“Today”
Original sermon given October 20, 2024, written and delivered by Seminarian Patrick Randolph at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.
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“Today”
Hebrew 4.1-13
Hebrew 4.1-13
The words of Hebrews, chapter 4 say, “Since therefore it remains open for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again He sets a certain day —'today’…”
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father…
Our epistle reading today gives us a most solemn warning: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts...” It would be good for us to heed this warning. God speaks today. Grace, mercy and peace are yours today, bouncing from these curved walls into your ears, down the cavernous chambers of your sinful being, to arrive at your hearts. Do not harden your hearts. This is a word of peace and rest, because of mercy on sinners like you and me, through the gracious work of Christ Jesus. If this day is to be a Sabbath for you, let your hearts be filled with the Word of Christ.
The 95th Psalm begins with the rapturous sounding of the shofar:
O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
He is the only God. He was when there was nothing, and everything that exists has come about through Him and for Him. And He has given it all to you. From the beginning, He has extended to you this whole world, as a token of His power and love.
The psalm continues:
In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it; for his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
On the sixth day, as God finished His work of creation, He showed the wealth of it to Adam and Eve and invited them to join Him in Sabbath rest: one day to enjoy God’s gifts with God, and thereby sing His praises. O come, let us sing! O come, let us make a joyful noise! If this is our God — and He surely is! — then what need have we for any other offer? What better place could we have in this world than to be His flock? He extends His hands, filled with gifts; He raises His voice over the hills, and… what has become of us? That very seventh day, we fell.
Our sin is nothing new. It is one thing that we have broken His commandments, which we have: selfish ambition, contempt for our neighbors, arrogance, and debauchery. Yes, these exist among us and in us. But we have even disbelieved His love. The Old Testament is a record of God’s people refusing to believe the God who spoke the universe into existence. So, the same psalm warns us, and the epistle reminds us:
Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, ‘They are a people who err in heart, and they do not regard my ways.’ Therefore I swore in my wrath that they should not enter my rest.
There is no rest for the wicked, and not only because of some karmic balance to the universe; God Himself holds us back, God Himself pushes us away, God Himself refuses us entrance to Paradise because of our unbelief. Just as God condemned a generation of unbelieving Israelites to wander homeless in the wasteland for forty years, God has sworn against all unbelievers: “You shall not enter my rest.” After all, what rest can there be for the one who does not trust in God? What peace is there for the one who expects God to turn away at any moment, and so constantly strives to preserve his standing? What mercy is there for the one who will not show mercy on her neighbor: with whatever measure you use, it will be measured back to you! What grace is there for the one who looks upon the cross of Christ Jesus and says, “What a meaningful religious symbol”?
No, God gives rest to those who believe in Him, because only those who believe in Him are capable of rest. There is no rest for the sinful, and you, my friends, are sinful by nature, and heaven knows it. Since that seventh day, mankind has not known rest. The Sabbath rest of God has gone untasted.
That is what makes it all the more glorious that God continues to hold forth the promise. So what if we missed that seventh day? So what if we have missed every seventh day from then until now? “…again he sets a certain day —'today’!” Today, I preach to you Christ crucified, and that is grace! Your sins have been put upon Christ, the Lamb of God. He has born those sins from the Jordan’s banks unto the craggy heights of Golgotha. Your every sinful deed was put on the Son of God as He hung there, dying under the weight of restlessness. But having died under that weight, your sins have died with Him: if Christ has died for your sin, then God the Father has no more wrath against you. That is mercy! He says to you, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise!”
The same God you hated and ignored, the same God you couldn’t and wouldn’t trust, the same God came down and died for you. He has shown Himself trustworthy. And Christ Jesus rose from death, to give that good news to the whole world, and keep His Word forever more. He has shown Himself to be your Shepherd, and He has bought you out of your sin to be once more the sheep of His pasture. He gives new birth through His living Word. And new creatures mean new creation. And new creation means new Sabbath rest. That is peace.
Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it… for those who enter God's rest also cease from their labors as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.
Grace, mercy, and peace are yours this day. Grace in Christ, mercy on your sins, and the peace of being a new creation. Today, you do hear His voice. There is no use in hardening your heart, when on this very day, God has opened His to you.
The peace of God…