Ready to Go! (A sermon based on Hebrews 9:24-28)

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Ready to Go!
A sermon based on Hebrews 9:24-28
Sunday, November 8, 2009 - End Times 2B

        Are you ready to go? Got your hymnal put away? Are you comfortable in the pew? Got your "listening ears" on (as they say at Precious Lambs)? Did you get a good night's sleep last night so you're ready to listen to a sermon? Are you ready to go? In another context that question means something quite different though, doesn't it? Thanksgiving is coming up. Are you ready to go? Have you invited the guests? Planned the menu? Started cleaning the house? Or maybe it's some bigger event like a wedding. Are you ready to go? Are the invitations ordered? The reception hall reserved? Flowers and cake picked out? Or for others, the baby is due soon. Are you ready to go? Do you have the overnight bag packed? Is the birthing class complete? Are your books all read? Do you have the fastest trip to the hospital mapped, even rehearsed? Are you ready to go?
        But really there's a more important event in your life that you need to be ready for. It's the most important event because you only get one shot at it. That event is the moment of your judgment. Are you ready to go? Are you ready to die? Do you have your affairs in order? Are you ready to meet God? Have you made your peace with him? Are you ready to face the judgment? For many the thought of their death or the thought of Judgment Day is terrifying because they don't know how to be ready. But for us, who are in Christ? Well, we're ready to go! The author to the Hebrews reminds us why in Hebrews 9:24-28...

²⁴ For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. ²⁵ Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. ²⁶ Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷ Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸ so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

