Sunday Talks

When extraordinary events take place, we tend to look for evidence. On the morning of 24 February the news media hurried to present us with evidence and confirm the reports of the invasion of Ukraine underway. Soon eyewitness reports and pictures and videos were filed and the facts corroborated.

People are sceptical. People have always been sceptical.

Those who recorded the final chapters of Jesus’ life on earth – like Mark – were deliberate and even meticulous as they complied and presented the evidence. They seem to have resolved to meet sceptical people like us with confirmed reports and eyewitness testimony.

And today , on Easter Sunday, there are at least three reasons why it is worth examining this evidence again.

Personally I don’t know anyone who, after training for a marathon, started running when the big day came – and then failed to finish.

Sadly I do know many people who, having started the marathon of the Christian life, have since dropped out.

Reading Hebrews, I think the writer probably has his own experiences – like us – of people who were running but have now stopped. Which is why he speaks very directly here to those who may have slowed to a walk. The reality of running a marathon is that even experienced runners, those in mile 22 and 23 and 24… are still not immune from giving up and failing to finish.

And so the appeal to Christians: Run on!

When we faced the threat of Covid 19 Pandemic there were the repeated messages: wash your hands, keep your distance, wear your mask, self-isolate if you have symptoms. The goal of all this? Well, it was to change our behaviour and so help our health system cope through the emergency.

What’s the writer to the Hebrews’ goal with his repeated message in Chapter 11? By faith is repeated 20 times from the end of chapter 10. It’s certainly not just to have us look at the hall of faith. What is it then?

I recently read some life advice – don’t look back at old photographs as it can make you sad. At the time I thought about it and wondered how that advice sits with the Bible’s frequent encouragement to look back – and then it struck me. While there is a place for looking back on our lives, and it can even be spiritually beneficial to remember times of great endurance (10:32-34 – remember those former days, you endured a hard struggle), don’t look back at your own photos. Instead, in Hebrews 11, the Bible urges us to look back alright, but at the lives of faithful Christians who have shown us how to live by faith. 

We are taking a second look at this powerful section from Hebrews 10 this weekend.

In it, the writer to the Hebrews issues one of the severest warnings to Christians, quickly accompanied by his sincere reminder, and then came that prompt to look forward to the future. Keep going so that you may receive what is promised (36). Live by faith. In the meantime, live by faith.

Eventually, the writer says this, v39

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

There’s confidence in the writer as he writes, we are not of those who shrink back. But the severity of the warning, the urgency of the call to keep going looking back, looking forward shows us very plainly that every Christian has a decision to make. Here’s the very practical question I’d like us to consider today.

How.

How will I keep going?

When the reality is that some will turn away from Christ or shrink back towards destruction, how will we be those who keep going, those who have faith and preserve their souls?

Embedded in the text of this letter, here are four very practical things to think through...

If you are a Christian, you’ll hear both these calls from the last part of Hebrews 10 as the writer urges Christians never to give up!

There’s also a third element the writer weaves into his call to keep going as a Christian. And that’s:

A warning that, as we are going to see, has some very serious language. Language that is designed to alert Christians like the first recipients and Christians like us in Blackrock to the reality giving up confronts us with. Giving up has dire eternal implications.

So then, in combination with a sincere reminder of all they’ve endured so far and the future-orientated prompt to look forward to what they stand to gain by keeping going, comes this severe warning. All this adds up to what is a very powerful call to persevere as a Christian.

Hearing these words from the Bible, they are challenging calls to action for Christians as you walk out of here and go home and to work and to school. Are you a Christian? Then here’s how to live that out. 

Andrew preaches from Psalm 121.

Conscious of it or not, we are all switchers at some level (energy providers, mortgages, favourite food!). We are all deeply yearning for a better deal in life. If you’re a Christian, there is a straight-up warning here: Switching from Christ is not prudence, but madness! And if you are still wondering about what to think about the Christian gospel – there’s an all-out showcase of the good news here, you’re invited to switch to the best deal.

Did you ever think about the fact that the Bible makes a really big deal about something we tend not to want to talk about much?

Sin.

The Bible’s urgent diagnosis of you and me is a deep-seated, fatal, constant sin issue. Sin is no minor issue as far as the Bible is concerned. As far as God is concerned. Sin stains and sin destroys and sin separation us from God who is holy.

You might be sceptical of this diagnosis. To which the Bible asks you to rethink that scepticism and challenges you to consider if this scepticism is a blind spot. On the other hand you might be a Christian who concedes the sin problem, yes, but at the personal level -day to day - you’re turning a blind eye to it, minimising it, scrambling to contain it, or just living with it.

The writer, in comparing the old covenant religious ritual with new covenant sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ… brings us to appreciate not just how serious the problem of sin is… but how amazingly powerful and liberating and redemptive was Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. This clarity gives us the confidence to get real about sin again. Moves us away from religion and back to the cross.