Sermons

Hebrews 10 - Applied Confidence

June 16, 2013 Speaker: Series: Hebrews

Topic: Sunday Worship Passage: Hebrews 10:1–10:39

[Text: Hebrews 10] “Applied Confidence”

In chapters 8-9, the pastor who first wrote this early-Christian sermon had come to the heart of his message. The heart was Jesus; and his priestly work and sacrifice was the foundation of their hope (and ours)! But where the emphasis then was on the objective reality of Christ’s work, the emphasis now shifts to address an important question: so what? What does Jesus have to do with life today?

Toward the end of this chapter, there is a solemn warning and I know that tends to dominate our thoughts. We will certainly talk about it but we need to be able to hear what precedes it in order to make sense of it. So, do your best to hear it and set your questions aside for the moment. Then we’ll be able to hear that the warning is directed, just like the one in chapter 6, not to sinners living in repentance and faith in Christ, but to those who would live without him altogether.

[Read Hebrews 10 and Pray – Father,. Amen.]

What does it look like for someone to have a lack of confidence? In baseball, it looks like being “afraid of the ball;” dodging a line drive instead of putting your body in front of it with glove extended. In the workplace, it looks like never speaking up in the conference room, even though you know the plan that was just approved is a terrible idea for about 30 reasons. Sometimes, a lack of confidence can come from outside of ourselves; from a baseball to the face when we first started playing or from someone shooting down our good ideas and making us feel small or insignificant.

But in our relationship with God, our lack of confidence doesn’t come from anything on His end (other than His perfect holiness, of course). I mean, He never belittles us or abuses us. On the contrary! He made us in His image, setting astounding dignity on humanity as the crown of creation! No the lack of confidence is all me ‘cause I’m a sinner and my offenses against Him have always made me keep away from His presence, like a kid who was told not to play in the mud – but played anyway – wants to hide from his Dad when he calls.

When we understand our sin rightly, it robs us of confidence in the presence of God. When the mud on our best clothes tells our Father what we’ve been doing, we can’t stand in front of Him expecting a smile. Only this metaphor isn’t sufficient, we’re not just talking about a spanking or a “talkin’ to” from our Dad; we’re talking about the guilt of sin against the infinite holiness of God. We’re talking about having blood on our hands from people we’ve murdered in our hearts. We’re talking about our failure to love God with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength. The guilty stain of sin is more deadly than we can fathom because it keeps us from the presence of the One Source of life.

But – when sin is removed, if the stain is gone and we are welcomed into His presence by His own invitation, then we can draw near to Him with confidence. Only our confidence isn’t in ourselves. Our confidence is in Jesus, the Son of God, whose blood has cleansed us and who sits in the presence of God as our high priest.

In chapter 10 the pastor urgently wants his friends – wants us – to understand that that cleansing and confidence is possible because of Jesus. He is our older brother who saw us covered with the mud and blood of our sin and washed us. He washed us with his own blood, once for all time taking our stain on himself so that the Father’s justice against sin could be satisfied once and for all; so that the Father’s forgiveness could be freely given and never taken away. And so, Jesus has opened the way for us to approach God our Father with confidence; living out this new reality is every sphere of life and enduring to the end in the same faith through which he first rescued us.

That’s what we’re hearing today from chapter 10 and we can divide the whole chapter into two basic section. In vv. 1-18, it’s the assurance that everything has changed for those whose faith is in Christ. The cleansing accomplished by Christ is final and definitive with nothing else to add. Now we can have confidence before God because of Christ. Vv. 19-39, then, is the application of that confidence; the pastor telling his friends how their confidence in Christ should be lived out – even in the face of the severe tests they are facing.

So, let’s consider first the foundation of our confidence because this is both the motivation and the empowerment to live in line with who we already are in Christ.

In v.1-18, there is symmetry to be seen, underscoring the certainty of the pastor’s message. He opens in vv. 1-4 speaking of the inadequacies of the old sacrifices that had to be repeated year after year. And the yearly repetition was, as v. 3 says, a reminder of sin and a reminder that confidence was still not theirs.

