How to Keep Going (Heb. 10:26-39)

This sermon was preached on 4/8/2013

We have all seen athletic races that are so long many of the runners want to give up – perhaps they had not prepared well enough for it. Or we see some people who engage in public actions give up because other people disagree with what they have done and they become disillusioned. Footballers and other sportspersons have to give up their careers because they get too old. There are many reasons why people give up – discouragement, failure and opposition are only three of many possible causes. The author of Hebrews wrote to Christians who were considering giving up their profession of Jesus as the promised Saviour because of persecution and a sense of disillusionment with the Christian faith. So the author used various arguments throughout his letter to prevent them from doing so. And in this passage he mentions some of them.

                      

We are not to imagine that such thoughts and actions are limited to those Christians of long ago. The Christian life is not always lived at a comfortable level and at times things can seem to go wrong. If you were to ask me what aspects I think bother Christians today and make them wonder if it is worthwhile continuing, I would suggest unanswered prayer, increasing ostracisation, church disunity covered up by other names, and personal failures in living up to expectations. The author of Hebrews provided reasons why his readers should continue, and while we live in a different world from them his reasons are also applicable to us. So what does he say? I want to think briefly about three reasons.

                           

The danger of divine judgement  (10:26-31)

The author points out that God will judge all sins. Among those sins there are degrees of wickedness. It is more heinous to stab a person than it is to steal a bar of chocolate. The author reminds his readers that the worst sin is to treat Jesus Christ with disdain, especially if previously they had thought he was the Saviour – such an offender has ‘trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace’ (v. 29). So he warns them that God will not treat lightly those who despise Jesus and what he had done for sinners when he was on the cross. Such an attitude also despises the Holy Spirit who had been at work in their lives, pointing them to Jesus and his finished work on the cross and subsequent glory. As the author says, ‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’ (v. 31).

It is important to note what the writer is not saying here when he describes those who reject Jesus in such an offhand and deliberate manner. We should not imagine that he is teaching that a true Christian can be lost after he has been saved. That scenario is impossible. But the author is saying that someone who professes to be a Christian and then permanently gives up the faith will be lost because such were not true Christians to begin with. How does one know that he is a true Christian? The answer is that he continues to follow Jesus.

Nor is the writer saying that a backslider will be lost. Many genuine Christians backslide, including some very prominent biblical characters such as David. Although they backslid, the Lord worked in their hearts to bring them to repentance and then restored them to his fellowship. How does a backslider know that he is a true Christian? The answer is that he repents of his sin and resumes following Jesus.

The writer is not saying something that is unique to himself among the writers of the Bible. We are aware that the Gospel writers record the parable that Jesus told about a sower. In that parable he described four responses: one immediate rejection of Jesus, two eventual rejections of Jesus, and one acceptance of Jesus. In that parable, how does one know that he is a true Christian? The answer is that he produces fruit.

           

As we can see from this warning, the gospel is about spiritual life and spiritual death. The way to have spiritual life is to trust in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. It is not how near we get that matters. Instead we have to enter into a relationship with Jesus that continues throughout life. This calls for resolve even if others are giving up. Lack athletes in a race, we have to keep going until the end because it is those who keep going who will get the prize.

The persecutions they endured (10:32-34)

The second argument that the author uses is their past commitment to Jesus even in difficult situations. He outlines for them their response during times of persecution. It is important as we read these verses to remember that they are the normal Christian life for numerous believers today. What had the Hebrews done for Jesus during their time of persecution?

First, they had undergone a great deal of suffering because they professed to follow Jesus. If the recipients lived in Jerusalem, then the suffering may refer to periods of trouble endured by the church there that are mentioned in the Book of Acts such as what occurred under the leadership of Saul of Tarsus or when Herod slew James the apostle. But if they lived elsewhere, then the possible time of the sufferings cannot be suggested, although they were obviously very intense.

Second, the author divides the suffering into three areas. He first mentions that they were made a spectacle, which implies that what happened to them was watched by others as a form of entertainment. It is common knowledge that the early Christians often were the victims of wild beasts in the arenas, so this may be what the author has in mind, although such treatment was not common practice among the Jews. So it is more likely that the author is referring to other forms of public derision and contempt that were used against his readers. Some of them could remember being with those who had died as martyrs. As we take time to ponder their experiences, surely we must find our emotions involved, and we should further note that such demeaning actions are still common against Christians in many parts of the world.

