A CALL TO PERSEVERE

Hebrews 10:19-39

Key Verse: 10:36

“You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”

Today’s passage encourages us to draw near to God because we have confidence in Christ and at the same time gives us a warning not to shrink back but to persevere under trials of many kinds. It is important for us to use our spiritual gifts to share God’s love with others. We need to build our spiritual community to spur one another through meetings together regularly. We should not throw away our confidence in Christ no matter what happens around us. We should not be influenced by the sinful world but change the world by the hope we profess. God will reward those who persevere to the end. Let’s persevere with confidence that God will reward us richly in this spring semester. I pray that God may use us to proclaim his message of hope and love through this passage.

PART I LET US DRAW NEARTO GOD IN FAITH (19-25)

            Look at verses 19-22. “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” The point of this passage is “let us draw near to God.” Someone may say, “How could we dare draw near before such a holy and awesome God?  Draw away from God as far as possible because you are a sinner. Run as fast as possible.” But if we run away from God, we will be ruled by Satan. Yes, we can dare to draw near to God. Why? We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus. In the Old Testament only the high priest was allowed to enter into the Most Holy Place; and that only once a year-to offer the blood of a sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. Ordinary people were not allowed to enter the Most Holy Place. One time King Uzziah tried to burn incense in the sanctuary. God afflicted him with leprosy and he had leprosy until the day he died. (2 Chr. 26:21) It was difficult to draw near to God in the ancient days. Even Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.” (Heb. 21:21) But now we have confidence to draw near to God. The cause of our confidence is the blood of Jesus. Jesus offered his own blood to take away the sins of the world.  He offered his life blood to forgive our sins. Jesus is the reason we can approach God with great confidence. Confidence is one of the factors to win in sports. Confidence brings victory in military battles. We have to use what he accomplished for all of us. Jesus instituted a new way for us to draw near to God. We have this confidence by the fact that Jesus initiated it for us through the curtain that is his body. Do you remember that the curtain of the temple was torn into two from top to bottom when Jesus died? (Mk. 15:36) When Jesus gave his life on the cross, and allowed his body to be broken for us, he made a new way that takes us right through the curtain and into the Holy Place. The door of salvation is wide open. What a confidence we have in Jesus! Because of the death of Jesus, we sinners have full and free access to enter the Most Holy Place and have fellowship with God our heavenly Father. Because of Jesus, we can call God as “Abba, Father.” (Rom. 8:15) Little children are not afraid of drawing near to their daddy. We love to come near our heavenly Father. Tearing the curtain in two was God’s open invitation for us to draw near. After we finish this earthly journey, someday we literally enter trough the curtain into God’s wonderful presence. What a glorious day it will be! God will hold our hands wiping our tears and say to us, “Welcome home, my dear child. I have been waiting for you since you welcomed my son Jesus into your heart.”

Based on the finished work of Christ, four exhortations are given to us from verses 22-25.   

The commands are given in the form of “let us.” Look at verse 22a once again. “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.” When we draw near to God, we need to have full assurance of faith. This means that we should not doubt our salvation through Jesus. Doubt takes away our confidence in the blood of Jesus. Doubt is a small amount of poison which can destroy our faith in Jesus. When Adam and Eve doubted God’s love by listening to the devil’s lies, they lost confidence in God’s love and disobeyed God. When Judas doubted Jesus’ love, he became a betrayer. Doubts eat up our souls and destroys our relationship with God. We need full assurance of faith through Jesus daily by listening to the word of God.

Look at verse 23. “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” Many people waver in their faith when they meet the storms of life. Many people persuade us to give up our faith in Christ and return to our old way of life. But we should hold fast to the confession of hope in all situations because he who promised is faithful. Hope motivates people to work hard and overcome all obstacles. Without hope people lose heart. Hope is a driving force to realize our dreams. Let’s hold firmly the confession of our hope. These days there are primaries among the Democrats and Republicans. They make many promises saying, “I will make US economy strong again. I will reduce your taxes. I will protect America from terrorists.” Most of them do not deliver on their promises. But God is faithful to keep his promise. He promised to give us eternal life through the resurrection of Jesus. We have a living hope in Jesus. We need to hold to this living hope by faith in Jesus. Look at verses 24-25. “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Here we see the importance of meeting together. We are a part of the body of Christ. When I was in Indonesia, I enjoyed wonderful fellowship with many brothers and sisters in Christ because they are members of the body of Christ. I did not feel any human barriers and obstacles at all. They were very close to me. In the same way we are members of the body of Christ. The goal of our fellowship is to spur one another toward love and good deeds. Spur is a strong word like provoke. We should provoke God’s love when we meet. Love is the essence of Christian fellowship. The early Christians met daily to share bread and they encouraged each other in singing and praising God. (Acts 2:42) They grew in numbers daily because of their strong fellowship. We feel God’s love when we eat delicious foods together prepared by our dedicated women coworkers. The strength of Christian fellowship is to serve others. It is to build the Christian community up based on the teachings of Jesus. God wants to bind all believers into the house of God built by the blood of Jesus. As we live in the Internet age, it is easy to avoid meetings and have fellowship with your computer. But we have to overcome the temptation of the world and isolation. Sometimes we feel that we do not have time for the fellowship meetings and many other church meetings. Selfishness prevents us from coming to the meetings. We are tempted not to get involved in any church activities. But according to statistics, most people commit sins when they are alone. It is not good to be alone for God’s people. Involve yourself in many activities even playing soccer games like Landry. But do not forsake meeting together. Prayer house members are different in shape and size and their food choices. They live together as brothers and sisters in Christ. How can they spur each other? They can stir up one another because they love Jesus. They say, “Come to prayer meeting and study hard. Clean up your room.” They grow in faith because they pray for each other and support each other. That’s the secret of fellowship in Christ. We must appreciate the value and necessity of our fellowship together.

