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CHURCH IMPROVEMENT: BUILDING A CHURCH THAT HONORS GOD AND LOVES PEOPLE THROUGH PERSISTENT ENCOURAGEMENTHebrews 10: 19-25INTRODUCTION During spring break of my junior year I went with a group of eight other guys backpacking in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. Our plan was to begin hiking on a Sunday afternoon and then to come out on the other side of the park the next Friday where we would be picked up by the tour bus we road to the park. The first day was a beautiful spring day in the mountains. We only hiked a couple of miles to the foot of the first mountain we would climb and pitched our tents. We went to sleep that night under the glittering starlight and awoke early in the morning to a thundering rainstorm. We sat in our tents and ate cold, uncooked, freeze-dried oatmeal hoping that the rain would stop. It didn’t stop. We planned that day to hike nine miles while climbing 7000 feet to the Appalachian Trail and then down the other side of the mountain to another campsite. We packed up our gear in the pouring rain, donned our raincoats and began trudging up the slippery path. I and another guy put our heads down and forged far ahead of the other six. We left them behind in the grayness of the rain. We reached the Appalachian Trail in the late afternoon and as we trudged north along the trail the rain stopped and a cold north wind began to blow across the tops of the mountains. As we were approaching the highest and coldest point in the Smokey Mountains, Clingman’s Dome, my partner began to stagger and complain of feeling numb and dizzy. We stopped and took off our packs and he leaned back against some rocks shivering violently and looking very pale. We waited for our six partners to catch up with us as the wind drove the last of the clouds away and the sinking sun illuminated the tops of the clouds that were now below us on the eastern slope of the mountains. When the other six finally caught up with us, one of the other members who was trained in first aid recognized the symptoms of hypothermia in my hiking partner. Exertion, lack of food, soaking wet clothes and the cold north wind had sent his body into shock. Two of us put his arms around our shoulders and began to carry him along the path while two others carried his pack. We knew we would never make our campsite on the other side of the mountain and so began looking for a flat, sheltered spot among the boulders to put up our tents. We didn’t find any suitable place until we came to the top of Clingman’s Dome. After throwing off our packs we covered our friend in several sleeping bags and began gathering wood from under the scattered trees. We soon had a fire blazing and warm food prepared and our partner recovered. We hardly slept that night in the cold air on top of the mountain and were only too glad to see the morning light and to pack up and head down the mountain. When you’re on a dangerous journey, you need friends if you’re going to make it safely to the end. I’m not sure how you think about the Christian life, but the Bible teaches us that we are on a dangerous journey. To be a Christian is to be a follower of Jesus Christ. To be a follower of Jesus is to have the world and the devil and your own sinful nature as your enemies. There are traps and snares and fierce enemies all along the way that we must overcome if we are going to make it safely to our heavenly home. Turn to Romans 8:29-30. God has promised that everyone whom he predestines to eternal life he effectually calls to himself. Everyone whom he effectually calls to himself, he declares not guilty because of Jesus’ death for his sins and he declares perfectly righteous because Jesus obeyed the law for them. This declaration is called justification. All whom God justifies he also brings safely into their eternal home. However, when we ask, who are those whom God predestines, calls, justifies and glorifies the answer comes back, "It is all those who continue in faith and love to the end of their lives." Those whom God is saving are not those who made a decision to ask Jesus into their lives one time but are now living independent of God. God does not guarantee the salvation of those who had an experience with Jesus one time but who give no attention to loving God or loving people now. Our persistent following of Jesus in the way of discipleship shows that we are among those who belong to Christ. But how do we maintain a life of faith in the midst of a world like ours? The entire book of Hebrews is written to answer that question for people just like us. They have all professed faith in Christ but they are being opposed in their life of faith. Their neighbors, family and governing authorities are putting pressure on them to renounce Christ and to return to their former way of life. They are being tempted by their own evil desires to abandon Christ. Their suffering and their sin are causing them to ask, "Is being a Christian worth it?" So the author to the Hebrews writes to encourage them to press on, to not quit. The author gives reason after reason as to why following Jesus is a more sure way to joy than any other way of life, to show them it is worth it. In chapter 10: 19-25 we are given three commands. You don’t earn heaven by obeying these commands. Rather if you want to make it safely to heaven this is what it will take. This is what the life of faith looks like. Everyone who is a follower of Christ and believes that to know him and live with him forever is the best thing in the world will live this way. MAIN POINT You will only make it safely to heaven if you… I. Continue to draw near to God (vv. 19-22) The command to draw near to God is embedded in a description of all that Jesus has done for his people. The first part of v. 22 gives us what we are to do, "draw near to God" and how we are to do it, "with a sincere heart and in full assurance of faith." Verses 19-20 and the last half of v. 22 tell us why we ought to love drawing near to God. Let me begin by making sure we all understand what it means to "draw near to God with a sincere heart, in full assurance of faith." God is commanding us to enter into a close, personal, intimate relationship with him. He is commanding us to pray, to ask him to work on our behalf. He is commanding us to enjoy his company and delight in his love. He commands that we do this with a true or