Let me spell out two very different pictures of the Christian experience. We’re born. Somehow through the course of our life we come to understand the gravity of our moral failings… that we’ve done wrong and gone wrong before a Holy God… and through His grace… we come to see Jesus as our Savior. We accept that what He has done was enough to make us right before God… and in return He gives us forgiveness and new life! And it seems like a pretty good deal and so we accept it! We become… “a Christian.” And then we go about our lives… we attend church at least half the time… we make a living… we have a family… and eventually we retire… and we live out our days… and then we die. AND THEN WHAT? WHAT HAPPENS? <heaven!> Well, what’s that like?

Most of us really haven’t given this a lot of thought! We think, “O, well, heaven, okay! Heaven’s good… hell is bad.” Right? What is heaven like? The pictures in our head assume it to be something like this: 1) We get to heaven and we’re all issued the same white bathrobe-type uniform and sandals. 2) There’s not really any landscape because there’s no LAND. It’s just a lot of clouds and fog. 3) Everyone awarded entrance into heaven is treated with absolute equality! It’s communism perfected. There’s no distinctions. Nobody is better than anybody else. Nobody is worse than anybody else. Everybody is EXACTLY EQUAL and perfect fairness rules the universe. 4) There’s really not a whole lot to do! There’s no place really to go. No highways. No sporting events. No chores. No money. BUT THERE IS A LOT OF SINGING! Cause, you know the old Hymn Amazing Grace, verse 4: “When we’ve been there ten thousand years bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun.” So… singing is the plan and purpose for all eternity! (some of you come late… and leave early… because of the music!)

If that’s the picture we have of the complete Christian life… I THINK… IS THAT IT? WHAT ELSE? If THAT’S description is the be all, end all of everything in the Christian experience… IF THAT’S ALL THAT’S THERE… IT’S NO WONDER PEOPLE DROP OUT OF CHURCH! It’s just no wonder that people get involved in a THOUSAND OTHER ACTIVITIES… or even GIVE UP ON THEIR faith… I mean, IS THAT IT?

Here’s the second picture… It pretty much starts the same. We’re born. We grow up. Somewhere along the line we hear the good news. We embrace it we become Christians. We go about our lives. We have good seasons and bad. And eventually we die… AND THIS IS WHERE IT GET’S REALLY DIFFERENT! We awake in Christ’s presence… We’re AWARE of Him. We ANXIOUSLY AWAIT His return in power and glory to earth… to set up His kingdom on earth. THAT DAY COMES with EXPLOSIVE POWER… And he returns with us… and for a long age reigns with us… and the WORLD ITSELF… responds to our dominion… once again the way it was originally designed…! …And then he REMAKES the universe and what happens after that is part of the story that REALLY none of us can begin to describe or fully comprehend! But the statements about what we know is coming… are ABSOLUTELEY STAGGERING! God’s unchanging eternal GOODNESS and CREATIVE PURPOSES… extend… in breathtaking fashion… for all eternity… including US as hands-on partners in His ultimate plan.

These years are a preparation for what’s coming… And I believe NOW more than ever… our FAITH and FAITHFULNESS matters more than you think. And HOW we live it out now… will affect WHAT you experience later…! Amidst ALL THE THINGS I’ve come to know about spiritual things and the Christian life… ALL THE THINGS that just make my circuit breakers pop off… I AM ABSOLUTELEY CERTAIN… that HOW CLEAR A PICTURE you have… of what REALLY is coming… is CRITICAL… to getting where Christ is really leading us.

This passage… after studying it carefully… has ROCKED MY BELIEFS TO THE VERY CORE… I’m going to need you to crank up your concentration to 100% today and listen carefully… or I will lose you… and I expect to engender some deep discussion… I know, because after reading the unbelievable truths of what chapters 3 & 4 of Hebrews says… I had to bring it to our staff… and our overseers… and ask them… “Is THIS what this is saying?” I don’t expect to answer every question… but… if what happened to me in studying this… happens to you… you’ll feel this passage periodically jolt you with 50,000 volts of electricity. Are you with me?

First, This is written to Christians. Look at 3:1 1Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. Now whether they ALL were REALLY Christians or not… he speaks to them as if they were. He’s NOT speaking to people who are self-deceived and only THINK they’re Christians but really AREN’T. He’s not saying, “Look, I’m about to issue a warning here… and what I’m saying… and what I’m warning against… REALLY CAN’T HAPPEN to real Christians.” He’s emphatic… He’s addressing… ROCK-SOLID believers… “Holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling” “confessors of Jesus.” And the point of telling you this… is that if you consider yourself a rock-solid believer… you don’t deflect what you’re about to hear… He’s talking to you!

