"Why should I be a part of a community group?"

Every week at the church where I serve, we gather together in community so that we can create the space where we can explore faith, grow in our faith, and experience genuine and authentic community. As a church, we desire to create environments where you can move on a spiritual journey from the place of being a consumer who is either searching and shopping for answers when it comes to Jesus and the Bible or who view that church as a place that provides spiritual goods and services, to the place where you are an owner who owns and genuine and authentic relationship with Jesus and where you can move from the place of being an owner to being an investor who is investing their time, talents and treasure in the kingdom mission that we have been given.

Every week, we express that our goal is that everyone who attends here at City Bible Church would be investing their time in a community group, their talents serving God by serving others on a ministry team, and investing their treasure in a way that reveals and reflects the generosity of Jesus through regular and proportional giving. Now you might be reading this and a natural question that could arise at this point is "Well Dave, where did you come up with these desires and goals? And why should I embrace these desires and goals? Why should I be a part of a community group? Why should I be a part of a ministry team? Why should I give to the church?"

If you are asking those questions, I just want you to know that they are great questions to be asking. And my answer to those questions would be this; when we read the letters that make up the Bible, we consistently see that followers of Jesus who are involved in a growing and maturing relationship that reveals and reflects Jesus invested their time with other Christians as they gathered corporately for regular weekly worship gatherings and as they scattered to experience community in homes throughout the week. When we read the letters that make up the Bible, we consistently see that followers of Jesus who are involved in a growing and maturing relationship that reveals and reflects Jesus consistently invested their talents serving God by serving others through the exercise of their spiritual gifts. And when we read the letters that make up the Bible, we consistently see that followers of Jesus who are involved in a growing and maturing relationship that reveals and reflects Jesus consistently invested their treasure to support God’s kingdom mission through regular and proportional giving.

As a church we repeatedly express these desires and these goals not because we want something from people; instead we repeatedly express these desires and goals because we want something for people, which is that they would experience a growing and maturing relationship with Jesus. As a church, we simply want people to experience the relationship with God that you were created for. And part of experiencing the relationship with God that they were created for is to be doing life together in close community with other followers of Jesus.

So this week I would like for us to spend our time together talking about why it is essential for people to be consistently investing our time in a community group. And to do that, I would like for us to look at a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of Hebrews. However, before we jump into this section of this letter, we first need to spend a few minutes talking about the book of Hebrews.

As the title of the book of Hebrews reveals for us, the book of Hebrews was written around 65 A.D. to the Hebrews, which were Jewish Christians who had never heard or seen Jesus in person, but had learned of Him as the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel had been proclaimed throughout the known world. However, as the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel was proclaimed throughout the known world; and as people from throughout the known world responded to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel by believing, trusting and following Jesus, persecution against followers of Jesus began to increase throughout the known world.

However, while persecution of Christianity increased throughout the world, those who were involved in Judaism were not experiencing persecution. And as a result of what was going on at this time in history, these Jewish people were impacted in two specific ways. First, there were Jewish followers of Jesus who became stalled and stuck when it came to their spiritual growth. Some Jewish followers of Jesus became paralyzed by the persecution that they were experiencing in such a way that they had stopped growing in their relationship with Jesus.

Second, there were some Jewish people who were exploring faith and claimed to be following Jesus who were considering bailing on following Jesus to return to Judaism. After all, Judaism was safe, while following Jesus was proving to be dangerous. Judaism was accepted by the culture of the day, while Christianity was opposed by the culture of the day.

And as a result of what the author of the book of Hebrews saw occurring among these Jewish people who claimed to want to follow Jesus but who had become either stalled and stuck, or were considering bailing on Jesus, the writer of the book of Hebrews wrote this letter to communicate a simple but profound message. And that simple and profound message involved the absolute supremacy and superiority of Jesus Christ and Christianity over Judaism.

The writer of Hebrews began his letter by proclaiming the absolute supremacy and superiority of Jesus as the messenger to proclaim God’s message to humanity. Jesus was a superior messenger as opposed to the prophets because unlike the prophets, Jesus was the hands of the Creation who was the exact representation of the nature of God. Jesus was the visible representation of the invisible God who most fully proclaimed God’s message as a prophet of God who was also the Creator and King of the universe. In addition, the writer of Hebrews proclaimed that Jesus was a superior messenger as opposed to the angels because while angels were servants who ministered and worshipped Jesus as the King and Creator, Jesus was the object of their worship.

And because of the reality that Jesus had a position of absolute supremacy and superiority over the prophets and angels when it came to proclaiming God’s message to humanity, in the second chapter of the book of Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews encouraged and exhorted the Jewish readers of his letter to pay attention to the superior message of Jesus. The Jewish readers of this letter were encouraged to pay attention to the superior message of the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel, because failing to pay attention would result in greater consequences to those who rejected that message.

The Jewish readers of this letter were encouraged to pay attention because of the greatness of the messenger, Jesus Christ, who proclaimed the message of the gospel. The Jewish readers of this letter were encouraged to pay attention because of the greatness of the messenger, Jesus Christ, who freed us from the power of death through His death on the cross, in our place, for our selfishness and rebellion.

The Jewish readers of this letter were encouraged to pay attention because of the greatness of the messenger, Jesus Christ, who frees us from the power of temptation through the example of how He responded to temptation. And the Jewish readers of this letter were encouraged to pay attention because of the greatness of the messenger, Jesus Christ, who was a superior messenger than Moses as a result of being the Son of God who is God, and not just a servant of God.

And it is in this context that we are going to jump into this section of this letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible, called the book of Hebrews. Tomorrow, we will jump into this letter together…