The writer of Hebrews has tried to make clear early and often that Jesus came to deliver us from religious systems. In chapters 5 – 9, for example, he compares Jesus to Melchizedek and contrasts the Melchizedek priesthood with the Levitical priesthood. The Old Testament priests served in buildings by administering rituals. Melchizedek met Abram outside with no ritual other than serving him “bread and wine,” apparently without fanfare.

It seems that he takes a last run at it in Hebrews 12 beginning with verse 18. He contrasts a physical experience of “thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast” (see Exodus 19) with a spiritual one:

But you have come 

• to Mount Zion and 
• to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and 
• to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and 
• to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and 
• to God, the judge of all, and 
• to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and 
• to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and 
• to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12.22 – 24, ESV, bulleted for clarity)

What is this list? Why is it being contrasted with Exodus 19? It’s spiritual as contrasted with physical. We might be drawn to the spectacular demonstrations of Exodus 19. (The Israelites weren’t drawn; they were terrified!) But God says it’s the spiritual manifestation of God’s Kingdom that counts.

In the middle of this, I’m trying to understand verses 26 – 27. The Message helped me:

At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The phrase “one last shaking” means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk… (Hebrews 12.26, ESV, and 27, MSG)

What’s God shaking and why? He’s performing a “thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk…” My friend Hanh, a Jesuit, calls it “scaffolding.” One needs scaffolding to build a house, but after it’s built, the scaffolding is removed. In religious circles, we love our scaffolding! In most cases, I like MY scaffolding, but I’m not so sure about YOUR scaffolding! 

A friend of mine, a Lutheran, said to me years ago, “Bob, it’s trappings. We all have trappings.” He’s right, Hanh is right, and the author of Hebrews is clear. The trappings and the scaffolding and the historical and religious junk have to go. 

And what’s left?

…the unshakable essentials [standing] clear and uncluttered. Do you see what we’ve got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He’s actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won’t quit until it’s all cleansed. God himself is Fire! (Hebrews 12.27 – 29, MSG)

I don’t know all that that means nor even what this housecleaning might look like, but Hebrews 13 contains the “so what?” After 12 chapters, essentially, of theology – the theology of Jesus is better than angels, than Moses, than the law, than the priesthood – and we need to quit focusing on the trappings and do what? Live life! More about that tomorrow.

Let brotherly love continue. (Hebrews 13.1, ESV)

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2.19 – 22, ESV)

A couple of weeks ago, June and I were having lunch with two widow friends, one of whom just lost her husband in January. The new widow, a strong, lifelong believer, asked where we thought her husband was “right now.” Some sort of limbo, “soul sleep,” or can we say he’s consciously in God’s presence in heaven now?

I’ll have to admit that I haven’t studied this in detail although I did read Randy Alcorn’s excellent 800-page book Heaven, which I strongly recommend. I don’t remember Randy’s exact answer to that question, but I lean toward consciousness and enjoying the presence of God and those who have gone before:

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. (Philippians 1.21 – 23, ESV)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses… (Hebrews 12.1, ESV, following the “Faith Hall of Fame” chapter)

This position was bolstered at last Sunday’s memorial service for my friend and long-time Navigator hero, Skip Gray, who passed last November at the age of 91. I may share some things from that service over the next few days, but let’s start with the sermon, preached by a pastor I didn’t know, Ron Rushing. He says he actually got the outline from Skip when Ron was getting ready to preach a funeral a few years ago. Here’s the message:

• I know where Skip is – with Jesus in heaven
• I know how he got there – by following Jesus as THE way
• I know I will see him again.

[Jesus said, ] “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14.6, ESV)

I think this will be the last of this little series relating to Russia. We’ve looked at Truth, Courage, and now, with a stronger biblical emphasis, Faith. Our readings last week ended with Hebrews 11, which you may remember is the “Faith Hall of Fame” chapter. You might want to read it in its entirety.

I’m going to skip over the first part, which defines faith nicely in verses 1 and 6, and mentions a number of famous Bible characters and their ACTS of faith. We know from James 2 that faith is defined by action, not just by a set of beliefs.

• Abel
• Enoch
• Noah
• Abraham
• Sarah
• Isaac
• Jacob
• Joseph
• Moses
• (Joshua – not named) – Walls of Jericho fell down
• Rahab

I want to look at the hard section of Hebrews 11, verses 32 – 38, bulleted for clarity:

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith 

• conquered kingdoms, 
• enforced justice, 
• obtained promises, 
• stopped the mouths of lions, 
• quenched the power of fire, 
• escaped the edge of the sword, 
• were made strong out of weakness, 
• became mighty in war, 
• put foreign armies to flight. 
• Women received back their dead by resurrection. 

