Lets all have a look at Chapter 12 in Hebrews and the names of all the sections and titles.

What do you see? NIV - God DIscipline his children; Warning and Encouragement; The Mountain of Fear and theMountain of Joy - God Disciplines his Sons; Warning against refusing God NASB - Jesus, The Example; A Fathers Discipline; Contrast of Sinai and Zion; The Unshaken Kingdom. NIRV -God trains His Children; A Warning against saying No to God; Holman -The Call to Endurance; Fatherly Discipline; Warning against rejecting Gods grace. ESV -Jesus, Founder and Perfecter of Our Faith; Do Not Grow Weary; A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken They speak about many thing among them is the Discipline of our Faith as well as the urgency of our desperate need for Gods Grace. Hebrews, an aptly named book written to the Hebrews spends much of the tim comparing the way things worked in the Old Covenant and showing the converts from Judaism the way their old traditions applied to the New Covenant. So far we have seen it address forgiveness, priesthood and faith. I could have picked any of the major threads that the titles bring up but what stuck out at me and bothered me the most was no the Discipline we see so often in this chapter, but instead the object of this discipline: Holiness. The writer in this book is telling the hebrews how to liv their life both in the religious ceremony part as well as the day to day, life. He calls the Israelites, he calls us to be Holy. So I am going to talk about about the word Holy and what it means. I am also going to touch a little bit on what this holiness should look like in OUR day to day lives. The verse of focus today is Hebrews 12:14. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. That was from the ESV. Which I read day to day but in tearing apart the words that make up this verse I found the NASB to speak more along the lines of what I am trying to share with you today. Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. For me two words stick out the most. The first is PURSUE the second SANCTIFICATION. Ill start with the exciting bit and go on the meaty bit later on. The greek word for pursue here is dikete (). If you are a King James person youll see the word follow, but this doesnt carry the emphasis that the writer wants to convey. I thought back to Matthew 6:33. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness surely this is the kind of emphasis the writer wants. Seek FIRST. But no the work for seek zteite ( ) doesn't look the same doesnt sound the same but is also a completely different root word. God doesnt want us to merely look around and ask after his holiness. Looking under the carpet just isn't enough. The word here is active, it is frantic and incessant, chase hard after his holiness, run as fast as you can after his holiness. We are meant to be hounding it like rabid dogs. I keep thinking of zombies on the hunt for human brains, they dont stop, they will walk across a desert or bang on a door for a year until it gets a hold of some. From dawn till dusk till dawn again, looking for your lovely brains.

This is not the most pleasant image, but neither is the choice of word. It is the same verb used in Acts 9:4. Saul has been persecuting Christians, traveling up and down Israel rounding them up and putting them in prison. He gets a tip-off and heads up to Damascus where he hears there are Christians hiding. On the road up there a bright light falls on the road. and Saul hears a voice saying Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Saul, Saul why are you dikeis () me? Do you see that? The same verb Christ uses to describe Sauls actions on the church are the same words he uses for our pursuit of holiness. We are meant persecute this holiness. We are meant to chase after it where ever it goes and capture this holiness for ourselves. We are to chase in a persecutory fashion this thing called holiness and give it no quarter. If you look it says make every effort a bit bland but simple. God doesnt want any half-measures. If you have any doubt of that lets look at the poster-boy of Hebrews 12, vv1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, I know some if not most of you have heard he metaphor of the runners in the race for righteousness. IF you are serious about inning in this race you don't mess about. When im running I wear a lovely pair of short shorts, anything longer and it would be to inhibiting. Ancient greeks were a hardcore bunch of people if the movie 300 is anything to go by, in the ancient olympics the athletes wore nothing at all, a modesty leaf was too much. The point here is God doesn't want to be simply keen on being holy, or merely excited about the idea of it. He wants us to pursue fervently this holiness. If anything we should be manically and obsessively chasing this Holiness. == Holiness hagiasmos holy sancrtification, consecration
kodesh

apartness sacredness

word s and variants for many different thing> be Holy because the Lord your God is Holy God is Holy - his name is holy (wholly other) they never said his name and when writing it only used consonants YHWH . His name was so holy that when copying down manuscripts they would use one pen when they God to the name they would get a new pen, dip it into a DIFFERENT pot of ink write YHWH then break that pen, because nothing else was worthy now of being written by that pen. Jerusalem on a Holy mountain is holy The temple was holy as we discussed before with the innermost part being accessible to only one priest at a time His temple was in a holy city which sat on a holy mountain, was served by a holy priesthood and celebrated feasts as holy days Sabbath is Holy Ex 35-2 Israel as a nation is holy Jer 2-3, Duet 33-3, 1 Chron 16-29 holiness is linked intrisically with purity and righteousness Jesus is holy Luk 1-35

holiness is one with righteousness seeking holiness w/out being christlike is fruitless [Rom 1:7, 1 Cor 1:2, 2 Cor 1:1, Eph 1:1, Phil 11:1, Col 1:2 . The life of the individual Christian is to be a living HOLY sacrifice (Rom 12:1) not only through death (Phil 2:17) but laso through the life he lives (Phil 1:26-27) The German theologian Rudolf Otto coined a latin phrase in his book the Idea of the Holy which he wrote in 1917. It described holiness as a mysterium tremendum(the power and more importantly purity of his holiness causes fear) et facinans(it creates love and releases grace.) Holiness which we strive to is an aweinspiring phenomenon the as much as it repels us (Ex3:5-6) causes us unrivalled attreaction. Present yourselves as living sacrifices, HOLY and acceptable to God (Rom 12:1, 1Cor 6:19-20, Eph 2:21-22) 1 Thess 4 speaks of living a life pleasing to God 1 Thess 4:7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in Holiness

????? Holiness is not a necessity of our acceptance but is a necessary consequence of our acceptance of Gods Grace ????? without Holiness, no onw will see the Lord this doesnt mean that our salvation is dependant on our ability to achieve perfect holiness ^ Christ has made perfect that which must be presented to God 1 how can ewe enjoy holiness in heaven if we cannot even strive for it here on earth\ 2 how do we become holy? Heb 12:1 1Thess 5:23 3 we are to become a chose race, a royal priesthood a holy nation as in 1 Pet 2:9 ?Hab 10:10? Eph 5:25 27 \25Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.a