DOMINANT THOUGHT: God’s Word exposes us for who we are; but we have an advocate in Jesus who understands us and offers us empowering grace.
PURPOSE:
- Head: The people will understand that God’s Word gives us a better understanding of who we are.
- Head: The people will understand that Jesus’ incarnation gives God a better understanding of our brokenness.
- Heart: The people will be filled with appreciation for the love of God.
- Heart: The people will be more compassionate to other “sinners.”
- Hands: The people will draw near to God through Bible intake.
MANUSCRIPT:
This is probably hard to believe, but my children, from time to time, act in ways that I and the rest of decent society do not approve of.
One always wonders if such behavior is genetics or environment, you know, the age-old controversy between nature and nurture. I’d like to blame it on Michelle, but when I am honest with myself, I have to admit that I probably play a larger role than I’d like to admit.
I don’t remember either occurrence, but my mother was always fond of telling people about the two times I had to have my stomach pumped as a toddler. Once for drinking a bottle of Downey, the other for eating a whole bottle of children’s aspirin.
Then there was the time my cousin and I wandered away from the city park across the street to a nearby school playground. We didn’t even realize we were missing until a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy came looking for us.
Once I boldly wrote my name on the carport of the apartment complex we lived at in blue crayon. When asked by my mother if I had done that, I said, “No, it must have been some other boy named Bobby.” “Really?” She asked, “Isn’t it odd how he writes his Y’s backwards just like you?” Busted!
I don’t think I’ll say much about the time I got hold of a book of matches and set my crib on fire when I was an infant.
I still remember the first time I was aware. I mean, really aware, that I had done something terribly wrong and that I stood convicted, guilty. Maybe you can think back to that point in your life when you really woke up to the fact that, “Hey, I’m messed up.”
For me it came in the first grade. My sin? I had a library book that was one day late. Harry the Dirty Dog was its title. Perhaps you’ve read it yourself.
Oh, I know what you’re thinking. Overdue libray book. Late one day. Big deal. Well, for me it was a big deal. It was a huge deal, an insurmountable sin that may prove to be my very undoing.
You’ve got to understand. I was born a worrier. I can still remember my very first spelling test. I was petrified about it. Ten small words. But I fretted over those words. I memorized those words. I even memorized the order in which they listed in my spelling book. I didn’t want to do poorly on the test. Imagine my surprise when the teacher read the words out to us for us to write down. I thought I was going to have to conjure them up on my own.
Perhaps you can see why I was so worried about this late book, and on several fronts. I loved to read. What if they wouldn’t let me check books out anymore? I loved school. What if they kicked me out over this late book? My mom was on welfare, scratching to make ends meet. What if they charged us some kind of fine that we couldn’t afford to pay? Mrs. Hutchens, the librarian, was one of those old spinsters with the cat’s-eyes glasses and knee-high stockings that would always roll down her calves and make her look like she was smuggling sausages. She took no nonsense and was quick to quell the slightest noise in the hallowed halls of her sanctuary. I was sure to get on her bad side if I brought a book back late.
So there I was on a Friday morning, walking down the steps of my apartment to what I felt sure was my doom. Harry the Dirty Dog lay in the crook of my elbow like a heavy millstone. As I passed by the neighbor’s backyard, I looked down to see Clean Harry and Dirty Harry both giving me an accusing look. What to do? They’d never understand at school.
I was faced with a crisis. I had to choose to either admit my wrongdoing and confess to keeping the book an extra day, or find some means of escape. I was a pressure cooker of internal turmoil. Coming to a decision, I did the only thing I felt I could do.
I threw Harry the Dirty Dog as hard as I could over the fence and deep into my neighbor’s bougainvillea.
When asked later where the book was, I told Mrs. Hutchens that I must have lost it.
Maybe it wasn’t a late library book for you. Perhaps it was playing somewhere your parents told you was off-limits, a squabble with a sibling that led to a sobering injury, shoplifting an item at the local grocery store, or telling a lie to impress your friends at school. But whatever your “first time” was, unless you’re Jesus or criminally insane, you’ve been there. You’ve been there, faced with your own brokenness, faced with your own failure, faced with who you really are.
The true test of our character is what we do when faced with the ugly truth about ourselves.
The usual response is to run from that revealing reflection of who we are, to bury it, to hide it, to do everything in our power so that we never have to look at it again.
It’s been that way since the beginning of time. Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves with fig leaves when they discovered they were naked, and later they tried to hide from God when he came to visit. Cain couldn’t stand the sight of Abel, a constant reminder of Cain’s shortcoming—so he killed and buried him. In fact, you might say that a lot of mankind’s energy has been focused on running away from who we really are.
