Being "Safe" with God

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was written by C.S. Lewis and published in 1950 as the first book in the famous children’s series The Chronicles of Narnia. That book tells the story of four siblings who find their way into the land of Narnia through a magical wardrobe. The story revolves around their interactions with Aslan the lion, the king of Narnia. The children first learn of Aslan through Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. Lucy assumes Aslan is a man. Upon discovering he is really a lion, Lucy asks,

Then he isn’t safe?

Mr. Beaver replied,

Safe? Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King I tell you.

While the book doesn’t meet the technical definition of an allegory, there is little doubt that there are allegorical elements to the book and that Aslan the lion is a picture of Jesus. And those words from Mr. Beaver do reveal something important about Jesus and God.

Tension

There are two extremes that people tend to gravitate toward when they think about approaching God.

The first extreme is to approach God flippantly. That mindset ignores God’s holiness and assumes that we can approach God any way that we want. There is no consideration of the idea that God might not be “safe”. While I hope the people who designed some of these t-shirts did it with good intentions, I do worry that they portray Jesus more like our buddy rather than the holy God who created this world we live in.

{Jesus is my homeboy]

[Jesus saves as a soccer goalie]

[Bloodweiser. The wise men knew this blood’s for you]

Maybe I’m being too much of a Pharisee here, but it even bothers me when people praise God by saying “Yay God”. To me that just sounds too much like cheering for your favorite sports team.

The other extreme is to be so terrified of God that you refuse to even attempt to draw near to Him. I think even some Christians live with the unjustified fear that God will not forgive them and they are constantly looking over their shoulder waiting for God to zap them with a lightning bolt or call down fire from heaven. And as a result they live joyless, hopeless lives.

The idea of drawing near to God is a major theme in the book of Hebrews. Six times the author explicitly commands his readers to draw near to God and the concept is woven throughout his letter. So that means that there must be some middle ground where we can boldly draw near to God but do it in a manner that honors His greatness and His holiness.

Truth

The passage we’re going to study today provides us with the answer to how we can do that.

Go ahead and turn with me to Hebrews 7 and we’ll pick up where we left off last week in verse 11:

Hebrews 7:11–22 ESV

11 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? 12 For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. 13 For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. 15 This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, 16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. 17 For it is witnessed of him, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” 18 For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness 19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. 20 And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, 21 but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever.’ ” 22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.

Here is the main idea we’re going to develop from this passage this morning:

I can only be safe in God’s presence if I have been saved by His Priest

I’m going to take a little different approach to the message this morning. Although I always like to focus on practical application as much as possible, this is one of those passages that requires us to have a good understanding of the underlying doctrine before we can draw some good applications from the passage. So I’m going to begin by outlining the passage and then calling your attention to a few of the most significant concepts. Once we’ve done that, we’ll take a look at some practical applications.

The Old Covenant is insufficient (v. 11-14)

It doesn’t provide for “perfection”

That word probably means something different to us than the way the author uses it here.

perfection =

The underlying Greek word generally means:

“fulfillment of a purpose” or “attaining a goal”

But given the context, the author of Hebrews has this meaning in mind:

“to put someone in the position in which he can stand before God”

Or, to use the terms from our main idea, it conveys the idea of being “safe” in God’s presence.

Although Israel often rebelled and turned away from God throughout their history, the one thing we must give them credit for was their understanding that God is “dangerous”. So they tightly held to the sacrificial system and the Levitical priesthood because that was the only possible way they could be protected from the holy wrath of God.

But as we’ve noted, and as the author of Hebrews notes here, that system was inadequate. While the sins of the nation could be covered once a year on the Day of Atonement, they couldn’t be cleansed. As we’ll see later in Hebrews, the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins and they could never relieve a guilty conscience, So that system could never provide the kind of “perfection” that is written about here.

Therefore a different priesthood was needed

This is not an idea that should have been new to Jewish Christians who were reading this letter. All along God had a plan to create a new and more perfect priesthood and install His Son, Jesus as the high priest. And He had revealed that in the Old Testament in the verse that the author has already quoted several times and which is quoted two more times in our passage today:

Psalm 110:4 ESV

4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

Keep in mind that David wrote that Psalm while he was still going to the Temple on a regular basis and while he was still participating in the sacrificial system and relying on the work of the Levitical priests. But he also understood that there was a need for a better priesthood that was pictured in the Old Testament by Melchizedek and fulfilled in the New Testament by Jesus.

