My Blessing for the New Year

This morning, I wanna address an issue that's been running through my mind this week. People who follow me on social media will probably understand where it's come from. But basically, I've been thinking about the beginning of the year sermons. It's often preached, you know, in January at the start of the year where we reflect on what to prioritise for the year, what goals, what purposes we should have for the coming year. In and of itself, I don't think there's anything wrong with messages like that or thinking and reflecting and prioritising things for the year.

But in the last couple of weeks, through various ways, I've listened to a couple of sermons that have been preached mostly of the time with very little legitimate biblical context to say things of what we can expect, what we should expect for the new year. I heard words or phrases like decreeing blessings, declaring, speaking a word of authority regarding wealth coming into bank accounts or a bigger house or, you know, a nicer car. And I've been troubled by the amens and the hallelujahs that I've been hearing from the congregation. I mean, it's one thing if the pastor was saying that and receiving boos, but people were absolutely on board with them as well.

I won't go into exactly what I wrote or said on my Facebook account. If you have Facebook, please add me as a friend and you can look at that yourself. But what I wanted to talk about this morning, what I wanted to think with you about is what we as Christians can expect for this new year. To name and claim stuff in Jesus's name might be very far from scripture, but what is it that we can hope for as we move into the new year? Well, I'd like us to meditate on the book of Hebrews chapter six this morning, and we're gonna read from Hebrews 6:13-20, which is the end of the chapter.

Hebrews 6:13. When God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." And thus, Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of His purpose,

He guaranteed it with an oath. So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So ends the reading.

And there's a lot of stuff in there. But let's just zoom out a little bit, and we'll talk about the context in which Hebrews chapter six or this passage falls. In the earlier half of this chapter, in chapter six, we find the author of Hebrews taking aim at our conscience. At the beginning of the chapter, the author writes to an audience of mainly Jewish believers and challenges them saying, I want to speak to you about the ministry of Jesus Christ. But the problem is you should already know these things.

I wanna share with you what Christ means, who He means to us, but you should already know these things, the essentials, the ABCs of the faith. But he says to them in these words, you are spiritual infants. You're still waddling around in diapers. You should be on solid food by now, but we have to feed you milk. And then he says in verse seven that those who misunderstand or those who haven't grasped the ministry of Jesus are like a plot of land that bears thorns and thistles instead of fruit.

And this plot of land is worthless and near to being cursed, he writes, and is to be burned. And as a reader of this, you are left in some serious reflection. Some of the original readers would have been left reeling at some of these things that have been said. Verses five and six say this: those who have misunderstood the ministry of Jesus and have walked away from the Christian message, it is impossible for them to ever return in order to be saved.

That's huge. So each statement here in these opening verses is like a hammer blow, and it's meant to lay the conscience bare. It's meant to lay the heart bare. And just when you think you can't take anymore, I'm a baby in diapers, I don't understand the ministry of Jesus, I am potentially like a plot of land bearing thorns and thistles as my fruit,

instead, I would probably need to be burned in order to start again. But then the words of comfort in verse nine come. Listen to this: though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation, not curses for you, beloved.

Not a land that needs to be burnt, but for you, salvation and blessing. In other words, now that your ego has been sanded down to where you need to be, coming to that place where you say, oh Lord, I am so weak. I am so needy. Like a baby in diapers, I am desperate for you to take hold of me. And then we get to this passage that we come to this morning, and it's a passage of encouragement.

The word itself is there, and it's encouragement that we should take into our new year in 2019. These are the three encouragements or the three reasons for encouragement that we take into this new year. Firstly, we find the encouragement of God's unchangeable purpose. He tells us about this unchangeable purpose in verses thirteen and fourteen: when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by Himself, saying, "Surely I will bless and multiply you."

Now this promise, verse seventeen goes on to say, is an unchangeable purpose. It has an unchangeable purpose, this promise. The theological term for this unchangeability is called immutability. It means that this word, this purpose, this promise is unwavering. It cannot be changed.

It remains the same for eternity. And this promise is the promise that was made to Abraham to become, what, the father of nations. Remember that blessing in Genesis 12? And this nation becomes Israel. And Israel is to be a blessing to the nations.

Remember that's the other half: you will have a people and this people will be a blessing to the nations. Now what exactly is going on with that blessing? Well, last year, remember we did the covenant series and we dragged through these promises that God has made. Well, if you follow the line of redemption history through scripture, this is all fulfilled in the New Testament.

