Sermon Tone Analysis

You ever play that game where you try to keep a balloon up in the air?

I think our life is sometimes like this.

You’ve got all these different balloons and you’re trying to keep them all up in the air.

List them.

Now here is the deal with each of these.

Each time one of these drops somebody is hurt and or you experience guilt.

And you know what—it’s not just false guilt.

It’s actual guilt…now we might add some balloons that shouldn’t be there, we might get our priorities wrong as well.

But don’t hear me wrong these do matter.

But what happens when we attach our identity to these things?

What happens when we drop and our identity is tied to these things?

I’m a great family man…I’m keeping this thing up in the air go me.

But then I’ve got something else screaming out for my attention…I’ve got to keep that up too because I don’t just want to be a great dad or husband…I want to be a good friend…a good pastor…wait, I haven’t read my Bible.

This is exhausting.

My observation of Christendom is that most of us tend to base our personal relationship with God on our performance instead of on His grace.

If we’ve performed well—whatever “well” is in our opinion—then we expect God to bless us.

If we haven’t done so well, our expectations are reduced accordingly.

In this sense, we live by works rather than grace.

We are saved by grace, but we are living by the “sweat” of our own performance.

One solution—>I’m gonna just do one thing really well.

But you end up neglecting so many things.

Other solution—> I’m gonna try to juggle these and keep them up in the air and just do the best I can and drink a whole bunch of energy drinks.

But maybe there is another solution.

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Now you might be wondering how in the world is what I just said with these balloons tied to what you read in this text?

That’s my job this morning to show you that.

Ultimately here is what I wan to show you.

The biblical solution to this problem is that the good news of Jesus blows up the whole game.

But I think Jerry Bridges is correct in his book Transforming Grace:

My observation of Christendom is that most of us tend to base our personal relationship with God on our performance instead of on His grace.

If we’ve performed well—whatever “well” is in our opinion—then we expect God to bless us.

If we haven’t done so well, our expectations are reduced accordingly.

In this sense, we live by works rather than grace.

We are saved by grace, but we are living by the “sweat” of our own performance.

So what I want to show you from is that Jesus calls us to something much different than trying to keep these balloons up in the air.

He calls us to place our identity elsewhere.

You see as we’ve been seeing in the book of Hebrews the whole thing is about access to God and having a cleared conscience.

It’s all about us getting back to the Garden of Eden—that blessed existence where we are able to draw near to God without fear, where we have unfettered access to His presence and where our conscience is cleared and our guilt is taken away.

The balloons are an attempt to do that.

If I can keep all these up then maybe I’ll get back.

Maybe I’ll get access.

Maybe I’ll have a clear conscience.

Maybe I’ll feel good about myself.

But the Scriptures everywhere show us that it doesn’t work.

Humanity cannot get itself back into the Garden.

Thankfully the story of the Bible doesn’t end here.

God graciously, in the OT, provided a shadow that was pointing to God’s big solution.

But here is what the author of Hebrews is showing us—this is exhausting if this is your answer.

It’s meant to be a pointer.

And when the substance is here you don’t give your life to keeping up with the shadow.

v1—The law is but a shadow that’s pointing to the greater thing of Christ and the new covenant.

The law was given by God.

It’s good in and of itself.

The law isn’t the problem.

The issue—as we see elsewhere is our own hearts.

And what we see here in Hebrews is that it’s only a shadow pointing to something greater.

It’s not meant to be the end all.

This is why it “can never ‘perfect’ those who draw near.

That word perfect means—accomplish it’s designed purpose.

In the language of Hebrews it’s “getting back to Eden”.

v2—If the law could clean you all the way up—if this was the point and not the shadow—then they wouldn’t keep having to do stuff over and over again.

It wouldn’t be a treadmill.

But it is.

Note also verse 2 the “consciousness of sins”—that’s where I get earlier that this is a key point for Hebrews—a clean conscience.

v3—the sacrifices and the fact that they kept having to do them is a reminder that it’s not the “perfect”.

It’s a reminder that your sin isn’t finally and decisively dealt with.

v4—The blood of bulls and goats couldn’t take away sins.

They cannot accurately represent us before God.

It’s impossible for them to take away sin.

So here is what God wanted them and us to catch from this text.

If the God-ordained shadow “cannot take away sin” then what does this mean for all of our efforts?

Look with me at verse 11.

Notice the language that the author of Hebrews uses here.

v11— “stands daily”, “offering repeatedly” “Same sacrifices” The point here—the standing—never complete.

Offering repeatedly—same sacrifices—that’s the treadmill.

That’s trying to keep the balloons up…it’s a non stop effort.

It never ends.

So again—if the God ordained shadow is this treadmill what can we say of our own efforts.

They aren’t going to work.

They aren’t going to clear your conscience.

It’s never going to be enough.

They won’t get you back to Eden.

And every time a balloon crashes it’s a reminder of this.

We can pretend like it doesn’t matter but we know that it does.

So what’s the answer?

Look back at v5-10.

Here the author of Hebrews is quoting .

He shows how Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of these words of King David .

He’s the ultimate King.

He has given Christ a “body prepared for me”.

What is that?

It’s referring to the incarnation.

It’s Christmas.

But notice also this talk of “come to do your will, O God”.

What is that?

It’s that Christ would come and give his life as a ransom for us sinners.

He explains this in v8-10.

The key is v9.

He does away with the “former” that’s all the sacrifices and such in order to establish the second?

What’s the second?