The first aspect of the way of gathering is for us to be gathered into the Lord’s name. In Matthew 18:20 the Lord Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.” The predicate here is not in the active voice but in the passive voice, saying that two or three are gathered. Furthermore, the Greek word translated “in” is better rendered “into.” The way of gathering in the church is to be gathered by the Lord into His name for the enjoyment of His presence. We are not gathered into an organization or a teaching or a practice. We are gathered into the name of the Lord Jesus. The name of the Lord always denotes His person. A name denotes a real and practical person, and the person of the Lord Jesus is the Spirit. Jesus Christ today is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.”
We must link Matthew 18:20 with 1 Corinthians 12:3, which says, “No one can say, Lord Jesus, except in the Holy Spirit.” First, to meet together is to be gathered into the name, the person, of the Lord Jesus, and to be gathered into His person means to be gathered into the Spirit. Second, whenever we meet together, no matter how large or small the gathering may be, we must practice calling on the name of the Lord that we may get into the Spirit. When we get into the Spirit, we are in the person of the Lord Jesus. When we are in the person of the Lord Jesus, we are in the reality of the name of the Lord Jesus.
In order to have a proper church meeting, we need to be gathered into the name of the Lord. Before the meeting, however, we may be occupied with other things. Therefore, when the meeting time comes, the Lord Jesus gathers us out of these preoccupations into His name. We turn our heart to the Lord and call upon the name of the Lord from deep within our spirit. As a result, we get into the name, the person, the Spirit, of the Lord. In such a Spirit, under such a condition, we gather together for a church meeting.
The way of gathering is first to meet from house to house (Acts 2:46; 5:42). Acts 2:46 tells us that the believers broke bread “from house to house,” and 5:42 says that “from house to house, they did not cease teaching and bringing the good news of Jesus as the Christ.” The believers first met in homes beginning on the day of Pentecost. Three thousand met from house to house. The Greek indicates that they met according to houses, which means that every house had a meeting. There was a meeting in every new believer’s house.
The Greek words rendered “from house to house” also mean “at home,” in contrast with “in the temple.” The Christian way of meeting together is fitting to God’s New Testament economy, differing from the Judaic way of meeting in the synagogues (Acts 6:9). The Christian way of meeting in homes became a continual and general practice in the churches (cf. Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Philem. 2).
In the home meetings, according to Acts 2:46 and 5:42, they were preaching the gospel, teaching the truth, breaking bread to remember the Lord, and praying. This should prove to us that meeting in the homes was a custom and became a habit in the early days of the church. Based upon this we can say that the basic way for the believers to meet is in the homes. The church in Jerusalem had a large number of saints. According to Acts 5:14, “believers were all the more being added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and of women.” Surely the basic way for these believers to meet was from house to house.
Meeting in the believers’ homes is for all the members of Christ to function. In a big meeting it is difficult for the saints to function. However, in a small meeting in a home everyone can function.
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