Helping Each Other Hold Onto Hope

I want to start with a confession. Actually two confessions, but here’s the first one …

Faith is Struggle for Me in this World

Faith is a struggle for me in this world. So I’ve mentioned this before and in different ways, and I’m not sure how it feels for you to hear that from a pastor or your pastor. I don’t know if that’s surprising or discouraging or encouraging or confusing or disappointing for a pastor who’s been walking with faith in Jesus for over 40 years to say that. But I actually find it encouraging when I open the Bible and I never see faith described as coasting down a hill with the wind blowing through your hair, as if it’s all smooth and easy, because that’s just not been my experience. Instead, I see faith described over and over again as a fight, a struggle, a battle, even a war, and I can identify with that. And I’m guessing you probably can too.

If faith, if believing God and trusting God and being with God and obeying God, feels like a struggle or a fight for you in this world, then I want you to know you’re not alone. I, for one, am with you. And I’m not just saying that, without going into details. This week has been a fight for faith on multiple levels, which leads to my second confession …

I Need Other People to Help Me Continue in Faith Until I Get to the Next World

I need other people to help me continue in faith until I get to the next world. Now, obviously implied in this statement is that this world is not all there is, which I’m about to show you today in God’s Word—that there’s another world coming where faith will be turned into sight. But the point is, I won’t make it there if other people don’t help me get there. And I know this because I have no doubt I would not be standing here today if other people hadn’t helped me get here.

There’s a long line of brothers and sisters in Christ who together have led me to faith, taught me faith, showed me faith, encouraged my faith, nurtured my faith, prayed for my faith, and helped me persevere with faith through hard days when I’ve been tempted to lack or lose faith altogether. And that, in a sense, is the whole point of this three-week series—”In This Together”—to stop for a moment, look each other in the eye, and say, “We need each other.” I need you for my faith. You need me for your faith. We need each other in this world if we’re going to make it to the next world. 

Last week, Eric walked us through Hebrews 10:19–22 to show us how we need each other in order to draw near to God. As I was listening to him preach, I was thinking, Yes, this is what we’re here for in each other’s lives. I want the effect of my relationship with you to be you drawing closer to God, and I want the effect of your relationship with me to be me drawing closer to God. Let’s be the kind of people in each other’s lives that, simply because we’re around each other, we’re drawing nearer to God. 

And then today we’re going to take this to a whole nother level. We’re going to do something we don’t normally do. We’re going to look at just one verse in the Bible— Hebrews 10:23. And I actually have a couple of goals for our time together in God’s Word today. One is to show you the stunning truth of Hebrews 10:23. I’ll just go ahead and put it up on the screen. I want to show you what this means, but then I also want to help you see how you can meditate on just one verse of the Bible for a long time in a really meaningful way on your own.

So I am zealous for you not just to hear what I hope is helpful teaching from God’s Word, like every week we gather together, but I’m zealous for you to experience personal intimacy with God in his Word on a day by day basis. You don’t fall in love with someone through proxy, through someone else. You fall in love with someone personally, and I long for each of you to experience love relationship with God through his Word—not just proxy or somebody else teaching it to you, but personally on your own. Whether you’re a child or a teenager or a busy young adult or working dad or mom, a senior adult, whoever you are, whatever stage of life you’re in, I am zealous for you to have concentrated time alone, just you and God, each day, where you’re experiencing intimacy with God through his Word.

MAPS – Meditate/Memorize, Apply, Pray, Share
We use an acrostic called MAPS that … many of you have been around here, [and] you have heard many different times just a map for experiencing intimacy with God in his Word on a daily basis. Many of you could say what that acrostic stands for: M [stands for] meditate and memorize; A stands for apply; P stands for Pray—praise, repent, ask, and yield (which you’ll notice is another acrostic: PRAY); and then S stands for share. And it’s not necessarily that you do step 1, 2, 3, 4, but these are essentially disciplines or practices to learn and to do whenever you’re reading the Bible; to learn to meditate and memorize and apply and pray and share what God is showing you in his Word. 

