Gathering / Hebrews 10:19-25

Well, church, it is so good to be with you again this week. As you find your seat, do me a favor. If you have a Bible with you, go ahead and turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews is toward the end of your Bible, and chapter 10 is where we are going to land in just a little bit.

Once you find your place, I want you to do me a favor right out of the gate: take a moment and just look around. Look around this room right now. Feel free—put those heads on a swivel. Look around, see what is going on, and ask the question in your heart: Why are we here? Why are we here on a day like this? Why have we gathered in a place like this?

Now, maybe that is a question you have never asked. Maybe it is a question you ask all the time. Maybe the answers are just assumed. But for me, that wasn’t a question I asked early on in my faith. When I was a new believer who had just come to faith in Jesus Christ, my observation of what went on in a room like this felt strange and foreign. There were so many things I didn’t comprehend.

I didn’t begin to really ask the “Why do we gather?” question until I got further down the road in my faith. After years of attending faithfully and regularly in the local gathering of the church Sunday after Sunday, my heart began to get a little jaded, if I am honest. Things in the local gathering just turned routine, rote, mechanical, plastic, and hyper-programmed. I began to wonder, Man, why are we here?

I was searching for a deeper theological understanding. Why do we really gather? What is this gathering about? What should take place in a local gathering when the church comes together? Why is it so important that we come together? How often is often? Is this every week? If I miss one time, is there something wrong with that? All of these questions were flooding my mind concerning what this gathering is all about and why it has become so essential over the years for the church.

From Shadows to Substance

That is the issue we want to study this week: the importance of the gathered church, the assembled church, the Sunday gathering. Why is it so important? We want to look at a paradigm shift that occurred with the early church shortly after Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, where things changed in terms of the gathering of the people of God in profound ways that carry great implications for us today.

To understand why we gather like we do from week to week, we have to understand what existed in Israel with God’s people prior to Acts 2, prior to Pentecost, and what changed everything to lead to what we have been practicing in local congregations all over the world for the last two thousand years.

Corporate gatherings were not foreign to God’s people. In fact, coming together corporately as the people of God was an imperative from the very beginning. From the first moment Adam and Eve were banished from the presence of God in the garden, God has been about the business of redeeming His people in order to bring them back into His presence so that we might worship Him rightly, as He created and redeemed us to do.

One of the greatest Old Testament pictures of this is the Exodus, where God redeemed His people out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt. God did not deliver them from oppression and injustice merely so they could be free from that oppression. God delivered them to bring them back into His presence, into a dwelling where they could rightly worship Him unhindered.

Immediately following that, Moses set up a tabernacle in the wilderness where the presence of God would dwell. Later, that tabernacle was replaced by an actual temple built by King Solomon, where the presence of God dwelt and where the people brought sacrifices and offerings to atone for their sins so they might rightly worship in God’s presence.

Even though they made daily sacrifices and offerings at the temple, there were only three corporate gatherings mandated throughout the year for the entire nation of Israel. Three feasts were mandated in the Torah where God said, “Wherever you are, you need to come back in, and we need to corporately gather in worship of our God.” Those were Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. All the people of God would come in and worship. But it was limited and restricted: only three times a year, in a specific place. Wherever you lived, you had to travel to Jerusalem, worship at the temple, at that particular time, in that particular place, in that particular way. That was the essence of corporate gatherings all the way up to Jesus’ day.

Then something changed everything. Immediately following the death of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection from the grave, all of those Old Testament shadows and structures found their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The book of Hebrews shows us that the shadows those gatherings represented gave way to the substance of Jesus Christ. Through His own blood, Jesus initiated a new covenant that fundamentally changed the way people relate to God.

Through Jesus’ sacrifice, grace, and salvation received by faith, God’s people were freed to have intimate access to God anywhere. God was no longer confined to brick and mortar in a particular building in a particular city. Through faith in Jesus Christ, the presence of God makes its dwelling within us through the Holy Spirit. Worship is no longer confined to restricted times and places. Our very lives become an offering of worship to Him wherever we are.

Romans 12:1 (NASB)

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship.

Because of a right view of Jesus Christ and the new covenant He purchased for us, gathered worship has a completely different paradigm. Instead of gathering just three times a year, there is an excitement—not a “have to,” but a “get to”—to gather weekly with other believers. Instead of trekking all the way from Greece to Jerusalem, you can worship right in the local assembly where you live.

Instead of gathering on Saturdays in the local synagogue to hear the reading of the Torah, gatherings moved weekly to Sundays in remembrance of the day Jesus resurrected from the dead, known as the Lord’s Day.

Acts 20:7 (NASB)

On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul [began] talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.

Instead of God’s presence being restricted to the inner Holy of Holies in the temple, God’s presence dwells within us through His Holy Spirit. Wherever two or more gather in His name, He is there with us.

Matthew 18:20 (NASB)

‘For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.’

Instead of having to perform an elaborate series of sacrifices and offerings to be made right with God so we can access Him, we now gather in response to what Jesus has already done. His once-for-all sacrifice has made us right, granting us free access to worship Him. This radical paradigm shift changed the next two thousand years of what we do when we assemble in a room like this.

