Our Enabling Environment: Fellowship
Notes
Transcript
Intro:
A sin so offensive, and so damning that if anyne dies in it, the peanalty is eternal damnation. It’s not that this sin cannot be overcome by God. But if anyone dies beofre repenting of this particular sin, that person will not be able to enter the rest of the Father.
This truth was illustrated in the people of Israel who were rescued, that is, redeemed out of slavery in Egypt. We see it in verses 16-19 of our chapter in Heb. today:
For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
What was the evidence of their rebellion? What was the source of provoking complaint against Moses and ultimately God? What was their sin? Why did they not enter God’s rest? What was their disobedience? The last phrase of v. 19:
they were unable to enter because of unbelief
Notice just one verse up:
As it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
This is repeating what v. 7 said. And do you know what v. 7 is quoting?
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known my ways.”
Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
A plea from the Psalmist to not be like the people at Meribah (also known as Massah). What happened at Meribah?
All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
People were complaining that they did not have water, and they didn’t see any hoope in getting water. Who were these people? They were the people who
witnessed the judgement of God against Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the plagues and were proteted from them
protected by the blood of the lamb on the night of the first passover
delivered out of slavery in Egypt
were granted passage across the Red Sea after God parted the waters
Were provided manna and quail in the wilderness
Were lead by God by a cloud pillar by day and fire by night
And when there did not seem to be any water to drink, some of them asked the condemning question, is the Lord among us or not?
Unbelief
Church, mke no mistake, God is sovereign over the human heart. How is it that some who witnessed all the miracles that God did among the people of Israel believed and some did not? It wasn’t about the miracles. It was about what God did in the hearts of His people.
What does this have to do with fellowship?
The author of Hebrews has a concern for his audience. It’s one that centers on unbelief. To be very transparent, there is some debate on whether this passage of Scriture is being addressed to Christians or not. If it is being adressed to those who are among us (everyone visible in the gathered assembly) or to those who are of us (only those who are truly God’s people). I confess, it is difficult to determine given the exhortations against an unbelieving heart and the condition of sharing Christ if we hold our orgibal confidence to the end. Regardless of who we may conclude is being directly addressed, what is clear is that all believers must be clear on what basis they are confident that they have salvation. Enduring unbelief is damning and dangerous, and we should not take it lightly and it is not impossible that unbelief is among any local church.
But Christian, we have a role to play in each others lives. God sustains His peple… He preserves His people and by His presering power His people perseveres. But, in God’s grace, we play a role in this work of preservation in eachother’s lives.
There is something in the life of the church called te ordinary means of grace. This is not to say that there is anything commplace or insignificant about grace, ut as far as God expressing His grace in the life of His church is concerned, we can expect it to come through certain means. Typically there are 2, but some name 3:
The preaching of God’s Word
The sacraments
Fellowship
If a case were to be made that fellowship be considered and ordinary means of grace in the life of the church, it would be done, at least in part, through exploring this passage tday.
Church, God has designed us in such a way that we really are meant to have a significant on one another. Let’s look to God’s Word to see this.
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
You see that God’s people are referred to as sharing in Christ, and those who share in Christ are to exhort one another. Christians, in other words are to play a significant role in each other’s lives.
BUT
FCF: Those who share in Christ often underestinate the importance of the role God has called them to play in each other’s lives.
Perhaps what is common in a very indenpendent-minded culture is to think of ourselves as islands. We only impact ourselves and we cannot rely on anyone, nor do we need to nconcern ourselves with how our thoughts, beliefs, behavior affects anyone else. Island mentality.
But what I think is made clear here is
Big Idea:
The consequence of sharing in Christ is sharing in each other’s lives.
The consequence of sharing in Christ is sharing in each other’s lives.
Those who are of the church are to share in each other’s lives. And this sharing is fellowship. And the command we see to exhort one another in v. 13, is how fellowship among those who share in Christ take place. So, we are making a distinction between socializing (which anyone can do) and fellowship. It’s not that socializing is wrong or even helpful in relationship development, but fellowship, according to what the Bible teaches, is very different.
So
Main Question:
What are we to help each other do?
What are we to help each other do?
Stay vigilant against unbelief (12)
Stay vigilant against unbelief (12)
What needs to be understood about unbelief?
It is infectuous
It is infectuous
Take care = See to it. It’s an urgent command
Te urgency exists because an unbelieving heart is as bad as it gets
It’s a warning to the entire community. Unbelief can cause a great deal of heart ache and disruption among God’s people.
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
It corrupts
It corrupts
heart = the center and source of the human life (thinking, emotions, will)
unbelief affects the heart. I other words, it affects the thinking, emotions and the will of people, and the affect is corruption.
unbelieving heart is lit. a heart of unbelief (no faith)
evil = moral wickedness. This is a willful rebellion against God
We need to help each other stay vigillant against unbelief because unbelief can also
It leads astray
It leads astray
fall away = turn away abandon
those who possess an unbelieving hear.... a heart of unbelief abandon the living God
This writer already issued a warning against this earlier in this epistle
Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
The point here is that because Jesus is superior to any prophet who was before Him or any angel that serves Christ for the sake of those who have inherited salvation, we must pay close attention to that salvation. We cannot be careless with it. To pay attention here mean to beware. Vigilance!
