Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Hebrews 3:1-11. He taught that the Church is one holy, apostolic family. Lector: Melissa Morales
Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Hebrews 3:1-11. He taught that the Church is one holy, apostolic family.
Lector: Melissa Morales
What is a church? Have you thought about that?
Have you ever considered a church’s growth in terms of maturity, not seats?
Our church is a little over 12 years old…can you remember any significant changes going on in you when you were 12?
Remember how scary those years were? How strange your body felt?
I know some of you feel that way in our church. Maybe you’re new…
Maybe you watched all of your friends leave our church in the last 2 years.
Maybe you’re still getting used to us being our own autonomous church…
Maybe none of those statements make any sense to you, and that perhaps explains some of the discomfort you’ve felt here…
We are in a stage of maturing as a church. A pivotal stage.
I think we’re in a sort of church-puberty right now.
During physical puberty, there’s only so much you can understand/prepare for
But wise parents teach their children what to expect, amen? Good parents let their children know what’s coming so it’s not so scary as they venture into the future.
So, we’re going to talk about puberty this morning. Just kidding.
We’re talking about what it means to be the church, our aspiration.
Here’s what we’re trying to become
One holy apostolic family
This is what a church is. This is who we want to become. Look at this gorgeous summary in Hebrews 3:1
And so, dear brothers and sisters who belong to God and are partners with those called to heaven, think carefully about this Jesus whom we declare to be God’s messenger and High Priest
-Hebrews 3:1
Wonderfully succinct, lots of depth. First, preacher calls us family. Brothers and sisters
Family language all over NT, one of primary metaphors for the church.
As children, we are part of a family, but we aren’t consciously building it.
Family almost by default. As we mature, we have to start thinking about this deliberately, not assuming it to be true.
How does a child show up to his birthday party compared to her mom or dad?
What level of commitment do you show to a club, verses your family?
Hebrews gives us a few hooks to hang our hats on to understand this.
Notice the Preacher refers to the church as those who belong to God.
We belong to God, not ourselves. Difficult lesson for teenager to learn.
Part of a community, your decisions don’t just affect you. Same w/ a maturing church.
We ask “what would God have us do” more than “what do I like most?”
Since we belong to God, the preacher goes on to say we are PARTNERS
With whom? Those called to heaven, our brothers and sisters.
Our family works together because we are one family.
Same team. Rowing in the same direction.
Of course we fuss and fight, but we fuss and fight like family.
We share a name, we share a calling, and our partnership is not based on affection or even affinity, it’s based on the fact that we have been called together by God.
What this looks like will be different for each of us, just like it does in a bio family
This isn’t a program or growth strategy, it’s a rhythm of life in the family.
Three principles that apply to us here.
1. Show up. Can’t partner with someone you don’t see.
Sunday is our family day. Period. We give this day to the lord and this family.
We show up to experience what it means to be family.
2. Share the Load. Healthy family’s work together, including the bills.
My daddy has more money than me. Never asked me to pay once as a kid.
If you saw my dad yelling at 8 year old me to pay for dinner…YIKES.
Now, if you saw 40 year old me yelling at my dad to pay for my dinner…YIKES, right?
Sometimes I even buy him dinner. Because I’m an adult and we’re family.
It’s not an amount, it’s a posture. Share the burden.
We share the load to experience what it means to be family.
3. Serve somebody. Connect, SojournKids, music, sound…lots of options on Sundays.
What are you good at, and what needs do you see in the family?
We serve each other to experience what it means to be family.
Some of you can only define family based on what you don’t want, and I bet it’s because something was missing out of those three I mentioned.
Didn’t show up—they weren’t dependable or reliable.
Didn’t give—withhold affection, words, or presence.
Didn’t serve—did not have your back, did not support you.
Which means living like this kind of family will be foreign to most of us.
I encourage you to go home and compare and contrast what the preacher says about Jesus and the church with Moses and Israel…fascinating. It helps us understand our options.
What happens if we abandon unity for individualism? verse 8:
Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled
-Hebrews 3:8 (quoting Psalm 95:7)
Putting ourselves above the family paves the way for our hearts to be hardened.
