Today marks the fifth anniversary of the first sermon I preached as the Lead Pastor of Meadowbrooke Church, which was on November 4, 2018. The passage I preached on that day was Isaiah 6:1-8, and the only two sermon points I had on that day was: 1) God Calls Us to Know Him, and 2) God Calls Us to Send Us. There were seven truths I wanted Meadowbrooke to know on November 4, 2018, about God from Isaiah 6; those seven truths were and still remain the thing I want you to know today:
- God is alive.
- God is sovereign.
- God is great.
- God is majestic.
- God is God.
- God is holy.
- God is missional (He is on mission).
The irony for me is that here we are, five years later, and we have just finished up a series in Malachi title “Worth-ship” with the hope that I can, on a very practical level, help you understand what it means to be the kind of person described for us in Malachi 3:16-18,
Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened attentively and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and esteem His name. “And they will be Mine,” says the Lord of armies, “on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will have compassion for them just as a man has compassion for his own son who serves him.” So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.
I sat in front of my Bible for several hours earlier this week staring at it helpless and not knowing what text from the Bible for us to dive into. My mind was finally drawn to Hebrews 11:1-12:3 and as I meditated upon those verses, I realized that the author of Hebrews wrote his epistle (which is really a sermon) with the same motivation that I have for you today. My heart’s desire for our time together this morning is that you leave here with a better understanding of what it means to be a Christian. As I meditate upon this passage in Hebrews and the time we spent in Malachi, there were three words that came to mind. The title of my sermon today is simply this: The Three F-Words of the Christian Life.
So, what are the three words I believe are characteristic of anyone who belongs to God? The words are fear, faith, and fellowship and are true of anyone who has been reconciled to God through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and redemption of all whose faith and trust is in Him. These are not the only characteristics, but they are the primary ones that come to mind; it is also important to note that these words are not sequential but overlap each other.
Fear (yārēʾ): A reverent fear that compels the Christian to lean into God.
Last week I explained that there were three types of Hebrew words for fear related to how one responds to God in the Old Testament. There is a fear where the response is dread; there is a fear where the response of the person is terror, and then there is the kind of fear that was characteristic of those described in Malachi 3:16 and every other person who pressed into God through worship rather than recoiling from Him, and that fear is a reverent and respectful fear.
If you recall, I showed you that it is the fear described in Proverbs 9:10, “Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.” You can see it here: There is a fear that causes those who belong to God to recoil from evil for the purpose of pursuing and pressing into God. It is the kind of fear that inspired Abel to offer a better sacrifice to God (Heb. 11:4). It is the kind of fear that compelled Abraham to obey God by leaving the city of Ur to go to a place God would eventually show him even though Abraham did not know where he was going (v. 8-10). It is the kind of fear that compelled Moses to endure ill-treatment rather than the temporary pleasures of sin (v. 25). It is the type of fear that compels the Christian to, “…run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking only to Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith” (12:1-2).
What compels a man, woman, or even a child to worship God even if to do so is costly? These are the kinds of people described in Hebrews 11:37-38, “They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented (people of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts, on mountains, and sheltering in caves and holes in the ground” (Heb. 11:37–38).
The kind of fear that results in the kind of reverence for God that the people described in Hebrews 11 had comes out of an understanding of who He is. Under some of the most severe seasons of suffering and persecution, what has been proven time and time again is the truth of Daniel 11:32, “…but the people who know their God will be strong and take action.” To a people who were about to experience the terror of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian empire, the prophet Jeremiah wrote these words: “Let no wise man boast of his wisdom, nor let the mighty man boast of his might, nor a rich man boast of his riches; but let the one who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises mercy, justice, and righteousness on the earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord” (Jer. 9:23-24).
If you ever hope to revere God in the same way those described in Hebrews 11 did, you better seek to know Him! The way to know Him is to seek Him and to do so in the way that He has revealed Himself. How has He revealed Himself? He has done so by showing He exists by things seen, and more specifically through His Son, Jesus Christ and through His written Word!
Faith: A trust in God that deepens as the Christians knows Him more.
What is faith? We are told what it is in the very first verse: “Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen.” This faith begins with a confidence (NIV), an assurance (ESV), a certainty in a God, who, as the opening sentence in Hebrews states, has revealed Himself, “… to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son” (Heb. 1:1-2).
