Colleen and Nikki walk through the last chapter of Hebrews, discussing the writers final call to old covenant believers to live in the new way of Christ. Transcription by Gwen Billington.
Colleen: Welcome to Former Adventist podcast. I’m Colleen Tinker.
Nikki: And I’m Nikki Stevenson.
Colleen: We are doing the last chapter of Hebrews today. I actually feel sad.
Nikki: I know.
Colleen: Last night when I was studying, I had a feeling like I was saying goodbye to a friend. This has been an amazing experience going through Hebrews with you, Nikki.
Nikki: It has for me too. This has been life-changing.
Colleen: And then hearing from people who’ve been going through it with us, it’s been overwhelming to me to realize how much this book is speaking to the Adventist confusion so many of us have retained after leaving.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: Sometimes I think, the Lord knew Adventism would come, and He prepared a word that’s eternal and alive that would address every single piece of confusion we and every other false gospel would have. Everything’s answered.
Nikki: It’s amazing.
Colleen: Hebrews answers our confusion in a particular way. So before we talk about Hebrews 13, I just want to remind everyone that if you have comments or questions, you can write to us at formeradventist@gmail.com, and I want to emphasize that that’s Adventist singular, because I did receive an email from somebody who wrote to Proclamation! at Gmail who said that the formeradventists@gmail didn’t work. So she had misunderstood what we said, and I just want to point out it’s formeradventist@gmail.com. So don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and you can go to proclamationmagazine.com to find our magazine online, to sign up for our weekly email, and to donate to Life Assurance Ministries, and that helps the podcast to continue, it helps our weekly emails and our magazine material continue to grow. So, Nikki, before we look at the text of Hebrews 13, when you look back over this book from this particular study that we’ve done, what stands out to you?
Nikki: As I was preparing for chapter 13 and I was seeing all of the imperatives there, I began to think about how the book outlines, because this is the last chapter, and so, of course, we’re thinking about everything that we’ve discussed, and I see all of these imperatives right at the end, and I know that these imperatives are tied to all of the indicatives that came before in the letter, and it occurred to me that the imperatives are connected to the “why”, why do we do these things? And the “why” of Adventism is completely different from the “why” of Hebrews. In Adventism, all of the imperatives are for the purpose of becoming holy. And in Hebrews, all of the imperatives are because we’re holy, because Christ has made us holy. And I began to outline the letter, beginning in chapter 1 and going all the way through, and thinking – as I was just kind of summarizing what each chapter was about, thinking about how those chapters do not fit inside of Adventism’s “why.” The reality is, their “why” is the great controversy. They do all of the things they do to vindicate God’s character before a watching universe, to prove that the law can be kept and to show their loyalty to God through proper sabbath-keeping. That is their “why.” Our “why” is related to what chapter 1 tells us: Jesus is fully God. He is God. He is the final revelation, the final word from God. There is no one that comes after Him. That doesn’t work with Adventism. Chapter 2: He’s the Son of Man, and He had to be in order to be our propitiation. He had to be fully man. In Adventism, the propitiation is incomplete, it’s vague. Some say the blood matters, some say it doesn’t. It doesn’t work – chapter 2 doesn’t work in Adventism. So in chapter 3, Jesus is greater than Moses, but in Adventism, once you come to Jesus, He points you back to Moses. He points you back to the law. In chapter 4, Jesus offers us final rest, the true fulfillment of the Sabbath. In Adventism, Jesus points you to proper sabbath-keeping. In chapter 5, Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, and in Adventism we didn’t understand Melchizedek. When you search out what is taught about him, it’s not what’s taught in the Bible, it’s strange. You’ll have to go back and listen to our podcast on that, if you guys want to know what Adventists say about Melchizedek. And I found it interesting as I was outlining this too, Colleen, the writer of Hebrews mentions Melchizedek in chapter 5, and then he kind of stops there and interrupts himself, and he gives a warning. He gives a warning against tasting and then leaving and not wanting to stay for the meat because, you know what? He’s going to get into meat here. Everything that comes next is meat, and I remember as an Adventist I would glaze over when