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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn to the book of Acts chapter 2 and go with me to just one verse. Acts chapter 2 verse 42. Acts chapter 2 and verse 42. This is the Word of the Lord.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teachings, and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers. May God add His blessing to the reading and to the hearing of His Word, and may He write its eternal truths upon our heart.
A while back, in fact, I know exactly when it was. It was Jennifer's birthday last year. She and I went to dinner for her birthday, and we were sitting at the restaurant, and the young man who was our server came, and he was a very kindly young man, and we began to have a conversation.
Every time he would stop to refill our drinks or to bring us our food, we would have a few minutes of interaction. And the conversation inevitably turned to the things of God. And at one point I said, well, young man, I forget his name now, but I said, whatever his name was, I said, where do you go to church?
And he said, oh, I don't go to church. I am the church. In case you've never heard that before, that is a very common sentiment that is being popularized in the last several years. It's a way of saying, I can be devoid of a relationship with the local gathered body of Christ.
It's a way of saying, I don't need the church. I can be the church on my own. Church isn't where I go. Church is who I am. And therefore, it's a way of saying, I really don't need the gathered assembly.
Well, when that young man said to me, I don't go to church. I am the church. I looked him straight in the eye and I said, no, you're not. And he looked rather surprised. Probably never had anyone challenge him on that before.
I said, young man, I said, there is no possible way that you are the church because the church is the assembly and you cannot be the assembly by yourself. The word church is translated 114 times in the King James Bible.
It's translated 106 times in the ESV. The Greek word ekklesia is a combination of ek, which means out of, and kleo, which means to be called. And Thayer's expository Greek lexicon says this. It says that the word ekklesia properly means the gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place.
It is an assembly. Laonita, another lexicon, says this. Ekklesia is a congregation of Christians. It implies interactive membership. Strong's Concordance, probably something many of you have at home, one of the most common Greek lexicons that people have, says this.
Ekklesia concretely means a popular meeting, a religious congregation, or an assembly. In fact, when the ESV doesn't translate the word ekklesia as church, it always translates it as an assembly. The church is an assembly.
We are Christians when we are part. And we are members of the church when we are a part. But the church is the assembly. Church happens when we gather. It is not about the individual. It is about the community of faith.
Since the coronavirus began, many churches have been forced to change the way they interact with one another. And this has led to very popular new attitudes and statements coming out. Some have tried to be real positive.
They've said, oh, the church has left the building. And another popular meme or thing that we see going around is, don't go to church, be the church. And those sound really positive. And they've tried to maintain some sense of normalcy.
We're going to church online. We're worshiping virtually. Now, I want to add a note here. We are among the churches which agreed to the necessity of closing our building. And even now, our building is essentially closed, which is why we are meeting outside.
But I want you to note something that we did not do. And I want you to note something that I pray that we never do. We never tried to pretend that what we were doing online is an adequate replacement for what happens when we come together.
You will notice that we never ever once called what we were doing online church. We didn't call it online church. We didn't even call it online worship. At best, we called it a live stream event. Because it's not church.
It's not church if we're not together. There is no substitute for the assembly. And I'm not here to make other churches or stomp on anybody else or say anything negative. What I'm saying is this, the danger in all of this that I see is that people are going to be so convinced that what they do online is an adequate replacement for what happens when they gather that after this is over, they're going to think that that's an adequate way to continue to be the church.
And it is not! Some people have said, well, this pandemic shows that church was never about the building. Beloved, nobody who knows what the church is about ever thought it was about the building. Nobody with any sense of ecclesiastical, historical knowledge would say the church is about the building.
But I will tell you this, the church is about the people. We can have church in a field. We can have church in a cave. We can have church in a house. And in fact, that's what the early church did was they met in houses.
But I will tell you this, you can't have church alone. That's the point. Yes, you can be anywhere, but you've got to be anywhere together. That is the whole point of today's message. I believe churches were already filled with people who were putting on a mask and playing a role when they got together.
And my fear is that virtual assembling is simply going to compound that problem. Likewise, I fear that when and if life gets back to normal, there will be those who now see their online experience as a replacement for the assembly and will choose to remain disconnected because it's safer and more convenient.
