Christian Meetings Can Replace Christ

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 Every group has their own set of ordinances, practices, rituals, etc. which govern their meeting times.  Often new groups will form by the Lord's leading, yet in time, they, too, become quite set in their ways.  This kind of trend is not isolated to Sunday morning, but recurs throughout the schedule of almost all groups of believers throughout the week.  Eventually, it is not difficult to predict what will go on in any one of the scheduled gatherings a church may hold time and time again.  If the Lord desires to change the schedule, usually He is greeted with unhappy, dogmatic children who resist the change or will allow the change only with several disclaimers. </div> <bR> <div> The problem I wish to address is brothers and sisters remaining separated from each other based on denomination, sect or "non-sect" as some insist upon.  "Going to church" has become a divisive, not unifying factor in God's family.  We all have grown accustomed to "our way" of doing things and we may allow others to do their thing, but we harbor a hidden thought that our way is superior to theirs.  Will superiority which leads to exclusiveness ever bring about the building of the Body of Christ (Ephesians 4:16)?  I think all believers would agree that it is healthy and right to gather together.  Yet, if the Spirit leads one to go visit a neighbor or preach the gospel or spend time with a needy person rather than attend the scheduled gathering, many leaders and saints in the congregation will raise their eyebrows.  "Going to church" has made it difficult, in my opinion, for the Spirit to freely lead His children as He sees fit.  For instance, there are millions of people sitting home on Sunday mornings without Christ.  Most Christians are occupied with going to church.  Could it be possible the Lord would lead some believers to visit those in need and forgo their church going?  Is it possible to gather for fellowship and breaking of bread at other times than Sunday morning?</div> <bR> <div> I believe that Christ may desire to work in ways we have not even thought of and these ways may be "outside" our present realm of thinking.  This was the pattern He lived while on earth.  He was always doing the unexpected.  He was always going places others would not go.  He would visit people no one else would visit.  His timing did not match anyone else's timing.  Why, have we as God's children, become so patterned and formal in our worship to the point it seems no matter where you "go to church" you can quickly learn the established routines?  I would ask you to consider the church from its inception around A.D. 30 when the Lord resurrected and breathed life into the saints at Pentecost.  Most scholars agree that the church began there.  But where did the practice of going to church every Sunday come from?  Was this a Biblical practice?  Is this a matter that allows us to be led by the Spirit continually?  Or once we get the call to attend church Sunday morning is there no other option even if the Spirit leads otherwise?</div> <bR> <div> Let me illustrate using a very familiar verse from Hebrews 10:25:</div> <bR> <div> <B>Not abandoning our own assembling together, as the custom with some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more as you see the day drawing near. </B></div> <bR> <div> Many other translations use the phrase, "not forsaking the assembling together" which seems to indicate the same as the verse above.  This verse has been used countless times by Christians relating to going to church on Sunday.  For some reason it seems that many people's Bibles read, "Do not stop going to church on Sunday."  However, I would ask what the context of the verse in question is.  What was the author of the book of Hebrews actually trying to relate to the Hebrew believers in A.D. 67, the approximate time of writing.  Was he trying to get them to go to church or was he waging war against a religious system which had infiltrated the Lord's church since its inception?  Could the author have been warning the dear saints not to return to the religion that Christ had come to replace and eventually to destroy?</div> <bR> <div> <B>The thought of "Going to Church" May Not have been God's Intention for His church</B></div> <bR> <div> I know that this subheading may shock and offend you.  However, please read why I wrote it.  My contention is that God desires His church, meaning ALL His children, ALL His genuine believers in Christ to be ONE body.  Yet, Satan, man's flesh and maybe other sources have contributed to divisions, schisms, parties, factions, and sects.  How can believers be one in Christ when there is a insidious pattern of "going to church" which divides us all up?  I am not advocating that believers live an independent life.  On the contrary, I believe the more we pursue Christ in the Spirit, the more we will desire fellowship with other believers.  Yet, our place of gathering may change often based on the Spirit's leading.  Is it possible that believers are stuck in rituals rather than reality?  Could many Christians be comfortably complacent giving millions of dollars of money for buildings while millions of needy people are literally left out in the cold?</div> <bR> <div> In my estimation, it seems the church is quite a mess.  Forgive me, Lord, for saying anything against Your Body.  Yet, as I read the scriptures, I find some interesting things which I would like to pass on to you:</div> <bR> <div> Leviticus 23:17 says, "<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><I><B>From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with yeast [leaven], as a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord .</B></I></FONT>"   </div> <bR> <div> Most scholars would agree that this verse refers to the church's inception at Pentecost.  The ceremonial offerings were NOT to contain leaven in those days, yet here are two loaves, each containing leaven.  All the examples of leaven in the New Testament were negative and evil, never positive and good.  Yet, in Leviticus, the author speaks of a leavened offering.  If this verse does refer to the church, this may be one evidence that the church had problems at its birth ... which may now have advanced into adulthood.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" >Acts 2:46 says, "</FONT><B>And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord </B><B><U>in the temple</U></B><B> and breaking bread from house to house, they partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" >."  </FONT></div> <bR> <div> This is a widely used verse to show that Christian meetings should be "in church" and "house to house."  My question is what kind of effect did meeting at the temple have on the believers and the practice of "going to church?"  Acts 2 was referring to A.D. 30 just after the Lord's death and resurrection.  What else was going on at the temple?  The Jews had their Judaistic corporate meetings in the temple courts, as well as their physical sacrifices of animals, as well as their Jewish rituals and practices.  