Hebrews 10

Introduction

There’s certain things that they don’t tell you when you get married.

Like there’s these unwritten rules in marriage that I think everyone just has to figure out on their own.

My wife and I got married in 2012. She was 19, I was 20.

And I could write a book about all the things that nobody told me being married would be like.

For example.

Nobody told me, when your wife is pregnant, and she really wants a cold cut sandwich from subway at 11 o clock at night. Nobody told me that Jimmy Johns is NOT in fact a suitable replacement. That’s not how pregnancy cravings works.

If she has a pregnancy craving for a cold cut sandwich at Subway, and the subway near your house is out of Salami, you don’t order it without salami

You don’t go to a different sandwich shop

You definitely don’t go to the grocery store and make a cold cut at home.

You find another subway, and you get that thing because that’s how pregnancy cravings work.

Nobody told me when I was getting married, that we would grow up together. I think I just always assumed that I was the way I was, and she was the way she was, and that we’d always be us.

I didn’t think that I could love my wife any more than I did when we were engaged.

But you grow together and you learn together. And you start to like the thing the other person likes, and think the way the other person thinks.

You truly become one.

And you realize that you love that person

But by far. By Far, the biggest thing that they never told me about being married is this:

When your spouse tells you about their day. And they tell you about a problem. There are times when you need to fix the problem. And there are times when you just need to listen.

Early in my marriage, I had this really bad habit—and I still do it sometimes—I’m getting better—I would get home from work.

And I’d kiss my wife on the cheek and say “how was your day honey.”

And she’d say “oh my goodness. the trash was full, and I didn’t have time to take it out, because Theodore started crying and was hungry, so I started getting some food for him, and then the neighbors came over and wanted to know if we could trim the tree that’s hanging over the fence, so I was trying to figure out how much it would cost to get a tree trimming service.

and then my mom called and....”

Meanwhile, while she’s telling me this, here’s what I did.” [walk away]

And she’s looking at me like “what are you doing?”

“You said the trash was full, I was going to take the trash out”

You seemed like you were having a rough day, and you said you said the trash was full…so I thought you wanted me to take out the trash.

She says did you hear anything I just said?

And she would get upset, and rightly so.

And I’d be like

“so you don’t want me to take the trash out?”

And she goes…well yes… but more importantly I needed you to listen.

Now here’s the thing.

Eventually, yes. I need to take out the trash. That is the end result of the conversation. But. If you want to be a loving and caring spouse, you can’t just skip to taking out the trash.

And it might seem like a silly little thing, but I’ve realized having that time to just listen, to just take in “hey, honey, how was your day” Makes a huge difference.

Transition

In a way… that’s kind of how I’ve been feeling about the boook of hebrews.

Because realistically, as we’ve been going through the book of hebrews we’ve gotten a lot of information…but not a lot of action steps.

In fact, the first 18 verses are a summary of the previous 9 chapters, leading us up to the point where we can finally do something.

Hebrews 10:1-18

Hebrews 10:1–18 NET 2nd ed.

For the law possesses a shadow of the good things to come but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who come to worship. For otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers would have been purified once for all and so have no further consciousness of sin? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. So when he came into the world, he said, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me. Whole burnt offerings and sin-offerings you took no delight in. “Then I said, ‘Here I am: I have come—it is written of me in the scroll of the book—to do your will, O God.’ ” When he says above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sin-offerings you did not desire nor did you take delight in them” (which are offered according to the law), then he says, “Here I am: I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first to establish the second. By his will we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands day after day serving and offering the same sacrifices again and again—sacrifices that can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, he sat down at the right hand of God, where he is now waiting until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet. For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are made holy. And the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us, for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will establish with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws on their hearts and I will inscribe them on their minds,” then he says, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no longer.” Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

If you’ve been reading this far in the book of hebrews, none of this is new material.

Christ is better than the angels, he’s better than moses, he’s better than the priests

And he has established a new and eternal covenant of which we are a part of.

There’s this idea here that we have permanence in Christ

We don’t have to rely on the jewish sacrificial system. We don’t have to go through the priests. We don’t have to offer animal sacrifices for our sin

Because in Christ’s death, he became the ultimate sacrifice of atonement. As our high priest he became the ultimate mediator between us and God.

There are some very rich big picture theological ideas going on about the nature of Christ. Who he is, what he did for us. And for the most part, the first 9 and a half chapters have been very heavy on the theological stuff, and very light on the actionable steps.

They’re there, for sure. There are things for us to do. But for the most part, at this point in the message, if we were having this whole book preached to us, for the most part, we’re getting the treatise

and if you’re like me, if you’re the kind of person like me, who goes straight to taking out the trash. Now is the part where we finally get the “therefore…here’s what you do with it.

Roadmap

In sermons and preaching we call this the “so what” of the sermon.

You start off with the what…telling you what the text says, what the point is.

And then you get to the “so what” of it all.

And now, at chapter 10, we are getting into the so what.

Hebrews 10 gives us a so what in verse 19.

