Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

Text:

Read Hebrews 10:19-25

I want to point out first how every verse in this passage is directed toward us as a group. Verse 19, ?Therefore brothers…? Verse 20, ?by the new and living way that he opened for us…? Verse 21, ?and since we have a great high priest…? Verse 22, ?let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.? Verse 23, ?Let us hold fast the confession of our hope…? Verse 24, ?And let us consider how to stir up one another…? Verse 25, ?not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another…?

Do you think maybe this passage has something to say to us? There are three primary commands given to us.

1. Draw near to God (v. 22).
2. Hold fast the confession of our hope (v. 23).
3. Consider how to stir one another up to love and good works (v. 24).

These commands are built upon two truths about Christ and our relationship with Him.

1. Christ is the way, and He opened the way for us into God’s presence by His blood (v. 19-20).
2. Christ is our high priest (v. 21).

First I want to look at our commands, and then we’ll go back to look at the truths that these commands are based on.

First, we have the command to draw near to God (v. 22). This is perhaps the main command of the book of Hebrews. God is holy, and we can’t even by our own nature come close to Him. While the message of the book of Hebrews is that Christ is great, and that God is magnificent, our command is to draw near to this God.

It’s entirely possible to come here week after week, and yet be far from God. Drawing near to God is not merely about coming to a church building. It’s about meeting with God!

Our second command is to hold fast the confession of our hope (v. 23). What is the confession of our hope? It’s the confession that gives us hope. It’s that Christ is our Savior! So how do we hold fast to this confession? At first we might say that we continue to believe it. That’s certainly part of it, but I don’t think it goes far enough. We need to live in its reality. Since we have hope in Christ, we don’t despair about life’s circumstances. We don’t look to the circumstances of this life for our ultimate happiness. We have joy in the midst of trials.

Andree Peterson, writing for World Magazine, recently wrote about Charles Spurgeon during a cholera epidemic in 1854. She wrote, ?In the middle of a cholera epidemic in 1854, Charles Spurgeon was returning home from yet another funeral when a shard of paper wedged in a shoemaker’s window caught his eye. It said, ‘Because thou hast made the Lord ? thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.’ Surgeon subsequently wrote: ‘The effect upon my heart was immediate. Faith appropriated the passage as her own. I felt secure, refreshed, girt with immortality. I went on with my visitation of the dying in a calm and peaceful spirit; I felt no fear of evil, and I suffered no harm.’ ? Now, Spurgeon was a Baptist preacher. He didn’t buy into the health and wealth gospel. Yet because of this Scripture, he knew that although he may contract cholera and die, no evil would befall him. Because of Christ, we have a home in Heaven that can make us so bold and joyful even in the worst of circumstances here on the earth.

Consider how to stir up one another to love and good works (v. 24). It’s easy to stir one another up. The longer you know someone, the easier it becomes. We know which buttons to push. But we’re not merely to aggravate one another, but to stir one another up to love and good works. And it’s interesting that as soon as the writer gives us this command to stir one another up in this way, he reminds us not to neglect gathering as a church.

I’ve heard many people say that they can practice their faith apart from church, which may be true for a season, or even for awhile. But even if that’s true, the Bible is here saying that although you may not think you need the church, the church needs you! You need to come and be an encouragement to your family in Christ.

Yet even with all these commands for us, this passage is not all about us. It’s about Jesus. Every command and statement in this passage about us directs us to focus on Christ. It says at the end of verse 23 that He who promised is faithful. We love because He first loved us. We gather because He gathers us. We gather to worship Him. And since Christ is faithful, by the way, we can hope in Him without wavering. We don’t do this because our faith is so strong. We can do this because Christ is so faithful. So let’s look at the basis for drawing near to God, holding to our confession, and stirring one another up to love and good works.

First, Christ is the way, and He opened up the way into God’s presence by His blood (v. 19-20). Jesus Himself said, ?I am the the way, and the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me? (John 14:6). Christ’s blood was shed for us. Christ’s body was pierced for us. And here we find an illustration of Christ’s flesh being compared to the curtain that separated the holy place from the most holy place. That curtain was torn! The only way into God’s presence was through the death of Christ. And since Jesus lived perfectly, and died, and rose, and did all this for us because we couldn’t, we can draw near to God.

Second, Christ is our high priest (v. 21). Christ lives to make intercession for us. Christ claims us as His own and points back to His sacrifice as the atoning sacrifice for our sin. Notice, though, that He is high priest of the house of God. While He is often called the Savior of the world, since there is no other Savior by which people may be saved, Jesus is never called the high priest of the world.

So what is this house of God? Hebrews defines the house of God for us in Hebrews 3:6. We are the house of God, if we put our hope in Christ. Christ saves those who trust in Him, and He is our high priest, and His sacrifice covers our sins. Draw near to God, through Christ, this morning, this afternoon, and tomorrow, and for the rest of your life, having Jesus as Savior, and a hope and joy that cannot be shaken.