I Went To Church Yesterday

I went to church yesterday.

While church attendance is a Christian duty required by God, Heb 10:24-25, it is also a delight, an enjoyment every believer should have in his heart. The Christian knows that God seeks those who are authentic worshipers of him, those who worship him in spirit and in truth, Jn 4:24. By this is meant that believers are to worship him according to the manner he demands, with (a) spiritual worship corresponding to his spiritual being or essence and according to the truth of his word which is now enfleshed in Jesus Christ, 1:1, 14, 17; 14:6. Thus, when the Samaritan woman reveals her ignorance of the true character of worship by expressing her doubt whether such worship is to take place on Mt. Gerizim, the sacred place of the Samaritans or in Jerusalem, the sacred place at which the old covenant Jews were commanded by God to observe their three annual festivals, the Lord Jesus Christ gently but firmly diverts her attention to the fact that in him (since his first coming), the essential character of worship has been changed. Accordingly he redirects the discussion from the place of worship to the mode of worship and then to the object of worship, himself. Under the new covenant therefore, true worship extends beyond cultural, racial or geographic bounds, corresponds to the spiritual essence of God and terminates on the Lord Jesus Christ who "In the beginning was the Word, [who] … was with God, and [who] …was God.. [and who] .. became flesh and dwelt among us,.." 1:1, 14.

Consequently, we understand that in attending corporate worship services, we are not really drawing near to God. Indeed, even the Old Testament saints were acutely aware of the immensity of God. (Louis Berkhof in his Systematic Theology states "In a certain sense the terms "immensity" and "omnipresence," as applied to God, denote the same thing, and can therefore be regarded as synonymous. ... "Immensity" points to the fact that God transcends all space and is not subject to its limitations, while "omnipresence" denotes that He nevertheless fills every part of space with His entire Being.") Therefore in his dedicatory prayer to God upon completion of the temple, King Solomon prays ""But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!" 1 Ki 8:27. Rather, when we go to church, we are affirming the reality that we have already been brought near to God. How? "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." Eph 2:13, that is, by the substitutionary, atoning death of Christ on the cross on our behalf, in our place and for our benefit. We are demonstrating that by God's sovereign grace alone, we are no longer separate from him, no longer afar off but have been drawn close to him by Christ through whom we have access in one Spirit to the Father, Eph 2:18, and who indeed is our access to the Father, Jn 14:6. After all, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, .." 1 Pe 3:18.

Further, by going to church we demonstrate, not only that we have been drawn near to God but also that we are continually coming to Christ, 1 Pe 2:4, that is, that we are progressing in our Christian walk. We understand and joyfully accept that corporate worship is an integral part as well as a defining aspect of our Christian life. Such a perspective protects us from misguided notions that, since worship is essentially a spiritual matter, then I can worship God however and wherever I want because "the Lord knows my heart"; that I don't have to attend church because the church is corrupt and besides, all the preachers want is my money; that the church is really neither the building nor a physical facility but really the people and all that really matters in the end is that I have "accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my own personal Savior into my own heart." No! The entire testimony of both the Old and the New Testament is that worship is uncompromisingly, unquestionably and fiercely corporate in scope.

It is no wonder then that while the Holy Spirit indwells individual believers, 1 Cor 6:19 -20, He also dwells in the temple of God, the corporate collection of all believers, 3:16. It is the church that Christ purchased with his blood, Acts 20:28. It is in this body that Christ by his cross reconciles all believers vertically to God and horizontally to one another, Eph 2:14-16. It is his church, a holy temple in the Lord, in which believers are no longer strangers and stragglers but in which they are being built together as members of God's own household, into a dwelling place for God by the Holy Spirit, vv. 19-22. It is this very church, his bride, for which Christ gave himself, which he is now sanctifying, ".. having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word," and which he will present to himself at his Second Coming in all her splendor, "without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." 5:25-27.

Therefore, in corporate worship, I delight in being among my brothers and sisters. I no longer regard them after the flesh, that is, from a worldly perspective, 2 Cor 5:16, but from the viewpoint of the gospel, as those with whom I am bound together by the blood of Christ with bonds that cannot be broken. It is a Christian axiom, therefore, that blood is thicker than blood. By this I mean that those who have been brought into the family of Christ through the Person and work of Jesus Christ enjoy an eternal union in him that far exceeds the relationship they share with the unsaved members of their biological family. In Christ, we are a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come, v. 17. The church at worship is the most dynamic evidence of this new ethnicity on earth.
Believe me, I did go to church yesterday. There, along with my fellow-citizens of the kingdom of God, I worshiped the Triune God in spirit and in truth.

Believe me, I did go to church yesterday. There, along with my fellow-citizens of the kingdom of God, I worshiped the Triune God in spirit and in truth.