And I long for you to have time, to make time, in your day, ideally before anything else you do; just to be with God and do these things. And even if you’re reading, say, multiple chapters each day, like we have in our Bible-reading plan, which you can always download from mcleanbible.org/biblereading and jump in at any time. If you just want a place to start, go for it. Go to this link, download the plan. You can jump in anytime; the water is warm. But even if you’re reading a few chapters on some days, it’s good to just pick out one verse and soak in it. So that’s what we’re going to do today.

Slowing Down to Soak in Hebrews 10:23

So let’s start just with the first two words…

“Let Us …”

“Let us.” So let’s just pause there. Okay, soak this in: “Let us.” And those two words would really stick out. If you’re just reading through these verses around it in your Bible, you would notice that there are three verses right in a row that all begin with these same words. So if you have your Bible—I’ll put it up here on the screen—but you might make a note in your Bible, if you have it. So we’ll start in verse 19, where we started last week.

“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 [Here it is … circle it], 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 pure water. [Then verse 23] Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. [Verse 24] And let us consider how to stir one another up 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.”

Then you start to realize this whole passage revolves around what we do together as followers of Jesus. “Let us draw near to God” together. We looked at that last week. “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” Lord willing, we’ll look at that next week. Today we’re looking at verse 23: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.”

So when we see those first two words, “Let us,” God is clearly telling us you need other people to do this. You can’t hold fast the confession of your hope without wavering on your own. This is a “group project,” and we need to hear this on a day of hyper-individualism that Eric hit on so helpfully last week. I’m actually going to quote from him just to make sure you caught it, and if you missed it, listen to this. He said at one point …

“Too many of us have bought the lie that happiness and joy can only be found through self-determination and following our individual hearts. We bought the lie that if any relationship limits our personal goals or puts constraints on our personal freedom, we should push them away. We’ve bought the lie that what matters most is what we personally want and think and anyone who would push back on us or tell us something that we don’t want to hear is not emotionally safe so we need to cut them off. We’ve built these high walls around ourselves for the sake of our freedom not realizing we’ve built our own prisons. [He said] We’ve put ourselves in solitary confinement. So, how do we experience freedom?”

And the answer God is giving us and this passage is clear. He gives it to us three times. Let us look to lean on others, to draw an ear to God, to live lives of love, and to hold on to hope. So let us now …

“Hold Fast”

“Hold fast.” Let’s soak that in. What a phrase—”Hold fast.” It’s actually one word in the original language of the New Testament here, and it’s a great word. It means to cling to someone or something tightly. Acts 3:11 uses the same word to talk about the lame beggar who was healed, and he was clinging tightly to Peter and John as suddenly crowds were coming around them. It’s the same word that Mark uses multiple times, especially in Mark 14, in his Gospel to describe how authorities arrested and seized Jesus. That’s the word. So there’s an intensity here, which is part of why it’s translated this way. Not just hold, but hold fast, tight, strong.

When I picture these, even just, I’m going to do it for just a second, even just this barbell. And I picture this word, let us hold “fast.” I think about faces in my mind. I think about small group teachers. We called ’em Sunday School in the church. I grew up in Atlanta, Briar Lake Church. I think about Sunday School teachers who held up my 8-year-old, my 10-year-old faith in ways I needed. And I think when I became a teenager, I needed [people]. And I’m thinking of specific people who helped me hold up my faith amidst all those temptations I was facing, that so many of you do for teenagers, students, in this church family as you take vacation time—many of you to go to camps this summer—and help them hold up their faith.

I think about when I went off to college and my faith was fragile, and God in his mercy provided people who came along and helped me hold up and not [get] swept away by so many different things during those days. I think about when my dad died and I’m shaking, holding, trying to hold on, and the multitudes of people who came up and held me up. And I think about the last few years; I think about challenges in our church family or in our family; think about waiting to go bring JD home, and so many of you praying with us and for us, holding us up in those days in so many different ways … and all the way to this last week, and some of you, you know who you are, holding me up. I’m so thankful for people who’ve helped me “hold fast.” Now the key in all of this is, “What are we supposed to hold fast to and help each other hold fast too?”

