Forerunner

 

Hebrews 6:1-20

Welcome back to our study of Hebrews, as we look at the various roles that it describes for Jesus. When I went to save this message for the first time, my computer indicated to my surprise that I gave one with the same title 4 years ago: Forerunner. I felt a little embarrassed that I had forgotten that, but I was also relieved to see that that message from Luke 1 went in a completely different direction from this one today. In leading up to Christmas, that one looked at John the Baptist coming as a forerunner before Jesus, preparing the way. Hebrews presents Jesus as our forerunner, preparing the way for us to enter the presence of God. Let’s pray as we begin.

 

Today, as we continue into Hebrews 6, we pick up again the theme of needing to press on toward spiritual maturity. Chapter 5 last time ended with an exhortation to move beyond the milk required by baby Christians, the elementary truths of God’s word, to solid food, the teaching about righteousness that allows mature believers to distinguish good from evil. It’s not that the basics are unimportant. We are saved by the simple fact that Jesus died for our sins, and we receive salvation through faith in his completed work on our behalf. Our basic guide to living as His followers is to truly love God and to love others. These foundational truths are basic and essential and sufficient for salvation, but we need to learn through experience how to apply them in practical ways. The ESV for the last verse in chapter 5 says that we need to “have our powers of discernment trained by constant practice.” The key to maturity is to actually live out the word of God, not just to have more and more head-knowledge of the truth. We need to keep this principle in mind as we tackle the first part of chapter 6. 

 

Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so. -- Hebrews 6:1-3 

 

Moving beyond the elementary teachings does not mean that we discard them. They are still important. For example, the cleansing rites mentioned here refers to baptism, not something that we forget about once it is over. We can and should remember our baptism and what it means, as an encouragement to press on in faith. We will need to keep doing these other things, too: repenting, having faith in God, and laying on hands as we pray for healing and consecration. We need to be clear about the resurrection of the dead and what eternal judgment will mean when Jesus divides the lost and saved on the last day. Teachings like these need to be a constant encouragement and warning for us and the people that we relate to day by day. 

 

It seems that some of the Hebrew Christians were getting stuck in the details, needing to go back again and again to explanations that they should have been able to grasp and put to use. In trying to think of an analogy, I wondered if it is something like a student driver getting stuck in their understanding of the driver’s manual. What does that road marking mean again? Who do I yield to at a stop sign? At some point they will need to just put down the manual for a while and get in the car and drive. It is actually the “constant practice” of driving that will improve their driving skills. They need to know what’s in the manual but recognize that it is a means to an end – being a good driver – rather than an end in itself. 

 

Along with people who are stalled out in their spiritual development, there are those who actually turn away from the Lord and reject the faith. They are in an even more dire situation, as we see in the next section: 

 

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. – Hebrews 6:4-6 

 

This is known as the sin of apostasy. These are people who have experienced the presence and work of God in quite an intimate way. They have heard the gospel and been enlightened by its truth. They have tasted the goodness of God, both in the encouragement of His word and in this heavenly gift – unspecified here, but perhaps a sense of peace and joy. They have even been moved by the Holy Spirit in some way and seen His power at work: “the powers of the coming age.” 

 

This reminds me of the story of Saul in 1 Samuel, where is says in a couple of instances that “the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him.” In the first of these, Saul is described as “prophesying with the prophets,” right after Samuel announced that the Lord had chosen and anointed him ruler over his inheritance. But all too soon Saul’s heart turned away from God, and he was disobedient in offering the sacrifice at Gilgal. He stopped trusting the Lord and took matters into his own hands. He dishonored God, and the punishment for him as a leader was severe. Not only did he lose his right to be king, but chapter 16 says that the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, “and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.” Saul had fallen away from his faith, never to return. 

 

So it is in our passage from Hebrews 6. There is a category of people who seem to have had a real experience of God and the Holy Spirit who later fall away and never return. It says that it is impossible for them to be brought back to repentance. So what defines these people? What does it mean to fall away? It can’t include everyone who doubts God at some point or who is disobedient to Him. That would be everyone! 

