Apostles Church

Hebrews 10:32-39. Hebrews is a difficult book that is often overlooked. There are many references to OT (angels, Moses, Levitical priesthood; sacrifices, covenant) so many find it difficult to see relevance.  Authorship: We don’t know for certain the author of Hebrews, though we know he was a close associate of those ministered with the Apostles (Timothy). The letter is so rich in Christology that the church immediately recognized that it had the quality of divine inspiration and received it as a reliable revelation of God and the Gospel. It is more of a sermon than a letter (13:22 – word of exhortation), so we will call the author “the Pastor.”  Audience: The Pastor is writing this letter most likely from Italy to Jewish Christians living either near Rome or somewhere in Asia Minor (scholars differ). Probably a house church. It appears that he is writing this letter in the mid-late 60s. He speaks of the sacrificial system as if it is still in place (this would mean a date prior to AD 70). But he knows these people and has a huge heart for them and is very concerned for the situation that they are in. Situation: This group of Christians never saw Jesus. They heard the Gospel preached by others who were eyewitnesses of Jesus (2:1-4) and the Gospel was authenticated by the powerful working of God’s Spirit. We know from our text that after hearing and believing the Gospel, these believers encountered great suffering; publicly exposed to reproach, imprisoned, had their homes raided and property plundered because of their association with other persecuted Christians. They have endured a lot of persecution and suffering. But, they have not yet had to face persecution to the point of death (Hebrews 12:4). Not yet. However, now Nero has come to power. In 64AD Rome experienced a devastating fire that destroyed much of the city. Fire burned for over 2 weeks. Of the 14 districts of the city, only 4 were untouched. The people resented Nero for this; they actually believed that he ordered the fire. None of Nero’s humanitarian efforts on the backside of the fire could quell public opinion that this was his doing. In response to these rumors Nero looked for someone else to blame. Tacitus, the Roman historian wrote, “Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians [or Chrestians] by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome” (Annals of Rome, 15.44). Tacitus goes on to explain the intensity of the persecutions under Nero. “Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired…” This is the atmosphere in which the pastor is writing. These Christians are facing the daily prospect of persecution and the threat of death because of their faith in Jesus.  In the past they had endured and the pastor is exhorting them now to endure and not shrink back from their fidelity to Jesus. They are facing persecution and that created a temptation – renounce Christ and go back to your old way of life. Return to Judaism. Judaism was still tolerated in Rome. If you go back to Judaism, you can have a safer spirituality that will be more acceptable to the greater culture and let you continue in life without much loss to your personal comfort and safety.  The entire book is going to call these Christians to steadfast love and loyalty to Christ in the face of a culture that is hostile and would give less resistance if they adopted a safer, Christ-less spirituality.

Do you see how this is relevant for us? I’m not saying we live in a culture that is greatly hostile to Christianity. Believers in other countries certainly face this. I have met men who have been beaten for their faith and whose families have suffered greatly and live under real threat of prison and death because of their faith and yet traveled hundreds of miles by foot, boat, hitchhiking just to hear the bible taught. That is not the world we live in. Often Christians are well received and even respected and listened to by the greater culture. But, we do live in a culture that is somewhat resistant to Christianity and where living openly as a Christian requires a bit of courage and endurance. Some of this is due to Christians who poorly reflect Jesus and the grace that is at the heart of Christianity. But some of it is due to the world’s posture toward Jesus and his unique claims and demands. John 15:18-19 ““If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19) If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” ESV. Some Christians work in professional fields where they are ridiculed for following Jesus. Some Christian students on the campuses of their university find their faith convictions held up to contempt. For those that know and love Jesus, we have all felt that impulse to keep our faith secret in the public arena. We are faced with the temptation to turn away from Christ for the sake of acceptance within the greater culture. Add to this, many of us face the constant temptation to go back to the life we knew before Christ. The pastor who writes this letter is urging his friends not to return to their former lives, pre-Christ, regardless of how easier and more enjoyable they might envision it. I have known several people who claim to believe in Jesus, yet abandoned their faith in him opting to go back to their pre-Christ convictions and lifestyles. Some of you might even be on the verge of that yourself. This book has something for us. It is a call that repeats the very call of Jesus – “to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him at all costs.” It is a call to commitment; a call to perseverance; a call to treasure Christ above all things, even our own lives.