And this is where it’s interesting. Do this sometimes in your Bible reading. So try to imagine how you or others might fill in what God’s Word is saying, for example. So if you didn’t know what this passage was about to say, and you read, “Let us hold fast …,” so how might we fill in that blank? What are options for people to hold fast to, like in the world? Let us hold fast to our jobs, clinging tightly to our jobs; our education; a resume. Let’s hold fast to our money, possessions, our home, our car, 401 Ks—these are all things the world says [to] “hold,” clinging tightly to. Let’s hold fast to our reputations, to our comforts. Let’s hold fast to our health. Or even let’s hold fast to the way things have always been, or used to be, or the ways they could be if this or that would change. Let’s hold fast to dreams. We hear it all the time: “Don’t let go of your dreams” or “Hold fast to this person or that relationship.” 

So if we’re thinking on a purely biblical level, what might we expect to read? Let us hold fast to our faith. Let us hold fast to Jesus. But what’s the word that God gives us here?

“ … the confession …”

Let us hold fast … the confession. I don’t think any of us would’ve put that word there, but God did. So let’s think about it. What is a confession? A confession is a declaration we make about something we know. So it’s not just something we know; it’s something we say. A confession is not silent. A confession is spoken.

“… of our hope …”

So let us hold fast the confession, the belief and the declaration … of what? Again, do the fill-in-the-blank. Let’s hold fast the confession of … and I think what probably first comes to our mind is the confession of our faith, which is often obviously important and related. We saw that word in verse 22 last week, but verse 23 says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our …  what? … hope.”

Now again, this is the kind of thing, if we’re not careful, we can just kind of run by this. Let this soak in for a moment, because that word is fascinating. Because it’s telling us that our confession revolves around something that we don’t yet have and we can’t yet see. That’s what hope implies, right? One translation of Romans 8:24 tells us “hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?” (NIV). Another translation puts it this way: “If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it.” No millionaire hopes to be a millionaire. If you already have it, you don’t hope for it, which is why this word “hope” is so fascinating … because, so put this together, we’re supposed to hold fast to [the] confession—what we believe and say—about something we can’t see and we don’t have yet.

That goes totally against the grain of what we want to hold fast to, right? We want to hold fast to something we can see and feel and fix and have now. And this verse is saying, “No, don’t hold fast to what you can have and see and feel and fix and get now in this world. You hold fast to what you will have later in the next world.” That’s what this passage is saying.

Let me show you this in the verses that come right after this. So a few verses after this, in Hebrews 10, the writer is talking to people who are experiencing suffering and persecution in this world for their faith. And listen to what he says in Hebrews 10:34. He says, “You had compassion on [people] in prison” for their faith, and you “joyfully accepted the plundering of your property.” Did you hear that? “You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property.”

How do you do that? Well, you don’t do that. You don’t joyfully accept the plundering of your property if you’re holding fast to your property in this world. But you joyfully accepted it because, since you knew you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one … how do you joyfully accept the plundering of your property? You realize you have better property that’s coming, that’s going to last forever. That’s how you can be joyful when stuff in this world is gone, because you’re not living for stuff in this world. You’re living for stuff in another world.

That’s why the author then defines faith a couple verses later with these words: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith in this world means hoping for things to come in the next world. It’s a conviction, a confession of things that you haven’t seen yet.

And then he just gives example after example of this. At one point he says of people who live by faith, they show with the way they live that they “desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” (Hebrews 11:16).

Are you seeing this? To live by faith means to hold on, hold fast to a confession of hope that a better country is coming. To live by faith is to believe and to declare that this fallen world with all its temptations and trials, sickness and heartache, suffering and pain, sorrow and death is not the end. To live by faith is to hold fast, to hope in a better country to come. 

