Hebrews 4:16

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.

I only spoke with HRH Queen Elizabeth II on one occasion. I had the privilege of attending a reception at Buckingham Palace to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee and afterwards there were refreshments. I was chatting with a couple of friends and suddenly saw the Queen approaching us. It became clear that I was the person who needed to speak first. I anxiously tried to call to mind the correct way of addressing her. She then asked various kind questions and I felt frankly overwhelmed. I had never imagined that I would actually get to speak with her. However, as the Queen herself would have acknowledged, our God is of infinitely greater power and significance. In our verse today we are told that we can enter his presence with boldness. This is an almost incredible word to use. How can we, as weak and unholy human beings, possibly come boldly into the presence of the eternal and holy God who created the universe? The writer to the Hebrews has a simple and clear answer: Jesus has opened the way for us to come into the holiest place of all and to enjoy a personal relationship with our Creator God.

It’s wonderful to know that we can approach God with boldness, but we still need to know what sort of reception we will get when we meet him. The writer assures us that we will be met by mercy and grace. God is a God of justice, but we know that if he treated us justly we wouldn’t stand a chance. We have all sinned and fallen well short of his standards. What we need is mercy, and that’s what we are promised. Incredibly, God is willing to forgive us all our sins and set us free to live a new life. And, as we enter his presence, we also discover his generous grace, which meets us precisely at the point of our need.

All of this should convince us that we can live our Christian lives with confidence, not because of ourselves or anything we have done, but because of all that Christ has done for us.

Question

Do you feel able to approach God with boldness?

Prayer

Loving God, thank you that although I have failed you so often, you always greet me with mercy and grace. Amen

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

If you thought that the Bible was just another piece of literature you have totally missed the point. The Bible is the way in which God speaks to us and he does it with devastating power. It can, and frequently does, turn people’s lives upside down. Through it, God is able to speak to the deepest places of our lives and can bring us forgiveness and renewal. It is the most exciting library of books imaginable.

When I started to train for ministry, one of my real fears was that through studying the Bible in depth and then ministering week by week, the Bible would lose its wonder and power for me. I would like to report that the exact opposite has happened. Through the decades the Bible has become more brilliant, exciting and powerful and I enjoy studying it more now than at any time in my life. Why? Because the Bible is alive, it always gets to the point and cuts through to the heart of the deepest issues of life. Whether I am reflecting on my own life, or the major issues of the world today, the Bible continually speaks with authority and power.

When the letter to the Hebrews was written, the only scripture that existed was the Old Testament. How rich we are to have two Testaments and to have the opportunity to read the words of Jesus and to learn about his life, death and resurrection, as well as the growth of the early Church. We can confidently affirm that the whole Bible, Old and New Testaments, is alive and powerful and is God’s gift to us to enable us to live our lives to the full. But the writer of this amazing letter would want to remind us that it is not enough to receive the word of God. We need to ensure that we are listening to it and allowing it to shape our thinking and actions today.

Question

In what ways have you recently found the Bible to be alive and powerful?

Prayer

Lord God, thank you for the gift of your word. Help me to listen carefully to it, and allow it to shape my life today. Amen

Hebrews 3:13

You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.

I still vividly remember the warnings that my mother used to give me when I was a child. They had to do with what I ate, how I crossed the road, the people I spoke to, the way I cycled my bike and so on. I suspect that many of you have similar memories. And the reason we were given all those warnings was because we were loved. If our parents or carers hadn’t been bothered about our safety and wellbeing they would have kept quiet. The warnings weren’t always welcome, but they were good for us and I am sure that we all look back with gratitude for them.

In today’s verse, the writer was encouraging his readers to keep on warning one another. He was conscious of how easily they could slip away from the Christian faith, and didn’t want them to go the same way as the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings. Time and again they had refused to listen to God’s word and had paid a terrible price for their disobedience. The writer of Hebrews continually encouraged everyone to look after one another and saw warning one another as a vital part of their loving relationship.

Life today is full of challenges for every Christian. Each day we are tempted to worship the gods of money, sex or power and we are offered an amazing range of false philosophies and religions. Love demands that we warn one another. We will always want to respect people’s right to make their own decision, but when we know that there are dangers ahead it would be irresponsible for us to not to give a word of warning. This might not be an easy thing to do but love compels us to act.

Question

In what specific ways should we be warning other Christians at the moment?

Prayer

Lord God, thank you for all those people throughout my life who have loved me enough to warn me of dangers ahead. Amen

Hebrews 3:6

Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.

Confidence is important in every part of life isn’t it? I find it interesting that many people who are supremely confident in one area of life have no, or very little, confidence in another. We can probably all think of an area where we don’t feel confident, but here the writer speaks about an area in which we all need to be confident – our faith. The word he used here for confidence is sometimes translated as boldness. He knew that as we look to the future we all need to be strong in faith. Everything depends upon it.

