The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: When you understand grace, you never give up. Rest is that sense of well-being, of calm, even in the midst of crisis.

Guest (Male): This is the Alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

It's always easier to carry a burden when you're walking beside someone who truly understands. Today, Dr. Evans points out that no matter what you're facing, Jesus is uniquely qualified to be that someone. Let's listen as he explains.

Dr. Tony Evans: The book of Hebrews was written to tired people. Some of them had their property confiscated, some of them had been put in jail, and there was an overall cultural rejection of them and they were tired.

And so God allowed the author of the book of Hebrews to write this entire book full of deep theology and deep biblical history to tired people. And he has one simple message: never give up. When you understand grace, you never give up. Suicide is not an option when you understand grace. Throwing in the towel and abandoning life is not an option when you understand grace, because the message of grace in the book of Hebrews is don't you dare give up.

In this chapter, chapter 4 of the book of Hebrews, you're going to find a word repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over and still over again throughout the whole chapter, and in the book, but especially chapter 4. For example, verse 1 says entering into His rest. Verse 2 says enter that rest. It concludes with enter my rest. In verse 4 it says and God rested. In verse 5 it says enter my rest. In verse 8 it says given them rest. In verse 9 it says Sabbath rest. In verse 10 it says He himself rested.

In other words, what grace wants to give you is rest. Rest. Rest does not mean nothing is wrong. It's like a glass of iced tea on a hot summer day. The iced tea doesn't stop the sun from bursting forth with its heat, but it just changes how you feel in the middle of a hot day. Rest is that sense of well-being, of calm even in the midst of crisis.

The rest that grace gives does not mean things are no longer wrong. That would be to mislead you and it is certainly not true in scripture and not true in the book of Hebrews. They were still going through it, still facing whatever the struggles happened to be. So I am not going to lie to you or give you a false promise that rest means nothing is wrong. Rest means whatever is wrong no longer has the final say-so about your well-being. That's what rest means.

It is in this context of a desire for the provision of rest, that sense of well-being in the midst of mess and madness, disappointment and discouragement, unfairness and yes, even sin as you'll see, God offers you rest. So any weary folk who raise their hand, any of you want some rest? That's a provision of grace.

Now let's define grace again. Grace is the inexhaustible supply of God's goodness whereby He does for us what we do not deserve, could not earn, and would never be able to repay. It is God's unmerited favor. So here's how it works. Beginning with verses 14 through 16, the scripture says, therefore, in light of our need for rest, since we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. Translation: you better not give up.

Now, the book of Hebrews, which is considered generally the second most difficult book to interpret in the New Testament next to the book of Revelation, is because it depends on its understanding that there is an understanding of the Old Testament because he's writing to Jewish Christians who knew the Old Testament. So he uses language in the book assuming that knowledge.

Since we have a High Priest, a mediator, an intermediary, he took the need to mediate between God and the people. He represented the people to God and then he represented God back to the people. He was a human mediator. He took the needs and the sins of the people, laid them before God for forgiveness and provision, and then brought from God God's provision and his forgiveness back to the people. So he was an in-between person. There were many priests and then there was the High Priest.

He says since we have a High Priest, a mediator, an intermediary, but watch this: who has passed through the heavens. 2nd Corinthians chapter 12, verse 3 tells us there are three heavens. There is heaven number one, the atmospheric heaven where the clouds and the rain, where our oxygen is, gravity. Then there is heaven number two, the stellar heaven: stars and planets and galaxies. Then there is the third heaven, which is the dwelling place of God, the place where Paul visited that he talks about in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12.

He says Jesus has passed through the heavens. Okay, let's go back to the human high priest. The human high priest had to pass through three places. There was the outer court of the tabernacle or the temple, then there was the inner court called the holy place, then there was the third one, the holiest of all or the holy of holies where God's presence was dwelt with the ark of the covenant.

So he came from the outer court, he got a little closer to God in the inner court, the holy place, and then he was in the very presence of God when he went in behind the curtain to the holiest of all where God's presence dwelt. Only the high priest could go to that third spot as a representative of the people.

The problem with the high priest is that he was as human as the people he represented. He was as flawed as the people he represented. He was as needy as the people he represented. So even though he was a high priest, he had his limitations. And worse yet, he was going to die like the people he represented.

But what verse 14 says is that's not our High Priest. He has the same title, but he's not the same person. He's called Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus is His human name. Son of God is His divine designation. Because of the hypostatic union, two natures in one person, unmixed forever: Son of Man fully human, and He's Son of God fully divine, in one person.

So he says our High Priest has passed through the heavens. That is, when he rose from the dead and ascended up to heaven, he went through heaven number one because he stepped on a cloud. He went through heaven number two, he passed through the planetary structures of the universe, and then he wound up in the very presence of God without human limitations.