In verse 11, the author writes that because the old covenant is insufficient, there is a need for “another priest”.

In Greek there are two different words that can be translated “another”. One of them means “another of the same kind” and the other means “another of a different kind”. So if I were to say I’m going to go buy another car and I was going to buy another Hyundai Santa Fe or maybe even if I was going to buy another brand of SUV I would use the first word. But if I was going to go purchase a sports car, I would us the second. That’s the one the author uses here. So he is conveying the idea that Melchizedek and Jesus are different kinds of priests than the Jewish Levitical priests.

Last week we spent a considerable amount of time talking about why the priesthood of Melchizedek and Jesus is far superior to the Levitical priesthood so I’m not going to go over that again today. But I will just mention that the author once again reminds us that the priesthood of Jesus was not merely hereditary. He was not from the tribe of Levi or a descendant of Aaron, but rather from the tribe of Judah.

A new priesthood required a new law

In the Old Testament, the law came after God established the priesthood. So it would be fair to conclude that the law supported the priesthood. So when the priesthood changed, there also had to be a change in the law. The way that one approaches God is different under the New Covenant. Instead of relying on the Levitical priests and the associated sacrificial system, the only way to approach God now is through faith in Jesus and His shed blood.

The New Covenant is sufficient (v. 15-22)

Based on the power of an indestructible life

The qualifications for being a Levitical priest were largely external. In addition to the requirement to be from the line of Aaron, the priests also had to be free from physical defects. Even the ceremony to ordain them focused on externals like ceremonial washings and special clothing.

But Jesus qualified for His priesthood based on the fact that He is 100”% God in addition to being 100% man. His life is indestructible in the sense that He lived a sinless life and also because He rose from the dead and lives forever.

Gives hope because it provides a way to be “safe” with God

We’ve talked often before about the fact that there are different kinds of hope. Most of the time we use that word in our culture, it merely means “wishful thinking”, like “I hope I win the lottery” or “I hope the Cubs win the World Series again before I die”. And frankly, under the Old Covenant, that is really the only kind of hope a person could have. They hoped that sacrifices made by the priests on their behalf would prevent God from pouring out his holy wrath, but they could never really be sure that those sacrifices were enough.

But under the New Covenant, the hope we have can be described as “confident expectation”. Because of the resurrection of Jesus, we can be 100% confident that if we have placed our faith in Him, that we have been clothed with His righteousness and therefore we are “safe” with God. That is why earlier in Hebrews, the author wrote these words:

Hebrews 4:16 ESV

16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Not only can we draw near to God, but we can do that boldly and with confidence. There we find grace that gives us hope when we face difficulties and trials in our lives.

Fulfills God’s promise (vs. 20-22)

When God established the Levitical priesthood, He never promised it would be permanent. It was always intended to be temporary and a shadow of the permanent priesthood of Jesus t come. But when God promised in Psalm 110 to establish a new priesthood - one modeled on the priesthood of Melchizedek - He promised that priesthood would be permanent and that He would never change His mind on that.

I can only be safe in God’s presence if I have been saved by His Priest

Application

Since that is the case, let’s use our remaining time to talk about...

HOW TO MAKE SURE I’M “SAFE” IN GOD’S PRESENCE

Acknowledge that God is not “safe”

Yes, I get it. This first principle seems a bit contradictory on the surface. But we will never truly be safe in God’s presence until we first understand that God is inherently unsafe. He is holy beyond anything we could imagine and, contrary to what many want to believe, He will one day pour out His wrath on those who have chosen to rebel against Him. It is only once we grasp that truth that we can understand our need for a priest, someone to build a bridge between us and God. And it is only once we grasp that truth that we can begin to understand the complementary truths of God’s mercy and grace.

As we discussed last week, although the idea of a priesthood may seem archaic or unnecessary in our day, we all need a priest, because on our own, we are incapable of achieving the kind of “perfection” we talked about earlier so that we can be confident to draw near to a holy God.

