Today's Bible Study, Authored by Arthur Cincotti. 08/29/2021
Why Church?
Let’s read Heb.
10:19-25, eventually focusing on vrs. 25
Why has God ordained
this institution and said:
“The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Mat. 16:18
That Christ shall be its “head” Col. 1:18
That His glory may abide there in, Eph. 3:21
That the church might be His bride, Eph. 5:27-32
That He may call it His house, I Tim. 3:15
That it may be a place of miracles, Jam. 5:14,15
God has established only
two institutions amongst men…
marriage ________and _______The church
Notice how both are
coming under attack in our culture.
The Hebrews passage
starts right out by exalting Jesus, vrs. 19-21
19, the only way we can enter the Most Holy Place is by the blood of Jesus. His own blood!
In the Old Covenant, the high priest enters the
Most Holy place, with the blood
of another, Heb. 9.25
The “boldness” on our part is not arrogance, but
that it is bold to
think that we might be invited at all.
20. “He consecrated for us” the word “consecrated” is
“engkainizo” meaning, to renew, inaugurate,
dedicate.
21. He is the “High Priest” forever according to Heb. 6:20
The office of priest was installed as a meiator in
order to bring the people before
God.
In the following verses, 22, 23, 24, we have
“let us” statements
This is what Jesus did,
therefore “let us”
Vrs. 22, “draw near”
Isn’t that beautiful. Consider Jas. 4:8, “Draw near
to God and He well draw near to you.”
Nearness, in terms of proximity, is
a quality of intimacy.
Vrs. 23, “hold fast the
confession of our hope” Rom. 8:24, “hope that is seen is not hope”
Vrs. 24, “consider one
another” may we not be so heavenly minded that
we are of no earthly good. Jn. 13:35,
“By this all will know that you are My
disciples, if you have love for one another.”
This is the dynamic of us!
Vrs. 25, “not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together…”
In other words, “having church”
This is a rather unique
injunction in the Scripture. In other places the meeting is either implied or
assumed. See I Cor. 5:4, Phm. 1:2
This coming, or
gathering together becomes the hallmark of the early church. In its infancy it
is believed that Jewish followers would go to synagogue, and then meet
separately as confessing Christians (Acts 3:1). It is not until Acts 11:26 that
followers of “the Way” (Acts 9:2) were first called Christians.
An OT comparison to this
practice could be what the Scripture calls, “a holy convocation” beginning to
show up in Exodus.
The coming together of like
minded believers is liken to what happens in the upper room in Acts 1:12 – 2:4.
Our “like mindedness” or
“one accordedness” is:
Concerning the person and Lordship of Jesus Christ.
That He rose from the dead, ascended into heaven.
That salvation is by faith in Him alone...He is the Way!
Everything about the
Christian faith is determined to drive us together in intimate
fellowship/relationship to encourage one another as we anticipate the return of
our Lord and Savior. Our God is relational and we are called to be the same.
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