Drawing Near to God Through the Blood of Jesus | Hebrews 10:19–39

People that know God live differently because their lives have been shaped and they're just overwhelmed with this deep sense of gratitude and perspective and worship around these things.

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Father, we've come to uh to bask in those two wonders, our worth and our unworthiness, which makes uh communion uh that much more awe-inspiring, that much more sacred.

Uh, is because we didn't deserve it and you did it anyway.

And so there's no basis on in ourselves, nothing we can point to uh that would justify it or make it make sense.

Uh it is as uh beautifully tragic as the Bible represents it to be.

That you made him who knew no sin to become sin for us.

And here's why you did that, so that we could become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

Not that we would have an out or an alibi for our habitual sin.

So we could become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

Let us be spurred on towards righteousness today as a result of what happens in this room.

We pray this in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

You're gonna have a seat.

Uh and let me just explain what you see.

If you're our guest today, we are observing communion today at Grand Park Way.

And so we we practice what's called open communion, which means you if you're a Christian, you're more than welcome to come and receive with us.

What we'd like to do is read a passage of scripture and let that kind of prepare our head and our heart for what we're about to do so we don't kind of just kind of sleepwalk through the motions.

Oh, it's communion.

Here we go.

Uh and so I want to read uh from Hebrews chapter 10.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

I'll start reading verse 19.

Uh and I just want to read this and just let that let the word just kind of calibrate head and heart, and then we'll just kind of think about it, and then we will serve each other communion.

I'll give you more instructions about that.

Uh, this is the word of God from Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19.

Hebrews 10:19

I sent you an email yesterday and I said communion is about it's celebratory and it's it's sobering all at the same time.

And I think only the gospel has the capacity to call us to celebration, but also call us to sobriety.

And this is what I mean, verse 19 of Hebrews 10.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.

And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Let me pause right here.

Here's the celebratory part right here.

Here's the part that I want you to get excited about.

He says, uh, and let us, verse 24, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.

Ask yourself, who you have in your life these days that stirs you up, that motivates, who increases your desire for love and good works.

He says, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

Ask yourself another question.

Who encourages you?

Who is it when you spend time with them, you meet them for coffee, you walk away, and you're just encouraged?

And it wasn't like, hey, I want to have a coffee with you so I can encourage you.

I just, I want us to get in the habit of every time we come together, but especially today.

So while you're waiting in line at one of these communion stations, I want you to look around and see how do I encourage the people around me?

And by the way, encouragement is deeper than, hey, that's a cute blouse.

I just don't think Jesus, I think Jesus died for us to have deeper language for each other.

Let me demonstrate what I mean.

We got an email last week from a couple that said, hey, our kids have been out of school a week.

My wife's tired, we're at each other's throat.

We're just fighting, be praying.

And I saw them in the lobby last week.

I thought this was helpful.

Apparently it wasn't, but I'm gonna insist that yes, it was.

I walked over to them and I said, Y'all been fighting a lot this summer, and she's like, Oh man, she is on my last nerve.

And she goes, Please, I I I lost my last nerve about 10 days ago, okay?

He, if I had the means, I think I would divorce him.

But I'm a stay-at-home mom, so I can't.

And I said, You're not stuck.

I said, by the way, if you didn't love him and really care about him, he couldn't hurt you.

And she's like, Tell me when this gets good.

And I said, Here's Pastor Sunshine bringing blessings to his parishioners.

I said, keep fighting and fight well and fight to the glory of God.

And he looked at me with this cup of coffee and went, All right.

And she's like, Yes, yes.

And so I'm I wasn't trying to be flippant or funny.

I'm just like, yeah, yeah, you should.

Marriage is worth fighting about and fighting for, okay?

So don't just be penny annie and just babies.

You're not in the tenth grade anymore.

Be men and women and fight well.

And they were like, and she's like, oh, okay, I'm not, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with that.

You don't fight with him and then get on Facebook and troll for your old high school boyfriends just to see what he's doing.

Fight well.

It's worth fighting for.

So just keep fighting for the glory of God.

You need people in your life that say things that are beyond your circumstance to remind you that there's better things to come.

Otherwise, you will act unbecoming of yourself and God and the gospel in the circumstance that you're in.

This is encouraging.

He says, hey, consider how to stir up one another to love and good deeds.

Consider, put some thought into it.

