“An Anchor of the Soul”
(Hebrews 6:13-20)
Series: Captivated by Christ (Hebrews)
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
- Take your Bibles and join me this morning in Hebrews chapter 6. We’ll be looking at the last part of Chapter 6.
We are preaching our way through the Book of Hebrews, verse-by-verse, and we are at the end of chapter 6—a place where the writer seeks to encourage his readers who were struggling with doubt and discouragement. These new believers had watched some of their friends fall away from Christ. They had once been among them seemingly as true Christians but, by their abandoning Christ, they revealed that they were never true believers from the start.
So the writer seeks both to warn and encourage his readers and listeners. The warning explains what happened to those who fell away. Like a field that, despite the constant rainfall upon it remains dry and produces nothing but thorns and briers, so these people never allowed the Word of God to get in them. They were hard-hearted. And so they remained unchanged. But the writer encourages those listening to his letter being read, he encourages them by saying in verse 9, “But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, better things that accompany salvation…” And the writer talks about their fruit, evidence of true faith among those who are part of the congregation to whom he is writing. True believers bear fruit like love—they love one another and minister to one another—showing that their lives are like a field that “drinks in the rain that comes upon it, and bears herbs…receiving blessing from God.”
And we left off with the writer’s encouraging these believers to go on believing, to go on producing fruit, to lay hold of “the full assurance of hope until the end,” to keep moving toward the promises of God. He warns in verse 12 that they “do not become sluggish,” but rather to, “imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises,” promises of God that culminate in our entering into the final state of heaven and our heavenly inheritance purchased by Jesus Christ, the one who is better than anyone or anything.
So he says again, last part of verse 12, “imitate those who through (their) faith and patience, inherit the promises” and the writer produces arguably the greatest example of one whose faith and patience is worthy of emulation, namely Abraham. And that’s verse 13 and following.
From verse 13 to the end of the chapter the writer blesses Christians with teaching about the “full assurance of hope until the end,” the fact that Christians can holding, holding on throughout their journey of faith, come what may, they will go on believing, holding on, moving toward the complete fulfillment of all of God’s promises to them.
And in these verses this morning the writer gives the basis for our ability to hold on, to lay hold of the hope set before us. Our holding on is possible because of God’s character, who He is and what He has done for believers. God’s Word is such that we can trust Him, take Him at His Word, believe what He has said, that what He has said, will He do. If we trust in Him, we can rest in Him. Listen for that as I read the passage.
- Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
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 (After Abraham 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 of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath,
18 that by two immutable 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.
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.
- Pray: “Father, by way of the Holy Spirit, our teacher, help us understand this passage so that we praise You and live for Your glory, in Jesus’ name, amen.”
There’s a phrase there in verse 19 that captures everything this passage is about. It’s the first part of verse 19 where the writer says, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul.” When I read that phrase I said to myself, “Well, there it is. That’s our sermon title right there: An Anchor of the Soul. The writer describes “this hope we have” as an anchor. Before we talk about the anchor let’s review something about the hope.
We are taught in the previous verse, last part of verse 18, to “lay hold of the hope set before us.” We are to lay hold of it, lay hold of the hope. So what is this hope?
We have treated this word “hope” before. We have noted that the way the writer is using “hope” in passages such as this, is to write about something that is absolutely certain and therefor absolutely certain to come to pass.
In contemporary English, in the language of our day, the word “hope” generally conveys something different. We often use the word “hope” to express something uncertain: “I hope it doesn’t rain today.” We’re wishing it doesn’t rain, but we’re uncertain about it. We’re closing our eyes or crossing our fingers that something will take place, but we’re not really sure whether it will. Despite the circumstances we are optimistic and hopeful.
That is not the way the author is using the word “hope” here. In New Testament passages such as this, the writer is talking about more than mere optimism. By the way, optimism in and of itself is not bad. It’s a good thing to be optimistic. Nobody likes to be around pessimists, “Debbie Downers,” people who are always gloomy and can never look on the bright side. Adrian Rogers used to say some people can brighten up a room by leaving it. Pessimists—the kind of people who approach traffic lights expecting them to turn red any moment.