—And there is a big break, right in the middle of verse 35— 

Others 

• were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 
• suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 
• were stoned, 
• were sawn in two, 
• were killed with the sword
• went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

I’m praying that Ukraine is on the top half of verses 32 – 38! “…quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.”

But there are some already experiencing the bottom half. If there’s any faith in this war, it’s in Ukraine. There are believers there:

Even now, there are Christians in Ukraine living this out: packing churches and singing hymns in a metro station. Volunteers who hosted “Night to Shine” events with the Tim Tebow Foundation are now evacuating special needs families with their own trucks and gas. Indeed, there is life everywhere. In Christ, there is Life, abundant life, even in the darkest moments. – Breakpoint, March 18, 2022

Hebrews 11.32 – 38 is clear: there are no guarantees in this life. Sometimes the good guys lose. But the word is clear:

You need to stick it out, staying with God’s plan so you’ll be there for the promised completion. (Hebrews 10.36, MSG)

I wrote yesterday about the importance of truth and suggested that one of the ongoing issues of our day is the Russian government continuing to lie to the Russian people. I just finished a novel, A Train to Moscow, set in the Soviet Union from just after World War II (in Russia, the Great Patriotic War) through the late 60s. The protagonist, a young girl who becomes an actress can’t figure out the discrepancies between what her grandfather hears on the daily radio news and real life. If we’re harvesting record crops, why is none of it in our city? Here is a particularly poignant section:

In the summer of 1959, her first summer in Moscow when she was admitted to study at the drama school, a miniature America sprouted up in Sokolniki Park outside the city, the American National Exhibition that Sveta and Sasha waited three hours to enter. They had already read what Khrushchev said to the US president three weeks earlier, when the Expo opened. In another seven years we will be on the same level as America. When we pass you along the way, we’ll wave to you. With the rest of the curious crowd, they gawked at the world they were promised in only seven years: cars laden with chrome, cameras that dispensed instant pictures, films that were not banned, stainless steel refrigerators, robot vacuums, and a machine that washed your dirty dishes in less than thirty minutes… they stopped in each of the four model kitchens to watch a baking demonstration and then, when the American women in aprons, whether by accident or by design, turned their backs on their plates of finished little cakes called brownies, they grabbed as many as they could, like everyone else around them, and, their hands sticky with chocolate and sugar, raced to the next exhibit.

…When we pass you along the way, we’ll wave to you. Well, two years have passed since we were supposed to overtake America, and she hasn’t seen one dishwasher or a single brownie. – Elena Gorokhova. A Train to Moscow: A Novel (p. 288, 289). Lake Union Publishing. Kindle Edition.

This world of lies still exists, and Monday, March 14, someone decided to do something about it.

A television producer at the Kremlin’s flagship network Channel One, Ms. Ovsyannikova at first thought she would join antiwar demonstrations on the streets of Moscow. Her son, fearing she would be arrested, hid her car keys.

Then she settled on a more audacious plan. As the evening news broadcast was starting on Monday, Ms. Ovsyannikova got up from her desk. Flashing her ID badge she passed through two security checkpoints and breezed past a final guard at the studio door.

Bursting into view behind the show’s anchor, she shouted, “Stop the war, no to war.” Before the camera cut away, she flashed a poster, before millions of viewers. It read: “No war. Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. They lie to you here. Russians against war.” – Wall Street Journal, March 15, 2022

Courage. There’s no other word for it. Courage to stand for truth. My friend, the Russian-born mathematician Dr. Alexander Soifer, said something like “Don’t judge people by their passports. She is an example of a courageous Russian standing for truth.”

It’s not likely that the brave lady is a Christian believer, but God bless her! And God bless the courageous people of Ukraine who are standing up to Russian aggression. More about that from Hebrews 11 tomorrow.

Who through faith…quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. (Hebrews 11.33, 34, ESV)

A friend of mine circulated this picture with the application, “I guess guardian angels come in all shapes and sizes. May yours give you whatever lift you need today as you walk the ‘righteous path for His name’s sake. Psalm 23′”

A lovely sentiment from my friend, but there’s only one problem: the “photo” is faked.

Here’s the report from Reuters:

An image of an elephant walking alongside a lion, carrying a lion cub tucked under its trunk is digitally altered, and was created as an April Fool’s joke.

Dozens of social media users have shared the altered image, claiming that was “considered the best photo of this century.”

