Living in Fellowship With Each Other
Passage: Hebrews 10:19-25
For most Christians in America, church means Sunday morning worship. For a smaller percentage church may mean adding Sunday evening worship, a Sunday school class, possibly a mid-week Bible Study. In your reading of the Bible do you get a sense that NT church life could be summed up as an hour of worship. I don’t think so. Churches like that become passive and dependent on a few paid professionals.
Ephesians 4:16 says the church is a body, with many members all ministering to one another in interpersonal ministry, growing and building as each part does its work.
Acts 2:46 says the early believers gathered together day after day in the Temple and house to house to break bread, study the apostle’s teaching, fellowship and pray together.
This morning I will lay a Biblical foundation for small groups being a part of the ministry of church and encourage you to consider whether the Spirit might lead you to be part of one.
Our text this morning gives us a Biblical foundation for gathering in smaller groups. Every text has a context and knowing the context will help us understand the text.
The writer of Hebrews has spent 10 chapters showing how Christ is far superior to the old covenant and all the aspects of the OT rituals and worship. Christ is superior to the tabernacle and temple, He is superior to the sacrifices and offerings and He is superior to the priesthood.
Beginning with Hebrews 10:19 we come to the turning point of this sermon and its climax, the crescendo.