An older talk

Was looking through my noteboook that I use for writing out talks at church the other day. Came across this one. It was part of a series we did at church on the book of Hebrews.

I was talking the other day about what God wants to tell us and my daughter, in the sweet and innocent ways of the young child she is, said that ‘He loves us and Jesus Loves us too’. Nothing more need be said really in a sermon. Right there, in the heart of a three year old is the gospel. God loves us.

We have been looking at the book of Hebrews and we have come to the end. This is where we find out where it has all been leading up to. All those images and allegories. All those messages and helpful illustrations. The two major themes that we have been seeing are Jesus’ sacrifice cleansing us and his role as the Great High Priest. They all point to the same thing. Jesus is the (new) way to God.

Let’s have a look at the passage for today:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. God Disciplines His Children In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”    Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. Warning and Encouragement make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Heb 12:1-27

This is where the author of the book has been leading us. We are not sure who wrote the book, it may have been Paul. It sounds like Paul in places. It may have been Barnabas or it may have been Apollos. It doesn’t matter who the author was though really. God was the inspiration and it is 100% his message.

Don’t feel too bad though. This sounds like a tough passage but it is a very good one. I was very moved when I read it and I was so impressed by the message at the very heart of not just this passage but the gospel itself. It is full of advice and tells the listener how to run the race that has been set out for us. It tells us how to live the Christian life and how to get to Jesus.

There are three pieces of advice in this passage. Firstly we are told to get rid of what is burdening us. Once we have done this, we need to run our race with perseverance and finally we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. So, just how do we follow this advice?

Getting rid of what burdens us means getting rid of the sins that we do. Don’t ever listen to someone who stands before you in church and tells you that they are sin-free. They may be cleansed, they may be redeemed but they are still sinners. So am I. So are we all. There is no doubt that this is a tough passage but we need it. We seem to live in a world where the very word discipline is a dirty word. I remember at my previous school, when we were one of the worst schools in England, I was given a piece of advice. I was told that when marking my books, I wasn't to use a red pen because that was too ‘confrontational’. Instead, I was to use a green pen. There are genuinely people who work in schools and don’t want to discipline the pupils. Nobody wants to discipline anyone really.

God wants to discipline us though. He wants us to stop what we are doing. He does it because he loves us. He loves us so much that he cannot let us go on without changing what we do. I know that this can be difficult. People have different experiences with their parents and they have experienced different ideas. For the vast majority of people though, their parents thought that they had the best interests of their children at heart.

When God disciplines us (and he most certainly will) it will be different. He absolutely has our best interest at heart. He does it for our own good. Look at what he says in the book of Romans

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. Rom 5:3-4

See, by disciplining us God will give us character and that will give us hope. He won’t spoil us. He will not let us have everything that we want. No matter what some people say, God does not give us everything. The prosperity gospel is a heresy. It is something that is wrong. You may very well be successful and a Christian but you most certainly will not be successful because you are a Christian. We live in a world where some preachers want a $60 million plane for their ministry. That is despicable. It is heresy.

Moving on from that; God simply will not let us be burdened by sin. He loves us too much to let us get away with it. Being burdened with sins will hinder us in the race that we are to run with perseverance. We need to keep on trying. We need to not give up and we need to make sure we don’t settle for less. It is all too easy to take short term gains over long term security.

The author of Hebrews says that we need to be careful. Some things can take us out of the race. Sometimes we can be distracted by what is on offer now. Someday though, it might be too late. Someday soon, Jesus is going to come back and it will be too late. Look at Esau. He sold his birth right for a pot of stew. He was hungry and gave in to temptation. We need to make sure that we do not give in yet. Stopping here may look attractive but it isn't the correct way. The decisions we make here will have consequences. There are no shortcuts in the race. You are either in it or not.

Hebrews tells us to make straight paths. We have a duty as Christians to make the path straight. Nobody should miss out on the message of God’s grace. Perhaps there are poisonous roots in the way. This comes from Deuteronomy 29:18

Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison. Deu 29:18

There are problems in churches, we know this. They often cause discord and problems even in the best churches. We need to make sure that we stop them. These problems need to be uprooted, dealt with. Don’t let others give up and drag you down. Instead, use what Jesus tells us and show love and compassion. Pull others up. If the paths coming out of our fellowship are straight, it’ll make it so much easier to help others run their race towards the prize.

