The Genuine Article or Knock Offs?
Notes
Transcript
Cheap Knock-Offs
Cheap Knock-Offs
In ‘03 or ‘04 I led a mission trip to China. Our church in IN supported a missionary and I took a group to go see what he was doing.
Part of the appeal of getting people to go is to do some sight-seeing and shopping while we’re there.
We saw the Great Wall. Tiananmen Square.
And, we went shopping. There are a couple of markets in Beijing that are like overgrown flea markets. Multiple levels. Booths. And all “brand names”.
Nike, Tommy Bahama, North Face. And amazingly cheap!
Same materials, labels, they looked good!
Tommy Bahamas were silk w/ little wood buttons. Nikes were leather. And the NF jackets all felt the same as what you’d find on the rack at REI.
My son Jason was w/ me, I bought him a pair of Nike Shocks. The shoes w/ the little springs under the heals. They were $100 in the stores here. We got them there for $10.
Same deal on Tommy Bahama shirts for me. $100 here. $9 there. I bought a couple of shirts.
North Face jackets. zip out liners. $250 here. I walked into the booth there, I had been given requests from friends who didn’t go w/ us to buy them one. I wanted 11 jackets.
They didn’t have the selection there, so they asked me, and my son, to leave the group in the market, we loaded up in a little rickshaw, down the main road, up and alley or two, to a little hole in dirty building where we went inside and jackets were folded in plastic and stacked floor to ceiling.
They gave me a deal. Since I bought 11, I got them for $11. Normally they were $15. $250 here at REI.
We loaded them up in black trash bag, back into the little rickshaw, back to the market where we rejoined the group.
Here’s my jacket. I’m still using it. The draw strings broke. The little loops where you snap the liner in the sleeve. But, it’s my snow-blowing jacket. Water proof.
But the Nikes and the Tommy Bahamas, a little different story.
They shoes lasted maybe 2 weeks before they fell apart at the seams.
The shirts started unraveling in the seams and in just a short time I wore holes thru the fabric under my arms.
They were all cheap knock-offs. You never know what you’re going to get. Mostly, they don’t last.
If you want Nikes, go to the shoe store and buy Nikes. Spend the money and they will last a year or more.
Shirts, too.
Sara used to travel to New York for work, and she’s returned to vacation there. Her mom took her once. She took our daughter there once.
After one of these trips she brought me a Rolex watch. In fact, she brought several as gifts for friends.
A Rolex is $4000. In Chinatown, in NY, it’s not so much.
My watch never did keep accurate time. And, one of the guys we gave one to is rough on things, he hit his arm on something after just a couple of days and the watch shattered.
The pastor I worked for then had worked in a jewelry store years earlier and felt the weight of my new Rolex and knew right away it was a cheap knock off.
The metal was not real.
Sara brought my mom a Louis Vuitton bag. This is the trip she took w/ out daughter. Just the 2 of them. A trip to Chinatown to shop.
They went into the bag store. Asked about the Louis Vuitton bags, were very discretely escorted out the back door, into a dark back room, Alyssa was 16 and wide-eyed wondering what sort of bad guy was lurking around every corner. In this room, the light came on, and it was filled w/ Louis Vuittons.
My mom was thrilled. She got to go to work, out w/ friends, and show off her designer bag.
My mom was a hard-working secretary. She never made much money. We never had brand name stuff growing up. We couldn’t afford things like that.
A cheap knock off. She was so proud of that. She knew.
We buy knock-offs b/c they’re cheap, they look just like the real thing if you don’t look real close, but you don’t know what you’re going to get.
Nearly all the time, they don’t perform as advertised. They don’t do what you need for them to do when you need it done.
Jason’s shoes blew out. My watch didn’t keep time. The Tommy Bahamas wore out.
My jacket has provided some long-term comfort. It’s the exception.
Jackets, shoes, watches, bags are all fun and helpful. We didn’t pay much so we didn’t lose much when they didn’t perform.
That’s why we do it. We show off our “brand name” stuff. Cheap and easy.
Maybe a little pride. I got a better deal than you did. You paid all that money for yours. I paid just a little and got the same thing.
I did better than you.
Clothes, no big deal.
But it is a big deal when we apply the same thoughts to things that really do matter.
Why do we settle for cheap knock-offs when it comes to peace of mind, courage, wisdom, things like that.
Why do we try to mask our guilt rather than do what it takes to have our guilty consciences cleaned up?
We are good at masking our pain and problems. Drink a little more. Take another pill. Exercise a little longer. Eat a little more. Be intimate w/ someone you should be intimate w/.
Cheap knock-offs mask the symptoms w/out dealing w/ the cause.
Then, there’s getting to heaven. We don’t think enough about that b/c we are so preoccupied w/ trying to find heaven on earth. Peace, joy, patience, no pain.
Jesus offers answers and addresses all of this. From the here and now to the hereafter.
And it doesn’t cost us anything, except control. That can be hard.
It cost Jesus his life. All it costs us is faith and surrender.
