So we continue our sermons here. We're not going to do it again.
We continue our sermon series through the book of Hebrews.
Again, a 10,000 foot view, looking at Jesus as simply
irresistible, the writer of Hebrews, whoever it was,
writing to a Jewish Greek audience, right?
That kind of deeper understanding of faith, people that have been in the faith for a while,
making sure they're keeping the main things the main things,
that Jesus has the highest, the best, the greatest, simply
irresistible. We talked, and I know you all remember the very
first sermon of this a month ago, that we talked about what are things
that are irresistible in life, right? And we didn't come up with
a lot of serious answers, you know, maybe you feel
your spouse is at times, maybe your
family or what you do for a living, but there
really isn't anything like irresistible, that we, for all
intents and purposes, have the ability to resist things.
Right? Whether it's food or, I don't know,
a sports team or whatever in life, maybe it's
even that ego or that pride of wanting to be wanted or needed,
we can resist a lot in our life. And what
the writer of Hebrews is trying to get us to understand is you don't need to do that with Jesus,
you don't want to do that with Jesus, you shouldn't do that with
Jesus. That what is the point of resisting the greatest thing
ever, period, in the world, ever, period? It is the best.
And last week we talked about that Jesus is the better covenant.
We walked a little bit through the covenants of the Old Testament, that Jesus not only
fulfills those covenants, but He is the better covenant.
We're going to stay there a little bit. We're going to do an overview of 9 and 10, because 9
and 10 are really kind of a review. There's a review
in 9, there's a review in 10, there's a little content there that's new.
We're going to touch a little bit of that. But we're going to talk about and finish up
this conversation around covenant. Now, it does get brought up one more time,
but in a different way. It's about those who kept covenant.
And again, we'll get to that in a couple weeks. But this understanding of covenant,
who remembers from last week what makes a covenant
different than a contract. So we have a contract mentality
in life that, you know, I look out at Colin, you know,
Colin, I'm going to mow your lawn, right? And you're going to give me
20 bucks, that's very Dutch of you. And understand that,
because you have a big yard, that's junk. But, you know, if I enter
into contract with him, I mow his lawn, he gives me
still sticking there, okay, even if I do a good job, he's
still going to give me 20 bucks. I'll pray for Weston.
And understand that, Weston's his son, by the way, and that if I don't
do it, he's not going to give me it. That's the contract. The covenant
is different. A covenant says,
and it's really odd to put a covenant on mowing the lawn,
because it's almost like a waste of the word, but the covenant says, I'm going to still
do my end, even if you don't do yours.
Ultimately showing and pointing to the covenant we have with
God, because while we were still sinning, Christ died for us, I've already used that today,
but that shows the covenant. The covenant should be,
I am holy, you should be holy, we should be holy together. But God
knows we can't do that. God knows that we mess up, God knows
that we do all of the things we are not supposed to do, right?
Paul says that in one of his epistles, the things that I don't do, or I shouldn't do,
I do all the time, and the things I know I should do, I never do.
That's us. So God knew we were never
going to be able to meet the atoning
sacrifice that Jesus was going to be for us. That's why Jesus
went to the cross for you and for me, not the other way around. You didn't go
to the cross for Jesus, I didn't go to the cross for Jesus, Jesus went to the
cross for you and for me. And therein lies the main detail
of covenant. A covenant requires sacrifice.
Because if you use kind of my dumb
lawn mowing analogy, it takes sacrifice for Colin to pay
me $20, even if I don't cut
his lawn. There's sacrifice there, right? He's sacrificing
a lot in himself. He's sacrificing
reason, right? He didn't do anything
for me, yet I'm still giving him the $20. Again, I understand
the example somewhat falls in on itself because it's not very good. But understand
that's exactly what covenant means. That's the
foundation of covenant is sacrifice. A sacrifice was required.
Biblically, a sacrifice required the shedding
of blood. I know that's a weird thing to kind of start off, maybe this is the
first time you're in church and now the pastor said the word blood at least three times.
But it is, it's by the blood of Jesus we are saved. That the
sacrifice required blood. Because blood
speaks of a life laid down.
Now, do I think that Colin's going to lay down his life for me not cutting his lawn?
No. Nor should he.
But understand that the ultimate sacrifice for sin, so that sin
would be forgiven and heaven now will be filled with
those in Christ who not only recognize the sacrifice, but
believe in God as Lord and Savior to try to live our
best life His way, not ours. That is the sacrifice.