Now, each week when we gather, we take time during the service to remember our sin, so to speak. We confess the truth that we don’t have it all together, that brokenness and disobedience – even though we hate it – is still very much a part of our lives. But that is very different from the remembrance of sin when the old sacrifices were still offered. We confess our sin believing that it has already been dealt with by Christ. We look back as we confess to the cross when Jesus died to pay our ransom. But the believers under the law did not have such full confidence. They had to confess their sin and then wait…and wait…and wait for the day of the true sacrifice to arrive.

There was an understanding that the blood of bulls and goats – the sacrifices on the Day of Atonement, which is the background of this imagery – the blood of those animals was inadequate; it wasn’t enough to remove their sin. It was only enough to remind them that it was still there and known to God.

But compare that to vv. 15-18. These verses speak of adequacy of what God has done in Christ, in the new covenant in his blood (which was so fully explained in chapters 8-9). One of the elements of the new covenant Christ won for us was (if I can use this phrase with all humility and reverence) the forgetfulness of God. Verse 17 says that God would chose to remember the sin of His people no more. That is, He will not hold our acts of rebellion against us anymore because they were fully punished in Christ’s death! And if God says that all has been forgiven, then there is no other sacrifice we need to offer. The sacrifice of the Christ washes the people of God and by directing your faith toward him you are cleansed. And where there is cleansing from sin there is confidence before God.

That’s the outer symmetry of vv. 1-18 – it tells us that the sacrifice of Jesus was fully adequate to secure our forgiveness. The inner symmetry between vv. 5-10 and 11-14 has less to do with the quality of the sacrifice itself and more to do with the quality of the one who offered it.

That’s because, v. 5 tells us, what God was looking for wasn’t really a sacrifice (though the sacrifice of Christ was necessary to cleanse us). The pastor quotes Psalm 40 to say that what God really wanted was a man to obey Him from the heart; for a man to do His will.

Beneath this section is the understanding that although the priest of old offered sacrifices, they were the sacrifices of those who were unable to obey God fully from the heart. And that, together with the inability for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin, meant that definitive cleansing couldn’t be accomplished by those priests.

But when Christ came doing the will of God everything changed because it was the will of God for His Son to suffer in order to achieve forgiveness for us. It was the will of God to crush the Christ (Isaiah 53) to atone for our sin. It was the will of God for Jesus to be offered up on the cross as our sacrifice so that by his wounds we might be healed and washed and cleansed for all time. And Jesus stepped forward to do the will of God – one who was fully God and fully human yet without sin – fulfilling God’s will for humanity; obedience from the heart.

It is the perfect obedience of Christ to the will of God – the will that called him to die as a sacrifice – that sets Jesus above every other way to God. Every other priest who offers sacrifices must offer them continuously, endlessly, over and over. And they are offered in vain, v. 11 says, because they aren’t adequate to remove the stain and guilt of sin. But the perfect sacrifice offered by Christ only once qualified him to sit down at the right hand of God. He is the high priest whose work of sacrifice has ended. Where all others must stand and continue their work, he sits in the presence of God because his is finished; his “single sacrifice has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (v. 14).

Holding these two things together – the sacrifice of Christ that came from his obedience to God from the heart – tells us that when we look to Christ in faith not only is his sacrifice sufficient to cleanse us, but his active, heart-level obedience to God is the means by which you and I are set apart for service to God. That’s the meaning of v. 10. When it says that we have been sanctified, it speaks of the God-given, Christ-bought, Holy Spirit empowered reality for believers that we have been definitively set apart for service to God. In other words, Christ makes us holy as we look to him in faith. And if we are counted as holy, then we may begin, more and more, to live in line with that truth. We, like our high priest, Jesus, may now obey and serve God with grateful hearts.

