On October 8, 1871, D.L. Moody was preaching to the largest crowd he had ever faced. He preached a sermon entitled, “What shall I do then with Jesus which is called the Christ?” From Matthew 27:22. He finished with these words: “I wish you would take this text home with you and turn it over in your minds during the week, and next Sabbath we will come to Calvary and the Cross, and we will decide what to do with Jesus of Nazareth.” That was the night of the Great Chicago Fire and by morning much of the city lay in ashes. Many who were there that night perished. Moody said: “I have never since dared to give an audience a week to think of their salvation. I have never seen that congregation since… But I want to tell you of one lesson that I learned that night which I have never forgotten, and that is, when I preach - I press Christ upon the people then and there and try to bring them to a decision that day.”
Tomorrow is not promised! What we have is Today! —“Today if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” This letter to the Hebrews was written to first century Jewish/Hebrew Christians who were likely living in Judea, that is southern Israel, in the vicinity of Jerusalem, where a large scale persecution of Christians, the first persecution of Christians, had broken out with the martyrdom of Deacon Stephen in about 37 A.D. And the persecution had never let up. It’s now about 30 years later and the writer of the book has the concern that, and probably some evidence for, the prospect that some of these new followers of Christ were falling away or thinking about falling away from Christ because of the never-ending hardships they were enduring due to the long-term persecution they had experienced. They were very specifically thinking about returning to Judaism, merely observing the Old Testament Law and the Temple sacrifices and feasts as their persecutors, unsaved Jews were doing. The writer warns them NO, they cannot go back! In the first two chapters, we are taught that Jesus is greater. He’s greater than the prophets that came before Him. He’s greater than the angels. He’s even greater than Moses! Our confidence is this—that Jesus, and Jesus alone, saves. That there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved, as Acts 4:12 tells us, and that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man comes to the Father except through Him, as Jesus Himself put it in John 14:6. So be warned! Don’t fall away from Jesus. Moses is not a sufficient substitute. He does so by quoting Psalm 95, written the King David, in about 1000 B.C., 450 years after the events of the wilderness wandering of the Jews which it refers to. Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, (Notice the clear belief on the part of the writer that the real author of Psalm 95 is not just David, but God the Holy Spirit speaking through him) —“Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness... as I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” Today we must consider Their Rebellion; Today we must consider His Rest; Today we must consider Our Response…
Their Rebellion (tell of the provocation)
ILLUS: Moses. After all the powerful acts of God leading them out of the slavery in Egypt, the Jews were then led to the Promised Land through a wilderness where there was often no food or water by a Pillar of Cloud by Day and a Pillar of Fire by night. Manna fell from heaven each night to feed these two million people in the wilderness. Though God had clearly shown His power and His ability to provide and deliver, the Jews grumbled and complained against Moses and against God, doubting that God was actually bringing them into the Promised Land. Moses appoints 12 spies to explore the land and bring back a report. Only two of them, Joshua and Caleb, claimed that with God’s help they could take the land. The people decided to go with the recommendation of the 10, rather than the two. And when God told them to go up and take the land, they rebelled against God’s command, and in unbelief, despite all that God had shown them, refused to go. It was at that point, that God had had it. He swore in His wrath that they would never enter His rest. That rest, in the Old Testament, was the Promised Land. The goal in the Old Testament had never been eternal life for the Jews, it had been the inheritance of the Promised Land. The result was that all of those Jews who had been delivered from Egypt who were 20 years and older were then refused entrance to the Promised Land, and they spent the next 39 years wandering in the wilderness until all of them died.
Over 600,000 men over the age of twenty perished in the desert. 14,600 days. 90 funerals a day. Why? “… because of their unbelief.” The spies had seen the plagues in Egypt. They had witness the parting of the Red Sea. They simply didn’t believe God would act on their behalf. William Newell defines unbelief as “not the inability to understand but an unwillingness to trust.”
His Rest (tell of the generation)
ILLUS: Sabbath & Canaan. The writer mentioned two different “rests” found in Old Testament history: (1) God’s Sabbath rest, when He ceased from His Creation activities Gen. 2:2) (2) Israel’s rest in Canaan ( Deut. 12:9; Josh. 21:43-45). But the writer saw in these “rests” illustrations of the spiritual and physical experiences of believers today. We need to rest in His power and also rest in His promises. The Sabbath rest is a picture of our rest in God’s power over eternity today! The Canaan rest is a picture of our rest in God’s promises for our life today! Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” Matthew 11:28. For years, (in the early ninety’s) the opening of "ABC’s The Wide World of Sports" television program illustrated with the voice over of Jim McKay "The thrill of victory ... and the agony of defeat" with a painful ending to a ski jump. The skier, Vinko Bogataj, appeared in good form as he headed down the jump, but then, for no apparent reason, he tumbled head over heals off the side of the jump, bouncing off the supporting structure. What viewers didn't know was that he chose to fall rather than finish the jump. Why? As he explained later, the jump surface had become too fast, and midway down the ramp, he realized if he completed the jump, he would land on the level ground, beyond the safe sloping landing area, which could have been fatal. Vinko suffered a broken ancle from the tumble, but one day he competed again. To change one's course in life can be a dramatic and sometimes painful undertaking, but change is better than a fatal end.
Our Response (tell of the exhortation)
Encourage The Brethren - in verse thirteen he warns “but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote this about sin: “Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdrawals him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation.”
ILLUS: Zoom call and a fire alarm with low battery beeping, if you ignore it long enough you will stop hearing it!
-Be careful about the unbelieving heart, it leads you away from the living God
-Be careful deceitfulness of sin, it makes you want to procrastinate exhortation today, leads you away from people (For we share in Christ!)
It’s been said, “The devil’s greatest tool is discouragement.” Are you a companion or a critic? Do you know someone who needs encouragement today? Can you send the person a letter, an e-mail or a text? Have you prayed for a person who needs encouragement?
If we just all allowed our words to be filtered through the Ephesians 4:29 strainer, our church would be stronger: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
We need to have a group of people in our lives that have permission to ask us hard questions and confront us if they notice red flags. We need to have safe people that we can confess our sins to. When we confess a sin to another person, that sin loses its power. The power of sin is the shame and isolation it brings. When we bring it out into the light, the power of sin loses its punch. As Charles Swindoll puts it, “Reaching out and touching someone is not just a nostalgic, sentimental advertising slogan – it is a biblical mandate.” [Charles Swindoll. “The Preeminent Person of Christ” A Study of Hebrews 1-10. (Fullerton, Calif.:Insight for Living, 1989) p. 60]
