True Worshipers Gather - Worship and Community

A few passages to consider tonight.

First, from Hebrews 10:19-25

Hebrews 10:19–25 ESV

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with 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 stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Next, from Colossians 3:12-17:

Colossians 3:12–17 ESV

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

And finally, Ephesians 5:15-21:

Ephesians 5:15–21 ESV

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Now, there is a lot that is contained in these passages, and we could spend a whole lot of time on each one in turn, but I want to point to a commonality in all of them, which is an exhortation to worship corporately.

We see that explicitly in Hebrews 10:25, but implicitly in Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:19, where we are to address one another or exhort one another. This connectedness (togetherness) will be our focus tonight.

Now, how many of you have gone through a scenario like this:

It’s Sunday morning, church starts at 10:30. You know you should get to Sunday school, but the kids were absolute monsters this morning, and there was no way you are getting there by 9:15. So, you work through convincing them that they shouldn’t wear their funny snow boots on a warm summer morning (or shorts on a brisk winter one). You remind them to brush their teeth, comb their hair, and put on deodorant.

Your spouse is taking way too much time getting ready, leaving you little time to jump in the shower yourself. By now, exhausted and 100% done, you wonder if it’s even worth the effort, because you’re already late. You and your spouse are now silently and begrudgingly sitting side by side pulling into the church parking lot after fighting over who is to blame this week, when you put on your best fake church smile and roll into the welcome area at 10:40.

If that sounds like you, first of all, you are not alone. But let’s just address the main concern here. When it comes to the question, “Is it even worth all this effort?” the answer is a resounding YES!

Now, I hope that with proper planning (and maybe couple’s counseling) you can get into a better routine for getting to church, but scripture is clear that we should gather together. In person.

Psalm 111:1 ESV

Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.

Both the Old and New Testaments speak to the importance of gathering together. And in fact, in our post-Covid world, the idea of physically gathering together to worship has taken a serious hit.

In 2019, 34% of people attended church regularly (at least 1-2 times a month), and 50% said they “never or seldom” attend.

In 2021, those numbers changed pretty drastically. In 2021, only 28% of people attend “regularly,” and 57% never or seldom attend.

The pandemic amplified and gave an escape to people who wanted to stop going to church, but felt compelled to keep up pretenses. The simple fact that attendance has been declining for years is not new, but the pandemic has accelerated the trend by giving people a seemingly legitimate reason to not gather in person.

But we do not worship a God that wants us to phone it in, or attend solely online. While online services are good as a tool to reach those who cannot come due to health issues, travel, or any other number of scenarios, the simple fact is an online service is not really a substitute for worshiping together in person. Iain Duguid, a theologian and commentator, notes, “Even in earliest times, worship is not a solitary event but a communal event. Both Adam and Eve are made in God’s image, created to be His representatives on earth, doing Him homage, worshiping and serving Him together.” (p71)

Simply stated, God never designed us to live in isolation. God Himself, while being one God, exists in three distinct persons. The Father, Spirit, and Son have always communed together in perfect harmony, sharing a depth of love and relationship that our human ones are meant to emulate.

We even see this in God’s statement (to Himself) in Genesis 2:18:

Genesis 2:18 ESV

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

We see in the children of Israel’s trek through the wilderness that they are to individually and corporately worship God. We see that idea carried over into the New Testament church, where they had “all things in common,” and gathered together regularly (in the early church, daily).

According to Kauflin: “Bottom line: God doesn’t give us a choice about whether we want to be in the church. If we’re Christians, we’re already part of the family.” (p72-73)

So, are there benefits to worshiping together? Certainly. While we could do many things alone that relate to worship, we receive greater benefit as we do them together. Let’s look at a few of those benefits.

Remembering and Rehearsing the Gospel

As the hymn Come Thou Fount reminds us, we are “prone to wander.” In particular, we are prone to wander from a full reliance on the Gospel. Corporate worship can help us stay close.

Bryan Chapel, in Christ-Centered Worship notes: “Corporate worship is nothing more, and nothing less, than a representation of the gospel in the presence of God and His people for His glory and their good.” (p73) When we gather together, we are reminding ourselves, and rehearsing things that God has designed for us in His word. We are celebrating God’s victory over the Egyptians, lamenting over Israel’s rejection of God and their subsequent punishment by exile. We are rejoicing in the cross and the finished work of Christ. We are gathered together to help us remember (or cause us to not forget) our relationship with Him and what He has done for us to establish it.

Gathering together to rehearse and remember the Gospel has practical effects as well. When we feel discouraged by our failures to live up to this false picture of holiness we set for ourselves, God in His sovereign mercy gives us church members who love us and pray for us. We see God’s love in the lives of those who we are worshiping alongside. The Gospel is an endless source of encouragement, strength, comfort, and motivation for weary souls. That is why we gather to remember it! (p74)

Receiving God’s Word Together

As we have seen over the last couple of weeks, it is impossible to divorce true worship from the Word. When we do that, we are no longer worshiping God, but our own desires.

Similarly, worshiping corporately by partaking of the preached Word of God is a blessing to us that keeps our worship focused on God, not ourselves, and challenges us to grow in our faith, in our worship, and in our desires.

Scripture is clear that the elders/overseers/pastors are to preach the Word, and that they will be held to a stricter standard than those who are not elders. Because the elders are to shepherd the body, they have to pass a more rigorous test of character. That is why we are taking the transition to the elder led, deacon served, congregationally ruled model so seriously. We will be held to a stricter standard. Hebrews 13:17 and James 3:1 make that very clear.

