“An Anchor for the Soul” [Matt's Messages]

“An Anchor for the Soul”

Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

The Letter to the Hebrews

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

May 24, 2026 :: Hebrews 6:13-20  

I was greatly encouraged when I realized that this would be the particular passage we were set to study in the Letter to the Hebrews on Graduation Sunday 2026.

Because the point of this passage is to greatly encourage the Christians who read it.

In fact those words “greatly encouraged” show up in verse 18. Some of your versions have “strong encouragement.”

And that’s what I want to do for our nine graduating seniors today.

Tyler, Ashlee, Keagan, Noah, Katie, Coby, Payton, Kyla, Haley, I want you to be greatly encouraged as you reach the end of one journey and begin the next. And I want that for all of the Christians here.

We all need strong encouragement in our lives, and this passage has it by the truckful. And perhaps the most encouraging words are this curious image that shows up in verse 19 where the writer says, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul firm and secure.” That’s gotta be our title for today!

[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]

“An Anchor for the Soul.” Doesn’t that sound good?! The quartet just sang about it. “My anchor holds.”

“Tho’ the angry surges roll

On my tempest-driven soul,

I am peaceful, for I know,

Wildly though the winds may blow,

I’ve an anchor safe and sure,

That can evermore endure.”

- W. C. Martin (1902)

That’s poetry! The picture is a storm at sea, and there’s a little tiny boat that might get blown away and shipwrecked. Except that it has a strong anchor that goes down, down, down, in the seabed and secures the boat. “My ‘bark’ [my boat] so small and frail.”

Have you ever felt that way? Did you feel that way this week? The storms of life are crashing around you, and you feel like you’re going to drown.

Tyler, Ashlee, Keagan, Noah, Katie, Coby, Payton, Kyla, Haley, have you felt that way? If you haven’t already, just wait, you will. Life has a way of storming on you, and you feel lost at sea. I’ve felt that way a few times this week myself.

These primarily Jewish Christians who were receiving this letter were beginning to be persecuted for their faith in Jesus.

The waves of state oppression and governmental attack were starting to pound against them. Their neighbors hated them. And they felt so small and frail. 

So much so that they were tempted to bail! They were tempted to go backwards in their race and give up. They had definitely slowed down. So much so that this pastor had begun to scold them to get them to press on to maturity. And he had also warned them to not fall away because they might not be able to find their way back.

He was using strong words, speaking this way, to try to wake them up and keep them from crashing on the rocks. May-day! May-day!

But just as strong as his warning was, so strong was his encouragement. He was sure that this little Hebrew church was actually full of genuine believers who were being saved. They had worked for the Lord and shown love for His name as they have helped and were helping His people (see 6:9-10). They were the real deal. And the writer called upon them to hold on to the very end. Look at verses 11 and 12 which we ended with last week:

“We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised” (Hebrews 6:11-12).

That’s what he wants for them and from them. And to get there, he says that we have “an anchor for the soul.” Our souls, our innermost beings, have an anchor that is “firm and secure” tied to something so strong that we cannot be lost. Doesn’t that sound good? 

Let’s see what this anchor is. I’ve got two points this morning that I think sum up a little bit of what this anchor for the soul really is. And here’s the first one:

#1. AN UNCHANGEABLE PROMISE.

 

He says (v.12 again), “We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”

We are supposed to imitate other people who have gone before us who have believed God for what He promised and received what He promised by faith.

Like Father Abraham.

This imitation of believers who have gone before us is a major theme for this pastor. He’s going to really camp on it when we get to Hebrews chapter 11. The Hall of Faith. This pastor has read his Bible carefully and seen how all through the Old Testament men and women trusted God’s promises–often through the storms of life–and they saw God’s faithfulness. Like Father Abraham.

Do you know Abraham’s story? It’s been a very long time since I preached through the book of Genesis. You know when it was? It was the year that the Folmar twins were born. And my son Pete. 2003. 

That’s the last  time we were through Genesis up here in the pulpit. But we studied the life of Father Abraham. He was the Father of what? He is known as the Father of Faith. Because God made some promises to him. Does anybody remember the three big promises that we call the Abrahamic Covenant?

Offspring, Land, and Blessing. 

God promised these things to little old Abraham in Genesis 12, and repeated them in Genesis 15 and then again in Genesis 17.

And over the span of 25 years, he didn’t have very much land (just a burial cave). And he didn’t have many children. How many? Just Ishmael (which was him trying on his own to make the promise happen) and Isaac for whom our beloved son is named. Our Isaac came the year after I preached Genesis! His name means “He laughs!” God made these promises and Abraham had to wait for them.

And then one day, God told Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son. He told him in Genesis chapter 22 to take Isaac up on a mountain and sacrifice him. Do you know this story? Maybe read it this afternoon? It’s a really scary story for any parent. 

Talk about a storm?! It seemed like the LORD was sending the storm! I preached on it June 13, 2003.

Abraham took Isaac up the mountainside with the kindling and his knife, and Isaac said, “Where is the sacrifice? Where is the lamb?” And Abraham said “The LORD will provide.”

Abraham trusted the LORD. He didn’t know what was going to happen. But Hebrews tells us in chapter 11 that Abraham figured that the LORD could resurrect Isaac if that’s what it took. 

And God had promised many children to Abraham through Isaac. So it wasn’t clear how it was going to happen, but Abraham believed God would somehow keep His promises.

And, you know what? He did! He provided a ram. At the very last second, the LORD told Abraham to hold up, and He provided a substitute sacrifice in Isaac’s place. And then He made these promises. Listen to Genesis 22, verses 15 through 18.

“The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, ‘I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me” (Genesis 22:15-18).

He promised again. He renewed his promise and made it gigantic.

“...descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore!”

And he did more than just promise. Did you notice? He swore. He added an oath. Not a profanity–not that kind of swearing–but an oath. “I swear by myself, declares the LORD...”

Now, this pastor three thousand years after Genesis, is reading Genesis, and he notices that. And he says, “Huh. Notice that. The LORD swears by Himself. Why does He do that?” And he thinks about it, and he writes this for us. It’s our first verse, verse 13.

“When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, ‘I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.’ [That’s Genesis 22:17.] And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised” (vv.13-15).

God made a vow on top of His promise. 

And Abraham believed. He trusted God’s promise. And it took a long time. He had to wait patiently. It took 25 years until he had Isaac, and then he nearly lost him. But he waited and waited, and he began to see God keep His promises.

You know what phrase we repeated more than any other as we studied the book of Genesis?

“God always keeps His promises!”

Do you believe that? It sure doesn’t seem like it sometimes. Tyler, Ashlee, Keagan, Noah, Katie, Coby, Payton, Kyla, Haley, sometimes it’s going to be hard to trust God’s promises. And sometimes you’re going to have to wait a really long time.

But I’m telling you, he LORD is trustworthy.

Abraham is telling you, the LORD is trustworthy.

And the LORD Himself is telling you that He is trustworthy.

Or else!

He didn’t have to. He didn’t have to make an oath and swear by Himself, but He chose to.

Why do people make oaths? Look at verse 16.

“Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument.”

Sadly, men do not always keep their word. So sometimes, you have to put your money where your mouth is and invoke someone or something greater than yourself to prove that you mean what you say.

Sometimes that doesn’t actually work when you try to use an oath to wiggle out of telling the truth. That’s the main thing that the Lord Jesus was telling us to put a stop to in His Sermon on the Mount. Christians shouldn’t need oaths to tell the truth. Our “yes” should mean “yes” and our “no” should mean “no.”

But an oath done right invokes something stronger to make it doubly sure. And often what the oath is saying is that you would lose the thing that you are swearing by if you break this oath. Kind of like a down payment. If you break the terms of the loan, if you break your promise, then you lose the down payment. Some of these oaths back then were backed by their very life. “May the LORD strike me dead if I break this promise. May I be cursed by the LORD if I break this promise in His name.” Or by the life of the thing that is being sworn by!

But here’s a problem. What can the LORD swear by? What is greater than the LORD?

Let me see. Let me think. Hmmm. Nothing. I got nothing.

