Jesus is the Same!

 

Read Hebrews 13

We made it. We have read and studied and tried to put words into practice for 13 weeks. Now, we come to the author’s concluding remarks. Within them are these words that many know so well.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

We will tackle the laundry list of items that follow in the next service but for now, let’s consider that Jesus Christ is the same as he was in the beginning and as he will be for eternity.

We are to fix our eyes on Jesus. He is our focus. It’s like having a star to guide you, except that over time, stars move. Changes are relatively small and seldom noticed in a lifetime, but everything you see in the sky is in motion. Our relative position let’s us identify constellations and individual stars, but everything is in motion.

Let’s say that keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus is like following the north-seeking arrow on your compass.  Except that the “North” part of that moves. It moves slowly but it migrates about 3-5 degrees every one hundred years.

If you look at a map that has grid squares on it—we are not talking a gas station map or Google Maps—look in the marginal information—the key—for a declination diagram. The declination diagram depicts the relationship between True North, Magnetic North, and Grid North.  The difference between Grid North and Magnetic North is called the G-M Angle.

Is the church holding an orienteering meet?  Why do I need to know anything about land navigation?

We fix our eyes on earthly points and navigate by them, but over time even these constants change. Hebrews tells us that Jesus is our only constant in the universe.

The world changes.

We change.

The weather changes.

Jesus is constant.

Universities change conferences.

Companies change their branding.

We change our clocks twice a year and think we have saved money and daylight. I’m ready to cash in my DST CD.  But the point is that we change our clocks, but Jesus doesn’t change.

Jesus is constant.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

A whole bunch had changed for the Hebrew people. Yes, scripture told them it would happen but so many were blind to the surpassing glory of God in Christ Jesus. Goats and bulls could not make anyone right with God. It was only the blood of Jesus.

Feasts and festivals were not essential to salvation. They might be a wonderful response to the love of God that we know in Christ Jesus, but they can’t make you right with God.

The people were charged with putting all of their hope in Jesus.  It seemed like everything else was changing. The people needed a constant.  It was and is Jesus.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Jesus is our constant as well. Look at our world. Values are changing. A godless society is thriving. Commitment is a word without meaning in our century. We need a constant.

Beginning to end, alpha to omega, Jesus is our constant.

It’s hard to hit a moving target. We have our eyes fixed on Jesus and the only moving he is doing is toward us. He is our constant.

When the world says there is no god or to be your own god, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. He is our constant.

When the world comes up with a pill to kill a baby and you can buy it as an OTC drug, we need a constant. We need Jesus in our sights and we need to take his yoke.

When the world sells you its godless model across every form of media, you need someplace to direct your attention. You need a positive alternative to the world’s junk. You need to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

When the world says one religion is as good as another, that whole apathy and ambivalence thing again, you need truth. You have faith, not religion but the world is lumping what God has to say in with what Oprah has to say and giving them equal standing. You need a constant in the universe. You need to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. He is our constant!

Salvation is the gift of God. Discipleship is our work and taking his yoke and learning from him are our daily tasks.

Putting his words into practice is how we bring glory to God, but you won’t hit the target if you don’t know where to aim.

I was driving through Houston a few years ago and tried the Sam Houston Tollway. My cousin knew that I was going through town so she called me when she saw a news report that there was a guy on the tollway going the wrong way.

I laughed when she called and told me about the guy going the wrong way. I said, “One guy, right, there’s hundreds of them!”

OBTW—those people were rude and honking their horns as a dozen at a time would swerve to avoid me at the last minute, most giving me digital signals as they passed.

How do we keep from going the wrong way? Eyes fixed on Jesus. His model, his ways, his words are what we need to target as our objectives.

So, let’s wrap up this chapter and this book with these two very familiar scriptures.

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Eyes fixed on Jesus. He is our constant in a world without constants.

Amen.        

Unencumbered

 Read Hebrews 12

Here we go!

You are God.

My trust is in you.

Show me your ways.

Teach me your paths.

We have been memorizing Psalm 25 verse by verse over the past few months. These thoughts should be familiar. What thoughts?

Teach me.

Show me.

What now?

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and get rid of your junk. Cast off anything that encumbers you.

Move forward. Seek God and draw near to him.

OK. But what is it that encumbers us? Let’s give it a shot.

