Last week, I gave an account of my experiences with accountability in the churches I have attended. In my experience, there has been little obedience to our Lord's commands from Matthew 18 and accountability for sinful behavior.
Being told, "You have to go to church," takes a guilty conscience to the next level. It's like being with someone who does something wrong and, when told, refuses to stop and tells you that you have to come along. Really!
You Have To Go To Church
When a person takes a step back to consider whether what they are doing is pleasing to the Lord, as I have done in the last couple of years, they are automatically considered walking on the fringe. Everyone knows that you have to go to church. However, think with me for a minute about how things were during the first century.
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews walks his hearers through a traumatic transition for Jewish believers. It would be much like the Catholic Church during Martin Luther's time and what is known as the Reformation. Everyone knew you had to go to the Catholic church. The sacrificial system was still being observed before 70 AD. Hebrews is an argument for ending the sacrificial system because of Christ's death and resurrection.
I am not equating Catholicism with churches that proclaim the Gospel of grace. However, there is more to church than the proclamation of the Gospel. During the last fifty years, churches have added home fellowship groups because they recognize additional needs that churches do not meet on Sunday morning or evening. What if the need was meant to be met on Sunday?
In Hebrews 10:19 to 25, the writer succinctly clarifies what he has been saying for ten chapters about placing faith in Jesus as a new and living way of exercising godly faith. The step to Christ was a step away from what they previously understood to be the right way. He concludes his thoughts by saying, "And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds," "One another" signifies whole-body involvement. Group edification is substantially different from one speaker, and all others listen. Then comes the verse many will turn to and say things must stay the way they have been, "not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near." Once again, he says, "encouraging one another." The dynamic of which he speaks is a group. So then, let those who would say you have to go to church say Sunday should be about encouraging one another.
Go To Church or In Your Gathering Go To the World
The other side of this coin is Matthew 10 and Luke 11. In Matthew, the 12 are sent out, and in Luke 11, the seventy are sent out. From Pentecost forward, there was a transition from the Apostolic era and their particular ministry, which led to the creation of the New Testament. They would not always be present; the Ekklesia (Gathering) must go into the world, and they must be Spirit-filled. As Christ used His Apostles to proclaim His Word, they were never meant to replace Christ. Likewise, elders, pastors, professors, and Bishops were never meant to replace Christ. At this point, tradition becomes the stumbling block.
The Book of Acts is a transition from Jew to Gentile. The Apostles are viewed in the opening chapters, and then there is a transition from the eleven to the Apostles to the Gentiles. An ingathering of sinners is saved and separated from the world to proclaim the Gospel. When persecution came, the Apostles, by the will of God, stayed at Jerusalem, and the ingathering went out proclaiming Christ. The ingathering was spirit-filled and growing up. It was not until later years that the need was recognized for older brothers to be elders and take the lead as they became more knowledgeable in Gospel truth. God never commanded there be a king in Israel, so He never commanded a separation of leader and laity, the pulpit and the pew, or the minister and the member. This transformation was the devil's great victory. Just as God is king in Israel, so is Jesus Christ, head of the church.
Go To Church or Grow Up
Matthew 10 and Luke 11 are challenging passages because they call us to die. "But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; ... "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. "You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved." These passages and others like them are not merely prophetic. They are our calling.
Jesus said in Matthew 10:25, "If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household!" The body of Christ is a household, not an organization, a denomination, or an institution. We have no right to be divided, and we all will be held responsible for our calling to death, not just ministers.
I am not against any individual who attends a church. Every man must be responsible and answer to Christ and not me. The Word is clear for the regenerate, and I pray that people will not become lazy by listening to preaching but study for themselves. It boggles my mind when I hear Christians dismiss and criticize the Kendrick brothers for the movies they make. There is always a waking-up moment, repentance, and personal study of the Word that leads to a transcendent way of serving Christ. The Forge is a perfect example.
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