Local Church: Preeminence of His Name; The Pattern, Fellowship Together — Bruce Rodgers

Now let's speak to God in prayer. Our Father, we would draw near to Thee this evening. We give thanks for the name of the Lord Jesus, and surely His name brings so many precious thoughts to our minds of the one who has rescued us at the cost of His own life, the one that is the expression of Thy love to mankind, the crowning evidence that God is love.

And we thank You that He is fitted to rule the universe, and all things will be brought under His administration. And we thank You that today, as believers who gather in that precious name, we have confidence that we are accepted in Thy presence, in Him.

He is the one by whom we draw near to Thee, and in whom all our blessings are. And as those who know Him, not only individually as our Savior, but also collectively as we serve Thee and serve one another, we thank Thee that we can acknowledge Him and uphold His name in the communities in which we live.

We ask that Thou might grant to us to have a deepening appreciation for Him, that our commitment to Him and our conviction of the truth of God might be formed within us. And we ask this in His precious name, amen.

I certainly appreciate each one that's come along this evening. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18. When I was growing up, we heard assembly truth teaching so much that it almost became commonplace.

And I would have to say for a number of years, I assumed that everybody knows this, everybody has been firmly grounded in it, and it has been ground into us and pounded into us so that it never needs to be taught again.

And for a long time, I didn't spend very much time or effort in teaching in this area of truth. The last number of years, I've come to realize that there's a lot has changed, and a whole generation has grown up without that emphasis.

And I'm not sure if that is true here or not, but certainly there has been a lack of teaching about it. And so I want to take up really the idea of the principles and practices of our gathering unto Him.

The Preeminence of the Lord’s Name in the Assembly

And the first thing that we're going to emphasize is the preeminence of His name, and then the sufficiency of His word. So Matthew chapter 18, I'll just read the verse, the primary verse, first of all, and then look at the context a bit.

Verse 20 says, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Now, it is interesting at times to talk with somebody who has no background in assembly teaching as we are familiar with, and some of the ideas that they come up with about a verse like this.

To some people, this is just kind of a verse off on its own, and it means that if two of us happen to be at the coffee shop chatting away, and we decide that, well, this is what should be done or something like that, well, then it's ratified in heaven.

And you say, well, where do you already get that from here? Well, that's verse 19. Again, I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything or any matter, that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. So is this just sort of like an informal, casual idea that wherever a couple of Christians happen to be, and they discuss something, and they are in agreement that this holds true?

Or is there something more here? Well, if you just go back a little bit further in the context, you'll see that there is an assembly context here. Verse 15 says, moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.

If he shall hear thee or listen to you, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

And whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything or matter or business, that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. So as you see, as you build the context around this verse, you can see that it is talking about a gathering of people who are called the church.

Now, in my ordinary speaking and so on, I usually use the word assembly because that's literally what the word means. And what is an assembly? Well, if you were at school and there was a school assembly, you would know that basically all the classes are called out to the auditorium and you're called, you're summoned to assemble together in a gathering.

And so the word itself from the Greek language means to call out, to summon, to assemble or to gather together. So this is a group of people who have been gathered together. Again, is this just a once in a lifetime informal thing?

No, it is a continuous thing. It is a permanent thing. It is an assembly of people who have been gathered to his name. Now, you'll notice that the context is trespasses and it has been commented how sad it is that the first mention of a local assembly in the New Testament is in the context of somebody's sin.

And unfortunately, as there is what's called the law of first mention or a principle of first mention, very often the first mention of a particular truth, some of the key elements of that truth are taught in it.

So yes, there are troubles in assembly. There are troubles because there are people in assembly. Even Christians fail and sin against one another. So here is obviously a sense of there's an administration here.

He says, if someone has done wrong to you, try to settle it between yourselves. If they won't listen to you, bring someone else in that this is going to be established. But if they just will refuse to listen to one or two others, it has to be brought before the assembly or the church.

And if he refuses to listen to the assembly, he says, he is to be like to you, a heathen or a publican. That's outside of the assembly. And so this introduces us to a subject that is often ignored in the evangelical Christian realm, let alone some of the, what we call the mainline denominations, where the idea that many people have is that what I am is just between me and God.

And if I come to church and I want to participate and I want to take the bread and so on, that's just between me and God. It's nobody else's business whether I am fit or not. Nobody's supposed to judge me.

And so it's looked at as a simply personal, individual right or privilege. And one of the things we're going to be introduced to immediately in the context of what a New Testament assembly is, that we are called to obey and to follow, is that there is a collective accountability.

