Please God in three easy steps (Hb. 13:1–8,15,16)
We know that God is a righteous judge. He punishes sin and destroys anything that isn’t holy. We heard last week that he is “a consuming fire” (Hb. 12:29). We’d better get to work! If we’re going to survive, we need to please him. We need to make sure he isn’t angry with us. We need to make sure we gain entry into heaven and be rewarded in this life, too.
I have good news for you today. The letter of Hebrews gives us three easy steps to please God. The Bible isn’t always that convenient, but today is your lucky day.
Praise God
Do good
Share what you have
It’s that simple. But, unfortunately, simple does not always mean easy. Praising God is one thing, but doing so in a genuine way is another. Doing good is one thing, but being a friend to a complete stranger is another. Sharing what we have is one thing, but giving up what’s most precious to us is another.
Maybe it’s not as simple as we first thought. Maybe you know you don’t do these things as much as you should. Maybe you’re quite a good Christian and don’t know what the fuss is about.
The writer of Hebrews has some advice for us today.
Remember where you’ve come from.
You didn’t come to faith all by yourself. You didn’t learn what pleases God and what disappoints him on your own. You can’t be a self-taught Christian. If you are, it’s probably not Christianity that you’ve taught yourself.
I suppose the absolute bare minimum is that God gives someone a direct revelation of some kind, having had no exposure whatsoever to the Christian faith before. Of course, God has the ability to do that if he so chooses, but that is definitely an exception to the rule.
He has one tool in particular that he uses to create faith in people and teach them who he is and what he does: his Word. There’s plenty we could say about the Word of God, but let’s see what our reading from Hebrews says:
Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. (Hb. 13:7)
Who are our leaders? They are people that speak the word of God, as it says here, and they also rebuke false teaching.
Chat time: Who first spoke God’s Word to you?
Remember your leaders. Remember that your faith is not your own—it was passed on to you. In his commentary on Hebrews, former ALC lecturer Dr Vic Pfitzner says this: “A church which does not remember, which has no sense of history, can easily forget God’s grace in the past, and so lose courage for the future.”
Remember where you came from. Remember where this church came from. Remember the sacrifices that people have made for this place and for you. Remember the people that God has placed in your life to lead you in the faith and help you to grow as a person.
The Old Testament people of Israel tried very hard to remember. There are so many texts throughout the Old Testament that recall how God had rescued them from Egypt, parted the Red Sea, and shown them the Promised Land.
Whenever they forgot where they had come from, they got sidetracked and strayed away from the God who had saved them. The kings who remembered prospered, while the kings who disregarded the past became lost and the whole nation with them.
A good leader in the faith is not only a good teacher of God’s word. They also lead by setting an example with their lifestyle. The first part of the chapter gives us a good list: showing hospitality to the stranger, visiting and caring for people who need it, honouring marriage and sex, and keeping themselves free from the love of money. All of these things have something in common: they all require trust in God to provide for us.
Our natural instinct is to protect what is ours and gain for ourselves at the expense of others. When we trust God to provide what we need for this life and the next, we are able to let go and serve others with what we have. We are able to stop chasing fulfilment in places we shouldn’t. We stop wanting what isn’t ours because we already have everything we need.
We need good leaders to show us how to live and to teach us God’s word. The Christian life is not lived out individually—we don’t come to faith, nor are we sustained in faith, on our own—but we are part of one body. Each part of that body has its specific purpose and feels the pain of the others.
That goes for the people that first spoke the Word to us. Remember your leaders. Remember where you’ve come from.
Stay on the right path.
Once we’ve looked backwards and recognised how we first came to faith, we then need to keep ourselves on the straight and narrow. Stay on the right path.
In a changing world, it’s incredibly easy to be sidetracked and find ourselves on a completely different path than we thought. The New Testament refers to what Christ taught as a singular teaching. The alternatives (false teachings) are usually plural. Keeping on the singular path of faith in Christ is just one option among countless others, so it can be pretty hard to stay focussed and avoid getting confused.
We have lost people to these alternative pathways over the decades. We know all about the decline in Christianity around the world. There is more to faith than ticking a box on the census, so we hope and pray that there are more believers in Christ than the numbers show. We’re by no means finished and we never will be, but it just shows that it’s possible for people of faith to take the wrong path and potentially never be brought back.
We need to keep alert ourselves and watch that we don’t fall for other easier, wider, better-looking paths. The path of faith is a narrow and hard one.
As people of the narrow path of faith, we are obliged to help others to find their way back to this path. We’re not in this only for ourselves. We’re here to be taught God’s Word and receive his forgiveness but we then need to show others what we’ve found.
Luther says that we’re all beggars showing other beggars where to find bread.
It gets difficult when even the church we’re part of isn’t sure which path is the right one. Take the debate around ordination, for example. We’ve been undecided as a church for decades now and it still continues. Some have left the church altogether because of it, and many more are growing tired and frustrated on both sides. We’re seeing a more intense situation unfold in the Anglican Church right now as a new diocese splits off.
The church itself is not immune from false teaching, and sometimes it can be extremely difficult to discern which way is God’s way and which way is the wrong way.
So, how do we stay on the right path? Again, God gives us direction in the Word. Read his Word in the Bible, listen to it being spoken, and digest it together. Remember your leaders, the ones who speak the Word to you. Stay on the right path by looking to a trustworthy guide.
Christ shows us the way.
To please God on the basis of good deeds alone is near-impossible for us imperfect human beings. We can try our best, but we will always fall short, get sidetracked, or fall of the wagon completely.
There is only one that has managed to do all of the things that please God without stumbling. He is the pioneer of faith, then, as the only one that has perfected it. He didn’t just travel the road—he made the road. He has given us access to God and makes us worthy of being in his presence.
Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. (Hb. 13:15,16)
We don’t praise God, do good for others, and share what we have because we have to. We do these things through him who has granted us access already. We do these things for him who suffered and died for our sin. We do these things by his power through faith, given to us by the Spirit.
So, how can we please God? It’s much, much simpler than we think. Three steps is easy for us to get our heads around but hard to put into practice. But how about no steps? God is already pleased with us. Jesus has made sure of that on our behalf, putting to death all of our sin and the guilt and shame that goes with it. There is nothing we have to do to make God love us more, and there is nothing we can do to make him love us less.
His words to Jesus are the words he spoke to you at your baptism: “This is my son, daughter, with whom I am well pleased.”
If you were looking forward to getting started on those three steps, don’t worry—we are still called to do them. What has changed is the whole reason we do it. Since Christ has opened up the path into God’s presence so that sinners can worship him cleansed from their guilt, all praise of God is through him.
Every song of praise we sing, every prayer we pray, every creed we confess, every dollar we give, and every stranger we welcome is through Jesus and in his name. God is still pleased when we do those things. He gives us what we need to do them, he tells us how to do them, and he gives us opportunities to do them. Every day is a new opportunity to live as a baptised child of God in praise and thanksgiving.
We make sacrifices of praise, good deeds, and generosity for our heavenly Father who sacrificed his only Son for us.
