Moving Forward

 Read Hebrews 9

 

We don’t know who the author of Hebrews is. We speculate based on our experience and education but we just don’t know. What we do know is that whoever wrote it had taken a public speaking class. How can I say that?

Those trained in public speaking know this little trinket.

Talk a lot about a little.

Had I written the book of Hebrews, it would have two, maybe three chapter breaks. The subject matter does not change much, only the extension of analogies or other comparisons.

The author has a lot to say about a little, but these few words are important, especially to the believer who grew up with Moses and the Law.

We talked about the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, but what exactly is a covenant?

You should remember that there are a range of meanings. They range from general cordiality to true community and even to being shackled together.

When the covenant comes from God it’s more of a fetter—a shackle.  It’s a done deal and it’s binding until God says it’s not. We sometimes refer to it as an unbreakable agreement.

A covenant that is from God is big stuff. It’s more than that nudge that you felt inside to take some food to that family down the street or just to check on your neighbor that you haven’t seen for a while.

Those are important but a covenant from God binds so many generations together.

Everything up to the point of Christ’s priesthood has been an imperfect copy of what is above. Yes, the temple was made with great care to the instructions that God gave Moses, but it was still constructed by human hands.

We know there is an outer holy area and the innermost holy place. Only the high priest may enter the latter.

That was before. Now our Great High Priest is already in the most holy place—the original one—and there is no curtain of the temple between us and him.

Through Christ, we come to what is better. Our Priest, our Covenant, and even ourselves are new and better.

What was before worked on the outside. The law mitigated the evil in our hearts. Christ gives us a wholesale exchange. We trade in our hearts of stone for something more malleable, not from external forces but from within by God himself.

What is better, what brings eternal forgiveness, what consummates this new covenant is blood.  Even the Old Covenant was established by blood. Moses sprinkled the scrolls containing God’s commands and laws with blood.

Our covenant is established by the blood of Jesus. He died for our sins and rose from the dead. He has entered the highest place in heaven. It’s not a copy. It’s the original.

But with Christ, things are different. The priests who came from the tribe of Levi had to return and make sacrifices again and again.  Christ died once for all. He does not return for recurring sacrifices. The sacrifice has been made.

You are made right with God. You are not in a probationary status. You are made right!

Most of you have repented of a life of sin and have taken the yoke of our Master. We want to learn from him. We want to put his words into practice.

We trust that he has good plans for us.

We know what is ahead of us is so much greater than where we have been or what we have accumulated or who thinks we are the best or worst person in the world.  We are moving forward and we get this part.

We who have been saved in the blood of Christ Jesus can look back with clarity upon what the author has described. It’s good to know as much of the story as we do.

We may look back because of where we entered the story. We gain perspective but life lies in looking forward and moving forward—drawing nearer to God.

This was a hard sell for the Hebrew people. So many were trapped in the trappings of this world which included the laws and sacrifices established by God.

These directives fulfilled their purpose. Some of them still point us to Christ when we fall short but those provisions for our atonement have been retired.  There is one atonement for our sins and it was made one time by Jesus and it is good for eternity.

When Christ returns—and he will return—it is not to forgive sins once more. It is not to make another sacrifice. Everything required by law and prophecy was fulfilled in his first advent.

When he comes again, it will be for you to realize the fullness of your salvation. He will come again to claim you for all eternity.

You are his. He won’t let you go. He is coming back for you.

He came as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

He will return to harvest the fruit of that sacrifice. He is coming for us.

There is no other way for us to reach God the Father.

There is no other sacrifice required to take away our sin.

The Old Covenant has served its purpose. The New Covenant is here and in it alone is our salvation.

We are to move forward, build upon the foundation that we have in Christ Jesus, and start chewing on some meat.

This salvation that we know in Christ Jesus is big stuff. Professing Jesus is Lord is not the end of the race. It is not the finish line.

We have been in the starting blocks for too long. It’s time to run our race, looking always forward to Christ and forgetting what is behind us.

Our accomplishments and accolades that gave us status in this world, don’t count for diddly in the kingdom of God. Some things might translate into eternity. I’m thinking that OSU graduates will still have head-of-the-line privileges over OU and Texas.

And our sins, no matter how disgusting they may be, have been covered by the blood of Jesus. He took away our sins.

We belong to him and that’s that.

There’s no turning back. Don’t even look back. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. There is only going forward for the one who has professed Jesus is Lord and has taken his yoke.

I began this study of Hebrews asking you to read it through the lens of Jesus. I also reminded you though we don’t know the author, his words are in accord with the rest of the biblical witness.