There is an authority. There is an administration in this assembly and how we behave matters in the assembly. And so what does it mean then for where two or three are gathered together in my name? Now, I'm going to just give a little bit of grammar explanation here.

Translating from one language to another is not always word for word or English grammar is not the same as Greek grammar. And so sometimes sentences are put a certain way in one language, they come into another language and it doesn't translate directly.

Now, when it says where two or three are gathered together, the verb are is in the present. The verb or the word gather together is actually in what's called the perfect and it's in the passive voice.

When something is in the passive voice, it means that somebody else is doing it to you. So it's not saying that two or three people have just gathered themselves together. It is that these people have been gathered by somebody else.

That's an important principle to start with. Now, in the pictures of a New Testament assembly that we looked at last night, one of the first ones I mentioned was assembly or church of God. It is God who originates in assembly.

And so we could say here, it could be referring to the Holy Spirit. This is a work of the Spirit of God to gather us, to bring us into a group of people. And so it says where two or three are now in the present, gathered in the perfect means it has happened.

This is coming from the past into the present. Now, one New Testament scholar many years ago gave an expanded translation of this and it really captures the sense of it even though you couldn't say all these terms are in the translation, if you'll allow me to say it that way.

And he puts it this way, where two or three are, having been and being gathered. If you put a comma there, you'll get the emphasis of it, where two or three are. So here we are together in a meeting, having been gathered and being gathered.

And so it seems to encompass not only the fact that we are here tonight and we've all come together, but that we have been gathered by God to form a permanent assembly. Now, some people have described this as being gathered to his name 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

And there is a sense in which this is true. If you are a member of the assembly here, you are in the assembly all through the week, not just when you are gathered together in actual meetings. And so, yes, the obligations of an assembly, of being in this fellowship of an assembly are upon us all day, every day, whether we are physically with each other or not.

But as it mentions here, obviously, it is also looking at the actual gathering and a decision that is being made by this church to discipline a member. And he says, what you do, the decision you make, is honored in heaven.

Why? Because I'm with you. It's my word, my authority you are carrying out. And so let's then think about what it means to be gathered together in this way, in my name. It could also be translated unto my name.

And so it is emphasizing that we are here because he is here. Our loyalty is not just primarily to each other. It's not because I love my brothers and my sisters and I want to encourage them and I want to stand with them and I want to help them.

All of that should be true. But all of that is also secondary to this great reality. The Lord Jesus has brought us together. We have been brought together to form a church, an assembly that is a witness for him, that upholds his name.

It's like he's the flag that we gather around. It's to him. And when you say to my name, the name represents the person and all that that person stands for. So that means a lot. His name means himself.

And then he says, there am I in the midst of them. Now someone as well said that where you get this idea of in the midst of them, it's like he's in the center and we're gathering around him. And that's a wonderful reality.

Collective Responsibility and the Holiness of the Assembly

So I want to then think with you about two basic things that flow from this. I mean, there's many things we could talk about. I could spend the rest of the meeting just talking about this expression and all the implications of it.

But I want you to think about the collective responsibility that is involved in being gathered to his name. Now, I mentioned last night, I'm going to mention this. I may mention it through the week again.

In all that I am seeking to teach about the principles of an assembly, what is an assembly, a New Testament assembly, I am not making a judgment about any other Christian group. Any other Christian group that happens to be in this community, they stand on their own profession of what they are claiming before the Lord.

And I am content to leave them with the Lord and not to make it my business to judge them as to whether they are what God acknowledges them to be. I leave that with them and with the Lord. But what I do emphasize is that I am committing myself and my life work to building up and working among those that I see are following the pattern that is given to us in the scriptures as to what is an assembly and how an assembly should function in its witness for the Lord Jesus.

And so I would suggest that every claimed church, every claimed Christian church will be judged by the Lord Jesus on the basis of two important principles. It is that we must honor the holiness of His presence.

He says, there am I, there am I in the midst of them. And so whatever we do and whatever we allow to take place among us is going to be evaluated by the presence of the Lord Jesus. We must honor the holiness of His presence.

And we'll see where that leads us in 1 Corinthians as well. And then it also must honor the authority of His name and of His word. In other words, if I say I am gathered unto His name and then I deliberately refuse His word, I don't carry out His word.

I do not obey His word. And I do not teach other believers to obey His word. I'm actually denying His name. I'm denying His authority. I am rejecting His word. And so again, it's not my place to evaluate or judge any other group.