Unbelief is serious, but it’s also important to understnd it is very real and very possible to be present in the life of any church and none of us therefore can let down our guard. This warning is not one that suggests a true believer is a rik of loosing salvation but unbelief can have devestating consequences in he life of the church. Unbelief can infect a church so that
when conflict arises among some of the people, the offended people conclude the best course of action is to gossip to others about the offense instead of dealing with the offense in a God-honoring way
saying we forgive one another but really harboring bitterness towards those who offend us
buying into the world’s system of thinking and practice regarding sexuality
becoming gripped by fear instead of God-given wisdom
And God hs given us a role to play in eachother’s lives to help one another. To stay vigilant against unbelief but also to
Stay aware of deception (13)
Stay aware of deception (13)
How do we raise this awareness in one another?
Consistently
Consistently
Exhort in the present tense
“as long as” could be “until”. The point here, I suggest, is that there is an end point being impied here. Do this work of exhortation among each other because there’s coming a day when our current striving and serving and resisting and laboring will cease. One day, the day will be the last day. So until then, exhort one another agsinst unbelief.
But what about exhortation. We need to understand what it is and how to skillfully do it. In additon to doing it consistently we need to do it
Carefully
Carefully
exhort = comprised or 2 words
para: meaning to come alongside
kaleo: to call
Used to describe the HS in John 15:26 where He refers to the Spirit as Helper. Fundamentally, our call to exhort one another is to help one another, specifically to be faithful to Christ
My PT illustration
Methods of exhortation
Entreat, confrontation
I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord.
Comfort
But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus,
To know what kind of exhortation is needed when requires care, discernment and prayer
For someone who feels God has abanded him because of a painful trial like the sudden loss of a loved one for example, that seed of unbelief most likely needs a exhortation of comfort. But the person who has become so desperate for companionship and has therefore saught to satisfy her desire for intimacy through extra-marital sex most-likely needs our confrontational exhortation.
regardless, all exhortation should be motivated by and expressed in love. It also needs to be done
Sensitively
Sensitively
“harden” = stubborn
Like the people of Israel when they wanted water
The concern here is that no one among the body of Christ wuld fall into this sinful pattern
The word deceitfulness is important here. The meaning here is straight forward enough. Its a blindness to the truth.
and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
deception is associated with those who are perishing… those who have rejected Christ. And what deceived people do, what the deceitfulness of sin is caused by is a hatred of the truth. A failure to love the truth.
Or exhortation is one that urgese one another to be on the look out for a calusness towards the truth. One that encourages a love for the truth.
We therefore enhort one another to not buy into the vitriol (bitter criticism) like we see on cable news channels and on social media. We’re to love our enemies. That requires that we understnd who our enemies are and what it means to love our enemies. We love our enemies by loving the truth enough to point them to Christ. Not our preferred political position. Just an example.
We need to exhort one another to stay sensitive to deception in our efforts to share in each other’s lives
Stay resolute in gospel convictions (14)
Stay resolute in gospel convictions (14)
What displays this resoluteness?
Partnership
Partnership
“share” = partners, partaking together (almost all of the occurences of this word is in Henrews)
The audience here in Hebrews, many of them, have trusted in Christ, embraced Him by faith, and as a result, from that point on, have shared in Christ ever since.
The point of connection of this sharing is Christ. Is parnership in Christ (gospel conviction)
The people to whom Christians should be closest to (intimacy, connection etc.) are other Christians
Endurance
Endurance
if is not meant to raise doubt but to think carefully about ourselves. To provike the questions as we have asked at the beginning of this series: am I among the church or am I of the church?
and something to look for is if we are holding our original confidence.
hold = stick firmly - stick formly to our original confidence
What is our original confidence?
but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
Christ the Son of God, is fithful over His people (God’s house). He is our hope and our confidence. It is Christ. We hold fast to Christ and what He did as Son. His redemptive work.
This is the substances of our endurance. This is how we keep running the race. We can’t look to our personal successes and failures as the ultimate motivation to keep going and not givve up. We must look to Christ and His success. He completed His mission. He saved His people. We have all that we need in this difficult, tiring, discouraging world. And we need to remind each other of this. We need to exhort one another in this truth. Hold on to your original confidence - CHRIST. Stick firmly to Him. Don’t get distracted from Him. Let’s fellowship with one another. It’s God’s design for our perseverance.
Stability
Stability
This holding is firm.
Firm = unshaken, established
Weeble Wobble
center of mass is vertically below the center curveture of its vertex.
The foundation of the object prevents it from ever toppling over, even when it is pushed and shoved very hard
The true church will not topple over. We will be pushed and shoved, but Christ is our foundation. And we play a role in this stability through exhortation. Through felowship. This is how God has designed our stability to exist in our lives.
Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
Hope unshaken, firm even in the midst of suffering. Even if you
Loose your job: still holding firm to Jesus
received bad news: still holding firm to Jesus
have everything you need financially, a roof over your head, food, the ability to go out to eat once in a while, you have good health: still holding firm to Jesus
This is what we exhort one another to do.
The consequence of sharing in Christ is sharing in each other’s lives.
The consequence of sharing in Christ is sharing in each other’s lives.
Conclusion
Notice the last phrase of v. 14: to the end. Seems to repeat the thought in v. 13. That there will come a day when it will be the last day. Until then, we need to help each other to
stay vigilant aginst unbelief
stay aware of deception
stay resolute in gospel convictions
Some day we will see Jesus and will be made like Him. Until then, He calls us to fellowship. Let’s not neglect it. Christs people, by Hi grace, will make it to the end. Let’s help each other get there.