1 Valley View Chapel August 31, 2014 God s Final Answer Part 9 The Place of Grace Hebrews 4:14-16 Introduction Downton Abbey is an award-winning TV drama that chronicles the experiences of the Crawleys, an aristocratic British family living in the early 1900s. In the second season World War I has just begun and Matthew Crawley has been commissioned to the battlefield. In one scene, Lady Mary, Matthew Crawley's love interest, is kneeling beside her bed with a picture of Matthew lying on the bed before her. When Mary's sister Edith enters the room unexpectedly, Mary quickly slides the picture under the bed sheets and stands to her feet. "What do you want?" Mary asks Edith. "I think I left my book in here." Mary retrieves Edith's book and asks, "Is that all?" "You were praying." Edith remarks."don't be ridiculous." Mary replies, rolling her eyes. "You were praying!" Edith says with shock and disbelief. "What are you praying for?" Edith inquires. Mary says, "Please go. I'm tired." Edith exits the room and Mary resumes her position of prayer. "Dear Lord," Mary prays, "I don't pretend to have much credit with you. I'm not even sure that you're there. But if you are there, and if I've ever done anything good, I beg you to keep him safe." In that scene Lady Mary illustrated vividly how not to pray. First, her prayer such as it was was tentative and even fearful. We re not even sure if she knew just who she was praying to. Second, Mary was evidently embarrassed to be seen praying. By the way, am I ever embarrassed to be seen praying? In a restaurant? A hospital? A public place? And if I am embarrassed, then how do I deal with Jesus warning in Mark 8:38, If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." (NIV) Third, Mary s prayer was superstitious. She confessed: I m not even sure that you re there. Prayer for her was the religious equivalent of rubbing a rabbit s foot. Maybe it would do some good and maybe it wouldn t. Mary evidently felt that it wouldn t hurt to try. Fourth, Mary thought that a favorable answer would be conditioned by her goodness for she based her desired outcome on if I ve ever done anything good. Lady Mary Crawley was embarrassed to pray. Yet in the movie Gravity we meet a character who was so desperate that she cried out unashamedly for divine help. In the movie Sandra Bullock played astronaut Ryan Stone. When their craft was struck by space debris, Dr. Stone and her partner Matt Kowalski become untethered from one another. Isolated and coming to grips with her mortality, she has a desperate conversation with God: I'm gonna die, aren't I God.I'm gonna die today! But the thing is. I'm really
2 scared. Nobody will mourn for me; no one will pray for my soul.i'd pray for myself but I've never prayed in my life. Nobody ever taught me how. Nobody ever taught me how. Lady Mary Crawley and Dr. Ryan Stone both needed the truth of today s text Hebrews 4:14-16. They needed mercy and grace in time of need. Hebrews 4:14-16 answers five questions that must be addressed when we face a problem we can t handle. What is mercy and grace? Where do we go to get mercy and grace? How do we go to get mercy and grace? Why do we know we can get mercy and grace? Who is the source of mercy and grace? Let s read Hebrews 4:16 together: Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (NIV) What is mercy and grace? Mercy is the remission or the taking away of divine judgment. Mercy means that God doesn t give us what we deserve. Grace is the supply of undeserved blessing. Grace means that God gives us what we don t deserve. John Stott defined grace in the form of an acrostic: God s Riches At Christ s Expense. There are two kinds of grace and we need both kinds. First, there is saving grace. This is when God makes the gospel clear to us and we recognize and respond to what he did for us on the cross. This is the grace Paul referred to in Ephesians 2:8, For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. (NIV) Second, there is sustaining, strengthening, and supporting grace. This is what James referred to in James 4:6 when he said that God gives us more grace. As we live the Christian life, we need wisdom, patience, faith, joy, peace, humility, generosity and many other things. These too are gifts of grace, freely given and utterly undeserved. Where do we go to get mercy and grace?
