Text: Hebrews 4:14-16
My dear fellow children of our gracious God…
Come Boldly to the Throne of Grace!
Jesus can truly identify with us in our temptation
Jesus can truly give us God’s grace to help us
INTRODUCTION
Would you describe yourself as a timid person or someone who is bold and confident? Might your answer to that question depend on the situation that you are in? Perhaps you are very bold and confident in your job and you love your job and enjoy it, but if someone were to ask you to share your faith with others, you would be rather timid. Maybe you enjoy speaking one on one with people or in a small group, but if I were to yank you from your pew today and ask you to come up here and speak in front of everyone, your knees would be knocking. Today I am asking you to think if you would be bold or timid in going before God when you are faced with a temptation or have given in to a temptation. Perhaps your answer would again be conditional. Perhaps there are many sins and temptations that you recognize them for what they really are, but we all know that there is that one sin or temptation that the devil knows is the chink in our spiritual armor and one that we wrestle with daily. What a blessing then to hear the invitation which the writer to the Hebrews extends in our text for this morning as he encourages us to Come Boldly to the Throne of Grace! He reminds us that we can do that for two reasons – 1) Because Jesus our Savior can truly identify with us in our temptation and 2) Jesus our Savior can truly give us God’s grace to help us in time of need. We turn to the letter to the Hebrews 4:14-16.
I. Jesus can truly identify with us in our temptation
“I’m ashamed.” “I’m embarrassed.” “No one understands.” Have those thoughts ever crossed your spiritual radar? You know that your spouse, your children, your coworkers and perhaps even your fellow Christians know what your have done and that troubles you.
But before we go too far down that road, remember what the writer to the Hebrews reminds us of “we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are..” The writer to the Hebrews wants us to remember that even when it seems like no one else understand the challenges with sin and temptation which we face, Jesus truly does! Just think back to our Gospel lesson a few minutes ago (Luke 4:1-13). Jesus was hungry like we get hungry and how real that temptation must have been when the devil invited him to use his power and turn a stone into bread. Think of how hungry Jesus must have been after those many days in the desert without food and how he can identify with us when we want to justify giving into a temptation by saying how hungry or thirsty or whatever other human impulse is tugging at us at the moment. How about the second temptation which the devil threw at Jesus. I always find it real interesting that the devil thought that he could get Jesus to fall when he offered him everything in the world at his disposal. Did he forget that he was dealing with the son of God who had created it all and owned it all already? None the less, he offered it to Jesus just like he likes to wave in front of our face the pleasure and enjoyment which he supposedly will give us if we listen to him.
But don’t think for a moment that Jesus can identify with us just because of those 3 temptations in our Gospel lesson. Think of his time on earth when he began to speak of himself as the Messiah and people questioned him and ridiculed him. Certainly Jesus can identify with us when we feel that people are using us or hurting us. Remember when Jesus was hanging on the cross and he himself acknowledged that he was even deserted by his heavenly Father. If there was ever someone who could truly say that he felt all alone, it was Jesus in that moment.
But Jesus is so much more than our Savior who as true man can identify with us in our weakness.
II. Jesus can truly give us God’s grace to help us
The writer to the Hebrews tells us “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Why can we come so boldly to God’s throne of grace, no matter what we’ve done? Because Jesus extends to us God’s mercy in all its beauty and comfort. Remember at the beginning of the service – we confessed that since we worshipped last, we have sinned against God and others in our thoughts, words and actions. Unless I missed it, I didn’t hear the heavenly Father say “No, you can’t confess that sin”. He didn’t come back at us and say: “You’ve committed that very same sin 499 times – no more forgiveness for you of that sin”. Instead, he reminds us that when he looks in his book, there is no record of our sins. He reminds us that he has taken them and drowned them in the deepest part of the ocean where they can’t be found. And then in our worship today he extends a truly wonderful invitation “Come and eat and drink my body and blood which paid the price for your sins”. That is truly the mercy of our God.
But maybe it’s not that sin that we’ve given in to and are tormented by how many times we’ve done it – perhaps it is that sin or temptation which is daily flashed before our eyes and we say no and battle Satan again and again and we wonder how much longer we can do it. The writer to the Hebrews reminds us why to come boldly to God’s throne of grace at a time like that “find grace to help us in our time of need”. That is why our gracious God invites us time and time again throughout his Word to drink deeply from the free water of his Word and find refreshment and strength for our souls.
CONCLUSION
There is a phrase from the sport of boxing which seems to have made its way into our everyday language and lingo – ever used the phrase “throwing in the towel”? Maybe you are aware that boxing trainers would “throw in the towel” to keep their boxer from further injury or embarrassment. Has there ever been a time when spiritually you wanted to throw in the towel and let Satan win? Remember that our dear Savior never threw in the towel, no matter how hard Satan pressed him or how inviting the temptation was.
As we know that we will have to continue in that daily hand-to-hand combat with Satan, remember what we’ve learned today- Come Boldly to the Throne of Grace! Amen.