Have you ever thought of that? Your sacrifice
to become a believer is that you don't get to live life
your way. Let that sit for a minute.
Because I know each and every one of you and some of you I've never met because you
are looking at your face and you are brand new. That's awesome. I want to meet you after service.
We all have an idea of how we should live our life.
I always say that I am
the head of the house but care is the runner of the home.
And that relationship is an intertwined relationship of our marriage
relationship. Maybe that's how yours is, maybe that's not.
And understand that we all have our roles. But yeah, there are going to be times
that we are going to get ready to go out. It just happened a couple of weeks ago
where all of a sudden we are both getting dressed and I am ready to go.
She walks out, looks me over once and not in an appreciation
kind of way and says, nope.
And I had to go change. I am a man.
I have been dressing myself for years.
Yet my wife can look at me and go, nope.
And what happened? I changed.
I did. Why? Because I weighed the options.
I could not change and we could just start our night with tension.
And does that resolve well?
No! Or I could submit and change.
So what did I do? I changed and went
way the other way to get another no.
We were late because I was being idiotic
and that was my choice. Now none of you are shocked.
But understand that there are times that we have
to submit. We have to understand that there is a better plan.
There is a better way of doing things.
And in that small example, God's way
of dressing us and telling us how to live our lives
is a better way. But I look at all of you and some of you
just went like this. You just clenched because you do not like
being told what to do. Now I am not going to ask who in your marriage
or your relationships likes to be told what to do more than others so they don't want to start fights
because then you have to reconcile before you come to the table next week.
But understand we don't like that because we want to make our own decisions.
We live in a world that is your way right away. Thank you Burger King.
You have all of these things telling you the way you are doing is just fine.
Live your truth. Yet a lot of those times
it denies what God is saying. And God gets the final say.
He is the be all and the end all.
He is the one that required the sacrifice, gave the sacrifice
so that you and I could have relationship with Him.
Alright let's start the sermon. So we are going to be in Hebrews 9
and we are going to do a couple of verses in 9 and then we are going to jump to chapter 10.
Again this is a little bit more of an overview and then we are going to get into really the bread and butter
of the second half of this letter.
And this is setting up. Therefore not even the first sacrifice
was inaugurated without blood. Going into the old covenant, the old sacrificial
system that on the day of presence
one lamb would be slaughtered and the other lamb would have the blood of that on it
and it would be sent out taking the sins out of the camp.
That is kind of the visualization of what that was.
There was sacrifice when it came to the covenant. How they walked it out.
You go throughout the entire book of Leviticus, the kind of Levitical
code, the holy code of living. Now some people quote that
when it suits them this Christ has fulfilled it. Again
He does not abolish it, He fulfills it. That in Christ there is a new lens
in how you do that but that is a sermon series in Leviticus that guess what
I have never written. And so I do not know if we are going to do it but we may
in ten years. And so understand that basically
this was the kind of thesis of the sacrificial system.
The covenant was made, it could not be made without
the blood. That blood had to be a part of it. Go to verse
19. For when every commandment of the law had been declared
by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats with water
and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book
itself and all the people. So this is starting to talk about the Ark
of the Covenant. And Raiders of the Lost Ark with Indiana Jones
only got it half right. We can see in chapter 9 what all would be
in there. You got Aaron's staff, you got the tablets, you got manna.
All of those things. Notice how they did not leave quail in there for forever because that
would have been gross. And so understand that these were representations
the Ark of the Covenant is a representation of God's
relationship with His people. That is why it was holy.
God said I called you out, I made you a people and I am putting the
representation because He knew we would be visual here. Keep it holy because
He knew, and this may make people uncomfortable, He knew
we were prone to worship yet we were prone to wander. And so
what does that mean when you mix it together? That there are times we wander and worship
things we shouldn't. So He said my presence will be with you always.
Well that sounds like Jesus in the New Testament. The fulfillment
that no longer do we need to carry the Ark of the Covenant.
No longer do we need to have the holiest of holies. Those
have been torn apart. Those have been set in itself
as Christ. And this is how He is fulfilling
the covenant. But what the Hebrews is going back to
is knowing that Jesus is greater. We have talked about that every week. Jesus is
greater than this, Jesus is greater than this. Jesus is not only the greatest
covenant, Jesus is the greater temple.
