which was the perfect sacrifice, made once for all, and was so much better than the sacrifice of a bull or a goat that had been offered by the Jewish High Priests up to that point. Instead, Jesus offered his own blood in the true temple, the place where God actually lives in heaven, and that provides us entry directly into God’s presence.

You see, we no longer need to be simply represented by the High Priest in God’s presence. We don’t need to stay away and risk being fried by the fire of God if we come close to him. No, he offers us everything. Full access. But he offers it to us as a result of Jesus making the way.

In Hebrews 10, Jesus is described as the curtain which has now been torn in two. The curtain, in that sense, is described as Jesus’s body:

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Hebrews 10:19-22

Jesus’s body is described as the curtain, which I think can be taken in a few different ways:

First, we saw that the curtain had been torn in two. It was broken, but it was broken for us to allow us entry into God’s presence.

Second, it makes the way. The curtain, or Jesus’s body, no longer represents a barrier, but a way. Through the curtain we can reach the presence of God. Through the broken body of Christ, we reach the presence of God.

This, of course, should remind us of the time that Jesus told his disciples – Thomas in particular – that he is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the way that we can enter into God’s presence. He is the way that we can come before God. And he is the only way. Unless you go through him, you cannot come into God’s presence.

So, the fact that the way has been made for us, and has been opened to us, should give us great confidence. Confidence in what? In the fact that we belong. Confidence in the fact that we are able to enter in. Through Christ’s blood and his broken body, we have been made holy. We have been given forgiveness for our sins. We have had the way opened to us, so we can enter into God’s presence.

“But my righteous one will live by faith.
And I take no pleasure
in the one who shrinks back.”

But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

Hebrews 10:38-39

We no longer need to shrink back, as the Israelites did before Mount Sinai. We no longer need to fear. We have been given access through Christ into God’s presence and we can come into His presence boldly because we now belong. Christ’s blood has made us clean before the Lord.

In the time of the tabernacle and of temple, there was a room, an outer area, referred to as the Holy Place. In this area, there was a lampstand and a table with the consecrated bread of the presence. In this room, the Levitical priests would go in and out and do their work to bring offerings and sacrifices to the Lord on behalf of the people and the community each day throughout the year.

Then, past another curtain further still inward, there was another room referred to as the Most Holy Place, also referred to as the Holy of Holies. In this place was the golden altar of incense and the golden ark of the covenant that contained the manna from the time that the Israelites wandered in the desert, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets which were what God had written His law.

One time per year, the High Priest who had been chosen for that year would enter into the Most Holy Place to come before the Lord. As he did this, he would offer sacrifices of a bull for his sins as well as a goal for the sins of the people, and would then sprinkle the blood of each on the atonement cover, also referred to as the mercy seat, which was the cover over the ark of the covenant.

So this is what the human High Priest would do. But the writer of Hebrews says that, in Christ, we have a High Priest that is much greater and explains why:

He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.

Hebrews 9:12

In fact, we do see an incredible difference here. Christ came with a one-time offering for all. He didn’t come once per year as the High Priest of the Jews would do. He came one time for all.

What is more, Jesus didn’t bring with him the blood of animals. Jesus brought his own blood. His blood was pure because he was innocent. And he was not only innocent, he was holy. He hadn’t been born of the seed of man. He hadn’t inherited the curse that had been passed down from Genesis 3. Jesus was holy and had not sinned, so he could offer one time for all a single perfect sacrifice.

That is who our High Priest is. His work is done and he is now sitting beside the Father in heaven.

That is what our High Priest has done. He has offered his own blood. Not the blood of animals, but the blood of perfect, and in this case holy, man.

The writer of Hebrews is now really beginning to move forward his argument for the supremacy of Christ as the high priest that will minister the New Covenant that has been given to the people. Here are a few of the things that we can see about the New Covenant as noted in Hebrews 8:

Previously, the Old Covenant with Moses brought laws that the people must obey. Now, quoting the prophecy of Jeremiah, we see that God has written His law on the hearts of His people:

I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.