So the beauty of your High Priest, your representative in heaven, is that He does not function with the limitations of people. He is not limited by his humanity because he's not only human, he is equally divine. See, the problem with the human high priest is he could be as weary as the folk he was trying to help. You call me on a bad day and I can't do much for you because I may be as messed up as you are. In fact, it may be a short conversation.

But we have a High Priest who does not suffer from such limitations because he is functioning in a whole new dimension. He's gone to heavenly places. Every category of life that you have been through or are going through or will go through beginning tomorrow, just wait, Jesus Christ experienced that category.

He knew what it was to be hungry. He knew what it was to be thirsty. He knew what it was to be betrayed. He knew what it was to be lonely. He knew what it was to feel rejection. He knew what it was to be killed. He knew what it was to be single all of his life. He even knew what it was to be married since the church is the bride of Christ. So he feels it and he feels it at a level deeper than you feel it in every category of life.

No matter how bad it is or how long it's been there, he says in all ways he was tempted, tried, tested as we are. God the Father didn't go through it himself. God the Son came and went through it in human form so that he could enter into the feeling that you are going through, not only the information about what you are going through. So in all manner, God knows what you're going through because the Son has experienced that category in every way.

Guest (Male): So how does Jesus' experience affect how grace works in our lives? Dr. Evans will return to tell us about that in just a moment. First though, I want to remind you about our featured resource for this series: Tony's devotional book, Anchored by Grace. This encouraging resource is designed to help you stop striving in your own strength and start living from the stability of God's unchanging favor.

It's filled with practical insights to help steady your faith when life feels uncertain. And it's the perfect way to dig deeper into what we've been learning on the program today. If you contact us right away, we'll send you a copy of Anchored by Grace as our gift in appreciation for your donation to this ministry.

Along with it, you'll get an added bonus: all 12 full-length audio messages in Tony's current series, The Magnificent Grace of God. TonyEvans.org is the place to go to get the details and make the arrangements. Or call 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our friendly resource team members help you. They're standing by 24/7, so there's no need to wait. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222 or online at TonyEvans.org. I'll repeat that contact information for you after the second part of today's message and this.

Guest (Female): What if you could step off a plane and step into history? Living history, where stories you've heard for years come to life and take on new meaning because you're right there where they happened. Instead of telling your children about the resurrection, imagine standing with them in the empty tomb. Picture yourself on the Mount of Olives, in the Garden of Gethsemane, or exploring the old city of Jerusalem. You can do all this and more on the vacation of a lifetime, and do it with Tony Evans when he hosts his Israel tour.

Guest (Male): You'll enjoy world-class accommodations and delicious meals as you tour the most beloved sites in the Holy Land. There will be teaching sessions with Tony where you'll learn about the history and significance of the places you visit, plus great music and worship. Best of all, you'll share an unforgettable experience that will change the way you understand scripture. Now's the time to make plans since space is limited. Check out the complete itinerary at TonyEvans.org and make your reservation before it's too late. That's TonyEvans.org.

Dr. Tony Evans: So how does all this relate to grace? Verse 16: Therefore, in light of this High Priest who now sits in heaven already victorious, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Let us draw near. And how do you draw near? He says in time of need. That's how the verse ends. It says in time of need. You don't draw near only in the morning if you need him at noon. You don't draw near only at noon if you need him at 3 o'clock. This is why Paul says in 1st Thessalonians chapter 5, I want you to pray without ceasing. I want you to be in contact with me whenever you need me. Whenever you need me, you've got an emergency line.

That means you're praying five minutes here and two minutes over there and 30 seconds over here and maybe a longer time in the morning or at night. But it means you're in contact with me all the time because I'm your High Priest and that's how bad your need is. In other words, hooking up with him on Sunday ain't helping you on Wednesday. He says draw near. This is a whole lifestyle of intimacy, lifestyle of connectedness.

And what are you drawing near to do? He says the throne of grace. Last time I checked, a throne is where a king sits. And what's on the throne? Grace. It's called the grace throne. Like the sun dispenses heat, God's throne dispenses grace. And he's got more grace than you can use. He has grace to help, it says. It's called a help desk. You have a help desk and that help desk, manned by Jesus Christ, is designed to guide you through or to take you from whatever the need is at the time of the need.

Don't misunderstand me. Help does not mean solve. Because sometimes the way God helps while we're waiting for our change to come is to give you a peace that passes understanding. In Psalm chapter 3, verses 1 to 6, David is being chased by his son Absalom. Absalom is trying to kill him. He's running for his life. And in those six verses, even in the midst of my flight where my life was in danger, David says God let me sleep. That was divine favor. He let me go to sleep even though I was threatened by my circumstances.

