Jesus, Our Forerunner (Hebrews 6:19-20)

 In Hebrews, Sermons

 

 

Introduction: Dr. Seuss, Bumps and Slumps

Well, as a father of little kids, over the last few years, I have read my fair share of the great philosopher Dr. Seuss. This morning I’m going to read from the good Doctor one of the greatest books ever written in the English language, known as “Oh, the Places You’ll Go.”

“Wherever you fly, you’ll be the best of the best. Wherever you go, you will be top of all the rest. Except when you don’t, because sometimes you won’t, I’m sorry to say, but sadly it’s true. The bang-ups and hang-ups can happen to you. You can get all hung up in a prickly perch, and your gang will fly on and you’ll be left in a lurch. You’ll come down from the lurch with an unpleasant bump, and chances are then that you’ll be in a slump. And when you are in a slump, you’re not in for much fun. Unslumping yourself is not easily done.”

I think these are profound words from the good Doctor. Sometimes in life, things go well. You’re flying at high heights, you’ve got a gang flying with you, you’re accomplishing great things, you’re at the top. You’re the best, better than all the rest. Then there are moments in life when it all comes crashing down. You get stuck in a prickly perch, and you’re left in a lurch.

In those moments when you experience those difficult times, when you are left with the unpleasant bump, you will be in a slump. We all experience these slumps. Emotional slumps, spiritual slumps, relational slumps, slumps in our work life, our marriage, our parenting, our physical health, we all have moments. Sometimes these slumps are minor and they’re brief. Sometimes they’re long and devastating. They last for months or even years. 

When you’re in a slump, as Dr. Seuss says, unslumping yourself is really hard to do. In fact, apart from the help and grace of God, I would argue that unslumping yourself is impossible. So what do we do? How do we navigate the moments of slump? The moments where we feel like life has been hard, we’ve been beaten down, things have not gone the way we hoped or expected. What do we do in those moments? Or more importantly, how do we stay encouraged so we don’t give up on the most valuable things in life? How do we keep going and keep flourishing in the midst of a slump? How do we do that?

One of the reasons the writer of Hebrews has written this book, this letter, this transcribed sermon that he sent to this local church, One of the reasons that he has written this letter is to encourage them in the midst of their slump. He recognizes that many of them are in a slump. A chunk of them are in a slump, and he wants them to keep going in the faith. He wants them to keep believing in Jesus, to stick with the Christian faith, and to flourish as God would have them flourish. So he writes this letter to encourage them.

Now, for some of these Christians, as we’ve seen in the Book of Hebrews, some of them are in a slump because of their own laziness. They’ve just been lazy, sinful, stubborn, sluggish, as we talked about a few weeks ago. They’ve refused to dig into the living and active Word of God. They’ve refused to graduate from the milk to the meat, as we talked about a few weeks ago. And they are in a slump because of their own doing.

Their own sinful, lazy choices have led them into this slump. But as we continue through the Book of Hebrews, we will see that some of them are in a slump because of the things that have been done to them by others. It’s not necessarily only their own laziness or their own sin. But sometimes the sin of other people against you can also throw you into a slump or create a slump in your life. We notice in the Book of Hebrews, as we travel through over the next few chapters, that there’s actually some growing persecution that this church is facing. These particular Christians that he’s writing to are experiencing some pretty significant hostility.

There’s a lot of hostility towards Christianity growing in this region. In Hebrews chapter 10, we will read that these Christians, several of them, have had their houses and their property plundered, broken into, destroyed, and a bunch of their property stolen by people in their community just because they were Christians. We see that in Hebrews 10. Then in Hebrews 12, he’s going to say to them, Listen, none of you have gotten to the point where you’ve shed your blood yet. No one in this particular church has been killed for Christ yet in this season in this particular church. 

But it’s pretty obvious he’s alluding to the fact that it’s on the horizon pretty soon. None of you has died for Christ just yet. You’ve experienced being ostracized, your homes being broken into, having your property stolen, being alienated from your friends and family, and there is a growing hostility. You may not realize it, but very soon, aggression and violence are coming. He’s warning them about that. He’s alluding to that in Hebrews 12 and 13, and he wants them to be prepared for that. He’s like, you’re currently in a slump and you’re being persecuted, but the persecution is about to get worse. And I’m concerned that this slump you’re in is going to cause you to walk away from the faith when things get really hard.