Then, he reminds his readers about the sympathy that they showed towards one another when those who had not been arrested visited those who had been, including the author himself. Prisoners in those times depended entirely on friends providing them with food and other necessities. We can imagine how unlikely it would be for anyone to try and help a prisoner because it would show the government that there was a link between the visitors and the prisoners. Yet the readers of this letter had visited their friends who had been arrested. Why did they do this? Obviously their sense of brotherly love was very strong and they revealed they were prepared to go as far as possible in expressing it. It is also likely that they were aware of the parable Jesus taught about the Day of Judgement, in which he said that to visit fellow Christians in prison was the same as if they were visiting Jesus in prison. What they thought of Jesus was revealed in what they were prepared to do for his people.

In addition to becoming a spectacle before society and to showing sympathy with arrested Christians, the readers had also surrendered their possessions. It is the case that their possessions were taken from them by force, but we can see the aspect of surrender in that they accepted the loss joyfully. We would regard this as a very strange response if we did not know why they did it. The author tells us that what them joyful was their understanding of heaven. There they had possessions that they could not lose. The author is indicating that a reason for the current dilemmas faced by the Hebrew Christians was that they had stopped thinking about heaven and instead had been thinking about what they were likely to lose on earth. And I suspect that same reason is one of the root causes of the troubles and confusion that is found among Christians today. We have stopped thinking about heaven and in doing so lose the strength for living for Jesus on earth.

What would we think of a man who amassed a priceless art collection after undergoing much labour to get it and then decided to throw it all away as worthless and replaced it with something very inferior? We would suspect that he had lost his reason. Yet the readers of this letter were in danger of throwing out something of much more value than the greatest art collection – they were in danger of throwing away their commitment to Jesus. The imagery of throwing away is striking because it shows that it is voluntary. If he had said that it was being pulled from them, then we would know that they were resisting the pressure to give up. But throwing away describes something that we think is worthless. And the writer says to them, ‘Don’t throw away what you have spent years practising, your devotion to Jesus!’

It is likely that we have not experienced the problems those Hebrews knew. Yet the writer’s argument also applies to us. Basically he is saying, ‘Don’t regard your past service for Jesus as a waste of time.’ Think back and review what you have known and ask yourself what it was all about. And take the devotion you showed then and ask God to rekindle it if it has decreased in strength.

                        

Remember the reward

Connected to their endurance under persecution but not limited to it is the promise of reward from God. The writer describes it in verse 35 as a ‘great reward’ and in verse 36 he says that it has been ‘promised’. Here he seems to be referring to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: ‘Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you’ (Matt. 5:11-12).

What has been promised in this great reward? The answer to this question is the eternal state of bliss and all that it will contain. There will be a perfect environment in the new heavens and new earth. Each inhabitant of the new world will have glorified bodies and sinless hearts. There will be a complete absence of all that sin has caused which makes life unpleasant and sad – no death, no disease, no disasters, no pain, no disagreements, no fear. The readers were in danger of giving up this wonderful future that had been promised.

           

A person who knows he is going to a fabulous place for a vacation will not regard turbulence on the flight as a reason for wanting to give up the journey. During the period of turbulence he may read about the place to which he is going and in doing so he anticipates what it will be like. If we have that attitude with regard to future earthly events, why can we not have it on the spiritual journey and read often about the place God has promised to give to his people? And while the wonderful holiday will not last that long, the state of eternal bliss will last forever. As the writer says, it is an abiding possession.

When will this great reward be given? It will be given at the second coming of Jesus. The author says that it will take place in ‘a little while’, little in length in comparison to the duration of eternity. He does not say a great deal about the reward ceremony, but other New Testament writers speak about it in greater detail. From their comments, we can deduce that it will be a public event, that there will be plenty of rewards, even for actions that the believers themselves did not notice, and that the outcome will be praise of God for his amazing kindness.

To whom will the great reward be given? The author gives the answer in verse 38: ‘my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.’ The reward will be given to those who live by faith in the promises of God and who refuse to give up following Jesus. Such are described as those who give pleasure to God. The fact that they can do this even now should be an incentive to keep going in the Christian life. The author is sure that they will, which is why he can close this paragraph with a confident statement: ‘But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls’ (v. 39).

                                                                           

The three reasons that the author gave to his readers – the danger of divine judgement, the service we have given in the past and the wonderful promised reward – also apply to us. If we heed them, then we will discover how to keep going.