Sermon for Sunday July 10th 2022: “Halfway through…”
(Please read Psalm 102; Isaiah 43: 14-21; Hebrews 13: 1-8; 20-21)
We are halfway through the year…
Our service this morning began with verses from Psalm 102, a call to worship the immutable God – to the God who existed always, who created the heavens and the earth; the One who, even though the creation is subject to change, does not change Himself. The Psalmist calls the people to be confident that God will keep His promises and continue to care for His people. “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19). God is… God is reliable and keeps His promises. These are universal truths, true then as now. Chapter 6 of Hebrews speaks volumes about this…
When people make promises, they guarantee them by appeal to some authority above them so that if there is any question that they’ll make good on the promise, the authority will back them up. When God wanted to guarantee his promises, he gave his word, a rock-solid guarantee—God can’t break his word. And because his word cannot change, the promise is likewise unchangeable. We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us, in the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 6: 17-20)
Jesus remains the mooring that keeps us safe until the end.
The writer to the Hebrews (W2H) addresses a people who were facing hard times. Some of these 2nd generation Christian believers were on the verge of giving up on the church or thinking about it. Some have drifted away from the church. Fewer and fewer of them are gathering to worship. They are discouraged. They are a people who need help. They’re no different to us. They need all the help they can get. They need the help of Jesus.
In the preceding 12 chapters of Hebrews the writer has told them why Jesus is better; why they should trust Him; who He was and is and ever will be! The writer has already challenged readers to fix their eyes on Jesus and run the race with perseverance (Heb 12: 1-2). As long as believers are fixing their eyes on Him, they can run without losing heart (12:3). Believers can be encouraged that He will never forsake them or leave them (13:5), and believers should imitate the examples of those who have had faith in Him (Heb 13:6).
In this ever-changing world in which we’re living – in this changing world they can still be encouraged that some things never change – that, in a line that the ad men would die for,
Jesus Christ – is the same yesterday, today and forever…
Bob Dylan sang, “The times they are a changing.” One thing we can be sure of in life is the reality (inevitability) of change. As the world gets increasingly worse… In fact, one of the main points in the book of Hebrews is that Jesus is the guarantor of God’s promise of redemption.
From the very outset Hebrews told them the world would change. The foundations of the earth and the heavens will perish. Like a garment they will wear out, be rolled up and be changed. Your years and your reign will never end (Heb 1: 8-12).
Jesus Christ – the Alpha and the Omega, who is and was and is to come. He remains the same. He will not change. He cannot. What He has said he will do. He won’t revoke His offer of love to the world He made. He has an unchanging character: He never lies. All the promises of God are caught up in Jesus Christ – and those promises to his people NEVER CHANGE!
That’s why elsewhere we are told that (when all this comes to an end and is changed) we look (can) forward to a new heaven and a new earth. (2 Peter 3:13). HIS SPIRIT, still (always) the same, fixes this truth in our hearts; witnesses to our spirits such eternal truth!
As the hymn writers so eloquently put these truths: “Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou who changest not, abide with me!” (Abide with me)
Or Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father: “There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not; as Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be!”
Jesus Christ – is the same yesterday, today and forever! We can count on Him.
God promised our redemption on oath and swore by Himself to make it absolutely certain (Hebrews 6:13-14). Jesus ratified this oath by His bloodshed on the cross.
- There is still the SAME POWER in that blood!
- He is the SAME SURETY and GUARANTOR that we are safe and forgiven – still underwritten in blood!
- He is still the SAME BROTHER (still a man; human like us); still in the midst of us, His church; by His Spirit that witnesses to His love and truth; in the midst by His Word and in the bread and wine He ordained; in the people He calls…
- Still the SAME MERCIFUL, FAITHFUL HIGH PRIEST – doing away with the need for any other mediator by whom to come to God. Still able to sympathise with us in our weaknesses.
- Still the SAME MEDIATOR between God and man; still able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him; still (constantly) praying for us…
- Still the same ADVOCATE for us…
- Still able to help those who are being tempted by the enemy… to deliver us from evil.
- Still the same one (the King of an unshakeable kingdom) who is on the throne of grace – approachable, perfect and permanent!
- Jesus Christ – the same yesterday, today and always!
- Still the SAME ANCHOR FOR THE SOUL – firm and secure as ever He was in a changing world; the same rock to cling to…
- Still the one on whom we should fix our gaze should we start to drift or fall away…
- We don’t need a new fad, a new fashion, a new operating system, or a strange teaching.
- What He did for our forebears He can and will do for us. He offers us (as them) the SAME PROMISED REST…
- He is the same pioneer, the same author and perfecter of our faith…
- He is still worthy of our worship and our trust…
- The SAME CAPTAIN OF OUR SALVATION! Still the Judge…
- Still the WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE…
- Still the ONE CONSTANT amidst the confusing variables of life!
- If we were in any doubt:
- STILL Jesus Christ – is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, always and forever!
What an encouragement to a discouraged people!
The promise of God in Isaiah 43 to make all things new comes to pass in the One who is faithful and true. Jesus wasn’t some fly-by-night preacher who rose in popularity and then faded into obscurity. No. Jesus had always existed as God (John 1: 1; 8:58), He came in the flesh as a man in order to pay the human price owed to God for sin on behalf of all humanity (Philippians 2: 5-8; 1 Cor 15: 1-4), and He is in heaven working and interceding until He returns for His people to take them home (John 14: 1-3; Romans 8:34).
One day He will return in glory for all to see (Colossians 3:4). He will rule as King, and He will dwell with humanity forever. “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. (Rev 22).
There are no vacillations with Him. He has had a consistent plan from the start and has been faithfully executing that plan, always keeping His word, and always completely trustworthy. As Samuel once put it, “The Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind. He is not a man that He should change His mind” (1 Samuel 15: 29).
We may be halfway through the year but whatever the date or time, or the politics of the day - Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Forever LORD!!
A sermon by Rev M.M. Faris-Robertson