The second thing is that These Christians were in danger spiritually. In chapter 2:1 he said 1We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. Drifting away from God… from the Christian faith… was a real possibility… if they LOST FOCUS… and didn’t PAY ATTENTION! AAND… it MUST HAVE BEEN HAPPENING! In 3:1 when He tells them “fix your thoughts on Jesus”… it’s because their thoughts and their focus WERE apparently NOT on Jesus. They were wandering! They were drifting! They we’re focused on suffering… their financial situations… how hard things had become… how tempting it would be to chuck their faith and blend in… And He says, “We, together, need to encourage one another, and PULL our attention back, and focus on JESUS. Because, frankly, you’re spiritual heads are swirling!” <snap, snap, “Hey!”, smack, smelling salts>

You want to see some of the smelling salts verses in here? Look at verse 7 7So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8do not harden your hearts In other words… God is speaking… and their not responding… was having a hardening affect on their heart! <smelling salts> Verse 12. 12See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. Turning away from the Living God doesn’t happen all at once. It happens over time as a persons heart… grows hard! A person can actually persist… in ignoring God… or violating His boundaries… so that it eventually… they turn away! It’s not that he STOPS understanding the rationale of the faith. It’s that he STOPS LISTENING TO GOD and STOPS RESPONDING to God’s leading in His life… he may SAY he believes… He lives as though… THERE IS NO GOD! <smelling salts> Look at verse 13 13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. Apparently spiritual procrastination… putting off what you know God wants you to do “TODAY”… exposes you hardening and the frightful consequences of sin’s deceitfulness! One day… you’ll wake up… and sin running rampant in your life… just doesn’t seem to matter all that much anymore! And you think… “My sin isn’t all that big a DEAL!” <smelling salts> THESE CHRSITIANS… WERE IN GRAVE DANGER… SPIRITUALLY! And they needed to respond… NOW… “TODAY” The writer emphasizes the urgency of the danger… and their need to respond now… by referencing the word…, “Today”… 5 times in just 2 chapters! And he implores that they ALL… take a good look at one another… and recommit their fervency and commitment… their responsibility… to encourage one to KEEP RESPONDING TO GOD… TODAY! (iGroups… we’re growing as a fellowship… I can’t effectively be responsible to encourage more than a handful of people… FOR THIS TO WORK… FOR US TO STAVE OFF spiritual procrastination… and spiritual drifting… and the implosion of our faith… WILL TAKE US encouraging one another to respond TODAY TO GOD’S VOICE… and see Him carry us to where we see Him leading… He’s saying, “WE… WE MUST… FIND A WAY… to encourage one another… DAILY!”)

What else do we need to understand? Well there were GOOD REASONS to be faithful! If you look at verse 6… our resolve to trust in God regardless of the circumstance or suffering… really pays off! 1) is that we can be Christ’s house. 6But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast. Now, stay with me on this. Most of us read this and think, “Christ’s house… okay… that means His family.” No. That isn’t really what he means. In the verse before the writer is comparing Moses – who made the OT tabernacle – the tent in which God dwelt and interacted with mankind and was worshipped and all that – He’s comparing Moses and that tent… with US! In Exodus 25 God warns Moses to construct it EXACTLY as He says! God hands Moses the plan. He says, “Look, don’t cut corners. Don’t get creative! I want you to do this exactly as I say!” And so in Exodus Ch. 39-40, what you see is them constructing this tent… and 17 TIMES… in two chapters… the phrase is repeated… “They made it just as God commanded.” “just as God commanded” (17 times)! And the REASON for the painstaking detail… was a foreshadowing… of God’s future home! He was saying, ”If you treat the building of this tent thing… flippantly… the whole foreshadowing… of my future home… is all fouled up!” The tabernacle was the meeting place of God where sins were forgiven… where God was worshipped… where God revealed Himself to the world… where His presence and His power dwelt! And the writer to the Hebrews says… (and it’s conditional) If you maintain… If you “hold on to the courage and hope of which you boast”… YOU… will BE THAT TENT… for God! The PAYOFF is unbelievable! So HOLD ON!

The other thing that’s REALLY GOOD that can happen is in verse 14! 14We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. Literally, we have become “sharers”. The word really means “business partners”. In other words, the future for those who hold on 2) will be His partners. Joint capitalists. It implies eternal purpose and meaningful participation! You won’t be floating on a cloud with a harp! The future of those who never quit… will be intrinsically intertwined with eternal goals and plans… in partnership with Jesus Himself! And, I don’t know… that sounds pretty GOOD! (But it too is also conditional if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first) So what the writer is saying is… “No matter WHAT HAPPENS… hold on… ALL THE WAY TO THE END!”

