We live in a world where it is increasingly difficult to live as a disciple of Jesus. In many places around the world, and now even here in the United States, people are routinely killed for holding fast to their professed faith in Jesus. As Don so rightly pointed out a few weeks ago, because of the evil that is present in this world, we now have a Supreme Court which consistently issues opinions that basically make laws that clearly violate God’s Word. We now live in a country where when people choose to live according to their Biblical convictions and refuse to participate in what they consider to be sin, they are hit with huge fines. And Christians are routinely ridiculed and made to look like buffoons on TV and in the movies.
So how do we hold on to our faith in a culture that is increasingly hostile to the Bible, Jesus, and His Bride, the church? We’re probably all familiar with the modern proverb that has been attributed to either Joseph P. Kennedy or Knute Rockne:
When the going gets tough… [Let people finish the phrase]
the tough get going.
But the Bible makes it clear that approach really doesn’t work when it comes to living out our faith in a world that makes it difficult to live as a disciple of Jesus.
Sometimes we think that we’re the first generation or the first culture that has faced this kind of opposition. But history reveals that is certainly not the case. In fact, the first century church probably faced even more hostility than we do today, especially here in the United States.
So one of the early church leaders, whose identity is unknown, wrote a letter to primarily Hebrew Christians to urge them to hold fast to their faith. That letter comprises the book of Hebrews in our Bibles. Those mostly Jewish disciples to whom the letter was written faced strong opposition on two fronts.
First of all, like all of Jesus’ disciples in the first century, they faced persecution merely because of their faith in Jesus.
But perhaps even more challenging was the opposition from their fellow Jews who were urging them to reject Jesus and return to their Jewish roots. So the author wrote a letter to show in great detail why Jesus was superior to their Jewish faith in order to encourage them to remain faithful to Him. Those arguments comprise the first nine and a half chapters of the book. Then, beginning in Hebrews 10, verse 19, the author describes how the superiority of Jesus should impact the way they lived their day-to-day lives.
We’re going to look at the beginning of that section of Hebrews this morning and determine one crucial thing we can do in order to be able to persevere when the going gets tough. But before we do that, let me take a moment to review what we learned last week and see how this week’s message fits into our current sermon series.
Last week we concluded that…
It is impossible to love Jesus
and not love His church
I love my church because Jesus loves the church. We saw how Jesus loves His Bride, the church, so much that He sacrificed for her, sanctifies her and sustains her. And if we determined that if I really love Jesus, then I will love the church like that, too.
Beginning this morning, we’re going to look at five different ways that we can manifest our love for the church in a way that honors Jesus and His Bride and which also will help us to hold fast to our faith so that we can grow spiritually and become more like Jesus.
This morning as we look at our passage from Hebrews 10, we’ll see that:
When the going gets tough…
Jesus’ disciples get going to corporate worship
Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10, and follow along as I read the passage we read earlier this morning that begins in verse 19:
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 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 with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
(Hebrews 10:19-25 ESV)
This passage begins with the key word “therefore”. The author is pointing back to everything he has written so far in the first nine and a half chapters that shows the superiority of faith in Jesus to the Jewish system of sacrifices and offerings. He says that it is because of the superiority of Jesus that what he is now about to write is true.
The Structure of the Passage
The structure of this passage is pretty clear. There is one foundational truth that leads to three exhortations:
• The foundational truth (vv. 19-21) – Jesus has opened the way
In these three verses, the author summarizes what he has been writing about in the first part of his letter. Jesus has provided the ability for us to enter into God’s presence through His blood and His body. This is a new and living way that is far superior to the old way that required continual sacrifices. Jesus is our great High Priest who now sits at the right hand of the Father. Because of that, we now have the ability to carry out the three exhortations that he offers. Let’s see if we can identify these three exhortations:
• Three exhortations:
1) Let us draw near (v. 22)
2) Let us hold fast (v. 23)
3) Let us consider (v. 24)
We’re going to spend some more time looking at these three exhortations in some more detail in a moment, but let me first make some overall observations about them.
We don’t tend to use the word “exhortation” much so I want to make sure we understand the nature of these three statements that begin with the words “let us.” The form of the underlying Greek here carries pretty much the same force as a command. It is not merely a suggestion or something that would be nice to do. This particular verb form is used to urge someone to unite with the speaker in a course of action on which he or she has already decided. So here, the author is emphatically urging his readers to join him in taking these three actions.
You will also notice that these exhortations are all plural – let us. So whatever the author is urging his readers to do is something that they need to do corporately and not just individually. While these three exhortations certainly have broader implications, there is little doubt that the primary focus here is the need for corporate worship. Before we look at those specific principles, let’s remind ourselves one more time why this is so important for all of us.
When the going gets tough…
Jesus’ disciples get going to corporate worship
Corporate worship is Jesus’ gift to His church for the purpose of helping us to persevere when the going gets tough. But corporate worship is only effective in doing that when we follow God’s plans for our worship gatherings.
If you’ve been reading in Leviticus as part of our four year Bible reading plan, then you’ve undoubtedly noticed that in the Old Testament, God had some very specific instructions concerning how sacrifices were to be made and other elements of worship. That is because it is God, and not His people, who gets to determine how we are to worship. And God wanted His people to worship in a way that made them distinct from the surrounding nations.
But as we’ve talked about before, there are very few specific instructions or examples of how corporate worship is to be conducted in the New Testament church. However, there are certainly passages like this one that provide us with some broad principles which ought to guide us as we gather together for worship. In this passage, we find:
Three essential aspects of corporate worship:
1. An upward look– We enter God’s presence
Obviously God’s presence is not limited to those times when we gather together as a church. God’s Holy Spirit resides permanently in every one of Jesus’s disciples. So God is present with His children all the time. But in many ways this was a new concept for these Jewish believers who thought that God’s presence was primarily manifest only in the tabernacle, and later the Temple.
So in Old Testament times, people certainly did not have confidence to enter into the presence of God. In fact, only the High Priest could enter into the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle and he could only do that one day a year on the Day of Atonement. And before he entered he would put bells on the bottom of his garment and tie a rope to his leg. That way, in the event God chose to take his life while he was in there, the other priests who were outside the Holy of Holies would hear the ringing of the bells stop and pull the High Priest out with the rope because none of them dare entered into the presence of God lest they, too, should die.
Fortunately, we don’t have to enter God’s presence based on our own merit. We can enter confidently, because Jesus has opened the way for us. But even though God is always present and access to Him is always available, we don’t experience the fullness of that presence unless we make a conscious effort to draw near to Him.
That is why corporate worship must always begin with an upward focus that puts all our attention on God and lifts Him up and brings glory to Him.
But we can’t just draw near to God however we want. We find three conditions that are placed on entering into His presence in corporate worship:
• We are to come with a “true heart”. That means that our worship is to be genuine and without hypocrisy or ulterior motives.
• We are to draw near “in full assurance of faith”. That phrase literally means that we are to be “glutted with faith”. The idea is that we enter His presence only through our faith in Jesus and not based on anything we can do.
• We are to come “with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water”. We need to make sure that we have confessed and repented of our sins so that we can worship God with a clear conscience.
Although it is certainly possible for us to draw near to God like that individually, and we ought to be doing that consistently throughout the week, the encouragement that we need to hold fast to our faith requires us to regularly assemble with other disciples and do that corporately.
Although the methods may vary from week to week, we always design our gatherings of worshippers to encourage and enhance our ability to enter into God’s presence. Sometimes we use videos that direct our attention to God. We often read Scripture as a “call to worship” in order to remind us that we are gathered here to focus on Him. We sing songs that remind of who God is and what He has done for us and allow us to respond to Him. We pray and ask God to help us focus on Him as we worship. And our messages come from God’s Word, not our own opinions or ideas.
Corporate worship must always begin with that upward look as we enter into the presence of God. Without doing that, we will never be able to proceed effectively to the next two aspects of corporate worship.
Once we begin with an upward look at God, we are then ready to take an inward look with the body of Christ.
2. An inward look – We energize God’s people
This second aspect is embodied in the second and third exhortations.
The second exhortation urges us to “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” The key word here is the word “confession”. That is a compound word that literally means “to say the same thing”.
There is great power when we join together as a body and proclaim as one voice our hope in Jesus. Once again, there are a number of methods we can employ to do that. When we read Scripture together, or even when we hear someone else read Scripture and add our “amen”, we have the opportunity to proclaim our hope in Jesus as one.
When we sing songs that proclaim the hope we have in Jesus or songs that respond to that hope with thanksgiving and praise, we have the opportunity to make a corporate confession of that hope.
Notice that I said we have the opportunity to confess our hope corporately. The mere act of reading Scriptures or singing together will never in and of itself insure that we are truly proclaiming our hope as a body. It is only when we really think about the words with sincerity that true corporate confession of our hope occurs.
And when that happens, that corporate confession becomes a powerful tool to help encourage us in our faith. Knowing that we are not alone, that we have others who hold to that same hope, is a great encouragement for all of us.
The third exhortation is to “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works”. We need to look carefully at what this third exhortation says and what it does not say. Probably most of us would expect it to say something more like “let us love and do good works” but instead the emphasis here is on considering how we can encourage others to do that rather than on doing those things ourselves.
There are two key words in this exhortation. The first is the verb “consider”. It means to think about something carefully and attentively. The idea here is that we are to take careful note of the spiritual welfare of others rather than just focusing on what is in it for me.
The other key verb is “stir up”. It is an empathic verb that is a call for us to do all we can to stimulate others to love others and engage in good works. The author of Hebrews describes two practical ways to do that:
• By consistently meeting together for corporate worship. Apparently, many of the people to whom this letter was addressed had already begun to neglect the importance of corporate worship. Perhaps they were still attending the synagogue on the Sabbath and then going back there again the next day to worship with their fellow Christians. And in view of the persecution they were facing they just didn’t want to do anything to call additional attention to the fact that they were Jesus’ disciples. But in fact, that was exactly what they needed in order to be encouraged to hold fast to their faith.
• By encouraging each other. Obviously they couldn’t do that if they weren’t spending time together. But on the other hand, just spending time together doesn’t guarantee that we will engage in the practice of encouraging each other.
Even today it is certainly possible to regularly meet together with other believers without ever doing anything to encourage one another. It is possible to come in the door here right when the service begins, read all the Scriptures, sing all the songs, give, and listen to the sermon and then walk out the door without ever interacting with the others who are present here. But if you do that then you are missing out and the rest of us are missing out on the encouragement that we can both give and receive.
It’s also possible for us to get here early, drink coffee and talk about the weather before the service and stay for refreshments after the service and still never do anything to encourage one another because we aren’t willing to be transparent with each other and get below just the surface level in our conversations.
When we come here each week, we need to consider carefully what we might be able to do that will encourage someone else. We need to take our eyes off of ourselves for long enough to think about how we can encourage others and stir them up to love and good deeds.
This second aspect of corporate worship in which we energize God’s people is not just for our own benefit, although we certainly do profit as a result. But if we do this well, it will lead to the third aspect of corporate worship.
3. An outward look– We enlarge God’s kingdom
This third aspect of corporate worship is not stated as explicitly as the first two. But it is certainly implied quite clearly here.
Our corporate worship does not stop when we leave this building on Sunday mornings. It just takes a different form. When we come together and enter God’s presence and energize God’s people the natural result is that we are all empowered to actually love and do good works as we leave this building and live our lives during the week.
And when we do that the natural result is that ultimately there are going to be some unbelievers who are going to be attracted to Jesus and who will eventually become His disciples.
