Why do we gather?

Intro

Hey everyone! Welcome back to our Thursday Night Gatherings. If you weren’t at Cross Con with us a little over a week ago…or you didn’t swing by our house on new year’s, then it’s been a bit. 5 weeks to be exact. 5 weeks since we’ve met, and 6 weeks since we’ve been in this context with Worship and time in the word.

I bring that up just to say one thing. I missed ya’ll. I missed you. I missed this. I missed seeing God work in your lives through his word…and through the community we are building here.

I missed it for sure, but some time off was necessary. Not only because of the holiday season and Cross Con…but because your leaders and myself needed a bit of time to recharge, regroup, refocus.

We spent last Thursday together talking about the plans for this upcoming semester, and I’ll tell you, I’m excited for what Jesus is going to do. I’m excited for the community events that we are planning, for the church wide events that are occuring…and for the teaching that Jesus has for us here on Thursday nights.

Let me a give you a bit of an update on that before we dive into tonight’s message. If you were at Cross Con, I announced our brand new series for this semester.

By Faith: A study in Hebrews 11.

Every spring I want to take some time to appreciate the Old Testament, and show you how important it is to our walk with Christ…and how important it is to understanding God and his Word. Those of you that know that might be confused as to why Hebrews 11 is our text for the spring then. Well it’s because we are going to be using Hebrews 11 as a springboard to head back into all of the OT people that are listed in that chapter. We are going to be looking at how the faith of the saints of the Old Testament cause us to turn our eyes on Jesus now.

That’s starting next week. And I’ll tell you, I’m not the only one who is going to be teaching this semester. We’ve got some other pastors on staff here coming in, we’ve got our own leader, Regent Erickson, bringing the word. And we’ve even got a guest preacher coming in, Pastor Greg Savage…who was just on the Centered. Committed. Confident. Podcast if you listen to that.

So, lots of exciting things going on this semester. But what are we doing tonight? Well, tonight starts 1 out of 3 messages that focus on Christian essentials? Not just college ministry Christian essentials…but fundamental things pertaining to the life of any Christ. These three messages will be dedicated to our 2nd “C” of college group. Being committed to discipleship. Specifically, this semester will be focused on things that help you commit to your personal discipleship. The topics are prayer, sanctification…and tonight’s topic. Fellowship. Or what we like to call…gathering.

That’s tonight message:

Why do we gather?

Why is it important? Why should we care about it? How should we go about not only thinking about it, but prioritizing it?

This is what we are discussing tonight, and we will be jumping around just a bit in scripture…so let me pray for us and we’ll get at it.

Prayer

Alright, here’s the first point we are covering tonight. Why do we gather? Because

God Commands It

We are going to start with a really simple one that I don’t think will take as much explaining.

It’s easy and simple. God commands it. We do it.

Go ahead and turn in your bibles to the book of Hebrews. You might as well get use to that now since that’ll be our series coming up. But instead of Hebrews 11 tonight, I want you to turn one chapter before to Hebrews 10. And get your eyes on verse 19. Here’s what it says.

Hebrews 10:19–25 ESV

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 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. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 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.

Now I should be clear…this is not the only passage in scripture that commands the people of God to gather. In fact, there are some that are even more explicit in doing so..and there’s plenty of examples of the church in the book of Acts doing just that…but I chose this passage tonight because of the language surrounding the command.

And let’s be clear…it is a command. Verse 19 starts with a “therefore”, meaning, “because of everything I have said, here’s what you should do”. And verses 22, 23, and 24, are all commands…actions that must be taken if the previous statement is true…which it is because it’s the word of God.

That third command “let us consider how to stir up on another to love and good works” so that’s the command…and intrinsically tied with this idea for the author of Hebrews is the thought that that means gathering together. Which is why he is clear in his statement...”stirring up one another to love and good works” means not neglecting your fellowship. It means not neglecting the gathering of believers. The fellowship of Christians.

Now the part of love and good works we will get to by the end of the message..but for now you just needed to see the simplest of reasons as to why we gather…because God commands it. If you want more evidence than that, come talk to me…I’ll get you some more verses.

But…at the end of the day…as Christians, disciples of Christ, children of God…his command should be enough.

God says it. We do it. But praise God…that he is gracious and loving enough to not only give us the command in his word, but to reveal his heart in it as well. And it’s because of that that we not only see that we gather because God commands it. But we gather because...

God Intended It

From the very beginning, God has intended that we would be in fellowship. Let’s look at two scriptures that support this.

The first one we find in Genesis 2. You’re more than welcome to turn there if you’d like. I’ll also read it, it’s just one verse.

You’re familiar with the creation narrative. God creates the World, everything in it, creates man..and then comes this verse.

Genesis 2:18 ESV

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

So here we see, that man needed fellowship. Man needed company. Just to live life and fulfill the most essential and basic of all God’s commands…tend the Garden…man needed fellowship.

Before this moment, before Eve was created, it was Just Adam, the animals, and God.

Let me ask you a question.

Was God not good enough for Adam?

It’s a tricky question right? Because of course, God is all sufficient. All fulfilling. He is never not enough for anyone or anything. But yet, when you look at the facts. Adam’s companion was God…and yet he needed more…or something else.

What does this mean? It means that Adam desired fellowship because God intended for him to desire it. God was not surprised that Adam needed it. God created Adam knowing he would create Eve as well.

God wasn’t lacking, he didn’t fail to be enough for Adam, he simply created Adam with the design of being in fellowship with other humans (in this case particularly eve). So what we can see from this is...

From First Creation, we are designed for fellowship.

If Adam, the father of all men, was created and designed to desire fellowship…then so are we.

