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Feb 04, 2024

Hebrews: Hope In Suffering

Passage: Hebrews 10:26-39

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: Hebrews: Fulfilled in Christ

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: power, suffering, king, sovereign, control

We are all pressured by a circus of suffering and all have our list of natural responses lined and ready to go, from "shrinking back" and crawling in a hole to picking up our battlements and going to war. Jesus offers a third way. Jesus lived a third way. Receiving pain without crumbling or fighting; receiving pain, validating it's severity and impact, and living with his soul bent toward eternity and the joy of bringing us home with him.

Heb 10
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.


32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 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. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For,

“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
38 but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”

39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

 

SERMON DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Read the passage together

1) What words stuck out to you? What’s the author getting at?

2) What are some of the trials/sufferings? Think about how “publicly exposed” is the word “theater” -- what does this mean to you?

3) What kind of sufferings in life have you gone through lately?

4) Think about the different ways we tend to respond (abandon, shrink back, revenge) - (Abandon is from 26-32 and for church-going non-Christians that totally abandon hope).

5) What does “shrink back” mean for us? How do we do that sometimes?

6) This is the 5th (and final) warning passage in Hebrews (the others are 2:1-4, 3:12-15, 4:1 and 6:4). What are some of the things the writer has warned people about? Does it sound too harsh? What’s the point?

7) When you come upon a passage that is rough and seems like God is so angry that you’ll lose your salvation, compare/contrast it with the rest of scripture...especially the passages on the previous page. How does the “many define the few” in scripture?

8) HOW can we learn to respond to pain with hope? How does Jesus being put on “theater” make a difference? It HAS to be more than “Jesus did it, so you should to”.

9) How is “perspective” the key to hope in suffering?

 

RELATED PASSAGES

Phil 4
12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Matt 6
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust[fn] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matt 5
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..

Luk 23:34
And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments

1Jo 5:4
For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

Phil 3
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.