Christ's Gift of the Local Church

Introduction

>>>Turn to Hebrews 10 – reading verses 19-25

Title of the sermon: Christ’s Gift of the Local Church

PRAY! PRAY! PRAY!

I am sure at some point in your life you have heard sermons, or maybe a series of Sunday school classes on the local church.

This morning, we are going to dive into that subject using a familiar verse for some.

You may be asking, why are we looking at a sermon on the local church? It seems a little out of place. You may be right in thinking that, but the elders have been discussing the matters of the church, including membership, serving, and the like.

In God’s providence, He has brought to us this text, that Lord willing will help correlate the next two weeks of sermons that will focus on the church. With the various fall ministries starting and our prayerful consideration of outreach, the elders believe that this is a good time to focus on this.

I want to ask you this question as we prepare to look at the text before us. What are your thoughts on the local church? What expectations do you have? What would you like to see happen?

As they come to mind, I now ask of you this, please, let all of them go. This morning, we are gathered here to sit under what the Word of God has to say.

My hope for us this morning is to have our minds centered on what God says about the local church.

The age in which we live today, there are fog machines, rock concerts, 15-minute feel good messages, coffee shops and restaurants in the church, a heavy focus on community, an emotionally based experience, and an imploring of the goats to come in among the sheep.

It is the age of megachurches, parachurches (multiple churches under one name), home churches (which are slowly coming back), 2, 3, or 4 services churches. There is every model under the sun that is happening.

Yet, what does the Bible have to say about the local church? What does God want from His people as we gather together? I want us to see three things Christ has gifted us in the local church.

1. Entering the veil (vv.19-20)

2. The Doctrine and Action of Believers (vv.21-24)

3. The Assembly is Christ’s gift (vv.24-25)

I. Entering the veil (vv.19-20)

This short section of Scripture is the ‘greater than’ verses 1-18. In other words, because Christ has is the greater sacrifice than what the OT priests offered, all that is said in verses 19-25 are ‘new.’

The author to the Hebrews addresses his audience as brothers. This is true throughout the entire book.

Confidence in Christ

He is building on the verses read during the scripture reading. ‘Since’ or because we possess this confidence. What confidence is that? It is the covenant as told in verse 16 which is a quote of Ezekiel 36:26. The confidence is that because Christ has washed away sin, we can now enter the holy place.

This confidence of entering the holy places was originally given to the high priest as seen with Aaron in Leviticus 16:3-4. Why is this significant? Because in the OT only the priest was permitted in the holy place. That means that every other person was excluded.

Since Christ has come to fulfill the will of His Father, we have this confidence to enter the holy places.

What are the holy places?

There are some people that believe the church building itself is holy. One commentator writes on the usage of the word holy in this verse saying, “God and what is associated with Him is declared as “holy” (Bill Mounce).

I would ask you this. Who will be resurrected on the last day? The church building or the people of God? Ezekiel 43:1-12 speaks of the temple that will be made in the days following the Babylonian exile. But…it also speaks to that glorious temple that will last forever. Listen to verse 7, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever. And the house of Israel will not again defile My holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their harlotry and by the corpses of their kings when they die.”

Now we know that Jerusalem fell after the rebuild and that sin continues to this day.

I think that we would all agree that the church building itself is not ‘holy.’ The people in it are declared holy because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. He who has sanctified us and placed us in the sanctuary (Hebrews 10:10).

Listen! Further, it is not being in this building that invites the presence of the Lord among us. It is the sanctified people of God who enter His holy temple who invoke His presence upon our time together.

‘The holiest place on earth is when the presence of God is upon His holy people who worship Him in spirit and truth.’

The other side of the bridge

Verse 20 brings us to the other side of this bridge, crossing over the OT system. This new and living way is a replacement or it is better than the old.

The word ‘inaugurate’ (LSB) or ‘open’ (ESV) means to renew in the Greek. This is critical for us to get.

Contextually speaking, to renew is to restore. See when Adam was on earth in the presence of Yahweh, that relationship was uninhibited, there was nothing blocking it. Then sin came and then there was a chasm between Yahweh and man.

But this new and living way in the flesh and blood of Christ is the renewal of this communion with Yahweh God that was lost when Adam transgressed God’s law.

This Christ did by tearing the veil (Matthew 27:50-51). Notice that the author mentions that this is done in His flesh. This tells us that when Christ literally died on the cross, the communication to God was restored.

In other words, it was the Father’s plan to reestablish communication with Him by the shedding of Christ’s blood and the breaking of His body! Doesn’t this make you wish we were doing communion today!

What this means for the Church

This tearing of the veil has implications for the church. Because now with the veil being torn, Christ is now the High Priest of the Church. This is not to say that He was never High Priest, He was over Israel.

