Why We Gather

And many people have kind of talked about this, a shift in churches, especially in their book, The Great De-Churching. The authors of that book talk about how 40 million adults in the last 20 or 25 years who at one point did go to church regularly have stopped going to church altogether. And they look at the causes and the reasons for why that might be. And there’s a whole host of reasons. But they say this is not a gradual shift.

It is a jolting one. Now, for many of us, this reality of people no longer going to church that did, maybe they went with us. This is not a statistical issue. This is a personal issue. Love and know who are no longer going to church.

Now, maybe some of them had just said, I’m done with church. Some of them said, I’m done with the faith. They’ve walked away. And so this is a very real issue we’re considering. Why does it matter that we gather?

I’ve even talked to many Christians who have said things like, you know, given this circumstance that happened to me at this church or that church, you know, I don’t know that I want to make church, going to church a priority anymore. And then people will say, well, the church isn’t a building. It’s a people. And I absolutely agree. But you got to think about this.

If Jesus called us to meet together regularly, then it only makes sense that there would be a building, a common meeting place that we would all come together at. In fact, even in the earliest days of the church, people want to go back to the early days of the church, right? In the golden years, well, we’re told that on Pentecost, the followers of Jesus were all together in one place. Over and over, we see them gathering. They gathered to pray together, to study scripture together, to hear the apostles teaching, to take up a collection for those in need, to serve those who are hurting, to care for the vulnerable.

And all of this they did together. There is no such thing as a lone ranger in Christianity. It just doesn’t show up in the Bible. And even in the book of Hebrews, we see the author reminding his listeners of the importance of meeting together regularly and not forsaking this all-important practice because there are downstream consequences. There are pitfalls that come with that.

And notice that phrase, let us, that keeps showing up in this passage. He says, let us draw near to God. That’s what we’re doing. We draw near to God together. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope.

Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. And we call it. The point is, they’re doing it together. Let us do this. It’s a community calling.

It’s not just, you need to do this. It’s, we need to do this as a body of believers. First point in your notes is this, one of the primary places God wants to remind you of hope, of our hope, is in the gathered church. It’s when we come together as a gathered church that we’re reminded of the great hope we have. Because God wants you to live with hope in this broken world.

There’s a lot of bad news out there and God wants to give us the good news in here. He wants us to live with hope. He wants you to know his great love for you. And he wants you to be reminded of his promises and his word and that you are his child. He wants you to hear these truths over and over because you need them.

You need to be spurred on and reminded of the hope you have. And this passage lays out for us one of the biggest things is the biggest ways to have that hope come back into your soul reminding you over and over is when you are meeting together like this in the gathered church. First of all, we need to see what it means to be a Christian. That’s important because just sticking your head in a church does not make you a Christian. Amen?

And the Bible asks, would want us to ask that question, how do you become a Christian? If someone was to ask you that, if someone says, hey, what does it mean to be a Christian in a way? What do you mean when you say, I’m a Christian? How would you answer? Would you say, well, I go to church every Sunday.

Now, we’re going to talk about how that’s an important part of the Christian life, but what it comes down to at the heart of it to be a Christian is to follow Jesus. It’s to know and follow Jesus. That’s what it means to be a Christian. And we see in this passage the message of salvation, how one becomes a Christian, the gospel. Verse 19, therefore, okay, let’s stop there.

Now, anytime you come in a passage of the Bible to the word, therefore, you always have to ask, what is the therefore, therefore, right? That’s Bible study 101. You look at the context and here he’s saying, in light of what I’ve just been telling you, here’s what I’m now going to tell you. This is the therefore. And so the context matters and he’s just been talking, if you look right above that, he’s just been talking about forgiveness of sins.

And he’s been laboring to make this point that our great problem is forgiveness. We all need it. Everybody has this guilt issue and we all need forgiveness. The problem is we don’t all know where to find it. Hebrews 10 says, this is how you can find true forgiveness.

