North Center Baptist Church
Brooklyn Park, Minnesota
A diverse church for all ages
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January 31, 2010 Hebrews 10 by Pastor Stan Audio “THE CALL TO FOLLOW CHRIST” SERIES #5, FELLOWSHIP WITH BELIEVERS HEBREWS 10:19-25 (P.851) JANUARY 31, 2010 INTRODUCTION North Center’s vision is printed each week on the back of the bulletin. Let’s read it together: North Center’s vision is to glorify God by making disciples who know Christ, grow in Him, and show their love for Him. That’s why we’re starting this New Year with a discipleship emphasis on the theme “The Call to Follow Christ.” All those who are called to know Christ are also called to follow Him, to be His disciples. Along with the sermon series on Sunday mornings we’re using a workbook through the week that’s based on a diagram called “The Disciple’s Cross.” At the center of the Cross is Christ, emphasizing that being a Christian means having a real, life-transforming relationship with Christ. Following Christ, being His disciple, means abiding in Christ, living a Christ-centered life. Our relationship with Christ is not just one part of our lives—it’s the central reality of our lives. Our relationship with Christ connects to and directs everything about our lives. The arms of the Cross are means God employs to enable us to live this kind of a life. Each week we’re examining a different arm of the cross. We’ve looked at the “Word,” referring, of course, to the Word of God, the Bible. We can’t grow spiritually without the discipline of Living in the Word, spending time in the Bible, not just on Sundays but every day, reading, studying, and meditating in it and living by it. Then last week we looked at prayer. Praying in faith is an essential discipline for the lives of those who are seeking to follow Christ. Like God’s Word, prayer needs to be a daily spiritual discipline in the life of the believer. We need to have a time each day when we commune with God by reading the Bible and by praying. The vertical arms of the Cross are spiritual disciplines that are primarily connected to our relationship with God. The horizontal arms of the Cross are about the disciple’s relationship with other people. Today, we’re considering the arm labeled “Fellowship,” referring to fellowship with other believers. Having meaningful relationships with other believers is essential to discipleship; if you’re going to abide in Christ (keep your life focused on Him and keep on following Him), you have to have fellowship with other believers who are doing the same. This truth is repeated and emphasized throughout the NT. One of those is the theme passage for this week—Hebrews 10:19-25. Read Hebrews 10: 19-25 Notice that v. 19 starts with the word “therefore,” a word that serves like a bridge, connecting what comes before it to what comes after it. In this case “therefore” is referring back to everything that the writer has said so far. In the first 9½ chapters the writer of Hebrews has explained the superiority of the “new testament,” the new covenant, the new relationship with God that has been made possible through Christ’s death and resurrection. Now, starting in v. 19, the writer is transitioning from doctrine to application. From this point on he’s going to tell us the implications and applications that Christ’s death on the Cross has for us. He starts with a rapid-fire series of exhortations, translated “Let us...” I. “DRAW NEAR” (VV. 19-22) A. A RADICAL IDEA It’s hard for us to appreciate how radical the idea of “drawing near” to God was for the Jews in the time when Hebrews was written. Drawing near to God may not sound particularly earth-shattering to us here today, but that may be because our understanding of God’s holiness is weaker today in America than it was in first-century Israel. Jewish ideas of God’s holiness were rooted in a number of OT passages. For example, when He expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden, God put an angel with a flaming sword at the entrance to the Garden to keep Adam and Eve from drawing near. Or when Israel was camped at Mt. Sinai, God instructed Moses to rope off the mountain and warn the people not to draw nea |
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