And then, so now think about how that totally changes the way you live in this country right now in this world. It’s not that the list of things we mentioned earlier is all bad, but listen to this: We don’t place our hope, hold fast, our jobs in this world, in this country; or our houses or our possessions or our 401ks; our reputations or our health or our dreams for us or dreams for the people we love.

I think about Zach being up here. I think we can all say we hope the Commanders will win the Super Bowl, except for the few of you Ravens or random Cowboy fans out there. But yeah, we hope the Commanders will win the Super Bowl. But Zach and everybody on that team knows that any number of factors could cause that hope to be lost at any time. And even if it happens, the reality is, a couple of short generations from now, nobody’s going to be talking about it. I guarantee you none of you can name the team that won the Super Bowl 60 years ago. Just try it in this room. I will give anyone who can name that team … don’t look on your phone… name that team … I’ll give you a hundred dollars, and any location pastor at any other locations will do the same thing. They’ll personally give you a hundred dollars. If in the next five seconds you can shout out the name of the team that won the Super Bowl 60 years ago, go for it. Try.

Okay, five seconds is up. I don’t know what everybody said at other locations, but I heard a lot in here. The reality is, there was no Super Bowl 60 years ago. Last Super Bowl was Super Bowl 59; Super Bowl 60 didn’t even exist. Yeah, but the point is, the point is, a game on a field with a pigskin ball, along with a million other things in this world, is not sufficient to hold the weight of hope in your life. So where should you put your hope in a way that’s going to actually last forever? Well, I’m glad you asked. 

You’ve got to see this, and you wouldn’t catch it just reading our verse. “So let’s hold fast the confession of our hope…” (Hebrews 10:23). But if you were reading this verse after having read through the book of Hebrews to this point, you would realize, Wait a minute, I’ve seen this language somewhere! Because the author of Hebrews has used this language about holding fast to our confession and holding fast to our hope two other times and I want to show ’em to you.

Check this out. The first is Hebrews 4:14. See if any of this sounds familiar: “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us [what?] hold fast [our what?] our confession.” It’s the same language there. Now, when the author of Hebrews used this language this first time, he was talking about Jesus as a great high priest who passed through the heavens, which is, if you go back and look, is very similar language to what Hebrews 10:19–21—which we read earlier—says. And there’s so much here. I wish we had time, more time to dive into, but just stick with me. I’m going to give you a quick overview. 

This is alluding to how, ever since the fall of man, ever since the entrance of sin into the world, man and woman have been separated from God, unable to be in his holy presence. And in the Old Testament, God set up a way for the high priest, one person, to come into the holy of holies—the presence of God in the tabernacle or the temple—to offer a blood sacrifice to cover over the people’s sins. Nobody else could go in—just the high priest once a year on the day of atonement or the day of covering. And the scene was intense: They would tie a rope around his leg when he would walk in; he’d have bells around his garments so that they could hear him walking around, and they could know if the bells stopped. That meant he had fallen over, and they had a rope to be able to pull him out. He just died in the presence of the holy God. So just imagine the intensity of that scene … one man goes in to offer sacrifice for the sins of all the people, and then he gets out of there as soon as he’s finished. That was the backdrop.

The high priest would do that once a year, and then he would die. And another high priest would do it; he would die, and another high priest would do it. But the author of Hebrews is telling us the gospel here, the good news that Jesus is the great high priest who didn’t just go into the holy of holies in the tabernacle of the temple. He passed through the heavens, directly into the presence of God the Father, where he has shed his own blood once and for all to atone for, to cover sins. And he didn’t just go in and get out as quickly as possible. Hebrew 10:12 says he went in and “sat down at the right hand of God [the Father]” to show that the price for sins had been paid once and for all for anyone who trusts in him. So that, no matter who you are, no matter what you have done … 

Isaiah, another one of my sons, and I were in an Uber yesterday; we’re talking with a man who said he thought he’d go to heaven because when he died, because he is a pretty good person. And we were telling him, “I’m sure you’re a good person, but you’re not that good to be in the presence of a holy God. You need the blood of Jesus to cover over your sins.” And the good news is, Jesus has paid that price for the sins of anyone, everyone who will trust in him. And by so doing, he has opened the door for, then, you to have access to God in his presence. That’s what this is saying. Since Jesus did this, “let’s hold fast our confession.”

