God’s Grand Design

SUMMARY

In this sermon, Karl Ihfe delves into the Book of Hebrews, addressing the central question: "Is it worth it to keep following Jesus?" He begins by highlighting how God has spoken throughout history, ultimately speaking through His Son, Jesus Christ. Ihfe warns against two common pitfalls in dealing with our past: amnesia (forgetting) and atavism (glorifying). Instead, he encourages believers to see how our history points to Jesus as the fulfillment of God's plan.

Ihfe emphasizes Jesus' divinity and humanity, quoting Hebrews 1:3, which describes Jesus as "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being." He reminds the church that Jesus is the creator, sustainer, and redeemer of all things. The sermon concludes with a warning against drifting away from faith and an encouragement to hold on to Jesus, who intercedes for us before the Father (Hebrews 4:14-16). Ihfe urges believers to live into God's grand story rather than settling for a lesser dream.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Well, we're in week two of our Lenten series, Running for your life. We've been thinking together. In fact, last week we started with a general overview of the Book of Hebrews. We'll be traveling through that together this season as we are thinking, noticing the ways in which, subtly, or maybe not so subtly, this young church is asking the question, is it worth it? Is it worth it to keep following Jesus in the midst of persecution and hard things?

Is it worth it in the midst of exhaustion that's leading at some point to a level of apathy and giving up? Is it worth it? Is it worth it in the midst of knowing that the decisions we make and the choices that we make might lead us to a different priority than the world around us and it's going to cost us something? Is it worth it to keep pursuing? Or is it worth it when those around me, not just out in the world, but sometimes even in the church, only seem to be consumed with pursuing power?

Is it worth it? And the Hebrew preacher's answer is a resounding yes. Yes, it is. Hold on. Hang in there.

Don't give up. Don't shrink back. He'll say, keep persevering. And a loose translation we looked at last week is just keep swimming, keep going. Hang in there.

Hold on. Hold on to one another and keep your eyes, he says, on Jesus, this pioneer, this perfecter, the forerunner of all that we know in this life. He says, keep our eyes on him because he endured the cross, he endured its scorn and shame. So can we. Because he gave of himself, willing to sacrifice for someone else's good.

So can we. Because he held on even when he was mistreated and misunderstood. So can we. The Hebrew preacher encourages and challenges us. This morning, I want to take us back to the very beginning of the letter to notice how does the preacher begin his sermon, because where he begins, actually he's going to give us a little mini roadmap, if you will, of where he's going and where he's going to take us with him?

I want you to notice how he doesn't begin. He doesn't begin with this appeal to improving group dynamics. He doesn't say, hey, guys, we need to rewrite the mission statement. We need to rethink our vision, right? Even though there's a time and a place for each of those things, he doesn't say, let.

Let's just make a few changes here and there to how we worship. Instead, he begins with these words from which everything else in his sermon will flow. In the past, God spoke. And as we read through Hebrews, what we're going to see is that God continues to speak time and time again. Everything is going to flow from this first statement.

In the past, God spoke. He's going to dive deep into Scripture, beginning in Psalm 2 here at chapter one, all the way to Psalm 118, chapter 13, right? All throughout, he's going to speak to us in the words that God used to speak to others. You see, not only does he care deeply about this church, this young people, but he cares about Scripture, and he's gonna appeal to it over and over again. I hope you took my challenge this last week.

If not, I'll send it out again this week to read through all of Hebrews just to hear how often he refers to Scripture. In fact, if you went through and were to count up over 86 times in 13 chapters, he's pointing them back to the story of God speaking time and time again. And not only because it's important to hear what God has said, to see what Scripture says, but to also think about what is Scripture pointing us toward. You see, I love how the Hebrew preacher is enamored with Scripture, not just for Scripture's sake, but for what Scripture anticipates, right? What he believes.

Scripture is actually pointing us beyond ourselves, beyond itself, to this incredible grand story of God. And saying Jesus is actually the climax of that story. All that God has ever intended, he intended in and through Jesus, who is the author, the perfecter, the finisher, the one who did for us what we could never do for ourselves. Scripture points us to this great grand story with Jesus right at the very heart of it. And so he begins the sermon with these words, in the past, God spoke, reminding us not only who it is who is speaking, but he also gives us a new frame of reference.

In the past, right? In the past God spoke. The preacher is going to give us a better way to think about our past. I don't know if you've noticed recently, we have a hard time dealing with our past, don't we? I mean, have you seen that in our world, we are struggling with what to do with our past?

