I Love My Church: God's Holy Huddle

February 8, 2015

I Love My Church, Pt. 2:  God’s Holy Huddle     NOTES NOT EDITED

Hebrews 10:19-26

SIS—Experiencing community is essential to living an effective and successful Christian life.

Many people don’t like football.  Many churchgoers don’t like football illustrations.  I don’t fall into either of those categories.  I can appreciate that “football illustrations” don’t connect with everybody. I would never say anything derogatory about a football team because I don’t want to offend anybody.  For example if I asked the question:  “What do you call 47 men sitting around watching the playoffs?”  Many of you would answer:  “The Dallas Cowboys.”  That would be mean so I would never say something like that.  Many people are aware that several Dallas Cowboys have committed serious felonies.  This is no laughing matter, so I would never ask:  “If four Dallas Cowboys are in a car, who is driving?”  Of course, the answer would be “the police.”  That just isn’t right to use in a sermon. 

Football illustrations are not always helpful because many people don’t care about things like, “salary caps,” or “when is a reception really a reception?”  I get it. So, I hope my football illustration does not offend too many.  It really will help us all understand church a little better.  Hang on, it should be over in a few minutes.

One of the most important parts of the game of football is the “huddle.”  In football the huddle is defined as, “A brief gathering of a team's players behind the line of scrimmage to receive instructions for the next play.” Sometimes the quarterback will call the next play and become the hero of the game.  Many times the a coach, like Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks, will call the play . . . and well, maybe he should of let the quarterback call the play.  But, enough of that.

The huddle is where a team receives the instruction for the next play toward the end of winning the game.  Church is a “holy huddle.”  At church we gather with the other players and God calls the play, so to speak, for the next week in the game of life.  Unlike some coaches, God never calls a bad play.  Also in the huddle, teammates encourage one another.  Perhaps the last play didn’t go so well and somebody made a huge mistake.  They need love, guidance and support.  Other times, a player will do something remarkable, and the entire team will celebrate.  Church as a “Holy Huddle” is essential to the effectiveness of a believer’s efforts as a follower of Christ.

Football is not the only place that utilizes “huddles” as means to more effective execution of a game plan.  Nearly every industry uses “huddles” in one form or another, from the field of medicine to engineering and everywhere in between.  Successful businesses of any kind—and every kind—realize that “huddles” provide many benefits.

In God’s “Holy Huddle, the Church,” God’s people experience community which is the key ingredient to loving your church.  People who do not join in God’s Holy Huddle on a regular basis will never amount to much in the Kingdom of God.  It is indeed theorhetically possible for a person to neglect God’s Church and still go to heaven.  It is absolutely true that someone who neglects God’s Church will never experience any “heaven on earth.”  Let’s read a passage that talks about God’s Holy Huddle, the Church:  HEBREWS 10:19-26:

Here are three reasons why experiencing community in church is so important:

1.  It is SANCTIFYING (vv19-22)

²² let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.  ²³ Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

These two verses reflect some very technical language in regard to the aspect of salvation we call, “sanctification.”  Sanctification refers to what takes place from the time we are “born-again” (regeneration, justification) to the moment we enter into the Lord’s Presence (glorification).  These represent the three stages of salvation:  regeneration, sanctification, and glorification.  These verses deal primarily with our sanctification.  Sanctification is mentioned just a few verses above in verse 10:

 By this will of God, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.

The HCSB gives this definition of sanctification:  The work of the Holy Spirit that separates believers in Jesus from the world; at the time of saving faith in Jesus.  The believer participates with the Spirit in a process of transformation that continues until glorification. The goal of sanctification is progressive conformity to the image of Jesus Christ.

Now, let us not be confused as to what makes us fit for heaven.  Sanctification is as much a work of grace as being born-again.  All true believers move through all three stages of the salvation experience, though many do not achieve much in regard to sanctification.  Sadly, many Christians die as “infants in the faith” never reaching any significant level of maturity.  This indeed sad.  As we think about “sanctification” in regard to church participation, it is abundantly and painfully clear that many Christians never amount to much in regard to service in or through the church.

We should not confuse church participation with salvation.  They are not the same, but distinct aspects of salvation.  Our text makes it clear that whatever we have to say about “church,” and “loving our church,” it is distinct from entering into a saving relationship with God through Christ.  Look at verses 19-21:

¹⁹ Therefore, brothers, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus,  ²⁰ by a new and living way He has opened for us through the curtain (that is, His flesh ), ²¹ and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, 

When we get to the command in verse 25, “do not stay away from worship meetings,” this command is predicated on the fact that we are talking about people who have been saved already—not people wishing to gain salvation through “religious acts” such as attending church.  The word, “since,” (HCSB, twice) demonstrates an causal order of “regeneration first, then sanctification.” 

