Why Go to Church? Hebrews 10
Join with me in turning to Hebrews 10. That song “Onward Christian Soldiers” has been one of the favorite hymns of American Christians for many years. In our day today we often sing songs focused on loving God - and sadly sometimes we neglect songs which focus on being bold in engaging in battle for our God. Remember when Jesus tells his disciples that He is building His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it - He was not saying that Satan won’t be able to attack us, that He’ll keep us safe - Jesus was saying that when we are on the attack spiritually - going forth in the power of the Holy Spirit -- there is no way Satan and his demonic forces can hold us back! The battle belongs to the Lord! Victory is His! In the words of Romans 8 - we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. That is our position today!
As we have been going through the book of Hebrews and come here to chapter 10, we have seen that God gives us a call to live boldly in Jesus Christ. To go onward as Christian soldiers! We need not be ashamed or embarrassed about being a Christian, but rather we should be bold and courageous in living out our faith. This book is written to remind us that we no longer need to be bound by the OT sacrificial system, bringing in goats and lambs to slaughter to atone for sins, because Jesus Christ offers us a better sacrifice, forgiveness for all time through His dying in our place.
We are given five calls here in these verses. The first is for us to Draw Near to God. We can come boldly before the throne of grace, into the very presence of God himself, because Jesus Christ is our sacrifice, our high priest, our mediator, our intercessor. He has reconciled us to God. The sin that separated us from our God is completely forgiven through accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior.
The second command for us is to Hold on to Hope. We live out of hope - a confident expectation that God, who cannot lie, will fulfill every promise He makes. He always keeps His word. We have an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, that never fades away, reserved in heaven for us. We don’t give up our hope, no matter how discouraging the circumstances, because we live and walk by faith, not by sight.
The third command for us is to Spur on One Another to Good Deeds. We are called to give each other a pin-prick, a sharp kick in the royal behind and motivate one another to get out of our laziness and apathy and get busy living for God. We so often live passive, ineffective Christian lives, and what we really need is to be those who show the world that we truly believe what we profess.
Last week we talked about a couple action steps:
• We talked about setting aside a time to “think” about how you are living your life. If you didn’t do that last week, I would encourage you to do that today.
• We also talked about cheering each other on and showing love in practical ways. Did you have a chance to put that into action this week? Who did you come alongside and encourage this week?
As we finish up these calls, let’s read the scripture one more time to be reminded of God’s word to us:
Read 10:19-25
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body,
and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.
And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds.
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Let’s pray!
Today we look at the last two commands, that are really flip-sides of one another.
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching. We see here God’s call to Meet together for encouragement.
We want to ask ourselves two questions as we consider this verse today. First, What does this verse mean? We want to think about what God is saying here. But second, the bigger question, What does this verse mean to me? Because we don’t just want to think about this verse to gain information - we want to consider it to take action, to put its teaching into practice in our lives this week. We want to look at two key ideas today. First,
The Dangers of Disregarding the Church - The author is talking here in verse 25 about “giving up” or as
the KJV says “forsake” - it’s the idea of deserting, abandoning. So WHEN do you consider yourself to have abandoned your church? Does this mean when you haven’t been to church for a year? A month? Does this mean you can’t ever miss one week? When do you go from being absent to abandoning?
Sadly, we never know the answer to that. A single woman was once asked why she never married. The answer she gave was this: “The last time someone asked me to marry them, I didn’t realize that it would be the last time someone asked me to marry them.” Many people could say, “The last time I went to church, I never realized it would be the last time I went to church.” Satan will find all kinds of distractions to keep you from church, and we need to be on our guard so that an absence doesn’t become abandonment.
Consider the question, How long can you live without eating? The truth is that no one here knows the answer - because to know for sure, you have to DIE to find out! When does absence become abandon? The knowledge isn’t worth the price paid to find out! Really, we want to keep as far away from abandoning as we can!
So we are told to “not give up” meeting together. This is the first danger of disregarding church:
Habitual Action - Most people never plan to quit going to church. They just miss a Sunday, and never come
back. There are many people who still consider themselves part of the church even though they haven’t been to church since Easter maybe even Easter two or three years ago. They don’t realize they have abandoned church, because they entered into a HABIT. A habit is a regular practice that is done, often without thinking. We talked last week about the need to THINK about our lives. Live life on purpose! What so often happens is the first time we miss church we think about why we are missing - maybe we need to work, maybe we’re sick and need rest, maybe we need to take a trip. But the longer we stay away, the less we think about it. It becomes easier and easier to say away because we think less and less about getting back to church. It becomes a bad habit. Any one of us here today is just a couple weeks away from abandoning the church.