And so often we fall into one of two problems. The first problem we face with our past is amnesia. We just forget. We forget what's happened. There's a writer, Andrew Wilson.

In fact, we used one of his study guides when we studied 1 Corinthians together a couple of years ago. But he wrote these words. He said, in an era of instant news, amnesia is baked in right? Everything is breaking news. All you have to do is turn on your favorite news outlet and you'll see at the bottom of the page, breaking news, breaking news, breaking news.

Back in my day, that used to just be called news, but now everything's breaking news. Well, if everything's breaking news, is there really any breaking news? You see, we don't, we don't remember. How many times have you heard this is the most important. Fill in the blank, right?

It could be the most important election, or maybe you hear preachers like me. This is the most important time in the church, right? The church has never been more discombobulated or disconcerted than they are now. Which only shows how little we understand about Christian history. Because I think getting eaten by lions was probably a pretty rough deal.

That may be a little more disconcerting, but not if I don't know and not if I forget. Breaking news, we forget. Andrew Wilson says not only do we forget, we become arrogant in our forgetfulness. Another result of amnesia is arrogance, and it's available to both conservative and progressive flavors. He says, in the progressive version, our current mores are self evidently correct, which means that anyone who thought differently a hundred years ago or even 10 years ago must have either been stupid or evil or both.

In the conservative version, the only reasons for a person's success are their own ability and effort, which means that anyone who highlights the importance of historical privileges or oppression must either be jealous or lazy or both. And we just forget. The Hebrew preacher is going to give us a very different perspective on in the past. He's going to take us back into the stories of the Old Testament and show us once again. He's going to remind us how the Psalms encourage and challenge us to remember the deeds of our ancestors, to remember what they have done and who they are, to remember the rock from which we're hewn.

So many of us have these devices that we carry around with us every day. Have you ever noticed they're built to be replaced? Right? Because every year it's the new. It's the greatest.

No one buys a phone thinking, I'm going to keep it for 20 years. We think, well, this will just get us through to the next one. And nothing is s built to last these days.

The Hebrews is going to take us in a different direction, right? The Hebrew preacher is going to point us back to the story of the Exodus and he's going to remind us of Numbers, chapter 14. He's going to tell us stories about people like Rahab And Sarah and Abraham and Daniel. And these are, he says, our stories. This is our story.

And Jesus is actually the continuation of the culmination of all of these stories. Where this is leading, where this is heading is Jesus the Christ. These are our stories. He's not going to allow us to fall into amnesia, to forget or to pretend that it didn't happen or to try to wipe it away. Instead, he's going to say, remember, remember our story.

Some of you will remember the quote by Winston Churchill, which is actually a misquote of the original. But his famous line in World War II, those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

The preacher is not going to let us forget history because it's our story. And from it, he says, it keeps pointing us beyond itself.

The other problem that we fall into, we either forget amnesia or we glorify it, right? Atavism. Some of you may remember that modern day theologian Shell Silverstein, who wrote the poem the Pecking Tree. The saddest thing I ever did see was a woodpecker pecking at a plastic tree. He looks at me and friend said he, Things ain't as sweet as they used to be.

Right? That's atavism right there at its heart. Now, for those of us who grew up in churches of Christ, this one cuts a little close, doesn't it? The restoration movement, we had this idealized version of the early church. And if we could just return to those early days, then, oh, church.

Then we would be the church that God has always wanted us to be. If we could just get back and restore it. Right? We see it not just in the church, right. We hear this in the political environment all around us, right?

The Republican’s main rallying cry is to do what? To make America great again. If we could just go back, right? And Republicans aren't the only ones who are guilty of atavism, right? The Democrats have their version of, oh, if we could just get back to those days, like FDR or JFK or LBJ or some three letter whatever.

If it could just be the way that it used to be. Oh, those days were so wonderful. They're just amazing. The only thing, or maybe the ironic thing, is if we could travel back in time to talk to those folks living in that era, they wanted to go to another era also. If it could just be like it was, if only.

When I was working on my counseling degree at ACU, one of my professors, he challenged me at the time, I didn't know it was atavism. He was talking about he said, be very careful when you're working with a couple because they're going to so often we talk about getting back to the good old days to help them remember. The danger of going back to the good old days. Is it led you here to my office to stop and think about, have we put the past on a pedestal, not recognizing actually it was how we behaved in the past that led us to our present? The preacher is not going to allow us to put it back on a pedestal.

