Be The Church Again

6 · Begins expositional work on Hebrews 10:19, emphasizing that the passage summarizes both Hebrews and the gospel itself

So let's see what the Lord has for us this morning, okay? Gathered to God. The first 4 verses here are what show us that God has done something. He's brought us to himself. He has done some kind of a work, some kind of a deed that breaks us away from sin and brings us to himself. 'Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus—' See, Jesus has done something. This is a summary not just of the 10 and a half chapters preceding this. This is a summary of the gospel, which is what all theology is about.

7 · Clarifies that the confidence described in the text is not generic self-confidence but specific access to God's presence

See, we have this great confidence. Therefore, brothers and sisters— okay, adelphoi could be brothers and sisters to a mixed group, much like hermanos can be to a mixed group, and it means brothers and sisters. It's the same in the Greek. Okay, ladies, you're not left out. Since we have confidence And this is not just an aimless confidence. It's not just like a, 'Oh, hey, I'm confident in myself.' No, no. We have confidence to do something. We have confidence— what?— to enter the holy places.

8 · Contrasts old covenant access (high priest once a year with animal blood) with new covenant access (believers confidently entering through Christ's blood)

Now, prior to Christ's death on the cross, did we have confidence to enter the holy places? No, we didn't. One guy did. One guy did once a year, and he would go into the holy place after doing certain things to make sure that he was clean and that God would not strike him down when he came into the presence of God. He came bearing blood. Otherwise, he was not able to enter. But now we can enter. Confidently into the holy places. See, we can enter on account of another's blood just as the high priest did. However, the blood is the blood of Jesus, blood shed for the remission of sin.

9 · Explains the metaphor of the 'new and living way' — Christ's flesh as the torn veil that opens permanent access to God

And he goes on and he says, hey, this blood has an effect. It doesn't just give us confidence to enter into the holy places. It does something. The blood's effect. Is a new and living way. A new and living way. See, we can enter the holy places by the new and living way. Earlier the author had talked about being cleansed from our dead works in the service to a living God. And those dead works were the endless sacrifices that the temple demanded, that the Jewish cultic system demanded. And why is that? Well, he tells us the blood of goats and bulls is not sufficient to remove sin. Doing these things over and over and over is never going to fully take away our sin, and now a new and living way has opened for us through the curtain of Jesus' flesh. He's saying, hey, through the flesh of Jesus, the veil has been removed. With God coming and dwelling among us and being with us and revealing the Father more fully, the veil has been ripped away and we can now come into His presence by His blood and at His death, what happened? The temple veil was torn in two from top to bottom. It's over. It's finished. What? Not only has our sin been fully paid for, now the way to God has been opened.

10 · Traces the pattern of God gathering people to Himself so they would gather together back to creation

Now think about this. It's not a new thing that God gathers people to himself in order for them to gather together. The garden. What happens? Well, He creates Adam to have a relationship with him so that Adam would know and glorify God forever. Then what does He say? He's like, 'Man, it's not good for the man to be alone.' And He creates Eve. See, He gathered Adam to Himself in the garden, and then He gathered Adam and Eve together so that they could gather. And then He said what? 'Go and multiply upon the earth and subdue it.' He's like, 'Hey, go make more people to be in this gathering.' So that you guys would be gathered to me and gathered together.

11 · Continues the redemptive-historical survey with Noah

Then we have Noah. When sin and corruption had spread throughout the world and God was like, 'I got to do something,' he didn't just say, 'Hey, Noah, I'm going to save you.' He said, 'No, Noah, I'm going to save you.' and your wife and your sons and their wives. God saved a people. God gathered a people to himself so that they would also be together.

12 · Continues the pattern with Abraham

With Abram, he didn't just say, 'Hey, Abram, go over there. Go to the land that I'm going to show you. Leave your father's home and your father's land, and I will show you a place that you're to go.' And then stop. He said, 'And I will make your descendants like the sea on the shore and the stars in the sky.' Like the sand on the shore. Sorry. Like the sea on the shore. That doesn't make sense. Sometimes words are hard. But through the calling of Abraham to go to a place, there was a promise of a people. And Abraham was like, 'Man, I'm an old guy. How's that going to happen?'

