August 2: The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. –Hebrews 11:1-6

The first verse above definitely appears in the Solid Gold, Top-40 Scripture Memory Pack. Where else in the Bible do you get a dictionary-type definition of faith? Interestingly we see that there are two things that go together: faith and hope. Faith is the key asset that the original audience needs. It is closely associated with hope. If faith is looking to God and trusting Him for everything (including faith itself!), then hope is looking to the future and trusting God for it as well.

I meet lots of people who have hope. Hope is often thought of as having a positive or optimistic outlook. Sometimes it’s a general presence of mind that our family of origin may have fostered in our upbringing. For Hebrews, though, faith is defined in relation to hope. It’s one thing to have a hopeful outlook, but faith underneath it is where assurance is found. I hope for a perfect world; I hope for a new body and life beyond the grave; I hope for the day when everyone knows and loves Christ’s dominion and all His enemies are made His footstool. But I’m not left with a general sense of a personal force for good in all this; no, I believe in the God we know in Jesus Christ and that’s where conviction is found. Faith is not the same things as hope, but it is the assurance of things hoped for.

The writer mentions something about creation: we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. How do we get this? By faith, he says, we understand. So we can see that the theology of hope and the theology of creation are related. That said, it seems to be enough theology for the writer and his readers, at least for the moment, and he “brings it home” through the rest of chapter 11, into chapter 12, with the stories of others who lived by faith, which undergirded their hope.

Enoch is found to be quite a popular figure in Jewish writings from a handful of centuries immediately before and after Jesus. His very unusual escape of death is doubtless intriguing! Many of the writings concerning him were speculative, but not so for Hebrews. The writer simply says what Genesis 5 says: Enoch pleased God.  I want that, don’t you? Thankfully, we’re not left to our own imaginations about how that might come about. We find here that without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. That’s what Enoch had and did.

And so now just before the writer takes us through the epic drama of heroes and heroines of faith, he challenges us with the faith that sees creation and thus worships the Creator. It sees death and finds promise of new life ahead. It sees that God exists and, trusting His promises, knows of the lavish rewards for those who seek Him. And that’s the gospel.

Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this Sunday!

It’s finally here: the Saturday dinner and service will be this Saturday, July 25! Dinner will be at 5:00 with worship at 6:00. Nursery will be provided but there is no “Sunday” school that evening. Please plan for this time together! We will not meet on Sunday.

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. –Hebrews 10:32-39

There is a verse in the NT that has a kind of celebrity status. The Apostle Paul uses it in two places: Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11. It is reportedly the verse that rescued Martin Luther from his unrelenting confusion and struggle in having the righteousness that God requires. And now here that verse is again in Hebrews 10:38, The righteous shall live by faith. Come to find out, it really isn’t a NT verse; it’s from Habakkuk (2:4)!

Habakkuk saw his world literally crumbling all around him. He had watched, prayed, warned—all the things that good prophets do—hoping that some of the people would listen and turn from their wicked ways. They did not and in swept the Babylonians who offered no hope for escape. Under such brutal persecution Habakkuk’s focus changes from warning to summoning people simply to wait and go on praising God in spite of the persecution and calamity surrounding them. I think of my favorite line in the venerable old hymn All Creatures of Our God and King, “Ye who long pain and sorrow bear: praise God, and on Him cast your care!” They long bore pain and sorrow, which they deserved. Habakkuk called them to cling to the God of Israel anyway.

On the one hand, there were those who thought they could manage it themselves, and on the other hand there were the faithful. He tells them to “Behold (look at) the proud. His soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.” “Yet a little while,” He preaches, “and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith.”

This passage offer us the clearest indication yet of the situation for the original audience. From the outset they had endured terrible times like the Christians in Acts 8 or 1 Thessalonians 2. Paul himself had persecuted Christians early on. The original audience has lived through the plundering of their property and imprisonment already. It was bound to get worse. Why? Because once Jesus comes into the world with a Kingdom that is not of this world, conflict is going to arise with any powerful regime.

