Dynamic Disciples of Jesus: Hebrews10:19-25
It’s interesting when we look at the early days of Jesus ministry, he obviously had a plan and he set himself some goals. He decided that he needed some people to carry on his teaching, and his ministry; he knew that what he wanted to achieve was a job for a team. And the team he recruited was full of brilliant priests, academics and politicians, the superstars from the local theatre were recruited as well.
No they weren’t he recruited average kind of people, people with cracked hands from pulling in the nets, people with issues with money, people with fragile egos and tempers but they were people who learnt that this Jesus was worthy of following and his message worthy of taking to the ends of the earth.
From what Jesus did we can see that goal setting is a good thing, without a plan or a map it’s hard to explore unknown places. As a territory of The Salvation Army we have four goals which we will be talking about over the next four weeks, these are what is called the Territorial Strategic Mission Plan, which to many may sound about as exciting as eating a cardboard sandwich and following it down with a glass of lukewarm milk.
Prepare to be surprised this is exciting stuff; this is Kingdom building, God honouring and edifying, it has been planned and formulated to enhance The Mission of The Salvation Army, to ensure we are as vibrant and as efficient as we can be, doing our bit, as God brings more people into a relationship with Him through his son Jesus.
Now the writer of the book of Hebrews wrote some words that we have used as the reference verses for our Ministry Pillar here at the Sydenham Corps. As the scripture for today I’ve used these verses plus I’ve expanded on them by including the verses before and after them to discuss discipleship.
Let’s listen as ET reads Hebrews 10:19-25.
You will see that this passage includes three action points. Listen for those points they all start with Let us (pp lettuce) not that type of let us. (pp)
(Dynamic explained) Within these verses are the reasons for our being (a) Dynamic Disciples of Jesus, (b) the reason for us to hold onto the hope we profess, and the reason (c) for commitment to one another and to this body of believers; these things are all encompassed in the first goal of The Salvation Army Territorial Strategic Mission Plan; which is to make Dynamic Disciples of Jesus.
Let’s have a little look at what that word dynamic means: the word dynamic can be three things; it can be a physical thing that relates to how efficient something is. Looking back at a mechanics class, I took way back when. A dynamic machine is one that is over 50% efficient, and for a machine to be over 50% efficient it has to be self starting (on a slope with the brakes off, it will move by it self, forward moving and producing continuous change.)
Another meaning of dynamic is about the way two living things might relate to one another; if I was to say this “My wife and I have a certain dynamic, and I have a different dynamic with either of my sons”, it goes a little way to say that there is a difference in those relationships. Dynamic when related to a person of the Christian persuasion can be seen as countercultural and lifestyle altering.
So a Dynamic Disciple of Jesus is one who is a self starter, a change agent, who has a two way relationship with Jesus…
How can this be?
1) In the first century the writer of Hebrews had something to say to the Dynamic Disciples of Jesus. These disciples were doing something; they were entering into God’s very presence. This is what he said.
“We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus.”
Now as we have discussed previously, the priests in the temple were not able to do this a curtain was in the way (pp), only the High Priest, once a year, could enter into the Holy of Holies. Jesus by way of his death allowed us to enter. Remember how the curtain was torn in two from top to bottom at the time of Jesus death. This was like a huge ‘Access Granted’ sign, like Jesus was saying by my sacrifice you can now go in.
This is no ho-hum thing; this is awesome, it was beyond the understanding of the Jews of the time, to enter into the Holy of Holies was forbidden and here it was open now, for all to enter. Jesus had made a way.
So what does that mean for us?
Free access to God, since Jesus our Great High Priest has made this possible, “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:22)
In other words, enter into Gods presence, because Jesus has made the way, take, grab hold of the forgiveness that is available through Jesus, his blood sacrifice has made a way. If you haven’t experienced it, remember he writing to believers. If you’re not currently a believer, Jesus blood can and will cleanse you from your sins leaving you with a clear conscience. As Richard Till would say “Get into it New Zealand”
The reference to heart, that part of us that’s sprinkled to cleanse us, comes from the Greek word, for that part of you that is your thoughts and emotions.
You come out of entering into this dynamic relationship with Jesus completely clean…like being washed with pure water, nothing remains of your sin. It’s not like the water from a farm trough (pp) that might have water weed or bugs growing in it, it’s pure, nothing remains of your sin, there’s no little tadpole or pond weed of sin clinging to you after this cleansing. The water is pure, the cleansing complete. In God’s eyes because of Jesus sacrifice you are now worthy to enter the Holy of Holies. This is a done deal; let us draw near to God!
And once we are there in that place of relationship with Jesus and we have access to our Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit is living with us, what next?
2) Hold fast, hold fast! The verse says this, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful.”
You are in a relationship with God; you are motivated, moving forward, change is occurring in your life, others see this, it may even be occurring in the lives of others because you profess your hope in Jesus.
You are a Professor, now while this is great; this being a professor doesn’t come with a seat at a university, a flash salary and a PA, but then again you don’t need a PhD or other doctorate to get to be this professor. What this means is that you tell others about Jesus, you openly express commitment and allegiance to him. You profess your faith in him to others and why wouldn’t you he’s given you access to the very presence of God. To God!