Where you see the blessing to the nations is the blessing that comes out of Israel, which is Jesus Christ. That's what Paul says in Galatians, that we are heirs of Abraham, whether you are Jewish or not. Those who put their faith in the work of Christ form God's people, because Christ is the fulfilment of God's promise to Abraham, a blessing to the nations. But this is what the author of Hebrews wants to stress, that Christ is the blessing.

Christ is the very fulfilment of Abraham's promise, and that shows the unchanging determination of our God to save. So where are we to look when hardships happen this year? We so often wanna look at what's around us, the situation that we're in, whether we are financially stable or not, whether we have good health or not, we look at these things that change so often. When we are being encouraged that there is a promise that has been fulfilled and its efficacy, its reality remains unchanged even today. Think about two people who have made a promise to be married.

It is a promise, right? Marriage. In a perfect marriage situation, you don't have to keep convincing the other person to love you. If you are on a treadmill of impressing and winning approval all the time of your husband or your wife, sooner or later, you collapse in an emotional heap if you have to keep impressing them.

You become a quivering mess of anxiety if you had to day in, day out prove that you are worthy of love, having in your heart constant fear that your spouse might just give up on you one day because you have ceased to impress them. Unfortunately, that is the case for some relationships. But you can see the freedom of the unchanging nature of the marriage promise. And it's the same with the unchanging promise of God.

We can rest. We have freedom. The purpose of God's salvation of us is unchanging, and that releases us from anxiety. That releases us from the treadmill. And friends, oh boy, some of us have been in relationships that have ended because of brokenness.

We have the promise that is unchanging. And friends, that gives encouragement to quivering anxious hearts. But then it builds, this passage, and there's a second reason for encouragement, and that is built on God's irrevocable oath. God's irrevocable oath. We find something really startling in this passage.

We've been transported, if we read it back, to the time of Abraham when God made His promise to Abraham and through Abraham to the rest of the world. And one of the famous verses, if you remember the story of Abraham, is Genesis 18:14, where God says to Abraham, why is your wife Sarah laughing at the news that she will have a child? Why is your wife Sarah laughing at this? Well, when we read the story, we understand Sarah's laughing because she's been barren all her life, and she is nearly a century old. And now she's gonna have a child.

But verse fourteen in Genesis 18 is just a classic line. God says to Abraham, is anything too hard for the Lord? Is anything too difficult for God? And we see, don't we, that there is nothing impossible with God. And yet, the book of Hebrews says that there is actually something impossible for God, and that is that God cannot lie.

Verse eighteen, it is impossible for God to lie. And there are two reasons the author gives us for why God can't lie. Now follow the logic with me. Firstly, lying is a sin. God is perfectly sinless.

Therefore, He cannot lie. His very nature precludes Him from lying. But secondly, God has made a promise on oath as well. He has sworn by His own name that what was promised to Abraham, and through Abraham to the rest of the world, that this would come true. And that oath is irrevocable.

It cannot be called back. It cannot be unsaid. Now this needs some explaining because no one really that I know still swears by an oath on anything, at least not in a day-to-day sort of setting. But when people swore an oath in the Old Testament, they would swear by something or someone who was known for their steadfastness, their unchanging nature.

For example, someone might promise to do something and say, as surely as the sun rises in the East, I will do so and so. Meaning the sun will definitely rise in the East, and as much trust as you have in that happening, so much trust can you put in me for doing this. The Israelites used to do this all the time, didn't they? As surely as the Lord lives. That is swearing an oath on the nature and the name of God.

Jesus then, in the New Testament, tells us to stop swearing by the name of God because it becomes a mockery of God's name. People would say, surely as God lives, I will do this. But then, because they're human, because they lie, they don't stand by that word, and then God's name is dragged through the mud by what they've done. Jesus says, let your yes be yes. Let your no be no.

But here we find this incredible statement, this incredible thought, that God promised on His own existence that He will bless Abraham, a God who cannot lie because of His very nature. That should be encouragement enough. That should be confidence enough. But then He goes one further and He swears an oath on the existence of Himself that He will do it. Think about it.

The one who has always existed before existence as we know it existed swears by that existence that He will honour and He will keep this promise. Will this God, can this God go back on His promise? It is impossible. It is irrevocable. He cannot un-say what He has said.

He will not do it. God says, in other words, I would rather cease to exist than begin to fail the descendants of Abraham. And friends, God has done this for us. He didn't do it for Himself. He didn't do it for the angels.

He didn't need to do it at all, in fact, but our God is the God of generosity and kindness. He's a God of commitment. He's a God of compassion and love because our God is the saviour God. And so He stakes His very existence. He stakes His very existence on blessing us.

