From Curb to Castle
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Scripture Introduction:
There is a Proverb—chapter 29—that I’ve read numerous times and it always leaves me really bothered. “He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.”
Broke beyond healing. Those words bother me, deeply. I have a couple of boxes of broken things that I refuse to get rid of because I am convinced that someday I’ll be able to fix them. Guys, I’ll be honest I’m struggling with how to start this sermon and get you to the place mentally and emotionally where you and I need to be in order to really feel the weight of this text—and ultimately in order to really experience the hope of this passage. And it’s hard because we don’t like that phrase “broken beyond healing”.
Here is the image that we have to get to. You have to be able to see yourself sitting broken hearted, hopeless, outside on a curb unable to enter into this tremendous and wonderful party. The difficulty is that words escape me in helping you to see what’s inside that party. It’s the place where all of your dreams come true. It’s the place that every longing in your heart is meant to drive you. It’s that place where your deepest needs and longings and hopes and dreams and wishes all meet into one. Every smile you’ve experienced and every tear that has fallen to the ground is connected to this party. You want to be there.
But here you are on the curb. You had a ticket to get in there. You are supposed to be in there. But you sold your ticket. You gave it up. And it wasn’t some heroic sacrifice it was stupid. You gave it up for nothing. And here you are broken and battered and sad and guilty and hopeless and wrecked and empty. Beyond healing. You can’t fix this. Ever. The broken pieces will never be brought back together. You can’t get this back. There is absolutely positively nothing you can do to get back in there. There’s nothing a bit of time can’t fix. Well this is one of those things. Time isn’t going to make it better. It’s only going to deepen the darkness. Broken beyond healing. Forever.
It’s tough to sit here.
You can’t get this back. There is absolutely positively nothing you can do to get back in there.
I’m struggling because I don’t like this spot. I don’t want you to be in this spot. I want to very quickly come in and repair the broken things. I want to pour hope all over this situation. I want to give you some tips, some Bible verses, something you might be able to do to get that ticket back. I want to tell a different story if I can. Or maybe tell you that party isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. We can maybe create our own little sideshow. It might not be quite as good as the thing going on over there but it’ll be ours and we can have the best little party outside of Eden that we can throw. Yeah, we’ll find some hope here. And we’ll survive and try to find a bit of beauty somewhere in these ashes.
But if we do that...If we try to set up shop outside of Eden then we’re going to miss the rescue of . You have to be on that curb. No hope. No rescue. Absolutely positively nothing you can do. Broken beyond healing.
But if we do that...If we try to set up shop outside of Eden then we’re going to miss the rescue of . You have to be on that curb. No hope. No rescue. Absolutely positively nothing you can do. Broken beyond healing.
So I’m going to read through now and here is what I want you to do as you listen. I’m going to be saying a word here in the beginning “promised eternal inheritance” that’s the party. You receive this passage on the curb. No hope. In the wilderness. You can’t do anything to get back in there. Now listen to this.
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Sermon Introduction
There is lots of talk of blood, and maybe some confusing old testament stuff, in that passage. Quite a bit of big religious words that you might not fully understand. So let’s work together to see what Hebrews is saying to us. Those of us sitting on the curb. No access. No hope. Broken beyond healing—as in you cannot fix this. You cannot get that ticket back. Your hope isn’t that you’ll get cleaned up and able to get access to the party. Your hope isn’t personal transformation. You don’t get in that way. You cannot get your ticket back. It’s gone. Shattered. You’ve forfeited your ability to claim that “promised eternal inheritance” as your own.
What is that promised eternal inheritance?
I want to say heaven but when I say that I think we might tend to go to streets of gold and mansions and angels and harps and say things like, “so and so died and so now he got his angel wings”. But that’s not what heaven is about. It’s not about going to see your dearly departed loved ones. As wonderful as that is. Heaven is more about this big story that God is telling. It’s more about all those longings that you have in your heart. It’s about shalom. Love. Joy. Peace. All that stuff. It’s about a completely redeemed creation. Enjoying God forever. Mind blowing joy. Presence of Christ all over the place. We see this in about all the stuff that isn’t there…death, sickness, pain, crying…all that bad stuff. Rest, rule, and relationship are all restored there. The beauty of the Garden of Eden is now magnified because now it has painted on the horizon phrases like grace and mercy and redemption. It’s a sweet place indeed.
So what then does it mean that Jesus is the “mediator of the new covenant”? What is all of this talk about blood and such?
Perhaps we can understand it better if I tell you that because of something that happened there are some of us—Lord, may it be all of us—are going to be at that party now. You aren’t on the curb anymore. You aren’t broken beyond healing. You’re in. You’re dancing at the party.
What happened, then, in your story that took you from curb to castle?
“Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occured that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”
First, how did you and I get ourselves in this mess. We could go into specifics but broadly speaking we’re on that curb because of sin. We sold our inheritance for a bowl of soup. The fleeting pleasures of sin looked appealing to us and in that moment we sold out. We said, I want the creature over the Creator. Here’s my ticket. I’ll exchange it for this fleeting pleasure that you’re offering me. Doesn’t matter really what specific sin we’re talking about. Pride, lust, apathy. Just pick one. We’ve got plenty.
Ultimately, we’re here because this was the decision that our first parents made. We’re born on the curb, really. But we’ve put ourselves there just as easily. It’s not like we’re innocent victims here in this story. We’ve sold our ticket. And what happens is like I said earlier. When we hear things like we’re don’t have access to the party that pride and stuff rises up within us. Well I didn’t want to go to the dumb party anyways. I can create a better one. Or we can shut our ears and try to suppress the truth that there even is a party. I don’t even believe a party exists anyways. I’m not missing out on anything. The curb is all there is. The Bible outlines this in . That’s what sin does to us. It keeps us spiraling away. And we take life out on the curb and try to dust it up. We try to pretend like our problems are from something else. But we’re out on the curb because the wages of sin is death. Separated from the party.
In order to understand this massive section of the text we are going to need to add a little bit to our story here. And I hope it works. Let’s say that the guy who owns the house—the host of the party—has decided that he still wants to communicate with you on the curb. Let’s say that he actually has a plan for bringing those on the outside onto the inside. Not because it’s lonely in there or because it’s not a party without us or anything like that. He doesn’t need to do this. But he has graciously put together a plan—motivated out of nothing but love—to redeem those who’ve foolishly exchanged a ticket to his party for a dank curb-life.
But in order to for you and I to be fit for the party it’s going to require bloodshed. It has to because it has to communicate the seriousness of the foolish exchange that we’ve made. It has to maintain the value of the party. And so he puts together a covenant and says for the time being, if you shed blood you can come really close to the party. You can hear the music. You can have very limited access. But there is still noway that you can fully come in. You don’t have a ticket. But if you go through these sacrifices then it’ll be part of this temporary covenant that I’ll make with you. It’s not the big one. It’s not my big plan. But it’ll do for now. It’s the best we can do at this point. Limited access…limited cleansing…but it’s what we’ve got for now. But all of this is going to point to something even greater. I’m going to rescue you but you’re going to have to trust me. This bloodshed is all part of it.
So that’s a visual picture of what is happening in verses 16-22. Blood is required to enact this first covenant. All of the sacrifices in the OT were pointing to this much bigger plan. But notice verse 22. “Under the law everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” To use our story here what that’s saying is essentially, “under this provisional covenant—this new covenant—this first agreement that’s pointing to the much greater agreement—you couldn’t even have limited access without the shedding of blood.”
You might be a little lost here and asking this huge question. Why in the world is that he case? Why is blood required? That seems brutal. That seems savage. That seems so ancient and old and kind of like what happened with the Roman gods and stuff. So you’re telling me that the God of the NT is bloodthirsty? He requires blood for forgiveness to happen? You might even be thinking, “well that seems pretty petty and shallow. I forgive my kids all the time and I don’t require bloodshed to do it.” Why can’t God just let people back into the party? Why does death have to happen?
But let’s analyze that thinking for just a second. It’s still a curb mentality. What’s it actually saying?
1. I ought to get to set the rules. My standard is better than yours.
2. My presence in that party is more valuable than your presence and your standard.
3. God isn’t the offended party and he really ought to just get over it. How small is he not to just get over this? But do you see the heart behind this? It’s still valuing self above God. And you aren’t fit for the party with a heart like that. You’ll wreck the thing. It won’t be a party anymore. You can’t party with a heart like that because you’re not worshipping the right thing. That’s not because God is empty-hearted or needy or that he’s just sitting on the inside stewing and mad at you. It’s just the principle of things. It’s just the way things are.
Sin carries with it the punishment of death. That just is. In the same way that gravity just is. A holy God cannot be in the presence of sin. It’ll torch it. Look at it this way. Darkness cannot keep shining when the light is on. In the same way sin cannot survive while life is present. But the shedding of blood is so valuable because it has life within it. It’s just the way things are.
And that’s part of what we don’t like. This is what rubs us the wrong way with the “broken beyond healing”. There are some things you can’t fix. There is a chapter in the book The Imperfect Pastor , that I absolutely love. In it Zack Eswine talks about our propensity to be a Fix-It-All. And there are some things that just are not going to be fixed this side of glory. But we like to pretend like we can. We don’t like to sit on the curb. We don’t like to see others sitting on the curb and so we deny reality.