The last thing that we need to understand is that something terrible can happen to us if we don’t. This isn’t going to be a real “up” message I can tell. But it’s as critical as it sounds! Something terrible can happen to us! The writer is quoting Psalm 95 which is a song king David wrote about what went wrong with those believers 500 years before in the desert. And this is what he says: 1) Believers can in fact rebel. Look at verse 16. 16Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? Well, they rebelled… but were they believers? They heard God’s voice… they saw God’s power… in the 10 plagues and the parting of the Red Sea… And in Exodus 14 you see this description: 30 That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. 31 And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant. In other words, these people were not pretenders… they were believers. AND they were rescued… and LATER… they rebelled. And 500 years later… David is asking… “What went wrong here?”

So believers can rebel… And v. 17-18 says 2) believers can suffer severe consequences. 17And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? 18And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed^[c]? God had commanded them to invade Canaan. And He promised them that He would give them victory. And when they went up there to the southern portion of the land… and, you know, they had 12 spies go in to the land to check it out… and when they came back they brought a divided report… 10-2… and 10 said, 1) “WOW! GREAT LAND! AWESOME LAND!” And 2) “Uh… it’s occupied… aaand no vacancies… and we’re not certain we can do this… they’re pretty big!” And the vote went 10-2, “Let’s go back.” THEY DECIDED NOT TO DO WHAT GOD SAID! And so… the Numbers 14:20-23 says it this way, 20 The LORD replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked (He was pretty upset about this whole thing). 21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, 22 not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times- 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. Of the roughly 2,000,000 people… who experienced the exodus… who had formerly put their faith and trust in God… 1,999,998… were buried in the wilderness… including Moses! And Joshua and Caleb… the 2 people that said, “I THINK WE SHOULD TRUST GOD IN THIS!”… were the ONLY TWO that went in. EVERYONE ELSE FAILED… TO ENTER THE PROMISED LAND and enjoy… REST. (Neither did the next generation… it was all put off… REST: next week)

So here’s the point: Not only can believers suffer severe consequences if they rebel. But get this: believers can actually FAIL… TO BELIEVE GOD! THAT JUST SOUNDS IMPOSSIBLE! “Wait a minute… THEY’RE CALLED… BELIEVERS! THEY BELIEVED… GOD! You’re telling me that a BELIEVER… WHO GOD CALLS… a BELIEVER… can fail to BELIEVE… GOD?” And the answer is… YES! Look at verse 19. 19So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their (what?) unbelief. This should be very sobering for us. They didn’t DOUBT that there was a God! Their UNBELIEF involved… their FAILED CONFIDENCE in the GOODNESS and FAITHFULLNESS of God… to BRING THEM WHERE HE PROMISED HE WOULD TAKE THEM! They didn’t DOUBT that God had RESCUED them… They didn’t WAVER in His ability to sustain them in the desert… THOSE WERE CLEAR! THEIR FAITH FAILED… at the VERY END… with their toenails tickling COMPLETE FULFILLMENT of their salvation… God said to them, “I will rescue you…” (check) “I will bring you safely…” (check) “And give you the Promised Land.” AND THAT’S WHERE… they said… “I DON’T BELIEVE YOU!”

If you think that can’t happen to believers… The writer of Hebrews is saying, “Look! It DID happen!” And his point in telling them NOW… was because IT WAS happening… to THEM! And look around! It DOES happen! And it CAN happen… TO YOU! It can happen… TO ME! And, if you take what the Bible says seriously… it will HAPPEN to literally thousands… maybe millions of people… in droves… the closer WE ALL GET… to end Jesus is taking us toward. AND THE POINT ISN’T to write up a doctrine around the question, “CAN IT HAPPEN?” THE POINT HE’S TRYING TO MAKE… IS SO POWERFUL… HE’S SIMPLY SAYING… “LOOK! I DON’T CARE IF YOU THINK THIS CAN HAPPEN OR NOT! …WE CAN’T LET THIS HAPPEN… TO US!” SO WE NEED A CLEAR PICTURE… of what’s coming! (50,000 volts?)

Listen, This message isn’t just meant to make us distinctive… This message was meant to make us dangerous… GOD is taking us somewhere! And what’s at stake… is this thing called “rest”… And it’s something that God needs you… to have a clear picture of… Because to a person under fire for their faith… really… to any person who believes… the picture you have… of what’s coming… really matters. You with me? (next week).

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