If there is one quote that could be used to define our time it would be this quote. "In a world of change, the only constant is change itself."
Life is continually changing.
Everything around us is in a state of constant flux. Very little if anything ever stays the same for very long. The only guarantee in life is that things will be different tomorrow and the next day and every day, for as long as we live. Information is changing. Technology is changing. The dollar bill is changing. Our bodies, our relationships, our workplaces, our vehicles, and our neighborhoods are all changing. I’ve noticed that in recent weeks a half-dozen people in my neighborhood have put their houses up for sale. I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with me, but I don’t know! I’m seeing a therapist just to make sure.
Speaking of changes, last week I became an uncle. My sister Deanna gave birth to a nine plus pound baby girl named Rachelle. In the hospital Deanna was just coming to terms with all the change her baby would bring into her life. Those diapers need constant changing, over and over again. In fact, over a dozen times daily! Change sure is great, isn’t it?
Years ago I was working at Lewis Memorial Christian Village when an elderly man stopped by my office. He was an incredibly gracious man who had seen it all. He had lived through the Great Depression, WWI, WWII, the turbulent 60’sand 70’s, and then the 80’s and 90’s. He loved telling people that he was approaching one hundred years of age. I asked him about all the changes he had experienced throughout his lifetime. From horses to SUVS. From hand couriers to the internet. From dirt roads to interstates. From home cooked meals to fast food.
For him all the change has been one gigantic blur and not all change had been for the better. The moral landscape of our homes and communities is eroding. Our culture’s values are shifting. There is less civility. Litigation is rampant. People flaunt their sexuality. We're becoming a culture of victims who demand entitlements. Families no longer sit down for meals together. Very little of the life he knew growing up as a child was still the same. The changes are too numerous to catalog. But all of this goes to show that in a world of change, it seems that the only constant is change itself.
Jesus Christ is unchanging.
In stark contrast to our fast paced, changing world stands the unchanging, timeless words of Hebrews 13:8 (NIV)."Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."
According to the Bible, in a world of change the only constant is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is steady. Trustworthy. Constant. He is rock-solid dependable. Revelation 4:8 (NIV) describes Jesus as, "who was, and is, and is to come." James 1:17 (NIV) tells us he, "...does not change like shifting shadows."
In Jesus Christ we can recover our footing and stand firm. We can confidently anchor our souls for eternity. We can have hope and not fear whatever the future holds. Consider the simple, unambiguous teaching of Jesus in Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV). "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
These verses present a rather ominous picture of life. Life is pictured as ever-changing and even at times violently threatening the life we build for ourselves. The foolish man builds on the wrong foundation. He builds on the shifting sands. These are sands that are subject to change. He trusts in the things of this life including his health, his money, his possessions, his accomplishments, his family and friends, medicine, science, philosophy, education, and politics. He has little room in his life and little time for God. He is a self-made man who trusts in his own abilities and wisdom. When hardship comes his life is ruined. He quickly exhausts his resources. He scrambles for shelter. He is drenched in worry. He loses his footing and drowns in the roaring river of turbulent change.
But the wise man builds on the sure foundation of Jesus Christ. He stakes his life on the one who remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. He builds on the unchanging, eternal word of Jesus Christ. He is the one who makes time for God in his life, who prepares for eternity, and who has the right perspective on the people and things of this life. When hardship comes he stands protected. He is shielded from the elements. He has nothing to fear. He is comforted with hope. He has complete peace.
The difference between the two men was not their circumstances. Both were subjected to the same storm. Both faced the same turbulent changes. The difference between the two men was not their opportunities. Both had opportunity to build on the rock solid foundation of God’s word. The difference between the two men in the story was their relationship to the unchanging Christ. This is the Christ who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. One had room for God in his life while the other did not. One embraced and built his life around the word while the other did not.
The question is, who are you most like? Are you more like the wise builder or more like the foolish builder? The answer is found in how you react to change. The foolish builder panics. He worries. She fears the future. The wise builder trusts. Our relationship to Jesus Christ is of great concern to the writer of Hebrews. He reminds us time and again that God has given us a life-changing, eternity-altering message which is a message that originated in the unchanging nature of God. This is a message that transcends time and culture and change. A message that is every bit as relevant today as it was two thousand years ago. A message that cannot be ignored or shrugged off.
The message of Christ cannot be ignored.
This message is the message of Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 1:1-3 (NIV) we're reminded, "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven."
In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But more recently God has spoken to us by his Son. God has broken the silence. He has gone to great lengths to get our attention. He has something to say about how we build our lives.
In Hebrews 2:1-4 we are urged to hold on to the timeless message of Jesus Christ and to hold on even while everything else around us is changing. Hebrews 2:1-4 (NIV) says, "We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will."
The image in Hebrews 2 is not that of a house being destroyed because it was built on the wrong foundation. Instead we find the horrifying image of a person drifting off in a sea of change because they did not grip the timeless, unchanging message of Christ while they still had the opportunity.