Why settle for a cheap knock-off that won’t do what you want it to do when the Real Thing is cheaper and easier for us and lasts forever?
Hebrews 9:1-15.
Remember where these c.1 Xians were and what was going on around them.
They were struggling and stressed out of their minds. They were 1st gen. believers.
The kingdom they hoped for hadn’t happened, yet.
They thought the end times were coming soon.
They were losing their jobs due to govt mandates about how they chose to live out their faith. Kids couldn’t go to school. Friends were getting arrested. It was only going to get worse
Sound familiar?
Lost jobs, friends, family support, incomes, homes, etc.
They were struggling. Peace of mind?
Courage to stand up for what’s right in the face of opposition?
Wisdom to make the right decisions?
Heaven? If they are going to die young our old, are they going to get to heaven and is it worth what it takes to get there?
They faced a lot of the same questions we do, only worse. As bad as we think we have it, it was much worse then, and may yet get there for us.
What do we do?
To begin w/, don’t turn (back) to cheap knock-offs. They may look like the real thing, but they are only veneers that won’t hold up to closer inspection or the pressure of the day.
Cheap Knock-Offs
Cheap Knock-Offs
Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand and the table with its consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now.
Their temptation was to return to their Jewish roots b/c their Christianity was not performing as expected.
So, the preacher was reminding them, giving them perspective, about what their old Jewish worship represented.
Everything they did in worship, every piece of furniture, every sac was a facsimile, a representation of Messiah, Christ.
Once the Christ came, these things were no longer necessary.
They were knock-offs that looked like, in their own way, the real thing. It was all they had at the time so they made it work.
In fact, God instructed them to do it this. But w/ the idea that everything they did prepared them for the Christ.
Now that the real thing is there, the knock-offs are pointless.
He says he can’t discuss the specifics here. That’s b/c they all got it. They had worshiped that way all their lives. They knew what these things rep’d.
We haven’t. We may not know what they rep.
So, I will go into the detail he didn’t.
The Hebrew word tabernacle literally means, dwelling place of God. Sanctuary.
We misuse the word other than to describe the place we worship.
God does not dwell in the room. He dwells in us, today.
There was an outer courtyard where the altar was set up where they sac’d animals and there was a washbasin.
The altar was made of wood and covered w/ bronze.
Bronze rep’d sin. It was a nice metal. But not a precious metal like gold or silver. It had more of a dull finish than shine.
The wooden altar was where lambs were sacrificed and their blood was shed to represent atoning for the ppl’s sins. d
Tho’ when it was built, they did not realize this altar rep’d the wooden cross where the Lamb of God would shed His blood for our sin. After Jesus died, they got the connection.
The wash basin, made of bronze, the inside bottom was polished like a mirror.
The idea was you could look at yourself in that mirror and see the flaws that need t/b fixed, that the blood sacrifice fixed, and you could wash w/ the water repping the sin and the guilt washed away by the sac.
In the outer courtyard you dealt w/ your sin. This isn’t even ref’d in this Hebrews passage. Again, they got the assumption of the omission.
Once your sin is dealt w/, then you get to go into the holy room. In this room is a lampstand and a table w/ bread on it.
The priests kept the lamp burning 24/7.
In the NT, John said this about Jesus:
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The table was made of wood, overlaid w/ gold.
The wood rep’d Jesus’s humanity. Strong, attractive, but vulnerable.
We know what happens when we take an axe to strong tree then apply a match.
The gold rep’d Jesus’s deity. Precious and pure. Valuable. Shiny and clean.
Then, the bread on the table.
Just like the manna from heaven that nourished and gave life to Israel;
John recorded Jesus’s words about himself:
I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
The next room was the holiest room. It was the Most Holy Place, or Holy of Holies.
It was where God lived. The dwelling place of God.
There was a curtain between the 2 holy rooms. It was flexible and about a foot thick.
This was the curtain that was torn in 2 at Jesus’s death. It rep’d his body. When His body was torn, the curtain was torn, allowing us access into the Most Holy Room and the direct presence of God.
There was incense burning in the holiest room. The smell of the incense filled then room.
Remember, earlier in Hebrews the preacher wrote Jesus continues to serve us in the tabernacle by praying for us.
This incense rep’s Jesus’s prayers. Jesus’s prayers for us fill the room for God to hear and respond to. They engulf Him.
We know about the Ark from Indiana Jones. It’s a wood box overlaid w/ gold. It sits between cherubim, angels who guard and watch over it.
There are 3 things in it. Manna, Aarons’ staff, and the stone tablets. Each represent God’s personal involvement with people.
Aaron was the first priest who represented the ppl to God and God to the ppl.
The tablets were what God etched the 10 commandments on when Moses met Him on Mt. Sinai.
The manna was God’s provision for the ppl as they wandered thru the wilderness.
On the ark is a seat, called the mercy seat. It reps the throne on which God would sit and receive his ppl and administer justice.