But taking this out of the “theoretical” and into the practical - the term here “Let us not give up meeting together” is really a call to STOP doing something that was already taking place. The literal translation would be more like “Stop forsaking the assembling of yourselves together!” These Christians had gotten into the habit of abandoning church. Instead of asking “what if” we need to be asking the question “am I”? Let’s make sure we are willing to honestly look at ourselves and evaluate our actions.
What is our commitment to one another? Let’s realize that if we really want to fulfill the commands of scripture, many of them can only be obeyed as we live in relationship with one another. How can you love one another, honor one another, greet one another, serve one another, carry each others burdens, submit to one another, or confess your sins to one another when you are isolated and on your own? We NEED to live in relationship to carry out God’s commands!
Now I know that one of the questions that comes out of this verse is the phrase “meeting together” - and the question is “Is this talking about a church service?” The answer to that is Yes and No. The Greek word is episunagoge - which means to “synagogue together” - to gather together for worship. Remember the synagogue was the local church of the Jews - it was where they met to worship God. So we are to “synagogue together.”
Now the reality is that there are some people who come to church every Sunday and NEVER “synagogue together.” They slip in late, don’t talk to anyone, slip out as soon as the message is over, and after 5, 10, 20 years of attending the same church, they still can’t tell you anyone’s name. They know them to see them on the street, and they will wave high, but they have no involvement in their lives. They are strangers who worship together at the same church. But there is none of the relationship that we are called to live out in our lives with one another.
On the other hand, it is possible to “synagogue together” outside of a Sunday worship service. Some people work Sunday mornings - does that mean they are out of luck? No. Maybe their relationship and worship takes place in a small group Bible study. Growing up as a boy we had friends who were part of the Plymouth Brethren denomination. They didn’t have church buildings, but they met in one another’s houses. They “synagogued together” just not in a church building.
But, don’t try to give the excuse that if you take another Christian in the fishing boat or in the duck blind that you are “worshiping together.” Admit it, you’re out for the enjoyment of hunting or fishing. Yes, God’s handiwork is seen in nature, but those shared experiences are not what Hebrews 10 is talking about.
So, the first danger of neglecting church is Habitual Action - we get in the habit of abandoning our fellowship together. And secondly,
2. Harmful Attitudes - You will develop all kinds of negative attitudes by the habitual action of staying away from church. Those who are “lone ranger” Christians thinking they are just fine on their own find that they fall prey to the traps of the devil. Solomon writes of the need for others in our lives in Ecclesiastes 4 - Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no-one to help him up!
When we “synagogue together” - when we live “as” the church, we will strengthen and encourage each other for the tragedies and triumphs of every day. But those who disregard church will find that instead of the encouragement of meeting together, they fall into the trap of harmful attitudes: discouragement, defeat, despair. All because of being disconnected from the body. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12 of the church with the picture of a body. He says, The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable . . . God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
In the body of Christ, we need each other. And we need to make sure we do not fall into the Dangers of Disregarding Church. Now I realize that I am “preaching to the choir” today - the ones who need to hear this are not the ones who are here in church today, but the ones who are sleeping in, or out at the mall. BUT, do you realize that there is something that YOU can do to make a difference? 70% of young adults will leave the church between ages 18 and 22, yet research has found that 39% of them will return if gently nudged by their parents or other family members. Another 21% will do so at the gracious urging of friends or acquaintances.
Maybe you are here today thinking to yourself, “He’s not preaching to me - I’m at church every week!” But this isn’t just a message about YOU coming to church, but about how YOU can help that person who IS abandoning the church. When is the last time you sent someone a letter, gave them a phone call, paid them a visit and said, “We’ve missed you at church. Is anything wrong? Did someone offend you? Have you thought about coming back and worshiping with us again? Why don’t you come sit with me this Sunday?” That statistic is amazing - 60% would come BACK to church if someone graciously encouraged them. So, not only are there dangers of abandoning church, on the positive side there are
II. Benefits of Attending Church. And they are many! But here in this passage we see two given clearly.
1. We Focus on Encouragement - In the church, we find the encouragement we need.
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--
Now as we look at the verse - there are really two different ways to consider this encouragement. The first is that we are to encourage one another to attend church. Instead of abandoning the church, we are to encourage each other to keep attending church. And that is true, that is something that we should do. But there is a second way to look at this idea of encouragement. That is that the abandoning and the encouraging are opposites. We are not to abandon the church - which would be discouraging - but we are to keep on meeting together, which in turn is encouraging to everyone else at the church.
The reality is that when people abandon the church is is a discouragement for everyone who continues to attend. It is easy to take it as a personal attack against your friendship. You feel like they have let you down. For example, last Saturday for the men’s breakfast there were only two of us present. Normally there are about a dozen men. And I’m not saying anything about why any man wasn’t there. But realize that when you say “They surely won’t miss me” the correct answer is “Yes, we will!” Every member of the body is important.