We have enough to evaluate ourselves, to judge ourselves. Am I, are we collectively as an assembly? Are we honoring His presence? Are we a holy people? And are we an obedient people to His word? Let's go to where this is taken up in a very sideway again in 1 Corinthians chapter five.

1 Corinthians chapter five, where the Apostle Paul calls the assembly at Corinth, which he called in chapter one, the church of God, which is at Corinth. In chapter five, he says in verse one, it is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles.

And he names what kind of sin it was. And then he says, and you are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily as absent in body, but present in spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that has so done this deed.

Now notice the language that follows in verse four and five. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such in one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Now, again, this is a very important chapter, which in many, in a multitude of churches today is totally ignored. And they will say, it's not our business to judge somebody else's life. That's between them and God.

It makes life easy as far as governing the church, abdicating responsibility. But here it's very obvious that Paul's first concern is that the honor of the Lord Jesus would be maintained. Then he speaks about a little leaven, leavening the whole lump.

The holiness of the assembly must be maintained. So therefore, certain sins that are mentioned here, as well as down the chapter, says these must be, they must be, the assembly must be cleansed, purged of the people who are committing these sins.

So that's why I'm emphasizing that it's not just that that individual has sinned, but the assembly has sinned if it does not deal with it. If it honors a human being in their wickedness before the face of God.

And so that just highlights and emphasizes the importance of this. Now, there are certain things that flow from this. In our own experience in the Lord's work, I have come to believe very clearly and teach this wherever I have been involved in assembly life.

When someone comes into the assembly fellowship, whether it's a young person who has grown up in one of the Christian families or whatever, or someone who has gotten saved through gospel efforts and they come in as an adult and they come to us and they want to become part of the assembly, it is imperative to teach them these principles, to make them aware of the discipline of the assembly, of the standard that is going to be administered in the assembly.

It's not fair to them for them not to know it. And it's even a legal issue if you don't properly instruct people as to the terms of the fellowship of the assembly. And so I'm not going to go into details.

There's a few examples that I have known of where someone has come into the assembly and then they have had to be disciplined. And in one case, there was another young person, a teenager, who was totally shocked by the assembly treating that person that way.

And they thought that this is such an unloving, unkind thing to do to that person. All they could think of was here's a person who has a need, they need to be loved and cared for. That is part of the balance.

But the first responsibility is to the Lord. The holiness of his presence must be maintained. The purity of the assembly and the effect on other believers in the assembly, that's the second consideration shown in this chapter.

And the individual himself or herself becomes the focus of the attention in the second epistle of Corinthians where Paul again urges the Christians to confirm their love because there was repentance. And I believe that whenever somebody does fail and has to be disciplined in this extreme way, that even though there is to be this cutting off of social fellowship, that the elders are to speak to this person and to assure the person that they are there for them, that they are going to be contacting the person if they are willing to be visited, if they want to be visited, that the overseers will do it.

Not on a social basis. This is talking about social fellowship being cut off as well as assembly fellowship. And the elders will take that responsibility of seeking to restore and to bring back. And then the assembly will restore their love and care and so on.

And so, yes, there is a balance, but we must recognize it in its true place. Now let's go to another possibly very familiar passage, Acts chapter two. And we're going to look at this idea of there being a pattern for us in the New Testament for what an assembly is and how an assembly is to form and so on.

The Formation of the Assembly in Acts 2

Acts chapter two, this is really the first local assembly that ever existed in the world at Jerusalem at the day of Pentecost. The Spirit of God has descended and filled the disciples and they have spoken with tongues, there have been these supernatural manifestations and a large group of people have gathered together.

Now some of these people are identified in verse five where it says, they were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. Now you might say, well, why are all these devout men from every nation under heaven at Jerusalem?

Well, it's because it was a feast day, one of those special feasts where they were supposed to come together at Jerusalem to worship. And so this message is given to them and the response in verse 41, then they that gladly received his word, that is Peter's preaching, were baptized and the same day there were added unto them about 3 ,000 souls and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and the fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in the prayers.

Now again, this is one of those passages that I heard so many times when I was young that it's almost like it's been beaten and beaten and beaten and you couldn't expect to find anything new in it if you tried.

Well, that may be true but it doesn't mean the passage isn't valid and vital for us. So if we think again of this principle of the first mention of something, this is the first mention of a local assembly being formed and the way it began.

It begins with the gospel being preached, of people hearing the gospel of the Lord Jesus, of coming to repentance, of putting their faith in the Lord Jesus and then the next order that you see is that they were baptized.

Now you say, well, that's pretty obvious. That's the way it's supposed to be. Very, very clear in the scriptures. What does baptism really represent? Well, it's an identification with the Lord Jesus. It's a ritual, a symbolic act that really reflects what happened when you got saved.

