Note: Due to a recording error, we were not able to capture audio or video for this sermon.
Text: Hebrews 10:19–25
Preacher: Pastor Brian Sauvé
The Demands of His High Priesthood
Before we do anything else, let’s get the text in front of us, Hebrews 10:19–25. This is the Word of the Living God:
“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
Thus ends the reading of God’s Word; may he write it on our hearts by his Spirit.
Restating The Point:
Our text this morning is a study in application. The author of Hebrews has been doing some intricate, high theology for much of the book so far. And what he would do now is to take that high theology and land it in the day to day of our lives. And he does this first, in the first three verses, from verse 19 to 21, by summarizing and restating the big point he’s been building:
“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...”
-Hebrews 10:19–21
What have we learned in Hebrews up to this point? That Jesus is our great and sympathetic High Priest, our heavenly Advocate before the throne of God. That he is like and unlike the Old Covenant Tabernacle, priests, and sacrifices.
He is like them because they are reverse-echoes of himself. But unlike them because he is the true, heavenly reality they pointed to all along.
The earthly high priest could go into the earthly holy place once a year, with sacrifices for his own sin first. And he needed to be replaced with macabre regularity, why? Because he kept dying.
Jesus, this heavenly high priest, goes into the true holy place in heaven, not through a symbolic, earthly curtain, but through the very living curtain of his own body, given on the cross for sinners.
And so we have an immortal, irreplaceable, gloriously for-us High Priest. Every part of your relationship to God, your redemption, salvation, forgiveness, life now, and future hope—all of it is because of the Lord Jesus, his work and himself. Glory of glories!
This is high theology, what Jesus has done. But now, the author of Hebrews turns from telling us what Jesus is like and has done to what demands these truths make on us. He wold have us see that he’s not telling us these glorious facts about Jesus so that we can add them to our “glorious theological facts” Rolodex somewhere.
One of the things God loves to do in his Word is to link together two types of truths: indicative and imperative. An indicative is a simple statement of fact; it’s something that is simply true. An imperative, on the other hand, is an authoritative command; it tells us something crucial that we must do.
Indicatives tell us: This is true! And imperatives tell us: So go and do the only reasonable thing in light of this truth!
So after this glorious indicative—Jesus is our great High Priest, whose flesh makes a living way for us to get back to God—he follows with three imperatives:
Let us draw near to God, fully assured in faith.
Let us hold fast to confession without wavering.
Let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works.
Let’s take them up, one at a time, and we’ll see how each of these imperatives follow from the high priestly ministry of Jesus.
You’ll notice that each one of these applications is essentially framed on either side. In verse 19, he said, “Therefore...” and then each of the applications in verses 22–25 begin with the phrase “let us.”
He’s saying, “Therefore, because of the glorious truths we’ve been considering about Jesus’ identity and ministry,” and then he gives us three “let us...” statements.
Let Us Draw Near
Here in verse 22, we see the first “let us” statement:
“Therefore... 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.”
-Hebrews 10:22
The first application of Jesus’ person and work is to simply come. The fruit of the gospel of Jesus Christ is a standing invitation: Come and welcome to the holy places. Come and welcome to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.
Come with a true heart, because his New Covenant ministry creates new hearts. Come with full assurance of faith, with a heart sprinkled clean from the evil deeds you’ve done. Come, washed in the waters of your baptism. Come.
You and I need this reminder over and over again. We need this reminder repeatedly, because we are prone to undo the gospel and try to return to the shadows. We are prone to try to bring an offering for our sin in order to draw near to God—to do, in other words, what Israel under the Old Covenant had to do.
You sin, say you are a stay-at-home-mother, and you’ve had a tremendously trying day—kids disobedient, chores piling up, someone was up all night, and so you’re tired. And so you’ve been getting shorter and shorter-fused with your kids. Your husband gets home, and you are disrespectful to him and now he’s grumpy.
Just a bunch of sin. And you know that you are the problem. So what do you do? What we love to do is to try to scrub our own conscience clean ourselves. Maybe justify yourself: “If the kids would just obey! If my husband would just help out more! If I could just get some sleep!”
Self-justification. Blame-shifting. Doesn’t cleanse, does it?
Whether you’re a man who’s been sinning all week with a wandering eye, a young man or young woman who’s been sinning all week by disrespecting your parents, whatever it is, the gospel undercuts all of our anti-gospels of self-justification, blame-shifting, hiding, and excuse-making.
