“24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
”
Hundreds of thousands of congregations throughout the United States are not meeting together in person today. We are one of them. Millions of congregations throughout the world are not meeting together in person today. We are one of them. The same went for last week. The same goes for next week. That raises a question—why meet together in person at all?
Let’s say that Christians had never met together in groups. Let’s say that the idea of Christians gathering together was as bizarre as the idea that all the Kevins in Lyon County should gather weekly at Gink’s Garage.
Why gather together at all—honestly? We need a good answer because if our gathering together as Christians is simply a tradition, it will not last. Our secularizing culture will corrode that tradition within a couple generations as it has in so many other places in this country and world; or, perhaps, it already is.
The social distancing brought on by covid-19 is a God-given opportunity to consider why we gather together at all. This time of social distancing is an opportunity for us to miss gathering together. Born again hearts want to be together. Born again hearts know that they need other Christians the way that lungs need oxygen. Being together is a compulsion within each Christian heart and it is a good compulsion.
This social distancing is an opportunity to learn to long for what you might have taken for granted. Perhaps you’ve taken gathering together with other Christians for granted. We all take all sorts of goodness for granted. We husbands regularly take our wives for granted. Wives regularly take their husbands for granted. Children regularly take their parents for granted and vice-versa. Friends take friends for granted. Perhaps this season is, in part, God’s way of showing us the importance of gathering together by taking it away.
Whenever we start meeting together in person again, I don’t want to do it simply because we should. I don’t want to do it because it would be weird to not do it. Nobody wants to devote read time or energy to a mere formality. Such an institution could never excite anyone. Churches that meet merely because they always have met together are dying. I want to meet together because you want to meet together. I want to meet together because we want to meet together. I want to meet together so we can spur one another on to love and good deeds. I want to meet together for all the reasons we are about to study.
This is an opportunity to rediscover what church is really about. Church was never intended to be a time like 9:30 am and 6:00 pm. Church was never intended to be a place. The church is and has always been and will always be the people.
The church is the people and the people meet together because we need it. That is the claim of this sermon: the church is the people and the people meet together because we need it.
We will see this in two points. First: spurring one another on. Second: the day is approaching. First, we will think about meeting together for the purpose of spurring one another on. Second, we will think about meeting together because the day of the Lord is approaching.
First: spurring one another on. When I moved here I lost muscle mass and I put on fat. I lost muscle mass because I used to lift weights with other guys. They spurred me on to push harder. I put on fat because having that group kept me accountable to keep working out.
The author of Hebrews wrote about a very similar dynamic. Christians, like workout partners, spur each other on. They encourage one another. “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another.”
The words “spur one another on” in verse 24 and the words “encourage one another” in verse 25 are making the same point. Most translations, as in almost all translations, take verses 24-25 as one sentence rather than two. “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another.”
The book of Hebrews is all about encouraging believers. The book of Hebrews is all about spurring believers on. This word translated as “encourage” in verse 25 appears throughout the letter and it is translated elsewhere as “exhort” and “urge” and “appeal” and “plead.” “Let us not give up meeting together, but let us urge one another…” “Let us not give up meeting together, but let us plead with one another…”
The author of Hebrews is like a coach cheering and yelling from the sidelines. This is, after all, the letter that says, “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus.”
Now your coach is telling you that you need to gather with other Christians so that you continue to throw off the sin that entangles you and so that you continue to run fixing your eyes on Jesus. You need that encouragement. You need that pleading. We all do. That’s why we gather together. We gather together because left to ourselves we don’t throw off sin and we don’t continue to run fixing our eyes on Jesus.
Now I want you to consider whether you gather together with other Christians for that purpose. I want you to consider whether your coming to worship and your meeting with other believers throughout the week involves encouraging, urging, pleading, and spurring on. If so, you will listen to God’s word preached in order to be spurred on. There is, after all, a big difference between listening to a sermon as a Christian and listening as a critic as one author put it. If you gather with other Christians to be spurred on, you will want accountability. You will want relationships.
You will want to be part of the “us” in Hebrews chapter 10. There are three appeals to the people of God here in the middle of chapter 10 and they are marked by the words, “let us.” “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart,” in verse 22. “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful,” in verse 23. “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together,” here in verses 24-25.
We meet together to draw near to God with a sincere heart. We meet together to hold fast to God’s promises. We meet together to spur one another on to love. We meet together to encourage one another to keep doing all of that. We meet together to spur one another on to draw near to God with a sincere heart; that’s faith. We meet together to spur one another on to hold unswervingly to the hope we profess; that’s hope. We meet together to spur one another on to love and good deeds; that is love. That is faith, hope, and love and that is church.
I want you to consider if that is what you miss now that we can’t gather together in person. I want you to consider if that is what you expect and want when you come to worship in person. I want you to consider if that is what you are looking for in this church, which after all is the people.
I hope so. I hope that you mourn this time when we can’t gather together because you miss that. You miss it because you know that you need it. I do fear, however for the few who don’t miss being spurred on because they don’t even expect it. I fear for those who don’t miss gathering together because they don’t know why we gather together at all. I fear for those who really want and expect nothing from gathering together with other Christians and so in the end then that is all they can or will receive.
