The Importance of Attendance Part2

Introduction

We’re going to continue this morning in my three-part series on the importance of attendance. This is lesson two. The last lesson I did on this, which was obviously lesson one, I talked about the fact that from Hebrews 10, 24 and 25, that your brethren need you. Today we’re going to look at sort of the flip side of the coin. Why we need our brethren. Have you ever heard somebody say something like, well, I don’t really need a church. I don’t really need to go and worship with other people. All I need is just my fishing boat and to be out there with nature, and I feel closer to God in that setting. Has anybody ever heard that sort of a thing? That’s kind of popularly said.

People often say this sort of thing to rid themselves of the responsibility of a local church and of worshiping with brethren. And this reasoning is often coupled with a critical attitude toward organized religion. And being alone is viewed as really a better opportunity for deep, undistracted worship. You know, I really get more out of that than I do when I’m in a building in some official capacity surrounded by other people worshiping God. You know, really, this attitude is basically one of I don’t need other Christians. Is this what the Bible teaches? I think you already know the answer to that. Now, if that’s what the Bible taught, then certainly we need to do that. But if not, then certainly we don’t. It is true that we can and should worship God privately and personally.

In fact, look at the example of Jesus. Look at his prayer life, for example, and the things he talks about in Matthew chapter 6. And so, first and foremost, our life of service and our worship to God is something we do, we do privately on a regular daily basis, even. But does that mean that God doesn’t expect us to worship him together? Or does it mean that we don’t need a church family, and that there aren’t any benefits of that? One thing that I would reply to someone who thinks that way, that, you know, I don’t really need a church, is first and foremost, remember that it’s not about you. It’s about others. Remember, we talked about last time in Hebrews 10, 24 and 25, which says, and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembly together.

As is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. That the emphasis in that passage is so heavily upon encouraging and lifting up others, and that being a reason for not forsaking our own assembling together. And so it’s not about you, it’s about your brethren and what you can bring to the table as far as encouragement is concerned. Now, that of course doesn’t mean that there are no personal benefits for you to be here. There are. In fact, what we’re going to do today is we’re going to focus on some positive reasons why we need the assembly, why we need the church, why we need our brethren. And we’re going to focus on the example of Paul.

Paul, of course, was an apostle, but before he was an apostle, he was an enemy of the cross. And he was on his way to Damascus to put Christians in prison when he saw that bright light. And it was the Lord who spoke to him. And it was the Lord who told him that you are a chosen vessel for the Gentiles. And go to Damascus. It will be told you what you must do. So he’s blinded by that bright light, and he fasts for three days. And then the Lord sends a man named Ananias to come to him and to heal him of this blindness and to baptize him into the Lord. And Paul, as we read in Galatians chapter 1, received the revelation of Jesus Christ directly.

He didn’t need the apostles to teach him, but he did need his brethren. In fact, from the very beginning of his conversion, he is around his brethren. We read in Acts 9 and verse 19. Immediately after his baptism it says, and he took food and was strengthened. Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus. He was with them. They were encouraging him, they were supporting him. In fact, about three years later, when he leaves Damascus to go to Jerusalem, it is his brethren who are protecting his very life, letting him down through an opening in the wall in a basket because the Jews were plotting against him. And he goes to Jerusalem. And we read in verse 26 of Acts 9.

When he came to Jerusalem, he was trying to associate with the disciples. But they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. He wanted to be a part of the church in Jerusalem. Well, they didn’t want anything to do with him. He was a terrorist as far as they were concerned. And so it was Barnabas, the son of encouragement. That was what his name meant, who encouraged them to accept Paul and to receive Paul. And so they did. And he was going in and out among them at Jerusalem. You know, if anybody could have argued, well, I don’t need the church in order to be close to God, it would have been Paul. He was an apostle. He received the revelation from Jesus directly.

