Not Forsaking the Assembly Meetings

As Christians, we are privileged to live in personal fellowship with our Lord. At the same time, however, we are also brought together with other Christians to walk our path together with them, to follow our Lord, and to serve Him. This common path also includes the gatherings of believers that we are allowed to attend.

These gatherings as a local assembly have a high status in the eyes of our Lord. We should not disregard them. The believing Hebrews are told that they should take care not to miss or abandon these meetings (Heb 10:25). This advice has not lost its relevance to this day. It applies to young Christians as well as older ones. God does not want us to miss any opportunity to come together as Christians. We do this to worship Him and give thanks, to hear His Word, and to pray together.

In the Old Testament, there were also gatherings among God’s people – even if they had a different character than the gatherings we know as Christians. David loved these gatherings. In Psalm 122:1, he writes: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord.‘”

This raises the question for us what motivation we have when we go to the gatherings of believers. Years ago, a Christian meeting room somewhere in Germany was being cleaned. The old benches, which had been in the cellar for several years, were discarded. The following “inscription” was carved on one bench: “Someone is bored to death here.” I don’t know what may have prompted the “author” of this sentence. Nor is it that important. In any case, he doesn’t seem to have been in very good shape.

Good motives?

So why do we go to the meetings? Hopefully, we will not be bored. But let’s think about our motives:

• Are we perhaps following a certain compulsion? Do we go because our parents want us to? It is certainly good when parents attend the meetings with their children. So that everything else is perceived as abnormal for the children. But by the time we are teenagers at the latest, the good habits and the authority of the parents should no longer be the only motive.
• Do we perhaps go there out of tradition and habit? Maybe our parents and grandparents already went to the same meetings, and so we do the same. Again, it’s a question of personal maturity. If children follow their parents out of habit, that’s fine, but a growing young person should ask themselves whether that is a sufficient motive.
• Do we perhaps attend meetings to please others? Or are we even following a certain peer pressure built up by others? Perhaps we also want to please our parents, siblings, and friends. We quickly realize that this is probably not a suitable motive in the long term either.
• Perhaps the gatherings are also an interesting pastime. They bring variety to the daily grind. We also meet nice people there who we enjoy being with. Meeting brothers and sisters is a good thing, but reducing meetings to a pastime and a meeting place is probably not enough.
• But what if I attend the meetings because I feel comfortable there? Because my spiritual feelings are addressed there? Because I am blessed? That finally seems to be a good argument. And yet, I dare say that even that is not enough in the long run. What if the sermon suddenly no longer appeals to me? What if I think I’m no longer receiving a blessing? If I suddenly no longer feel so comfortable?

Once again, it is definitely a good thing to attend the meetings. But it is even better if we do it with the right motive. As an example, I would like to present a meeting of the disciples of the Lord Jesus. This meeting took place shortly after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. We can read about it in John 20:19-23. Out of fear of the Jews, the disciples had locked the doors behind them. And now they experienced something very special which is described to us in three points:

1. The Lord Jesus comes to His disciples. This is a very important motive for attending the meetings. We want to experience the Lord Jesus. He also comes today to those who gather in His name. The Lord Jesus wants to reveal Himself to us in every meeting. He wants to show us something of His greatness and glory. If we take this to heart, we will not want to miss any more meetings unnecessarily.
2. The Lord Jesus is always in the midst. A meeting “in the name of the Lord Jesus” means that He is the center. The first Christians gathered only around the Lord. They wanted Him to be at the center. Nowhere in the Bible are we asked to come together in the name of any assembly (congregation, church). It is simply about experiencing the Lord Jesus as the center. This makes every gathering a special gathering. Not being there is a missed opportunity, a personally missed chance.
3. The Lord Jesus is the doer. It is not the disciples who take the initiative, but everything comes from the Lord. He speaks to them. He acts. We can still experience this today. The Lord Jesus Himself wants to speak to us. He wants to reach our hearts. It is not about whether a brother preaches well or not but about the fact that the Lord Jesus wants to tell and show us something. It is not about whether the supporting program is right and whether the singing is good, but about experiencing the Lord Jesus as the True Giver. Many of the minor issues of our gatherings then take care of themselves.

And what was the result of the disciples’ experience? Were they still afraid? Were they bored? Certainly not. The Bible text tells us: “Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord” (Jn 20:20). This reminds us of the joy of David mentioned above. Experiencing the Lord Jesus brings joy to the heart. When He reveals Himself, He shows us something of His glory. And that brings guaranteed joy!

We can still experience this joy today. Incidentally, one person did not experience it back then. That was Thomas. He was missing. He simply wasn’t there. We don’t know why. But he had missed something. In the same way, we always miss something today if we are not there when the Lord Jesus wants us to be with Him. That is why we should motivate ourselves anew today, so we do not miss the gatherings of believers.