Think carefully about this: if you belong to God, you will live as God calls you to.
If you belong to yourself, you will pursue what you think is right in your own eyes.
Israel traded their experience as family for disobedience/personal preference.
They got bored with their breakfast!
Family was traded for individualism, unity replaced with rebellion/division.
You know who doesn’t listen to God? Everyone else!
In this pursuit of individualism, we end up looking just like everyone around us
We see how others are living and wish we could be more that way. It looks so fun!
We’re not called to be the same, we’re called to be holy.
Look at verse 9 :
[in the wilderness] your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years.
-Hebrews 3:9 (quoting Psalm 95:9
We will never experience the gift of being HOLY so long as we think we belong to ourselves.
Self reliance ran so deep not even miracles could wake them up.
So…they wandered for 40 years.
When we forsake our heavenly call to be different and embrace the values of the world, we become a people who wander aimlessly, grumbling through life.
The systems of the world are so fragile. Why are so many baby boomers getting in trouble now at the end of their lives? Because recordings of stuff they said 20 years ago are now horrific to our ears…but that was only 20 years ago!
If we run after cultural approval, we’ll be on the wrong side of the coin eventually.
So we wander, untethered, uncertain and insecure.
Individualism leads us to abandon the call of holiness and we slide into worldly wandering.
But we are one, HOLY, apostolic family.
Look back to verse 1:
Think carefully about this Jesus whom we declare to be God’s messenger and High Priest.
-Hebrews 3:1
“Messenger” here is the Greek word apostolon. Does that sound familiar?
Often translated as apostle. Only time Jesus called God’s apostle.
It means messenger. Think Sent-one. Why did THE apostles have authority? Because they were sent by Jesus. Why did Jesus have authority? He was sent BY GOD.
So, to call ourselves “apostolic” is to say we were founded by Jesus
This church is about Jesus. We worship Jesus, preach Jesus, seek to follow Jesus.
We are apostolic, built on the shoulders of men and women that form a long chain to the shoulders of Jesus Christ himself.
To be an apostolic church also means we are a sent church. And we are sent with a message…there is a rest available to us
You’ll see this repeatedly in Hebrews now. This is not nap-rest.
This is a calm and quieted soul, a soul like a weaned child.
This is a seventh-day Sabbath rest.
To put it in the language of the scriptures, this is a rest from the works of the law.
See, God was building a holy family in the OT. A free family.
Did he save them from Egypt before or after he gave the 10 commandments?
AFTER! The 10 Commandments were not about earning their place in the family, they are about living free.
But they would not listen…so what happened?
In my anger I took an oath: ‘they will never enter my place of rest.‘
-Hebrews 3:11 (quoting Psalm 95:11)
If you do not listen to the message given by God, this will be your fate
Endlessly striving for peace, for acceptance, for a place in the family of God.
But Jesus came announcing he would make a way for us, he would be the way for us.
We are now sent into the world as a unified, holy family announcing that Sunday dinner is open to anyone. There is a rest available, a peace of soul and mind, not because are striving are finished, but because the promise is fulfilled.
We are one, holy, apostolic church birthed by Jesus, through Jesus, and for Jesus, and the rhythms of life in this family are birthed from joy and love.
Some of what we do won’t be fun in this family.
Anyone who has raised a child will tell you there is a great deal about parenting that is gross and shocking…never thought I’d do this…but it is love that carries those acts, not guilt, not shame, not fear…love for the child. Love for the family.
And so it is with us
Whereas Israel became divided individuals, we are a family who belongs to God
Israel listened to themselves and embraced the world’s values.
We listen to God and obey him.
Israel abandoned it’s mission as sent-ones and could not enter that great sabbath rest. But we, the rest of the church, are secured by, in, through, and for Jesus.
This is where we are headed, Sojourn. One holy apostolic church.
We aren’t in a particular hurry.
Nothing difficult comes easy, and it rarely goes well the first time.
First diaper didn’t go so well. So we’ll be patient, because we’re patient with family.
New values are hard to learn. It takes time…so we’ll walk with each other, we’re family. And we’ll make this our sojourn, our family, because we have been sent by Jesus.
We are one, holy, apostolic family. Let’s pray.