Sermon 37
Sermon by Liz Tilley at
Series on Hebrews
Introduction and Chapter 1:1-4
Click here for the Bible reading
:- Hebrews 1:1-4
Introduction:
I
was asked many questions during the Advisory Panel last week both written and
verbal. From “What do you read when
you’re not reading Maeve Binchy”
to “describe a time when you found it hard to pray”. The main written exercise was addressing a
tough pastoral situation. The scenario
is set and you have to write a l reply to letter you have received. So I’d like to set a scene this morning and
ask you to think about what you would write in a response to this friend of
yours. Imagine a long standing friend of
yours, a very keen Christian – we’ll call her Jane/Jack - in fact she played a major role in
the Christian Union at college and she had quite an impact on you and your
faith. She used to live just a few miles away from you- she led a home group
and helped with pathfinders - but 3 years ago she moved up north with her
job. You’ve kept in touch and met up
from time to time – occasional phone call.
But you have sensed that she is not moving ahead as a Christian. And as the years have gone on you’ve realised
she’s not got very involved in a church, you very rarely talk about anything to
do with the Christian faith – and when you last mentioned possibly going up to
stay with her one weekend she was rather cagey about it – and mentioned being
rather caught up with her work and her boss.
What
would you write to Jane (or Jack)? You
could use more than the 500 words which was our limit! Would your letter be full of encouragement –
or challenge or a mixture of both. What would you remind her about from the past
– the mission when two of her neighbours joined the Alpha course after being
invited to an open meeting of her home group. Where would you turn to in the Bible? What passages would you refer to?
The letter to the
Hebrews that we start a series on today was written to Christians who had been
gradually drifting away from their distinctive Christian position and were now
in danger of giving up altogether.
They’d started so well – we read of them in Ch 10 v 32 they’d heard and
responded to the gospel, they’d faced persecution in those early days but
hadn’t been deterred –The message p 553.
Theirs was a faith worked out in daily life – their love was evident.
But they did not go on growing as you’d expect and the writer castigates them
for still needing milk (BibleGateway.com
- Passage Lookup: Hebrews 5:11-14) You are
slow to learn – you should be teachers by now but you still need someone to
teach you the elementary truths. Some of
them had even stopped meeting together.
The writer realized – we’ll call him that as we don’t know who wrote
this letter, though many have rather convincing reasons that it couldn’t have
been the Apostle Paul – he realized that if they did not take some action very
soon, they would reach the point where they were no longer Christian in any
real sense and they would lose the benefits of all that Jesus had done for them
through dying for them.
So all through
this letter there is a strong call to keep going: Let us run with perseverance
the race set out before us. Don’t throw
away your confidence: You need to persevere Let us hold unswervingly to the
hope we profess – for he who promised is faithful- let us rings through this –
and he shows a measure of confidence that they will actually do that. But there are warnings too, and quite strong
ones – of the consequence of turning one’s back on Jesus and denying all that
he has done. Encouragement, challenge
and warning are intertwined. But I see
the writer rather like a spectator watching a race or match and cheering people
on (That
tremendous game that Andy Murray played against Andy Roddick
– Any set back – you were on the edge of your chair, saying. Come on, don’t give up now. The writer to the Hebrews is constantly
saying “Come on now. Look what you stand to lose if you give up now.
Take a good look
at Jesus and consider who he is - the unique Son of God, the Great High priest,
who perfectly represents us before God and who offered the once for all perfect
sacrifice for sin. Now
in the highest place of honour at the right hand of
God the father – and interceding for us. Abandon him and where will you
be (Jesus once asked the disciples whether they would leave him too and peter
said “To whom shall we go – you have the words of eternal life”.) As he does all this – encouragement, challenge
– looking at different aspects of who Jesus is and what he has done, he
highlights and explains parts of the Jewish scripture – the OT to us -
especially Ps 8, 95, 110 and Jer 31).
Let’s see how he
starts – not like most letters, but more like a speech as he launches into his
introduction Ch 1:1-4 – 4 sentences here - in the Greek it’s just one
incredible sentence. He emphasises how God has always
spoken to his people – we can see it throughout the pages of the OT –through
prophets (Moses, Elijah, Hosea etc. and in different ways – wind, fire, vision,
dream – but now in the days that the OT looked forward to – what it called the
last days – he has given us his final word, through the only one in such a
close relationship that he could bring that complete and final revelation – the
Son, the one and only son and heir, the creator. Then in terms that are hard to put into
everyday language, where the writer pushes the language at his disposal to the
absolute limit - he
describes the Son as God, Message p 539
Look at Jesus and you see God – and his glory - he has his very
nature. He provided purification for
sins – made the sacrifice and was the sacrifice himself that brings forgiveness
of sin – both priest and victim. Here we
first meet the unique contribution to our understanding of Jesus that Hebrews
makes comes in here – nowhere else in the NT is Jesus clearly portrayed as the
great High priest. Then he sat down at
the right hand of God – in the position of authority and power – and he is the
greatest – greater than all spiritual beings which we will take up next week –
greater than Moses and those who have gone before, the great High priest, the
Son of God. These few verses bring together so much that will be expanded
later, and really need contemplation more than explanation.
One further point
I feel we need to make to set the scene for this letter – and it is so
important to understand the situation the writer was addressing before we star
unpacking it and relating it to today - is that the readers had a background in
the Jewish faith – this sometimes makes it hard for us to enter fully into it
and understand, there are so many references to the Jewish faith and we can be
baffled by all the details about the ritual of sacrifice, and as for that
strange figure Melkizedek. We are going to need to look at the OT,
especially parts of Exodus and Leviticus.
They were Jewish Christians who were not just drifting away – they were
drifting back into Judaism, that’s why the writer makes many comparisons
between their former Jewish faith and its fulfillment in Jesus and his
death. Why go back? Well, there may well have been reasons that
tempted them to want to return to Judaism, they may have been missing certain
aspects of it – or maybe something more subtle – you see, the Jewish religion
was recognized and tolerated by the Romans at the time And some freedom was
granted them – e.g. they were not made to worship the Emperor as others were, -
so if they looked more like Jews than Christians – trying maybe to hold the 2
together but outwardly seeming to be Jews, not Christians, blend in – they
could well avoid persecution. A huge
incentive here, but the writer says, if you return to
the old ways, the old sacrifices, you will lose Jesus and all the benefits of
his one perfect final sacrifice for sin.
I wonder if you
have any more thoughts about that letter to Jane or Jack? Hebrews is a special letter in the NT with
its unique message and picture of Jesus.
Do we need its message today? Do we ever find our enthusiasm lagging and
we need to be spurred on afresh, or do we need encouragement to keep on when
the going is tough, or a challenge to be ready to stand out as Christians when
we are tempted to compromise or just blend in with those around us in our
families, neighbourhoods or at work – even a warning
of all we have to lose if we drop out of the race. Do we need fresh confidence in Jesus and the
fact that there is no one and nothing that can compare with him ………. Let’s make
it our prayer that over these next few weeks as we consider it together, it may
be like a spiritual tonic for each one of us wherever we are on the journey,
encouraging us to persevere and move forward. What a great thing that would be
as we meet together during this holiday month.
Let’s finish by making
those well known words from Hebrews 1:1-3 our prayer, as we say them together: ……….