I would hear about Melchizedek. It was kind of boring to me, it didn’t seem important, but the author, he mentions Melchizedek, and then he interrupts, and he says, “Strive for solid food.” And then he goes on, and he gives us, in chapter 7, a deeper understanding, a clear teaching on what it meant to be a priest after the order of Melchizedek. He talks to us about a new priesthood, a new law. In chapter 8, a New Covenant, a better covenant. In Adventism, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant were just a continuation of the same covenant. It doesn’t work in Adventism. And then in chapter 9, he contrasts the Old Covenant temple and sacrificial system to the true tent not made with hands and the sacrifice of Christ. You’ve got a physical tabernacle in heaven in the Adventist worldview, in the great controversy worldview. You don’t have that in Hebrews. In chapter 10, we see the once-for-all nature of the completed sacrifice of Christ, and we’re given full assurance and conviction. You don’t have that in Adventism. It’s not complete, and there’s no assurance. And then in 11 we have this beautiful portrayal of what it looks like to live a life of faith. None of the examples given in the Book of Hebrews were ever used, in my experience as an Adventist, to teach about the faithfulness of God. They were all used to teach about the righteousness and holiness of all of those people, to be an example. You’re supposed to do all of this righteous living, and it’s not rooted in any kind of assurance or conviction that anything God has said is going to happen. Everything’s just different; it’s all different. And then, just moving on from there, chapter 12, the fact that we are children if we are disciplined, and the fact that we are to run this race and that we are to count on the fact that God is going to sanctify us, none of this came through in Adventism, none of this was the “why.” None of this fit with the great controversy. You have to cut this out of your Bible if you’re going to hold onto the great controversy worldview. You can’t keep them both. They don’t work.
Colleen: No. You’re so right. That is such a great overview of the book, Nikki, and a comparison with Adventism. You’ve hit it on the head. It’s so clear. This entire book, from beginning to end, decimates Adventism and its worldview and its false gospel and its false Jesus. You can’t understand Hebrews if you cling to the doctrines of Adventism. It’s confusion.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: When I think back on this book, there are a couple of specific things that have really impacted me. One of them is from Hebrews 4, where it’s so clear that as the author of this book is explaining that there is an eternal, permanent Sabbath rest for the people of God. He points out that this new day – that’s not the seventh day, but it’s called “today” – that that new day was first established by and revealed to David, right in the middle of the monarchy, while David was living under the Mosaic covenant. God is the one who told him, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” And it’s interesting to me that God foreshadowed, presaged, helped us all know that there was something more than Sabbath that was coming that actually has always existed for the people of God, and He let David, who was the one to whom He promised an eternal throne, an eternal kingdom, an eternal dynasty, the one whom He said his son would sit on his throne forever, the father of Jesus, he is the one that was entrusted with the prophecy that there is a day called “today,” and that was not new when Jesus came. The Jews and we Adventists, certainly, never understood that or heard about it, really. And the other thing that really impacted me in ways I don’t even know how to describe, it’s very deep, it’s kind of emotional, and it’s profound in my understanding of reality, and that is the whole explanation that Jesus is a priest of a different order and that the Mosaic Law cannot exist if the Aaronic/Levitical priesthood no longer exists. And Hebrews is very clear that the priesthood of Aaron and all of those Levitical priests is done away with, is obsolete, and I had believed that as an Adventist, but I didn’t understand that the law depended on the Levites, and Hebrews 7 just explicitly describes that process and says: Without the Levitical priesthood there has to be a different law. The law we grew up thinking we could carry along with us and add it onto Jesus, or add Jesus onto it, it can’t be done. Jesus has fulfilled that law, He’s a different kind of priest in a different order, and the law we live under now is brand new, it’s the Law of Christ. That old law cannot carry over into the New Covenant, and if we carry it over, we’re committing spiritual adultery, as Paul says in Romans 7. That is overwhelming to me.
Nikki: Yeah.