·       Anxiety and Worry. We are told not to be anxious and not to worry, but we do it anyway. How effective can we be if we are worried so much? Bad stuff could happen, but if it does, let’s just live through it once. Don’t worry about it before it happens and don’t drag your miscues around with you. Confess and get back in your race unencumbered by worry.

·       Forgiveness. Maybe you think someone wronged you or maybe you wronged somebody, but in either case, we must forgive. We should forgive the person who wronged us and we should have a conversation with the people whom we have injured seeking their forgiveness.  We can’t be a body at rest—the whole inertia thing—we must keep moving forward in this area of forgiveness.

·       Conflict. This is often rooted in insisting on our own way. We want to do things God’s way but sometimes we presume our way to be God’s way, and often it just isn’t so. For the last half of the last century, I proffer that most Americans thought they were Christians even though they didn’t read their Bibles much. They just identify as Christian. God does not need to adjust his will to ours. He is the constant, the steadfast, our rock. We are told that as much as it is possible, try to get along with others. We don’t sacrifice our beliefs if our beliefs truly come from God, but we need to make sure that’s the case. We can live with and love and work together with people who don’t believe or think like we do, but how we think needs to be governed by what God says and not our emotions and comfort zones. Those are just a new paganism for our modern times.  I catch a little flak—mostly in fun—for challenging us to read our Bibles every day. The question is, do you consider reading your Bible and learning God’s ways as a burden or a blessing?

·       Comfort. There is nothing wrong with a little comfort, but when our comfort keeps us from doing what we are called to do, it is weighing us down. It encumbers us.

·       Doubt. Yes, Christians deal with doubt. We can what if ourselves into a dysfunctional state. Believe. Do not doubt. Doubt weighs you down. Doubt creates anxiety and then we are just feeding this confluence of things that weigh us down.

·       Coveting. Sometimes, we are weighed down by our desire for something in this world. That new fishing boat, new car, new job, new shirt, those really old-looking ripped-out jeans—which back in the day didn’t come that way. You had to earn your own rips and tears. Maybe we covet recognition, adoration, or applause. If we desire something—anything—more than we seek and desire God, that’s coveting and it is not healthy. It encumbers us.

·       Control. What about control?  Do we try to control everything? If we do, we are encumbered, burdened by that desire.  We can’t control much in this world. You might have thought that I was out of Marine Corps examples, but here’s one more. Back in the day, when issuing combat or operational orders, the final section of the order is titled:  Command and Control.  For as much as many well-educated Marine officers poured into these orders to make sure they were as thorough as possible in the time available, all the senior officers could do was chuckle and bite our lips when we got to Command and Control. One thing learned over the course of many exercises is that we just don’t control much of anything. Despite the signals and phase lines, boundaries and registered targets, timing, and other factors prescribed by the order, most of us just laughed to ourselves as we set loose armed Marines on the task before them, knowing we could get blown up, they could destroy the wrong target, or total chaos might ensue. If you want to control everything, you are encumbered by that desire.

·       Fear. Let’s not leave out fear. Sometimes we fear failure. Sometimes we even fear success. If fear is a substantial part of your life and your decision-making skills, then fear encumbers you and you need to kick fear to the curb.

·       More. There are more, but we will leave those for your personal exploration and examination.

Long ago and far away, that is in the mid-1980s—I was at Amphibious Warfare School. It’s a school for captains and trains you to command or serve in a staff position in battalions and regiments. As a part of this 3-year school packed into 9 months, we each had to write a paper, something like a thesis for a master's degree.

Mine was on the mobility of the individual Marine. What I learned was that through the centuries, combat weapons have become more lethal. Vehicles can move faster. Communications become more capable and more complicated. Protective equipment got better, at least in some ways.

But the mobility of the man on the ground—the grunt—just got heavier. I knew this from personal experience, but I also did the research. The average load of the infantryman was just over 100 pounds. It was more if you needed clothing and equipment for extreme cold or for chemical and biological warfare.

Maybe 100 pounds doesn’t sound like too much if you are about 200 pounds and in good shape, but I will tell you that 100 pounds gets heavy quickly for just about everyone.  Now, think of a Marine who is only 120 or 130 pounds carrying this load.

Visualize a Marine who weighs 125 pounds with 115 pounds on his back. That’s encumbered.

And then, we add ammunition. That’s heavy.

