Hebrews 13

How do you say goodbye?

Keep on loving each other

V1 presupposes that we already areWe need to be involvedSpiritual and practical, not as strangersRegular outworking of relationshipsRemembering the pastRejoicing in the present

Supportive for the future

Just who wrote Hebrews?

Barnabas was an early favourite. Acts13, 1-4. He was commissioned with Paul and sent out

Paul. He seemed to write most of the new testament!

Apollus suggested by Martin Luther and currently in favour.Acts 18,24-27.1Cor1,12 1Cor3,4-6,21.

generosity

Should as quickly follow love in our lives as it does in this chapter

Outsiders, prisoners, those who sufferWe need our perspectives to be wider

than our own circumstances.

We need to be informed rather than insular in our own busy-ness.

New can be exciting!

But strange doesn’t mean truthPhil. 4,11 I have learned….1 Tim6,3-10. Godliness with contentmentThe peace of God, with us and in us1 Tim4,1-3…..some will abandon the

faith

A collective and a personal goodbye.

Not accepting everything

Only by teaching from the word of God can we develop our generous yet well founded personalities.

Marriage and the sexually immoral Love of money equating to a lack of trust. Leaders, their teaching and their lives

Religious observance…ceremonial foods

A time of change

V9 all kinds of strange teachings Grace rather than works. A different alter. The high priestly role of Jesus.7,18. 9,24. V11,as in Jewish tradition, so Jesus suffered

‘outside the city gate’. V13, a call to evangelism

V15, a call to a ‘sacrifice of praise’

Leadership

V17, ‘obey and submit to their authority’They keep watch over you AS MEN

WHO MUST GIVE AN ACCOUNT.Yet prayer is asked for. NT leadership is

not overbearing but has to be outworked in a spirit of love and generosity, v17b

1 Tim5,17-21. Instructions about leaders.

…and finally

May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen