One of the greatest tragedies of the 21st Century in America is the realism that millions of people who claim to know Jesus Christ rarely attend a local church or participate in the worship services. In so many of the American churches, a lot of people basically attend three times in their entire life. The first time is when they’re born to be christened. The second time is when they are married. The third time is when they are buried. In other words, when they’re hatched, matched, and dispatched!
Yet, in the New Testament, if one consistently and deliberately missed the assembly, the coming together as a church, it was assumed that this person was no longer following Christ. They assumed that this person had gone back into the world and was no longer apart of the local church. In this case, New Testament Christians would eventually conclude that a person was no longer a Christ-follower simply because he/she was no longer attending the local assembly. They saw the worship service not only as a privilege and a priority, but they saw worship as a solemn duty.
There are three times in Hebrews 10:19-25, that the Hebrew writer uses the phrase, “let us,” to appeal to the local congregation about being steadfast in their attendance to the local assembly or church. When we attend the local church,
We Exalt Our Lord Through Worshipping Together
Jesus is everywhere since He is God. Yet, there is a special sense that Jesus is in the worship service in a way that does not exist out in the world. There is a special sense that Christ is in “the house of God.” In Hebrews 10:19-22, we read:
Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the
blood of Jesus by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the
veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let
us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts
sprinkled clean from evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
“Let us draw near,” is worship. Why do we meet on Sunday? We draw near to the Lord Jesus Christ! We do not come to church, primarily, to hear a sermon, to listen to music, to fellowship with others or to give an offering. The overriding purpose of our coming together is to draw near to Jesus. Today, a lot of Christians in America express, “I can worship Christ alone. I don’t have to attend church to do this.” Yes, Christians ought to worship Christ alone; but corporate worship is taught in the Bible and together, as the body of Christ, we are commanded to draw near to Him.
The Hebrew writer says, we’re to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. He is referring to the Holy of Holies. It was the innermost part of the tabernacle. It was the place where the Shekinah glory of God would be revealed to the High Priest. In other words, we are to come through the veil into the Holy of Holies. In the Old Testament, the High Priest could only go into the Holy of Holies once a year. He went in with a basin of blood and would sprinkle the blood upon a piece of furniture called the Mercy Seat. The High Priest would not go in without the blood and the permission of God.
Imagine an Old Testament scene. Let us begin with a man from Moab, who lives in Sinai and he sees the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was a tent covered with badger skins with a fence around it.
This Moabite questions a Jew with, “What is this?
The Jew would respond by saying, “This is where we worship God.”
And the Moabite says, “Well, I would like to go in there.”
Yet, the Jewish man would reply, “You can’t go in there. That’s not for the people of Moab. That’s for the people of Israel.”
“Well, what would I have to do in order to go in there?” asked the Moabite.
“You would have to be born again an Israelite,” says the Jewish Man.
Then, the Moabite says, “If I were an Israelite, I would go in there!” And, I would want to also go into the Holy Place.”
But the Jew says, “Oh no,you couldn’t go in there unless not only were you a Jew, but you would have to be a Levite of the house of Aaron.”
“Well, I sure wish I could be born again an Israelite and a Levite of the house of Aaron.
And, I would not stop there. I would want to go into the Holy Of Holies.”
The Israelite exclaimed, “Oh no! You don’t understand. You could be a Levite but you couldn’t go in there unless you were the high priest, and you’d have to go in with a basin of blood.”
With frustration the Moabite says, “If I were the high priest, I believe I’d go in every day!”
The Jew says, “Oh, no, you wouldn’t. You could only go in once a year!”
The Hebrew writer reminds us to enter into this holy place by the blood of Jesus. In the Old Testament, only the High Priest could go into the Tabernacle. But today all of us can go in! For fifteen hundred years, only the High Priest could go in once a year. We get to go in there day by day not only individually, but we go corporately. All of us at the same time can go into the holiest by the blood of Jesus!
The writer of Hebrews is still not done! He says, we go in through the veil. The veil was a woven curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. This veil was symbolic of Christ’s body. Our text says, “...through the veil,” “… which is his body.”