I’m always sensitive to what I or others forward. I never do so without fact-checking first. Truth is important. We can be especially sensitive to the importance of truth today with a war of aggression being waged by Russia while its news media tell Russians it’s just “a military operation.” More on that tomorrow.

Let’s be people of truth, and if we do accidentally send something out that’s false, and someone points it out, let’s send out a follow-up message so stating.

You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. – Jesus, John 8.32, ESV

There is powerful stuff in Hebrews 10: it’s not priests and ritual. The sacrifice for sins is complete.

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10.11 – 14, ESV)

“By a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” And this was predicted in the Old Testament – the covenant in Jeremiah. 

“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” then he adds,“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” (Hebrews 10.16, 17, ESV, quoting Jeremiah 31.33, 34)

And then the follow-up as I wrote about when I was comparing Hebrews 4 with this section of Hebrews 10:

“Not neglecting to meet together…” – compare Hebrews 3.13, “Encourage one another daily.” My Alcoholics Anonymous friends are onto something. For new people they say, “90 meetings in 90 days.” I have a friend who is nearly 15 years sober and still goes to a meeting every day. Why? Because it’s easy to drift. 

And we don’t want to drift:

Hebrews 10:26-31 (ESV), bulleted for clarity

• For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
  • but a fearful expectation of judgment, and 
  • a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
• Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
• How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who
  • has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and 
  • has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and 
  • has outraged the Spirit of grace?  
• For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, 
• “The Lord will judge his people.”
• It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Depending on your theology, you may want to look for ways to explain why this passage doesn’t say what it appears to say. But my friend and Navigator Hero Skip Gray, whose memorial service we attended Sunday, would say: “I don’t know all that that means, but it’s a bad scene, and I don’t want to make it.”

Hence, we need to keep encouraging one another and “hold fast our confession.”

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (Hebrews 3.12 – 14, ESV)

If you’ve been reading Hebrews with us, you’re into the section on Melchizedek, beginning with this sentence in Hebrews 5:

So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him… “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5.5, 6, ESV, quoting Psalm 110.4)

We have another short reference in Hebrews 6 and then most of Hebrews 7 is given to explaining and drawing applications from the story of Melchizedek which occurs after Abraham’s (still called “Abram” in Genesis 14) defeat of the kings who had defeated Sodom and captured his nephew Lot:

After [Abraham’s] return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. (Genesis 14.17 – 20, ESV)

That’s it. There’s nothing more about Melchizedek in Genesis and only the short reference in Psalm 110.

Hebrews 7 goes into detail about Melchizedek and shows how Jesus is a priest of that order – not the Levitical order, especially since “death prevents them from continuing in office!” (See Hebrews 7.23)

• Jesus always lives
• Jesus is holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens.
• He doesn’t offer the sacrifice daily but rather once for all
• Jesus is “perfect forever”

Jesus is better than the priesthood and the law which establishes the priesthood.

As I read Hebrews 9, perhaps the real significance of Melchizedek comes through even though he is no longer mentioned. It talks about the place and the rituals.

Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared…[and] the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. (Hebrews 9.1 – 7, ESV)

Melchizedek had neither place nor rituals. He met Abraham outside, served him bread and wine(!), blessed Abraham, and Abraham gave him the tithe. That’s it. 

Jesus fulfilled the place and the rituals:

For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9.24 – 26, ESV)

We continue to complicate what Jesus came to simplify. He’s the high priest, and the rest of us are all priests – 1 Peter is clear about that – and our work is “outside” also.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2.9, ESV)

In remembering St Patrick yesterday, we observed the value of imagination in evangelism. My son David just passed this on from a sermon he heard last weekend at a regional evangelism conference for pastors. It’s from a familiar verse: 2 Corinthians 5.17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (ESV)

It was H. B. Charles preaching.

He was using 2 Corinthians 5.14 – 21 to talk about evangelism, but he stopped at verse 17.

Anyone…

• Black, white
• Republican, Democrat
• Rich, poor
• Young, old
• Male, female
• …anyone

When I and most people I know memorized this verse, the emphasis was always on “new creation.” That’s me! I am a new creation! Praise God! Important, yes. But so is the anyone. Not just me. Not just people like me.

ANYONE

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3.28, ESV)

This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. (John 3.16, MSG, emphasis mine)

I wrote about St Patrick last year, but I didn’t come close to capturing what my friend Bill Mowry did in his recent post How Will You Celebrate St Patrick’s Day? Here are some snippets, but I recommend you read it in its entirety.

