Stay Close To Jesus

 June 25 2023

Romans 8:28-39

         Well, our last day to worship together as Canton South Church of the Nazarene has arrived, sadly enough. This is of course, a difficult day and I wondered of I should even prepare a message. There might be some who would say, well what’s the point. The point is that God has something to say to us this morning if we are willing to listen to it. This has always been the starting point for every message I spoke from the pulpit. I always began each message asking God just what is it that he wanted to say to us who are your people, Canton South Church of the Nazarene, and this day is no different. As I come to the end of the eighth chapter of Romans, I hear God saying that there is something here that we need to understand as we prepare to get up and go from this place.

         Last week, we heard from the middle section of the eighth chapter of Romans and there Paul spoke a great deal about our life in and with the Holy Spirit. And Paul says about the Holy Spirit that through him the love of God is being poured out from heaven, so that we can say that the Holy Spirit is the living presence of the holy love of God. This holy love of God, this love which seeks the very best for someone no matter what the cost, this love which loves and keeps on loving, this love which comes completely without any expectations, but just loves us because there is just no other way for this love to be, this is the holy love of God whose living presence is the Holy Spirit.

         Through this Holy Spirit, Paul teaches us we cry, Abba, Father, the beginning of the prayer Jesus taught that we often call, ‘The Our Father”, or the Lord’s Prayer. This is a prayer which has at its core a cry for the will of our Heavenly Father to be done here on earth as it is done in heaven. As we enter into this time of prayer we do so as people who come in weakness. Our Heavenly Father searches our hearts. He is looking for those who are willing to bear his name out into the world. Our God wants our lives to witness to the fact that our God is a God of faithful, steadfast love. Our weakness is found in the answer to the question: Is this faithful, steadfast love what God will find in our hearts when he goes looking for it? Yet, there in that moment we find that the Spirit reaches into our heart and by his living presence brings into our lives the faithful, steadfast love of God. So, through the Spirit our Heavenly Father knows us as one who is willing and able to carry his love out into the world. This is what the Lord’s Prayer asks for, that our Heavenly Father, hallowed or holy be your name. Our Heavenly Father is known as being holy through those willing to carry this holy love out into the world, to be people who will seek the best for others regardless what the cost, to love without limits or expectations, to love no matter what. This is what Paul is writing about here, that when these people of this church at Rome rose up from this time of prayer that they would do so as those in whom the living presence of holy love was alive in them. Out they would go, people bearing the name of God, their Heavenly Father witnessed as being a God of relentless, boundless love. 

         Now, its important for us to make sure we understand that after a time of prayer we need to get up and go to work because this helps us figure out what Paul is really getting at in this twenty-eighth verse of the eighth chapter of Romans.  Often, this verse is translated as being, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose”. As this is interpreted, Paul’s words seem to contradict the truth that all Christians soon figure out which is that it is hard to see just how all things work themselves for good as there are many things that sure seem to be working for evil. So, it really seems that how this has been translated needed to be corrected. Someone much smarter than I am, by the name of Haley Goranson Jacob, took another look at this and it turns out that a much better way to translate this scripture is, “In all things God works for good with those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” Doesn’t this sound so much better and it fits with what Paul is writing about here. When we rise from prayer, we are to go as those who have been equipped by the Holy Spirit to join God as he works for good out in the world. This is the purpose his Word, the Word we know as Jesus calls us to do. Jesus calls us to follow him into the world to join our Father there in his work. Listen to how Jesus speaks of this as found in the fifth chapter of John,“My Father is working until now, and I am working with him.”  As Jesus lived here on earth he understood himself as working with his Heavenly Father to bring about the victory of good through the bearing of the holy love of God out into the world. And because we are in Christ, this is our calling as well. So repeat after me, “My Father is working until now, and I am working with him.” This is what Paul is saying must be our response to our time in prayer, a willingness on our part to get up and get to work. God is busy working for good, and he is calling all who love him to come and join him in the work of doing the good that overcomes this world’s evil. Those who are found to be working with their Heavenly Father in his workshop of a world, these are those who are considered as bearing the very same attributes as the Son of God, the one we know as Jesus. As God knew all along that the Son of God would enter creation as one of us to redeem us, so too in him, God knew we would be his redeemed to go into all of creation to live as those set free to love freely. As God had arranged before the foundation of the world that his Son would be the one who would experience the unthinkable, death itself, in order that through him creation might as last have life so too God has so arranged that in Christ we too might be those who defeat the power of death through the love of Christ so that life might come to the world. Isn’t this what it means to be conformed to the image of Christ? Of course! And just as in Christ God arranged that we would join him in bringing life to the world, so too as Christ was called to join his Father in his work, so too we hear that same call and get up and we too go to work with our Heavenly Father. As Jesus was justified through the resurrection so too we are justified through the resurrection power living in us. And as Jesus is glorified so too, in Christ we will experience his glory, this victory of holy love over the powers of death. 

         I believe that what Paul is doing here is pleading for this church to get busy joining their Heavenly Father in doing good instead of using their time to give power to works of the flesh which caused them to judge and condemn one another. I mean, what is their excuse for being up to no good instead of being busy doing good? Paul seems to ask, “Is it that you are afraid of the powers of death and darkness? Why would you give into such fears? Don’t you know, our God is with us?! I mean, honestly, who can really be against us when God is with us? Paul seems to ask this church at Rome, “Is the reason that you are not out their working is that you are afraid of not having enough to get the job done? How can you think this when you know that God did not spare his own Son but gave him up all for us? And if he has given us this greatest gift how can we ever believe that he won’t give us all that we need to bring good into this world? Paul goes on to say, “If you are busy working with God to bring good into this world who can really bring any charge against you? We can defend our actions by stating that we work with God so it is God who will justify all that we do. “Who is going to condemn us then?”, Paul asks, recalling here at the end of the eighth chapter what he began with which was that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation for those who are working with God to bring good into this world because they are those the crucified and risen Christ Jesus has got their back, he is always working with them. As we bear his holy love out into the world what we discover is this love is always with us, and there is nothing that can ever separate us from this love. This is an amazing promise Paul holds forth for us. I think he wants us to know, without a doubt, that there are no limits to where the love of God might be found. So, there is no room for any belief that there might be someone who is beyond the reach of the power found in the love of Christ.There is no tribulation, no distress, no persecution, no famine, no nakedness, no danger, no sword, nothing so fearful that the love of God can not overcome that fear and defeat it. As Paul writes, “No, in  all of these terrifying situations we are super conquerors, we can experience victory, but only through Jesus Christ who loves us. And what a love that Jesus has for us! This is a love that death nor life, nor angels and rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, not height nor depth, absolutely nothing in all of creation that can keep Christ Jesus our Lord from reaching us with the love of God. What a beautiful comfort.Yet this is also a challenge for us because now we know that if we have a source of love which can be ours in any situation and that there is nothing in this world which can stop this love from reaching us then we have no excuse for refusing to love someone. So, it seems as if Paul turns to this church at Rome and he asks, “If the love of Christ is ever present with us then can we really justify our judging and condemning of one another? Absolutely not! No, the love of Christ poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit empowers us to join our Heavenly Father in his work of bringing his good to life all over the world. This working with God to bring good into this world, this work of bearing in ourselves the the holy love which is ours in the Holy Spirit, this work has an impact on my hope that we might all remain close to Jesus when we leave this place. Here at the end of the eighth chapter of Romans, Paul is very clear just how it is that we can stay close to Jesus. The answer is that as those who love God we must be willing to go out and work with God wherever we go. We must go in the power of the Holy Spirit and take this love of Christ, and love on people with the holy love of God, the love that desires the best for someone no matter what the cost, the love that loves and keeps on loving, the love which has no expectations or strings attached, a love which loves only because we have first been loved just like that. This is how we can all stay close to Jesus. So may God find us at work with him, and may we find Christ always close to us. Amen!

The Victory of Holy Love

 June 18 2023

Romans 8:12-27

         Well, it doesn’t happen very often but, every once in a while, the Scripture that I am going to preach on actually connects in some way with the holiday celebrated on that day. As you also might have gathered, having worshiped with me the last five years, I work hard at keeping holiday celebrations to a minimum within our time of worship because, well, this is a time of worship and God just deserves our undivided attention. That being said, it sure seems like when you do have the words of Paul cry out, “Abba, Father,”, you just have to think that giving a shout out to Father’s Day seems rather appropriate.