Having dealt w/ their sin in the outer courtyard on the altar and having been washed they could receive the Bread of Life from the Light of the world who is both fully human and fully God.
Thru His body they enter into the presence of God who mercifully does not punish them has they deserve, but welcomes them, meets their needs as Jesus prays for them.
All this was just a representation, an image of what God was doing in heaven, what Jesus would do on the cross, and what they will both do for us eternally.
None of this actually accomplished anything except reminded ppl of the real thing.
As expensive and costly as they were, they were cheap knock offs.
The work the priests did on behalf of the ppl did not do what the ppl needed to have done.
So, the preacher wrote this:
It Didn’t Work
It Didn’t Work
This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order.
They were rites and rituals. Rules for worship. They did not clear the conscience of the ppl who worshiped there.
None of this removed the guilt. Both the guilt of the deficit they created w/ God when they made errors and the guilt they felt in the conscience when the HS convicted them of those errors.
They could do nothing about this.
So, the preacher is say, don’t go back to what didn’t work in the first place.
If my son’s shoes split out in 2 weeks, don’t go back to Beijing and buy another pair.
If my watch doesn’t keep time shattered at the slightest bump, don’t go back to NY and Chinatown and buy another.
If you want shoes that hold up under the pressure of a middle school boy, buy the real thing.
If you want to know what time it is, even when you’re fighting the fight at work, buy the real thing.
If you want peace of mind, wisdom, courage, eternal life, and a clear conscience; turn to the real thing, not the man-made materials that are weak representations.
So, what is, Who is, the real thing that these cheap knock-offs looked like but didn’t act like?
The Real Thing
The Real Thing
But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
The priest did his work in the tabernacle.
Jesus, our high priest did his work in the tabernacle, too. Just not the one on earth. He did it in heaven.
He didn’t sac a goat or a calf. He is the Lamb and his blood covered our sins once and for all.
On the day of Atonement, the high priest would select two goats from the herd. One he would slaughter and burn on the altar. He would sprinkle its blood around the altar to represent the atonement for our deficit w/ God.
The other goat he would pray over, repent to God over, and release into the wilderness. It would take the guilt from the sins of the ppl and never return.
Jesus did that w/out killing nor releasing a goat.
Our conscience and souls are cleansed so we can leave the courtyard and, go thru the holy room, and enter into the presence of God and serve him there directly.
That’s what we do.
We do what we do b/c Jesus did what He did and does what He does and it works.
What they did w/ the knock offs didn’t work.
What we do w/ Jesus does works for us.
We get a clear conscience, peace of mind, courage, wisdom, patience, and more.
We get heaven.
It Works Forever
It Works Forever
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
What didn’t work under the old covenant works now b/c Jesus is the mediator of this covenant.
We will receive the promised eternal inheritance which is of immeasurable value.
We don’t need to accumulate and hoard wealth here b/c we will be far wealthier there than we ever could be here.
The eternal inheritance is promised, guaranteed.
The HS is given as a deposit guaranteeing it.
While the bulk of the inheritance comes later, we get a little bit now in the HS.
And w/ Him comes the fruit of the spirit.
That is, the peace, patience, courage, and wisdom.
It’s available now, in X, thru X; and we experience its full potential when we remain close to X.
X above all.
Don’t run back to or run forward to cheap knock offs. Don’t try to treat only the symptoms. They only mask the problem then the problem returns w/ even more force.
Jesus is cheaper for us anyway. It cost him his life. It only costs us control of ours.
He’s cheap, easy, and affective.
Don’t waste your time or money on knock offs. Turn to the Real thing.
Applications
Applications
Masks
Masks
Don’t try to mask the symptoms.
Don’t get drunk. Don’t get high. Don’t go deeper into debt buying stuff. Don’t get intimate w/ someone you shouldn’t be that close to.
Doing these things only causes more problems when the mask wears off.
The HS provides the self-control, courage, and strength to say no to these things.
Fruit
Fruit
These things the HS provides, peace of mind, patience, joy, self-control, courage, and wisdom are all like fruit.
You have to cultivate the soil, care for the plant, prune it then it will produce the fruit.
Don’t just focus on the fruit. Focus on the soil and the plant of your spiritual life to get the fruit.
The Real Thing
The Real Thing
Focus on Christ.
Make your relationship w/ Jesus your highest priority every day.
Don’t let the shiny objects around you distract you.
Don’t let shirts that look like real Tommy Bahamas attract your attention.
Don’t let shiny watches that look like real Rolexes lead you away.
Don’t let Nikes, Louis Vuittons, or North Face Jackets receive what you should reserve for the Real Thing.
Simplify and keep God on the Mercy Seat, on the ark, thru the curtain, past the Light of the world, Bread of life, and the table that is the humanity and deity of Christ, just after the altar where your sac was made and you washed in the basin.
Your conscience is clear b/c Jesus has removed all the guilt.
Nothing else can do that.
Why settle for a cheap knock-off that won’t do what you want it to do when the Real Thing is cheaper and easier for us and lasts forever?