With a culture that is becoming more and more anti-Christian, it's not hard to feel oppressed and vulnerable just opening the newspaper. Whether it's the culture or a personal circumstance, how do we pray to God when we're being mistreated? David teaches us to pray, 'Hear me! Hide me! Help me!' We take confidence in the fact that God hears us because He is just, He answers prayer and He is the saving God. We look to Him for refuge and protection, confident that He will never let us go. We also pray that God would help us to remember the end of the wicked and our own end: being satisfied when we see God face to face in glory.

If you knew that you may not have the opportunity to see someone again, what would you say to them? Paul finds himself in this position after spending three years with the church at Ephesus. In saying goodbye to the Ephesian elders, he urges them to remember three things: hold fast to the gospel, guard the gospel and live the gospel. (This sermon was delivered on the occasion of an MPC family moving interstate.)

The preacher finishes the book of Hebrews by reminding them of His central message: Jesus' priesthood means we have a complete salvation and a compassionate Saviour. We are called to respond to this message by showing the love of Christ in our relationships, submitting to the leaders the Good Shepherd has placed over His church and bearing the reproach that comes with being a follower of Jesus.

When we come to worship God, we come to a greater reality than our physical location. We come to Mount Zion. We worship in the presence of God through our Saviour Jesus Christ. Thus, knowing that we are in God's presence, we respond by listening to His Word, by being grateful for being part of an unshakeable kingdom and by offering offering acceptable worship.

Discipline is not a concept that we are always comfortable with, nor do we readily associate it as an activity that God does in our lives. Yet, God disciplines those whom He loves; those who belong to Him. Though it is painful, God disciplines us for the purpose of sharing in His holiness. It means that we can look at any affliction in our lives as coming from the hands of the loving Father who uses it to make us more like our older brother in the faith, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The preacher shows us that faith is courageous by pointing to the sacrifices and suffering of God's people in the Old Testament. All of them rested in God's promises regarding the future. This enabled them to persevere and endure in the present. This courageous faith is ultimately displayed in Jesus, the One who endured the cross for the joy set before Him. We are called to fix our eyes on Him, throwing off every sin and weight that would distract us from believing, receiving and resting in God's good promises.

Faith is often understood as a vibe that everything will turn out okay. However, the Bible defines faith as objective. It believes, receives and rests in Jesus. This faith has always been present in God's people - even in the Old Testament! Through their example, faith calls us to recognise that we are sojourners in this world and our home is God's city in heaven.

If the Christian life is marathon (not a sprint), how do we endure? The preacher of Hebrews warns us that to give up on Jesus puts us on the path of apostasy. Instead, we're urged to recall God's faithfulness in the past and draw confidence from the fact that the same God who enabled us to endure previously, can get us through presently. After looking back, we also look forward to Jesus' coming. Living in anticipation of our future eternal inheritance is how we hold fast to Jesus and preserve our souls.

In light of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and His priestly ministry on our behalf, we have been given new life. We draw near to God because we have been cleansed. We hold fast to our hope in Jesus because He is faithful. We consider how to stir one another up to love and good works in anticipation of Jesus' return.

An animal sacrifice cannot take away sin; it cannot make you clean. Thus, an OT believer was barred from coming into God’s holy presence. Yet, these sacrifices pointed forward to how God would ultimately cleanse sinners. The Son of God has a body prepared for Him and He comes to do God’s will. He obediently submits to being the ultimate sacrifice for our sin. It’s through His sacrifice that we are sanctified, cleansed and enabled to draw near to God. The Holy Spirit witnesses to this access by reminding us of the new covenant blessings that are ours in Jesus.

The evidence of Jesus' resurrection is radical, but verified. However, the women's response was to flee and stay in frightened silence. What is exposed is the importance of not just receiving evidence, but embracing the One to whom the evidence points: the risen Lord Jesus.

As the sky turns dark in the middle of the day, Jesus cries from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" This cry reveals Jesus' great agony in bearing God's wrath for sinners. Thus, this cry shows us that Jesus is forsaken for our sin. Having paid our penalty, we can be reconciled to God and be assured of His presence in our suffering.

The death of Jesus has opened to us all of the blessings of the new covenant in the same way that a death brings a last will and testament into effect. Through Jesus' sacrifice our sin-debt has been cancelled and we receive His perfect representation in heaven on our behalf. Thus, we are enabled to look forward to His return eagerly, being beneficiaries of His will by faith.

The old covenant provided limited and restricted access into God's presence. The tabernacle, priesthood and sacrifices couldn't atone for our sin and prevented sinners from drawing near to God. Yet, the old covenant pictured what we have received in Jesus. He has provided stability by anchoring our hope not in an earthly tent, but in heaven. He has given us security through securing an eternal redemption in His blood. We now can now draw near to God with a clear conscience and live assured of the blessing of His presence.

When a relationship breaks down, mediation is required. Jesus Christ is the perfect Mediator between us and God. He is the God-Man who represents us to God and God to us. Hebrews 8:6-13 explains that Jesus is also Mediator of the new covenant. This new covenant is enacted on the better promises of a desire to obey God, belonging to God, knowing God and the forgiveness of God.

What do we do when the world is turned upside down? Psalm 46 gives us three answers in response. First, don’t be afraid because God is our refuge, strength and help. Second, look to the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem - that is where your citizenship is registered in Jesus' blood. Third, this looking points us to beholding and being still before our God.

In Hebrews 8, the preacher shows us that in Jesus the new is better. This chapter builds a bridge between the better nature of Christ's priesthood (Hebrews 1-7) and His better ministry on our behalf (Hebrews 9-13). We learn in Hebrews 8:1-6 that Jesus is a better priest because He is seated and ministers on our behalf in heaven. In Christ we have an advocate in the highest court of heaven. We are also given the grace to persevere through His intercession.

While travelling around Galilee, Jesus is confronted by a leper. Leprosy in Jesus' day was basically a death sentence. Isolated from community, left to suffer and barred from God's presence was the lot of the man full of leprosy. Yet, Jesus in His compassion touches the leper and cleanses him. Luke thus provides us with a wonderful picture of the salvation Jesus came to bring. Jesus is the King who came to save us from sin's corruption and sin's separation. He is the Saviour who says to sinners, “I will; be clean.”

We see in Peter's experience the result of an encounter with the true and living God. An encounter begins with God revealing Himself to us through His Word. This revelation of God leads to a revelation of ourselves as sinners. We are moved to confession like Peter, "I am a sinful man." Yet, in God's grace, He moves toward us to redeem us in Christ. Then, He calls us to partner with Him in His mission to seek and save the lost.

Authority is not a concept we naturally warm to. Through its abuses and our cultural aversion, we tend towards believing that authority is a bad thing. However, we have no authority over the forces of evil, sickness or even our own lives. Yet, Jesus displays His authority over all these things. Jesus came as the King, but uses His power to compassionately call sinners into His kingdom and to save them through laying down His life on their behalf. Jesus exercises His authority to save!