This evening we’re going to discuss the topic of “tradition.” If you have ever seen the musical “Fiddler on the Roof,” then you probably recall a rather large Jewish man singing about tradition throughout the entire performance. You may recall that tradition was a dreaded word to the young daughter who wished to choose her own husband instead having a prearranged marriage set up by her father. There are many people who fear tradition; but is tradition really such a bad thing? Michael Green states,
Traditions are often an attempt to either protect us from something that can harm us or keep us in the place where we are most likely to do well. Not all traditions are so characterized, and some are nothing more than outmoded responses to situations that no longer exist. Nevertheless, this old saying is true: “Never tear down a fence until you find out why it was built.”(1)
I think many of us would agree with the statement that we shouldn’t tear down any fences until we find out why they were built. Too many times we see the tearing down of tradition in Christianity. The best example is the new seeker sensitive churches, which have resorted to marketing techniques for church growth, rather than relying on God’s timing to bring the increase.
We know that Jesus didn’t have a large crowd following Him at all times. The crowds departed when He confronted them with the hardships of following after Him. Many churches are failing to relate the challenges of following Christ. They are instead portraying a cushy relationship that tailors to the needs of the people instead of the needs of the Lord; and they often do this by watering down the message. Keep in mind that we were not created to be served, but to serve. We are here to serve Jesus Christ no matter what the personal cost.
I’m not going to propose tearing down tradition. We need tradition to direct us and guide our steps. What I am going to do this evening is encourage us to find our tradition; or you might say “rediscover” our tradition. I want us to think about where our traditions currently lie; and then redirect our attention to one common tradition and one common goal that we all should have in mind as believers. It is one that should be at the heart of every Christian mission.
Our Future Tradition (vv. 13-18)
13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14 saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” 15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16 For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. 17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability [or unchangeableness] of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, 18 that by two immutable [or unchangeable] things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
There is a tradition found in these verses. So, what is that tradition? It is the promise made to Abraham. In Genesis 22:17-18, God promised Abraham that his descendents would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens, and from Abraham would come a blessing to the entire world. The blessing that God promised is none other than Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Savior.
The tradition here was the promise of the Messiah, or the deliverer. The Messiah was prophesied, meaning that His coming would occur sometime in the future. Therefore, Abraham’s tradition, which provided hope and guidance for his actions, was a promise made in the past with a fulfillment happening in the future. Because the hope of that promise was cast out into the future, Abraham grounded his hope in the future. In other words, his tradition went from being in the past to being set before him in the future.
We often get the impression that tradition is something found only in the past; however, this is only partially true, for tradition can also be found in the future. As we just discussed, the promise of the Messiah was made in the past, but the hope of that promise rested in the future.
For those who know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, our salvation and the promise of heaven happened on a day in the past. Many of us can remember that day when we walked the aisle and prayed to receive Jesus Christ. We were given a promise on that day that we would enter into heaven when we die. Therefore, the promise was made on a day in the past, but the fulfillment of entering heaven is set before us, cast sometime in the future on the day that God calls us home.
In our main passage, verse 15 says, “And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.” This is a reference to Abraham’s descendants. All of his descendants who looked toward the future and the promise of the Messiah, and who believed in Him once He arrived, obtained the promise of salvation. They looked ahead and their vision was made clear, so that when the Messiah came they knew Him and confessed Him as Savior and Lord.
Not all of Abraham’s descendants believed in Jesus as the Messiah. We know this because much of the nation of Israel still rejects Him to this very day. So, why did so many of the Jews reject Jesus as being the long awaited Messiah? It was because they failed to understand where their tradition lie. Many of them had their tradition fixed in the past; meaning, they clung more to the promise that was made in the past, than to the hope and fulfillment of that promise which was found in the future.
Israel still clings to the promise, rather than the hope. They say the Messiah has not yet come, and they are still looking for Him. Many are blinded by the promise, and by the things of the past. When Jesus actually came they were not looking ahead so they could see Him clearly and find Christ. They were instead looking behind themselves to the past, and they spiritually had their backs turned to Jesus when He arrived. We are starting to discover that tradition is not always found in the past. When we are dealing with Jesus Christ, tradition is often found in the future. Verse 18 tells us that we should “lay hold of the hope set before us.”
Casting Anchors Ahead (vv. 19-20)
19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
We just read that our hope is supposed to be set before us, but now we read that our hope is to be an anchor of the soul. Doesn’t an anchor keep a ship floating in one spot, so that it won’t drift? Isn’t tradition an anchor that keeps us grounded in one place? Leonard Sweet helps us understand the concept found in this passage by providing the following commentary:
The biblical image is clearly one of casting an anchor ahead, not behind, and then pulling oneself forward . . . A naval officer from the Second World War helped . . . exegete this image when he told how the battleships he was on survived terrible hurricanes in Chesapeake Bay. It was in similar fashion sailors in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries wormed their ships through tight places or dangerous spots.