These Christians are facing, as Dr. Seuss would say, some pretty significant bang-ups and hang-ups. They’re going through it. Life has been hard for them. The writer of Hebrews, in the two verses we’re gonna look at in just a moment, gives them some encouragement in the midst of the slump. He alludes to one particular reality. There’s this one particular true thing about Jesus that will give you great encouragement when you’re going through the slump. 

In Hebrews 6:19 and 20, he highlights this one particular truth. This morning we’re going to look at this. We’re going to want to highlight it, and I want us to examine, think about, and reflect upon this particular truth, this one particular thing that Jesus has done on our behalf. So that when you are in a slump, when life has been difficult, when you’re feeling lonely, when you’re feeling or rejected or abandoned, when you feel like you’ve experienced disappointment or betrayal, when you’re experiencing suffering or death, disease, abuse, anxiety, when you’re facing hostility or aggression, or maybe even feeling the pressure to abandon Jesus. 

When you’re in those moments, there is a great hope that we have that we see in these two verses that will steady our souls in the midst of the slump. Here’s the truth, here’s what we’re going to see in these two verses: Our greatest hope is that Christ has gone before us into the heavenlies, and there will come a day when he brings us with him into the presence of God. That’s the hope that we have. Jesus has gone before us into the presence of God, and there will come a day when he brings us with him into his presence.

That’s what we’ll see in these two verses this morning. So before we look at these two verses, let’s pray again and ask God for help. 

God, as we look at Hebrews chapter 6, verses 19 and 20, help us understand, help us see the truth that you have gone before us, and may this truth steady us and strengthen us in the midst of slumps. I pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

 

Jesus Our Forerunner

Look with me at Hebrews chapter 6, verse 19. The writer of Hebrew says, 

“We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.” 

It’s like, all right, listen up. This is what we have. Do you want your soul to be anchored? Do you want your soul to be steadied so that you don’t drift away? He goes, Here, this is what we have. Then in the second half of verses 19 and 20, he tells us, 

“This is the anchor, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.” 

There are two things in this phrase that he highlights that are of immense value to us. Jesus went into the inner place behind the curtain. That’s the first thing. Jesus went somewhere, the inner place behind the curtain, and he went there as a forerunner on our behalf. He went behind the curtain as a forerunner. That is the concept being unveiled here. If you understand how a first-century Hebrew Christian would have understood this, this is instantly mind-blowing. But for those of us who are 21st-century Christians divorced from 1st-century Jewish culture, this might not necessarily immediately be obvious to us. 

So I want to take some time this morning and I want to unpack, what is this phrase behind the curtain, and what does it mean to be a forerunner? I’m going to take that last one first. What does it mean to be a forerunner? A forerunner, Someone who goes ahead and sort of blazes the trail, makes the way possible. The person who goes ahead of you. 

A few months ago, my wife and I were looking for a house to buy in the area, and we were down in the Sawgrass Bay neighborhood. If you’re in the Sawgrass Bay neighborhood, way down South Clermont, the south end of 27, there’s a road that goes all the way over, going toward Disney Flamingo Crossing. The road goes for several minutes, and then it comes to a stop, and there’s a big sign that says, ‘Road will be opened and completed by January of 2024.’ And so there’s this big blockade there.

If you come from the other side, if you come from Orange County, the Disney side, Flamingo Crossings, you could take that road. It goes for a little distance, and it comes to another blockade. But on either side, on the blockade, you can actually see. And in theory, Orange County and Lake County are supposed to connect these two roads. They’ve been saying they’re going to do this for several years now. If you’re in Claremont, Lake County side, you go, you go, you go. And then there’s a blockade. If you’re coming from the Orange County side, from Flamingo Crossings, you go down the road, and there’s a blockade. And it’s like 60 yards. It’s like several miles of road. And you can see it. It’s right there. Well, you can also then see there was dirt there and grass, and stuff.

But then you begin to see, over time, tire tracks begin to go. So then a road was sort of made there that wasn’t supposed to be there because someone had blazed the trail. So some people started driving over this road and clearing the way. Then Orange County and Lake County decided to come along. They put up the big blockades. So now you can’t do that. But the point is, when you first get there, there might have been a bunch of grass. It would have been hard for your car to get there. But someone with a big truck, someone with some abilities or some equipment, some large vehicle went through that area and cleared it, making it possible for someone else to then follow along. 

