Hebrews 10:24-25 - Encourage One Another

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What’s up, guys!

This is Josh with Shepherd’s Cast and I want to welcome you to the podcast where I talk to you about the things that I find important. My content is meant to inform, educate, puzzle, or be funny. If it does something other than what I’ve just said, then Soli Deo Gloria, we will just call it providence. All of what I say is read from blog posts that I have written and can be found on my website with the link in the show notes.

So, anyway, yeah, here we go…

The Text

So, without any further pause, today we are going to be digging through Hebrews 10:24-25. It says in Hebrews:

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 10:24-25

Starting at the beginning we need to determine what is meant by the author when he talks about “the confession of our hope.” This phrase is used earlier, but in the context it is used now, it has just followed a verse which references baptism. “… and our bodies washed with pure water.” In the first century during the evangelistic ministry of the apostles it is often a synonymous in event that one confesses faith in Christ alongside being baptized in water. The confession of our hope would be in the washing of our bodies with pure water in the positive obedience of taking the sacrament of baptism. We can see this tying into the context of not wavering as in the following verse the author exhorts the reader to maintain the tradition of gathering.

The author of Hebrews does not keep the reader guessing, however, as he makes the claim for why we should remain faithful to the confession of our hope, of our continued obedience and purity as was expressed in the washing of our bodies. We do not maintain these things in vain – we do so because He, who has promised eternal life, is faithful to us. God has expressed His faithfulness to His chosen people time, and time again. Even in discipline during the time of the prophets, God expressed His faithfulness in His promise to bring back the remnant from captivity. As an example, the remnant coming out of exile in Babylon.

The writer of Hebrews continues on to exhort us into encouraging one another. Firstly, we must consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. Both of these are the signs of a true believer and Paul in his epistles goes through great pains to encourage his readers to follow through on both acts. Jesus, likewise, encourages His followers at His ascension, to love God and their neighbor.

What we notice is that, though these things are the signs of a believer, we must encourage those new and old in the faith to love one another and do good works. But if these things are a sign of simply being a believer, will not these things come forth naturally? Of course they will, but we must remember that on occasion we will not feel like doing anything of the sort, feeling discouraged in our walk as we see the darkness of the world creep in. But God, being faithful in mercy and in His perfect loving-kindness, does not simply ordain the ends of all things but also the means. Therefore, when He uses Paul to explain to us in His epistles, when God has the apostles record the words of Jesus, and when the writer of Hebrews puts pen to paper, the means of encouragement are ordained to be passed down to generations upon generations of believers so that they may be encouraged in their walk to push one another in times of weakness, or ignorance, to persevere in good works and love for one another.

In Chapter 3 of the London Baptist Confession, in paragraph 6, we read “As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so he hath, by the eternal and most free purpose of his will, foreordained all the means thereunto…” This includes the perseverance of the saints in their walk with God and their continued sanctifications as Christians. This means, brothers and sisters, that yes, the natural Christian will want to love and do good works, but in times when they’re not, your encouragement may be the ordained means that God uses in keeping His children drawn toward Him.

This brings the call to “not neglecting to meet together,” or, as some translations put it, “not forsake the gathering,” all the more clearly info focus. There are many different reasons why the Ecclesia, or the body of believers, gathers. All of these reasons are important to the Christian life. However, in the historical context, the believers in the time of the writing were most likely falling to heavy persecution and were most likely avoiding the gatherings due to the risk of death. But the writer of Hebrews makes it very clear that, despite the state of things, they must not stop gathering together.

Putting this into perspective, who are we to think that we should avoid the gathering? Nero was using Christians as torches, dipping them in oil and lighting them in his garden for light. And yet, they were encouraged to continue meeting together because of the importance of the corporate gathering. But now, if church is too early, suddenly it’s a reason to not gather? It is baffling to think we would not enjoy the gathering so much and that those excuses we typically make even hold a light to the gathering of the believers of God. Nothing should be as comparable.

Let us not forget that when we see our brothers and sisters disappear, we should reach out to them and encourage them to keep coming. As an ordained means, the church should flock together to encourage the backslider to maintain presence at the local body in order that all the other encouraging benefits of the ecclesia may come to him. All to the glory of God.

And, as the writer of Hebrews says, we should do this all the more as we see the Day drawing near. We have come to recognize this as the day of Jesus’ return. Discern the signs and encourage your brethren as the bridegroom returns for the day of judgement. All, to the glory of God.

Final Word of the Day

I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this podcast. It is always a pleasure to bring the word of God to those who are seeking to know more about Him.

The final word of the day comes to us from two awesome kingdom driven kids.

*If you wanna hear this you gotta check out my podcast*

A special thanks to Jesus Wannabeez for allowing me to use their newest track, Ephesians 6, in my intro and outro music. You can find a link to their Spotify in the show notes.

And, as always, do everything that you do to the glory of God. Forever and ever.

Amen.