Sermon Tone Analysis

! Hang Tough and Hold On!

!! 19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus…

!! 22 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.

!!! Hebrews 10:19, 22

We’re beginning the final part of our series in Hebrews with the “Great Hope” we have in Jesus.

It is this hope that gives us what we need to survive this life – but not only to survive – but to survive with joy and indescribable peace that can come only from faith in God.

With this great hope comes the strength to persevere.

Now, this perseverance is not dogged stubborn pride.

This is not a matter of grimly hanging on no matter what the odds.

This is not the perseverance of battered Rocky Balboa tenaciously fighting back against an overwhelming opponent.

No, this is the confident anticipation that we know that we will ultimately and certainly prevail – all we have to do is hang in there a little longer.

How long?

– Just a few minutes after the heart stops beating.

This next few weeks we’ll hear the testimonies of some of our own people as they share how the hope of God has changed their lives.

Most of you have probably noticed Don Flintoff here at MCC.  He’s the fellow that looks a lot like grizzly Adams and carries a mean looking walking stick.

Listen now to his story of transformation and hope.

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Hope Video – Don Flintoff

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Hang Tough and Hold On!

!! 19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus…

!! 22 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.

!!! Hebrews 10:19, 22

Life is serious business.

How we do here makes all the difference in the world – no! – strike that!

It makes all the difference in eternity.

There is a reality TV show that’s been on the last couple of seasons called “Super Nanny”.

Jo Frost is the British nanny and basically she enters a home where the children are out of control and the parents don’t have a clue.

Then she teaches the parents how to discipline their children and how to restore harmony to the home.

I’ve watched the show a few times.

One of the principles that the Supernanny stresses in child discipline is encouragement.

After you discipline a child, you need to encourage him—encourage him with the fact that you love him and believe that he will do better.

And that, in essence, is what the writer of Hebrews does in Hebrews chapter 10.

Certainly this is what we tried to do raising our kids.

With discipline there needs to be some hugging and reassurance of love.

Let’s read what the author of Hebrews says about encouragement in Hebrews 10 beginning in verse 19.

If you have your Bibles you can follow along.

You may want to even underline or mark these verses…

/19 //Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 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.

23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching./

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Hold On to Your Faith

!! Let us draw near to God – V. 22

!! Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess – V. 23

!! Let us consider how we may spur one another on – V. 24

!! Let us not give up meeting together – V. 25

!! Let us encourage one another – V. 25

Here he gives us several clear and critical steps for encouragement.

In these verses the author of Hebrews gives us five powerful words of encouragement.

He says, draw near, hold on, spur (the literal word is provoke) one another, meet together (like we are doing), and encourage one another.

Let’s do the last one right now.

Turn to someone near you and give them a word of encouragement.

Just tell them to hold on and hang in there.

Do that right now!

Great job!

Now don’t quit.

Keep on being an encourager.

But the writer of Hebrews doesn’t stop there.

After he tells us to hold on to our faith then he goes one step more and gives a powerful word of warning.

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A Severe Warning

!! 26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.

!!! Hebrews 10:26

/26 //If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.

28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”// and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”//

31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God./

This is serious stuff.

This is heavy duty.

This is the passage hearkens back to July 8, 1741 when Jonathan Edwards preached to his congregation his message titled, sinners in the hands of an angry God.

That message sparked a great spiritual awakening – the likes of which we need today in our world.

So how do we hang on to the hope that we have?

How do we avoid the dangerous loss of our faith in times of stress and strife?

In the next few verses the author gives us some clear direction.

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Remember those earlier days

!! 32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering.

33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.

!!! Hebrews 10:32-33

These Hebrew Christians had suffered persecution for their faith in Christ.

The initial persecution came from the Jewish leaders and resulted in the spread of Christianity to the rest of the world.

Now they were being threatened again with persecution.

This time the persecution was coming from Rome.

The time of the writing of the letter to the Hebrews points to the persecution that was launched by Emperor Nero in Rome in 64 AD.

Most scholars report that Nero had a new urban development plan for Rome.

So he sent out accomplices to set fire to the city.

When fingers began to point toward Nero as the culprit, he needed a scapegoat.

And so he blamed the Christians.

Now, the persecution that the writer of Hebrews refers to in this passage was an earlier persecution.

Most likely, it was the persecution launched in Rome by Emperor Claudius 15 years earlier in AD 49.

Claudius had issued an edict expelling all Jews from the city.

Rome considered Christianity a sect of Judaism so these Hebrew Christians suffered persecution as well.

They were publicly humiliated, they identified with fellow believers who were imprisoned, and they were expelled from Rome and had their property and possessions taken from them.

But through all of this, they maintained their stand for Christ.

They didn’t abandon the faith.

As a matter of fact, after Emperor Claudius died five years later in AD 54, they returned to Rome and continued their testimony for Christ in that city.

And so the writer of Hebrews encourages them to look back and recall their past spiritual journey.

And we need to do the same.

It’s a healthy spiritual practice to take time to look back—to remind yourself of how God has worked in your life.

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Memorial Stones

!! 2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

!!! Joshua 4:2-3