It is very possible to come faithfully every Sunday without once being spurred on or spurring anyone else on just like it’s possible to come to a gym and never work out. You can gather regularly with other believers and still disobey these verses. We can all show up on Sunday and still neglect meeting together. Let’s not do that. Let’s not go to church. We are the church and we gather together to draw near to God with a sincere heart, hold unswervingly to the faith that we profess, and spur one another on to love and good deeds. I hope that you miss doing that in person.
Now you can still do that in a different way. Every other believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is an opportunity to put these appeals into action. If you are married, consider your spouse ground zero for pleading and urging. That was part of your wedding vows even though different words were used. If have children this urging is a command from God. “Impress [these commands] on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” This time of social distancing might be a God-given opportunity to set some family habits that spur your children on to throw off sin and fix their eyes on Jesus. Perhaps you have a friend who really does sharpen you the way that iron sharpens iron. Praise God and don’t neglect meeting with that friend.
Spur one another on. Be willing to be spurred on. Meet together with the Christians you can now. Look forward to meeting together as a church in the future. Now this is particularly important as you consider the times in which we live. We see that in our second and final point: the day is approaching.
There were particularities about the times in which this letter was written. Christians were fearful of being outed as Christians. The Roman government had considered them a sect of Judaism and they enjoyed the same freedom to worship which the Jews enjoyed. That protected status was now being called into question. Difficult days lay head for the church. As FF Bruce put it, “At this point in time other shocks were in store for them: the rather sudden hostility of the imperial power… and the destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem.”
There are particularities about our own time. We aren’t living under the hostility of the federal government or amidst the rubble of our home and culture as they were, but we are currently discouraged from meeting together because of a pandemic.
There are particularities about both of our times, but it isn’t these times that determine what the church is to do. The approaching day determines what the church is to do.
The author of this letter to the Hebrews was aware of the social cost of gathering together. He weighed it and thought it was important to continue to meet together because this day was approaching. Yes, they might be persecuted for their faith in Christ, but the day was approaching so that made meeting together more important.
The day the author had in mind was judgment day. The day the author had in mind was one of the two days that Martin Luther had on his calendar. “There are two days in my calendar,” Luther wrote. “This day and that day.” This day is the only day that any of us can live. That day is the only other day that really matters, and that day is the day the author of Hebrews had in mind. That day is judgment day.
Athletes train together to push themselves because a day is coming—perhaps a race or an important game. Christians meet together because a day is approaching and on that day every one of us will stand before Jesus.
One day you will stand before Jesus. If that doesn’t motivate you to draw near to God with a sincere heart, hold unswervingly to the hope that you profess, and spur one another on to love and good deeds, I don’t know what will.
You will stand before the one who died for you. What do you want to offer him on that day? If you are a Christian, consider yourself a builder and consider your life the building which you are constructing each and every day of your life. “If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light,” writes Paul. “It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.”
What will you have to offer Jesus on that day? Will you offer him little more than ashes? Will you be one who is saved but as escaping through flames having nothing substantial to offer the one who offered himself for you? I don’t want that for you because I don’t want that for me.
What I am doing right now is spurring you on because the day is approaching. I’m spurring you on because you will stand before Jesus. I hope that you have someone in this congregation who does this for you in person. This is why we meet together. We meet together because the day is coming and we don’t want to be found unprepared.
There has been a lot of talk about how prepared or ill-prepared the nation was for this current pandemic. I’m not in a position to assess how many hospital beds, respirators, and masks we had or should have had. I am, however, in a position to say what preparation for judgment day looks like.
Preparation for judgment day necessitates drawing near to God with a sincere heart, holding unswervingly to the hope that you profess, and practicing love and good deeds. We meet together to do that. We gather because that day is approaching.
If you want to live as a Christian, you need to live as if that day is approaching. “Each successive Christian generation is called upon to live as the generation of the end-time, if it is to live as a Christian generation,” wrote FF Bruce.
Now what is clear when you look at statistics about church today is that many among the younger generations don’t see much point to gathering together as the church. There are a number of reasons behind that but considering this text I think it is fair to ask whether we as American Christians have been gathering together to draw near to God with sincere hearts, hold unswervingly to the hope that we profess, and encourage one another towards love and good deeds. I think it is fair to ask if we’ve been meeting together because the day is approaching. Perhaps some young people stopped gathering together because they never saw the point.
Perhaps we started gathering together out of tradition. Perhaps we started gathering together because, God forbid, that’s what good people do. Perhaps we began bickering and squabbling about matters that people whose eyes are fixed on that day would never bicker or squabble about. I have no interest in gathering together for any of that and neither does anyone else.
What born again hearts do want is to gather together to draw near to God with a sincere heart, hold unswervingly to the hope that they profess, and be spurred on to love and good deeds.
This season is an opportunity for us to ask if that is what we have been doing. It’s an opportunity for all of – regardless of age – to inspect if that’s what we want.. That is doubtlessly what Jesus expects. He died so that we could draw near to God with a sincere heart. He made promises expecting us to hold to them unswervingly. He put his Spirit in us so that live lives like his, full of love and good deeds. He expects us to become like him.
The question of church is whether or not we, when we are together, look anything like Christ. We are, after all, called the body of Christ. For this strange season we can’t meet together to spur one another on to become more like Christ. This is an opportunity to consider if that is what we’ve been doing. This is an opportunity to consider if that is what we want to do. This is an opportunity that will most likely come once a lifetime to consider why we gather together at all. Amen.