The word “hope” here is not mere optimism or wishful thinking, a mere subjective feeling that something may or may not happen. This word “hope” rather, indicates something substantive, something palpable, something real. The word “hope” here stands for something. And the something is the reality of all the things that will absolutely come to pass. The word “hope” here is the absolute certainty that God will fulfill his purposes and promises. It is certain. We look forward—in hope—in confident expectation that what God has said, that will He do. Hope stands for something real. It is not mere feelings, but the actualization of real facts.
That’s why the writer says in verse 19 “this hope we have as an anchor of the soul.” Hope is something substantive, objective, factual, something that is so weighty in truth that it is, in a sense, an anchor of the soul.
Anchors are among of the earliest Christian symbols used among believers especially in the first four centuries of the church. I was doing some research this week on the catacombs in Rome. Catacombs are underground burial sites and there are 40 of them in Rome, Italy. Just north of Rome is the Catacomb of Priscilla, a rock quarry that was used for Christian burials, including the burial of a number of Christian martyrs, people who died for their faith in Christ. The catacomb is five miles wide and contains 40,000 tombs. Christians were buried there from the early 2nd through the 4th century, so AD 100s to the 300s. This is where the earliest Christians were buried.
Much of the walls and ceiling portray early Christian art, paintings, including frescoes of scenes from the Old and New Testaments and the oldest paintings of Mary. And so if you’re in Rome you can tour catacombs like the Catacomb of Priscilla. Got a picture of one of the rooms (pic 1). You can see some of the Christian art there.
While it is probably just legend that Christians hid in the catacombs, some Christians did in fact go to the catacombs for inspiration and even celebration on the anniversaries of the deaths of certain Christian martyrs.
Catacombs contained a number of Christian symbols, paintings and etchings of Christian symbols like a fish, or a shepherd’s crook, and symbols of an anchor, a symbol of “the hope set before us.” So you’ll see something like this (pic 2) or like this (pic 3) In this particular catacomb there are no fewer than 60 anchors inscribed on the walls. That’s a lot of anchors! Why? Because the early Christians understood that the anchor represented the hope we have in Christ. The anchor stood for the fact, the truth, that all of God’s promises are fulfilled in Christ and that this truth, anchors our very souls. If you are a Christian, God anchors your soul in the truth of His Word. Come what may, you will always be anchored by the truth of His Word, and your hope will hold.
I want to talk about that in our time remaining, how we can be sure that our hope will hold—that we will hold on, that our hope is an anchor of the soul—weighing us to stability no matter how wind-tossed the ship of our faith may be. No matter the storms of our lives, our hope will hold if—if!—two things, number one:
**Your Hope will Hold if you…
- Trust in God’s Word (13-18)
Trust what God says when He speaks. The writer here uses Abraham as an example of someone who trusted God’s Word, believed what God said to him. Believed that what God said He would do. Verses 13 and following:
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 (Abraham) obtained the promise.
The writer reminds us of God’s Word to Abraham back in Genesis and Abraham’s believing God’s Word, trusting in God’s Word, believing God would do what He said, fulfilling His purposes and promises.
If we had time we’d go back and review chapters 12 of Genesis—especially chapters 12, 15, and 22. It’s Chapter 22 the writer has in mind when he writes these verses here.
Several times God told Abraham: “I’m going to bless you and your descendants. From your own offspring will come a gazillion children, a people too numerous to count. If you could count all the stars in the sky and all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the world, you would be able to count how many descendants you will have, descendants who will be blessed as you are blessed, blessed to inherit the promises and purposes for each and every one—namely an intimate relationship that never ends, eternal life.
Remember that not everyone who descends from Abraham is automatically an heir of the promise. Romans 4:16 speaks of the people of God as those who “share the faith of Abraham,” people who have faith like Abraham, people who believe, like many of us in this room, who believe in Christ.
Galatians 3:29, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed (Abraham’s offspring; children) and heirs according to the promise.”
The author’s point here in these verses is that Abraham believed God’s Word. He took God at His Word. He believed Him. He trusted God’s Word.