That He is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
When He was talking about that the temple would be destroyed and in three days
He would build it up. Notice no brick and mortar was broken. Just the curtain
that we now have relationship with the Father.
We have relationship because of the Son, because of Christ, that
Jesus is the better temple.
And yet in 2023 and over the last 75 years
we have put a lot of effort, we have put a lot of
specific things, we have put a lot of
hope and joy in the idea of building. And I know
it's a little weird to bring this up, we are going to talk about it a little bit at the family meeting.
But we don't have this mentality
or at least churches shouldn't because the last 30 years it doesn't work. If you build it they
will come. What movie was that from? Field of Dreams.
It was about cornfield in Iowa.
I don't know, that's not all that exciting to me. On the
list of date nights and the list of things that I am going to do with my boys I doubt I am going to
say, let's just test it out. Guys we are going to go see the Field of Dreams
next year in the cornfields of Iowa.
Ok, that backfired, he wants to go. Ok, I thought he would just say fire
again. But understand that that's, I mean this mentality
if you build it they will come. Guys that is
not biblical. If you stand on my
word I will draw all men to you is what the Bible says. Not
if you build the greatest buildings. No.
Though people may appreciate new buildings and sometimes having new is good
it shows effort, it shows vision, it shows all of those
things. The mentality isn't if you build it they will come. It's if you
stand on my word I will draw all people to you.
Because Christ is the greater temple.
I don't think any of us would debate this but Christ is better
than this sanctuary. Christ is better than the
community life center. Yet we do this, we have these buildings
so people can encounter Christ. We know that he is
out there everywhere. He is omnipotent, he is sovereign, he is omnipresent.
Not only is he alive and well in the sanctuary here, but he is
alive and well with Elaine Van Almen when she is driving in her car.
Right? He is alive and well in the Ohm's home.
He is alive and well when Jeff hunts whatever Jeff
hunts. He is alive and well there. That he is
all in us.
That if he is the greatest temple he gives us the Holy Spirit and tells us
we are the temple of the Holy Spirit that means we are greater.
If Christ is greater we are greater.
So what are we doing with that responsibility? What are you doing
at being the better temple of the Lord?
That's rough. Some of you are like don't put that on me
I didn't, Jesus did.
What if you are the only church someone on your street ever experiences?
In your job, the cubicle next to you.
That cousin that you really can't stand.
What if you are the temple of the Holy Spirit?
What if you are the only one they are going to encounter?
That should inform the way we live our life. And inform
what that actually means. Let's jump to verse 23 to 26.
Thus it is necessary for the copies of the heavenly things
to be purified with these rites. But the heavenly things themselves
with better sacrifices than these. For Christ entered
not into the holy places made with hands, which are copies
of the true things, but into heaven itself. Now to appear
in the presence of God on our behalf.
Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest entered the holy
places every year with blood not of his own. For then he would have had
to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world.
But as it is he has appeared once and for all to end
to the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Every year, every year the high priest had to go in
and sacrifice. Jesus did it once.
And said it is finished.
That is exactly what it is finished means. That is what the writer
of Hebrews is alluding to. When Christ died on the cross, this
covenant relationship of what we had to do is
done. Over. We don't have to go back to it. Now through Christ
we get to do these things. Talked about that last week.
That we get to live lives of grace and
love and community. We get to not live lives of
oppression and racism and injustice.
That we get to live out these things. And it is not
like the first time you let your son or daughter go when they are trying to ride
a bike because you ultimately know they are going to run into a tree.
He is not taking a chance on this.
He is not going, I hope they get it. No.
He establishes this new covenant. He establishes who he is.
And why he is our Savior and our Lord. And he is saying, and now
go from me and make
disciples. All authority on heaven and earth. God to Jesus
to you. It didn't pass through anything else. It didn't filter out
the kind of education you grew up in or the church you were a part of
or how many trunks you have done in your life. It doesn't pass through any
of that. God to Jesus to us.
That authority
has now been given to us. And we get to be
the temples of the Lord.
That is a high calling. Absolutely it is a high calling. It should
be. What if it was just like, hey,
you get to be the temple of the Lord when you like to, when you want to
on Sunday mornings. Friends, it is easy to be the temple of the Lord in the
temple of the Lord. But what is it like after Sundays?
What is it like when you are in the hotel room by yourself
on a business trip? When you are interacting
with your spouse and your kids. If someone were to look at your
marriage and go, here is the temple of the Lord.
