The Congregation and the Public Meetings

[Author’s note: This seeds of this sermon were planted by L.A. Mott in an articles appeared in Vanguard God’s Provision to Keep Us Saved: The Congregation (Jan 22, 1976 vol 2, no 2) & God’s Provisions to Keep Us Saved: The Lord’s Day and The Public Meetings (Sept 9, 1976, vol. 2, no 5).]

God does not want us to be lost and He has provided abundant means for keeping us saved. One of these means is the local congregation.

After saving obedient believers through the blood of Jesus, it is not God’s intention that they remain independent of the other saved persons in their locality. Instead it is His will that every believer unite with other believers in their locality to form a congregation – a local church. And so in the New Testament we read about “the church of God which is at Corinth (1 Cor. 1:2), and in we read about the “church in Ephesus” and “in Smyrna” and “in Pergamum” (2:1, 8, 12). After his conversion, when Saul returned to Jerusalem “he was trying to associate with the disciples” – to “join himself” to them (Acts 9:26). Seeking to join oneself to a congregation of other believers is the sort of action that has the approval of God. For, as already stated, it is not His will that we hold ourselves aloof from the other disciples.

Some do not understood this. They believe that being "just Christians" without joining a denomination means that one does not have to be affiliated with a congregation of disciples. But this is a mistake!

God, who has unlimited wisdom and intelligence, does not act without reason and purpose. He did not establish the local congregation for no reason. Perhaps you think of several scriptures that give reasons why God established the local church. Some of the scriptures that come to my mind are the ones that teach that God wants his people to cling together, to share each other's strength and enthusiasm, to encourage one another. This is certainly is the point of Heb. 3:13. After warning about the danger of having “an evil unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God,” Paul gives some positive encouragement.

But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

God wants Christians to be together! Why? So that we can encourage one another day after day, so that none of us will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin? There is more of this teaching in Heb. 10:24-25.

[A]nd let us consider how do stimulate one another to love and good deeds, no 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.

Instead of forsaking the practice of “assembling together,” as was the habit of some of them and, may I add, the habit of some of us, God wants His people to come together so that each of us may “stimulate one another to love and good deeds,” so that each of us may encourage the other. And this teaching is not only found in Hebrews, but throughout the NT writings.

(1 Th 5:11-14) Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing. But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another. We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

Any passage that bids us to teach, to encourage and to strengthen each other is evidence of God's intention for the congregation. People have an affect upon each other. It can be for bad (as Paul warned in 1 Cor 15:33 when the presence of false teachers at Corinth threatened to turn the minds of Christians toward a worldly philosophy: “Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals”), but it can also be for good as disciples stand together against the weakening influences they have to face in the world, sharing each other’s faith and enthusiasm, encouraging and strengthening each other. “Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble” (Heb 12:12).

The local congregation is a part of God's provision to strengthen the bond between Himself and each of His children. Each disciple has the responsibility to be zealous, to encourage others, to share his faith, his optimism, and his interest in the Lord's work with his brethren. This encouragement is given and received on many occasions and in many ways – when we speak with each other during the week, when we write notes to each, when we spend time with each other in our homes and when we spend a day with each other in the mountains or on the sea shore. When we meet in small groups. Sometimes we will be the one giving encouragement, at other times we will be the recipients of it and then there will be those occasions when we give and receive the encouragement at the same time.

It is not God’s will that we separate ourselves from each other, but that we spend time together. And some of the time that we spend together must be when all of the believers meet together in one place as a church. Yes, it is the will of God that Christians come together in one place on a regular basis. It is without dispute that Christians in apostolic came together as a church every first day of the week—Sunday—to partake of the Lord’s Supper. Paul speaks of this gathering in 1 Cor 11 when he said in …

(vs. 18) … when you come together as a church….

(vs. 20) … when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper.

(vs. 33) … when you come together to eat….

Paul does not mention the time when this coming together took place, but Luke did.

(Acts 20:7) 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.

This was the weekly practice of the first century church – to gather together on the first day of the week to break bread. And what was the purpose of this?

Ø      Remember the sacrifice of his body and blood which he offered on the cross of Calvary in behalf of the world (1 Cor 11:23-25).

Ø      Proclaim the death of Jesus (1 Cor 11:26).

Ø      Declare their personal fellowship in the body and blood of Jesus and their unity with all others who partake (1 Cor 10:16—17).

So believers came together with other believers in their locality every first day of the week to break bread. However this was certainly not the only time and the only reason that they congregated. The NT indicates that they came together as a church for other reasons unrelated to the Lord’s Supper. For example, after Paul and Barnabas completed their first missionary journey, upon their return to Antioch they “gathered the church together” for the purpose of reporting to the congregation about what “God had done with them”(Acts 14:27a) – how He used them to establish churches first on the island of Cypress and then in the cities of Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lycaonia, Lystra, and Derbe. This was a report of how God through the opposition which they faced from the Jews “opened the door of faith to the Gentiles” (vs. 27b). Paul and Barnabas would have reported, for example, how in Pisidian Antioch the Jews opposed the gospel and in response to this opposition they said…

(Acts 13:46-48) … “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For thus the Lord has commanded us, ‘I HAVE PLACED YOU AS A LIGHT FOR THE GENTILES, THAT YOU SHOULD BRING SALVATION TO THE END OF THE EARTH.’” And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

What effect would this report have on this church? Surely she would have been edified. Surely the members would have used this occasion to glorified God for His love, not for the Jews alone, but for the rest of the world – for the Gentiles too.

