"Keep on loving one another"

This has been automatically generated, and therefore may contain some unintended inaccuracies.

So if you'd like to, turn to Hebrew's chapter 12, and we'll be reading from verse 18, and it's on page 1211. You have not come to a mountain that can be touched that is burning with fire to darkness, gloom, and storm, to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them. Because they could not bear what was commanded even if even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death. The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, I am trembling with fear. But you've come to Mount Zion to the city of the living god, the heavenly Jerusalem.

You've come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God the judge of all to the spirits of the righteous made perfect to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we? If we turn away from him who warns us from heaven.

At that time, his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised once more, I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. The words once more indicate the removing of what can be shaped that is created things so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. And so worship God receptibly with reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire.

And keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters do not forget to show hospitality to strangers. For by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Continue to remember those in prison as if you were to give together with them in prison and those who are ill treated as if you yourselves were suffering. Married should be honored by all and marriage, and the marriage bed kept pure. For God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because God has said Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. So we say with confidence, the lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you.

Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. As you know, we're we're in an age, where we we love information and, data about ourselves. So I'm not gonna I'm not gonna ask you to put up your hand, but I I guess there would be a number in this room who would be wearing some kind of smart device, that is measuring you, nearly all the time. It's telling you how many steps you have taken today and how many you ought to take in order to reach your target.

Seems to be an always moving target that step figure, doesn't it? Tells you how far you've run and how hard you had to work on that run. It tells you how long you slept for last night and what the quality of that sleep was. It can tell you how much protein you ought to be eating, how many carbohydrates you ought to be eating, all of this information. We we love this stuff.

We love to just sort of track ourselves physically and to have near constant feedback about our physical performance. There's some shaking heads here. Maybe maybe some don't want to know any of that information. I appreciate. I appreciate that.

That would be true as well. But many of us do. I actually saw an advert in the in the paper of the of day for drinks that contain something called functional mushrooms. Now I can imagine what a dysfunctional mushroom would would be. But this was the functional kind because every drink, even water has to be sort of optimized with something that will make it more functional that will help us to perform better.

This is just the age that that we're in. Well, I wonder about then, tracking ourselves spiritually. What what could we look to to get some feedback on how we're doing, spiritually. We love it physically, but it's important spiritually as well, isn't it? To know how we're doing, how we're tracking to get some data on our on our lives as Christian people.

And it seems to me that Hebrews, 13 is is very, very helpful for that. As we've just seen, chapter 12, ends with this amazing description of the church. Know, what are we doing today? Friends? Who who actually are we?

We're not just the people who gather because we have very little else to do on a Sunday. We are a people who've come to Mount Zion. We have come with thousands upon thousands of joyful angels in assembly, and we have come to a mountain of covenant, and we have come to Jesus and to the shed blood of Jesus, which speaks a better word than the blood of Abel, a word of forgiveness and a word of hope and reconciliation. We are a a newborn people who've come to god's gospel mountain. That's what he says in chapter 12.

But then you come to chapter 13, and you might wonder what the connection is. Between chapter 13 and chapter 12. Because to start with, it looks like the author has got a a bag of things containing various Christian virtues, and he's just kinda reached his hand in and just put a load on the table. You know, love 1 another. That sounds about right.

Should we have something on money? Yeah. Let's have something on money. What about sexual impurity year where that well, that's always in this list, isn't it? So would and he's just sort of laid a few out.

But then you remember that actually these chapter divisions and headings which are very helpful for us when it comes to navigating our way through the bible. We're not actually part of the original manuscripts. And so, to those who 1st read this, chapter 12 would just go straight into chapter 13, without a bold number 13. It would just flow into it. And when you read it like that, it's it's quite helpful.

So if you look again at chapter 12 verse 28, it says, therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire, and we're thinking, well, that sounds pretty important. How am I supposed to worship God in a acceptable way. I would assume that if you're a Christian person here this morning, worshiping God acceptably is something important to you. How do we worship him who is a consuming fire?