And that’s why He swore by Himself! And think about what that means. It means that if the LORD failed to keep His promises, then the LORD would die. The LORD was invoking the life of the LORD when He swore by Himself.

“I will be cursed if I fail to keep this promise.”

“I am trustworthy...or else.”

Did He have to do that? No, He didn’t have to do that. But He did do that. Why? To encourage us. To encourage us to no end. Look at verse 17.

“Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged” (vv.17-18).

Do you see what he’s saying? Can God lie?

No. It’s impossible. Same word as we saw last week in verse 4. Impossible. So if God makes a promise, is it trustworthy or is He just blowing smoke?

You’ve got to think about this when people promise you things. Tyler, Ashlee, Keagan, Noah, Katie, Coby, Payton, Kyla, Haley, people out there are going to promise you all kinds of things. You have to think about their character. You can’t just trust everybody. 

But God cannot lie. You can trust Him. His word is unchangeable. Irrevocable. Inviolable. Immutable. You can trust Him when He says something, and that’s enough.

But He goes beyond that. He doubles it. He double His promise by adding a confirmatory oath. “I do solemnly swear by My Own Godself.” Two unchangeable things. The promise and the oath. 

The promise (and He can’t lie!) and the oath (and He can’t lie!). 

Hebrews says that He did that so that we may be greatly encouraged. Because we are (v.17) “the heirs of what was promised.” Not just Father Abraham. All of those promises are fulfilled by our Lord Jesus Christ. He says “we...have fled” to Him. We have run to Him. Run to Him! And we have put our faith in His promises. We have taken hold of the hope. You see that in verse 17. “Take hold of the hope offered to us...” by God’s promises. We have every reason to take God’s Word for it.

I hope that encourages you today. Strongly. Greatly. If you know God’s promises, you can bank your life on them. Tyler, Ashlee, Keagan, Noah, Katie, Coby, Payton, Kyla, Haley, you can bank your life on God’s promises. He is completely trustworthy. So we can be greatly encouraged. It’s an anchor for our souls. That’s what he says in verse 19.

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”

It’s an unchangeable promise. I love those words, “firm and secure.” The word for “firm” in Greek is “asphalay.” We eventually get our word  “asphalt” from it. This anchor is fixed, certain, safe, and secure from all alarms.

That means that our souls can be, too! This anchor cannot be dislodged. It’s an unchangeable promise. But it’s more than that. It’s not just a promise. It’s a person. 

And it’s not just any person. It’s our great high priest.

#2. AN UNSTOPPABLE PRIEST.

Look at verse 19 again.

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek” (vv.19-20).

You knew that he was going to get back to Melchizedek! He said he had a lot say about him, and next time we will go deep into the mysterious Mr. Melchizedek.

What we need to remember now is that in Psalm 110, the LORD swore an oath about Melchizedek. Remember this from a few weeks ago?

In Psalm 110, verse 4, the LORD says this King David’s Lord (who we know turns out to be the Lord Jesus), “The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You [Jesus] are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek’” (Ps. 110:4).

God says so. And you can trust Him. And more than that. He swears so, and He cannot lie. 

So Jesus is unstoppably the great high priest forever. And what did He do? Church, what did Jesus do? He died on the Cross and shed His blood, and He came back to life. And then He passed where? He passed through the heavens. That is He went to the heavenly temple that the earthly one was just a shadow of. He went up, up, up into the heaven as our great high priest with the sacrifice of His own blood.

Abraham’s only beloved son got to live. God’s only beloved son had to die. Jesus was the substitute sacrifice for you and me. And He went up, up, up behind the curtain.

What was that? In the earthly tabernacle and temple, it was the veil, the curtain between the holy place and the most holy place.

Remember, on earth only one person could go in there with a sacrifice once a year. He had to have a human nature, subject to weakness, called by God.

They called him the high priest.

But now, we have this great high priest who went before us. He was our forerunner. He went where we could go and do what we could not do.

He went before us–for us!

But that also made the way. So that we can go there, too. The curtain of Herod’s Temple was ripped in two. And we have now have access to the holy God! Nothing could stop Jesus. And nothing did. And nothing ever will! “He has become a high priest forever” and ever and ever and ever.

That’s our anchor.

He’s our anchor!

He’s our anchor for the soul.

It’s quite an image, isn’t it? Look at verse 19 again. “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain...”

What does? What enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. It could mean “the hope” does. That would make sense. But it might mean the anchor. 

Which is really strange. Anchors normally go down, down, down. But this anchor goes up, up, up to heaven. And goes behind the curtain. It’s like it’s wrapped around the mercy seat.  And it can’t be budged.

Our anchor holds.

Our anchor holds.

Jesus is our anchor.

Isn’t that greatly encouraging? Tyler, Ashlee, Keagan, Noah, Katie, Coby, Payton, Kyla, Haley, Jesus is a firm and secure anchor. Grab ahold of Him. Fix your eyes on Him. He’s our forerunner. He’s gone before us. He’s shown us how to run the race. Let’s fix our eyes and Jesus and flee to Him and take hold of the hope that He offers.

Church, make Jesus your anchor. Don’t try to grab on to any other security. They are all sinking sand. 

“His oath, His covenant, His blood

Support [us] in the whelming flood;

When all around [our] souls give away,

Jesus is then is all [our] hope and stay.”

- Edward Mote, 1834

He’s the anchor for our souls.

***

Messages in this Series:

01. "The Son" - Hebrews 1:1-4
02. "Superior to the Angels" - Hebrews 1:5-14
03. "Such a Great Salvation" - Hebrews 2:1-4
04. "We See Jesus" - Hebrews 2:5-9
05. "Flesh and Blood" - Hebrews 2:10-18
06. "Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus" - Hebrews 3:1-6
07. “Today, If You Hear His Voice” - Hebrews 3:7-19
Bonus Historical Message: The Gift of My Rest - A Fictional Letter of Sabbath Theology
08. "A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God" - Hebrews 4:1-13
09. "Great High Priest" - Hebrews 4:14-16
10. "The Source of Eternal Salvation" - Hebrews 5:1-10
11. "On To Maturity" - Hebrews 5:11-6:3

12. "We Speak Like This" - Hebrews 6:4-12

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“We Speak Like This” [Matt's Messages]

“We Speak Like This”

Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus - The Letter to the Hebrews

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

May 17, 2026 :: Hebrews 6:4-12 

Don’t miss the point of this passage. Don’t miss what the writer is trying to do to his original readers and to us as we read it today. Don’t miss the point of this passage. It’s easy to get lost in the weeds.

A number of you have told me that you’re looking forward to the sermon on this particular section of Hebrews because you have questions. 

You’re not alone. This is one of the most difficult passages in the New Testament to interpret and to harmonize with the rest of our theology. Biblical scholars and faithful theologians have debated it for centuries. There are a lot of weeds to get lost in.

And it’s very heavy. It’s not just tricky. It’s scary. The author paints a very provocative and horrifying picture with strong and potentially terrifying words. 

And that’s on purpose. He has something incredibly important to say to these folks, and he does not mince words to get it out. But he has a reason for it, and it’s not just to shock them, and it’s certainly not to confuse them.

Don’t miss the point of this passage. And the point is:

Fix your eyes on Jesus. 

And don’t stop fixing your eyes on Jesus. Don’t turn away from fixing your eyes on Jesus. Or else.

I’ve pulled the title for this message from verse 9 where it starts, “Even though we speak like this...”

He’s very aware of how strong his words are. This pastor knows that he is speaking in a very provocative way.  

“We speak like this...”

He pulls out all the stops. He cranks it to 11. He types in all caps, underlined, and italics in 50pt font.

“We speak like this...” For a good reason.

Last week, we said that he was like a wise mom who uses a proper scolding at the right time to bump her kids into listening once again. This pastor was concerned that these primarily Jewish professing Christians had become “slow to listen.” Lazy. Sluggish. Dull. They had potentially stopped even trying to understand and grow.

And he was worried that they were stuck in a perpetual spiritual infancy and not going on to maturity. It seemed like they were baby Christians still nursing when they should have been eating solid food and feeding it to others. And maybe even going backwards. 