And then now, look at the other time we see this language in Hebrews 6:18. You’ve got to see this. Verse 18: “ … we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to [what?] hold fast.” There it is. To the what? “Hope.” Hold fast to hope. That’s been said before us, and then he keeps going. Watch this. ‘We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Hebrews 10:19). Is there anybody today who would like a “sure and steadfast anchor for your soul?” Is there anybody who wants an anchor for your soul that is steadfast? Even when the job is one day gone; even when the economy falters; even when the cancer comes; even when the marriage is struggling; even when the people you love are hurting; no matter what happens, a sure and steadfast anchor for your soul. Watch this language, this hope that’s before us, that’s a sure and steady fast anchor, enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.

What hope enters a sanctuary behind a curtain? What kind of hope enters a sanctuary behind a curtain? What’s that talking about? Watch this” “ … where [our forerunner] Jesus has entered on our behalf.” Wait a second. Wait. Jesus enters … hope enters … Jesus is the hope that Hebrews is talking about, because Jesus [now follow it—make the connection with Hebrews 4 and Hebrews 6—Jesus is the one who has entered into the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. He has paid the price for our sins. And why has he done this? He’s done that on our behalf as a forerunner for us so that we could join him there in the presence of God. Yes, yes, yes! 

So put all this together. This is powerful, life-changing imagery. Don’t miss this. For all who know Jesus as the Savior and Lord of your life, you have a hope, a sure and steadfast anchor for your soul.

So when you picture an anchor … normally we picture dropping something into the bottom of the sea, right? But now this anchor is linked to the heights of heaven. So you have an anchor from your life that’s attached to the inner sanctuary, the very throne room of God where Jesus is, Christian—all in Christ. Picture your life in this world in this way. Wherever you go, whatever you do, in the middle of whatever you face in this world, your soul is anchored to Jesus in the heavenlies, in the presence of God, the Father in heaven. And the Bible is saying to you today, hold fast to that anchor. Hold fast. Don’t miss it. Hold fast to the hope that’s holding on to you. 

Hold fast to the confession of our hope … that is an amazing statement … “without wavering.” Oh, we don’t have time. We’ve covered nine words. Okay, we’ll just hit this really quick. Without wavering—don’t waver. Don’t try to anchor your soul anywhere else in this world. You have an anchor in heaven in Jesus, and a hope in him. You don’t need the anchors of this world that will not hold you.

And for any of you today who don’t know Jesus, what are you anchoring your life on right now? God is saying to you in his Word today that whatever you’re anchoring your life on in this world will not hold forever. It won’t hold. And the good news is, Jesus has paid the price for your sins. He’s made a way for you to have relationship with God—life with God now and forever. So anchor your soul today in Jesus.

And for all who have trusted in Jesus, realize that’s where your anchor is right now, and hold fast to your hope without wavering, for—so the word means “because” … so here’s why, and this is so good. “He who promised [so this is talking about God himself] … He who promised … and think about promises … you look it up. People estimate how many promises there are in the Bible, and the estimates range from—depending how you define them and how much overlap—anywhere from 3000 to 30,000. So we’re just going to say thousands—thousands and thousands—of promises that God has made, that he will be faithful to every single one of them.

I do not know what you are walking through in your life right now in your family, in your work. I do not know all that’s going on in your world, but I do know this: If you are in Christ, if your soul at this moment is anchored to the heights of heaven where Jesus is, you do not have to worry about whatever wind and waves are coming at you. You do not need to be anxious, and you don’t need to be afraid—no matter what–this world is bringing your way, because your soul is anchored to heaven. And the Bible, God himself in his Word, is saying to you, “Just keep holding on and help each other hold on to the one who is holding on to you.”

