Word of Salvation – Vol. 37 No. 23 – June 1992

 

Encourage Each Other Daily!

 

Sermon by Rev. P. Abetz on Hebrews 3:13

Reading: Ezekiel 36:24-26, Matthew 12:33-37,
                        Hebrew 10:19-39, Philippians 2:1-5

 

Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,

Whether we like to admit it or not: We all need encouragement.

Children need encouragement in terms of doing their school work.  Cadet and Calvinette leaders, elders, deacons all need encouragement.  Yes, even politicians need encouragement.

As we read our Bibles, we find that encouragement is something very important for all believers.  So much so that Romans 12 tells us that the Holy Spirit gives some people the spiritual gift of encouragement.

While the Spirit gives some a special gift of encouragement, our text says: Encourage one another daily.

The form of this statement is an imperative.  It is a command.  Yes, our text commands us to encourage one another daily!  So all believers are called to do this.  The writer to the Hebrews tells us that this is important because of…

1.  The Present Situation

You may have noticed that verse 7 is the beginning of a quotation from Psalm 95:7-11 – ‘today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts.’  The ‘today’, as used by the Psalmist back then, meant that it was not too late to turn back to God.  And so, by saying in our text (verse 13) that the present time is called ‘today’, the writer to the Hebrews is effectively saying: It is not too late to turn to God now.  It is still the age of God’s grace.

The age of God’s grace is the time when God still gives people time to come and accept His grace.

Once the Lord Jesus returns to complete His kingdom, the day of grace will be over.  Then it will be the day of judgement.

Part of the events of that great and awesome day will be that Jesus will put an end to all evil, and those who have not turned to Jesus in faith, will be separated from God for all eternity.

Hence, as long as it is this time period of ‘today’ – the time God still pours forth His grace we are to encourage one another.

As believers, we have been made whole in Christ: restored into a living relationship with God, declared righteous on account of Jesus’ saving work.

One of the results of our being recreated in Christ Jesus is that we can now again do good works, for as the prophet Ezekiel puts it, our heart of stone has been replaced by a heart of flesh; a heart that has been equipped with a treasure store of amazing abundance.  And when we combine this with the words of Jesus in Matthew 12:34-37 where He says that out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, then as Christians we are well equipped to be encouragers.

Yet, if we are honest, we have to admit that we do not always find ourselves doing good works!  We do not find ourselves consistently encouraging one another.  We tend to gloss over this requirement, because we tell ourselves that we are all still sinners anyway.

But Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 6:1 that if we do not demonstrate the grace of God in our lives, then we have received it in vain.  In other words, as believers, we are obligated to operate on the basis of the rich storehouse which Christ has given us in our hearts.  All too often we fail to operate on the basis of those riches.  Instead we fall back into the ways of the old self.

So it should not surprise us that the New Testament frequently calls us to live aright as we await the return of Jesus.  We repeatedly come across terms like ‘walk aright’, ‘continue in the faith’ (Acts 14:22) and in Romans 12 we have the well-known call to ‘offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.’

It is part of the life of grace to earnestly desire to obey the commands of God.  Yet during this time period of ‘today’ we are all still very prone to sin, even though the Spirit of God lives in us (Romans 8:9).  Even though we do not need to sin, we still sin all too often.  This means we are constantly faced with having to make choices for God, or for the old sinful way.  God has given us all we need to keep on choosing for him.  But Satan delights to get us side-tracked.  And so as we await the return of our Lord, we all stand in…

2.  The Need of Encouragement

…In order to live by the Spirit rather than by the old sinful nature.

It is precisely because we all stand in need of encouragement, that in Hebrews we read that we are to encourage one another daily.  The apostle Paul knew just how important it was to encourage people.  He instructed Timothy to rebuke and encourage (2Tim.4:2).

To the Ephesians he wrote: Do not be discouraged because of my suffering for you (Eph.3:13) and then in Eph.6:22, he writes from prison that he is sending Tychicus to let them know how he is going, and that in this way they may be encouraged.

He similarly writes in Col.4:8 that he is sending Tychicus to them to encourage their hearts.  When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he urged them to encourage one another.

But what does it mean to encourage someone?

The Greek word translated in our NIV Bible as encouraged literally translated is: called alongside for a purpose.

This word always implies a kind and caring approach, but it does not exclude the possibility of great vehemence.  Some of the older translations tend to use exhort, or beseech.  So we can see that it really means to come alongside of someone and impress upon them the urgency, or importance of doing something.  But how can we best impress upon someone the urgency or importance of doing something?  The Greek word already tells us: It is best done by standing alongside of a person to reassure him, to buttress and console him.  In short: to support and help him do his very best.