The way you discipline your kids.
Oh yeah, they are following something greater than themselves. The way you work your jobs.
The way I mow your lawn. All those
things. Do people see Christ?
Because friends, that is the goal. And you are going to do
it perfectly? No! We are going to fall. We are going to need
His mercies. Thank God they are new every morning.
Because I need them. You need them. The church needs them.
Because we are not going to do everything right.
But that is why we weren't the sacrifice.
You are sinful. I am sinful. We couldn't be the sacrifice.
A sinless person needed to be that. And that was
Jesus. Once and for all. Now let's jump into
chapter 10. So it is a significant chapter.
Chapter 10 in Hebrews. Because it is really the bridge of what we have talked about
to what is. And it really just kind of repeats a lot of
chapter 9. So we are not going to read a lot of chapter 10.
But it starts off like this. For since the law has been but a shadow
of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these
realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are
continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.
Remember the draw near part. Otherwise they would not
have ceased to be offered since the worshippers having
once been cleansed would no longer have any consciousness of sin.
But in these sacrifices there is a
reminder of sin every year. For it is impossible for the blood
of bulls and goats to take away sins.
The reason why they had to do it every year
is because they were sinners. It is really easy. One plus one equals two.
They are sinners. Their sins need to be atoned for.
They can't do it. So they offer the sacrifices. Jump to
2023. We are sinners. We can't die to ourselves and make it all
go away. We can't be the atoning sacrifices. Jesus was.
But now we have the thing called grace.
Forgiveness. Reconciliation.
Colossians said that Jesus has taken all of this and reconciled it to the cross.
That the work for you has been done.
So you don't have to harbor those negative feelings. You don't have to seek your pound
of flesh. You don't have to look back to your childhood and go, I was hurt
then. I will continue to be hurt now and I will be hurt next year.
You can let that stuff go. The things that are going on in your life
now. The hurts, the pains, the addictions. You can let that
go. It does not define you.
If you are in Christ, Christ defines you.
Christ always will show you how to dress.
And there are going to be some times
he is going to look at the way you are living your life. And he is going to go
nope. And then you are going to try
to recalibrate. Don't make the same mistake I did.
Don't try to over swing. Because then Jesus is going to go
no. Because he is the one
that gets to call the shots. He is the one that
did the work. And I know that is hard.
We have a lot of type A personalities in this room. Hi, Pop.
This is Kettle. You are black. It is for me. I get it.
But even the most type A cannot
do this themselves. Even the most extroverted. Even the
most domineering. Even the most steamroller mentality. Even the most independent
entrepreneurial. Even the most trainer, leader, whatever.
We all bow down to Christ. Because we
have to be okay with the fact that he knows the best dress for you.
He can say
wear me. I will do it.
Colossians, the word in duio, put on then in chapter 3
is literally the Greek word for putting on a coat.
Put on Christ. Because he represents all
that has been fulfilled once and for all.
So what
do we do with this? We are going to turn next week and it is going to get fairly
practical in a lot of this. But notice you can't
walk it out. You can't live it out if you don't know what it is you are living
for. What is keeping you on that straight
and narrow if you will. It is remembering when you were
wayward. And maybe that was just this past week.
But Christ is the one that brings you back. That is why it is
important to come to worship. To hear God's word.
To take it and to mediate on it. Consume it and
let it come out of you. Because hopefully you come
off nice. Because it is really hard
to live the life of a believer as a jerk. It really is.
It is really hard to live the life of a believer as
someone who lies or has double speak or isn't
trustworthy or breaks confidence. It is really hard to
live the life of a believer like that. We say in the elders all the
time, the best elder is the elder that can keep confidence. Because
if you are known as just a gossip, you are going to make a terrible elder.
And you probably shouldn't be an elder then. Because breaking
confidence is hurting people. And elders are the overseer
of people. Pastors, same thing. But even
you without any kind of title. Are you trustworthy?
Are you loyal? Are you helpful?
I learned it in Boy Scouts. A scout is trustworthy.
And I said scouts not cadets. Don't throw stones. It's alright.
A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful,
thrifty, and reverent. They pulled that from the
scriptures. Back when they had that instilled in there.
And that is a great way to live life. That is a Christ way of living.
But knowing that the sacrifice is once and for all. What is
keeping you from living that way?