Our culture today has tried its best to take a different approach. Instead of running away from the things in our life that reveal our brokenness, we simply refuse to admit that we’re broken at all. Rather than admitting that we’re damaged goods, our culture is trying ever harder to convince itself that abnormal is normal, that wrong is right, that the pursuit of personal pleasure is the chief end of mankind. We have suffered from a pandemic cardiac sclerosis, a universal hardening of the heart. Our culture’s conscience has been seared as if with a hot iron. This poster’s tagline pretty much sums up the prevailing climate around us—“I apologize for nothing.”
Running, hiding, covering up, refusing to acknowledge--such approaches lead to an ignorance of the warning signs. And if we are ignorant of warning signs, bad things happen as a result. Most of you are aware that I have lost over 95% of my peripheral vision. Certain consequences have come as a result. I don’t do well in crowds. I don’t do well in strange places or in the dark. Sometimes I offend people when I don’t see them out of the corner of my eye at Wal-Mart, or miss an extended hand, or accidentally walk into someone. I haven’t been able to drive for 13 years now. It has limited what I can do and has placed several extra burdens on my wife and children.
Here’s the funny thing. Glaucoma is generally not a disease that leads to a sudden loss of vision. If I had been aware of the symptoms, if I had made regular visits to the eye doctor, I could have been in the position to have been properly diagnosed and treated well before I had lost a significant portion of my eyesight. Don’t think that I have not played the great game of “What if” a few million times in my head between 1996 and now.
But the consequences that come with ignoring the warning signs of physical disease pale in comparison with the consequences that arise from ignoring the warning signs of spiritual disease.
Our text this morning comes from Hebrews 4, starting in verse 12. Our intent through this series from Hebrews is to understand that God has offered us a better life. Today I want to talk with you about having a better understanding, how through the regimen of Bible intake we can have a better understanding of who we are, how through the incarnation of Christ God has a better understanding of who we are, and how through our own self-reflection we can have a better understanding of the broken people around us. Hear the Word of God from Hebrews 4, verses 12 through 16:
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
The Regimen of Bible Intake Gives Us a Better Understanding of Who We Are. The writer of Hebrews gives us six qualities of the Word of God. It’s living. It’s active. It’s sharp. It penetrates. It divides. It judges.
A skilled surgeon uses a scalpel to open people up, to get under the surface, to expose the problem area so that it can be removed, repaired, or otherwise eliminated. In the same way the Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to open us up, to get under the surface, to expose the problem areas of our spiritual life in order that they can be removed, repaired, or otherwise eliminated.
Now if we know that we have something seriously wrong with our physical bodies, say a burst appendix, a clogged artery, a torn ligament, or a herniated disc, we are going to visit a doctor and get it fixed. And most of us are wise enough to go in for a regular check-up from time to time to make sure that something isn’t sneaking up on us.
So why is it so hard for us when it comes to the daily discipline of Bible intake?
I think part of the problem is that it takes effort on our part. Generally when we go visit our physicians, we undergo a battery of tests. If something is wrong, they give us a prescription or schedule a procedure. But they’re the ones doing all the work. We’re just sitting there being poked, prodded, weighed and measured.
The Great Physician does not work that way on our souls. He demands that we take an active role. Just imagine the patient’s reaction if a surgeon handed him a retractor while he was lying on the operating table and said, “Hey, could you hold the incision open for me?” But that’s exactly what God expects us to do when it comes to the maintenance of our spiritual lives.
I think another problem is the time it demands. We’re busy people. We’ve got places to go, things to do, people to see. We don’t have time to be still and reflect on God’s Word. If only reading the Bible was as fast and easy as taking a pill! But I believe if we really wanted to make this area of our lives a priority, all of us could sit down, look at our calendars, and find that we do indeed have the opportunity to spend a little time with God and his Word each day.
But I wonder if perhaps the bigger, underlying problem with Bible intake is that if we are diligent with it, it exposes us to who we really are. James the half-brother of Jesus likens the Word of God to a mirror, saying that anyone who looks at the Word and does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and then goes off and forgets what he looks like. God’s Word is like that, you know. It shows us who God is like, but it also shows us who we are like, too. And if you are like me, you never come away happy with the reflection of your soul that the Bible provides.
And so, like Adam and Eve, like Cain, like me in the first grade, like all of mankind, we want to run, to hide, to cover up, to conceal. And one of the better ways to ignore the evidence of our brokenness is to avoid it altogether. The problem is, as the writer of Hebrews so eloquently points out, we cannot hide the evidence from God. We can fool ourselves, but we can’t fool him. And he is the one to whom we must give an account.
