Hebrews 12:18-29

The ancient Israelites had seen a lot. By the time they arrived at Mt Sinai they had seen the plagues against Egypt. They had been led by a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night. They had seen the Red Sea parted and had walked across on dry ground. They had seen the mightiest army in the world destroyed as the waters closed in on them.

Then they came to Mount Sinai and they saw the glory of God descend on the mountain. A great cloud came down. And God spoke and God's voice thundered so much that it frightened the people. And they had a right to be frightened. God had told them and no one but Moses could come on to the mountain. If any other person or animal touched it, they were to be stoned.

God was teaching the Israelites that God is Holy! The Almighty was not like the gods of the Egyptians or the Canaanites or any other gods. The Almighty could not be treated like an idol that you pick up and put where you want and do with as you please. God is the one in charge and God calls the shots. God is to be respected and honored and worshipped at the deepest levels of the heart. God is not to be trifled with or manipulated or ordered around!

Paul makes the point that in Christ things have changed. God is no less holy but God can now be approached because God the Almighty came to us. Because of Jesus Christ it is not like the Israelites who stood frightened at the base of Mt. Sinai. It is like those who ascend Mt. Zion to worship in the temple. But we are not talking here about an earthly Jerusalem. We are talking about a heavenly Jerusalem.

In Jesus the Almighty came to us. Through the blood of Christ who is our go between we can approach God. Jesus came as the Word, the mind, of God made flesh. Through Jesus we have access to Heaven. He is in Heaven interceding for us.

We no longer cower before the glory of God in terror. But in reverent respect we bask in that Glory! Through the Holy Spirit we know the Almighty living God living in us!

Do you realize how profound this is? People have sought though the ages to know God. This desire has led to religions and Philosophies of all kinds. People made sacrifices and devoted themselves to try to approach God.

But God cannot be reached by human means. You can never be enlightened or holy enough to ascend to God. God is unapproachable by human means.

But in Jesus the Almighty God high and lifted up has come down to us. Born as a baby, lived as a man, died as falsely accused, and raised eternal. God has come to us so that the unapproachable God of the Universe could be embraced by the residents of one small planet. God came so that you could embrace the unapproachable God of the Cosmos.

Praise God we can know God! We all know what it is like to have a breach in a relationship with someone significant in our lives. Imagine a person who has a falling out with their father. Through their own acts of betrayal and disrespect the relationship is injured seemingly beyond repair. The relationship deteriorates and for years they do not communicate.

Then the father seeks out the child. The father finds the children the father forgives all the acts of betrayal and disrespect. The father reaches out to the child. And the child falls into the father's arms.

We were alienated from our Heavenly Father by our sinful acts of betrayal and disrespect. But in Christ, God the Father sought us out. Through the Holy Spirit God has reached out to embrace us. We are reconciled with our Heavenly Father. We have been forgiven and we can know God!

Let's not squander the opportunity! The ancient Israelites at Mt. Sinai were given the Ten Commandments. They broke them before God had even finished writing them out. Paul says, "They did not escape" the consequences of their disobedience. How much more for us who have been addressed directly by the God of Heaven and Earth? We have received something greater than a list of rules; we have been given the Holy Spirit itself!

So let's not make the same mistake. Let us fully embrace God. We have been given the opportunity to know God so let's do our best to know God. Let's talk to God regularly and worship God daily and study God's word and devout ourselves to God every day. Let us seek to serve God by loving our neighbors and our enemies.

If you were expecting company you would clean up your house. Well, God had come to you. Clean up your lives. Be a good host for the Holy Spirit. Live your whole life as one who embraces the unapproachable!

Luke 13:10-17

Imagine if you will a man in prison. He is shackled by the wrists and ankles. He is in a small prison cell with just a cot and toilet. The chains limit his mobility in the cell and the cell door is closed tight. Only a little light streams in through a small window high up.

Now imagine that someone with a large ring of keys and wearing a uniform arrives. This prison guard, obliviously, unlocks the door of the cell. He then says, "The warden says you can go free." He unlocks the shackles and the chains fall from the man's hands and feet. The guard then walks away leaving the cell door open.

What will the man do? Will he dance and sing for joy. Will he fall on his knees and give thanks to God. Will he run outside beyond that prison in the sun?

Let's imagine that instead of singing or dancing or running, he stays right there in the cell. Instead of leaving the cell he just stays there! Even though the chains are loose and the door is open, he continues to live as if he had never been set free.

Our reading from Luke this morning is all about being set free. A woman came to Jesus. She was imprisoned by a crippled body. For eighteen years she had not been able to straighten up. Perhaps she had advanced osteoporosis or severe arthritis; maybe she had an injury or some kind of paralysis. All we do know is that for eighteen years she was imprisoned by this ailment.

Then Jesus said, "You are set free from your ailment." She could straighten up. She could go about her life free of the discomfort and pain created by her ailment. She was free! She praised God. "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty I'm free at last!"