He did not like their general spiritual trajectory.  If they stayed on this course, it could lead to spiritual disaster.

Is it good to yell at somebody? It can be if they are headed towards disaster. If you are watching someone with headphones on walk backwards into a busy street or maybe over a steep cliff, it would be bad to not yell!

“We speak like this...” When there is danger. And rightly so. And this pastor senses some real potential danger for these people. If they keep on this downward track and don’t pull up, they might not be able to come back from it. And so he speaks like this.

Pull up! Don’t go there! Fix your eyes on Jesus. And don’t fall away.

I have just two points of application this morning, and like last week, they are basically two sides of the same coin. Here’s number one. We speak like this:

#1. TO WARN YOU TO NOT FALL AWAY.

To warn you to not fall away from trusting in Jesus. Because there comes a point for some people when they fall away that they can never come back. 

It’s impossible. The first word in the original Greek of the long sentence of verses 4 through 6 is “impossible.” It can’t be done. It’s out of the question. He grabs their attention with that word “impossible,” but doesn’t say what is impossible until down in verse 6! He holds them in suspense. Look at verse 4.

“It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, [it is impossible] if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance...”

You see how heavy and how scary this is? He’s saying that for some people there is a point of no return...to God and therefore to God’s salvation. “[It is impossible...] if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance...”

Now, I know you have questions. So do I. But don’t miss the point. Don’t miss what this pastor is trying to do to us. He’s trying to warn us to not fall away. So the application is to not fall away! Fix your eyes on Jesus and keep them there. Don’t miss the point.

Before we get to the questions that we all want to ask, notice what he does not say.

He does not say that they have fallen away. He does not say that they have reached that point of no return. If they had, this would be a very different letter. He might not even be bothering to send them a letter.

Notice that he uses the words, “they” here and not “you” or “we.” He’s big on “you” and “we,” and is going to return to them in verses 9 through 12. But here he’s laying a scenario for them. He’s not saying that this is them, but he’s laying out this scenario so that they don’t go there. It’s a warning. He speaks like this to warn them to not fall away.

Notice also that he never says that God will reject anyone who genuinely repents. He never says that. The Bible never says that. What does it say about repentance in verse 6? It’s impossible for these people to repent. It’s impossible for these people to be “brought back to repentance.” They are unable to repent of their unrepentance.

But anyone who does repent genuinely in this life will be received. Jesus said, “Whoever comes to me, I will never drive away” (John 6:37).

But some people reach a point, where they will never come to Him and never come back Him. And for them, there is nothing to be done. It’s impossible.

Now, the big question everybody always asks here is...what?

Who are these people? Who are these people whom it’s impossible to bring back to repentance?

Because it sure seems like he’s describing genuine Christians who fall away. And if that’s true, does that mean that a genuine Christian can lose their salvation?

Genuine faithful Christians have disagreed about that question for many centuries. The Christians in this room may come to different answers on that question, and that’s okay.

What we don’t want to do is to decide what the passage says before we read it carefully. We don’t want to simply import our theology into a passage or force our theology upon it. We want every passage of Scripture to have its own say.

At the same time, we believe that God does not contradict Himself, and that His Scriptures are internally coherent. So at the end of the day, we have to synthesize and harmonize everything that the Scripture does say to build up our consistent theology from all of the things that it clearly says. Does that make sense?

So who are these doomed people? I think it’s really interesting that there is a debate. That there is a question. Some people feel really strongly that it’s obvious, but most people point out that there is some vagueness here. Perhaps intentionally. There is no slam dunk.

I resonate with those who think that verses 4 and 5 describe a genuine Christian.

Read it like that. They are (v.4) “...those who have once been enlightened [they had the Light of the World shine on their hearts], who have tasted the heavenly gift [the gift of salvation? And the word “tasted” doesn’t always mean just a nibble. Remember chapter 2 said that Jesus “tasted” death (same word), and He didn’t just munch on the edges of death. He tasted the whole thing and swallowed it down.], who have shared in the Holy Spirit [Who has a share in the Spirit but real Christians?], who have tasted [same word] the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age...” It sounds like citizens of the kingdom that has started now and is going to go on forever.

That sounds like genuine Christians. 

And (v.6) “if they fall away...” or literally “and they fall away...” Does that mean that genuine Christians can fall away? If this was the only passage of Scripture that I had, I would probably come to that conclusion. And it could be.

Notice that if it is true that a genuine Christian can fall away and lose their salvation, they also lose their ability to come back to salvation. 

“[It is impossible...] if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance...”

Once apostatized, always apostatized. 

Now, I personally don’t think that a genuine Christian can fall away and lose their genuine salvation.

And that’s based mostly on other passages of holy Scripture. There are so many that seem to teach to me that once a person has genuine saving faith that God will so preserve them that they most certainly will reach heaven.

One of my favorites is in John chapter 10 when Jesus, the Good Shepherd says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand” (John 10:27-29).

We are safe in Jesus’ hand in the Father’s hand. Unsnatchable. 

There are so many more passages like that. 

And there are plenty in the Letter to the Hebrews. In the very next chapter, when he gets back to teaching about how Jesus is our great high priest, he points out that because Jesus lives forever, His priesthood is forever. And he says, “because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Hebrews 7:24b-25).

If you come to Him, Jesus is able to save you completely. To the uttermost. 

This book emphasizes how perfect Jesus’ priesthood is and therefore how powerful. His sacrifice is perfect and completely saves all who genuinely come to Him.

Or in chapter 10, also about His great high priesthood, it says, “...by one sacrifice [Jesus] has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (10:14).

So for me and my theology, it’s once truly saved, always truly saved.

But, we can’t always tell who is truly saved. There are a lot of professing Christians who turn out to not be possessing Christians.  There are a lot of fake Christians who can seem very real.

A number of theologians that I highly respect think that’s who verses 4 through 6 are talking about. Fake Christians. Or we might say, “Almost Christians.”

Let’s go through verses 4 through 6 again, and see how that would read:

Verse 4: “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened [they had some light, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they came into the light themselves], who have tasted the heavenly gift [maybe that is just a nibble? Maybe it’s talking about the Lord’s Supper? Some fake Christians do that. Or if this is like those who died in the wilderness that we read about in chapters 3 and 4, it was the manna and yet they didn’t enter the promised land], who have shared in the Holy Spirit [That’s the hardest one, but maybe it means that they have been a part of a work of the Spirit, present during revival, seeing from the outside the blessings that the Spirit bestows on the people around them and getting the blessed in the overflow], who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age...”

You know, there is a way of reading those words that just sounds like someone who has been around church a lot. Someone who has made a profession of faith, but it was only skin deep. It wasn’t the real heart change. 

You know who it reminds me of? Judas Iscariot. He was so close! He followed the Light of the World. He probably did miracles in the name of Jesus. It doesn’t he didn’t in those passages where they were all sent out and came back successful. He tasted “the powers of the coming age.” But I don’t think he was ever genuinely saved.

He was so close, but he was also so far away. And then he betrayed Jesus, and he could not find his way back. Judas was seized with remorse, but he did not repent. He went out and hung himself. He did not turn back (like Peter did).

I think it’s likely that at least some of the people to whom this letter was written were like Judas. Not yet Christians, almost but not quite, and if they were to fall away, there would be no coming back.

“You have experienced all of these blessings, got so close, and then to turn your back on the whole thing?!”

Because that’s what it means to “fall away.” This is not just sinning (as bad as that is) or even “backsliding” which is worse, but apostatizing.

Deliberately, decisively, finally, fully rejecting Jesus. Repudiating Him. Perhaps under persecution. It’s turning your back on Him, and rejecting Him. Rejecting Jesus!

Do you see why they can’t be renewed to repentance? Look at verse 6.

“...because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.”

They have repented of their repentance. They have changed their mind about Jesus and have decided that, “Yeah, Jesus does belong up on that cross! He deserves it. He’s not taking my place. He’s not my great high priest. I’ll go back to Levitical priests. Let Jesus be shamed. Let Jesus be damned!"