Hebrews 8:10

Previously in the Old Covenant, Moses mediated with the people by giving them laws that they must obey. Now, Jesus has offered love, grace, and mercy to God’s people and they will obey God because of their love back to Him for what Jesus has done for them.

Previously in the Old Covenant, the covenant was confirmed through the sacrifice and blood of animals. Now, the New Covenant is confirmed through the shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross.

Previously in the Old Covenant, the priests were from the tribe of Levi, serving the rest of the people. Now in the New Covenant, all believers are priests of the Covenant with Christ serving as the High Priest.

The Old Covenant is no longer necessary because the New Covenant has now been made between God and His people through the work of Christ. The New Covenant is the covenant that will live on and last forever.

These differences have significant implications on our world today. Islam and Catholocism, as a starting point, but also Buddhism and Hinduism, impose a set of regulations that must be followed and through the fulfillment of these regulations, a person can be accepted by God. This is the nature of religion. Do lots of good things and hope that you will one day be able to be accepted by God (or “gods” in the case of some of the religions) at the time of judgment.

But God has done something much greater, and is communicating something much greater, if we are willing to understand it. He has been saying that He has done the work already. We don’t need to continue to strive to reach Him. We don’t need to try to keep a law that is impossible to keep. We have already lost the battle. We are already imperfect, and without God’s mercy and grace, we will be judged for being spiritually dead before God as a result of our sin.

Jesus fulfilled the law. He did not sin…and he is the only One who has ever done that! But yet Jesus was punished as if He was a sinner because God placed all of humanity’s sin upon Him.

This is why Jesus is called our great High Priest. He was offered, and for that matter, offered Himself, as a sacrifice. And he continues today, sitting at the right hand of the Father, mediating on our behalf.

The book of Genesis recounts that God created the world in 6 days, and then on the seventh day, God rested. Reading in Hebrews this morning, I saw an important connection between the story of creation and the invitation that we have into God’s rest.

So if we say that God rested, what are we referring to? There are at least a couple of things that we can talk about on this front:

First, we see that God rested on the seventh day from His work of creation. There was a specific time that was set out for rest from the work. In each of the previous six days, we see that they are each described as finishing with an evening and then a morning, and then the day would be ennumerated. So, for example, if we refer to the first day of creation, Genesis says it this way:

God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Genesis 1:5

Each of the days go like this. It is a pattern of the day happening with God creating through His word in the course of that day, then evening to bring the day to a close, followed by morning to open a new day.

But then we arrive to the seventh day and we see that there is no end. There is no evening and there is no morning. The seventh day never ends.

Well, maybe the author just didn’t close off the day and moved on to the next thought.

Or maybe instead it was intentional.

So now we arrive back to Hebrews 4 where I was reading this morning and it speaks of God’s day of rest being called Today. Here is the breadth of the passage:

And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.”  And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”

Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
    do not harden your hearts.”

Hebrews 4:3-7

So I think that what we are seeing here is that God rested from his word on the seventh day, but that day, from God’s perspective, never ended. And he calls that day Today.

So God has rested and is continuing to rest, and He is calling us into His rest. If we will believe what He has said, then we also can enter His rest.

What has He said that would allow us to enter His rest? God has sent Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life to come back to the Father. Jesus came into the world to reestablish God’s Kingdom here on earth and call His people to Himself, purchasing them away from the kingdom of darkness to come into the Kingdom of God.

And Today is the day. Today is the day that we are called to enter God’s rest, which we can do if we will put our faith in Christ. If we will believe and we will give our lives to Christ. If we place Him as the Head over our lives. If we submit to Him. This is the only way, but it is the way of rest. God gives us an invitation to enter into His rest, the rest that God has been in since the very first Sabbath day, the 7th day, the day that He calls Today.

I pray that we would all enter into God’s rest. That instead of doing as the Israelites did and not trust Him, instead rebelling against Him, that we would put our faith in Christ and enter into God’s rest.

I have a vision…

I have a dream…

We are working to achieve…

These are pretty common statements, both outside of the church as well as within.

But as we think about the Kingdom of God, it is important for us to continue to remember that God is accomplishing God’s purposes. Our ideas and our thoughts are all good and fine, but they will only find lasting meaning and purpose when they are found in the context of God’s purposes, within God’s mission.

