Today we’re starting a new series. We will have four talks on the theme of ‘Why we gather’.
Last Sunday we met back at church after sixteen months of having our morning services online. That’s a significant moment.
But something else has been happening. About four months ago we started a new afternoon service. Almost everyone who has been coming to these services is new to the church. They don’t know you who come to the morning services, and you don’t them. It’s great that they’re coming, but a situation in which half the church doesn’t know the other half of the church isn’t what we want!
So given that this is a rather unusual moment with the morning congregation returning to services in church, and also a rather unusual situation, with the morning and afternoon congregations not really knowing each other, it’s a good time to think about why we meet up.
When I say ‘meet up’ I don’t only mean meeting at church on Sundays. We meet at other times too, for example, for a Bible study or a coffee or a picnic. But meeting together on a Sunday is a really important part of meeting.
So, let me ask you: why do you meet up with other Christians?
If we’re mainly thinking of going to church on a Sunday, one person might say that we want to praise God with other Christians. That’s right and proper! Someone might say that she comes to church to hear God speaking through the Bible. But she doesn’t actually need to come to church for that!
So, why do we meet up with other Christians?
In these four weeks we’re going to look at four reasons for God’s people to gather together. They are encouragement, rhythm, strength and unity. [N.B. this set of reasons is based on the SermonCentral 'We Are Gathered Here' Sermon Series Kit.]
Today, we’re going to look at ENCOURAGEMENT.
Could you turn to Hebrews 10:24-25? It says:
“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.”
We don’t know who the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews was. Many people think it was someone called Apollos. Some people have suggested it might have been a woman called Priscilla. But we simply don’t know.
The writer tells the Hebrews 'not to neglect' to meet together. If your husband is getting ready to leave the house you could say to him, ‘Don’t forget to post the letter.’ Or you could say, ‘Remember to post the letter.’ The meaning is the same. ‘Don’t neglect to meet together’ means the same as ‘Remember to meet together’.
Why should the Hebrews meet together? The writer is urging the Hebrews to stir each other up to love and good deeds and to encourage each other. How can they do that? However they’re going to do it, they will have to meet together.
So this verse is giving us one very important reason for meeting together. It’s in order to stir each other up to love and good deeds and to encourage each other.
But let me ask two very basic questions. Why do we even need encouragement? And how does meeting – especially meeting in church on a Sunday – help?
WHY DO WE NEED ENCOURAGEMENT?
There are some things we need very little encouragement to do. I can take our son Daniel as an example. I’m going to ask him three questions.
Here’s the first. Daniel, would you like a Domino’s pizza? [Daniel says yes!]
Second. Would you like to go to a movie with me? [Daniel says yes!]
Hmm … Daniel hasn’t needed much encouragement to do these things!
Third. Would you like to run a marathon with me? [There is a long pause!]
I once asked Daniel this question. I asked him if he’d like to run a marathon with me. Without a moment’s hesitation, he said yes. Some months later, he ran the Newport Marathon with me. He doesn’t regret doing it. But now, if I ask him to run a marathon with me, he says no. Why do you think that is? Daniel now knows what a marathon is like. Running a marathon is hard work. And the Christian life is much more like running a marathon than watching a movie.
That’s what the letter to the Hebrews tells us. Can you flip forward to Hebrews 12:1? It says:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and LET US RUN WITH ENDURANCE THE RACE THAT IS SET BEFORE US…”
The writer to the Hebrews likens the Christian life to a race. It’s a race that demands endurance. You only need endurance for a long race – a marathon, for example. So we understand that the Christian life is like a long endurance race such as a marathon.
Well then, what are marathons like? I’ve entered a marathon every year for the past six years. I’m not an expert on marathons, but there are some things I’ve learned about marathons.
• One thing is that marathons aren’t easy.
• Another thing is that it’s possible NOT to complete a marathon. I failed to complete the first two marathons I entered. Each year, some of the runners in the London Marathon fail to complete the race.
• A third thing is that they give you a nice medal at the end.
So, why is the Christian life like a marathon?
First, marathons aren’t easy and neither is the Christian life
I have two books on running. I’ve read both of them quite carefully – by my standards, at least! There’s a quote in one of them which made quite an impression on me. The author, Don Fink, wrote this:
‘It's a Sport about Not Quitting.
I started competitive running many years ago as a high school cross-country harrier. It concerned me then that I would frequently think about quitting when the going got tough. I would be racing my hardest and suffering through the middle stages of the race, where I would think about quitting. Not because I was injured, but because it seemed so hard and I had self-doubts. I never did quit, but I definitely did think about it. Fortunately for me, a top endurance athlete at the time, whom I greatly admired, assured me with a big smile, “If you don't think about quitting at least three times during a race, then you aren't running hard enough.”’
