Hebrews 10:19-27
Come to Church
I want to talk to you this morning about something which is the necessary consequence of hearing and believing the Gospel. This somethingis foundational to your health as a believer in Christ. It is something that God has purposed for all of His people in order to preserve them, in order to keep them safe and secure for the eternity that He has prepared for them and for His glory. I want to talk to you this morning about coming to church. I want to talk to you about coming to church.
Welcome back if you were away over the long weekend last week. This morning is part 2 of 2 messages that we are preaching on the church. So if you missed last week please make use of our website to listen to the sermon on “what is the church?” It is really important that you do so. The church is not the physical building we are meeting in this morning. The church is in fact the living building which is the people of God. We are the living bricks that make up the building that God Himself is building. And the extraordinary reality about this building made up of you and me is that GodHimself lives it. God has been pleased to make for Himself a dwelling in the midst of His people. It is the most mind-blowing reality. That’s what the church is.
So one of the things we heard last week was that it is antithetical to the purposes of God for each individual living brick to separate itself from the rest of the other bricks. That’s not what a brick is designed for. Each individual brick is meant to join together with other bricks in an indivisible union, isn’t it? That’s when it realises its brick potential, right?
I am convinced that the seriousness and significance of coming to church is something that is lost to most of our society today and even to many professing Christians.
- Coming to church has become something that many people view as old fashioned and backward. This is the 21st century. We are passed that now. Church going is something for our grandmothers to do.
- Others think of church as that boring place where you are taught many rules that nobody’s got time for.
- But then you get people that think of coming to church as a good thing, but they just don’t have the time to do it. They think coming to church gives you upliftment and motivates you to be a better person. So they think it’s good to pop in to church every now and again. Someone actually posted on Facebook the other day, “it was so good to go to church yesterday. Now I feel so much better”.
So she’ll come back in a few months’ time when she wants to feel better again.
- Others just visit church and never come back. They simply decide it’s not for me.
- Those are some of the attitudes of people in our society at large.
- But then there are attitudes of people in the church which are also not great because they don’t recognise the significance of coming to church.
- There are some Christians who think for example, they don’t need the church because they can just be with their God at home. I was recently shown a so-called prophet who says that the church is a terrible Governmental institutionthat you must stay away from. God wants you to stay at home. Some people think that’s true.
- There are of course professing Christians who know that coming to church is part of what Christians do so they do it but they don’t really know its significance so they don’t see it as a high priority. So they come to church when they are free on a Sunday morning or when they are freeduring the week for midweek meetings. When they have nothing better to do.
- Others come regularly but if something comes up then they drop church and do that thing. And I think a lot of people who call themselves Christians are tempted to fall into this category rather than the others ones I’ve just mentioned.
- So for example, many of you are students. You have a test on Monday morning, or a weekly assignment that must be submitted every Monday morning. You don’t plan to do the assignment in time so you’ll just not come on a Sunday evening, and you’ll do your assignment during church time. Exams start at the end of May, so we see you in April, we don’t see you in May because you are studying every Sunday night and then in June-July you’re on holiday so we see you again in August.
- Many of you are working people with all sorts of pressures and demands from your work and somehow church tends to find its way to the back of the agenda because there are lots of other urgent things to do.
Everything I’ve said up until now is evidence of a problem. What’s the problem? We don’t know and feel the seriousness and significance of coming to church.
My aim therefore tonight is not to tell you my thoughts. I want to show you from Hebrews 10 that coming to church is the necessary consequence of hearing and believing the Gospel. I want to show you from Hebrews 10 that coming to church has been purposed by God as the means by which HepreservesHis people, the means by which He keeps them safe and secure for the eternity that He has prepared for them and for His glory. If you haven’t already done so please turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10:19-27. That is our passage for this morning.
Let me pray. Father help us this morning by your Spirit. Help us as we read and hear your Word to re-arrange our lives, to re-arrange our priorities and line them up with your purposes. We don’t want to be a people that call themselves by your name but neglect to live by your ways. I pray that your people at St. James would see and feel the significance of meeting together this morning and so make it the habit of highest priority in their lives so that in the end we may see your face and live. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
If you are unfamiliar with the book of Hebrews this language will seem very strange to you. Don’t panic. I’m going to explain the gist of what the writer is saying without going into too much detail today. There are 3 sections in our passage this morning and I am going to look at the 1st one and the 3rd one and then come back to the 2nd one. So let’s have a look at 1 and 3 then.
1) The first sectionI want you to notice is the summary of the main point of the book of Hebrews. It’s the summary of the main point of the book. Look at v19:
The writer is coming near the end of the book and he is going to make some conclusions based on what he has written in the book so far. That is why verse 19 starts with a “therefore” right? A therefore as you know, indicates that what I’m going to say next is based on what I’ve said before right? Now we don’t know what the writer said in the last 9 chapters because we haven’t read them.But thankfully this is a really intelligent writer because, before he starts telling us his conclusions and makes some applications, he first summarises the main point that he’s been making in the last 9 chapters. Are you with me? But how do I know that? How do I know that he summarises his main point before he makes his conclusions? Well, because he follows his “therefore” with the word“since”. Now, I’ve just confused you haven’t I?
Let me explain with an illustration. If you walk into Jenna’s house in the middle of a conversation she’s having and she says, “therefore, sinceJed and Jess have done their chores, they can play with their toys.” What do you think she was talking about before you walked in? She was talking about the chores they had to do right? That’s what that “since” tells you and that’s also what the “since” in v19 is doing here as well. It’s summarisingfor you what was said before.
So read with me then the summary of the main point of this book from v19. “[since] we have confidenceto enter the Most Holy Placeby the blood of Jesus,20by a new and living wayopened for us through the curtain,that is, his body,21and [since] we have a great priestover the house of God…” Pause right there.That’s the summary before he makes his conclusions. That’s basically in a nutshell what this writer has been trying to get across for 9 chapters.
What does it all mean? Let’s take it step by step: V19 “we have confidence to enter The Most Holy Place” that’s the presence of God. It means we have confidence to enter into a direct relationship with God.
“By the blood of Jesus” means that it’s because of Jesus’ death that we are able to confidently enter into this relationship with God. V20 “by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body” That means that when Jesus’ body was crucified on the cross the curtain that stood in the way between us and God was removed. V21 “we have a great High Priest over the house of God” A High Priest is someone who offers a sacrifice to God on behalfof other people’s sins so that that sacrifice takes away the sins of the people. Because there’s no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood. So when v21 says that “we have a great High Priest over the house of God”, it’s talking about the Lord Jesus.
The writer has spent a lot of time in this book talking about Jesus the Great High Priest. It means that when Jesus died on the cross, He was actuallyacting as a High Priest who was offering the sacrifice of Himself in order to take away our sins.
If I’ve lost you, here’s the whole thing put together: v19-21 is saying this: we have confidence to enter into a direct relationship with God because of Jesus’ death. Because when Jesus’ body was crucified on the cross, the curtain that stood in the way between us and God was removed. When Jesus died on the cross, He was actually offering the sacrifice of Himself in order to take away our sins. That’s the curtain that stood between us and God, our sins, our offences against a holy God. But now because of Jesus death for our sins we have confidence to enter into a relationship with this Holy God. Are you with me?
And that ladies and gentleman is the most incredible news that you will ever hear. It is the main point of this book and in fact it is the main point of the whole Bible. It is what the Bible calls the good news; the Gospel. It is sweet music in the ears of a sinner like me. It is the only reason why eternity with God can be a reality for a sinner like me. Anyone and everyone who believes this news, this Gospel will be saved from judgement for their sins. It’s the reason why Kyle and I are in this job. We want to tell you and others and as many people as we can this very news.
We want as many people as possible to open the Bible and see for themselves this great news from God and trust God.
2) That’s the first thing I wanted you to see, this massive main point of this book. The second thing I want you notice is the 3rd section of this passage and that’s down at v26-27. So jump down to v26-27 with me. “If we deliberately keep on sinningafter we have received the knowledge of the truth,no sacrifice for sins is left,27but only a scary expectation of judgment and of raging firethat will consume the enemies of God”…The second thing is a warning.Can you see that? I would not be doing my job if I didn’t warn you that there’s a warning.
The warning is that if after you receive the knowledge of this truth we just talked about and you still turn around and keep on keeping on deliberately living the sinful lifestyle you were living, if you reject this Gospel we just talked about and in your heart you don’t care that you’ve deeply offended God with your sinful life and you just go back to it and forget all about the sacrifice of Jesus for your sins, then there’s nothing else that can be done for you. There’s no sacrifice left for you because you’ve rejected the only there is... There’s only the sacrifice of Jesus that’s there for our salvation…
It’s incredible that we human beings love sin so much, we love rebelling against God so much that even after someone dies for us as a sacrifice for our sins so that we can have an everlasting relationship with God, we can still say, ”No thanks, I’ll go back to my sins”… In that case then, the writer says, there’s no other sacrifice left for you. All that is coming your way is a scary expectation of judgment and a burning fire that’s going to devour God’s opponentsV27…
So the second thing is a warning... The first thing is there’s really good news for all of us brothers and sisters. Really good news. Jesus sacrificed Himself for our sins so that we can confidently enter the presence of God. The second thing is the warning that if we reject His sacrifice and deliberately turn back to our sinful ways then there isn’t a sacrifice left for us, only a scary expectation of judgement for our sins and a burning fire that is going to devour God’s opponents.