As words fail to solve the problem, those involved start to get louder and target character. Job was not above needing correction and growth. But the character attacks made by Job’s friends were misguided and cruel. Fix-it-alls begin to think something like this: This situation or person couldn’t possibly be what it appears to be. We have quoted the Bible and made our arguments. Things should be fixed by now. There must be some hidden mischief here . We need to speak some more, but his time, louder and more accusatory. When this happens, we become like one who talks louder to a blind person or raises his voice at a foreigner who speaks a different language.
He goes on to remark on how uncomfortable we are with unfixed things. “Impatient with unfixed things, we fill the space with speed of thought and speculation. We create foul scenarios and speak them.” But there are some things we simply cannot fix. Being on the curb is one of them. It’s what Eswine would call “the inconsolable things”.
The inconsolable things are identified first by the ‘cannots’ of Jesus’ teachigns. FOr example, no matter who you are, ‘no one can serve two masters,’ no one. Even if we are wise and knowledgeable by his grace, there are still things and seasons in our lives that we “cannot bear…now” (). No matter how strong of a will a person has, “the branch cannot bear fruit by itself.” No matter how many oaths we take or how much we spin words into boast, we ‘cannot make one hair white or black”. These cannots from Jesus teach us that sickness, death, poverty, and the sin that bores into and infests the human being will not be removed on the basis of any human effort, no matter how strong, godly, or wise that effort is.
So to use our analogy you are on the curb. There is not one single solitary human being who can possibly get himself back into that party. There isn’t one who hasn’t sold his ticket for a pot of stew. And there isn’t a single one of us that isn’t broken beyond our own ability to heal. We are not fixable. With man this impossible.
But look back at verse 15. “A death has occured”...
So here is the picture. You’ve seen haven’t you—and especially in movies—these eye scans and it’ll scan your eye and you get access and clearance. So imagine that this party requires a scan but it is a scan for the principle of life. It requires blood. In the Old Testament they’d enter in with the blood of an animal. And I think we have to mention that it’s not just a drop of blood here—it’s bloodshed—the life blood poured out. But this blood only gave them limited access. You can’t really get into the party…not yet. The way isn’t yet opened.
But listen to verse 23-28. He has entered into heaven itself—that’s deep level access. That’s full access. You can go anywhere in the house with this access. And this isn’t something that happens once a year. This isn’t something where he has to spill his blood every single year. No he opened it once and for all. He broke it down. He gave complete and full unfettered access forever.
Sin requires death. And Jesus paid that penalty with his own death. Thus fulfilling the demands of the first covenant and also at the same time opening up all the blessings of the new covenant.
So here is the picture. You’ve got all these Old Testament saints who have shed the blood of bulls and goats and it gave them limited access. Every time they’d go to enter in---”level one clearance”. But then Jesus shed his blood--”Full access”. And then Jesus turns to every one on the curb.
Broken and battered and sad and guilty and hopeless and wrecked and empty. Strangers. Outcasts. Thieves. Misfits. the Lost. Sinners of every stripe.
broken and battered and sad and guilty and hopeless and wrecked and empty
The way is opened! I’m your ticket! Come on in to the party! I’ve paid the price! “But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
“But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
This is what it means that he is the mediator of the new covenant. The new covenant that all of this promise of the eternal inheritance is yours in Christ and through Christ and only through Christ.
You can stay on the curb. “That’s a dumb party.” “I’m not on the curb. I’m fine. I don’t need nobody to be paying some price for me. I’m okay. I can fix this thing. It’s not so bad. It’s not unfixed or unfixable. Just give me enough time and I’ll get it put together.”
This is why I say that it’s so important for us to really let that “broken beyond healing” set in. I’m convinced that I’ll hang onto that box of broken stuff until I’m absolutely convinced that either it isn’t worth fixing or that I truly cannot fix it. And I’m convinced that we’ll stay on that curb or play church or half way or cultural Christianity or some of those still clinging to self type of responses to this truth. Hey, “My blood being shed has opened the way!” Come running...
The party is God Himself. It’s not endless shrimp at Red Lobster. It’s not streets of gold. It’s not a big fellowship dinner. All those may very well be part of that—especially the Red Lobster---but its all about the presence of God. He’s the party.
I need Jesus. Only Jesus. I want that party. It’s not a dumb party. It’s life. It’s everything my heart is longing for. The party is God Himself. It’s not endless shrimp at Red Lobster. It’s not streets of gold. It’s not a big fellowship dinner. All those may very well be part of that—especially the Red Lobster---but its all about the presence of God. He’s the party. Turn to Christ today. See that you’re on the curb. See that there is a party to be had.