So what begins with an upward look at God and an inward look at other members of the body is to culminate in an outward look at the world around us. And when our corporate worship looks like that, we find that it is a tremendous tool that helps us to hold fast to our faith in the midst of a world that is often hostile to us. As we said earlier…
When the going gets tough…
Jesus’ disciples get going to corporate worship
As we’ve talked about this morning, living as a disciple of Jesus in this culture is hard. But if we try to do that without engaging in corporate worship on a regular basis, then it will be impossible. That is just as true for us today as it was in the first century church. So because this is so important for all of us, let me close with…
Two Crucial Implications for Our Corporate Worship
Our corporate worship will only be as good as our:
1) Preparation
The kind of corporate worship that is pictured here doesn’t just occur by accident. There is much preparation that is required before our corporate worship will be effective in helping us persevere in our daily lives.
First, it is clear that we need to prepare our own hearts. Obviously first of all that means that we need to be genuine disciples of Jesus, having placed our faith in Him alone in order to gain access into the presence of God.
It also means that we need to be consistently be drawing close to God by spending time in His Word and in prayer. As we do that we not only get to know God better but we also find that God uses His Word to show us where are lives don’t match up with His purposes, plans and ways.
It means that we have to be constantly confessing our sins and repenting so that we can come before God with a pure heart. That takes a lot more preparation than just walking in the door on Sunday morning and praying some kind of generic prayer like “God, if I’ve sinned this week please forgive me.”
It means that we’ll take time during the week to read the passage that I am going to preach on next Sunday and take some time to meditate on that passage and what it might mean for my life.
It means that gathering for worship will be a priority for us. We won’t just rush in the door in the nick of time each week or even come in late. We’ll be here early so we can interact and encourage others. We’ll make sure we’re prepared physically and mentally by getting a good night’s rest.
And it also means that we’ll take time to consider how we might be able to stir up others to love and good deeds and how we can encourage others. We’ll take time to consider the spiritual condition of others in this body and think about ways that we can encourage them as we gather together.
2) Participation
Worship is not a spectator sport. The three “let us” exhortations that we’ve looked at this morning are a call for every single member of the church to actively participate in the corporate worship of the church. It is not just the pastor or the worship team or the elders who are to participate in worship on behalf of the rest of the body. Every single one of us has an important role to play in worship.
We are all to draw near to God. We are all to hold fast to the confession of our hope. We are all to consider how to stir up others to love and good works.
That is why we design our worship services to facilitate everyone’s participation. You’ll notice that almost all of our music is intended for congregational singing. The worship team doesn’t just get up here and perform while everyone else watches. And even if singing isn’t your thing or when we occasionally have songs that are not intended for congregational singing, we can all still participate by thinking about the lyrics and what they reveal about God or about my walk with Him.
The same is true with Scripture readings. Whether we read Scripture together or whether we watch a video that contains Scripture or whether one person reads Scripture as we listen, we can all participate by meditating on the words and again considering what those passages reveal about God and how they ought to impact my life.
And as we do those things, it wouldn’t even hurt to participate with a hearty amen or by clapping or by raising our hands or by responding in some other way at least once in a while.
Even though our ability to interact with each other during the sermon is obviously limited, even the sermon requires all of our participation. We need to listen carefully and prayerfully consider how the message applies to our lives. We need to listen as God’s Holy Spirit takes His Word and uses it to penetrate our hearts and reveal sin and encourage us in our faith. And again a hearty amen once in a while wouldn’t hurt either.
The Bible accurately describes the church as a body. And just like our physical bodies only function like they should only when every single part of our body is working properly, the same thing is true of the church, and especially of our corporate worship. When even one person fails to prepare or to participate, then our worship can never be all that God intends for it to be.
When the going gets tough…
Jesus’ disciples get going to corporate worship
Just think of how effective our corporate worship could be in helping us to live as disciples of Jesus in a world that is increasing hostile to Jesus and His Bride, the church, if we would all prepare and participate each week. I don’t think any of us here have ever experienced the kind of amazing worship that would result from that level of commitment to draw near to God, hold fast to our confession of our hope in Jesus and consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. I’m sure willing to give it a shot. How about you?
