Living Outloud: Hebrews 7-10

We trace the thread from shadows to substance, moving from the law and tabernacle to Jesus’ once-for-all sacrifice, then land on four clear next steps from Hebrews 10. Along the way we read Halloween, marriage, and church as signs that point to deeper spiritual realities.

• copies and shadows in Hebrews 7–10
• the law and tabernacle as sketches of heaven
• Halloween symbols as pointers to real evil and fear of death
• marriage as a picture of Christ and the church
• the warning against trampling grace in Hebrews 10
• four “let us” actions: pray, hold fast, stir up, gather
• practical ways to encourage love and good works
• balancing personal devotion with corporate life

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage: Shadows
• 1:07 Hebrews 7–10: Copies And Reality
• 3:27 Halloween As A Shadow Of Evil
• 8:05 Marriage And Other Earthly Shadows
• 10:21 Warning Against Trampling Grace
• 12:16 The Four “Let Us” Practices
• 16:56 Personal And Corporate Takeaways

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:11

Hey, welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast. And this is our Living Out Loud segment. Kelsey's here.

SPEAKER_00: 0:18

Hello.

SPEAKER_01: 0:18

I'm here. I'm Mike. And uh we're gonna take a look at what we read in the podcast previously in the week and talk about what are we gonna do about it? How are we gonna live this out so that it actually makes a difference? I was thinking about Lord of the Rings, because I'm a almost 40-year-old man and that's what we do regularly. Um but I was thinking of that scene where Sam Wise Gamge he realized that his friend Frodo has been abducted by orcs. This is after the spider scene, if you know where I am.

SPEAKER_00: 0:49

Why did you need to mention that? Just go to the next scene. Just Kelsey doesn't want to hear about the spiders.

SPEAKER_01: 0:54

We ignore that.

SPEAKER_00: 0:55

Okay, so fast forward, Mike. Get to the point.

SPEAKER_01: 0:57

Going up the spiral staircase in this tower to go try to find where his friend's been captured. As he's coming up the staircase, there are like torch sconces on the wall casting this shadow kind of from below him up the stairs in front of him, making him much bigger. He's a hobbit, but he looks like according to the shadow, just like this big kind of scary. He's kind of like grunting up. And it's like the orcs up above see this shadow coming, and they're like, oh no, what is well like what's coming after us? And they're scared, and then they're kind of stuck there for a little bit and they realize, oh, and then this little hobbit comes up, and they're like, Oh, okay, that's not a big deal. Like, and then they try to go fight him, but he fights them off. And we don't have time to talk about the whole movie, Kelsey. Bring it to a close here. Kelsey, wrap it up, wrap up your point for once. Um this idea of shadows, this is the picture that kind of came up uh as we were thinking about Hebrews 7 through 10, because in this section of Hebrews, the author is showing us different shadows of real things that God has established.

SPEAKER_00: 2:02

Just like the orcs, in the same way, when we see shadows in our lives, when we see shadows of real things, we ought to want to turn around and see what is casting that shadow. Where's that coming from? What's the real thing behind that shadow?

SPEAKER_01: 2:17

Like shadows demand our attention. If you saw, if you're home alone and you see a shadow of a figure of a person in the hallway, you gotta figure out who and what that is. Call 911, get a bat, I don't know, whatever you do, whatever your response is, because you know it demands a response. You don't just say, Oh, it's just a shadow. It's just it's just a dark spot on the wall. No, we know that a shadow means something. Yeah. Now we don't necessarily have the full picture, right? We don't necessarily know exactly what the form is, but we know that it demands a response. There, we gotta investigate it.

SPEAKER_00: 2:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 2:48

And so that's what the author of Hebrews is trying to point out here is especially to a Hebrew kind of a Jewish audience, he's like, you guys have been living in the shadow or with the shadow, your whole life, your whole culture has been focused on these shadows. Like, I want to show you the substance. I want to show you what is making those shadows and why they exist. And so he's saying, for example, like in 10.1, like the the law was just kind of an old system that was pointing to this new covenant that God wanted to establish. In 9.4, he says that Jesus didn't enter a copy of the holy place. He entered the actual holy place of heaven. And similarly in 8.5, uh the author says, like the tabernacle, the whole tabernacle is like a sketch or a shadow of heaven. The Jewish people, you should be very familiar with these and how this works, the whole system of priests and what priests do, and sacrifices and the blood of a lamb. Like, hello, like you know what a blood of a lamb does. Well, Jesus is the lamb who was slain, and that means something. That should show you that that gives you access to God now. Like these shadows should be ringing a bell.

