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October 17, 2004
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Hebrews
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Pastor Brian Shimer
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"Have You Had Any Protein Yet?"
Hebrews 5:1-6:3
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Birthday potluck Sunday has arrived and not only can we smell the fragrance of the spaghetti sauce in the kitchen, but we can anticipate and imagine the taste of the great cakes to follow the meal. And some of you are looking forward to a cake walk between tables looking for other great cake tastes.
I know others are looking forward to the fellowship for you are walking in a long term fast during this season in prayer for the upcoming election.
You have been feasting already upon God's Word.
Near the end of today's passage, did you hear the reference to the reader's lack of ability to receive all that he wants to teach? He says they are not able to eat the "solid food" he wants to serve them, but are only drinking milk instead, like infants.
Surely at some point the question, Have you had any protein yet?, has been spoken to you from mom or dad or grandma, who just want to make sure you are getting a balanced diet before you sink your fork into that slice of cake or a spoon into a bowl of ice cream. And protein in our diets is important.
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But more than a 12 oz steak, our souls need the solid food of the truth of Scripture.
The book of Hebrews rests upon the assurance that God has spoken both in the past and by His Son, and that we had better listen to what He said. We had best hear the Word.
So, have you had any protein yet? And I am not talking of bacon or eggs, I am talking of the Word.
The Word is meant to be heard Jesus said in Luke 8:21and received Luke reported in Acts 8:14. It is like seed planted in the garden of the heart (Luke 8:11). We are born again, Peter wrote, by that incorruptible seed of the Word of God, which lives and abides forever (1 Peter 1:23).
The Bible is not a book of information that we read to glean the facts and leave it behind, like we read and discard a newspaper. IT is a book of transformation.
We read it to meet with the author, to question the writers, to find ourselves in the stories, to argue with the arguments, to question the answers and enter relationship. It is the seed of God, the living Word that comes deep into our hearts and once planted will bring forth a crop.
When I just read the Bible to glean the information or to try to find the message for Sunday, I always end up like a consumer at a counter trying to get the goods I want with the money I have to offer. That is not what you need me to do, nor is it what you want to do yourself to eat what is offered by the Word.
Instead, I must be, you must be a listener "to the God to whom I will give a response in obedience and faith, becoming the person he is calling into existence" (Working the Angles, by Eugene Peterson, Wm Eerdmans Publ Co, Grand Rapids, MI, c.'87, p. 99, ubp).
So have you had your protein yet? Eat the Word.
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I was impacted this week by a verse in 2nd Timothy which said that the Word of God is not chained, even though Paul was chained in prison. Paul was lifting up the living reality of God's Word. It is more than words on a page, it is a dynamic, living thing.
The author of Hebrews thought this as well, as he wrote in the previous chapter, "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." So God's Word will find you out, the author is saying, for God is behind every one.
He writes: "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."
To the Jew a word was not only a sound with a certain meaning; a word was a power, a force which went forth and did things. As God told Isaiah, "My word will accomplish the purpose for which I sent it," so the Jew understood. We understand also, don't we, for all of us have been wounded by words.
It cannot be chained, it must be received and will multiply. Read this word for you need to have protein in your diet.
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That is one thing I want you and I to hear today, but there is one more. It is this: "You need a high priest!" That is an odd thought isn't it. But that is what this section we have read has said.
The readers who received this letter believed this as well. That was the problem. They had turned back to the system with which they were familiar. At the beginning of chapter 5 the author talks about the High Priest. Now he is not speaking of the only great High Priest spoken of today, the pope in the Roman Catholic church, but he is speaking of the High priest of Judaism.
In verse 1 of chapter 5 here in Hebrews we learn this person was a man, chosen by God from among men. He is chosen for a purpose that he might offer gifts and sacrifices on behalf of others because of sin. Suddenly in this one verse we have a picture painted which I believe we have trouble remembering, namely, access to God is a privilege.
In the Old Testament God set up how people could come to Him. They had to approach Him on His terms. They could not just rush into the presence of God, but had to bring offerings in order to approach God, and the only way to God was through the priestly sacrificial system.
God was holy. He was separated from the people. The presence of God could only be reached by the High Priest and then only once a year on the Day of Atonement.
The sons of Aaron thought they could just adjust this system to suit themselves and found out that when God says there is no other way to approach Him, He was serious. They lost their lives as they burnt unauthorized fire before the Lord, they came on their own terms, they came in their own way.
A king in Israel, Uzziah, thought he could play the part of priest along with being king, and burn incense before the Lord. He was trying to combine the title of king and priest, but there is only One who would combine those titles. So, the priests found him there and confronted him. He was "wroth" the KJV says, and raged at them, but while he was standing there raging before the Lord, leprosy broke out on his forehead and he was rushed from the temple. He died a leper (2 Chronicles 26:19).
No, God's presence was separated from the people and their only means to approach was through the priest.
But in this chapter we read this priest was inadequate for he was human, tempted with sin, a sinner, and mortal. And later in this book we read his sacrifices were inadequate for although the blood of goats and lambs could bring forgiveness for an act, these could never cleanse the consciences of the worshipper (Hebrews 9:14).
But still, people need a high priest in order to come into the presence of God. That is why God sent Jesus.
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At the end of chapter four we read of how Jesus is the great High Priest. And there is much to say about him so next Sunday I want us to return to this topic.
This High priest has not only gone through an earthly tabernacle but into heaven itself. He opens the way to God so that we can come to God anytime because of Jesus. And he can sympathize with our weaknesses in a better way even than the earthly high priest can sympathize.
The text says he has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin.
Fifty years ago C.S. Lewis imagined someone objecting here: "If Jesus never sinned, then he doesn't know what temptation is like. He lived a sheltered life and is out of touch with how strong temptation can be." Here is what Lewis wrote in response to that objection:
A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is.... A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. . . . Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means-the only complete realist. (Much of this point: By John Piper. ©Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org. Email: mail@desiringGod.org. Toll Free: 888.346.4700. Dated 10/14/04 Home Online Library Store Radio News & Events About Us © 2004 Desiring God)
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Access to the throne was opened through Jesus in a way like never before.
We can run into the presence of God. We do not have to go through a priest so that the priest alone comes into God's presence, but when Jesus opened the way, we were granted to right to come freely.
We can approach the throne of grace with confidence, the Bible says.
So, this passage first encourages us to be people that read the Word, eat of the solid meal offered by God's Word. And then invites us to remember we need a High Priest and have one in Jesus who will meet our every need.
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