         Well, not only does our scripture seem tailor made for Father’s Day, it also is a great section of the Bible that speaks to the last words that I have for you as your pastor. As I stated last week, I want all of us to stay close to Jesus. Let all of us understand that our church experiences come and go, but Jesus, the one we find where two or three are gathered, this Jesus is eternal. So, stay close to Jesus.

         This eternal relationship we have with Jesus is our connecting point with our scripture for today from the eighth chapter of Romans because here Paul writes of two very different futures that are ours depending on who we allow call the shots for our life. As you may recall from last week, the problem that had infected the social life of the Church of Rome is that there was a whole lot of judging going on. The Jewish brothers and sisters refused to eat meat because of the mere possibility that it may have been part of a sacrifice to idols. The Gentile believers thought such an idea was ridiculous because after all idols don’t even exist, so what’s the big deal? And so the Gentiles judged their Jewish brothers and sisters as being weaklings when it came to matters of faith. The Jewish brothers and sisters then proceeded to judge their Gentile brothers and sisters as obviously being lesser people because it was, after all, that God’s salvation came through the Jews. Do you begin to see how all of this judging and condemnation going on in this little house church in Rome was threatening to destroy any hopes of their being a people united in their love for Jesus?

         You see, while we tend to make light of judging others, doing it all the time without much thought about it, God, on the other hand, takes our judgment and condemnation of others quite seriously. In fact, it is this condemnation of others, this is the very reason as to why all that is found here in the book of Romans, how it is that through Jesus we are justified by faith, and now through Jesus we have salvation, all of what Jesus has done is really focused upon people judging and condemning one another. The problem with this pointing of fingers and our looking down our noses is that such attitudes come out of people whose minds are set on the flesh. To have our minds set on the flesh means that our minds are focused on the fear, the worry and the anxiety that arise out of our being faced with a certain death. So, to live by the fear, the anxiety and the worry, is to live a life where death is given the power to rule over our lives. And a sure sign that death rules in our lives is that we judge and condemn others, confirming that we are indeed not living by the Spirit. How very different was Jesus, who gave his life upon the cross condemning sin in the flesh, because he took upon himself the judgment and condemnation that we rightly deserved all so that beyond our judgment and condemnation we might have a life with him. His life is a life whose heart and mind are united with the Spirit for the Spirit longs to have a life with us forever.

         Paul, at the beginning of this eighth chapter of Romans, tells his listeners that there is now no condemnation for those who are united to Christ Jesus. And there rightly should be no judging and no condemnation for the Spirit has set us free from being people who allow sin and death to control them. Paul then goes on to point out how a life where the mind is set on the flesh is so very different then a life where the mind is set on the Spirit because he knows that this church at Rome wants badly to have it both ways. Paul, as much as points to them, and looks them in the eye and says, but, “You however are not controlled by the flesh but by the Spirit if indeed the Spirit lives among you.” This most assuredly had to have convicted those listening to Paul because they knew that they had not been living with one another in a way that witnessed to the Spirit of holiness. If the Spirit was working in them then there would have been life and peace, the blessed outcome of those who served one another as priests to God.

         Today, as we continue in this eighth chapter, Paul continues to come against these works of the flesh found in this church at Rome. Paul begins by asking just is it that we owe a debt to? Do we really owe anything to the fear, anxiety or worry that drive our lives? Obviously not! You see, if you live under the control of death then the outcome can be only death. Paul states that if you live according to the flesh your future, most certainly is death. Yet, all is not lost because Paul also holds out some hope because he also tells us that if by the Spirit you hand over to death the works of the body then you will live. Now, this is a rather odd saying, I mean just what is Paul referring to when he says to allow the Spirit to hand the works of our flesh over to death? Well, if you think about handing something over to death it isn’t a great leap to think about the sacrifices laid upon the altar for there was an animal, alive in his flesh, being handed over to death. So, I believe, here again, Paul is speaking to our lives in the Spirit in terms of being part of a priesthood, people whose work is the bringing forth of life and peace, as Paul alluded to earlier. The Spirit leads us to be his priesthood because through him we offer up the works of our flesh, those actions that arise out of our fear, anxiety and worry, as a sacrifice to God. This is to say to God that we are no longer going to allow our life to be ruled by the power of death. 

         If the Spirit then is moving in us to sacrifice all that we might do that arises out of our fear, anxiety or worry, then we must wonder just how the Spirit is going to do this work in us. We get a hint at this answer when Paul goes on to speak of those led by the Spirit of God. Here we pause to consider, just how does our God lead us? God’s leading is a tugging on us, much like Paul speaks of in the fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians. There he states that it is the love of Christ which compels him. The word, “compel” here means that the love of God causes us to take a firm grasp of Christ. When we know that it is this love of God which causes us to take hold of Christ then it is not difficult to understand the Spirit’s leading happens through the love of God. In the first few verses of the fifth chapter of this letter to Romans, we learn that it is the Spirit who pours the love of God out upon our world. This strange love of God is called agape.This is a love which always seeks the best for others no matter what the cost. This is the love that we learn in the Old Testament is always known as being the faithful, steadfast love of God, the love that loves and never stops no matter what.This is the love that flows through the Spirit as he pours himself out upon the world. The Spirit then is the living presence of the holy love of God. Just as we say that this love compels us, takes hold of us, so too when Paul goes on to say that the Spirit helps us in our weakness, the help that is described there is that the Spirit is vigorously grabbing hold of us as we are desperately taking hold of the Spirit. Those who have been so taken hold of by the Spirit, by this living presence of the love of God, these we are told are the sons of God. This use of the word, “son”, is used as one who stands in line for the Father’s inheritance. When we know that our Father desires to share his future with us, why, as Paul asks us, would we want to go back and find ourselves under the spirit of slavery, being at the mercy of our fears, our anxieties and worry’s? No, we don’t want to go back to a life where death calls the shots because now we stand to receive a future with God. 

         So, as Paul continues, he teaches us that it is this living presence of the holy love of God, this Holy Spirit is the very Spirit which marks us out as being a member of the family God. Through this living presence of God’s holy love which has taken hold of us, we cry out Abba, Father. Now, what is interesting is that here Paul uses two different words for the word, “Father”. The first is “Abba”, the Jewish word for Father, and the second which is in the original Greek, “Pater”. Here I believe that Paul is speaking of a different place where the Jewish and Gentile believers gathered. Instead of the table where they ate together, he now writes of being around the Lord’s Table, gathered in worship, saying together the prayer of Jesus, the “Our Father”, or as the Jewish believers would say, “Our Abba”, and the Greek speaking believers would say, “Our Pater”. This prayer centers around the command that the Father’s will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. We know God as our Father when we know him as the one whose will we surrender ourselves to doing. And the Spirit leads us to do the will of our Father because his holy love, his faithful, steadfast love which compelled Jesus to offer up his life for us, this same love causes us to offer up ourselves in service to our Heavenly Father. His love causes us to entrust our lives wholly over to his care having the peace that extends beyond our death because we know that there is an inheritance waiting for us.

         Now, this good news, that we have an eternal inheritance, a hope for us beyond the grave, is tempered by Paul who says, that yes, we do have this hope that we will share in a future with Christ, yet this is only ours if we are willing to suffer with him. Only as we are willing to join him in his sufferings now, will we  be glorified with him in eternity. We have to wonder why it is that we must suffer, why is it that when we are led by the Spirit we will be those who inevitably experience suffering? The answer to this is that the holy love of God, this faithful, steadfast love, this is a love that in every moment, can do nothing but love, loving on those who will return such love with love yet it is also a love which offers love when it is met with contempt and opposition. The holy love of God then can not help but be a suffering love as it is the very love witnessed upon the cross. Yet if such a love can be given and offered even to the end of life, then this is the victory of love over death, for if even in suffering a life does not let go of love, the power of death can be said to be truly defeated. This victory of God’s holy love over the power of death is what is known as glory. If we follow in the way of our Father, the way of suffering love, then, yes, we can know ourselves as being the very children of God. As Paul points out, if we live and love as children who mimic our Heavenly Father, then we absolutely will be his heirs as well.

