The Assurance of Faith

Hebrews 10:11-25New International Version (NIV)

11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:

16 “This is the covenant I will make with them
    after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
    and I will write them on their minds.”

17 Then he adds:

“Their sins and lawless acts
    I will remember no more.”

18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

A Call to Persevere in Faith

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

For me, one of the hardest things in life is change.  I do not deal well with change, at all.... Change makes me anxious.  It makes me doubt, I get nervous and sensitive about the littlest things.  It doesn’t really matter what the change is, either.  It doesn’t matter if the change is supposed to be subtle or extreme.  Painting a living room or changing flooring or buying a different vehicle, it doesn’t matter.  A change, or even the threat of a proposed change, wears on me physically, spiritually, emotionally and psychologically.  It causes me to act unnatural and awkward.  I am sure that most of you share, at least in part, my anxiety when it comes to change. That’s why what I am about to tell you is so difficult.  This past Thursday was my last day on the farm as a full time employee there.  I have accepted a position at Van Wall Equipment in Indianola and I start tomorrow.  This change in career does not change my role or duties as your pastor as I have spoken to them about my responsibilities to this church and to God’s people and they were more than understanding.  So as I have described my hesitation to change, you can now imagine how difficult this decision has been for me.  In all honesty, I wanted my uncle to be furious when I told him that I had an interview several weeks ago.  I wanted him to fire me when I told him I had accepted the position.  Why did I want these things?  In my mind, it would have made the change easier.  I thought I could cut ties forever making it easier for me to transition into this next job.  Instead, like it often does, things went incredibly well.  My conversations about my interview, the giving of my two weeks, and my last day went extremely well.  I shouldn’t be surprised, though.  After all, it was what I had been praying for.   However, I underestimated God and I underestimated Dan.  I thought I wanted things to end one way and God showed me that I couldn’t have been more wrong.  I thought I knew and understood how things should go.  I thought I knew what was best.  This experience shed a lot of light on just how wrong I was.  I have no doubt that this new career opportunity is what God is calling me towards because way too many things had to line up for it to work as it has.  It doesn’t make the change any less difficult for me but I take comfort in knowing that God is taking care of me and that people are truly capable of change. I take comfort in knowing that God answered my prayers even though it wasn’t how I thought they would be answered.  Change is never easy but the power of God, the sacrifice of Christ and the fire of the Holy Spirit are there to help.  They are they to assure our faith.  The way the Hebrews were now asked to view Christ was not an easy transition for them either and the writer of our scripture for this morning was charged the task of helping them make a change to their faith.

The Hebrews were more than accustomed to the sacrifices made on their behalf courtesy of the High Priests.  The High Priest was the only one able to enter into the Holy of Holies, one time a year, to make a sacrifice for the sins of the previous year but they would make daily sacrifices at the altar to also atone for sins.  The writer of this letter spends the entire book of Hebrews trying to explain how Christ changed things, how Christ is the new High Priest.  Our scripture for this morning is perhaps the writers most compelling argument.  Jesus, the new High Priest, offered a one time sacrifice for our sins.  This alone meant big changes to the daily activities of the Temple.  It meant huge changes in the details of daily worship for the individual.  Changes that were perhaps too scary to make that some did, and still do, refuse to make.  The scripture goes on to say that those who are being made holy are now perfect.  Despite their sin, shortcomings and failures, despite their lack of faith and injustices served, despite their ignorances and prejudices we are made perfect.  That is way different than thinking we are, and probably always will be, far from perfect.  There are evil forces that try to convince us that our sin keeps us from attaining perfection so why try.  These forces convince us that we are too far from perfection, in other words, we are too far from God, to be perfect.  We are created in the likeness of perfection.  We are good enough for God’s love.  We are exactly who Jesus died for.  Christ’s sacrifice makes us holy, it makes us perfect.  This may be different from what you may have been told.  This change may be too difficult to appreciate, therefore we reject it.  It almost sounds too good to be true.  It would be much easier if God would curse us.  It would be easier if we could find a way to hate God so we don’t have to deal with the guilt we feel.  The changes of a true and faithful following of our faith creates demands that are difficult and uncomfortable.  These changes cause anxiety. So we are hesitant to implement the changes in our lives that this new understanding of faith now demands.  Trust me, I get it.  We get uncomfortable.  We don’t like being uncomfortable.  We work too hard.  We give too much of our time, energy and effort so that we do not have to do things that make us uncomfortable.  We have paid well to have things made comfortable for us.  The true application of a Christ-like life and faith are not easy.  It is not comfortable.  It causes us to think, pray, understand, converse and then to repeat, forever.  You may want to bomb ISIS out of existence and keep bombing and fighting until none are left but I am here to tell you that Al-Qaeda, Taliban, ISIS or some other form of terrorism will continue to foster recruits.  Fighting alone has not fixed the problem.  We need to continue to battle the evil that is radical Islam through any means necessary but we also need to praying for them.  Fighting has not stopped nor ended terrorism but combined with prayer and active participation in mutual understanding we can possibly eventually end terror.  If we think the sole solution is to fight, we will fight to the end of time.  We cannot continue to underestimate God.  We do not do ourselves, nor any future generations a favor but only fighting through warfare.  It is easier to hate all Muslims.  It is easier to hope God curses them.  All of them.  But He won’t.  Instead, He sent His son to die for them too.  He made them perfect just as He did you and I.  Are some Muslims evil?  Very much so.  But an overwhelming majority of them are not and Christ’s blood was also spilt for their salvation.  

This sacrifice on our behalf not only leads to salvation but it also leads to a confidence and boldness not experienced anywhere else.  God can seem so distant.  He seems so far away from our lives, nearly unattainable.  He often seems to be behind a curtain that only a very few get to peek behind.  Christ has changed all of that.  We can now enter the “Holy Place” aka the presence of God Himself with confidence because Christ’s sacrifice was the curtain that was torn.  Verse 20 tells us that we are called to “a new and living way opened to us through the curtain, that is, his body....”  A new and living way.  However uncomfortable it may be, it is ours for the taking.  We can freely enter into the presence of God because of Christ’s sacrifice.  We can freely speak to, worship, and pray to the Creator of the universe.  The magnitude of this act of sacrifice which shows us eternal love and grace is nearly beyond our understanding.  But once we get a small glimpse of its transformative power, it changes who we are.  It changes how we treat one another.  It changes how we view the world and our place in it.  It changes us.  And change is uncomfortable and awkward.  The writer of Hebrews asks us to consider how we can spur, motivate, encourage and stir one another.  That is how we change the world.  We start with ourselves first.  Then we are able to grow stronger as a church family and unify as a community because faith draws us into community with one another.  Only when we respect, encourage, and serve one another will we begin to change anything.  It starts within and then works outward starting with those closest to you.  Change stinks and it's uncomfortable but it’s a very big part of our faith, and if not, it should be.  Everyday that passes brings us one day closer to the return of Christ.  Everyday offers a new set of opportunities to grow in your faith, new opportunities to share with others that they too are made perfect so they can enter the presence of God, new opportunities to spread the fire of the Holy Spirit so It can place God’s laws in hearts and write them in our minds.  Everyday is new opportunity to change the world by serving, loving and understanding one another.  Amen.