But that’s not just the only example in scripture…there’s plenty…but let’s go to just one more. Go ahead and turn to this one in 1 Peter 2.

1 Peter 2:1–5 ESV

1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

So in verses one and two we see Peter telling the people of God what it takes to grow up into their salvation. They have been saved, they believe the truth of the gospel…now what? Well he tells them, long for the pure milk..Long for Jesus as it says in verse 4. Let’s look back at that.

v. 4 “As you come to him...” So, as you come to Jesus, who is rejected by men but is the chosen and precious one of God…As you come to him...

v. 5”you yourselves, like living stones by the way, are being build into a spiritual house...” So as you come to him. You, together, are being built into something greater than yourself. Notice how Peter doesn’t call each one of you a house…able to stand on it’s own, provide warmth, protection from the elements…he doesn’t call everyone a house...

But rather…he calls them a stone. A brick. Just a building block of the house.

But he doesn’t just call us who believe bricks…he refers to us as a priesthood…meaning a group of people who collectively serve God. We are not priests each individually…but we are a priesthood, belonging to one, serving one, needing each other...

He goes on…we aren’t only bricks built together, a priesthood, but our togetherness has a purpose…what does it say that purpose is?

Our togetherness, our gathering and being together, is what allows us to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus.

So zoom out and see the big picture…what is Peter saying here?

He’s saying that worship through Jesus that is spiritual and acceptable to God, is worship that is done through unity and fellowship.

When Peter is giving a command in how to grow into maturity as a Christian, he can’t help but include the fact that maturity in Christ has to be done as a people, not as a person. And verse 9 supports this as well.

1 Peter 2:9 ESV

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

You are a chose race…not a chosen person. You are a royal priesthood, not a royal priest, you are a holy nation…not a holy citizen…you are a people for his own possession, not just a person....and all of this has a purpose…our gathering has a purpose…that we would proclaim the excellencies of God. The God who saved us. The purpose is that we AS A PEOPLE would worship and preach the excellencies of God.

Meaning…it’s not only from first creation that we are designed for fellowship. But...

From New Creation We Are Designed For Fellowship

When you put your faith in Christ, you became a new person. A new creation. And…you had a new purpose. And that purpose is to be fulfilled…together…not separate.

A CHRISTIAN that is forsaking fellowship, forsaking unity, forsaking gathering…cannot fulfil the purposes that God has set them in.

Communion is done together. Baptism is done together. Worship is done together. The great commission is not that individuals would be reached, but that churches would be planted…whole groups of people…that nations would be reached.

The purposes of God are far greater than the individual. Your Holiness is not an individual sport. It’s not like an individual 800 meter race…it’s a team sport…like Baseball or Football. The win, the glory, goes corporately to the team..to the people..not the person.

And the reason I need to emphasize this…is because we live in a culture that is anything but corporate. We live in a highly individualized culture…and I’m not just talking about “secular” culture. I’m talking about church culture.

We treat the church as if each one of is individually is the prized bride of Christ…when the truth is the church collectively is the bride of Christ, and to try to separate yourself from her is actually to abandon and abuse her.

And many of us, if not all of us at times, are guilty of this. I want to give you a few ways to know if you treat your faith individually rather than corporately…if you value individualism rather than fellowship and gathering.

Church is an event for you.

Listen. You can attend Church every single Sunday…and College Min. every single Thursday for the entire year…you could go to every single gathering your church has…and still be treating church like it’s an event rather than a fellowship. Let that sink in…let me repeat it…and really…evaluate yourself on this. you could go to every single gathering your church has…and still be treating your faith individually rather than corporately.

So what’s the difference here? The difference is the end goal. Someone that treats the church as an individual…gives as an individual and receives as an individual. And that’s really all they do. They come, the receive what is happening…and they leave. In today’s world we call them consumers…they are consuming a product. Now, it might look like they are giving back…they may even serve…in the parking lot, in the worship ministry, in the kids ministry. But, they are serving because it checks something off the list that they are suppose to do. It’s part of their consuming.

Just like when you purchase a new bike…you are a consumer hoping to receive something from that bike. Sure…you might give to that bike sometimes…change it’s tires, lube the chain, wash the frame…but it’s all with the end goal to upkeep what you’re suppose to be doing and receive a better product in return.

That’s how an individual treats the church.

Unlike someone who values the church as a fellowship. They aren’t deeply known, and they don’t deeply know others.

2. You’re the greatest Christian you know.

People who individualize the church don’t know a better Christian than them…because at the end of the day they are the only one in their world of concern. They don’t seek mentors because they don’t value mentors, because they don’t value what can be found only in community.

3. You lack disciples.

You don’t concern yourself with making other disciples because the greatest person that needs Jesus has already been found…you. And if you’re growing in your walk with Christ, all is right in the world because your walk with Christ is the most important walk with Christ.

You see, none of us would ever say these things out loud…but we practice them all the time.

I could go on and on, but I think this will suffice to show you that even though God has intended for us to walk with one another, we are typically more concerned just with ourselves. But we gather…and we need to gather, because God intended it.

Two last points and these are super quick.

God Models It.

That’s right. We gather together, we are in community because God is in community. Here are three really quick examples.

The trinity - Father, Son, Holy Spirit

Jesus’ ministry - A life filled in community with his disciples, his culture

Heaven - A place filled with nothing but a community of believers in fellowship with God.

And our last point. We gather because

God Uses it

Look back at Hebrews chapter 10

Hebrews 10:24–25 ESV

24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 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.

Love - Love God, Love others

The way we are stirred up to love is through meeting together. Hebrews is clear in that.

Good works are God works

The way we are stirred up to good works is through meeting together. Hebrews is clear in that.