That’s sort of what the concept of a forerunner is. Someone who goes ahead and clears the road so that someone behind can easily follow. That’s what the writer of Hebrews is saying Jesus has done for us here. He’s our forerunner. He went to a particular place, cleared the path so that we could then follow him into that particular place He went. 

 

Behind the Curtain

Well, where’s the place? He went well into the inner place. Behind the curtain. That’s the key term, behind the curtain. If you are a really good Old Testament student, you know precisely what he’s referring to. But most of us are not really good Old Testament students. That’s okay if you’re not. You’re not crazy. So we do a little bit of study, and it doesn’t take long for us to realize, this phrase behind the curtain is alluding to something from the Old Testament tabernacle.

If you’re not familiar with the Old Testament tabernacle, let me give you a quick explanation. The Jewish people, the nation of Israel, were slaves in Egypt for 400 years under Egyptian tyranny. God then rescues them and brings them into the wilderness. They’re wandering around the wilderness for a period of time. This is right around the year 1400 BC. This has actually happened. It’s not a myth or a metaphor. It’s a real moment of history. 

The Israelites are pulled out of Egypt, and they’re wandering around the desert, and then God gives them this thing called the Tabernacle. These very clear instructions are to build this kind of portable house of worship, where God’s presence would be. He gives us very clear instructions. God’s presence is in one particular place in their tabernacle behind a particular curtain. That’s the language there. And so when the writer of Hebrews says that Jesus went behind the curtain, he’s saying Jesus went into the place where the glory and presence of God exists, and he clears out a path so that we can follow him into the presence and glory of God.  That’s, in essence, what’s going on here. 

In a few weeks, Lord willing, when we get to Hebrews chapter eight, we’ll look at this in more detail, because in Hebrews chapter eight, he explains why the tabernacle instruction and the blueprint were so particular. People will ask, Why does God give these instructions in the book of Exodus? It’s so particular. It’s so elaborate, it seems so detailed, and it seems unnecessary. And so we’ll get to that. In Hebrews chapter eight, he explains to us why the blueprints had to be so specific and so detailed.

So we’ll get to that in a few weeks. But this morning, what I want to do is pause, and I want to look at a little bit of the design of the tabernacle to make sure we understand the incredible reality that Jesus went behind the curtain, that one day we will go with him. It’s a remarkable reality, but I think we often don’t fully understand. So what I want to do this morning is I want to spend a little bit of time talking about the design of the tabernacle. It’s a little bit nerdy. I apologize in advance, but I want to talk about the design of the tabernacle.  

Then I want to give you some observations, specifically five observations, as we examine the design of the tabernacle. There are five observations that I think will be helpful to us as believers this morning. So I’m gonna do something that I rarely ever do. I’m gonna put up a picture. So this is a kind of a modern-day replica of what the temple, what the tabernacle may have looked like. It may not be perfect. I looked at a bunch online over the last couple of days, trying to find one that I thought was good. But this is the closest one. Not perfect, but relatively close. You can see there’s an electrical box tied. They didn’t have that. That wasn’t in the book of Exodus. There was no electrical box. So ignore that. 

 

 

That gives you an idea of the tabernacle. There’s this big area with an outer court boundary and then a big tent in the middle where the presence of God lived. So you see here, the outside was basically like pipe and drape. You know, it was basically like a church plant 3,400 years ago. Anyway, so they had some pipe and drape like we have here this morning. Of course, the outside drapes there. Then they have a gate where you can enter into hat was facing the front of the tent. There’s a gate there or an opening area there. Then there’s the outer courtyard. That’s the area that’s outside the tent, but on the inside of the boundary, it’s called the outer courtyard.

The outer courtyard was about 150ft by about 75ft. So about from the gate to the back of the tabernacle, you have about half the size of a football field. Lengthwise, when you first walked in, there was the bronze altar. On the bronze altar, animals would be burnt up in the ascension offering, or they would be dismembered and slaughtered for the sin offering. God would take the guilt of the person or the peoples, and put it on the animal. The animals would be slaughtered, suffering the punishment of that person.

The visual you would get when you watched an animal being slaughtered on the altar was, that should be me. My sin deserves that. The blood was messy. The blood would be splattering. The priest would have blood on him, it would be dirty. You would smell the dead animal that was being burned up. You would smell the burnt flesh. It was a picture of what sin deserves. 

