Dear church,

Back in Hebrews 6:20, the writer described Jesus as our “forerunner.” He went where we never could have gone on our own. And in the process, he opened the way for us to go there, too.

The place Jesus went was directly into the presence of God. When Jesus went to the cross, he destroyed all the various barriers that blocked our access to God. No longer is there an inner and outer court to the temple and places where we are barred from going. No longer is it just priests who are able to come near to God, and only the high priest once a year.

No, now we all can enter God’s presence with confidence. Jesus paved the way. He is our forerunner.

Do you acknowledge this fact in your own spiritual life? Do you think about this as you pray?

As a church, we believe Jesus died on the cross for our sins, removing the barrier of guilt and shame and rebellion that kept us out of God’s presence. We understand that his blood atoned for our sins.

And now we have access to God. In a sense, we are all priests. The writer of Hebrews didn’t say this explicitly, but Peter did (1 Peter 2:9-10). We are a “holy nation,” Peter wrote.

We ought not to take this for granted. This was not something we did on our own. This was the work of Jesus Christ – and only Jesus Christ.

We’re having a potluck lunch at church tomorrow. Inevitably, someone will look to me to say the prayer before the meal. This is the “priestly” service the pastor needs to render on behalf of the church and before God – the blessing of the meal.

The writer of Hebrews, I think, would say this: “You can do it, too!” The old walls are broken down – the division between priests and laypeople is just as obliterated as the divisions of sacred space in the temple.

We ought to thank Jesus Christ for that.

Chris

Dear church,

If we were to look around us today in search of something that is permanent – something that will last forever – what would we find? How many things could we locate that will never perish?

Everything around you is temporary. None of it will last – the house you live in, the money in your wallet, the mountains outside your window. Take a good look because it’s not permanent.

Except for one thing. Christians are permanent. We will not perish.

This makes our Sunday morning church services special. You are gathering with something – a bunch of someones – that will never fade.

When Moses built the tabernacle, God told him to be careful in its construction. It was a copy, a model, of heavenly realities. Moses needed to get it just right. The tabernacle would mark the time until God would do something new.

And then Jesus came. The tabernacle is gone. The temple is, too. What’s left?

Well, the church is what’s left. The church is the dwelling place of God. It marks a heavenly reality – a heavenly thing. … No, wait, the church IS a heavenly thing.

The church, this collection of people who have put their faith in Christ, is more “real” and permanent than the tabernacle and temple ever were.

Please understand what the writer of Hebrews is saying: Everything is better because of Christ.

Chris

Dear church,

I wonder whether we appreciate what we have when it comes to our access to God. Perhaps sometimes we get used to this wonderful thing that is in our possession as Christians, and we take it for granted.

The writer of Hebrews said, “a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.” And then he wrote, “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”

The writer, of course, was talking about Jesus. Jesus is the “better hope,” and Jesus is the one who can save to the “uttermost.”

And we get to draw near to God.

I wonder whether we appreciate the fact we can draw near to God. Do we think much about this when we pray or when we join our church family for worship? We can draw near to God. There is no barrier. It is not only “special” people who can have a close connection with Him.

And Christ is always standing next to the Father, speaking to him on our behalf. Your sin is covered by Christ.

Chris

Dear church,

What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ? Well, it means we do much of what the first disciples did. We follow Jesus. We go where he goes, and we do what he does. We listen closely to his teaching, and we strive to do what he tells us to do.

That is discipleship, in a nutshell.

“For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.”

I can’t help but wonder whether the “useful crop” envisioned here has something to do with discipleship. I can’t help but wonder whether the “rain God” has sent – in the form of Jesus Christ and his grace – is intended to bring about lives of discipleship among the children of God.

It seems that’s what God is looking for – people who are continually striving, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to be more and more like Jesus. That’s the result, the useful crop.

This is important because people may become satisfied with the thought of simply giving intellectual assent to the idea of Jesus Christ. These people want to save their skin, and they know that if they say they believe in Jesus, their skin will be saved.