Now, to understand the context for a passage, look back at verse one with me of chapter 10, very beginning of this chapter. Here’s what he says. Okay, so we’re starting out connecting our need for forgiveness to these Old Testament sacrifices. In the Old Testament, we see that God required the nation of Israel to make these sacrifices every year on the day of atonement. You sacrifice bulls and goats.

And through this, you see that you need a substitute. Something has to die for you. There has to be a blood sacrifice. It’s not enough just to offer your grain that goes with other sacrifices. No, with forgiveness, you need a blood sacrifice.

That’s the message of Hebrews. And notice it says, those sacrifices could never make perfect those who draw near. Whether we realize it or not, deep down, we all have this deep seated need to be perfect. You feel it. That’s why there’s times where you can think back and you think, man, I shouldn’t have done that.

You express disappointment with yourself or you feel regret. What you’re really doing in those times is you’re saying, you know, I wish I had been perfect in that situation, but I clearly wasn’t. And then when someone discovers us for being imperfect, they point out our imperfections and they show us where we were not perfect, we feel judged. We feel this need to be perfect. It’s interesting, secular psychologists have picked up on this.

And in their articles and books, they’ve written all about this. Why do we feel this need to be perfect? They’ve tried to solve this problem for us. And they talk about this. And if you read their articles, you would come away thinking, okay, my need to be perfect is pretty powerful.

It’s there. It’s affected me deeply. Now, it could be the pressure, peer pressure of others. It could be my parents. It could be my society.

You feel this need to be perfect. And they offer this solution. They would say, here’s what you need to do with that. Let it go. You just need to let it go, right?

I think there’s a Disney princess that sings about that. Just let it go. And we’re told that that’s what we need to do with this perfectionism problem. We just have to let go of that need and problem solved. And here’s the issue with that.

We can’t just let go of our yearning for perfection. Because you have been made in the image of a perfect God. That’s why it’s there. That’s why you long for a perfect world. And every time you see something that’s wrong or out of alignment or evil, it hurts you deeply.

It bothers you. It affects you. Every time you think of things that you’ve done that were imperfect, it bothers you. Because we were made in the image of a perfect God. And in some areas, people will come alongside us.

And what do they do? They console us, right? Hey, don’t feel too bad. Nobody’s perfect, right? And it’s funny because it’s like we have this recognition.

That would be like our culture’s way of agreeing with Romans 3.23. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All have sinned. We’ve all fallen short. Nobody’s perfect.

And it says that we’re supposed to feel better about this knowing that we’re not alone. You know, nobody’s perfect. At least if you’re not feeling good about being imperfect, know that you’re not the only one. Nobody’s perfect. Except there was this one.

And this one who was perfect came into this imperfect world. And he let all of our sins, failures, and imperfections fall on him. And he bore the full weight of all of that in our place. He is that substitute. Sacrifice we all need.

That’s what Hebrews gets at. And in verse 10 of Hebrews 10 it says it was God’s will for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. There is no additional sacrifice needed. There’s nothing that you can bring to the table to add to this. His sacrifice was once just the one time.

And it was for all time. For you. Look at verse 14. I want you to say it. I want you to see this for by a single offering.

He has what perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Now what does all this have to do with us gathering as a church? Everything. We gather because of this hope. Because we who are very imperfect in ourselves have a God who has done everything necessary for us to give us that perfection we long for.

We don’t just need to let go of our imperfection and settle for less than perfect. We need to embrace the one who is perfect. Who died for us to bring us full forgiveness. Because when you put your trust in Christ what you’re doing is you’re putting on the clothing of his perfect righteousness. So that you can come boldly it says in Hebrews.

You can come with confidence into the presence of a holy and perfect God. Not fearing wrath, not fearing judgment. Is you are clothed in perfection. It’s all of Christ. It’s his blood, his righteousness.

