Speaker 1: Let's pray this prayer of illumination with me as we ask the Holy Spirit to open our hearts.
Speaker 1: Gracious Redeemer, as we hear your word, open our eyes to your glorious kingdom and bring us life through your Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: Through Christ, we pray, amen.
Speaker 1: Today's scripture reading comes from Hebrews 10, verses 19 through 25.
Speaker 1: Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Speaker 1: Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all more as you see the day drawing near.
Speaker 1: This is God's word.
Speaker 2: Thanks be to God.
Speaker 2: Well, good morning.
Speaker 2: That was pretty weak good morning! Well, my name is Jason and I am one of the pastors here at New City and we are obviously continuing in this spring series of the book of Hebrews.
Speaker 2: I kind of want to tell you a story.
Speaker 2: This story is about my brother, and did you guys know that I have an identical twin brother?
Speaker 2: He was sitting right over here a couple of weeks ago and some of you guys were amazed, some of you guys were confused, some of you all were really curious and leaning in, and you're trying to find him after the service to talk to him.
Speaker 2: All that to say, my brother and I in our adult lives, we've had a lot of opportunity to travel the world together, really, both here domestically but also internationally, and if you've traveled at all outside of the US, you know that public transportation, particularly through trains, is a big deal.
Speaker 2: And so my brother and I were in a country where we did not know the language, we did not know the culture and we were trying to travel from one city to another, and maybe this is just a done thing.
Speaker 2: But we were trying to be frugal about it and so we paid for the lowest ticket that was possible.
Speaker 2: That probably increased the time by hours, you know, and so that trip from one city to another was about eight hours.
Speaker 2: I bet if we paid 20 extra dollars it could have been two.
Speaker 2: But so we got on this eight-hour train, you know, from one destination to another, and it was an overnight train.
Speaker 2: Eight-hour train, you know, from one destination to another, and it was an overnight train.
Speaker 2: So even though we were frugal, we did not want to not have a seat that actually reclined a little bit horizontally, and so we paid a little extra for a assigned seat.
Speaker 2: So, if you all don't know, when the train comes in it's like a little frenetic activity.
Speaker 2: There's people coming off the train with all their luggage and there's a lot of people coming on the train with all their luggage, but you're trying to find the car that belongs to your seat, because when you're traveling inside the train with luggage it's just really difficult.
Speaker 2: But when we got to our seats there were two men already sitting in them and they apparently weren't Americans and they didn't speak English, or so they said, and they weren't going to move from our seats.
Speaker 2: So my conscience told me just to move on, to go find one of those hard, comfortable, just seats that you could go to.
Speaker 2: But my brother, he knew that we had access.
Speaker 2: So, with bold confidence, he walked into that car and had a verbal kind of nonverbal conversation because he didn't speak the language either and he pulled out his phone and he showed them that we were covered, that we had access.
Speaker 2: At that moment my brother was my advocate for the great reward of reclining seats on this long train.
Speaker 2: You see, my conscience was bound and my confidence was broken, but I had my brother, whose conscience was clean and confidence unshaken.
Speaker 2: Many of us know that feeling that I had when we walked up and saw that our seats, they were taken.
Speaker 2: And we live in shame by our own conscience and we live with a shaky hope in this life that calls us to perseverance.
Speaker 2: And this is not just about seats right on a train.
Speaker 2: This is our spiritual journey, where we avoid the love of the Father in drawing near to Him and we fail to give and receive the encouragement to one another.
Speaker 2: And we wonder how will we be set free from our evil conscience?
Speaker 2: How will we secure our wavering hopes?
Speaker 2: How will we overcome the isolation that we feel?
Speaker 2: Our text today tells us that we have access.
Speaker 2: Our text today tells us that we have access, that we have an advocate in Jesus.
Speaker 2: Therefore, we can draw near to him with a true heart, we can hold fast in hope and we can stir up one another in love and good works.
Speaker 2: So, if you have a Bible or device, turn with me to chapter 10, starting at verse 19 , Therefore, you always have to ask what's that, therefore, when you see a therefore, but therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, so we have to pay attention.
Speaker 2: This is actually, in the book of Hebrews, a pivot.
Speaker 2: So if you've been walking through this book with us in the spring, the author of Hebrews is creating a pivot here.
Speaker 2: In this, therefore, clause, he has been moving from the instruction of the superiority of Jesus, who is our access and our advocate the two sense clauses to the exhortation for our faithful living.
