Hope When It Hurts

Walter Henegar | Feb 18, 2024

Hebrew 3:1-19 (ESV)

1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,“Today, if you hear his voice,

8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

on the day of testing in the wilderness,

9 where your fathers put me to the test

and saw my works for forty years.

10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,

and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;

they have not known my ways.’

11 As I swore in my wrath,

‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Sermon Summary

When believing gets painful, Christians have a choice: Either let your heart get hardened, which is easy, or hold fast to your hope, which is hard. Thankfully, your heavenly calling was already secured for you by the Father, earned for you by the Son, and sustained for you by the Holy Spirit. This means you only have to “take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of you” (Philippians 3:12 NIV). And you don’t have to do it alone. As Hebrews will keep reminding us, we must “exhort (or encourage) one another every day.”

Discussion Questions

What stood out or stuck with you from the sermon?
What particular situations or circumstances in your life tempt you to let your heart get hardened and lose confidence in Jesus?
What makes it hard for you to trust the Bible? How does its own repeated assertions that God is speaking through it (like v. 7) reassure you?
How does the faithfulness of Jesus help you to hold fast to him? Name some specific things he has done in in the past, and that he still does in your life today.
In what specific ways do other Christians encourage your faith (ideally “every day,” v. 13)? How do you try to encourage other Christians?

Resources Consulted

Africa Bible Commentary, ed. Tokunboh Adeyowo
African-American Bible Commentary, ed. Brian K. Blount
ESV Study Bible, ed. Lane T. Dennis
The Message of Hebrews, Raymond Brown
Hebrews for Everyone, NT Wright
Hebrews Crossway Classic Commentary, John Owen
Hebrews Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Mary Healey
NIGTC Commentary on Hebrews, Paul Ellingworth
NIC Commentary on Hebrews, Philip Edgecombe Hughes
Hoping for Something Better, Nancy Guthrie
Here’s an Unchurchy Case for Church, by Brendan Case & Tyler Vanderweele