sincere heart. In other words, he is commanding us to come to him because we love him and desire to live with him, not because we want to use him to get what we really love. An example of an insincere heart is the person who marries for money. The man who draws near to a woman with words of desire and love and longing not because he has affection for her but because he loves her money has an insincere heart. So God commands that we draw near to him because we love him, not because we love what he can give us. Drawing near in full assurance of faith means that we draw near to God expecting to find him, expecting him to be and to do all that he promises. It means that we come to God exclusively, abandoning all other loves and all other hopes. All of our hopes for happiness are tied to him. We don’t have any other "fish on the line." It’s like getting married. I forsake all others and pursue my happiness in my wife alone. I depend upon her favor alone to be content. I do not trust in the affection of any other person, just my wife. Let me ask you a question. Does it seem like a big thing or a little thing that God would command you to enter into this intimate relationship? Does it seem amazing to you that God would want you to live with him and promise to listen to your prayers and answer them? For most of us, God listening to our prayers seems like a very normal and expected thing. If you listen to how people talk about prayer, how people talk about God’s love, nothing seems more natural to most human beings than that God would love them and be glad to listen to them. But the Bible talks as if God’s commanding us to draw near to him is the most unexpected and amazing thing in the world. Most of us would be far more surprised if President Bush were to call us this afternoon and command us to be his friend. If he told you that he wanted you to regularly call him and visit him in the White House you would be far more impressed than God’s commanding you to draw near to him. Yet, God’s command that we draw near to him is far more remarkable and improbable than President Bush calling you this afternoon. This is the point of the four reasons we are given for drawing near to God. Let me show you the four reasons for drawing near to God and then give a brief description of how they should motivate us to draw near to God. "Since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place". "Since we have a great high priest." "Since our hearts have been sprinkled clean." "Since our body has been washed with pure water." We should keep drawing near to God because this is why Jesus came. The Scriptures make very plain that God is absolutely holy and just. He made it plain in the OT that no one could enter into his presence unless they, like he, were holy. He illustrated that reality when he gave to Israel the laws concerning the temple and the priesthood and the sacrifices. The only person who could enter into the presence of God in the Most Holy Place was the high priest. He could only enter one time each year and then only after going through a very long process of cleansing. He had to wash his body and put on clean robes. He had to sacrifice a bull and put its blood on him. He had to sacrifice a year old male lamb and take its blood in a bowl into the Most Holy Place. In the previous 5 chapters the author has painstakingly shown that Jesus is the high priest, he is the sacrifice, his blood is the blood that satisfies God’s anger against sin, he has entered not into a temple made of stone and wood but into the very presence of God in heaven. He has done all this so that we can draw near to God. That’s what vv. 19-20 are saying. Since Jesus shed his blood on the cross to gain access to God for you and since he now lives in the presence of God as your faithful high priest, draw near to God. That’s why he came. But then also, in v. 22, by his blood being shed he has also gained the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. He has given you a new heart and a clean conscience. Since you have a new heart that now loves God and since your conscience no longer condemns you before God and since you have been washed clean by the work of Christ, now do what you were made to do, draw near to God. Imagine that I built a tree house for my children. This was not just any tree house. It looked like the house that the Swiss Family Robinson built in the movie by that name. There are pulleys and ropes and staircases and different floors. You can safely climb to the top of the tree and look out over the entire neighborhood. I built this house because I want them to enjoy it. What would it mean if my children ignored the tree house? What if they were not impressed with it and never went into it? What would it say about how they feel about me? Do you see what this means? Christ came to bring you to God and so if you’re not going to God then you are treating Christ and his work with contempt. Christ has done everything so that you can draw near to God. Christ didn’t die so you can pursue a life of worldly pleasure, ignoring God now but then safely go to heaven when you die. So honor Christ by drawing near. Live in the joy of what he came for, draw near to God. If you are not drawing near to God then you simply show that you want no part of Christ’s salvation. You will only make it safely to heaven if you…
II. Continue to embrace the promises of God (v. 23) The command in v. 23 to hold unswervingly to the hope we profess means that we are to continually remind ourselves of the glorious future that awaits us and then not deviate from the path that will take us there. This is the Olympic athlete who often thinks of how it will feel to win the race and stand on the podium while she runs sprints over and over again in preparation. This is the mother who thinks of the joy she will feel when her baby is born while she is going through labor. This is the thought of how happy my daughter would be when I gave her the dollhouse I was building when I wanted to quit because nothing seemed to be working. This is the marathon runner who thinks of the relief and the joy he will feel when he crosses the finish line instead of thinking about the pain he is in at the moment. Hope is about our expectations. We know that while we draw near to God now, we aren’t going to experience the fullness of the joy of living with God until heaven. All of our experience of God’s grace