Colleen: Let’s go through this last chapter, and we talked, Nikki, about looking at it as a whole book instead of necessarily looking at it verse by verse in the way we’ve done some of the others, but this last chapter can be roughly divided into three parts, and I owe another little debt of gratitude to Steven Ger, whose commentary on Hebrews has been so helpful to me, but he is the one who said that this last chapter of Hebrews can be roughly divided into three parts. The first part includes verses 1 to 6, the second part 7-17, and the last part 18-25. He explained it this way: He said, “There are three sets of exhortations. The first five verses are community exhortations, or how to live in the Body of Christ. The second set are religious exhortations, how to live as Christians in the New Covenant. And the last portion of the chapter are personal exhortations, or obligations that the author of the book is carrying out. So why don’t we just look at that first part, Nikki? We talked about this some before we started. Would you mind reading verses 1 to 5, and we’ll just talk about what this is telling us as members of a faith community in the Body of Christ.
Nikki: “Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the Body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.'”
Colleen: Go ahead and read verse 6. It actually goes with verse 5.
Nikki: “So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?'”
Colleen: As you look at this passage, what stands out to you? Let’s just start at the beginning and just roughly look through it. He addresses the brethren, “Let love of the brethren continue.” And then he goes on to talk about hospitality to strangers, remembering prisoners. Then he talks about marriage and making sure your character is free from the love of money. How do you understand that very first part of it, where he talks about brotherly love and showing hospitality to strangers? Now, you and I have both heard some discussions about this that left us somewhat uncertain exactly what the author might have meant. How do you understand this when you look at it?
Nikki: Well, I know this is such an obvious statement, but 13:1 is connected completely to chapter 12. And last week we talked about coming to Mt. Zion, and the way that that’s described in verses 22 through 24 is that it’s the city of the living God, it’s the heavenly Jerusalem. There are innumerable angels in festal gathering there. It’s the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven. It’s where God is. It’s where the spirits of the righteous made perfect are. It’s where Jesus, the mediator of a better covenant, is. It’s this beautiful, eternal reality, and we live our life from there. And at the very end of 13, it talks about us giving acceptable worship and service to God, and then we move right into what that looks like, boots on the ground in the Body of Christ on earth. And so I think it’s all very tied together, and I think when we’re dealing with brotherly love, which by the way sometimes comes really easily, but sometimes it’s really difficult –
Colleen: It is.
Nikki: – I think it’s important to keep our mind set on the reality of what that brotherhood is, what it is that we share and who we are in Christ. And so from that perspective, I think we move into these next verses that talk about what that looks like. The hospitality to strangers, that’s connected to the Body of Christ. The people in prison, that’s connected to the Body of Christ. We see in other letters, if you’re going to be in trouble, be in trouble for the gospel, not for wrongdoing. This isn’t telling us to be intimately connected to murderers in prison. This is about the Body of Christ.
Colleen: What you described about chapter 12 and what it is that we can know about ourselves, that’s the indicative. We have already come to Mt. Zion. We have already been promised to receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken. This is the indicative that describes our condition in Christ. So these imperatives follow because we are already His, and what you said about the hospitality, being kind to those who have been in prison, this is connected to brothers, and in the first century there were a lot of itinerate missionaries, itinerate evangelists, even itinerate people who had been imprisoned for the gospel and were released and needed to be given a safe haven while they reestablished themselves in the Body of Christ. He is not talking about just being nice to everybody you meet, although that is an imperative for the Christ follower, but this is a command for how we treat the Body of Christ.
Nikki: At the end of verse 3, where it talks about remembering those who are mistreated, he says, “…since you also are in the Body.” He’s talking about the church.
Colleen: And it’s interesting that even marriage is connected to this whole business of being in the Body. It’s part of our responsibility to the Body of Christ to be consistent, to be integrous in our marriages and to treat other people’s marriages with integrity and respect. There is no sense of overlapping boundaries in the Body of Christ. We honor what God has done and put together, and we honor it in our own lives as He has given us marriages, and we honor it in each other’s lives and know that that’s His gift to each other. We don’t blur the boundaries.
Nikki: I read one commentator say that verse 1 starts at home, brotherly love starts at home.
Colleen: And it starts not only with the marriage but with our children. I love what you often say, Nikki, that God has given you a son and a daughter, and they’re your children, but they are also your little brother and little sister in Christ. And knowing that about your children gives you a whole different way to look at them and to respond to them and a different sense of obligation to them.
Nikki: It really does.
Colleen: The last section in this exhortation to the community is to be content with what we have. Why is that important?