Speaker 2: Read with me again the first sense clause.
Speaker 2: Sense, verse 19,.
Speaker 2: We have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.
Speaker 2: That is our access.
Speaker 2: In verse 21, sense we have a great high priest over the house of God.
Speaker 2: That is our advocate.
Speaker 2: So the author of Hebrews is moving from doctrine to our duty, from our creed to our conduct and our confident access and our clear advocate in Jesus.
Speaker 2: This is the doctrine that's summarized here.
Speaker 2: It allows us to draw near, to hold fast and to stir each other up toward love and good works.
Speaker 2: This is our duty and our call as disciple makers.
Speaker 2: So we will work through the text this morning through these points.
Speaker 2: Let us draw near, let us hold fast and let us stir up.
Speaker 2: Continue reading with me in verse 22.
Speaker 2: Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Speaker 2: Let us draw near.
Speaker 2: We heard from Kenny last week in his preaching about the broken systems that we turn to and how they don't give us access or an advocate into the throne room of God.
Speaker 2: The old systems we learned don't work.
Speaker 2: They cannot cleanse us from our evil consciences and they cannot wash our bodies with pure water.
Speaker 2: Now, I don't know everybody here in the room, but I've had enough time to sit with many of you and I know my own heart and I know that there is an accuser.
Speaker 2: Yes, satan is called the accuser of our brothers and sisters in Revelation and he does seek to steal, kill and destroy, but that's not the accuser I'm speaking to.
Speaker 2: The accuser that I'm speaking to is ourselves.
Speaker 2: It's our own consciences.
Speaker 2: When our own conscience mimics the voice of the great accuser, it's where we say I knew better than that.
Speaker 2: Or God's tired of forgiving me from that particularly ugly sin.
Speaker 2: Or we tell ourselves oh, I don't have access here, I don't have a true advocate that's fighting for me, I don't have value, I don't belong here.
Speaker 2: This is what the false accuser inside of us tells us.
Speaker 2: It leaves us disconnected, voiceless and drowning in our own shame.
Speaker 2: Our conscience, yes, it has been affected by the fall and it speaks the lies of the evil one to us.
Speaker 2: It tells us the vow that we have made, that we are unclean, that we are alone.
Speaker 2: It leaves us in shame, but the beauty of this text is saying that God wants us.
Speaker 2: He exhorts us to draw near to him.
Speaker 2: We have been given a new heart.
Speaker 2: We are cleansed by the blood of Jesus, who is our great high priest verses 19 through 21 that we already read and if this is true, then we can have confidence to draw near.
Speaker 2: It is in the presence of God that our consciences can be cleansed and our bodies renewed.
Speaker 2: As we behold the glory in Jesus, we are transformed from one degree of glory to another.
Speaker 2: He wants us to draw near to him.
Speaker 2: Now I think about this with my daughters and the confidence they have to draw near to me or to my wife, Katie.
Speaker 2: You know, after a long day of work, you get home, you get the kids fed, you do the dishes, you sing songs, maybe you do bath time, you do prayers, read books In our house we read a lot of books and then everyone is in bed.
Speaker 2: Right, and for us it's probably later than it should be, but we get in bed eventually.
Speaker 2: There are a few things once we're in bed that will get us out of bed.
Speaker 2: However, if in the middle of night, if our children scream out, or if they walk quietly or silently into our room, we welcome them.
Speaker 2: They have complete access to us.
Speaker 2: They are the ones who can wake me up in the middle of night and ask for a hug or a glass of water or just a short conversation about something from the day.
Speaker 2: Tim Keller has said this only a child is allowed to wake the king in the middle of the night.
Speaker 2: The child does this because they have confidence in their standing before the king, they know that they are a son or a daughter.
Speaker 2: And we can draw near to the King, god, the Father, with a true heart, with a confident heart, because we are his.
Speaker 2: We have access through the blood of Jesus and we have an advocate in Jesus.
Speaker 2: He is able and, as Damien preached many weeks ago, he is able to save us to the uttermost.
Speaker 2: So therefore, we can confidently draw near.
Speaker 2: Look down with me at verse 35.
Speaker 2: This is a interesting verse.
Speaker 2: It's really important as we look at this idea of drawing near.
Speaker 2: It says therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
Speaker 2: So the question I want to ask you all is are you throwing away your confidence because of your shame?