But the truth is even dynamics disciples have rough days, remember to “hold fast”, unswervingly to the hope we profess.
You may have seen that Russell Crowe film, Master and Commander, Now there’s a battle scene in it, (pp) where one of the old salts just prior to boarding the enemy ship puts his knuckles out in front of him and the young midshipmen looking on is greatly encouraged by what he reads. Tattooed across the old sea dogs fingers are the words ‘hold fast’. Now as you may know, sailors by and large are a superstitious bunch and they believed that having this tattoo, encouraged their hands never to let go, which was a great help if holding onto the rope lines at the top of a sail during a howling storm, as letting go resulted in certain death.
A dynamic disciple of Jesus holds fast to the truths of scripture applying to their daily lives, being dedicated to God through the fellowship they have with the Holy Spirit, they continue growing spiritually and they have a witness both practical and verbal, being the hands and feet of Jesus…living out their faith, maybe by volunteering to help where they see a need, or praying for those who have a need all the while telling people why they do it, giving their testimony as witness, they profess their faith.
This professing of our faith how do we do this?
I’ve heard a few times people quote Saint Francis, “Preach the Gospel always . . . use words if necessary." This might have been of use if you were living in the year 1200 and everyone where you lived knew what a Christian Monk was; in this day and age we need to speak the gospel, many people think that as Salvationists we are just a bunch of nice people who do social work for kicks. Hold Fast, give your testimony it can’t be argued with, it is your truth about what the Lord has done for you.
One other thing to hold fast to, is the sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life that Jesus has shown us the way too (PP Hebrews 5:9b). Knowing God, hold fast to your hope in him.
We can do this on our own, but in reality there is no need for us to do any of this as individuals. What is it the writer of Hebrews says?
3) Well this may surprise you, but this is all about us, this is about collective thinking and acting. It’s a team effort. There’s a story about a bloke who hadn’t been to a service for some time so the minister dropped into see him, seeing the bloke had a fire burning away the minister went over and grabbing some tongs took a burning coal from the fire and placed it on the hearth, after the mandatory cuppa and chat the coal had gone out. Seeing this, the minister picked it up with his hand and dropped it back in the fire where it was soon glowing and giving off heat. Nothing more needed to be said and the bloke started attending services again.
So what is it the writer of Hebrews says, “let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds.”
Now this is interesting when I hear the word spur, I think of spiky things that make a horse go faster. This is not about jabbing anyone in the ribs with a spike to make them go faster.
Spur means to urge, prompt, impel and stimulate. So think about it, what are good ways to urge prompt and impel someone onto love and good deeds. Before you think to far into this, the ‘love’ we should be urging one another onto is ‘agape’ love which is “the active love of God for His Son and His people, this is the active love we are to have, for God and one another and even our enemies.”
So as Dynamic disciples we are to encourage this love and good deeds, loving one another as God loves us. Figure that out; if you find yourself quarrelling with someone.
Good deeds; we all know what they are; they are a natural outworking of the relationship we have with God.
This is why Jesus made the way clear to God, for us, so that we can love and do love…That’s love for God and within the fellowship of believers and for all people so that they may be drawn into the Kingdom of God. Our relationships are important to God, both the ones we have with him and other people.
I would just like to point something out here that once you come in the doors of this Corps building and within the fellowship of people who gather here that this is a place of belonging if you wish to belong.
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The Kingdom is about being in God’s presence but it’s also about fellowship with one another, encouraging and building one another up in the way of Christ and in our everyday lives. While we are all responsible for our own spiritual growth, at times we will need to be encouraged…I don’t think that any of us can say life is always a box of fluffy ducks or that everything is always just right.
So as the Word says don’t stop meeting together, fellowship is important and make it worthwhile fellowship, encourage one another, pray together and for one another, study the word together, encourage one another.
Knowing God, hold fast to your hope in him and encourage other believers to do the same. (SBI)
As dynamic disciples what three things does the writer of Hebrews point out we gain such great benefit from as disciples of Jesus Christ, the three things that will help us to be dynamic, moving forward together in our walk with the Lord and with one another?
Let us Enter into that place of the closest relationship we can have with God. Don’t let anything interfere with that!
Let us Hold fast to the hope we profess in Christ
Let us Meet together and encourage one another
In other words Dynamic Disciples are those who have entered into a close relationship with God, and knowing God they hold fast to their faith, building one another up, in prayer and encouragement so that their full potential as disciples is reached.
I believe that we are an encouraging body of believers, is there someone here who needs further encouragement in their discipleship journey, we have a place here we call the mercy seat. If you want prayer please come and pray.
There may be someone here who wants that cleansing I talked about earlier…someone who wants to leave here today washed in that pure water which is the cleansing blood of Jesus…
This place is available.
Benediction.
Go from here, holding fast,
To the hope you have in Christ Jesus,
Accepting the cleansing,
That allows you entry into the very presence of God,
Move forward, bringing change to the world you live in,
As Dynamic Disciples of the Saviour.
Amen.
