Great Reward (Hebrews 10:32-39 Jeff Kliewer)

Lights up the stars. Can't compare Singing praises to your name because you are.

The great and one true God.

Could save themselves there. Our shame was deep. Can rescue You alone can save You alone can lift us from The grave You came down to Down to find.

If anyone wishes to follow me he must deny himself. And take up his cross daily. Stepping out in faith sometimes is risky. Rest on the promises of God. He's been faithful in the past. He's guaranteeing that he will be faithful in the future.

If you feel like things are crashing down. And you think that the risk is too great. To go and spread the gospel. Talk to your neighbor. Talk to your co-workers.

God will give you the strength.

And the power. To overcome all of those obstacles We can remember that God Has done a great thing in us.

Our Redeemer.

And our friend I pray that you'll have the boldness To step out in faith And follow Jesus Wherever he leads you Wherever you're going That you will follow him in everything you do. Let's sing this song together Follow you anywhere.

In the middle of the song there's a bridge That's very telling on how your heart can respond. The bridge is wherever you lead me Whatever the cost Whatever it costs me All I want is you, Jesus All I want is you.

Make it easy to love you. You are good and you are. You bring joy into my life. You make it easy to trust you. You have never left my. You've been faithful. You drive right. You are the fire that You trust.

Nothing to fear for you.

As a church. As individuals. Wherever you lead.

Prayer for Teachability and Guidance

Praise the Lord. Hey, we just prayed so let's pray again. Father You, oh Lord. I lift up my soul to you, oh Lord. Oh my God, in you I trust. Let me not be put to shame. Let not my enemies exult over me.

Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame. They shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. Make me to know your ways, oh Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me. For you are the God of my salvation.

For I wait all the day long. God, if need be, we will be here all day long. Because we need you more than life. We need to hear your words. So God, we pray that you would speak To our hearts, that you would put distractions out of our minds.

That we would be teachable. Oh Lord, give us a teachable spirit this morning. That your word would train us in all righteousness Correct our wrong thinking. Take us deeper in your word. Teach us, Lord, we need you to be our paraclete, our helper, our teacher.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Jim was a rough and tumble kind of guy. He was from Washington State And he went to college in Wheaton so he would just jump on a train As it was going by and travel. It was the 1950s so you could do stuff like that.

And he grew up, you know, in post-World War II America. At Wheaton he met some other friends and together He and Nate Saint, Roger Udarian, Pete Fleming, and Ed McColley Decided to leave the comforts of the United States of America And move to a jungle in Ecuador.

Leaving everything behind, they went to the Auca Indians. Now, Auca is a pejorative for naked savage. So, not exactly a flattering term for the Wadani Indians of Ecuador. But nobody had ever brought the gospel to them.

So Jim Elliott and his friends left everything Took their wives and their children and moved to the jungle in Ecuador. When they got there, they were faced with the problem of learning language. And so fortunately there was one Wadani, Alkan Who had gone to a tribal village nearby To a people that had been reached.

And he began to train them in their local tongue. So they were learning the language. And the second step of their plan Was to bring gifts to the Auca Indians. They had a yellow plane That the Aucas would call the bumblebee Because they would see this yellow plane just circling around Above their jungle.

And they called it a giant bumblebee. Well, they needed to get gifts down to the Auca people Without getting killed. So they devised a plan where they flew in a circle And by some kind of centripetal, centrifugal force I don't know, you physics people could tell me.

They were able to keep the basket still And lower it down from a plane. Not a helicopter, mind you. They're flying a plane And they lower the basket down to the Auca people Who received the gifts. And they do this for a number of months Maybe even more than a year Sending messages and trying to curry favor.

Until finally the day came Where they landed on the banks of the Curare River There in the hopes of bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ To the Auca Indians. The Aucas emerged from the bush And moved quickly towards the five missionaries And raising their spears.

They slew them on the banks of the Curare River. All five missionaries Lost their lives that day. Well the story doesn't end there. The wives returned to the states. But shortly thereafter Elizabeth Elliot And Nate Saint's wife, Rachel Returned To the very people that speared their husbands to death.

