Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Hebrews 3:12-19. We are one, holy, apostolic family made in, for, and through Christ, therefore tell the truth, endure, and listen. Lector: Meagan Baker
Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Hebrews 3:12-19. We are one, holy, apostolic family made in, for, and through Christ, therefore tell the truth, endure, and listen.
Lector: Meagan Baker
It is difficult to be what you are.
A marriage ceremony announces you are one, knit together with another. One flesh.
But it’s difficult to be what you already are, amen?
A birth makes you a father or a mother. But it’s difficult to be what you are.
By virtue of our shared confession and baptism, we are one, holy, apostolic family called the church.
But…it’s difficult to be what we are, amen?
Another way to put it: just because you are something, doesn’t mean you are experiencing that the way it was meant to
Dad’s are not supposed to be harsh and domineering.
Mom’s are not supposed to be cold and controlling.
Marriages are meant to be a mutual, participatory, shared life together marked by intimacy, safety, satisfaction…in the Christian life, simply saying we are one, holy, apostolic family does not guarantee that we will experience the goodness of that reality
Some of you have noticed we have given communion a more prominent role in our services. Why?
We’re not becoming catholic, and I don;t trust any government near enough to become Anglican, god help us! ; )
The Christian life is a combination of profession and possession, confession and experience…we say something, and then we experience something.
Jesus says I am Lord, and then tells Peter walk on water.
TRUTH helps us live well, and living well helps us experience the goodness of truth
So, how will we emphasize our union with Christ? We’ll talk more about communion, we’ll slow down there, we'll make that the center of service, because our union with Christ is the center of the Christian life.
It’s difficult to be what we are, so we practice who we are to experience the goodness of who we are.
The Preacher of Hebrews gives us a glimpse here in ch. 3 of the rhythms of our rest…
That great rest from the works of the law we talked about last week, the rest that comes when you’re saved by grace, when striving cease.
What does it look like to be one, holy, apostolic family called the church?
How do we actually relate to one another? Very practical this morning. 3 ways.
These practices are what it means to follow the instructions of v. 12:
Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God.
-Hebrews 3:12
What does it look like to be careful? Tell the truth, generosity/endurance, listen eagerly
V. 13:
You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.
-Hebrews 3:13
Beautiful word “warn” here with some really important flavor…think about the implications of “warn” rather than “correct” or “condemn”…
The word here implies to come alongside of, to support, to come to one’s aid.
It’s a concerning word birthed from love.
It’s a reminder that if we’re going to hold fast, hold on, be careful…we can’t do it alone
We must be a family that tells the truth, and our truth-telling must be born of love
The goal is not to make others feel small or foolish.
The goal of our truth-telling is not to make ourselves feel better.
We tell the truth so that we won’t be deceived by sin and hardened against God.
Telling the truth maintains our unity. It reminds us we are one.
We belong to one another, and we are responsible for one another.
One way sin has deceived us around this is the idea that we shouldn’t get in other people’s business.
That way of thinking assumes you want to control someone, or you want to harm them
Imagine you saw someone standing on train tracks “i don’t want to say anything to them…who am I to judge?”
There’s a way of living that seems right, but it leads to death.
When we see someone in a circumstance, in a pattern…we must warn them in love.
Because if you follow the deceitful voice of sin, eventually your heart will be hardened.
You will turn cold towards God, cold towards your family, and eventually you will isolate from those who love you.
We must be a family that tells the truth to maintain our unity.
Now listen. Most people don’t like to be told the truth. most of us. I don’t.
Your kids don’t. Your friends don’t. You don’t. Even when it’s born of love…it’s hard.
And it rarely works the first time.
Look how verse 14 begins:
For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed,
-Hebrews 3:13
Remember, the Preacher is preaching to a worn out congregation
All kinds of ways he’s telling to hold on.
