Encourage one another daily

Hebrews 3:1-19

Key Verse 3:13

This passage reminds us of John Bunyun's Pilgrim's Progress. As described there our life in the Lord is a journey to His kingdom, and the journey involves lots of difficulties and challenges. Although many choose to embark on the journey not all make it to the celestial city; like the Israelites who got out of Egypt and yet failed to make it to the Promised Land, so also many will get out of the grip of the devil and yet somewhere along the journey will lose faith and become statistics. 

The real point of the message is that by you,  after experiencing God's grace, and then remaining sinful, unbelieving, and disobeying the Lord, and thereby even leaving the community of people who still strive to follow the Living God, you become a source of great discouragement to others. Even one person doing this can so easily cause havoc to the community of believers. 

For this reason the author exhorts us fellow members of the holy pilgrimage to encourage one another "daily" as a matter of life and death, for while we see that we ourselves need to struggle not to sin, we should not remain aloof to others who are faltering or flirting with the devil.

1. Read verse 1. What does "fix" mean? Why should we fix our thoughts on Jesus? (Consider the discussion in Chapters 1-2 especially 2:14-18) How is the title "apostle" or "high priest" related to us?

** Keep or let something or someone remain in one place or location. 

** We are weak; in fact all descendants of Adam lost the battle to the devil's temptations. If we rely on our own efforts, we are all going to get an F minus in dealing with the devil. But it is different with Jesus. He alone defeated the devil and is able to defeat him all the time. In fact he gave a knock out punch to the devil via his death and resurrection, and now he is able to and is still there to help us win the one victory after another over the devil's temptations. 

If however one fixes one's thoughts on something or someone else like laying his eyes on humans such as his girlfriend for she is cute or good looking, he is sure to fall victim to the devil's temptations; he is sure to become a bad influence to others. It is possible that one serves a beautiful message with a beautiful testimony saying, "I repent of my lust problem" but still he can chase after a woman, and thereby allow himself to be dictated by lustful desires. In fact there are as many if not more playboys or playgirls in the so called Christian communities than in those that are non-Christian. 

2. Read verses 2-6. The expression "God's house" is repeated. What is "God's house"? This passage indicates that four persons are involved in getting this house built: God, Moses, Jesus, and us (or you). What are the roles of each of them (God, Moses, Jesus and you) in this venture? 

** It is used both in an individual sense and in a collective sense; individually each believer is a house of God for upon one repenting and accepting Jesus as the Lord and Savior Jesus establishes his presence in that person's inner being by bestowing upon that person the Holy Spirit. Collectively then the church is called the house of God for she consists of those who profess their faith in the Lord. 

This term is also used in a narrow sense and in a broad sense. In a narrow sense it refers to God's people in this physical world. In a broad sense it denotes the kingdom of God also known as the city of the heavenly Jerusalem as mentioned in Heb 12 and Rev 22.

 

** God is the builder; he is like the owner of a project. 

Moses is a builder appointed (or hired) by God to build God's house. He served God's purpose in his generation (among the Israelites), but he served as a "servant" not as a "son" of God.

God also appointed Jesus as the builder. Unlike Moses Jesus is the son of God, who after completing the work of God he is going to become the heir of the perfected world. 

** We are to open ourselves up to the Lord, by believing and obeying the Lord. The key is for us to trust in God (his integrity, esp. his faithfulness), believing that God's promise is true. 

3. Read verse 6 again and think about "our courage" and "the hope of which we boast". The presence of the word "courage" indicates that "courage" is needed in working on this house. Why is courage needed? In what respect can "[being] his house" be characterized as the "hope" one can boast of? Why is this courage called "our" courage? What does it mean to "hold onto" [our courage and the hope...]? If one does not do it, what will happen?

** There are tons of enemies inside and outside of us; the enemies within the enemies without keep working to disrupt our journey to God's kingdom. 

There is also a psychological effect called group instinct. Like sheep people have a fear problem; they are also weak when it comes to peer pressure. We influence others and are influenced by others. When everyone goes through a broad gate it is not easy to keep going through a narrow path.

