Remember the past and persevere in the present
Hebrews
10:32-39 “But
recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard
struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and
affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had
compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your
property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an
abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great
reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of
God you may receive what is promised. For,
"Yet a little while, and the coming one will come
and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks
back, my soul has no pleasure in him." But we are
not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and
preserve their souls.”
·
When my children disobey
and they do something to earn a consequence, I take them aside and instruct
them. I want them to understand what
they’ve done; understand that the consequence they are about to receive is
because what they’ve done is disobedient and sinful. I also want them to know
that because they have sinned against God, they deserve punishment.
·
Ultimately, I want them
to see that they desperately need God’s forgiveness, because apart from His
forgiveness, all sin deserves the consequence of God’s wrath. I want them to know
that following a life of sin – following their own desires and intentionally,
willfully sinning - will result in God’s wrath and eternal consequences that
are far worse than anything I can ever give them.
·
The consequences I give as
a parent are meant to remind them that sin is painful and sin deserves
consequences. I want to teach them to hate sin and point them to the fact that
they need to be rescued from sin.
·
But every time I give
consequences to my children, I want my children to know that there is hope. I
want them to know that Jesus came to deliver them from sin. I want them to know
that there is hope found in the fact that Jesus came to take the punishment for
all of the consequences that we deserve and that if they trust in Him, then
they will be forgiven. I also want them to know that if they trust in Jesus, He
will enable them to say no to sin and resist temptation and have joy in life as
they follow Him.
·
I start by explaining
the consequences for their sin and helping them understand where sinful living
leads because I want them to look for hope outside of themselves. And then, I
end our conversations with the hope of forgiveness and the hope of living a
life that is pleasing to God by trusting in Jesus. I want to reassure them that
they can live for God and I am confident that they will live for God and receive
His reward as they continue to look to Him in faith.
·
In the verses that
precede the passage we are focusing on, the author of Hebrews has just told
them that if they go on deliberately sinning, then there is no longer any
sacrifice for sins. Then he tells them of how much worse it will be for those
who receive the gospel and turn away – far worse than those who disobeyed God
in the Old Testament. Then, he tells the reader that it is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God.
·
It is as if the author
has just disciplined the readers and warned them of the consequences of falling
away and now, he says, “but you don’t have to be like that. You don’t have to
live like that. And here is how you can avoid the consequences, here is how you
can have hope.”
·
The author of Hebrews tells
them two main points in these nine verses. He tells them to remember the past
and persevere in the present. And the main idea of these nine verses is that:
Remembering what God has done is the past is meant to
help us persevere in the present.
·
The first point in the
passage is pretty straightforward and comes right at the beginning of verse 32:
We are to remember the past.
1.
Remember the past. (v
32-34)
·
The author of Hebrews
has just finished a very strong warning to them to not go on deliberately
sinning and spurn the Son of God, profaning the blood of the covenant and
outraging the Spirit of grace. Now, he is giving them the means to persevere
and explaining how, in the midst of suffering and trials they can
persevere.
·
In order to continue
strong in the faith, they need to not be short-sighted. They need to recall God’s work. They need to
recall the former days when, after they were enlightened, they endured a hard
struggle with sufferings.
·
This may seem like a
strange way to encourage faith to some. How in the world can remembering our
previous struggles be encouraging and keep us on course? How can recalling a
hard struggle with sufferings be helpful?
·
Some would say that this
isn’t victorious Christian living and it is focusing on negativity. But in
reality, recalling the hard struggles with suffering and recalling how the Lord
has brought us through is indeed the means to truly victorious Christian
living.
·
It is not the kind of
victory that never encounters hardships or suffering. It is the kind of
victorious living that the Apostle Paul speaks of when he says that “I can do
all things through Christ who strengthens me”. We can endure hard struggles
with suffering through Christ. And recalling the times when God has sustained
us, strengthened us and enabled us to live lives that were pleasing to him in
the midst of hard times, is the means to be able to continue on in the faith.
·
In the midst of trials
and temptations, suffering and hardship, it is helpful to recall what we have
been through, to get perspective for the present. It is helpful to remember
what it was like after we were born again and what God brought us through; how
God helped us grow and become stronger.
·
At some point in our
Christian walk, we will all stumble, we will all become stagnant; we will all
face the temptation to give up or give in. We will all be prone to forget and
prone to wander away from our faith.