That veil was made of many colors. Exodus tells us that it was made of snow white, sky blue, blood red crimson and royal purple. Can you see it? It is shimmering in all of those colors. The veil pictures the Lord Jesus Christ; the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. When the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies, he would lift up the corner of the veil and slip under.
There are four gospels. These gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew speaks of Jesus Christ as the King. The emphasis in the Book of Matthew is that Jesus is heaven’s King. So Matthew’s color would royal purple. Mark speaks of Jesus as the suffering servant, as the Son of Man who shed His blood. Mark’s color would be blood red crimson. Luke speaks of Jesus Christ as the virgin born Son of God from heaven. This is the sky blue gospel. John speaks of Jesus Christ in His absolute deity, His sinlessness. That’s the snow-white gospel.
This is a total portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you get purple? One has to combine red and blue and then it becomes purple. Once you have purple one cannot tell where the blue begins nor where the red ends. They are mingled together. When you look at Jesus Christ, you witness that He is both Son of God and Son of Man at the same time. When we look at Jesus we cannot tell where His humanity begins nor where His deity begins; where His humanity ends, which it never does; nor His deity ends, which it never does. The veil is a wonderful picture of Christ!
Let us come into the Holy of Holies through the veil. How are we going to come through the veil? When Jesus Christ hung on the cross, he bowed his head and died in agony and blood. At that point, the Bible says the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom. Not from the bottom to the top, as though man had done it, but from the top to the bottom, and the way into the Holy of Holies is now made clear and open by the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We come through the blood (Hebrews 10:19). There’s no other way to go into the Holy of Holies.
Now what is the writer of Hebrews talking about? In this entire passage he’s talking about church attendance. He’s saying, the climax of the whole thing is for us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is (Hebrews 10:25). And he says, “Let us draw near....” Do you know what we do when we attend the local church? We have just entered in through the veil, which is Christ, into the Holy of Holies. We come not as a high priest once a year, but as a congregation. Every time we meet, the Hebrew writer says, “Let us draw near.” When we attend the local church,
We Evangelize The Lost Through Witnessing Together
In Hebrews 10: 23, we read, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering....” The “wavering” refers to the ceasing of going to church. Did you know that when you come to church, you’re professing your faith? It is your way of saying, “I still believe in Jesus Christ!”
In the New Testament era, when people ceased coming to the assembly, Christians assumed that they had gone back into the world. Forsaking the assembly was an indication to these early Christians that people had forsaken the Lord. If you don’t believe this, then look at Hebrews 10:38-39: “But the righteous one shall live by faith: and if any man shrinks back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” In essence the Lord is saying, “You say that you believe in Me, but you shrink back, you haven’t pleased Me.” Yet, “we are not of them who shrink back to destruction; but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.”
How important is it for Christians to be faithful to the local assembly? If a person is willingly and consistently forsaking the assembling of himself/herself, then he/she cannot claim to be true to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ and the church are not identical, but they are inseparable.
In the Bible, the Church is given to us in three figures. The Church is a body, a bride, and a building. As a body, Christ is the head; we’re the members. Now the head and the body are not identical, but, they are inseparable. Can you imagine a body functioning properly without a head? Jesus Christ is head of His church, which is His bride, and so they two become one flesh. The church is also a building. This building rests on a foundation. If we were to take the building and separate it from the foundation, or the foundation from the building, then we have bought terrible trouble upon ourselves for this building would collapse.
A lot of Christians have developed a consumer mentality where they go from church to church or very little church at all. We have to make a determined decision to be faithful to the house of God. Church attendance is not all of our witness, but it is a very real part of our witness. When we are faithful to the local church we are saying to the lost that we believe that Jesus Christ is the way to the Father. When we attend the local church on rainy days, we are saying to our neighbors, we love Christ enough to draw near to him even when it is not easy! When we drive past our friends, while they are playing golf or washing their cars, our testimony to them is that drawing near to God through Christ and His body, means more to us than worldly pursuits. We witness to the lost every time we forsake not the local assembly.
As church attendance has fallen in America, so has the witnessing of new conversions fallen at the same time. When one measures the slipping of Sunday attendance to the local church, this person will discover also that there has been a rapid decrease in the number of people coming to Christ and becoming steadfast followers of Him. Why do we need to get back to church? We will worship and we will witness!
