Let Us Draw Near
For Meditation
This Sunday we're starting a new 6 weeks series called "Life with God, Life with Others, Life for the World." After a couple of years of pandemic disruption, we're returning to the basics of our common life together. Each week we'll be looking at an important practice for our common life, oriented around the three fold Up-In-Out of our discipleship vision.
The first two weeks we are looking at our Life with God, and we begin this week with the practice of weekly Sunday corporate worship. With the busy lives that we live, the pressures we are all under, and the ability to virtually connect with sermons and Christian content from almost anywhere, is it realistic to expect that we continue to show up every week for corporate worship?
The writer of the book of Hebrews thought so. His own congregation was struggling to show up each week, probably because of religious persecution, a dislike for one another, or just plain laziness. But in this section, their pastor first reminds them of the incredible work that God has accomplished for them through Jesus Christ (v.19-21), basically a summary of everything he has said thus far in the letter. And how should we respond to this incredible good news of what Christ has accomplished for us? Come to worship! "Let us draw near, let us spur one another on, let us not give up meeting together." Gathering and meeting for the worship of the church is the most basic practice of responding to the good news.
This Sunday we'll look at why corporate worship is so important and what it does for us to commit to this weekly practice.
Hebrews 10:19-25
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.