That trust is seen time and again by Abraham. He wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but He truly believed that God would fulfill His purposes and promises to bless him and all who came from him.
So Abraham stepped out in faith when God called him to go out to a land He would show him. Abraham didn’t know where he was going, but he trusted God. And God said, “Abraham, you and your wife Sarah are going to have a child. Never mind that you are a hundred years old and your wife is in her nineties. It will happen.”
And then God gives them this son, Isaac. And Abraham believed that God would give innumerable offspring through Isaac. He trusted God’s Word. He trusted Him such that obeyed God even when it didn’t make sense. God said take your son, your only son, Isaac, and offer him up to me as a burnt offering.” Remember that? Genesis 22. And Abraham set out to do just that.
God was testing Abraham to see if he really trusted God. So Abraham lifts up the knife to offer his son Isaac as an offering and God speaks to him from heaven and stops him. And God says, “Now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son to me.” Abraham’s actions indicated that He loved God more than anyone or anything and that He trusted God to fulfill His purposes and promises.
The writer tells us later in Chapter 11 that Abraham so trusted God that he believed that if for some reason God allowed him to follow through in sacrificing his son Isaac that He would then raise him from the dead. Such was Abraham’s trust in God’s Word.
Do you have that kind of trust in God’s Word? The writer says that we are to “imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises,” those like Abraham. However difficult it may be for you right now, know that God will honor your faith in HIs Word, believing He will take care of you, fulfilling His purposes and promises for you. Even when it doesn’t make sense—especially when things don’t make sense!—go on trusting Him.
And the main reason you can trust God is because of His character. He always does what is right. There is no higher authority, no person above Him who is worthy of greater trust. And that is the author’s main point in verses 13 and following. He says in verse 13, “For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself.” You look up Genesis 22:16 later and you’ll read God saying, “By myself I have sworn…”
There is no one higher than God. He swears by His own name because there is no other name greater than His own name. Contrast this with the words of men, verse 16:
16 For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute.
The writer is saying that unlike God men lie and so they will back up their word by appealing to a higher authority as if to say, “I’m telling you the truth! I swear upon the Bible, or upon my mother’s grave, or God as my witness.” Men are inveterate liars and so they seek to back up their word by appealing to a higher authority.
By the way, remember how Jesus was critical of those who backed up their word with oaths? He said, “Just let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no,’ (Matthew 5:37).” Christians should not have to add to their word. Just do what you say you’ll do.
17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise (people like Christians) the immutability (the unchanging nature) of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath,
So God makes a promise and backs up His promise with an oath. So that, verse 18:
18 that by two immutable things (an unchanging promise and an unchanging oath), 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.
God is not like men in that He lies, so why is He swearing by Himself? Why the oath? Well, He swears by Himself, swearing by His name, not because His Word is inferior, but because our faith is inferior. It’s not that His Word is weak, it’s that our faith is weak. That’s what He says there in the second half of verse 18. God does this so that “we might have strong consolation,” that we may be encouraged. That’s why. He accommodates Himself to man’s way of reasoning.
To encourage Christians, those “who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.” The writer is saying that for God to “swear by Himself” is equal to saying, “My own word is good enough.”
Trust God’s Word. Your hope will hold if you trust in His Word—not your feelings, not your circumstances, but His Word. Secondly, your hope will hold if you:
- Rest in God’s Work (19-20)
And the writer takes us now to the work that God has done for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Look at verse 19:
19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,
What a verse! He’s talking about the stability of our hope—and remember this hope is a certainty, an absolute certainty, a confident expectation that God will fulfill all His promises and purposes in and through Jesus Christ. God’s work is what He has done for us in Christ Jesus.
This hope, then, that God will do as He has said is “an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast,” it is sure, secure, stedfast, unshakable, unassailable, inviolable, this hope we have in Christ. And the writer describes Jesus as “the forerunner.” See it there in verse 20:
20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
And we’ll be learning more about Melchizedek in the weeks to come, but note now how the writer describes Jesus. He is the One who—verse 19—has entered “behind the veil.” That’s where Jesus is. He’s not talking here about the earthly tabernacle or temple and the model of the holy of holies. He’s talking about the real thing, the heavenly reality.