And isn't that what we've tried to do with church over the last 50 years? We've tried to make it more convenient. And what is more convenient than the church being another stream on your Netflix queue?
What is more convenient than the church being another tab on your Internet window? And some of you may think I'm exaggerating this issue. I can guarantee you I am not. Look how many churches are extolling the idea.
Come to church in your pajamas. Go to church in your living room. For years, the church has been trying to make the experience of the church more and more consumer driven. Well, we have found the consumer mindset.
Eat your Cheerios, in your jammies, and be in the church. That's the attitude. And you say nobody thinks that. Brothers and sisters, you are not paying attention. If you don't think that that is the attitude of many, you are not watching and you are not examining the times.
This morning, I've chosen a text from the book of Acts to be our focus. And in this passage, you need to understand a little bit of the context. This is right after Peter has preached. And he has seen thousands of people respond to his preaching of the Gospel.
Three thousand souls were saved on the day of Pentecost. And the church, it says, in this same passage, is growing daily. God is adding to their number daily those who are being saved. And in the midst of this, Luke, who is the writer of Acts, gives a glimpse of what their churches looked like.
And by that I mean what their assemblies looked like. I want to show you four essential practices of the early church which demanded that they meet together. By the way, the title of today's sermon, Church is Essential.
And I want to show you four essential practices that demanded that the early church meet together. I can't imagine anybody in the first century saying, I'm a Christian, but I don't need to be a part of the church.
You realize most of the New Testament is written to churches? The idea that the church is unnecessary is hogwash. And I'll say it to anybody. Because I know many people who would claim to be Christians have no interest in being a part of the church.
That is absolutely not what the Bible teaches. And there are four things that demand the assembling together. If you look at Acts 2 .42, you know what the four things are. It's outlined for you. This is one of the simplest verses to preach.
It literally gives you your four points. It says the church was devoted to four things. It was devoted to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayers. That's the four things that the church was devoted to.
Devoted means they gave themselves to it. It was the focus of their life. It was the focus of their church. And by the way, might I say this, when we start our gathering back together in that building, maybe we need to rethink some things.
Maybe we're not being as focused as we ought to be on the things that really matter. Because you know what really matters? The apostles' doctrine, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.
Those are the things that we ought to be focused on. I pray it's what we have been focused on. But after this is over and we're back to quote-unquote normal, if that ever, if normal ever comes again, these are the things to which and of which we must be focused.
The first is the apostles' teaching. If you have a King James Bible, it says the apostles' doctrine. Ooh, ugly word. Doctrine. No, it's not. It's a beautiful word. Doctrine means truth. Doctrine means learning.
Doctrine means what you are being educated in. The doctrine is the teaching. And this is the first priority of the gathered church is to make sure that we are rightly teaching the Word of God. You know what happens when you don't come and you don't have an assembly and you don't have a pastor and you don't have elders and you don't have other men.
You have no stone upon which to sharpen your iron. And you will go from this teacher to that teacher and to another teacher and you will be blown around by every wind of doctrine. And no one will be there to rebuke you.
And no one will be there to correct you. And no one will be there to disciple you. And you will find yourself satisfied with your own education and your own knowledge. And you'll be one of the ones who say, I don't need a preacher.
I have the Holy Spirit. Well, tell that to the early church. Tell the early church they didn't need elders. You know what the apostles did when they went out and created churches, when they planted churches?
They raised up elders in the church to teach. They raised up men who were educated in the church to ensure that the people of God did not get off track. Beloved, one of the reasons why we gather is for discipleship.
And discipleship begins in the pulpit, but it doesn't end there. Discipleship continues when brothers like Brother Gary calls you on the phone and wants to talk to you about Jesus. It's when one of the elders invites you to lunch and wants to talk to you about your soul.
It's when we gather at the back of the church after the service and you say to me, Pastor, I don't understand what you were talking about. Can you explain it to me? Yes, I can. Pastor, I don't agree with you.
Well, you can be wrong. Just kidding. But the point is, that's the gathering. You don't get that by yourself. And might I say this, one of the things over the years that hasn't happened a lot here, but has a few precious times, is that people would come to me confused and broken over something I had preached.
