Hebrews 10:19-39: No good reason to quit.

Introduction

Pretty much the entire book of Hebrews has been laying a theologlical basis for why Jesus is greater. Now for the last few chapters the author is going to get practical by giving the readers and us application for everything he’s been talking about. That application can be summed up like this: “Hold on, and don’t abandon Jesus.”

10:19-25: So what do we do now?

Now that it’s been established who Jesus is - our great high priest in very presence of God - we need to have the confidence to do what nobody under the old covenant could do (not even the high priests!): draw near to God.

Remember, under the old system, the closest anyone could get to God was the high priest, and that was once a year IF he had done everything right. The fact that he could so easily die didn’t instill much confidence.

In contrast, through Christ we can confidently approach God. Notice how the author compares the role of Christ’s body and blood to the curtain that the high priests had to pass through to enter the ‘Most Holy Place’.

The author also calls us, the Church, ‘the house of God’. Because God dwells in us through the Holy Spirit and ministers over us through Christ, the Church can rightly be called His ‘house’.

And what allows us to enter into the very presence of God with such confidence? Faith! Not sacrifices, or rituals, but faith in Christ.

‘true heart’ literally means a genuine desire to love and follow God - and this is possible because our heart has been ‘sprinkled clean from an evil conscience’ (by the blood of Christ), and our physical bodies have been ‘washed with pure water’ i.e. Baptism. Through faith, both body and soul are purified allowing us to confidently enter God’s presence.

As uncle Ben once told Peter Parker: “With great power comes great responsibility!” If we’ve been granted access to the very presence of God, we need to make sure we don’t get rid of it!

This whole passage is filled with ‘us’ and ‘we’ words - these are things we much do together as a church.

We have to hold fast to our confession - specifically about the hope we have in Christ. When we got baptized we (should have been) were asked to declare Jesus as Lord. We can’t abandon that, no matter how hard things might get.

Stir up one another to love and good works - the idea of ‘stirring up’ is hitting a hornet’s nest with a stick. As the Church we have to be constantly ‘pestering’ each other to continue in our faith by producing love and good works (since ‘faith without works is dead’). If we see a brother or a sister failing to these things, it should be a red flag that they need help!

‘Not neglecting to meet together’ - This isn’t just skipping church every once in a while. This is fully giving up on church altogether. The Greek word for ‘neglecting’ literally means ‘abandon totally’.

The original readers would’ve been pressured to stop associating themselves with Christianity and abandoned meeting with other believers. In our culture, we may not face physical persecution but the temptation to abandon the Church altogether is constantly there which is why even today it is the ‘habit of some’ to stop showing up.

‘encourage one another’ - failure to live out our faith and eventually abandon it go hand in hand. The author is encouraging all of us to link arms and keep each other accountable as we see Jesus’s return (‘the Day’) draw even closer.

10:26-39: Three good reasons to stay.

The author is now going to give us three reasons why we shouldn’t abandon the faith.

The first reason is a warning: If you abandon Jesus, it will not go well for you.

The ‘sin’ that the author is describing here is the sin of apostasy - the deliberate abandoning of our faith. The Old Testament connection with Moses is the idea of willfully shaking our fists at God and defying him. This isn’t just one off or unintential sins - no this is taking ‘the knowledge of the truth’ and throwing it in the trash.

Essentially, Jesus is the only sacrifice that takes away sins, and so if you abandon Him, what else do you have left when you do sin? ‘There no longer remains one [a sacrifice for sin].’ And so you can expect to receive the judgement that will fall on God’s enemies for their obstinance.

He compares this to the the punishment under the Law of Moses - basically if you think the punishment for abandoning that covenant was bad, how much worse if you abandon the New Covenant?

Under the Old Covenant, typical punishments ranged from loss of property to physical death. ‘But fear the one who can cast both body and soul into hell.’ - Abandoning Jesus will lead to eternal punishment.

Three key areas are involved in this abandonment process:

‘Trample underfoot the Son of God’ - you’re basically making Jesus a doormat. After everything He did for you, now you walk away?

‘Profane the blood of the Covenant’ - ‘profane’ literally means to ‘make common’ or ‘unholy’. This could be referring to Communion (Paul warns one of the Churches of treating the Eucharist with contempt), but in general it’s also just making a mockery of the sacrifice Christ made for you.

Notice that this is the blood that ‘sanctified’ you - so it’s not just an oblivious disregard. The author is talking about someone who knew Jesus, participated in His Church, and now is walking away from it all. They knew the truth, and threw it away.

