Bible Sermons Online

Home.
Sermons.
Meetings.
Bible.
FAQ.
Site Map.
Links.

Online Text Sermon - Our Timeless Leader, Hebrews ch.13 vv.7-8

Date18/11/2001
Time11:00
PreacherRev. Hugh Ferrier, Inverness
Sermon TitleOur Timeless Leader
TextHebrews ch.13 vv.7-8
Sermon ID353

Links to Bible chapters open in a new window.


This morning we might turn our attention for a little while to words that we have read in this Epistle to the Hebrews. It's the last chapter. And for guiding our thoughts this morning we take verses seven and eight, where the writer says, "Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever." (Hebrews 13, 7-8)

Now, in Edinburgh there is a magnificent statue of John Knox. It stands within the forecourt of New College in Edinburgh, which is now being used by the Scottish Parliament. That statue once stood beside St. Giles Kirk. And that was the Kirk that this great man made famous by his warm evangelical and uncompromising preaching. And the statue takes our minds back to this great man of God. Was there ever a Scotsman like him? We don't want to enlarge on a human being, just like that, but oh how this country owes so much to this man. He is largely forgotten today by so many people. He never figures very largely in Scottish history among present-day historians, and that is to the loss of our young people. But none-the-less he will always be remembered; the man who brought the Gospel to Scotland in the time of its direst need.

He was a man, you remember, who confronted Mary Queen of Scots. And she said to him, "You say one thing, the cardinals and the bishops, they say another. Who am I to believe?" "Madam, you shall believe the Word of God. If it is not clear in one place it is clear in another." That's the kind of man he was. After his death, when his body was being buried in the churchyard of St. Giles, which is long ago disappeared because it is now a car park, but his body lies there somewhere; and it was the regent Morton who said, "Here is one who feared the face of no man." And so the memory of the heroes of the past, it encourages us to face the opposition that there is to the Gospel today. From these verses what I want us to do is to consider this - our 'leaders in time' and then our 'timeless Leader'.

1. Our Leaders In Time

2. Our Timeless Leader

OUR LEADERS IN TIME

First of all we think of our leaders in time. "Remember them which have the rule over you", that's not just rulers, that is the rule over you in spiritual things. "Remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation." And it's a good thing sometimes to look back, and that's what I want us to do for a few moments. Let us look back at our leaders in time.

The Revised Standard Version translates verse seven like this, "Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God: consider the outcome of their life and imitate their faith." Well then, who were these departed guides whose lives we are to remember, and who by God's grace we are to imitate insofar as they followed God?

Well we can think of Noah. You remember that great man, preacher of righteousness? And there he is all through his life - his preaching life - he's preaching a sermon on judgement to come. He is building this monstrous ship; it takes him one hundred and twenty years to build it. As the people watch him they see him laying the keel. They see him putting in the ribs of the ship. They see him setting in the planks. They see him pitching it within. They see him doing everything and they are astonished, and they say that the man is mad. We're nowhere near the sea. Why is he building this great, huge thing? But you see, every time he is hammering nails, it's a warning to that generation. Judgement is coming! Be prepared! They mock him, until suddenly one day the rain begins to fall. It falls the second day, the third day: the first week the second week, and it goes on falling: forty days and forty nights. They are perishing, these people. But God has seen to it that this man with his family, are safe and secure in the ark that he commissioned him to build. And suddenly the gigantic vessel is floating on the water. Ah we think of that, don't we?

And then of course Abraham; wasn't he the friend of God? A man who gave obedience to what God commanded him to do. And can we not think of Abraham's son Isaac, one of the most Christ-like men in the Old Testament that you can read of.

And what about Jacob, a man who realised the worthwhileness of the things of God, so that he coveted the blessing?

And what about Joseph, the man who kept his integrity in the prison in Egypt, and who was used mightily by God for the deliverance of his people?