But for the new and living way established in Christ, He has given us of Himself as our priestly mediator. When I give the invocation, I do so not as a priest, but I do so as we all come to ask the presence of God to dwell among us.

It means that when we offer our prayer requests each Lord’s Day to the Father, we are trusting in Christ as our High Priest to step in on our behalf as we are the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:26).

This should tell us something. It is nothing new. You and I are utterly dependent upon God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We come to this place maybe knowing how and what to pray for. But we really do not. We come out of desperation for some requests and when we offer praise, it is not to you and me, for it is to God for what we have seen Him do in our lives and the lives of others.

The Necessity of the Local Church

And because we are in need of Christ, we also need those around us who believe in Him too. Listen! Christ has given us one another. He did not go through the veil for one believer.

This is why the disciples were sent out in two. They needed each other in their everyday lives.

There is another reason why we need each other, and it is to remind one another of the confidence we have in Christ. >>>Turn to John 6. Listen to this promise from the mouth of our Lord in verses 51-56, and how we can use this as a reminder of who we are in Christ…

Why read this? Because you and I who have trusted in Christ for the salvation of our souls have life in ourselves! And who better to be around than those who possess life?!

Listen, those who do not possess life, possess death. They possess unrepentant sin, they possess an unregenerate heart, they do not possess being born again to a living hope. Is this said of you? It doesn’t have to be, turn from your sin and trust Jesus for salvation and He will save you!

He has gone through the veil so that you might know God!

II. The Doctrine and Action of Believers (vv.21-24)

Now that the truth claims of Christ have been brought forth, what does it demand of us?

Our Priest over the house of God

Verse 21 tells us that because Christ is the great High Priest over the house of God. Now the word ‘house’ does not mean church.

Being over the house of God is being over His people. You and I are now identified in Christ. 2 Corinthians 6:17 tells us that we must “come out from their midst and be separate.” In other words, Christ is over us, His people, who are called to be separate from idolaters.

One commentator writes, “the phrase “the house of God” refers to all of God’s people whether on earth or in heaven” (Daniel L. Allen).

You are headed to the store one evening and you are on the lookout for milk. To your surprise, the store is completely out of milk. At that moment do you hang your head low and say, woe is me all the milk is gone, or do you go to another store and pick it up?!

I mean this would be like us today saying we are the only Christians here on earth and they do not exist anywhere else. What a foolish statement!

I want to note something before we move on. Jesus never stops being our great High Priest. That means that you and I can constantly go before Him with our praises and petitions. It means we can go to Him when we are confused and in great need.

Listen to Ephesians 2:19-22… What we are told here is that there will be more added to the number, and they are going to need a High Priest, and His name will be Jesus Christ!

Now, because our great priest, Jesus Christ, is over the house of God, we are pushed to now act upon this reality.

But how are we to do this? Verses 22-24 give us three ways to apply this. We are to draw near, hold fast, and stir up.

Drawing near with a sincere heart that is full of faith

First, we are to draw near. In other words, we are not to be far off and distant from God. I want to ask you a question. When you feel far away from God, where do you go to come back? Yes, the Bible, prayer, but also to a brother or sister whom you love and trust.

This is not a generic drawing near to God, as in a drawing near because of a circumstance or situation. This is purposeful. In other words, those who draw near with this intent do so with no doubting.

In the same way, there was to be no doubting that Yahweh was who He said He was. That was the purpose behind circumcision (Exodus 12:48). Circumcision did not save, having faith in God did.

Therefore, we draw near to God with truth and the fullness of faith. But we must beware of ‘lip service’ that is performed to God. He knows the intention of our heart. Listen to Isaiah 29:13, “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their fear of Me is in the command of men learned by rote.”

We must come near to God because it is for our good as the Psalmist says (Psalm 73:28), not because we are following tradition of some kind or the ushering of another believer.

So, what are we to draw near with? I love how the scripture points us away from a work that we could do ourselves! It is a sincere or true heart that is full of faith.

This sincere heart is what the Greek defines as trustworthy. Some examples of this are found in 2 Kings 20:3, 1 Chronicles 12:33, and 28:9.

This is the heart that God desires and longs for (Psalm 51:6). Yet, it is God that gives man a heart to know Him, that is aligned to His will and follows obediently (Jeremiah 24:7). It is this heart that is full of faith in Christ.

The drawing near attributed

The drawing near, the sincere heart, and the full assurance of faith are attributed to believers as seen with the sprinkling from an evil conscience and the washing of our bodies in purity.

The Greek refers this to being cleansed from pollution (Mounce). And Who cleansed us? Jesus by the sprinkling of His blood. In so doing, Christ has set our conscience straight.

