Do not shrink back,
but stand firm in faith
Hebrews 10:19-34*
Key verse: Hebrews 10:39[B1]
“But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those
who have faith and are saved.”
Introduction:
Living a life of mission means that we will invariably face
hardships and challenges. Here in the United States, such hardships may be less
likely to happen than among other nations. In other parts of the world, many
face insurmountable challenges; most of them may be bearable, but, on rare
occasions, even their basic lives are endangered.
If one of us was publicly insulted, suffered imprisonment,
or had our possessions confiscated, then that would be very serious. We may be
greatly tempted to quit a life of missions, or in even worse situations, we might
seriously doubt the validity of our faith and hope. Early in my walk with the
Lord, I faced serious doubts as to
whether or not God’s work was my thing, after facing repeated failure to bring about
changes in those for whom I prayed. Actually, such ‘doubts’ came to me on more
than a few occasions. In whatever form it comes to us, life’s hardships can bring
serious questions about what we are doing.
How can we not doubt,
but rather abide in God’s purpose? Or how can we overcome such difficulties? The
author of Hebrews gives us an answer to these questions in the form of encouragements
and warnings. I determined three words from the author on what to do, CPR[B2] .
This is a very familiar acronym used to denote the resuscitation of a dying
body (cardio-pulmonary-resuscitation). Though they look alike, the ‘CPR’ for
spiritual resuscitation is different from the CPR we use for saving physical
lives. I pray that we may all understand
spiritual CPR through today’s passage.
Let’s read Hebrews 10:21-22.
What the author previously talked about in Hebrews 10:18, is
summarized here in v21-22.
First, we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place through Jesus’
blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19-21).
We were sinners, and had no access to the God of holiness,
the source of our life. This has been the problem since the Fall of mankind.
God provided Israel with a limited and controlled access to Himself, but this was
never meant to act as the only channel of God’s blessing. As a result of their
rejecting this access as given fully through Christ, Israel, the only nation
that had had any kind of access to God’s blessing, was eventually exiled; however,
to restore them and all mankind, Jesus offered his body as a sacrifice on their
behalf. As we believe in Jesus’ sacrifice as having been made for our sake, God
shows His mercy to us and sends the Holy Spirit to seal us as His own. This has
been proven through God’s works among
us. In this way, we have free access to God Almighty, the God of holiness and
righteousness, without fear. This has been proven in our lives as the words of John
indicate:
John 16:24 “Until now you have not asked for anything in my
name. Ask and you will receive, and your
joy will be complete.”
We prayed for jobs for BY and TN, and that we may be able to serve WM. God heard
these prayers; this is our confidence in His grace, rather than something we
made up through our own knowledge. Through faith, God has given us understanding of what He did in Christ, through
his suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. Whenever any hardship comes, we
must remember this confidence that we experienced.
No matter how difficult the situation that we may face, we have access to God,
the Lord of all things, and, in and through Him, we can solve all our problems.
In Him, we can handle whatever comes to us[B3] !
Second, we must count on the fact that Jesus, our
high priest, the one who gave his life on our behalf, is sitting at the right
hand of God the Father. The idea is that Jesus is pleading for us , even as we speak. Any weaknesses or failures to
meet God’s standard of holiness should not deter us as we approach Him.
As I took up the work of God, the most disturbing thing was
my weakness and sin as God’s servant and a godly leader. My wife recognized
these better than anyone as did my fellow workers. Above all, God knew my sins better than I did. I needed
to resolve and unload those sins. This was only possible as I approach to God
in prayer, believing that Jesus was sitting at His right hand. Though Jesus has
forgiven all of our past sins, it is good to bring him our fresh ones as well, and find full resolution
of our sins.
We may be exhausted, frustrated, and feel unfruitful in our lives, but
we can let all these things go, except for these two - our confidence to enter
the Most Holy Place, and our high priest
at God’s right side. Practically speaking, we are far better off than the
recipients of this letter to the Hebrews. Their members were put in prison;
some of their possessions had been confiscated. What are we to do in handling these hardships? The author
encouraged the Hebrew believers to do three things:
1.