Nikki: Well, I find it interesting that the end of that sentence is that He has said He’ll never leave us for forsake us. It reveals the temptation to replace in our minds the presence of God, the contentment that comes from the presence and faithfulness of God, to replace that with things.
Colleen: Um-hmm.
Nikki: And I think it’s really easy in any community to look at what other people have, to look at what other people are doing, and to compare yourself to them and to get tied up and caught up in that rather than who they are in Christ, how you’re supposed to love them, and fellowshipping with your Lord.
Colleen: And then when I think about Matthew 6, where Jesus Himself talked about how to live content, knowing that the Lord will provide what we need – He provides for the lilies of the field – He said Gentiles worry about what to eat, drink, and wear. Our heavenly Father knows we need these things. Knowing that the Lord will provide is part of the way He sanctifies us, part of the way He disciplines us. He says, “Trust me. And if you’re walking through a hard time, know I have not forgotten you; know I am providing everything you need. If I don’t forsake the grass of the field, which is here today and gone tomorrow, I will not forsake you.” And He asks us to trust Him, and I see this as an ongoing call to submit to the Lord, knowing that our future and our present are completely in His hands, and our well-being is His concern. So next we come to the second section, where we have the religious exhortations. And it’s interesting that this section, from verse 7 to 17, is book-ended by the commands to remember those who led us and spoke the word to us. Verse 7 is related to remembering those who have taught us the word in the past. Now, for some of us who have come out Adventism, we don’t really have much of a past in terms of people who have taught us. We’re right here in the place where we’re learning for the first time, but this author is writing to people who might have actually remembered Paul, who might have actually remembered the apostles, James, Peter. They’re either gone now or possibly dead, and he’s saying remember them, and he’s saying imitate their faith. I think it’s really important to understand that he’s not saying imitate everything about them because the people who teach us are mortals with still-sinful flesh, so they will have flaws, but he’s asking us to imitate their faith. And then, we can just look back to Hebrews 11 and remember what he’s talking about. All of these people who trusted God are here for us to have encouragement. We can imitate their faith and know that God will be as faithful to us as He has been to them. The last verse is the one that talks about relating to our current teachers who are teaching us the word. But in this section between verse 7 and verse 17, we have some of the most interesting things, and I have to say, there’s some stuff here in this passage that Adventists habitually misuse. Nikki, would you read this section for us, please, Hebrews 13:7-17.
Nikki: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through His own blood. Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
Colleen: Let’s look at verse 8. What comes to your mind when you read, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever”?
Nikki: That’s said of God, and to see that said of Jesus Christ, as I was preparing for this podcast, was pretty impacting for me. It speaks of who He is. He’s Jesus, He’s the God-man, Hebrews 1 and 2, and He’s Christ. It speaks of what He did. He’s Messiah, and it’s unchanging.
Colleen: And it’s interesting too that this is connected right here with remembering those who led us and the result of their conduct, “imitate their faith.” The author is not only saying that Jesus as God never changes, but He is saying the message of the gospel never changes. Those who trust Christ, it’s always the same thing they trust: His completely finished work of atonement, His shed blood, His death, burial, and resurrection for our justification and for our reconciliation to God. The gospel never changes, the gospel of those who first taught the word and all of those who will come after. This is consistent. But you know what really upsets me about this? Understanding what this is really saying really upsets me about the way Adventists use this. Have you ever heard Adventists use this, “God never changes, He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever,” to explain that the law is for us?
Nikki: Um-hmm, and it’s “sabbath-keeping is for us.”
Colleen: That is not what this is saying. For Adventists to say that this verse is proof that the Law of God preceded creation and will be forever in eternity, which is the argument they make, is to completely twist Scripture. This is nottalking about the law, and it is not talking about the way God deals with humanity throughout the ages of history. This is saying, the gospel, the person of God, the person of Christ, the work of Christ, is eternal and never changes. This is not saying that God doesn’t deal with Israel differently from the primordial world, differently from the church, differently from the future. This is saying the gospel is consistent. For Adventists to use this to try to insist that we have to keep the Sabbath is to grossly misuse Scripture.