It seems that when storms or turbulent seas threatened a ship that was docked in harbor, a crew of some eight or nine sailors would be sent out in a motor launch or “whale boat.” Their mission was to haul the ship’s anchor onto planks set across the stern of the launch. Motoring out to sea in the midst of the storm as far as the chain would take them, the anchor would then be let down and the ship winched forward into deeper water on the anchor chain.(2)
In the Old Testament, the high priest was the only one who could enter through the veil of the tabernacle. The tabernacle was a frightening place, because if someone entered being spiritually unclean, he would have been struck dead. Therefore, when the high priest would enter the tabernacle, he went in with a rope tied around his ankle and bells on the hem of his garment. If the bells stopped tinkling, then it meant that he was dead and needed to be pulled out.
The high priest, with the rope tied around him, was like an anchor that went before the people, making atonement for their sins and clearing the pathway to God. Similarly, Jesus is our High Priest who goes before us; blazing the trail into places that we’re afraid to go, clearing the way and pulling us ahead into God’s will. Now, let me apply this observation to how Jesus carries us into uncharted waters in ministry, helping us face our frightening and ever-changing culture.
Life is full of many scary storms and we often find ourselves seeking security in our traditions. When we look out at the changing pace of the world before us, we become frightened. We don’t really know how to reach the world with the gospel; and the only thing we feel that we can do is seek security in the things we know. We become afraid to venture out and find new ways of reaching people; and so, we cling to our traditional methodology of ministry.
The methodology we used in the past of inviting people to church and preaching to them until they accept Jesus Christ doesn’t work as well as it used to, because it’s difficult getting people to come in the doors of the church. We are going to have to go to where the people are. For example, we might have to go to the housing projects and hold Bible studies, do personal evangelism in the work place, or train our kids in how to share their faith at school.
I said earlier that tradition is not a bad thing and that we need tradition to guide us. But now I’m telling us that we are hiding in our traditions and failing to change them. What I want us to realize is that we often have our traditions founded in the wrong place. If our traditions lie in the past fifty to seventy years, and our way of reaching people with the gospel is rooted in that same time period, then our traditions lie in the wrong place. If we want to make an appeal to tradition, let’s go back even farther to 2000 years ago and look at how Jesus reached people with the gospel. Our traditions should be rooted in Jesus, not the inventions of men.
Once we root ourselves in Jesus Christ, and make Him our tradition, then we will be able to face the storms we encounter in life and the changing culture. Jesus is the tradition who becomes the hope set before us. He is not someone who lived in the past, died in the past, and was left in the past to be looked back on; but He is someone who arose from the grave and lives forevermore. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). In Jesus, our tradition is not only found in the past, but in the future as well.
We often talk about Jesus being our anchor. We fashion anchor necklaces to look like a cross. We say that an anchor never changes and never moves. I will agree that an anchor never changes, but it can move. We must cast the anchor of our hope before us into the storms of life and our changing culture. We must put Jesus in front of us at all times and make Him our focus and the model for our lives. If we live according to the example that Jesus gave us for ministry instead of doing our own thing, then we can be effective in any situation that culture dishes out. If Jesus is our tradition, then we don’t have to worry about compromising our faith in our methodology.
Time of Reflection
We may feel like the storms are too great and that we will eventually bottom out and sink, but if we cast Jesus ahead of us, He won’t stop the culture from changing, but He will take us into deeper water where we will stay afloat. Jesus will help us navigate the storm. We just have to set aside our fears and trust Him to take us through. The song “Oceans,” by Hillsong United, declares, “You call me out upon the waters; the great unknown where feet may fail. And there I find You in the mystery; in oceans deep, my faith will stand . . . Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders, let me walk upon the waters wherever You would call me. Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander, and my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my Savior.”
Are we willing to brave our culture with Jesus, or are we just going to stick to our man-made traditions. Are we willing to reach a lost and dying world with the gospel, or are we going to sit by in our cozy church and hide out in fear? In the November 21, 2000 issue of the Western Recorder, Charles Lowery said,
Too many churches act as though they are the Love Boat, focused on the comfort and pleasures of the passengers [or the existing members]. The church isn’t the Love Boat, the church is a fishing boat, it’s a working boat, it’s a rescue boat . . . God’s plan dictates what techniques and tools churches should use to reach people. If you’re going to fish, you’re going to use bait that fish like. If you’re going on a picnic, you’re going to take food that you like . . . It doesn’t matter what you like. [What you like] is not part of the plan.(3)
Remember, Jesus is our hope set before us; our great High Priest who has gone before us through the veil, in order to make atonement for our sins and bridge the gap between us and God. And if we’ll hold on to Jesus, He will carry us onward into heaven. Therefore, I want to close tonight by asking you, “Do you know Jesus Christ?” and “Have you confessed Him as your Savior and Lord?”
NOTES
(1) Michael P. Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), p. 379.
(2) Leonard Sweet, Aquachurch (Loveland: Group, 1999), p. 73.
(3) David Winfrey, “Lowery Describes plan for churches to tap God’s power,” Western Recorder, November 21, 2000, vol. 174, no. 46, p. 9.