SPEAKER_00: 4:03

And uh recognizing that these all these earthly things are shadows. They aren't the real thing, they aren't the final stop. They are pointing to a deeper reality, a bigger reality, a the reality of what is happening in the heavenly realms.

SPEAKER_01: 4:19

And that was part of the problem with Jews and Pharisees stuck in like the law and the sacrifices. You're taking the shadow and making it like the whole thing. It's like you're shooting the shadow on the wall. You're like you're not actually hitting the target, you're but you're giving all your attention and focus to this. That's not what it's here for. It's supposed to get you to anticipate and look for something else. Yeah. It's interesting that we're having this conversation. This episode is airing on Halloween. Now, I understand if you know you're catching up on episodes later, it might not be Halloween for you, but hey, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 4:52

Or if you don't live in the United States and the Halloween isn't celebrated, it's not so much a thing. I don't know. But for us, we're sitting here looking down the barrel of Halloween.

SPEAKER_01: 4:59

We can look out the window, we see different neighbors decorating in different ways. Some aren't at all. Some have honestly genuinely kind of cute things in their harvesty or something.

SPEAKER_00: 5:11

Even when you mentioned the spider earlier, I look out our window and our neighbor has a giant spider web as a decoration in their front yard.

SPEAKER_01: 5:17

And there is a house like kind of diagonally from us that they just got a lot of dark stuff. It's scary. It's not, I don't like it. I'm ready for this time of year to be done so that they can put their things away.

SPEAKER_00: 5:32

They have they they go all in on the scary and the dark.

SPEAKER_01: 5:37

Yeah. And the kind of evil and death and and just those sort of things. And so the correlation, it's not just, hey, we're talking about shadows, and Halloween is shadowy and scary. It's that we see shadows, not just like the tabernacle like Hebrews is talking about. We see shadows of real things brought more out into the open here on Halloween. It's the same thing. Like these skeletons are a we know a plastic skeleton is not a real dead person. It's not death, but it is a shadow of something to get you to think about what? Death.

SPEAKER_00: 6:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 6:13

To get you to think about fear, fear of death.

SPEAKER_00: 6:16

And yet, when it comes to Halloween, we're just looking at the shadows and being like, eh, shadows can't do anything. It's just a real demon in my yard. It's just a thing that looks demonic in my yard.

SPEAKER_01: 6:28

It's just a mask of a demon or a witch. It's not where we don't really do that.

SPEAKER_00: 6:32

And it's it's not actual cobwebs and deadly spiders and scary things. It's not actual dead people and limbs coming out of my yard. It's just a fabrication that looks like that. But what's behind it? Like if we were willing to look at the terror and the gore and the things of Halloween as a shadow of some reality and we turned around to look what's casting that shadow, it's a very real evil. It's a very, very real evil that is casting the shadow of all these things and distracting people with the shadow and being like, it's just a shadow. Don't worry about it. Don't look, don't look about where the shadow's coming from. Just celebrate the shadow. Because isn't it fun? Isn't it cute? Isn't it fun to like be scary and pretend scare people?

SPEAKER_01: 7:18

Like it's not harming anybody.

