Our Relationship Is All About Faithfulness!

9th Sunday after Pentecost, 7/26/15
Hebrews 13:7-8, 17-21


Our Relationship Is All About Faithfulness!
I. My faithfulness to God’s word
II. Your faithfulness to your Lord


There’s a key component to any relationship—personal, social or familial. In fact, it’s so foundational, that without it, the relationship becomes critically dysfunctional or impossible to maintain.

That key component is faithfulness.

If you discover in your work environment that the people next to you, below you or above you are working against you rather than with you and for you, a major change needs to take place quickly. If they don’t change or won’t change, you need to find employment somewhere else and fast.

If you discover in a social relationship that the knife in your back was actually hurled by someone you consider to be a friend, the friendship is over. You don’t need friends like that.

Every one of us here today has experienced, either directly or indirectly, what unfaithfulness does to a marriage. I’ve never seen in real life what is at times portrayed in the entertainment industry—that an act of unfaithfulness brings about happiness and blessings. No, it rips your heart out and even when the wound has scabbed over, it gets picked at and re-opened and the bleeding starts all over again. Faithfulness is critical in the marriage relationship.

Faithfulness is also at the heart of your relationship with me and my relationship with you. That’s really what’s at the heart of this morning’s text from Hebrews 13. The original recipients of this letter were Jewish Christians who were undergoing tremendous hardship and suffering because of their Christian faith. They were tempted to go back to their Jewish faith. The Holy Spirit used the writer of these words to encourage faithfulness all around—faithfulness on the part of Christian pastors and faithfulness on the part of Christian people.

As your shepherd under the great Good Shepherd, our relationship is all about faithfulness. In a world that attacks that faithfulness daily, may our Good Shepherd strengthen us with these words.

Part I.

Imagine hearing the following from me in this pulpit on a Sunday morning:

“We need to stop kidding ourselves. The Bible isn’t true, at least not most of it. It’s filled with myths. We need to get enlightened in our thinking. Evolution only makes sense. Instead of demanding sexual purity, let’s honor loving relationships of any type. And it’s about time that we recognize the truths that other religions proclaim about the life after this one.”

If you ever heard that from me, how long would you sit and take it? Rather than walk out those doors, I would hope and pray that every one of you would stand up and denounce me. That you would demand that I recant what I had just said and, if I refused, you would rescind my call as your pastor and the shepherd of your souls. Would you do that? I pray that you would.

Actually, I pray that you never have to.

You won’t, when I take to heart the opening words of our text, “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you.” My call is to speak and preach God’s word to you. Not some of God’s word. All of God’s word. Every single letter of it. There’s no such thing as an insignificant word of God. You have called me to share the full counsel of God’s word with you.

And when I do, I need to handle it correctly. That means I must speak God’s law—what he demands and forbids—to people who are having trouble keeping his law. I’m to use that law to drive the sinner to his or her knees in repentance. I’m not to sugar-coat or soft-pedal God’s law.

And then, when God’s law has done its work, I’m to apply God’s gospel—the saving good news of Jesus, who washes our sins away and guarantees us life with him in heaven. I’m not to leave the weary and hurting sinner doubting if he or she is forgiven. Likewise, I’m not to give the impression that a sinner who is not sorry for his sin is forgiven. I must rightly handle God’s word.

But that’s not all. The writer states, “Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.” He’s speaking about their leaders’ Christian living. One of the saddest portions of my work is being informed that a fellow pastor has resigned either because of false teaching or a scandalous life. And then I’m reminded that I’m not above temptation. I need the same power from God that you do to resist temptations. I need to do that because you need me to live a Christian life that you can imitate.

With such a huge responsibility before me, I can only state with the writer of our text, “So pray for us.” Every day of my ministry I face the temptation to let things slide, to let people say and do as they please, to try to make everyone happy by telling them only what they want to hear, to give in to my sinful nature, to do what might make me popular in your eyes but a disappointment in my Savior’s eyes. But then our relationship would be severely dysfunctional.

Our relationship is all about faithfulness—my faithfulness to God’s word.

And pray that you never ask me to bend it. Pray that you always want God’s truth from me. Pray that when you approach me for help with your life, you always have an inner spirit that is sorry for the harm you’ve done rather than an inner spirit that wants me to approve and defend you. Then I’m prepared to share God’s law with you which reveals your sins and mine. And then we get to share God’s glorious gospel together, the truth that he has removed our sins from us and has dressed us in the robe of Christ’s holiness. We have a Good Shepherd who died and rose for us. What a blessing and what a privilege it is to place ourselves under the truth of his word—the whole truth of his word! Our relationship is all about faithfulness—my faithfulness to God’s word.

Part II.

And when I am faithful to God’s word as I proclaim it to you, then you are enabled to be faithful to your Lord and that’s the ultimate goal of our relationship with one another. Our relationship with each other is really not about me. It’s about you being faithful to your Lord Jesus.

Our text comes from the closing verses of the Letter to the Hebrews. It sounds rather harsh to speak these words in his concluding exhortations, but the writer realized what was at stake—faithfulness to the Lord. He states, “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.” These words must be understood in the context of what we stated earlier—that my relationship with you is all about me being faithful to the word of God. And when I am—when what I relate to you is God’s truth—then faithfulness to your Lord on your part requires you to obey, not because I said it, but because Jesus said it. That’s being faithful to Jesus.

And when we do—when we obey what Jesus says, then Jesus, our great Good Shepherd, does what he always does. Just what is that? Listen to the writer describe it, “May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.” First, he equips you with everything good. The word in Greek for “equip” can also be translated, “outfit.” If you’re an outdoors-type person, especially if you’re a hiker or a hunter, you’ve probably shopped at an outfitters. Having the proper equipment to spend considerable time in the wild is crucial. It allows you to enjoy what you’re doing.

Jesus equips you through his word for a life of faithfulness to him. How do you know what he wants you to do in a particular situation? He guides you with his word. What if it’s really hard to do? What if it’s something you know you should do but just can’t bring yourself to do it? He empowers you with his word and sacrament. He feeds your faith on his gospel, he makes your faith grow so that you can do what his word states and, in doing so, remain faithful to him.

And when we do that, then Jesus always does the second thing the writer states. “He works in us what is pleasing to him.” Sure we’re the ones doing what our Savior has asked of us, but it’s also true that he’s the One doing it as well. You are so closely connected to Christ by faith in him that he actually works through you. Amazing isn’t it? But he only does that when we are faithful to him.

Our relationship is all about faithfulness—your faithfulness to your Lord.

It seems to me that there are two great forces within us in that impede our efforts to be faithful to our Lord. One is our sinful nature. There are numerous places in the Bible that speak about the attacks of our sinful nature on our faithfulness to Christ. This isn’t one of them.

The other great impediment within us is our sinful doubt. We know our Lord is able to empower us to do what he asks of us. We know he will work through us. He states it right here. We simply have trouble taking him at his word. What’s the solution? More of his word. More confessing our sinful doubts to him. More letting him assure us that his death paid for our sins of doubting him. More pleading with him to help us overcome. He always hears that prayer. He always answers it. He always helps us. In Christ, our great Good Shepherd, comes the power to remain faithful to him.

It’s all about faithfulness. May you always live to his glory! Amen.