Getting rid of our burdens and not giving up are great. They are not enough though. There are too many distractions and we need help. In a race you need to look at and focus on the finish. In golf you focus on that little hole about twenty shots away (in my experience anyway). In rugby you focus on the try line. So what do we focus on in this race of ours as Christians? Simple really; Jesus.

There are two reasons why we need to focus on Jesus. Firstly, he lit the way. He is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. He is a literal trailblazer. Jesus has done it all and knows how to do it. The other reason is because once you see him it is impossible to want to look at anything else. I remember many years ago, in my first flush of Christian enthusiasm I was at Spring Harvest. I was given a vision by God that stunned me. It wasn’t a complex one. I simply saw Jesus smiling at me and our church. It was a profound moment and it was so beautiful. For days, I found it hard to think of anything else.

Of course, sometimes we take our eyes off Jesus. The church is riven with splits over unimportant things. Some great and powerful evangelists and leaders have taken their eyes off the prize. Steve Chalke has become far too consumed with other ideas lately. He wants us now to maybe consider changing the Bible because it doesn’t agree with his and society’s message.  I would suggest that he consider changing his message to what the Bible says.

If we focus on Jesus we will find the path and what a path it will be

The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendour of our God. Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. Isa 35

If we follow this path, we will head towards Jesus and it is important to realise just where he is. Jesus is waiting for us in Jerusalem; the New Jerusalem. Everything in this book has led here to this moment. To this place. When we heard about the High Priest Melchizedek it was leading here. When we heard about the temple and Christ’s sacrifice it was leading here. When we were taken through the great heroes of the faith, the author was leading us here. It all points to the New Jerusalem and the person waiting there for us.

Our race has brought us to Zion and not to Sinai. God tried to solve it all at Sinai but we let him down. This is not to say that God made a mistake at Sinai, he didn’t. He gave us a way but we couldn’t follow it. He had to find a different way. A better way.

He was always going to try again but it was never going to lead back to that mountain in the desert. Instead, he has brought us to the new temple where the Great High Priest is waiting.

Getting into the temple was made possible by Jesus through his sacrifice on the cross. His death on the cross made it possible to get right into the heart of the temple, to the place where God lives. The best part is that we already have a place there. There is a place reserved for God’s special children. When we pray, when we sing worship, when we commune with God, we are led into this place and it is magnificent.

What a magnificent passage. If we run the race, look where we end up. We end up in the temple before the King of the universe.

But this is not the end of the chapter though. It ends on a warning, and a very scary warning at that. One day soon, God will shake heaven and earth. Everything that is temporary will be gone. I won’t lie, this part terrified me when I read it. But then I thought about this …

I the Lord do not change Mal 3:6

God never changes. His voice still terrifies. His fire still kills. His face is too holy to look at. Nobody can be in his presence.

Except we can. It says so right here. This is the path that Jesus trailed. His death on that cross all those years ago tore the veil at the heart of the old temple and let us right into the throne room of God. This is it. This is the gospel right here. That message that my daughter knows already. God is so holy but thanks to his love we are holy too. Holy enough to go to the New Jerusalem and follow the High Priest into the Holy of Holies.

So how do we conclude? The Christian race is a tough one. We will be disciplined. We face stumbling blocks and we will sometimes stumble. In the end God will shake the world and it may be too late for some. However, it really is worth it. It isn't too hard. There is a great deal of encouragement for the Christian who is struggling.

Right at the start of the chapter is a wonderful piece of encouragement. We are not alone. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Imagine the scene. You've been running a long and tiring race. As you come towards the end you enter the stadium. The crowd go wild. Cheering you on, chanting your name, clapping and waving.

This crowd is different though. Every single person in this crowd has already run the race. All these people calling your name are doing so to celebrate with you but to also egg you on to that final push. Every single hero mentioned in chapter 11 is there. Abel is there. Abraham is there. Jacob, Moses and David are there. Samuel, Elijah and Elisha are cheering for you. Peter, the great disciple, Christ’s rock, is there for you. James and John the sons of Thunder are clapping for you. Stephen, Paul, Barnabas, Timothy are all there.

Every single one is cheering us on. Very single Christian who has been a part of your life so far and who has gone ahead will be there. Each and every one of them.

But, right at the centre of all this, there on the finish line with his arms wide open is Jesus. That’s what Hebrews is all about. The race is tough but worth it. We need to take heart, lose our burdens, persevere with our eyes on Jesus and remember that when it ends, it ends in the arms of Jesus, who loves us as well.