Stop saying the same six phrases to everybody you meet.

Think about it.

Let your language be textured and consequential.

This is the celebratory part.

Here's the sobering part, verse 26.

Four, if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the spirit of grace.

For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay.

And again, the Lord will judge his people.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

You're like, Why do you why do you use this for communion meditation?

This is not happy.

The Bible doesn't have to be happy to be right.

Be delivered.

Answer your phone and be delivered from this need for happiness.

It's just, it's it's sobering.

It's sobering.

And again, why do I do that?

Because on the night Jesus was betrayed, he he takes bread and he breaks it, he gives this to his disciples, and he says, Hey, this is my body now.

It's Passover, and this is how Passover becomes communion or the Eucharist or the Lord's Supper, whatever your traditional background is.

It's thousands of years God's people are celebrating by sacrificing a lamb there and having a Passover meal.

Jesus, what we call the Last Supper, is observing Passover with his disciples, but he is filling this thing full and he's making Passover personal.

And by passing out this bread, he says, Hey, this is my body which is offered for you.

He's saying, I am going to the cross.

We're not going to sacrifice lambs anymore because I'm the lamb that was slain before the very foundation of the world, okay?

He passes out the bread and says, This is my body which is offered for you.

And then he holds up the cup and says, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

You have to understand this, okay?

God is always going to defend the integrity of the blood, which is why he says here in Hebrews, after he says, Hey, in the time of Moses, you died on the testimony of two or three witnesses if you violated the law.

How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God has profaned the blood of the covenant?

The way you profane the blood of the covenant is that you think Jesus' death on the cross is just forgiveness for all your sins, but it's not deliverance from sin.

Because the Bible says Jesus died so we can become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, not so we just live in sin and kind of go, well, you know, God loves to forgive.

Be careful, you're in danger of profaning the blood of the covenant.

And then he says this the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and it's outraged the spirit of grace.

Here's how you outrage the spirit of grace.

You get about three or four sins that you kind of enjoy, and then you cobble together a theology around your preferences that makes this okay and even Christian.

And you're offending the spirit of grace, and God's not glorified by that.

The Bible says in Titus chapter 2 that grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness and to live upright and moral lives in this present age while we await the blessed appearing of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Titus 2 · chapter mention

And so, grace in the Bible has teeth to it, it has consequence to it, it has capacity, it has agency to turn our head and heart away from sin.

Otherwise, we're just insulting the spirit of grace.

And you do not want to be one of those people.

Now, you may be thinking, man, that's not very encouraging.

I mean, I think I'm a Christian, but I just say this when the Bible talks about this expectation of judgment and fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

That's people that don't know God.

Because people that don't know God live like this.

People that know God live differently because their lives have been shaped and they're just overwhelmed with this deep sense of gratitude and perspective and worship around these things.

And the writer of Hebrews continues in verse 32, and he says, But recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with suffering, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.

For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you know that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence.

Just mark that in your mind.

Verse 35.

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

Do not throw away, as you come to the table today, let you be uh kind of kind of buoyed in your confidence that you know what?

What I believe is not just right, but it's the truth and it's consequential.

Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, for you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.

When you have noticed the order, when you've done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.

It's only mealy-mouthed preachers that try to give you everything up front as motivation to do anything.

And the Bible says, when you've done the will of God, then you experience the fruit of obedience.

Then you receive what is promised.

For yet a little while and the coming one will come and will not delay, but my righteous one shall live by faith.

And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

But we are not of those that shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

You're of those that have faith, and your faith has the capacity to preserve your souls.

That's the beautiful news of the gospel today.

And so, again, I know some of you may have walked in late and you're like, whoa, what's going on?

We got a table set up here.

We're observing communion today here at Grand Parkway.

Uh, and we practice open communion, which means if you have a relationship with Christ, uh uh then then you're welcome to come and receive.

Uh, and I'll give you some more instruction about that in a minute.

But let me just say this, uh, because the Bible demands this of me as your pastor.

If you're sitting in here and you're like, yeah, I just don't give a rip, okay?

I know it's wrong.

I'm gonna do it anyway, and I'm gonna keep doing it as soon as I leave here.

You should abstain from the Lord's table today.

You should just say, you know what, I don't want to insult the spirit of grace.

It's more than okay.

No one's mad at you.