That’s where the truths of vv. 1-18 lead; they lead into a response of faith in action seen in vv. 19-39 as you, brothers and sisters of Christ, have become priests yourselves in the service of the living God. But always consider how, in vv. 19-21, our actions are a response to the person and work of Jesus. The pastor encourages us with the new reality that has come, twice saying “since we have” Jesus as our sacrifice and high priest, therefore we are to respond. This is the response to the grace of God already given and received by faith; this is not the way to earn God’s grace.

So, how do we live our confidence in him? What does it look like to live in the confidence of full cleansing because of the finished work of Jesus? The pastor models his answer on one more ancient sacrifice. It was the sacrifice that could only be offered when all other sacrifices had been accomplished, when atonement for sin had been made and God and man were reconciled – the peace offering. The peace offering was an offering through which people could finally approach God with a clean conscience, trusting that His justice had been satisfied and now God wanted them to draw near for fellowship. And the peace offering was a meal where the worshippers of God would sit down with each other at the table, eating the body of the sacrifice with the understanding that God was present among them as their gracious and merciful host. So, following the pastor’s thought here, since Christ has already made peace for us by his blood – the one last sacrifice ever needed for our forgiveness – we live in the beginning of the new age, in which we may continually draw near to God …in worship… with each other.

There are three main parts to this new-covenant peace offering, which is our reasonable, worshipful response to what God has done in cleansing us and setting us apart for His service.[1] First, we draw near to God as those who are welcomed because of Jesus. Second, we hold fast to our trust in the faithfulness of God in Christ. Third, we live out this worship of God together as the return of Christ draws near.

So, first, we draw near to God as those welcomed because of Jesus. When we read v. 22, we read a beautiful summary of the new reality that comes by faith in Christ. We 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.” This is our confidence; not in ourselves but Christ who cleanses us and sets us apart for service! At all times – especially in times of need, 4:16 tells us – we may approach God through Christ and because of Christ’s work on our behalf. Never can we approach God without him, but we may always come to God with Him because we have peace with God through Christ.

So, in times of distress, in times of plenty and times of need, in moments of grief when everyone seems to desert you and in moments of conviction when sin would accuse you – in all these times we who believe in Christ may draw near to God and find Him willing and powerful to rescue us. And even if His will for us looks a lot like suffering – because it is suffering – we can trust that it will shown to be a part of our salvation in the end. And think, too, about what this means for celebrating communion. When we eat the Lord’s Supper together, we are sitting down and enjoying the meal that echoes the peace offering meal. We spiritually feed on the body and blood of Christ our sacrifice and the meal is eaten in community with God Himself as our host! That meal is God sitting down with you and assuring you of peace between Him and you because of Christ.

Second, we respond to God by holding fast to our trust in God through Jesus. It was a characteristic of the peace offering to recount all that God had done for His people and to renew one’s own commitment to God. That’s the essence of v. 23. As the Hebrew Christians faced threats from Rome and temptations to return to the outdated, soon-to-vanish sacrificial system of the Jews, this call was vital. To hold fast to their belief in Jesus, who was the substance of their hope – was to do the very thing God asked of them. This was not a call to do great deeds for God (although He would lead some of His people to speak of Christ in front of kings). This was simply a call to endure in faith, looking toward a faithful God who has done great things for them. The call is no different for you or me. Faithfulness to God looks a lot more like repenting and believing the Gospel than checking off any specific set of man-established duties – even those that have the appearance of religion. After all, we humans are quite capable of reading our bibles every day while not trusting in Jesus as the substance of our hope in God.

Third, we respond to what God has done by living out this worship of God together. In v. 24, this worship to which we are welcomed is the worship of a community. While God welcomes us in Christ at all times – individually expressing our faith and hope in quiet moments – the love to which we are called can only be expressed in community with other worshippers.