It says, “Jesus lived and died and rose and reigns in the holy places, not so that you could home-brew some method of conscience-cleansing, but so you could come to that same holy place—by faith! Not by works, by faith!”
So the very first thing we do with this gospel is simply to come. The very first thing it demands of us, is to draw near, not by our works, but by faith in his works. We draw near, with conscience already cleansed by faith, body already washed in the waters of our baptism.
Do you have faith in this Christ and his work? Don’t dare not to come—daily, hourly, moment-by-moment, to come.
Let Us Hold Fast
Second, verse 23 urges us,
“Therefore... Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”
-Hebrews 10:23
What is the confession that we are to hold fast to? It is clear that it is a promise, right? He says that we are to hold fast the confession of our hope, why? Because he who promised is faithful.
So we are holding fast to a confession, and that confession is a promise. What is the promise?
It is the promise of our hope, the gospel, the good news that the King has come to win his Kingdom, that he has ransomed a people by his own blood. That he has fulfilled the law that we were in the process of creatively breaking on every point, and that he has borne our penalty for that lawlessness.
The confession we are to hold fast to, in other words, is the confession of the first three verses of our text: Who is Jesus? What has he done? Why has he done it? He is our heavenly High Priest. He has made a way back to God through the veil of his broken body and shed blood.
What has this to do with Jesus’ immortal, heavenly high priesthood? This is so important for us to see, because we are prone to take these kinds of commands and feel as if they are burden we must carry. But his commands aren’t burdensome; his commands are life.
When we get to these texts, which are all over the New Testament, that command us to hold fast to our confession, to persevere in the faith—do you tend to feel a sense of dread? Do you tend to feel like a weight is settling on your shoulders?
I understand, but think: What is this command a command to do? Yes, for you to hold fast, but but to what?
To the confession that your hope isn’t in you.
To the confession that you are not the captain of your own salvation. To the confession that you are a sinner, saved by grace.
To the confession that Christ is Lord and you are not.
Hold fast this confession, because you are faithful?
Hold fast your confession, because you are worth it?
Hold fast your confession, because you can do it? No!
Hold fast your confession, even when you sin, because your confession was never that you are good enough in the first place. He is holding you fast, and so hold fast.
Let Us Consider One Another
The third “let us,” which has three parts, is found in verse 24 and 25,
“Therefore... 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
There are three parts to this one “let us.” Let’s take them up in turn, starting this: Let us…
1. Stir one another up to love and good works.
Think about the argument that he’s making: Therefore, in light of how Jesus has loved you and brought you to God, stir one another up to love and to good works.
Remember, this is one of those indicative/imperative texts, where God tells us something he has done, and then calls us to do. One of the ditches that we can fall into is the ditch of easy-believism, fruitless Christianity that is unconcerned with love and good works. But that is totally foreign to any kind of Christianity informed by the actual words in the New Testament:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” -John 14:15
“…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” -Matthew 5:16
“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” -2 Corinthians 9:8
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” -Ephesians 2:10
“…walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” -Colossians 1:10
“All Scripture is created out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” -2 Timothy 3:16–17
“Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works.” -Titus 2:7
“[Christ] gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” -Titus 2:14
“The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.” -Titus 3:8a
“And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.” -Titus 3:14
The New Testament knows nothing of salvation by our good works. And it equally knows nothing of a salvation that doesn’t free us from slavery to sin to good works.
The author of Hebrews would not have us neglect good works, but would have us look to the cross, enter into the holy place by faith, and from that position, vigorously pursue love and works. We are to stir one another up to these things.
Even stronger, he says that we are to consider how to stir one another up to love and good works. The picture is of you and I sitting down and strategizing how we might encourage one another to be more fruitful.
One of the immediate obstacles to our obedience to this text would have to be that we just don’t like being interfered with all that much, right? But we have to submit to being interfered with! If iron is to sharpen iron, we have to come into contact with each other, right?
Hence the second part of his instruction:
2. Don’t neglect meeting together, as some do.
Christianity is covenantal and communal, not individualistic and atomized. Think about the metaphors the New Testament uses for the Church:
A body, comprised of many parts (1 Corinthians 12)
God’s house (Hebrews 3)
A temple for God to dwell in, built of living stones (1 Peter 2)
A chosen race (1 Peter 2)
A holy nation (1 Peter 2)
A royal priesthood (1 Peter 2)
A people for God’s own possession (1 Peter 2)
A family (Romans 8)
An army (Revelation 19)
A massive, earth-covering tree (Matthew 13
We reduce Christianity to a personal relationship with Jesus in our hearts to our peril! Of course it’s not less than that, but it is emphatically more than that. Some people, the author of Hebrews tells us, have a habit of not meeting together. But we are not to adopt such a habit.