Uh and every once in a while, people come up and go, hey, do people take you up on that?

Yeah, they do.

Uh and I wish they wouldn't.

I wish they would repent and stop living the way they live or doing some of the things they do.

Uh, but but you don't want to insult the spirit of grace.

You don't want to trample underfoot the Son of God.

In other words, you don't want to act like Jesus' death on the cross was just permission and not power.

Because it's power, it's not just permission to get forgiveness for sin, it's the power to be delivered from sin.

Which is why the Bible says things like in Romans 6, what shall we say then?

Shall we continue to sense that grace may abound?

God forbid.

Anathema.

That is that is from hell, not from heaven.

And it goes on to just unpack all the ramifications of that.

So what we like to do, because the Bible tells us, hey, spend some time before you come to the table examining yourself and getting your head and your heart right.

And so I'm gonna pray a prayer.

And then Clyde and Lynch will just play.

They may sing something over us, and we'll just take a minute or so or two, just to kind of prepare ourselves and just to kind of say, you know what, I don't want to sleepwalk through this, I don't want to insult the spirit of grace.

Uh I I want it, I want to find courage.

I want to be reminded.

I want, I want to be nourished in my endurance to keep doing the will of God.

I want to look around, I want to encourage other people.

Uh the guy walked up to me in the first service, and he goes, I know you probably get this a lot.

And I said, actually, no, I don't.

Go ahead.

And he was like, Oh, oh, uh, oh, it's a little off-put.

I said, no, it's it's because we're not good at that.

So if you know people and you're just like, hey, or if somebody you don't know, and you're just like, hey, every time I come here, you're here, ma'am.

I just, I'll just, I just want to encourage you.

Your faithfulness is it's encouraging to me.

Whatever.

But let's just, Jesus died for us to have deeper language than how you're doing today.

He just did.

You should have deeper language for other people, and other people in your life should have deeper language for you.

So let's give ourselves to consideration of uh of celebration and sobriety around communion.

Let me voice a prayer.

Let's pray together.

Father, thanks for the truth of the uh of the gospel, that it is celebratory.

It is, yes, these people love me, they know me, they have words for me.

But it's also, I got words for some of my friends.

I want to encourage them.

Hey, hey, hey, just fight well to the glory of God.

Marriage is not math, it's music.

You got to keep hearing the music.

And your life has to take on this rhythm of the gospel towards the people that you live with the most.

And so, Lord, we want to just take a moment just to make sure we're not just kind of turning this into an empty ritual.

We do not want to insult the Spirit of grace because God is honor bound to defend the integrity of the blood.

And so, Jesus, you said this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

This was all purchased and established because you shed your blood.

So we're not going to take something that personal and treat it in an impersonal way.

So, Holy Spirit, just brood over your people.

Give us celebration where we need it, and give us sobriety where we need it.

We just prepare ourselves to come and just to celebrate what was accomplished that makes all this possible.

So, Holy Spirit, just be on us, be among us, be with us, we ask in Jesus' name.

Take a moment to just uh gather in what the Lord has done in you today.

Uh let me just say this as your pastor.

Uh you probably heard someone just weeping.

Uh don't be distracted by that.

That's beautiful.

The Bible says that God is close to the brokenhearted.

And so uh you do not have to have it all together.

You can be brokenhearted here at this church.

That's welcome.

It's not an inconvenience.

So, whoever that was, there's nobody here saying, get it together.

No.

Because God is close to the brokenhearted.

You say, What do you mean?

Hear these words from the Psalm sixty two.

For God alone, oh my soul, wait in silence.

For my hope is from Him.

He only is my rock and my salvation.

My fortress, I shall not be shaken.

On God rests my salvation and my reputation.

My mighty rock, my refuge is God.

Trust in him at all times, O people, and pour out your heart before him.

God is a refuge for us.

Say la.

Because you're nothing in there is going to surprise him.

You're just agreeing with him about what's in there.

And so if it's joy or gladness or sadness or grief or brokenheartedness, all of that is welcome here.

Because we've all been there before.

And we will be there again.

I would like us to do that this morning.

Earlier we sang the old hymn Beat Out My Vision.

I'd like us just to sing the first verse.

Just uh it's kind of a waxy seal over our time together.

Uh Clyde and Lindsay, would you lead us?

Would you stand together?