Drifting away from Christ.
For whatever reason, they let go. They ignored their salvation. They shut their ears to the message that God was speaking to them through his Son, Jesus Christ. They became vulnerable. They put themselves at the mercy of the shifting tides of change. They drifted away. It was a couple of inches at first, then a few feet, then a few yards, until they were completely lost and helpless to save themselves.
This weekend my parents are visiting us. The other night we briefly talked about a vacation we took years ago to Florida, when we visited the ocean. My parents warned us about the riptides in the ocean and told us how people literally get pulled out to sea, where some drown. I didn’t take their warnings too seriously. I reasoned that they were just trying to scare me. Nonetheless, I waded out into the ocean, one baby step at a time. With each step the waves would inch up just a little bit higher.
I tried to find that comfortable depth where I could be lifted up by the waves, but still be shallow enough to get back to land. I didn't experience a riptide, but I do remember the horrifying sensation of drifting further and further from the shoreline. With every break of the wave and without any effort on my part, I was being pulled out just a little bit further until I could no longer feel the bottom of the ocean floor. The ocean began feeling a little bit too big and the shoreline a bit too far away.
This is the image the writer of Hebrews is conveying when he speaks of drifting away. It isn’t an instantaneous event that he has in mind, but rather a gradual process that eventually captures us by surprise. We start off close to shore, but then we inch deeper and deeper into the water. Throughout Hebrews the writer describes how we begin drift away. We stop fixing our thoughts on Jesus and begin thinking about everything else. We stop confessing the name of Jesus and our lips become silent. We lose our courage and hope. We harden our hearts to God’s voice.
We stop trusting in God’s word and his promises. We try to establish a life independent of Christ. We give up meeting with other Christians. We stop being strengthened by other Christians. We forsake the assembly. We stop living a life of faith and become overwhelmed by life, with all its changes and transitions. We ignore the discipline of God which is intended to draw us closer to God. We live in ways that dishonor God and defy his will. Soon, the shoreline is no longer in sight and we find ourselves isolated and alone, without hope and without God, struggling in an ocean of change.
I don’t know which analogy, if either, best describes your life right now. If the life you have built for yourself is getting ransacked by the storms of change, or if you feel you’ve drifted far from God and the life he intends for you. Either way Jesus Christ is the only sure alternative. He is a constant, an anchor, and a firm foundation for those who have built foolishly or are hopelessly drifting.
The danger of false teachings.
In Hebrews 13:9 (NIV) the writer suggests yet another possibility or danger. He says, "Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings." He isn’t talking about someone whose life gets ruined because they built on a weak foundation or even someone who drifts away for one reason or the other. Here the writer is talking about someone who is getting carried away by misinformation, by strange teachings, by false teachers, and by lies and deception.
For the Hebrew Christians the danger was that they would be carried back into Judaism or to the Old Testament Jewish system of faith. There were teachers who were distorting the Christian faith by selectively imposing and prescribing Old Testament Jewish regulations on Christians. They were encouraging Christians to continue offering sacrifices at the temple instead of embracing Christ as the ultimate sacrifice for sin. They were imposing regulations about ceremonial foods and washings instead of celebrating the new covenant of grace that God has established in Christ. They were embracing Jerusalem as the city of God instead of embracing the new Jerusalem, the new city that awaits God’s people in heaven. They were injecting confusion by telling Christians that unless they obeyed the law in its entirety, they could never be accepted in God’s sight. We don’t know all the details, but it is generally understood what was going on.
In our day it would be exceptionally rare to find a parallel situation. We do not have to worry about someone imposing Jewish regulations on Christian believers. Instead, we are carried away by any number of influences. Every day our Christian faith is distorted in our homes, on television, on the radio (even Christian radio), in books (especially Christian books), in Bible studies, on college campuses, and in political campaigns.
There are those who hijack the Christian faith to advance their own agendas. Well-intentioned Christians use the Christian faith to coerce behavior, to rally people to their particular social or political cause, to defend a moral position or lifestyle choice, to excuse ungodly behavior, to sell merchandise, to build high profile ministries, or to gain notoriety. The message of Jesus Christ is so easily distorted and replaced with lesser messages, but these messages do not strengthen or even save.
It is important that we keep our heads up and discern truth from error. It is important that we learn the truth of God for ourselves so that we can recognize distortions. It is important that we pay attention to what influences and shapes our thinking. It is important that we carefully select those who teach us the word of God, whether it be a preacher, teacher, Christian author, leader in the church, or neighbor. We must discern where our ideas about God and Jesus Christ are originating from and then measure those beliefs according to the unchanging word of God. We must ask whether we are falling for a fad or strange teaching, or whether we are embracing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
After next week we will be done with our series in Hebrews. If there is one thing I hope you’ve heard, it is that Jesus Christ is your connection with God. Jesus is the one who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the key to eternal life.