And for years they learned the language And they lived among them And they taught them the gospel. And that entire tribe came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ Through the witness of these women And the children that were raised there Steve Saint being one of them At the end of the movie, End of the Spear.

Anybody seen End of the Spear? It's a movie about this. You gotta watch it, it's amazing. Not young children, but as they're older To watch the End of the Spear. At the end of it, they're rolling the credits.

And they show a very interesting scene Where Menkaie, who is now a Christian man And was raised in the jungle of Ecuador. For the first time comes the other direction And lands in America. And they show real footage of him going to a grocery store.

And he's just marveling at this grocery store in Miami. He says, they just pile the food up.

In giant stores.

All the food anybody could ever eat.

And there's multiple brands. And he's just marveling at a grocery store. And he says, and you can take whatever you want. And you just put it in a cart. And you push it to the front. And all you have to do is give the lady a little card.

And what's most amazing is she gives it right back. And you go your way. And if you're feeling particularly lazy that day You can just go to a different box store. And you drive up and they just hand you your food.

Right out of a window. Menkaie's mind was just blown. He figured that America just operates on altruism. Everybody just loves each other. What he didn't know was that. The minute, the day That you stop paying the checkout worker.

She stops serving at the grocery store. And the truckers who bring the food, they stop too.

And that little card.

You actually have to do something with that on the other end. You've got to pay the bill. The whole capitalistic system Made no sense to Menkaie. But it was the basis Of what was happening at the grocery store.

People serving one another Out of self-interest I can serve you at the grocery store. Because meeting your need Meeting a demand Actually benefits me. And that's how capitalism works. We're going to talk a little bit about that In the sermon today.

But the main idea Is a short sentence That Jim Elliot wrote. Ask yourself the question If he had known That the Indians Would spear him to death at first contact Would he still have gone? Wouldn't you like to know the answer to that question?

Well, you can know the answer Because he wrote a book called Shadow of the Almighty. In fact, it was Elizabeth Elliot who wrote it. One of my favorite books of all time. She wrote, and it's essentially Jim Elliot's journal Leading up to that day.

And in that He talks about how he expected.

The likelihood.

That the Alka would kill him For bringing them the gospel. So why was this in his self-interest? To go and be speared to death. These words Have become the main idea of my sermon. So if you have your notes It's on the app.

If you don't have them We can get them later. Just ask Michael or somebody to help you. I made it the main idea. Usually I write my own sentence as the main idea of the sermon. But this time I thought.

This is one I want to stick in your brains. That you will never forget this sentence. Because it summarizes What I'm trying to say today. He is no fool Who gives What he cannot keep To gain what he cannot lose.

He is no fool Who gives what he cannot keep To gain what he cannot lose. Now the first part of that sentence. He is no fool. A fool is somebody who does things Contra their own self-interest. To just turn and Walk into the wall over and over again.

If I did that right now you would say.

He's a fool.

He's hurting himself. He's walking face forward into a wall. Over and over again.

What a fool.

But he is no fool Who gives what he cannot keep To gain what he cannot lose. This sentence Implies self-interest Making a choice That is in your interest Not against your interest But something that's wise to do And it involves giving.

Sacrificing.

Jesus said Unless you take up your cross and follow me You cannot be my disciple. He in fact said Unless you hate your mother and your father And your relatives You cannot be my disciple. Why would he say that.

Well he was implying There not a literal hate But a love for Jesus That's so deep That it makes any other earthly love. Look like hate by comparison. He's saying You must be willing to sacrifice To give all To give your family, to give your house To leave everything behind.

But why would you do that.

Why is that in your self-interest. That's what we're looking at today. So turn with me if you will. To Hebrews chapter 10 Verses 32 to 39 He is no fool.

Who gives.

What he cannot keep to gain. What he cannot lose. We're going to read it In just a moment. But first I want to remind us where we are in the passage. Okay, we have to study a book Of the Bible in context.