Hebrews 10:19 NET 2nd ed.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus,

Hebrews 10:20 NET 2nd ed.

by the fresh and living way that he inaugurated for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,

Hebrews 10:21 NET 2nd ed.

and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

Because we have confidence to approach god, because Jesus Reconciled us to God… So what.

Hebrews 10:22–24 NET 2nd ed.

let us draw near with a sincere heart in the assurance that faith brings, because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. And let us hold unwaveringly to the hope that we confess, for the one who made the promise is trustworthy. And let us take thought of how to spur one another on to love and good works,

Let us draw near to God, hold on to our hope, and spur each other on.

According to the book of Hebrews that is what our response to the Gospel is supposed to be.

Drawing near to God, holding on to our hope, and spuring one another on.

Point

Hebrews 10:22 NET 2nd ed.

let us draw near with a sincere heart in the assurance that faith brings, because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.

Explanation

The picture that we should be imagining here, in this verse, is that we, because of what Christ did for us, are clean now.

Our hearts have been cleansed. Our conscience has been sprinkled clean

In the old system, the tabernacle system, the priest could not enter in to the holy place unless they had been properly cleansed

There was a whole ritual process that they had to go through in order to be in the presence of God at the center of the Tabernacle.

And it’s not because God can’t physically be in the presence of sin. I don’t buy that.

For one it’s a concept that is not found in scripture.

And for two we see examples of God being directly in the presence of sin throughout scripture

Job 1:6 NET 2nd ed.

Now the day came when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord—and Satan also arrived among them.

God was in the presence of Satan, the accuser, the prince of lies

Moses was in the direct presence of God at the burning bush right after he had killed someone, and fled out of egypt

Adam and eve were in the presence of God when they disobeyed and sinned against him. And God called after them, and spoke with them

And clothed them.

Rather, it’s the idea that God desires us to be Holy as he is holy Leviticus 19:2.

he desires for us to be clean.

And because in Christ, we are clean, we can be confident as we approach the throne of Grace

We don’t have to worry about whether or not we’re clean enough.

Illustration

I don’t know if it was like this for you all when you were growing up

But I grew up spending 99% of my time outside

We had maybe 5 acres, and horse pasture, and a little muddy creek running through it.

And during the summer, I was outside pretty much from the time I got up until it got dark outside.

Playing in the mud, climbing trees,

And mom would be inside, getting dinner ready, sweeping and mopping the dining room floor.

And supper time would usually be like this, mom would call out , it’s time for supper.

And if I was really muddy, or dirty, I’d get almost all the way to the door and she’d put the hand up

Uh Uh.

I didn’t spend all day sweeping and mopping this floor for you to come track through it with your muddy boots.

Boots off.

And if I was really bad she’d make me hose off outside. Anybody ever have to do that?

Hose off.

And don’t drip on my floor, I just mopped.

That was the worst, because it seemed like no matter how much you hosed off, you were never really clean enough to walk on mom’s floor.

Because there’s always that little bit of dirt that gets on the bottom of your feet.

Even when you try to hose off, because you wash off one foot, but then you have to set that foot down.

You hose off the other one.

And if my dad had mowed the lawn, then there’s grass clippings sticking to my feet.

to this day, if I go into a store and they’re mopping the floor, I still do the thing where I walk around the edge of the room.

When I approach God, I want to be clean.

I want to be free from sin when I approach God, not because he somehow can’t handle it.

God’s big enough to handle my sin.

But because I love him, and I want to be clean when I go to God.

But there’s always that little bit of sin. There’s always just one more thing I could have done better

And our hope is in the fact that God has cleansed us completely

Spotless. Our hearts have been sprinkled clean, and our bodies washed in pure water.

We can be confident that we can approach god boldly, because he made us clean.

Argumentation

And maybe today, you’re thinking, look you don’t know what I’ve done

You don’t know the kind of thoughts that are in my head, you don’t know the kinds of ways that I have been broken

you don’t know the people I’ve hurt. You don’t know the things that I’ve done.

Maybe you’re thinking, man if you only knew who I was, you wouldn’t be saying that.

Because there’s no way God would accept me as clean. Someone else, sure maybe. But me?

It doesn’t matter

It doesn’t matter how bad you’ve messed up, it doesn’t matter what mistakes you’ve made

It doesn’t matter how dirty you feel like you are, God makes you new

Christ’s blood cleanses you perfectly and completely.

While we were still sinners

Romans 5:8 NET 2nd ed.

But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Application

There is no problem too big that you can’t bring it to God

Your pain, your anger, your sin, your struggles

There is no such thing as a sin too great that God doesn’t want you to come to him with it.

I think far too often we get this idea that we are going to hide our sins from God.

We’re ashamed, and we think, somehow, because I’ve sinned so greatly, God won’t forgive me

And that’s just not the case.

Transition

You’ve been made clean. you can have hope in the fact that he won’t forsake you

let us draw near, with a sincere heart, in the assurance that faith brings

Point

Statement

Hebrews 10:23 NET 2nd ed.

And let us hold unwaveringly to the hope that we confess, for the one who made the promise is trustworthy.