If we keep reading the book of Acts, it is easy to see that the Jews did not like the Christians.  They persecuted them as they did the Lord Jesus.  </div> <bR> <div> There is not much said about the period of time between A.D. 30 to A.D. 50 except the account in Acts.  The Spirit did many things which took no outward shape or form, but were full of variety and wonder.  However, eventually we see a staggering conversation between the apostle Paul and James, an elder in the church in Jerusalem.  Look what James said to Paul.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>17  And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers welcomed us gladly.  18  And on the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.  19  And having greeted them, he related one by one the things which God did among the Gentiles through his ministry.  20  And when they heard it, they glorified God and said to him, </B></FONT><B>You observe, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews who have believed; and all are </B><B><U>zealous for the law</U></B><B>.</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B> </B><B> 21  And they have been informed concerning you that you are teaching all the Jews throughout the nations apostasy from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children, nor to walk according to the customs.  22  What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come.  </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" >(Acts 21:17-22)</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Prior to this conversation between Paul and James in Jerusalem, Paul had already written the book of Galatians in which he made some strong statements about God's New Testament economy verses the Old Testament economy.  One such statement is Galatians 5:1-4:</div> <bR> <div> <B>5:1  It is for freedom that Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not be entangled with a yoke of slavery again.  2  Behold, I Paul say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.  3  And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law.  4  You have been brought to nought, separated from Christ, </B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#0000BF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B><U>you who are being justified by law; you have fallen from grace</U></B></FONT><B>. </B></div> <bR> <div> In Galatians, Paul basically stated that to love the Mosiac law and follow it, is to fall from grace.  In Acts 21, our brother James was fully exalting the Mosiac law.  How could Paul go through with a Judaistic vow as recorded in Acts 21 after having experienced the freshness of the Spirit time and time again?  (Galatians 3:1-6) </div> <bR> <div> <B>3  Are you so foolish? </B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#00BF00" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B><U>Having begun by the Spirit</U></B></FONT><B>, are you now being perfected by the flesh?  4  Have you suffered so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain?  5  He therefore who bountifully supplies to you the Spirit and does works of power among you, does He do it out of the </B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#0000BF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B><U>works of law</U></B><B> </B></FONT><B>or out of the hearing of faith? </B></div> <bR> <div> What kind of church gatherings were taking place at that time in Jerusalem?  Were they according to the Spirit or were they more according to the traditions, rituals and practices of Judaism as seen with our brother James?  Paul stated that Jews were always infiltrating every church that he raised up in Asia Minor (Acts 14:19; 16:3; 17:5, 13; 20:3, 9; 21:11; 23:27; 25:2)?  What influence did this have on Christians, especially in terms of their meetings?</div> <bR> <div> Could it be that the practice of church going and the church meetings themselves, being "patterned according to the book of Acts" were leavened from the start?  Could it be that the established pattern of Old Testament Judaism in worshiping God has carried right into the New Testament church?  Could it also be that God would not produce any outward pattern for meetings but would rather allow believers to follow the Spirit and meet together as they were lead by Him?  And even more, could The Spirit lead them to meet in a way NOT according to the established form?  <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#080000" FACE="Times New Roman" >And would that "non-established form" be valid to Christians today?  Is it possible that God would not only allow but send any of our "traditionalists" (whether from so-called denominations or not) to another culture - South America or Africa, for instance - and find something different in their worship services than we find in St. Andrew's United Methodist Church, Randolph First Presbyterian, or in The Church in Detroit!!  It seems to me that God does His best work "outside of the box"!!  He always has!!  It's time for some believers to move outside that box, and I believe that He already has some outside it.  What an impact we could have on our neighborhoods and on our world if we would go minister like Jesus did according to the instant and continual leading of the Spirit!!  But wouldn't this step on some toes and be considered heresy or deviant?</FONT></div> <bR> <div> (CTR/TWC)</div> <bR> <div> T. Austin Sparks wrote the following (~1940-50's):</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" >"</FONT>Understanding the <U>New </U>Testament, the <U>New Testament Way</U> and the very Christ Himself is not an instantaneous realization<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" >. Rather it is a dawning, a gradual dawning that requires both time and seeking. In the beginning the apostles still continued to go up to the temple, participate in the ordinanances of the temple and the ritual of the temple. They kept the time of prayer at the temple. Yet something was happening to them inwardly. The old things did not fit any more. The early believers were losing their commitment to the old things. No one told them what was right and what was wrong; it was only the deeper sense of life indicating, hinting, dawning. There was no direct ordinance to "leave this way", or "leave this denomination", or "come out of this system or that." No, it was just happening, inwardly, subtlely. There was no physical separation at first, only an inward separation. The early believers found themselves "out" before they actually left. In the old creation, God commenced His work from the outside; in the new, always from the inside, and in this spiritual dispensation it is that you just find yourself somewhere, perhaps where you never intended to be, expected to be, planned to be. But He has led; and the pattern will not change. God must first grow in us, give us new feelings, new realizations from the sense of life within. Then, and only then, can there be genuine change in living and conduct. At that time we can say we walk by faith, we walk by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself to us."</FONT></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>