Hebrew 10:19-25 “A Family of Faith”

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This morning, if you would turn with me into your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 through 25.

Hebrews 10:19–25

This morning, we are not part of a series, kind of a one-off.

We'll be essentially helicoptering in or, you know, parachuting into a short passage out of the book of Hebrews.

Let's take a look at it and remind ourselves about the greatness of Jesus and how that thing that drives us, that moves us, that motivates us, that changes us, that Jesus draws us to each other.

And so this, just as a short reminder, the book of Hebrews is written, unknown author, written to Jewish converts.

It's essentially sermonic.

It's a sermon written so that people are encouraged in order to persevere, to be faithful to Christ in all the things that go on in their lives, whether good, bad or ugly, that they would remain faithful to Jesus.

And they would see the greatness of Jesus above everything else, no matter what they see, no matter what they face, no matter what they're tempted to do, they would see Jesus as greater.

But this morning, before we get started with our sermon, I'm going to ask you guys a question.

How do you handle critique?

How do you handle criticism?

If you're like me, yeah, I grit my teeth almost immediately.

I tense up a little bit.

Thank you for that.

It's so helpful.

How about this?

It's a necessity.

Oftentimes, I need people to tell me if I'm doing something wrong.

There's a saying that I had with my friends that friends tell each other when they have spinach in their teeth, enemies let it ride.

You know, like if you've got a hot date and your friend is going on a hot date and they have spinach in your teeth, you want to help them because you love them.

You're your friend.

But that's like, hey, dude, something's wrong.

And so any sort of critique or criticism, often we just get tense and we don't like it and we hate it and we don't want anybody to tell us what we're doing wrong.

We don't like it.

We just don't.

What about encouragement?

How many of us have ever felt awkward when someone has said, hey, man, you did a great job?

Oh, that feeling of someone else seeing something good that you've done.

For a lot of us, it's really helpful and good.

But a lot of us feels really awkward at times.

I don't know how to I don't know how to receive a compliment often.

What about how do you handle helping someone?

How do you approach them?

How do you go to them?

What about receiving help?

How do you ask for help?

Have you ever considered these things?

Right.

The idea is that there's this necessity for someone outside of ourselves to help us, for us to help someone else.

Right.

And as we look at this passage today, as we try and remember who we are and what we're here for and what we're called to do.

I want us to think about what we are called to do as we serve one another, as we love one another, because we belong to something bigger.

Right.

The title of my sermon is A Family of Faith.

We belong.

And I've said it several times already in our worship service.

We belong to a family.

We belong to something bigger, a community.

The church is something more than us just doing this Christian life by ourselves.

And so we belong to something bigger.

So let's pause there as you think about, think about the way you hear people speaking into your lives.

Let's hear from the word of God so that we might think rightly about it.

Let's, if you, in your Bibles, we're going to read Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 to 25.

Hebrews 10:19–25

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 high 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 the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

And all the more, as you see the day drawing near.

This is God's word.

Let's pray.

Father, would you help us to see your word rightly?

Help us to be changed and transformed and made more like Christ, to be sanctified, Lord.

Would we find ourselves more and more in love with you, more and more changed by your word?

Father, we thank you for all that you have done.

We thank you that this is a reminder, that this is a summary of the good news of the gospel.

And we pray that we would see it that way today.

We love you and we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right, this morning, I want us to take a moment and see that we are a family of faith.

And immediately, if you read in chapter 10, right here in verse 19, I don't know if you've got a pew Bible.

It says, therefore, brothers, and then there's a note.

And if you look down and you have magnifying glass or you can see this, it says, or brothers and sisters.

Right, there's this Greek word that tells us that this is not just to the men of the church, the Hebrew men.

This is to God's people, all of God's people.

It's a reminder, in many ways, of us, the reality of family within the church.

A lot of us don't want to think this way.

I understand.

A lot of us come from families with brokenness, with hurt, with baggage.

And no one, we don't want to think about this as a family affair.

We don't want to think about this.

But in reality, even though there are hard and bad things that happen in families, there are tough realities to being in a family.

There is good, bad, and ugly.

Even though that's true, it doesn't mean we should throw it away.

It means that it should help change us when we look at it and we see it in the Bible.

When we see it in the scriptures, it's language of tenderness and care and love that we need, that we need to be reminded of too.

And so we need to be reminded that this is not just something that we've come to attend on Sunday morning from 930 to 1045, maybe 1030 today since the youth pastor's preaching.

You know, it's not something that we've, it's not just something we attend.

It's not something that we just do.

It's something we belong to because we belong to the God of the universe.

And so this is something that has to help change us.

And it doesn't just change us.