You see, here's how God works it. The Father runs the show, the Son is the intermediary, and the Holy Spirit is the post office. He's the delivery agent of the Trinity. Oh, that's what John chapter 14 says. John chapter 14, verses 16, 17, and 26 says that he is your helper. So the Son gives help and the help is delivered by the Holy Spirit to every believer at the point of need in whatever way God seeks to deliver it. It's the Holy Spirit's job to pull off the help that we requested and his job is to make it real, make it alive.

Now please don't miss this. In news, you have national news and you have local news, okay? The national news gives you the big picture of what's happening around the nation. The local news gives you what's happening in your community. When you come to church, that's national news, okay? I don't know your problem, your problem, your problem. You don't know mine. That's national news. I don't know your individual story.

But what you need is local news. You need something that's going to talk to you in your personal situation. I can only give you national news. I'm preaching from Hebrews, I'm giving you national news. But see, the Holy Spirit's job is to give you local news. It's to take the national news and apply it to your particular scenario in life so that you get personal help in your personal point of need in your personal situation.

And that can come in a myriad of ways. Somebody can give you a phone call, it can be an encouraging word, or God can even take the national sentence and make it a national sermon and make it local news to you. He can do that in a whole lot of ways, but you've got to draw near. You can't have this occasional visitation relationship with God because then you will not have the help you need in the situation you're in.

Her name was Kerri Strug. It was the 1996 Olympics. She was the last person to vault and based on her score would determine whether the United States would win the gold medal in women's gymnastics. Kerri stepped back and she looked at the vault. She stood ready and she took off running, leaped on the little trampoline, hit the vault, flipped over, bam! But landed wrong. Landed wrong and fell over. Sprained her ankle and sat there and wept because if you don't land right, your score is low. And the win or loss was dependent upon her. She was the last hope for a gold medal and now she couldn't even stand.

If you saw on television, you saw her trying to stand, but she couldn't put any weight on the sprain. She has one jump left, only one jump left. But she's hurting too bad to make that jump because you've got to be able to run, you've got to be able to jump on a trampoline, and you must land with two feet at the same time to get a high score. But she can't even stand up.

While she's contemplating, does she even try again because she's hurting too bad? Over in the shadows was Bela Karolyi, her coach. And he said, Kerri, you can do it. Kerri, girl, I believe in you. I know you're hurting, but you can do it. It's the last chance. So come on, girl, you can beat this thing.

Kerri limped over to the place she started. She looked down. She put one foot on her toe to try to get some balance and she hobbled up to hit the little trampoline to do the vault. She goes up in the air, she comes down, boom, bam! She hits it with two, but can't hold it. But because she landed with two, she got a high enough score for United States Olympic team to win a gold medal.

After it was all over and they were interviewing her, how could you do that when you were hurt so bad, crying so hard? How could you do that? She says I kept my eye on the coach. And as long as I kept my eye on him, he helped me not to think about my pain but to think about my power. He helped me to overcome my difficulty and achieve my victory.

I'm here to tell you today, you've got a High Priest who can help you. I know you're limping. I know it's hard, but you keep on going. Don't you give up. Don't you think about suicide. Don't you think about abandonment. Don't you think about throwing in the towel. You have a High Priest in the third heaven who's sitting down and he says, let me help somebody who wants to draw near to me.

Guest (Male): If you're in the middle of a hard time right now, remember that the Christian life was never meant to be lived alone. Reach out to a pastor or a Christian friend, and reach out to God. Dr. Evans will return with a closing prayer in just a moment.

Now, before we get to that, today's message, Assisted by Grace, is part of Tony's powerful series on the magnificent grace of God. The full-length versions of these messages include material we don't have time enough to bring you on the air. So we'd like to send you the complete 12-lesson, two-volume set as our gift when you make a donation to help support this ministry.

Along with it, you'll also receive that companion devotional book from Dr. Evans I told you about earlier, Anchored by Grace. Now, this is a special double offer that will only be around for a short time, so be sure to take advantage of it right away. You can do that today at TonyEvans.org or reach out to our resource center by calling 1-800-800-3222. Team members are on hand 24/7. That's 1-800-800-3222 or online at TonyEvans.org.

Dr. Evans says whether God's grace shows up in our lives as a drip or a downpour depends on us, not because we have to earn it, but because sometimes we choke off the flow. Join us tomorrow to discover ways to remove the blockage and speed up the current. Right now though, let's listen as he wraps up today's program with this closing prayer.

Dr. Tony Evans: Father, I thank you for the word of God that goes forth through this ministry and for every ear that hears it. I pray that you will use the word in the life of each person individually, so that they know that they are hearing from you and are transformed by what they hear. I pray that that transformation touches them at their place of need. Wherever they're hurting, struggling, wherever they're in pain, or wherever they're celebrating, may you be the center of that.

And may they be able to say because of the word that they've heard and because of the true God that they're interacting with right now, that you have showed up and showed off on their behalf, doing good by them no matter what their circumstances happen to be. Thank you for how you're going to touch every listener today in your own special way. In Jesus' name, Amen.