Then he goes. Chapter 13 verse 1. Keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters. And I wanna suggest that connection is very, very helpful. How do I know if I am worshiping God in a way that he's pleasing to him.

In a way that's acceptable in his sight, I need to love my brothers and sisters. That's how I track my spiritual progress. Keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters or to put it in the negative. If I am so taken up with my own personal spiritual experience, So taken up with my own spiritual journey, and my own private mountain top life with God, that I have no real life working on it love for my church family, then whatever that is, that's not acceptable worship in the sight of God. I find that quite quite a challenging thing.

You know, we've been working our way through this book of Hebrews, And I can stand up at the front, and I can talk to you about the theology of Hebrews. And I've read books on the theology of Hebrews, and I reckon I could tell you who's right on Hebrews and who's wrong on Hebrews. But if I don't have a growing concern for the actual people who make up my church, then there is something irreverent, and acceptable about all my theologizing and all my preaching and all my talk about Hebrews. That's what's going on in chapter 13. You've got this, rich theology in chapters 1 to 12, which is made earthy in chapter 13.

What will your life look like if you've understood the rich Christ centered theology of chapter 12? It will look like church family. How do I treat people who are different from me? What do I think about those who are in prison for Jesus? How's my marriage going?

What about my attitude to money? That's how we track our worship lives. That's the thing that will give us feedback on how we're doing spiritually. And today, we're just gonna look at, as I say, just verse 1. So we're gonna look at verse 1.

We're gonna think mainly about love for 1 another. As an expression of acceptable worship. And there's 3 things I want to show you all in verse 1, and, we're gonna begin with an encouragement. And I will see if I can sort of swipe on. There we go.

That's it. Here's the encouragement 1st point. Keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters. Notice the word or the phrase. Keep on.

In other words, as God looks at this church, these Hebrew Christians, and our own churches. He doesn't say, I'm commanding you to get something that you don't have. But rather he says, I'm encouraging you to press on in what you do have. You have it, keep on with it. That's the encouragement.

It's very easy for us, I think particularly, you know, the British, among us, to, focus on the negatives of church life, who is not loving 1 another. How we could be loving 1 another better. Why isn't that person loving like they ought to be? There's a time for those kind of questions, obviously, but the problem is If we only focus on the negatives, we will we will rob ourselves of much that would encourage us. So if you think about it, Of course, there is always ways in which we could be loving 1 another better.

But if you were to add up, even in the 18 months or so, that you've been in existence as Hope Church, if you were to sort of count up, all the meals that have been cooked and the lifts that have been offered, and the kind words that have been exchanged, and the acts of service performed for 1 another, would would there not be on balance more to encourage you than to dishearten you. Keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters. I guess it's 1 of the the great challenges or with, you know, it is 1 of the great challenges isn't it? With a with a plant like this, where you're you're bringing together 2 gospel cultures and 2 gospel histories and bringing them together in order to form something new and different. There are challenges with that.

There's always gonna be challenges with that. It's like bringing together 2 families, isn't it? Maybe you can remember if you're married, getting married, and that 1st time you try to blend family christmases, and you rub up against each other's tradition. And there's challenges with that, but there's also joys with that, and there's opportunities of that. And I think on balance as you look back, you can probably, I hope, see, more that was encouraging about how you loved 1 another than was disheartening.

That that's the sense of the verse. Keep on. Keep on. You already have it. So keep on loving 1 another.

And, maybe after the service, you could share a couple of ways in which you've seen that over the last month together. Keep on loving 1 another. That's the encouragement. Then he says, or rather, then we will focus on 0.2. Keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters.

I was, reading recently about this, this thing, which I hadn't heard of called the the Dunning Kruger effect. I don't know if ever you, have heard of this. It it it's essentially, as far as I can make out, the tendency of people with low ability in a specific area to give an overly positive assessment of their ability in that area. I'll say that again. The tendency of people with low ability in a certain area to give an overly positive assessment of variability in that area.

