Hebrews 10 is for all the marbles!

This is the Cliff notes version of the book, this is the part that is going to be on the test. This is what is important about following Jesus Christ.

These six verses are one sentence in the original Greek. One sentence to sum up everything the author wants us to not just know in our heads, but put into practice in our lives.

Because of who Jesus is and what he has done, we have complete confidence to enter into the presence of God. So let’s do it! Often!

We’re to enter into God’s presence, hold tightly to the hope we say we have, and meet together to provoke each other to a life of love and good deeds.

This is another affirmation that our vision statement as a church gets to the heart of what’s important.

We want to be a growing community, listening to Christ, changing in the Spirit, living out love. Like Hebrews 10 says, our community encourages each other to enter the presence of God, be changed, and live differently because of it.

To be honest, sometimes I’m afraid that we miss the point out of familiarity with it.

The heart of our action as a follower of Jesus is to draw near to God, to come into God’s presence. All of us! It’s not just the high priest, it’s not just somebody who does it for us anymore. It’s not about what we do in our worship services, about liturgical rituals or singing the right songs or hearing the right words.

The God who created everything really does want us to come into his presence, and has made it possible through Jesus.

The book of Hebrews pulls out all the stops to encourage us to do it.

Sometimes it’s a kick in the pants, a threat, a reminder of how important this is. Sometimes it’s like this passage, a beautiful picture of the power of what Jesus makes possible for us.

I guess what I feel like I want to say most strongly today is this: out of all the good things in life, the best thing and the most lasting thing is for us to choose to enter into the presence of God. God is everywhere, of course…but when we choose to draw near to God, that’s when we’ve chosen the best thing.

We’re a week away from a business meeting where we’ll be talking about important things: goals for our future and what we ought to do together when we gather for worship.

But the best thing in the world is to draw near to God! And it is our highest priority for all of life, not just for Sunday morning.

To really understand this passage today, we need to have in mind what the author of Hebrews says in the whole book, letting that fully inform chapter 10. So I want to go back and summarize Hebrews today to help us.

And then, in our time of open worship, we’ll each have the choice of whether we will do it…whether we will draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.

Here’s the gist of the argument, with all the wonder and joy, with all the priests and sacrifices and warnings thrown in.

Our lives begin because GOD spoke, GOD acted, GOD created. In the past, he spoke here and there through a few special people; but now something has changed forever for the good. God has spoken through his Son Jesus once and for all.

Jesus became like us in every way, flesh and blood, tempted in every way like us. But he didn’t sin. And those things together qualify him to be exactly what we need: the perfect, forever, once for all high priest that has never come before and never needs to be replaced.

But don’t forget! You and I are people, and people have always had a way of rejecting what God is doing. Take this seriously! Don’t turn your back on this. God has acted supremely and finally through his Son. There aren’t any other chances. Don’t turn your back on Jesus!

What’s so special about this Jesus? He broke the power of death and sin, making it possible for your wrong actions and my wrong actions to be forgiven forever, once and for all. He lived perfectly and he now lives forever; so, unlike priests before, he doesn’t need to keep bringing a sacrifice over and over. He IS the sacrifice and he offered it for us, because there wasn’t any needed for him.

Do you remember how different it used to be?

Before Moses, people were left on their own, and their choices were so often self-defeating that the whole world was a mess.

God made an unbreakable agreement, a covenant with Abraham and Moses. God even showed people how to worship, showing them how to build a tent called a tabernacle where God’s presence would be with the people.

But the holiness of God is so great! When he came to Moses on Mt. Sinai, people couldn’t even look. People couldn’t even touch the mountain. And nobody just walked right into the holy place of the tabernacle into God’s presence. You would instantly die if you went past the curtain that separated God’s presence from the people.

Only the high priest could enter that holy place, only once a year, and only with a sacrifice offered for himself and for all the people. That was the only way for the people to be forgiven, yet it only lasted for a year until it had to be done again.

God was so close, and yet so, so far away for the average person.

This is why Jesus is so amazing, and why this is such good news that we cannot turn away from!

Because he was the perfect high priest, Jesus walked right in through the curtain with himself as the offering, and tore the curtain down forever.

It’s just a picture, really, an analogy. The tabernacle is just a picture of true worship in heaven, where Jesus is now with God forever.

But the point is that God is not out of reach of normal, everyday people any more!

Jesus has done what couldn’t be done…identify with us completely, do something about sin once and for all, make our forgiveness possible…and he invites us into the presence of the God of the universe, the one who has been speaking and acting and calling us to himself from the beginning.

So don’t let Jesus go to waste!

Don’t think what Jesus did was a one time thing that is over and done with. It’s now a way of life to walk in the presence of God, through the way that has been opened to us by Jesus.

God has spoken. God has called us to himself, and made the way possible for us to come in safely, without fear, with confidence.

God wants us to walk right in. God wants us to accept Jesus, cling to Jesus, hold on to Jesus…and walk right into the presence of God.

It’s still going to be foreign territory! We still have a lot to learn. We have to hold on to our hope, and encourage each other and push each other to live like we are a part of God’s family.

But we can walk right in. And our only hope as individuals and as a church community is in walking into the holy presence of God.

In just a moment, I’m going to read these six verses again, ushering us into the time of open worship where we can enter God’s presence.

Let me draw another, much more current word picture for us, as we get ready to enter God’s presence. Because as amazing as it is to go into God’s presence, it isn’t always easy. It isn’t always comfortable. It isn’t always joyful.

My daughter Talli is in Japan right now. In fact, she’s preparing to get on a plane to return after being a part of a student exchange program with her school. Reid Allen and Tiffany Graham, two other middle schoolers from our church, are also on the trip.

My almost thirteen year old daughter would not have been able to go to Japan without the leaders, without the permission of the schools and without the money we helped her raise. She desperately wanted to go, but it took others to make the trip possible for her.

She’s been looking forward to it, and prepared for it with meetings and Japanese classe… she even tried sushi before she left. Her e-mails and her voice on the phone have been telling us all kinds of once in a lifetime, exciting experiences that she’s had as she drinks in another culture.

I am so glad for this experience for her! It’s changed her already, and will continue to change her. I’m glad she was brave enough to go on this journey, and that the way was made possible.

But she still has been in a foreign country. The food, the language, the manners, the etiquette have been difficult to understand and most definitely not home to her. If Japan WAS going to become comfortable, it would take a lot more time there, a lot more study and experiences to make it hers.

What if Japan is a picture for the presence of God for us?

We can’t get there on our own, but Jesus makes it possible. The experience of being with God is unbelievably exciting and life changing…but it’s a foreign country. It’s different. It’s hard to understand everything.

But it is so fun to go! Have you found the joy of the presence of God?

Take the journey! Maybe today what you need is to set aside the fear of the “differentness” of being in God’s presence and ask for the joy to come through. Maybe you need to look past what feels like the drudgery and monotony of religion. Maybe bible study and prayer and coming to church are feeling like the hard work of language study and eating strange foods feels to those going to live in another country.

Let God, let the words of Hebrews… let’s help each other experience the life changing joy and wonder of being in the presence of God today!

Let’s not miss the chance to experience God right now, today.

READ Hebrews 10:19-25