Nikki: Well, this makes me think of Hebrews 1:1 and 2. This is pointing us to the fact that Christ is the final word on all things. In these last days He has spoken to us by His Son. No one else is going to come after Him and give us more information or a better message or fill this out or add to it. None of that matters. What He has said stands forever.
Colleen: Verse 9 absolutely confirms this, and it reminds us all not to be carried away by varied and strange teachings, and I just want to say the Adventist understanding of the law and the gospel – which don’t connect in the way theymake it connect – is a strange and varied teaching. Instead of this verse connecting Jesus to the law and Sabbath, this verse is saying don’t do these connections that cannot be substantiated by Scripture. Adventism is a strange and varied teaching. We’re not benefited by looking at these variations on truth that are really doctrines of demons.
Nikki: How many times have you heard people ask, “Well, why didn’t Jesus teach us about the food laws?” or “Why didn’t Jesus teach us about the importance of Sabbath?” And Adventists will say, “Well, He didn’t have that message yet. That came through Ellen.”
Colleen: That’s true.
Nikki: This right here is saying no, do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings. These are new teachings that are coming into the Hebrew church and leading them away from the original teaching, and that is exactly what Adventism did to all of us, and it is what it seeks to do the rest of the church.
Colleen: It does. They do their best to convert Christians into their viewpoint.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: These next two verses are really important for those of us who have left Adventism. Would you read it again, please, Nikki, 10 and 11?
Nikki: “We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.”
Colleen: Now, the reference here is to the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament. Interestingly, the Day of Atonement offerings in the Old Testament were completely burned. No part of them was ever eaten by the priest. Other burnt offerings were partially eaten by the priests, but not the Day of Atonement offering. The Day of Atonement offering was completely burned, and the ashes were carried outside the camp so that figuratively the sins of the nation were carried away from the presence of God, away from the people of God, and disposed of far from where God and His people resided. This is a reference to that. And he is saying here in Hebrews, we, we believers, have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. We actually have a different kind of altar. We have the altar of the cross, where the Lord Jesus offered the one sufficient atoning sacrifice, and we know from Jesus’ own teachings and His leaving us the Lord’s Supper that He has asked us figuratively to eat from that altar, to take His flesh and to take His blood and to participate in His death and resurrection and to the new life free from the bondage of sin. It’s a completely different kind of altar, and it’s really, really significant here that it says those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat from this altar. Now, I have to say, Adventism serves the tabernacle because it continues to try to cling to the law. Now, it’s not even serving the tabernacle in the way Israel did, but Adventism says you have to accept Jesus in order to get to the law and find the heart of God and let the law become part of you, that God is found in the law and Jesus is a way to do that. That is utter heresy, and anybody who says that you have to have the law connected to Jesus is teaching a false doctrine. People who serve the tabernacle, which was based on the law, which was governed by the law, cannot eat from the altar of Christ. Adventism has no right to participate in the Lord’s supper, to participate in the communion of the saints, because they are not honoring the Lord. They’re not honoring the one atoning sacrifice who died on the cross for the forgiveness of all the world’s sins. And just as the bodies of those animals were taken outside the camp, Jesus took our sins literally in His own flesh outside the camp, and those who serve the law cannot participate in that offering. Do you mind reading 12 and 13, because it goes with it and gives us the next steps.
Nikki: “So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through His own blood. Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured.”
Colleen: The author is writing to people who are Jews, probably Jerusalem Jews. They’re there where the temple is, that beautiful Judaism that was the most elaborate, most beautiful, most wonderful of the religions in the ancient world, and they have now accepted Jesus, and their religion appears to have no physical, tangible reality. They worship a God that can’t be seen, and they’re being called not to go back to the temple. Everything that Jesus accomplished is spiritual, and the author is saying to them, “Don’t go back. Follow Jesus outside the camp.” Jesus died and took the sins of mankind outside the gates of Jerusalem. He went away from the heart of Judaism when He died, and this author is calling these Jewish believers to leave Judaism, to leave the beauty of the Jewish temple, and to follow Jesus outside the camp and worship Him there in this new way He has established through His own shed blood. And that’s the call to us, and I just have to say, when we understand what Jesus did, we as former Adventists, or we as Adventists who suddenly see the gospel and understand what Jesus did, we have to leave this religion that tramples on the blood of Christ, that does not accept the final-ness of His sacrifice and atonement. We are being called to leave. We can’t keep a foot in both camps or we defile the blood of Jesus.
