Gospel Community (Hebrews 3:12-14)

I delivered this sermon this past Sunday, August 20th. You can listen to the audio here.

I really like cop shows. Here’s something that commonly happens. The police detective who’s investigating a murder visits the medical examiner to discuss the victim’s autopsy. They carefully examine the dead body. They look closely at the toxicology reports. How did this person die? What happened to her? What did the bad guy do? The detective has to get to the bottom of those questions.

Here’s what I want you to imagine today. You’re the detective standing over the corpse. You see a former Christian lying on an examination table. You slowly, sadly pull the sheet that covers him from over his head. You look into his lifeless eyes. His heart is cold. His faith is dead. And you wonder. How did that person get there? What exactly happened?

Made for Community

Now I think the answer is generally the same in most cases. And we see it here in Hebrews 3, the passage we just read. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves, because first I want to go back. Way back. I want to go prehistoric here - literally before history. You have our living God in three persons, dwelling in perfect community. God the Father. God the Son. God the Spirit. Together. Diversity - different persons. Unity - complete oneness. We get a glimpse into this relationship in John 17, in Christ’s high priestly prayer:

John 17:22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

You see that? Our Triune God dwelling together in love. God in community. Now that Lord, obviously not out of any kind of need, decides to let that perfect relationship overflow into the world. It’s like God can’t contain Himself! And Hecreates. Out of nothing, He makes the heavens and the earth. And He makes us, human beings, as the pinnacle of that creation. He makes us in His image, in His likeness. And He calls everything He’s made good. That is, until He doesn’t.

What do I mean? What happens after the Lord makes Adam? For the first time, in Genesis 2, God says something isn’t good. Right? Something is lacking. In verse 18, the Lord says, “It is not good that the man should be alone.” And He creates Eve. You see, that was never God’s intention for us - that we take on life by ourselves. We were meant to go at it together. Only then could we image a God who is in Himself community. Only as diverse persons in unity could we really display His likeness.

Soon thereafter, human beings fell. They rebelled against God. Man and woman wanted to be gods themselves. They wanted to build their kingdoms. So they went rogue. But this wasn’t just a sin against God. It was a sin against each other. Adam didn’t lead well. Eve didn’t follow well. And that’s led to all of this mess.

Their kids soon followed in their footsteps. Cain their son murdered Abel his brother, and everything came unglued. Things got so bad that God decided to wipe out almost the entire human race and start over. But that didn’t fix a thing. The Lord could have washed His hands of the whole thing. But He didn’t.

He approached this man Abram in the desert. But again, God wasn’t about dealing with just one human. He promised to make a nation out of Him. Through Abraham, as he would be called, the Lord formed a people. Israel. Through that people, He was determined to bless the world. But like Adam and Eve, they fumbled the ball. They rebelled. It looked like all hope was lost.

But then Jesus entered the world. Although men and women time and time again had tried to rise up and become gods, God himself decided to stoop down and become a man. He drew near to wicked people. He lived without sin. He began forming a new nation. He gathered around him a band of disciples.

God the Son was nailed to a cross. He died to destroyed sin and death. He rose again to display eternal life had come. He made a way for men and women to be reconciled to God. He made a way for men and women to be reconciled to one another. That’s the good news of the gospel, friends.

He went about founding a people. Jesus used those disciples He had trained to do this. A people who had God the Spirit in them. A people who could actually obey God’s commands. The Lord again didn’t just deal with individuals. He formed a people. No longer a people from just one nation, but a people made up of all nations. A people that wouldn’t exist in any other way but for the work of the gospel. A people whose love would shine and draw in all peoples. God began building His church.

You see, we were made for gospel community. That community images the God of the gospel. And we were also restored to community. By the gospel. Created for it. Redeemed into it. And through our unity and love, that community showcases the gospel of God. We were never meant to be alone.

Protected by Gospel Community

But that’s not my main point for this morning. If you’ve had the privilege or the stomach to see the epic film The Revenant, you may still be having nightmares about the scene. You know which one I’m talking about. Hugh Glass, the main character played by Leonardo DiCaprio, gets mauled by a bear. It’s graphic. It’s jarring. It’s really pretty brutal. The bear munches on him like he’s a Clifs Bar. It throws Hugh around like he’s a Barbie doll. But how did he get in this mess? He wandered off the trail by himself. And he paid the price for it.

Here’s the main thing I want you to hear this morning. Being alone is dangerous. It’s not just that we were made for gospel community. We’re dead meat without it. And with that, we’ll turn back to Hebrews chapter 3. Let’s read verses 12-14 again.