PART II A CALL TO PERSEVERE (26-39)

Immediately following a gracious exhortation to draw near to God and hold on to the confession of hope, we find a stern warning. This passage is a warning against the continuing willful sin. Warnings are good to prevent us from falling from grace. If we listen to doctor’s warnings, we can maintain healthy life. There are 5 warnings in the Hebrews including this one-a warning against drifting (2:1-4), a warning against departing (3:12-14), a warning against disobedience (4:11), and a warning against dullness (5:11-6:6). Now this one is the last one. Look at verses 26-27. “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.” This is a serious warning against those who keep on sinning willfully. There are three categories about the willful sin in verse 29. They are the one who trampled the Son of God under foot and regarded the blood of the covenant as unclean and insulted the Spirit of grace. Verses 30-31 indicate that they will be punished according to God’s word. Isn’t God a God of love? Of course, he is a God of love. But he is also a God of justice. The one who judges his people will judge those who keep on sinning. Look at verse 31. “It is dreadful thing to fall into the hands of living God.” Jonathan Edwards wrote a sermon with the title “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” based on the verse 31 “O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it…and nothing to lay hold to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment. Therefore, let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let everyone fly out of Sodom: "Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed." Therefore, it truly is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of living God. What can we do to ensure that we do not become guilty of “willful sin”? We find the answers in verses 32-39.

Look at verse 32-33. “Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other time you stood side by side with those who were so treated.”  The author reminds his readers of their former days. They shared sufferings together and they stood their ground in sufferings. They maintained their identity as servants of God when they were persecuted for their faith. They were clear about their identity as missionaries and Bible teachers. They were willing to give up their properties and even their lives for the sake of their faith. In the end they lived by faith. What should we remember when we struggle to keep our faith? Rev. 2:5 says, “Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place.” When we met Christ for the first time, we were excited and served God’s will wholehearted. But as time passed, our love grew cold and we become habitual and there is no joy or excitement in our spiritual life. This is not a good sign. We need to remember the first love and remember what we did and do it again what we did first.

Look at verses 35-36. “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” It is such confidence they must be careful not to throw away. To throw away is the opposite of “hold fast.” We can’t give up now, but patiently endure. Why should we not throw away our confidence? (34b,35) There is a great reward if only we hold fast our confidence in the blood of Jesus. Today is Super Bowl Sunday between New England Patriots and New York Giants. This is rivalry between NY and Boston again. Who will win? I am sure that the team which perseveres to the end will win. Not to fumble is a key point of winning the game. In our spiritual battle it is very important to persevere to the end under enormous peer pressure to drop our faith in Jesus. When we endure, we will receive what he has promised. Jesus is our good example to persevere. When Jesus was on the cross, many passersby demanded, “Come down from the cross and save yourself.” (Mk 15:30) But Jesus persevered to the end overcoming insult and pain. He said in John 19:30, “It is finished.” Jesus finished the work of salvation through his death on the cross. He did not come down and endured suffering to the end. God crowned him with honor and glory because Jesus endured scorn and shame. By doing so, Jesus became author of faith. (Heb. 12:3) Apostle Paul said in 2 Tim. 4:7, “I have finished the race.” Then there was a crown of righteousness waiting for him. M. Anna Seo and Joseph Chun persevered during their nursing studies and they will become registered nurses as a reward. I took Greek grammar I ten years ago and I signed up Greek grammar II. When I went to the class, Greek study looks like Greek to me. I have every reason to drop the course. But I will persevere to the end because I need good grade for this course. If students drop any course, they get zero credits. So good students persevere to the end of the semester to receive their reward. We begin the new year with our key verse and prayer topics of feeding sheep and prayer life. In order to have fruitful fishing ministry we need to persevere until we have 5 Bible students. We have every reason to quit but those who persevere will be rewarded.

In conclusion, we need to look forward the day of our glorious reunion with Jesus because he is coming again. It is a great blessing for us to finish our spiritual race because we have confidence in Jesus. Let us remember and rekindle that confidence early in our conversion and endure to the end with the faith that saves. May God bless us to draw near God with confidence and have fellowship together in this spring semester. Let’s read the key verse 36.