Explanation

Explain what you mean

God is not going to forsake you. God is not going to give up on you.

We can hold fast to that hope.

Romans 8:38 NET 2nd ed.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers,

Romans 8:39 NET 2nd ed.

nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Argumentation

We can walk away from it. The bible doesn’t teach “once saved always saved”

Just a few verses ahead of this one it says

Hebrews 10:26 NET 2nd ed.

For if we deliberately keep on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins is left for us,

Hebrews 10:27 NET 2nd ed.

but only a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume God’s enemies.

We can choose to end the relationship.

God doesn’t create robots without free will. God allows us to choose to walk away from him if we want

But God has promised that he will never be the one to break that relationship with us.

If your faith is in Christ, if your heart is aimed toward him, you can hold on to the hope, knowing that the one who made the promise is trustworthy.

And here in hebrews, because God gives us that hope, because he is good on our promise

He asks us to Hold unwaveringly to that hope.

The word literally means “without bending”

Illustration

I think of the story of Shadrach, meshack, and abednego.

They had that kind of faith, not in themselves, but in God

And when the king told them, bow down to the idol or get thrown in the fire, the boys replied

Daniel 3:17 NIV

If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand.

Daniel 3:18 NET 2nd ed.

But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we don’t serve your gods, and we will not pay homage to the golden statue that you have erected.”

Unwavering. Unbending faith

Application

How do we work that faith muscle? how do we get to that point of unbending, unwavering unyeilding faith?

We exercise it.

We get out of the habit of saying “I know God will provide but…I’m still going to hedge my bets.”

I know God knows what’s best for me, BUT, I have some ideas of my own.

I know God can rescue me from the fire, BUT, I’d better bow down to the statue just in case.

No. don’t bend

Put yourself in positions where you have no other choice but to trust God, and then do it.

Let go. Put your full trust in Him.

Transition

Let us Draw near with a sincere heart

Let us hold unwaveringly to the hope we posses

Point

Statement

Hebrews 10:24–25 NET 2nd ed.

And let us take thought of how to spur one another on to love and good works, not abandoning our own meetings, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and even more so because you see the day drawing near.

Explanation

Faith does not happen in a vacuum.

Faith does not happen in isolation.

Faith happens in community.

Argumentation

And I know, that’s controversial to some.

I know we sometimes think, All I need is me and Jesus. Just him and me. I don’t need anybody else, I don’t need the church.

And it’s just not true.

And let me be clear, as someone who makes his living at this church, I really would love to tell you that you need to be at this specific community of faith.

But that’s not true either.

If ACC is not a good fit for you, I get it

We’re a little weird. I’m a litle weird.

I get it.

But I urge you, and indeed the Bible commands you. Meet with somebody.

Illustration

My daughter has this book she brought home from school

Pete the cat goes on a play date with grumpy toad

And in the book, pete the cat goes over to his friend grumpy toad’s house

And every time pete goes to play with one of grumpy toad’s toys, grumpy toad grabs the toy and says that toy is mine mine mine

Pete wants to play with the truck, and grumpy toad says no that truck is mine mine mine

So pete goes to play with the super hero cape

and grumpy toad takes it and says that cape is mine mine mine.

And at the end of the book, grumpy toad has a whole pile of toys and no one to play with.

Application

What good is our salvation if we don’t have anyone to share it with?

What good is our relationship with Jesus if we don’t have anyone to rejoice when we rejoice, and mourn when we mourn

The kind of faith that the bible describes happens in community

It happens when followers of Jesus come together

Transition

One or two sentences to smoothly shift to the next part

Conclusion

And the final note, in this chapter, as Hebrews is giving us the “so what” is this reminder to keep on going.

Don’t stop. Don’t go back, don’t give up

Hebrews 10:28-36

Hebrews 10:28–36 NET 2nd ed.

Someone who rejected the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much greater punishment do you think that person deserves who has contempt for the Son of God, and profanes the blood of the covenant that made him holy, and insults the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But remember the former days when you endured a harsh conflict of suffering after you were enlightened. At times you were publicly exposed to abuse and afflictions, and at other times you came to share with others who were treated in that way. For in fact you shared the sufferings of those in prison, and you accepted the confiscation of your belongings with joy, because you knew that you certainly had a better and lasting possession. So do not throw away your confidence, because it has great reward. For you need endurance in order to do God’s will and so receive what is promised.

Draw near to God, Hold on unwavering to his hope, do it with other Christians in community

And then then keep doing it.

Hebrews 10:37–39 NET 2nd ed.

For just a little longer and he who is coming will arrive and not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith, and if he shrinks back, I take no pleasure in him. But we are not among those who shrink back and thus perish, but are among those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Have endurance of faith. And that’s hard. It can be hard to draw near to God for a time. To hold on to faith for a time. To be in community for a time.

But ultimately God’s desire is for you to finsish strong.

Not just now, not just when you feel inspired, not just when it’s easy. Draw near to him, hold fast, meet together…as a habit. As a part of your identity. From now until Jesus calls you home .

Pray.