Hebrews 5:1-10 October 18, 2015

Jesus: Your One-Stop Salvation Shop

There was a time – a long time ago – when I thought that it might be fun to work in advertising. There was a lot of creativity to be seen on television commercials. And there were just about five minutes of commercials every half hour. Commercials were a minute long and you could do a lot in a minute.

However, things have changed. I can’t stand commercials. They are shorter and take up more time from a program. Today you will see about 8 minutes of commercials every half hour. It’s not unusual to have three consecutive minutes of ads. And ads are everywhere on the Internet.

Yes, I know that none of our programs are really free. A TV show is actually advertising using the program to get you to buy stuff. And, since folks are using DVRs and Tivos to fast-forward through the commercials, you will see more shows name checking products in the middle of the program.

The point of advertising is to get you to believe that you need something in order to be happy. The truth of life is that we really don’t need most of the things that the commercials are trying to sell us. If you are a thoughtful consumer, you learn how to say no to things that bring no lasting satisfaction.

The Christian church has unfortunately copied many of the qualities of advertising. A television preacher will tell the viewers that they will miss out on eternity unless they accept Christ as their savior. Fortunately, there is a way for things to change. And, if they want others to be saved through these programs, folks have to pony up the cash.

But many persons aren’t buying it. And many simply walk away from the church because they can’t see why they even need to be saved.

When the letter to the Hebrews was written, the author was trying to persuade Jewish converts about why they needed Jesus. Many Jews felt comfortable with God’s covenant with them and saw no reason to turn to Jesus.

So, yes, in many ways the book of Hebrews is an ad for Jesus, trying to persuade its readers that Christ is something that they need.

This letter assumes that its readers are familiar with what the temple priests do in order to help folks make things right with God. Now is the time to show how Jesus can do a better job for you.

Are you in debt? Do you have more sin than you can handle? Do you doubt that anyone could help you out of your situation? Do I have a savior for you! Jesus is willing to make the down payment as well as every monthly payment for you as long as you live…AND come to meet you and bring you to live with Him after everything is paid off! Jesus Christ is your one-stop salvation shop!

I understand that I am preaching to persons who have taken the time to come to church this morning. Yes, I am literally “preaching to the choir” and people who come to listen to the choir. Never have we seen a time in our lives in which the church and Jesus were both considered optional and unnecessary by so many persons. The idea of sin is considered no longer persuasive and the fear of hell is seen as a guilt-producing gimmick that no longer works.

It’s a good time to review sin before we talk about salvation from sin.

To begin with, let’s think about what sin really is. Sin is a choice that we make that moves us away from God, usually to pursue selfish interests. As we move away from God, we also do things that use and exploit other persons for our benefit. Cheating, lying, stealing, breaking promises, vandalism, racism…all of these sins ruin our lives in the process, since we have been created to love God and others.

However, if you don’t have God in your life, how can you walk away from God? Christians used to say that anyone could look into the heavens and see God. It’s as plain as day and the nose on your face – both miracles – although noses are pretty strange if you take the time to look at them closely. And why do they run into your mouth? Well, I’ll save that for another sermon!

The plain truth is that many educated persons believe that there are answers to these questions that can be discovered through honesty study and inquiry. With an awareness of world religions, there are so many ways to think about God, who knows who has the final answer? So don’t talk to me about sin; I’m not interested.

Okay. Well then, let’s talk about the Jewish faith and see how Jesus can improve upon something that is already pretty good. A faithful Jew had no reason to turn to Jesus unless it was a better way. God’s promise to the Jewish people still stood secure.

Here goes, as argued in Hebrews chapter five. Every high priest is qualified to offer sacrifices and gifts for sins. The priest could offer sacrifices for sins of ignorance and weakness; sins of intent and malice were not forgivable, just punished. Because the high priest was human, too, the priest would need to offer up sacrifices for their own sins, as well. And the high priest had to be on their best behavior, because only they were eligible to offer the great sacrifice on the yearly Day of Atonement –Yom Kippur – that required that they be blameless.

Jesus was appointed by God not only to serve in the role of priest, but also to identify with all persons in their sin, know the kinds of suffering that we are going through, and then offer himself as the perfect sacrifice, pleasing to God. When Jesus goes to the cross, he becomes a living example to show us how far God will go to love and forgive us. There is nothing that God will not do in order to bring us to the place of perfect love and perfect peace.

So, you can still go to the temple and make your sacrifices. And wonder if you’ve done everything right. Or, you can turn to Jesus, accept God’s offer to make things right, and then, after having things made good for you, go on to care for others in their need without having to worry about yourself.

This is a better way and it is the best way that I know to live a life that is meaningful and filled with love, joy and peace.

Things break down whenever we begin to doubt the sufficiency of Jesus or the extent of God’s love. This seems like too good of a deal, so we begin to make up some requirements of our own. And the world seems to be such a broken place, we logically begin to set aside groups of persons who obviously should be punished, rejected, or taught a lesson. So persons of faith persecute and even execute others in the name of God. “God does not tolerate sinners”, we say. “God hates sin,” we add.

Yes, God hates sin so much, Jesus came to abolish anything that would stand in our way so that we could turn back to God and receive the forgiveness, salvation and love that we all need in order to be true children of God.

That’s my final offer. I’ll leave you to talk about it for a moment. I’ll check with the guy upstairs to see if we can sweeten the deal even more, but I know that you won’t find a better bargain in the world. Say “Yes” to Jesus, let Him help you, and then tell a friend. This offer comes with a lifetime guarantee and coverage to repair your life if it is damaged for any reason. Jesus is your one-stop salvation shop, today, tomorrow, and forever.