More critically than this is the need for each pilgrim to be encouraged; like a man in a marathon a pilgrim requires a lot of strength and encouragement; slight interference would be enough to let that person falter or fall.  

** This (eternal life in His kingdom) is called the hope of which we boast, for it alone is the only "living" hope which is truly worthy (though yet to be fulfilled), that is, the hope of receiving the crown of righteousness/life that is the life in a resurrected body in the eternal presence of God with souls whose spirits have been made perfect. This hope is that of eternal life in the eternal kingdom where all of our enemies will have been fully inoperative. 

** It is called "our" courage for it is not one or two persons but a community of people that the Lord God is calling to join in the journey. Assuming it was Paul who wrote the epistle, he himself was a lonesome warrior/pilgrim for so many Jews tried to put him to death for his faith in the Lord. Several people joined Paul encouraging him to keep running the race bravely by faith. Referring to these fellow soldiers Paul uses the word "our", for they were the source of comfort and courage for Paul and fellow pilgrims.

** "Hold onto" means secure a firm grip of. You can hold onto not only that which is physical but also metaphysical such as courage or hope. In fact holding onto the latter is more important than the former, for what is not physically visible is more important than what is physically visible. If you lose courage how can you continue on with the spiritual journey? If you do not have the hope of heaven how can you get yourself going in this world where all are going to eventually perish spoil and fade away?

** They will eventually be like those whose bodies fell dead in the desert. They came out of Egypt in the hope of getting into the Promised Land. But they fell dead before getting into the land. The same is going to happen to those who lose courage and hope. They will not participate in the perfected world to come.  

 

4. Read verses 7-11. Think about the exhortation "do not harden your hearts". The word "your" indicates that it is you who can either harden or soften your heart. Why does anyone end up hardening his heart (when he hears God's word of promise)?  

** V. 13 says that their hearts were hardened because of sin's deceitfulness. At first you start out doubting (God's goodness, love, and power to provide for and protect his children) then go unbelieving then go sinning then as you sin you get deceived more so that you would go from bad to worse slipping into the darkness falling down to a bottomless pit. Due to the devil deceiving you, you think you are wise but you are foolish. 

So by all means pray that you would be on the side of the truth by keeping God's word in your heart. The devil is always there to deceive you, so you could sin and then harden your heart. 

5. Read verses 12 and 13. What does "See to it" mean? The word "none" is repeated twice. Why is it such a serious problem for even "one" person to become "sinful" and "unbelieving"? Why is it necessary for us to encourage one another "daily"? 

** See to it: it means you need to pay close attention to the fact that someone, yourself included, might fall victim to the devil's temptations; thus you must watch out for yourself and others, with alertness, watching closely, just like a security guard staying alert, or an inspector from the Downey City Building Department coming out for code enforcement. You need to see to it with extra alertness for the devil who is very sneaky like a thief, might have already deceived you, by successfully having lodged into your heart unclean spirits. So you need to see to it to catch and remove any hint of yeast.

** Sin works like yeast which spreads secretly throughout the body causing the entire community to become sinful and unbelieving. It is like a cancerous cell spreading quickly unless it is rooted out before it is too late. 

Consider how of the twelve spies that spied out the Promised Land ten spies made such bad discouraging reports that the whole community wept aloud, demanding Moses to go back to Egypt. Numbers 14:1 et seq. 

** Damage to our faith can be done daily, so we need to repair our broken faith daily. You can be discouraged daily so you need to get encouraged daily. 

6. Read verses 16-19 and consider the questions and answers given. What does this passage teach us about the consequences of unbelief? 

** 1) Hebrews 3:16  Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?

This passage teaches us that it is possible that those who once received release from the devil's power can become rebellious towards God.

2) Hebrews 3:17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert?

When one keeps unbelieving (after once upon a time believing and having been freed from slavery to the bondage to the power of the sin and Satan), eventually God will be angry for his sinning, and will cause that person to die in his sins. 

3) Hebrews 3:18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?

The bottom line is that if you remain disobedient, you will never be saved (which is the same as you not being able to enter God's rest).  

4) Hebrews 3:19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

Unbelief results in the loss of salvation. For this reason Paul says that righteousness comes to us by faith from first to last. Rom 1:17

The end