My text this morning is from
Hebrews 3.14:
“We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the
confidence we had at first” (NIV).
Confidence. To hold firmly till the end confidence, the confidence we had at first.
Confidence. The mention of
confidence reminds us very much of the passage we read last week in 2
Corinthians 6:
Is that not what seems to come
across in what Paul writes ?
He writes: “We have very little in the way of
possessions. We face troubles, hardship, trials and imprisonment. But though we
have little, Paul tells us, we have found the secret of joy, the source of real
life, we have everything we need. “ There is no doubt that here is a man, Paul,
who holds firmly till the end the
confidence he had at first” (Hebrews 3.14.)
But what kind of confidence is
this ?
When the writer of Hebrews
says: “We have come to share in Christ if
we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first”what does he
mean ?
Does he mean that we will come to share in the blessings of Jesus Christ, the comfort, the forgiveness the peace, only if we keep running straight from the starting line to the finishing tape of life, without stopping, without looking right or left, without hesitating, or slowing ?
From the days of our youth to
the days of old age ?
In a kind of huge self-confident
inner strength that never fails,
because it ignores everything
that goes wrong ?
Is that what this verse means ?
“We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the
confidence we had at first”
Surely, this can’t be the
confidence that the writer to the Hebrews is speaking of because in real life,
as you and I know it –
there are times when we find
our faith shaken. There are days when our confidence ebbs away completely. Days when we may wonder what we are doing
coming to Church, because our faith seems to be almost gone.
And if we turn to the Book of
Psalms closely, we see David many times in this situation: running on empty,
running out of confidence in himself. David writes:
“I used to go with the crowds leading the procession to the House of
God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng” those were
the days – when he was full of confidence.”
But now, he asks himself: Why are you so downcast my soul ? Why so
disturbed within me ? .
Bono is the name of the lead
singer of U2, a rock band. He is a Christian and was once asked to write an
introduction to the book of Psalms – this is what he wrote:
“at age 12”, he writes, “I was
a fan of David…David was a dramatic character
because before he could fulfil the prophecy and become King of Israel, he had to take quite a beating. He was forced into exile and ended up in a cave in some no-name border town, facing the collapse of his ego and abandonment by God…. Abandonment, displacement is the stuff of my favourite psalms… for me it’s in his despair that the psalmist really reveals the nature of his special relationship with God. Honesty, even to the point of anger. How long Lord, asks the psalmist ? Wilt thou hide thyself forever ?”[1]Ebb and flow seem part of everyday life.
So when the writer of Hebrews
says:
“We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the
confidence we had at first”what does he mean ?
John Calvin once wrote[2]
that there are two reasons for losing our confidence.
He says that while we as
believers know the comfort of the presence of God, the comfort of knowing Jesus
Christ – there are times, events, situations, when we are suddenly thrown into
deep fears about life, about the future.
That’s one reason for losing
our confidence.
The other reason for losing confidence, John Calvin writes: is that while we may take great joy in all the promises of God, as our life deepens and develops in Jesus Christ, there may, there will come a point when in the light of Jesus Christ we become aware of our own sinfulness, we catch a glimpse of what we are like, who we are as men and women, and wonder how God can possibly accept us, or love us. And that’s another reason why our confidence ebbs away.
So, when the writer of Hebrews
says:
“We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the
confidence we had at first” what does he mean ?
Well, he does not mean that we should look only into
ourselves, our faith, and our belief. For if we look within ourselves we will see
ourselves sometimes calm, steady, sometimes struggling and falling.
As John Campbell Shairp, the hymnwriter describes it:
Twixt gleams of joy and clouds of doubt
Our feelings come and go
Our best estate is toss’d about
in ceaseless ebb and flow
No mood of feeling, form of thought,
is constant for a day
If we look only into ourselves,
our faith, and our belief, if we only look at ourselves we will see ebb and
flow, changing moods and forms of thought
No, when the writer to the
Hebrews says:
“We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence
we had at first”what he means is:
Let us place all our confidence
in Jesus, in Jesus Christ.
Let us look to Jesus Christ, for
we belong to Him. Jesus declares: we read it in John 6.39
This is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that
He has given me, but raise them up at the last day
He has redeemed us, and holds us in His
keeping. And by His Spirit He is sustaining us, and creating us anew.
Who is it that overcomes the world ?
asks the apostle John
the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God !.
Let us place all our confidence
in Jesus, in Jesus Christ.
Let us look to Jesus Christ,
for we belong to Him.
Just as, when Peter stepped out
on to the waters of the sea of Galilee
he was afraid and began to
sink…
He called out Lord, save me………
and immediately, the gospel
tells us, Jesus reached out his hand and
caught him…..
Let us place all our confidence
in Jesus, in Jesus Christ.
Let us look to Jesus Christ,
for we belong to Him.
Where does our confidence rest
?
Not in ourselves, but in Him………
In the words of John
Campbell Shairp……….
Let me no more my comfort draw
from my frail hold of Thee
In this alone rejoice with awe
Thy mighty grasp of me.
Amen.