Spiritual Salad

The Appomattox Court House Presbyterian Church Pulpit
Rev. Woody Fisher, Good News Jail & Prison Ministry
The Lord's Day, July 3, 2005
Hebrews 10:19-25

INTRODUCTION:
This past week my wife and I were blessed to have as a guest in our home a man by the name of Peter Mosabi Kihingu. Peter is from Nairobi, Kenya and he is the Kenya Director for Good News Jail & Prison Ministry. Peter is an interesting man. At the age of 18 he joined the Army of Kenya and quickly demonstrated his potential as a soldier. He was sent to Britain to learn military tactics, and later to India to learn about tank warfare. He was on the way to becoming a military leader, but along the way something happened that derailed his plans forever. He had an altercation with a commanding officer and defied him. One month after that incident he was arrested for espionage. He was the first man in the history of his country to be convicted of espionage. The long and the short of it is that he was sentenced to 134 years in prison. God did some remarkable things in his life, and after serving 11 years in prison, the courts of Kenya acknowledged that he was wrongfully convicted him and he was released. During his stay in prison he was led to faith in Christ through a fellow inmate. Following his release, Peter became a preacher and began to minister in the very prison from which he had been released.

One morning 8 men dressed in black suits arrived at his house and knocked on the door. When he answered, they showed him their badges and his first question was, "Am I under arrest again." They assured him that he was not, and they asked him to accompany them to the home of the President of the country. The President had prepared a meal for him and actually served Peter the meal. Peter says that as he was being served he began to cry like a little boy. What was running through his mind was that just a short time before he was sleeping on the floor of a crude prison cell, eating awful food served by rough prison guards, and here he was, being served by the President of his country in opulent surroundings.

That was indeed a wonderful moment for Peter. From prison cell to Presidential palace, but you know what? As wonderful as that was for Peter, having access to the President was not the greatest thing that happened. Because of what happened in that dirty prison cell, Peter Mosabi Kihingu now has direct access to the God of the universe. Having the ear of the President of Kenya pales in comparison to the fact that he has the ear of God almighty. Hebrews 10 bears that out. In this passage, it says that we have access to the most powerful one in the entire universe-God Himself. As a matter of fact, earlier in Hebrews 4 it says that we can actually "come boldly into His presence." We don't have to be timid about it. We have the right to approach him without fear, because of the blood of Jesus Christ. When Jesus died on the cross the temple curtain was torn in two, demonstrating that now we have direct access to God the Father. We don't have to go through a priest or any other mediary. We can go to God one on one because Jesus paid the price on the cross for us.

These verses here in Hebrews 10 tell us that in light of the fact that, through God's grace, we have this access to come to Him. That should have a powerful impact upon our lives.

That is a wonderful privilege, but with every privilege comes responsibility. Because of God's actions toward us in sending Jesus to die on our behalf, we have certain responsibilities. With every right that we enjoy comes certain responsibilities, and that is certainly true in our spiritual lives too. There are 3 things specifically that I want to talk with you about this morning, and I am calling this spiritual salad, because all three of these things is introduced by the expression "let us." So, it is all about let us (lettuce), hence the term spiritual salad. It takes lettuce to make salad and we will talk about let us.

I. The first "let us" is let us draw near to God.-verse 22
The exhortation to draw near to God is based upon a very important requirement. Before we can draw near to God, it is required that God draw near to us. Apart from His drawing near to us, we could never draw near to Him. It is only by virtue of His amazing grace that we can draw near to him. This is what makes Christianity different from all other world religions. All other world religions are man's attempt to reach God. Christianity is God's effort to reach man. In other world religions, man is supposed to work as hard as possible or to meditate as much as possible or to be as good as possible so that he can reach God. Christianity says, "You don't have to work hard, as a matter of fact, you can't do anything to reach God. He reaches you. It is His initiative that makes it possible for us to know Him. It is through His grace that we can come into His presence and draw near to Him.

In the Jewish religion, only the high priest could come into God's presence, and only then under specific conditions and at specific times. God's presence was very special to the Jews. When God spoke to Moses through the burning bush He told him to look away so that he would not see God's face and he instructed Moses to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground in the presence of God.

For us, as those who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ, we don't need a high priest. The Bible says there is one mediator between God and man-the Man Christ Jesus. That is the new and living way spoken of in verse 20. It is not the old way-through a priest-but it is a new way of direct access because of Christ. We have a new relationship with God because of what Christ has done for us.