13 · Continues with Moses and the exodus

And when God spoke to Moses, he didn't just say, 'Hey, Moses, I'm going to bring you out of Egypt.' No, he said, 'Go and tell Pharaoh, "Let my people go."' God gathers a people to himself so that they could also gather together. And the trajectory there was, 'Let them go,' what? 'To the wilderness to worship me.' And if you're— maybe they're thinking, 'Ah, well, you know, maybe that was just an Old Testament thing of God gathering people to himself so that they could gather together.' No, no, no, no.

14 · Transitions to New Testament examples

Jesus didn't just tell Peter, 'Hey, Peter, come follow me.' No, he didn't just say, 'Hey, John, come follow me.' He didn't tell Andrew, 'Hey, Andrew, you know what? I think you're going to make a great church.' No, he called 12. He called 12 people to himself. And we see evidences in even the Gospel of Mark that we've been walking through. While they're walking, they're all talking amongst themselves, right? And then Jesus is like, 'Hey, what were y'all talking about on the road?' And they're like, 'Uh-oh.' See, they were gathered to Jesus and they were also gathered to each other. And then in Acts 2, what do we see? Well, there were about 120 disciples, those that Jesus had gathered. Prior to being crucified. And they were what? Assembled together. Assembled together. And then when Peter stands up and gives that amazing sermon, God did not save 300 individuals. He saved 300. 3,000 people to the church, to the church.

15 · Synthesizes the biblical-theological survey into a doctrinal claim: God's eternal purpose is to gather a people to Himself for corporate worship

See, that is God's plan and purpose throughout all eternity, to gather a people to himself that they would be gathered together around him. And what does this gathering look like? What does this gathering look like? Oh, man. The gathering of God's people to himself so that they would gather together is the assembled gathering of God's people when they come together and worship him in spirit and truth. Why do I say that? It's this, okay? It's the Sunday morning gathering. But why do I say that? It's because of the word used here. Epi sunagogue. Okay. Epi means at or even to. Maybe you recognize the word sunagogue. Synagogue. It literally means the synagogue or the definition is like, like at an assembly or at a place, like at the assembly or to the place where the assembly gets together. There's a place marked out where the people of God would gather. That's this place, the episunagoge, at the gathering house, if you will.

16 · Defends the church's decision to continue meeting during COVID by appealing to the uniqueness of what happens in corporate worship

That's why even when numbers started surging in El Paso, we got together as elders and we said, 'No, we're not going to stop meeting again.' 'We shouldn't have even stopped meeting in the first place,' is what was kind of the consensus. Like looking back, we were like, 'Yeah, we probably shouldn't have stopped meeting the first time.' We weren't about to stop again. Because what happens here is something different than what happens anywhere else. See, the assembly of God's people happens at God's house for God's purpose. And this is the strongest of the three exhortations here. Why? It's because at the house of God, when God's people are assembled, something great happens. See, Matthew 18 tells us, hey, where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, I am with them as well. And look, I know the context. You probably do too. You're probably thinking like, ah, Vince, that's church discipline context though. Exactly. And if God has promised to be with only 2 or 3 of his people in the hardest thing that the church will do, that is taking a wayward brother or sister and saying, hey, you are sinning right now. You need to repent. And come back to Jesus, if he's promised to be there, then we know he's here. We know he's here. Why? Because this is a celebration of what Jesus has done, gathering a people to himself. And now we're gathered together and Jesus is with us by the Spirit. And you see, it's a certainty that when we gather to worship him and to stir one another up in love and good deeds, as this verse tells us, that he's going to meet us here because we can only do good works by the Spirit empowering us. See, it's God who works in us both to will and to work for His pleasure.

