Mountain View Baptist Church

[This is part of a series of sermons on the topic of "One Another".  To access previous messages, please click here.]

The words, “respect your elders” may not be in scripture, but they certainly are a principle to live by. This is the encouragement in 1 Timothy 5:21. Not only should we respect our elders, we should have a reverence for them. We should treat the elder among us with gentility and cordiality. This is all done in the love of the Savior and out of obedience to His command.

We are exhorted to excellence in God as part of a single body of Christ to encourage one another to excellence. Today, we consider how this exhortation and encouragement is doled out from one believer to another.

We will look at two scriptures today, Hebrews 3:13, and also Hebrews 10:25. When we consider these verses the key to understanding them is in the use of the words “exhort” and “encourage” and the purpose that Paul has in mind when he uses them. There are some very interesting parallels to these words in our text today. Consider with me these ideas of exhorting and encouraging one another.

There is an old saying that you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink. This is very true. A part of this is missing, though.  What is not mentioned are all the times you have to urge the horse on, all the times you have to give the horse support and hope that there is water to come. You cannot convince one to drink, but you actually have to work to lead them to refreshment. That is a task in itself.

Today we consider how we can best understand the task of leading the horse to the pond or oasis. Today we will also consider how we watch out for one another and lead one another to become more Christlike. We are a brotherhood of saints who are given to minister to one another (1 Pet 2:5). We are also given to one another and commanded to honor and love one another, other people and our government (1 Pet 2:17). Scripture leaves us no quarter for rebellion, and you have other brothers and sisters about you to help lead you to submission. It is not an easy task because some believers are as stubborn as donkeys. They will sit on their hind haunches and die of dehydration rather than come to an assembly and be fed by the word of God. Still, we should encourage them.

Yesterday we met a man who, I believe, loved God. However, his focus was improperly placed. When he discovered I was a pastor, he immediately addressed a tax situation concerning “501 c3” exemption status. His outlook was extremely cynical and harsh concerning the corporate establishment under “501 c3.” A question I frequently ask these people is, “How is your witnessing life?” We eventually got to that but there was a great anger in him concerning the supposed conspiracy associated with “501 c3” status and the government’s efforts to press tolerance behaviors. This is essentially an argument for, “can’t we just all get along.” The relativism of our world is trying to say everyone is right in their own mind. However, scripture says,

“For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.” (Rom 1:21-23)

In many ways, this is what we are to guard against with one another. This individual yesterday had a bold witness and was, I believe, strenuously attempting to exhort and encourage me as a pastor to remain separate from the world. Bless his heart for loving us enough to be that witness. However, his polemic can be taken as a strong affront. Further, he is not with a body of believers where he can be encouraged and receive exhortation to a better and more loving witness. The “bull in the china shop” approach is not as effective as we may think it is. The bull can push the horse to water, but the horse still has to want to go there, and has to want to take water when he gets there.

We mentioned the word “exhort.” The word is “parakaleō” and it means either verbal or non-verbal encouragement. The word is used when you encourage someone to accept hospitality. We could say “to request” but that is not strong enough. Another sense of this word is earnestness or propriety. There are standards one may be encouraged to follow. Equally, it has a consoling tenor that indicates a loving manner in the earnest plea. There is no huff or gruff demeanor about the one who encourages. This is our word “parakaleō” which comes from two words, “para” which indicates something more than or greater than (we might say going a step further) and “kaleō,” meaning to call. This is a call for the believers to take one step further in their work with and among one another. We must do so properly and in a fashion that pleases our Lord. What is that fashion? We answer that question today.

This is where we are at today. Helping others want to go to the water as a place of refreshment and to drink when they get there.

I. Exhortation for Righteousness (3:13)

Our first scripture, Hebrews 3:13, has us focus on God and rest in His provision in all ways. This passage is based in a lengthy quote from Psalm 95:7 and this scripture tells us that King David’s writings are inspired by the Holy Spirit (Heb 3:7). They are a warning (vv 7b-11) to not provoke God when you are overly challenged or frustrated. There are other challenges here as well.

Many consider the Israelites and their days in the wilderness as a very negative event because of the murmuring. When we do consider them, we often fall on the side of God, as it should be, that the Israelites murmur and complain about their supernatural provision and salvation. All that is true. However, the human heart does not look necessarily at God and His supernatural provision all the time. What we see played out in the wilderness is a direct picture of our lives every day. Whether God is with us or not, we tend to want a little something extra. We tend to reach out to something a little bit more. We always lack a contentedness in our heart in some way, whether a large or small thing. There is always something else we want. This is what the Israelites did to provoke God. They repeatedly asked for one thing more, or they complained about the fulfillment of specific needs.

The Israelites were certainly stressed under the circumstances. They had just been pressed out of Egypt where they knew nothing about independence. They knew God, but they always questioned Him because freedom had to be too good to be true. They wondered when the whip would crack against their back as this new taskmaster may require submission. God is long suffering, but what He will not tolerate is a lack of contentedness especially when He is intimately involved with the provision. Providing through others is one thing, provision directly from His hand is another.