SPEAKER_00: 7:20

It's not hurting anybody. True, shadows don't hurt anybody. The fake skeleton in the yard across the street isn't hurting anybody. But the the thing that it is celebrating, what's casting the shadow, is a very real evil. That does very real harm. That is very dangerous. And so um there's just there's shadows in our world of the spiritual realities. God set up the tabernacle and priests to be a shadow of heaven and the sacrifice of Jesus. There's shadows in Halloween. We've talked about that. There's also shadows of marriage is a shadow. The reason that we need to protect marriage and why marriage is on attack in our culture is because marriage is a shadow, a picture of Christ and the church. It is a picture that God set up to get us to think, oh, if this is what I see, what's it reflecting? What is what is the actual cause of this? What is actually casting the shadow? It is Christ and the church. And so there's shadows throughout scripture of throughout our world, just the way God set things up that ought to make us think, what is this coming from? Like these shadows we're looking at ought to make us turn around. And if we don't turn around and look at where these shadows originate, if we don't turn around and think, oh, well, what is a tabernacle showing me? What is marriage actually communicating about the heavenly places and the relationship of Christ to the church? And why should why should we protect marriage as one man and one woman? Like, why does that even matter? Because it's a shadow of something greater. Why should I care about what my neighbors put in their lawn on Halloween? Why should I like why should we be worried about that? Well, there because there's a shadow of something evil behind it. Like if we look at these things and are just like, eh, I'm just gonna keep living my life and not worry about what's casting these shadows for good or worse. It's as if I'm sitting in my living room thinking I'm home alone and I see a shadow on the wall and I'm like, eh, it's just a shadow. I'm not gonna investigate it. Behind me could be a murderer or it could be you, and I could be excited to see. Like, but I won't know if I don't turn around. You know, we have to investigate what is casting these shadows.

SPEAKER_01: 9:23

To disregard or diminish a shadow is to disregard or diminish the real thing behind it. And that's what the author is warning about here, the most powerful substance of Christ's blood. Right. He says, hey, look, the whole system of sacrifices and killing a lamb and the blood covers your sacrifices, covers your sins as a sacrifice. That was a shadow that points to Christ. And his blood was spilled to cover your sins once for all. And so, like he says in chapter 10, we can enter heaven's most holy place because of the blood of Jesus. And I I want to get more into this chapter here in just a little bit, but while I'm talking about the subject of the blood, there's consequences for disregarding the shadow and disregarding the substance of what Jesus did. Because in verse 26, he says, Dear friends, if we've if we deliberately continue sinning after we receive knowledge of the truth, there's no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins.

SPEAKER_00: 10:23

It's not saying Jesus' sacrifice wasn't enough. No. It's saying that if you live like Jesus' sacrifice means nothing, there's like literally nothing else. There's nothing he can do for you.

SPEAKER_01: 10:34

He already did everything for you. And if you're going to continue to deliberate it says does it does say deliberately keep on sinning, like disregard I don't know, whatever, it doesn't really affect me. Well then it's like, okay, there's nothing left for you then. Mm-hmm. If you've disregarded that. Is that such a big deal? Yes, because it says in in verse 29, just think of how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God and have treated the blood of the covenant, which makes us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God's mercy to us. That's what it is to sin on purpose after Jesus has already sacrificed his blood for us. Like that's how powerful his blood is, and how a slap in a face it is to continue sinning after that. So what do we do in light of this? I'm in Hebrews chapter 10, and I really like this because the author here lays out four statements that start with, let us do this. Dot dot dot.

SPEAKER_00: 11:36

It's like Hebrew's own little living out loud segment of writing. It's like it's like it he spends all this time building this argument about the the shadows and the realities and the things, and then he comes to a so what do we do in light of So now what?

SPEAKER_01: 11:52

Well, let's do this. And there's four lettuce little four little lettuces. Like it's like a salad. It's like a four lettuce salad.

SPEAKER_00: 11:59

Um, and you There's the fruit of the spirit, and there's the salad of the spirit.

SPEAKER_01: 12:02

Here's the salad of the spirit right here. Uh Hebrews chapter 10, four lettuces, four verses all in a row. 22, 23, 24, 25. Check them out. Verse 22. I'll give the context. Verse 21. And since we have a great high priest who rules over God's house, already talking about the curtain is gone and the blood has been shed, we can go in. Verse 22, here's the first lettuce. Let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts, fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean. Again, that's how valuable and powerful his blood is, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. So because of his sacrifice, and because he has presented us as clean and holy in light of his sacrifice, let us go into the presence of God with sincere hearts, fully trusting him. That doesn't mean right now going into heaven, although we do get to do that someday. It's right now go into the presence of God, go into the Holy of Holies, make your prayers and petitions. That's what the that's what the high priest did. We get to do that. Go straight to God boldly and ask him for what you need. Tell him what's going on. Pray. If you don't pray, then it's like God gave you Jesus gave you a pass into Disneyland to like all day, everything, all expenses paid, do whatever you want. I don't know. I think I I don't know. I'll stay out here.