In Acts 15:30, after Paul and Barnabas returned from Jerusalem they once again “gathered the congregation together” but on this occasion it was to deliver “the letter” from the Jerusalem church denouncing certain men who had come to Antioch from their number, “teaching the brethren, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved’” (Acts 15:1). Had the church in Jerusalem gone into apostasy? Paul, with the encouragement of the church at Antioch, went to see. What he learned was that the church, along with the apostles, remained faithful to the old paths – they had not given instruction to anyone that they were to teach the Gentiles Christians that they must also keep the law of Moses to be saved. And they sent a letter through the hands of Barnabas and Paul denouncing these men and their teaching. And what effect did this have upon the congregation? “[T]hey rejoiced because of its encouragement” (Acts 15:31). Furthermore, Judas and Silas – members of the Jerusalem congregation – who had returned with Paul and Barnabas, used that occasion to “encourage and strengthen the brethren with a lengthy message” (vs. 32).

Returning to 1 Corinthians, while giving instructions to the congregation with regard to their treatment of the brother who was fornicating with his father’s wife, the apostle says…

(1 Cor 5:4-5) In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled (gathered together, NKJB), and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus … deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

The act of withdrawing fellowship was a congregational affair; it was something that was to be done when the disciples were “gathered together” as a church. This particular assembly was certainly not as pleasant as the other three that we mentioned, but it is one more piece of evidence that the congregations met together – assembled themselves together – for reasons other than for breaking bread.

First century congregations gathered every first day of the week to partake the Lord’s Supper, but they assembled for other reasons too. Though the purpose of their assemblies may have been varied, they all had a two-fold purpose, one being Godward (worship, praise, honor) and the other being manward (edification, building up by encouragement and strengthening). This is seen to be the case in the four examples that we have already noticed, but this point is made even clearer when we consider the other activities that the congregation did while gathered together

When the disciples came together as a church they would …

Ø      Sing – in praise of God but also to teach and encourage one another.

God wants his people to be a singing people. But we need to take a closer look at the "singing passages" than we do when we use them merely to establish that God wants us to sing. It might change the quality of our singing if we would notice how and why God wants us to sing. Consider two of the most important passages – Eph 5:19 and Col. 3: 16.

(Eph 5:19) speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

(Col 3:16) 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 [grace] in your hearts to God.

This singing points in two directions. It points vertically, Godward – “making melody with your hearts.to the Lord.” The order of words at the end of Col. 3:16 is properly, “with grace singing in your hearts unto God.” But it also points horizontally, manward – “speaking one to another,” “teaching and admonishing one another.” God wants us to give and to get some instruction, some encouragement, and some admonition from our singing. Of course you will get none of these if you sing as a mere routine. But if you listen to the words and make the words of the song your words, you will get something from them.

Ø      Pray together

I have recently spoken to you about prayer and will not examine all of the verses that speak of this activity, so suffice it for now to note two verses that deal with public prayer – 1 Cor 14:15-17 and 1 Tim 2:8.

(1 Tim 2:8) Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.

(1 Cor 14:15-17) What is the outcome then? I shall pray with the spirit and I shall pray with the mind also; I shall sing with the spirit and I shall sing with the mind also. Otherwise if you bless in the spirit only, how will the one who fills the place of the ungifted say the "Amen" at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying? For you are giving thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified.

God wants those who lead prayers our congregations to be men, not the women. The women, though equal participants in our assemblies, are never to be in a position of leading when men are present.

(1 Tim 2:11-12) A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.

Secondly, God wants those who are being led in prayer to know what is being said. He wants them to really participate in that prayer and to make it their prayer by saying “Amen.” Observe that even the prayer is intended to edify or to strengthen the congregation. Thus, the one speaking the prayer must speak clearly and loudly enough to be heard by the congregation. Furthermore, those listening must not allow the minds to wander. For if it does, how will you be able to say “Amen” to what has been said by the one who has lead our minds in prayer.

Ø      They received teaching

This purpose, edification, is obviously also involved in the public teaching. That such teaching was received by the congregation is found in Acts 20:7.

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.

That the purpose of this teaching was for the building up of the saints is clear from what Paul says about prophecy in 1 Cor 14. Prophecy, says the apostles is a greater gift than (uninterpreted) tongues was that the “one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. … [the one] who prophesies edifies the church” (I Cor. 14:3,4). Paul has made it abundantly clear all through I Cor. 14 that a main purpose of the public meeting is the edification of the church. He sums up by saying, “Let all things be done for edification” (v. 26).

Those who teach publicly should make sure they have something to give the people...something a little more like collard greens than cotton candy. For a long time it has seemed to me that two attitudes are taken toward the public assembly.

Some see the assemblies as a matter of form, a routine that God wants us to go through. Naturally these people will not come back to a Sunday evening meeting after attending a morning meeting. What is the sense in performing that same routine twice in one day... especially since God has not insisted that we do? That reasoning seems perfectly logical to me.

The trouble is, these folks have a complete misunderstanding of the public meetings. They are not merely a routine to go through. They are intended to give us something. Every part of the public assembly is designed to contribute something toward strengthening the bond between us and God.

The Lord's Supper, the teaching, the singing, the praying, the giving -- each of these, when carried out according to the divine intention, has something to add to the strength of that bond. A person who understands that point is likely to want to participate in more than one meeting a week if the opportunity is there. He will go to the Sunday morning meeting to get something. He returns to the other meetings to get something else...something he did not get at the morning meeting.

If the public meetings are a part of God's provisions to bind us closer to Him-to keep us saved- what kind of people are we when we neglect such opportunities or complain about them? Are we not complaining about what is essentially a gift of God complaining that we have to take it?