Choosing a Harder Way For a Worthy End
Central Text: Hebrews 11:23-28
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.
Call to Worship: Psalm 36:5-9
LEADER: Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
your judgments are like the great deep;
man and beast you save, O LORD.
ALL: How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
LEADER: They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
ALL: For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light do we see light.
PRAYER/SCRIPTURE READING/CONFESSION OF FAITH: Esther 4:10-17
LEADER: Then Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say, 11 “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.” Esth. 4:12 And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. 13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” 15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, 16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” 17 Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.
The Word of the Lord
ALL: Thanks be to God
BENEDICTION: 2 Corinthians 13:14
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
- Tell us about a hard choice you had to make on the basis of what became for you a worthy end. Describe the moment, the experience, the outcome. Do you have a similar experience when it dealt specifically with a choice to trust the Lord? Tell us that story!
- This is now the 2nd elaboration by our author on the person of Moses. Why do you think our author chose to include him multiple times in his case for the worthiness of Jesus?
- Why refer to sin as a fleeting pleasure? Even if it didn’t involve something that might be considered sinful, can you point to choices or patterns in your life when you realized how fleeting, and therefore a waste, they were?
- If you had to choose whether verse 27 refers to when Moses first left Egypt after being discovered as the one who protected a Hebrew by killing an Egyptian, or when Moses last left Egypt during the Exodus, which would it be? (It’s a matter of scholarly debate!) Regardless, the fear he refused to follow involved a fear of man. How is faith in God meant to enable us to face different moments where fear of another occur?
- Read Numbers 20 for an account of the abrupt moment that led to Moses being disqualified from entering the Promised Land. What do you make of it? What might the event have meant to teach Israel–to teach us? There was great loss for Moses (and Aaron) in that, and yet he retained his revered reputation. How does the One who was like Moses, who came after Moses, both honor that reputation, but also hint at what Moses would one day later enjoy (see also Hebrews 11:39-40?
- The sermon ended with questions: have you ever taken refuge in the costly sacrifice of God? Have you become captive to some fleeting and foolish pursuit? Are you avoiding something you know is right and holy out of fear of what might happen? Who among you might have something to answer any one of those questions–or how you might’ve had to answer them in the past?
Illustrations
Quotes
Our children breathe in what we breathe out.
- Sinclair Ferguson
The greatest danger for a child where religion is concerned is not that his father or tutor should be a free-thinker, not even his being a hypocrite. No, the danger lies in his being a pious, God-fearing man, and in the child being convinced thereof, but that he should nevertheless notice that deep in his soul there lies hidden an unrest which, consequently not even the fear of God and piety could calm. The danger is that the child in this situation is almost provoked to draw a conclusion about God, that God is not infinite love.
- Søren Kierkegaard
...we send our children into the wilderness. Some of them on the day they are born, it seems, for all the help we can give them. Some of them seem to be a kind of wilderness unto themselves. But there must be angels there, too, and springs of water. Even that wilderness, the very habitation of jackals, is the Lord’s. I need to bear this in mind.
- Rev. Ames, in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead
BOOKS / DOCS
“Time to Rediscover Hebrews,” Sinclair Ferguson
Worthy: Living in Light of the Gospel, Sinclair Ferguson