So this is why we have hope. And this is why we gather Sunday after Sunday together because we can come together boldly into the presence of God knowing we have a righteousness that is perfect. It’s not my righteousness. It’s not your righteousness. It’s his.

But it’s been given to our account. And so if you don’t yet know Jesus here’s what you need to know. You don’t need to be burdened by your imperfection anymore. Because Jesus has come and traded places with you on the cross. He offers his perfect record in exchange for your sin.

That’s why we have confidence the Bible says. The curtain has been torn. Think of that image of Jesus or of God tearing that curtain when Jesus died. He was making it so clear. Come on in.

You can come in because of Jesus’ death. We’re cleansed by the blood of Jesus. There’s no more stains on your record. No more imperfections. No more flaws.

When you come in the name of Jesus, you come in perfection. That’s what we hunger for. And that’s our hope. And all this brings us to verse 23. Let us hold fast.

Don’t let go. This is the confession you need. 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. Again, notice the plural there. Let us consider. The idea is this should be our mindset when we come to church. So secondly in your notes, in our consumeristic world, God calls you to be a contributor to his body.

A contributor, not a consumer. We live in a user-friendly world where so much is about customer satisfaction, and meeting the needs of the consumer. And many of the thinking behind that and the business models we have that has kind of spilled over into how many view the church. Many church growth strategists have looked at it like this. You know, there’s businesses that have these goods and services that meet the needs of the customer.

And the church then must be like a spiritual business. And we’re here to get our spiritual goods and services. And what does that look like? They ask questions like a business consultant would. What is our business?

Who is our customer? And what does our customer value? And the idea behind that is we just need to satisfy the customer. And then we’ll see these churches grow. Now this mindset has trained generations of Christians to ask, what can this church do for me?

What do I get out of this? What am I going to be benefiting from? Instead of asking, how can I control the church attribute to the church? See, the church is not just a spiritual nonprofit. The church is a beautiful yet broken family of God.

The Bible calls the church God’s household, not God’s business. The church is not meant to adopt all the pragmatic models of the world and just tack on Jesus and spirituality and call it good. The church is a supernatural community, indwelled by the spirit of God. It’s an outpost of the kingdom of God. And our message is meant to have an upside down transformational power.

We don’t sell a product. We offer people the free gift of eternal life. We don’t sell a service. We call people to deny themselves and to serve others in the name of Jesus. We don’t try to quantify customer satisfaction.

We proclaim the king of kings. See, the author of Hebrews is telling us when you become a Christian and join a church, you’re not joining a country club. You’re not just getting your membership into something that will give you the benefits. You’re joining something supernatural, something that is eternal, something that will go on forever. And you get to be a part of it.

You get to be stepping into God’s story in the way that he is transforming this world. And you have a part to play. We come together as brothers and sisters filled with one Holy Spirit who call on one Father. And we each have a part to play as a contributor. So we’re so clear.

In the body, every member has a purpose. Every member has a gift to share, something to do. And so he says we’re to consider how to stir up one another. In other words, think long and carefully about that. Consider how are you going to stir up the affection for Jesus in your brothers and sisters?

How are you going to stoke the fire of spiritual zeal when you go to church? How can I encourage others to live out God’s healing on their life? See, every time you come to church, you aren’t just obeying God. You are doing that. But you’re living out your God-given purpose of loving him and loving others.

This is what it means to be a disciple. We’ve just seen, we aren’t saved by our good works. We’re saved by Jesus. Amen? His finished work of the cross alone gives us that perfect record we desperately need.

But just as it’s impossible to be saved, saved by our good works, it’s also impossible to have salvation without the result of good works. Ephesians 2 talks about this. We’re told that God creates us new in Christ Jesus. There’s something supernatural, powerful that happens on the inside. You are made new when you come to Christ.

