Will You Make it Across Jordan's Stormy Banks?
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Mungo Park
Mungo Park
It was Sir Joseph Banks, the botanist and patron of exploration, [who became a] Fellow of the Royal Society aged only twenty-three [and was] later its president for forty-plus years and sailed round [the] world with Captain Cook, who sent Mungo Park, young Scottish doctor, in 1795, aged twenty-four, to West Africa to trace [the] source of [the] River Niger. [Park] arrived on [the] Gambia River and learned Mandingo. At last, after many setbacks, including captivity and robbery by Muslims, and much hunger, thirst, and fever, he saw “the majestic, long sought Niger, glittering in the morning sun” … to his surprise, flowing eastward.
[He] struggled on nearly one hundred miles, seeking to trace its course. But rains defeated him, and he returned three hundred miles, and then five hundred more to [his] starting point on [the] Gambia.
[Mungo Park went] back in England [in] 1797. In 1799 his book Travel in the Inferior Districts of Africa was published. In 1805 he left [his] wife and three kids to begin [his] second expedition, sponsored by [the] British government. Delays meant he arrived later than intended, with forty Europeans. By [the] time he reached [the] Niger, only eleven had survived sunstroke and disease. “I once more saw the Niger rolling its immense streams along the plain.”
Six more died, including his brother-in-law. He felt “lonely and friendless amid the wilds of Africa.” Despite lions, crocodiles, robbers, and dysentery, he went on, and wrote to [the] Colonial Secretary: “Though all the Europeans who are with me should die, though I was myself half dead, I would still persevere; and if I could not succeed in the object of my journey, I would at last die in the Niger.”
Mungo Park’s commitment to exploring the Niger River captures what the heart if every Christian should feel toward the kingdom of God. Mungo Park held onto the hope of finding the end of the river. That hope is what helped him persevere though such trouble and pain. It was the object of His journey. The glory of reaching the end of the river is what he was holding onto to get him through the suffering.
The gospel promises you a new life. It’s a new journey. Jesus is the object of your journey. He is what your hope is set on to help you persevere through trails and tribulations until the Day of the Lord, when he returns. Suffering, hardship, unbelief, all threaten to keep you from reaching the end. How does the Christian get to the end of the river? How do we hold on until the end where we find ourselves on Jordan’s Stormy Banks and cast a wishful eye, to Canaans fair and happy land, where my possessions lie? In short, how do I persevere in the faith, especially when it is hard to do so?
Because Jesus is your perfect High Priest you can persevere until the Day of Judgment by drawing near to the Father with assurance, abiding to the confession of your hope, and attending to each other with love and good works.
A Summary of the New Covenant: Jesus is Your Perfect Sacrifice & High Priest
A Summary of the New Covenant: Jesus is Your Perfect Sacrifice & High Priest
Therefore, brothers, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way He has opened for us through the curtain (that is, His flesh ),
and since we have a great high priest over the house of God,
The first three verses serves as a summary of the previous two chapters explaining how Jesus is the better New Covenant.
Jesus is Your Perfect Sacrifice (Hebrews 8:1-10:18;10:19-21).
Jesus is Your Perfect Sacrifice (Hebrews 8:1-10:18;10:19-21).
Hebrews 10:19-25 comes in light of Hebrews 8:1-10:18. The word “therefore” connects our text back to chapters 8-10. In chapters 8-10, the writer of Hebrews is doing a couple of things. First, he explaining how Jesus is the great high priest (Hebrews 8:2-5) and is a new and better covenant (Hebrews 8:6-7, 13). For most of chapter 8, the writer describes how Jesus is the better covenant because in Christ the blessings promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34 are fulfilled in Him.
“Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke even though I had married them” —the Lord’s declaration.
“Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put My teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.
No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them” —this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.”
Through his new covenant, God will put his Spirit inside of His people giving them a new heart and mind to understand his law and obey it. They will no longer need to be taught by a priest in order to experience God. God has vowed to be their God and His people will know Him. In Hebrews 9:1-10:18, Jesus is seen as the once and for all supreme sacrifice. In 9:1-10, the author describes religious life under the old covenant focusing on the provision for the tabernacle and the responsibility of the priest. The point is that in the Old Covenant, God’s people could only enjoy His presence occasionally. Furthermore, the sacrifices offered were not sufficient to cleanse the people of their sin in order to remain in God’s presence. There was a need for a more effective sacrifice. The Old Testament convent system with its priest and animal sacrifices was not going to be able to accomplish the kind of communion and fellowship God desired with us.
Jesus is Your Perfect High Priest
Jesus is Your Perfect High Priest
In verse 9:11-10:18, describe Jesus’ new covenant ministry, a better sacrifice and a better high priest . In verse 9:11-14, Jesus death secures our redemption. That is, through his death and resurrection, he enters the heavenly sanctuary. With his blood atonement he is able to purify our evil conscience, mediate the new covenant, give us an eternal inheritance, forever put away our sin, and give us unrestricted access to the Father. He does this as your High Priest. What makes Jesus priesthood so much better?
Jesus is a Melchizedekian Priest
Jesus is a Melchizedekian Priest
If you were to read the book of Hebrews you would see that the author argues that Jesus is a Melchizedekian priest (Psalm 110:1; Hebrews 5:6, 10; Hebrews 6:20; 7:17, 21). The Melchizedek Priest is a mysterious figure who shows up in Genesis 14:1724 & Psalm 110. Abraham gives the Melchizedek a tenth of his spoils after he defeated the kings who kidnapped Lot. In Hebrews 7:1-10, the writer explains that Jesus’s priestly ministry is likened to Melchizedek in that it is unique and not connected to Aaron. Melchizedek was not a Levite and neither was Jesus. The writer of Hebrews is arguing that the Melchizedek Priesthood is a better priesthood because it was before Aaron and Aaron’s forefather, Abraham, paid tribute to Melchizedek.
Jesus’s High Priestly Work Secures Your salvation
Jesus’s High Priestly Work Secures Your salvation
Once you are in Christ, you can never loose your salvation. It is secure. Why? First, because his sacrifice was enough to cover all your sins. Second, because he is was resurrected as your great high priest, he can never stop interceding for you before the Father.
There is no Levitical priest who could ever be the kind of priest Jesus is right now. The High Priest in the Old Testament had access to God once a year on the Day of Atonement. Jesus, our great High Priest, sits at the right hand of God now and forever with unrestricted access to the Father. Every other priest died and could not continue making the sacrifices. Jesus died once and rose from the dead to never die again, conquering death, and his sacrifice is so perfect it never needs to offered again. It is fully sufficient and will never run out of power.
Now many have become Levitical priests, since they are prevented by death from remaining in office.
But because He remains forever, He holds His priesthood permanently.
Therefore, He is always able to save those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.
For this is the kind of high priest we need: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
Jesus High Priestly Work Give You Unrestricted Access to the Father
Jesus High Priestly Work Give You Unrestricted Access to the Father
Because Jesus is your perfect High Priest, the author of Hebrews says you can enter God’s throne with confidence; that is, through Jesus you have access to the Father. Your sins are forgiven. Jesus intercedes for you as your priest. He took your penalty. You have nothing to fear. God’s favor rests on you like it rests on Jesus, if you have received his Son as your perfect sacrifice and High priest. His access to the Father is only given to those who confess their sin to God and ask for forgiveness, repent by turning away from their sinful ways, and continually trust that Jesus’s death and resurrection is the only way to have their sin atoned before God. If you have done that, then you have unrestricted access to the father.
Jesus says
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
You must have Jesus’s High Priestley ministry to enter God’s presence. You need His blood sacrifice and His mediation. Once you do, Jesus says to you
Therefore, brothers, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way He has opened for us through the curtain (that is, His flesh ),
and since we have a great high priest over the house of God,
Jesus took on flesh. He lived a perfect life and became a perfect sacrifice on the cross for sinners. God accepted His sacrifice as perfect and raised him from the dead. All of those who put their faith in Jesus, his sacrifice tore down the curtain to the holy of hollies allow redeemed sinners unrestricted access to the Father. That access remains not only because the sacrifice was perfect, but because Jesus’s High Priestly ministry can never end. He will forever be the mediator between God and his people.
3 Exhortations in Light of Jesus’s High Priestly Work
3 Exhortations in Light of Jesus’s High Priestly Work
In light of Jesus’s high priestly work, the writer of Hebrews gives his readers three exhortations to help them persevere until the day of judgement. These exhortations sit inside of what is called a warning text. A warning text is God’s grace to his children and to sinners that helps them know if they are moving away from the faith. The warning in this text is habitual sin.
For if we deliberately sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries.
When a believer hears the warning about habitual sin, they are provoked to examine their life o see if that describes them. If their is sin, they repent and move forward. The unbelieving church member will no heed the warning, but continue making excuses for their sin. So, this morning, the writer of Hebrews give your three exhortations to help you persevere in the faith through godliness.
In light of what Jesus has done for you with his blood atonement and his advocating work as priest, now you must do something to persevere until the end. What is it that he wants us to do?
Because Jesus is your High you must persevere by drawing near to the Father with assurance (Hebrews 10:22).
Because Jesus is your High you must persevere by drawing near to the Father with assurance (Hebrews 10:22).
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.
The text reads “Let us approach with a true heart full of assurance of faith.” You must believe that Jesus is a sufficient sacrifice for you and mediator between you and God. You must believe that with boldness, confidence, with joy, and expectation. You heart has been sprinkled clean of an evil conscience and bodies washed in pure water. The devil has nothing to say to accuse you. Your sin is gone from the sight of God, as far as the east is from the west. You are a new creation. You have been given new clothes and a new identity. The old is gone and the new has come.
Why does God want you to approach Him with confidence? What does that have to do with your perseverance? He uses the phrase “draw near” three other times
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.
Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.
We are to draw near to God expecting to receive mercy and grace for all of our needs. God offers us help in every capacity. Jesus intercedes for those who draw near to God and God rewards us who seek Him through Jesus by faith. We draw near to God to experience his blessing and his help. It shows that we are utterly dependent on Him to persevere
We are dependent on God to receive mercy and grace in our time of temptation and frustration. We are dependent on Jesus to interceded for us to strengthen our faith. We are dependent on God rewards us with more faith and whatever we need when we draw near to him by faith.
Drawing near to God with confidence in Him tells Him and the world that you are not confident in yourself.
Those who do no hold fast until the end have a pride problem. They keep trying to tell God they know what is best for their life. They do life according to what is right in their own eyes, even if it leads to death. Keep in mind he is speaking to people who are in the church. These are religious people. They claim the blood of Jesus while at the same time reject it with their commitment to habitual sin; whether its pride in their religion or its blatant indulgence of the world. If this i s you, heed the warning. Repent of your pride and draw near to the Father trusting in Jesus’ sacrifice and High priestly work on your behalf. Rest in God’s forgiveness and live a life of holiness that is fueled by His grace and mercy.
Because Jesus is your High Priest you must persevere by abiding to the confession of your hope (Hebrews 10:23).
Because Jesus is your High Priest you must persevere by abiding to the confession of your hope (Hebrews 10:23).
Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
The author of Hebrews uses a present tense verb for “hold on.” It conveys the idea of continuous believing, practicing, to continue to follow your confession of hope. What is your confession of hope? it is what you believe about Jesus and His salvation. The writer has already said
But Christ was faithful as a Son over His household. And we are that household if we hold on to the courage and the confidence of our hope.
How was Christ a faithful son? He did everything the Father required of Him. He came to earth, took on flesh, lived a perfect life, surrendered himself to sinners, died as a criminal on the cross for their sin, conquered death by resurrection, faithfully sealing the salvation of everyone who believes on him. We are to continue to believe that about Jesus. We are of his household if we hold on to the courage and confidence of our hope; our salvation is in Christ and not other.
He gives us a ground in verse 23 for why we should hold fast to the confession of our hope. The for is another word for because. Why should you hold fast, because He who promised is faithful.
What do we know about God’s faithfulness?
Faithfulness is part of his nature.
God is not a man who lies, or a son of man who changes His mind. Does He speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill?
Then the Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: Yahweh—Yahweh is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth,
He is faithful to his name and character
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater to swear by, He swore by Himself:
I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply you.
And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham obtained the promise.
For men swear by something greater than themselves, and for them a confirming oath ends every dispute.
Because God wanted to show His unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath,
so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us.
Jesus is the ultimate evidence of God’s faithfulness
He was faithful to the One who appointed Him, just as Moses was in all God’s household.
For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house.
Now every house is built by someone, but the One who built everything is God.
Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s household, as a testimony to what would be said in the future.
But Christ was faithful as a Son over His household. And we are that household if we hold on to the courage and the confidence of our hope.
Christ is proof that God will never fail you, and there lies your hope. Your hope is not dependent on your faithfulness. Your hope is dependent on God’s faithfulness. He was faithful to send Christ to the earth to be your sacrifice. He was faithful to raise him from the dead and seat him at your right hand to be your forever High Priest. He was faithful t send his Holy Spirit to live inside of you and seal you until the Day of Judgment. He has done everything for you to ensure you will have eternal life. Your confession is Christ. Your Hope is His faithfulness. Just as your draw near to God in dependency you abide in His faithful dependency. He will hold you fast!
Because Jesus is your High Priest you must persevere by attending to one another with love and good works (Hebrews 10:24-25).
Because Jesus is your High Priest you must persevere by attending to one another with love and good works (Hebrews 10:24-25).
One of the harsh realities of life with COIVID 19 is how much is has fractured the fellowship of the church. Some of this fracture is because we have brothers and sisters who must take every effort to stay safe from COVID. These folks need to stay away from large groups because their life depends on it. However, there are many who have taken this opportunity to get into the habit of not meeting regulalry.
When God saves his people and brings them into the new covenant, he does not want you to do it alone. He wants you to be in fellowship with him as he fellowships with his people.
And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works,
not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
The final exhortation is to watch out for each other. Guard each other. Protect one another. John Barry notes, that early Christians typically gathered for worship in the home of a wealthy patron (Acts 2:46; 16:40; Phlm 2). Paul describes the tradition of sharing a ceremonial meal, in which the sacrificial death of Jesus was remembered (1 Cor 10:16–17; 11:20–29). Believers exercised prophetic gifts (see 1 Cor 14:1–33), sang (Eph 5:19), prayed (1 Cor 11:4–5), and instructed each other (1 Cor 14:26; Col 3:16). All of this was to stir each other up to keep going in the faith and to be productive in the kingdom of God. Keep in mind that this was often in the midst of persecution.
How does he use you to do this?
Your presence at church encourages others to love and good works
To stir up is to encourage each other. Some older translation may say “stimulate” each other. When we gather together our fellowship with God and each other should encourage our hearts to love each other and to joyfully advance the kingdom of God by making much of Jesus. Think about this year, 2020. How has God been faithful you and how has his church encouraged you to hold fast? Think about the love and good works FBCl was able to do because you gathered with his people on a regular basis.
In the midst of a Pandemic, when the government and community is shutting down, God used FBCL to promote love and good works. We served over 10,000 meals to the hungry. We started a mentoring/tutoring program the serves 40 at-risk students because they were displaced from school. We shared the gospel with over 800 people on Halloween and another 400-500 people last weekend with our Christmas evangelism outreach; not to mentioned the 100 plus people Larry reaches on Breaking Bread every Monday night.. That amounts to approximately 1500 to 2000 opportunities to share the gospel. We raised over $1,000 to give to overseas missionaries and maintained a 10 percent giving of our budget to the Cooperative Program, which is somewhere in the range of 18,000-20,000 dollars this year. That does not include money given to other missionary love offerings. We gave another $4,100 dollars to provide Christmas for our Tending The Vine Children's program. We were able to give them their own bible and the Keenagers of the church were able to provide these children with their own homemade blanket that was prayed over and made with love.
This dos not include the regular ministry to youth that Sonny and Audra provide faithfully every Wednesday night, not does it include Lind’as regular ministry to the women in the church. By far this was our most productive year as a church body in the five years I have been here. The reason we were so productive for the kingdom of God is because everyone who gathers at FBCl on Sunday mornings stir each other up to love and good works.
Your presence at church helps others persevere
Remember, this is a warning text. Some Christians made the habit of not meeting regularly. The reasons are endless. It could be because of persecution. It could be because baseball got in the way. The writer of Hebrews warns that not gathering with the saints is an indication you might be falling away from the faith. When you are isolated you are vulnerable to attack. You see this in nature. Herds and packs have an instinct to stay together. Strong adult elephants will gather around the young and weak elephants to protect them from an attack. Christian, there is a reason why Jesus refers to you as sheep. Sheep are prone to wonder and find themselves in a bad way. Sheep are much stronger together with the Good shepherd. When you gather with your brother and sisters, you help preserve them in the faith, and they help preserve you in the faith.
We are living in the last days. The author of Hebrews makes it clear that the day of judgment is drawing near. COVID 19 is a birth pain, a signal that the labor is coming. If you are going to survive, spiritually speaking, what is coming in the end times, you need to be faithful to your church. When trials, like COVID come, your faithfulness to the church shows practical concern for your brothers and sisters. Your ministry to the body expresses love and good works. The writer of Hebrews encourages you to continue caring for your brothers and sisters , whatever the cost. Such care is stimulated by meeting together for worship, fellowship, and mutual encouragement (vv. 24–25). The Day of the Lord comes when Jesus comes back to gather his people to himself.
Mungo Park never did reach the end of the end of his journey. The river is 2,597 miles long. He drowned in the river with only 720 miles left to [the] mouth of [the] river. For the joy and glory of conquering a river in Africa, Mungo Park suffered and gave the very last ounce of His life with the hope to see the end. He was tenacious and unwavering in the face of much opposition. He kept his eyes on the object of his journey until the very end. Unfortunately he did not get to see the end, but that is not so for all who are in Christ. Through Jesus’s perfect sacrifice and High priestly work, you have been given the assurance that you can draw near to Him in prayer and faith to receive every bit of mercy and grace you need to persevere. God’s faithfulness through His Son gives you hope that we will never perish but have everlasting life. Moreover, Jesus gives you a new family to encourage you to joyfully advance His kingdom by making much of Jesus with love and good works in the church, community, and home. Because Jesus is your Perfect Sacrifice and High Priest you can persevere and reach that happy place where you will be forever blessed and see your Fathers face and in his bosom rest! You will reach the promsie land!