Growing In Hope
Hebrews 6:9-12
We all long for heaven where God is but we have it in our power to be in heaven with Him right now – to be happy with Him at this very moment. But being happy with Him now means:
loving as He loves,
helping as He helps,
giving as He gives,
serving as He serves,
rescuing as He rescues,
being with Him for all the twenty-four hours,
touching Him in His distressing disguise.[i]
Those are the words of Mother Teresa. Many of us who follow Christ hear words like that and think, “What a nice quote. I should put that on a sticky note and put it on the mirror in my bathroom.” Or copy it and post it on Facebook or Instagram. Or even put it on a sticker, in shortened form, of course, and stick it to the backs of our cars. The problem is we have no intention of actually living like that.
Oh, we’re happy to talk like that. We just don’t want to live like that. Because living like that is inconvenient at best. At times it can be downright hard. Loving as HE loves. Helping as HE helps. Giving as HE gives. Serving as HE serves. Rescuing as HE rescues. We’re sure glad there are the Mother Teresas of the world to live like that, because we just … can’t. Only we can, we just won’t. Turn with me to Hebrews 6:9-12.
Remember, Hebrews is a sermon. And our ancient pastor is preaching this sermon to us all in written form. He or she has been urging us to be willing to grow to maturity in Christ. To take what we’ve learned in the shallows out into deeper water and start swimming. Because if all we do is play around in the shallow end, we’ll never develop the spiritual muscle necessary to swim freely in the oceans of God’s grace and transforming power. And if we stay in the shallows, we may just get out of the water altogether … deciding that following Jesus just isn’t necessary or worth it. That’s why he or she has taken pains to warn us of the price to be paid for getting out …. Standing before God on your own, without Christ.
When I was a kid, my school took us to swim lessons once a week for gym class. And my parents kept me in swim lessons over the summer too. My grandparents lived on a lake and had a boat, so learning to swim was going to be important to me.
When I first started out, I was in the “Polywog” class. Polywog is just a funny word for tadpole. It was the class where we learned the basic elements of floating and dog paddling and a little bit of what was necessary for actual swimming. After a few times through the polywog class, I went on to the next class … guppies. That’s where we really put it together and learned to swim. Then, after a while in guppies, I became a minnow. There we worked some on endurance and being able to tread water and swim for longer periods of time. I was a minnow for like two years, but finally, I graduated to the “fish” class.
Now I was really swimming? Learning new strokes. I breezed through “fish” and went on to “flying fish.” The only level higher than that was the lifeguard class. But I couldn’t get out of flying fish because I couldn’t do the butterfly stroke. I could do all of the others … freestyle, backstroke, breast stroke, brilliantly, but I couldn’t get my body to move the right way to do the butterfly. I looked like a whale TRYING to beach itself and I could never actually move forward.
But even though I never made it out of flying fish, and never got to work as a lifeguard, I was and still am a really good swimmer. And I spent my teenage years swimming and diving and waterskiing at my grandparents house, and I’ve had the chance to snorkel the stunning Belize Barrier Reef five times. Why? Because I got out of the shallows and learned to swim in deeper waters. I’ve swum in waters in the ocean so deep you can’t see anything but blue and it makes you feel like you’re high up in the sky, not down in the water. I’ve seen a barracuda in the water, not just in a tank in an aquarium.
We were created to swim and play and marvel at the wonders of the oceans of God’s grace, and all we want to do is stay in the kiddie pool, the really shallow water, where it’s safe. And now, after challenging us, our pastor encourages us. Look at V. 9.
Our pastor says, “In YOUR case, we know you can go on to greater things.” You can swim in the deep end. You can play in the ocean. You can experience more of God’s grace and goodness than you ever dreamed possible. You can go from surviving to thriving, no matter what circumstances you face. Remember, they were being persecuted for their faith. They were having their property taken from them, losing family and friends, losing business, being ridiculed and increasingly, jailed. Among the most challenging circumstances a follower of Christ can face. And yet our pastor says, “You can endure. You can make it. IF you’re willing to get out of the shallows and learn to swim.”
Look at what he calls them. “Beloved.” It’s the Greek word “agapetoi.” It’s often translated as dear friends, or dearly loved ones, and it’s based on the word “agape,” one of the Greek words for love. The Greeks had several words for love. In English, if I say “I love you” to my wife, to my kids, and to a friend, it has slightly different connotations, depending on the context. The love between husband and wife, between parents and children and other extended family, and among friends are all different types of love, aren’t they?
The Greeks had different words for those different types of love. Agape is the word used, particularly in the New Testament, to describe the love of God. The love God has for us. It is love that continues to love, regardless of the circumstances or the cost. It is love as an act of the will, not just an emotion. Agapetoi, beloved or dearly loved ones, is often used in the New Testament to describe followers of Christ.
God loves every part of his creation with that kind of sacrificial, undying, committed love. That love is seen most clearly in Christ on the cross, dying in your place and mine. When we respond to God’s love in Christ by placing our faith in Christ, we enter into a loving relationship with God and are marked by the love of God. We are defined by the love of God. We ARE dearly loved ones. The love of God becomes our identity. That kind of love becomes a part of who we are.
We are dearly loved by God, and that love shapes our lives together as the people of God in the world – the church. Look at V. 10. The word for love there is that same word – agape. When God’s agape love flows in, God’s agape love flows out.
In this case, they have been loving one another, caring for one another, and doing what they can for those in need. When the church is persecuted the way they were, that love is seen in their taking care of one another. Becoming family to those who lost family. Supporting one another. Protecting one another. Providing for one another. But that love then also flows farther, out into our community. And God’s love, agape love, is a love that is constant, regardless of circumstance. Regardless of difficulty. It is a love that doesn’t waver.
