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You’ll see from your service sheets that JPC was founded to be …

“… a church … for the maintenance and promulgation of sound scriptural and evangelical truth”.

And as we think about that I want us to look at Hebrews 13.1-10. But I want to begin by asking some basic questions about our Founders’ statement and that relate to our Articles written out on your service sheet. First, they refer to a “church”? So what is a “church”? Article XIX says,

“the visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly ministered.”

It is a meeting (or congregating) of believers (the faithful) for learning God’s Word as it is taught and for receiving Baptism and Holy Communion as it is administered. This is the “visible Church” here on earth. It is distinct from what Hebrews in the previous chapter – chapter 12 and verse 23 - calls, “the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven”. That is the church of true believers past and future as well as present. But in the “visible Church” now there is a mixed bunch. In Jesus parable there were sheep and goats. Article XIX, therefore, goes on to speak of churches that have “erred, not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies, but also in matters of Faith.” What, though, is “error”?

Well, Article XX, the next Article helps answer that. It says that the Church has “authority in controversies of faith.” But that authority has to be under Scripture. Article XX says ,

“it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God’s Word written.”

So error is what is “contrary to God’s Word written”.

Our Founders at JPC, therefore, spoke not only of “evangelical truth” but of “scriptural and evangelical truth”. They underlined that it is the truth about Jesus as taught in the Bible. But today claims to be “Biblical” can mean all or nothing, depending on how you interpret the Bible. You can even say, “I believe the Bible is infallible and inerrant, but that was infallible and inerrant for Jesus’ day. So today we are entitled to reinterpret it.” In this way you can make things mean something quite different to what they meant to Jesus and the Apostles. So our JPC founders added the word “sound scriptural and evangelical truth”. You say, “what is ‘sound’?”

Well, Article XX importantly goes on to say:

“neither may it [the Church] so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another.”

You are, therefore, to interpret the Bible canonically. That is to say, you interpret it in the light of the whole Bible. You have to be a BBC Christian – a Biblically Balanced Christian. You must interpret the Old Testament by the New and the New by the Old. That is why, for example, although you get Holy Wars in Joshua and Judges before Christ, Muslims and Jews (and Christians) are wrong if they think that justifies similar violence by a religion today after Christ. So our Founders wanted “sound scriptural and evangelical truth.”

But they wanted – and this is very important - JPC to “maintain and promulgate” that truth – the Biblical gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, if God has privileged you in some way, it is so you can be useful to others. And if God has given you, by his grace, faith in Christ and knowledge of his truth, it is so that you can share it – or “promulgate” or “promote” it. But at the same time, of course, you have to “maintain” it, otherwise you will drift from it or corrupt it. It is not an either/or. It is a both/and. If you spend all your time as some do, “maintaining” the faith, you can end up with a dead orthodoxy. But if you only “promulgate” it, you can easily drift and be corrupted by the people among whom you are seeking to share the gospel. Well, so much by way of introduction. Now let us look at Hebrews 13.1-10. And my headings this morning are simply first, PROMULGATION and, secondly, MAINTENANCE.

So …

First, PROMULGATION

Promulgation means evangelism - one of the three great purposes of the church.

The first purpose of the church is worship. Look at the last verses of Hebrews 12 – verses 28-29:

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire’.

God is a good and loving God but also a just and holy God who hates sin and selfishness and we need to worship him as such.

But the second purpose is promulgation or evangelism. That includes personal evangelism – just naturally talking with your friends when they ask you questions. It involves inviting friends to events – like “Christianity Explored” at the end of the month. It involves planning and working for the growth of existing churches, like this one, and planting new churches like HTG. And it involves any work that is in the business of making disciples for Jesus Christ such as writing and, in this day and age, broadcasting. All that is involved in Christ’s Great Commission to the Church to make disciples of every nation.

The third purpose of the Church, as we shall see, is related to that second purpose of evangelism, or promulgation. And it is that all Christians (and so every congregation everywhere) are called to practice deeds of mercy and compassion. They are to show a thorough going neighbour-love that responds to all human need. Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan teaches that clearly. So does his own example of healing the sick and feeding the hungry. And it is on this note of Christian love that chapter 13 of Hebrews begins. And Christian love relates to the “promulgation” of the faith. So look at verse 1:

“Keep on loving each other as brothers.”

You see, a key element in evangelism is the attractiveness of Christian fellowship. “See how these Christians love one another,” the pagans said of the early Christians. They then became interested in faith in Christ themselves. It is the same today. Many people become Christians because they are first attracted to the warmth of genuine fellowship.

Notice that Hebrews says “keep on loving” – literally, “let brotherly love remain.” It is not automatic. It is not just or even mostly a matter of the emotions. It is a matter of the will. It is being unselfish. It is thinking about the other person. It is looking out for someone and helping someone in the church who is going through a difficult time. It is also not letting others down. So it is being on time if you have some duty to do – helping in the crèche, being a sidesman or whatever. Loving others is not being selfish – something we all naturally are. That is why we need Christ’s forgiveness and the Spirit’s strength to overcome selfishness. For brotherly love is a prerequisite in promulgating the faith. So “keep on loving each other as brothers”.

Secondly, in the process of promulgation, we are to welcome and entertain newcomers to the Christian fellowship – including newcomers from overseas. Look at verse 2:

“Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”

In the ancient world these would have been travelling preachers and teachers – like Paul and his companions. Some of the early Christians who entertained them would have had no idea about their uniqueness or what a privilege it was to have them visit. They were, indeed, God’s messengers or “angels” to those early Christians. And that still happens today. That has been my experience over the years.