1. The Benefit of Support

Why would he need the disciples? Well, he did. He needed the church. And from his example and writings, we learn that every Christian needs the benefits of a local church in three key ways support, relationships, and worship. And this doesn’t exhaust all of the reasons, but these are the three we’re going to look at this morning. We’ll look at more reasons in my part three on this. And so let’s start by looking at the benefit of support, of encouragement that the church provides us. Don’t you need that? Doesn’t every Christian need that? Absolutely. There was a time in Paul’s third journey when he was all alone. He had spent quite a bit of time in one particular city, Ephesus. And a series of events caused him to have to get out of Dodge, so to speak.

And he had already written to the Corinthians the letter of 1 Corinthians. If you recall 1 Corinthians, there’s a lot of negativity in there as far as this there were some problems that had to be dealt with. And he had to be pretty straightforward. You might say harsh in some regards. And so he was very concerned how the church at Corinth had received that letter. And he had sent Titus to go and check things out and see how Corinth had received 1 Corinthians. And Titus was going to come back and they were going to meet. And Paul was going to hear the report. Well, this was on his heart and mine really terribly. And so he also sent his other helpers on ahead of him, Timothy and Erastus.

So he’s alone when he leaves Ephesus. And he goes all the way up to Troas, and he meets up, actually, he doesn’t because he wants to meet up with Titus, and he can’t find him. And we read in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and verses 12 and 13. Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and when a door was opened for me in the Lord, I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus, my brother. But taking my leave of them, I went on to Macedonia. Do you see something shocking in this passage? This is the apostle Paul, the one who, the Lord Jesus said, I’m sending you to the Gentiles. This is the evangelist Paul, who went on these three missionary journeys and went into places the gospel never was.

And here he is in Troas, and there’s a great opportunity to preach, and does he take it? No. Why? He had no rest for his spirit, not finding Titus. You imagine that? Paul, you know, giving up that opportunity to preach the gospel? Well, when Paul was finally reunited with Titus, he was greatly comforted. As we read in chapter 7 and verses 5 through 7, for even when we came into Macedonia, Paul is now talking about himself and Timothy and Erastus. They’re making headway. He meets up with them in Macedonia, but Titus is still not there. So even when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side. Conflicts without, fears within. Imagine the Apostle Paul feeling fearful. But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us.

How? How did God comfort? By the coming of Titus. And not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more. Brethren provide desperately needed encouragement. And sometimes it’s particular brethren. In this case, it was Titus particularly who had a particular message that Paul needed to know about. Can you think of particular brethren that are maybe a shot in the arm for you? Maybe even here in this congregation, somebody that you just you really look forward to seeing that person. They’re always uplifting. They always have something for you, and maybe you’re particularly close to them and your relationship in general. We all have people like that.

We lean on one another. And we need that Titus in our life to come and to provide us with comfort. But it’s really not them providing us with that encouragement. It’s God providing us with encouragement through our brethren. So people who say, I don’t need the church in order to be close to God. I don’t need the church in order to worship God.

Support is a major benefit of the church. Charles Spurgeon was a famous Baptist preacher in the 1800s. And he told a story that he went over to a member’s house who this man had pretty much decided he didn’t need church anymore. He didn’t need his brethren anymore. So Mr. Spurgeon, as they sat in front of the fire, removed one of the coals from the fireplace. And as they sat there, the coal grew cold. And it died out. And then he put it back into the fireplace, and of course, it regained its original heat, just like all of the other coals in the fire. If we remove ourselves from the Lord’s people, we’re just like that coal. And we think that we can go it alone, we’re going to grow cold.

2. The Benefit of Relationships

We’re going to be alone and discouraged. We need this body of believers here in order to be supported and encouraged. Well, closely related to support is the benefit of relationships. Paul was very close to his brethren. He had tender affection for them. He wrote to the Thessalonians, having so fond an affection for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.

Philippians 1 8, for God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. It might be hard to understand just how much Paul loves his brethren and thought about them. It was on his mind continually.