17 · Distinguishes the corporate Sunday assembly from small groups

Now, there are some of you that may be thinking, 'Hey, can't we gather in small groups?' Yes, you can. You can. And those are great contexts. For accomplishing a whole lot of things, but they're not at the gathering house. They're not episunagoge. Something unique happens here. Something different happens here. And it's only when God's people are gathered together in God's house under God's Word that this passage, Hebrews 10, finds its fulfillment.

18 · Transitions from theological foundation to practical exposition of the Sunday liturgy

So what happens when we gather? What happens? Well, a lot. That's why we've, as elders, have thought through a certain— what we call liturgy, a certain way that our service goes. And we said, 'Hey, we're going to have this. We're going to have this. We're going to have this.' So the next few chapters are going to kind of— I mean, next few paragraphs are kind of going to walk us through what we do on a Sunday morning and why we do it. Have you ever wondered, 'Hey, why do we do that?' Well, buckle up. It's time to find out why. And I'm probably the worst person to tell you why because there are so many things that I could just, like, nerd out on and you'd be like, 'Stop.' So I'm going to try and not do that.

19 · Explains the opening movement of the liturgy — the call to worship

When we gather, though, we are addressed by God. And we are addressed by one another. We are addressed by the Spirit. We hear from the Spirit. Sometimes you'll see someone come up and they'll talk to one of the elders, and then they'll come up to the microphone and share something. Why? Because the Spirit has addressed them, and the Spirit wants to address His church. We hear from those entrusted with the Word for teaching and preaching to stir one another up to love and good deeds. You know, earlier John read Colossians 3. Actually, Amy did. You're not John. Listen to this. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. This is what happens when we gather. See, that's why when we start our service, we have a call to worship. We have a guy come up here Normally it's one of the elders. He opens the Bible and he addresses us with God's Word that calls us to worship. This whole thing is a worship service, okay? Everything that goes on here is worship. Not just the singing. Everything. This is a worship service.

20 · Explains the role of singing and preaching in worship — both serve to let the Word of Christ dwell richly in the congregation

And when we sing, we sing praises to God. But part of the reason why we sing is to do this, to let the Word of Christ dwell richly in us. That's why we spend 30 or more minutes on the preaching, because we want to let the Word of Christ dwell richly in us. So we have a call to worship at the beginning. And then we sing the psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs that are shot through with the Gospel, that have Gospel truths in them, Gospel applications to them, Gospel calls to them, calls to mission, calls to take God's fame outside of the walls here. Once we scatter. And then sometime during that singing, we will come back to the Word and have another Scripture reading and exhortation.

21 · Explains the pastoral prayer as both intercession for the church and neighboring churches, and as teaching by example

Then we have a pastoral prayer. We do that for a few reasons. First, we want to pray for the church. Pray for the needs in the church. Pray for other churches that we are in partnership with throughout throughout the state, throughout the nation, throughout the world. And then we also want to model prayer for the congregation. And even Jesus' own disciples came to him and said, 'Hey, teach us to pray.' So as pastors, we feel as undershepherds, That's part of our work as well. And you may know how to pray. You may be a great prayer already. You're probably a better prayer than I am. But we're still called to teach how to do that, to model it.

22 · Defends the announcements as worship by reframing them as pastoral care

And then we have everyone's favorite part of the service, the announcements. Yeah, and you're like— and you're probably sitting there scratching your head. How are the announcements? Vince, you just said everything we do here is worship. How are the announcements worship? That's a good question. And recently the Lord gave me a different way of looking at the announcements that allowed me to go, ah. All right, God. If you want to know what that's like, ask me sometime during the week. Let's have coffee. I'll tell you all about it. No, I'm kidding. I'll tell you why the announcements are part of worship. They're an expression of pastoral care. When the church is aware— when the church people are aware of what know what the church ministries are that are going on, gives opportunity to be part of those ministries, opportunity to serve, opportunity to come be encouraged or to come encourage one another, to come and stir one another up to love and good works. So that is why I can look at the announcements now and say, okay, yeah, pastoral care is a part of worship. Even the announcements.

