Encouragement: For the Lord’s Day
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 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.Hebrews 10:19-25
On the drive home from Destin to our home in Franklin, I’m always amused and somewhat “miffed” at a billboard I read along I-65 N. It says “Go to Church or the Devil Will Get You!” The assumption being, as soon as you set foot on church property, you’re no longer in peril of demonic or satanic activity. Don’t we wish that was true! But many of us have found the enemy of the good, true and beautiful as active there as anywhere else!
But the encouragement of the Scriptures is quite different. It’s not “go to church,” but “be the church.” Gather boldly with your brothers and sisters in Jesus this Lord’s Day, not out of the paranoia of fear, but in the full assurance of faith. Gather because Jesus has offered a perfect sacrifice for your sins and is now the most wonderful, merciful High Priest you could imagine. Through Jesus gather to worship each member of the Trinity in Spirit and in truth.
Gather to lay hold of hope of the gospel together, the living hope that is ours through a resurrected Savior. Gather to “provoke” your brothers and sisters to love and good deed, and stop just provoking one another! But indeed, gather. God has placed us in the Body of Christ to know and be known, to serve and be served, to love and be loved. But as in the writer of Hebrews day, so in our day, many are getting into the habit of non-gathering.
Indeed, “de-churching” is not a 21st century phenomenon. The writer of Hebrews had to deal with it head on. We don’t have time this morning to explore all the lame and credible reasons for this growing phenomenon. For now, let’s just set our hearts to gather to love Jesus together today, and encourage one another more and more and more and more.