Sermons (Page 42)

In human relationships, conflict abounds because people are sinners. And so, peace doesn’t come easily but is something that we need to strive after. Relationships get messy, and confession and forgiveness are needed. The gospel enables us to own up to our own sin, and empowers us to extend forgiveness when we’ve been wronged. In fact, the gospel is all about peace: that when we were God’s enemies, he reconciled us to himself through Christ, to make us his beloved sons…

This passage challenges us to find God’s strength in a long race, and to see God’s hand in hard times. The Christian life is described as a long race, in which we need to strive with endurance; which we can only do as we look to Jesus for empowerment and strength. Further, it encourages us that hard times for the believer is God’s loving discipline, the presence of which assures us that God is our Father and is working for our good.

This famous chapter recounts the lives of God’s faithful people in the Old Testament. Here we learn the Core of faith, the Content of faith, and the Cost of faith. These heroes of faith trusted in God’s promises and took God at his word, such that they could live as though God’s promises were certain even when their fulfillment seemed impossible, and as though God’s truth was ultimate even when obscured by their circumstances. Even when living by faith comes with a…

This passage warns of God’s judgment towards those who forsake Christ, and of the world’s persecution towards those who remain faithful to Christ. The author of Hebrews encourages his audience to endure – to press on in faith, even when it is costly, by looking to God’s reward – the “better and abiding possession” than anything they could gain or lose in this life.

When we truly encounter the truth of the gospel, it always makes a practical difference in our lives. After finishing the main theological argument, the author of Hebrews gives 3 specific applications, each signaled by the phrase “let us”: let us draw near to God, let us hold fast our confession, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. And, we are reminded that we can’t do these things on our own. We…

Most of us would say that we are forgiven before God through Christ’s sacrifice alone, yet it is easy to live as though we still need to pay for our sins and earn God’s favor. This passage teaches that, unlike the sacrifices under the Old Covenant, Jesus’ sacrifice of himself was acceptable and sufficient: perfectly acceptable to God, and utterly sufficient to pay, once-for-all, the debt for the sins of God’s people, so that in Christ we are assured that our sins…

This passage teaches us that Jesus brings a greater access to God through a greater cleansing of worshipers. The old covenant, with all its restrictions, taught that the way to fellowship and communion with God was not yet open, but rather, sin and guilt still separated God’s people from Him. Through faith in Jesus, all of us can have access to God, because Jesus’ blood thoroughly cleanses us of our guilt before God.

The essence of the covenant promise of God throughout the bible is God’s promise that “I will be their God, and they will be my people.” The Old Covenant was faulty in that it couldn’t bring that reality about, but could only point towards Jesus. Jesus, as a greater priest, brings greater covenant promises than came in the old. This chapter states three better promises of the New Covenant: God’s renewing the hearts of his people, the personal and unmediated knowledge…

Imagine arriving to your hotel, late at night, ready to check in and go to sleep, only to find that the lobby was shut and locked. What good is a hotel with a closed lobby, such that you can’t gain access to what you need? The priests of the Old Testament were mortal men who died, such that their priestly work was constantly being interrupted. But Jesus priesthood, by contrast, is continual, perpetual, and eternal, such that through him, we can…

Many Christians live their lives believing that their salvation is all up to them – and, that they can lose it. Instead of having security and confidence, we can live life like a tightrope walker in the circus, taking each step ever so slightly, thinking that if we take one wrong step, we are lost and gone and perish irredeemably. As a result, we can live out our relationship with God in tremendous insecurity and fear. The Bible affirms both that a person can fall away from a…

There is a natural drive in us to want to mature – we want to grow up. But, it is possible to become content with immaturity. It is possible to become content with where we are, until we are confronted with our immaturity and awakened to our need of change. Unfortunately, in our culture today, immaturity is often met with embrace and acceptance, and even celebration. The greater tragedy is when spiritual immaturity is embraced in the church.  The book of Hebrews encourages the believer…