Cast Not Away Your Confidence

Hebrews 10:19-39

To understand this passage a little better, we need to understand who the writer is writing to and what is going on.

The writer is unknown, could be Paul, could be Apollos, nobody is really sure. The letter is written to a community of Jewish Christians. This community was possibly facing intense persecution.

While going through this persecution, they were tempted to cast aside any identification with Jesus!

Also, they were constantly tempted to pull back into their old sacrificial religion.

The first part of this chapter deals with Jesus dying “once for all” for the atonement of our sins. Offering “one sacrifice” for sins, for all time!

Now, in our passage the writer is reassuring this community of believers in the confidence that we have the atoning work of Jesus and the reward that we have!

Boldness and Confidence are 2 words that is used in this passage.

A New and Living Way! The Way that Jesus Christ is, New, in that it was new to Jews, that felt like they had the original way. Living in that Jesus brings eternal life!

John 6:48, 51 “I am that bread of life...........51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

The writer is trying to encourage these Christians, not lose hope! Jesus is the only salvation! There is no other way!

Acts 4:12 “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

The whole book is filled with this encouragement!

Hebrews 3:6,14 “But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.......For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;”

Verses 23-25....speaks of continuing in the good work of Jesus Christ!

Always meeting together? Why? The reason for this is for us to gather and encourage each other in living in this New and Living Way which is a life in Jesus Christ!!!

This is not a mandate, it is not a suggestion, it is a must if you want to be encouraged in the New and Living Way! Jesus!

Some use this to keep up with how many Sundays folks miss, but this means so much more! If you want to maintain this faith and hold on to This Hope we have to continue to grow in Grace and in the Knowledge of Jesus Christ! We do this together and hold each other up in this faith!!

Then the writer deals with sinning willfully, without remorse, which means you care nothing about Jesus Christ! Trodden under foot means that you have cast Him away as useless!

These Christians were ready to turn back their old way, their old religion, but the writer warns them that if they do there remains no sacrifice for sin in the old and dead way!

Their normalcy has been disrupted and shattered, it was enough to cause them to turn away from the Truth and return to a way that was weak and beggarly according to Scripture. It had no saving power because it was a “have to” rather than a “want to”.

Jesus took care of all of that (fulfilled) “Once For All Time”

Verses 32-39.......is a call to the reader (us) to remember and to hold fast that confidence that we have!

The writer starts off this part with a call to remember when you were illuminated (enlightened with the Truth). This is a similar call to the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2. They had left their first love and Jesus tells them to remember, repent, and go back and do the first works!

Back in Hebrews 10, these Christians had endured a lot, they was made a spectacle, humiliated, in front of folks, they lost their property because of their faith in Jesus.

They endured a great many things because of their faith and the writer is encouraging them to not cast away that confidence, to endure, as they already have!

This reminds me of what Jesus taught us in the Beatitudes Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake 12. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

This is a constant call to remain, hold fast, to not draw (shrink back), the just shall live by faith!

We are not dictated by how things are turning out on earth, we are dictated by the promise of God!

These folks lost property because of their faith, but the promise is that they have better, everlasting possession than that of this world!

Great is the reward of the faithful follower of Jesus Christ! Let’s remember when we were first enlightened with knowledge of Jesus Christ!

Believing unto the saving of the soul! This speaks a lot to me, because it is simple knowledge, easy to understand!

If you are enlightened with the truth of Jesus Christ, then we know why He came.......John 3:17 “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

With this enlightenment we know and are assured that the world (mankind) needs saving, from what? From the wrath of God! The destruction of the world! the soul is eternal and will never die in the physical sense, but if faith in Christ is not we have the soul will live forever in a death environment, thus being called rightly the “second death”!

We need to be saved, delivered from this body of death! Jesus did that and we don’t have to try an right out a formula to figure it out!

Not only has He saved us but we are now are going to reign with Him, be glorified with Jesus in Heaven, forever!

It seems as though sometimes, we don’t live like we are saved! Our souls, our spirit is not affected by this saving, it seems we are affected by what happens in the world!

Brothers and sisters, all of you who claim to believe, Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:5 “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.”

Does life get hard? Yes it does, just as it did for that faithful community of Jewish Christians! The writer is calling on them to remember the enlightenment of Jesus Christ, hold fast to what you believe, don’t cast away your confidence, do not draw back to worldly ideas and concepts!

Live by faith, trust in the promise of God through Jesus Christ! For GREAT is our reward!!!

Galatians 6:7-10.......... Sowing here has a meaning of walking after, “to sow after”.......my simple mind understands it this way......”working hard towards something”

The flesh, to pander to the fleshly things, will just lead to corruption. Meaning it leads to things that decay! It has no value! The temporary has no value, it is decaying!

But we that are enlightened if our living is by faith in Christ, then will lead us to not only a life that endures forever but the highest quality of life!

Might I say, it doesn’t matter what the world is saying or the news is reporting, I have a better reward!

If we lived our lives according to the course of this world, we will be troubled all of our days!

If we live our lives in faith, the faith in Jesus Christ and Him crucified, then we will be at peace!

Reminds me of John 16:33 “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

Be of good cheer, beloved! There is a lot going on, yes, but don’t throw aside your confidence because things look bleak! Through Christ we have overcome this troubled, temporary world!!! 1 John 5:5 “And who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”