Chapter 1 verse 1. Through chapter 10 verse 19. Are very doctrinal. It's about who Jesus is And how he's better. We learned about him as the better person. Better than angels, better than Moses. Better than Joshua.

Better as a priest Than all the Levites. A better sacrifice Than the animal sacrifices That were offered in the temple. He offers a better covenant Than the old covenant Given by Moses at Mount Sinai.

All of this doctrine about who Jesus is. And then something changes At chapter 10 verse 19. Look in the Bible. It says therefore. That word therefore marks a shift In the text where it becomes very Applicable.

The application of all of this doctrine. What are you supposed to do with it? What am I to go and do. Based on the book of Hebrews. Three things. Faith, hope, and love. Chapter 10 Verse 22. Let us draw near.

With a true heart in full assurance of.

Faith.

If Christ has made this new And living way By being crucified His body broken and torn His blood poured out And that's the way to the father. You need to come that way. Don't make up your own way. Confucius offers some way Buddhists offer a different way Muhammad offers another way.

Don't blaze your own trail Go this way Through Christ He's the one that was Torn for you He alone can get you Into the holy of holies.

Where God is.

You need to come by faith. That's the first thing. The second thing is Having placed your faith in Christ. You need to continue in hope. Verse 23 Let us hold fast. The confession of our hope. That means when things get tough.

You're persecuted. You still claim the name of Christ. You don't shrink back. And then verses 24 and 25. The third thing is love. We occupy ourselves During these days as we wait for Christ to come By loving one another.

We go to church Every Sunday As commanded by verse 25. Not neglecting to meet together. And we spur one another on To love and good deeds. So that's how We apply the book of Hebrews Faith, hope and love.

Now last week verses 26 to 31 Things took a drastic turn. Didn't they? All of a sudden the author of Hebrews Gets very serious. And he motivates us to do Those three things Faith, hope and love. How so?

He tells you if you just go on sinning. In other words you don't take this new and living way. But you keep going your own way. You can expect. Verse 27 Judgment. What kind of judgment? You should be looking at verse 27.

A fury.

Of fire.

That will consume The adversaries. That's intense. That's a strong warning. In fact Down in verse 30 Vengeance is mine I will repay And again the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing To fall into the hands Of the living God.

This warning Is very serious. And last week we saw That there are three reasons Why this warning Is so strong.

Remember what it is?

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit Because if Christ Was the sacrifice For our sins on the cross And we take that Lightly And trample underfoot The Son of God by discarding it We are taking The precious offering.

Of the Father.

And treating it Like it's meaningless.

The Father Gave.

His dearly.

Loved Son. There's a picture of this in Genesis Chapter 22 When Abraham is told Take Isaac and go to a place that I will show you And sacrifice him there And Abraham is tormented By this idea His one and only Son And every father in the room.

It's Mother's Day Mothers you also understand.

Your Son.

Sacrifice him.

Well that command To Abraham was only A picture of what God Himself would do.

The Father would give.

His one and only precious Dear Son To die And having done that Anybody who looks at that gift As a common thing And discards it And tramples it underfoot Is sinning against the Father. He's also sinning against the Son Treating the blood of the Covenant as a profane thing.

Some of the Jews who are reading this book Book of Hebrews Were tempted to go back to Judaism To go back to the temple And offer animal Sacrifices The thinking being You know the blood of bulls and goats That'll do.

But once Jesus was offered As the true and final sacrifice All of those animal sacrifices Came to an end In terms of their purpose. They were only meant to point to Christ. So anybody who looks at The blood of Jesus As mere animal blood Misses the point That Jesus is utterly unique.

He's the only person Who is fully God And fully human. His blood Is divine blood.

This is the.

God who made the universe Then taking on flesh and blood And spilling that blood To atone for sins. If I die And my blood is poured out It has no value To atone for sins. I'm a sinner. The blood of an animal can't atone for sin.

But the blood.