The Word of God is a double-edge sword. It cuts, it penetrates. It exposes. But if it’s left in its sheath, gathering dust on the shelf, it won’t do us much good. Remember the main thrust of Hebrews—“God has spoken.” Are we willing to listen?
Through the Incarnation God Has a Better Undersanding of Us. One might conclude from verses 12-13 that we are in a whole heap of trouble. And if the story ended there, we would be. We’d be left on the operating table, all cut up, bleeding out. We’re fading fast. The doctor could fix us up, but he just heard that we have no insurance, and now he’s refusing to treat us. Old Mrs. Hutchens is in the corner wearing a nurse’s uniform, giving us a disapproving stare through her cat’s-eye glasses.
Left to our own devices, we would simply die. But fortunately for us, Christ walks into the room, takes one look at us, turns to the doctor and says, “Do your work. Their bill is paid in full.”
You see, Jesus understands us. He has walked in our shoes. He knows the terrible burden of temptation. And though he himself never fell to temptation—no, not once—he can sympathize with all the rest of us who have.
Since God created us, he has always known what man was like. But it was not until the incarnation, not until he took on the flesh and blood of man itself, that he got the fullest picture. At least that’s how I see it. I think I have some scriptural foundation for that. When we read through the Gospels, we find many different titles for Jesus—Christ, Messiah, Son of God, Son of David, Rabbi, Teacher, Master. Very lofty titles. But I am struck by Jesus’ most popular name for himself—Son of man. Now I know there are prophetic connotations to that title. But I also think that Jesus used it so much because he was so excited about being a human and walking amidst his creation in that way for the first time.
The writer says that Jesus was tempted in every way. He means that in a qualitative rather than a quantitative sense. The primary temptation through the course of Jesus’ life, at least from what we see in the gospels, was to abandon his mission of saving the world. Jesus was never tempted to view pornography with the click of a mouse. He was never tempted break the speed limit or steal his neighbor’s cable TV. But he was pressured to sin just as much as any of the rest of us has ever been. We did not hold up to that pressure. He did. But because he went through it, he can sympathize with those us who are going through it and who have failed.
And that is why we can approach him with confidence. That is why we can approach his word with confidence. Yes, it will expose us for who we are, but we do not have to be afraid of Jesus the way I was afraid of old Mrs. Hutchens back in the first grade. For Jesus has walked in our shoes. He has felt the same pressure we have felt. He offers grace and mercy to those who come to him in their time of need, to those who come to him for help.
I want to encourage you to not be afraid of Jesus, to not be afraid of his word. While we need to approach him reverence, we also need to approach him with confidence. He offers us help, he offers us grace, he offers us mercy.
I spend the first 25 years of my life running away from who I was, who I am. Since then, there have been many times that I have looked into the mirror to my soul and not liked what I have seen. But I have not despaired. For my hope is in the Lord. He understands. He is a friend to those in need.
Our Self-Reflection Gives Us a Better Understanding of Others. I want to conclude this morning with a challenge for all of us. As I reflected on this passage of Scripture this past week, I was struck by something. Jesus was tempted like us, but was without sin, and he is able to sympathize with us. All of us have been tempted and have fallen short. Now one would think that this inescapable truth would allow us to understand and sympathize with one another even more than the sinless Jesus can sympathize with all of us sinners.
But is that the reality of the situation?
I think sometimes we are hindered in our ability to sympathize with others when their sin is of a different nature than ours. We’re great at ranking things. Just go to my Facebook profile and look at all the “Top 5” things I’ve picked out. One of the things we really like to rank are sins. And usually we’re pretty good at finding a lot of sins that are much, much worse than anything we’ve ever done.
People are broken in all sorts of ways. Some have fallen to sexual sin. Others have been defeated by drugs or alcohol. Some are being choked by anger. Others are mired in gossip and slander. Some have been trapped by greed. Others have been tripped by pride. Sometimes brokenness is more easy to see in some than it is in others.
And because we are broken in different ways, sometime we can lose sight of the forest for all the trees. And our tree looks pretty good compared to the other trees around us. So we can place ourselves on God’s throne, and transform it from a throne of love and mercy and grace to a throne of cold and heartless judgment.
I don’t want to be that way. I don’t want to sit on the throne. I want to kneel before it. I want to be a conduit, a pathway, the red carpet, so to speak, from that throne of grace to the people around me. The more I look at God’s word and see more of who I am, the more I realize that I am no better than anyone else. We may all be broken in different ways, but don’t ever forget that we are all broken. Jesus offers us understanding, mercy, and grace. Let’s do the same for those around us.
