Finding Hope pt4

Littered all throughout the New Testament are reminders of the way Jesus followers are always together. You don’t see Christians operating all by themselves. We may even think of Paul that way, but he travels with people everywhere. He never goes by himself. And everywhere he goes, he hooks up with a church and the believers in it, so much so, that when he leaves he often writes to them to encourage or admonish them, but always with a longing to be with them.

Hope is born in community. We are better together.

I know that sounds like a cheap campaign ad and this is an election year, but the cynicism of the age should not dilute a biblical truth. To sustain hope, we have to be in one another’s presence.

(Deaths of despair)

We talked last week about the necessity of action, and this week I want to build on that by talking about the necessity of proximity. There are a couple of passages I really want to hone in on, and you may think of others as we walk thru this, which really proves the point. We are not created to be followers of Jesus in a vacuum.

Let’s start by going to Hebrews 10:19-25.

Now first let me say this. This is not intended to be a clobber verse. It is intended to be an encouragement. So many people grab verse 25 and use it as a club, that they miss the point of the verse.

Look at verses 19-22.

The writer starts not with- get your butt to church- but with the proximity of Jesus we enjoy because He came near to us.

Hebrews (1) Spiritual Resources, Privileges, and Requirements (10:19–25)

A key word in this verse is “confidence,” which denotes the objective idea of “authorization” granted by God by means of Christ’s blood but also entails the subjective notion of “confidence” or “boldness.” Previously in Heb 4:16 the author exhorted the readers to “draw near to the throne of grace.” Now they are presented with another ground for assurance: Jesus has opened the way for entrance.

This whole section is about how the results of Jesus coming to save us is the ability to draw near to Jesus. Look at verse 22.

We have assurance and folks, with that assurance comes hope. When Jesus has saved us, we have a renewed hope that comes from giving away control and receiving forgiveness.

Hebrews (1) Spiritual Resources, Privileges, and Requirements (10:19–25)

The two grounds for our drawing near in vv. 19–21 are both objective: an entrance by the blood of Jesus and a great priest over the house of God. Here in these two prepositional phrases is the subjective grounds for entrance: a sincere heart and full assurance produced by faith. God has done his part so we can be enabled to do ours

Hebrews (1) Spiritual Resources, Privileges, and Requirements (10:19–25)

They function to give the reasons why we can draw near with a sincere heart and full confidence: because we have been cleansed and washed. These are actions which have already been accomplished for us at the moment of conversion, when the atonement is applied to our hearts resulting in the objective forgiveness of sins, internal cleansing, and the concomitant deliverance from a guilty conscience

It is then, and only then, that the writer pivots to the importance and imperative of coming together,. Look at verses 24-25.

We are to be seeking how to help one another to love people unconditionally and to do good (holy) things. And that necessitates being together! And why would it not? Think with me for a second, how often do you fall for the same old temptation when you are alone? How about when you are with others? We are actually less inclined to sin when we are in fellowship with other people and we are more likely to be encouraged to pursue Jesus and holy living when we are around people with the same pursuits.

Hebrews (1) Spiritual Resources, Privileges, and Requirements (10:19–25)

The negative participle concerning failure to meet together is followed by a participle which positively instructs the readers to “encourage one another.” The word connotes both notions of encouragement and exhortation. Ellingworth takes it as indicating “urgent insistence (13:19).” They are to do this “by so much more by as much as,”67 which is the literal rendering of the Greek phrase. The meaning is they are to encourage one another and more so in comparison as they see “the day” approaching, which is smoothed out in the NIV as “and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Especially in THIS age. If we are going to be missionaries to a broken world, like we talked about all last year, we are going to be around a lot of people with no hope which can, over time,, even sap our hope. But look at verse 25. What do we gain from being present with one another- encouragement! HOPE!

Now you may say to yourself, yeah but they don’t need me. I don’t have much to offer anyone. In fact, when I am at church I feel like a drag on the church. I always need stuff or am going thru it and people are always having to put up with me.

I feel useless in the church.

That’s the enemy y’all, cuz that is a lie.

We are all important parts of the church. We all have a role to play and you NEVER know what you mean to someone or how you have affected their life!

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 12:12-26.

Paul saw this one coming. And he headed it off. You are a valuable member of the church. So valuable Paul says we are all like body parts. We are all connected together. Work together. Suffer together. Celebrate together. We need each other.

And when you are absent, you are stealing someone else’s hope! And that may sound harsh, but it is true. You have no idea what you may mean to someone. You may be the only reason they held on this week. Yes you.

Look at verses 15-20.

Part of the reason some of us don’t see the value of our presence is we want to be another part. God made you the way you are for a reason. He gave you the skills you have be cause He wanted you to exercise them in a certain place at a certain time. You are in this church to be a foot or a knee or a shin bone. We can’t walk or run without you and when you withdraw your presence we crawl. And someone is less hopeful because of your absence.

1 Corinthians (3) One Body, Many Members (12:12–31)

First, each member of the body is equally a part of the body. The rhetorical device of personification (“If the foot should say …,” “If the ear should say …”) allows Paul to portray more vividly the envy that one Corinthian believer might have for another or the sense of being an “outsider” instead of an integral part of the church. Just because the foot is not a hand or an ear is not an eye does not mean that either is any less a member of the body (12:15–16). There is no insignificant, unimportant, or inconsequential member of the body. Garland explains, “The failure of one little valve can shut down the whole bodily system. The implication is that there is no unimportant gift or person in the body of Christ

1 Corinthians (3) One Body, Many Members (12:12–31)

Paul is careful to stress that God placed “each one” of the members in the body “just as he wanted them to be.” Each member of the body has its own function according to God’s design. The emphasis on “each one” and the placement of the members in the body according to God’s pleasure

Now look at verse 21-24.

Some of us are hesitant to be present because somewhere along the way someone told us we are not needed. You tell Danny who they are and he will punch them in the nose and tell them they are wrong,. LOL

No seriously. Who are you to determine whether someone is worthwhile or not? Jesus died for them. They are worth everything. So if we want to be a church that is bringing hope we need all kinds of people, because I hate to break it to you, but not everyone receives hope from a Jesus loving, U2 obsessed, 48 year old white dude. I am not everyone’s cup of tea. We need variety in the church the same as in the Body, so you don’t make someone feel unwelcome because they don’t fit your mold.

Jesus broke the mold and at West Metro we celebrate mold breakers.

1 Corinthians (3) One Body, Many Members (12:12–31)

God gives greater honor to the members that lack it according to his design (12:24b). God has combined, or “mixed together,” the members of the body for this very purpose. This is essentially a restatement of 12:18, that God put the members in the body as he pleased. Here, however, Paul adds a clarifying purpose statement concerning the divine blending of the body: “so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other” (12:25). Collins notes that the compound purpose clause emphasizes what it means for there to be no division in the body. “In place of division there should exist mutual concern of the members for one another

But look at the results of presence, in verses 25-26.

We all go together. One hurts we all hurt. One celebrates we all win. We are united and look at verse 25- “the members have the same care for one another.”

1 Corinthians (3) One Body, Many Members (12:12–31)

not only is the one body many members, one member of the body affects the whole: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it” (12:26). Everyone can relate to the pain that reverberates throughout the body when one small member is compromised. On the positive side, “If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” The implication is that a profound solidarity exists between the members of the body

Church this is hope. That you walk in those doors back there and know someone cares that you are there, and that someone misses you when you are gone.

We draw on one another for hope.