        The Jewish (or Hebrew) Christians who lived in the first century were being persecuted fiercely for their faith in Jesus. And for that reason, many were turning away from him and back to Judaism -- to avoid the pain. So the unknown author of this epistle wrote to tell them, "NO! Don't do that! Don't turn your back on Jesus because he's the only one who makes you ready for Judgment Day! Judaism won't work. Judaism was designed to point to Jesus. And without him, you aren't ready. You can't be.
        In this section of his letter, he now speaks of Israel's holiest day, Yom Kippur, literally the Day of Atonement. This day was the one day of the year that high priest could enter the Most Holy Place -- into the very presence of God. How does one get for such a terrifying event? Well, God tells us (through Moses) in Leviticus 16. First  he'd sacrifice a bull for himself and his family and a goat for the people. He'd drain the blood into two separate bowls. Then he'd put on a very special robe with bells all around the the hem and tie a long rope around his ankle. He would enter the Most Holy Place with that blood and sprinkle it on the cover of the Ark of the Covenant, called the Mercy Seat, where God himself dwelled. (A sinner could not enter the presence of God without blood being spilled.) He would do all of this over his shoulder lest he look on the holiness of God and die. And if that were the case, the bells would stop jingling and the priests outside could pull the lifeless corpse out of the Most Holy Place without going in after it.
        How does one get ready for such an event like that? To enter the presence of the one and only sinless and holy, perfectly righteous God himself?! What terror they must have felt!
      And that's how many view Judgment Day today. After all, at some point everyone must come into the presence of that same perfectly righteous God. He tells us in Romans 14:12, "each of us will give an account of himself to God." Or as one poet once put it, "Death, the one appointment we all must keep, and for which no time is set." Each one of us will face a perfect and holy God very soon. And we know that we are anything but perfect or holy. And that's a big deal because there are no second chances, no do-over's, no reincarnations. "Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment..."
        If you ask friends or co-workers, "Are you ready to go? Are you ready to stand before your Creator and give an account for all you've done?" they may answer, "I think I am," or "I hope I am." And I'm sure many think they are ready. But if I think I know when the bus leaves and I think I know where it leaves from, am I ready to go? Of course not! I need to know. I'm sure you would agree then, that many thousands of people are not ready to go.
      Are you ready to go? After all, you don't want to be caught unpacked and unprepared when Jesus returns or when we die, whichever comes first. Are you letting the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke your faith and make you unfruitful? (cf. Matthew 13:22) Do you take your mission, the very reason that you're still alive -- namely, to share the good news of Jesus with those who aren't ready to go -- as seriously as your Savior does? If you think you're doing great, then God warns in 1 Corinthians 10:12, "So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!"
        But that presents a problem, because on our own, none of us can get ready to meet our maker. Other religions teach that we can: Do enough good to balance out the bad. Try a little harder. Work a little more.Then you can be ready to meet God. But the truth is that we cannot make peace with God any more than we can become holy or the leopard can change his spots. We cannot atone for our sin.
      When I went to Israel last year, our tour guide made it very clear: "The bus leaves tomorrow morning at 7:00am. Not 7:10! Not 7:05! If you are not prepared to be on the bus at that time, then be prepared to hail a cab or do some extra walking." In other words, "If you're not ready, we're not waiting. You face the consequences." And without being ready to face our judgment, the consequence for you, for me, for every person is hell.
      Thank God, then, that we have a Great High Priest, who can atone for our sins. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, wasn't really about the blood of a bull or a goat. But it foreshadowed another Day of Atonement that would come over 1500 years later. That day when God sacrificed his own Son, Jesus to atone for our sin. The Old Testament priests offered the blood of animals, which could never pay for the sin of a man. But Jesus offered his blood -- the blood of God (as it's called in Acts 20:29) -- to pay for the sins of all people. While their sacrifices were repeated every Yom Kippur, year after year, Jesus died once for all. His sacrifice was enough.
        And the most important words of our text this morning are "for us." He entered heaven to appear before God, "for us." What he did, he did "for us." Our sins are atoned for -- once and for all! By his sacrifice sin is done away with! Our sins have been taken away! And so, while all people will be judged, you and I will be judged, "Not guilty!" Because when God judges us, Jesus is standing in as our Substitute. As we appear before the divine Judge in the robes of Christ righteousness, he cannot condemn us, because that was done two thousand years ago when our Great High Priest offered himself once to atone for our sins.
        You know, I've heard that the Chinese symbol for "righteousness" is made up of two characters: the symbol for "lamb" on top of the symbol for "me." What a neat picture of righteousness! When God looks at me, he sees the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world, who took away my sin, who took away yours. When Christ returns, you will not endure a public reading of every sin you've committed for all to hear. You will not be filled with shame or even embarrassment, but with peace and a joy so complete that until that moment cannot be know.
      And so, as you face the end of your life, or as you prepare for Judgment Day, you are ready to go -- not because you've been so diligent in your preparations, but because of what he's done to make you ready. When he comes again it will not be to bear sin, "but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him." Judgment Day will not be a day of terror for us like Yom Kippur must have been for the High Priest, because we're ready to go! The bags are packed, our laces are tied, we're waiting at the bus stop. We are ready to go, not because of what we do for him, but because of what he did he did for us. This is our confidence in life as we see the signs of the end all fulfilled. This is our confidence in death when we go to meet our maker: In Christ, we're ready to go!
        When J. P. Morgan, the American financier and the multi-millionaire, died it was found that the year before his death, he had made his will. It consisted of about 10,000 words and contained thirty-seven articles. But there is no doubt what he thought was the most important thing in his life. He wrote, "I commit my soul in the hands of my Saviour, full of confidence that, having redeemed me and washed me with His most precious Blood, He will present me faultless before the throne of my Heavenly Father." And later... "I entreat my children to maintain and defend, at all hazard and at any cost of personal sacrifice, the blessed doctrine of complete Atonement of sins through the Blood of Jesus Christ once offered, and through that alone."

      He was ready to go! And wanted his children to be ready to go too. We are ready to go! And we want others to be ready to go to. Tomorrow, when you're at work or in the store, when you're driving around, look around you. And see the countless souls who aren't ready to go, who don't have a clue! And ask God to help you -- in whatever way you can, whether in little ways or big -- to share with them the good news of what their Great High Priest has done, of what he's coming back to do. Pray for them, support the work of those who will tell them, tell them yourself, that they too might be ready to go!
        What's the greatest day of your life? Once everything was ready to go, was it your wedding day? Was it the day of the birth of your first child? Will it be the day someone calls you to offer you a job? Or maybe the day of your retirement? No. It's none of these. These might all be great, but the best day will be the day of your death! Because you are ready to go, that will be the day you enter paradise!
        I'll never forget what an old friend in his late 80's, Buck Crouser, used to say when someone would ask, "How are ya', Buck?" Without fail he'd respond, "Well, any day I wake up this side of the grass is a good day. But, then again, that day I wake up on the other side will be even better." He was ready to go. Stay connected to your Savior in the Word, friends, that you might always be ready to go! Tell others about him, that they too might be ready to go! In the name of Jesus, our Great High Priest, dear friends, amen.

In Him,
Pastor Rob Guenther

Gethsemane Lutheran Church
1100 Newton Road, Raleigh, NC 27615
(919) 847-0579 (office) or (919) 624-3584 (cell)
www.TheMainThing.us
pastorguenther@gmail.com