Why is so important for Christians to meet together?
What’s our real purpose for coming to this meeting of Christians – which is the Church?
Honestly, why am I at this particular meeting of the Church? Habit, duty, to please someone else, to gain favor with God or do I have a really good reason for being here?
Heb 10:24-25 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good
works, Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another (warning, urging and encouraging) and so much the more as you see the Day (of Christ’s return) approaching.
Col 3:23 Whatever you do, do it heartily, as (done) for the Lord and not for men,
Why do we need meetings anyway when we could just sit at home and read our Bibles?
At the beginning of the Church the instruction of Jesus Christ was not to send out Bibles but to send out preachers. While the New Testament had not yet been written the Old Testament (three quarters of the Bible) had been written and much of what Jesus said came directly from the Old Testament since the New Covenant is concealed in the Old Covenant. No, He didn’t tell us to just send out the scriptures so people could read them, He told us to send out preachers so people could hear the living scriptures.
Mark 16:15 …Go into all the world and preach the gospel…
Rom 10:14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
1 Cor 1:21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the (seeming) foolishness of what was preached, to save those who believe (what was preached). NIV
For whom does God send preachers to preach at meetings, rather than send out Bibles?
1. The Unsaved- who cannot hear the Bible but can hear the Bible when it is preached.
And if you’re not yet ready or willing to preach the gospel to an unsaved person, then bring them to a meeting of the Church where there is somebody who will preach it.
2. The spiritually young- Who may have been Christians for many years but haven’t yet much spiritual growth. They cannot receive, nor spiritually understand, nor eat with their hearts Bible truths unless a preacher breaks the word down into bite sized morsels.
Lam 4:4 …The young children ask for bread, But no one breaks it for them.
3. The hard hearted Christian- Whose fellowship with God has been broken, whose spiritual growth has stopped and who desperately need their hearts to be softened through the (living rain) water of God’s word, as it is preached with an anointing.
Ps 65:10 You (God) water (the earth) You make it soft with showers,..
Isa 55:10-11 For as the rain comes down, and waters the earth,… So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth…(through a preacher, and so soften the heart of a Christian and restore him or her to God).
Heb 3:13 But exhort one another daily (warn, encourage, remind and soften each other with the living water of God’s words)...lest any of you be hardened (in your heart) through the deceitfulness of sin.
4. The growing Christian- No matter how mature we are in Christ, or think we are, we still need daily feeding with God’s word. Some feeding we can now receive directly from God but God will also feed us through others–the more we eat the more we grow.
John 21:16 (Jesus speaking) …Do you love Me? …Feed My (other) sheep
2 Tim 1:13 Hold fast the pattern (imprint) of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
Oh but I don’t need to be fed by God through someone else anymore. Really, can you no longer benefit from the five-fold ministry God has placed in the Church for the welfare of every believer. Perhaps you are a minister yourself, one who serves – that is, who serves the living word of God that resides in your heart to others. Can you yet receive more of God’s word and learn more about how to feed it to others?
Eph 4:11-12 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the
saints for the work of ministry, for building up of the body of Christ,
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a renown Anglican minister advised: “Christian people, you neglect the services of the house of God (His people) to your peril and your great loss”.
The value or absence of value to me of a meeting reflects the manner in which I came
• Did I come with clean hands and a pure heart or not? If I didn’t and remain that way throughout the meeting I will not be able to enter God’s presence and I will miss everything that He had for me at the meeting. Or I can be made clean. Don’t know how to be made clean? – come to a meeting and learn. Don’t want to be made clean? come to a meeting and learn how to let God change your “want to’s”.
Ps 24:3-4 Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in His holy
place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul (his will) to an idol (valued above God) and does not deceive. ESV
• Was God on my mind as I came to the meeting or not? What was I talking about just prior to the meeting? Do I really understand that I’m coming to meet with God the one who ransomed my soul from death (Psa.103:4) and with God’s people?
Isa 26:3 You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind (thought life) is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.