 

I think we can get a helpful insight from what Jesus said in response to the Pharisees accusing Him of driving out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons. He says in Matthew 12,

 

...every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. -- Matthew 12:31b-32 

 

The way that people irretrievably reject God is when they attribute the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan. The only way a person can be saved is through the redeeming, regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. If they shut themselves off from that, if they reject it as evil and abhorrent, then they are truly and permanently lost. I remember Carl teaching that if you are worried about having committed the unforgivable sin then you probably haven’t. If our hearts are open to God at all then He will always be ready to forgive us. I came across this quote from David Mathis, which I found helpful: 

 

    For Christians today, we need not fear a specific moment of sin, but a kind of hardness of heart that would see Jesus as true and yet walk away — with a kind of hardness of heart incapable of repenting. Again, it’s not that forgiveness isn’t granted, but that it’s not sought. The heart has become so recalcitrant, and at such odds with God’s Spirit, that it’s become incapable of true repentance. 

 

The Pharisees had such hard hearts that they could not recognize the good things that Jesus was doing in support of His identity. So they determined to kill Jesus. They refused to believe that He could be from God, and they just wanted to get rid of Him. People who follow in their pattern of unbelief – having seen the work of God as they did, but rejecting it – are in effect crucifying Jesus over again, completely dishonoring Him. 

 

We need to stay open and humble before God, recognizing how often our wayward hearts might try to lead us away from him. I was thinking again of a song that Keith Green put out in 1978: 

 

After all the things that you have shown me 

I'd be a fool to let them slip away

In doing things I know I shouldn't do

But I don't want to fall away from you

From you

After all

I've only grieved your spirit

And then I don't know why you stay with me

But every time I fall, your love comes through

And I don't want to fall away from you 

 

As far as I know, Keith Green did press on in faith, until he died in a tragic plane crash in 1982. He touched many people with the gospel and presented a challenging message to comfortable believers, too. On the other hand, there have been a number of high-profile Christians who have recently left the faith. I was listening to an interview with Joshua Harris, who was pastor of a very successful megachurch in Maryland. He wrote the book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, when he was 18, which became the million-copy best-selling textbook of the purity culture in American evangelicalism. Without any formal theological training he became a very successful senior pastor for over a decade. However, he says that it was combination of hearing from all the people who were hurt by his book and recognizing his own failure in not adequately dealing with sexual abuse within his own church that got him questioning his faith. He stepped down as pastor, but then his marriage fell apart, and in 2019 he announced on Instagram, “By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian.” 

 

In the more recent interview that I was listening to, he seemed quite open in sharing what he has been going through and even said that he has not shut the door on the possibility of becoming “part of the church” again at some point in the future. However, I was concerned that he seemed to define being a Christian in terms of the church rather than as a relationship with Jesus. Had he ever really understood the simplicity of the gospel? He wrote a book in 2013 called Humble Orthodoxy, of all things. Still, I bring up Joshua Harris, not as an example of an apostate to mourn or vilify, but to point out that we are not the ones to even make that judgment. That is in God’s hands. Our responsibility is to continue to pray for him and trust the Holy Spirit to bring him back to the truth, the “humble orthodoxy” that he used to believe. 

 

Let’s press on in Hebrews 6: 

 

Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned. Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation. God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. – Hebrews 6:7-12  

 

This is the rest of the exhortation to persevere in faithfulness toward God. Salvation is by faith alone, but good works are an expression of that faith, that give it legitimacy. This is what James explains so clearly in his “faith without works is dead” passage. Drinking in the rain harkens back to the earlier verse about heavenly gifts that we receive, that should produce a crop of righteousness. Salvation means more than just having our sins forgiven and going to heaven when we die. It also means being able to live a redeemed life now, to experience all the blessings that God has for those who are faithful and obedient to Him. In order to receive what we hope for we need to show diligence to the very end. There are several verses that speak of this need to persevere to the end. In speaking of the end times, Jesus says in Matthew 24, 

 

At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. – Matthew 24:10-14 

 

We stand firm by the grace of God, of course. He is the one who is able to keep us from stumbling, as it says in Jude. We also have the wonderful promise from Philippians 1 that He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Let’s continue into the last section of Hebrews 6: 

 

When God made His promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for Him to swear by, He swore by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. – Hebrews 6:13-15 

 