This is not a sin of ignorance. This is sinning against the light. This is knowing better and having gone along with it for so long, and then choosing the opposite and turning your back on Jesus. 

And you know what’s impossible? It’s impossible for Jesus to die again. He cannot die again. He’s indestructible now. “...because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.” No, they cannot come back.

In verse 7, the writer turns to an illustration from the world of agriculture. He talks about two kinds of farms. Verse 7.

“Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. [As it should be. You get these amazing blessings of verses 4 and 5 and the good soil drinks it in and produces a fruitful harvest. That’s a picture of how it should be. V.8]  But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.”

That’s these people who have been given so much blessing. So much “rain” from the Holy Spirit, from being around the people of God, from being so close. But if there is no good fruit, it was all worthless. It’s the same “rain” that falls on both kinds of people. But some people take in all of that external blessing, and their hearts are not actually changed. Instead of eternal salvation, they have eternal damnation, and rightly so.

Now, there is a third way of reading this passage that I have come to appreciate in the last few years. 

And it’s a little different from the other two that I have been talking about.

It’s this. In this third view, many of the people of verse 4 through 6 are genuine Christians who if they did fall away would not be able to return, but because they are genuine Christians, they will hear this warning and heed this warning and not fall away.

You could say that it’s like a hypothetical, but it’s actually stronger than that. The warning isn’t just hypothetical. It’s real. But if a real Christian hears this real warning, they will really persevere. They will pull up.

Do you remember when the Apostle Paul was in that shipwreck in Acts chapter 27? And he said that God said that they would all safely reach the shore? Not one of them would be lost. Only the ship.

But he also said that the sailors shouldn’t try to escape and leave the landlubbers behind. If they did, then the sailors would be lost.

So, which is it? Would they be lost if they did that or will all of them reach the shore? It’s both, right? Both are true. They had to hear the warning and heed the warning and they did, and they were safe.

I think maybe that’s what’s going on here with these warnings in Hebrews.

Some fake “almost” Christians will hear it, and some will repent and become real genuine Christians. They will not fall away.

Some fake “almost” Christians will hear the warning and ignore the warning, and they will be doomed.

But real genuine Christians, those who perhaps have been sloughing off, will hear this warning and because he’s speaking like this, they will turn away from turning way before it’s too late!

Now, don’t miss the point. In a very real way, it does not matter a whit who these people are in verses 4 through 6. Whether they are genuine Christians or not. 

What matters is that he is speaking like this about these people to the Hebrews to warn the Hebrews to not fall away. And he is warning us today. Do not repent of your repentance. Don’t even try to find out if a genuine Christian can lose their salvation. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Don’t even flirt with being the thorny, thistly farmland.

Remember, the point of this passage is not abstract theology. This is a sermon. This is theology that is supposed to move you. Heed the warning.

I’m sure you have questions about all of this. I’m sure I haven’t answered all of them. 

Some of you are worried that maybe you have committed the unpardonable sin. That you have fallen away. If you are worried that you have, then you almost certainly have not. If you love Jesus and are following Him by faith, you have not. If you can repent, you have not. Those who have fallen away in Hebrews 6 way, cannot be brought back to repentance. It’s impossible. So if you can repent, this is not describing you.

But if you are not repentant, then you should be worried.

This warning is for you if you have been blessed to hear the gospel and come to church over and over again, and now you are headed out the door? Turning your back on Jesus?

I know it’s hard. The world hates you and is putting all kinds of pressure on you. It’s hard to follow Jesus. These people were feeling it. None of them had died yet, but some had gone to prison. 

It’s surprisingly easy to turn your back on Jesus. The world laughs at us. All of a sudden what we believe doesn’t seems so plausible. It’s easier to go with the flow. But if you do, you will be crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. Don’t do it. Don’t fall away. Fix your eyes on Jesus.

Some of you are worried for your loved ones who once made a profession of faith and claimed to be Christians and are not walking with Christ right now. It is right to be concerned for them. This passage does not tell us if they will return or not. It doesn’t give us false hope, but it doesn’t tell us that they are inevitably doomed either.

Many prodigals do come home, praise God. Pray for it. Pray for that with all you heart! And what you pray is that they repent. Because anyone who does repent genuinely in this life will be received. Jesus said, “Whoever comes to me, I will never drive away” (John 6:37).

But it is possible that some of our loved ones will not come to Him in the end, and that is so very scary. Because we are not all going to get to heaven. When the roll is called up yonder, not all of us are going to be there. Only those who repent and fix their eyes on Jesus.

So if you have a good opportunity, warn your loved ones, too. Because it is loving to speak like this.

Number two: We speak like this to warn you to not fall away and...

#2. TO ENCOURAGE YOU TO MAKE YOUR HOPE SURE.

Look at verse 9.

“Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case–things that accompany salvation.”

Ohhhh. That is so good to hear, isn’t it?! He calls them “dear friends” or “beloved.” The Greek word is “agapaytoi” which the Apostle Paul uses all the time when he’s writing the churches, but this is the only time that Hebrews uses it. Right where it is needed most.

He has just given them one of the scariest warnings ever, and now he gives them one of the sweetest encouragements ever.

“Even though we speak like this [with terrifying warnings that must be heard], dear [dear, dear] friends [beloved], we are confident of better things in your case [than Better things that curses and burning, than damnation. We are confident of ]–things that accompany salvation.” Eternal salvation!

He believes that his warning will work, and that they are not ultimately going to be in danger.

Remember, he has never said that any of them have fallen away. Just what would happen if they did. He has switched to “they” back to “you” and to “we.” He doesn’t think they are bunch of Judases. He thinks they are more like a bunch of Simon Peters.

Why? Because of the past, the present, and what he wants for their future. Look at verse 10.

“God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.”

This pastor knows their history. He knows that there is plenty of evidence that they are genuine Christians from their past. They have worked. They have labored for the Lord. And He saw it, and He will not forget it. Double negative there. “God is NOT Unjust.” In other words, He is just. He is justice itself. And if God can see that they are real, they have nothing to worry about.

He says they have shown love to Him. Literally “in His name.” There is evidence that they are real deal. They have loved God as they have loved His people. V.10 “as you have helped his people (the saints) and continue to help them.”

They are still doing it. At present.  They may have grown kind of sluggish, but they are still doing some ministry.

Are you working for the Lord?

Are you loving in His name?

Are you helping His people?

That’s good evidence that you are real. Keep it up. That’s what he says. Past, present, and here’s the future. Verse 11.

“We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”

We don’t speak like this to spook you. Unless you need spooked! And we don’t want you to stay spooked. We want to urge you, spur you, encourage you to keep on keeping on “to the very end.”

And as you do that, you will see the realization of your hope. When the roll is called up yonder, you will be there. 

“Each one of you.” Did you see that in verse 11? We want each of you...to stick with Jesus. We don’t want anyone to fall by the wayside.

That’s my heart for all of you. It breaks my pastor-heart know that there are people I’ve preached to and shepherded and shared the goodness of the word of God who have fallen away and won’t be there when we all get to heaven. 

Don’t let that be you! Show this same diligence, zeal, earnestness you had before to make your hope sure. Do not become lazy. That’s the same word for “slow of learning” in chapter 5, verse 11 that we looked at last week. Don’t go there. Don’t stay. Don’t let your fingers stay in your ears.

But instead by like all those who have gone before. Like Abraham. Next week, he’ll be talking about Abraham. Abraham had faith and patiently waited for the promise to be fulfilled. He held on firmly to the promise.  

Now, don’t miss the point. Right now, you might be feeling like your job is to somehow save yourself. “Look inside yourself and find the faith and courage to reach heaven.”

No. No. No. Don’t look inside yourself. Fix your eyes on Jesus. He’s the Son of God. He’s our great high priest. He has gone through the heavens.

Hold firmly to Him. Put your hope in Jesus.