If my thoughts are already tending toward God, as is evidenced by what I say, then I will probably be at peace. If my thoughts are somewhere else then I will be troubled. In fact I’ll probably get offended at being reminded of this. But I should come to the meeting anyway just to learn how to be free from getting offended.
Ps 119:165 Great peace have they which love your law (your word): and nothing
shall offend them. KJV
• Did I come with expectancy? In a book titled “The Wigglesworth Standard” by Peter J. Madden it says “Expectation is the eager and confident anticipation that you will meet with God. Expectation comes from the truths of God being fixed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We must learn to build expectancy in our hearts before we arrive at a service. If we will do this, not only will we receive greater blessings... ourselves, but also our expectancy will increase the blessing on the whole meeting”. (a meeting is enhanced by the faith of each individual believer)
Prov 20:5 Counsel (the word) in the heart of man is like deep water, But a man of understanding will draw it out (since he is thirsty and expectant for God).
• Did I just not show up either physically or spiritually? Do I understand that when I’m not present the other members of the body are denied the ministry of Jesus Christ through me, they are denied fellowship with me, they are denied the encouragement of my presence, and any needs others may have are denied the blessing of my prayers? A healthy body needs the input of all of its members.
Rom 12:4-6 For as we have many members in one body, but all the member do
not have the same function, So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them:…
1 Cor 12:21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; nor
again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."
Eph 4:15-16 But, (that we) speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things
into Him who is the head — Christ — from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying (building up) of itself in love.
• Did I come to participate fully and from my heart in the worship and praise of God, being genuinely thankful that while I was undeserving I have been given, through Jesus Christ, a second chance in life? Do I know how to forget about myself and those around me and concentrate on God and love Him in song?
Ps 150:6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!
Heb 2:12 ...In the midst of the congregation I will sing praises unto you.
• Did I come just to experience a nice warm fuzzy feeling, so that I can say God blessed us with His presence at the meeting? Or did I come to hear and be fed the Word of God; God speaking personally to me by His Spirit through a verse of scripture? Maybe a scripture that I already knew mentally and presumed was in my heart, but it wasn’t, for truly whatever scripture is my heart I would then be able to teach that word to others with conviction, passion and God’s anointing.
Heb 3:7 ...Today, if you will hear His (God’s) voice, Do not harden your hearts...
• Did I come just to receive God’s word with my intellect and maybe argue about it? If I say I know God as my righteousness, because mentally I know some verses on the subject, but when I need to act righteously I find I doubt that I am righteous in Christ, then I’m lying to myself. This truth is not retained in my heart, for if it had been I would have acted boldly in righteousness. If I say I know God as my provider, or as my guide, or as my anointing to witness, or as my healer, or as my protector, or as my Lord, or as my deliverer from sin, and His words on that part of His nature aren’t in my heart, then I’m self deceived and will suffer defeat.
1 John 2:4 He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep (retain in his heart) His commandments (God’s specific words), is a liar (self deceived), and the truth (His word) is not in him (in his heart).
Prov 4:4 ...Let your heart retain My words; Keep My commands, and live.
The awful danger of merely mentally assenting to scripture is that it will deceive us into believing that the word is in our heart, when it is not. This will cause us to be spiritually inattentive when God is trying to write that very verse on our heart.
Jam 1:21 ...Receive with meekness (this means with a tender, hearing heart) the
implanted (and germinating) word, which is able to save your souls.
So what then is God’s ultimate purpose for my continuing to attend Church meetings?
Eph 4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure (the level) of the stature (the spiritual maturity) of the fullness of Christ; NKJV
Eph 4:13 Until finally we all believe alike about our salvation and about our Savior, God's Son, and all become full-grown in the Lord-yes, to the point of being filled full with Christ. TLB
Notice it says until we all, not just certain special people, come to the point of being filled full of Christ – Are you full of Christ yet? If not keep coming to the meetings until you are. If you are full of Christ then feed His other sheep - because you love Him.