And then, can I just show you one more verse? I got to show you one more verse in Hebrews 7. Jesus in heaven at the right hand of the Father, your soul anchored to him. What’s he doing? The right hand of the Father. Is he just kind of sitting there camping out, watching what’s happening in your life play out? Listen to this. Hebrews 7 25: “Consequently he [that’s talking about Jesus] is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always [here’s what he’s always doing … he] lives to make intercession for you.” 

You know what Jesus is doing right now? Your soul anchored him. He is, Jesus is interceding for you. He’s not just sitting there hanging out, watching what’s happening in your life play out. He’s saying, “I’m ready to give you everything you need.” And just think about all his promises, all the wisdom you want. It’s yours. All the peace you long for; all the strength you need; all the joy you desire in a way that transcends the sufferings of this world; all the help you require. Just keep holding fast as you wait for the day when—now, get the picture—when he will bring you home to himself to be free from all the sin and all the suffering and all the sorrow of this fallen world. And he will personally wipe every tear from your eyes and your faith will become sight. That’s what’s coming.

So brothers and sisters, let’s say it together. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” Say it again. ‘Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” One more time. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”

Closing Application

So here’s how I’d like to close, then. I want to give you a few minutes, and you’ll have a little more time than normal. I want to give you a few minutes to do the A–P–S of MAPS. We’ve meditated and memorized. Now, I want to give you a few minutes to just apply. So how is God transforming your thoughts, your desires, your actions through this verse? Like, think specifically amidst whatever you’re walking through in your life right now, or just generally your life in this world. How does Hebrews 10:23 change the way you think about your circumstances right now? Or think about the world around you; what you desire and how you live in the world. Just think of specific things that come to your mind. Just let the Holy Spirit apply this Word to your life.

And then to … P … to pray. How does this verse lead you to praise God, to repent of sin, to ask for things in your life or in others’ lives, and ultimately to yield to God’s leadership in your life? There’s so much there that just flows in our prayer life from one verse.

And then S, to share. And specifically, I just want to encourage you to answer this question: “Who is one person God is leading you to encourage today with truth from this verse? And how will you do that? So just think of one person who’s not in this gathering right now? Or maybe is in this gathering, that you want to encourage in a particular way.

But this Word is not intended to stop with you. It’s too good to stop with you. So don’t just kind of turn the page, and kind of move on with life at this point. Like, no, who can you encourage with this Word? And I would even encourage you to intentionally discuss all of the above around your table at lunch or at a dinner tonight with friends, family members, just maybe your church group. Just somebody to really soak this in together.

So if you’re a follower of Jesus, I want to invite you just to start spending the next couple minutes now with God along these lines. This is the kind of thing that I would encourage you to do in your time alone with God. Let what you read lead you to application and prayer and sharing. So if you’re a follower of Jesus, I invite you to just start spending right now, just a few minutes along these lines. 

And if you’re not a follower of Jesus, hang with me for a minute while they start kind of thinking about this. If you’re not a follower of Jesus, I want to invite you during this time … well, that’s not even the right language. God is inviting you to come to him to experience life in relationship with him. This is the question I was asking the man who was in that Uber yesterday. If something unexpected were to happen and you were to die today, which could happen to any one of us, where will you have anchored your life? And will it be able to hold you for all of eternity? Jesus is the only one who can hold you for all of eternity. He’s the only one who had no sin, paid the price for sin, rose from the dead, conquered sin and the grave. And God has brought you here today, and he’s saying to you right now, through his Spirit, “Trust in me and my love for you.” And “Come to me as the sure and steadfast anchor for your soul.”

So while others are reflecting and praying, I would invite you to do the same, and to say to God yes—today, maybe for the first time in your life, to put your trust in Jesus as the Savior of your sin and the sure and steadfast anchor for your soul.