And 1 area where this is, you know, born out in many studies is driving. That there are plenty of people who, if they were to take some kind of test, would be objectively seem to be bad drivers, and yet their assessment of their own ability behind the wheel is very high. And it's actually everybody else that has a has a low ability, and they're they're fine. We all sort of think that on the spectrum of drivers, we're in the sort of average to above average, even if we're objectively bad. Another area you you see this is sometimes with people who get very into sort of health and fitness and nutrition in the gym.

You know, they might read a couple of articles, watch 1 or 2 videos on how to lift weights. And all of a sudden, they're an enormous authority on the subject. Even though their actual ability in that area is still quite low, their assessment of what they now know and have become is huge. Yeah? That's the dunning kruger effect.

Maybe you can think of people who, who are like that all the time in different areas. But it just struck me, and I I as I was reading it, I was sort of asking the question, can can we, or can I overestimate my my ability in loving the church? Can I think that? I'm actually quite good at it compared to other people, but might I be overestimating my ability? I think we can do that.

Look again at verse 1. Keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters. And the truth is, I I just don't find that a disagreeable command. You know, if I was to sort of go around and say, do you think that's important to to love each other as brothers and sisters I think you'd all say, yeah. Yeah.

Of course. Yeah. Like, of course. Of course. That's what church is.

Love 1 another as brothers and sisters. But how easy is that or is it? To just treat that as a theological idea and not to apply it to the actual names and faces, which make up my actual church. It's something we're all going to agree with. And yet if we're honest, sometimes what we actually love is a previous version of church that I belong to, or a vision of what my church might 1 day be, but isn't now, or I love the perfect member who doesn't actually exist.

Or come to my church, and not the actual people who sit next to me every week. That's what keep on loving 1 another, like the ones you know and have to do with, not who they used to be or what they might 1 day become, but who they actually are now. It's like that in relationships, isn't it? If you think about a a marriage relationship or a parenting relationship or a good friendship type relationship. What does it mean for you to love your friend or to love your husband or to love your wife?

What does it mean to love your wife? It doesn't mean you love the version of her that you saw on your wedding day, and it doesn't mean you love what she could become, if only she worked a bit harder, you love the actual 1 that lives with you now. Not a previous version or an idealized future version, But the 1 you actually have now. It's true with church. See, I'm gonna assume you all agree with the principle in verse 1, because I do.

But how is it going with the living, breathing people who actually make up your church now. The author says, keep on loving 1 another. Keep on loving 1 another. But how do we do that? Because let's be honest, that the the trouble with the real people who actually make up our church the real people we actually have to see is that we have to see them, quite a lot as it turns out.

And sometimes, they, and we can be a bit of a pain in the neck, can't they? And we disappoint each other, and we get under each other's skin, and we feel like canceling each other So is there any help in this verse to keep on loving our actual 1 anothers? And there is let's come to this 3rd point, and it has to do with our shared identity. Keep on, that's an encouragement. You you have it.

Just keep on with it. Loving 1 another, the these ones in this room. As brothers and sisters. Keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters. Now it might be a a little bit lost on us today, but for the original hearers, this would be a whole new way of thinking.

You see, for a Jewish audience who had converted to Christ, and many of them seemed to come from this Jewish audience, your brothers and your sisters were your own people. They were your ethnic group, weren't they? Who are you gonna cook for? Who are you gonna help? Who are you gonna show hospitality to?

Who are you going to marry? Well, it's your own people. Not gentiles, definitely. It's gonna be your own brothers and sisters in the in the in the in the tribe. But in the kingdom of the lord Jesus Christ, that little tent has become a revive big top marquee.

And it's now gonna stretch right over all kinds of boundaries. You can see the roots of this theology back in chapter 2 verse 10. I put it on the screen. In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, It was fitting that God for whom and through whom everything exists. Should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.

