In 1965, a CRC mission work in Charlotte, Michigan — a city so named after the wife of settler Edmond Bostwick –had been sponsored by Plymouth Heights CRC and Shawnee Park CRC arrived at the point where it could begin a building project to house those who had been meeting in the parsonage for Sunday services prior to this time. CRC Evangelist Rev. Al Bytwork had been the Church planter and had been diligent and faithful in his calling. Mr. Gary Douma was the Building chairman for the facility and provided the leadership to see the project to completion. As I understand it costs were kept at a minimum by men of the Church volunteering their time and abilities.
Of course it was a far different world then.
1965 — Petrol 30.9 cents per gallon — 2.33 per gallon adjusted for inflation 2015
1965 average New home — 13,600 — $102,150.68 adjusted for inflation 2015
1965 average loaf of bread — .21 cents — 1,58 adjusted for inflation 2015
1965 average new car — $2,650.00 — 19,904.36 adjusted for inflation 2015
The nation was just getting knee deep in Vietnam.
The Mary Quant designed Mini Skirt appears in London and will become the fashion statement of the 60’s while the infamous Connecticut vs. Griswold decision was handed down. Each of these presaged and confirmed the burgeoning sexual revolution.
The British Rock -n- Roll invasion was not very old and Rev. Bytwork, citing author David Nobel, wrote about the effects of Rock -n- Roll on thinking in one of his newsletters.
President Lyndon Johnson declared a war on poverty and expanded Medicare.
In June of 1965 The Gemini IV mission launches and carries astronauts Edward White and James McDivitt.
In 1965 the Hart-Cellar act was passed … a act which eventually ended up radically and forever changing the Demographics of the country forever.
In the context of all this something even more enduring and with greater potential impact was happening in Charlotte Michigan. An outpost of God’s Kingdom was being given a place to gather for Word and Sacrament, for catechism and fellowship, for worldview training and for discipleship. This was a place where God’s army would be trained and equipped for battle.
The Kingdom outpost planted had a humble start, numerically speaking, and in God’s providence, numerically speaking, this church has always been modest in its numbers over its 50 years. This is something that was shared with that Hebrews congregation and all of the congregations of the New Testament. The letter to the Hebrews was sent to a congregation that was small and struggling against the zeitgeist of their times. This small group of Hebrew Christians were in a place of having to decide whether or not they were going to return to cultural Judaism or whether they were going to remain Christians. The writer tries to show the readers that the right choice was to continue to trust in Jesus. He does so by demonstrating how the Lord Christ is superior to the Old Covenant.
This plea upon a small group of people, by the writer of this Epistle, to not give into to the prevailing Spirit of the age … to not disavow their confession is a point that we should consider ourselves. Our danger in the Church today is the danger of those Hebrews written to in this Epistle. However our danger is more often to give up on Christianity by reinterpreting it as consistent with the prevailing opposition than it is to just leave Christianity to go back to ways that are more acceptable to the culture as these Hebrews were on the cusp of doing.
We, like they, are feeling the pressure to give up on Christianity. We, unlike they, tend to respond to this pressure by just reinterpreting, or re-adjusting the Christian faith in order to fit in to the culture as opposed to just leaving Christianity behind as the Hebrews were tempted to do.
When we consider this passage proper we see three components. Realities that were true for that Charlotte CRC Church in 1965 and realities that remain true for us today.
I.) We see in this passage the Church’s Confidence. (19-23)
The confidence we speak of here is the Church’s foundation and cornerstone of every generation. Our confidence is the person and work of our Elder Brother the Lord Christ for His people.
In 1965 when they built this place it was to the end of, corporately, having the boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus. And of course this is why Church’s are built and why people assemble for Church. It is for the opportunity to corporately come into God’s presence by the blood of Christ. Why build churches or attend services if not to enter into this privilege of unique worship of the thrice Holy God?
Of course the whole idea of entering the Holiest is the idea to come into God’s presence. In the OT culture, which the Hebrews are tempted to return to, there was no ability for them to individually and corporately enter into the Holiest. Only the High Priest could do that. This passage reminds us of the intimacy God’s people may have with God. Other passages remind us that Christ is at the right hand of the Father on our behalf, but this passage reminds us that we ourselves may enter God’s heavenly sanctuary by trusting in Christ alone.
Now the impact of that statement impacts each of us in relation to our estimation of the character of God. If we have come to appreciate the Holiness and Transcendence of God and have come to know our sin the idea that God has made a way for us to come into His presence is overwhelming.
By this reminder that we can come boldly into God’s presence we are reminded that we as Christians are ourselves now Priests under the authority of the Lord Christ who is our great High Priest. Like the veil of hold that was torn from top to bottom signifying entry into the presence of God so Christ was torn that we might be a Kingdom of Priests ministering in God’s presence speaking to God on behalf of His saints.
This passage with its reference to blood and flesh emphasizes again the work of the Lord Christ for God’s people. The premise is that there was a chasm of hostility between God and man that only could be closed by God and with the arrival and work of Christ the chasm of hostility is closed and God is reconciled to man. The Hebrews were tempted to give up on that for a little relief.
Hebrews 1o:19-25, with its reference to Christ as our High priest, reminds us of the absolute necessity and singularity of Christ as the means of introduction to the Father. In a church culture that has too often given up on the idea of the uniqueness of Christ, Hebrews reminds us that there is no peace with God apart from a Christ who is consistent with God’s revelation.
People who don’t believe this don’t build churches. People who don’t believe this typically don’t attend Biblical Churches. People who don’t believe this don’t celebrate 50th anniversaries.
Before we press on please do not miss that Christ is said here to the High Priest over the house of God.
God’s house throughout Scripture has been his people. The celebration this morning is not primarily a celebration of this facility, as beautiful as it is. The celebration this morning is the celebration that God deigned in 1965 to build a household in this place for the manifestation of His glory.
II.) We see in this passage the Church’s Covenant (vs. 23)
And that is simply put as God’s faithfulness. The idea of God’s faithfulness as deep roots and long tentacles in Scripture.
Alec Motyer has described God’s hesed or covenant love as
combining the warmth of God’s fellowship with the security of God’s faithfulness.
God’s quality of being faithful is everywhere spoken of in Scripture. It is a component of His covenant promise to His people. In the OT that covenant faithfulness is expressed by the Hebrew word “Hesed” which expresses both God’s loyalty to His covenant and His love for His people along with a faithfulness to keep His promises.
God never ceases to be faithful. He is first faithful to Himself but He is also faithful to all those He claims as His own. We are called to hold fast to our confession of our hope here without wavering knowing that God is faithful.
God was faithful to that handful in 1965 and He remains faithful to this handful today. Amidst all the uncertainties of a contemporary Church that is too often unfaithful and a culture increasingly tetched God remains faithful. Regardless of the highs and lows of life … regardless of the disappointments or the joys …. whether in wealth or in poverty God remains faithful. It is the certainty of His faithfulness wherein we can find the stability for our lives. We celebrate then His faithfulness.
It is this faithfulness of God that is to be that which motivates us to hold fast our confession of hope without wavering. Given the immediate context where there is mention of sprinkling and washing with pure water it is not unreasonable to understand that the “confession of our hope” is a reference to Baptism. If so the confession of our Hope would be anchored in the person and work of Christ that Baptism symbolizes.
We can be unwavering in a hope which promises Christ because God is Faithful.
Some of you are young. You will live to see many years and things that many of us won’t see. Through your life I would have you remember that God is faithful.
III.) We see in this passage the Church’s Commitment (22-25)
Consider one another to stir up love and good works
The modern church often trips over the idea of what it means to stir up love. We would say that to stir up love is to stir up the demonstration of God’s character towards one another.
Obviously the temptation with all fallen creatures is to be self focused, self centered, and self preoccupied. Here the writer of the Hebrews encourages them to not look only to their own needs but also the needs of others. In the imperative to “consider one another,” we are driven off the instinct to look down on fellow saints as inferior. We are to consider each other.
I think Charlotte CRC has done this well over the years. God’s people here have considered one another. They have looked after one another in illness. They have sought to share the load when there was more month than money. This assembly has helped the widow and sought to encourage the downcast. In a triage culture Charlotte CRC has been good about considering one another. Over the years I’ve had many many people hand me a envelope of money and say, “Could you give this to so and so.” I’ve seen people bring baskets and bags of food to those who lost their employment. I’ve seen house mortgages paid for consecutive months so that families would not lose their home. I’ve seen numerable hospital visits and the caring for one another’s children when in need. I’ve seen people share their holidays with those unrelated by blood but related by Faith. While there is always room for improvement I must say “well done” Charlotte CRC for the way you have considered one another over the years.
The Heidelberg catechism gives us the standard for the good works. It seems proper to cite the catechism on a CRC’s Church’s 50 anniversary.
91. Q. But what are good works?
A. Only those which are done out of true faith,[1] in accordance with the law of God,[2] and to His glory,[3] and not those based on our own opinion or on precepts of men.[4]
Note here that a good work is in keeping with God’s law. God’s law has fallen on hard times in the Church but one thing the Church should be routinely doing is expositing God’s law so that people can stir up one another to good works.
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
Why the importance of assembling of ourselves?
I think that the importance of this is the fact that in the assembling of ourselves we are reoriented again to the vertical. The Church is the one place where we ought to be able to attend and find ourselves reminded that life is not horizontally regulated. When we regularly assemble we are reminded that we live and move and have our being in God. This vertical reorientation is likely not going to happen institutionally anywhere else. It is in the Church, as we assemble, week by week, that we find ourselves reminded that our orientation in life remains vertical. The Liturgy here goes a long way in doing that.
There are many Churches now where the service has been horizontalized and people leave the assembly not being vertically realigned.
Exhorting one Another
Conclusion
Without wavering (vs. 23)