Of Jesus, his very life.

Infinitely valuable.

Was given On the cross And those who treat that as a profane thing The word meaning common We're looking right now at verse 29 As a profane thing Are disrespecting and dishonoring The son of God And lastly The spirit of grace.

It is the spirit that sends this witness about Jesus And those who hear it And spurn it.

Are resisting.

The offer of mercy. And so it is. Offense against the father, son. And the spirit. Heavy topic last week.

Now.

Here's how our God works. He warns us To come by the new and living way Through Christ Because he loves you. That warning is to drive you to Christ That you would avert judgment. He wants to fearfully Push you to Christ.

But more than that.

This week we see. He also draws you with reward. It's the proverbial carrot and the stick. Last week was the stick This week is the carrot. Let's read it. Verse 32 -39. But recall the former days When After you were enlightened You endured a hard struggle With sufferings Sometimes being publicly exposed To reproach and affliction And sometimes being partners With those so treated.

For you had compassion On those in prison And you joyfully accepted the plundering.

Of your property.

Since you knew That you yourselves Had a better possession And an abiding one.

Therefore.

Do not throw away your confidence Which has a great.

Reward.

For you have need.

Of endurance so that When you have done the will of God You may receive.

What is promised.

For yet a little while And the coming one will come And will not delay But my righteous one shall live by Faith and if he shrinks back My soul has No pleasure in him. But we are not of those who Shrink back and are destroyed But of those who have faith And preserve Their souls.

This is A beautiful Promise Of reward That each of us need to hear. We need to train our minds now. Remember the opening prayer. Teach us Lord. We need to look at these words As treasures that will open Something in our hearts to God.

So it says in verse 32 Recall the former days When after you were enlightened. Enlightened there refers to salvation. Having believed you heard about Jesus And you believed. It says you endured A hard struggle with sufferings.

These believers Had already been through persecution Sometimes being publicly.

Exposed.

The Greek word for publicly Exposed is the word from which we.

Get theater. They made a theater of you.

A public spectacle of you To reproach and affliction and sometimes Being partners with those. So treated. We can't know for certain What this refers to. The closest I think that we can get Is an event that happened in 49 AD.

So at least 14 Years maybe as many as 17 years after Christ Rose from the dead. The church in Rome has grown to be a significant Movement. And there is In a secular history book A story That I think may refer To this.

It was written by Suetonius. He wrote a book called Life of Claudius. He said that In 49 AD Jews were expelled for troubles Caused by Christus. Which is interesting Because most of the Jews Who had become Christians In Rome Were still identifying As Jews only completed Messianic Jews.

And this Roman author Said the trouble was caused by Christus. C-H-R-E-S-T-U-S. One letter removed From the Greek Christos. It could be that he was Referring to Jesus. And Christians in Rome Who were expelled For quote on quote trouble making.

What did that look like. We know from the text That they were publicly exposed. So they were made.

A theater of.

But we learn that There was a confiscation of property. Verse 34. You had compassion on those In prison so some of them were thrown in prison. And here's the predicament When you're thrown in a Roman Prison it's not like Going to CFCF in Philadelphia.

I've preached at CFCF Outside of Philadelphia To the prisoners there. But I've also been to Rome.

Anybody here been to Rome.

At CFCF you have air conditioning. You have food. You have television Nice chairs to sit in. You can go have a church service. I've been there to preach not in jail. Which may come one day If James Coates and all this.

They just arrested that Polish pastor In Canada too Polowski. I haven't been to prison for that reason yet. But if you go to Rome And you see the prison it's kind of like A dungeon. And they don't treat you well.

They don't barely feed you. So what happens is the relatives Or friends of the Prisoner will bring them food And throw it down to them. Well to do that If your Christian friends have been Thrown in prison that means That the Roman guards Who were looking for you in the first place Will find you.

You have to publicly identify. It says in verse 34. You joyfully Accepted the plundering of your property. Or sometimes being partners With those so treated So you were helping them. And so The Romans are coming to get your kitchen table too.