Speaker 2: Are you throwing away your confidence away when the hard days come?
Speaker 2: Because the hard days, when they come, they're not just a moment.
Speaker 2: They're a long season over a long period of time or are you on the other ditch, are you building your confidence on your own righteous deeds, which is the system that is insufficient and builds no endurance when the hard times come?
Speaker 2: The point is this we are all heading in a direction.
Speaker 2: In relation to God, we're either drawing near or we are hiding in fear.
Speaker 2: Which direction are you heading?
Speaker 2: Are you drawing near to him who is able to save you to the uttermost, or are you hiding in fear, behind fig leaves, wondering who will find you?
Speaker 2: This is a part of why we say a disciple here at New City is one who draws near to him, one who communes with him through the practices of the common rhythm, like scripture reading each day, prayer, fasting.
Speaker 2: Just a little aside, I have the opportunity and the privilege and the honor, really, that you all.
Speaker 2: A lot of my job is around prayer and so I don't take that lightly.
Speaker 2: But we're called as the pastoral team to tithe our time in prayer, which is a beautiful thing, but I think about all.
Speaker 2: You all don't have jobs necessarily that allow you to do that, but the way we've set up Seek Prayer on Wednesdays for the lunch hour.
Speaker 2: I would invite you to come into that space because that space has transformed my heart and my communion with God.
Speaker 2: There are ways to carry out the duty of faith by drawing near to him.
Speaker 2: John Owen a Puritan and I think of Puritans are those who lived for communion with God he says this about his communion that it is a friendship most maintained and kept up by visits that's the plural, and these the more free and less occasioned by urgent business.
Speaker 2: So it's not just coming to God for urgent requests, but to draw near to him, to draw near to him daily in relationship with many visits.
Speaker 2: We can come to him because he is our Abba, father, and Jesus has given us a full faith, it says here in verse 22,.
Speaker 2: And a cleansed heart.
Speaker 2: This makes me think of the beatitude Blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they shall see God, for they shall commune with God.
Speaker 2: So we are to draw near to God in confidence, but we are also to hold fast.
Speaker 2: Look down with me in your Bibles to verse 23.
Speaker 2: Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
Speaker 2: Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope.
Speaker 2: The confession of our hope is the preceding 10 chapters here in Hebrews that Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, that he upholds the universe by his word of his power and, after making purifications for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty and high.
Speaker 2: That's chapter one, and we could work through each chapter about the confession that we should hold here in our text.
Speaker 2: The confession, as I already said, has been summarized as Jesus is both our access and advocate.
Speaker 2: He is open.
Speaker 2: It says there in those beginning verses, a new and living way through his blood and through his body.
Speaker 2: This is the confession that we hold to.
Speaker 2: That we hold fast to now.
Speaker 2: Katie and I recently we were at Disney with our girls.
Speaker 2: We don't go all the time.
Speaker 2: We go, maybe once or twice a year, but when we go we go all day and that, honestly, is a bit of holding fast.
Speaker 2: If you're a parent, right, can I get an amen, amen.
Speaker 2: So at this point in our children's upbringing we are moving away a little bit from Dumbo and the teacups and we're moving on to something a bit more thrilling Tomorrowland's Speedway.
Speaker 2: Anybody?
Speaker 2: Now, if you don't know this ride, it's a miniature car race that runs on a track and you can't get off the track, which is a really good thing.
Speaker 2: In the cars they have bumpers that help slow the impact as you draw near to the next person in front of you.
Speaker 2: So it was a thrilling ride for our girls and they're not in the service right now, but they'd be so excited that I'm saying this.
Speaker 2: And what do you think I said to them as they sat down in this seat for the first time, as they're driving this car?
Speaker 2: I said, hey, pedal to the metal, let's beat your mama.
Speaker 2: No, I told them you have to hold fast to that steering wheel.
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 2: Because what they hold fast to it directs where they go.
Speaker 2: The same is true for us, for you and me.
Speaker 2: What we hold fast to it directs where we go.
Speaker 2: The fact that it tells us even to hold fast, it's an indication that we often let go and we hold on to other things like success or money in the bank or friends or acclaim.
Speaker 2: We need to be reminded to hold on to the truth of the confession of our hope.
Speaker 2: Turn with me now in your Bibles, to chapter 10, verse 32 and 33.
Speaker 2: But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened after you understood the confession of your hope.