Heb. 3:12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

We’re not sure who wrote the book of Hebrews. But Paul, or whoever it was, in verses 7-15, draws many of his words from Psalm 95. That Psalm reminded God’s people of what their ancestors had done right after they were delivered from slavery in Egypt and through the waters of the Red Sea. They fought with Moses and God. Their hearts got hard. Unbelief overtook them. Psalm 95 was written and sung to remind Israel not to repeat history all over again.

Hebrews 3 is written for the same reason. The author pleads with these Jewish Christians not to go down that road either. He gives them two commands. He then gives us a purpose for each command. He wraps up, in verse 14, by explaining why it all matters so very much.

Look at the first command. It’s in verse 12. We must “take care.” I like the great outdoors. I’d take a hike every day if I could. Amy enjoys it, too. But there is one type of place she wants to avoid. Trails with big drop-offs. With high ledges. I love them. In fact, I picked that type of place to propose to her. But she hates them now.

It has to do with our kids. She fears one of them getting too close or doing something crazy and flying off the edge. That’s the picture of this command here. Look out! Watch carefully! Whether or not you realize it or care to admit it, the situation is dangerous. It’s dire. It calls for great caution.

Now why’s that? There’s a danger, the rest of the verse says, that you or I might end up with an “evil, unbelieving heart.” It says we might “fall away from the living God.” We might move from a heart being renewed in goodness. We might shift from a heart that’s full of faith - to the opposite. Our hearts could shift. We might abandon the faith. For that reason, we have to “take care.” We have to look out.

Take a look at the second command. This explains how we “take care,” right? It’s in verse 13. We “exhort one another.” Now “exhort” isn’t a word we use much today, is it? What’s that mean? It’s coming alongside a person and encouraging him or her. It means to help, to comfort, to push along the way. We all need that. We need it regularly. The author tells us to “exhort one another every day.” We need it urgently. While it’s “today” - the day of grace, and not tomorrow - the day of judgment - we need to be about this business. Otherwise bad things will happen to us.

You know, this is why we shouldn’t just be a part of a church once a week - or once a month like most American Christians. We’re on the edge of a cliff. Our flesh tempts us to get as close as we can. The world is down below, telling us to jump. The devil is right behind us ready to give us a shove. We need to be around God’s people all the time. Not just Sundays in this building.

Here’s another thing we do as American Christians. We act like being with God’s people is no big deal. We’ll get the podcast. We can play some worship songs in the car. No biggie.

It’s no big deal, we don’t think, if we skip our Missional Community gathering this week. They’ll still be there the next. Right? But our time is short. The pull of sin is powerful. We need this exhortation regularly. Urgently.

What bad things will happen? What’s the purpose for the caution, for the exhortation? Verse 13 again: “that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Sin deceives us. The enemy tricks us. And we progressively find our hearts hardened. Our consciences are more and more seared. We end up numb to the glory of God.

We tend to think about unbelief like this. We get out of bed one day, we examine the evidence, and we decide to walk away. We can’t imagine ourselves doing that, so therefore, we’re not too concerned. But what happens most of the time is more akin to the proverbial frog in the boiling kettle. We give into sin once or twice. We flirt with it a little bit more. Suddenly we feel nothing at all, and we’re cooked.

So how do we protect ourselves? We “take care.” We “exhort one another.” In other words, we look after one another in community. We leave no man - or woman - behind. When someone walks off the trail, we pull them back. We do this so that no one might turn away from Christ, so that none of us would be overtaken by Satan.

Something’s going on tomorrow right? Something about an eclipse? I think it’s a pretty big deal. Well, there’s been a fair amount of confusion as to how to safely view the thing. And the schools are going to be in session. So all of these teachers are going to be wrangling kids, making sure they all put on their glasses and take them off at exactly the right time. Otherwise, someone is going to really get hurt.

You know, we can be pretty foolish, too. We can have contests to see how long our corneas can handle it. We can say to ourselves and others, “Come on! Sunglasses will be fine!” And we need people around us, giving us encouraging words. Sometimes even yelling at us a bit. All so we don’t get hurt. We need gospel community.

Now, if you’re anything like me, there may be some questions dancing around in your head. First, how do we do this? How do we exhort one another? Well, look back at the passage once again. The author tells us to watch out for an “evil, unbelieving heart.” He warns us against being “hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” What does sin do? It deceives us, right? It tries to move us toward unbelief. What we have to do is point each other to the truths of the gospel. We must counter the lies of our enemy.

Maybe you’ve heard the “Parable of the Sower” Jesus tells over in Mark 4. Jesus tells this story of a sower, a farmer, who throws out seed. Some of it goes on the path and the birds gobble it right up. Some falls on rocky ground, and the seeds spring up, but they don’t go deep, so they die in the sun. Other seed is cast in some thorns, and they grow up, are choked out, and don’t produce a thing. Still some seed falls into good soil and produces an abundance of grain. Jesus explains the parable this way:

Mark 4:13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?