You died, you were buried out of sight and you rose again to a new life. Salvation is the end of one life, the beginning of a new life. Baptism expresses that. It is an individual identification with the Lord, an individual association with the Lord Jesus.

You are now a follower of Christ and then the next logical step that follows that is of being added, added unto them. Now, it might be a, I don't know if it's a question worth even asking or trying to answer.

Was the local assembly in existence before this? The disciples were gathered together in Jerusalem. Chapter one mentions about 120 of them. They were basically waiting for the coming of the Spirit. They were a very known group, so they showed some characteristics of what an assembly is, but I'm not sure that they would be called an assembly until the Spirit of God came.

And Christianity, you might say, as it is, began at Pentecost. So however you look at it, it might be simpler just to look at this as the forming of the assembly. But just that little expression of being added suggests that you are coming into something more than just yourself.

You are added to a group. You are becoming part of a group. So this logical progression then, you come to the Savior in repentance. You believe on Him. You submit to the ordinance of baptism to identify yourself.

I am willing to follow the Lord. I belong to Him. He is my Lord. And then you become associated with a group of people who are disciples, followers of the Lord, and together we're going to serve Him in a partnership, in a fellowship.

And then it says here, and they continued steadfastly. And this expression, continued steadfastly, belongs with each of the following terms that are used. Continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine.

Now that word doctrine means teaching. And it says in the breaking of bread, and the fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and the prayers. Now I use the word pattern. What's a pattern? Well, it can be a template.

It can be like a sketch of something, an outline that is made. I don't know if there's any ladies here still sew and make dresses and that kind of thing. Well, my wife used to have all kinds of patterns.

And you didn't go out and wear the pattern, but you used a pattern to make something that you did wear. And so a pattern gives the form of something that you're going to have and to use. In the Old Testament, it's very clearly taught from Exodus chapter 25, that when God, after bringing them to himself at Mount Sinai and making a covenant with them of the 10 commandments, the next thing he does, he says, make me a sanctuary.

Make me a sanctuary. And that is what is called the tabernacle. And Moses was instructed, make sure that you make it according to the pattern shown to you in the mountain. And so for the tabernacle, God had a pattern that he wanted used.

Now, you have probably been better taught about the tabernacle than I have. I trust that you have appreciated some precious truths of the tabernacle and its structure and the service of God that was in it.

Those were foreshadowings of the great reality that we now have part in. And so if you want to argue from the lesser to the greater, if it mattered to God, how the foreshadowing of the reality was done, how much more the reality.

And so we should accept this as a fundamental truth. This belongs to the Lord. The Lord is with us. The Lord is among us. Surely it matters what we do and how we do it and fulfill our service in assembly testimony.

And so this gives us a very, very simple glimpse of what an assembly is expected to function as. Other passages will develop each one of these more fully, but this is that little embryo, you might say, the beginning that gives us this idea of a pattern.

New Testament Pattern and Christian Freedom

Now, I do want to make one little comment to balance this a bit because there is a distinction in the New Testament. There is a difference in the New Testament from Old Testament in that many things in the Old Testament in keeping with the law covenant with God, you could say that the pattern was a prescribed pattern.

It was very strictly enforced. The rituals that were to be fulfilled, there could be no deviation from them. It was to be done very strictly. And you remember what happened when two of Aaron's sons who were anointed as priests came into the presence of the Lord in a way that was not permitted.

They were destroyed on the spot. And we must acknowledge on one hand that the Lord is just as holy today as he was back then. But there is an important difference, and that is that when we come to the New Testament, the pattern is basically given to us what I would call incidentally and not as thus saith the Lord, this is what you must do or else.

There is a different atmosphere in the New Testament. And that fits with the whole realm of the grace of God and the relationship that we are brought in. But it also fits with the idea that we in Galatians chapter four would emphasize this contrast.

Under the law, we were like little children. And Paul makes this very important observation. He says, a little child in the family, even if he's the heir and is going to own everything eventually, and this is in a day when there were all kinds of servants and slaves that were part of the family household.

He says the heir, as long as he's a child, is no different from a slave, but he's under tutors and governors. In other words, somebody's telling him what to do. You can have breakfast now. Put your clothes on now.

It's time to start your schoolwork. You're under orders all the time. He says, but now in Christ, we are indwelled by the Spirit, the Spirit of God's Son. And our ministry and service as Christians is to be lived out in the atmosphere as adult sons, indwelled by the Spirit of His Son, and we are to serve from within.

