Membership: Our Covenant Promises Series

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Introduction

Good morning, Church! Take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews 10.

We make it our practice to preach through books of the Bible during our gatherings here at FBC. But, we’re pausing that practice for a few weeks to talk about our practice of membership. What does it mean to belong to First Baptist Church and why does it matter? Those are the questions we’re answering.

This week, we’ll look at the promises we make to God and one another when we join this church.

The local church really is the primary means God uses for carrying out the Great Commission. So it’s crucial that we understand what the Bible says about belonging to a local church and what that means for every aspect of our daily lives.

We’ll begin and end with Hebrews 10. Covenanting together is an idea found all over Scripture, but even if it wasn’t I believe there’s enough here in verses 19-25 to make a solid argument about the need for Christians to enter into formal relationships to care for each other.

I’ll read Hebrews 10:19-25 out loud, then I’ll lead us in a prayer to ask God to bless our time together this morning. This is God’s Word:

Read Hebrews 10:19-25

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus— 20 he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain (that is, through his flesh)— 21 and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. 23 Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

Pray

To Draw Near to God requires us to Draw Near to His People

To this point in the letter of Hebrews, the author has made one huge point: Jesus is the only true Savior, He’s the Messiah. That’s the therefore in verse 19. Based on everything the author of Hebrews has written for 10 1/2 chapters about Jesus being a better Messiah than Moses, better than the angels, better than the Law: Therefore, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. 23 Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful.

And the very next verse, verse 24:

24 And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

We surveyed the whole Bible to see this last week, so I don’t want to spend too much time here, but, church, the Bible intimately connects our with God to our walk with His people. Verses 19-25 are one sentence in the original language. Our love for God and love for His people is so connected, the writer of Hebrews mentions them in the very same breath.

If you don’t love God’s people, it’s evidence that you don’t love God. If you look around at people in your church family, or just people around you generally, and you don’t care about them it’s evidence you don’t care about God. That’s not my idea, that’s very simply a truth from Scripture.

1 John 4:

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

The context here is loving one another. If you don’t love one another, you don’t love God.

The Bible compels us to take an active role in caring for one another. That’s what the writer of Hebrews was encouraging in the verses we just read.

Consider one another in order to provoke love and good works. The sense here is that we’re to be on one another’s minds constantly and the focus of our attention is to sharpen one another when it comes to Godly living. That’s what provoke means in that passage. To sharpen one another toward loving God and loving one another.

The question is, how? How do we as a local church go about stirring one another up toward love and good works? We need to answer questions like that carefully, because there is Biblical evidence that churches, yes even good, well-intentioned churches, can mess this up.