Let’s
draw near to God.
Now we know that God has accepted us, loves us, and is waiting for us, so that He may bless us
richly. But we must first draw near to Him; we must get close to Him for the
purpose of meeting with Him both spatially and spiritually. First, spatially, because
where God is, there we are going also; this is the final destination for our lives.
Also, we are seeking to meet Him in the
very private corners of our lives. We are to do this, both now and more and
more, as we approach His kingdom.
Second, we are to do draw near to God in terms of meeting with Him spiritually,
growing to be more like Him.
When we draw near to Him, we are to bring with us something
of ‘quality’ to offer Him.
The author suggests two things: first, we must draw near to God with a sincere heart.
This means that we should not have any kind of falsehood, pretense, or hypocrisy in our lives. Jesus
rebuked a Pharisee for such false presentations when they were coming to Him. With
whatever we have, from our inmost being, we must draw near to God Almighty, the
God of holiness, and present what we
have before Him. What we have may be very ugly and sinful, but they are ok as
long as we bring all of our sins before God as they are. He is not looking for
clean and spotless perfection. Also, God knows what we have in our hearts. This
is the meaningful beginning of an intimate relationship with God, our true
Father.
As we approach God, we are to present ourselves before Him
with faith that Jesus’ blood has washed away our sins. In that faith, we have
let Christ’s blood wash us clean.
We can understand this in the sense of the overall direction
of our lives; we are to approach God
even now.
This is figurative
language, but this is what we should do daily in our prayers to Him. We can do
it while praying alone in a closet or in our spirit, as we yearn to seek His
will, His wisdom, and His blessings.
It may be driven by our efforts, but, at the same time, it
is ‘our life style’ whereby we seek to find all the solutions for the problems
that we face daily. If we run out of strength, we need to draw near to God
through Christ; if the situation is so murky that we cannot see anything, we
must draw near to Him, asking and seeking His will.
No matter how difficult the situation is that we may face,
when we draw near to God, He provides the answers and solutions we need for our
lives. So when things are difficult, we are to draw near to Him with faith in Jesus’ blood!
Even with a sincere
heart and full assurance, we will face many challenges; these challenges come
from our weaknesses and from societal demands that force us to conform to the
norm of this world, and they often look
insurmountable or formidable. In order to meet and face these challenges in the
world, we must endure and persevere in all kinds of hardships and abuses; challenges
may come in the form of physical harm to our body, financial loss, loss of friendships, or loss
of security in this world. Such
challenges disappoint us and subject us to hardships and pain. In these
situations, what should we do?
2.
Let’s
hold to the hope we profess.
Hebrews 10:23 “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we
profess: for he who promised is faithful.”
Jesus has given us hope for the kingdom of God. This hope
was most visible through his life; he not only overcame the power of death, but
also is sitting at the right hand of God. Our hope is anchored in God’s promise. I would like to list a few specific promises
that Jesus spoke:
Luke 13:29 “People will come from
east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in
the kingdom of God.”
Luke 6:35 “But love your enemies,
do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then
your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because
he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”
Luke 6:22-23 “Blessed are
you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your
name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy,
because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated
the prophets.”
Matthew 16:27 “For the Son
of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will
reward each person according to what they have done.”
Matthew 10:42 “And if anyone
gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple,
truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”
Through these passages, one thing that we must understand
and accept deeply in our hearts is that
we will be rewarded for what we did in Jesus’ name. Whether we give away a
cup of water, are persecuted and
insulted, or perform an act of love… we will surely be rewarded! The work
we do is not only an expression of our godliness, but also of our faith in the hope
of reward according to God’s promise. It is not a free giveaway! God
counts everything. Without this hope of great rewards, we can do very
little. Some may feel that, after giving away five dollars, there is a sense of
loss! “Why do I have to give away even five dollars of my hard-earned money to
this punk?” However, if we have hope of great reward, we can do greater things.