He's going to point to some stories and say, don't do that. Don't return to that. Instead, remember that lesson learned there was pointing us to something further, something beyond ourselves. Don't get stuck in the nostalgia because it's never as great as you remember. In fact, that's what's got us here.

And it may be contributing some to why that church the Hebrew preacher was writing to was asking that question, is it worth it? Is it really worth? Is this all there is? Is all the commitment and dealing with persecution and the trials and the loss of relationships and things I thought were so important to me, is it worth it to keep going? Is this all there is?

See, the Hebrew preacher points us to the history not because it was so great, but because it kept pointing us to a different future, that God was working in the past to draw us into a new future. And so the Hebrew preacher won't allow us to forget our past, nor will he allow us to put it on a pedestal. Instead, he's going to challenge us to see it in the light of the Messiah, of the new life that we have that's becoming a glorious future. See, we anticipate God's great moment of salvation, this idea of living in the already but not yet season of life, this grand story that's playing out and it's headed somewhere. And so he writes these words that Linda read for us just a moment ago.

In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, he's spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The sun is the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. And so he became as much superior to the angels as the name he inherited is superior to theirs.

God has always been speaking. He has always been active, moving and forgiving and redeeming and restoring and inviting. That God, who has always been active, has now most visually known through Jesus the Messiah, who at one time was behind the scenes, but now has become center stage. Fix our eyes on him. He will counsel us who is s continuing to lead and to guide and to forgive and to redeem and to restore, to make all things new.

Knowing, trusting, believing that one day things will be the way that God intends them to be. Now, if we're listening closely, we hear even in these first four verses, which, if you're a Greek nerd, you'll know this is one long sentence. The first four verses we have in our English Bible. It's one sentence in Greek, drawing us, inviting us into this great story. But we hear not only Jesus divinity, but we also hear his humanity.

That the one through whom God created the universe, who is the exact representation of who God is, the one who was appointed heir of everything, the one he says is the radiance of God's glory, is the same one that continues to sustain things by his powerful Word. We're listening. In fact, if you're in our Bible classes on Sunday mornings, you're gonna get a chance to be sustained by the living, powerful word of Jesus as he counsels us through his parables, telling a story after story to invite us to think more deeply about this amazing future that God has for us. This same one that after he provided purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Father, the throne of majesty, knowing one day he will come again. That in the first four verses of Hebrews, we hear, okay, church, this is where we're going.

Remember, the One who created it all, who thought it all up, who sustains it by his living Word, is the same one who took on flesh. It is s the same one who is willing to give his life that we might have life together with God and one another in eternity. It says that same God is Jesus the Christ. And God has been speaking all along because God has loved people all along.

God has finally definitively spoken in Christ. And what's amazing is it's not all dependent on us getting it all right. It's not dependent upon us getting it back to the way it used to be. It's not dependent upon pretending the mistakes of our past weren't mistakes. Instead, what we need to do is lean on that Eternal One, that One who is the author, the perfecter, the finisher, the one who was the forerunner, the first to show us the way, the one that we'll hear, who is tempted in every way that we are and yet was without sin, the one who is interceding for us.

Chapter 4. Before the Father in Heaven. That one. That is the one that we follow.

The Hebrew preacher is going to talk to us a little bit and we'll see in the next couple of weeks about discipleship, what it means to be a follower of the one who has done all this. Now we're living into a story where scripture points us back to and beyond the vision, the future of Jesus, Right? As chapter one continues on, we're going to see this rhythm back and forth between Jesus and the angels. The angels here, but Jesus. And again, pointing us back to the angels were great.

They were servants. They're ministering servants, spirits. But, oh, look at who the son is. That is who we have. That is who is ours.

That is the one we follow. He says, so hold on, don't lose sight. As chapter two opens up, he writes these words. Therefore, since we must. Excuse me.

We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard so that we don't drift away. You see, if we lose sight of this grand story of all that God has done is doing and will do in and through Jesus, we will drift away. We will start to lose our way. The preacher reminds us it is not like we precipitively fall off the edge of a cliff going over Niagara Falls. He says, no, no, we just drift away.

If we lose our connection to the past, if we forget, if we start living in the past, he says, we forget how the past is pointing us to the present and beyond, to the future. We drift away from what's most important to us. For those of us who've ever tried to follow Jesus for any amount of time, we understand this, don't we? We understand this in a deep way. That as we forget and we start to drift.