·
The author of Hebrews
knows that the church he wrote to went through a hard struggle of sufferings
but they endured. The word endure has the connotation of standing one’s ground
– of remaining on the field of battle in the face of the enemy’s onslaught,
instead of running away in fear.
·
It is important for us
as Christians to know that we too will go through hard struggles of suffering
and that this is not unusual. It isn’t a sign that God doesn’t love you or that
God isn’t pleased with you. A hard struggle of suffering will likely come for
every Christian and we should not think it is strange.
·
We also should not
forget that God will get us through every hard struggle of suffering and we can
be confident that He will enable us to endure, because He is the one who
enabled us to endure in the past. The word for sufferings in this verse speaks
of a great contest of suffering – an endurance contest – and we are to be
strengthened and encouraged knowing that God has gotten us through a great
endurance contest of suffering already, so we can have faith for the future.
·
Because the people the
author wrote to were being tested with suffering and probably ridicule again,
he wants them to recall that this is nothing new. So, he reminds them in verse
33, that sometimes they were, “publicly exposed to reproach and
affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.”
·
They were made to feel
naked – they were exposed to open criticism and disdain – as if they were
brought up on stage and publicly mocked and disdained for what they believed.
·
This past week, Louie
Giglio was publicly exposed to reproach for a biblical message that he gave
almost 15 years ago. And his simple preaching of God’s Word not only caused him
reproach, it caused him to give up a very public honor or praying at the
President’s inauguration – but for giving it up, I believe he has gained honor
from God.
·
Jesus too was exposed to
public reproach – it says in mark 15:31 of Him:
Mark 15:31-32 So also the chief
priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, "He saved
others; he cannot save himself. 32
Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may
see and believe." Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.
·
If we are followers of
Jesus, surely we too should expect and anticipate public reproach. In fact, it
would be strange if we who claim to be Christians are not living the kind of
life that exposes us to public reproach for His name’s sake.
·
So, how are we publicly
exposed to reproach? Christians everywhere are ridiculed in the marketplace.
When we stand up for what we believe, we are called narrow, closed-minded,
ignorant, bigoted. If we stand up for what we believe, it may be costly. We may
sacrifice our reputation, we may not be promoted and we may even be let go for
what we believe.
·
The Hebrews were
publicly exposed to reproach AND affliction and when they weren’t exposed
publicly themselves, they were sometimes partners with others who were treated
with reproach and afflicted. This was a common experience of the Christians in
that day and Peter addressed the same concern and said in his first letter:
1 Peter 4:13-16 “But rejoice
insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad
when his glory is revealed. 14
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit
of glory and of God rests upon you.
15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an
evildoer or as a meddler. 16
Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him
glorify God in that name.”
·
We should not be ashamed
of suffering as a Christian but instead, we should glorify God in that name.
·
For the church that this
letter of Hebrews was written to, in all likelihood, they didn’t just suffer
verbal insult, they likely suffered physically, as the word “affliction”
indicates. They may have been beaten,
suffered some other form of cruelty or deprivation. And they stood side-by-side
with those who were mistreated, instead of distancing themselves from them and
taking the easier way out. The nobly stood by their friends even though it
meant that they might suffer as a result.
·
Instead of being
embarrassed or ashamed of these things or forgetting them though, the author of
Hebrews is encouraging them to remember these things – because they needed to
remember how God worked in and through these things. It doesn’t say remember the hard struggles and
reproach and affliction because God took you out of it all and it was easy –
no! Instead, he says that in the midst of all of these hard, difficult times,
God enabled them to stand firm; gave them the grace to be strong and have a
right perspective on what happened to them. God didn’t relieve them from
troubles but He did enable them and strengthen them through troubles.
·
He reminds them of how
God was at work in them before. So in verse 34, he says,
34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you
joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you
yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
·
Their high view of
Christian community and being partners with those who were mistreated was seen
in how they had compassion on those in prison. They probably supplied their brothers and
sisters in Christ who were in chains, with food, water and clothing, without
which prisoners in that day might have died.
·
And either for their own
faith or supporting those in prison, they suffered the seizure of their own
property by either violence or tacit approval of the law. This was nothing
small, because in a society such as theirs, it meant almost sure poverty for
them and often people made their living in their homes or with the tools they
had worked many years to acquire and to have their property taken would have
been a severe hardship.
·
No matter what the
listeners may have lost, they have one possession which can never be taken away
from them that they have through Jesus Christ. And because Jesus is eternally
alive, so is their possession eternal. It is abiding; living with Christ. Both
they and every true Christian are guaranteed an eternal inheritance in Christ
Jesus that no one can ever take away.