And the Lord gives me an opportunity to take them aside and explain it better to them because they didn't understand what I was saying. That's a lovely thing. There was a pastor years ago, and I can't remember his name right off, but he was a pastor of a larger church and every Sunday after church, he made himself available in his office.
And his office would have a line of people because his preaching was so convicting and so powerful that people would line up at his door to come and talk to him about Jesus. And he would spend his whole afternoon talking to one after the other.
I want you to know, my door and the door of our elders is always open. Our phones don't go off. We are never having a do not disturb sign on our door. When it comes to the things of God, you can disturb us.
You must disturb us. Please disturb us. There is no such thing as a stupid question except the one that is unasked. Please know that that's part of our job. And it doesn't have to be the elders. We're called to disciple one another.
The elders are to equip the saints for the work of ministry. And you can be discipling one another. Look around. There are people who've been in Christ 50 years. And there are people that haven't been alive for 10 years in this same group.
Are you discipling and being discipled today? Because that's one of the reasons why we gather. Now I spent a little more time on that one than I wanted to, and I know it's a little muggy out here, so let me go through the next three.
The second one is the fellowship. And I want you to notice the word the. Oftentimes we miss the. But the word the is a definite article. A definite article means it's separated from other things. If I said, Brian, you're a man, you'd say, yes, sir, I'm a man.
But if I said you're the man, you'd be worried because you'd wonder what you did. Because the man is the man out of all the other men. And when he says they gathered for the apostles' doctrine and the fellowship, he's talking about a specific type of fellowship.
He's talking about fellowship around the Lord. He's talking about fellowship in the Lord. And this happens in the assembly first. When we come together, we are fellowshipping in the Lord. I want to read to you a quote from Charles Spurgeon.
Listen to this quote. I'll read it slow. Satan hates Christian fellowship. It is his policy to keep Christians apart. Anything which can divide saints from one another, he delights in. He attaches far more importance to godly intercourse than we do.
Since union is strength, he does his best to promote separation. Hear that again. Since union is strength, Satan does his best to promote separation. Beloved, has there ever been a time in your life where separation within the church was as promoted as it is right now?
Has there ever been a time in your life's history where the church was so encouraged to not come together? The bowl is full! And the churches are empty! Many people wanted an excuse not to come, and they've got it.
The breaking of bread is the third thing. The breaking of bread. Now, there's some debate about the meaning of this, but I really don't think there should be a debate when it says the breaking of bread.
Like I said, the definite article here. This is not talking about just a meal. This is talking about the Lord's Supper, in my opinion. Even though we could say that in the early church, the Lord's Supper was always attached to a meal, so it could be referring to the agape feast, the meal that they had together, but it's referring specifically within that meal to when they gather around the Lord's table.
And let me tell you this. I want to tell you something. I miss more than anything, I miss picking up that bread and that cup with you all. And as soon as it is safe to do so, we will do it again. We have already talked about the best ways and the safest ways to do it, but I want to tell you this.
We're not going to do it virtually, and we're not going to do it individually. We're going to do it as a body. There is no such thing as separated communion. The very word communion has the idea of unity and being together and being within the assembly.
The idea that we can do communion by ourselves is not biblical. We don't see that. In fact, the only time in my personal life where if someone were to ask me for communion, it would be if they were in the hospital unable to be in the church, and I would take a delegation from the church with me.
I would take either a few elders or some deacons or some church members so that we could be a gathered body in that hotel room and have that supper. It is not something that we do by ourselves. And I've seen these pastors on the Internet and they'll say, okay, grab your bread, grab your water or your juice.
If you don't have any bread, go grab a cookie. Are you kidding? You say, Pastor, you're being mean. I am not being mean. I am concerned with the holiness of God here. Do you care about the holiness of God?
Because that communion is holy. You don't believe it's holy. You go home and read 1 Corinthians 11 and you see that people who mistreat that table have died as a result. And you come back and you don't tell me it's holy.
You say, I don't believe that ever happened. And the Apostle Paul is a liar. He didn't say some may have died. He said some have died. The table is something that happens in the assembly. Finally, the prayers.
