PONDERING... Are You Stirring the Right Pot? (Hebrews 10:19-25)

Are You Stirring the Right Pot?

GIST: Because of who Jesus is and what He does in our lives, the church should be a place where we encourage one another to love and live like Jesus.

SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 10:19-25

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 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. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 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.

Before I left for vacation, we wrapped up a relatively short series on living in the face of trials. For the next couple services, Lord willing, we’re going to take a look at what the Church should be like. Again, this is not going to even begin to be an exhaustive study, but will hopefully give us some encouragements, some convictions, and some foundations to build on.

This morning, I want to look at a familiar passage (something I feel like I’ve been doing a lot lately).  We’re going to take this in context a bit. Realistically, each of these points could, and at some point probably should, be a sermon of its own, but today I really want to focus of the last portion. With that end in mind, we see the passage builds like this: because of who Jesus is and what He does in our lives, the church should be a place where we encourage one another to love and live like Jesus.

I. FOUNDATION: Because of who Jesus is...

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

Again, we could camp out here for a long time, and I encourage you to spend some time chewing on these verses. Nonetheless, I will be brief. These verses serve as a summary of what has proceeded. The writer of the book of Hebrews has been comparing Jesus’ sacrifice to the Old Testament sacrificial system. The Old Testament pointed to our need for Jesus, but was incomplete without Him.

Look at how the chapter opens: For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Hebrews 10:1-4

So we have a few foundational points to grasps here, all of which hinge on our dependence on and blessing in Jesus.

1. Jesus’ sacrifice was complete and necessary.
• We cannot save ourselves, but we do desperately need to be saved. We are sinners against an eternal God who deserve eternal punishment. Only a perfect sacrifice could possibly atone for that. Jesus was the only option--our only hope. We need Him. We have to remember that!
2. Only because of Him, we now have confidence to enter the holy places.
• I won’t spend too much time here, but we need to remember this was written for a Jewish audience. They would have immediately connected some dots. The holy places were only entered by the High Priest--and only once a year. It was a serious matter. In fact, from what I’ve read, bells were tied to the high priest’s feet so the other priests would know he was still alive, and a rope tied around his waist so they could pull out his body if the bells stopped ringing. Entering the holy places, the presence of God, with an unclean heart, was deadly. This was not taken lightly. So, for the writer to say--we now have confidence to enter in because of what Jesus has done is no light matter. We have been granted accessed to God by God.
3. And He is our Great High Priest, so this is a lasting condition.
• 26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. Hebrews 7:26-27 His sacrifice worked. Again, there is so much here, but what a blessing it is to know Jesus is our representative before the Father. This is why we have confidence to enter into His presence--because of Jesus.

II. PERSONAL REACTION: and what He does in our lives

22 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. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

After laying that foundation, we have three “let us” statements. The first two deal with our personal reactions. And we’re given these directives (again, I will be brief, but each is worth our further attention).

1. Draw near to God. In the context here, it is not talking about drawing near to each other yet, but rather to God Himself.
• With a true heart. This implies earnestness. You are not just to go through the routine of Christian stuff, but truly to come to Him as you would an intimate friend.
• In full assurance of your faith. That is, knowing that your salvation is real and lasting. Why?-->
• Because you have been cleansed by Jesus.
2. Hold on to the truth of the Gospel--the good news that we are sinners saved by the grace of God, the sacrifice of Jesus. We cannot waver on this-->
• Because He is True!

III. CORPORATE RESULT: the church should be a place where we encourage one another to love and live like Jesus.

24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 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.

After laying this foundation and explaining what our personal reactions should be, we are given another “let us”. Here is where we get some insights into what the Church (big C, the body of Christ) should be like. I know I opened by saying this is what we were going to be looking at, so I could have just gone here and skipped those other verses. However, until the individuals in the church are changed by God personally, we’ll never see this corporate result. If the whole basketball team eats junk food and sits on the couch any time they’re not at practice, it doesn’t matter how well intentioned your practices might be, they won’t be effective--and your games will be even worse. So, again because of who Jesus is and what He does in our lives (that has to come first), this should be the result.

