Full Transcript

Welcome to Share the Word. We are at episode 254, which brings us to the last chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. And as Pastor Paul Nitz breaks down the several specific instructions believed to be essential for the early Christians, one of them is absolutely critical. Listen closely and don’t miss it. Hebrews chapter 13, PPPPPS. In the final lines of the Epistle to the Hebrews, found in chapter 13, the author writes, Now I urge you, brothers, listen to this word of exhortation I have written to you briefly.

Only someone who traffics in careful argument, who really appreciates the precision of words and sees himself as a teacher, someone who explains and applies things very carefully, would describe the letter of Hebrews as a brief exhortation. Now that we are about through it, I’ll offer my two cents on authorship. I think the available evidence points well to a man mentioned in the New Testament a few places named Apollos. Apollos was a Hellenistic Jew from Alexandria, North Africa, not an original apostle of Jesus, but a second-generation believer. Apollos was very respected by the leaders of the early Christian church, a coworker of Paul’s and Timothy’s and others. He was especially known as an eloquent speaker and a gifted teacher.

Paul once wrote of him to the young Corinthian church, I planted the seed of the gospel among you, and Apollos watered it. And you might remember his ministry was so respected there and impactful there, some in the Corinthian church formed a faction claiming he was more of their leader than the apostle Paul, although there’s no hint of rivalry on Paul and Apollos’ part. But he was in that foundational leadership group that included Paul, Timothy, Titus, and others, and enough of a heavyweight that such a letter as this was comfortably included in the New Testament canon. So, Apollos is my best guess. One thing’s for sure, though, whoever wrote this epistle had a serious grasp of Christian theology, and it has a unique role in the New Testament, spelling out in detail the terms of the new covenant and distinguishing Christianity from prior Judaism.

It does that more thoroughly than any other New Testament writing. I hope we’ve done the author’s big ideas justice. Now, in Hebrews’ final chapter, the author addresses some very practical quick hitters. You know how when you finish a letter and then you have additional important thoughts that come to your mind that you should have included, you add a postscript, a P.S. That’s what chapter 13 is full of. After all the big doctrinal ideas he’s explained, before he signs off, he wants to underscore several practically important exhortations, and he does so as someone respected enough in the early churches to be able to write such things from a place of authority.

Such ethical and moral instructions almost always follow doctrinal truths in the New Testament epistles. Have you noticed that? Because this is what Christians believe, now this is how you should live: doctrine followed by practice. And that makes sense, because without a doctrinal basis, where really is the foundation or reason for ethical and moral behavior? In the New Testament, the calls to ethical and moral uprightness are based on three things: righteous behavior pleases our heavenly Father and reflects well on Him. Second, it keeps the enemies of Christianity from having any legitimate ammunition against those who are in this new movement.

And three, it testifies to the onlooking unbelievers that followers of Christ were in fact changed people, and changed for the better, and that attracted some who were looking for such spiritual authenticity. From what we can read of the very early church, I mean outside of the New Testament, what others said about the movement in the early days, the Christians then were doing a much better job at righteous living than what we too often see and hear today. That is to our shame, and it makes you wonder why. That’d be a good topic for another kind of podcast, maybe one we get into in the future with panel discussions discussing important questions facing Christianity today. I’d like to do that. But as we close out Hebrews, let’s walk through the author’s several P.S.s.

First, let love of the brothers continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember the prisoners as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are also still in the body. Notice he doesn’t say, Start loving one another as you ought to. He didn’t feel the need to say that. Loving one another was the central ethic of Christ followers.

He had repeatedly challenged his disciples to love each other as he had loved them, and to stick together in unity. Christians’ love for one another was something the pagan world noticed and writers commented on at the time. The author says, Let that continue. Showing hospitality was one way they did. It was a tradition or a custom of the Jews that the author wasn’t urging his readers to leave behind. You can’t help but notice when you read through Acts, the earliest church’s history, that Paul and members of his team were often headquartered in someone’s home as they ministered in their targeted cities, like Lydia’s home in Philippi or a man named Jason’s home who hosted them in Thessalonica, or Philip’s place in Caesarea, and most notably Aquila and Priscilla’s house, which was practically a home away from home.

They stayed there so often in places like Ephesus and Corinth. In the pastorals, when it talks about qualifications to look for in church leaders, one of them is given to hospitality. And in another place, when it talks about which older widows should be aided by the church, one qualifier was she must be known for her hospitality to others. Hospitality, opening your home for the benefit of other people. It’s not as prized a practice today as it probably should be, whether it be to host a traveling missionary, like Paul’s team was, or to host a small group gathering, or to invite a new family from work or the neighborhood over for dinner. Hospitality should not be a dying art.

Who knows who you will encourage through showing hospitality, the author asks. Some of you have actually entertained angels of God without realizing it, perhaps. When was the last time you used your home for God’s purposes? When he adds, Remember the prisoners, he’s no doubt referring to Christians who had been in prison in the recent outbreak of persecution. He mentions the fact later that Timothy, in fact, had just been released from prison. If you were in prison, you would definitely not like it if everyone just forgot about you.