That’s encumbered. That’s weighed down. And all that modern technology could do was try to distribute the load better. Cartridge belts, packs, and flak vests all became integrated to help spread the load, but the load was still carried by one person.

That’s still encumbered.

Marines will do the pack mule thing again and again, but when it’s time to fight, they have to shed the gear. They can’t be encumbered.

They often shed everything that is not needed for the fight at hand. They can round it up later.

We need to shed some gear too. Anything that encumbers us as we navigate this world trying to put the words of our Master into practice has got to go.

Worry, anxiety, conflict, excess comfort, doubt, coveting, control, fear, and more weigh us down.

I keep small weights in my office. At my age, I need a little something to keep muscle tone. I’m not hauling hay and having to buck bales up onto a trailer. I’m not scaling cliff faces. I’m not going on 25-mile hikes with a full load.

But I do need to do something to keep a little muscle tone, so I have some little weights.

My grandkids think they are huge. They can barely move them, but they continue to try. That’s our nature. We try to carry the load all by ourselves.

Sometimes we need help with our loads and sometimes we need to get rid of a whole bunch of what we are carrying with us.  Worry, anxiety, conflict, excess comfort, doubt, coveting, and more weigh us down.

We have to get rid of the junk if we are going to grow in God’s grace.

So here is what you take with you for this week.

The psalmist said show me your ways and teach me your path. God has done that. Now we must put his words into practice.

In terms of what we read this week, that means:

Eyes fixed on Jesus.

Cast off anything that is weighing us down.

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and get rid of your junk.

Amen.

 

Eyes fixed on Jesus. Moving Forward

 Read Hebrews 9

 Only two things are certain—death and taxes, or so the saying goes.

Hebrews reminds us that we are all going to die and we will all face judgment. Two things are certain—death and judgment. Only in America does the previous statement work so well. People in parts of the rest of the world don’t make enough to pay taxes.

What we know as judgment will be considerably better than those who rejected the Lord, but death and judgment are coming.

Speaking of coming, Jesus will come again. This time he will not be here to make a sacrifice for our sins. He did that.

He is coming to claim us. He is coming to bring us the fullness of our salvation. He is coming and there is going to be a big celebration banquet in heaven.

Throughout the book, we have been charged to move forward. Jesus is the only way. Profess him as Lord. Receive his grace by faith.

Pay attention. The Law that came through Moses is still good but it can’t get you to atonement. To move forward in our relationship with God we must embrace grace by faith.

We move forward seeking to know our Great High Priest. Our Priest is already in the most holy place.

We move forward by leaving the sacrifices of old to the past. We embrace the one-time sacrifice of Christ Jesus.

We move forward embracing the covenant of grace that we know and leaving behind the conditional covenant that came in the Sinai.

God’s law is still good and for our own good, but the provisions for atonement have been replaced as obsolete. Jesus is the only way.

Why do I keep using the term moving forward?

Because what lies ahead of us is meeting Jesus. His blood took away our sins and judgment is not something to be dreaded. Jesus has you covered.

But we will stand before Jesus and explain how we lived once we received the grace that came through his blood. What will that look like?

I think that we will answer these questions.

What did you learn from me?

How did you put my words into practice?

How were you known as my disciple? Hopefully, we can answer, by our love.

How were you the salt of the earth?

Where were you the light of the world?

Did you forgive everyone before you left earth?

We are all going to die. We will face judgment. We will live with God forever.

We have passed from death to life when we professed our belief in Jesus.

So our choice is to sit still or move forward.

Our choice is to long for what was or live for what is in store for us.

Our choice is to go back to annual sacrifices or receive the only sacrifice that we will ever need, and be assured that it is more than enough for whatever we have done.

Our choice is to drink milk or eat solid food.

Our choice is to rebuild the foundation of salvation again and again or to build upon it.

If you have been paying attention, you might note that the first option in each choice was not a good choice. It did not move us forward.

If there is one message that I hope you take with you for the rest of your lives, it’s this.

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and move forward.

Do not get distracted.

Do not be encumbered by nonessentials.

Move towards him with eyes fixed on the Author and Finisher of our faith. Eyes fixed on the Pioneer and Perfector of our faith. Eyes fixed on our Lord, Savior, and Great High Priest.

Eyes fixed on Jesus. Keep moving forward.

Eyes fixed on Jesus. Keep moving forward.

Eyes fixed on Jesus. Keep moving forward.

Amen.