Let’s put that to the test with my words—moving forward.

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We can leave our past in the past.

Philippians 3:14

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

God calls us forward.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

The old is gone. The new is here. We are a new creation.

Isaiah 43:18-19

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert

We must have eyes to see so that we are not blind to what God is doing.

Here’s an oldie for the don’t look back collection.

But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

The author of Hebrews knew that his audience knew this one, so he simply wrote: Remember Lot’s wife.

A trained speaker is taught to say a lot about a little. Here we see the author extending the discussion of old and new for another chapter.

Again we see that his counsel is in accord with the full biblical witness.

Again we see a call to look forward and to move forward.

Keep your eyes fixed upon Jesus.

Don’t look back.

Don’t turn back.

The best is yet to come.

Eyes fixed on Jesus. Move forward.

Focused on living God’s way. Move forward.

Knowing fully that whatever sins I committed, they are washed away in the blood of the Lamb. Move forward.

Eyes fixed on Jesus. Move forward.

Amen.

 

Matthew 13 - Part 6

 

Read Matthew 13

 Parables about the end of the age, parables about the kingdom of heaven, parables about pearls and fish and seeds and Jesus just kept on teaching.

Yeast and mustard seeds and words hidden to some and so visible to others.  Welcome to chapter 13.  At least Jesus blessed his disciples and us with explanations of two of his parables.

Imagine drinking from this first-century fire hose.  You knew the law.  You knew something of the prophets.  You were obedient in worship and offerings and sacrifices and now you are overwhelmed by these teachings of the One you believe could just be the Anointed One, the Christ.

Do you throw out the old in favor of the new?  Putting new wine in old wineskins comes to mind.  How do you deal with the old and the new?

Come the last day of December, how many of you will be shouting out with the old and cautiously whispering in with the new?  Are we saying goodbye to 2020 with great expectations of things to come in 2021 or did we notice the reminders that the movie Mad Max was set in 2021?

We live in an age where a phone that is 18 months old is an old phone.

We live in an age where a 7-year-old car is an old car.

We live in an age where music from the 90s are called oldies.  I’m offended by that.

We live in an age where just about every print media is old news.

George Bernard Shaw said, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old.  We grow old because we stop playing.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.”

Many have quoted this one.  “Growing old is mandatory.  Growing up is optional.”  That’s surely a universal law, at least for men.

We wrestle with new and old all the time.  I once thought I could help a college student with English and composition, but the names for all the terms had changed.

I once went to a two-day seminar on risk management. It was the late 1990s.  The course was full of formulas.  I brought a calculator as was required and worked through the many problems given to us as part of the course.  My brain hurt.  Some people brought slide rulers and enjoyed working out these problems.  They loved this stuff.  I had learned to use a slide-ruler 30 years earlier.  My dad was an electrical engineer and he taught me.  I loved the experience of my dad teaching me how to use this state-of-the-art device back in the 1960s but I was ever so glad to put it away when Texas Instruments made calculators affordable.

I know, calculators are dirt cheap and old school.  Now we have calculator apps.

There I was in a conference room in Seattle, Washington in the middle of nerd central.  I needed the mechanics of assessing risk for something other than a night attack or a single envelopment. I was procuring millions of dollars worth of service contracts for some very old training systems as well as for those just coming into service.  I needed some mechanism for assessing risk in those areas.

Near the end of the course, the instructor noted that there was software available that did stochastic modeling.  It was for those people who didn’t want to work out the math yourself.  I said, “How much?”  I was so ready for the new.

Every few months my phone directs me to upgrade the operating software.  I spend about a week trying to figure out where the icon for my email is now.  Sometimes, I just like the old, even if the old is just 3 months older than the new.

We deal with old and new all the time.  Jesus framed treasure in the terms of old and new.

Can we understand crossing over from death to life without understanding crossing over from slavery to liberty and a land promised for ages?

We can, but how much greater our wealth is it to know the old and the new?

Can we understand a sacrifice given once in divine blood without understanding the countless sacrifices given in the blood of bulls and goats?

We can, but how much greater our wealth is it to know the old and the new?

Can we understand grace without knowing the law?

We can, but how much greater our wealth is it to know the old and the new?

Knowledge, experience, and wisdom are all grist for the mill.  They are treasures that we have acquired over time.  They might be the old.  The teachings of our Lord are new treasures rooted in love.  Together we have treasures old and new. 

How much better equipped is the person who knows the law and the prophets and the psalms and the proverbs to receive the message of love one another?

We who study all of God’s word are equipped with treasures old and new.  We are blessed with treasures old and new.

Amen.