I Went to Church Yesterday

I went to church yesterday.

The Scripture commands all believers to attend corporate worship. The book of Hebrew issues the specific and solemn admonition that we must not neglect "to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." 10:25. This admonition comprises two elements:

• a negative prohibition against neglecting or forsaking or ceasing to meet together. In other words, corporate worship is of such a crucial nature that believers are to apply themselves to this responsibility and privilege with unrelenting dedication and unyielding commitment.

• a positive charge to incite or stir up one another in this endeavor. In this regard, two reasons are given. First, the undeveloped observation that some have already begun to ignore the need for church attendance. The text indicates that this practice was not a mere lapse into uncharacteristic inattentiveness but rather a sustained and continued custom. Second, we are to encourage one another to attend corporate religious services "all the more", that is, to an even greater degree than we would normally do, in view of the coming Day of the Lord. The urgent need to join the congregation of the righteous takes on its highest importance in view of the approaching eschatological consummation when Christ will come again to gather his own unto himself into a state of conscious, eternal heavenly bliss and to consign those that have rejected him unto an equally conscious and eternal state of condemnation and punishment in hell. Our awareness of this end time reality intensifies our need to encourage our brothers and sisters to attend corporate religious services.

Many times this verse is abstracted from its broader context. The immediate context incorporates the previous verse, 24, which exhorts us to ".. consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” The writer’s emphasis is clear: encouraging our brothers to attend worship services is a part of our overall responsibility to stir them up (not to irritate or nag them) to do good works. These good works are the necessary proof that we have indeed been justified by faith alone apart from our works and that our faith in Christ Jesus is the authentic, Jas 2:14-17. Even further, stimulating our brothers and sisters to attend church is also a concrete expression of our loving our neighbors as ourselves. It confirms the biblical truth that we are our brother’s keeper and that therefore we are to encourage and build up one another, 1 Ths 4:18; 5:11, to exhort one another daily lest we become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, Heb 3:13. It confirms and promotes our ecclesiastical unity as one body, the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose systematic and symmetrical development requires the effectual outworking of each part in a dynamic interdependence so that the entire body grows and builds itself up in love, Eph 4:16. Lastly, it affirms our status as an other-worldly people eagerly looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ at which time we will worship him, the Lamb on the throne, in unbroken continuance with all the saints from every nation, tribe people and language. This is the immediate context.

The larger context lies between Heb 9:1-10:18 whose verses expound the incomparable effectual self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Briefly and broadly, 9:1-10 addresses the limited dimension of the blood of animals repeatedly shed by the high priest under the Old Covenant which could only provide an external, ceremonial cleansing. By contrast, Jesus' blood, shed once for all in the sacrifice of himself as our great High Priest, is able to purify the consciences of those who trust him, 11-14. For this reason, Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant because his blood attains forgiveness of sins, 15-22. Sinners can find salvation only in Christ's once for all substitutionary, atoning sacrifice, 23-28, which is the fulfillment and substance of all the portraits, copies and shadows contained in the Old Covenant, 10:1-18.

In the light of this great indicative of Christ's effectual sacrifice come the three imperatives to draw near to God with a sincere hearts and full assurance of faith, 22; to unswervingly hold to our confession of hope which is rooted in the covenant faithfulness of God, 23; and, 24-25, the verses occupying our major attention, to encourage fellow believers to be faithful in attending worship.

In summary therefore, the urgency of corporate worship is reinforced by the effectual, atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Those that have had (and that are still having) the full benefits of Christ's redemption applied to them by the Holy Spirit, should therefore contemplate worship not as a disturbance of their rest, an interruption of their routine, a naked duty to be performed, an occasion for the public display of (contrived) piety, and so on, but as a sincere expression of joy, humility and gratitude in response to Christ's salvation of their souls and in anticipation of the unrestrained and unrestricted demonstration of such joy and piety when Christ gathers up his own in the great eschatological harvest. For these reasons, we must strive to experience these great truths in the fellowship of the saints and also to encourage our fellow-believers to do the same. The effectual atoning sacrifice of Christ constrains all believers to meet together in corporate worship and to exhort one another to so do.

But I would not have known these truths had I not gone to church. I went to church yesterday.

I Went to Church Yesterday

I went to church yesterday. For the past few weeks I've been vacationing and traveling.