·
Miraculously, the
original readers didn’t respond angrily or stoically. They were joyful in the
midst of having their property plundered, because they had an eternal
perspective. They knew that it didn’t matter what possessions they lost here. They
knew that what was of true value is eternal and that no one could ever take
away their better possession; their abiding possession.
·
The author of Hebrews wants
them to be encouraged. He has already warned them of the consequences of
turning away and rebelling against God and He is encouraging them now that they
can be confident in God in the future, because He has been at work in the past.
·
They don’t need to trust
in their own ability. Instead they can trust in the ability of Jesus, just like
they had done before. Corrie ten Boom once said, “when we are powerless to do a thing, it is a great
joy that we can come and step inside the ability of Jesus”.
·
And I believe that God
wants to encourage all of you who are His children this morning. He wants to
take you into His lap, wipe away your tears and remind you of how He has helped
you in the past. God wants you to remember that even though this world may seem
too hard right now, He has gotten you through in the past and He will get you
through again. He’s always been faithful.
·
God will enable you to
persevere, to keep holding on in the present, no matter what comes. In verses
35-39 God is speaking to all of us through the author of Hebrews and He is
saying to us this morning to Persevere in the Present.
2.
Persevere in the Present
·
Verse 35 opens with an
imperative. The author is saying, “Do
not throw away your confidence it will be richly rewarded”. In light of all that God has done, don’t
throw away your confidence, since it holds the greatest reward. Don’t settle
for lesser rewards.
·
An old saint, named John
Chrysostom, who died in exile in 407 AD because of defying the emperor’s wife and
preaching unpopular sermons, faced the empress and was threatened with
banishment if he insisted
on his Christian independence as a preacher. In response, he said this:
“You
cannot banish me, for this world is my Father’s house.”
“But
I will kill you,” said the empress.
“No,
you cannot, for my life is hid with Christ in God,” said John.
“I
will take away your treasures.” (she said)
“No,
you cannot, for my treasure is in heaven and my heart is there.”
“But
I will drive you away from your friends and you will have no one left.” (The
empress declared)
“No,
you cannot, for I have a Friend in heaven from whom you cannot separate me.
I
defy you, for there is nothing you can do to harm me.”
·
You see, John Chrysostom
had confident faith in Jesus and he knew that he would receive the promised
reward in heaven, even is everything else was taken from him here, (and it was).
But his confident faith in Jesus was how he persevered to the end. It didn’t
earn his salvation but it was the evidence of his salvation.
·
The author of Hebrews is
saying, don’t throw your confidence away. You need it. If you throw it away you
won’t be able to persevere. It is as if holding onto our confidence in Christ
Jesus is like holding onto the title deed to our inheritance in heaven and the
world around you is saying “let go of the title deed, it’s silly to trust that
it will get you anything”.
·
But the title deed is
what assures us that we will be greatly rewarded. So, don’t throw away the very
thing that gives you assurance of your inheritance in heaven – it has great
reward.The author of Hebrews is saying, “Don’t forget what God has done and
don’t throw away your confidence for something that has no eternal reward and
only rewards in the here and now.
·
We are so tempted to
give up our eternal rewards for temporal rewards though aren’t we?
·
It is kind of like in
the old movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. Willy Wonka, the owner
of a candy factory, created a contest where 5 golden tickets were hidden in
candy bars and those who were fortunate enough to find them could come to his
factory to receive a lifetime supply of candy bars.
·
Five children found the
golden tickets and as a result, the are granted a tour of the chocolate factory
by Wonka himself. But he tests each of the five children and tempts them to
disobey his strict instructions, which he warns them ahead of time will result
in them losing their prize. Each of the children who possess one of the five
golden tickets, which promise a lifetime of chocolate, are tempted to turn
aside from the instructions they were given and to give in to what was uniquely
tempting to each of them. All of them turn aside except for one. They all turn
aside to things that are of a lesser reward.
·
But to the one child, who
didn’t turn aside and was honest, he was rewarded greatly with a reward beyond
just a lifetime supply of chocolate. He was rewarded by being made the heir to
the whole chocolate factory.
·
The people that the
letter to the Hebrews was written were being tempted to throw away their
confidence, which has a great reward, for the lesser rewards of fitting in; for
having an easier life right now or to just turn away to the pleasures of this
world. They were tempted to turn aside to ease, comfort, pleasure and gratifying
sinful desires. Some of the temptations were very understandable. They just
wanted to relieve their suffering; their public reproach and their persecution.