Not everything governed by somebody else imposing on you, rules, rituals, and so on. Now, this is one of the problems at times that has happened even in assembly life, where we have become so rule-oriented and have imposed so many rules and regulations upon believers that we have put them in bondage.

The New Testament pattern is not intended to become one more kind of religious bondage. It is meant to be from the life within of the Spirit of God, drawing us to love Him, to serve Him. And so there's a maximum of freedom and flexibility.

Now, I'm just pointing that out so that we have a proper balance in our appreciation of it. We break bread on the first day of the week, and we believe that that's the pattern. There is no place in the New Testament where it says that we must break bread on the first day of the week, but we see the pattern of it, and we're happy to follow it.

We see the meaningfulness of it, the value of it. And so our fulfillment is more in this atmosphere of wanting to serve the Lord as we see it fulfilled and as the example is given to us in the New Testament.

And so there is no direct instruction as to how many meetings a week we should have, and there's very little instruction as to what He calls a meeting or not a meeting. There's a lot of flexibility, but there is principles, examples, and so we seek to fulfill our service.

And so we have gospel meetings. We have prayer meetings. We have Bible teaching meetings. We have breaking of bread where the focus is upon our worship of the Lord Jesus and remembrance of a sacrifice.

And there's freedom, there's flexibility, and there is this pattern. And so I wanted to just point that idea out that would maybe help us to appreciate that there is both a pattern and freedom in our service of Him.

Now, maybe I'll give you a little bit of of rather than going into these, I'm just going to spend a little bit of time looking at more at what flows from this instead of looking at each one of them. I will make just a couple of comments before I do this, that the fellowship that we have together is based upon not only the fact that we are all Christians, but the fact that we are obedient to the apostle's doctrine.

Now, this will affect what I would like to take up next, and that is principles of reception and fellowship. Now, there's a series of questions and I won't get through them all tonight, but I think it's important for us to try to cover some of them.

I mentioned to you last night that I'm going to have to cram a little bit because I'm short a night to cover these. So if we have this assembly now that has been formed, and the predominant thought that we're left with in Acts chapter two is that these believers continued, they continued steadfastly.

Fellowship as Partnership Under Christ’s Authority

So there's a sense of faithfulness and commitment. This isn't just a thing, well, this is kind of cool to do, you know, get together. And maybe we'll go to the gospel hall this week and next week we'll go off to this church and then the next week we'll try out the next one over there and we'll have a wonderful time of fellowship together.

Some people have the idea that we can just kind of visit all around and be here, be there, and sort of taste the different flavors of Christianity that exist. And we can just have a wonderful time of fellowship.

We won't talk about doctrine because that divides and we'll just have a wonderful time of fellowship because we're all Christians. I've heard people talk that way and think that that's spiritual. That's completely away from the concept that is here.

The concept here is that we are committed. We are committed to the Lord first of all. We are committed to the truth that has been given to us in the New Testament called the Apostles' Doctrine. This is basically the whole New Testament teaching.

We are committed to work together in a partnership. If we understand fellowship properly, it will save us from some of this other kind of idea that is really quite detrimental. So let's just ask the question then, what is fellowship?

Who is it with? The first place I wanna start is in 1 Corinthians. Again, I mentioned last night that Corinthians has been called the charter of the church, of the local church because there's so much teaching given relating to the local assembly.

And in 1 Corinthians chapter one, there's a beautiful little section from verse four down where Paul thanks God for the grace of God that has been bestowed upon them in equipping them. And then he says in verse nine, God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now this is true individually. And I would suggest in the context of 1 Corinthians, it is also true collectively as an assembly. One of the great problems that came upon the Christians in Corinth is they lost sight of the Lord.

And I have forgotten whether this is just 1 Corinthians or 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, I think it's just 1 Corinthians, that Paul uses the title Lord about 70 times. He's directing their minds, their hearts back to the Lord.

And over and over again, in our assembly difficulties that happen, whatever kind of problem it is, very often the cure is to get our minds back on the Lord and maybe give one another a break. And not spend so much time looking at other people and their shortcomings, but to get our minds back on the Lord himself.

We have been called, God has called us. And he says, God is faithful. God is faithful, he is committed to us being in fellowship with his son. Now, I just want to ask you a question. Who sets the terms of this fellowship?

Who sets the terms? We are called unto the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. That sets the terms. He's our Lord, he sets the terms. Let's see that confirmed in 1 John 1. Here the apostle John, speaking about the Lord Jesus having come from eternity.

He calls him in verse two, that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ.