Sin’s Antagonists
Heb 12:4-29
† In the Name of the Savior, Jesus †
Antagonize Sin?
The struggle – but it is what we believe?
God’s gift of peace and righteousness is yours, in Christ Jesus!
Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 4, In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Here it from another translation, not yet, has it been necessary commit to shedding your blood, as sin you agonize against (antagonize!).
There are two key words in this passage.
The word struggle has the same root as our present word antagonize, to agonize against. It is the nature of our sin, that we oppose its presence, and attempt to dominate in our lives.
The word resisted, a word with military implications, as one considers the alternatives to sacrificing all, to overcome our own weaknesses. This
Last week, we heard this same epistle tell us to focus on Jesus, the creator and finisher, the author and one who perfects our faith. It told us to cast sin aside, to just drop it, and look to Jesus.
This week, the passage continues, to tell us to do that, but reminds us as well, that we can, because “not yet, has it been necessary commit to shedding your blood, as sin you agonize against.”
I will be the first to confess, that this week, dealing with sin has been agonizing. Systems have, from my human view, failed me, wasting my money, but far more importantly, my time. Time I had allocated to teach people about worship, and to work with people struggling with life, time I had allocated for doing the “good” things a pastor does. Temptation to complain to God, or at least to those near me, was paramount. Temptation to take my eyes off of Jesus, and berate those things around me.
Thank God that in His time, things came together.
Thank God, that in dealing with all that sin, I do not have to foot the bill for the battle, or surrender my life, but instead, I see the words of this epistle, and know, that blood was required, and given, and that it is no longer that I have to agonize over the past.
Reason to be Antagonistic
A different mountain
The lady
A different city of God
A different feast!
Isaiah’s vision!
Towards the end of the reading today, there is a interesting comparison of mountains. The first, the mountain where God lived, while his people camped below. It is the mountain that cannot be touched, for sin had yet to be paid for, and the cost of sin was required. It was a mountain where God’s voice in all of its power and purity, scared the people – till they asked God to speak only through Moses to them. It is the mountain where God abides, that still leaves people in fear today.
A pastor told a story about such a person. She was very ill as a young lady, and as her pastor and elders told her to pray to God and seek His healing, she did. She tried to deal with God, and told Him, that if she was saved, she would never ever sin again, and that she would serve Him where ever He wanted – for the rest of Her life. Once healed by God’s mercy, she never stepped into a church for 30 years, and when she did, she told the pastor, that she never came back, because she was afraid He would call her on the deal.
That is the kind of mountain so many see God living on, one seemingly unapproachable. One seemingly out to destroy us, because we had not overcome sin on our own, because we had not trusted God at all times, but rather fought and complained against where He had sent us.
A simple example from my life. Until last night at nearly 10, I thought that so much of my time had been wasted, sitting in a jury box for 16 hours, only to be dismissed prior to the case starting. Even yesterday, I complained about the unrighteous, pathetic, system. The more I complained, the more I forgot the three people that I was able to minister too, during breaks, people hurt and needing God, and yet, who feared to return to church. Rather than rejoice in those incredible moments, I complained about our stupid, broken system of justice.
I forgot about the better mountain, listen to how it is described in another translation, these incredible words, “22 But what you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the great feast, 23 with the whole Church of first-born sons, enrolled as citizens of heaven. You have come to God himself, the supreme Judge, and to the spirits of the upright who have been made perfect; 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to purifying blood which pleads more insistently than Abel’s.” Hebrews 12:22-24 (NJB)
It is that city, that is the goal of our struggle, the battle to cut through the lines set in place by sin, satan and death. It is the same place that Isaiah prophecies about in our Old Testament reading, where people of every kind, every race, every phase of health, are drawn to God!
Training for Antagonists
Discipline – not Punishment
Athlete prep - Coach wants us to get to the goal
One of the aspects of the struggle, is in realizing that it is about discipleship, about that horrid word discipline. We hear discipline, and for some reason, we get in our mind punishment. It was true when the writer of Hebrews penned these words on parchment and it is true today. Yet, the goal of discipleship, and yes, of the discipline a disciple undergoes, is not to hurt us, but rather to ensure we are strong enough for what lies ahead.
It would not make sense for me to go over and pick up my son, and lecture him about safety, if he was calmly playing with this toy. Sure, it is an obnoxious, mind-numbing thing for adults, but for my son, he loves it. However, should he decide instead to play with this power cord, plugged into a wall, Kay, KB and I will be diving over each other, to move him, and then lecture him, and attempt to “discipline” him.
In the same way, God disciplines us, often by letting us experience the earthly consequences of our actions. Not to punish us, but rather, to train us to do what we should have, in the first place – to look to Jesus, to trust Him. To trust in the promises God the Father has given us, that we are forgiven, yes, but that His words about how we should live, are not given in vain.
But above all, to look to Him, as a child will look, when his momma’s or papa’s voice is heard.
The Training of Antagonists leads to:
Looking to Christ
Trained to yield righteousness
Unlike Esau
You see, that is the struggle – the cost of discipleship. It is not about me being strong enough to overcome temptation on my own, but to realize that God’s presence in our lives is there, that wherever we are, God will use that situation to our advantage, that His plan for His children, works out for our best… and the best of those children that we encounter.
That is part of our inheritance. An incredible gift of God, not even comparable to any inheritance on earth that has ever been received, or ever will be. The promises of God! It is this inheritance our epistle talks about; that Esau traded off for a bowl of red cabbage soup! The very promises God had given Abraham, and Issac, and was due to him in turn! Yet when that blessing was to be given, nothing could be done, for it was given away. Imagine you are the child of Bill Gates, and ole Bill is about to die, and you trade to me, your position as his heir, for a couple hot dogs from Circe K, or for the vegetarians in our congregation, a sprout and spinach and soy-spam sandwich.
We do this, as we agonize over the struggle. We trade in the riches of the promises for us in Christ, for a struggle with sin and shame and guilt? Why?
Sometimes, in the midst of the struggle, we forget that while we didn’t have to shed our own blood, or pay with our own lives. We have a better sacrifice, a more complete shedding of blood has already been done for us. The blood of Jesus, shed for us! In that blood being shed, the most powerful cleansing agent, the most powerful of laws declares us to innocent of the sin…. It no longer has the power to ensnare us, and we can leave it, and its eternal consequence behind.
No wonder the angels and archangels in heaven, along with all there because they are made pure in Christ rejoice, and share in a great feast! It is a feast to celebrate the victory of the Lamb of God, the one who took away their sin, and ours, as well.
A great feast that we too participate in, the feast we share in moments, as we approach God’s table, not in fear, but realizing we are welcome in the very presence of God. Invited there, because of Christ.
A promise in this passage, I want to close with, even as we realize the approaching feast of Jesus, even as we realize how His body, given for us, and his blood, shed for us, frees us from the agony of dealing with sin.
11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
My friends, may that peace, that comes as you realize God has declared you righteous, beause you are joined to Christ’s death and resurrection, may it guard your hearts and minds as we look to Him, and cast aside the sin…
AMEN? AMEN!!!