         As Paul ponders on the glory that is to come, it is easy to see that just the thought of the coming glory overwhelms his thoughts. Paul thinks of how creation waits, searching the horizon, longing to catch a glimpse of those who have won the victory of love over death. To understand what Paul is getting at here we must first realize that as we are told in the twenty-fifth verse of the third chapter, that because of the righteousness of God, he has passed over the former sins until the coming of Jesus. This meant that because sin was rampant over all of creation, the very purpose for creation was put on hold. This is what Paul meant when he says that creation was “subject to futility”. Now, that the children of God are being born, at last creation can once again fulfill its purpose, as we hear of it in the second chapter of the prophet Habakkuk, “for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” This worldwide presence of glory happens as the children of God  take into their hands God’s creation and offer this creation back to God as actions of holy love which are victorious over the powers of death. This glorious hope God is bringing about is why we are told that creation is groaning and suffering because it longs to be fully set free from the power of death, this bondage to decay. Not only is creation groaning, but the Spirit is groaning and those who are led by the Spirit, they too, we are told, join in this hearts cry for life to come forth out of death . Paul, at the beginning of the fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians, helps us understand what this groaning is when he writes, that he groans because he yearns for all that is subject to death to be at last swallowed up by life. This groaning then is a hearts cry for life’s victory over death. Much like Jesus groaned when he called Lazarus out of the tomb, so too we groan, our heart, united with God and his creation, longing for a life of holy love to come and swallow up death forever. We long to at last have physical bodies whose very breath and life is the Holy Spirit, his love effortlessly moving us in ways that bring honor and glory to God with no thoughts whatsoever about fear, anxiety or worry. This is what we are to desire, to long for, to thirst and hunger for this righteousness to come here on earth just as it is in heaven. This longing, this groaning that rises as a sigh from our hearts, this is what is to focus our minds upon the ways of the Spirit. Without this grand vision of glory washing over all of creation like the waters of the sea, those who follow Jesus will become obsessed with all that may divide us instead of longing for the glory that we cry out to God to bring forth at last.

         You see, the reason that this church had focused their minds on doing the works of the flesh, judging and condemning others is that they no longer had a heart which longed to be swallowed up in life, the life of the living presence of the holy love of God, the very life lived in the Spirit of God. This being swallowed up in life, this is our hope, this is what we are waiting eagerly to experience, at least we should be, for this is our salvation. Yes, we cannot see such a world right now, but this is exactly why it is our hope, something beyond our sight which must be known by faith. This faith that we have, that one day the knowledge of glory of God will cover all of God’s creation like the waters cover the sea, this can only be ours through prayer. Paul, at last, comes back to that time of prayer that he hinted at earlier, where he spoke of this church saying, “Abba, Pater”. As Paul knows of the people of this church at Rome, they come to this time of prayer as weak people, people for whom this victorious life of holy love seems so impossible. But as they pray, they find that the Holy Spirit finds them right where they are at, and he reaches into their life from beyond them. In that moment, the holy love of God pours out from heaven into their hearts as the heart of God cries out, with a longing that words simply cannot express. There in that moment, this is when we encounter the God who searches hearts. It seems that here Paul is quoting from the fourth-fourth Psalm, where in the twentieth verse, the writer of the Psalm asks, “If we have forgotten the name of our God or if we have spread out our hands to a strange god; shall not God search these things out? For he knows the secrets of our heart.” God searches our hearts to see if we remember his name, his unchanging character, that he is a God of faithful, steadfast love. In our weakness, we do forget, we forget this holy love of God which should be guiding our thoughts and actions. But praise be to the Spirit, the living presence of the holy love of God, who reaches in to our lives and there, in the Spirit, our hearts are filled with holy love, and we are transformed into saints, holy people, because of God’s holy love. Through the Spirit we become people who are no longer weak, but fully able to do the will of the Father that we cry out to. So, when these people of Rome came away from this time of prayer, at last their hearts cry was to see, by faith, the victory of the holy love which now lived within them. So, it is in our times of prayer, this is when we encounter the Spirit, and our faith in the victory of God’s love is restored. We rise from our prayer ready to live out this victory, to cry out that here there truly will be no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So, we must keep on praying, and we must invite the Spirit to be with us, to fill us with his love. This is the way we can stay close to Jesus, today and everyday! Amen!

Belonging to Christ

 June 11 2023

Romans 8:1-11

         It is a difficult reality for me to realize that we have only a few more weeks together as Canton South Church of the Nazarene. As your pastor, I have had the wonderful pleasure to watch over you for almost the past five years. I hope that you have found that I have always put Jesus, his life, death and resurrection, always front and center, in all that I have done in our life together. So, as I thought about what my final words to you should be it should come as no surprise that my hope is that, beyond this time we have had together, you will stay close to Jesus. I say this because in my years as a Christian I have witnessed countless people who for one reason or another, simply walked away from their life in the church and, despite what some may say, you simply cannot stay close to Jesus without spending time with those who love him too. I have watched too often the fire of a person’s first love for Jesus go cold because of circumstances inside or outside of the church. I want more for you than that. Stay close to Jesus.

         If our closing caught you off guard, I have to say that it has done the same to me as well. I was working on a summer long series on the book of Romans and it is really hard to get all of that into three messages. So, as I thought of my last words to you and the book of Romans, I couldn’t help but to be drawn to the eighth chapter of Romans because it is one of the most powerful chapters in what is one of the most profound books of the Bible. The message found throughout this eighth chapter is Paul pleading to his church, and to us, to stay close to Jesus. Think of the very last line of this chapter, where Paul states that he is certain that there is nothing that, “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So, if God, out of his great love for us, has done everything necessary so that we can be certain that he is always close with us, doesn’t it just make sense that we should do everything we can do to stay close to God? This is the thought that we have to hold on to us we begin looking at this eighth chapter of Romans. 

         As we consider studies on the book of Romans, you quite logically think that they should begin with chapter one, that just kind of makes sense doesn’t it? Well, as I looked for another study on Romans, I came across one called, “Reading Romans Backwards”, by Scot McKnight. That’s a title that just makes you wonder what this guy is up to, doesn’t it?! Yet, his take on Romans does seem to make sense. You see, it is in the fourteenth chapter of Romans that we find out the real reason for Paul writing his letter in the first place. Paul, more often than not, writes his letters to his churches because of some problem that has crept into the life of the church. And this is what we also find as we read this letter to the church at Rome for in the fourteenth chapter we find that the members of this church had problems eating together. The Jewish followers of Jesus refused to eat meat because it may have been offered to idols, and the Gentile believers felt that idols are nothing at all to worry about so pass the roast beef. The problem that happened then is the Gentile believers began to look down their noses at their Jewish brothers and sisters because of their perceived weak faith. The issue was that these Gentile believers were judging their brothers and sisters in Christ and holding them up to contempt. In effect, they were saying that there were two kinds of Christians that were eating together, the superior Gentile Christians and those Jewish brothers and sisters who haven’t quite caught up to the level of Gentile excellence.

         For us, so many years later, this issue about judging people in churches might sound a little trivial. I mean, doesn’t judging people happen in every church? I mean, really, doesn’t everyone, including followers of Jesus, have these two lists stating who is, “us”, and who is, “them”, and the perfectly good reasons why each person is on that list? Sure we do, so what’s the big deal? The big deal is that all of the profound teachings that we find in this book of Romans are all there precisely to deal with this issue of judging others. Think about how profound it is that a problem with a group of less than fifty people, a problem involving the judging of others, this is what the God who rules over all of the universe is concerned with, this is the issue that God, through all he has done through the death and resurrection of Jesus and now through the Holy Spirit is focused on eliminating from our lives. When you know this, then how really trivial is our judging of others?

         As we begin to look at this eighth chapter of Romans then, we have to hold on to this fact that these words were being spoken to these very people who are judging each other, each group thinking that there is something quite inferior with the other. When you understand that this is the situation within the church at Rome then it changes how we hear the first words of this eighth chapter, “ There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.” Previously,  I always thought this verse was nothing more than the good news for we are told that we who are in Christ Jesus never have to fear being found condemned by God. And this is very much true, but, what if, Paul is saying to his audience that therefore now there should be no condemning of one another among those who are found in Christ Jesus? If this is what Paul is saying then we have to figure out just what has happened so that there should no longer be any judging of one another in the body of Christ. When we look at the verses that are found at the end of the seventh chapter of Romans, we find Paul speaking of how it is impossible for any of us to do anything good on our own. As Paul says there, “I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out”.  It was the sin that lived within Paul that was doing in him the very opposite of the good that he wanted to do. As Paul continues, he was no more than a captive to the law of sin that lived in him. The question then for Paul was, “Who will  deliver him, set him free, from his body of death? The answer, is, of course, Jesus. He is who has set us free from a body enslaved to sin because of the weakness of our bodies that simply cannot do anything else but sin. And since we have been set free from being at the mercy of our sinful flesh then, Paul says, there should be no condemnation, no judging of one another, for those who now live through Jesus. What Paul is implying here is that this judging of one another, this is an action of our flesh, our sinful flesh, which we are supposed to have been saved from, delivered out of by Jesus. You see, we are no longer to be people who are enslaved to the sinful actions of our flesh because we have been set free through the law of the Spirit. Now, when Paul here speaks of the law of the Spirit he is speaking to the ways that the Spirit acts and it is these actions of the Spirit that are the very way of the life of liberty. So, it is the Spirit living and acting in us, this is how we have been set free from the law of sin and death. So, God has done what the law desired to bring about, the good that we know to do, the very good that our flesh just could not do.