Romans 8:15 says that we can come to God as "ABBA" Father now because we have been adopted into God's family. The word Abba is a term of endearment. It really means "daddy," and it speaks of an intimate relationship, as a small child crawling into the lap of his father and with absolute trust and tenderness whispering loving words into his father's ear. That is to be the kind of close relationship we have with God-We can, in actuality draw near to Him. This, no doubt, brought to the minds of the Jewish readers of Hebrews an image of comparison. On the one hand, the high priest entering the Holy of Holies, as the representative of the people, on the Day of Atonement, the only day of the year he could enter, as he bowed before the presence of God, praying for the people because they could not pray for themselves. On the other hand, the picture of themselves face to face with God Himself, asking for His hand of blessing.

The text here refers to the new & living way through the veil, which harkens us back again to the death of Christ. At the moment of his death, the temple veil was torn in two from top to bottom. That event has deep theological significance. In that event, God demonstrates to the world that he has now chosen to unveil Himself-to reveal Himself in a way that He has not previously done and that He has thrown wide-open the way of access into His presence through the death of Christ Jesus, His Son.

That way is described as the "new and living way," no doubt contrasted in the minds of the readers of this epistle with the old and dead way of animal sacrifice.

How is it that we come into God's presence? Certainly by prayer, but in reality, it is more than that. The idea of drawing near to God actually involves lifestyle. We can now live our lives in Gods presence. We are to live holy lives that are different because He is in us and we are in Him. I think that the reason the Lord gave us the two primary visible observations within the church-baptism and the Lord's supper-is to reinforce that idea. In baptism we demonstrate that we are "in Christ." In Romans it says, Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Baptism shows that we are "in Christ."

In the Lord's Supper, we take the bread and wine into our bodies and Jesus said, "This is my body and blood." By doing this, we demonstrate that Christ is in us. So, here is our relationship with the Lord-We are in Him and He is in us. There can be no closer relationship than that.

That relationship is what we are all about. It should be evident in everything that we do. It should influence every thought that we have, every word that we speak, and every action that we take. As we live in that manner, we are drawing near to God.

As a Regional Director with Good News Jail & Prison Ministry, I oversee 27 Chaplains in the U.S. Each year I am required to do what is called a performance evaluation. I sit down with each Chaplain and I review their work. That is important to them. It gives me an opportunity to say to some, "You are doing a wonderful job. Keep up the good work." It also gives me the opportunity to say to some, "You know, you haven't been doing quite so good in this area of work. Perhaps there are some things you could change so that you can do better."

Every time I go over this with a Chaplain, I try to get the point across to them that they should be doing their jobs well because that is a part of living for God, and as I do my very best at what I am given to do, I am drawing near to God.

In Colossians 3, in verse 17 it says, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." In verse 23 it says, "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men."

Just before we left to come here, my boss gave me an assignment to do. When I saw what he wanted to do I became angry. I said, "This is stupid. I shouldn't have to do this." My wife will tell you when I get what I consider to be silly work assignments, I become very unhappy about having to do it. For the past two weeks, in the mornings. Some time back, after getting one such assignment, I was reading Colossians 3 and those verses keep coming back to my mind. The Holy Spirit brings them to my attention. As these verses come to mind, I have to sit down and pray. My prayer often is, "Lord, I don't know why you want me to do this stupid thing, but you have told me to do whatever I am given to do as unto you. Therefore, I have no choice but to do this stupid thing to the very best of my ability."

You see, even when we have to do things we don' want or like to do, we do it because it is a part of drawing near to God. My motivation for doing my job is that I want others to see the good work that I do and give the credit to God. That is the way Jesus said it, "Let your light so shine before men that they will see your good works and glorify your father in heaven." Here is the idea. I do the work and God gets the credit.

Do you see your life that way? What about the way you do your job or the way you interact with people here at church? You may think your daily tasks are mundane and unimportant, but even the most insignificant task when done to the honor of our Lord takes on a greater significance than we can ever imagine, because when we do that we please our Father.

It is all a part of drawing near to God. Let us draw near to God.

II. The second piece of lettuce in our salad is "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope-verse 23
The New International Version of the Bible reads like this, "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." What is the source of our hope? Within this context, the confession of faith surely had to do with the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross. Verse 12 says, "But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God." Throughout the early part of this chapter it repeatedly refers to the sacrifice of Christ. He is our source of hope. It is through his death and resurrection that we have hope.