Both the 1 who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. And so Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. Now, that's quite something, isn't it? But as the risen lord Jesus Christ looks down upon his church, he sees the Jewish believer who's converted from Judaism and become a Christian, and Jesus says that's my brother there. And then he sees the gentile lady who's been converted and is now a Christian.

And as he looks on at her from heaven, he says, and that's my sister. And as he looks at the person from a very, very loud and expressive culture who trusts in him. He says, that's my brother. And as he looks at the person from a much more quiet and reserved culture, who trusts in him, he says, that's my sister. As he looks at the British born Christian, he says, that's my brother.

As he looks at the international born Christian in the church, he says, that's my sister. That's how the risen lord Jesus looks upon this church with all of its differences, brothers and sisters. And so the question is, if the lord Jesus sees us in that way, would we be so bold as to treat each other in any other way? If we are going to keep on loving 1 another, like the real ones, the 1 another's even when it's tricky, and we become a pain in each other's necks sometimes. I've got to remember who you are.

I've got to remember that Jesus, my Jesus looks at you from heaven and says, That's my brother or sister. And I've gotta share in his view, of you, and me. I wanna show you 2, lists now. I've called them List A and List B, rather originally. List A is all of the things that you have in common as brothers and sisters in the book of Hebrews, up to chapter 13.

And this B is the things which could divide the church, but which really ought not to. And let me give you a bit of a health warning with List A. It it's like standing on the beach as a tsunami approaches you. Okay? So you might wanna just kind of rearrange yourself and make yourself comfortable.

Because this is quite a special list. So I'm gonna take you through them, and then I'm gonna show you why it matters. Okay? Here we go. Here's list A.

All the things you have in common. Same ancestors in the faith. Same lord of all things. Same creator. Same savior who's purified us from our sins.

Same superior name we trust in. Same warnings against drifting away. Same message entrusted to us. Same holy spirit giving us gifts, same crowns of glory and honor, same creation under us, same glory we've been given, same pioneer of salvation, same holiness in Christ, same identity in the eyes of Jesus, with family, just read that, Same flesh and blood, same freedom from death and the devil, same merciful and faithful high priest, same heavenly calling, same apostle, same builder of the house, same house we belong to, same confidence and hope in which we glory, same possibility of a hard heart. Same call to encourage, same need of encouragement, same promise of rest, same command to enter that rest, same living and active word of God to sit under, same lord to whom we must give account, same priest who's been tempted in every way, same throne of grace to approach, same mercy and grace to help in times of need, same source of eternal salvation, same need for solid food and training, same strong warnings against falling away, same encouragement to show diligence to the very end, same call to imitate people of faith, same anchor for the soul, secure, and firm, same forerunner who has entrusted god's, entered god's promise at presence on our behalf, same guarantor of a better covenant, same priest who always lives to intercede for us, same once and for all sacrifice for sins, same law in our hearts and minds, same blood of Christ to cleanse the conscience, same living God to serve, same eternal inheritance, same Christ appearing for us now in god's presence, same destiny to die once.

Same 2nd coming to wait for, same enemies under the foot stall of Christ, same confidence to enter the Holy Place, same assurance that faith brings, same faithful god, same command to love and spur 1 another on, same command to not give up meeting together, same day to prepare for, same conflict in the world, insult and persecution, same lasting possession and rich reward, same confidence in what we hope for, same assurance in what we do not see. Same great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, same sins which threaten to entangle us, same ra race, my marked out for us, same pioneer and perfecter of faith, same hearts which can grow weary, same struggle against sin, same father who disciplines those he loves, same feeble arms and weak knees, same caution against bitterness and immorality, same mountain, city, joyful assembly, god, judge, mediator. Same voice who speaks to us, same unshakable kingdom, same call to worship god, acceptably. And believe it or not, that is actually a selection, of some of the things which unite us. I'm thinking of, making a kind of audiobook of myself doing that, you know, so you can put your kids to sleep just with that.