Nikki: This takes me back to Hebrews chapter 12, where we’re told to lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, to run the race with endurance that’s set before us. Going outside the camp to bear the reproach with Christ is a burden, and when we choose to run that race that He’s setting before us with endurance, remaining under that burden, we can’t do that with the weight of false religion. We can’t do that with the sin of clinging to a false Christ. We have to let it go or we can’t run, and this is the call. And it does come with reproach, doesn’t it?
Colleen: It does come with reproach. The people we know, the people we love will reproach us. We are even reproached spiritually by temptations and doubts, like, “Can we really leave this thing that we had believed to be the truth? What if I’m wrong?” Ellen White herself said that if we leave her writings, we will ultimately leave the Bible. She said the last great deception will be to make her writings of no account. What a perfect setup! We have been held in fear by a false prophet. We have to let her go. We have to let her worldview go. We have to cling to Jesus alone and know that He won’t lead us astray. He won’t deceive us. He won’t trick us. We follow Him, and we let all of these entanglements of Adventism go.
Nikki: And I want to say to the people who are considering leaving, who are beginning to see the issues of Adventism, and they’re considering walking away from it, and they hear us saying that Adventism isn’t Christian. I know, I remember hearing that and thinking, “Oh, you’re going too far. Why are you going too far?” But the reality is I also knew that if I left Adventism, I was going to deal with a lot of rejection. I was going to upset a lot of people. I was going to be seen as someone who has received the mark of the beast by going to church on Sunday. I knew all the division it would create if I left. That doesn’t happen in the Body of Christ. If I go from a Baptist church to a Lutheran church, I’m not going to be treated that way.
Colleen: No.
Nikki: It’s because the doctrines are different. It’s because the gospel is different. The God of the gospel is different between the two. I even had an Adventist tell me, “Nikki, we worship a different God now.” She knew it before I did. If you’re considering leaving and you feel that fear and you feel that anxiety, think about that. Why is that there?
Colleen: That is a good question. And then this author takes us to the next thing. After the call to leave, to follow Jesus outside the camp, to go into a territory we can’t even see because it’s never been walked before, at least we haven’t walked it before, he tells us what to do. He says, we don’t have a lasting city here. We’re being called to a city to come; we’re being called to that eternal Mt. Zion that we read about in the last chapter. And then he tells us in verse 15 what to do as we walk away. We have to thank Him, offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And I have to say, I never understood how to truly thank God or what I was thanking Him for as an Adventist. I didn’t know what He had really done. I didn’t experience it, I wasn’t born again. But when I trusted Jesus, I had something to praise Him for, and even walking away from everything I had known, I could praise Him because the power of His name and His blood had saved me.
Nikki: And the call is to do it continually. So even as we walk with Christ, even as we walk with Him through this – all these imperatives and all of the challenges that they bring, we continually thank Him for what He’s doing, that we can’t see –
Colleen: That’s right.
Nikki: – but that we know, that we know He’s doing.
Colleen: And as we do it, verse 16, we don’t neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. And like you said earlier, Nikki, this is not good works that we’re doing to try to stay in favor with God. These are the things that flow out of a heart that is born again, out of a life where we’re following Jesus away from everything we knew, even away from people we loved, and yet, His love is changing our lives, it’s changing our reality, and as we praise Him we share with those around us, starting first with the Body of Christ and then with the people that He brings into our path. And then the last verse in this section of religious exhortations is to obey our leaders and to submit to them, for they keep watch over our souls. It’s interesting that this verse states that God holds our teachers accountable for the way they shepherd us and the way they handle the word as they teach us, and our call is to not make it hard for them. Nikki, we’ve had lots of conversations about all kinds of situations within the Body of Christ that we never anticipated meeting. There’s one consistent thing: Those who know the Lord are filled with the Holy Spirit, and we can know that these are our brothers and sisters even if there are things that happen that we can’t understand or that are hard for us.
Nikki: Yeah, and I feel like because we’re talking to former Adventists and those who may be leaving that we need to be very clear that the writer of Hebrews is referring to leaders in the true church.