Speaker 2: You endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.
Speaker 2: So the question, naturally, as I was thinking through the text, is what are we holding on to when trials, hardships and suffering comes?
Speaker 2: The exhortation here is don't let your hope waver, don't shrink back from your faith.
Speaker 2: The promised one is faithful, verse 23.
Speaker 2: So here's diagnostic questions to ask yourself what are you holding on to?
Speaker 2: So where am I wavering in my hope?
Speaker 2: What do I do when I experience hardship?
Speaker 2: Do I turn to holding my confession in Jesus or do I become unsteady, trying to have other things hold up my hope?
Speaker 2: If you're holding fast to your own performance, you will eventually collapse, but if you cling to the one who is faithful, you will endure, not because you're strong, not because you're holding strong, but because he is.
Speaker 2: So don't lean on the things that cannot hold your hope.
Speaker 2: Lean on the one who is faithful.
Speaker 2: So, as we read through our text, we are to draw near to God, to hold fast to our confession and, finally, we are to stir up each other in love, in good works.
Speaker 2: Look down with me in your Bibles, to verse 24 and 25.
Speaker 2: And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.
Speaker 2: Not neglecting to meet together, as is in the habit of some, but encouraging.
Speaker 2: Encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
Speaker 2: Let us stir up.
Speaker 2: Has anyone caught that common phrase in these verses?
Speaker 2: Let us, let us.
Speaker 2: Let us.
Speaker 2: Not to be confused with your favorite solid green lettuce, but together.
Speaker 2: That was the joke my wife really liked.
Speaker 2: Love and good deeds requires us to be together.
Speaker 2: Holding fast requires us to be together.
Speaker 2: Think of the paralytic who was let down on his bed through the roof.
Speaker 2: It was their faith that caused Jesus to act.
Speaker 2: Drawing near requires us to be together.
Speaker 2: It has been said that we receive our deepest wounds, our deepest wounds, in relationship and, at the same time, our greatest healing.
Speaker 2: It comes in relationship.
Speaker 2: We are made in the image of the triune relational God, god the Father, god the Son and God the Spirit.
Speaker 2: This is why we are called to not neglect the habit of meeting together.
Speaker 2: The church.
Speaker 2: Father Cyprian of Carthage has said no one can have God for his father who has not the church for his mother.
Speaker 2: Outside of the church, there is no salvation, or John Calvin has put it this way, for there is no other way to enter into life unless this mother, the church, conceives us in her womb, gives us birth and nourishes us, us in her womb, gives us birth and nourishes us.
Speaker 2: We must meet together as the church, as this local expression of the body of Christ and God.
Speaker 2: He will extend the kingdom of salvation.
Speaker 2: Through it we will realize the vision that we say here, the vision of the Father answering the Lord's prayer.
Speaker 2: Together.
Speaker 2: We meet together to draw near.
Speaker 2: We meet together to hold fast.
Speaker 2: We meet together to stir up.
Speaker 2: And what do we do as a church in stirring up each other?
Speaker 2: It says here in our text we are to stir up one another to love and good works.
Speaker 2: Now, the word here for stir up means to provoke or it means to irritate or sharply disagree with.
Speaker 2: It's the idea that cowboys used to wear that spur on their shoes or boots, rather not shoes on their boots to direct the horse.
Speaker 2: Now I haven't seen my daughter do it who's riding the horse?
Speaker 2: So I guess maybe that's not still in vogue.
Speaker 2: But we need people in our lives who are willing to spur, who are willing to confront our apathy.
Speaker 2: We need people who are willing to point out our distractions in power, greed, self-pity, lust or just our busy lives.
Speaker 2: We need people who are willing to give us what we actually need instead of what we want.
Speaker 2: So do you have those people in your life who are calling you to love and good works, who are helping you hold fast confession of our hope together, who are drawing near to God, together, offering the assurance of faith to one another?
Speaker 2: Now, I have seen that type of spurring on here at New City because I've experienced it in so many different ways and I'd love to tell you all the ways.
Speaker 2: After the service, you want to come find me.
Speaker 2: But this and one of the things that I thought about as I thought about us drawing near and holding fast and stirring one another up and not neglecting to meet together this Sunday service.
Speaker 2: It's so good for that in many respects.
Speaker 2: But the type of spurring we also need this is true, this is good, but we also need what happens in communities and circles.