23 · Defends expository preaching as God speaking now through His Word

And then we have the sermon. You see, God speaks through His Word. Okay, God has spoken. Scripture is a record of God's dealing with mankind. Scripture is a record of God's special revelation of himself to his people. But when we open it and we read it, God speaks now. God speaks now every time we open this book. It's not just a book. Again, it's a record of God's dealing. With His people. And when we gather, we are addressed by His Word through the preaching of His Word. See, He speaks in a new way. And look, this isn't a New Testament thing, okay? This isn't a new thing like some people make the claim, like, oh, preaching's going to go out of style here. Like, it's not even really biblical anyway. It's based on a Greek understanding of the way that people learn and, like, it's all just a lecture. No, I'm sorry, wrong, wrong, wrong again. So wrong. See, I mentioned him earlier, Ezra the scribe. What did he do? He read from the Word. He read from the law of God. And then he gave the sense of it. That is, he explained it so that the people would understand. That's long before the Greeks came around. That's long before, you know, modern kind of teaching methods came into vogue. No, this is Old Testament times, okay? The sermon is an exposition of the Word of God so that the people God has gathered to himself can understand better what God is speaking to them as they gather together around him.

24 · Completes the liturgy walkthrough with the closing song and benediction

Then after that, we finish with another song, and then what are we? We are sent out. By God's Word with a benediction from His Word. That's what we do. That is why we gather. That is why the gathering is important.

25 · Direct application to those watching the livestream

Look, I know— I know some of you at home are at home because you have vulnerable family members, or you yourself are in a vulnerable population. And I understand that. Those kind of decisions need to be made with prayer and seeking of the Lord and wise counsel on whether or not or when to attend the gathering. But if you're healthy or vaccinated or you've already had COVID and more than likely possess immunity from having it, It's time to return to the gathering. It's time to come back to the gathering. Why? Because something glorious happens here in God's place under God's Word gathered with God's people. And it's time to come to the gathering. Why? Because we were gathered to God to gather together.

26 · First two concrete applications: gather again, and gather regularly

So here's some things to consider as we As we contemplate gathering together again. First thing, hey, gather again. Gather again. Now again, yes, there are some medical concerns. Get wise counsel. Seek the Lord and His will on that. Second thing, gather regularly, okay? Gather regularly. Man, vacation is nice. Time away from home is nice. We haven't been able to travel for like a year and a half, okay? People are starting to travel. It's like, 'Woohoo! I'm gone, baby!' It's nice to go to brunch. It's nice to get coffee and donuts, Freddie. We're supposed to gather regularly. See, we've— the Corpus family has been absent a few times on Sundays recently. And when we're gone, unless during church time we're driving, because, man, where we go to, our hometowns are 9.5 hours away. Fun drive. Drive. Absolutely amazing drive. If you couldn't tell, that's sarcasm. Whew. But look, unless we're driving, we don't watch the livestream. We go to church. I haven't been on the livestream whenever I'm not here in months because it's not the same thing as gathering together in person. It's a— it's a— poultry substitute at best. And I think our livestream is— look, livestream team, you guys are doing an amazing job. At best, poultry substitute for what happens here. And when we're in our hometown, we have to drive over an hour to get to church. That's one of the things that we as a family have just said, 'Hey, we're going to do it.' We are going to do that.

27 · Cascading series of applications: gather eagerly, gather for others, gather for the community, gather for the next generation, gather for God

