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God’s Plan! Revealed and Finally Realized! The Plan to give us unrestricted access! A sermon on Heb 4:14-16
God’s Plan! Revealed and Finally Realized!
The Plan to give us unrestricted access
Heb 4:14-16
† I.H.S. †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ assure you that you are welcome before the very throne of God, even when you are in need of forgiveness!
Access
The young man swept an ID card at the Pepperdine Senior faculty/administration parking lot gate in front of me. He got out of the car, and pried open the control box, and just as he was about to hit the manual overrise to open the gate, I asked him what he was doing.
He claimed he worked for the Director of University Card Services, and he was checking on the box to see if it was functioning. He said he did this all the time, and was allowed to park in the parking lot.
I asked him what the name of the Director was, and he looked at a business card and said, Dustin Parker.
Of course at that point, our public safety sergeant Mick showed up, and said,, “hey Dustin…..how are you doing?”
The look on the young man’s face was precious…
Not only was he not granted access to that parking lot that day, he would never need to access that parking lot or any other parking lot for the rest of the year, as his ability to have a car on campus was suspended.
At the same campus, the card services manager, who was responsible for all the computers in food services, was granted access to the senior faculty, administrators dining room. It was a fun place to eat, as some of the discussions were incredibly interesting. Not to mention the food was incredible, and not expensive! I didn’t deserve the access, but accepted the gift and the blessing of it being given—by the one who could grant it!
Restricted Access
When access is restricted, many of us begin to assume it is because of injustice. We, or someone we love, can’t get into the right university, because we don’t have the right connections, or the right money. We can’t get a foothold in the career we want because of some demographic reason, We can’t get the car we want, or the house, because we don’t economically qualify for it, or we can’t get the best medical care, because we don’t have the right insurance.
Well – at least in that instance we can talk to Helena…
Or perhaps we don’t like that others have easy access to what we fought so hard to get, because they do have some connection!
This includes access to heaven—we often think we deserve it because we are good, or because we did something special, or because we were born into the right family, or the right place and time.
Or we believe we don’t belong in heaven, if we look at those same works, those same connections, those same points of origin, we know we don’t belong, that we belong in a different place.
It was no different in the Old Testament, as the Tabernacle and then the Temple were commissioned, when people weren’t satisfied that only on family, in one clan were allowed to enter the Temple, and only one person in that clan could enter the Holy of Holies, the place where grace was made known—between the wings of the cherubim, where the blood would be poured out….and that only once a year.
Yet others would try to take that role, including King Saul, and so many others…and in doing so, they denied themselves the very grace they originally sought.
Their access to heaven is much the same as the young man’s access to the admin/faculty lot – there wasn’t any. And the more we try to get access by our own right, the more trouble we get ourselves into…the more we are tempted to sin, especially to find idols, or make ourselves into an idol. We often know when we’ve done that, when we want to judge and condemn others.
Unrestricted Access
There is much more at stake here, than having to park in the gym parking lot and climb 268 steps straight to get to the bottom level of the campus classrooms! We needed someone to get into, not just the holy place in the temple, nor the holy of holies, but to get to the throne of grace the place where sin is completely nullified where we are welcomed, and receive the mercy, the grace and help which we need.
That is where the high priest comes in, in this case, Jesus, our perfect high priest. For he not only enters heaven, the Greek word there in reminiscent of a penetrating blast that a swat team would use to enter a building….
The kind of thing that happened at Christ’s death, when as He died on the cross the foot think veil dividing the holy of holies from the holy place. He penetrated that barrier for us, and did the same thing for heaven, enabling us to enter through the veil that once blocked people from accessing the throne of grace.
Going back to the idea of access…and the Executive Admin and Senior Faculty Dining room for a moment. You didn’t go there, unless you were… well hungry. And hunger was satisfied, more than that! Likewise, going into the Holy of Holies was meaningless, unless the mission was to see people forgiven, their relationship with God, and with each other restored as they were redeemed. It is the same concept in Hebrews, hear it again,
“16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
We aren’t perfect before when we are drawn to Christ – that is His work – that is why he opened the route in to the throne. It is there we find the access to the healing we need the reconciliation, and the transformation that is repentance.