I’m not sure that’s the useful crop God is looking for. I think he’s looking for people who in some miraculous way are seeking to know Him.

Maybe that’s a question for your day. If you’ve drunk deep of the “rain” of God, what has been your response to this point in your life? Perhaps the place to start is to consider the measure of gratitude you have toward God right now. And then think about discipleship. Are you following Him closely?

Chris

Dear church,

This passage made me think about obedience and suffering. Jesus “learned obedience through what he suffered.”

Is all suffering an opportunity to learn obedience – which means that all suffering is good? This certainly can’t be the case. Suffering is the result of sin. Abuse of any kind should be snuffed out when we find it.

But there is a kind of suffering that God can use to mold us. When we suffer because of our faith – out of obedience to God’s commands – we can grow. It’s hard to obey God when we know we will suffer for it.

Christians in other places in the world have been going through this kind of “learning” for years. Being a Christian can put a person in jail, or worse.

I am thinking persecution of Christians will be coming to America. I think we’re getting hints today of what it might be like. Arguments could be made by the world that the meetings of Christians are dangerous and that they spread disease. The argument could be that religious meetings are a public menace.

And so to this and to other forms of pressure by our culture, Christians must be ready to obey God – to step out in faith in obedience to him. God wants us to be sensitive to our culture, but he doesn’t want us to blend in. We’re to be “salt.” Sometimes, salt can taste bad in a person’s mouth! We certainly know when we’ve encountered a lot of salt in our food.   

Christ suffered in obedience to his Father. He was nailed to a cross. The local authorities thought he was dangerous. Keeping an eye on our own future, even as we remember the sacrifice of Christ, can be instructive. We, too, can learn obedience through what we suffer for the sake of God.

Chris

Dear church,

Have you ever heard God’s voice?

I know some of you would shake your head, “yes.” You know for certain there have been times and places where you heard from God. It may not have been an audible voice, but the message – whatever it was – was unmistakable. And so was the source of the message. You know without a doubt that what you heard came from God.

The writer of Hebrews repeatedly quoted from Psalm 95, which offered a warning to the Israelites – “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” In other words, God still speaks. He was speaking to the ancient Israelites in their wilderness wanderings. He spoke later to the Israelites as they lived in the Promised Land. And he continues to speak today.

If you recall how the book of Hebrews started, you’ll remember that God has various ways of speaking to his people. Long ago, at many times, he spoke through his prophets – through people like Moses and Elijah and Isaiah. More recently, he has spoken by his Son, Jesus Christ. And we know God still speaks through his Holy Spirit, which dwells in each one of his children.

God still speaks. And if we hear his voice, we ought not to harden our hearts. That means we ought to listen to him in faith and obey the calling of his voice.

The writer of Hebrews was seeking to reassure his first hearers that God’s promises were true and that they were infinitely better than anything the world had to offer. The writer was encouraging them to hold fast in the faith, to remain strong, and to continue to trust in God’s promises during hard times.

And if they heard his voice, they were to respond in faith.

Please listen today for the voice of God in your own life and in the life of our church.

Chris

Dear church,

The problem for the first hearers of the book of Hebrews was they faced danger from the world. Temptation existed to forsake their faith in Christ and to stop believing in the promises of God.

Like with Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness, some of the believers had begun to doubt there was a “promised land” to which God was leading them. They began to look back longingly toward their slavery in Egypt.

Christians can do this today. “Wasn’t it a lot more fun when I was doing this or that, when I was making that kind of money, when I was hanging out with those people on the weekends, when I could engage in these other kinds of activities?”

And a Christian can begin to take a longing look backward, forgetting the awful truth that those things in the past, those things of their old self, were the things of slavery. A desire can creep into our lives to give up on the faith and to give up on Jesus.