Hebrews 13:17 ESV

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

James 3:1 ESV

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

But if we never sit under the preaching of an overseer in a local church, how can they give an account for us?

Look, we can all agree that that it is a kindness of God that we have access to sermons, podcasts, and live-streaming. Look, I love that in the mornings I can listen to Alistair Begg preach through a passage, or go back and listen to Pastor James if I want to revisit something he preached. But that is no substitute for sitting under the teaching of the gathered church.

Mutual Serving and Caring

Think about all of the people who are serving on a Sunday morning when you walk in here. Someone hands you a bulletin. Someone printed that bulletin. Maybe you grab a cup of coffee (that Mrs. Patti made). Maybe you check your kids into children’s church, which has multiple volunteers. The offering plates are passed/pass by, usually by some of our students. Songs are played and sung by various people who have taken time to rehearse and then offer up songs in worship to God. Someone preaches. Someone teaches your Sunday school class.

That is a lot of work. And very few of those people get paid to do any of it. They volunteer our of the overflow of their joy for serving Christ and His church. That should make us feel good, to be a part of a body that serves. That is what the writer of Hebrews is getting at in Hebrews 10:24

Hebrews 10:24 ESV

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

When we gather together, we offer our passions and gifts as a help to others. When we neglect the body, we in effect hold our talents back and limit the work.

A Greater Awareness of God’s Presence

One of the interesting things about God is that, while He can and sometimes does pour out His spirit in an individual setting, most often He does it in a corporate setting. I mean, look at the revival that has been going on in Asbury. That outpouring of God was not done in a private prayer closet, but during a student chapel service that started, but didn’t stop.

Ian Duguid says this:

“Why can’t we worship just as well in front of the TV set, where the music and preaching may well be more inspiring? The reason is that as the covenant community together we are the new temple…There is something about corporate worship that is not present in individual worship, and that ‘something’ is a fuller expression of the reality of God’s presence.” (p77)

Demonstrating Our Unity in the Gospel

We do firmly believe that we are collectively the church on Monday, just like we are on Sunday. But when we gather corporately, we are saying, in effect, “I am drawing away from the world, and drawing closer to God.” Mark Dever said, “Christian proclamation might make the gospel audible, but Christians living together in local congregations make the gospel visible.” (p78)

Look, conferences and gatherings like T4G, SCBO and SBC Annual Meetings, leadership summits, etc. are all great at “refilling the tank,” so to speak, but without the pastoral oversight or the side by side, doing life togetherness of the local congregation, it just doesn’t get us to that same sense of unity. That is why the local body of believers is so important, we do life together.

Sharing the Sacraments

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the two sacraments, or ordinances if we want to sound less Catholic. Take baptism for example. While baptism is a symbol of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, and is an outward sign that the believer is identifying with Christ, it is not usually done in a vacuum. Kauflin notes about someone being baptized, “Expressing their union with Christ is paramount to expressing their union with the church. No one is baptized into Christ who isn’t also baptized into His body…Since the church is the physical representation of Christ’s presence on earth, baptism is typically the doorway into the household.” (p79)

Similarly, our unity as a body is seen in sharing communion. I mean, the word itself looks to a gathering of others. That’s why it doesn’t make sense to take it on our own. We are “communing with God and with each other. We’re remembering that we’ve been reconciled not only to God but also to those around us.” (p79)

A Greater Display of God’s Glory

Look, God’s glory is never diminished. He is God. But when we gather together, we allow His glory to shine more brightly, to be more visible. Donald Whitney reminds us, that just as a football team gets more glory if they win a championship on national TV than if they played on closed-circuit TV, God gets more glory when we worship Him with the church over worshiping Him alone. (p80)

This should be understood, but if our meetings are not God glorifying, then it doesn’t matter. If we are only here to bicker and argue over things, or we are only here to bring glory to ourselves, then that defeats the purpose.

“But if we meet as God intended - to sing, pray, read, hear, and obey His Word, to proclaim His praise in song, and to rehearse, revel in, and respond to the gospel - then we’ll be glorifying God in a greater way than if we did those things alone. (p81)

So, Now What?

So, how do these benefits change me? How do they affect me? What can I do to put these things into practice?

Well, we must first understand that we’ve only scratched the surface to what benefit God gives us when we gather. That being said, we can do a few things. Here are a couple of practical steps for you.

Show up on time. Sunday morning church is a Saturday night decision. Leave time to get ready, to be in a good frame of mind, to be ready to worship. Kauflin reminds us (ok, me): “By the way, if you’re always five minutes late, it’s not when you arrive that’s the problem, but the time you leave your home.” (p81)

Pray. We can prepare our hearts for worship by praying that God would move in our own hearts. That He would work in His people. That He would use the pastor or the leaders for His glory. Pray for one another. Pray for the services. Pray!

Be Prepared. If you know we are going through Colossians, read and study on Colossians this week before coming. When I post new songs we’ll be singing, check those out so that you can be prepared to sing. Prepare your heart not just in prayer but in deed. Meditate on scripture. Sing songs of praise. Come prepared to worship.

Seek to Receive. Not in a self-centered, Me-anity, but an understanding that we must first hear from God who He is before we can truly worship Him. This is coming to church with open hands and heart, ready for God to use you as a willing vessel.

Seek to Serve. Church isn’t a spectator sport. When we serve, we fulfill the command of Christ to be working members of the body.

Seek to Respond. The gathering is not the point of church. It is meant as preparation for living every day for God’s glory. It is practice for heaven. It is to help us respond to our sin, to sing to the King, to offer our lives as living sacrifices for God. If we don’t respond to God’s glory, we are missing the point. We must gather and respond!