It is a faith that begins with a rational and intelligent presupposition that God exists. It is a faith that is rational and intelligent because it makes a lot more sense than the alternative. We are not an accident, there is design in the universe, and you and I bear His image: “By faith we understand that the world has been created by the word of God so that what is seen has not been made out of things that are visible” (11:3). It is the kind of faith that came about in Noah’s life because God revealed Himself to him in a very real and tangible way. Out of his understanding of who God was, Noah believed Him when he was told by God Almighty that it was going to rain. It was faith that compelled Noah to build a boat to escape the judgment of God.
It was out of a growing knowledge of who God was that Abraham was not simply looking for a land promised to him by God. It was through faith in a good and holy God that Abraham looked, “…for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (v. 10). It was through faith that Abraham responded in obedience to a sovereign and loving God that he, “…offered up Isaac” because “he considered that God was able to raise people even from the dead” (vv. 17-19). It was out of a growing understanding of who God was that the men and women of old, “who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies” (vv. 33-34). It is the type of faith that emboldens the Christian to, “…run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfector of the faith” knowing with certainty that there is a great joy waiting for us on the other side of eternity.
As the Christian grows in his/her understanding of God, so will a reverence for God and faith in Him deepen. This cannot happen unless your reverence of Him moves you to know Him more, for the better that you know Him, the easier it will be trust Him.
Fellowship: A union in God that overflows into community with His people.
The forgiveness of your sins is not conditioned on anything that you do. If you are a Christian, it is all because of Jesus! What about the saints of Old before the birth of Jesus? It was their faith in the promise of God. The promise is not a “what” but a “who.” The “who” is Jesus, and the saints of old longed for His appearing: “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect” (Heb. 11:39-40).
The point of Hebrews is that Jesus is sufficient to save us from our sins and reconcile us to a Holy God we have sinned against. It is all of Him and none of me! Throughout the book of Hebrews, Jesus is shown to be better than everything that has come before. This is why in the very first paragraph of Hebrews, we read:
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high… (Heb. 1:1-3)
After Jesus lived the life we could never live, died the death we all deserved under the wrath of His Father for our sin, was buried, then rose three days later… “He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” What He accomplished was complete and there is not a thing or deed we can add to what He already accomplished. If that were not enough, the author of Hebrews added in 10:11-14, “Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”
We have the promise the saints of old look to and longed for! Therefore, it is out of a reverent infused fear that serves as the fuel of a faith that turns our eyes away from everything else and sets our hearts on Jesus and only Jesus as the “originator and perfector of the faith.”
Notice that it is Jesus we are running to, the One who is our Promise! There is a favorite phrase used by the apostle Paul, couched in three different ways that describes the kind of fellowship that is first and foremost rooted in Jesus, and that phrase is “in Christ,” in the Lord,” and “in Him.” That phrase in its various forms is used about 164 times by the apostle Paul alone! It is the kind of fellowship Jesus described in John 15:1-5,
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself but must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
To abide in Jesus is to take up residence in Him; it is a union with Him as you walk with Him. It is the sort of thing Paul describes in Philippians 3:7-11,
But whatever things were gain to me, these things I have counted as loss because of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
How does one abide in Jesus? You need to not only hear His words, but you must listen to them. Do not stop at listening to His words though, you must take them into your mind and heart and obey them. As you obey Him, you must follow Him and go where He goes to learn from Him. This is the very thing the Savior invites us to do, for He has said:
“The one who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and the one who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And the one who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. The one who has found his life will lose it, and the one who has lost his life on My account will find it.” (Matt. 10:34-36)
“Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30)
From Adam and Eve all to those described in Malachi 3:16-18, and the faithful followers of Jesus who endure to the end all the way up to the end of the age (Matt. 24:13), the three “F” words that are characteristic of those who belong to God are fear, faith, and fellowship. We do not do this alone but do it within the community of His people before a great cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1).
I have been with you for five years Meadowbrooke. I am not sure what tomorrow will bring, but I do anticipate, with a heavy heart, that in the next five years, we may see and experience great global sorrows. Therefore, I leave you with Hebrews 10:19-25 as what I believe to be the most appropriate way to conclude this sermon on the fifth anniversary of what I consider to be a great honor to serve our great Savior as your incompetent and flawed pastor:
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let’s approach God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let’s hold firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let’s consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds, not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
Amen.