He was urging his readers to stand in solidarity with them, look out for their families while they’re gone. It’s noteworthy that the Greek pagan philosopher Aristides wrote in defense of Christians to the Roman Emperor Hadrian. This was around 125 A.D. And he praised their virtuous behavior, their love for each other, and their willingness to sacrifice for their faith. And in particular, he added, I’m quoting him, If they hear that any one of their number is in prison or distress for the sake of their Christ’s name, they all render aid, and if they can, they redeem them and set them free. Right now, in the West anyway, people are not put into prison for living out their Christian faith, fortunately.

But people in prison for other things are often a pretty receptive audience for the gospel. Prison ministries are fruitful, and one good way we can remember those who are in prison, in our setting. In the last church where I was the lead pastor, we funded a ministry to prisoners and their families. A Christian Russian couple was leading. The district where they lived had five or six huge prisons all located in one area. What a fruitful ministry they had.

People incarcerated have nothing more than time on their hands and are often rethinking their lives in those circumstances. It’s an ideal time to share the gospel with them and the love of Christ with them and their family outside. Does your church have a ministry like that? The PPS comes in verse 4 and is very straightforward. Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled, for the sexually immoral and adulterers God will judge. Marriage between a man and a woman—who would have ever thought we needed to make that clarification—is something Christians should honor.

It’s God’s most basic building block for society, the best way for two people committed to one another for a lifetime to have their relationship needs met, and certainly the best environment for children to be nurtured. The attack against traditional marriage and the undervaluing of the traditional home so prevalent today is satanic. Christians must not only stand against this in political ways, but live out commitment and sexual fidelity in our marriages. To do anything less than that, just because our contemporary culture belittles the importance of this, is a huge mistake. God’s standards do not change on this, and they won’t. Immorality is a sin against Him, against our marriage partner, and often leads to damaging badly our children.

We were talking last time, if you remember, about ways Christians can get off track in their race of faith. Well, this is one far too common. Flee immorality, the New Testament tells us. Within marriage, sexual relations are a beautiful, fulfilling, and bonding experience. Outside of marriage, they are a tantalizing trap that ends in ugliness and many hurt feelings. Fidelity in marriage and sexual purity are to be honored among God’s people.

Don’t let the lies of the enemy convince you these values are any less important now than when the instructions in the New Testament were first given. P.P.P.S. Make sure that your way of life is free from the love of money, being content with what you have, for He Himself has said. I will never desert you. I will never forsake you, so that we may confidently say, The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What could men do to me?

I will never leave you or forsake you is one of the promises in the Bible that every Christian probably knows, and it’s a great one. It evokes images of the pre-incarnate Christ in the fiery furnace with the three Hebrew men who would not bow, or to Paul and Silas in that dingy Philippian jail singing hymns of praise to God at midnight. But those aren’t the images which brought this promise to mind for the author. In context, he is talking about economics. I think he was thinking about those of his readers who had lost their jobs or their businesses or maybe even their homes only because they were Christians. Or for others, that was the threat hanging over them if they became Christians.

Be sure that your life is free from the love of money. Is greed and covetousness even a sin anymore? You wouldn’t think so in American society, where more and more and more and more is referred to as the American dream. An article posted on an online news site caught my eye just yesterday. The title said, Mormon Church sells off billions from its stock portfolio. The summary underneath that read, As of February 2026, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that is the Mormons out there in Salt Lake, are executing a record-setting multi-billion, with a B, sell-off of its U.S. stock portfolio.

This follows, it continued, a 2023 SEC settlement where the church paid a $5 million fine for hiding $32 billion in investments behind shell companies between 1997 and 2019. My word, like something straight out of Ozark. I could only comment, and I always do, and to think, Jesus only had the clothes on his back. Listen, he taught, beware and be on guard against every form of greed, for not even when one has an abundance does life consist of our possessions. And he taught, you cannot serve both God and money. Solomon, someone who should know, wrote in the wisdom book of Ecclesiastes, He who loves money will never have enough of it.

This is a huge topic in the Bible, but you’re more likely to hear a testimony from someone who admits they used to be a porn star about how Jesus changed their heart and life than someone who admits their life goal was to get rich tell about how Jesus changed their heart and life. I mean, when was the last time you heard a sermon on the sin of covetousness? The author of Hebrews has been urging his readers to run their life race looking to Jesus as the example, someone whose life seemed to be very little concerned about how much money he had. The New Testament’s teaching on the subject is, if you have enough, like food and a roof over your head, be content. And the author is assuring these early Christians, people who were facing the possibility of even losing that, don’t worry if that happens. God will never leave you or forsake you.