On July 15, 1973, I came to Christ at Evangel Temple in Montgomery, Alabama. I was the only one who responded to pastor’s invitation that morning. As a twelve year old, young man, I heard the Gospel, walked an aisle, knelt at an altar, confessed my sins and accept Christ as my Savior! When I stood I saw five men standing behind me. One of these men was my incredible Dad with tears in eyes.
When the morning service concluded, I asked Dad for the keys to our car so I could go outside and sit in the car. Since I had been the only person who had responded to the altar invitation, I felt conspicuous before others. I hurried outside and climbed onto the backseat of the car. After sitting there for a few moments, a man knocked on my window. When I turned and looked, to my shock, my Sunday School teacher had walked through the parking lot to find me. I rolled down the window to hear him say, “I am so proud of you! Accepting Christ as your personal Savior is the greatest decision you will ever make in this life.”
I really needed those encouraging words following that morning worship service. I am convinced, the words of that Sunday School teacher gave me the motivation to follow through on my personal commitment to Christ. With a revival of faithful church attendance nationwide, we would also witness a rapid increase in the number of people coming to Christ! When we attend the local church,
We Encourage Our Leaders Through Working Together
In Hebrews 10:25, we read “not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the drawing near.”
We have the responsibility not only as believers, but as brothers. How can we encourage one another? We are to exhort one another, “and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.” First, we encourage others by our presence when we gather together. When we come to church, we are saying God is important to us and that our brothers and sisters are important to us.
When your family has a birthday party or a celebration or even a regular meal, should you make an effort to attend? When Thanksgiving comes and all the family members are invited to be there, should we not at least strive to join the rest of the family? What would you think if one of your family members called on Thanksgiving morning and said, “I plan not to join you due to a golf game or yard activities that I would rather participate in? Would you think this is acceptable or would you probably exhort him/her to change their mind and not miss the Thanksgiving meal?
The local church is the outward expression of the family of God. This is where we meet together to feast on God’s Word and to become more like Christ. When a person chooses routinely not to join the church family in worship, he/she is also saying with his or her actions, this is really not where I want to be.
Second, we can encourage our church family by our participation in the local assembly. We don’t come to watch but to worship; not just to sing but to serve! When we worship with all our heart, we encourage others to worship with all their hearts. As we see “the day drawing near,” we don’t need less participation in the local assembly but more participation in these last days.
It is interesting to note that the “assembling of ourselves together” is only mentioned twice in the New Testament. This phrase is mentioned in Hebrews 10:25 and in 2 Thessalonians 2:1. In Hebrews this phrase is about the assembling on the earth while the phrase in 2 Thessalonians is about the assembling in the air. The assembling on the earth equips us for the assembling in the air.
Why is it important to attend the local assembly? The local Bible-believing church teaches us about God but in the next assembling is where we will meet Him face-to- face. We hear about heaven and eternity now but in the next assembly we will experience it forever. If a man or woman neglects this assembling today, he or she will not be ready for the next assembly that is quickly approaching us.
And what the writer of Hebrews says is, we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the habit of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day drawing near. The day he’s talking about is the consummation of the age. Instead of cursing the darkness, let us begin lighting gospel candles!
There was a church that was built in the 1550’s in Doubes, France. In that church building they had no candelabra. They had no lights. The mayor of Doubes instructed for everybody is to bring his own lantern to church. At the end of the pew there was a place where the people would hang their lanterns. As people would come one at a time, bringing their lantern to church, they would hang it at the end of the pew. And the more the people came, the brighter the church house became. If no one came, the church house was in darkness.
Every time we come to church, we are bringing the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christians choose to stay away, they are saying, “I don’t want the church to keep its doors open. It is acceptable for there to be darkness in the assembly.” When we neglect our solemn duty to attend the local church, we are also voting to close its doors!
These are wicked days and lascivious days, with all kinds of mayhem being manifested in our society. God has given us the responsibility and if we willingly stay away, the Bible calls it sin. In Hebrews 10:26-27, “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.”
Why should we double our efforts to see both Christians and non-Christians come to the local church? First, we will exalt our Lord through worshipping Him together. Second, we will evangelize the lost through witnessing together. Third, we will encourage our leaders through working together.
