In this message we shall begin to consider the meetings of the church.
The meetings of the church are very important. The church should meet continually, for meetings enable the believers to be supplied, established, and perfected that God’s goal may be accomplished.
Attending the meetings of the church is God’s ordination for the believers. Hebrews 10:25 says, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.” Here the assembling refers to the church meetings. God has ordained a way in which every living thing in the universe should exist. If a living thing obeys the law that governs its existence, that thing will survive and be blessed. The principle is the same with the believers. God’s ordination for us, which becomes our law of existence and blessing, is the church meetings. As fish must live in water and birds must exist in the air, so we must maintain our spiritual existence and living by the church meetings.
The meetings of the church are also a requirement of our spiritual life. Every kind of life has its own characteristic and usually many characteristics. The spiritual life we have received, being the life of God in us, also possesses many characteristics. One of these characteristics is that of flocking together, of meeting together. John 10:3 and 16 reveal that since we are saved and have the divine life, we are the Lord’s sheep. The characteristic of the sheep’s life is to flock together and to dislike isolation from other sheep. Hence, the Bible says that we are not only the Lord’s sheep but also His flock (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2). In order to be a sheep which shares in the blessing of the flock, we must meet together with the flock, the church. The characteristic of the spiritual “sheep life” within us requires that we attend the meetings of the church.
The basic principle of the meetings of the church is that the meetings are a gathering of the believers by the Lord into His name. A church meeting must be a gathering of the believers by the Lord. This is indicated by the Lord’s word in Matthew 18:20, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.” This verse does not say that two or three come together to meet or that they meet together but that they are gathered together. The verb is not in the active voice but in the passive voice. The two or three do not meet together; they are gathered together. They are gathered together by the Lord. If we say that the two or three meet together, this meeting is initiated by those who meet. For two or three to be gathered together, however, indicates that they are gathered by the Lord.
The fact that the verb in 18:20 is in the passive voice indicates that whenever we come together to meet we should not be the ones who take the initiative. Rather, it must be the Lord who initiates the meeting. He gathers us. Our meeting, therefore, is not initiated by anyone except the Lord Jesus. Every time we meet together it should be He who gathers us together. Apparently it is we who take the initiative to meet together. Actually it is the Lord who takes the initiative to gather us together. It is He who gathers us into His name, initiating every meeting. Any meeting initiated by us may not be genuine, and the motive may not be pure or singly for the Lord. For this reason, every gathering of the church must be initiated by the Lord as the gathering One.
In gathering us together in His name, the Lord rescues us from all kinds of worldly and earthly distractions and occupations. This means that if we are not gathered by the Lord, we may remain in many other things. We may be occupied, detained, kept, and to some extent imprisoned by many things. Apart from the Lord’s gathering us together, not many of us would come regularly to the church meetings. Therefore, we need a powerful One to rescue us from all occupations and distractions and to bring us out of them. We especially need to be brought out of the self. We cannot be gathered into the Lord’s name if we stay in the self. For every church meeting we need the Lord to bring us out of everything other than Himself and to gather us together into His name. This is a basic principle of meeting for any kind of gathering-for prayer, for the Lord’s table, for the reading of the Word, for building up. Whatever kind of meeting-small meetings in homes or large meetings in the halls-the principle is first that we are gathered out of all kinds of occupations into the Lord Himself.
According to the original language, Matthew 18:20 says that the Lord Jesus gathers us not in His name but into His name. In the principle of the New Testament, the name denotes the person. The name is the person. Hence, to be gathered into the Lord’s name is to be gathered into the Lord Himself. Furthermore, the name of the Lord Jesus is very much linked to the Holy Spirit. Actually, the Spirit is the reality of the Lord’s name. The Lord’s name denotes His person, and the reality of the Lord’s person is the Spirit. This means that to be gathered into the name of the Lord, that is, into the Lord Himself, is to be gathered into the Spirit.
When we are gathered by the Lord into His name, we enjoy His presence. In 18:20 the Lord especially promises that where two or three are gathered together into His name, He will be “in their midst.” This indicates that we enjoy His presence in a special way. His presence surely brings us enlightenment, grace, supply, and all kinds of blessing. How precious this is!
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