My dad tells a funny story of taking his father to go fishing down in Baffin Bay and just south of Corpus Christi. Some of you fishermen may be familiar with that place, but as you're going throughout the bay, there are a moment. There are places where there are sandbars and you can actually get out of the boat and you can wade fishing. And so my grandfather was about six, two, easily three bills, pushing three and a half, maybe four. And he wasn't getting out of no boat because know I ain't getting back in the boat.

So he stayed in the boat and the rest of the guys got out and they were kind of once here and one's over there and one's over Here. And so my grandfather's fishing and it's in Baffin Bay. And what happens in Baffin Bay? It dumps into the Gulf of, well, you choose, right? But as he's fishing, what's happening, right?

And my grandfather doesn't swim very well and he's drifting until all of a sudden he realizes where he has gone and he's crying out, hey. And so again, just imagine seeing this 6 2, 400 pound German guy in a boat going, help me, help me. You know, and they're like, you're in a boat, dude. He didn't know and he wasn't going to get out of the boat. Nobody wakes up thinking, I think I'm going to drift a little from Jesus today.

What do you think? I'm just, I'm just going to not worry about it. We don't, we just drift. These moments happen in our lives and we ask this, is it worth it? Is it really worth it?

Right? In the cafeteria with my friends and they are all talking about, and they, you know, should I say, I mean, I'm at the office and people are talking about things and they're marginalizing others and you know, should I say we shouldn't talk, we shouldn't talk like that, you know, it worth it. Our spouse says a comment that feels a little more like a poke. Was that ake that felt like a poke. And instead of stopping going heyid, what's happening?

We just drift, right? And so the Hebrew preacher says, church is too important. What's happening now is this amazing story where God is reconciling, redeeming the entire universe. The God who created it all is not willing that any should perish, right? Peter tells us that.

And the Hebrew preacher would say, amen, Peter. He's not willing. So we can't forget, we can't forget what happened in the past. Not because it was so good or not because it was so awful. It's so that it reminds us of, yeah, there's a better future ahead.

And so we're not condemned to have to keep living history over and over and over again because we refuse to acknowledge it in. Nor do we say, well, that's just, if we could just get back there. No, no, no. The Hebrew preacher says at all times I when to get the wording right.

In these last days, he's spoken many times at various ways and it's all been about Jesus pointing us to the one who's the exact representation of me. He's the one who's the image, who's The Creator, the Sustainer, the one who cares so deeply that he was willing to set that aside to take on flesh. To say, if you'll follow me, I will help you learn how to live your life in a way that honors God and lives into this great grand story. Don't settle for a lesser dream. The preacher will challenge us.

What preacher who doesn't love his church is not going to give warnings. In fact, chapter two, he's going to give a huge warning here. Why? Because he cares so deeply. Don't be misled.

Instead, hold on to the one who has been holding on to us.

The same one in chapter four, he says he's interceding for you every day to the Father because he cares about you. He loves. Church There’s nothing. There's nothing that Christ won't help you overcome. Nothing.

Church, Will we live into God's grand story or will be settled for a lesser dream again? I invite you to jump back into Hebrews this week. Read it again. You're going to listen to all the references, 86 of them to the Old Testament stories. Just reminding us.

Church, this is where we've been going. This is where we tried. And man, here's a couple places we got out off track. Church. Don't get off track.

Hold on. Hang in there. Don't give up. Keep persevering.

Why? Because the author, the perfecter, the finisher, he is coming again. And he will make all things new. And that what you're experiencing right now, this is not the end of the story. Hold on.

Hold on. God, Would you help us to hold on in the name of Jesus? Would you help us to hold on to the one through whom you created all things? To the one through whom you sustain all things?

To the one through whom you provided purification for sin, to one through whom is sitting at your right hand even now, waiting for that day when he will come again. And God between that day and this? Would you encourage us? Would you help us, as the preacher reminded God, Would you help us to not give up meeting together not because we have to do it, but because it helps us not drift? It reminds us of our story and the part that we are playing in it, that God, you are the victor, you are the one God?

Would you help us this week live differently in light of this great grand story? Would you help us to see ourselves in the midst of it, that we don't have to pretend to run from our past? We can take an honest look at it and we could seek reconciliation and given forgiveness in those places where we were just wrong. We were just wrong. That was not your preferred future.

We were living and chasing a lesser dream.

We got you to also help us not to to idolize it or put it on a pedestal instead. Father, would you help turn our eyes to Jesus to look full in his wonderful face that the things of earth might grow strangely dim in the light of your glory. In your grace. God, may those words echo in our heart this week. May they be more true today than they were yesterday and the day before.

Oh, Father, help us to live into your grand story. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.