But any reward on this earth, any relief, would only be temporal.
·
We can be tempted by
some of the same things as well. We can want to give up and give in; to just
take the easier route. We tell ourselves things like, “Can’t I just have a
little of my own way? Can’t I just have fun and enjoy the pleasures that the
world offers?” “Wouldn’t it just be easier to fit in and not speak up on
Christ’s behalf? Wouldn’t it be better if I lived a life that was acceptable to
those around me? Wouldn’t I be a better witness for God if people didn’t think
I was weird? Shouldn’t I just try to be like the world around me to “minister”
to them?”
·
But the author to the
Hebrews is saying, remember. Remember this way – remember what God has done –
remember what He got you through and how you grew. Remember that you are not
living this life for the rewards that you can get here and now. You are not
living this life for the possessions you can acquire here. You are living this
life for that which is truly lasting. You are living your life for the eternal
inheritance that we have in Christ Jesus – so don’t give up.
·
And now, seeing and
remembering what God did and what God got you though; how He enabled you to
grow in the midst of hardship, don’t throw away your confidence. Hold onto it
because you will have need of your confidence in order to endure and remain
faithful to the end.
·
The reason we need to
remember and hold onto our confidence is that we have need of endurance. Verse
36 says, “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of
God you may receive what is promised.”
·
Our Confidence in Christ
is something that we are meant to hold onto. The implication is that we can
hold onto our confidence in Jesus and holding onto our confidence will enable us
to run the race that is set out before us.
·
Jesus did the Father’s
will perfectly, so that we might receive the gift of eternal life through our
faith in Jesus and what He has done for us. We are saved not by doing works but
by believing that the perfect life that Jesus lived was lived as a substitute
for our sinful lives. And we believe that Jesus died as a substitute for us,
because we deserved to be punished for our sins and die eternally. But now,
through faith in what Jesus has done for us; faith in the Father removing our
sins and placing them on His Son and then crediting the sacrifice of Jesus as
full payment for our sins to us – through this kind of faith in Him, we can
receive eternal life.
·
So now, our doing the
will of God doesn’t earn us eternal life but it is the proof that we are
trusting in Jesus for our life. God doesn’t make the promise of an eternal
inheritance only if we endure first. No,
He has already made the promise and our endurance is an expression of
confidence in God that He will keep His promise.
·
His promise is the great
reward. He promises eternal salvation, a life lived with Him, a share in His
own heavenly rest; a place in the heavenly city. This race that we are running is not a short
sprint. If it were, we could all train for the one short race and then possibly
succeed. The Christian life is one very long marathon.
·
In Canada, I had a New
Zealander friend named Jim, who used to run 100 mile races and I thought that
was incredible and I couldn’t relate because I can’t even relate to running a
marathon. I thought that Jim was pretty
incredible, until I learned that he also ran 24 and 48 hour races, where the
idea is to see who can run the furthest in the allotted time. Then I thought he
was certifiably nuts and amazing at the same time.
·
I remember asking Jim “what
is your secret – how do you do it?” And he said with his endearing, Kiwi
accent, he said, “I dunno, I just keep running.” He just kept thinking about winning; about
making it to the end and he tried to ignore everything else. “I dunno, I just
keep running.” We need that kind of endurance in life.
·
We need to keep running.
We need to hang onto our confidence in God and do His will, trusting that He
will reward us and know that doing His will is proof that we are genuinely
believing in Him - proof that we will
indeed receive what God has promised to all those who trust in Him
·
In verses 37 and 38, the
author of Hebrews says, “For, "Yet a little while, and the
coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by
faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."
·
The author is putting a
couple of Old Testament scriptures together and reminding them that the time of
Christ’s return hasn’t come yet but Jesus will come back to redeem His people
and bring a new heaven and a new earth. But
that time isn’t quite yet, so don’t even think of shrinking back.
·
It may seem that Jesus
is not coming back anytime soon, but in the light of eternity, it is only a
little while. And we are encouraged to see that it won’t be long until Jesus
returns, even if it seems long to us. God’s timing in sending His Son back is
perfect and Jesus will not delay in returning. He will come at just the right
time
·
In the book of Habakkuk,
God tells the prophet of a time of judgment and destruction that will be
visited on Israel by the Chaldeans. God says to them to write the vision on
tablets because the time would surely come and not delay. Then God tells the
prophet that the oppressor will at last receive the judgment that their evil
ways deserved and God’s purpose would be established.