You’re not who you once were. And because of that, you are created new for the good works that he’s prepared for us in eternity. And in the book of Revelation, the Lord says that Jesus walks among the lampstands. Well, the lampstands represent the churches. And so if you want to be with Jesus in a special way, if you want to become more like Jesus, you need to go where Jesus is uniquely present, walking among the lampstands, walking among his people.

We never want to get away from the simple goal of becoming more like Jesus. That’s why we sing about Jesus. Jesus, lift up Jesus because it’s all about him. We have nothing apart from him. The goal of church is not entertainment, but lifting up Jesus.

Jesus is the reason we exist. And we get access into the holy of holies. Just think about that. When we’re in heaven and we’re walking into the presence of our holy God, you have that same perfect record today that you will have because it’s always going to be Jesus. So no wonder Hebrews will later talk about the importance of fixing our eyes on Jesus.

He’s our everything. The rapper or Tupac used to sing, “All eyes on me.” In the church, we say, “All eyes on Jesus.” And so as we gather week after week, we’re encouraging one another, look at him. Don’t be fixated on the world and all the problems and all the things that you need to solve.

Look at him. Don’t be fixated on yourself and all the things that you want to change. Look at him. Look at Jesus because that will give you direction in all the other areas of life. The Bible calls believers to gather like this and sing the rich truths of the gospel, to make melody in our hearts, to sing songs and hymns and spiritual songs to the Lord and giving thanks to him.

Because as we do that, we’re lifting up Jesus. And as the result is, Jesus is that we’re filled with his spirit and his joy. See the problem with the consumerist mindset is that if the church exists for me to meet my needs and to benefit me and I get what I want out of the church, then what about those times where I don’t feel like coming to church? Now I’m not talking about sickness here, but I’d just as soon stay home or maybe do something else. What if I feel I’d rather work extra hours?

There’s good reasons for that, right? If those are your thoughts, then I would argue that the power of the gospel still needs to be applied to your heart. And so it’s in those times where you least feel like coming to church that you most need to be here. Be with his people. In your notes, because God made you as an embodied person, gathering in person matters.

Again, look at what he says here. That is, consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some. Some people have had the habit. He’s talking about those who have decharged. That happened back then.

It happens today. It’s always happened. People who did go to church and then they walked away. They’re no longer meeting together. They’ve made a habit to stop meeting.

In recent years, many experts have talked about the importance of the habits. These habits, basically, habits are the things that form you. Your habits are gonna tell you who you are becoming. So if you wanna know who you’re gonna be in a year, what your character’s gonna be like, look at your habits. Look at the things that you do regularly, all the time, no matter what, those are your habits.

The Bible says there are good habits and bad habits. And meeting together on Sunday had become the regular rhythm and habit of the earliest days of the church. This is not a late invention. This is not something that people thought of. This is a way we can accumulate money or whatever people might think of when they think of how the church got started.

It started from the earliest days. They called it the Lord’s Day because the Lord rose from the dead on Sunday. We see this throughout the book of Acts. In his letters, we read Paul saying things like, when? Not if, but when you come together as a church, like it’s going to happen.

He just expects it. And then he talks about them coming together on the first day of every week in 1 Corinthians 16, too. On the first day of every week. He doesn’t say, hey, you guys need to be coming together on the first day of every week. He says, when you guys are there on the first day of every week, like you do, this is what you need to be doing.

It’s your habit, he says. So for the early church, every Sunday was Resurrection Sunday. Every Sunday, they were remembering and reflecting. And so he’s literally saying, just as Jewish people meet together in a synagogue, you Jesus followers need to synagogue. You need to meet together.

Now many Christians have wondered in recent years, yeah, but can’t I just do that virtually? But there’s nothing wrong with watching services online and many people, frankly, don’t have a choice because of physical reasons. But my concern would be the same as the author of Hebrews, neglecting meeting together as a church on Sundays out of habit. Because it just become their habit to stop going. And to understand something of the context, we need to realize that these guys weren’t neglecting meeting together because they wanted to stay home in their pajamas, right?