God gave this promise to Abraham several times: I will bless you and give you many descendants. Abraham had not been completely patient. He had given in to his wife and fathered a child with their slave girl, Hagar. But in due time, God gave him Isaac as the child of promise. And the promise of many descendants is repeated after Abraham took Isaac to Mount Moriah to offer him as a sacrifice. He was ready to obey God in this heartbreaking, apparently inexplicable act, but an angel stopped him and provided a ram instead. Picking up the story at that point in Genesis 22, 

 

The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed Me.” – Genesis 22: 15-18 

 

God was ready to reward Abraham for his obedience. The blessing was not just for him and his numerous direct descendants – it would extend to all the nations on earth. This was actually a Messianic prophecy, finding its fulfillment in Jesus, the offspring bringing the ultimate blessing to the world. In this sense Abraham was able to “look forward” to Jesus by faith. This is referenced in John 8, when Jesus says to the Jews around him, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing My day; he saw it and was glad.” Abraham wouldn’t have known the specifics about the coming of Jesus, but he knew that God would do something amazing. Back in Hebrews 6, 

 

People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, He confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. – Hebrews 6:16-18 

 

The two unchangeable things therefore are God’s original promise and now His oath to fulfill it. He wanted everyone coming after Abraham to be assured of his desire to bless them. We are now the heirs of this promise, too, if we have taken hold of this hope. 

 

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. – Hebrews 6:19-20 

 

You have no doubt noticed the anchor motif for this series, part of the background on every slide. Why do we need an anchor for the soul? What does an anchor do? In nautical terms, an anchor keeps a boat from drifting. Have you ever been in a boat at rest on a lake, not paying attention, and all of a sudden realized that you are not where you thought you were? The wind or current has imperceptibly taken you some distance from where you started. An anchor is designed to prevent that. It will keep you close, at least, to where you should be. We have already mentioned the spiritual warning in Hebrews against drifting. We need to pay attention to where we are, but ultimately it will be the anchor of our hope in Jesus that will keep us from doubting and drifting into dangerous waters far from God. 

 

An anchor represents security. We can use a hardware anchor to secure a heavy picture to a wall. Rock climbers secure their ropes to anchors to catch them if they were to fall. In a world of insecurity, the only truly stable, trustworthy anchor for our souls is our relationship with Jesus. He has gone ahead of us into the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, behind the curtain. We can’t see Him right now, just like you probably won’t see your anchor at the bottom of the lake, holding you in position. But if you tug on the rope you can tell it’s there. Our hope of salvation gives us that same confidence spiritually, despite all the storms of life. 

 

Jesus has gone ahead as a forerunner, hence our title today. We have the assurance that someone has gone before us to prepare the way. The word forerunner can also refer to someone who goes ahead to announce the arrival of someone else. I’ve never done any ski racing, but I understand that the term forerunner is used for the qualified but noncompeting skier who skis the entire course right before the race. The forerunner makes sure that the course is clear and fair and that everything is ready for those who are about to run it. In doing this, he or she makes clear to everyone that the race is about to begin. We can be confident that Jesus has gone before us to clear the way for us to enter heaven. We are following in His tracks, as it were. He also honors us in announcing our arrival in the presence of God, where He has already entered on our behalf. 

 

The Biblical authors would not have known about skiing, but in his letters the Apostle Paul does use athletic metaphors in describing the Christian life. He was familiar with Greek culture which prized physical accomplishment. For example, in 1 Corinthians 9 he says, 

 

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. – 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 

 

This passage speaks of Paul’s focus and commitment and self-discipline, his desire to be a good example for others. The Greek word for race here is related to our word stadium. This is a race with plenty of spectators. In Hebrews 12 we will encounter a similar statement about running with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus – our forerunner – the pioneer and perfecter of faith. The verse there uses a different word for race, the root of our word agony. This is a long-distance event that will require strenuous effort and persistence. This race will last the rest of our lives. But we are following in the footsteps of our leader. Jesus has run the race before us, so He has become our focus and our goal. 

 

In closing, I would like to go back to verse 12 of our chapter for today, as a potential prompt for our sharing time coming up. 

 

We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. – Hebrews 6:12 

 

Is there anyone you would like to imitate in this way – someone who through faith and patience has inherited what God has promised? They might be thought of a forerunner for you coming along behind. Consider what was promised to them and how they received it.