The Anatomy of the Gathering

In the time we have left, I want to look at Hebrews chapter 10. In Hebrews 10:1–18, the author shows how Jesus is the fulfillment of all those Old Testament sacrifices. He is God’s Lamb, our great High Priest, who offered a single sacrifice once and for all so our sins might be cleansed and forgiven, granting us unlimited access to the Father.

Then, in verses 19 through 25, the author unpacks the practical implications of what Jesus’ offering has done for our communal life in His presence.

Hebrews 10:19-25 (NASB)

Therefore, brethren, 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, His flesh, and since [we have] a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near 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 us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging [one another]; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

In this passage, we see that the worship we offer in a unique gathering like this is threefold: it is uniquely corporate and visible, uniquely vertical, and uniquely horizontal.

1. Uniquely Corporate and Visible

Look at the beginning of verse 25: “not forsaking our own assembling together.” There is a unique sense in which the body of Christ assembles corporately and visibly each week that you will not find in any other setting. At no other time in the week are we in a room like this, experiencing what we experience here together.

This is no small or insignificant thing, though it is easy to take for granted in our Western American culture. Right now, as I speak, there are believers all over the world who cannot gather in a room like this and enjoy this blessing. None of us walked in here worried that someone would bust through the doors, arrest us, and shut down this gathering permanently. True persecution in the church isn’t just being made fun of or rejected; true persecution is the actual threat of being torn away from one another, losing the opportunity to experience the fellowship, unity, and worship of the gathered body of Christ.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his famous book Life Together:

“It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us. Not all Christians receive this blessing. The imprisoned, the sick, the scattered lonely, the proclaimers of the gospel in heathen lands, they all stand alone. But they know that the visible fellowship is indeed a blessing.”

At a church I previously served at in Texas, we sent a team into Sudan during a period of intense civil unrest. In a completely Muslim-dominated area, we had three isolated believers on the ground helping put in water wells. It was just the three of them, surrounded by hostility, with no experience of corporate church gatherings.

The team we sent pulled those three individuals together and held a gathering for them. They opened the Word, read Scripture, prayed, sang, and took communion together. One of those men began weeping uncontrollably in the middle of it. He hadn’t experienced corporate worship in over a year. He said, “I forgot the unique privilege and blessing it is to come together as the body of Christ and be reminded of the unity we have in the faith.”

We easily forget that. A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting with Joe and Kim Barcelos from our FIG campus, who serve in a prison ministry called Kairos. They reminded me that so many men and women in prison who come to faith do not have the opportunity to gather freely like we do.

In response to what Jesus has done, the author of Hebrews uses the phrase “let us” three times in these seven verses. Fourteen times he uses corporate language: “we,” “us,” or “one another.” There is a relentless corporate refrain. People from various tribes, tongues, nations, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds gather from all over our city into one room, unified in one body, one Spirit, with one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, under one God and Father of all.

Ephesians 4:4-6 (NASB)

[There is] one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

What makes our worship in this room distinct is that we have the opportunity to make that spiritual unity visible.

2. Uniquely Vertical

It is not just being together in a room that makes this gathering special; it is our shared connection to God and our confession of the gospel that has saved us. Our gathering is uniquely vertical. First and foremost, when we step into this room, we are publicly, corporately, and visibly holding fast together to our confession of faith—proclaiming that Jesus Christ, above anything or anyone else, is our greatest hope and treasure.

Biblically and historically, there are four primary ways we connect vertically and confess our faith in a gathering like this.

First, we read and preach the Word. Paul exhorted Timothy, a young pastor in Ephesus, regarding the corporate gathering.

1 Timothy 4:13 (NASB)

Until I come, give attention to the [public] reading [of Scripture], to exhortation and teaching.

Our job is not to gather so I can share my hot sports takes for the week. Our job is not for me to deliver clever anecdotes to make us laugh so we can say we had a good time. Our job is not to mimic pop culture and produce an entertaining show. Our primary function is to hear from the living God through His divinely inspired, infallible, inerrant Word, holding fast to our confession through the reading and preaching of Scripture.

Second, we sing the Word. Paul instructed the churches in Ephesus and Colossae to teach and admonish one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, making melody in their hearts to the Lord.

Ephesians 5:19 (NASB)

speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Colossians 3:16 (NASB)

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms [and] hymns [and] spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Our vertical confession expresses itself in song—not singing empty fluff, but singing the Word, reminding ourselves through melody of the promises that saved us in Jesus Christ. We have the unspeakable privilege of lifting that confession together in one voice.

Third, we see the Word through the visible ordinances God commanded us to practice: baptism and communion. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul explains the significance of the Lord’s Supper. When we come to the table and partake of the bread and the cup, we corporately remember the broken body and poured-out blood of our Savior, who was pierced for our transgressions. We eat and drink together as a visible reminder that we have been saved from sin, saved into a family, and saved for God’s glory.