Now, again, somebody might say, well, we can pray on our own. And you're not wrong. You can pray on your own. But notice it doesn't say prayers. It says the prayers. Did you notice that? Did you notice everything in this line of four things has the definite article?
And I went back in the Greek, and in the Greek it does have the definite article. Which means this isn't talking about your personal prayer time. This isn't talking about you in your closet. That is an important time.
That is an indispensable time. That is a time you must have. You must have your private prayer time in your own time before God. But that's not what's being talked about here. The prayers which are being talked about here are the prayers of the gathered assembly, the prayers of the saints.
This is the prayers that happen in community. I love to hear our elders pray. I feel like a heel because I robbed Brother Micah praying this morning. He's going to pray the benediction. He just doesn't know it yet.
I love to hear him pray. And I love to hear Brother Andy pray. And Brother Jack and Brother Richard. I love to hear them pray. And I love to hear our deacons pray. And I love to hear all of you pray. And when we come together, we come together for prayer.
We come together for the prayers. What prayers is he referring to? How about this? How about the prayer of confession? The prayer of repentance? I'm talking about the corporate prayer. We as a church have failed this week.
Amen? We as a church failed today. Amen? And we come to God and we confess our sins as a church. The prayer of repentance. We repent to God. The prayer that we pray over the table. And how about this?
In James chapter 5 it says, If one of you be sick, you come to the elders of the church and they will anoint you with oil and they will pray over you. And the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
So the prayers here are not individual prayers, but they are corporate prayers in the body. One of the most precious things we do is pray with and for one another. For years I have been using the phrase, Theology Matters.
I've made shirts that say it. I've put it on our website. I've put it on our Facebook page. It's become our unofficial motto. Theology Matters. But for 2020 I want to change something. I think we should have a new motto.
Church Matters. Assembly Matters. Gathering Matters. Church is essential. We've heard the debates, haven't we? What's an essential thing? Isn't that a new word that's become so popular in the American dialect?
What's essential? The people handing out groceries is essential because we have to eat. The people protecting us, the firemen and the police officers, they're essential and certainly they are. The Home Depot is essential because if your light bulbs go out, you've got to have a place to go buy light bulbs.
And you look around and you see how many things are essential to people. And in some situations, fast food is essential. That's right, because we all still need a hamburger once in a while. But look what else is essential.
The abortion clinics have not closed. Is that essential? Well, to some, because it's the sacrament of death. Abortion is the greatest idol in our land. And they have not closed. Beloved, I'm here to tell you, if we're willing to say abortion clinics are essential and the church is not, we have failed.
We have failed. I hope you leave on your mind today with this as the primary point of the message. Church is the gathering and that is essential. We are not the church alone. We are the church together.
Satan's desire is to separate us and God calls us to unify. Now, do we do it safely? Do we do it smartly? Do we do it in accord with the standards that our authorities have set? Yes, but we do not forsake the assembling of ourselves.
No more. We continue to stand. And we stand together. May God be with us. Let us pray. Father, may we stand and may we stand firm. Not in pride or arrogance. But may we stand with the conviction that we are not the church by ourselves.
The church is the assembly. And we have been called to assemble. And Lord, we try to do that safely. We don't want anyone to become sick. We don't want anyone to be hurt by our pride or arrogance. So, Lord, I pray that we would follow the guidelines put in place by those who you have set in authority over our land.
But, Lord, I want to thank you. I want to thank you for a governor who understands that church is essential. Because, Lord, there are states in our union where that is not so. And I want to thank you that you have put in his mind, whether he be a believer or not, I don't know.
But you have put it into his mind that the gathering of the saints, the gathering of believers, the gathering for church is essential. Lord, may it be that this sits upon our heart. And we understand the value.
Lord, I know there are some who cannot come because of health reasons. Lord, I know that that's the case any time within the church. And I pray for them. And I pray that they would know that we love them.
And I pray that they would know that we are with them in spirit and in heart. But, Lord, I pray that we would never, never, ever conclude that being apart is the natural position of the church. It is not.
Lord, give us the conviction that unity is our strength. And may we not give in to the devil who would want to keep us separated. Lord, we pray all these things in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.