We may even give away our lives! This is what the early Christians did; many of
the twelve disciples gave their lives for Jesus’ namesake. They were martyred
with willing hearts, and did not recant their faith; they were happy to do so, because, after
death, they would be counted worthy of heavenly blessings!
Why then do we become stingy and afraid to give and serve?
It is because we are blind to how great the blessings are that God has reserved
for us in His kingdom.
Let’s believe God’s promises of blessings and rewards. This
is the hope we must uphold in our innermost
beings. The hardships and difficulties we face are temporary; they will pass,
no matter how bad they might seem, because the world will end when Jesus comes
back to restore his kingdom. Following this end, for those of us who possess
hope in Christ, God’s blessing is waiting and we will have a great time with Him
in His kingdom.
A sacrificial life may be considered to be an expression of
godliness and holiness; in essence, it
is the expression of our deep-down hope and confidence for the promised blessing
in God’s kingdom. We can and should sacrifice everything, because our reward will
be far greater in the kingdom of God.
Hebrews 11:24-6 “By faith
Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's
daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to
enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of
Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking
ahead to his reward.”
Moses was the prince of Egypt, if he did not give away his earthly power and wealth; however, he
gave it all away, because he recognized a greater reward in Christ! Hope! We
must hold it tightly and not let it go!
God’s promises are true and real!
3.
Let’s
spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
Hebrews 10:24
This is our third motivation.
Before we look into this word[B4] ,
I would like to explore peoples’ usual responses when they are undergoing life’s hardships.
When one faces physical dangers, our body’s usual response
is called ‘fight or flight’. It is the decision to either defend one’s life or save it from danger. Our usual attitude toward
life’s hardships is similar; we fight to protect our pride, our assets, our power, or our authority. One may also choose
to run away, like a thief; here, all
concern is focused on preserving oneself. As time goes on toward the end of the ages, when more
and more hardships and dangers come upon people, they will respond by either
fighting or fleeing. Paul describes this well in 2 Timothy.
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers
of money, boastful, proud, abusive,
disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without
love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the
good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers
of God” (2 Timothy 3:1-3 NIV).
Likewise, the most prominent characteristic of peoples’
minds at end of age will not be love; they will be selfish. But the most
prominent characteristic of godly children will continue to be life-giving
love. This is explained by the apostle John in 1 John 4:7-8 ‘Dear friends, let
us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born
of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is
love.’
The difference between the people of the world and us believers
is the life-giving love that Jesus showed to us on the cross. Even in facing
such hardships and difficulties, still his life-giving love is a source of
strength and power for all believers. So we are to consider how we may spur one
another on toward love and good deeds. Instead of relying only on our fight-or-flight
mode, we are to focus on two things: something of love and something good. If
what we think and plan is not something of love or something good, then what
might they be? They are all out of our ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ mindset, striving to
protect and preserve our lives.
So I would like to ask you a question: of all the words that
you said yesterday, were they mainly out of love or something good? We have to
rekindle our hope in God’s blessings! Instead of giving into hopelessness, we
must uphold and spur each other in hope to love and good works. If we do this for each other, then
we can overcome all that hardships may throw at us. We may put this into action
by meeting together and encouraging each other. All three of these are actually part of one event that is repeated again and again
among believers. As one family of God, love and good works are nurtured and
encouraged again and again through our regular meetings. This consolidates our
faith and unity toward God and toward the hope that He has for us all.
4.
If we
deliberately keep on sinning…
Nobody wants to speak about the down-side of the bad choices
we make, but our human nature is invariably influenced and driven by two
affects, a positive and a negative, i.e.
the fear of coming dangers. It is good to know the down-side of our bad
decisions so that, by all means, none of us may make bad judgments. So we also
must recognize the consequences of our bad decisions.
Read Hebrews 10:26
It is worthy to note that the author did not list many sins,
like those mentioned in Romans 1:26-32 as a part of the bad decisions believers
may make. The author’s focus is on what to do with sinful and ungodly acts of which
the believer has become aware. Since all believers have received the Holy
Spirit and are all sealed by the Spirit
of truth, we are to respond to it consistently and faithfully. The author expresses
concern for those who ‘deliberately keep on sinning’. What does this mean?