***

Messages in this Series:

01. "The Son" - Hebrews 1:1-4
02. "Superior to the Angels" - Hebrews 1:5-14
03. "Such a Great Salvation" - Hebrews 2:1-4
04. "We See Jesus" - Hebrews 2:5-9
05. "Flesh and Blood" - Hebrews 2:10-18
06. "Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus" - Hebrews 3:1-6
07. “Today, If You Hear His Voice” - Hebrews 3:7-19
Bonus Historical Message: The Gift of My Rest - A Fictional Letter of Sabbath Theology
08. "A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God" - Hebrews 4:1-13
09. "Great High Priest" - Hebrews 4:14-16
10. "The Source of Eternal Salvation" - Hebrews 5:1-10
11. "On To Maturity" - Hebrews 5:11-6:3

Read More

“On To Maturity” [Matt's Messages]

“On To Maturity”

Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus 

The Letter to the Hebrews

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

May 10, 2026 :: Hebrews 5:11-6:3  

What is the most loving rebuke your mom ever gave you?

I’m not asking what is the most loving thing she ever said to you. That was probably some variation on, “I love you.” Or a promise she made to you. Or perhaps she pointed out something wonderful about you–some gift of God’s grace in you with well-chosen words.

I hope everybody here has gracious words from their mother that they can cherish all your days. I’m sure there are some who may not. The Lord knows, and He is sufficient no matter what. He has loving things to say over you even if your mom never has. 

But what I am asking right now is what is the most loving rebuke your mom ever gave you?

The time she told you off.

The time she scolded you.

The time she bawled you out.

The time she read you the riot act.

And you needed to hear it from her!

Nobody likes to be scolded, but sometimes a scolding is exactly what we need to get our attention and to keep us from going off the rails.

All good mothers know that.

And so do all good pastors. And this pastor who was writing this sermonic letter to the Hebrews chooses this moment in his missive to lovingly rebuke his readers.

Did you hear it as it was read to us? Did you hear the rebuke? It starts in the first verse. Verse 11.

“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn.”

Ouch. 

He says that he has a lot more to say about what we were studying last week–Jesus is our great high priest. Jesus is the greatest high priest there ever was. He’s like every other high priest (human, subject to weakness, called by God), but He’s better than every other high priest. He is a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Wow! What does that mean? This pastor wants to explain it. But he’s afraid that the Hebrews are not paying attention.

“It is hard to explain because you are slow to learn.”

And that’s saying it nicely.

The King James and the ESV has “...you have become dull of hearing.”

The CSB has, “...you have become too lazy to understand.”

The updated NIV has, “...it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand.”

That’s a rebuke. That’s a scolding. He wants them to feel some shame. Because this is not about their intellectual abilities. This is about their hearts. They are not listening with their hearts. They are zoning out.

And this pastor is saying, “I’m worried about you guys. Something has gone terribly wrong here.” Look at verse 12.

“In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!”

That’s a rebuke. He’s saying that they have not grown as they were supposed to. It’s as if their mothers took their twelve year old to the family doctor, and she held up the growth chart and said, “You are in the 1st percentile for growth. Or maybe the -25th percentile. You should be here, and you are here."

Is there anything wrong with a baby who only drinks milk? No!

Is there anything wrong with a newborn baby who only nurses?  No! It would bad if a newborn baby was eating a piece of pizza! Or a porterhouse steak.

But what if you are 25 year old who is still nursing? A 10 year old that never eats a piece of pizza. Nothing but milk. 

What would that 10 year old look like? What would that 25 year old look like? We call it “failure to thrive.” “Stunted growth.” 

These readers had had the gospel for some time, and they should have been further along. They should have been teachers by now! It’s not that they should ever stop learning. It’s that they have stopped learning. They should have learned enough by now that they have something to give to others. 

“C’mon, guys.” That’s what he’s saying to them.  “C’mon, guys. Milk is good, but have you tried chicken? Solid food is even better!” Verse 13.

“Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.”

This is not working. To be “not acquainted” in verse 13 means to be “inexperienced, unskilled, undiscerning.” Sounds like a little baby to me. And it doesn’t sound like what a Christian ought to be. If you are a Christian, if you have been a Christian for any length of time, you’re going to learn what God says about what is right and how to be right with God. But these folks were still acting like babies, like spiritual infants. And so this loving pastor rebukes them.

I have only two major points this morning from this text, and they are two sides of the same coin.

#1. DON’T STAY A BABY!

Don’t stay a baby Christian.

Now, if you are a baby Christian here today, praise God! Welcome to the family. It’s okay to not know hardly anything yet about Jesus. We will teach you about Jesus here. Who He is. What He has done. What He is going to do. And what He wants from us. We will teach you “the teaching about righteousness.”

But you have to listen. And you have to grow. We will serve out the milk, but you can’t stay on the milk. You’ve got to graduate to solid food.

And not go backwards! I think that he’s implying that they have been fed some solid food before, but they’re kind of like, “I’m not sure I really want to hear all this. I’m just going to coast by on the old stuff. The milk. The introductory stuff. That’s good enough for me.”

“And I’m not going to grow.” 

Is that you? Have you said, “I’m mature enough. I think I’ll just coast from here.” That’s infantile! Don’t stay a baby.

I was trying to think about the most loving rebuke that my mom ever gave to me. And I’m pretty sure I’m forgetting some of them because who wants to dwell on the times when Mom was disappointed in you?

But what came to mind was a particular time when I wasn’t pulling my weight around the house. I think I was a teen or maybe a pre-teen. And I wasn’t doing my chores, and I basically thought that I was above all of that serving stuff. Mom could do all that stuff. She enjoys doing house work! Which is obvious by how much of it she does.

(Which tells you just how immature I was.)

And I remember my Mom rebuked me, and she basically told me to grow up. I was getting older and could be more responsible around the house, not less. 

Don’t stay a baby. Don’t stay a baby Christian. Take an inventory of your spiritual life. Take a long look at yourself.

Have you grown as a Christian? Recently? Is there any difference in your life now from before? Or over time? Have you grown in the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Are you more self-controlled now than you used to be? Are you more patient? Are you more gentle? Have you learned your Bible? Are you reading it? Are you understanding it more and more? Are you listening to the message on Sunday and applying it your life?

Or...are you slow to learn? Do you have your fingers in your ears like a spiritual toddler? You can be quite old physically and still act like this. Because it’s a matter of the heart. Don’t stay a baby. Flip-side:

#2. GROW UP IN CHRIST.

Look at verse 14.

“But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. [Chapter 6] Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity...”

There’s our title for today: “On To Maturity.”

Don’t stay a baby Christian, grow up in your relationship with the Lord and become mature.

The word for “maturity” in verse 1 is the same word as we saw applied to Jesus last week in chapter 5, verse 9 about how He was “made perfect.” We said that is “made complete” or “made whole.” In Jesus’ life, that was graduating from the school of suffering to being the perfected high priest.

In our case, it’s that we are becoming more and more like Jesus. More and more like we were made to be. Maturing in our faith and becoming like our Lord.

Hebrews urges us to “go on to maturity.” What does that look like? 

I think this passage gives us a picture of maturity when we consider the flipside of what it says about immaturity.

Here are 5 things I’ve noted down:

First, a mature Christian is eager to eat meat. 

They want that solid food. If an infantile Christian is choking on the solid food, a mature Christian is not only able to eat the solid stuff, but hungry for it.

My friend Nick, the pastor at Blue Course Community Church, was telling me this week about a young Christian who was in the Blue Band and got in from playing at an away game at 3am one Saturday night last year. Or I guess that’s Sunday morning. And she was at church at 10:00 because she wanted to be fed!

Are you hungry for the meat of God’s Word? If you miss a Sunday here, do you read or listen or watch last week’s message to get caught up and fed? I do! And I actually listen to last week’s message every week even though I wrote it to get myself ready this week’s.

Do you read your Bible? Do you study your Bible? Do you study it with other people?

Second, a mature Christian is ready to teach.

That doesn’t mean that you’re ready to get up here and preach. Or even back there and teach a class. But it does mean that you are ready to explain the gospel to someone else who isn’t as far along as you.

If your friend has questions, are you ready to give them some answers? Can you explain what you believe?

Moms, you need to teach your kids Christian doctrine. It’s part of the job description you signed up for when you got pregnant. And, yes, that means that you will constantly be learning. You will need to keep learning to keep teaching.  Moms need solid food so that they can nurse. Mature Christian moms need solid food so that they can nourish their baby Christians at home.

