Sermon Transcript Tone Analysis

Perhaps, you've noticed that.

In stories, Movies, Any manner of fairy tales.

There is a thread, a stream that flows concerning the idea.

That maybe just maybe.

We might be more.

Then we presently see.

Then we presently know that maybe something would happen in life that we would discover that we're actually descended from royalty.

I've got a family member who still insist that in my family that somehow we're attached to royalty.

I don't buy it.

But you know the themes it's a theme that comes in and out in various ways.

It's it's got different ways of appearing.

I mean think about just the story of Cinderella.

The idea of going from scrubbing, the floors to then being married to the prince.

Or even more recently, in recent years.

Our children have been taken with that character Harry Potter, who starts out under the stairs living in a Cupboard, Under the Stairs of his aunt, and uncle only to find out that he's a legend in the Wizard World and he didn't even know it.

There's something inherent in us that wonders if we could be something more.

Then what would presently know ourselves to be?

And it's that theme, that stream of thought that brings us to our passage today in which the author of Hebrews or maybe I might rightly say the preacher of Hebrews for much of recent scholarship really believes that the book of Hebrews is probably a sermon preserved for us.

That the preacher is tapping into that stream, tapping into that idea that we are something more than what we presently see.

And the argument, the case has been building in Hebrews through chapter after chapter, and we come in right towards the end of that case.

When the final parts are laid out.

And that's what we're going to read today concerning a New and Living Way.

A New and Living Way.

Let's pray the Lord that you open to us Your word.

May we hear it a new and a fresh may we grasp the many ideas that are flowing, may it come together and make sense.

And more than makes sense, may it have now an impact on our lives that we might become better followers.

And worshippers of you.

We pray this almighty God, through your son, Jesus Christ.

And the gift of your spirit.

Amen.

Reading from Hebrews chapter 10, beginning at verse 11.

And as I mentioned we are coming into the very end of the case as it's being made.

So chapter 10 beginning at verse 11.

And every priest stands daily at his service.

Offering repeatedly the same sacrifices.

Which can never take away sins.

But when Christ had offered for all-time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

Waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time, those who are being sanctified.

And the Holy Spirit.

Also Bears witness to us.

First after saying, this is a covenant that I make with them.

After those days, declares the Lord.

I will put my laws on their heart and write them on their minds.

That's a passage from Jeremiah.

We just heard at the start of worship.

Then he adds.

I will remember their sins and their Lawless Deeds, no more.

Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Therefore brothers and sisters since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus by the New and Living Way that he open for us through the curtain that is through his flesh.

And since we have a great priest over the house of God.

Let us, draw near with a True Heart in 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, and all the more as you see the day Drawing Near.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Now, the preacher.

The preacher of Hebrews.

Has just been building with excitement building with the anticipation of laying out the final parts of the case that we are in fact changed.

That we are more than what we see.

That this New and Living Way has two parts.

Not only is it new?

But there's also a way to live into.

But I confess we came into the passage at the very end and it's not unlike coming into a really good movie towards the end when the climax is happening.

And you can tell its the climax.

You can tell everything is coming together and there's a part in which you want to stop and pause movie to ask those who have been watching right along So what what about this?

And what about that?

You want to go back in and get the underpinning and see that which is built up to this moment, even though you can tell it's a big moment.

And so we need to do just that we need to go back a little bit into the case, that the preacher's been building.

Into the case that we are more than what we see and experience.

And the case is simply this.

If I were to summarize it and ask you to remember without any of the other details.

It's a differentiation.

Between a shadow.

And what is real.

Between a shadow.

And what is real.

One can't help but wonder if the preacher, the author of Hebrews plays on Plato's work of the cave.

And for those who are familiar with philosophy, Plato was playing with this idea that what if everything we see isn't really real, what if we were not like people who were chained in place inside a cave and there was and we couldn't look around we could only look forward on a wall.

And it was a light behind us that cast a shadow.

So all we could see, we couldn't even see one another all we could see was the Shadows on the wall.

That would be the only reality we know.

And yet we're real, but all were familiar with is a shadow.

Hebrew writer preacher is doing something the same in which he takes us into the temple system.

A system that we're really not familiar with.

We don't really have much experience.

We don't really regularly journey to and experience temples nowadays with sacrifices taking place.

It's a different reality.

So for the people to whom the preacher was writing, it made sense and they could follow.

But let's put it simply this way.

Sacrifices were offered for people sins for the ways they missed the mark in what God wanted them to be and do.

And so sacrifices were offered in the temple system, priests, offered those sacrifices on behalf of the people, people would bring sheep and goats, and even Bulls.

And these will be sacrificed, the priest would do that work on their behalf.

Now, in that Temple system, there was also the holy Place into which the priests could go.

And they could go in there and offer incense and this was a very holy place, but there was a place that was even more holy than that.

There was one more step into the temple.