Mark 4:14 The sower sows the word.

Mark 4:15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.

Mark 4:16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy.

Mark 4:17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.

Mark 4:18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word,

Mark 4:19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

Mark 4:20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

Let’s think about the middle two types of soil. Take the seed sown on rocky ground. Suffering is going to come our way. Trials will most certainly come. But that doesn’t mean God has abandoned us. He is good. He’s in control. We are His children. He loves us. We have to remind each other of those truths. That’s so we won’t be tempted to turn and run the other way.

Think about the seed cast among the thorns. We’re living in a material world. And, you know, I am a material boy. We’re surrounded by so much sexual temptation. Satan is whispering to us, even screaming in our ear, that those things are better, that God is not enough. We have to remind each other that He is enough. That Jesus is better. That only He can satisfy our hunger and thirst.

In other words, here’s what we do: we remind each other of the promises of the gospel. Of who God is. Of what He has done. Of who we are in Him. Of what that means for our lives. We counter those lies with truth. You see, we’re a people who have been formed by the gospel. He has brought us together. But we’re also a people fixed on the gospel. And we need each other to steady our gaze. To look up at the Son. (Did you see what I did there?)

We do that in Karis Church in our Missional Communities. Those are families of disciples making disciples. They meet in homes all throughout the week and all throughout our city. You heard about them from Tyler on the video. There we try to point each other to the gospel. We help each other turn away from sin.

We also gather in smaller groups called Fight Clubs. We’ve tried to change the name, but we haven’t come up with something better. And the name just really fits what we’re trying to do. In these groups of 2 to 3, we try to do two things. We help each other fight against sin - to wage war against lies. We help each other fight the fight of faith. We encourage each other to believe the gospel. Let me tell many of you who are new today. We’d love to have you as a part of our church. What Tyler talked about in that video is real. And it’s beautiful. But if not here, should God take you somewhere else, get in a small group. Get in a smaller group. And get help. You’ll need it to keep believing the gospel in this hard world.

Here’s another question you might have: why do we need this? Maybe you’ve been raised in a tradition that says Christians can’t fall away. Guess what? I agree with you. But, if that’s the case, what do we do with these verses? Well, surprise. The answer is actually in verse 14. That’s where the author teaches us why all this matters so much. It does matter. But let me explain. “For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” Listen again. “For we have come to share in Christ, if we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” The verb is in the perfect tense, not the future tense, grammar geeks out there. But let me make it a bit simpler. Here’s how it could have read. That is, if God wanted it that way. “For we will share in Christ, if we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”

Here’s the difference. That way, it basically says, “You’ll share if Christ - you’ll be saved - IF you stay strong in your belief.” The way the verse reads is really the opposite of that. “We’ve shared in Christ - we’ve been saved - if we hold firm in our faith.” One is salvation by works. It’s our strength that makes the ultimate difference. One is salvation by grace. He saves us. He keeps us. He gets all the glory. The fact that we “hold our original confidence firm to the end” displays that God has truly worked in us. As the parable puts it, that we’re the good kind of soil. On the other hand, if we forsake our faith and wander the other way, it shows that we were never genuine believers. 1 John 2:19 puts it this way:

1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

You might then wonder, “Then what do we do with this passage? If I’m a Christian, and I can’t turn my back on God, then why do I need to obey this?”

Anybody been to an Escape Room? Well, I’m not the biggest fan. I’m terrible at them. Quite honestly, a big reason why I’m not, is that I know it’s not real. I’m not about to die in a fire. I don’t have to get out of there in 30 minutes. I know if I have to use the restroom, I can just hit the buzzer. I know if my friend has a panic attack, he can do the same thing. Therefore, it’s hard for me to take it too seriously. But let me tell you, if it suddenly was real - let’s say we were trapped in there by some serial-killer or something - and I knew it would all soon blow up, I bet I’d take it seriously. I’d figure out how to do those puzzles real fast. I’d realize that the codes were the means of my survival.

Here’s my point: these warnings in Scripture, and especially Hebrews are means by which God keeps us going. We hear these warnings, we take care. We exhort one another and get exhorted. We live. If we ignore them, we perish. And it proves we never knew Christ in the first place.

But the difference is that what God tells us to do isn’t that complicated. It’s not a puzzle. We open up our lives to one another. We point each other to the gospel. And that’s the means by which God keeps us close to Him.

But here’s a final question - maybe the most important one: why do I need this? My dear wife Amy again doesn’t want the kids getting too close to the ledge, but she jumps out of airplanes. Or at least she did. They need this, but me - I’m good. I really am.