Beyond the bronze altar, there would be a basin of water. That’s where the priests would wash themselves. The Israelites were not allowed to go beyond the bronze altar. That was the barrier. You couldn’t go beyond that. Only the priests could go, the Levites. It’s only a handful of the Israelite people out of almost a million people. Only a handful of them could ever go past the bronze altar. So they would go beyond the bronze altar to the little basin of water. That’s where they would wash themselves. There was a particular ritual they would go through to wash themselves properly. And then they would go into the actual tabernacle, the tent.

When they first went in, the first half of the tent was called the Holy Place. In the Holy Place, on the right-hand side, was a table with the showbread. On the left-hand side, there would be a lamp stand, a menorah. There in the middle of the holy place was another altar where they would offer the incense. So that’s the holy place. 

Then, at the back of the holy place, about halfway through the tent, there is a dark purple curtain that separates the front half of the tent from the back half of the tent. There was a dark purple curtain. On the other side of the dark purple curtain, we called that the Holy of Holies. In the Holy of Holies initially was just the Ark of the Covenant, this big golden box, for lack of better terms, that had the Ten Commandments, the tablets in it.

And only one priest, not all the priests, only one priest could go into the Holy of Holies. Only once a year, he could go in. In the Holy of Holies, behind the curtain, you could call that the most glorious place on earth. The most glorious spot in all of the universe. The presence of God was with the people of God in the Old Testament. You could sense the presence of God in the outer courts, for sure, but there are different degrees. So where the bronze altar was, the people of God would walk into the tabernacle, they’d walk into the outside boundary, and they could sense the presence of God. 

Then, when you got beyond the altar, you could sense more of the presence of God, to a greater degree. Then, when the priests would go into the Holy Place, the front half of the tent, they would experience even more of the presence of God. So there are these degrees or zones of presence. But once you got beyond the curtain, that’s where the fullness of the glory and presence of God was manifested, in the Holy of Holies. On the other side of the curtain, that’s where you have the maximum amount of God’s power being displayed. You have the maximum amount of joy that could ever be had. The maximum amount of happiness that could ever be had was there in that moment, in that place. The maximum amount of pleasure and rest and peace and supernatural warmth, and love.

That’s what was happening in the Holy of Holies. When you crossed into the Holy of Holies, that was happening in that place. This is how the Psalms express the presence of God. When you go into the fullness of the presence of God, Psalm 16:11 says this, 

“In your presence is the fullness of joy.”

All of the joy there is to be had is had in the presence of God. At your right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. That’s the presence of God. The maximum amount of that is what the priest would experience once per year, just one day a year, for one moment a year. The high priest, when he went behind the curtain. 

 

5 Observations about the Tabernacle

When we think about the design of the tabernacle, there are five observations that I want to give you this morning. Five things that I think will be interesting and helpful to us as we think about the tabernacle. Here’s my first observation. 

1. God wants to dwell with his people.

The entire structure of the tabernacle would be put right in the middle of the Israelite camp. The 12 tribes of Israel, all the people, were to camp in a big circle around the tabernacle. The tabernacle was right in the middle, the epicenter of the Israelite people. All of the people were around them, and all their tents faced the tabernacle.

God is shouting to us, I want to be with my people, and I will come with them and be right in the middle of them. The very existence of the tabernacle is evidence of God’s kindness. He didn’t have to. He could have stayed up on the mountain, Mount Sinai. He could have stayed there, and Moses could have come up and experienced the presence of God, and no one else. But God says, No, I want my people to experience me. So I will go down to them. 

I will put a tabernacle right in their midst. Like a good father, God longs to be with his children. I am a sinful man and a mediocre father. I feel like sometimes, if I’m honest. But I tell you, I love being with my kids. There are very few things in life I prefer to do more than hang out with my kids. A couple of nights ago, Lettie (Lettie’s our three-year-old) and I were playing Connect 4. She doesn’t really understand the rules of Connect 4. She put three red, and I put my yellow to block her. She got very angry that I blocked her. Like that’s the point. She goes, no, Dada. No, you go in this one, Dada. She was very angry that I blocked her. 