It seems from reading Hebrews 3 that the author knew it was very likely – if not altogether certain – that a doubting believer would fall back into slavery without the help of the church.

“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

As Christians, we need an active and faithful church family. Our brothers and sisters in Christ can exhort us to stay strong in the faith, even when doubts and wayward desires creep into our lives. The mutual encouragement helps to keep before us the vision of God’s faithfulness. We are in this together.

We should not be naïve and think we easily can live this Christian life on our own. This would be naïve because we must recognize there always will be some “voices” in our lives drawing us toward something. The world will always be drawing us toward itself – through the people we know and the media we consume.

To stay in the faith, we need other “voices” speaking to us. We need people of the faith speaking constantly – as long as it is “today” – into our lives about the goodness and grace of Jesus Christ. We need that reinforcement.

Think on these things today. Who is doing the “exhorting” in your life?

Chris

Dear church,

What do we have in common with Jesus Christ? He is divine – the maker of heaven and earth. And yet we do have something in common with him. The writer of Hebrews tells us in chapter 2:

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” (Hebrews 2:10-12)

Here is something we have in common with Christ: We are of the same family as Him. He is not ashamed to call us “brothers and sisters.” The one who binds creation together was made perfect through suffering. He entered into our world, a world wracked by sin and death, and he suffered crucifixion in order to give us salvation. And he calls us brothers and sisters with him.

We know that in ancient Mediterranean families a great solidarity existed among siblings. The sibling bond was unbreakable, the strongest of all social bonds available to people living in the first century. And we know it was common for the stronger sibling to defer to the weaker, to never compete with or bring shame on his or her siblings. Rather, the stronger sibling was to invite the weaker siblings into his or her own honor. There was to be commonality.

As we take Communion together as a church, we consider the “body” of Christ. We want to “discern” the body as we take the bread and the cup. And so we take the bread and we take the cup and we think about this family, which is bound together in love and loyalty. And we know we have a “brother” who left heaven behind for a little while to dwell among us. And he won’t leave us or forsake us. We are now his family. And he invites us into his glory if we would but follow.

And so, as we take Communion, we remember this. We remember Him.

Chris

Dear church,

We don’t know who wrote Hebrews. Scholars are pretty certain it was written sometime before 70 AD, and they are pretty sure it was written as a sermon to a struggling and persecuted Christian community. The author is intent on shoring up believers’ loyalty to Christ and his church.

This, of course, is pertinent today. Many Christians are drawn away from Christ and the faith. It’s not so much that persecution is causing them to weaken in their connection to Christ. Rather, it seems to me, it is because they don’t feel they need anything more than salvation. Spiritual growth takes a backseat. Connection to Christ’s church is optional. The community of faith isn’t all that important.

And after all, in our world that is awash with distractions, a person can find a lot of other things to do. Entertainment is easy to find.

And a person can wander away from the church and from the faith. It’s possible. I’ve seen it happen.

Another danger to Christians today – and I think to the first readers of Hebrews – is the way in which Christians are susceptible to the negative glances they receive from the world. We want to have good standing in the world, among nonbelievers. But the things we believe as Christ-followers, and the way in which we live, oftentimes is contrary to the way of the world. And so we get those negative comments from the world about these things.

The writer of Hebrews wanted the early Christians to stand strong in the face of this subtle pressure to drift away from the faith.

The first reason to stay strong is laid out in chapter 1. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He has the No. 1 position in the household of God – higher than the angels because “the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.”

The writer repeatedly contrasts Jesus Christ with the angels. In God’s household, we are to seek out the favor and friendship of Christ, the Son. And we, too, will “inherit salvation.” We are made part of the household, the family, of God.

And so, first of all, we look to Christ. We turn away from the world, and we look to the one who is the very radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

Please read Hebrews 1 again and let the Holy Spirit point out to you one important thing for you to know about Jesus Christ today.

Chris

Dear church,

Take half an hour today, if you can. Click this link. Enjoy.

Chris