This means that we no longer have a blind eye toward sin, but we are convicted upon sinning against our Lord.

Coming back to the OT, the sprinkling of Christ’s blood is far greater. Unlike the local effect of the sprinkling (Exodus 29:21, Leviticus 8:30), the blood of Christ has a worldwide effect (Isaiah 52:15).

Now the drawing near is seen in those who have been washed by pure water. This is yet another reference to the OT (as much of this section is in contrast). God provides through His word an instance when the sprinkling of blood and the washing of water come together in one place. That is the cleansing of the leper in Leviticus 14:4-7. That is the idea here in Hebrews 10:22.

For us Christians we have been washed from the inside out. Most commentators agree that the washing of our bodies refers to baptism, but none of them, nor I, would say that you need to be baptized to be saved.

I would say that we share as members of this church a unity in the outward profession of faith in baptism, whether you were immersed here or somewhere else.

You and I have been sprinkled and washed individually and we come to worship God on the Lord’s Day with grateful changed hearts.

Holding fast to our confession

Second, we are to hold fast to the confession. In other words, we are to tightly hold on to what we believe about the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what verse 23 is all about.

To hold fast is to hold with a very tight grip. Listen, God cares about doctrine, that is why it exits in our Bibles. He did not have it inspired for us to glance over. You and I must not loosely play with the doctrines that we believe.

The confession that the author is speaking of is the giving of Christ’s flesh and blood as the atonement for our sins. Again, this is seen in the first 18 verses of chapter 10.

Listen to the urgency that Jesus speaks with of holding fast as written in Revelation 3:11, “I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”

What did they hold fast too? Revelation 3:8 says they knew the Word and did not deny Christ. In other words, they held fast to Christ.

Hold fast without wavering

What is critical for us to understand is that we are to hold fast to these truths, but to not waver in our belief of them!

Have you ever been confronted about what you believe? Maybe you have had conversations with a skeptic who is persuasive in speech. Verse 23 asks of you, do you listen to those who believe differently, those who are antagonistic, those who want to see you fall, and yet, you do not waver in what you believe?

In other words, you can listen to the argument, yet your convictions are strong that you are unshakable.

Now, if you are struggling with this this morning, look down at the end of verse 23. Look at the promise there. “He who promised is faithful.” What does this mean? It means that Jesus has promised that you will stand strong until the end! You will persevere.

Consider a few examples from Scripture. Look at Hebrews 11:11. What does it say about Sarah…? “She regarded Him faithful who had promised.”

In other words, besides the slight moment of doubt (which we all can have from time to time), when God told her that she was going to conceive at 90 years old, she believed Him! And to make it better, Yahweh God aces the exam in promise keeping (Genesis 17:17, 21:1)!

Remember when Solomon asked Yahweh for wisdom? What does Yahweh do… He fulfills it (1 Kings 5:12). And we have the witness of Solomon himself recorded in 1 Kings 8:56 that “not one of Yahweh’s promises have failed of all His good promises” (my rendition).

Brothers, we could sit here for multiple months even years conversing over Scripture of all the times that God has been faithful in His promises. And we can spend the same amount of time as we have each experienced it in our own lives.

God is faithful to His people. God is faithful to His church.

Stirring one another up to the glory of God

Third, we are to consider how to stir up in one another love and good deeds.

Out of doctrine comes good works. This is true in the life of our Savior. He tells His people to watch for the hypocrite, for the false teacher in Matthew 7. When He speaks to them in Matthew 12:33-34, He rightly calls them out.

I want you to notice that love and good deeds are something to be considered. I bring this up because far too often there are deeds that are done for the sake of doing them. What the author wants us to get here is that these things are to be meditated over

Go back one year from today. And the elders come and say let’s hold a community day, let’s do mid-week Bible study, and men’s and women’s breakfast and they are all going to happen in September and October. Do you think that they could all be planned out well with careful thought?

The same is true for any work that we do.

I want us to see the remainder of verse 24 in light of its conclusion in verse 25 with the assembling of one another.

III. The Assembly is Christ’s gift (vv.24-25)

Works in the local church

The stirring up of good works is done in the context of the local church (Romans 15:1-3). You will notice that verses 24 and 25 are all one sentence. Therefore, we are going to take them as such.

I want you to be encouraged this morning with this truth. Whether you serve in a great or small capacity, God sees it all. Listen to Hebrews 6:10…

Christ has gifted us with loving and all-seeing oversight. But He has also gifted us with one another to accomplish His purposes in our gatherings.

Good works are done by believers

Titus 3:8 strictly says, “that those who have believed God will be intent to lead in good works.” In the negative, this tells us that it is hypocritical to believe that a human being apart from Christ can do good works (Psalm 14:3, Romans 3:12).