We’ve been playing bingo. She doesn’t really understand. We’ve been working on it. We’re learning. We love bingo. Playing bingo and Connect Four with a three-year-old did not seem appealing to me as a single man. When I was single, I did not think that was an exciting Friday night. But I gotta tell you now, Friday night rolls around and there are very few things I’d rather do than play bingo with my 3-year-old daughter. Saturday morning, she gets up, Dad, Dad, you want to play bingo? Absolutely. Because I want to be with my child, and I’m a sinner. How much more does the perfect heavenly father want to be with his children? 

He loves us way more than I love my kid and longs to be with us. The very existence of the tabernacle is the evidence that God wants to be amidst his people. It shouts to us the kindness of God that he invites us to experience him. In the Gospel of John, in chapter one of the Gospel of John, the Greek word used when Jesus becomes flesh and he dwelt among them. The literal Greek word there is the same Greek word used when we translate the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek.

It’s the exact same word for tabernacle. So the literal translation would be Jesus became a man, and he tabernacled amongst them. That’s the literal translation. When Jesus came, He dwelt with us. He was with us because he loves us. God wants to dwell with his people. 

2. God is unapproachably holy. 

While God wants to dwell with us, he is unapproachably holy. The Israelites in the Old Testament were terrified to approach God. In fact, in Exodus 19, God invites all of them up the mountain. Rather, it wasn’t just Moses. He invites all of the people, and they’re terrified of him. They go, we don’t want to go anywhere near you, Moses, you go. They don’t want to come. So God says, okay, I’ll come down the mountain to you. But they know that because of their own sin, they can’t come to him. Exodus 33, verse 5 says this. This is God speaking to Moses: 

“You are stiff-necked. If, for one single moment, I would go down to you and be among you, I would consume you.” 

So God wants to dwell with his people, but because we are so sinful and so stubborn, because we are so stiff-necked, if he actually did show up in his full presence, it would burn us all up; we’d be consumed. Because he is holy. If someone approaches him in sin, God demands that that be dealt with. 

3. God hates sin, and he demands that it be dealt with before we enter his presence. 

He hates sin, and he demands that it be dealt with before we enter his presence. God did not merely wipe sin clean and forget about it. So God created a system where sin could be properly dealt with, properly addressed, properly navigated, and punished. God hates sin. And because we are sinful, if we come right into his presence, it would burn us up, it would kill us. But God wants us to experience him. He wants us to come to Him.

So he has made a way for our sin to be dealt with so that ultimately we can come to Him. This is why the tabernacle is structured the way it is. As soon as you walk in, immediately there’s a sacrifice to be made. Then the priest would go a little further into the presence of God, and they would wash themselves properly. Then they would go into the holy place more the presence of God. And there’s another altar there for another sacrifice to be made before they could enter into the fullness of God and the Holy of Holies.

In the design of the tabernacle, God is telling us, before you can come and experience me, your sin must be punished. Your sin must be dealt with, atoned for, and eradicated. On the day of atonement, once per year, the high priest, the great high priest, before he entered the Holy of Holies, would make extra special offerings on that day before he would enter in. God is making it clear, you cannot just waltz into my presence with your sin, undealt with, and expect that’s going to be okay.

It must be properly dealt with. In the Old Testament, it was dealt with through animal sacrifice, where the animals, the guilt of the person, would be put on the animal. Those of us who are Christians living now after the cross, the cross is where our sin is dealt with. Your guilt, your shame, if you are a believer, is put on Jesus at the cross, and he is punished. He is the sacrifice.

4. The tabernacle helps us understand how Jesus dealt with our sin. 

The design of the tabernacle helps us understand how Jesus dealt with our sin. Jesus dealt with our sin very similarly to the way the priest dealt with the sins of the people. However, there’s a massive difference in impact. The Old Testament system, where the priest is sacrificing animals in the tabernacle, could deal with sin temporarily. The sins, the sacrifices, only lasted for a year, every year. They had to keep making sacrifices year after year after year after year after year. And the Old Testament system only dealt with sin so much that only one person could experience the presence of God for one day a year. That’s it.

The Old Testament dealt with sin temporarily, and the only access it gave was one person for one day into the presence of God. But the sacrifice of Jesus is permanent. It doesn’t purchase access to the presence of God for one person for one day a year. Oh no. The sacrifice of Jesus purchases permanent access for all who would believe forever. Praise be to God. The sacrifice that Jesus made was way better. Hebrews 9 says this. Hebrews 9:13:

“If the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could sanctify, how much more will the blood of Christ purify our conscience?”