So, now we have been given a way to have a life beyond our failure and death through the Holy Spirit. This has come about because God, as Paul explains, has, “…sent his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh to be an offering for sin, condemning sin in the flesh…” Here then is the judgment that should be focused upon, the judgment cast upon our sin through the sending of the Son. Yes, our sin was judged to be worthy of death yet this is not where God would leave us because he went further because he gave his Son as an offering for sin. You see, what is important for God is that we might have a life with him beyond this death that we deserve.This being with us is so critical for God that in order for us to have life with him, God was willing to give his own Son, have him take upon himself a human life so that he could represent us all and offer himself as the one who would bear the consequences of our sin, all so that we might have a life with God beyond the death that we deserve. Yes, God did condemn and does condemn the sin that happens through the weakness of our flesh but this is not where God leaves us, judged without mercy; no, God offered himself and joined us in our death so that we might be able to join him in his life. It is not hard to begin to figure out what Paul calls, ‘the law of the Spirit of life”, because this is what has been seen in the life and death of Jesus who was willing to offer his life because a life together with us was worth giving his life to make such a life possible. So, if God was willing to give the life of his Son so that we might have a life with him beyond our condemnation, are you beginning to see the implications for us whenever we are tempted to judge others, condemn them, set them apart as not being worthy of being part of our life? In the light of Jesus we are forced to ask ourselves just what is the most important thing, our judgment of a person, or, our life together with that person? This choosing a life together with others instead of choosing a life separate from them because of our judgment this is what is the right choice that we are to make because this is what God judges as being the right way to live, the way of life that his law spelled out. To live as God intends then, is to live by the Spirit, to have a life captured by what the love of God has done for us, giving us a life beyond our righteous judgment through his offering of himself. In the Spirit then we yield ourselves to God and offer ourselves fully committed to seeking unity with others, even those who we could judge as not being worthy of sharing life with.

         So, yes, there is now no condemning and judging of others for those in Christ Jesus, and this means us. Paul here aligns with what we all know is found in John 3:16 where we hear that, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” We all probably know these words but the words that follow these in the third chapter of John are just as important because Jesus adds, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” As I read this I am reminded of something that has been on a lot of Facebook pages lately which is a quote by David Huskins who wrote, “If God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn it, I doubt he sent you.” There is a lot to think about in this brief statement especially in light of what Jesus says here in this third chapter of John. I believe that when Jesus says that a person is condemned when they do not believe in the name of the only Son of God that this means that a person has missed the mark when they do not trust the ways of Jesus, the very acts which reflect his unchanging characteristics that are his very name. The way of Jesus, his unchanging character, is to do whatever it takes to have a life with us, even if it meant giving his life in order to do so. So, to believe in Jesus is to trust that we should do everything we can to have a life together with people even if it means we need to give our life to make it happen. Knowing this, we have to seriously ask ourselves do we really trust that this is the right way to live? Or better yet, does our life reflect that this way of Jesus is the true way we are living because faith is just words unless you are willing to act on the truth you believe in.

         Paul, here at the beginning of this eighth chapter of Romans is asking his audience, which has this reputation for passing judgment on each other, just which way do they really want to live, by the flesh or by the Spirit? When Paul talks about life according to the flesh, he is speaking about a life lived under the constant fear and anxiety of death. This is a life that tries to find some relief from this nagging anxiety and worry through the storing up of treasures. It is a life which takes pride in what one has because this is a way to tell ourselves just how great we are yet all the while knowing, deep down, that we are never greater than death which comes to everybody. And this way of life affects how we live with others because we search for those who can add to our treasury and we guard ourselves from those who we feel might take what secures us. So, the life of the flesh is a life that becomes focused on itself, on allowing in to this life only those who could be assets to ones cause; everyone else is judged, pushed aside as those who just didn’t make the grade. And Paul flat out states what he has already stated in the seventh chapter, that such a life with a mindset fueled by fear, loss, anxiety and worry is a life that is no life at all, a life where death has won because it is death which is really calling the shots.

         Fortunately for us, Jesus has given us a life beyond our condemnation because he desires a life with us, a life where the mind, our thoughts, are focused on the Spirit. Paul tells us that to set our minds on the Spirit is life and peace. This phrase, “…life and peace”, seems to be an echo of a verse Paul knew from the second chapter of the prophet of Malachi where God, speaking of the Leviticus priests said, “My covenant with him was one of life and peace and I gave it to them. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name.” A life where the mind is set on the Spirit, then, is one that thinks of themselves as being priests to God. When the Spirit overwhelms ones thoughts then the greatest concern becomes life above everything else and peace, which is a life together with all people no matter how different from us they might be. As a priest who seeks life they are to be people who are focused on offering and sacrifice, the giving of ones life for this is the way of Jesus. Instead of being driven by the fear of death, those who are priests fear only God. They are in awe of the name of God, amazed by his faithful, steadfast love which when enfleshed by our life became a life willing to offer itself for us. In the light of such a mighty act of God all other fears fall away and in their place is found our faith.

         Now, here is the very big difference between these two very different ways of life, the one where the mind is set on the flesh or the life where the mind is set on the Spirit, and that is that the mind set on the flesh can not please God. The reason for this is that a life that has its mind set on the flesh, these are people who are enemies of God because in their flesh they simply cannot live a life that is ordered by the ways of God. Now, after Paul points out the difference between a life where the mind is set on the flesh and a life where the mind is set on the Spirit, he then turns to his audience, and looks at them and says but you, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. “Am I right,?’, Paul seems to ask because he has had to bring up these two ways of life on account that there is a whole lot of judging going on, and if they are going around pointing fingers one really has to wonder just what their minds are set on, the flesh or the Spirit. So, Paul reminds them that they are people who are in the Spirit, remember? The question they had to answer is did the Spirit of God live among them? Here I believe Paul is asking them, is the life of the Spirit, the life where each know themselves as priests, those who offer themselves for the good of all because of their awe of God, is this the life you see as you gather around the table? And here is why this is so important, because if such a  life in the Spirit is not found, then Paul goes on to tell us, you cannot really say that you belong to Jesus. Here, Paul speaks to my concern for us, that we might discover, at some point, that we no longer belong to Jesus. I want us all to remain close to God, that all of us can say that, yes, we do belong to Jesus. So, please, listen to what Paul teaches us, judging others is a sure way of not being found on the side of Jesus. So, let’s ask ourselves, does the Spirit dwell among us? Maybe it is time for us to get rid of those lists we have of who we count as “us” and who we count as “them” and instead let us get busy seeking life and peace with everyone. Amen!

         

Becoming An Offering

 June 4 2023

Hebrews 11:39-40, 12:1-14

         We began our study of the book of Hebrews many weeks ago wondering just what is the risen Jesus up to now? The book of Hebrews did not disappoint in giving us answers to just what is the risen Jesus doing now, now that he is exulted to the highest heaven to be seated at the right hand of the throne of God. The writer of Hebrews wants us to know in clear and precise terms that it is the Son of God who came into our world as the very radiance of the glory of God, the very exact imprint of the nature of God. This Son of God came to us as this one named Jesus, the one who shares in our flesh and blood existence calling us his brothers and his sisters.And Jesus, because he shared in our flesh and blood existence also was able, then, to not just share in our life, but he also tasted death for all of us so that through his death, this Jesus, might destroy the one who rules by the power of death, the one called Satan. This is why we can know the risen Jesus as our merciful and faithful high priest who lives forever to serve his Heavenly Father. 

         So, this is who Jesus is for us right now, exalted to the highest heaven, a high priest who lives forever more to serve over God’s house as his Son. Now as we began to work our way through this book of Hebrews, what isn’t quite clear is just why is this so important for us to know, just what real difference does it make that we know that Jesus is our high priest? As we go further into this book of Hebrews what we find is that the writer of this letter focuses first, on the importance of faith and how evil it is to have an unbelieving heart. The danger, we learn, is that without a settled faith we can never be those who rest in the promises of God, never become those who experience the state of being where we are no longer striving, working to get right with God instead of being people who know the certainty of God’s faithfulness.