He is your helper. Don’t be afraid of what men can do to you. Make sure that your life is free from the love of money. P.P.P.P.S. Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings. There were, even in the second half of the first century, a variety of strange teachings emerging, foreign and inconsistent things being promoted to the Christians. Satan realized early on, it seems, that he could not defeat growing Christianity head on by just killing its leaders and terrorizing Christ followers. He realized he could do much more damage by subverting it, by creating movements, new groups calling themselves Christian, which revolved around false doctrines. Still some Jesus, but mixed with false doctrine. And boy, has that been an effective strategy throughout history.

Remember when we were in Galatians, when the Apostle Paul was so exercised about the willingness of Christians there to accept new ideas, different ideas, which contradicted the gospel of Christ as he had explained it to them? He said, Even if I myself come back and teach you something different than what I already taught you, even if you believe it is an angel who shows up at your church and teaches you something different than what I already taught you, let them be accursed. If you take nothing else away from listening to Share the Word than this, please, please, please take this away. The gospel does not change. The Christian faith was once for all delivered to God’s holy people by Jesus and his apostles and was written down for us in the New Testament.

But over time, there have been countless varied and strange things added, mixed in, presented by one group and another as Christianity. But get this. Didn’t Paul warn Timothy of this very thing, that is, that people would depart from the faith, following deceitful spirits and teaching doctrines of demons? Doctrines of demons.

I’m sure I’ve turned many off who don’t want to hear that when I’ve talked about the errors, say, of Mormonism, a religion that’s added their own Book of Mormon and other writings claiming they are inspired as the Word of God in order to teach their strange doctrines, or Roman Catholicism, which has added mountains of traditions and manufactured a seven-step sacramental system to try and save yourself through their religion, or Jehovah’s Witnesses, who deny the deity of Christ and the power of His essential atonement on the cross and so teach a works-based salvation, and modernist liberal Protestantism that long ago rejected biblical authority and its fundamental doctrines and has now devolved into a religion just advocating for social causes and left-wing political causes, and those who preach the prosperity gospel, which is simply a perversion of the true gospel, a message of accept Jesus in order to get materially and physically prosperous, and, most recently, those promoting the so-called New Apostolic Reformation, who claim their prophets are getting new additional revelation from God today and teach that Christianity’s real purpose is to take over the governments of the world.

Just to name a half dozen or so varied and strange aberrant versions of Christianity creating spiritual confusion in our world today. But listen. Well, let me quote the late lion of the faith, John MacArthur, here. God knows, so does Satan, the greatest battle of the Church of Jesus Christ is facing is purity of doctrine, because that is the basis of everything else. According to Ephesians chapter 4, the end result of the work of the apostles and prophets of old, and of evangelists, pastors, and teachers today, is to unify believers in the faith, maturing them in Christ so they will not be like children tossed here and there by waves and carried by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. A church that is not sound in doctrine is unstable and a failure, and its members spiritually vulnerable.

One of the characteristics of children is that they are not discerning. They don’t know how to tell what is good or bad for themselves. They judge only by their feelings and by whims. Too many Christians today, sadly, are like that. They’ve been so little exposed to sound doctrine or so long removed from it that they judge, if they judge at all, only by appearances and feelings. And as long as believers stay that immature, they are constantly vulnerable to any and every varied and strange teaching.

Bingo. That summarizes better than I could where we are, I’m afraid. And honestly, what he put his finger on is what compelled us to work on Share the Word for the last few years. Do we have it all right? Probably not. But I believe the Bible has it all right and should never have been and never needs to be added to and twisted by all the varied and strange teachings Christianity has suffered from.

We’ve tried to cut it straight and address all its big ideas honestly as we’ve gone through the New Testament chapter by chapter, and that’s been our only agenda. There’s one more P, P, P, P, P, S, which I’ll only briefly mention. Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. So let them do their work with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. In chapter 10, the author urged, Don’t forsake assembling yourselves together with other believers as some are doing, but do it all the more as the Lord’s return approaches.

Apparently, some were no longer meeting together as a church because it seemed too dangerous or for some other reason. But the author tells them, That’s a big mistake. Why? Because the local church is God’s invention, and its purposes of fellowship and teaching and ministry and worship and evangelism are all the things we need in our lives to keep growing in our faith, as well as influencing our world as the Great Commission commands us. If you are part of a good local Bible-believing church with leaders who are examples of what a Christian life should look like, you are blessed. If not, do your best to find such a local church, and then be a good member of it.

Never a problem child is what he is saying. Faithful pastors and spiritual leaders have important work to do. Encourage them, cooperate with them, pray for them. Our time is up, I’m afraid. I trust you’ve gotten a hold of the big ideas in Hebrews. You see, Epistle is vital to the New Testament canon because it provides a definitive theological bridge between the Old and New Covenants, that is, from Judaism to Christianity, showcasing the superiority of Jesus Christ and his finished work over anything that existed previously and over anything else imaginable, really.

And so we’ve come to the end of the New Testament writing number 26. There’s only one more to go. Thanks for sticking with us. I’ll sign off today as the writer of Hebrews signed off. Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant. Our Lord Jesus equip you in every good thing to do His will, by doing in us what is pleasing in His sight, Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.

Amen.