Hebrews was written to encourage Jewish Christians in their faith in Jesus instead of in Jewish institutions. In our text we are encouraged to work together as a church - to stick together and to keep at it. The author was really telling them how to have a good and effective church. If we will heed this, we will have a good, or better, church.
I. Vs. 23 - Stick to your faith and hope. A. So much tries to call us away from it: recreation, work, sometimes family, and sometimes even church. B. So much in life shakes our faith. We have intellectual struggles. We have hostility of the world. etc. C. We can stick to our faith because God is always faithful. He will not let us go and He will not let us down. II. Vs. 24 - Provoke one another to love and good works. A. "Consider one another...." The Christian life is not lived in a vacuum. We live and serve in a fellowship of Christian people and we are to be consierate of each other. B. Provoke each other to better living. Our provocation should not be negative. We should provoke each other to love. C. Provoke one another to good works. Each of us should set the example, especially for young people. III. Vs. 25 - Be faithful to assemble. A. The facts are not good. 80 to 85 % in any church are "hanger's on..." 15 to 20% do the work. In a lot of churches a good Sunday will find 50% of the membership present. B. Vs. 25a - The purpose of assembling is to exhort (encourage) each other. Growing churches are those churches that are joyful, loving and encouraging. This is not done by watering down the gospel and becoming "user friendly." C. Vs. 25b - Our assembling together is evermore important in the light of the return of the Lord. Your church will be the kind of church that you make it. We would do well to follow the example of our text.
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Note: I realize that sermons on the seven churches in Asia Minor are usually part of a series, but our interim pastor, Bro. Mike Everson preached on this church tonight. I am not giving you his outline, but one that came to me and I wrote in the margin of my Bible.
The church at Smyrna is one of two churches that did not have a negative message from Jesus. I want to share with you what Jesus said to them that can be beneficial to us. I. Vs. 8 - Jesus told them who He is. A. He is the first and last: God from everlasting to everlasting. Eternal! B. He was dead, crucified - really dead and buried in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb. C. He is alive forevermore. Resurrected - victorious over death. D. He is the same Jesus who looks at our church! II. Vs. 9 - Jesus told them what He knew about them. A. He knew their works, just as He knows our works. Question: What does Jesus know about our works for Him? B. He knew their tribulation and their poverty. They were being severely persecuted for their faith, which was the reason for their tribulation and poverty. C. He knew their real wealth. Jesus looks for spiritual riches in our lives, and they came out good on this. D. He knew who their enemies were. According to Bro. Everson, they were non-Christians in the church who were being used of Satan. III. Vss. 10-11 - Jesus told what He would promise them. A. He promised that they would be put in prison. "Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake...." B. He promised that they would be tried. Real faith will always be tried. C. He promised them tribulation - trouble. Troubles cause us to grow. D. He promised that they would receive the "crown of life" because of thier faithfulness. The Jesus who wrote this message is the same Jesus whom we serve. He knows all about us. He promises that if we follow and serve Him, we will have trouble, but that we will be rewarded. Note: I don't remember if I have ever preached a sermon on the seven Asian churches that wasn't in a series on those churches, but as I read about the Ladoicean Church this morning, this idea hit me. I will share it with you and you can take these sparse notes and maybe do something with the text. Bro. Joe
Of the seven churches in Asia, there were only two that had nothing good written about them - Sardis and Laodicea. Let's examine the text and determine what was wrong with this church. This examination might help us make some changes in our own churches and in our own lives. I. Vss. 15-16 - Why was the church called "lukewarm"? A. They were indifferent. (They didn't care.) B. They were not a loving church, loving neither God nor people. C. They didn't really worship the Lord when they were together. D. They didn't witness to people in the community who needed Jesus. E. They didn't serve the Lord in ministry to people. II. Vss. 17-18 - They were self-sufficient. A. A church of Jesus Christ is supposed to depend on Him, not themselves. B. Vs. 17 - They had two accusations of self-sufficieny: 1. They thought that because they were rich, they had need of nothing. 2. They were blind to the fact that they were spiritually deficient. "wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked" C. Vs. 18 - They were challenged to improve their spiritual lot. Laodicea was famous for three things: gold, clothing and eyesalve. These items were used to illustrate the changes they needed to make. III. Vss. 19-20 - There was still hope. A. A church's situation is never hopeless, if they will listen to the Lord. B. Vs. 19 - God's chastening showed that He loved them and wanted them to repent. C. Vs. 20 - Jesus was waiting to be invited into their situation. 1. This would be for lost church members. 2. This would be for the church to enrich their worship, witness and service. Jesus should be the integral part of all that we do. In verses 21-22 they were encouraged to overcome. John had written in 1 John that we overcome by faith in Jesus. This was a call for them to exercise their faith instead of their riches, etc. Did you see some things in this text that remind you of your church? Did you see some things that reminded you of yourself? Many, if not most, churches are what we call stagnant. This means that there is little growth and change. It is the same every Sunday. We need to look at how a church that got things done operated. That church is found in Acts 2. How did they get the job done?