But not everyone was happy about this. The religious leaders were very upset. The Bible says not to work on the Sabbath. Healing was defined as work. The laws of the Pharisees said that healing was allowed on the Sabbath if a person's life was in danger. The woman's life was not in danger. So couldn't Jesus have made and appointment to heal the woman when the Sabbath was over? It was only a matter of hours before sunset and the official end of the Sabbath.

Jesus' response to the religious leaders is the heart of this story. First Jesus calls the religious leaders hypocrites. A hypocrite is one who says one thing and does another. The word used in the Bible that is translated "hypocrite" could also be translated "pretender." This is one who pretends to be one way but is actually another. The religious leaders pretended to honor God but they were really just serving the law.

To make his point Jesus sited an example of this hypocrisy. According to the law some one could water their animals on the Sabbath. Technically it was work, but an exception was made because failing to water an animal was cruelty. Being kind to one of God's lowly creatures took precedence over keeping the Sabbath. Well here was a child of God, a daughter of Abraham, someone created in the image of God. For eighteen years she had been imprisoned, tormented, by her condition. If you can loose an animal to drink on the Sabbath, why can't you loose a woman to stand up straight on the Sabbath? Put simply, the principle of God's mercy is more important than a literal keeping of the law.

Here is the hypocrisy. If the religious leaders had really been serving God, they would have realized that mercy is greater than sacrifice. They would have rejoiced that a child of God was set free. But they were too busy worshipping the written laws. And so they complained that the Sabbath had been broken instead of rejoicing that the woman was set free.

I think that a lot of Christians have trouble believing that Jesus still sets people free like he set that woman free. Most Christians would say that they believe that Jesus healed a woman almost 2,000 years ago. But many of those same people have trouble believing that he still does that today. Perhaps part of it is a healthy skepticism we have about faith healers. We have all heard of or even seen so called faith healers that are really pretenders. They are just actors, hypocrites, who pretend to be healers and take advantage of people in pain and misery. I am not talking about faith healers. I am talking about being set free by Christ through faith. It is healthy to be skeptical of modern day wonder workers, but that is no reason to doubt the power of the Son of God to work wonders.

If we doubt that Jesus can set people free today are we not just as much hypocrites as those who told Jesus he not to heal on the Sabbath. We say we believe that Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead back in the 1st century. We say we believe that he rose from the dead is still alive. We say that we believe that he is here with us by the power of the Holy Spirit. If we truly believe all these things, then why do some Christians have trouble believing that he can still heal and set people free as he did back then? Are we just pretending to believe that Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead and is alive with us? Are we like the religious leaders in Jesus day who only pretended to believe in and serve God?

They were hypocrites for pretending to serve God and then telling Jesus not to heal on God's holy day. If we deny that Jesus has power to heal and set free, then we are hypocrites too. We are pretenders who say we believe in the power of God, but who are really putting our trust elsewhere. Like the religious leaders who said, "Jesus, you can't heal on the Sabbath" we are saying in our hearts, "Jesus, you can't heal today."

Jesus told the woman, "You ARE set free!" And I am here today to tell you, "You ARE set free!" The work has already been done to set you free. The fine has already been paid to get you out of prison. Jesus Christ paid the price at Calvary and you are set free. What kind of prison are you in? Is it a prison of sin and shame? Is it a prison of heartache and emotional pain? Is it a prison of physical limitations? You might say, "Well when we all get to heaven we will be free?" I believe that whole heatedly. When we all get to heaven we will be freed from all that shackles and imprisons the human body, mind and soul. But I'm talking about here and now. I'm saying that as Christians the power to set us free is already here by the presence of Christ in our hearts.

"Now hold on preacher you can't go around telling hurting people that they will be healed. You might get their hopes up." When I say Jesus can heal you, I don't necessarily mean he will cure you. Curing is just one of many options God has for healing you. Curing means the physical ailment is gone. Healing means something much deeper and broader. I have known people who were cured of a disease who were not healed. The cancer or whatever was gone, but they were still suffering from it emotionally and spiritually. I've also met people who were not cured but they were healed. Let me give you an example.

I met a man once whose wife was in a wheelchair. She suffered from a neurological disease. It caused her to slowly loose the ability to control her muscles. Both were dedicated Christians so they prayed and asked God to heal her. And they claimed that they both have been healed. She was still in a wheelchair, but they both had a peace about the whole thing. God had given them strength to face the uncertain future ahead of them. They had hope in the face of an awful situation. Jesus had set them free!

You ARE set free! Because you have asked Jesus into your life the power to set you free is with Christ in your heart. Jesus promised to be with us until the end of the age. Jesus is here today just as he was in that synagogue back in the first century. And Jesus has already paid the price to set us free.

The problem is most people don't know it. We are like that prisoner in the story I told at the beginning of the sermons. The prison door is open, the authorities have said we are free, and the shackles are off. Yet we keep living as if we are prisoners.

You ARE set free! Set free from sin, set free from worry, set free from aloneness. Claim that freedom! With God's help step out of the darkness and into the light. Believe in the power of Christ to make you free and live the freedom God has already given you in Christ!

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