Hebrews 10:19-39

¹⁹ Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ²³ Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, ²⁵ not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. ²⁶ For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. ²⁸ Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” ³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. ³² But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, ³³ sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. ³⁴ For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. ³⁵ Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. ³⁶ For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. ³⁷ For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; ³⁸ but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” ³⁹ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

I would like to speak to the Christian who is in a rut, who is stuck, who believes but who feels very little joy about believing. I would like to speak to the Christian who is caught in a kind of spiritual depression, the Christian for whom his or her devotions are either nonexistent or minimal or are done purely by force of habit. I would like to speak to the non-attending Christian. You know the Lord but you feel very little pull to gather with the assembled body. I would like to speak to the Christian who does attend, who is present in body but absent in mind. I would like to speak to the distracted Christian, the Christian of bad attitude, the complaining Christian, the Christian who is lost his or her joy.

And I would like to ask you a question: do you remember what it used to be like, what you used to be like? Do you remember when you were first born again, when you came to know Christ, when the church was a privilege to associate with and to minister within?

I ask this because the writer of Hebrews asks his readers something very similar. He wants them to stop and remember what it used to be like, what they used to be like. We begin at the ending of our passage, with verse 32 and following.

³² But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, ³³ sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. ³⁴ For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. ³⁵ Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. ³⁶ For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. ³⁷ For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; ³⁸ but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” ³⁹ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

The author encourages the readers to remember, to recall, to return to what they were. Now to the beginning of our passage. For a few pretty heavy and amazing chapters the writer of Hebrews has been laying out in great detail and with beautiful arguments a case for the greatness of the person of Jesus and the work of Jesus: who is He and what He has done! In verses 19-21 he gives us his brief summary:

¹⁹ Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God

Now, he turns to the church and tells them why all of this matters.

Draw near!

Hold Fast!

Stir one another up!

Meet together!

Encourage one another!

These five exhortations are given to Christians who need to remember and who need to be restored to the joy of their salvation!

Draw near!

First, we are challenged to “draw near.”

²² let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

What does it mean to “draw near”? Well, most obviously it means not to withdraw. Do not shrink away. Do not fall away. Do not walk away. Draw near!

The church father John Chrysostom inquired of our text, “To what should we ‘draw near’?” He answers: “To the holy things, the faith, the spiritual service.”^[1] This is true, but, let us notice that in context the writer is speaking of the Holy of Holies being opened now through the sacrifice of Christ. So, first and foremost, we are being called to draw near to God.

Do not retreat from God!

Do not turn away!

Do not walk away!

Draw near!

The door has been opened. The veil has been torn. The way has been made. The price has been paid. Draw near!

And how are we to draw near? “With a true heart in full assurance of faith.” Do not waver. Do not fear. Come! Draw near to God!

Hold Fast!

As we draw near we also hold fast.

²³ Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

We “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.” Why? Because God “is faithful”!

Do not abandon your confession. Do not stop believing. Ground yourself in the truth of the gospel and nurture yourself on its promises!

Christ has come!

Christ has died!

Christ has risen!

Christ is coming again!

Do you still believe these things? Hold fast to them!

It is a terrible thing to take hold of the confession and then to abandon it. In verses 26-31 we find a restatement of the idea of apostasy first presented in chapter 6. While I am not going to go into great detail since we covered it so thoroughly in looking at chapter 6, hear once again the warnings of God’s Word:

²⁶ For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. ²⁸ Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” ³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Church, I plead with you to take hold of the cross and never left go! Thomas Long said of apostasy:

Apostasy is to know in the depth of one’s soul that “death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:54) but to choose nonetheless to pitch one’s tent in a death camp. Apostasy is to know full well where the next earthquake will be and to leave “a kingdom that cannot be shaken” (12:28) to build one’s life on the fault line. Apostasy is to have been a child in heavenly Jerusalem’s palace but to choose to leave home in order to be a slave in Sodom. Apostasy is to have been drawn by a strong cord into the lifeboat and then to jump back into the raging sea. In the case of apostasy, sin has tragic proportions, and judgment is woven into the fabric of the choice.^[2]

As mentioned when we considered Hebrews 6, it is likely best to put the apostasy passages alongside the assurance passages and see them as a choir in which different voices make one great harmony. So when our hearts are weary under the battle with sin we need to be reminded of assurance: God does not forsake His bride even in her deep imperfections and failings. But if we grow arrogant and haughty and think we can use God like some kind of heavenly ATM the apostasy passages are there to sober us and drive us back. I will remind you of our conclusions after considering Hebrews 6:

Church, do not presume! Do not be arrogant. God is not mocked.

But church, do not despair, do not grow weary! Nothing will snatch you out of His hand.