This is in the third journey when he’s really trying to get back to Jerusalem in a pretty big hurry. So when he’s going through the area, he doesn’t have time to go to Ephesus. He calls them to meet him in Miletus, which is south. And he explains to them that the Spirit is indicating that there’s trouble waiting for me in Jerusalem. And he tells them, this is the last time I’m going to see you. And we read in Acts 20 and verse 36, starting, when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all, and they began to weep aloud. Can you imagine that? We’re not talking about a few tears. They begin to weep aloud and embraced Paul and repeatedly kissed him, grieving especially over the word which he had spoken that they would not see his face again.

And they were accompanying him to the ship. Where are you going to find that kind of closeness? I understand this was a unique situation, but there was a closeness there. You’re going to find that in the workplace? Probably not. Probably not. Many people won’t even find that closeness in their blood family. But there is that closeness in the spiritual family of God. What a wonderful, tremendous blessing it is. To have a spiritual family to share your life with and to have tender affection for.

This is on his return journey, as we were just talking about, going to Jerusalem. And he preaches until midnight. In fact, we read that there was one there whose name was Eudicus, a young man. They were in an upper level, who was sitting in the window as Paul was preaching and he fell asleep. And he fell out the window and hit the ground and died. That’ll teach you to sleep in church, won’t it?

And they went down there and he was taken up as dead. But when Paul went down to him, he said, Don’t worry, there’s life in him. I take that to mean he raised him from the dead. But we read then in verse 11, we had gone back up. This is Paul, and had broken the bread and eaten. So this is a common meal spoken of here, now that their worship is over.

And the idea of that language there that he talked with them is not the idea of a sermon. It’s the idea that they were visiting together until the sun came up. I want you to just imagine that. Imagine we gather and we have a worship service. We don’t know what time they met. Paul preached till midnight. One person told me, well, he didn’t start preaching until 11:30. So he didn’t actually preach that long. Well, we don’t know what time he started, but but whatever time they met, he preaches until midnight. So imagine that we’re here and the preacher preaches until midnight. Notice I just said the preacher, whichever preacher you want to think. And then after that, we stay up all night long, visiting together until the sun comes up.

I know this was a special situation, but do you see the closeness they had? We talk about imitating the New Testament church. Do we fall short in that regard? But do you see what a blessing it is? Paul needed these relationships. And so do you. You need those as well. You may not realize it. In Romans 15 24, Paul wrote to the brethren in Rome saying, whenever I go to Spain, for I hope to see you in passing and to be helped on my way there by you when I have first enjoyed your company for a while. Then he goes on to tell the rest of his plan. There’s just something to be said about enjoying one another’s company. I tell you, I don’t know of any group of people that I enjoy the company of more than you all.

My brethren. I mean, we may not have everything in common. We may not have the same hobbies. We may not have age in common. We may not have career in common or sports, you know, preferences in common. But we have the Lord in common. And we have in common that our goal is to obey the scriptures without adding to and taking away from it. That is a precious thing to have in common. And it is so special that is a bond that is really unlike any other.

To develop relationships. We have that opportunity every time we meet. It’s called coming early. And it’s called staying late. I want to encourage you to take those opportunities. You know, well, I don’t, there’s not enough opportunities to get to know people at South Bumby. Well, come earlier. Stay later. Talk. Visit. Sometimes we we just do a little chit chat, but if you have a little bit of extra time to hang around, you might actually have a real conversation and get to know somebody in a spiritual way and lift them up and encourage them. We need to be doing that. Well, there’s more opportunities. You could invite people over to your house. What do we call that? Hospitality. That’s a scriptural thing. That’s not just something that’s good.

That’s something we need to be doing. Or, hey, let’s meet at a restaurant just to visit, just to get to know your brethren. This church is divided up into four groups that meet once a month, each group, and often these groups will do things together. They’ll have potlucks and so on. Are you a part of a group that you don’t ever participate? I’m not trying to shame you. I’m just trying to say you’re missing out. The 20s and 30s meet once a month. If you’re in that age range, do you come? I’m not trying to shame you. I’m just saying you’re missing out. Because there are these precious relationships that are waiting for you to build. But you’ve got to take a step, a proactive step to do that.