Third, a mature Christian puts it work. They put what they know to work. That’s in verse 14 of chapter 5. 

“But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

A mature Christian takes in spiritual nourishment and then does something with it. Like what Keith Hurley taught two weeks ago. A mature Christian doesn’t just hear the word and nod along. They take what they hear and do something with it. 

“Constant use.”  “Trained.” The word for “trained” in verse 14 is from the root word “gumnazmo” from which we get our word “gymnasium.” 

It’s a work out. When you listen to a sermon, do you think, “What can I do with this? What must I do with this? What will I do with this?” It’s pumping iron.

Mature Christians fill up with the protein of God’s word and then work out with it until they are changed. Until they can tell the difference between good and evil. They have discernment. 

Fourth, able to discern.

Mature Christians know what the right thing to do is. 

For example, our Lord Jesus told us to forgive those who sin against us. Does everybody agree with that? Are you doing that?

See, that’s what it means to be “slow to learn” if you don’t take what God’s Word says and then do it. Of course your spiritual growth is going to atrophy.

Jesus says, “Let your yes be yes and your no be no.” In other words, keep your promises. Are you doing that? Are you keeping your promises to your employer? To your mortgage company? To your spouse?

“Well...”

See, everybody loves Jesus until He starts to demand things. And then we start looking for loopholes.  

And then we start trying to ignore Him. Maybe we still want be counted among the Christians, but we don’t really want to be acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.

Grow up. Mature Christians grow in Christ by putting what they are learning of Christ to work which makes them able to discern right from wrong, good from evil.

And lastly, mature Christians build on the basics. 

Notice again what it says in verse 1 of chapter 6.

“Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity...”

Now, I don’t think that he means that we should abandon the elementary teachings about Christ. Do you? I don’t think he means that we should leave them in the dust. We should never abandon the elementary teachings about Jesus. We will always need them. They are our sure foundation.

But we need to build on that foundation. We don’t throw out our ABC’s. But we use those ABC’s to write sentences, and paragraphs, and books. We don’t throw out the basics, but we build on them. If we never do, then we never mature. Look at what he goes on to say in verse 1.

“Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so.”

He says that we (and notice that he includes himself here, we all need to do this) are to “go on to maturity.” Or more literally, “be taken forward to maturity” as if God is sweeping us along in the process. We don’t do this in our own power.  But we do do it. We go on to maturity not by re-laying the foundation, but I think by building upon it.

Now, the list of six things there in verses 1 and 2 have been taking differently by different biblical scholars over the years. They are obviously all basic things, but it’s not clear exactly what kind of basic things.

I tend to think that they are basic Christian things because verse 1 says “elementary teachings about Christ.”

So that’s repentance from sinful acts and flip-side faith in God.  That’s the doorway into a relationship with God. Turn and trust. And we know that’s turn and trust in Jesus the Son of God who died on the Cross for our sins and came back to life to give us life. That the basics of conversion. Conversion 101.

And then baptisms and the laying on of hands would be John’s baptism before Christ and Christian baptism after Christ and the commissioning of Christian leaders for leadership and service. These are the basics of church life. Church 101.

And then resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment are the basics of Christian teaching about the end times. Christian Future 101. There is a new world coming when Jesus returns. 

These are all things that all Christians should have been taught early on in their faith.

Do you know these things? I hope so. (If not, let’s talk!)

Should we abandon these things? No, of course not. And really, we should revisit them regularly. That’s why we recite our statement of faith and sing the songs we do to remind ourselves of the basics of our beliefs. But we go deeper. And we go higher. We build on those basics. We go on to maturity.

Interestingly, many other Christians have noted that these 6 things are not distinctively Christian. In fact, they all could be taken as basics of Jewish teaching from the Old Covenant. 

So it could be yet another way that Hebrews is saying that these believers should not go backwards.

Maturity in Christ would mean not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works (good works will not save us!) and of faith in God.

Or instruction about (the new NIV now has) “cleansing rites” which could be Jewish washings like we read about in the Old Testament or what the Pharisees were famous for doing (see also 9:10-14).

And “the laying on of hands” might be when a temple-goer lays their hand on a lamb before sacrificing it.

And “resurrection of the dead” and “eternal judgment” are truths taught in the Old Testament, too.

It may be that these Hebrews were tempted to lay again the foundation of the Old Covenant way of approaching God. The Aaronic High Priest and all.

But the author is saying, “That won’t work. You can’t go back. There is a New Covenant with a Greater High Priest, and it is much better, and it is now the way to perfection, to completeness, to maturity.”

Don’t get stuck back there. That’s all good stuff. But don’t get stuck there. Don’t keep getting started and going nowhere. Build on it.  Let us go on to maturity. Does that make sense?

And though he’s been giving them such a hard time, he ends this section with a word of encouragement.

“And God permitting, we will do so.”

We will go on to maturity! If the Lord wills.  And we know that He’s said this is part of His revealed will, His will of command. And He’s so good and gracious and loving and powerful, if He empowers us to go on to maturity, then we certainly will.

Because the opposite is just terrible to think about. Next week, God-permitting, we will think about. The next few verses are some of the hardest to interpret and heaviest receive in the whole Bible. It’s a warning. Not just a scolding but a warning.

But before he issues that warning, this pastor takes a deep breath and gives us a strong word of encouragement.

Like a good mom, he has issued a loving rebuke. “You are being dull. You are being lazy. You are not listening. You have your fingers in your ears. Do you hear me?”

He obviously thinks they might be listening. They are slow to learn, but he hasn’t given up on them. 

He’s doing that loving-dope-slap-on-the-back-of-the-head thing that some moms have perfected.

And he says, “Don’t stay a baby. Grow up in Christ.”

“Let’s all do it,” he says.

And God-permitting, we will do so.

***

Messages in this Series:

01. "The Son" - Hebrews 1:1-4
02. "Superior to the Angels" - Hebrews 1:5-14
03. "Such a Great Salvation" - Hebrews 2:1-4
04. "We See Jesus" - Hebrews 2:5-9
05. "Flesh and Blood" - Hebrews 2:10-18
06. "Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus" - Hebrews 3:1-6
07. “Today, If You Hear His Voice” - Hebrews 3:7-19
Bonus Historical Message: The Gift of My Rest - A Fictional Letter of Sabbath Theology
08. "A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God" - Hebrews 4:1-13
09. "Great High Priest" - Hebrews 4:14-16
10. "The Source of Eternal Salvation" - Hebrews 5:1-10

Read More

“The Source of Eternal Salvation” [Matt's Messages]

“The Source of Eternal Salvation”

Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

The Letter to the Hebrews

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

May 3, 2026 :: Hebrews 5:1-10  

“Eternal Salvation.” Those are weighty and wonderful words (there in verse 9)!

“Eternal salvation.”  Just think about that.

Salvation means rescue. We were in trouble, and we needed rescued from that trouble. In trouble with God! Our trouble was sin. We had all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And that meant death. The wages of sin is death. And not just any death, but eternal death. Death and judgment and condemnation forever in Hell. That’s where we were headed as the sinful human race.

And we could not save ourselves. We had gotten in too deep. Nothing we did could rescue us from our sin. Someone Else had to deliver us.

And Someone Else did! Someone Else provided a great rescue. What Hebrews chapter 2, verse 3 called “such a great salvation.”

And He didn’t just save us temporarily.

He didn’t just save us for the weekend.

He didn’t just save us for a lifetime.

No, He saved us for an eternity!

He provided an “eternal salvation.” A salvation that goes on forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. What could be better than that?!

These ten verses of Hebrews talk are all about (and this is our message title taken from verse 9), “The Source of Eternal Salvation.” This is where eternal salvation comes from. This is how eternal salvation is possible. This is how eternal salvation springs forth and comes to you and me.

There are very few things more important to think about than that,. and thinking about it deeply will prepare us well to celebrate the Lord’s Supper in just a few minutes. Because that Table is all about “The Source of Eternal Salvation.” Not the Table itself or the food and drink on it, but what that bread and cup represent.  Who they represent. 