We need both of these words, and, here in the latter half of Hebrews 10, the writer reminds us of the first word. Do not be arrogant! God is not your plaything to be manipulated for your benefit. No, He is God!

But hold fast! Do not let go of the confession!

Stir one another up!

We are then encouraged to turn our attention to one another!

²⁴ And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works

Osborne and Guthrie write of these images of “consider” and “stir up one another”:

“Consider how” (v. 24) is katanoōmen, “pay close attention,” transliterated as “look for ways to” do a thing. We are not to be passive, waiting for opportunities, but active, creating opportunities not only to show love but to teach others how to do so as well. This is especially seen in the verb that follows, “spur one another on” (paroxysmon), which could be translated, “incite one another to a riot” of love and good works. The author wants visible expressions of the deep love that binds the church together to explode and shock everyone.^[3]

I love that! “Incite one another to a riot of love!” Can you imagine such a thing?

Imagine that a friend in church calls you over into an empty Sunday School classroom. There are others gathered there. The friend says, “There is a group of us here and we are all likeminded. We would like to make our presence known. We have been meeting and plotting and feel that it is now time to act.”

Not liking this at all you hesitantly say, “Well…what are you wanting to do?”

And you are told this: We want to meet at a designated time and place…[the speaker looks around to make sure everybody is listening and lowers his voice]…and we want to go out and mow the lawns of our elderly church members. And then we want to go to the nursing homes and sit with those dear people and let them talk. We want to pray over them and hug their necks. And we want to find out where the gossip is in our church…and stop it! And we want to find out where any division is…and put an end to it! In short, we want to start a riot and bust some stuff up!”

“A riot!” you say. “Bust some stuff up? What on earth are you wanting to bust up?”

The speaker smiles: “The gates of hell,” he says.

A riot of love. Stirring one another up to good works. Church! This is church! This is what Christ has made possible!

Meet together!

To do all of this, of course, we must meet together!

^25a-b not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some…

Ah! Even in the first century neglecting the gatherings of the body of Christ had become “a habit” for “some.” Do not do this? Why not? Because good little boys and girls go to church? No, that is not it. It is more that church becomes the arena where we are able to sow the good fruits of what Christ has won for us on the cross!

Let me be clear that I am not speaking only of corporate worship. No, the New Testament makes it clear that the early believers were living life together! To “meet together” is to meet both in our weekly corporate gatherings and in our consistent informal gatherings. Do not neglect these either!

Why should we not neglect to meet together?

Because Christ founded a church.

Because nowhere does Christ save somebody in the scriptures and then say, “Ok, go be by yourself and do the best you can! You are on your own now!”

Because we need the encouragement of one another.

Because we need the faithfulness of one another.

Because we need the strength of one another.

Because we need the wisdom of one another.

Christian, do not neglect to meet together!

Encourage one another!

And encourage one another. Again, because of what Christ has accomplished, encourage one another!

²⁵ not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Speaking of verse 25, the church father Photius writes that “the comfort of the assembly becomes…a way to be eagerly renewed and in a short space of time.”^[4] Indeed it is!

I have been privileged on occasion to encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ. And I have been privileged to receive the encouragement of the body of Christ!

We need to be both channels and recipients of encouragement!

The ministry of encouragement is an important ministry! These are hard days in which we live, so to be able to help one another through is vitally important. And, as the text says, it is largely within the context of the assembled church that we are able to do this.

Church, Jesus has opened a way for us. It is not only the way to heaven, but also the way to life and love together here on earth. Through Christ we are now enabled to enact the ministry of Christ one to another.

Even so, the great call of our passage is not to the church and its ministries of love and good works and encouragement. The great call of our passage is for us to come to Christ who makes all things new. The “So what?” of Hebrews leads us to this great answer: the Jesus who is above all others and whose work on the cross and empty tomb is greater than all other works is the Jesus who calls us even now to life eternal and to life now. That life should be manifested most powerfully in the God-established and commissioned community and family called “church.”

Our Jesus is doing a great work.

If you do not know Him, come to Him in repentance and faith now.

If you know Him, do not let go or drift away. Draw near and live!

 

[1] Erik M. Heen, Krey, Philip D.W., eds. Hebrews. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Gen. Ed., Thomas C. Oden. New Testament X (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005), p.161.

[2] Long, Thomas G. Hebrews (Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching) (pp. 109-110). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

[3] Osborne, Grant, Guthrie, George H. Hebrews: Verse by Verse (p. 248). Lexham Press. Kindle Edition.

[4] Erik M. Heen, Krey, Philip D.W., eds., p.163.