Pastor and author John Stott says this. “All Christians without exception are called to ministry, indeed to spend their lives in ministry. Ministry is not the privilege of a small elite, but of all the disciples of Jesus. You will have noticed that I did not say that all Christians are called to the ministry, but to ministry, diakonia, service. We do a great disservice to the Christian cause whenever we refer to the pastorate as “the ministry.” For by our use of the definite article we give the impression that the pastorate is the only ministry there is, much as medieval churchmen regarded the priesthood as the only (or at least the most “spiritual”) vocation there is.”[ii]
Idaho carpenter Dale Schroeder was a blue-collar, lunch pail kind of a guy. He wasn’t a pastor. He wasn’t a missionary. He wasn’t a worship leader. He went to work every day, worked really hard, and was frugal like a lot of Iowans. And he understood that his life is a ministry. Back in 2005 he told his lawyer, “I never got the opportunity to go to college and so I’d like to help kids go to college.”
When the working-class tradesman went to the lawyer to set up the scholarships the lawyer’s jaw dropped when Schroeder disclosed the amount he had saved. As a frugal man without a family of his own, he put together a $3 million scholarship fund that has made it possible for 33 people to attend college.
Kira Conrad, the last of the 33 to have their college tuition paid in full by Schroder’s fund said, “I grew up in a single-parent household and I had three older sisters so paying for all four of us was never an option. For a man that would never meet me, to give me basically a full ride to college, that’s incredible. That doesn’t happen.”
The 33 Iowans Schroeder put through college recently gathered around his old lunch box. They dubbed themselves “Dale’s kids.” It was a group of doctors, teachers, and therapists with no college debt. With Schroeder gone, there’s no paying it back. His only wish was they pay it forward by emulating his generosity.[iii]
Now, look at V. 11. You’ve been following Jesus faithfully, in the face of mounting obstacles. You’ve been loving well. You’ve been serving well. Now … don’t stop. You are marked by the love of God. God’s love has been flowing through you. Don’t stop. Don’t quit. Don’t give up. HE is the source of that love, so the source will not run dry. Keep holding on to Christ. Keep loving one another. Keep loving those in need. Keep sharing the love of Christ. Don’t give up now. Don’t quit. Don’t give in. Press on with “earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end.”
God was faithful yesterday. God is faithful today. So you know that God will be faithful tomorrow too. You can have the same assurance for the full fulfillment of God’s promises in the future that you have today. God’s promise of eternal life. A life that begins now when you place your faith in Christ and goes right on through death and into eternity. What God started, God will finish. What God started IN YOU, God will finish IN YOU. God’s faithfulness yesterday and today is the source of our hope for tomorrow, and all of our tomorrows, right up to our final today on this earth.
Look down at V. 12. Don’t be sluggish. The word translated “sluggish” here is the exact same word that was translated dull of hearing back in Hebrews 5:11, where our pastor first brought up our tendency to want to stay in the spiritual shallows. There he said that we can find ourselves being “dull of hearing.” Here the same word means “sluggish.” Being unwilling to hear the Word of God and therefore unable to respond to it leads to a sluggish faith that doesn’t seek to actually follow Jesus.
And actually following Jesus … loving as He loves, helping as He helps, giving as He gives, serving as He serves, rescuing as He rescues … that’s the evidence of authentic faith. Faith in God through Christ bears fruit, and the nature of the fruit is evidence of the reality of the faith. What we profess is validated by the way we live.
In Matthew 7:16, Jesus said, “You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” A healthy plant eventually yields good fruit. Likewise a healthy faith eventually yields good fruit, both inside you and in the lives of those around you.
Here’s the thing. People take verses like that and try to then form a list of do’s and don’ts for those who follow Jesus. And that isn’t at all what God wants. He isn’t looking for a legalistic adherence to a list of do’s and don’ts.
The fruit God is looking for and working to bring out of our lives is an increase in our ability to love as he loves, to have a deep joy regardless of our circumstances, to live lives marked by his peace, to increase in our patience with one another and ability to persevere in our faith through difficulty, right up to the end. It’s a life increasing in gentleness and goodness and self-control, rather than explosive outbursts and addictions. And it’s a life surrounded by others touched by the love and joy and peace of God flowing through you. Others drawn to the light of Christ in you. God doesn’t overlook the fruit in your life now. He applauds it. And he wants you to keep on going. And to do that, we have to be willing to mature.
In his book The Applause of Heaven, pastor and author Max Lucado says this …
You may not have noticed it, but you are closer to home than ever before. Each moment is a step taken. Each breath is a page turned. Each day is a mile marked, a mountain climbed. You are closer to home than you’ve ever been.
Before you know it, your appointed arrival time will come; you’ll descend the ramp and enter the City. You’ll see faces that are waiting for you. You’ll hear your name spoken by those who love you. And, maybe, just maybe – in the back, behind the crowds – the One who would rather die than live without you will remove his pierced hands from his heavenly robe and … applaud.[iv]
Are you ready to move from the shallows to the deep end. The lessons learned in the shallows are important. They’re critical. They’re the foundation upon which everything else is built. But God wants you and I to take his hand and jump into the ocean of his grace and mercy and love, marveling all that we will experience there. Things we will never experience if we never really learn to swim. Let’s pray.
[i] Mother Teresa in A Gift for God. Christianity Today, Vol. 35, no. 1.
[ii] John R.W. Stott, The Contemporary Christian: Applying God’s Word to Today’s World, 140.
[iii] Aaron Calvin, “Humble carpenter was a secret millionaire who left fund for 33 strangers to go to college,” Des Moines Register (7-25-19)
[iv] Max Lucado, The Applause Of Heaven, 189-90.