3 Under the old covenant, mercy and grace for the people of God was found only in the temple in a sacred room called The Holy of Holies. There rested the Ark of the Covenant. On the Ark was something called the mercy seat. On the ark were two cherubim with wings outspread and between the cherubim dwelt the glory of God. One day a year the Day of Atonement the high priest took the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkled it on the mercy seat to cover the sins of the people. But the mercy seat was inaccessible to everyone except the high priest. And even he could approach it only once a year for a minute or two. But when Christ paid for our sins by his blood and satisfied the wrath and justice of God, the throne of grace became open to everyone, at anytime, and anyplace. Not only is the intercession of a high priest unnecessary, we don t require any human priest at all. The Australian New Testament scholar Leon Morris observed: In all the religious systems of antiquity the worshipers approached their god through the ministry of an earthly priest or high priest. But because of what Christ has done, Christians can approach God directly. Today we can come to the throne of grace as often as we need to. The verb tense of the invitation Let us approach clearly refers to an ongoing activity. In the ancient world, if anyone other than his closest adviser approached a ruler uninvited and unannounced - risked death. Queen Esther risked her life when she went to see King Artaxerxes without an appointment to issue a plea for on behalf of the Jews. Just before she went to see the king, she said to her relative Mordecai: I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish." Esther 4:16 (NIV) If we can come into God s presence at any time, why then are we so reluctant to take advantage of this great privilege? New Testament professor George Guthrie described most Christians as half starved, rainsoaked stray cats [who] run from our source of true help. How do we go to get mercy and grace? Verse 16 tells us how we are to go to get mercy and grace: Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence. The HCSB translates with confidence as with boldness. This word in the original language was never used to describe prayer in ancient Greek literature. Prayer to the gods was offered with fear and trembling; with hesitation and uncertainty. The Christian, on the other hand, is invited to approach the throne of grace with complete honesty and as often as needed; no appointment necessary. Last month I arrived at my cardiologist s office for an appointment. After I waited about ten minutes, I was told that my appointment was for next week not this week. When a believer comes to the throne of grace, the Lord never says: Your appointment was for next week, not this week. We re always welcome. Why do we know we can get mercy and grace?
4 The answer is in verse 15, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are yet was without sin. We can approach the throne of grace with confidence because we have a sympathizing Savior. The word sympathize means to suffer along with and to share the experience of another. Because he shared our humanity, he knows what we re going through. He has experienced all of our trials, temptations and disappointments. That s why the psalmist could say of God: For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust. Psalm 103:14 (NLT) How different this is from the ancient Greek ideas of their gods! The Stoics, the highest Greek thinkers, said that the primary attribute of God was apatheia, by which they meant essential inability to feel anything at all. The other Greek school was the Epicureans. They held that the gods lived in perfect happiness and blessedness. They lived in what they called the intermundia, the spaces between the worlds; and they were not even aware of the world. But the God of the Bible knows about us, cares about us, understands our weaknesses, and helps us meet the challenges of life. Jesus knows what we re going through and will pour out grace and mercy for our every need if we come to him with confident faith and ask for it. Who is the source of mercy and grace? He is clearly identified in Hebrews 4:14, Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. The word priest means a bridge-builder. The Old Testament priest built a bridge through the sacrificial system between holy God and sinful people. Yet no Old Testament priest was called a great high priest. Only the Lord Jesus Christ was accorded that designation. There are six reasons why Jesus is a greater priest than Aaron, the founder of the Levitical priesthood. 1. No other priest has gone through the heavens all the way to the right hand of the Father. 2. No other priest is the Son of God. 3. No other priest ever sat permanently on God s throne. In fact, even Aaron was only allowed in God s presence for a few minutes each year. 4. No other priest ever sacrificed himself. Jesus only was both the high priest and the sacrifice. 5. No other priest ever offered one sacrifice that was sufficient to obtain forgiveness for all people for all time.
5 6. No other priest is in heaven right now interceding for his people. Conclusion Atul Gawande is a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. His book The Checklist Manifesto shows how doctors can use checklists to save lives and reduce mistakes, especially during surgery. Gawande's surgery checklist includes three what he calls "pause points": before anesthesia, before incision, and before leaving the operating room. Each pause point is designed to last just long enough for members of the team to make basic checks (confirm the patient's identity at the beginning; check for all the needles and sponges at the end). It might not seem like pausing for a few minutes would make a difference. But the results are striking. Even short pause points before the incision helps to slow down the tempo of a surgical procedure, and it has been shown that slower tempo leads to better outcomes. In the spring of 2008, eight hospitals began using Gawande's checklist. Within months, the rate of major complications for surgical patients had fallen by 36 percent. Deaths fell 47 percent. Now checklists are found at many hospitals. Dr Gawande states that Checklists work because they impose delay. They add a "speed bump" before an important task so people stop and think about what they are about to do. Followers of Christ need to include pause points in our day; times when we stop and thank God for his blessings or seek him for guidance for a situation at home or work or ask for his wisdom to share with a hurting friend. Regular pause points can condition us to seek God's perspective and ask for his help in every situation. Prayer is a sacred pause point that will help us avoid the wrong while also giving us the wisdom and strength to do the right. He s a sympathizing Savior. Let s not be like a rainsoaked stray cat that runs away from his only source of help. Let us come boldly and with confidence to his throne of grace, there to find mercy and grace in our time of need.
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