Hebrews Lesson 6
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Today we will be covering: Hebrews 10:19-12:2
Read Hebrews 10:19-25.
Compare 4:14-16 to 10:19-25
This is considered an inclusio - which is a literary device by which the author marks the beginning and ending of a section by verbal parallels.
What is the “Therefore” (v. 19)? What are the three exhortations that the writer gives us after showing how Christ is the Great High Priest, Mediator of a Better Covenant, Redeemer of sinners, whose sacrifice was once for all?
Let us draw near to God (10:22)
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess (10:23)
Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds (10:24)
We approach God with “confidence” (v19) - Greek “parresia” - free and open expression or conduct. We approach boldly - trusting in the work of Christ.
In what manner are we to draw near to God? (Sincere hearts, in full assurance of faith)
By what means are we to draw near to God? (having our hearts cleansed by Jesus’ blood so that our conscience will be clean, and have our bodies washed in pure water (baptism)
What does it mean to “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess?” (Guthrie - “keep a tight grip on the Christian faith, keeping it from slipping away.)
Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.
and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
adverb unswervingly - that which does not bend - that which is straight.
How do we encourage one another according to the text? Believers are to motivate one another to love expressed by good works, and they must not stop meeting together.
What is the danger of not meeting together on a regular basis? (discuss challenges of Covid lockdowns)
The author sees their discontinuance of common fellowship and worship as fatal for perseverance in the faith.
According to Hebrews 3:13 and 10:24-25, what should be the prime motive for meeting together with other Christians? What is our usual motivation? Why do Christians so often get out of the habit of attending church or a small group? How can we help spur people on to staying connected?
Remember the harsh warning found in Hebrews 5:11-6:12? Back in lesson 4, we discussed how “(The writer) now turns to shame, warning, consolation and assurance in order to awaken them (the hearers) from complacency and direct them to the path of persevering faith.”
We find another warning starting in 10:26.
Read Hebrews 10:26-39
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
deliberately - this adverb communicates the idea of willing participation in an action, something done with a clear mind and firm step. A deliberate, sinful lifestyle of high-handed rebellion against the gospel.
Compare to the OT teaching on such action…
“If one person sins unintentionally, he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who makes a mistake, when he sins unintentionally, to make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the people of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them. But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.”
The writer has already made that argument that Christ’s sacrifice was once and for all time. Where then can one go other than to Christ for an effective sacrifice? Once Jesus and his provision have been rejected - there is no where else to turn.
Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 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?
“If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden, and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
“This passage from the Pentateuch proclaims that thsoe who violate the covenant by turning away from the Lord’s commands and worshiping other gods must be put to death.” Gutherie
Regarding the warning in Hebrews: the context suggests that those who “trampled the Son of God under foot” did so by publicly renouncing Christ or at least by quitting the community. The positive example offered by those in the church involved their open association with Christ as they themselves were persecuted, and with others in the covenant as those brothers and sisters faced persecution. The author does not want them, therefore, to throw away their public boldness or to “shrink back.”
The writer closes the warning by assurance:
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
Read Hebrews 11:1-40.
Often referred to as the great “Hall of Faith” - the author challenges his hearers to live lives of faith according to the pattern seen in those who by faith were faithful to God in their earthly pilgrimages. (Gutherie)
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Is biblical faith blind faith?
The person of faith lives out a bold confidence in God’s greater realities. It was by a life lived in this bold confidence, this firm assurance in what was not immediately observable, that the Old Testament saints “were commended by God”. In other words, not only did they bear witness to God, he bore witness to them, affirming their lives of faith. - Gutherie
By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
It is faith that allows us to look at the created order and know that behind all that is visible is the unseen God who called it into being by His Word.
How effect does creation have on your faith?
Read the passages and share the act accomplished by faith and the attitude or spiritual posture of the one who acted:
Genesis 4:1-7 (Abel)
Genesis 5:22-24 (Enoch) what does v.6 tell us about Enoch’s posture and the life of faith?
Genesis 6:9-22 (Noah)
The author writes more extensively about the greatest example of faith in the OT: Abraham.
Share how faith was demonstrated:
Gen 12:1-9 (The Call of Abram)
Gen 18:10-15, 21:1-7 (Became parents in old age)
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
God’s promises to Abraham were not received by Abraham in his lifetime (numerous descendants, possession of the land, blessing of the nations).
In the OT, the patriarchs and their descendants refer to themselves as “aliens and strangers.”
For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding.
“Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers.
It cares on into the NT as well.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
They identified this way to “emphasize the disparaging of earthly desires and the longing for a heavenly home.” - Gutherie
But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
How do these examples so far, and the concept of being strangers and aliens in the land, sit with our life goals and dreams?
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”
How does the writer interpret Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac?
The writer moves quickly through more examples. Verses 11:20-22, death confronted the person of faith who spoke of things that were yet to be seen.
By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
See Exodus 2:11-12
One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
Gutherie - “Moses chose his biological family over his adoptive family at great personal cost: loss of wealth, relinquishment of status, and intense mistreatment. The writer is emphasizing, once again, the virtue of standing with those under duress because of their commitment to God.
But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 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.
Now the writer concludes with a list of those who lived faithfully before God in a hostile world. Some were given great strength to overcome adversaries, others faced persecution and death.
The main point is this: Faith is the only right path for God’s people. The life of faith is the only life that pleases God. The people of God listed in the Hall of Faith demonstrated resolute determination to live faithfully even though “none of them received what is promised.” (the definitive fulfillment of God’s promise” - that is, the eternal inheritance known through the new covenant established by Christ.) In other words, historically these people of old did not experience the coming of Messiah and the new covenant. Yet now they are made “perfect” - with us they now know the perfecting power of Christ’s sacrifice and the eternal inheritance of the saints.
Where is our place on the list? How do we become ordinary heroes?
From Gutherie:
How would you and I live today if we believed absolutely that God existed and loved us completely and had a destination for us that made all the world pale by just one square foot of his turf?
How would we live if we believed that God cared about our every action and every concern and wished to reward us magnanimously for our faith?
How would you and I live in the face of opposition if we believed in God, really believed as if our whole lives depended on him and his? You say “But I do, I do believe absolutely. I believe with all I am and all I have!”
Then how would you live differently if you did not believe? Would there be much difference? This is a critical question. If all I am and have and do differs little from my unbelieving neighbor, then I have embraced his world and his values and fool myself by saying I am living for another world and kingdom values. My life must be radically different in what I embrace - the values of a heavenly kingdom. When I live “by faith,” I then will be one to whom God can bear witness and one who bears witness to God in such a way that others will be stimulated by faith. My life will portray that “faith works!” Then I will be the hero in the best sense of the word, for I will live a life that helps others and honors Another. Then I will be extraordinary, haven chosen the narrow path.”
Next week:
Hebrews 12-13