1 Corinthians 11:26 (NASB)

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

Likewise, in baptism, when we obey the Great Commission, we witness a visible testimony of salvation. We see a picture of who someone was before Christ, how they were buried with Him in death, and how they have been raised to walk in newness of life.

Matthew 28:19 (NASB)

’Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

Fourth, we pray the Word. Paul urged that in every gathering, prayers be lifted up.

1 Timothy 2:8 (NASB)

Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.

We pray to remind ourselves that apart from Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God, we are utterly powerless to see a single life transformed in this room or across our city. Together, in utter dependence, we fall before God and cry out to Him.

3. Uniquely Horizontal

Our gathering is uniquely corporate, uniquely vertical, and finally, uniquely horizontal. We come together to draw near to God and be ministered to by the Holy Spirit, but also to build one another up as a means to that end.

Hebrews 10:24-25 (NASB)

and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging [one another]; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

The author gives an imperative warning not to forsake assembling together. You and I need this gathering—not just for ourselves, but for the benefit of one another. The author of Hebrews assumes that choosing to isolate and forsake the gathering is detrimental to our growth and spiritual maturity.

The New Testament knows nothing of an isolated Christian disconnected from the local assembly. People sometimes tell me, “I don’t need to go to church to be a Christian. My faith is private.” First of all, we don’t go to church; we are the church, and we gather together. The church is not a building; it is a people. Second, while attending a gathering does not save you—only faith in the finished work of Jesus saves you—God has so designed our salvation that we cannot mature apart from the local body. Spiritual growth is communal.

When I moved back to California from Dallas, Texas, I noticed a stark cultural contrast. In Dallas, in the buckle of the Bible Belt, practically everyone goes to church; it’s treated almost like a weekly sporting event. Here in California, there is a casual lethargy regarding church attendance. People are often here only once every three or four weeks. It’s beautiful out here—two hours to the coast, an hour to Yosemite—whereas in Texas, you basically go out to eat! But while California struggles with apathy, the South can struggle with empty ritualism, where people attend for thirty years without knowing why. Both extremes are dangerous.

When we treat the gathering as just one optional priority among many—competing with Sunday soccer or a trip to the coast—we miss out, and the body misses out.

Notice the language of verses 24 and 25: we exist to stir one another up to love and good works, encouraging one another until the return of Christ. Paul uses the concept of “building up” six times in 1 Corinthians 14. One commentator noted that Paul encouraged the gathered body to meet in mutual dependency as vehicles of God’s grace, viewing the strengthening of the whole church as the primary aim of the gathering.

We gather to glorify God vertically, but we do so by intentionally strengthening one another horizontally. Early believers prepared their hearts before the gathering, asking, How can I contribute to someone else today so we all leave mutually edified and anchored in Christ?

This stands entirely counter to our consumer-driven mentality, which treats the church as a dispenser of religious goods and services. Too often, Western Sunday gatherings resemble an In-N-Out drive-thru where we come to consume rather than participate.

Biblically speaking, I gather with the local church for your benefit, and you gather for mine.

Imagine if our paradigm shifted. What if we stopped arriving late just to catch the sermon and slip out? What if we prepared our hearts early, arrived with anticipation, and sought out people to encourage? What if, instead of rushing to the parking lot the moment the final amen is spoken, we lingered to pray with someone, ask how they are doing, and bear their burdens? What if our children’s ministry, Kids Co, never lacked volunteers because believers eagerly laid down their preferences to serve and free others to worship?

That shift dismantles the “me-ism” bred by consumer entitlement—the mindset that demands my parking spot, my seat, my coffee, and a pastor who better be funny. Biblically, we exist for the benefit of the body, encouraging one another so our hope remains anchored in Christ. Horizontal love and service are inextricably linked to vertical worship.

None of this can happen while listening to a podcast in your car. It cannot happen sitting on your couch in your boxers watching a livestream. Those tools have their place, but they cannot replace the visible, vertical, and horizontal reality of the gathered church.

A Foretaste of Eternity

Hebrews tells us to encourage one another “all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Our weekly gatherings are simply a foretaste of what is coming when Jesus returns.

Revelation 7:9-10 (NASB)

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and [all] tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches [were] in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’

That is the unending reality before the throne of God. In the meantime, when we assemble in this room, we receive a foretaste—dim, yet real—of eternity.

May we never forsake the assembly of the saints. Let us gather all the more—corporately, vertically, and horizontally—until that glorious Day arrives.

Closing Prayer

Father, we thank You. I confess my own tendencies to take these gatherings for granted, slipping into routine or viewing them through a consumer lens. Forgive us for cheapening the theology of the gathered church.

God, raise our sights. Stir our affections. Show us the profound gift and privilege we have to gather as the visible body of Christ, to worship You vertically, to hold fast to our confession of hope, and to encourage one another horizontally. Transform us so that we do not leave these doors the same way we entered.

Use this gathering here at The Well, in churches across our city, and in gatherings across the globe, to deepen our devotion to Jesus Christ, our greatest treasure and hope. In His name we pray. Amen.