And the little girl Is standing there Watching.

Daddy they're taking our table.

They're taking my bed. My little stuffed animal. Daddy they just took all your money.

They just took the house.

And the dad Is standing there.

Smiling.

Joyfully accepting it.

She says daddy why are you smiling. And he answers We have possessions they don't know about Abiding ones They can't touch.

You see he's.

Looking to a reward That can't be touched That can't be taken He's looking to Something eternal. So look again with me at verse 34. You had compassion On those in prison. This is not the language of doing Justice for the poor This is the language of compassion.

It would have been perfectly easy For the Christian To sit back while their friends are in prison And do nothing about it.

But out of.

Compassion. They went and identified With them And you joyfully accepted.

The plundering of.

Your property. I have to comment On this for a minute. It says in my bible. Your property. In evangelicalism. Today you see a movement towards Marxism, socialism. I in fact read somebody saying Well I don't see any Christian Reason.

Why.

Universal healthcare should not be The right of every American Citizen. And one of my friends Commented in response to that On facebook and said I'll give you One thou shalt not.

Steal.

The basis of Capitalism Is not Adam Smith and the invisible Hand, wealth of the nations. It didn't begin With the economic theory And the industrial revolution. Capitalism Is biblical. Exodus 2015 Thou shalt not steal Implies private Property, it says here in my bible.

This was your Property It was yours, you had Private ownership of it and the whole System of capitalism Is built on this concept Of private property. Picture Ananias and Sapphira They brought charity To the church and Willingly offered what was theirs.

And by the way if you lose this idea Of your property You've also lost genuine charity. If all possessions Belong to a society, you can't Have charity, it wasn't yours. In the first place, it belonged to the government.

But Ananias and Sapphira They took.

Their field.

And sold it and took the money To the feet of the apostles. And they said they got such and such A price and because they lied About the price They died at the feet Of the apostles. But in Acts chapter 4 Chapter 5 verse 4 Peter says something interesting Before Ananias drops dead.

What did he say? Before you sold that field Didn't it belong to you? And even after You sold it, didn't the proceeds.

Belong to you?

Why then have you tested the Holy Spirit? Why have you lied to God? You see the issue was He lied to God. By claiming something that wasn't true. About the price he got. But the teaching of the Bible.

Throughout is.

The private ownership of property. So verse 34. They accepted the plundering of their property.

Why?

That's the big question Christian.

Why?

Will you devote your life to the church? Giving tithes and offerings. We have guys That go and give their Thursdays Every Thursday to go work with. The prisoners who are being integrated Back into the society.

Others who are working with family promise To help homeless people. Why do that instead of watching the game? Why devote your life to Christ? Does it make sense? What is the reason to sacrifice things now?

What do you get out of this? Look at verse 34. Since that word Since gives you the reasoning And it's not altruism. It is since you knew That you yourselves Had a better possession And an abiding one.

You yourselves Knew that you had A better possession. Mark chapter 8 verse 36. Jesus said this. What does it profit. A man To gain the whole world And forfeit his soul. He's appealing to their own self interest.

What does it profit.

You?

To gain the whole world But lose your soul That would be foolish But according to your self interest You should sacrifice The things of this world.

For a better.

And abiding promise. In Acts chapter 5 The apostles were commanded To preach no more in this name. And yet they said Salvation is found in no other name. For there's no other name under heaven Given to men by which we must be saved.

And so what did they do? They went right back into the temple courts And preached in his name. And so the religious leaders came to them And beat them mercilessly Probably broke a bone In at least one of them.

I remember playing basketball When I just jumped up to catch the ball And somebody hit me in the rib And cracked a rib. That thing hurt for six months. Some of you guys that play sports You know the pain.

Some of you that fight a lot You ever get in a fight. You know what it feels like to get hurt. It makes you angry. But in Acts chapter 5 verse 41 It says here. They left the presence of the council Rejoicing that they were Counted worthy to suffer Dishonor for the name.

They suffered A beating.