Though it seems obvious, I would like to discuss two understandings:
- Believers are those who
have ‘received the knowledge of truth’. This does not mean that one has only
an acquaintance with God’s words, or simply acknowledges His word. It goes
further than this; the believer received
from God the full knowledge of Jesus’ saving grace. He had already imparted His grace and truth in and
through Christ’s blood. Simply, the believers fully recognize Christ’s saving
power and grace. Despite this full knowledge of the truth,
one may continue to go against that truth!
- The decision is ‘deliberately’;
one has willfully chosen sin over God’s revealed truth.
- The believer kept
on living in this choice. It was not just a one-time mistake, or one
wrong decision, but rather one keeps on doing it and making it his or her
lifestyle.
Who or what will it be like? While I was watching a program about
sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, I came to realize that there were
deliberate cover-ups, and that such cover-ups had been going on for a long
time, having been built into the system. There were ‘willful’ choices concerning sins, and many ‘kept it up’. It is not just the Catholic Church. I have seen such
things even within our churches; they are among
us as well. Jesus welcomed all kinds of sinners with loving, open arms,
but he also rebuked the Pharisees and
teachers of the Law harshly. The main reason for this was their hypocrisy. Even
if they knew God’s words, they had ‘deliberately’ chosen to evade His truth.
They fed themselves on false righteousness. What does it mean that one
‘deliberately keeps on sinning’? The author points out three things that they
were doing:
i.
He has treated Jesus’ blood as an unholy thing.
ii.
He has trampled the Son of God underfoot
iii.
He has insulted the Spirit of grace.
By choosing to live in sin, he/she has smeared Christ’s
entire work on the cross. This is a deadly serious matter. Paul gives the
ultimate outcome of such people:
i.
There is no sacrifice of sin left for him/her.
ii.
Only the fearful expectation of judgment and raging fire that will consume the enemy of God
is left for him/her.
Such
judgment is a sure thing because God has said, “it is mine to avenge; I will repay[B5] ”.
The Lord Himself will judge His people. As we know, God dealt with Israel’s sin
with His mighty hand. Likewise, God will surely deal with His people more
harshly when one rebels; it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of
the living God.
We all have had moments of failure when we have given into
sin and weakness. Even now, we still fall into sins now and then, but we must
not give into fear. Instead, we must remember what God has done in our lives
when we first came to believe in Him. We have to remember the grace that we have
received:
The recipients of this letter went through many hardships,
far worse than any we have experienced in our past. In such a time as this, it
is very important to remember those earlier days when God’s blessings were
overflowing in our lives.
The recipients of this letter endured through great conflict
and suffering while facing :
i.
Publicly exposed to insult and great suffering
ii.
You suffered along with those in prison and
iii.
joyfully accepted the confiscation of your
property,
What they suffered was more than any of us could think of bearing, but they did so in faith. They
could do this because they knew that they had better and lasting possessions
waiting for them! We must recall the blessing that we had when we first believed.
Who is going to see God’s kingdom? For many, it seems far away, but actually
God’s kingdom is not far away at all. It
is very near and will come without delay;
however, the question is who will enter that kingdom? We all must! None of us who
believe shall fail to do so!
5.
Do
not shrink back but stand firm with CPR (Hebrews 10:35-36)
In times of hardship and suffering, we need three things:
our confidence
in God’s redeeming work, perseverance for the present hardships
in our hope for the coming kingdom of
God,
and assurance that we will surely receive the reward that God has
promised (Confidence[B6] -perseverance-reward: CPR).
Hebrews 10:38-39
We shall not belong
to those who shrink back! But we will
stand firm in faith.
Revive your spirit through
CPR.
[B1]This
verse isn’t included in the passage being studied.
[B2]You
should give your three points up front, so that your readers can easily follow
along with your argument.
[B3]Good
point!!
[B4]which
word? Maybe the passage? Or the verse?
[B5]reference?
[B6]introduce
these three earlier on. Your readers may try to find these main points, and
could get frustrated if they have to wait until the end.
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