Who is the Source of Eternal Salvation? It’s Jesus. We know that. We’re Christians. We’ve come to church to remind ourselves of it. Jesus is the Source of Eternal Salvation. 

Now, verse 9 says that “He became...” that. There was a process in place that had that result. Jesus “became the source of eternal salvation.” How did that come about? That’s what we want think about together this morning. And Hebrews chapter 5 helps us to understand.

[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]

What a big job!!!

What a big job it would be to provide eternal salvation for sinners like you and me. It would take an incredibly special Person to be the source of eternal salvation. Thankfully, Jesus is that special.

I’ve been thinking a lot about qualifications for a job recently because our daughter Robin is searching for her first job as a veterinary technician.

She has graduated with her degree at the top of her class. She has passed her national exam. She is ready to secure state licensesure as a certified vet tech.  And she has done an internship and an externship. Robin is fully qualified to be a Vet Tech, and the veterinary hospital that hires her will be very blessed to have her. I say that as a completely objective unbiased father.

But what kind of qualifications would it take to “become the source of eternal salvation?”

What a job that would be?! The Person Who did that would have to be a great high priest.

We learned last time that we’ve reached this middle section of the letter that could be summed up with those three words, “Great High Priest.”

It’s in our memory verse. We sang it in the last hymn. We proclaimed it in Article 4 of our Statement of Faith. In this part of the letter, we’re fixing our eyes on Jesus as our great high priest. From chapters 4 to 10, this sermonic letter focuses our attention on how Jesus is like the high priest that these primarily Jewish believers are familiar with from their Old Testament and...even better.

These believers that he’s writing to were tempted to take their eyes off of Jesus and go back to what they were used to. But this pastor is urging them to not give up or give in and to hold firmly to the faith they had professed. Because Jesus is our great high priest.

Now, what does it take to become that?  Here are the basic qualifications for the job of high priest. Verse 1.

“Every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.”

They already know these things, but it’s helpful for us who are not that familiar with priests.  Verse 1 explains the basic job description.

The high priest is a mediator. He is a representative. He supposed to represent sinful people before a holy God by offering up gifts and sacrifices for sins. Do you see that?

The priest stands between the sinful people and the holy God. That’s a dangerous place to stand! And so if you’re going to be that person standing between sinners who deserve God’s righteous wrath and that holy God, you better have a holy sacrifice in your hands.

We said last time that the high priest, and the high priest alone would go into the Holy of Holies, the Most Holy Place, in the tabernacle and, then later, the temple once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and take the blood of a propitiating sacrifice to put on the atonement cover make atonement for the sins of the people.

That was his job. What were his qualifications?

Three things. Every high priest had to be:

- Human in Nature

- Subject to Weakness

- Called by God

Kids who are coming to Snack and Yack today, Mrs. Mitchell and I are going to ask you for those three things.

- Human in Nature

- Subject to Weakness

- Called by God

Let’s take them in order. To be the high priest you had to be a human. Did you see that in verse 1?

“Every high priest is selected from among men...”  Or some of your versions might say, “from among the people.” The Greek word is “anthropos” which is the word that we get “anthropology” from. It emphasizes our common humanity.

Let me ask you a question. Could the high priest be an angel? No. Angels are not humans. They could not serve as a high priest. Not qualified.

Could the high priest be a Doberman Pincer? No. Dogs are not human. They may be smarter than some humans, but they cannot serve as a high priest. Not qualified.

How about this one? Could a robot be a high priest? Maybe an Anthropic A.I. Agent? No. A.I. bots are not human. They didn’t exist back then, but even if they did, they could not be a high priest. Not qualified.

You had have a human nature to be high priest. To represent humans, you had to be human.

And part of the reason for that was this second qualification. You had to be subject to human weakness. Look at verse 2.

“He [every priest] is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness.”

The ESV has “beset with weakness.”

King James has “compassed with infirmity.”

The CSB says, “clothed with weakness.”

To be qualified as a high priest, you had to be subject to weakness. You had to be able to be tempted. You had to live with human limitations. Human sins had to look good to you in some way. You had to understand what it was really like to be human. Verse 2 says so that you could “deal gently” with those who were “ignorant” and “going astray.”  Those who are acting like sheep. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way...” (Isa. 53:6). 

That’s not good! But the high priest has to understand what it’s like. He has to be compassionate. He has to care. He has to be empathetic and sympathetic.  Not merely frustrated with sinners and looking down on them because he’s above it all. 

In fact, the high priest in the Old Testament was so subject to weakness that he would have given in to temptation time and again and need cleansed from sin himself. Look at verse 3.

“This is why [because he’s subject to weakness] he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people.”

You can read about it in Leviticus chapter 16. The priest offered sacrifices for himself and his family and then for the rest of the people. 

And here’s the third qualification: Called by God Himself. Look at verse 4.

“No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was.”

To be qualified as the high priest, you didn’t just decide that you were going to be the high priest. At least if you were doing it right. I’m sure that there were plenty of pretenders in the history of the priesthood, but it wasn’t supposed to be like that.

It wasn’t like you just on day decided that you were going to be the high priest. And it wasn’t something for which you ran for election. 

God just called Aaron to do it. And then his sons. In their case, it was hereditary and genealogical.  You had to come from a certain tribe in Israel.

What tribe was Aaron from? Of the twelve tribes? Levi. You had to be a son of Levi. And then from the Levites, Aaron was chosen and then his sons. You had to be from Aaron’s clan to be high priest.

Human, subject to weakness, and called by God just as Aaron was. Read about it in Exodus 28, Leviticus 8, and Numbers 3.

Big job. Big qualifications.

What about Jesus? Is Jesus qualified for the job of high priest? Of course He is. Let’s start with the last one. Was He called by God? Look at verse 5.

“No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.’ And he says in another place, ‘You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek” (vv.5-6).

This pastor loves his Old Testament and has read it more deeply and carefully than just about anybody in history. He says that Jesus the Messiah (the Christ) did not just take upon Himself the glory of becoming a high priest. He probably could have. He had the authority. But He did not do it on His own.

God the Father called Him to this ministry. And the writer brings out two passages of Scripture to prove it.

The first is Psalm 2, verse 7 which he had already quoted back in the opening part of the letter (1:5).

It’s that enthronement song that King David probably sang over King Solomon, and we all recognize was fully fulfilled in King Jesus.

“You are my Son; today I have become your Father.”

And this pastor-theologian sees that as not only a calling to rule but to serve as a priest. Because he knows that the Son of Psalm 2 is also the Son of Psalm 110 where, “The LORD [said to David’s son his] Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet’” (Psalm 110:1) which he had also already quoted in chapter 1 (v.13).

The Father invited the Son to sit at His right hand! Does that sound familiar? He has “gone through the heavens” and sits at the right hand of the Majesty on High.

And then the LORD goes on to promise on oath in Psalm 110, verse 4 (quoted here in verse 6), “You [the One seated at His right hand] are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”

There is so much here to unpack. And this letter is going to do that especially in chapter 7. This is the first of 10 times that Hebrews is going to reference Psalm 110, verse 4! He’s going to be talking about that verse a lot.

The most important thing to understand up front is that God the Father called Jesus to the priesthood. It happened in Psalm 2, verse 7 and Psalm 110, verse 4. Jesus is qualified to be our great high priest because God called Him to it. “You’re my Son. You’re a priest forever.”

Forever! That’s important, isn’t it? Because what kind of salvation do we need? “Eternal salvation.”

What if we had a priest who only lasted 100 years? Our great high priest is a priest “forever” and that means that our salvation can be forever, too.

Now, what is this Melchizedek thing in verse 6? What is a Melchizedek? It’s a person, isn’t it? That’s a name. 

The Mysterious Mr. Melchizedek!

Pop quiz for you. In how many books does the Mysterious Mr. Melchizedek appear in the Bible?

Only 3. The beginning, the middle, and towards the ends. Which books? Genesis. Chapter 14. Read it this afternoon. And then he disappears until where? Psalm 110! Read that this afternoon! And then he’s not mentioned again in until right here in the Letter to the Hebrews. There’s something special going on there. Can you see what an amazing student of the Old Testament this letter writer was?