They were bruised and bloody. And they were rejoicing. There was something they were receiving.

That made it worth it.

You see When you suffer for the name of Jesus You declare That he is more valuable Than your comfort. Whatever you sacrifice for Christ Is made of lesser worth Than Christ to you. What you are willing to suffer for him Tells the world how you esteem him.

And this is so important. This is true worship. Worship is not just singing. Worship is valuing.

Or treasuring.

Or prizing something. And when you say Christ is my treasure To the point where You would be willing to be speared to death You tell the world He is my treasure I value him more than life itself. But notice in Acts 5 verse 41 They are not just happy That somebody would take a spear in Ecuador.

They are happy That they Were counted worthy Of suffering dishonor For the sake of the name.

They themselves.

This is deep.

But amazing.

They were self interested. They didn't just want somebody To glorify God in that sacrifice.

They rejoiced.

That they were counted worthy. That my little life on this earth Could in some way Bring glory To the king of kings. Me, even me When I die This is my great ambition That having lived.

These.

If I'm lucky 80 years in the flesh That I would stand And see the face.

Of the one.

Who was pierced from me.

And return to him the reward of his suffering Through 80 years of life. And hear him say.

Well done.

Good and faithful servant.

You were faithful.

With a few things.

I will put you in charge of much.

If you endure.

You will reign with him Says Paul to Timothy The rewards at death And primarily That he would be pleased with us His pleasure In our lives That somehow we would bring pleasure to him. There will be no feeling On this earth that will be more satisfying To you than glorifying.

Christ.

God is most glorified in you When you are most satisfied In him. Piper's right about that His glory and your joy Are united and tied together. And so in verse 34 The reason why They could delight Even as they're taking their houses Is because They knew They had a better possession And abiding one A reward in heaven.

The Great Reward of Endurance

Now it gets explicit in verse 35. Therefore do not throw away your confidence Which has a great reward. I'll use the words of C .S. Lewis To drive this home. He says If there lurks in most modern minds The notion that That our That to desire our own good And to earnestly hope For the enjoyment of it Is a bad thing.

I suggest that this notion Has crept in from Kant And the Stoics. So Immanuel Kant, the philosopher And the Stoics, they'll teach you You need to be stoic. Just die to desires. Don't worry about yourself.

There's no self-interest. Self-interest is bad. Be worried about the collective. Indeed If we consider the unblushing promises Of reward And the staggering nature.

Of the rewards.

Promised in the gospel It would seem That our Lord Finds our desires Not too strong.

But too weak.

We are half-hearted creatures Fooling about With drink and sex And ambition When infinite joy Is offered to us. Like an ignorant child Who wants to go on making mud pies In a slum Because he cannot imagine What is meant by the offer Of a holiday at the sea.

We are far too easily.

Pleased.

Imagine that A little boy in a slum Playing with a mud pie As the rancid water Runs through the gutter And satisfied with his mud pie Because he cannot imagine.

What a holiday at the sea.

Would really be like.

What the ocean is like. Never seen it, can't imagine it. That's how we are Too easily satisfied. It is in our self-interest To look for a reward. There's only one life It'll soon be past Only what's done for Christ Will last.

That was on my grandma's wall When I grew up. Only one life It'll soon be past Only what's done for Christ.

Will last.

Imagine eternity that goes on and on and on. A thousand years is not even a drop in the bucket. And a million years And a billion years And a trillion years.

Of eternal reward.

And yet we cling to the things of this earth And neglect The world to come. Think of the reward Verses 36 through 39 For you have need of endurance So that when you have done the will of God You may receive what is promised.

Quick comment there. The Bible teaches that you need to persevere in the faith. You can't just pray a prayer. But if you hold fast and firm To the confidence you had at first You will endure And you will receive the promise.

37.

Refers to Habakkuk For yet a little while And the coming one will come And will not delay. Anybody read Habakkuk today? You guys woke up and read Habakkuk, right? Come on, Habakkuk. What a great three little chapters.