We need to look here briefly at v27. Die once. No reincarnation. And then the judgment. You die, that’s the end of your story. At this point you stand before God for judgment. But that’s really not the central point of this verse—it’s really to propel us to v28. Notice the change in words here. v27 is “died” but Jesus didn’t die he “offered”. That sacrificial language. It also means that Jesus wasn’t “killed” in the way we might use that word. He offered himself. He was offered by God. To bear our sins. To pay the penalty. But he will “appear a second time”. That’s the contrast here. We die. We are judged for how we lived. But Jesus died and is returning. The author of Hebrews intends for us to find our identity in Jesus. When he returns it’s not going to be to “deal with sin” it’s not going to be to die again—it’s not going to be to talk about sin and pay for sin and all that—no it’s going to be to save—those who are eagerly waiting for him. It’s the party.
Did you know that most orthodox Jews to this day would completely disagree with . They now say that the shedding of blood is no longer necessary for forgiveness. Instead it’s about having a penitent heart towards God. That sounds good and well. But do you know why they are saying that? It’s because they don’t have a temple. They don’t have any way to make a sacrifice
INCOSOLABLE ESWINE
First, a death has occured.
So the picture is really that we’ve been given access to this party…but we aren’t yet living in that party. We aren’t yet dancing. But someday we will. And for now we eagerly wait for him. What does that waiting look like? It looks like trusting. Just as if someone had left you in charge of an estate and said, “I’m coming back, take care of this place. Or that he had given you a chunk of money (like talents to use biblical terms) and you either invest it and use it—in faith that your master is good and that he is returning or you bury it because you think he’s a hard man. So that’s the picture here in this text of eagerly waiting for him. It’s trusting him. And it’s learning to trust him even with the broken things. The things that cannot or will not be fixed this side of Eden.
I think we can understand what is going on better in this passage if we ask the question—what did it take for Christ to secure this?
Eventually everything in Christ will be fixed. This is the promise of . And so we hold onto that promise. And holding onto that promise impacts the way you live today. If it doesn’t, I’m not sure we can rightly claim to be holding onto the promise. It’s what keeps us from being overcome with anxiety or anger. Because we know the brokenness is temporary and it isn’t necessarily ours to fix.
Suppose a man was going to New York to take possession of a large estate, and his [carriage] should break down a mile before he got to the city, which obliged him to walk the rest of the way; what a fool we should think him, if we saw him ringing his hands, and blubbering out all the remaining mile, “My [carriage] is broken! My [carriage] is broken!”
I appreciate that quote because it helps us to see that the way you eagerly wait and hang onto the promise impacts your today. You don’t have to ring your hands and you don’t have to blubber. You’re taking possession of a much larger estate.
But I don’t want to be misunderstood here. Waiting is hard. You could hear this message a couple of wrong ways. You could hear it as saying, “you need to just give up. Let go. Stop trying. Just give it all to Jesus. That’s the route of passivity and I don’t believe it’s a biblical one. Yes, we likely need to surrender some things and the stuff in our lives shouldn’t have claw marks on them. But, waiting means a life of joyful obedience.”
I think you could also misunderstand this as if the whole thing was saying buck up, put a smile on your face, don’t feel any pain. You’re wrong if you hurt. That’s not it at all. Life is really tough outside of Eden. And when things get broken and things may not necessarily be fixed in the here and now that hurts. And it’s meant to create in us a longing for returning to Eden—the land where the broken things are no more. But we aren’t there and so it hurts and we grieve and we say “come Lord Jesus” fix this mess.
And there is a word here for those of us who want to fix everything. Put people in the hands of Jesus. That’s the greatest thing that we can do. Entrust them to his care.
And there is a word for our own lives as well. I cannot ultimately fix any thing that has lasting eternal value. But he can and he does. Completely. I can put on band-aids. I can cozy up life on the curb. But I can’t do a single thing to get into the castle. Only he can. And he has.
So the question is are you trusting in Him. Is his record yours? Is his identity yours?
Some might stumble over that and say, “well that’s weak. You’re just putting all your guilt and your mess on the shoulders of someone else. You’re depending on someone else to do this for you.” To which I have to say…you’ve got us. It’s true. I am weak. And that’s why this is good news. If you think you can get into the castle on your own—then you will continue to stumble over this. If you think well God is just a big meanie for not letting you come into the castle in the way that you want to come into the castle, then you’ll continue to stumble over this and miss the good news. You can’t get in. But He can. And He did. You either trust him or you don’t.
Everything will be fixed.
Trust him this morning with all the broken things.
A word for those of us who want to fix everything. Put people in the hands of Jesus.
I can’t fix a thing. But he can and does. Completely.
Stay on the curb? Or head to the castle—the party castle?