And so we could go on to Moses, to David, to Elijah, to Elisha, to all the prophets. Think of these people! Think of the memory that they have left behind. Think of the Word that they have spoken to us. And then coming nearer the New Testament times, what about Peter and James and John and Stephen, and the many saints unknown to us that this man is thinking of? Well, says this writer, cherish their memory and above all cherish their teaching. See how they made their way through the world, and see how wonderful was the exit from this world into God's paradise above. How lovely they were in life; how noble they were in death. Consider them, that is, just as you would look at the monument of some great victor. Scrutinise it up and down. So look at these Godly heroes of the past and imitate them.

I talked about the statue of John Knox. There is another statue in Edinburgh. Very few take notice of it today, but it stands on George Street, which is above Princes Street. It's at the intersection of either North Fredrick Street or Hanover Street, (I can't just remember the exact location at the moment, but I know where it is). At the top, you see, of the plinth, there is a statue of this man. And who is he? He is Thomas Chalmers: the great leader of the Free Church. And he is looking toward the castle, and down from the castle is New College and the present Free Church offices; these things that he instituted. And his back is to the Firth of Forth, and over the Firth of Forth you see, there is the Kingdom of Fife. And in the Kingdom of Fife there is Kilmany, and that is where that great man began his ministry, and where he was suddenly converted. Where he saw all the past as nothing in comparison with the magnitude of God, and of Christ.

What lessons we can learn from these Godly people of the past; and I want to mention just one or two of them. Think of that young man, Robert Murray McCheyne, the famous minister of Dundee. What is it that strikes us about that young man? It's his saintliness; his utter Godliness, that's what we remember of that man of the past.

Or we can think of the faith of George Muller. And what do we remember about George Muller? Well you see, it's the building of his homes for the poor, especially the poor young people. And you remember his faith. He's without bread, he doesn't know how to feed these youngsters on one occasion. He prays about it. And there is the baker down the road, and he's baked an overflow of bread, and he sends to Muller and he says, can you use it?

And then we can think, and be thrilled, with the life of Hudson Taylor; a life of dedication to the spread of the Gospel in China.

And so we remember these people, and we would seek to imitate their lives and their faith insofar as they did so, with regard to following Christ. We remember the way they lived, the faith they exercised and the way they died. It's Dr. A. B. Bruce who puts it like this, "Cleave to Christ and the Christian faith by all means and at all hazards. Be moved to do so by the memory of deceased apostolic teachers. Contemplate the issue of their life, their death in faith: some of them in martyrdom. Imitate these believing, faithful men. Be moved also and above all by the consideration that in the great object of our faith, we have One that can satisfy all spiritual needs. And", says Bruce, "that is Jesus Christ, who is yesterday and today the same and for ever."

OUR TIMELESS LEADER

And that leads me on to this point. We've been looking at our 'leaders in time', now let us just for a while look at our 'timeless Leader'. Who is that? Our 'timeless Leader' is Jesus Christ: the same yesterday and today and forever. Our Lord is our Leader, ever the same. Never will be superseded. Who is He? He is Jesus Christ, and you know these two names declare on the one hand, the manhood of our Lord; and on the other hand, the Godhood of our Lord.

Let's look at these two points. Jesus: it's the name given to our Lord at His birth; it means Joshua, it means deliverer. It leads our minds back to the great leader of God's ancient people whose task it was, after the death of Moses, to lead the children of Israel across the Jordan and into the Promised Land. And before Jesus was born, you remember the angel came to Joseph, and the angel said this to Joseph, "Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1, 20-21) And throughout His ministry, our Lord was referred to as Jesus of Nazareth; that is the name of His manhood; that is the name of His Saviourhood. And oh my dear friends, it's a beautiful name; it's a beautiful name.

Remember John Newton wrote a poem 'Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!" He wrote also "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds, in a believers ear. It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, and drives away his fear. It makes the wounded spirit whole, calms the troubled breast. 'Tis manna to the hungry soul, and to the weary, rest." You know, I suppose like me, you have often thought of the time when you will be passing away. Sometimes you get fears, don't you? Sometimes you fear that you might lose control of yourself. You might say things that you will be sorry for; things that you don't want to say; things that are hidden in the back of your memory, and they are things that have been there from the past, when you were unregenerate and unconverted. And what you would like to be able to do with the time that you are passing from this world, is to have this name in your mind; the name of Jesus. It's one thing that I do trust, if I'm still conscious at the end of my days, that my mind won't be on political figures; that my mind won't be even on other great Christians, but that my mind will be on Jesus, my Saviour, my Lord.

