The synagogue was the place where the Jews and many early Christians would gather. So synagogue was a common word, especially to the Hebrews. It was like when we say church and we’re referring to the building, the place where we gather.
But the point for the author of Hebrews was to show the Jewish people how their paradigm for understanding and approaching God was transformed and fulfilled in the person of Jesus.
So in Hebrews 10:25, he takes a common word, synagogue, and uses an uncommon form. By doing this, he draws attention to the word.
In this verse, he uses the verb form, episynogogue, and in effect says… things are different now.
He lives in you.
How are things different? Remember, for the Jews, the presence of God was in a place, in a box, in a room, behind a wall or a curtain. But for those of us whose unswerving hope is in Christ, where is the presence of God?
1 Corinthians 3:16 says, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”
John 14:16-17 says, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”
The presence of God.
I have studied foreign missions extensively. One of my teachers once said something like, “One of the most powerful things you can do as a Christian is to go, for with Christ living in you, your very presence means the presence of God is there too.”
So for the Jews, for those who had come to put their unswerving hope in Christ, things were different now, in that because the presence of God is with you and in you… you don’t have to go to a place anymore to meet with Him.
Nevertheless, don’t give up gathering together.
He implores them. (Don’t miss this) If we believe our relationship with God is as fulfilled just me and him alone in our closet as it is when we gather with the church, then we have missed the truest sense of what it means to be gathered together in fellowship.
True Fellowship.
When I was in college, my friends and I somehow ended up attending this small country church about 15 minutes from campus. Now we went to school in the hills of northwest Arkansas, so this church was way out in the sticks of rural eastern Oklahoma. It wasn’t anything special in terms of architecture. There were maybe about 30 people on a normal Sunday.
Our fellowship time before the service was typically Swiss Rolls and Oatmeal Creme Pies… you know, not homemade stuff but Little Debbie variety, and usually cut into pieces, I guess to make sure everyone got some. But occasionally, after the service we’d have pot luck. And oh my… these ladies from the hills had some amazing recipes.
The best part was that they always made too much, and always had to send some home with us poor college students. It was like dinner at my grandma’s house… they were always trying to get us to eat more and fatten us up.
So some of the other students at our school had heard about the potlucks and the rumor was that was why we attended that church on the hill. I think they were just jealous.
I’d like to think the potlucks weren’t the reason. That it was something deeper that drew us to that community. And I’d like to think that for you guys tonight, that your gathering together is about more than the requirements of school or what your parents think is best.
What Hebrews 10:25 is calling for here is not simply about hanging out, or the kind of casual, shallow friendship we often substitute for fellowship. He is calling us to a deeper kind of relationship to each other, and for a greater purpose.
Gathered to Christ.
The word, episynogogue, that’s used here in Hebrews 10:25, is only used one other place in the scriptures, in 2 Thessalonians 2:1, where it refers to the gathering of believers to Christ on the last day.
You see, fellowship, Christian community, is not just about us gathering together, it is about us being gathered together to Christ. It is not about gathering as if being together is the object. It is about how together we are being gathered up to Christ.
So, when you go to church this morning, while I hope you like the people around you, you are not there today first for each other, you are gathered together for Christ and His purposes. And let us be careful to not give that up.