But what is this blessing? What can we lay hold of and claim for 2019? Well, we see that in our third and our final point: the encouragement of our immovable anchor. Let's read that passage just quickly again.

Verse seventeen: so when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of His purpose, He guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have what? Strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope that is set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul,

a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. What we have here is Old Testament language, don't we? It's like just being lifted out of Leviticus or Deuteronomy. The hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain describes what the high priest, only once a year, would do in the holy of holies on the day of atonement. They would go in there with the blood of a slaughtered bull, and they would sprinkle the altar with the blood to show that the sins of the people had been atoned for, had been paid for by the death of this animal.

This was done to reconcile God with His people and the people back to God. It was the one day of God forgiving the sin of the people. And the writer says, now Jesus is our high priest. You will also say that Jesus is the perfect sacrifice. But the Old Testament practice, we know, was a foreshadowing of what Jesus would ultimately and finally and perfectly do.

Jesus is the one who now goes behind the curtain on our behalf offering a reconciliation sacrifice to God the Father. And here is this beautiful image that the writer of Hebrews gives us. He calls Jesus the anchor of our soul. I said, I just love that. The anchor of our soul, and this is where it comes from.

Listen to this: on the day of atonement, when the high priest went in behind the curtain to the holy of holies where God's glory was physically manifested, they would have to tie a bit of rope around their waist in order to be fed in there by priests who would be standing on the other side of the curtain because this high priest might just have forgotten to cleanse himself ceremonially enough, or they may have lasting sin in their life or whatever, and they might be struck down by the holiness of God. And so they have a rope to pull the body back out. This rope is called the anchor. Yet we find this incredible reversal being described here.

Jesus the high priest is the anchor. In other words, it's not those of us on the other side of the curtain holding Jesus so that if something happens, we might pull Him back. As the perfect high priest, having offered the perfect sacrifice, He is with God behind the curtain in the inner holy of holies, and He is the anchor pulling us in. It's an incredible statement.

Our anchor is in heaven. And this is because He is the priest, as is sort of concluded here, in the order of Melchizedek, who is a mysterious man that just arrives on the scene very quickly, very abruptly, and then disappears in Genesis 14. Out of nowhere, He comes and He returns to we don't know where. But the writer of Hebrews goes on to explain in chapter seven that Jesus is the one who ministered to Abraham as Melchizedek. The name Melchizedek itself means king of righteousness.

And now Jesus, our great high priest, is in the presence of God the Father, mediating on our behalf, and we are anchored onto Him so that He will never lose us. Because He is the immovable anchor, having set His heart on us with an unchangeable purpose, we are held in place by His promise, which is irrevocable. Does that not give us strong encouragement? And so what is this blessing we can expect going into the new year? Can we expect good health?

Can we expect stable finances? Can we expect kids to behave? Can we expect romance? These are all good things, and they're all blessings. And James 1:17 says, all good things are a gift from above.

But none of these things can we expect. The Bible never tells us that we should, but there is a blessing that we can expect, and it's the single greatest blessing of all. We who have fled for refuge to Christ will have a strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us, of a saviour who is busy pulling us closer and closer into His kingdom and into the very presence of God. And so we enter this year and we pray, Lord, what will this year be for me? Lord, in what ways will you use me for your glory?

Will you fill me with ability? Will you fill me with opportunity? Or will you empty me out for growth and refinement? The answer always is, you'll see. But remember this: in whatever situation, whether filled or emptied out, you are more blessed than you ever dared hope.

And so friends, I hope that we may say together, Lord Jesus, I am prepared for anything you want for this year. I am yours because I am anchored to you forever, and I know you will never let me go. Let's pray. Father, we pray for your incredible work in our lives this year. Lord, if your plan is for blessing, for fullness, for opportunity, for ability, Lord, of course, we desire that.

Of course, we say, Lord, please give that to us. Oh, but Lord, if your will for us is to be emptied out, to be sanded down, to be refined. We say, Lord, have your way because we know, oh God, that we are blessed. Whatever may come, we are blessed by the one thing that cannot change this year, and that is that you have become the anchor of our souls. Help us to draw encouragement from that.

Help us to find peace when the temptation to despair, the temptation to stress and worry comes. Lord, help us to find joy even in the midst of great relationship blessing. Lord, help us to find a greater joy than those things. And that is to know that our saviour lives and that we are His. Lord, bless all these people here.

Bless every member of this church. Bless those who may join us in this coming year. Keep this church safe, oh God. Keep us close to you. And Lord, we pray that we may be the church and the people that bring you glory and that is worthy of the name and the calling we have already received.

In Jesus Christ's name, we pray. Amen.