now is only partial and incomplete. So hope fixes our attention on the future when our joy will be complete and the journey will be over. We think much of the glory of God and of the joy of living with him forever and this feeds our hope so that we keep pressing on in spite of the pain in the present. We agree with the Psalmist who said, "You have made known to me the path of life, you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." We know we are on the path of life and we know that it will end in eternal pleasure and so we press on through the pain. But notice the reason we hold fast to this hope is not because of us and our stamina but because God has made promises that he is going to keep. Eugene Peterson remarks in his book, "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction", "God sticks to his relationship. He establishes a personal relationship with us and stays with it. The central reality for Christians is the personal, unalterable, persevering commitment that God makes to us. Perseverance is not the result of our determination; it is the result of God’s faithfulness…. Christian discipleship is a process of paying more and more attention to God’s righteousness and less and less attention to our own; finding the meaning of our lives not by probing our moods and motives and morals but by believing in God’s will and purposes; making a map of the faithfulness of God, not charting the rise and fall of our enthusiasms." Are you hoping in what God promises to give? I find so often when I talk with people who are feeling depressed and hopeless that the reason is because they are not hoping in what God promises. God doesn’t promise secure finances, good marriages, and healthy bodies. He promises eternal pleasures in his presence forever. He promises to be our refuge and strength in the trouble not a genie that keeps all trouble away. You will only make it safely to heaven if you…
III. Continue to share your life with the family of God (vv. 24-25) First, notice the structure of vv. 24-25. There is only one primary command here followed by two subordinate clauses that give more details about what obedience to the command entails. This is the command at the beginning of verse 24 literally, "Let us carefully consider one another for the purpose of provoking love and good works." Now the two clauses that give us more details on how this is supposed to work are, "by not abandoning our meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but by encouraging each other and all the more as you see the Day approaching." We must answer four questions. First, who is commanded to encourage and whom are they to encourage? Second, what does it mean to encourage another person? Third, what is the goal of our encouragement? Fourth, How are we going to do this? Notice that this work of encouragement is done by all of us to each other. Everyone is included in this command. If you are a Christian, you are commanded to carefully think about other Christians and then to get together with them in order to provoke them into love and good works. Some of this takes place after the service on Sundays but this is not the primary place for it to happen. This work of encouragement is to take place throughout the week in personal conversations, in our families, in our small groups. The reason I am absolutely convinced of this is because of the parallel passage in 3: 12-14, "See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first." We are to be involved in regular, daily conversation with other believers for the purpose of encouragement. What is encouragement? First, let me tell you what it isn’t. The word "encouragement" is almost a ruined word in the English language. Most of us think of encouragement in a therapeutic or psychological manner. Encouragement is being told that we’re good people, and we’re doing a good job. It’s when someone seeks to build our self-esteem. It is when we are affirmed in our personhood and our performance. It is when we are valued and made much of. But this is not how the Bible describes encouragement. Look at 13:22. "Brothers I urge (encourage) you to bear with my word of exhortation (encouragement), for I have written you only a short letter." If you want to know what encouragement is, then study this book. This book talks much of the greatness of Christ and his salvation and is full of warnings to not treat Jesus as if he’s a nobody and his salvation as if it’s nothing. It pays attention to the work of God, not the works of men. Even when it does affirm people, it affirms God’s work in them rather than who they are in themselves. Look at 6: 9. "Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case—things that accompany salvation." This is a model of how we are to talk with each other. Based on the book of Hebrews, Dr. John Piper defines encouragement this way, "The God centered, Christ exalting, Scripture saturated, emotionally in touch use of language that aims to produce God-besotted, self-forgetting, lovers of people." There are a number of characteristics of encouragement in this passage. First, it is intentional. The command here isn’t, "Sit around expecting others to encourage you and when they don’t get mad and leave the church." Christians are people who are looking for ways to love others, not looking for ways to get others to love them. If you are feeling disappointed and angry that no one is calling you, then you are not thinking straight. It’s not just my job, as the pastor, to be concerned about the spiritual welfare of others. All of us are to be intentionally initiating relationships with other Christians for the sake of their spiritual well being. Second, encouragement is thoughtful and based upon personal knowledge. We are to carefully consider one another. You can only encourage those that you know personally. This means we must be interested in one another. We have to take the time to listen and to learn about others. We have to spend time with one another in settings where we get to know each other. This is one of the reasons being involved in a small group is so important. This is one place where we get to know each other so that we can thoughtfully consider how to encourage. I know the reason people are not in small groups or don’t faithfully attend them is because they don’t get anything out of being there. Let me suggest that if you go to a small group for the purpose of "getting something out of it" you’re not going for the right reason. This verse says you go to the small group for the purpose of giving, not getting. You go, thinking about how you are going to encourage the other members of the group. It isn’t just the small group leader’s job to make sure the group goes well. Everyone must come with the attitude of giving, not getting. Can you imagine what would happen in your small group if everyone came to the group having carefully thought about how they were going to encourage others in the group? Encouragement must be regular, like eating. People who give up eating, are going to die in a short period of time. People who give up meeting with other Christians for the purpose of mutual encouragement are going to die spiritually. I can tell you this, people who think they are going to make it to heaven without being involved in regular, personal contact with other Christians are living in a dream world. What this passage and 3:13 tell us is that our hearts will naturally be hardened by sin’s deception without regular conversation with other believers. Encouragement is passionate about the well being of others. The word in v. 24, translated "spur" is a very strong word. It means to provoke. This is having the emotional intensity of a parent who is trying to provoke a child into action to avoid some danger. It’s the kind of intensity you have when you tell your toddler not to play in the street. It’s the intensity you have when explaining the dangers of drugs to your teenager. It’s how you feel when you wake up and smell smoke and urge everyone to get out of the house. What is the goal of encouragement? In 3:13 it is stated from the negative side. The goal of encouragement is to keep people from having hearts that are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. All of us are daily battling with whether we are going to believe and act on the promises of God or believe and act on the promises of sin. This is the central battle in each of our lives and so when I aim to encourage you, I’m thinking about how to help you believe there is greater happiness in trusting God’s promises than in believing the promises of sin. In 10:24 it is to provoke people into having hearts full of love for God and people that motivates a life of good works on behalf of others. When I seek to encourage you I am aiming at getting you to believe the promises of God so that you have a heart full of love and a life full of serving others. The goal isn’t to help you feel good about yourself but to help you feel good about God. It also doesn’t mean that we become morality police in each other’s lives. Then also notice that in both chapter 3 and here in chapter 10 that the reason this kind of life is so important is so that we will make it safely to heaven. 3:14 says, "We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first." The end of 10:25 says we are to encourage each other while we see the approaching judgment of the final day. Immediately following in vv. 26-31 is another warning passage of the necessity of persevering in faith to the end if we are going to be saved. We are like people who are outside when the tornado siren blows and we can see the approaching tornado and we are urging one another to flee into the basement while watching the approaching tornado. If our neighbor is out raking his lawn we’ll do all we can to encourage him to join us in the basement. We won’t run to the basement and leave our child playing in the sandbox, will we? We tell one another things like this, "Let go of your grudge against your wife and pour yourself out in loving her as the evidence that you love Christ so that you can make it safely home." "Get rid of your internet connection so you don’t feed your lust with pornography and so show Jesus is more pleasing to you than pornography so you can safely make it to heaven." How will we do this? First, it requires that all of us are thinking straight about the nature of salvation. It is absolutely true that the only people who have come to share in Christ are those who hold firmly to Christ to the end. The evidence that you are a Christian is not that you had an experience with Jesus at some point in the past. It isn’t simply that you agree with certain facts about Christ. The evidence that you belong to Jesus is that you are today drawing near to God, holding fast to the hope, carefully considering other Christians to provoke them into a life of love and good deeds. Second, it requires that we are thinking straight about our relationships to one another. We all belong to one another. We are members of the same family and are to have a mutual affection for one another. Each of us must view ourselves as a minister of the gospel in relation to other believers. God wants you to carefully consider the needs of other Christians and then to personally, intentionally seek to provoke them into a life of love and good works. This isn’t just my job or the job of a few. We all are responsible for the spiritual well being of other Christians. When you notice that someone hasn’t been showing up at church, what do you do? Do you mumble to yourself, why aren’t people more committed to God? Or do you get on the phone and set up an appointment and ask them how they are doing? Do you volunteer to meet with them regularly to pray and seek God? Third, every parent must make sure that this kind of mutual encouragement is taking place in their own family. This is the point of family worship. What matters more to you, that your child graduates from high school or they make it to heaven? What is your fondest hope for your child, that she gets a job or is warmly welcomed by Jesus into his eternal kingdom? Fourth, every teenager and adult in here ought to be in a small group. If the only contact you have with other Christians on a weekly basis is Sunday mornings, you are not going to make it. I know there are a million reasons why it is hard to go. But I’m telling you that you must intentionally seek to spend time with other Christians for the purpose of mutually building each other’s faith in Christ. Fifth, all of us need to be looking for opportunities to spend time with 2 to 3 other Christians of the same sex on a regular basis for the purpose of mutual accountability. You will only make it safely to heaven if you…
© Copyright
2002 John Swanson.
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