And then we are welcome there forever, but it is there, here in the presence of God that we receive the incredible mercy and grace. Because of Jesus, and His death and resurrection, we shall always have unrestricted access to the glory of God…
The Context and Measure of Holiness
Devotional Thought of the Day:
38 *“You have heard that it was said,x ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 yBut I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on [your] right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. 40 If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. 41 Should anyone press you into service for one mile,* go with him for two miles.z 42 Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.a
Love of Enemies.* 43 b“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’c 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors* do the same? 47 And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?* 48 So be perfect,* just as your heavenly Father is perfect. NABRE – Matt 5:38-48
24. Yet man must respond to God Who calls, and that in such a way, that without taking counsel with flesh and blood (Gal. 1:16), he devotes himself wholly to the work of the Gospel. This response, however can only be given when the Holy Spirit gives His inspiration and His power. For he who is sent enters upon the life and mission of Him Who “emptied Himself, taking the nature of a slave” (Phil. 2:7). Therefore, he must be ready to stay at his vocation for an entire lifetime, and to renounce himself and all those whom he thus far considered as his own, and instead to “make himself all things to all men” (1 Cor. 9:22)
This Christ calls all sinners to himself and promises them refreshment. He earnestly desires that all men should come to him and let themselves be helped (2)
I have heard many people define holiness over the years. Some confuse it with purity, a lack of sinlessness and being completely remote from the world. But those who promote this view do not know how to deal with Jesus eating with whores and tax collectors, filthy sinners and fisherman.
Others would discuss holiness in view of martyrdom, the peaceful testimony of Christ in the presence of persecution and death. But most of us will only be inconvenienced because of our faith; if that is the real reason for people taking a dislike to us.
Others will look upon great acts, the work of those who are steadfast in the faith, who have this or that gift, who spend hours locked away in prayer, or tending to the poor and needy. As if holiness is some kind of heroic virtue, instead of a life we are called to live.
The last group treats holiness with little concern at all, saying in reaction to those above, that holiness is a virtual impossibility, that no one can attain holiness, that it is impossible by our own strength or power, and that God doesn’t really care, as long as we depend on Him to forgive our lack of holiness.
This last view is the most dangerous. It steals from us our hope in this life, and it convinces us that how we live, what salvation is about, isn’t living dependent upon God. It denies, faith, hope, and love. And it justifies our self-centeredness, our Machiavellian-inspired theology and practice, and our apathy towards evangelism and service.
In one of the greatest calls to holiness – in the Gospel reading above, Jesus tells us we need to be perfect, (other translations use “holy” here ) even as God is perfect and holy.
It is not an impossibility. If so, Jesus wouldn’t have commanded it, nor would the Father hold us to that standard.
The context provides the measurement of such holiness as well, the love The love of our enemies, and the love of those who you aren’t connected to, recognizing the fact that in Christ Jesus you are connected.
Those who would do evil to you, those who would demand more than is their “right” of you, those who you would say are your enemies.
Holiness is loving them.
Holiness is caring for them.
Vatican II notes this with the call to work in the vocation of the gospel – without thought or cost – even if it means a lifetime of service. It means living this way at the cost of renouncing yourself, or the people who are “yours”, serving instead “all men”, yes, including those aren’t “ours”
That they aren’t our religion, our countrymen, out ethnicity, our race, our culture, our family, or our friends; even so, we are to love them as if they are! We are to love them because they are.
This is having the attitude of Jesus, the attitude Philippians 2 tells us to have – as described in the great hymn that we love in verses 5-10. The preceding verses tell us we are to have this mind, this attitude, this same servant’s heart, and love those who are different from us.
NO option. This is what the people of God are to do.
By now – you are tempted to stop reading this – to write me off as naive, or pelagian, or some kind of fanatic. A blogger who obviously is so heavenly minded he can’t be of benefit.
We think we aren’t capable of that kind of holiness. We cannot possibly love like that, can we? Can we actually care more about our enemies and adversaries as much as those like us? Can God expect us to love our enemies and lay down our lives for them? WOuld any many?
Well, any man not nailed to a cross and who rose again three days later?
If we say we cannot, we miss the work of God. For He calls us, inspires us, and empowers us. This si the refreshment and help that the Lutheran Confessions describe as well, ad walking with God that is daily and practical, and incredibly effective. I
Holiness isn’t walking alone, it is walking with God, moving with Him. Loving as He loves, serving as He serves, bringing healing and trust as He brings it to us. Such is our calling, and such is our life
AMEN.
(1) Catholic Church. (2011). Decree on the Mission Activity of the Church: Ad Gentes. In Vatican II Documents. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
(2) Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 495). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