         So we have this sense that the issue that the writer of Hebrews is addressing is that his audience are those who are struggling to hang on to their faith. This lack of faith has so many repercussions besides forfeiting the rest that God promises. There is also the tragedy that if faith is lost then the blessings, that are to flow through the people of God, quit pouring forth into the world. When God’s people no longer bear his blessings then this calls into question the actions of Jesus upon the cross. Did Jesus really destroy the curse that held people captive through his death on the cross or was he just a man who was himself, cursed? The point that the writer of Hebrews is trying to make is that what we do is a direct reflection of what Jesus has done for us upon the cross. Either the curse has been destroyed through Jesus taking the curse upon himself and breaking its power through his death so that now the blessings of God can flow or Jesus was a man who deserves only our contempt.

         As we continue listening to what the writer of Hebrews is urgently trying to tell us, we hear in the eighth and ninth chapters that our living Jesus is not just our great, high priest but Jesus is also the mediator of the new covenant. Jesus is the man in the middle between God and humanity who brings them together in unity. This covenant was ratified with the shed blood which was necessary to pay for the penalty of the sin of humanity. Jesus, on the cross, was our high priest, representing all of us before God, taking upon himself our judgment so that we might receive instead, mercy. So, the new covenant has come about because the blood of Jesus has set us free from the first covenant. We have been set free from our past through the action of Jesus who through the eternal Spirit offered himself to the Father. And we have been given a future where we follow in the way of Jesus, to be those who offer ourselves through the Holy Spirit to the glory of our Heavenly Father.

         So, as we step back and look at where the writer of Hebrews has brought us, it appears that we are to be people who offer themselves to our Heavenly Father so that his blessings might go out into the world. What we also know is that in order for us to be people who are willing to love God by giving him not just our hearts, but giving him our possessions and further, even being willing to give God our very lives, we must be people who know that only heaven can be the anchor for our souls. We need to know that most assuredly we have an eternal home in glory, only in that way will we be those who can let loose of our grip that we are holding on to here and take hold of the greater possession that is ours in heaven. This is the wonder, the beauty, found when we gather as God’s people around the table of our Lord. Here, at the table of our Lord, we take in our hands, the blood of the new covenant which gives us confidence to enter into the holy place. Jesus our high priest who represented us, took upon himself our deaths that all of us might have life beyond the curse of sin. And here we take the bread which is the body of our Lord, our high priest, representing all of us. He perfectly accomplished the will of God, giving his body so that we might have a fresh, new mercy, which is for us a living way which leads beyond where we can see into that place which cannot yet be seen. And there residing over the Table is our great priest whose name is Jesus. He is present with us as we draw near in full assurance of faith because here is the reality of what we have placed our hope in. So, in this meal that Jesus insists we partake of, God has made a way for us to replenish our faith, and a way for us to strengthen our grip upon what we have placed our hope in, our eternal home in glory.

         Yet, as great as all of this sounds to ears that are longing to know of the way that we can be filled with faith in a world where our faith is continually shaken, this experience at the Lord’s Table is to be the place where we insist that when we rise and go from this place that we will indeed devote ourselves to actions of love and the doing of good deeds. We must remember this love beyond our hope, this love which is beyond our faith because in the end what will remain when we find ourselves in our home of glory is love. What is amazing about this hope that we have that grounds our faith, is that none of those who witnessed to their faith throughout the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, you know, those such as Abel and Enoch, Noah and Abraham and Moses and David and all of the prophets, not a single one of these has entered into this house that Jesus resides over. The reason why they are waiting patiently there on that heavenly front lawn, is as the writer of Hebrews tells us is that they have decided to not reside in their heavenly home apart from us. Isn’t this just an incredible statement? I mean there is Abraham and Moses who most assuredly should already be enjoying what they have looked forward to experiencing yet they refuse to do so because they are waiting on us to arrive, and only as we are together as a united people of God, only then will we be at last to say that we are home where we belong. Until that moment when we are all together, those who have gone before us are as the writer of Hebrews states, “a great cloud of witnesses who surround us…”. This image of a cloud which fills the holy space around the table of the Lord echoes the glory cloud which came and filled the Tabernacle and the Temple. Thus these witnesses who are those who should reside in their home in glory instead bear the glory of God into this holy space where we gather. When we know that our brothers and sisters of faith are waiting on us to make it home, and that they carry this hope of glory into the space where we gather, can you understand that by all means we need to let go of every burden that is weighing us down. We need to ask ourselves just what pulls and tugs and tears against our faith, whatever is slowing down our journey home then we need to let it go. We need to tear that sin from our hearts you know, that secret, little, indulgence that we have made room for in our life, yes, that has to go. You see, this journey home it’s a marathon not a sprint, you have to be in it for the long haul. Faith is not a prayer once said but instead it’s a pilgrimage that is walked a little every day always yearning to be just a little closer to home. So, we have to learn how to endure. What it means to be people who endure is that we are people who abide, or remain in this holy space even when experiencing suffering. When we understand that endurance is about abiding in that which we hope for, even if to do so means that we will suffer, then of course the person that we must fix our eyes on is Jesus. Jesus is the founder of our faith, and Jesus is the very end, the goal of our faith. Jesus, on that holy space of the cross, remained there to offer himself through the Holy Spirit despite the pain, suffering and death. For Jesus, there was no shame to die upon the cross, there was only glory and honor because he had offered his life fully to his Heavenly Father. This is why Jesus now resides at the right hand of the throne of God because he was willing to abide in the Spirit there upon the altar of the cross.

         So, we must fix our gaze upon Jesus who remained steadfast upon the cross despite the horrible grief and pain necessary to offer himself fully to the honor and glory of his Heavenly Father. We are not only to look upon Jesus, but we are also called once again to consider Jesus. This time this word translated as, “consider”, is a word which means to use your ability to reason things out in order to come up with a conclusion. We are to think about how it was that Jesus was able to abide there in that holy place even though he experienced horrific hostility against himself at the hands of sinners. As we reason out just how it was that Jesus was able to remain there what we find is that what Jesus focused upon is the joy that can only be found beyond the pain and suffering of this world. This joy is the fullness of what we receive from the blessing of our Heavenly Father. Jesus even there upon the cross, knew that his Father blessed him and was present with him. It was his Heavenly Father who kept his life safe, and before the face of his Heavenly Father, Jesus experienced the favor and welcome home, and in the joyous radiance of the Father, Jesus rejoiced in the blessed peace of glory. This is where our thoughts are to lead us as we ponder on just how it was that Jesus could abide there upon the cross and the answer was joy, the joy that flows out of the blessing of our Heavenly Father, the one who is with us as we suffer and hurt for the sake of Jesus.

         As we go on to what the writer of Hebrews has to tell us next, we come to a section of this letter that a lot of people struggle with because it speaks about discipline. When we begin to speak about this subject of discipline most people start telling tales about doing something wrong and getting found out and then the experience of punishment that followed, a punishment that usually warmed something other than our hearts. All of us I suspect, can relate when the writer of Hebrews  says that at the time we receive discipline it seems painful rather than pleasant, I mean, no kidding. Now, as much as we can get hung up on the painful experience we may have had being disciplined, what we cannot do is to lose our focus here because this bringing up the subject of discipline is given to us so that we can see how our Heavenly Father can use our suffering to make us holy people. The key verse is where we are told that our Heavenly Father disciplines us for our good, so that we might share in his holiness. So, if we are going to understand how our sufferings can be thought of as a way that our Heavenly Father disciplines us all so that we might share in his holiness, then we need to have some idea of what this holiness might be, how do we define it? I think the answer is found in the words used by the writer of Hebrews, words that are translated differently when taken out of the context of the story. In the seventh verse of this twelfth chapter, what is written, is “Endure, endure, this is the teaching of God, to offer yourselves as sons and daughters.” Now, this does not make sense unless we consider the holy act of Jesus, that act as written about in the ninth chapter, the fourteenth verse, when we are told that our Messiah, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without blemish to God, the Father. This is holiness, this offering of oneself out of love without the expectation of receiving anything in return. This offering of oneself out of love is done because this is the very imprint of the nature of God, the very radiance of his glory.This is why we can say that the name of God is faithful, steadfast love because this is the unchanging characteristics of our God. Our God is a God who offers himself to us as an act of love without fail and he desires to teach us to be people who can be known as people who love, all the time, without fail, even in the presence of evil. God teaches us that he is a God who blesses us with his presence in our life, no matter what we are going through, and no matter the opposition that we face. Yet, the only way we can know and experience this truth is that we endure, that we remain in the holy place and offer ourselves, and allow the fire of the Holy Spirit to fall from heaven so we might be known as sons and daughters of a holy, Heavenly Father. In our hurt, in our pain and in our suffering, our Heavenly Father is teaching us to look for him there and we will find that he is there, always faithful, and steadfast in his love for us. As we experience his blessing we are reminded that our Father blesses us, our Father keeps us, our Father makes his face to shine upon us and is gracious to us, our Father rejoices over us and gives us his peace. And from the blessing of God we discover the joy that is there for us beyond the suffering and hurt that we experience as we offer ourselves in love.