You entertain people, and it can be so enriching. Friendships start for the rest of your life. Besides which, you learn a lot from people you entertain. How important we welcome strangers at this church and entertain them. You say, you can’t entertain at home for a range of reasons. Well, make use of Parish Lunches. They are great opportunities for entertaining people.

Then, thirdly, there is care for the suffering. Verse 3 says:

“Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”

Care for those who suffer is not only good in itself. It also attracts others to Christ. That is why it is good to support the Barnabas Fund and similar groups for persecuted Christians. And that is why it is good to help Christians in countries that have been ravaged by war like the Southern Sudan. With regard to the Sudan, I am pleased to announce that enough money has now come in through Christmas giving for all the clergy in Rumbek diocese to have bicycles. JPC was able to provide for more than 30 bicycles. Thank God for that.

So, love each other; entertain strangers or newcomers; and remember the suffering.

But in the early church and since, it was not just aspects of Christian love that attracted people to Jesus Christ. It was also Christian ethics. In the early church that was true of sexual ethics. The teaching in verse 4 was so different to the ethics of the Roman world at the time of the Apostles. Verse 4 says:

“Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”

The Christian marriage ethic all contributed to the improved status of women in the ancient world. In the pagan world women were expected to be sexually chaste but men could play the field and were given considerable sexual freedom. In the church it was so different. Christian men were urged to remain virgins until marriage in the same way as women were. Even the great Greek physician Galen remarked about Christian “restraint in cohabitation”. So women, not unnaturally, were especially attracted to the church.

And this marriage ethic resulted in a respect for the results of sexual relations – namely the unborn child and the very young child. So abortion and infanticide were prohibited for all. What a contrast with the pagan world.

“Know that I am still in Alexandria … If you are delivered of a child [before I come home], if it is a boy keep it; if a girl discard it.”

That is an extract from a 1st century letter written home to his pregnant wife by a businessman away in Egypt. There is sensitivity to his hoped-for son but utter callousness towards a possible daughter. Yes, women found the church’s sexual ethics and marriage ethics attractive and they still do. And because women were attracted, men were attracted. But then there was, and is, the ethics of money and wealth – something needed today. This, too, was attractive.

Look at verse 5:

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have.”

Who needs to heed that at the beginning of 2009? Are you worrying about money? If so, “be content with what you have”. Money, of course, is morally neutral. It is a form of power. As with all forms of power the moral issues relate to how you got it, on the one hand; and how you will spend it, on the other hand. Nevertheless, you still should “be content with what you have.”

It has been said that most people reckon true happiness would come if they could have just 20% more. This verse suggests that may not be true. It suggests that people wanting 20% more, once they’ve got it, sooner or later will not be content, but be wanting another 20% - if they have “the love of money”. So how can you be content, while still wanting to change anything that is wrong? The answer is in verse 5:

“God has said,‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence,‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’”

Who needs to take that to heart at the beginning of this New Year? Worry is a form of not being content. But Hebrews here says if you are worrying and not content, remember God’s promise never to leave you or forsake you. And you should then be confident and able to say:

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

If you trust him, he will be your helper. If you have never yet done that – trusted the risen Christ as your Saviour and Lord - why not do it at the beginning of this new year? And if you are still asking question, come to Christianity Explored?

So Christian love and Christian ethics all have a contribution in the “promulgation of sound Scriptural and Evangelical truth”. That brings us on …

Secondly, to the MAINTENANCE of Evangelical truth or “gospel truth”.

And the first thing to understand, verse 8, is that …

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

That is our verse for 2009. It says that Christ doesn’t change. So as the gospel is about Jesus Christ, in its fundamentals it too will not change.

To help us in this task of “maintenance”, our writer says there is something positive to do and then there is something negative to avoid.

And the first thing to do is some remembering. Look at verse 7:

“Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.”

The writer is saying, “keep to the basic teaching of those who led you to Christ and established you in the faith.” Others may call these people simplistic needing to move on and have a “new perspective” on things. Certainly, they say, they need to get beyond the 39 Articles. So how do you reply?

Well, with regard to the Articles, of course, they are not Scripture. Of course, they have to be read in the light of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Of course, more needs to be said in some other areas they don’t touch on. But the gist of what they do say is still vital. You can assess the rightness of any teaching you have received in the past by its effects (over the years). That is what is being suggested here. So you need to ask,

“What are the practical effects of that teaching? Does it lead people to Christ and to becoming more Christ-like? Or does it draw people away from him?”

Speaking personally, the people that most helped me when I was younger and I judge to have been most faithful and effective for Jesus Christ would all have subscribed to our Founders’ vision. So – to maintain the truth, one thing to do – “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you.”

Then one thing to avoid – verses 9-10:

“Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them. We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.”

Avoid strange teachings. The prevailing drift in the church being written to (by the author of Hebrews) was a Judaizing drift. People were going back to a wrong legalism and saying you were saved by religious ritual and not by God’s grace alone and through faith in Christ alone. Today the prevailing drift in terms of strange teaching is in the opposite direction - in a secular direction. This denies God’s law and morality. But to maintain the truth you must reject any such new strange teachings. At the same time remember and imitate the faith of your old teachers “who spoke the word of God to you”.

So in conclusion.

Let’s thank God for our Founders’ vision for a church not only to maintain but also to promulgate the gospel. And may we, in 2009, be faithful to their vision.