The great error committed by myriads of “church-goers” is to get the order of salvation wrong—that is, to put “sanctification” before “regeneration.”  This is the essence of the error known as “salvation by works.”  This is NOT what I am teaching.  It is not what the text, nor any text in the Bible teaches.  As many preachers have stated, “Going to church (even loving church) will not make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage will make you an automobile.”

Go back to verse 22:  “let us draw near with a true heart in in full assurance (literally, “having assurance) if faith our hearts sprinkled clean (already) from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water (a reference to water baptism as dramatic depiction of salvation and a first act of sanctification; see 1Pet. 3:21). 

Sanctification is not matter of “church attendance,” but sanctification is intricately and inseparably related to participation in a (as in local) community of faith. One cannot “draw near,” until one has already been draw into the community of God by grace. Write this down:  church can happen without sanctification, but sanctification will not happen without church.  You may neglect church (theoretically at least) and still make it into heaven, but you will not experience any significant level of sanctification between being born-again and being buried.

2.  STABILIZING (V23)

²³ Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering,

for He who promised is faithful.

The English poet, John Keats, once wrote:  “There is nothing stable in the world; uproar's your only music.” He wrote that in a letter to his brothers in 1818.  It describes our present situation nearly 200 years later just as well.  The world is not a stable place.  Many families lack stability, even in these obscenely wealthy (by world standards) United States.  Fortunes that are made on Monday could be wiped out by Friday.  Health once taken for granted for half a century can be taken away in half a minute.  The symphony of life easily becomes a cacophony of noise as the instability of life creates a constant uproar.  Keats was on to something.  People long for stability, but the world offers none.

The Community of faith offers stability.   Notice the three different ways our text references personal stability as it relates to the Church as a community.  One, it speaks of “our hope.”  Don’t miss that pronoun—it is essential to understanding how we find stability in life.  It is not, “my” hope but “our” hope.  Perhaps we should change our series to “I Love OUR church.”  One cannot do church by oneself anymore than one can be a soldier without an army.  Within the community of faith we have others to remind us of the “hope that lies within us” as the Book of Peter states (3:15).  Hope is a stabilizing factor.  Hope is like an anchor that keeps a ship from drifting in rough seas.  Hope is like a finish line that keeps a runner focused on the matters at hand.  In fact, the word translated, “hold fast” is often used as a nautical term meaning to “steer a ship toward land.”  Ships are not made to float on seas but sail toward enchanting ports.  Hope stabilizes our lives by giving us purpose and focus, and the Church is a Community of Hope.  Two, notice the reference to “without wavering.”  Going back to the “sailing metaphor,” life is seldom always “calm seas.”  Often the seas of life become turbulent and treacherous and could easily knock us of course.  In the Community of our Church Family, we have others to help us trim our sails and and stay on course.  Three, as a Community of Hope we are also a community of “promise.”  Our text reminds us, “the One who promised is faithful”.  That is, God will keep His promises.  Church is a Community of Promise.  This gives us stability because we do not have to surrender to our present situation because we are not Children of the Present, but Children of the Promise.  Verse 23 describes the foundation for stability in three different ways.  The Community of Faith is a “stable community.”

3.  STIMULATING (V24)

²⁴ And let us be concerned about one another

in order to promote love and good works,

I’m sure you have heard someone talk about “the daily grind.”  The term probably originated with the Anglo-Saxons after the fall of the Roman Empire.  It is likely, since it describes something almost universal until modern supermarkets, that the term existed much earlier.  Today, the phrase refers to the myriad of menial tasks that must be completed every day, day after day just to stay alive with your “head above water” to use another idiom.  These tasks are as boring and tedious as they are necessary.  The term originated from the reality of grinding ones own grain to make flour for bread—daily bread.  One could not just go to the supermarket and buy flour.  With no flour, there’s no bread.  Without bread, there would be no meal.  Bread was a staple food in the Roman world.

Life can be a “daily grind.”  It can grind out of us our enthusiasm and motivation in life.  We all suffer from this at one time or another.  When the daily grind mills us into flour, we have lost our zest for life. We become a commodity of life.  Life loses its adventure.  We need a “pick me up” from time to time.  We need something to stimulate us to get back in the game.  The Community of the church does that.

Notice our verse uses the plural pronoun, “us.”  It is not, “I.”  In fact, in the 8 verses we read this morning I count 9 times that a plural pronoun is used instead of the singular.  If you read through the writings of Paul, you will find that this is very common.  Church is really not “my” Church, but “our” Church.  Of course, most correctly it is “HIS Church,” but that’s a whole other sermon.

I don’t care for the HCSB translation, “promote love and good works.”  The word they translate “promote” has a much stronger connotation in the original.  The original Greek word can mean promote, but it more descriptively means “to stir” as in the ESV.  The word can also mean, “to make angry.”  A milder use of the word would mean, “to irritate.”  It literal means, “Let us consider ways to irritate one another to love and good works.”  Over the last nearly 40 years of ministry, there have always been individuals who have felt they had the “spiritual gift of irritation.”  These people rubbed people the wrong way.  That’s not the kind of irritation Paul is looking for.  However, we should be willing within the Community of Faith to “stir each other on to being better Christians.”  Without this constant interaction with other believers in a community, we would not have the “stimulation” necessary to spur us on to better things.

As a community, the church is a sanctifying influence in our lives.  As a community, the church is a stabilizing influence in our lives.  As a community, the church is a stimulating influence in our lives.  The long and short of the matter is this:  we are better people when we are involved in a local community of faith.  Our community of faith is essential for us to live successful lives as followers of Jesus Christ.  No person can fulfill his or her Christian destiny without living in community with other believers.  A community is ESSENTIAL for any Christian to live a successful life of faith.

Now, realizing the sanctifying, stabilizing, and stimulating nature of life in a Community of Faith—a local church—we should not be surprised that Paul takes time to give us a very serious warning:

4.  Living in a Community of Faith is SERIOUS! (vss 25-27)

²⁵ [Do not stay] away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. ²⁶ For if we deliberately sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries.

That’s some SERIOUS language!  What does this clearly say about habitually and needlessly missing church?  DO NOT DO IT!  Keep in mind as we established a few minutes ago, the Word is speaking to people who profess to be “born-again believers.”  Paul has used the plural pronouns, “us” and “we” many times. 

So, does this mean that a Christian can lose his or her salvation if they don’t LOVE being in church?  The short answer:  NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT.  Jesus was clear about the security of the believer.  The Bible tells us, (John 10) ²³ Jesus was walking in the temple complex in Solomon’s Colonnade.  ²⁴ Then the Jews surrounded Him and asked, “How long are You going to keep us in suspense?  If You are the Messiah,  tell us plainly.” ²⁵ “I did tell you and you don’t believe,” Jesus answered them. “The works  that I do in My Father’s name testify about Me. ²⁶ But you don’t believe because you are not My sheep.  ²⁷ My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life,  and they will never perish —ever! No one will snatch  them out of My hand. ²⁹ My Father,  who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ The Father and I are one.”

This passage teaches, what many others support, that once we have been “born-again” by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we can never be lost—never!  No one, including ourselves, can “snatch us from the Father.”

Yet, our text here in Hebrews clearly states that if a person “deliberately sins” (including all that Paul has taught up to this point in nine chapters, and especially what he says in regard to attending worship), then that person can expect, ²⁷a terrifying judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries.

There are two possibilities in regard to some one that “deliberately sins” against “the knowledge of the truth” (v 26) are believers who will be treated the same as non-believers in regard to punishment in this life, but without any danger of not making it into heaven.  In this scenario, the “sinners” are disobedient disciples.  If this were the case, it should be terrifying enough.  But, I don’t believe that is the correct interpretation.

The word, “deliberate” is in an emphatic position in the Greek sentence.  It implies a callous disregard for the truth that a person has received.  It is the most outright of rebellious activity.  The word, “fury” is equally emphatic in its meaning.  It refers to the high point on a scale, the ultimate degree of something.  The wording and structure of this sentence does not lend itself to suggesting that these “apostates” were ever truly saved.  The were “in” the community of faith but not “of” the community of faith, just like Christians are “in” the world but not “of” the world.

I think the serious nature of this warning must lead us to conclude that a person who does not “Love the Church” is not a part of the community of the saved and their ultimate end will be “eternal hell.”

I know that is a “downer,” but it should only be a downer if you know you are a fraud in the fellowship.  If one is not full engaged in the community, if one is not demonstrating the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit, if one is not stable in his or her dealings in regard to faith and if one is not stimulating others to love and good works . . . then such a person has a SERIOUS problem.  Living in Community with the followers of Christ in a local church is an essential indicator that one is a true believer. 

God’s community, the Church, is sanctifying, stabilizing, stimulating, and a serious issue in regard to living one’s life as a disciple of Christ.

Church is God’s “Holy Huddle.”  It is a time for His followers in a local church to come together to worship Him and to receive instructions for the “next play” in the game of life.  Though not so much the case in the modern game of football, the “huddle” was a key part of the strategy in winning a game.  God’s Holy Huddle WAS and IS an essential ingredient for any disciple that wants to live an effective, and successful Christian life.

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