It changes our posture.

It changes how we relate to one another, right?

It doesn't just change us in kind of practical ways.

But even though we know families are complicated, even when we know families are broken, even when we know the goal of this communication is to influence us, influence me, influence the reader, the original audience to remember that we belong to each other.

That there's this family element to following Jesus, to being a part of it.

And look, we all have different family issues, but we want to focus on the ideals in this moment, right?

In an ideal world, though we know of everything that goes on, a family is a place of love, care, nurture, unity, beauty.

It's a good and wonderful place.

A family as it's meant to be is this amazing place where mothers and fathers love each other.

Children are raised in beautiful to become these adult, perfect, great versions of themselves.

Though some of us here struggle with that, including myself.

We're called to be a family of faith.

And immediately as we read this passage, we see this reality that we're called to be family.

It's not the only time in the Bible this is mentioned.

So this is why we can trust it.

We can trust this kind of language is because it's not in isolation.

Right.

The Apostle Paul talks about adoption as sons.

The Apostle Paul tells us that we have a spirit given to us that we cry out, Abba, Father.

We have this reality that God is our father.

And then if you go back further into the Old Testament, you see this language from Jeremiah where the prophet's talking about the God of the universe.

He says, for I'm a father to Israel.

Isaiah says, O Lord, thou art our father.

Throughout the Old Testament, even, there's this language of God as our father in this familial language.

And so we are called to remember that.

I am.

I don't.

I'm a human being.

I view things much more transactional than I should.

I don't look often enough at people and say, oh, this is like my family.

I often look at, is this something someone can give me or get me or what do I have to give to someone to get what I need?

And don't even ask about the sins of a pastor where you're like much more looking at the church in a transactional way than you could ever imagine.

The struggle against that is real.

And yet, as we pause today, we must remember that we belong to one another in a family.

The family of God.

And that family has definitive characteristics.

It has beautiful characteristics.

It's not a family that's just kind of randomly made up.

It's hopefully as a church, we're a family that's been changed by Christ.

A family that's been made new.

See, in this passage in Hebrews, the writer, who we don't know, right?

There's lots of assumptions, lots of things we can think about it.

Lots of ways that we can point, but we don't know.

He says this.

He said,

Let us draw near, in verse 22,

Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

There is a previous state that we were in.

We have been washed.

We have been cleansed.

We have been changed.

We are no longer the people we were.

We now belong.

We are cleansed and made right by the work of Jesus, by the blood of Jesus, by the cross and his resurrection.

We're a family that's marked by change and transformation by the power of the gospel.

And we have to remember that we're all changed by Jesus.

That those of us who are part of God's people is that we are cleansed and made holy by Jesus himself.

Not something we've done.

Not something we can do.

Not something we can work to achieve.

We can't level up as a Christian.

We can't make this our next goal for next year.

Is that I'll just be a better, just a better Christian than the person next to me.

I'll just, I'll keep, our goal is that we would worship the Lord because we, he is the one who's changed us.

And this identifies us.

This gives us an identifying marker.

One of the things that we talk about in our youth ministry, when I hire summer interns, when I hire full-time staff,

is, I don't, I don't try and put a biblical spin on it, but it's true in a sense, in a lot of ways,

there are scripture that remind us of this, is that we have to remember that we are all on the same team.

As one of the things.

So, so when I make you mad, when I, which I inevitably do because I'm a sinner.

And also, I just know my personality and know who I am.

I'm very aware, I think.

The reality is I would, as I make you mad, remember that we're on the same team.

And I try and remind all of our staff and all of our people that work with us.

Hey, we all serve the same Jesus.

We all belong to the same family.

We belong to the same people.

We've all been changed by Jesus.

And this is the, one of the markers of this family we belong to.

And, and, and the beauty of this is, is that it's not something that we've done, right?

We haven't done this.

I haven't made this happen, right?

Because the Bible talks about how the, how people don't have this ability innately.

We don't just make ourselves good and make ourselves right and make ourselves holy.

Right?

People are sinful since.

Genesis.

Jeremiah talks about how our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

The Apostle Paul reminds us that in Romans chapter three, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

So something must have happened to change us.

Something must have transformed us.

Something has made us new creations in Christ.

And it was Jesus.

This, this whole portion of, of chapter 10 of Hebrews is, is, is we kind of end it in the later verses of chapters, verses 24 and 25.

With like exhortation to do, to love one another, to care for one another.

So to live as that family.

But he doesn't leave the summary of, he doesn't leave the, this exhortation with no reminder of the beauty of the gospel.

He's reminding us that we've been made clean.