Behind the veil in heaven, at the right hand of the Majesty on High, the very Presence of God Himself. That’s where Jesus is as our Great High Priest, forever working on our behalf—the work of His atonement for our sin continually being applied to us.
That’s where Jesus is. The word “forerunner” there is a word used of the person who went ahead and did reconnaissance work, the reconnoiter, the person in the army who went first, went ahead, to make the way for others to come. That’s what Jesus did for us. He went on a mission, living for us, dying for us, rising from the dead for us, and going behind the veil for us, the very presence of God, for us. And where He has gone on His recon work, we will follow Him there.
Jesus Christ has entered into the very Presence behind the veil. And every Christian, being anchored to Him, will follow Him there, inexorably drawn to Him because of our glorious union with Christ.
See how the anchor is such an encouraging symbol of hope? Every Christian is secure, stable, steady. Like sailors battling harsh winds and strong currents, the anchor holds them firmly to the ocean floor so they do not come apart. And Christians battling the harsh winds of life and waves of trouble and tribulation—family struggles, marriage, job, school, sickness—no matter the winds, we are anchored firmly to Jesus Christ and therefore will not come apart.
There’s an old gospel chorus, do you remember it? The Haven of Rest?
I’ve anchored my soul in the “Haven of Rest,”
I’ll sail the wide seas no more;
The tempest may sweep o’er the wild, stormy deep,
In Jesus I’m safe evermore.—Henry L. Gilmour
Sometimes Jesus takes us right into a storm, like He did with the disciples crossing lake. But never fear! He is the anchor of our soul!
When you go through life’s storms and you drop this anchor, it’s an anchor that doesn’t go down so much as it goes up!—upward to the Holy of Holies in heaven, upward to the Presence behind the veil! The anchor is attached to Jesus Christ. And where Jesus is, where Jesus has gone before you, so you will follow Him there. It’s as though the anchor pulls you upward to the One who provides your stability and security. You can be sure your anchor will hold.
I read about a little boy who was flying a kite. And the kite got so far up into the sky that you could no longer see the kite, but just this boy with a string. And someone came by and said, “What are you doing?” He said, “I’m flying a kite.” “Well,” the man said, “Do you see a kite?” The boy said, “No.” The man said, “Well, I don’t either, so how do you know it’s there?” The boy said, “Sir, I can’t see the kite up there but I know it’s there, because I can feel it pull.”
The greatest encouragement to you as a follower of Jesus Christ is to know that because He has gone on behind the veil, the very presence of God almighty, you are anchored to Him. He pulls you upward each and every day. And one day, you will be right there where He is. Your hope always holds, Christian, because the anchor always holds. Trust God’s Word. Rest in God’s Work.
We’re going to sing in a moment. We’re going to sing about the hope we have in Christ, the absolute certainty that our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. And when you sing verses 2 and 3, I want to encourage you to be especially mindful of your union with Christ. Listen to what we’ll be singing:
2 When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
in ev’ry high and stormy gale
my anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand.
3 His oath, His covenant, His blood
support me in the ‘whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way
He then is all my hope and stay.
Do you have this hope in Christ? Are you saved? Turn from your sin in repentance and turn to Jesus Christ this morning as Savior. Trust Him to be all your hope and stay. Are you living at a guilty distance from Jesus? Repent. Turn back to Him. In a moment we’re going to sing, responding to God’s truth this morning.
Some of you want to be saved, or you have questions, or you want to be baptized or join the church, when we sing, I invite you to make your way forward and you can come and I’ll meet you up front here and pray with you after the service or give you materials that will be helpful to you.
Let’s pray. “God, give us grace to believe you, to trust in your word, and rest in your work. Thank you that because of the gospel and our faith in Christ, our souls are securely tied to the anchor of our Lord and Savior Jesus. We praise you for a hope that is stedfast and sure, in Jesus’ name, amen.”
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