St. Patrick’s day is a time to celebrate imagination and evangelism. Did I catch your attention? Here’s the backstory on how this former slave saved civilization.

At the age of sixteen (approximately 406 C.E.), Patrick was kidnapped from his home in Britain and forced into slavery in Ireland. During this time of harsh deprivation, Patrick came to the Savior. After being enslaved seven years, he escaped and returned home. At the ripe age of forty-eight, Patrick responded to God’s call and returned to Ireland as a missionary to convert his former captors. Instead of revenge or retribution, he came with a message of forgiveness.

…Patrick’s mission was inspired by a night-time vision where the Irish people cried out in a dream, “We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk with us.” With an entourage of priests, seminarians, and others, he embarked for Ireland in 432 C.E.

Let me pause. God still speaks, just as he did when he called Paul to Greece (see Acts 16.6 – 10). Bill’s narrative continues:

Patrick married himself to the language, customs, and imagination of the Irish people. The Irish excelled in expressing themselves in symbols, metaphors, and image, both visual and poetic. Their imagination created wonderful geometric designs, filigree work, and enameling.

Instead of urging his converts to renounce those qualities, Patrick embedded the Irish imagination into the gospel and into the life of the Celtic church.

… Patrick intentionally sprinkled the flavor of the poet and the storyteller into the gospel movement, touching the Irish soul through the familiar channels of storytelling, poetry, music, drama, and dance.

… Patrick wasn’t afraid of what he discovered in the culture. Cahill observes that “Patrick found a way of swimming down to the depths of the Irish psyche and warming and transforming Irish imagination — making it more humane and more novel while keeping it Irish.”

An example of the transformed imagination is the Celtic cross. In this cross, we see the great O, the circle of the globe held in tension by the two arms of the cross, creation and redemption. Together, they celebrate the greatness and nearness of God. One author calls the Celtic cross “a sermon in stone.” 

God uses all kinds of people, often if they’re willing to sacrifice their own comfort and safety for the sake of others. Bill writes:

In his lifetime, Patrick planted seven hundred churches and baptized thousands of people. His gospel wed salvation and social justice together. Slavery and human sacrifice became unthinkable in Ireland. New laws were influenced by gospel norms.

…When you put on a touch of green on St. Patrick’s Day, thank God for this great leader. God wedded his zeal for the gospel to the Irish imagination, planting a gospel movement in a pagan culture. Patrick showed us how imagination can be a powerful ally in the Great Commission. – My Creative Friend Bill Mowry, How Will You Celebrate St Patrick’s Day?

The Apostle Paul’s approach was similar:

Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. (1 Corinthians 9.19 – 22, MSG)

We observed yesterday that the occasional big event, no matter how spectacular, is not enough to keep us walking with God. Neither is a weekly church service:

Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3.13, ESV, emphasis mine)

Hebrews 4 takes it a little further:

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4.14 – 16, ESV)

My responsibility:

• Hold fast my confession
• Confidently draw near to the throne of grace to receive mercy and grace to help in time of need

Confessions must be “held fast” or they go away. And if I don’t remind myself daily (hourly!?) of Jesus’ person and God’s power, then I don’t bother to go to the throne to receive mercy and help.

Interestingly, this instruction is repeated in its entirety in Hebrews 10.19 – 25 (bulleted for clarity):

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, (19, 20) 
• and since we have a great priest over the house of God, (21)

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. (22)
• hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. (23) 
• 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 the more as you see the Day drawing near. (24, 25)

What can help us hold fast?

• Events? Perhaps, but we won’t make it between events.
• Weekly church services. “The weekly or ‘mid-week’ shot in the arm”? Again, not likely.
• The text says daily in Hebrews 3.13 – daily encouragement from others. That’s a challenge worth working on.

Here’s something to consider. Maybe it’s more than daily: maybe it’s continuously! 1 Thessalonians 5.16 – 18:

• Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks.
• Note the comprehensive challenge:
  • Rejoice ALWAYS (verse 16, ESV, NIV)
  • Pray CONTINUALLY (verse 17, NIV)
  • In EVERYTHING give thanks (verse 18, NKJV)

So the goal is not just a daily period to spend time with God, as important as that is. The goal is to ACE our relationship with God! ALWAYS, CONTINUALLY, in EVERYTHING, rejoicing, praying, giving thanks.

And the good news is that God loves us even when we don’t meet the goal of rejoicing always, praying continually, and giving thanks in everything (see Ephesians 2.4 – 9), although the Apostle Paul seems to make a good run at it!

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy… (Philippians 1.3, 4, ESV)