And the “love and good works” to which these Christians were called would be possible as they stirred each other up, reminding fearful sinners that Christ has already cleansed them, encouraging the one who feels weak that Christ their king and high priest reigns in heaven to take care of them. It is only in community as the Body of Christ that we may experience the ordinary way God means to take care of us. Here we sit under His Word. Here He meets us in the sacraments and confirms His promises to us in Christ. Here we pray as one people and preach the gospel to each other and remind each other of the forgiveness of sins and the hope of the day when Christ returns to make all things new.

This confidence available to sinners who direct their faith toward Christ, these wonderful promises of cleansing and being called into the service of the Living God, and the humble, inexpressible joy of being invited to draw near to God through Christ is the background that leads the pastor to issue the warning of 26-38. If we ultimately reject Christ, reject his sacrifice and reject the call to enter the presence of God through Jesus, then what hope is left? If we throw away the confidence that God offers, then there is no confidence to be found anywhere when judgment comes.

He says, “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment….” The question is this; what does it mean to “go on sinning deliberately?” Is that what I’m doing when I sin now? Do my current, even frequent failures to love and worship God with my whole heart leave me in danger of this “fury of fire” that will overtake the enemies of God?

No, Christian. No, Christian. No, we need to look at the immediate context and the larger context of the book. The sin that is in view here is the same as that in chapters 5-6. It is the only unforgivable sin; apostasy. We can see it in the way he opens and closes this section. This is the difference between one who “professes faith” and the one who “has faith” in Christ. The phrase “sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth” is held in contrast with “those who have faith and preserve their souls.” The difference between the Christian and the lost is always this: faith in Christ.

So ask yourself, “When I sin (for that remains a grievous reality for us in these mortal bodies) – when I sin, what is my response?” Do you grieve over that act of rebellion and turn from it back to Christ, hoping only in his cleansing and finished work of setting you apart for service to God? Or do you earnestly, deliberately want to keep on living in ways that are open rebellion against him and think that this “Jesus” is of no significance? Do you think that his blood means nothing and does nothing?

The pastor wrote to his friends, essentially saying in vv. 32-34 that he didn’t think that was true of them. He remembers their faith and willingness to suffer under the will of God in the past. They were willing because of their confidence in Christ. They had accepted even the loss of everything they had in this world because they “had a better possession….” They had Christ and all his benefits! And their faith in him endured. He reminds them that endurance is what they needed in their present distress, too.

If the thought of spurning and rejecting Christ is as terrifying to you as your sin is grievous; if the thought of this deadly reality being true of you causes your heart to tremble and makes you run to Jesus as your only hope, then rest assured, Believer, that this warning has served part of its purpose. It has driven you back to faith in Christ.

And if you have come to him, then you have come to hope itself. You have come to the one who gives you confidence – confidence enough to draw near to God – because your sins have been forgiven and removed from you, because he has qualified you to serve as a priest to God. All the benefits of Christ belong to you, too, by faith in him and so the call is to endure in that belief, while seeking to offer your sacrifice of praise with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

By faith in Christ you are no longer that muddy child looking to hide from your Father’s call. Christ your brother and king and high priest has washed you clean, purifying you once for all with his own blood so that no guilty stain remains. And he has set you apart for service to God – you are welcome at all times in His presence now. So go now with your brothers and sisters to worship the One whose faithfulness endures, giving us certain hope in Christ now and in the age to come. For you yourselves have “a better possession and an abiding one” in Christ.

[Pray – Father, we thank you with humble joy for your enduring faithfulness. You have made promises to us and you have kept them all as you have given us Jesus who is our all. In him we draw near to you, raised up into your presence by the power of his resurrection life and by the work of your Holy Spirit. We praise you as we remember your faithfulness and ask, Father, that you would grant us the gift of endurance, that in every circumstance whether joyful or painful we would look to Jesus in faith. And when we have endured in faith, which is your will, O God, we trust that we will receive what you have promised. We will receive you as our inheritance and we will stand in your presence forever even as we stand now – in perfect confidence and worshipful joy. Amen.]

[Benediction, from Hebrews 13:20-21]

“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

 

 

[1] William L. Lane, Hebrews: A Call to Commitment, 140.

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