A friend loves at all times. Proverbs 17, 17. What a tremendous blessing it is to have a whole group of friends who love you at all times. Amen. That is a I mean, do you see? Do you understand how rare that is in the world? Do you understand what we have as believers in the Lord? That the average person doesn’t have out there in the world. They don’t have any clue what a blessing it is. And we have this blessing. What are we doing with it? Are we complaining? As Greg talked about about these blessings? Are we complaining? Well, do I really have to be there every time? We ought to be thankful that we can be there every time. And that we have brethren who love us and who want to get to know us and support us and develop relationships with us.

3. The Benefit of Worship Together

Well, even more important than the benefit of relationships is the benefit of worship. Worship. Together. This spiritual fellowship. This is in a way taking things deeper than just hanging out. You know, fellowship in the Bible is not coffee and donuts. In 1 John 1 and verse 7, if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sins. I was teaching the high school class, and I said, let’s just try to replace fellowship there with coffee and donuts. If we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have coffee and donuts with one another. Do you see how petty that sounds?

Now, I’m not saying that relationships aren’t important, and we were just talking about just, you know, enjoying one another’s company, but even that has a spiritual emphasis. But this spiritual fellowship that we have is expressed, I think, uh, it is highlighted the most in our worship together. This spiritual fellowship. Paul worshiped with his brethren publicly. We were just talking about when Paul’s in Troaz on his return trip to Jerusalem at the end of his last journey. And that Paul preached till midnight. In Acts 20 and verse 7. Now, before I read that, I want to just set something up. He is in a hurry to get back for Pentecost. It takes him five days to go from Philippi to Troas. It shouldn’t have taken that long.

When he gets there, apparently he gets there on a Monday because he waits for seven days to meet on the first day of the week for something that must have been very important. And we see that very important thing here in this verse. On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread. Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day and prolonged his message until midnight. Break bread in this verse is, I think, certainly referring to the Lord’s Supper. The term can refer to a common meal, and we actually read that earlier. It’s a few verses after this one. But the context will determine. What kind of context is this verse? This is a this is a spiritual context.

They’re gathering to worship. And they’re gathering to break bread. Oh, and by the way, Paul was going to preach, too. It seems to me in reading this that the Lord’s Supper is perhaps the most important reason that we come together. Now, I didn’t say that it’s the only reason. I think some brethren almost seem to think that if they just get there and get the Lord’s Supper and put that check in the box, then that’s really all they need. And they could take or leave the other stuff. No, we need everything that we do collectively, but it seems to me that the Lord’s Supper is perhaps the most important reason that we come together. We need that memorial in so many ways. It is a reminder of the death of Christ for you.

And the fact that you are the one who sinned. And it’s also a sober reminder of the fact that we need to die with Christ. And we have this covenant with Christ. And it is a communion. You know, we we talk about the communion. Do you realize what you’re saying when you talk about communion? The word means a sharing together in something. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul says in verses 16 and 17, is not the cup of blessing which we break a sharing or a communion, some versions say, in the blood of Christ. Is not the bread which we break a sharing or communion in the body of Christ. Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

So that’s a collective activity. People who say, Well, I don’t need church. I just need my fishing boat. They are leaving out this vital, all-important memorial of the Lord’s death. And they need it. I need it. It’s a recharging of my batteries. I need it every week. I don’t understand how some religions just say, well, let’s just do it, you know, once or twice a year. I need it every week at least. And I’m not going to do it more than that, because it’s only on the first day of the week that we are to do it. But I need it. And so do you. Well, Paul worshipped not only publicly with his brethren, he also worshiped privately. We talked about when he was with the elders of Ephesus.