Gather eagerly. That's the next thing. Gather eagerly. If God has promised to meet us in a unique way when we gather together, why would we not come here with a sense of expectation? Oh man, God's going to do something. He's going to do something here. He's going to do something in someone else's heart. He might do something in my kid's heart. God promises to do things when his people gather together around him. Do you wake up Sunday morning, even if it's an hour late, and say, 'Man, you know what? So what? So what? I'm going to be with my people gathered around the God who saved me when I didn't deserve it so that we can praise and worship him.' Gather for others. Gather for those around you. Why? Because we are called— it says, 'Let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good deeds.' If you don't feel like coming here one Sunday, remember, Dathan Nolt's going to be there. Gather for him. Remember, Brent Clark's going to be there. Gather for him. Remember, Michael Rainwater's going to be there. Gather for him. Remember, Gavin DuPé is going to be here. Gather for him. Gather for others. If you don't feel like coming, don't forget your church family. They're important. You got to come and stir them up to love and good works. Oh. Gather for the community. If we're called to be salt and light, Oh, autocorrect, thank you. My notes say we are resulted and relit. No, it's supposed to be resalted. We come in here and we get seasoned up by Jesus and his word. And then we get relit with the fire of the Holy Spirit. And then what? We get sent out. Gather for your community. Because through you he's going to be gathering others too. Through your love and good works. He's going to be gathering others. Oh, boy. Gather for the next generation. Your kids are going to know if you approach this gathering in a, 'Eh, you know what? It doesn't matter if I'm there or not.' No, it matters. The church is always one generation away from irrelevancy, and when they see you take a very laissez-faire attitude to the church, they're going to say, 'Ah, it's not important.' And then finally, this is probably the most important one here, gather for God. Gather for God. We were made to know God and glorify him forever. This place, these people are where we practice what we're going to be doing forever. Stirring one another up to love and good deeds, worshiping the King of heaven, proclaiming his greatness to each other.

28 · Transitions to communion by returning to the eschatological urgency in Hebrews 10:25

The text closes with a reminder of Jesus' return. The author says, 'And all the more as you see the day drawing near.' See, every day that we go is another day closer to when Jesus returns. Every Sunday, there's one less Sunday that we get to gather together. That's why he says, 'Hey, all the more as you see the day drawing near.' We should be preparing ourselves. And this is part of that preparation. And we're about to take communion, and it carries with it a reminder of Jesus' return, okay? And this is yet another reason to return to the gathering, another reason. See, Calvin has written about communion. He's not alone when he writes about communion, and he's also not alone in writing that Christ is present with us in a very real way. But he is unique in the way that he says Christ is present with us. See, Calvin alone makes the point that during communion Christ lifts us up By the Spirit to where he's seated at the right hand of God. He is present with us by bringing— by what? Gathering us to himself as we're gathered together. Come back to the gathering. Prioritize the gathering because the Lord does. What a great reason to be with God's people in God's place under God's Word. When we take these simple elements of Christ's table, Christ takes us to himself. So let's take the cup now.

29 · Practical instruction for communion administration

Let's open that top portion for the bread.

30 · Reads the institution of the Lord's Supper from Matthew 26, focusing on the bread

Matthew writes for us in chapter 26, of his gospel. Now, as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, 'Take, eat. This is my body.' Lord Jesus, we thank you for giving up your body for your church. Amen. Let's take the bread together, signifying that we are one body.

31 · Reads the institution of the cup from Matthew 26

Now let's open the other portion without spilling it, maybe. Matthew continues, 'And He took the cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."' Lord Jesus, we thank You for forgiving us our sins by shedding Your blood to pay for them. Amen. Let us drink the cup now, knowing that the faithful Lord has drank the cup of God's wrath to its dregs for his people.

32 · Concludes communion with Jesus' eschatological promise from Matthew 26:29

Matthew finishes with these words of Jesus: 'I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in the Father's kingdom.' You see, the day is drawing near. The Lord is calling his people back together to his place under his word. We're gathered to God so that we would gather together.

33 · Closing pastoral prayer

Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word. We thank you, Lord, that you've gathered us to yourself so that we might gather together around you. Lord, what a grace. Those, those who were sinners, who were rebels, who were running away from you, you've gathered to yourself so that we might gather together around you. What grace, what mercy, Lord, to us. Father, I pray that you would build in us a desire, a priority, a longing to be here together with your people gathered around you. We ask this in Jesus' name and for his glory. Amen.