If animals could do a few things for some people, how much more will the sacrifice of the Son of God be? Jesus purchased much more for us than animals could purchase for the Israelites.

Joyce read from Ephesians chapter two for us. Earlier, the apostle Paul says to the Ephesian Church, 

“We were once far off, but now we have been brought near to God by the blood of Christ.” 

5. Jesus will bring us into the holy of holies.

We will enter into that place where the maximum amount of joy and happiness and peace. Peace. Where the maximum amount of love and power could ever be experienced, where the fullness of the presence of God. Where we experience him and find our pleasure and Satisfaction in him and he in us. This incredible joy-filled experience that will go on forever and ever and ever. We will go into the Holy of Holies because Christ was our forerunner, has blazed the trail, and made it possible for us to enter in. 

 

The Glory to Come

The Old Testament did that temporarily for one person, one day a year. The New Testament system, the new covenant, the better covenant, deals with our sin permanently and gives all of us permanent access to his presence forever. Jesus has gone behind the curtain, and we, too, will go behind the curtain with him one day. That’s the main point of Hebrews chapter 6, verses 19 and 20. He is our forerunner. We will go into the holy of holies.

And the writer of Hebrews is saying, in the moments where you face difficulty, in the moments where you are in a slump, in the moments where you face the bang-ups and hang-ups of life, let this truth be the thing that strengthens you and encourages you, solidifies and steadies your soul. May this truth, may this reality, may this particular thing that Jesus did, that he went behind the curtain, may that be your encouragement in this life and into the next, forever and ever. 

Church, one day we will experience the fullness of the presence of God. We will go behind the curtain. One day, when this sinful and broken world passes away, we will walk into the presence of God, and we will look back on the suffering of this life, and it will feel small. The Apostle Paul says this to the Corinthian Church. Second Corinthians, chapter 4, verses 17 and 18. Paul says this: 

“For this light and momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond comparison.” 

Paul’s saying, the things you face in this life, they’re hard. The suffering you face is real. It’s difficult. But there’s going to come a day in glory. When you look back at this and go, you know, compared to how great this is, those sufferings actually feel pretty small. That’s not to make light of the suffering you experience. The suffering we experience is real, it’s grand, it’s significant.

But the glory that is to come is so much more grand, so much more amazing, so much more awesome than anything we can experience in this life, that the sufferings of this world will feel very light. Paul says to us, This will feel light and momentary. There’s an eternal weight of glory awaiting us beyond anything you can ever compare it to in this life. 

 

Closing: Holy of Holies

The Book of Revelation. Last thought for this morning. The Book of Revelation, toward the very end. The last few chapters give us some description of what it will be like when we enter glory. If you take the dimensions of the new Jerusalem, the city that we will all end up in glory when we’re all there in the new city. If you take the dimensions, the shape, and the material that that city is made of, and you compare it to the Holy of Holies in the Old Testament, they’re identical. 

If you take the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle in the Old Testament 3,400 years ago, and you make it really big, you scale it up, you get the new Jerusalem. It’s exactly the dimensions, the shape, the material. When we read Revelation, we see, oh, that the Holy of Holies was simply a foreshadowing of what we will experience forever and ever.

What the priests experience momentarily once a year is what we will experience forever. We will be in the Holy of Holies. That’s our final destination as believers. Here’s how the Apostle John describes it in Revelation 21. He’s looking upon this grand holy of holies. Revelation 21. He says this.

“Behold the plate. The dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. For the former things have passed away.” 

We will be with Him. His dwelling place will be with us. He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. We will experience him forever because Christ, our Forerunner, went before us. This is possible because of what Jesus has done on our behalf. 

 

Communion

That’s why each week we pause and take communion here at Horizon City Church. Each week, we pause to take communion, to remember what Christ, our Forerunner, has done on our behalf. That he has made it possible for us to enter into the Holy of Holies and enjoy him forever. That we will go into, as the Psalms call it, the house of Zion, where we will feast with him. Where we will feast on the abundance that he provides. We will weep no more, and we will cry out with shouts of joy forever and ever and ever. Church, we will go into the house of Zion, into the Holy of Holies, into the full presence of God, and we will experience his joy forever and ever and ever.