Our text says that as believers in Christ, we should encourage one another daily.

The writer to the Hebrews recognised that it is easy for people who have received a heart of flesh to fall back into their old ways, for he says: (verse 12) See to it brothers that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns from the living God.

And the reason it is so easy to fall back into our old ways is because sin is so deceitful.  Satan does not challenge us by saying: God says do this, but I say, do that.  He is far too cunning for that.  We can see his deceitfulness by looking at what happened in the Garden of Eden where Satan tempted Eve.  Satan did not tempt Eve by outright denial of the command of God which forbade them to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but instead he said: Did God say…?

Brothers and sisters, we are all too willing and ready at times to try and excuse ourselves from obeying God.

3.  The Result of Encouraging Each Other Daily

We have seen encouragement is to help and support someone so that they can do their best for God.  We can see that this encouragement the Bible is talking about is clearly an urging towards a life of obedience to God.

We do not always find it easy to be encouragers.  Often we do not give encouragement, because it is much easier to be judgemental.  It is easier not to get involved and simply wait till someone falls and then point the finger.  It is easier to say: I would never do that!  And so we try and make ourselves feel better by comparing ourselves to the one that has fallen.

But it does nothing to help the other person to live in greater obedience to God.

Often we withhold encouragement because we tend to be so individualistic that we hesitate to be involved in other people’s lives even though the Bible tells us that as the redeemed people of God, as members of the one body of Christ, we belong to one another.

We do not like to remove our masks, or layers that we put around ourselves, for then people might see us for who we really are, rather than what we want them to see.

But if we fail to encourage our brother and sister in the Lord, then we are not working to prevent their being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

For you and me to be able to encourage one another in a meaningful way, several things need to happen:

Firstly, we need to meet together for worship, for it is in that setting that we express unity in our Lord.  And the greatest encouragement we can have is knowing who we are in Christ.

Secondly, we need to meet together for fellowship.  As Hebrews 10:25 tells us: Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the day approaching.

Thirdly, we need to think creatively of ways in which we can ‘spur one another on towards love and good deeds.’

Fourthly, we need to be people who regularly and consistently study the Word of God.  For it is there that God tells us how to live as his people.  The best encouragement we can give anyone is encouragement based upon the Word of God.

Brothers and sisters, if we do this it will have a twofold effect:
            It will prevent us from hardening ourselves against God,
            and hardening ourselves towards sin.

It happens among our young people at times, when they live together before marriage, and the excuse they give is that you have got to find out what the other person is really like, before you can responsibly entertain marriage.  Sounds almost pious – but the fact is that God has forbidden this.  God says that sex belongs only within the marriage relationship.

Or we rationalise that a little bit of pornography is not too bad.  The excuse may be: Well, you have to know what is going on in the world.

Or we justify to ourselves that so and so hurt us so much that we do not have to follow the Biblical injunction to see the brother who sinned against us.

Yes, when we are on our own, isolated from other Christians, we are prone to impress ourselves with the false arguments of the world and so compromise our Christian faith and witness.

But in the healthy atmosphere of Christian fellowship, the false arguments of the world are much more readily exposed for what they really are: They are part of the deceitfulness of sin.

So often the right path is clearly known to us, but we are disinclined to follow it, and justify our disobedience against God in a variety of ingenious ways.  So much so that Proverbs says: The way that seems right leads to death!  But surrendering to these wrong ways is a hardening of the heart, and each successive time it becomes more difficult for us to obey God.

But in true Christian fellowship, where the members really care for each other, we can gain so much strengthening of resolve to stand up to temptation.  That is what encouragement is really about.  It is about encouraging people to serve God.  To help people stand strong against the attacks of Satan.

And the reason that we are to encourage each other daily is the fact very that every day brings with it its own trials and temptations, and no one knows when he, or his brother or sister in Christ will be called upon to endure the greatest of temptations.

In the end it is only those who finish the race, who have any hope of gaining the prize.

And we are called to encourage one another to keep running the race.  It is easy to start a race.  In the Old Testament we have a classic example: The Israelites made a good beginning when they left Egypt, and crossed the Red Sea.  They praised God for their deliverance.  But the good beginning was not matched by their later behaviour.

Likewise, for us who have been freed from slavery to sin and death, and have crossed from death to life, all too often that good beginning is not matched with a consistent Christian lifestyle.

Encouragement to keep running the race will result in increasing obedience to God.  These things in turn will enable us to both give and receive encouragement.

Conclusion

Brothers and sisters, may the Lord of the church, working through His Spirit increasingly enable each one of us to daily encourage each other to live in obedience to God, as Christ has enabled us.

As we eagerly await the return of our Lord, let us encourage one another daily.

AMEN