The Pastor calls them to stay the course in two ways: Wooing them and Warning them. Wooing. Woo –winning others over. He gives them such a glorious vision of Jesus, an exalted Christology. They are tempted to abandon their love and loyalty to Jesus and go back to Judaism. So, he shows them how Christ is greater than the law, than Moses, than Aaron, than Joshua, than the High Priest; than the sacrificial system, on and on. He shows them that it would be foolish to go back to Judaism when everything in Judaism is pointing to Jesus. (the book is going to take us deep into the OT and show us how Jesus is the fulfillment of all it). But his point is that Jesus is greater than anything you have left to follow him and greater than anything you could leave him for. There is nothing greater you could live for and nothing greater that you could die for. The pastor gives us a stirring picture of Christ and all he has won for us, and all that awaits those who will trust him (the forgiveness of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit and his enabling transforming presence; a leader who will lead us to the glory we are hungry for;  freedom from the fear of death; rest for our souls; help in our struggles and temptation, - sympathy, strength and support; eternal hope that is an anchor for our souls; a clean conscience free of guilt and punishing regret; a new heart with new capacities to love and live; a real experience of the living God who satisfies us completely). 10:35 – Great reward. This is what we have in Jesus. The Pastor is going to help us see him and in seeing him find nothing greater than him. This is how the Christian life works. We do not live out this faith by adhering to a lists of dos and don’ts but by seeing Christ as the greatest thing we could live for and die for and then ordering our life as a response to that. The Christian life is a holistic response to the greatness of Jesus. So, if you embrace Christianity for practical purposes, you will abandon it as soon as it becomes inconvenient to follow Jesus. We don’t follow Jesus because it is practical to do so; we follow him because our hearts are fixed on him and unmoved by anything less than him. So, the pastor says in 12:1-2 let us run, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Jesus’ words to Peter and Peter’s response.

Warnings. This is where the book of Hebrews gets challenging. Throughout the book, the writer gives several warnings of the certain results of renouncing faith in Jesus and abandoning him. These warnings intensify. 2:1-4 – lest we drift away and not escape God’s retribution; 3:1-4:13 Lest we harden our hearts and fail to enter God’s rest (heaven); 5:10-6:12 Lest we fall away and not be able to come back; 10:10-39 Lest we sin willfully and be consumed by God; 12:12-29 Lest we refuse to hear and fail to escape judgment. These warnings are strong. They are unsettling to read. They raise a lot of questions. They have a specific issue in mind – Apostasy. Apostasy is the willing, intentional, renunciation of Christ. It is denying him, ranging from carelessness to defiance. But the intent of God in inspiring the pastor to write these things is clear – to keep them from renouncing Jesus Christ and to remain steadfast in their faith in Christ. So, 10:39, we won’t shrink back into the dark out of fear, but stay faithful and preserve unto salvation. But, if we do shrink back, we will be destroyed; we will perish. We will miss out on an eternity with God. These warnings clearly teach us that we are saved by grace through faith, but that the faith that saves us is a persevering faith; only those who persevere in faithful love and loyalty to Jesus will be saved in the end. These warnings, along with God’s promises, are God’s means that he has chosen to secure our continued faith. We are not read this and wonder, “do these warnings mean someone can lose their salvation?” Rather, the warnings give us the imagined outcome of judgment that results from apostasy and this serves as one of the powerful means that God uses to keep us from apostasy. What we will see is that God promises and works to preserve our faith (we are kept by the power of God), and warns us to continue in our faith lest we perish. “God strengthens our faith both by assuring us that he will preserve us safely to the end and by warning us lest we perish by failing to persevere in steadfast loyalty to Jesus.” – Schreiner and Caneday, The Race Set Before Us. Illus: If I am holding hands with my son and warn my son that falling off the subway platform as the train approaches will certainly lead to his death, that does not imply that my son is in danger of falling off the platform (especially since I have hold of his hand). But that stern warning to my son is one of the ways I ensure that he will be kept safe. The imagined outcome of him falling, causes him to keep far from the edge of the platform even as I hold his hand ensuring him that I have him. So, these warnings are one of the means that God uses to preserve our faith; warnings are one of God’s merciful and loving means to keep us faithful to Christ. So, He keeps us and preserves us by wooing us, revealing Christ and all his greatness to us; and warning us of the great peril that is certain for anyone should they walk away from Christ. This is how Jesus spoke as well. Mark 8:34-38. he woos (life is in me, so renounce ownership of your life that you may have the life I give); he warns (you keep your life and withhold it from me, you will ultimately lose it – deny me before people and on that day, I will deny you before my Father). We are going to visit these passages and wrestle together with them and see that they are given to us by a loving God who appoints them as his means to keep us close to the Greatest Thing we could live for.

Who this Series is For: All of us.

Those who are considering Christ: I pray that you will come to see the uniqueness and unparalleled greatness of Jesus. That Jesus is unmatched and unrivaled and that you would become experientially convinced of the supremacy of Jesus over all things and know what he has done to give you life abundant and eternal. Maybe you are coming and on the brink of settling with him; I hope this series draws you across the line of faith.

Those who believe in him and are following him: be encouraged to persevere.

Those who are growing weary and beginning to drift: that you would be warned that there is no hope of a salvation apart from persevering faith in and loyalty to Jesus. That the warnings of Hebrews would waken you up to the danger of drifting and the peril of renouncing your allegiance to Jesus and you would hear anew his call to follow him and not shrink back to your own peril and destruction. That you would clearly hear the words of Jesus, ““For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37) For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38) For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”” Mark 8.36–38 ESV.

So, all of us will be challenged to do this – fix our eyes on Jesus and run the race he has marked out for us, not giving up, but run with endurance.