Now the writer doesn’t leave us there. He doesn’t leave wondering whether we will be in the presence of God for eternity or we will be in the raging fires of judgement. He tells us what the logical conclusion to hearing and believing the Gospel is so that we will not fall away. He tells us what necessarily follows from hearing and believing the Gospel so that we will not drift away and be held captive by sin and then face judgement in the end. How do I know that tells us the logical conclusion? How do I know that He tells us what necessarily follows from hearing and believing the Gospel? Well he said therefore, didn’t he?
And so we come now to the second section of this passage. We looked at the 1st section which is the summary of the book, which is the Gospel and we’ve looked at the 3rd section which is the warning. And now we’re looking at the writer’s conclusions and applications for us. He’s told us the good news, he summarised it with that word “since”. He’s warned us with that word “If”. He’s warned us of what will happen if we go back to living in sin and now he is going to tell us how to not drift away, how not to fall back into an unbelieving lifestyle of sin.This writer wants us to be saved. Remember it’s not just him writing this passage. It’s God who is ultimately writing this passage to us. It is God who wants us to be saved. That’s why He used this writer to tell us the means by which He will preserve us and keep us safe and secure for the eternity that He has prepared for us.
So have a look at the conclusions and applications then in the middle of our passage, v22-25: v22 “Therefore, “since we have confidenceto enter the Most Holy Placeby the blood of Jesus,20by a new and living wayopened for us through the curtain,that is, his body,21and since we have a great priestover the house of God [now here it comes] let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let usnot 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.
How many “let us-ses” do you see there in your Bible? The first person to put up their hand and get it right will get a chocolate.There are 3 let us-ses and some translations have subdivided the last 2 and that’s why some of your Bibles have 5 let us-ses. So you are both right. We will have a look at the 5 this morning.
Who is the writer addressing? An individual or a community? He’s addressing a community of Hebrews who have put their trust in Jesus. That’s is why he says “let us” when gives them applications that follow logically from the Gospel. These applications are being made primarily to the body of believers as a whole.
Number 1: v22“Therefore… let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water”. Let us draw near to God. Let’s not hear this Gospel and carry on with life like nothing has happened. Maybe this morning is the first time that you’ve actually understood what Jesus is all about.
The beauty of Jesus is that if you believe in what He has done for you, that He has sacrificed Himself to remove your sins that stand between you and God, then now and tomorrow and always you can come to God not fearing that you are not good enough for Him…you can come to God not fearing that you will be rejected. That’s why v22 says “with assurance”. The assurance of faith. Meaning, He has washed you clean if you believe in His sacrifice and God will never turn you away. Therefore come to Him knowing that your conscience has been washed clean by Jesus’ blood. You are acceptable to God now because of Jesus. So run to Him confidently as a child runs to her father, assured of His love and acceptance of her…That’s the logical implication of the Gospel not only to someone who’s never heard it but to all of us as the believing community. We ought to draw near to God with assurance that faith in Christ’s sacrifice gives. The danger of course is that if we don’t draw near to Him then we forfeit the assurance that faith gives. You see brothers and sisters when it comes to salvation there’s no neutral ground. It’s either you are drawing near to God with assurance of faith or you are drifting away from Him in danger of being engulfed by sin. It’s like being in the middle of an ocean. If you are not confidently swimming towards the shore, you will be pulled deeper and deeper by the current.If you’ve been a believer for any length of time you will know that sin is always crouching at your door waiting to devour you. God says to us draw near to me St. James. Coming to church is not merely about ticking a box that you’ve done your religious duty for the week. We come together as a body to talk to God in prayer, we talk to God in song, we praise Him for His goodness, we fill our minds and hearts with songs of what He has done for us in Jesus instead of the nonsense that we consume on the radio. We confess our sins to Him being assured of His forgiveness. We listen to Him speak through His word as it is being preached. We get to know more of Him through His word. We get to be excited by Him through His word and delight in in Him and all that He is doing in the world when the Bible is read and preached as we study it in the week. We are not ticking old fashioned boxes when we meet together. We are drawing near to God. Draw near to God St. James. The God who dwells in the midst of His people.