         What is at stake when we are called to endure is the new identity that we now have through Jesus offering himself for us. The writer of Hebrews, in his original language, states, in the tenth verse, that just as our earthly Fathers taught us for a short time as was best for them, God teaches us by offering himself as we offer ourselves so that we might grab ahold of holiness and make it our own. What is supposed to happen when we learn holiness is that our lives are to yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Now, if we know about what it means for us to be sons and daughters of God we should remember that Jesus taught us in the fifth chapter of Matthew, that, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons and daughters of God.” This just makes sense because if to be a son or daughter of God means that we offer ourselves out of love then we will lavishly offer forgiveness just as Jesus offered himself for our forgiveness. Out of this ministry of reconciliation will come righteousness, the offering of the substance of our life so that all might have life, just as when Jesus offered up his bodily presence so that we might have life. Yes, we know that Jesus came as one of us, so that he might experience our flesh and blood existence. Yet Jesus also came to accomplish something even greater which is that we might know the very way of offering our life out of love, to live the life of the God who came as one of us. The book of Hebrews begins with the Son of God in heaven who came to earth as one of us and here as the book of Hebrews comes to a fitting conclusion we find our Heavenly Father is teaching us how to live and act as his sons and daughters. The writer of Hebrews urges us to chase eagerly after peace and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord and now we know that we must be reconciling, forgiving, people who offer forgiveness regardless of the cost because this is to demonstrate holiness. Holiness, this, we are told, is the way God is seen , imagine that, his faithful and steadfast love living in us to be seen by all around us. Holiness, we are also told, is the way we must live so that we might see God on that day when all the saints come home! May God’s holiness be seen in us! Amen!

         

 

A Faith that Does Not Retreat

 May 28 2023

Hebrews 10:19, 34-39, 11:1-29

         Well, we have at last made it to another Memorial Day, this time when we as a nation remember those who gave their lives in service to their country. Now, I don’t know much about the wars that so many have lost their lives in except what I learned through studying history yet I believe that it might be a safe assumption that during military operations its probably always better to advance against the enemy instead of having to sound retreat. You hear this same sentiment from the writer of Hebrews when, at the end of the tenth chapter of Hebrews, he cries, “No retreat! No retreat lest you be destroyed! Have faith, forward on, preserve your souls”. Do you get this sense that the writer of Hebrews wants us to know that faith is a battle where our retreat from this line we’re holding is a sure way for us to be defeated.

         Ok, I get it, in some ways, the writer of Hebrews seems to be a little over the top in comparing our faith to a battlefield maneuver where retreat is just not an option. But maybe he is just trying to wake us up to just how vitally important our faith really is. Of course, what we have to first figure out is just what is meant by faith? We all have some idea what somebody means when they tell us to just have a little faith, that we just have to trust God to handle what we’re dealing with. Yet, this is not how the writer of Hebrews has defined faith for us because his understanding of faith is somewhat different than just a simple trusting in God. You see, what the writer of Hebrews insists on is that faith must be connected with what we have placed our hope in. We hear this in his definition of faith as found at the beginning of the eleventh chapter where we find that faith is defined as being the assurance, or the reality of the things hoped for. So, if we are hoping for a home in glory then, through faith, we will live in such a way that this truth is real for us to live in right now.We get a better understanding of what the writer of Hebrews is trying to teach us when we hear him say in the middle of the tenth chapter, “Therefore since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus…” When we read this what should jump out at us is that this is, first of all, a statement of our hope, because our confession is that we are absolutely certain that we can enter into the holy place of heaven because of Jesus. Now, faith we are told is to, “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” In other words, we are to go ahead and enter into that holy place of heaven today, and live our life from that vantage point. You see, that holy place is the victory that Jesus has won for us, so by faith we are to live as victorious people. Can you begin to understand how when we doubt and lose our confidence in this heavenly hope that this is a retreat from the victory that Jesus has already won? And if we do not claim this victory then what other victory do we have?

         So faith is allowing the hope, that we cannot see, to impact our life which we can see, and by doing so, we are stating that even though what we have placed our hope in cannot be seen it nonetheless is very much a certain reality. This is what is meant when faith is said to be the assurance or reality of what is hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Now, the writer of Hebrews appears to be sharing with us just how we can have our faith be a faith which is totally convinced of our hope of heaven. As we have already said, the reason that we have confidence to enter the holy places is, first, because of the blood of Jesus. After this statement of faith the writer of Hebrews goes on to tell us that a new and living way has been opened for us through the curtain, that is his flesh. So, here we have the blood of Jesus and the flesh, or the body of Jesus, and it is not a great leap for us, upon hearing of these two elements, to have our thoughts go to the partaking of the Lord’s Supper. There at the Lord’s Table we can also say that there, in the partaking of the cup and the eating of the bread, that our great priest is present with us in the very real presence of Jesus. So, it is there in that moment that we as a church are called to draw near, to enter into the holy house of God. There, we who are the church, share in the life that Jesus has given to us in the shedding of his blood and the breaking of his body, so, as we are gathered around his table, we can assuredly say that we are in the house of heaven. There around the Lord’s Table we have the assurance that what we hope for is indeed a reality. Though we may not see all of what we hope for, nonetheless, what we experience makes us certain that there is more to what we know than meets the eye.

         When people encounter the God who can not be seen, their lives bear evidence of this as they act in faith. The witnesses whose stories are told in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, are those who have encountered God, acted in faith and because of this encounter their lives testified to the God they had met. What we are called to comprehend through all of these stories is that the unseen reality is the most certain, even if to say so sounds a little nonsensical. Yet if we consider the creation story we remember that the universe, which can be seen, was created by the word of God, which cannot be seen. Clearly, what can be seen can be known to have come forth from the unseen. It is the unseen that was here long before the visible world was even spoken into life. The writer of Hebrews gives stories of those who witnessed, people who had encountered the God who is not seen and their lives, which are seen, speak to the faith that they received when they drew close to the one in which they had placed their hope in. So, with Abel we see him offer God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain had offered and we have to wonder why Abel had done so? The answer is that Abel had encountered the unseen God who desires those who are willing to offer themselves just as Abel had symbolically done with his sacrifice. Or consider Enoch who is not recorded as having died but rather was taken into the heavens by God and again we are left wondering why this had happened to Enoch? The answer is that Enoch had an encounter with the God who commended Enoch and told him that he was a person who was pleasing to God. This being pleasing to God means that one knows that the God who we cannot see is a God who sees us and for those that God sees living for him, God rewards them. This is what the life of Enoch witnessed to. 

         As we go through these witnesses who had encounters with the God that cannot be seen, it becomes evident that each encounter reveals something different about God and the people that he loves. Noah’s encounter with the invisible God resulted in a very visible Ark which became a symbol of salvation for Noah and his family and a symbol of judgment for the rest of the world. Thus for Noah he learned that his faith had led him to become an heir of righteousness.

         Over and over again, the writer of Hebrews brings forth those who encountered the God of all hope and this hope became evident in their lives through their faith. Abraham was a man way to old to have a family but that did not matter when he met the God of hope. When God told Abraham to go, Abraham went, even though he did not have a clue where he was to go. Abraham was a man of faith, willing to live constantly on the move because he knew the God who had spoke to him was a God who would one day build for him a more permanent city. It was this God who took Abraham and Sarah, their bodies good as dead, and from them came as many descendants as there are stars in the heavens. Abraham is our father in the faith, a man who was certain that the God of all hope would not fail him. Even when God tested Abraham by asking him to offer up Isaac, Abraham’s faith never wavered because he was certain that God could bring the dead back to life.