What more do you need? And I say that to me first.
What more does Jesus have to show you to show that he's
the greatest? He is simply irresistible.
That's exactly what the writer of Hebrews wants you
to wrestle with. And he's going to make a lot more sense of it
in the Psalms. Because then he quotes Psalm 40.
Psalm 40 says this, In sacrifice and offering you have been
delighted. You have given me an open ear.
Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
Then I said, Behold, I have come in the
scroll of the book. It is written of me.
I delight to do your will. Oh my God.
Your law is written in my heart. I have told
the good news of deliverance in the great congregation. That is the
world. Behold, I have not restrained my lips.
As you know, oh Lord, I have not hidden your deliverance within
my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and of your
salvation. I have not concealed your steadfast love.
Your faithfulness from the great congregation. Leave that up.
All right. This might hurt a little bit.
But for some of us in the room, we're really bad at evangelism.
Our definition of evangelism is I'm going to tell people that already know
about Jesus about Jesus. That's not evangelism.
That absolutely is not evangelism. That's discipleship, that's Christian fellowship.
And that's great. Evangelism is telling people that don't know Jesus about
Jesus. That is a working definition. We're not going to debate all the nuances of it.
But understand, one of the best ways to evangelize
is exactly what this Psalm is talking about. And doing, really doing the
opposite of that, right? For I have not hidden your deliverance
within my heart. You have been redeemed. It is
the greatest story of your life. I look out, and we have
some very successful people. Have run very successful businesses.
Have amazing talents. Have amazing gifts. You all.
Amazing gifts for the church. Right? That's not
your greatest story. It's because of the sacrifice and deliverance
of Christ that you have those things. But the best
evangelism is to not hide those within your heart.
Right? To never speak of the faithfulness of salvation.
It's the great... You guys come in and talk to me
when you get a new aspect of your job or you get a new job. And that is
all awesome. Right? I have boys that, you know,
Dad, look, I have underarm hair. Like, that's great. It's a wonderful thing
for them. But the greatest story you're living
out is the story of Christ and His faithfulness
to you. You don't talk about the faithfulness you have to Christ
all the time because we don't. We're not going to
lead with sin unless you're going to talk about salvation.
Oh, I've been there.
Maybe I'm currently there. And oh, man, I'm just a sinner.
Have a great day. That's not the
end of your story. That's not the end of your testimony. That's the one
of the two-one punch. Right? That is the evangelism. I was
a sinner. You saved me from who I was.
Lisa, that's what Jesus does.
Exactly. Jesus
gives you this story and says, all you got to do, and thought,
word, and deed is live my story out in you.
And I'm going to look at each and every one of you that believe,
oh, I don't have a testimony. I wasn't redeemed by anything. I didn't have a near-death
experience. Right? I didn't fall into the world of sex, drugs, or rock and roll.
And God delivered me from that. My testimony is so boring.
Right? That's my wife. For years she believed that.
And she had a pastor one day look at her and go, or
the steadfast of God has
been first and foremost in your life through anything
that came. And it just bounced off.
That's an amazing testimony. Because you could be like
me, ups, downs, ups, downs. Emotionally, spiritually, emo
through most of the 90s and the early 2000s. Right?
Denominational mutt who prayed a prayer but didn't think I did it right.
My wife always, she goes, I've always known God as Lord
and Savior. Yeah, one year, she confessed it at one point, but for her
it was like, she's walking and doing this like, I just took the next
step. What? That's amazing.
Now a lot of you are like, that's why they're married. That makes a lot
more sense. She is his center and his foundation.
Yes, she is. But what about you?
Your story, are you hiding it in your heart?
And maybe you're hiding it because you're embarrassed. Maybe you're hiding it because, oh, I'm in a
I'm in a world of nonbelievers and I don't know how they're gonna
take that. Try.
That's evangelism. Maybe because we're in the culture we're in
in Ileana, maybe you're in a
world where you work with a bunch of Pharisees.
And they live by the law.
And everything is law based and there is no grace
whatsoever. Maybe you need to be the one that teaches
them grace. That's hard. Don't get me wrong, that's not gonna be easy.
But if that's your story, how dare you not
tell your story then? Because someone may in fact
just need to hear it.
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your
faithfulness from the great congregation, from
the world. I hope in my prayers that's not us.
But the next two weeks is gonna talk very specifically
on what that looks like. Let's pray.
Father this is what you do.