For LIFT this week when I came through a few minutes before it started there were about half a dozen ladies, but about two weeks before almost everyone had called Sharon to cancel. It is greatly discouraging when part of our church body is absent.
But on the positive side, when we DO come out to “synagogue together” - to worship together - to serve the Lord together - it encourages us all! In the verses we just looked at in 1 Corinthians 12 we see we are to suffer and rejoice together. Romans 12:15 reminds us, Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Our lives our to be lived out in community with one another. And I know that sometimes the greatest blessing that people receive from coming out to church is NOT the sermon - no matter how fine it might be - it’s not the music or any special numbers. Often the greatest blessing we receive is having a brother or sister come alongside us and share our burden, ask about our week, pray with us, offer a helping hand.
It is easy to think “I’m going to sleep in today - no one will miss me!” But that’s a lie! You will be greatly missed! Remember we don’t come to church for what we can GET for ourselves, but we come out to GIVE - we give our worship to God, and we give our service to others in the name of Christ. Think about it this way - NOT going to church is really SELFISH because you are robbing others of the blessing you bring when you worship with them!
When you think about coming out for worship, remember that you can encourage someone else! We don’t just come out to hear a sermon or sing a few songs - we come out to relate to one another. Remember last week we talked about the Family Feud idea of “cheering one another on”? We want to help our teammates score a spiritual victory! So we come out to share each others burdens and help one another.
I read an inspirational story this week about a football game. Michael Ferns, a running back for the St. Clairsville High School received the ball and had a clear path to victory. Yet as he went running down the field with nothing but open field in front of him, he ran out of bounds at the 1 yard line. In fact, referees had actually signalled a touchdown because there were no opponents around. But he intentionally ran out of bounds so that his teammate - Logan Thompson, a freshman who had never even carried the ball before - and whose father had just died two days before - could come into the game and make the touchdown. Why would Ferns give up a touchdown? Because he had a teammate who needed the encouragement that he could provide.
In the church, we need more Michael Ferns - we need Christian brothers and sisters who will think less about themselves and think about how they can be encouragers. Will YOU seek to be an encourager today? Don’t pack up and leave as soon as the amen is said - take some time to linger and offer encouragement to someone else!
HOW can you offer encouragement? Sit down with someone and ask about them - about their family, about their job, about the burdens on their heart. Offer to pray with them - both praying immediately, and then praying throughout the week. Send them a card letting them know you are remembering them. Offer to meet with them. Invite them over to your house for lunch. Invite them to be involved in your life.
So, one of the benefits of church is the encouragement we can provide. Second,
2. We Focus on the End Times - often we live only for today. If I have money in the bank and food in my belly, I’m, okay. But as Christians, we need to look to the future. But not just the next five or ten years - not just to retirement - but to the plan God has for the end of the age. Verse 25 states, Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching. What is “the day”? We are to look to the day when God comes and sets up His kingdom on the earth. Paul was looking for that day. He writes in 2 Timothy 1:12 - I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. He was looking for God’s return. Peter spoke of this day in Acts 2:20 - The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ Paul writes in Titus 2:13 - While we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. Our hope is in the glorious appearing of our Savior who WILL come back one day soon and set up a kingdom that will last forever. And because we believe that, and because we look for that in the church, we need to take seriously this call to be doing good works, and spurring one another to be doing good works, and encouraging others to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.
When we get out of the habit of going to church we get in a rut - we focus on ourselves. But when we meet together, we encourage one another and we remind each other that THIS LIFE is not all there is! Rather, our HOPE is the confident expectation that Jesus WILL return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And when He comes, it will be too late for those who put off salvation. So, we need to be busy sharing the good news of salvation, encouraging others to call on the name of the Lord Jesus.
Let’s realize that we never know how much more time we will have left here on the earth. If you knew that this Sunday was the last chance you would ever have to come to church, sleeping in or going to the mall or going hunting wouldn’t seem all that important. If you knew that Jesus was coming back today, you wouldn’t want Him to find you doing something else on a Sunday morning.
But we never do know exactly how much more time we have. That’s why we need to make the most of every opportunity, to make the most of every day. So, we are to draw near to God, believing that He wants relationship with us, we are to hold on to hope, believing God’s promises; we are to spur each other on to love and good deeds, and we are to encourage each other by worshiping together.
One last thought - Do you recognize these trees? They are giant redwood trees from the Western United States. They aare one of the largest trees on the planet. But these huge trees have a relatively shallow root system. In fact, if they had to stand alone on their own roots, they may not have the support that they need to stand. But in those giant redwood forests their enormous weight is supported in part by the interlocking of the tree’s roots with the other trees around it. They work together to hold one another up. That’s what we need to do for one another!
I hope today that you will take some time to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit as God speaks to your heart as to how you can be an encouragement to someone else here today. Let’s pray.
