Committed Love
0 Amens
Heb 10:19-25 “Committed Love”
This morning’s message will take a
flavor a little different than our series through John. Today, this text in
Hebrews serves as our starting point and my main thesis will flow from it, but
other supporting ideas will be found throughout the Bible.
The Main Point
I love this text because it grounds out identity as a committed community in the gospel. This is why we are a gospel-centered missional family…we are put together this way because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Do you see it? We can be in the presence of God (holy places) by Jesus blood. This is all temple imagery, which won’t be new to those who have been with us in John. He is the great high priest over the house of God…the church…and opened a living way through His resurrection through the curtain that previously separated God and humanity! Because of this let’s (notice the string of “let us” from here out) draw near to God with assurance because He’s made our hearts clean. We’ve been washed. This is symbolized in the act of baptism.
In the same breath where we are commanded to draw near to God, we are commanded to keep meeting together. The urgency of the end of all things (be it our life or Jesus returning) should cause us to keep coming together. That’s interesting. I’d think He’d tell us to go share the gospel with non-believers once we sense that urgency. Why is the call to keep meeting with believers in a covenantal and committed way? Apparently, God knows that we can’t stay saved and stay fruitful and grow in our relationship with Jesus and in power of mission unless we come together.
For now I want us to see this: Just as surely as the gospel causes us to draw near to God, it causes us to draw near to each other in a committed way. To borrow from a respected leader in our denomination named Mark Dever, we believe in “committed love.” There is no such thing as an obedient, isolated, free agent, church-hopping Christian. I know that was bold. But it’s true. It’s possible a person could be a Christian and do all that, but they won’t be obedient. Maybe it’s because you don’t know any different. I didn’t. But if you know and you just don’t want anyone telling you how to live and you want to be able to sleep in and vacation when you want and you want the ability to go to another church anytime it suits your needs better, then you need to make sure you believe in Jesus. It’s that serious. I am only connecting the dots in the way the author of Hebrews is doing. If you don’t draw near to Jesus, you should wonder. If you don’t draw near to Christians in this way, you should wonder. Let the force of this hit us!
Broken models
In an attempt to be faithful to this, Christians in our day have pursued some broken models that don’t get the job done.
1. Programmatic church. In this model, you hope that covenantal community springs out of an abundance of activity. It’s assumed that you’ll have community if you offer classes in the morning, Bible studies during the week, and some worship services mixed in. Just because you attend a small group or Sunday school class or Bible study doesn’t mean you are committed to these people or vice-versa. It’s possible that community in a committed sense could emerge from this stuff, but we need to acknowledge that it blinds many people to some key realities. When in this do we talk about our souls? Do we confess our sin to each other? Do we pray for each other (more than just your aunt’s rolled ankle)? Do we invest prayer and time in each other’s missional relationships? Many times people are blind to these things and they assume they are fine because they are busy and they know lots of people and even have some friendships. You could make a case that Redeemer might look like a simpler version of this, so let the critique stick!
2. Organic church. This is a huge movement. It has lots of expressions, too. My junk drawer on this will be that you know you are this guy if you used the phrase “institutional church” in a sentence sometime this week! Oh, and I’ve been here, too. You resent the machinery of the above mentioned programmatic church (which some would say we are). They hate the sound system, the organization of it all, the lack of relationships. The response? Well, it’s all over the map. Some will get together with some friends and call it “church.” They eat a meal and have different people lead discussion. Some might ask “what’s so bad about that?” Well, nothing at all, if it is a New Testament church. If there is a qualified elder leading it (more on this next week) and if it rightly handles the sacraments and if it is helping each other grow and pushing each other out on mission…I like it. But let’s get real. How often does that happen? Most of the time it is an excuse to not sit through boring services and almost always there is an authority issue since there is “no real leader.” But the Bible tells us who leads the church and what the church does (sings, prays, reads Scripture, preaches, takes the Lord’s supper, and observes baptism).
Let me add quickly that you’ll see much less organized versions of this. Sometimes, people will think that having a hot Americano or cold beer and talking about spiritual things is all they need. Same problem, same response. What’s the church?
Other expressions go by the name emergent. You can find out about it by reading some super huge authors like Brian McLaren or to a slightly lesser extent, Rob Bell. The idea is that we need to contextualize the church to our postmodern culture (true, in a sense). The problem is that the extreme forms of this punt the gospel in an effort to do it and assume the form of the church is value neutral. You’ll see sermons that story, but don’t command and instead of singing you might paint a picture or go through a labyrinth. What’s so wrong about that? Again, the Bible tells us how to worship when we meet. And that ain’t it. Obviously, we should be culturally relevant in how we sing or preach, but the content and medium of our meetings were determined by God. I’m not sure this fits with the other organics, but the thing they share is an assumption that we can do church any way we want.
3. Family church/Online church. The previous two distorted models actually
have movements and intentional replication and books you can read on the
subject. The last one is one that is
born out of our hyper-individualistic cultures.
This person may share the frustrations with church for whatever reason
and instead of doing some sort of weekly gathering, they just listen to their
favorite speakers or if they have a family, they might do “family church.” And by that I mean that sometimes they sit
around for 20 minutes on Sundays so they don’t feel too guilty and sing a song
or two and read the Bible and pray for a few minutes. And this is often combined with downloaded
sermons from their favorite national pastor rock star guy. If only Piper/Keller/Driscoll/Chandler/Patrick
(you get the picture) lived in
4. Rotating Church. Some where this like a badge of honor. They know they need to worship regularly, so they just go to different one each week/semester. Can you see how this group misses the covenantal, committed call of Hebrews?
Do you notice how all of these groups take a small part of the truth? The programmatic church knows we need authority structures. Check. And they know we need time together. Check X50. But they can confuse that this is promoting growth and mission. The organic guys ask great questions and are rightly skeptical of manipulative techniques and the failings of the programmatic (or institutional if you prefer) church in terms of real results, but they tend to despise authority and want church structures that are nowhere in the NT. The family church or online church person rightly sees the need for families to worship as families at home and enjoys use of the best resources available via the internet. But they miss that they might have something to gain from others and that they have something to give. The rotating church people know we need corporate worship regularly, but miss the joys of committed love.
Committed Love- A case for membership
One of the main cases I am making today is that we have to go beyond the abstract and move to the concrete. Yes, we are members of the universal church, BUT the vast majority of the references in the NT are to specific, local churches. If we are Christians, we must make our connection to Jesus and to the universal church concrete by committing to a local church. I know this feels like legalism to many of you. Let me explain why its not. A lot of it is that we have no idea what legalism is. Legalism comes out in two ways. First, it is an extra-biblical command. Second, it is a biblical command done in a way that makes you think that you are loved/accepted by God for doing it. But doing a command out of obedience and love for Jesus is not legalism. I think we like to pretend any conviction is legalistic. That’s wrong. Let me tell why committed love in the context of membership is a Biblical idea and why you should do it.
1. The Hebrews text and Acts 2 demonstrate a lot more than a transient, be there when you can, change churches every 18 months brand of Christianity. They weren’t dating, they were married up.
2. 1 Cor 5 urges an immoral guy who is sleeping with his father’s wife to be thrown out of the church. Surely some non-believers are attending the services. Notice that Paul doesn’t tell them not to attend. Implicit in this charge to discipline, is that the man was a Christian and was identified as belonging to that church (member). 2 Thess 3:14-15 has a similar idea. We even see a positive example of discipline in 2 Cor 2:6.
3. Lists of widows were kept (1 Tim 5:9). If you have people milling in and out of the church, how could you keep a list? In some way or another, they knew who were “theirs” and committed to care for them.
Notice that this is different than how 98% of churches do membership. It’s not something you do when you like a place with no commitment and no accountability. Membership only means something if it’s covenantal. In a lot of ways, we are talking about the difference between dating and marrying. It might be fun to hang out with a few different chicks and you certainly have more control over your time and no one’s telling you how to live your life, but it is a mirage of intimacy when compared to the ocean of committed love in marriage.
Why You should be a member: Results of Committed Love
1. God’s ordained means of growth. At no point in history has God ordained spiritual nourishment in disconnect from community. We grow together.
2. Stronger mission. Think back to our original text in Hebrews. The last day should cause us to love one another and have a committed love. That has a dual purpose. The first is that it keeps us growing and keeps us saved. The second is that the way we love one another is precisely the means by which the kingdom will advance. This counter-community has been called the “final apologetic.” In other words, our covenantal, committed love is the most concrete evidence we have of the gospel! This is why hateful church conflict is so terrible. This is also why coming when you can and making services here and there and not committing yourself to a smaller group of people that will hold you accountable (even if its implicit accountability to consistency in worship and small group) is critical for your growth and the gospel’s growth.
As a challenge, help your groups just be a Bible study. Yes, love each other, but realize that there is a missional outflow. Work to include people in our family here. That’s how we’ll reach the world.
3. The boundaries of the church are made clear. Seekers know who they are. Christians know who they are. Membership of a church is the church’s affirmation of each other’s salvation. It can be a means of assurance as well as strong warning if someone is acting in a way where they don’t look like they are a Christian. As we look for patterns in each others’ lives, it could be a means of repentance and/or salvation for one who thought they were a Christian, but weren’t.
Let me add that as your pastor, I know who I am caring for. You are opening yourself to discipline from one another and from your elders if need be. I care about all of you and want good for your soul, but I am responsible to Jesus for members only. Does that make sense? You gain much needed accountability and people committed to caring for you and disciplining you, your elder(s) gets a clear picture of his flock.
What are you supposed to do with this? If you are a Christian, stop sinning by pridefully thinking you don’t need anyone here or by timidly thinking that God cannot benefit others by you. Stop sinning, by toying with Jesus’ church. If you think this church is goofy or not for you, that’s ok. Find one (there are, um, many here in town). If you are not a believer, this might help you understand some things better. Maybe that jerk at your work that is a member at X church might be seen in a different light. Just because someone is wearing Jesus’ and a church’s jersey doesn’t mean they are on his team. It is our responsibility to make sure that everyone who wears the jersey of Jesus and Redeemer is a broken, sinning, repenting, grace-seeking Christian. If one seems graceless and refuses discipline, then it’s our job to take the jersey off. My desire would be that everyone in this room would put on a jersey as a sign of our soul’s salvation rooted in Jesus’ death and resurrection and live their faith in community for the advancement of the gospel in our city and among the nations.
Comments:
Login to post comments