I think the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews knew what an endurance race was like when he compared the Christian life to one. The Christian life can be very tough. You can feel like quitting. Early on in my Christian life I felt like quitting being a Christian. More recently, there have been times I’ve felt like giving up something I was doing. In the Bible there are certainly occasions when a prophet wanted to quit. Feeling like quitting isn’t unusual. In the Christian life, testing times come. Jesus was tested and we are all tested. So, the first point is that the Christian life isn’t easy.
The second point is that it’s possible to NOT complete the race of the Christian life. People quit in the London Marathon and people quit in the Christian life. There are Christians who disagree with this. But the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews clearly thinks that it’s possible to drop out. Look at these verses:
“We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not DRIFT AWAY...” [Hebrews 2:1]. Drifting away is possible.
“See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that TURNS AWAY from the living God” [Hebrews 3:12]. Turning away is possible.
“So do not THROW AWAY your confidence; it will be richly rewarded” [Hebrews 10:35]. Throwing away is possible.
In the Christian life it’s possible to start but not finish. The consequences are not good. God treats this as spurning his son.
The third point is that we get a prize at the end. We’ve already looked at Hebrews 10:35:
“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be RICHLY REWARDED.”
The Bible tells us that there are huge rewards for those who complete the race. Sometimes it talks about a crown, sometimes a prize, sometimes a reward. I don’t have time to talk about all of them – but there are a lot. So in view of the rewards that we get if we finish, this is a race we should certainly finish!
I asked the question, why do we need encouragement? We need encouragement because the Christian life is like an endurance race. It’s tough and testing. We may well feel like giving up at some points. It is possible to give up but it’s absolutely worth keeping going. That is why we need encouragement. And it’s because we need encouragement that we need to meet together.
HOW DOES MEETING HELP?
Let’s go back to our verses:
“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.”
Let’s notice straight away that the writer isn’t simply thinking about how YOU will GET something out of meeting up with other people. It’s equally about what you will GIVE. The writer says, ‘stir up ONE ANOTHER.’ Then he says ‘encouraging ONE ANOTHER.’ The writer says ‘one another’ twice. We help EACH OTHER. We give and we receive. I try to stir up and encourage other people. And other people stir me up and encourage me.
So, we meet with other Christians both to GET encouragement and to GIVE encouragement. And the writer’s emphasis here is on what we GIVE. When we meet with other Christians, we should be thinking about how WE can encourage THEM. There are loads of ways we can do that.
There’s a course called ‘Discipleship Explored.’ It looks at this verse and challenges us:
“Think of one way you can encourage a fellow believer toward love and good deeds, and do it this week. Ask God to give you strength, by his Holy Spirit, so that you can be an encouragement to a Christian brother or sister in your local church.”
That’s a great suggestion. Let’s pause for a moment. How could you encourage a fellow believer toward love and good deeds, this week? Can you think of something?
We could say something positive about something they’ve done; we could tell them that it was helpful or valuable. We could give a gift towards someone’s ministry or help them with it. We could take an interest in what a person doing. Does that encourage people? Yes, it does.
I once met a lady who was involved in business training in South Africa. One of the things she’d done was set up a scheme in which ordinary business people, without special training, would go and visit small, young businesses. All the people did when they visited was talk. Can you guess what happened? The small businesses did better! Simply having someone visit and take an interest in their businesses encouraged the managers of the businesses and they did better.
At the end of this service you’ll probably go through to the hall and have a cup of tea or coffee. That’s great. But keep in mind what the writer of this letter is telling us. We should encourage our Christian brothers and sisters. So when we’re chatting over our tea or coffee, look out for the opportunities to do that.
Let me summarise. The Christian life is like an endurance race. It can be very tough. There may well be times when we feel like quitting. But there’s a great reward at the end. Encouragement makes a huge difference. And it’s when we meet together that we can encourage each other and also be encouraged.
Our passage for today started with the phrase, ‘AND LET US CONSIDER HOW to stir up one another…’
I’ve been saying all along that ‘the writer’ is telling us such and such. In a sense this is an unknown writer telling us something. But we believe that the Bible is God’s word and therefore this is what GOD is telling us. We should think of this as Jesus giving us an instruction: ‘CONSIDER HOW to stir up one another to love and good works.’ Jesus is the boss; he’s the coach. So, what are you going to do about it? How can you put this into practice?
The Christian life can be tough. There’s someone not far away who needs your encouragement. You know who they are. If you simply take the trouble to meet with them you will almost certainly encourage them! And if we all do that, someone will almost certainly also give us the encouragement we need!
Let’s pause for half a minute to consider, to think: how can I encourage someone this week?
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 1st August 2021, 10.30 a.m. service.