Colleen: Oh, yes.
Nikki: We’re not talking about the Doug Batchelors or whoever else has been leading you through Adventism. They’re teaching a false gospel. They are manipulating and twisting the words of God. You are not obligated to them. There is no honor there. There is no submission there. You are to flee them. There are other commands for what to do with those kinds of leaders. You flee them, you expose them.
Colleen: That’s so true.
Nikki: This is for leaders who are born again and submitted to the word of God.
Colleen: That’s right. So now we come to the final part of this book, where he gives the exhortation of personal responsibility, and the writer is telling us how he is doing that in his own life. He’s explaining to his readers what he’s doing for them as he closes out this book. Would you read 18-25, please?
Nikki: “Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings. Grace be with all of you.”
Colleen: Wow. Before he starts his benediction, in verses 18 and 19, he asks his readers to do something, and what is that?
Nikki: To pray for them.
Colleen: He asks them to pray so that he may be restored to them, and he says, “We’re sure we have a good conscience. We desire to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.” He’s not asking them to pray because he feels he’s on the edge of losing faith or doing something terrible, but he’s asking them to pray in support, to pray that he’ll be able to see them soon. And we know from this that he likely knows his readers personally, and he’s probably longing to see them. Talk to me, Nikki, about the benediction in 20 and 21. I find this so moving. What stands out to you from this passage where he calls Jesus “the great shepherd of the sheep”?
Nikki: Well, this is an incredible benediction, and it made me think of two others. As an Adventist, whenever I saw any kind of command to be holy or to be blameless or faultless, it stressed me out because of the Adventist doctrine that we had to be perfected and that at some point we wouldn’t have a mediator. So when I’d read these things in Scripture, it was a concern, but I started to see a pattern. Whenever I would read these benedictions that would talk about things like that, I would see that it’s actually God in me who’s working those things out. So now when you have this prayer, that God would equip us with every good thing that we may do His will and that He’s working in us that which is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, it makes me think of the benediction in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.” And then in Jude 1:24, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” These benedictions make it very clear that the calling is high but that the God of the calling is working it out in us. It’s incredible, and it brings so much peace, and it supports all of that assurance that we’ve read about in the letter to the Hebrews.
Colleen: And it just confirms what he reiterates in verse 20, “The God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord.” Isn’t that amazing? He is saying here that the God of peace, our Father, brought the shepherd of us, our shepherd, Jesus our Lord, up from the dead through the blood of the eternal covenant. So it’s all interconnected. The blood of Jesus is what validated and made possible His resurrection. He paid for human sin, and because of that the curse of sin could be broken, and Jesus could rise from death, and God the Father did that. But we can’t say He did it and Jesus was just the recipient or that the Holy Spirit wasn’t involved. The Bible says all three persons of the Trinity were involved. What we can know is what Ellen White said is just heresy. She said that Gabriel came to Him in the tomb and said, “Your Father calls you.” No! There was no angel involved. Jesus’ own blood paid the price that broke the bonds of death, and the Father did this.
Nikki: And Jesus Himself said, “I lay down my life, and I will raise it up again.”
Colleen: And this is our shepherd. We are the sheep. This is our great shepherd, and it’s His blood of the eternal covenant that secures our eternal salvation and keeps us safe and works out all of these imperatives, as you’ve been saying, Nikki. It’s Jesus and His blood that does this and His Spirit in us. This is His work. This is not us keeping ourselves saved.
Nikki: Or vindicating God.
Colleen: Absolutely. Isn’t that horrifying, to think that we actually believed we had to vindicate God or that we could?
Nikki: It really is.
Colleen: It makes God so weak. We are not the last word in the universe. He is. We live and move and have our being because of Him. He isn’t waiting for us to give Him permission to move. So as we end this book, the author does a personal message to the people who are reading. He encourages them to bear with this brief word of exhortation, and I want to say, wow. [Laughter.]
Nikki: [Laughter.]
Colleen: This seems like more than a brief word of exhortation, with so much depth in it. It has just transformed the way I think. [Laughter.]
Nikki: Wouldn’t you like to see one of his long letters? [Laughter.]