The Israelites wanted better water, more food and a home. These folks had seen what happened to the generation of unbelievers in the land of Egypt as they fell one by one, due to unbelief. Yet, they still rebelled against God. God had taken the time to show His great power to them in the form of 10 plagues, splitting the Red Sea, destroying Pharaoh’s army and putting bread on the ground for them to just pick up every morning. He even provided a Rock that gave them living water and traveled with them through the desert (1 Cor 10:4). With all these tools, they still rebelled.

It is no wonder that we are encouraged to love one another repeatedly. Moses was frustrated with the Israelites’ unbelief on more than one occasion and God consoled him. God was wroth with the Israelites and Moses pleaded with Him on their behalf. The picture of their interaction, exhortation and encouragement is instructive to us. This is not to say God needed encouragement, but to say that He gives us this picture, and it is connected with our scripture today to instruct us. If Moses, as the high priest of Israel, regularly sought this direct communication, we should regularly seek God’s face as well.

Not only do we find encouragement to help lead us to the living water of Christ in a desert of worldly sin, we find that we must be led to assemble and honor God in worship. This is a sacred freedom to be cherished.

II. Encouragement to Assemble (Heb 10:25)

When we first read Hebrews 10:25, we see a simple encouragement to come to church. Many people quote it for that simple reason – to encourage those who claim Christ to come to church. Many of us have heard from some who claim Christ that the church is not a building. This is true. However, an assembly of believers in a building is a church. Regardless of where believers assemble, they assemble to worship God and are required to do so in scripture.

We should take this concept back to the scriptures though. Simple encouragement to assemble is not the subject; there is much more. As in our previous example of encouragement toward one another, we find a reason. God has once again made supernatural provision for us. Just as He did with the Israelites, God performed miracles, placed Himself in a position of guide and leader and poured Himself out over His people to give them freedom to worship. There is much more here than simply “not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together.”

Encouragement to gather and worship begins with a discussion of the fulfillment of the law through Christ’s sacrifice in the first verses of chapter 10. God personally made atonement for the sins of mankind and completed all the law’s requirements for purity. He did this so that we could possess this redemption in Christ, the righteousness He has, the perfection He enjoys before God. These things are imputed to us through the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

He has taken this a step further, instead of being a simple sacrifice led to the slaughter, Jesus was a perfect priest (vv11-14) not only desiring to bring in the sacrifice, but providing Himself as the sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which was His reasonable service (Rom 12:1).

Again, the scriptures mention how these words are Holy Spirit inspired through the prophet in Jeremiah 31:33-34. This new covenant in the Messiah’s blood was planned hundreds of years before Christ. Verse 18 is clear, where this satisfies the requirements for sin’s remission there is no further need for sacrifice.

Then the scriptures go further. Because we have this high priest sitting at God’s right hand and testifying on our behalf, we have a new and very special relationship with the Father of Lights. Now we do not access God through the Levitical priesthood, but through a priesthood born in the body of Jesus. We have direct access to God through this sacrifice (Heb 10:19ff).

Therefore, we begin close analysis of verse 25 at verse 23. Where “parakaleō” was a command before, here it is a participle. The point is that we are priests at the point of Christ’s death on the cross. We have this intimate access to God’s throne soon as the veil was rent and sacrifices were no longer required of animals. We have been washed with the blood of Christ, which provided us access to the throne of God, the Father. We are instructed to hold onto this hope, exercise all the freedom that comes with this hope and focus on the hope of eternal life with our Lord. We are also supposed to “provoke” one another or stir one another up in this way. We are supposed to encourage one another in the proper worship of God and direct access to the Father through the Son.

One way we do this is to assemble to love one another and love our God in Heaven through this assembly during worship. We show our greatest love to God through obedience. We show our greatest love to one another through submission. Both of these activities (obedience and submission) indicate a force that requires obedience or submission.

The “horse” is being led to the trough of worship by the Son of God. God will not force us to drink from His word. He will not force us to eat at His table of fellowship. God will not make us come, and we are not called to force any of these things upon one another. What we are called to do is lovingly remind believers of our Savior’s provision for direct access to the Father. Forsaking the assembly then is a form of denial of the Son’s provision for worshiping the Father.

We are to exhort one another to submission and reliance on God’s provision. We are called to encourage one another toward contentedness in Christ and His wholly sufficient provision for life. We are also asked to encourage one another to worship together. Our worship is not about the other people in the pew, but about how we are to change for Christ. We assemble because of Jesus, not because of other believers here. As the days of the Lord’s return draw near, we should be mindful that our testimony of Him to others will be evaluated.

Have you encouraged others to be content in the Lord lately? Have you encouraged others to attend church based on God’s provision for that worship? These are the encouragements we are to give one another.