         You see, when you trust in the God who cannot be seen and through your obedience the influence of God is seen in your life, this is faith, the visible confirmation of the invisible God of hope. We can see this visible difference in the life of Moses because as the writer of Hebrews tells us, Moses “chose rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasure of sin.” Yes, faith is a choice that we make within our hearts but it still is a choice that will be seen, witnessed to by the world. You see, it was that Moses knew so well the God who spoke to him that he refused to be afraid of the king of Egypt. Moses had already watched as God shielded his people from death on the night of the Passover, so did he have to really be afraid of the king of Egypt?

         What the writer of Hebrews is trying to do through these stories of people whose lives witnessed to their faith in God is to encourage his readers. Those who the writer of Hebrews was writing to were those who were considering pulling back, to retreat, because the cost for them was just too high. Instead of living in to the victory that Jesus had won for them they felt that it would be better to just retreat and call it a day. Yes, they had endured a hard struggle with sufferings, even going so far as to being publicly badmouthed and afflicted. Yet despite these struggles and loss they had compassion on those in prison and they accepted the plundering of their property because then they had remembered they had a better possession, an abiding one. Did these who wanted to retreat remember this greater and better possession that remained with them? This possession they had was hope. They had the hope of an eternal home, an inheritance, which was theirs to claim as their own. What had happened is that they had lost their faith, they had lost what was needed to make this hope they possessed a reality for them. What we know through reading the many stories of those who witnessed to an encounter with God is that when people encounter him that is when faith is evident in a person’s life.

         So what these who were ready to retreat and call it a day needed was to have an encounter with God, to experience what it is to be in his close presence and know that there with him is where we belong. You see, what they had forgotten is that there simply is no greater hope than the living hope we have in Jesus, yet even so, faith is necessary to make this great hope a reality for us. The writer of Hebrews understands this and this is why when speaking of faith he uses images heard in the partaking of the communion elements because it is when we come to the Lord’s Table this is when our hope becomes real. Here is the blood of Jesus, do you remember how this blood gives us the confidence to enter the holy places? Here is the body of Christ, do you remember that the broken body has made for us a new and living way into the most holy place? Here residing over the elements is the very real presence of Jesus who is our great priest who is over the house of God. So here we find that it is the blood of Jesus which is given for us to enter the holy places, his body is our way through the curtain and the living Jesus is our great priest who resides over the house of God. All three speak of a place hidden from our eyes that nonetheless will become real to us as we gather round the Lord’s Table. As we partake of communion we are to know that right there we have been drawn into the holy places. Through the partaking of the elements we find an unshakable confidence in what we hope in because our hope is anchored in our living Savior.When we come to the table, this one named Jesus is closer with us there than at any other time. So we draw near, and we do so as the writer describes us, as being those who have a full assurance of faith, with hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. The writer of Hebrews is here echoing a scripture verse from the thirty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel where God tells his people that he would, “…sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be purged from all uncleanness and from your idols. I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take away the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Here, God is speaking to Ezekiel about the new covenant that he is going to make with his people, a promise that he would bring about a spiritual heart transplant, taking their cold, lifeless, unmoving, stony heart and replacing it with a new heart pulsating with life. Gone at last would be all of uncleanness and idol worship for God himself has cleansed his people with clean water. What has brought about such a radical transformation is that at last God has made a way for people to have the fullest assurance of faith. The reason that there is a depth and a richness to our faith response is that now faith is defined as being the reality of what we hope in, our eternal possession. Our hope is  to be able to live for all eternity in the most holy place, the very house of God. When the people of God gather together before the Lord’s Table it is there, by faith, that we our in that most holy place that we have placed our hope in. There as we take the cup we remember that this is the blood which gives us confidence to enter the holy place. When we take into our hands the bread, we remember that this broken body of Christ is the body offered up so that we might be made holy so we can reside in that most holy place. It is this holiness that is ours through the body of Christ offered for us, this is how we are now able  to enter by this new and living way through the curtain. And as the elements are taken, and blessed and given, there our great priest named Jesus is very much present with us. In this moment at the table we find ourselves gathered in the holy place, and we know that here is what we hope for, an eternal hope that becomes real for us if only for a moment. It is in that moment when what we hope for becomes oh, so real for us, this is when we find ourselves filled with a certain faith. It is in this moment when what we hope for becomes for us so very real, this is when the filth of our doubt is cleansed away as faith washes over us. No more will our affections be given to idols for now we have experienced what our hearts long for, the wonder of what we hope in, the joy of being at home in the house that Jesus built through the giving of himself. Here as the blood of Christ is present and his body is broken and shared we too become like the men of old, those who can witness about our faith because we have had an encounter with the one who is our hope. 

So, yes we must hold fast to our confession of our hope because the God who has given us the promise on which our hope is grounded, he as the writer of Hebrews tells us, is faithful. Can you begin to see that it is the faithfulness of our God to make good on his promises that this is the very source of our faith? It is only as we have a hope that we can confess, and only as we know that God will certainly make our hope a reality, and only when this hope becomes real for us, only then can we say that at last we have faith. 

Once we carefully think through all the writer of Hebrews has said here about the way that our confession of hope leads us to have the full assurance of faith, it makes sense that he would further add that we are to, “ consider how we are to stir up one another to love and good works not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some…” Here again we just need to do a little thinking about how faith, hope and love connect with one another. The blood of Jesus has forgiven all of our sins, so we no longer have to be focused on our past. And we have been given access to the most holy place through the victory Christ has won for us. So if we are people who have a full assurance of faith then we must not retreat but instead we need to live as people who know that Christ has really won the victory. So, it is neither are past nor our future which is to be what concerns us any longer. Now we have been set free to live fully in the present. This means that for those of us who have gathered round the Lord’s Table and have experienced by faith what we hope for, we can insist that each of us get out there and go love on somebody, I mean, what else is there for us to do? When our evil conscience has been washed away what else can we do but good works? So, let’s go and get to work. You see, when we have a full assurance of faith then there can be no retreat, no, only going forward in the victory of Jesus, no matter what the cost. Amen!

A God For Us and Us being there for God

 May 21 2023

Hebrews 9

         As many can attest this whole being an adult is tough business. One of the toughest questions that one has to figure out is just who is it that is going to be there for me, if and when I might need someone. We are friends with a young lady who is estranged from her biological family so for her she has few people she can call on when she needs help, like when she has to move into a new apartment. Its at times like that I really wish she had someone else who could be there for her besides Jennifer and I but we know that everybody has to have somebody who is going to be there for them, that is just the way of the world. Even I know, that as much as my introverted self enjoys my alone time, I still have to have people in my life that I can count on to be there when I might need them. Most often men like myself figure out the importance of having someone to be there for them when they tear into a project and soon find out that said project is going to require two people to get it done. This whole understanding that we all need somebody to be there for us is also what marriage is all about. The beauty of marriage is that we have found someone who has pledged themselves to be that person that will be there in those times when we really need somebody to be there for us like when we get sick, or when our finances hit the skids or when we are grieving and hurting. In all of these times, it is wonderful to know that we have married someone who is willing to just be there for us.

         This necessity that all of us have to have someone be there for us, this is what is behind this idea of covenant. A covenant is not a contract where we enter into a relationship based on doing, a relationship that has defined expectations but instead a covenant is about being there for another person. Now, you don’t have to read very far into the Bible story until you find out that the God found in that story is a God who desires to enter into covenants with people. What this tells us is that our God is a God who desires to be a God who is known as a God who is there for people. Likewise, this is also a God who desires that the people he enters into a covenant with will be there for him as well. When we step back and look at this covenant relationship God makes, it begins to be pretty clear that this is a very lopsided arrangement. I mean its great to think that we can enter a covenant so that we can be assured that God is really going to be there for us, but why in the world would God even care that we be there for him? This is the question that we must try and answer as we listen to what the writer of Hebrews is saying to us today.

         In this ninth chapter of Hebrews we discover a new title for our risen Lord, that Jesus is for us the mediator of a new covenant. The word that we translate here as being, “mediator”, comes quite naturally from the Greek word for middle because as the one who is arranging this new agreement between God and humanity, it just makes sense that Jesus would be the man in the middle of it all. So, yes, the living Jesus is there, smack dab in the middle, bringing God and humanity into a new relationship where each promises to be there for each other.