So listen: You must not give in to the cultural forces that are laboring to keep you alone, ineffective, and disconnected from the local church. You must be here, with us, singing, receiving Word and Sacrament, worshiping together.
You must not settle for twice-a-month-and-a-podcast church attendance. You must not.
You must not allow your home to be empty of fellowship. Invite your brothers and sisters over. Buy an assortment of meats and craft beer. Put it in the middle of the table and eat together. Play poker. Do reading groups. Host hangouts.
Whatever it takes, don’t do what some are prone to do and go it alone. Stop giving in to the easy, worthless complaining of many: See, it’s this church that’s the problem. The community there is just not that great. Nobody was really welcoming, see. They don’t have enough programs.”
Enough with that excuse making! What are you doing? You are this church—if you’re not doing it, it’s not happening. We are not a corporation of religious professionals, dispensing spiritual goods and services in exchange for some sporadic financial support.
Let’s be done with that kind of casual reduction of the church to a thing I attend. Rather, number three:
3. Encourage one another, especially as the Day draws near.
As you are meeting together, and stirring one another up to love and good works, encourage one another in light of the Day.
Now, I take “the Day” in reference here to the day of covenantal judgment about to reign down on national Israel in just a few short years from when this letter was written, the day when God would utterly destroy the last vestiges of the shadow ministry of the Old Covenant through the Roman armies.
Some take this as a reference to the second coming of Christ, but in context, it seems that he expected the Hebrew Christians to see this day arrive, not a far future date. Either way, the message is plain: Encourage one another as you gather in his name.
The church isn’t to function as the world functions: We’re not in competition. We are not competitors. So much of the economy of the world and its systems is bent on reducing us—again—to atomized little individual human particles floating around in space, and then to get us to compete with one another for everything, to view each other as a pack of hyenas, all squabbling to get ours.
The church is not to be like that. We aren’t in competition; we are in cooperation. We want each to succeed, each member to stand tall. We are to be those who, as Paul says, bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
We start by being encouraging. We don’t aim to feel tall by cutting our brother and sister down, but to build up in love. Our world is so tremendously bad at this. We are really, really good at sarcastic quipping, cutting down, scoring points. We are not practiced in honoring one another, respecting one another, and building one another up.
But we can be. Because listen, Refuge: We are Christians. That means we belong to God, and that together. That means that we are all one by our union with our one Lord, through our one Faith, and by our one baptism.
We are Christians, and so we can do this. We have new hearts, God’s law inscribed on them. We have a new Spirit in our chests, the Holy Spirit of God. We have all come into membership in this body by admitting that none of us are all that great, right? I mean, that’s the entry fee, just waving the white flag up front and saying, “Yep, I deserve eternal damnation. I’m not good. I am despicable. My only hope for good is God in me.”
And so we can put down our competition. We can be on each other’s team. We can honor, respect, and build one another up. We can stop gossiping about each other. We can stop whispering about each other and rather bear one another’s burdens in love.
Becoming God’s Super-Synagogue
And as we do these three things: Consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, but rather encouraging one another, we become what this passage calls God’s “super-synagogue.”
The phrase “meet together” in verse 25 is very interesting. It’s built from the Greek word from which we get the word “synagogue.” The Jews met in local fellowships called synagogues, but Jesus rebuked them in Matthew 23 for their refusal to be synagogued by him:
“‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have [synagogued] your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate.’”
-Matthew 23:37–38
The Jewish people clung to the Old Covenant shadows, refusing their Messiah, who longed to synagogue them together under his wing. And so the Day drew near when they would have their House left to them desolate, the Temple thrown down.
But God is doing something greater. He is making an epi-synagogue of us. The author attaches the Greek preposition epi in front of the word for synagogue in this passage to intensify it. God is, in Christ, making a super-synagogue of his people, as they synagogue together—not just in Israel, but globally.
And so, summing it up: Therefore, in light of Jesus’ high priestly ministry for us, which takes us into the very holy place of God, let us draw near to God in him. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope. And let us do this all together, not neglecting to synagogue together, but rather encouraging and stirring one another up to love and good works.