He's been reminding us that we, he's, he's taking his whole argument for the first nine plus chapters of Hebrews and saying, here's a little summary of what I've already said.

Remember Jesus, our great high priest.

Remember you've been cleansed by Jesus.

Remember how good he is.

Remember, cling to this goodness, this truth, so that you might love one another as Christ has loved us.

And so we're a family of changed people.

Not because of us, but because, as 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21 puts it,

2 Corinthians 5:21

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.

So that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.

And it's because of Jesus, this is why this is such a wild passage.

Like this is a, this is truly a wild passage.

Like, and again, like this, I don't know how engineers talk about certain things because it's an engine,

but I know how like pastors talk about the Bible.

Like this is wild.

And y'all are like, it's a Bible passage.

But the reality of what this means, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,

something that we could not do, we could not enter the holy places.

Only the priest, the great, the high priest could do it.

By a new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh,

that his death achieved for us.

His flesh, meaning that his death allows us this, this access to the God of the universe.

And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near.

We get to draw near to the God of the universe.

As God's people, we've been changed.

And that change allows us access to God.

It's a transformation that will trump anything we try and achieve this next year.

As you wake up tomorrow and you look at your list of things you're going to do,

there is no change greater than what Christ has done for his people.

By giving them access to the very God of the universe.

And so we're a family that's been changed,

but we have to place our confidence in things.

There are lots of things that we can place our confidence in.

You know, we live in a world full of great things.

Money, power, our reputation.

I can put my confidence in anything in the world that I really want to.

I can create my own little space where I'm living in with confidence.

I could put it in my reputation of just being a pastor.

But our confidence in what we do and how we live in this world,

whether we are interacting with Christians or not,

our confidence must be in Jesus and his sacrifice.

I'm confident because he's the high priest over the house of God.

See, he's been given a title that I could never achieve.

And I can be confident in him.

I can trust him because of what he has done.

I can tell you that I would not walk into a lawyer's office and be confident in asking them to fix a sickness.

And in the same way, I wouldn't walk into a doctor's office and be confident in their ability to handle my lawsuit.

And in the same way, I wouldn't walk into an accountant's office and say,

do you know how to translate Spanish really well?

Okay.

Like there are people who have these expertise and these titles and these realities.

And what we see with Jesus is we can place all of our confidence in our interactions with one another as a family,

good, bad, or ugly,

because he is the great high priest.

Not me.

Not something I've done.

But because of him.

And not only that,

we can see a little bit of his character as well.

Though we know Jesus as the son of God,

the lamb who was slain,

the king of kings,

lord of lords,

the high priest of the new covenant,

the one who changes people.

We can remember

that he is faithful.

He is faithful to his people.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope.

Let us hold fast to what we have spoken as truth,

that Jesus is Lord.

Without wavering for he who promised this,

his work,

he is faithful.

If we were to sit here

and I could list a million times where I have failed.

I'm sure all of us could,

to some degree,

sit here and just,

if we just wrote notes today and just said,

these are the times that I have failed.

But then we sat down and we wrote down,

how has Jesus failed?

We couldn't.

Jesus,

the perfect son of God.

Jesus,

without sin.

Jesus,

the one

who we can put our confidence in.

Not just because

we see it in his sinless life,

but because we see it

by the power of his resurrection.

His death

changes us.

And his resurrection

is a reminder of the confidence we have

in the life eternal.

And so we are,

we're seeing that,

that we're a family,

right?

We're a family.

We're defined by certain things.

We're changed.

We're,

we're,

we're changed by Christ.

We're confident in Christ.

Christ.

But there's a reason for our confidence.

And,

and it's pretty much an overlapping point

to some degree

when you're trying to remember this,

that we're confident in Christ,

but we're anchored by Christ.

And the reason why I want to do this,

because there's just,

again,

this moment where you,

when you study things

and you read,

and,

and I want to point out in verse two,

verse 20 of chapter 10,

it says,

I'll read the whole thing for just a second.

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 us

through the curtain,

that Jesus has given us

a new and living way,

the access to God,

ways to be in relationship

and connection

and contact with him.

This new and living way

is translated differently.

Right?

We,

we see it

here in our English versions

as,

as new and living,

and we can kind of talk through that,

but

it means

permanent.

A permanent way.

It's an open way

that is never closed

to his people.

It's an ongoing,

never ending access

to the God

of the universe.

And if you just say,

oh,

it's a,

you know,

it's a living plant.

We understand

that the plant will die

one day.

And if we just kind of

use our regular

kind of way

of talking about

the word living,

it's,

it's alive.

but the emphasis

of these words

in the Greek

are meant

to remind us

that it's this

never ending.

You cannot stop.