Speaker 2: It happens there because it's a deeper relationship where we are able to be spurred on.
Speaker 2: My family, particularly, has been spurred on by so many of you all to the love and good works of foster care and adoption.
Speaker 2: We couldn't do it alone, but we've had you all to be a helpful spur.
Speaker 2: We needed you all to wake us up and show us the practical outworking of our faith in caring for the little ones that are in our home.
Speaker 2: It has been a joy and something that actually has uprooted our world and we keep on saying uprooted, but for good and in it you all have given that word of encouragement when our tank is dry.
Speaker 2: So the question is, do you have those relationships in your life that spur you on where you actually also irritate and spur on others?
Speaker 2: And as I prepared this sermon, I thought about the phenomenon of the great de-churching movement or maybe it's not called a movement, but the great de-churching.
Speaker 2: Maybe you all have heard about this, maybe you haven't, maybe it's just in pastor circles we talk about this, but this is a group of people who attend church less than once per year.
Speaker 2: There are 40 million people in the US like that who have left churches in the last 25 years.
Speaker 2: That's larger than the first great awakening, second great awakening and the entirety of the Billy Graham crusades combined.
Speaker 2: The overwhelming majority of those 40 million people left the church casually, meaning they left the church because their relational fabric didn't spur their on, didn't hold them fast, didn't help them draw near to God.
Speaker 2: Out of that study they determined that the easiest thing to help people come back to the church who were de-churched is guess what?
Speaker 2: Through personal relationship, relationships that spur you on to love and good works, relationships that help you to hold fast, relationships that help you draw near.
Speaker 2: So this is Palm Sunday, We have Easter next Sunday.
Speaker 2: Take the risk, reach out to your neighbors, ask them to come with you to church.
Speaker 2: Be in relationship with those who are outside the church, because there is no salvation unless it's within the church.
Speaker 2: Here's a text that speaks to the power of words in the form of encouragement.
Speaker 2: That's also in our text here.
Speaker 2: We're supposed to stir each other up with love and good deeds, but also encourage one another.
Speaker 2: Here's a text that I received that shows that power from a dear friend.
Speaker 2: He texted me the other day.
Speaker 2: He says I watched the sunrise with Jesus this morning.
Speaker 2: I read this passage in scripture and wrote this prayer.
Speaker 2: I thought of you a lot this morning, jason.
Speaker 2: You have a beautiful family and there's a lot going on for you and your sweet Katie, raising beautiful children to love Jesus.
Speaker 2: Faithful husband, father, friend and servant leader, beloved son of the King of Kings.
Speaker 2: This text was an encouragement of love that I needed.
Speaker 2: It reminded me that I am the beloved.
Speaker 2: So we all need each other like this, and the question is how are we doing?
Speaker 2: Do we walk alone, isolated, with a conscience that binds instead of a community that bonds?
Speaker 2: Do we walk alone with a confession that distracts instead of a hope that directs?
Speaker 2: Do we walk alone with a habit of neglect instead of a home that connects?
Speaker 2: The good news is that Jesus is our access and our advocate.
Speaker 2: He is the one who is cast off from the cross to let us draw near, and he is the one who actually draws near to us to cleanse us and to wash us clean.
Speaker 2: He is the one who is held fast by the nails on the cross to let us hold fast to him, and he is the one who is holding us unwavering, for he is the faithful, promised one.
Speaker 2: He is the one who is stirred up to love the world John 3, 16, through his good works, and he is the one who stirs us up to love and encouragement by his good work in us that he promises to complete.
Speaker 2: Jesus is the brother we need.
Speaker 2: He gives us his access and he delights.
Speaker 2: He delights in being your advocate.
Speaker 2: His love compels us to draw near, to hold fast and to stir up one another.
Speaker 2: So let us pray to that Savior.
Speaker 2: Join with me in this prayer.
Speaker 2: So let us pray to that Savior, join with me in this prayer.
Speaker 2: Father, we are grateful for your love for us in this that you sent your son to ransom a people so that a people from all nations, every tribe, tongue and nation, can come with boldness and confidence in drawing near to you.
Speaker 2: Jesus, you are the faithful, promised one.
Speaker 2: You are the one who held us fast in your body, who holds us fast in your body and Spirit.
Speaker 2: You fill us up and you help us to love and encourage one another.
Speaker 2: As the day draws near, we give you the glory and we pray this in Christ's name amen.