In Psalm 110, the LORD swears an oath that the Messiah will be a “priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”

That’s a different kind of priest. It’s a priest. Someone who is human in nature, subject to weakness, and called by God. But the Melchizedekian priesthood is of a different sort than the Levitical priesthood, and we’ll have to get into that more as we get further in our study. It’s really awesome when you understand it.

So, Jesus is qualified because He’s been called by God.

What about the other two qualifications?

Is He human in nature? Yes, He is. Look at verse 7. Verses 7 through 10 are one long sentence in the original Greek. Verse 7.

“During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.”

Sounds like a human to me.

“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth...” Literally that is, “the days of his flesh.” Remember “flesh and blood” from chapter 2? Jesus was and is fully human.

He took on everything that it means to be a true human.  Flesh and blood and weakness. Jesus was subject to weakness. He got tired. He got beaten. He got killed.

Jesus wept. Jesus bled. He was fully human and that made Him qualified to be our great high priest!

If Jesus had not been born as a baby in Bethlehem, He could not have served as our great high priest. And we would not have eternal salvation. But He was born as human and He suffered as a human.

And He prayed as a human. Did you hear how He prayed in verse 7? It sounds like pure agony.

“During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death...”

He’s yelling His prayers. Have you ever yelled a prayer before?  He’s crying. He’s wailing. 

Do you think about Jesus praying like that? Do you think about the tears running down His face? I don’t believe we think enough about Jesus’ sobbing. His struggle. His turmoil. His prayers were not pretty!

When did He pray like this? Well, it says, “in the days of His life on earth.” It happened on multiple occasions. I think about Him weeping like this at the tomb of his friend Lazarus.

But the time that fits the verse the most is in the Garden of Gethsemane (see Luke 22:34-46).

It says, “to the one (that’s the Father) who could save him from death.” That sounds to me like, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me...” (Luke 22:42). Loud cries and tears.

Oh yes, He was subject to weakness. He can understand what it’s like to be us. He can deal gently.

But, unlike Aaron, Jesus never gave in! What did verse 15 say in the last chapter? The double negative: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin.”

Through His tears like drops of blood Jesus cried, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Hebrews calls that “reverent submission” in verse 7.  “Reverent submission.” That’s what it took for us to have eternal salvation. It took “reverent submission.” 

And because of His reverent submission, Jesus “was heard.” I don’t think that means just that God the Father could pick up the sound waves from God the Son in the Garden.

“What’s that? I think I hear my Son.”

No, I think that means that the Father answered Jesus’ prayer. 

Is that right? Did Jesus get saved from death? It feels like, “No.” Jesus died. He was a human who suffered a human death on a cruel instrument of human torture. But verse 7 says, “He was heard.”

What do you think the answer is? I think it means that the Father answered the Son’s prayer to be saved “from death” by raising Him from the dead!

Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed.

Our great high priest prayed to be saved from death, and God the Father saved Him on the third day. And then He “passed through the heavens” and sat down.

Aaron sure never did that.

Our great high priest went through so much for us. So much suffering. You wouldn’t expect it. Especially because He was the Son of God. He didn’t deserve all of this suffering. But He chose it for you and me. Look at verse 8. (Again, this is part of a longer sentence. It all goes together. Verse 8.)

“Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek” (vv.8-10).

He obviously has more to say about about that order of Melchizedek in the rest of the letter. It’s pretty important to him, and it is to us as well. But we’ll save that for later.

We do need to talk about this “learning obedience” and being “made perfect.” Those are not the words we might expect to be reading about the Son of God! And the writer knows that. That’s why he starts with “Although he was a son....”

If you remember what he said about the Son in the first four verses of the letter, you’ll remember how exalted the Son is. How superior to everything. He’s the Son of God! Heir of all thing, maker of all thing, sustainer of all things. The radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being! That Son!

What would He have to learn?

Obedience.

Now, that doesn’t mean that He was ever disobedient. You and I learn obedience through failure, through trial and error. But Jesus learned obedience by success. But it was learning, in His human nature. 

Remember, He “grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Lk. 2:52). He started out a baby, and had to learn everything. His ABC’s. His Aleph, Beth, Gimels in Hebrew. He had to learn what it meant to obey as a toddler, obey as a tweener, obey as a teen, obey as an adult–by experience.

And it wasn’t easy, especially when He had to obey the command to go to the Cross.

“He learned obedience from what he suffered...”

There’s a play on words in the Greek there. Learned is “emathen” and suffered is “epathen.” “Emathen” and “epathen.”

Jesus learned through suffering. He understands. He is able to deal gently with us. And when His learning was complete, He was the perfect high priest.

I think that’s what it means in verse 9, “once made perfect.” That doesn’t mean that He was ever morally imperfect. He never sinned. Not even once! Hebrews is very clear on this.

It means that He graduated from this school of suffering and was completely ready to serve as our great high priest.

The word for “perfect” is “teleiow” and it means to be “complete” or “have reached the goal.”

Just like Robin graduated from vet tech school and is now fully qualified to serve as a Vet Tech.

Our Lord Jesus suffered perfectly to be become our perfect high priest. And that makes Him, (v.9) “the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.”

He got the job! And He did the job! Isn’t that wonderful?!

How do we apply this to our lives today in 2026?

I can think of all kinds of ways, but let me suggest three.

#1. BE SAVED.

Jesus is the perfect source of eternal salvation. So, come to the source and receive that salvation for yourself. It’s not automatic. Verse 9 tells us that there is a condition. There’s a certain kind of person who receives that eternal salvation. What’s it say? V.9

“He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”

And what is the command that we are called to obey?

Believe in Jesus! Put you trust in Jesus.

Again and again the Book of Hebrews the command to obey is a command to believe. This cannot mean that we must obey to somehow earn our salvation. We cannot save ourselves. Hebrews is crystal clear on that. But we must obey the call to believe the gospel. The good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We must put our faith and trust in this great high priest. So that He’s OUR great high priest.  And we will saved.

And we’ll be obedient, too. We’ll see that again and again this book, as well.

Don’t listen to this sermon and walk away without a savior. 

Look at what He did for His people! He did the job. He became a human. He took on flesh and blood. And He agonized in prayer. And He died so that we could live.

And He came back to life and passed through heavens and sat down. He became the source of eternal salvation, so get saved!

#2. BE STEADFAST.

You have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens. What does Hebrews 4:14 say that we ought to do because of that?

“[L]et us hold firmly to the faith we profess.”

In other words, “fix your eyes on Jesus” and don’t stop. 

You have the perfect high priest. He is a priest forever, and your salvation is forever. Don’t turn away. Instead, approach Him. Come to Him to prayer. Every day. Be bold! Don’t be scared. He understands. “...[A]proach the throne of grace with confidence! You will mercy and find grace to help us in your time of need.

Be steadfast. Don’t give up. Don’t give in.

#3. BE THANKFUL.

Because we have eternal salvation, we have everything to be grateful for. Rescue from our sins. Not just once. Not just temporarily. Not just for the weekend. Not just for a lifetime. Or 100 lifetimes. Or 1000 lifetimes. But forever!

“Eternal salvation” through our great high priest, Jesus the Son of God.

Human in nature.

Subject to weakness.

Called by God.

Perfected by suffering.

Passed through the heavens and now at the right hand of God.

The source of eternal salvation. 

Be thankful.

***

Messages in this Series:

01. "The Son" - Hebrews 1:1-4
02. "Superior to the Angels" - Hebrews 1:5-14
03. "Such a Great Salvation" - Hebrews 2:1-4
04. "We See Jesus" - Hebrews 2:5-9
05. "Flesh and Blood" - Hebrews 2:10-18
06. "Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus" - Hebrews 3:1-6
07. “Today, If You Hear His Voice” - Hebrews 3:7-19
Bonus Historical Message: The Gift of My Rest - A Fictional Letter of Sabbath Theology
08. "A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God" - Hebrews 4:1-13
09. "Great High Priest" - Hebrews 4:14-16

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