When you are in Christ,

you have this

ongoing forever access

to the Father,

access to God

in a way that we had

never had before.

And the great high priest

who has gone before us

has made this possible.

Jesus has opened this door

and allowed us in

and you forever

have access.

You have forever

VIP access

to the God

of the universe.

And there is no end

to it in sight.

Because one day

when we do

leave this world,

when we pass away,

we still

have access.

And so this is

a great anchor to us

is that it's

ongoing forever

and never ends.

This Jesus

who is faithful

has given us

this great anchor

and it's a reminder

even if you,

I use this word

simply because

in chapter 6

of Hebrews,

he talks about Jesus

and this promise

of Jesus being

the anchor to our soul.

And this idea

that Jesus is greater

than anything,

everything that you

can imagine,

whatever religion,

idol,

or whatever you

could place,

he is still greater.

And so Jesus

anchors us,

he holds us,

he allows us

this opportunity

that never ends.

And it's

more than just living,

it's eternal.

And so as people,

as a family of God

that we're called

to one another,

we're meant

to be connected

to one another.

We're meant

to be

more than just

passers-by

in this room.

So we've been

changed by Christ,

we've been

anchored to Christ,

we're called

to point each other

to Christ.

And I want us

to go back

to this idea

of family

and the ideal

that we're trying

to hope for.

And listen,

I often

fail

miserably.

I know

my nature

to a degree

or at least

I'm willing

to admit

this part

of my nature.

I really

want to be

right in an

argument.

I love it.

I just do.

I think a lot

of us do.

If not all

of us.

We really,

when we're

in a disagreement

or in,

whether it's

deeply sinful

or just

trying to

remind someone

that,

you know,

someone played

this character

in a movie

and you're

like,

I remember

the actor

was that,

you just

want to be

right.

Whatever it

is,

you love

it.

And we

are called

to point

each other

to Christ

and it

is rooted

in this

idea of

family,

right?

In verses

24 and

25,

let us

consider how

to stir

up one

another

to love

and good

works,

not neglecting

to meet

together as

the habit

of some,

but encouraging

one another

and all the

more as you

see the day

drawing near,

the day

of Jesus'

return.

And so we

have an end

date for

this relationship,

this thing we're

supposed to do

together as

God's people.

When Jesus

returns,

and so until

then,

so we've got

this,

because we

don't know,

we've got

this vision

for this day

that we don't

yet know.

That we're

called to

meet together,

to encourage

one another,

to point one

another to

Christ.

Christ.

But I

often want

to do

that so

I can

tell you,

it's not

about pointing

you to

Christ,

it's about

telling you

where you're

wrong,

where I've

caught you,

ha ha,

I got you,

you're wrong,

because I like

being right

more than

anything.

But what the

writer of Hebrews

is trying to

tell us is that

our posture

as a family

of God is

one that is

called to

encourage and

love and

care for

one another.

That we're

called to

lean in

towards one

another.

What do we

do with all

this great

information that

we've been

given about

Jesus, that

he is our

savior, that

he has

cleansed us,

that he has

made us

holy, that

he has

brought us

out of

darkness into

light, out

of death into

life.

What are we

supposed to

do with all

this good

information and

it's supposed

to draw us

to one

another?

It's supposed

to bring

us

together.

Christianity

is not a

lone ranger

game.

The things

we do, this

is not about

just you and

Jesus.

Yes, there

is this

individual

relationship

between you

and the

Lord, but

there is

this community

that you

are called

to.

And it

is a

delightfully

weird and

awesome,

amazing, and

broken community

that we are

called to.

we are

called to

each other.

And I

love that

we as a

church are

committed to

things like

grace groups

and the

things that

small groups

and in the

youth ministry

we have

them and

our adults

have them

and we're

called to

connect with

one another

and be a

part of

each other's

lives.

But we're

called to

do so in

order that we

might honor

the one

who's

called us.

We're

called to

each other

to love.

We're called

to each other

in order that

we might love

each other

well.

And listen,

there are

hard things

that have

to be said

at times.

There are

hard words

that have

to be

spoken.

Hard,

not meaning

just mean

but difficult

and loving.

Consider how

to stir

one another

to love

and good

works.

not

neglecting

to meet

together

that we

are called

to stir

one another

up to

honor the

Lord.

Why?

Why?

Because this

Jesus has

made us new

because this

Jesus has

transformed us

because this

Jesus has

brought us

into life

with him.

And so we

do this until

he returns.

We're

called

to offer

faithful

scripture

led

sanctifying

care

for one

another.