Make Jesus my personal High Priest

Apparently, some of the Jewish Christians to whom this letter is addressed viewed Christianity as just something to add on to their Jewish religion. So therefore, they wrongly assumed that they could just go back to the comfort of that religion and they would still be okay with God.

But, as we see clearly in the passage we’re looking at today, God did not merely add Jesus to the Old Covenant. He set the Old Covenant aside and replaced it with something new that is far superior.

Every religion int he world, with the exception of Biblical Christianity, teaches that there is something that I must do to gain acceptance with God, to be “safe” in His presence. And that was certainly true of Judaism. But, as Ryan correctly pointed out during our study of Colossians, Biblical Christianity is Jesus plus nothing. That means we must come to God solely on the basis of what Jesus has done for us and not on the basis of anything or anyone else.

That is what it means to make Jesus my personal high priest. I must come to Him and acknowledge that because I am a sinner, I have nothing to offer to God. On my own there is nothing I can do to earn His favor. Then I must trust 100% in what Jesus did for me through His death and resurrection. I must believe that what He did for me on the cross is sufficient to clothe me with His righteousness, which is the only way I can be “safe” in the presence of God. And I must surrender control of my life to Jesus and make Him the Lord of my life.

If you’ve never done that, you will never be safe in the presence of God. If you have, then, and only then, can you take the next step.

Draw near to God boldly and consistently

The gym where Mary and I work out is open 24 hours a day. When we joined we were given a key fob that allows us access to any of their locations in the United States any time of day or night every day of the year. Every January, there are always a lot of new people that sign up for a membership with the intention of getting in better shape. And every one of those members gets that same key fob. For about a month or so the gym is very crowded. But by the time February rolls around a lot of those people are nowhere to be seen. They still have a membership that allows them to use the gym and a key fob that gives them access 24 hours a day. But they just don’t take advantage of that. And as a result, they don’t do anything to improve their physical fitness.

That is a pretty good illustration of a lot of Christians. If Jesus is your high priest, then you have the amazing privilege of being able to draw near to God confidently and boldly. You have direct access to the throne of God 24 hours a day, every day of the year. And when you take advantage of that access, you will find mercy and grace. And you will also improve your spiritual fitness. But all that will only happen if you take advantage of that access on a regular basis. Just like you can’t develop your physical fitness by only going to the gym once in a while, you can’t live a life that is characterized by hope and joy if you only draw near to God occasionally.

So draw near to Him through His Word and through prayer and through gathering together with other disciples of Jesus. Draw near when you sin and need His forgiveness. Draw near when you’re going through a rough time and need His strength. Draw near when you have an important decision to make and you need His wisdom. Draw near when things are going great and give Him thanks and praise. In other words, whatever is going on in your life, draw near.

Action

Every week one of the potential problems with the message is that we’ll leave here thinking “that was really interesting”, or “that was some really good information”. Or some of you might even be thinking, “I know someone else that really needs to hear this message”. But I am convinced that no matter where we are in our walk with Jesus, there is something that each one of us needs to do in response to this message. And that includes me. So I’d like you to take a moment to quietly and prayerfully consider what we’ve learned this morning and then write down one specific action that you’re going to take to apply today’s message.

For some of you, that could be putting your faith in Jesus for the very first time and making Him your personal priest.

For others, you might be convicted this morning that you’ve gone to one of the extremes of either approaching God flippantly or avoiding Him altogether. And so you need to change your mindset about how you relate to God.

Some of you are genuine disciples of Jesus, but if you’re honest with yourself, you’d have to admit that you haven’t been taking advantage of the opportunity to draw near to God. Maybe you;ve been trying to handle your problems on your own. Maybe you haven’t been reading your Bible and praying consistently. Maybe you no longer take part in a small group that you were a part of in the past. So you need to make some changes in your life to get back on track.

Or it might be something completely different. So go ahead and take a couple minutes to pray and ask God to guide you. And then write down with whatever He brings to your mind.

[Prayer time]

Inspiration

God is certainly not safe, but He is good. So if Jesus isn’t your priest then you have every reason to fear Him. But because He is good, He has provided a way for you to be safe in His presence and have joy and hope. So if Jesus is your priest, then you have everything you need to confidently and boldly draw near to God where you will find the grace and mercy that will allow you to live a joyful, hopeful life regardless of your circumstances.