I. Vss. 1-4 - They were a prepared church A. Vs. 1 - This suggests meditation and prayer. Every great church is a praying church - large or small. B. Vs. 2 - This suggests that they waited for the Lord. We do the praying and the Lord, in His time, sends the "rushing mighty wind." C. Vss. 3-4a - This suggests that they were filled before they went out. God will certainly use our personalities and gifts, but the job is done by the Holy Spirit. That's why we need His filling. II. Vss. 4b-6 - They were an active church. A. Vs. 4b - They allowed the Holy Spirit to use them as He would. They were not afraid of the spiritual tide, but rode with it. B. Vs. 6b - They gathered the people. The Holy Spirit does not just fill us to make us feel better, or feel real spiritual. He fills us to minister to people and we must seek and gather them. C. Vss. 5-6 - They communicated the gospel. No barrier, including language, can stand in our way when we are filled with and depending on the power of the Holy Spirit. III. Vss. 42-47 - They nurtured their members. A. Vs. 42 - They taught the faith. This means that they were not afraid to teach doctrine. They knew that is does matter what we think and teach about Jesus. B. Vss. 43-45 - They cared for those that they won. A church that gets the job done is always a caring church. Every person was important. C. Vss. 44-47 - They worshipped the Living Lord. A church that gets the job done is a church that takes worship seriously. Does this sound something like your church? Think of what has been said in this sermon, and realize that your church will look a lot like this if you look a lot like this. The church is not a building. It is not a club. It is not a mere organization, but a living body, and organism. Our text gives us a clear picture of what a church is.
I. Verse 18a - The church is the property of Jesus Christ. "I will build my church." A. It is not "our" church. B. The church belongs to Jesus. 1. He gave His life for it. Acts 20:28 2. He sent His Spirit to it. (Acts 2) 3. He has promised to never leave it and be in it. ("Where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst of them.") C. The church is His only organization or organism. II. Verse 18b - The church is comprised of imperfect human beings. "Thou art Peter..." A. At this time, Peter was not a paragon of faith. 1. Think of his attempting to walk on water. 2. He always spoke too quickly as at Mt. of Transfiguration. 3. He denied that he knew Jesus. B. This means us as well, no matter how imperfect we are, we are His church. 1. His church is built on our faith. 2. His church is built by our service. 3. His church is built on our dedication. 4. His church is built on our prayers. 5. His church is built on our willingness. 6. His church is built on our witness. C. The church to which we belong will be as great as we allow Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to make it, as we follow their leadership. III. Verse 18c - The church is indestructible. "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it...." A. Make no mistake, local churches can and do die when the member put themselves ahead of Christ. Revelation 2:5 B. But the body of Christ cannot be destroyed. 1. Christ's church will always exist in one form or another. 2. There will always be multiple expressions of Christ's church in one form or another. 3. The devil cannot kill it, no matter how hard he tries - and he does. Christ's church is bigger than the devil and is bigger than our mully- grubbing little foibles. C. Christ's church cannot be destroyed because it belongs to Him!!!!!!! This is Christ's church. It is comprised of imperfect people, but is sustained by the eternal God. |
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