SPEAKER_00: 13:19

What? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 13:21

He gave you a trillion dollars and you've been living homeless in a box, and you're like, I I don't know. I don't what?

SPEAKER_00: 13:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 13:30

No, go in. You have you go enjoy the access that you have to the king of heaven. Hello?

SPEAKER_00: 13:37

And the way we access his presence this side of eternity is through prayer.

SPEAKER_01: 13:43

That's the first lettuce. Second lettuce, verse 23. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm. For God can be trusted to keep his promise. Okay? Because of this, let us not give up. He's already done all the hard work for us. He's already promised us everything that we need to know in order to reach our heavenly destination. So just don't give up.

SPEAKER_00: 14:06

And the unspoken let us in this is trust him.

SPEAKER_01: 14:09

Also trust him.

SPEAKER_00: 14:10

Trust him.

SPEAKER_01: 14:10

How is he? How is he proven that's like that he can't be trusted? No, he like he's done everything. Really, the responsibility is on us to trust him now. Third let us let us, verse 24, let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. Which is a great recognition that it's not just about us.

SPEAKER_00: 14:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 14:30

Like he didn't just die so that you can have uh a free life here and go to heaven, which is awesome. That's fantastic. But how do we kind of get involved in each other's lives, right? Like, what are we gonna do? Let's just think of ways. Like, hey, you've got creative liberty here too. Yeah, like he's not even telling you what to do. Just let's let's invent some ways. People invent ways of doing evil.

SPEAKER_00: 14:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 14:59

Let's invent ways of doing something good. How do we motivate each other to keep doing more good?

SPEAKER_00: 15:03

Stimulating each other, encouraging one another to do love and good deeds. Like this is this is an exciting one that we have agency within this, right? Like we have we have some creative liberty to come up with ways to encourage one another. Hey, Mike, have you tried this? Hey, Mike, you want to come and do this with me? You want to come and share the gospel with me? You want to come and love people in this way? Like, let's do this together. Sure, let's do it. Like this, this let us is a is a call for us to partner with other believers in finding ways to spread good and love in the world. Like that's because of what we know is true in the heavenly places.

SPEAKER_01: 15:45

Let us number four, let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

unknown: 15:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 15:54

Our meeting together is another shadow. Right. We we are uh a body of believers. He calls a body. Like we're not how how are we the body of Christ? I don't know, but that's just some image, that's some picture, that's that's a little bit of a taste of what Jesus is like. We're gonna be able to see the full thing. We're not gonna have a church in heaven.

SPEAKER_00: 16:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 16:13

We're not gonna have a body of believers, we're just gonna be together.

SPEAKER_00: 16:16

We as the body are the shadow of Christ here on earth. We are the the picture that other people see of who Jesus is. So don't miss out. And our gathering together is a shadow of what we will be doing in eternity. Revelation gives wonderful pictures of beings gathering around the throne of God worshiping him. When we gather together as believers and worship with each other and share worshiping God together in the same space and the same time, we're experiencing a shadow of the reality of what's happening in heaven 24-7. So I like how these lettuces are kind of split up personal and and corporate corporate.

SPEAKER_01: 16:57

Like there's there's let's let me let's just summarize. All right. 22, pray. Entering God's presence. Right. Twenty-two, pray. Twenty-three, hope, twenty-four, encourage others, and twenty-five, meet together. The first two you can do on your own. The last two you can't do on your own.

SPEAKER_00: 17:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 17:12

So let us do all of them.

SPEAKER_00: 17:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 17:15

Is there one of these that you or maybe a pair of these that you struggle with? Let's lean into that this week.

SPEAKER_00: 17:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 17:22

Praying, hoping, encouraging, meeting. Which one are you neglecting? Let's not neglect these things.

SPEAKER_00: 17:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 17:27

Jesus' blood is too valuable for us to ignore these. So let's do it this week.