Here the writer talks about being confident in our hope in Christ. Hope is a very important concept in the New Testament and we need to make sure that we are understanding it correctly in this context. Donald Coggan, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, once described the word hope as we use it in normal life as “a weak and flabby word”. We use it to speak about things that we would like to happen, while realising that they probably won’t. The writer to the Hebrews was talking about something quite different. He was talking about hope as a rock-like certainty built on the saving death and miraculous resurrection of Christ.

Sadly, the Church rarely looks full of confidence. If anything, it looks as if it is overwhelmed by the challenges of living in a materialistic society that has long since abandoned any notion of faith in God. We need to listen afresh to this letter to the Hebrews. We need to focus our attention on Jesus and recognise that he is the only source of hope. Anything else is only an illusion and will lead to desperate disappointment.

Question

How confident are you of your hope in Christ?

Prayer

Loving God, I praise you that you are the source of all hope. Thank you that in Jesus I can find hope that will never disappoint me. Amen

Hebrews 2:18

Since Jesus himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.

For many years I have suffered from back pain, which I have in common with many of you because 60 to 70 per cent of people have back pain at some point in their lives. I find that people are very caring and sympathetic, but there is such a difference between those who are kindly sympathising but have never had back pain, and those who have. I am, of course, grateful for anyone’s kindness but when it is clear that the person I am speaking to has, in some measure, shared my experience it is a particular blessing. Here in Hebrews the writer is keen to show that Jesus really understands the challenges that we face in life because he himself went through suffering and testing.

Later in this letter the writer makes it clear that the Church had suffered terribly for the faith. It must have been so difficult for this group of relatively new Christians to have suffered so much. He wrote that they had been exposed to public ridicule and beaten up for their faith. Some of them had been thrown in jail and others had had all their possessions taken from them. Jesus understood all that they had experienced. He knew what it was to be laughed at and rejected and went on to suffer the ultimate physical suffering of death by crucifixion.

Superficially our lives are obviously very different from Jesus’. But all the deepest experiences of life are ones that he knew. He faced joy and sadness, loving acceptance and bitter rejection, laughter and tears, peace and storms. When we pray and bring our lives before the Lord, we are not speaking to someone who lived a protected life far away from the bumps and bruises of life. We are speaking with one who shared fully the experience of being a human and who can therefore offer us his deep heart-felt sympathy.

Question

In what specific way does it help you to know that Jesus understands your suffering?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, I thank you that you understand me so completely. Amen

Hebrews 2:14

Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.

The fact that Jesus was fully human was of crucial importance to the writer of this letter. Salvation depended upon it. In the first chapter, the writer spoke of the fact that Jesus was the divine Son of God; now he wanted to explain that Jesus was also fully human. This meant that, in common with every other human being, he experienced death and this enabled him to break the grip of the devil.

Through the centuries many people have struggled with the idea of Jesus’ humanity. This was a particular problem in the Greek world where gods were seen as being completely detached from this world. The idea of a god becoming human was nonsensical. All sorts of different approaches have been adopted to try to explain away Jesus’ humanity. Some have suggested that he wasn’t really human, that he just gave the appearance of it. But the writer to the Hebrews was adamant: Jesus was fully human and fully divine and that is how he was able to win our salvation through his death on the cross.

This truth isn’t easy for us to understand, but it stands right at the heart of the Christian faith. If it were not the case then there could be no Christianity and death would rightly be deeply fearful for all of us. The writer spoke about those who spent all their lives as slaves to the fear of dying (v15). He was clear that we are set free from that awful fear only because Jesus came as a human being and died for us. We need to praise God today that Jesus went to the lengths of becoming fully human.

Question

In what way do you find Jesus’ humanity an encouragement?

Prayer

Lord God, I praise you that Jesus took on human flesh and lived in our sinful, troubled world because of his love for us all. Amen

Hebrews 2:1

So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it.

We can be sure that this letter was written to Christians from a Jewish background and that it was written to a particular church. Later in the letter we learn that the believers had suffered for their faith soon after they came to faith in Christ, but now they had become complacent and lazy. The writer was anxious that they might drift away from the truth. The expression “drift away” is one that is well known in Greek literature – it is used to refer to a ring slipping off the finger, some food slipping down the wrong way or a ship carelessly slipping past a harbour because the person at the wheel wasn’t paying attention. The writer wants the congregation to realise that in just the same way it is possible to drift away in their faith

In my experience when people stop attending church it is rarely because they have come to a conviction that Christianity is wrong. They have simply drifted away. Perhaps they were busy at work, the children had other activities on a Sunday morning, somebody in the family was ill or they moved home. There was no deliberate intention to reject the Christian faith. Merely a slow, gradual, but in the end irreversible, drifting away.

The words of Hebrews are just as relevant today as they were 2,000 years ago. We all need to make sure that we are listening carefully to the truth, which happens most easily by each of us having good rhythms in our Christian life. Reading the Bible and praying every day, meeting with other Christians and joining together in worship are all valuable ways of ensuring that we don’t drift away. There are no laws about these things, but if we are to keep strong in faith, we need to look carefully at our personal rhythms to ensure that there is no possibility of us drifting away.

