Dear Friends in Christ,

There are lessons we may only need to learn once in life and then there are lessons we need to learn over and over again.    How to ride a bike is one of those once and for all lessons, but how to control our tongues is quite another matter.  How to drive a car is pretty much a once and for all kind of lesson, but how to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves is an every day and difficult lesson to learn.  To learn that we don’t like the way a certain medicine tastes is a once and for all lesson to learn, but the lessons we learn from drinking too much beer or alcohol are lessons many seem to have to learn again and again.  In today’s sermon text we find the word “once” used twice, and we pray that the Spirit of God would teach us at least two lessons once and for all.   Our sermon theme is ONCE AND FOR ALL.    First of all, we learn that Jesus Christ died once and for all and therefore all of life is better.   Secondly we learn that since Jesus Christ died once and for all, we have every reason to eagerly wait for Him to come the second time.

First of all, since Jesus Christ suffered and died once and for all, all of life is better. The writer to the Hebrews wrote to the Jewish Christians for two main purposes.   The first  was to urge them not to go back to their Old Testament faith. He built a strong and irrefutable case that Jesus was absolutely superior and all sufficient.  Jesus was a better angel than all of the other angels put together.   He was a greater prophet than Moses and all of the other prophets combined.    Jesus offered a Sabbath rest better than any rest ever offered before or after.  Jesus was and is better than every other priest or high priest and was and is in fact the great high priest.  Jesus was better than the priest Melchizadek and He offered a new covenant better than the old covenant.  He went through a better and greater and more perfect tabernacle than the Old Testament priests.  His blood was and is so much better than the blood of goats and sheep and pigeons and doves. The sacrifices of Old Testament priests were necessary and were repeated day after day, but the sacrifice of Jesus was better and once and for all.  

Jesus Christ appeared and lived and suffered and died and rose up again once and for all and therefore all of life is better.    The Bible says that all of us were conceived and born in sin, but the Bible also answers that with the truth that Christ died for all.    All of us have sinned with the bad we have done and the good we have failed to do, but Jesus Christ paid the full price for all of our sins of omission and our sins of commission, and so we celebrate today and every day.   We celebrate that we have the forgiveness of sins and where there is forgiveness of sins there is peace of mind even in the lives of those struggling with nasty addictions.    Obviously the peace of God is better than the guilt and the shame that comes with all of our faults, be they open or hidden.  Where there is forgiveness of sins there is life in the midst of death and there is joy in the midst of sadness and there is calmness in the midst of frustration and there is patience in the midst of affliction and there is hope in the midst of hopelessness. 

In the Book of Hebrews, the Holy Spirit is asking, “why would you who have been washed clean by the blood of the Lamb and whose hearts have been circumcised by the Gospel  want to revert back to the Old Testament laws of circumcision and ceremony and repeated and bloody sacrifices?  Today the Spirit asks all of us, “Why would any of us taste the goodness of God and want to revert back to our own shallow and temporary versions of the good life?  Why would those who have tasted what it means to live by the grace and mercy of God revert back to holding grudges and letting go of true and lasting happiness?

Secondly today, we learn that since Jesus Christ died once and for all, we have every reason to eagerly wait for Him to come back a second time.  There are at least two ways to live our lives as New Testament Christians.  We can wait eagerly or not so eagerly for our Savior to come back a second time.  We can live full of the Holy Spirit or full of ourselves.   We can live as if goodness and mercy are following us around all the days of life or as if life is trouble and trials are following us around world without end.    We can say again and again how blessed we are or how unlucky we are.   We can live as if life is good and it’s going to get better or as if the good old days have passed us by and it’s all down hill from here.

We can live as if it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment or as if you only go around once in life and therefore you may as well eat and drink and be merry for tomorrow you may die.  Consider the following obituary, “He brushed his teeth twice a day- with fluoride.   The doctor examined him twice a year. He slept with plenty of fresh air.  He watched his diet and took his vitamins.  He golfed, but never more than 18 holes at a time.  He got at least eight hours sleep every night.  He never smoke, drank, nor lost his temper. He was set to live to be a hundred.   His funeral will be held Monday.   He is survived by 18 specialists, four health institutions, six gymnasiums, and numerous manufacturers of health foods and vitamins.

Mark Twain once said it this way, “This life is a losing proposition; nobody gets out of it alive.”  The actor Dustin Hoffman revealed in an interview that his plans for the epitaph on his tombstone would simply read, “I knew this was going to happen.”

What should our attitude towards death be?  Is death a friend or a foe?  Is it just a natural part of living or is it an enemy to be conquered?  The answer is yes and yes, both of the above.    From the viewpoint of the Law, death is a foe to be dreaded and avoided, but from the viewpoint of the Gospel, death is a friend to be welcomed and anticipated.    From the perspective of the Law, death is the end of our blessed life here and now but from the perspective of the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ, death is the gateway into a life far better.  When we let the Law have the final word in our lives, we live according to a list of rules – don’t do this and do this.   When we let the Gospel have the final word in our lives, we live according to the wonderful truth that all was necessary has been done, or as Jesus said it before dying, “IT IS FINISHED”  When we let the Law rule, we come up short every day and we keep seeing in the mirror that we are inconsistent and undisciplined and rebellious sinners, but when Jesus Christ rules our hearts and minds, we see that every day is a new beginning and though our sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow.  When we live according to the Law, life is up and it’s down – depending on how well we have fought our little battles that day.   When we live according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, life is new and improved and every day is a new beginning with a fresh slate.

Woody Allen said, “When I die, all I want is just a few of my good friends to gather around the casket, and do everything in their power to bring me back to life.”  Contrast that with St. Paul who had a habit of writing things like, “To live is Christ and to die is gain” and “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.”  May God help all of us in the days to not just visit the cross once in awhile but to live in that place where a once and for all sacrifice has been offered and to spend our days rejoicing that life is so much better here and now and to eagerly wait for that day when life will be infinitely better!  In Jesus’ Name.  Amen

 

 

 

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