Colleen: [Laughter.] Oh, that’s funny to think of. And then he mentions Timothy. Who was Timothy? This is theTimothy that we learn about in other places in the New Testament.
Nikki: This is Paul’s apprentice, his spiritual son.
Colleen: That’s correct. And so we know that the author of Hebrews knew Timothy, and that puts the author of Hebrews, whoever he is, somewhere in the outer circle of apostolic influence, so that he’s not far removed from the apostles. He might even have known Paul. But he certainly knows Timothy. He’s waiting to come and see the recipients of this letter, with Timothy if possible. And then, as you end the letter, what do you think when you read him telling them that all the leaders and all the saints should be greeted? What does that make you think, Nikki?
Nikki: Well, he expects them to be in relationship with each other. This is a personal community, a family community.
Colleen: It’s kind of sweet to me that he asks them to greet all of their leaders, all of the saints, and he even refers to a contingent of believers that are from Italy. We don’t know exactly where they are or who they are, but he even says all of these people are greeting you, so he’s connecting these believers who are receiving this letter with believers they might not even have met personally, but they’re all united because of the Holy Spirit, and he’s asking them to keep that connection alive, to let their leaders, to let one another know, that he himself is greeting them, and there’s love among them because of the Spirit of God, who has brought them to life and is connecting them to each other. And he ends with, “Grace be with you all,” and what is grace?
Nikki: It’s unmerited favor.
Colleen: And it comes from God. It’s nothing that they generate. It’s nothing that they decide to give to one another out of the goodness of their heart. This is a gift from God, the grace, mercy, the justification, the love, the forbearance, all of these things that define the life of a believer, and he’s saying, “Grace be with you all.”
Nikki: You know, I’ve really come to love these final greetings in the epistles all throughout the New Testament. They are things that link us to history. They give so much credibility to the letters, and it’s kind of fun to see where they fit in the Book of Acts.
Colleen: That’s true.
Nikki: It’s what makes this all verifiable, and that’s one of the other things I’ve loved about the Book of Hebrews, especially in chapter 11, our faith, what we believe, it’s not just some fanciful thing that we’ve all decided to grab onto and walk through life with. It’s actual reality, and it’s verifiable. These little final greetings are part of what make it verifiable.
Colleen: And he lists names. They’re real people. I have to say, I feel some sadness, ending this book. But, Nikki, you had a really great idea for our next study series. What are we going to start doing next week?
Nikki: We’re going to begin looking at Colossians.
Colleen: I’m really excited to do this. I remember years ago I was listening to J. Vernon McGee teach through Colossians, and I heard him say, in his inimitable way, “Ephesians tells us about the Body of Christ, and Colossians reveals the person of Christ.” So since we’ve done Hebrews together, I think one of the things we who have come out of Adventism need more than any other single thing is to become really, really clear on who Jesus is and what we can know for sure about Him. And the Book of Colossians helps us with that in a particularly unique way, in addition to telling us so clearly that the Sabbath was only a shadow. [Laughter.]
Nikki: Yes. [Laughter.]
Colleen: So I am really looking forward to starting this new epistle with you again next week, Nikki.
Nikki: Me too.
Colleen: So all of you who are listening, we hope that this book has clarified for you what the New Covenant is and who has made the New Covenant permanent and eternal and secure, and that is our Lord Jesus, God the Son, the Son of Man. And if you haven’t trusted Him or if you have not felt quite free to let go of your hold on Adventism, just in case you might be doing something wrong, we encourage you to listen to the words of Scripture. Know that God will not trick you. He means what He says, and the words tell the truth. You can trust Him, and you can trust Him with your life. You can accept the gospel of His life, death, burial, and resurrection, trust Him with all of your sin, and be born again. And if you haven’t done that, we encourage you to deal with Him today. So if you have comments or questions, write to us at formeradventist@gmail.com. You can give us suggestions. We’ve had questions from some of you that are really, really good questions, and we just love hearing from you and hearing that you’re listening to the podcast, so follow us on Facebook and Instagram, write a review wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can always go to proclamationmagazine.com and sign up for the weekly emails, find all of our magazines online, be encouraged in the truth of the gospel and understanding Scripture as seen from the eyes of the New Covenant and not from the eyes of a false prophet.
Nikki: Bye for now.
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