         Now as important as this new covenant is, the strange thing is is that many Christians know very little about it. The clues to understanding this covenant though are hidden in plain sight as when we partake of the elements during the Lord’s Supper we are told that on the night Jesus was betrayed, he took the cup and he blessed it and he gave it to his disciples, telling them, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” These are the words that are spoken over the grape juice that we drink every time we meet at the Lord’s Table yet, I wonder do we really stop to consider just what is being said here? What really is this new covenant besides perhaps a way to divide up our Bibles?

         Perhaps the best way to understand this new covenant is with  what is written in the eleventh verse of this ninth chapter of Hebrews which states, “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, when through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is not of this creation), he entered once for all into the holy places, not by the means of the blood of goats and calves but by the means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” The writer of Hebrews has packed an immense amount of information in these few sentences so we have to take our time to consider just what is being said here. First, we are to know Jesus, the Messiah, as being our high priest. Here we need to pause and ask just why should we consider him to be our high priest? The answer is as the writer of Hebrews explains, that it is Jesus  who has entered into the holy places of heaven. Just as it was that the high priest at the Temple of Jerusalem was the only one allowed to enter into the Holy of Holies of the Temple so to only Jesus ascended into the heavens into the holy presence of our Heavenly Father. So this is how we can know Jesus as our high priest. It is important that we understand him as being our high priest because what we know about the high priest is that he represented all of the people of Israel on the Day of Atonement. The high priest wore a vest which had sewn into the front of it, twelve precious stones which represented each of the twelve tribes of Israel. So, the high priest represented all of Israel when he went into the Holy of Holies to make atonement for their sins. Jesus as our high priest also represented Israel being born as one of them and, as one without sin, Jesus was able to offer himself up to death on behalf of all of Israel upon the cross. This is what the writer of Hebrews is writing about when he says in the fifteenth verse of this ninth chapter where we read, “…since a death has occurred that redeems them from transgressions committed under the first covenant.”  The first covenant, then, required a death to pay the penalty for the sins that Israel had committed as a member of that agreement, a death that was fulfilled by Jesus. Even so we are left wondering just what went wrong with this first covenant?

         The first covenant that God made with the people of Israel is recorded for us in the twentieth chapter of Exodus. As you read through this covenant here in Exodus and as it was renewed in Deuteronomy what you find is that it is actually more like a contract than a covenant because it states that if the people of Israel were to do all that God commanded than God would respond with the appropriate blessing of a good, full, rich, life. But, if Israel on the other hand, failed to do what God had commanded then instead of blessings, Israel would find herself accursed no longer to receive life but instead, death. Now, what becomes quite apparent in the entering of this covenant is that Israel did so with the real belief that they could most assuredly do all that God commanded, that they would indeed be living the blessed life, no problems obtaining all that goodness. You see, the people of Israel are just like all the rest of us when upon discovering that God desires to be in a covenant with us then why not see if we can get this all powerful God to give us the good life we want, right here and right now. Maybe we could bargain with him, do all the things he likes and then, just maybe he will give us what we consider to be blessings, all those things that we find necessary for a good life.

         What Israel found out is that it is impossible for any of us to do all that God requires in order that we could somehow manipulate or demand anything from him. The reason for this is that the whole world is under a curse and so right from the beginning it was known that the ending for Israel was not blessing but the finding out that she too was under this universal curse. She alone among the nations understood what she deserved from God because she alone had entered into a covenant with God. So when the people of Israel were sent into exile at the hands of Babylon just as God warned them would happen when they failed to uphold their end of the bargain, the people of Israel knew that the curse of God hung heavy over them.

         Into this cursed life then, came Jesus. Jesus, the very Son of God, came in his flesh and blood existence as one of the people of Israel. Jesus, the one who was and is without sin, came to represent all of Israel, to take upon himself their curse, to have his body hang there accursed upon a tree just as the first covenant spoke of in the twenty-first chapter of Deuteronomy. Jesus as the high priest, represented all of the people of Israel. Israel in turn was chosen by God to represent all of the race of Adam, all of humanity. So, Jesus, our high priest, did in fact represent all of us there upon the cross. There, as our representative, Jesus died our death, as the writer of Hebrews said in the second chapter, tasting death for all of us. The shedding of the blood of Jesus is a way of stating that the life of Jesus was poured out unto death in order to pay what was due for those who stood accursed before God. This image of Jesus, his life being poured out, this is our image of forgiveness because as this word, “forgiveness”, tells us, this is a gift given before a relationship can be restored. The gift given was a death that all of us owed and because of this gift all of us have been set free from the curse which had once held us captive.

         One more aspect of this act upon the cross which Jesus has done is that his was a holy act. As the high priest who he was and what he did was holy. So, as we see Jesus upon the cross how does this define for us just what does it mean to be holy? In the fourteenth verse of this ninth chapter, we read that Jesus, our Messiah, “through the Spirit of the age to come, offered himself without blemish to God”. Here, most clearly, we see the radical difference between how the people of Israel had thought about their relationship with God and how Jesus, the high priest who represented them upon the cross, thought about his relationship with his Heavenly Father. The people of Israel wanted to know just what would it take to manipulate God and use his power to help them have a blessed life. The whole stance was about what God could give to them or what God could do for them if only they could just be good enough. Then, along comes Jesus, and suddenly upon the cross holiness was seen because there was one who desired only to give his whole self to God as an offering. When Jesus yielded his life he found that the power of the new age was very much present with him for there was the Spirit, the God of self-giving, holy, love. This holy offering of Jesus was given as the writer puts it, “to cleanse our conscience from dead works to present offerings to the living God.” This word here translated as being, “conscience”, is a word that literally means to see together. It is where two people have both comprehended something and now they come to a mutual understanding. So, through this self-offering of Jesus, our Messiah we can see that we need to be rid of this idea that there are certain things that we can do to please God so that he might bless us. These, as the people of Israel knew so well were quite literally dead works for that’s where all their efforts ended up. Now, upon seeing Jesus upon the cross we can see what God sees, a holy act, in the offering of Jesus, an offering given so that at last beyond our judgment we might have life.

         Here at last then are the clues to help us make sense of the new covenant prophesied about by the prophet Jeremiah. The writer of Hebrews quotes this prophecy in the eighth chapter where we read, ‘Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor, saying, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.” This prophecy of Jeremiah came as God’s plan to send his people into exile was becoming a reality. Into that dark time, a time when the judgment of God was coming down upon the people of Israel, God spoke through Jeremiah to tell his people that beyond their judgment their would indeed be life, a life with the God who is and was forever for them. Their past would be dealt with, their sins forgiven, so that in their present the people of Israel could become people who knew God because it was his way of life that had been placed within their mind and it was his way of life that had been written on their hearts. The heart is where we hold fast to our treasures so what is being said here is that in this new covenant the ways of God will be treasured by God’s people. With the coming of Jesus we are able to see in human form, the God willing to offer himself to take upon himself our judgment all because he treasured us. Through this offering of Jesus at last our understanding has been purified, now we know that what God desires us to be is people who offer ourselves to God, and we know this is to be true because this is the way of God, the God who offered himself for us. God offered himself so that beyond our judgment we might have life and with this new life given to us we are to take and offer it back to God as an act of worship, because in our hearts we treasure the God who treasures us. This is the essence of this new covenant life that Jesus, our Messiah, has mediated between our Heavenly Father and all of humanity.

         So in this new covenant we do see how God is for us, offering himself to us to take upon himself the judgment of death that all of us deserve, all because he treasures us. Knowing this then we have to ask, just what is our part of the covenant? How shall we be there for God? The answer is that we are to follow the lead of God for this is to state that we know God, and we are to offer ourselves as an act of worship of God because we treasure the God who was willing to taste death for all of us. This is what Paul speaks of in the second letter to the Corinthians when he writes, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this : that this one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” This is why Jesus died upon the cross so that the same love which compelled him to offer himself might be the same love which compels us to live for him, and offer ourselves to him as an act of worship. This understanding of life under the new covenant is so important and this becomes so evident when we are called on to suffer for the cause of Christ. You see, when we offer up ourselves to God even if to do so means that we may have to suffer on account of our promise to be there for him, then what we witness to the world is just how much we treasure our God. Only as the world sees people who are willing to suffer as they offer themselves fully to God, to offer God all that they have been given, even the life that God has given to us, this witnesses that our God is truly the treasure worthy to be sought, the pearl of great price who is worthy of all we might give to call him our own. This is what it means for us to be there for God, to be people who through their lives witness that our God is the greatest treasure, the most worthy blessing we could ever desire. In this way our lives become bearers of God’s blessing for this is why we have been blessed through the offering of God for us. So, let us go forth and witness to the treasure who is our God! Amen!