The life of faith will often feel long because the life of faith is a hard and narrow road
Sin and suffering will tempt us to doubt God’s goodness and faithfulness
There will be prayers we wait to hear answers to, desires we long for, that sometimes will pile up year after year…and our hearts can grow hardened because we were deceived into thinking God will do what we want when we want it.
The invitation is instead to endure. Endure as Jesus did, endure as an act of trust
We must be a family that endures to stay rooted in our apostolic calling.
We are sent ones, standing on the shoulders of generations before us all the way back to Jesus.
We endure to become like Jesus, that’s the apostolic calling, and we endure because of what Jesus promised, that’s the apostolic promise. Look how 14 ends:
…we will share in all that belongs to Christ.
-Hebrews 3:14
What belongs to Jesus? EVERYTHING! So endurance isn’t just a matter of a back pat
Have you noticed how tempting it is to eject in difficulty?
Have you noticed how easy it is to stop being generous when money is tight, to stop being patient and kind and gentle (that’s the fruit of the spirit ya know) in traffic?
Have you noticed how hard it is to be what we are when life gets hard?
You are promised a share of everything. A participation in everything.
And i don’t know what that means, but I want that, and I”m excited about that, and I think our imaginations can chew on that every day until the end.
You’re into waterfalls? You will share in that. You’re into dinosaurs and wooly mammoths? Oh you’re into music and architecture? Biology?
You will share in that when you hold on to the end.
If you want to experience the gift of being one, holy, apostolic family, you must become a person that tells the truth and endures.
Every one of us will get a turn on the roller coaster of suffering…will you suffer like a member of this family? Will you endure hardship like a Christian? Will we learn how to endure together, sharing in each other’s pains just as we share in the sufferings of Christ?
It is hard to be what we already are…but if you want it, if you’re willing to risk it…tell the truth and endure. We will share in all things if we remain faithful.
Isn’t that such a lovely motivation
To desire something good and to trust God’s promises?
Isn’t this so much lighter and freer than thinking this is what we must do to keep God happy?
The works of the law have been put to rest because Christ put them in the grave
We are free, we are loved, we are forgiven. We are one, holy, apostolic family.
So, we tell the truth, and we endure. And, finally, we learn to listen.
Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.
-Hebrews 3:15 (Quoting Psalm 95:7-8)
Be reminded that God is speaking to you. He longs to welcome you home, to heal you, to use you, to care for you, protect you and provide for you.
He speaks to you! So, when you hear his voice, listen.
We must be a people that listen…both to God and each other.
I simply cannot tell you how many tragedies in the life of our church would have been avoided if we each individually were committed to being a people eager to listen to each other.
Because we are saved by grace, we can lay down our defensiveness.
When a brother/sister has the courage to tell us the truth, we can instead be curious.
We will become experts in phrases like, “tell me more”, “what am I not seeing”, “help me understand”…we assume we need help because we know life is long/difficult.
We know we need each other, and so we promote our holiness by listening deeply
Our family is different. Set apart. Holy. We strive for holiness, godliness…and we just won’t always see it by ourselves.
When that nudge of conviction from God hits, we listen.
Some of you have been Christians for far too long for God’s voice to be so distant…so ask yourself, when was the last time I really listened to God?
When was the last time you got quiet, and simply prayed, “speak, Lord, your sergeant is listening”? Listen for 5 minutes…10 minutes…whatever you can.
When a friend speaks, we listen. Ask questions, listen again.
Make space to listen to God. Ask him questions, listen again.
And so we have our rhythms of rest, how we experience what we already are.
It’s hard to be the family of God, but that’s what we are! To taste the goodness of it, we tell the truth to maintain unity, we endure to root ourselves in our apostolic calling, and we listen well to promote holiness.
We are one, holy, apostolic family made in, for, and through Christ.
We do not strive to prove ourselves, but instead rest in the finished work of Christ.
We are one, holy, apostolic family made in, for, and through Christ.
So we tell the truth, we endure, and we listen.
Let’s pray.