We have become too comfortable in our culture with treating a church building like it is “the holy place”. We try to consolidate of our spirituality to when we are within the walls. We are quick to chastise others for not being there at the predetermined “spiritual” times and then we are just as quick to neglect meeting with those same people the entire rest of the week. Did you know the church in the beginning met daily? Ok, that is a message for another time. Throughout COVID-19 to today people have liked to yank vs. 24-25 of this passage out of context and weaponize them to guilt people into showing up to a building. They choose to completely discard the textual and cultural context when doing so. Let us look at the cultural context and then explore those verses around 24-25.

This letter was written to Jewish believers living outside of Palestine, possibly even Rome. These were spiritually immature and struggling with living out their faith due life-threatening persecution. As a result, many were entirely defecting from the faith (not just “missing church”). The writer of Hebrews wrote to remind them in the first part of the letter about the theology that brought them to Christ and changed their lives. Then in chapter 10 he begins to explain practical ways to live out that teaching. He calls them to remember with confidence how they should live because of the power of Christ’s sacrifice.

Big Idea: 3 confident calls we must answer because of Christ’s sacrifice. [What the passage is actually about.] (Hebrews 10:19-25)