Author: Ben Riche

This morning we began a new sermon series we’ve titled Jesus is Better – The Book of Hebrews.

You can catch the replay here.

Sermon notes:

We’re naming this series “Jesus is better,” because He is…

God is not who the serpent would have us believe. He is not hiding something from us. In fact, He made everyone and everything in order to make Himself known.

He sent His Son into the world to die for our sins. In that alone we see so much of what He is like.

And Jesus rose again…

And all our big questions about what God is like and what His intentions are –
those questions that stem from confusion and suspicion…

Jesus is the Answer to them all.

That is what we will unfold throughout our time in Hebrews. It’s pretty deep and wide and dense, but it is packed with the good news that Jesus is the Answer from eternity past and into eternity future…

Jesus is better.

He is greater than angels.
Greater than Moses
Greater than the priests, and the temple, and the law.

We’ll see that His oath is better than any commitment we could make or break.

And His Word is better than whatever the enemy could speak – better than whatever we would speak for ourselves.

Read 1 Timothy 5:1-16

Over and over in the Gospels we see Jesus saying something along these lines; that the last will be first and the first shall be last.

In some ways, that truly defines the subversive nature of the gospel.

In the context of 1 Timothy, a widow with no family to care for her would truly be at the mercy of society. She’d be on the outskirts of society, potentially subject to injustice, and probably in a place of poverty. That may not have been true of all widows, but it was certainly a possibility.

So, what does Paul call the church to do?

To put these most vulnerable people into positions of honor. To treat them like mothers. To provide for them. To care for them

Think about that – Paul tells the church that it honors God to take the lowliest of people and to put them in positions of honor.

The ways of God – the application of the Gospel to real life – is so subversive to the ways of this world.

The ways of God calls us to invite people in to the family of God – and not just invite them in – but to give them places of honor.

You can catch the replay here.

Read  1 Timothy 4:1-16

Donald Whitney puts it this way; “Although the Holy Spirit produces the desire for godliness – progress in godliness isn’t automatic…… The Spirit motivates and enables us to train ourselves, but He doesn’t do the training for us. The practical, day-by-day obedience to Paul’s command here is our Spirit-empowered responsibility.”

Here’s the thing about spiritual disciplines – they are meant to enact change over the long haul.

I think it’s fairly common for us to want our faith experience to just be easy – to experience some moment in time or event – to have a “mystical” experience that changes everything.

So the idea of practicing spiritual disciplines doesn’t really always seem satisfying because it requires something of us, it takes our effort, and it takes our effort together – striving together for the faith.

It probably doesn’t sound glamorous, but yet that training in the gospel is necessary for godliness…

And growing in godliness prepares us so that when we encounter the obstacle of false teaching, silly myths, or anything that would call us to worship that which is created rather than the Creator.

You can catch the replay here.