Not only was He given the name 'Jesus', He was given the name 'Christ'. Christ is our Lord's divine name. What does it mean? It means the 'Anointed One'. After forty days of temptation in the wilderness, Jesus entered the synagogue in Nazareth, and He did an astonishing thing. He read from the book of the prophet Isaiah, and these are the words that Jesus read. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek." (Isaiah 61, 1)

There is a famous man called Marcus Loan; I think he's dead now. He was Principal of More Theological College in Sydney in Australia. He became the archbishop of Sydney. He was a great friend of the Free Church. In the nineteen-forties when I was a student in the college, he came and visited us in our college. He was asked to speak to us as students; and I shall never forget Marcus Loan. As I listened to him he told us how he was influenced by one of our great preachers, at least one of the men who was a great preacher in his hey-day, and that was George MacKay of Fearn. George MacKay, when he was in Australia, met this young man, Marcus Loan. He directed Marcus Loan's thoughts to Murray McCheyne. George MacKay gave him a copy of 'The Life of McCheyne'. It was the beginning of a new life for Marcus Loan, and he never forgot his indebtedness to the Free Church.

I remember him, speaking to us as students, and it's he who said this, "The Greek word 'anointed' would allow us to transliterate it like this - with surprising consequence," he says - "He hath", not anointed me, but "He hath 'Christed' me." Made me the Christ. And throughout the New Testament Jesus is repeatedly referred to as 'Christ'. And that is the name that links our Lord to the Godhead. It's the name that emphasises for us, the true glory of Christ. So when the writer says, Jesus Christ, he begins with the manhood and moves on to the Godhood of our Saviour. And in these names you see, he shows us how timeless our Leader is. He is the God-man who redeems His people from their sins and brings them to God. And because our Saviour and Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever, it means this - that your salvation and my salvation is sure. His love for us is constant. You see, the love that He expressed for us at Calvary is the love that we have experienced from Christ now, and it's the love that will be with us throughout eternity to come. And again to quote from Marcus Loan. "He who trod this earth and hung on the cross for us yesterday, is He who sits at God's right hand and makes intercession for us today. He who dwells on high amid that rainbow throne of light today, is He who will return in great glory and will reign with His saints for ever."

What I'm trying to say this morning is - what a timeless Leader we have. What timeless work He has accomplished for us. The love that He had for us before time began is the same love that He exercises towards us now, and it's the same love that will be with us in eternity to come. In a changing world, when we wonder sometimes what another day is going to bring forth, here we have Christ, a constant Leader, a constant Friend, a constant Guide and a constant Saviour.

His attitude towards us, you know, it never varies. My attitudes they vary; your attitudes they vary, but Christ never varies - thank God for that. The assurance given to the first century disciples, before His ascension to heaven, is as relevant for us today as it was for them. And what did Jesus say to these Christians in that first century? It was this. "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28, 20) And these words come to you this morning as they come to me. Jesus is with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Our life may change; our home, it may change; our world will change, aye, and even the church will change. Ah, but Christ is the solid Rock, and He stands where everything else is sinking sand. Thank God, for Christ.

So then we have had our leaders in time, that is, our spiritual leaders. And what an excellent example they have left us to follow. But supremely, we have Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. He is timeless. His work is timeless. His example is timeless. Do you know him? Is He your Saviour? Am I speaking to someone here this morning, maybe some young person in this congregation, who hasn't come to know Christ? Will you not come to Him? Will you not, by the grace of God, give your heart to Jesus? I tell you this, if I had twenty thousand lives to live, I think - God grant - I would give them all to Christ. With these words, let us pray.


Download This Text Sermon

This text sermon can be downloaded in HTML format so that it can be viewed off-line using an internet browser, and many other programs. (As you can read this page, you can view HTML format files on this computer.)

Download this sermon now - to download please right click and select "save target as" or "save link target as". Please note: It is strongly advised that you use this link to download a sermon, rather than simply saving the current page.

Home | Sermons | Meetings | Bible | FAQ | Site Map | Links |