Our church has a weekly custom in which one member family hosts the guests and visitors to our service on that day. The hosting family invites our guests to its home and shares a meal, time and glories in the Lord with them. Host families rotate every week. On those occasions that there are no visitors, other members are invited to that family's home. This practice has been met with much eagerness and great delight and from all that I can tell, it has universal acceptance. And why not? After all, hospitality is one of the many marks of a true Christian. For example, Paul urges the church at Rome to "Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality." Rom 12:13. Peter says that this should be without any grumbling, 1 Pe 4:9. Indeed, such hospitality should be extended to strangers because of the profound implications, "for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Heb 13:2. [Note that the Greek word literally means demonstrating love to strangers]. Lastly, such acts of genuine love are required of the elders of the church, indeed, they are part of the qualifications for that office, 1 Tim 3:2; Tit 1:8.

However, I began to notice a pattern developing among our congregants. The term fellowship was being restricted to the after-service love feast or gathering. Thus, fellowship only began to take place after the benediction had been given. This was the emphasis of the remarks I overheard. As I began to reflect on this matter, I began to see that we were missing the mark. How? Because the entire church, the local church, the communion of saints meeting at a specific location, is a fellowship.

The word fellowship means partnership or communion. More specifically, it indicates a sharing and participating in something that is common to all its participants, all of whom are involved in a close relationship. In its verbal form it is found in 1 Cor 10:16 where Paul instructs us that in the celebration of the Lord's Supper, believers participate in the blood as well as in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. As an adjective, common, it is used to refer to the general truth that all believers undergo all kinds of temptations, 1 Cor 10:13. In addition, Paul reminds Titus that together they share a common faith, Tit 1:4, and Jude tells his readers that they share a common salvation, Jude 3. From the latter 2examples, we are already beginning to detect a particularly evangelical nuance. Accordingly, we are compelled to ask whence does such fellowship emerge? What is its source?

It arises from the effectual call of God the Father, who, in faithfulness to his covenant promise, summons those that he chooses before the foundation of the world to be included into the fellowship of Jesus Christ, 1 Cor 1:9. Thus, according to this infallible apostolic teaching, all that were called in this manner by God share (in) a unique fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Trinitarian dimension of fellowship is more strenuously asserted in Rom 8:9: "You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him." Therefore, according to the clear testimony of the New Testament, all believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit who himself proceeds from the Father and the Son, Jn 14:26; 15:26. And what is the task of the Holy Spirit? To apply to believers all the benefits that Christ has accomplished in his sinless life and in his death on the cross for their redemption and ultimate glorification. In this way, the Holy Spirit honors and glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. To this end he is called the Spirit of truth who glorifies Christ by guiding believers "into all the truth" by declaring to them the things of Jesus Christ, 16:13-14.


Yet further in his first epistle, John tells us that the believer's fellowship is with the Father as well as the Son; it is a fellowship that results from believing and receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life-- the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us-- that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." 1 Jn 1:1-3. Christian fellowship therefore, like Christians and the church, is birthed by the Word and by the Spirit. It is driven by and derived from the gospel.

All of these truths serve to remind us and to reemphasize that true fellowship is demonstrated by and located in the communion of the saints, that is, it is restricted to and circumscribed by the Triune God around those that are authentically Christian. As such, it is demonstrated when believers assemble in corporate worship under the God-centered, Christ-exalting and Spirit-empowered preaching of the Word of God and in the faithful administration of the sacraments of holy Baptism and the Lord's Supper which say the same thing as the gospel of Jesus Christ and which indeed are the gospel in palpable form. In this regard, the practice of the early church at Jerusalem is seminally instructive. There the believers portray four signs of the new Christian life: first, and foundationally, they devote themselves to the apostolic teaching (Calvin: the soul of the church), namely the deep truths concerning the Person and work of Jesus Christ; to the fellowship; to the breaking of bread (although commentators are divided as to whether this phrase refers to the Lord's Supper, to a common meal or to the agape love feasts preceding the eucharist, the greater weight of argument seems to fall in the direction of the Lord's Supper); and to the prayers, Acts 2:42. The point here is that this local gathering of believers came together in fellowship with one another, that is, in the fellowship of the church, in and during the course of official church activities.

Fellowship is therefore a gospel privilege granted to all believers. It takes place primarily during corporate worship but it is also evident when believers come together in a non-worship setting in which the Holy Spirit guides, instructs and illumines their conversation to, along and into the glories of Christ. By definition, unbelievers cannot have this privilege; they are said to hang out or roll or run together in floods of debauchery, 1 Pe 4:4. Their thoughts and declarations flow from themselves, into themselves and are bounded by the dark world whose prince, the devil. On the contrary, the content, tone and tenor of Christian fellowship flow from, outward and upward to Christ, the light of the world. "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin" 1 Jn 1:7.

What an awesome benefit derived from an awesome gospel! What an awesome participation! What an awesome Savior who makes this possible by his mediatorial work on the cross for us while we were yet sinners!

I did go to church yesterday.