It was this was not because they wanted to work an extra shift or go to football games. They were not meeting together out of fear of persecution. That’s what was happening to them. And so if you really want to get your spiritual zeal stoked, I’d recommend reading an issue of voice of the martyrs. There you’ll read about Christians all over the world in places like Iran, where they will commit to meeting together every Sunday, even when their life is on the line.

They are risking their lives. And I’m saying it’s that important, we’ve got to go. Praise God, we live in a country where at least right now we have the constitutional protection to assemble as followers of Jesus like this. But the persecution of brothers and sisters around the world puts things into perspective in our American context. I don’t know of any American who has de-church because they were worried about being beheaded.

But that’s a reality in some places of the world. Is it really matter, if I can still get fellowship out of doing something online or meeting virtually, can’t I just do it that way? And I think this brings up other questions. Like does it matter that God created us as embodied persons? Did God have a purpose in making us not just like the angels that are spirits, but as physical beings with not just a soul, but with a body, with voices, vocal cords that can sing and speak and eyes that can see one another and arms that can shake hands and hug?

Does that matter that God designed us this way? Think of the incarnation. Jesus didn’t just send us a text message from heaven. Or he didn’t just virtually come to earth via Zoom. What does John 1 14 say?

And the word became flesh and dwelled among us. The Son of God took on human flesh. He was embodied. He is, it mattered that much that He would be among us. Not only that He had to pay for our sins and have a body, but that He would rise again and forever have a human body.

There’s something special about gathering physically. Human beings were designed to worship corporately bodily. Revelation 5 speaks of how one day soon we’re gonna gather around the throne of God together. And it speaks of how people will fall down and worship. That speaks of physical embodiment.

They’re gonna fall down and worship Jesus. It talks about them raising their voices together in unison, worshiping the Lamb who was slain. Every Sunday is meant to be a tiny preview of what that will be like. And Hebrews says we are to encourage one another and all the more as we see the day drawing near. Have that day in mind when you come together because one day that day will arrive.

And you notice that one another, the New Testament is filled with these commands that have that one another phrase. And the obvious thing in that is that if you’re going to obey those, you have to be with one another. You can’t just be doing Christianity in an isolated lone wolf way because you’re not obeying all the one anothers. And we’re called to encourage one anothers in the context of relationship. And who doesn’t need encouragement?

Every single one of you, when you came here today, you came in need of encouragement. And that means that everybody else around you needs encouragement. And so he’s telling us he’s encouraging us. Be an encourager. Come ready to build up one another in the love of God.

Because your brothers and sisters need to be reminded of who God is and how much he loves them. So be an encourager. Make that your mission every Sunday. Have an eye out for someone especially in need of encouragement. In the love of God.

In a divided world, you need the encouragement of other disciples. So each Sunday, we’re to come with a sense of expectancy. We’re to come with the thought that I am a disciple of Jesus. And we are his church. And we need one another.

We need the Holy Spirit. And we need one another. We need others who have the Holy Spirit. And we encourage one another in the truth of the gospel. More than any other time probably in our nation’s history.

We as Christians need to be reminded how much God loves the church. A lot of people have tried to smear the church and say only bad things about the church. You know what Jesus says about it? He says the church is my bride. I love you.

I cherish you. I cleansed you. He says the church is his body. And we need to have that same perspective as Jesus. So I’ll leave you with this question here.

Who is God calling you to encourage today? Who’s God laying on your mind? There’s somebody that needs the encouragement that only you can offer. Be that encourager today. Will you pray with me?

Father, I thank you for bringing this body together. Thank you Lord that you didn’t create this as isolated individuals to go it alone. But you created us and you built the church. You are building the church. And thank you that it’s all about you.

That we come together as your body. Not as a detached body, but as your body. You are our head. And so as we take the elements together in just a moment here, I pray that we would be reminded of this truth. How much we desperately need you and how much we need each other.

I pray all this is

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 4,766 words.