1. Consider how to stir up to love and good works
• Give serious thought to. Rather than just attending out of obligation, there is an active nature to our coming together. Not only are we supposed to love each other and serve together, but we’re to give serious thought, consciously think about, how we can do that. In fact, we’re suppose to consider how to “stir each other up”.
• Stir up, a strong emotional reaction. Usually, when we think of stirring stuff up, it comes with a negative connotation. It means you’re causing problems or distress. People who like to “stir the pot” like to make others miserable. The idea here is almost the same. In fact, this Greek word is the same root as our word paroxysm (vocab moment: a fit, or at least a strong and sudden display of some emotion). Here it means to incite or provoke such emotions. However, we’re given this qualifier. We’re supposed to give serious thought to how we can stir each other up to-->
• Love and good works. Be like Jesus. All throughout the Bible we are called to love and serve; it is at the heart of what it means to belong to Jesus who was the ultimate example of love and service. How can we come together in such a way that we’re helping each other love Jesus and His Word and each other more? How can we then take that love and show it to those around us by serving them? That’s what church should be like. I know this is one of those ‘toe-stepping on’ moments, but we all need to remember this. Church is not just a weekly time when we come, listen, and leave. We are the body of Christ growing together in our love for Jesus and our service of Him. This is God’s design, and we should want it, which is why the next admonition is given.
2. Meet together
• A need. This was not written so preachers could guilt congregations into hearing their sermons. The preaching service is only one part of a much bigger picture, and honestly, you could hear better preaching somewhere else. We live in a technological age that allows you access to the most talented Biblical teachers at the click of a button. You should take advantage of that. Nonetheless, it will never be a substitute to actually being part of the church family, part of the body of Christ, serving and being served as Christ intended for His people. And if we’re the kind of people who consider how to stir each other up to love and good works, why in the world wouldn’t we want to be here? We need that. And we won’t find it anywhere else. This is where you're taken off the sidelines, and put into the game.
• Not club building. And that’s why we should want people to come to church, not so that our numbers will grow, but so they can meet with Jesus and grow closer to Him with us. The competitive nature that can creep into local churches sickens me, and I know it repels people outside the church. If our sole purpose is having more people, so we can say we have more people, we’ve missed the entire point. Packed pews are meaningless if we’re not stirring each other up to love and serve Jesus. If people being saved and growing in their walk with the Lord is not our purpose, we are not the Church. “36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” Mark 8:36
3. Encourage one another
• We need the encouragement because complacency is easier and stagnation common. This is what we're supposed to do. You start stirring and encourage those around you to do the same.
4. Especially since Jesus is coming back!
• Our time is short. Our mission is vital.

TAKEAWAYS

1. Why do you come to church? I watched a video online once that compared the modern church to a drive thru. People would drive up to the church and order the specific type of service they wanted to meet their “needs”. One guy asked for a short sermon, with some humor, but not too much conviction. Another asked for specific types of music. Another wanted a particular children’s ministry, and even specified the type of goldfish she wanted for her kids. It’s funny to watch (and here’s a link), but a sad reflection on a real problem. Many people come to church just to get something out of it, and then leave when they don’t get that. That’s not the purpose of the church.
2. What makes you want to miss church? Could this be because of your answer to the first question? People will miss church. We get sick. We go on vacation. Emergencies arise. But this shouldn’t be our norm. If this is a place where we grow closer to God together, it shouldn’t be something we’re “just not feeling” today.
3. How can you stir up love and good works? We should be thinking about this. Last Wednesday, I saw this happening. It was 100+ degrees outside, not many were coming out to our block party from the community. Nonetheless, we had over 80 people out here working together and registered 20 kids for VBS. You guys weren’t here because you love bouncy houses and hot dogs (well, at least not all of you were here for that reason :D), but because you wanted to support one another. It was a blessing to be a part of, and that’s how the church should be.
4. Encourage each other in this. The Day is drawing near. Come together when we’re together to encourage each other to be like Jesus. I’ll never forget the times in my life when I just wasn’t feeling it, and a Christian friend, completely unaware of what was going on inside my head, stirred me up by just being excited to study God’s Word and share His message and brought me into that. Let’s be that kind of church.