Sort of sort of swinging list in their in their ears. Those are things which unite us. Here are some things which might divide us, and you'll be relieved to hear that this is much shorter. I don't mean, as you will see, false doctrine or heresies, which ought to divide us. You know, if the truth is at risk, that requires a separation in order to preserve the integrity of the gospel and the church.

These are things which might divide us, which really shouldn't. Your preferred music style is different from mine. Your food traditions are unfamiliar to me. You value structure and planning. I value flexibility and spontaneity.

You prefer formal communication. I prefer informal conversation. You value tradition, I value innovation. You prioritize relationships. I prioritize tasks and outcomes.

The way we write and send messages feels normal to us. It feels abrupt or unclear to you. You express disagreement directly. I express disagreement more carefully. You are comfortable with change.

I find change difficult. You support this political party. I don't think politics matters. You take 1 view on a less central doctrine I take another view on a less central doctrine. Your culture is loud and expressive.

My culture is quiet and reserved. You think of hospitality in 1 way. I think of hospitality another way. You ask lots of questions. I think questions sound confrontational.

You value the education of children highly. I'm not persuaded school means anything at all. Now, I'm not wanting to suggest here that these things never need dealing with or talking about. But the question is, in ordinary church life, will we allow these weighty, uniting things in List Day chiefly, that we are blood bought brothers and sisters to largely cover over the things in list B, or do we want to exaggerate the things in list B out of all proportion so that they become bigger and more significant in our minds than the truths in list A. That is the sort of thing that we have to preach to ourselves at the moment when it becomes difficult to love our 1 and others.

That's where we have to try to get a bit of mental, peace, and space, and bring this day to our mind so that we can see it or memorize a few of them. I gotta say to myself, when someone annoys me, or when someone isn't loving, as I think they should be loving, and when things are irritating about church life, I've gotta say to myself, Tom, you also have the capacity to be annoying. And for some reason, God has decided to save people who don't agree with you on every point. And if only God had consulted me 1st, we could have avoided this, and we could have had people who just agree with me. But for some reason, he didn't.

And so what do you wanna do? I've gotta say to myself, this is a brother or sister for whom Christ died. And so whatever we have by way of differences is like the size of a blueberry. And whatever we have by way of similarity is the size of Jupiter. And so which do I wanna look at?

A sort of blueberry sized you or a Jupiter sized you. And all the things that we have in common, we we must learn to speak that to ourselves if we're actually going to keep on loving the 1 and others that make up our church. You see, sometimes I think we fall for this lie that love ought to be spontaneous and free, and it just ought to sort of rise from us naturally. But biblical love is not automatic. It's not automatic.

And if we don't focus on it, it will drift away. It doesn't matter if we're only 18 months old, relatively new, or whether we're more established, If we don't focus on it, it'll flow away. And so how do we keep on loving 1 another? By calling to mind that the unifying factor in our relationships is not that we like the same food or that we're from the same social background, or that we're the same age and stage, or that we have the same taste in music, or that we'd vote the same way in a general election, or that we have the same views on education, the defying factor is that you are brothers and sisters of Jesus. According to the actual words of verse 1, That is how we will keep on loving the people who make up our actual churches by remembering that they, as we, our brothers and sisters in Christ, Should bow our heads have a moment of quiet?

And then I'll lead us in a prayer. Maybe you'd just like to, look over that verse again, 13 verse 1, think about the keep on. Maybe you could use the quiet just to say thank you. To Jesus for where you do already see love within the church here. Maybe there's a 1 another that you need to say, lord, you know, I wanna love this person.

I need to love it helped me to love this person. Maybe there's a brother or sister you just wanna remember. This is my brother. This is my sister. Let's have a moment of quiet now.

Father, we thank you that through the blood of Christ, you have made us brothers and sisters, and we pray by your spirit that you would help us to remember that we are brothers and sisters in Christ so that we can keep on loving 1 another. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.