Like Habakkuk, the writer to the Hebrews calls on them to worship the One who has come, and to look forward to that which is promised, a better possession (another better in this book!). He calls on them not to throw away their confidence, but to endure instead. Most of all he calls them to live by faith in the midst of all that horrible persecution—to praise God and on Him cast their care by faith. That’s how the righteous live.

Of course they were out of step with the world because the gospel makes political claims. Of course we find ourselves out of step with the world because the gospel make political claims. The one who shrinks back is in danger of losing everything. Those who hold on in faith, as Jesus himself had promised, will gain their lives forevermore. And that’s the gospel.

Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this Sunday!

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, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. –Hebrews 10:26-31

One of the aspects of Old Covenant law that has always grabbed my attention is that the animal sacrifices were said specifically to be for unintentional sins. We find this in Leviticus 4, Numbers 15 and other chapters. Hebrews 9:7 states it plainly, The high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. There really wasn’t a place for Israelites who deliberately and knowingly flouted the law that defined the people and the nation itself. Of course we know that they did transgress the law knowingly and relentlessly, but Scripture makes clear that people who sinned deliberately, knowing something was sin and doing it anyway, had no sacrifice prescribed for them. Those people were to be “cut off from among the people,” in other words, put to death.

That’s what the writer of Hebrews calls to mind in this section to set the scene for the most dreadful warning about judgment in all the NT except that which comes from the mouth of Jesus himself. What is described here are persons who have come close to Christian faith, i.e., baptized, who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come (6:4-5). These persons turn around and publicly deny it all, whether in word or in deed. Chapter 6 also informs us that this may be precipitated by persecution, even coming from non-Christian Judaism. This becomes clearer as the chapter proceeds.

The argument goes like this: if those Israelites of old who set aside the Law of Moses and thus died without mercy, how much worse will it be for those who knew Jesus, but profaned the sanctifying blood and outraged the Spirit of grace! Let me add that the warnings, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people,” are not to inspire fear and dread in sinful yet repenting Christians who remain with Christ. They are warnings for us all never to fall away. I am reminded of Paul Gerhardt’s famous hymn with J.S. Bach’s wonderful music: O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee.

We were told in the passage just preceding the one at hand to draw near, to come boldly before the throne of grace. If we remain with Christ there is no fear in doing so. And that’s the gospel.

Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this Sunday!

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 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. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. –Hebrews 10:19-25

If you’ve stuck with the many points and arguments and exhortations and themes the writer has covered in the first 9+ chapters of Hebrews, then you may find some satisfaction that he has arrived at last to an application or necessary conclusion. We find at the beginning of the passage above “therefore,” which tips us off. What is the application of it all? “Let us draw near; let us hold fast the confession; let us consider how to stir up…not neglecting to meet together, but encouraging one another.”

What is this? Is this “drawing near” in “the holy places” something private that we can just do in our hearts? Not at all! This is a call to public worship, and not just any worship or any old state of mind. Far too often I hear American Christians say something like, “I’m a Christian but I’m not a member of any church,” or, “I’m spiritual but not religious,” which in Oklahoma often means, “I’m a Christian, but I don’t go to church.” There’s no place for that, declares Hebrews. Every Christian requires the encouragement of other Christians. Christian worship without other Christians is less than it should be and robs other Christians of some of the provision of God.

Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. Here’s the imperative of all the truth that has preceded it. The original audience was thinking of going back to Judaism to help relieve some of the Roman persecution. I doubt that meant that they thought Jesus was a farce, but some were in the habit of “neglecting to meet together.” It was at least easier not to call attention to themselves by meeting together. But this is what Christians do; that’s the church: it meets together for encouragement to love and good works. And all the more so because we are drawing closer to the Great Day when, with Jesus’ reappearance (9:28), God will complete his work of New Creation (12:26-28). And that’s the gospel.

Come hear it preached and enacted in the Supper this Sunday!