·
The righteous man is
told to wait for his deliverer and when the deliverer appears, He will put down
the oppressor and vindicate God’s justice. But the righteous man would preserve
his life through all of this by trusting in God as His deliverer.
·
The expression “the
Coming One” in the early church referred to Jesus, the Christ, the chosen
redeemer. And what the author of Hebrews is saying is that Jesus, the chosen
redeemer of God’s people will one day return to set all things right; to put
down the oppressor and vindicate God’s justice.
·
The phrase “my righteous
one will live by faith” is referring to the faithful believer in Christ, who
has a trust in God that is seen in endurance in the midst of suffering and
hardship. And the opposite phrase, “if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure
in him” is saying that evidence of not being those who have their righteousness
in Christ is seen in shrinking back; in withdrawing from Christian fellowship;
in turning away from Jesus; in turning aside to temptation and giving into sin
willingly; willingly giving up and rejecting Jesus.
·
The author of Hebrews is
quoting from Habakkuk because Habakkuk was tempted to give up and think that
God was unjust in the face of the looming Chaldean invasion and affliction. But
in the book of Habakkuk, God tells the prophet that “the just shall live by
faith” and this is the central theme of the book of Habakkuk. So the book of
Habakkuk ends with his prayer,
Habakkuk 3:17-19 Though the fig
tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive
fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there
be no herd in the stalls, 18
yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my
salvation. 19 GOD, the Lord,
is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high
places.
·
Habakkuk didn’t have it all figured out but he did know that no matter
what, He could trust in God and God would strengthen him and give him joy in
the midst of sorrow. Habakkuk faithfully endured to the end, not having it all
figured out but trusting in God who does.
·
We won’t be able to understand this life sometimes. There may be
suffering and affliction and difficulty but we can rest assured. The Coming One
will come and will not delay. Because of this, we can live a life of faith,
trusting in Him, and He will reward us; He will do what He has promised. We can
follow Christ’s example, Who endured the Cross for the joy that was set before
Him.
·
The
book of Hebrews is meant to help people see Jesus and give them hope in His
promises. The author of Hebrews has shown us in the first 9 chapters who Jesus
is and how great He is, as well as how great is the salvation that He offers. Interspersed
through the letter have been warnings to not turn aside, to not turn back, to
persevere, to not fall away, because he wants to ensure that the reader remains
faithful.
·
In
the previous verses in chapter 10, he warned that deliberately going on sinning
and turning away from trusting in Jesus would result in the wrath of God being
poured out on those who turned away. But in these verses, the author wants to
reassure us that we don’t need to wonder if we are part of those who turn away,
who shrink back from faith in Jesus. We are those who have faith in Jesus and
preserve their souls.
·
Verse
39 says, 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are
destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
·
The
righteous one has a faith in God that sustains them to the end. In the next
chapter of Hebrews, we will see the example of those who had faith and endured
to the end and we will see what it looks
like to live a life of faith. But for today, the message we all need to
hear is remember the past and persevere in the present.
·
Remember
what God has done and keep holding on to our confidence in Jesus because He
will come back and He will make all things new. Remember the past and persevere
in the present. Hold onto your confidence in Jesus. Look up and see how much
greater Jesus is and how much better are the rewards that He promises and keep
hoping in His promises, because He who promised is faithful.
Revelation 22:20 He who
testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon." Amen.
Come, Lord Jesus!
Potential Application Questions:
1.
Briefly share your
testimony and what God has delivered you from as a means to encourage one
another.
2.
Share with each other
how God has brought you through trials, difficulty or suffering since you’ve
been a Christian.
3.
When God brought you
through difficult times, how did He use these times in your life to help you
grow, strengthen your faith or draw you closer to Him?
4.
How have you seen God
enable others in your small group to endure hard struggles with suffering? Take
some time to encourage them and point out where you’ve seen God at work in
their lives through difficult times. How did this encourage your faith?
5.
How does having an
eternal perspective that remembers that our greater possession is secure in
heaven with Christ help the way you think of your possessions here?
6.
What are some temporal
desires or temporal rewards that can tempt us to turn aside from the faith?
7.
What areas in your life
are you tempted to fit in or not speak up for Christ? What sin do you need to
confess and receive complete forgiveness for in response? Hoping in God, how
can you grow in this area by God’s grace?
8.
How does knowing that in
light of eternity, it is “yet a little while” until Christ returns give you faith for the future?
9.
Pray that God would give
you a renewed faith to see what He has done and trust in Him for the present.