‘Has outraged the Spirit if grace’ - Jesus made it clear that any blasphemy of Him would be forgiven - but the Holy Spirit? That would be unforgiveable. Apostasy, abandoning the faith, is a clear blasphemy of the Spirit which has saved us.

And this warning gets summed up as this: If you abandon Jesus, let’s just say you’re up a creek without a paddle - you’ll find yourselves in the ‘hands of the living God’ covered in sin, and that’s not going to be a fun place to be.

He quotes from Deuteronomy 32, which is the Song of Moses. The section of the song that he’s quoting is talking about how God will treat those who worship other gods and sacrifice to demons.

31-35: Practically speaking, this would be a very dumb idea

The second reason the author gives the readers (and us) for not abandoning Jesus: We’ve come so far, and invested so much. ‘In for a penny, in for a pound.’ as some might say.

For these readers, here is what they went through when they first became Christians:

They endured public humiliation, sufferings, and afflictions - and if not, they should by those who did.

They had compassion for those in prison: in the ancient world, if you were locked up, if you needed food or care, you had to rely on friends and family. These Christians were risking their own imprisonment to go to the prisons and take care of their brothers and sisters.

How can we take care of our brothers and sisters in need?

They joyfully accepted the plundering of their property.

This is a true test of faith. Jesus said to set our hearts on heaven where we have treasure that cannot be ‘stolen’ and moths and rust cannot destroy. These Christians had done just that at one time - but now not so much.

This is hard for us to imagine. We’re blessed to live in a place where our property isn’t in much danger of being confiscated. But let’s just say that it was: could you accept it? If the legal system was stacked against you, and you had no recourse - would you let your property just be taken? That’s a tough situation for us to think about!

They had invested so much already - sacrificed so much already - and now they were thinking about walking away?

Keep in mind: These were all things that these Christians use to do. But now, for whatever reason, they had stopped. Let’s be honest here: when most people join the Faith, they are a zealous and gung-ho as they’ll ever be....but when things get tough, and the shine wears off, the temptation to slowly fade away gets stronger.

I don’t know what it is that you ‘use’ to do when you first became a Christian - but I hope you’re still doing it. And if you’re not, well this is me encouraging you to ‘love and good works’. Don’t give up! ‘Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.’

36-39: Ending on a positive note.

The author has just given us two warnings not to abandon our faith: a warning, and a practicality. Now he’s going to give us a third reason that is much more positive: If we stay the course and finish the race, we will be rewarded!

God has promised us a reward - a rest found only in him - we just need the endurance to get there.

Have you ever seen an athlete ‘run out of gas’ just before he reaches his goal? It’s easy to take a quick sprint, but someone who has real endurance ultimatley wins in the end. This is how we ought to treat our faith.

The author quotes Habakkuk as showing that Jesus is coming and He will not delay - so we need to press on in our faith (we are ‘the righteous one that shall live by faith’ in that verse).

Some of you may know of the Marvel ‘Avengers’ superhero movies. There is one particular film where to put it simply, the Avengers lost. And they lost terribly. Half the world died because of it. As the remaining heroes try to piece their lives back together, Captain America says, “Some people move on, but not us.”

When the author of Hebrews says, “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and perserve their souls.” He’s basically saying, “When the going gets tough, others might walk away, but that’s not us!”

Conclusion

This passage is simple: Don’t walk away from Jesus. If you do, you’ll be in a bad spot. But why would you? You’ve come this far, and invested so much, it would be crazy to walk away now! And if you hold on to the end, your faith and your hope will be rewarded when Christ returns.

But we can’t do this alone. We need each other Church. When we see others struggling, we have to help each other - encourage one another not to give up. Don’t stop participating in Church, don’t abandon Christ’s body, and don’t give up on love and good works - because that’s ultimately where apostasy begins. It begins in the little stuff, and ends with the big stuff.

There’s another iconic scene from that ‘Avengers’ movie that I mentioned. At the end of the film, Captain America finds himself facing the villain and his entire army…alone. Everyone else has been seemingly defeated, and the Captain stands there, beaten and broken, but he’s prepared to fight them to his last breath. When suddenly he receives a message that help was on the way, and an army even greater than the enemy’s appears to help him.

Church, we must persevere and continue to fight until the very end - but we also can’t do it alone. The Church is an army that is greater than the devil’s army, and none of us should be fighting him alone.