You see, we know we’re in danger of being impacted by our culture, right? The materialism, the sex. It’s everywhere. We don’t want that to overtake us. But people have said that culture is like water is to a fish. We can’t see it. But it’s there. And we look through it to see the world around us. Have you ever thought about how individualistic our culture is? How independent we think of ourselves as Americans? We’re born and raised here in the U.S.A. to be resistant to this call toward community.

But the people who received these letters in the Bible thought such a world view was normal. They had their issues, for sure. But they thought of the community first. They knew how much they needed other people. And so do many other cultures, even in the world today.

We like to say that it takes a village, but none of us wants to think of ourselves as a child. Everyone else’s growth - it may be a community project - but, as for me, I’m ok. We may want to meet the needs of those around us. But who wants to see themselves as needy? We’re self-made. We’re not going to depend on anyone.

One day back when we first got married, I came home from my seminary class a bit early. I threw my bag down and walked in to surprise my wife. She was surprised alright! She heard someone come in and got really nervous. She was upstairs and readied herself to defend the house. I started to head up the stairs, and she started to lunge at me. Then she had this point of cognitive dissonance, where she realized, “Hey, this is my husband. Maybe I shouldnʼt kill him!” She then calmed down and I lectured her for not calling 911. I said, “What if the bad guy had a gun?” She said, flexing her muscles, “Iʼve got these guns.”

Maybe we’re smart enough to realize Satan is trying to deceive us - toward money, sex, power, everything else. But this may be his most effective lie of all - especially here in America - to get you to think you’ve got it all under control. That you don’t need help. Then you may just wander off by yourself on the trail, you might just get eaten by the bear. You might get then taken out by all those other things. But it’s really pride that will get ourselves killed. The most essential attribute of a growing Christian, of one who’ll endure to the end, is humility. You don’t just need God. You need those around you. You may not think you want this. But really, you do.

Do you have people watching out for you? Do you have folks encouraging you? Whether you realize it or not, you need this. That’s why we passionately, unashamedly emphasize church membership here in Karis. Commit to a group of people who you know will build you up in the faith, who will have your back. Link up with a group of people who will even show you tough love at times, who will hold you accountable. Here or somewhere else, join a church. Don’t act like church is a class you’re auditing. It’s not. Don’t date a church forever or date a bunch at the same time. Commit yourself. Your life is on the line. Do you have this kind of family?

But, if you think about it, that approach really turns this passage on its head. What? This isn’t really about you or me. It’s about us. The author here is writing to the “brothers” and sisters, of course, and he’s saying, “take care,” just in case there is someone in your midst who’s about to turn her back on Jesus. He writes to a body of Christians and says, “Exhort one another” so that no one will be deceived by Satan.

In other words, this is a call for you and me to look around, think about who needs our help, and get after it. So don’t just join a church for you. Don’t just show up to your MC Gathering, or to your Fight Club ready to eat. Show up to feed your brothers and sisters. Meet up thinking about how you’ll care for them. For far too long, Christians in churches have fought with one another. How about we fight for each other? How about we think about those around us?

Maybe the combat illustration doesn’t work for you. How about medicine? Lots of families here with sick kids all the time. Verses 12 and 13 are preventative medicine. We’re giving each other our vitamins. We’re reminding each other to eat right. We’re making sure we get our daily exercise. That’s what exhortation does. It keeps us healthy. It builds up our immune system. It makes us more resistant to disease. We watch out for each other. We constantly encourage one another. We remind each other of the gospel.

Here’s my main point. We need each other. We were not just made for gospel community. We are protected by gospel community. We were not just redeemed back as fallen sinners into this gospel community. We are being progressively redeemed from our sin within this gospel community.

You were never meant for just a personal relationship. You were meant to be a part of a people. Being alone isn’t just unreasonable. It’s dangerous. Jesus is the only person who ever stood up to Satan by Himself. And you know, He was quoting His Father and talking to His Father the whole time.

What about that autopsy report? Why did the guy die? How did the enemy get to him? He isolated the man. The victim grew careless. He had no back-up. Sin got to him. He lost his faith. He died.

A Gospel Community

We, the people of Karis, are a people of the gospel. Who Jesus is and what He has done is the song of our hearts. He lived for us. He died for us. He rose again for us. That’s our only hope. Our song.

But we also believe that song is meant to be sung together. We are community of the gospel. We proclaim that hope to one another. We sing God’s promises over one another. It’s what we’re made for. It’s what we desperately need.

That’s because there are so many other tunes that slip into our ears. Pleasant songs. Seemingly compelling songs. They try to pull us. They try to sway us. But listening to them, running after them, leads away from joy and into destruction. Deep down, we know that.

We need to hear the louder chorus of gospel voices. We need to hear the voices from those right here, along with the voices in heaven. Only then can we stand. We are a gospel community. We are made for that community. We are protected by that community. Let’s pray.

SermonsKevin P. LarsonAugust 24, 2017Vision, Community