Sermon 64
Sermon by Ian Scott-Thompson at Wonersh on 16th
Oct 2006
Hebrews 4
These readings are marvellous passages, golden opportunities for any Christian, full of truths about God and about human beings. Please turn to Hebrews 4.
12. For the word of God is living and active.
Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and
spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Why do we study the Bible? The word of God is God’s Agent. The Duke of Northumberland owns the Albury Estate, but is represented by his Agent. An Estate Agent is the person you appoint to act on your behalf, and to show people around your property. An Agent does things (from the Latin for to do) on behalf of another.
To many in the 21st century, the Bible looks just like another book: it sits on their shelves (or props up their furniture!); it can be printed, read, copied, sold. But a person is more than a body, and the word of God is more than a book. Some things in here are simply human: the details of the publisher, the Forward, the cross-references and footnotes, the paragraph headings, even the Chapter and verse numbers. When you’re reading the Scriptures, please don’t read these aloud with special respect! But the text itself has been refined and handed down for thousands of years, and God uses it. That’s the first point: the Word of God is active.
What does it do? It penetrates deep into the human heart, it gets under the shallow surface. It divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow: these are the fine distinctions within us, not normally separated. It judges our thoughts and attitudes. Today, that’s unusual: we love to be in control, our society hates institutions and authorities and people who tell us what to do. Many experts and gurus try to tell us how to run our lives, but most of the time we dismiss then as not having earned that right.
God is different. When we truly recognise Him, we know immediately that He has that right. His word “judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Sky Cops, Police helicopter crews who provide an “eye in the sky” or, as they call it, a Heli-Tele, to keep up with criminals wherever they run to, even using infra-red cameras at night-time to pick out people hiding in undergrowth, and then direct ground forces onto them.
Job ponders how God sees things, but not as man sees: God sees everything, even what is hidden from us. The eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the earth.
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.
“Therefore”. What a wonderful word, connecting what goes before to what comes after. Hebrews 4 has been talking about God’s rest, heaven as the promised land, the seventh day of creation, retirement after a long working life, the culmination and prize of all the effort of life. Our passage talks about God seeing everything by His word, how we cannot hope to hide even the smallest thing from Him, although we continue to try, generation after generation. Therefore, because of these things, let us trust God.
Oh, and two more things! “We have a great high priest”: the person most qualified to mediate between God and man.
“Who has gone through the heavens”, in other words He has made an
entry into God’s presence, not just into the Holy of Holies in the
Since we have a high priest mediator who has opened the way to God for us, let’s not waste this chance, this golden opportunity. Let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. We may talk about faith, but can we walk it to the end? In the Scriptures we see the value of perseverance, endurance. Jesus, speaking about the last things, says (several times) “he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.
Tom Wright’s book, “Simply Christian.” He describes three world-views, three beliefs about the relationship between God and the world. The first is pantheism, where God is identified with the world, they are essentially the same thing, and the problem is that he is identified with weaknesses, sin and evil as well. The second is deism, where God has created the world but then abandoned it. He exists somewhere far away, not interested at all. He may be very pure and holy, but he doesn’t lift a finger to help us. The third view, biblical and Christian, is that God is not the same as the world, but nor is He far away from it either. His kingdom is close by, and even breaking through and making contact with the world in Jesus, and in Christians.
This is what Hebrews is saying here. Jesus is similar to us, but different. He has suffered as we do; he has been pushed to the limit as we are; he has felt the urge of human desire as we do; but he never gave in. Does that mean that it was easier for him, because he never started down the slippery slope? Some have said that it made it harder, because when you resist, desires and temptations grow more intense, not less.
The world usually takes a deist world-view. “He knows nothing of what we’re going through. How has He suffered, then?” Hebrews affirms that Jesus was tempted just as we are. His suffering, especially on the Cross, was greater than ours, not less. He is not remote: we can turn to Him when we are tempted. He will sympathise, respond and help us. In particular, He can help us to resist temptation as we did, and not to sin.
16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Our passage closes with an encouragement to come to God through Christ, to seek His mercy and grace. Is God only for when we are feeling good about ourselves? Some are ashamed to come to Him, because they feel unworthy. But that is exactly when He can help us most, when He is eager to save us. Would we only go to the doctor when we feel fit and confident of our health? No: when we are ill, then we need the doctor more. In our time of need, turn to the Lord.
If I had to summarise Hebrews in one sentence, it’s “Look how wonderful Jesus is, so trust your life to him.” It’s a very encouraging book, full of the grace of God.