And

oftentimes

because of

this,

this is why

I ask

this question

when you

like

criticism,

like we

often

interpret

someone

walking with

us in our

lives,

walking with

us with

the sins

that we

struggle with,

walking with

us in the

hardships,

the brokenness,

the hurt,

the pain.

we don't

want to

receive,

we just,

oh,

it's your

just,

why are you

being so

critical?

Why are you

telling me

what to do

with my

life?

We get

this place

where we

get more

defensive.

And so

there's kind of

two sides of the

coin.

It's not just

that we

need to be

people who

receive

sanctification

and the love

of our

brothers and

sisters in

Christ.

It's not that

we just

receive that well.

That's true,

but we also

need to give

it well.

Because there's

also this call

for us to

love one

another well.

Love and

good,

to stir one

another up to

love and good

works,

encouraging one

another.

Our hearts

have to be

transformed by

Jesus in order

that we might

pour out into

other people.

We cannot do

this by

ourselves.

I'm not led

to walk with

someone in

their life

lovingly,

with care,

on my own.

This is why

we have to

be a family

rooted in

the gospel.

We have to

be a family

rooted in

change that's

done by

Christ,

because if

we aren't,

what we will

be are people

who just like

to give really

good advice

about what it

looks like to

be holy.

It might look

like, oh,

this looks

good.

You do that.

But when our

hearts are

transformed,

when we've

been made

new by Jesus,

we are able

to interact

with people,

interact with

our brothers and

sisters in

Christ in a

way that looks

at them with

care and

compassion and

humility,

humility, so

that we might

love them

well and

point them to

Jesus.

We have this

great Savior,

and so we are

motivated and

moved to love

one another by

the love that

he has poured

out on us.

Jesus has

given us a

living way,

a way that we

might know

life and life

eternally.

love one

and we are

called to walk

with one

another and

love one

another and

point them to

that way.

I know a lot

of us,

including myself,

have had

seasons of

struggle and

loneliness,

times where we

felt alone and

isolated,

unloved,

hurt,

uncared for.

someone pointed

out to me

this couple

of lines from

the Harry

Potter movies,

which,

sorry,

there's a

wonderful,

one of my

favorite things

is that there's

this article you

can find online,

if you go

Google Jesus

and Christianity

and Harry

Potter,

there's an

article where

she,

J.K.

Rowling's

interviewed about

the themes of

her books and

how the boy who

lived and the

resurrection and

all these things

of redemption

and evil being

defeated,

all these things

are pointed out

and she has a

background,

having grown up

in church,

I'm not saying

I support

everything she

does,

I just want to

make sure I

draw a line

right there real

quick,

but there's a

line in the

movie where

Harry is

interacting with

Luna Lovegood,

listen,

it would take

me another

half hour to

try to explain

who these

characters are,

thank you,

yes,

but there's

just this

beauty of what

she's saying to

Harry,

Luna says,

we believe you

by the way,

she's talking

about how the

main evil

character is

back,

we believe you

by the way

that he who

must not be

named is

back and you

fought him and

the ministry and

the prophet are

conspiring against

you and

Dumbledore,

and so this is

Harry interacting

with someone who

believes him that

the main bad guy

is back,

thanks,

seems you're about

the only ones

that do,

and then Luna

says,

I don't think

that's true,

but I suppose

that's how he,

Voldemort,

he wants you to

feel,

what do you

mean?

Says Harry,

well if I were

Voldemort,

I'd want you

to feel cut

off from

everyone else

because if

you're just

alone,

you're not as

much of a

threat.

If I were

you know who,

if I were

the devil,

if I were

the world,

if I were

sin,

I'd want you

to feel cut

off from

everyone else

because if

you're alone,

you're not as

much of a

threat.

But

you are

not alone.

Christ has

called you

as his

people

to himself,

but he has

called you

to a body

of people

who delight

in the Lord

Jesus

and delight

to walk

together in

this life

in order

that we

might know

Jesus

and point

each other

to the

Christ,

to point

each other

to him,

the one

who changes

us,

the one

who is our

anchor,

the one

whom we

can trust.

Let's pray.

Father,

we're grateful

for this

time,

this morning

to be

together.

May we

remember,

Lord,

that you

are faithful

to us,

you are

good to

us,

you care

for us,

you have

us in

mind even

now as

you,

Jesus,

as you

sit on the

right hand

of God

the Father,

you are

advocating

even now

for us.

Father,

help us to

remember that

we are not

alone,

that we

have Jesus,

that we

have the

Holy Spirit

and he

has given

us his

people so

that we

might be

together,

be a

community,

that is

called to

you,

that is

worshiping

you and

will be

with you

both now

and forever.

I pray

this in

Jesus'

name.

Amen.

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