So then, how is it that unregenerate people do good works? Here is the answer, it is not apart from God. He uses evil people everyday to accomplish His purposes (1 Kings 12:25-13:10, Isaiah 45:1-7, Daniel 3:19-30). Unregenerate people do good works because God uses them to glorify and magnify His name.

Here is the difference. As Christian believers, we do good works out of careful consideration and nudging from one another to the glory of God. We do it out of love, appreciation, joy, gratitude, grace, and thankfulness.

Unregenerate people do it out of mere subjection to God. When Cyrus gave the decree to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem, he did not do it out of jumping for joy, he did not worship Yahweh afterward. The same is true with Nebuchadnezzar after the fiery furnace. He says no one is allowed to speak against Yahweh, but Nebuchadnezzar does not bow down in worship at that moment.

I hope you see from a far even, the privileges and joys that we experience as we gather together. You and I share in these experiences that God is doing in our lives throughout the week and bring them to joyful praise among the saints each Lord’s Day.

The believer’s works used in the church

There is a text that helps us to see the works of verse 24 and the not forsaking one another of verse 25. >>>Turn to Colossians 3 and let’s read verses 12-17. Listen as I read the variety of good works performed toward one another in the local church… If you were to read this entire chapter, you would notice that the unbelieving person is made brand new. Then once he is made this way, it is vital for this person to be in a local church.

Paul doesn’t skip a beat here. He wants believers to be involved in the local church. Why? Because it is where kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, longsuffering, forgiveness, and unity occur.

This should remind you of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-24. In other words, it is vital to be in the local church because the fruits of the Spirit are manifest there! How do you know that you possess the fruits of the Spirit? Ask a fellow brother or sister in this room! They will be honest with you and let you know. And if there is something lacking, there is no one better to go to than a brother or sister to come alongside you!

I cannot think, outside of worship, for a better reason to be a part of the local church! The writer of Hebrews recognizes this need.

Now, he does say that there are some who make it a habit to not attend regularly. But notice that the author does not condemn such a one for it.

What does he say? He says to encourage one another. My hope for this church will always be that we are an encouraging group of people, who hold fast to our beliefs, who will lovingly encourage those back into the sheepfold, all to the glory of God.

May we not condemn those who may not be consistent, or those who may visit every so often, but may they see that there is no better place to be on a Lord’s Day morning than here at Zionsville BFC, not because we are great or mighty or of some status, but because Jesus Christ our Lord is vibrantly praised and worshipped.

In other words, there should be a feeling of separation and a longing for the next time that we are set to gather.

Assembling as we wait for the return of Christ

I do not want to tread lightly over verse 25, therefore look at the means to the end of our gatherings.

The author, here, encourages us to meet in great expectation and hope of Christ’s return. Brothers, we do not meet here out of habit, tradition, musical taste, no! we meet here out of great hope for the return of Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:10).

In the assembling together of ourselves, we worship God for what He has done, for what He is currently doing, and for what is yet to come.

Conclusion

For every believer, there should be no other place you would rather be than here with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Is worship of God the chief activity of your week. Here are a few things we can take home…

I. Because Christ died on a cross for our salvation, we now have access to the Father and the opportunity to worship the Father every Lord’s Day morning together. Is this something you attribute to the crucifixion? If not, you must! When we forsake the gathering together because we do not see it as important, we are not just ‘missing church’ but we are missing the privilege and opportunity to meet with our Lord to worship Him among His people. Brothers, I implore you, do not forsake such gatherings. Christ went through great agony for you and I to meet in this way!

II. I would encourage you to not think of church or membership as just a means of holding one another accountable. Today that is not looked at favorably. But I encourage you with this, we do not hold one another accountable to tear each other but to build each other up! To only focus on accountability as a reason to be in the church excludes all the other blessings that the assembly provides. Do you want to be encouraged, loved, cared for? Do you desire to work for the kingdom of God? If these are true of you, in fact they should be for us all, God has given us the means for these things, His bride, the local church.

III. Our time of worship as believers in Christ look forward to that which is far greater. If you think that worship on Sunday’s are wonderful, imagine what it will be like with no sin! No difficulty among the flock, no issues with the building project, no water leaks, or the furnace not working right. No hardship whether it be personally or financially. What we look forward to is pure worship that has not one blemish in it. We worship God together looking forward to that great and glorious day when He calls us to Himself. Do you long for that day? Does that bring forth great excitement? How much greater is this excitement with the assembly of God? Do not forsake the assembling together, but may we eagerly look to worship in the church as a foretaste for what is to come!

Let’s pray.

Benediction

Ephesians 5:18-21 “Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and being subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”