Why? Because God is building His Kingdom. They are His plans. It is His work.

We think that we are working and contributing, and we are, but we know that what we do will pass away, but what God does will never pass away.

In Hebrews 3, we see that the writer is comparing Jesus to Moses. It is a good comparison to help us understand the outcome between God’s plans and man’s plans, between obedience and disobedience. There is a direct contrast between the work of Moses and the work of Jesus, an important contrast to understand especially for Jews who should be familiar with the life and work of Moses and who are now trying to understand Jesus in that context.

Moses was found to be faithful, but he was a servant in God’s house, the scripture says.

But the difference is that Jesus is the Son over God’s house.

But God is the builder of the house.

For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.

Hebrews 3:4

This is critical for us to remember for a couple of different reasons:

First, we need to remember that God is doing the building because if we try to do something that doesn’t align with God’s plans and purposes, then we are simply building in vain. Sure, we may be able to build a great ministry, or a great company, but it will amount to nothing over time. It will eventually be torn down, eventually be shuttered. Even if it is after we are dead and gone, it will still be gone. The legacy of what will be built may live on for a little while, but we should emphasize that it will be a little while. Not a long while. Not eternal. A little while.

The second reason is that we should be thinking about who is receiving the glory for the work that is being done. If God is the builder, and we work as his children to align ourselves with His plans, then it is God who is receiving the glory. We are not trying to receive the glory ourselves. What we do is being done to give God the glory. Not to us, but to Him. There is a significant difference in how we act, in how we hold open handed our plans, in how we work and speak if we work to give God the glory instead of to ourselves.

God is the builder over all things. Let us understand what He is building, and let us serve Him and build with Him!

We have a lot that is happening. We need to make money to support our families, so we have our jobs, which can be all-consuming, in terms of our time and our attention.

Then we have our families. Our spouses rightly demand our attention as we walk through our lives together, in partnership, navigating each of the details of our shared lives.

Let’s not forget our children. We work to deliberately sow into them, to teach them both in our word as well as in our actions, helping them to navigate through school, through challenges of learning to understand the world, through relationships, and much more.

And of course there are many other things. We have hobbies and passions, but we also have time where we are just tired from all of the other things and we need to rest and relax.

And so there are so many different things that take our time and distract us from some of the most important questions of life. Who am I? Where did I come from? What is my purpose here? These are questions that are incredibly important, but they are difficult. We don’t really know the answers, and we aren’t sure who has the answers, so we can easily ignore them. We move on and think about other things. There will be time some day… I think.

That is an experience that I can relate to having grown up in the US or having been part of a western society. Maybe there are other stories, other ways in which we can spend time thinking about other things besides that which is most important. Stories that I don’t necessarily know nor have had as an experience, but that can have a similar effect.

This may be what the writer of Hebrews had in mind. He started the book by saying that Jesus was the exact representation of God in human form and is the radiance of His glory and then says that Jesus provided purification for sins and then sat down at God’s right hand.

And that is incredible news! We have God himself right here with us? We have God’s own words? And we have purification from sins?

That is incredible!

But only if it is true… and only if we pay attention.

So can we know it is true? Yes, we can look at the historical record. Yes, we can look to what hundreds of eyewitnesses have testified. Yes, we can see what people have died for and for what they have been willing to take a stand. Can we believe them? Or should we take their willingness to die for what they knew to be true with a grain of salt?

And so if this is true, then we need to pay attention. We need to orient our lives in the direction of that truth because it is worth changing course. It is worth rethinking everything. If you can know God but you are required to make a change to your life, would you? These are important questions that speak to who we are and the importance that God has to us. We can say that we put God first, but are we actually doing that?

I think that is why the writer of Hebrews told the people that they shouldn’t ignore the salvation that has been given to us:

We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.