We can read the Book of Acts, and in every sermon Peter preached, he spoke of the resurrection. All of Paul's messages focused on the resurrection. I think it would have been inconceivable for Paul or Peter to preach a sermon without speaking of the hope of the resurrection. I Corinthians 15:17 says this, "And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins."

When the early Christians walked down the street and saw a brother or sister they greeted one another with maranatha-The Lord comes. He is coming again because He rose again.

Paul's instruction to believers when partaking of the Lord's Supper is, "Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."

That exhortation is to proclaim publicly that, not only did Jesus die for us, but he overcame death and is coming again for us. In verse 3 of I Corinthians 15, Paul said, "For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." Let us hold fast the confession of our faith means we are a people of hope. Let us draw near to God has to do with our outlook. Let us hold fast the confession of our faith has to do with our up look.

That ought to change the way we do everything. In light of our hope, we should see every detail of our lives in light of eternity. We ought to be those who rejoice.

How do you see the circumstances of your life? Can we see the irritations of life and say, "This minor problem has no eternal significance and therefore I shouldn't concern myself? Can we look at the things that most people in our world want and say, "These things will not last. They will wear out. They have no eternal significance, therefore they should not take on undue importance in my life." Our hope is in the Lord.

Again I say, the way we conduct ourselves, day to day, should reflect the fact that we are holding fast the profession of our faith. We ought to be positive people, not because we have studied Peale or any of the other positive thinkers of our day, but because we can look the future through the lens of the resurrection and have hope.

We are to hold onto the confession of our hope without wavering, not because of our abilities or simply focusing on positive thoughts. We are to hold onto the confession because the one who promised is faithful. Our hope is based upon the faithfulness of God, demonstrated in the life of Jesus Christ when He died for our sin and rose from the dead. That has been the core teaching of the church from its inception.

"My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, wholly lean on Jesus' name.

III. The third piece of lettuce in our spiritual salad is "Let us provoke one another to love and good works. Verse 24
The word "provoke" is a word that entails a lot of energy. In a negative way it would describe an angry outburst. But here it is not used in a negative way. The word is used in the love chapter, I Corinthians 13, where it says, "Love is not easily provoked." The idea there is love is not provoked to make an angry outburst. Here, it is used in a positive sense. One could say that it means that we should have outbursts of stirring up love and good deeds. It means that we should take positive action to encourage one another to do good.

How do we do that? There are many ways we can encourage one another to love and good deeds. One is by example. As we conduct ourselves with love towards one another and we offer encouraging words to one another, the example we set, is, by itself an encouragement.

Often, too, we set an example by how we respond to people and things. In I Peter 2:13 it says, "Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men."

How we respond to authority gives our message strength and silences those who would criticize our faith.

It would be so easy for Peter Mosabi Kihingu to be bitter towards those who were responsible for his having to serve 11 years in prison for something he didn't do. But, do you know what he did? He looked the man who was primarily responsible in the eye and he said, "I forgive you." Bitterness was replaced by forgiveness.

Another way we can provoke one another to love and good works is to intentionally set out to encourage one another. Perhaps we could go out of our way to say to a brother or sister, "I am praying for you and I love you." Perhaps you could send a letter to someone telling them you simply want to encourage them.

This verse tells us that we are to actively seek out ways to encourage one another.

CONCLUSION
So, in our spiritual salad we have three pieces of lettuce. 3 pieces of lettuce in a salad would make a rather small salad, but these pieces are big pieces that will fill up our plate. The 3 pieces are:
       1. Let us draw near to God
       2. Let us hold fast the confession of our faith
       3. Let us consider how to encourage one another to love and good deeds
I ask you the question-are you drawing near to God? That's where it all starts. That question prompts another question-Has God drawn near to you? Have you heard him speak to you? Have you seen His hand beckoning to you? Have you seen His eyes seeking you?

If you have, then there is yet another question-are you living in obedience to him. Are you living a life based upon the hope of the resurrection? Are you actively involved in encouraging others, or are you more bent on tearing them down? Are we prone to grumbling and negativity, so that rather than provoking others to good things, we are pulling them down into our own pit of despair? My exhortation to you is: Draw near to God, He wants you to. Hold fast the confession of your faith, look at life in light of the resurrection. Encourage one another to love and good works. Be a problem solver