And it says in Acts 20, 36 that he knelt down and prayed with them all. Well, that wasn’t some official, you know, service they were having. They were together and they prayed. When Paul was going on his way to Jerusalem when he was in Tyre and about to leave the city of Tyre, we read in Acts 21 and verse 5, when our days there were ended, we left and started on our journey, while they all, with wives and children, escorted us till we were out of the city. After kneeling down on the beach and praying, we said farewell to one another. Wow. I love to picture that. Here they are on the beach. Of course, they are, they know that trouble awaits for Paul. They don’t want Paul to go to Jerusalem, but he’s going to go anyway.

And they kneel down and pray together. By the way, do we do that enough? In just private settings. I don’t mean saying a blessing before the meal. But I mean, hey, let’s take hands and kneel down and pray to God together. There is a closeness there. In Acts 16, this is in the second journey when Paul and Silas were thrown into prison in Philippi. We read in verse 25 that about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. I tell you, brethren, praying together and singing together and worshiping or studying the word of God in private settings is so uplifting.

It’s very, very encouraging. How can a person say he doesn’t need that? I tell you, when a person says, I don’t need that, a Christian, somebody who wears the name of Christ, says, I don’t need to pray and to study and to sing together with my brethren, they are not filled with the word of God. And I know that because of everything we’ve looked at, but also Colossians 3 16 tells me plainly, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. And what will a person do who has the word of Christ richly dwelling within him? With all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another, with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. A person filled with the word of God longs to worship with his brethren.

In Ephesians 5, 18 and 19, the sister passage says, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. What does a person filled with the Spirit do, which is equivalent to let the word of Christ richly dwell within you? Well, it goes on to say, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. Somebody who’s filled with the Spirit, somebody who’s filled with the Word of God is a person who wants to worship with his brethren. And so one says, when someone says, All I need is that fishing boat, and I just want to be close to nature, they’re not filled with the word of God.

Conclusion

They’re filled with their own thoughts, and that’s it. And a man’s way is not in himself, nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps. Worship is a major benefit of the church. David tells us in Psalm 55, we who had sweet fellowship together walked in the house of God in the throng. What a sweet fellowship it is. And so the next time that you hear someone say, I don’t need the church to be close to God, remind them that every Christian needs the benefits of a local church. We all need support. We all need relationships. We all need that spiritual fellowship together. Take full advantage of these blessings that have been offered. Have you taken full advantage of that? Or do you just take a little bit here and there, and that’s enough for you?

And let us be sure that we here are providing these benefits for one another. Let us be sure that we are supporting one another and encouraging one another. Let us be sure that we are developing and building relationships and reaching out, especially to those who may be on the fringes. Maybe it’s hard for them to get to know people. They need somebody to reach out to them. And let us be sure that we are making our worship together the most edifying that it can possibly be so that we all feel and realize the benefits of being together. And therefore, we’ll feel and realize the benefits of not having those blessings as well. Would you bow your head with me in a word of prayer? Our Father and God, thank you so much for loving us and giving us your Son.

And for this sweet fellowship that we share together as a body as a local church here. We pray that you’ll help us, Lord, to lean on one another. Help us to lift one another up and help us not to forsake our own assembling together and to realize it’s not all about us. But Father, help us to see and to realize the blessings that are there of a local church. Thank you so much for this church. Please bless us in our efforts to serve you. It is through your Son that we pray. Amen. Thank you for your kind attention. Of course, these blessings that are provided here in this church and in any church are not just provided by the members. That is God’s way of blessing all of us, is with this wonderful thing called the church.

And it’s through Jesus Christ that that’s possible. The church is made possible because Jesus shed his blood for you and me on the cross. And what he requires of us is that we believe that. And that we repent of our sins. That we confess his name. And that we be immersed, buried with Jesus, and rise to walk in newness of life. If you’re not a Christian, you have no idea what blessings are waiting for you. And you can do it today. You can have those today. They’re at your disposal. Why don’t you come? Take advantage of those blessings. Become a Christian this morning as we stand and sing the song of invitation.