Hebrews 2:1-3

We need to pay careful attention. We must not drift away on the winds of life. We must live intentionally, not by accident. The message is important. No, in fact, it is critical, but we have to listen. We have to pay attention. Let us lend our ears and our hearts to God and what He is telling us, that He came in the form of Christ to establish His Kingdom and to purchase us with His blood so that we may receive forgiveness from our sins so that we may enter the Kingdom of God. It is salvation from the wrath of God, which is truly the punishment for our sins. Let us not ignore this great salvation but live holy lives in connection with him!

As I have written about slavery as it is mentioned in the Bible in the past, I have been struck by how slaves have been called to be obedient to their masters, just as if they were being obedient to Christ, so that they might win their masters to Christ.

I’ve routinely said that this doesn’t mean that the Bible supports slavery. Not in the least. Instead, it means that there is a perspective that is much higher, of much greater importance, than that of our earthly understanding. So, for example, when Paul told Titus to teach slaves to obey their masters and not steal from them, the reason is that their message would become attractive. That is, that the master might also know Christ.

I have always been amazed by this idea that the slave should work hard for the master and be obedient to him because, even though slavery is not right and contradicts the very idea that we are made in the image of God and that we should all stand before God equally, following Paul’s teaching, the slave is deliberately sacrificing themselves so that there might be a chance that the master and his family might also be saved. If they take on this view, they take on a perspective that looks well beyond this world into eternity, sacrificing themselves and their freedom for an eternity with Christ and a vote of thanks from God Himself.

But in the book of Philemon, we see the counterbalancing perspective. Onesimus has fled from Philemon and his household and is now with Paul. Paul says that he would like to declare Onesimus a free man, but he wouldn’t do it without Philemon’s agreement and blessing.

So Paul appeals, instead, to Philemon that he would receive Onesimus back into his household. There has been some reason that Onesimus left, which we can’t understand from this letter, but now Onesimus is coming back so that they would be reconciled together.

But now Paul calls upon Philemon to do what is right and receive Onesimus in love, to receive him as a brother. Paul appeals to Philemon in love. He appeals to him as his brother to receive Onesimus not as a master receives a slave, but as a brother receives a brother.

Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever— no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.

Philemon v. 15-16

Paul and Onesimus are taking a significant risk here. There aren’t any guarantees that Philemon will forgive Onesimus, and in fact we don’t know how the story ended, but they decide together – possibly even with some trepidation – that it is worth the risk.

They know that reconciliation is needed. Regardless of what has happened, there is more that is at stake than just a relationship between master and slave. Brotherhood in Christ is at stake and that should take precedent over all.

They know that this must be worked out between the men involved. Paul is an apostle, but he does not try to lord that over the men and their situation. They must come to an agreement.

But most importantly, Paul calls Philemon to go beyond his legal rights. He would be within his rights to punish Onesimus. His slave has abandoned his post. Legally speaking, he should be punished.

And what is more, Paul calls upon Philemon to receive Onesimus as a brother. He calls upon him to not only be forgiving, but to go beyond forgiveness to return back to brotherhood, to love for one another. No longer a slave, but a brother.

Paul is appealing to not only what is right, but much, much more than that. Justice isn’t all that is being discussed here. Neither justice for Philemon nor Onesimus. Instead, more than justice is love, love that goes beyond just what is right, but to brotherhood that extends past our human situation and our human stations to that of our position before God and before one another before God, as brothers in Christ.

Paul had been with Titus in Crete where they had made disciples amongst the Cretans. However, there was work that was yet to be done because the church was not yet in order. It was disorganized and leaderless at that particular point.

Paul had a plan to get it organized, though, which was the same plan that he had at each step in his work. He would leave the church with leaders appointed and intact in each town where they had done their work. In short, Paul did his work by traveling from town to town and doing the work of an apostle, making disciples and leaving them in his wake. Titus would then be tasked with organizing them and putting the leaders in place so that they could continue the work without him.

The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.

Titus 1:5

This is, in fact, the missional task, that the work should be started, that the Gospel would be proclaimed, and that local leaders should be established so that the work would continue without Paul, or even without Titus following Titus’s work of establishing the leaders.

By doing his work in this way, Paul establishes churches throughout the entire region, through each of the areas where he travels in order that their work would go forward, led by the people locally so that all might hear the word of God through many other workers, not only through Paul and his traveling companions.