Question

What do you need to do to strengthen your personal rhythms of Bible reading, prayer, fellowship and worship?

Prayer

Lord God, help me to keep close to you every day so that there is no danger of me drifting away. Amen

Hebrews 1:3

The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honour at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.

None of the original manuscripts of the New Testament exist today. But there are many very early copies still around, and on a number of them this letter is titled “to the Hebrews”. Therefore, there can be no doubt it was written specifically for Christians who had a Jewish background. The writer wanted them to realise that Jesus was the perfect fulfilment of everything that they had heard about in their Old Testament scriptures. Jesus revealed the very character of God and so, having been present with his Father in creation, he was able to sustain everything by his command. Then, having made the perfect sacrifice of himself on the cross, he was able to return to the right hand of his Father in heaven.

In short, the letter to the Hebrews is all about Jesus. If you want to find life in all its fulness, then you need to meet Jesus. If you want to be able to come boldly into the presence of God, then you need to know that it is Jesus who has made that possible. If you want to find forgiveness, then you need to understand that he died for your sins on the cross by making the ultimate sacrifice of his life. Everything depends on Jesus. Many years ago, I visited a young Jewish woman in Tel Aviv, the second largest city in Israel. She had recently become a Christian and I remember that as we walked around a park she said to me, “Keep talking to me about Jesus. I love to hear his name.” Her words remind me of the old hymn: “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear. It soothes our sorrows, heals our wounds, and drives away our fear.”

Whatever you are facing today I urge you to keep Jesus at the centre of your thinking.

Question

In what way is the name of Jesus special to you?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank you that you want to meet with me today in everything that I will be doing. Amen

Hebrews 1:1-2

Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe.

These opening verses of the letter to the Hebrews declare that God has always spoken to people. He did it in the Old Testament as he spoke through the prophets and then in the New Testament through his Son, Jesus. It is good for us to stop and reflect on the fact that he didn’t have to speak. He could have chosen to create humankind and leave us alone. He could have looked at what a mess people made of the world and decided to remain silent. But he didn’t. His choice was to communicate and before taking a closer look at this wonderful letter we should stop for a moment and praise God that his desire is to communicate with us.

In the Old Testament God spoke through the prophets in various ways. Often the communication was in the form of words, but on many occasions it was through dramatic actions, such as when Jeremiah wore an ox yoke to demonstrate the nature of the oppression that the people would experience under King Nebuchadnezzar. Jesus’ ministry, too, not only embraced wonderful teaching but also many actions which showed his compassion and love – culminating in his death on the cross.

God is still speaking today – are we listening? Are we willing to set aside our self-centredness and pride and allow the voice of God to challenge, nourish and strengthen us? That’s an important question for all of us, but perhaps particularly for those who have been Christians for a long time. It’s very easy to think that because we know the Bible stories and have received good teaching over many years, that we have nothing new to learn. But the truth is, we need to be listening for the voice of God every day, and be willing to let it change our lives.

Question

In what ways has God spoken to you recently?

Prayer

Lord God, I praise you that you are a God who speaks. Thank you for the ways in which you speak directly into my life day by day. Amen

Jonah 3:10; 4:1

When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened…This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry.

So far as Jonah was concerned it was bad enough to have to go to Nineveh at all, with its terrible reputation for sin. But at least he was given the responsibility for sharing a message of God’s judgement upon them. They certainly deserved it. But to his great surprise the people repented and so God changed his mind about destroying the people. This was all too much for Jonah who became extremely angry with God. These evil people needed, in Jonah’s view, to be blasted off the planet rather than offered forgiveness. Jonah reflected that he ought to have remembered that God was “a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love” (Jonah 4:2).

Jonah’s reaction helps us to reflect upon the mystery of God’s grace, which we meet in a very powerful way as Jesus hung on the cross. To the thief who hung beside him he said: “today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). No doubt most people who looked at the thief considered that what was happening was entirely just. Indeed, he himself recognised that he deserved to die for his crimes. But, in the closing moments of his earthly life, he was offered the gift of forgiveness. Justice determined that he deserved his punishment, but grace spoke another language. And that’s precisely what Jonah struggled with. Given the famed sinfulness of Nineveh, he was looking for God to do the ‘right’ thing and condemn them. Instead, God reached out to them with compassion and love, and freely gave them his forgiveness.

As you go about your day, I encourage you to look at people with God’s eyes of grace. Whoever you meet, you can be sure that they have all fallen short of God’s glory. They are sinners, just like you and me. But God looks at all of us with grace and longs to set us free.

Question

How do you cope with God forgiving people who have lived evil lives?

Prayer

Lord God, I thank you for your amazing grace, which is able to save a wretch like me. Amen