Meeting with one another is a very important Christian practice, so we will consider it carefully.
1. “Where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst” (Matt. 18:20).
If two or three believers are gathered into the Lord’s name, He promises that He will be in their midst. This shows that He is with us when we meet. When we personally contact the Lord, we surely can touch His sweet presence and receive His grace, but we receive a different supply in the meetings. Even though the blessing that we receive in our personal contact with the Lord cannot be replaced by what we receive in the meetings, the presence of the Lord in the meetings provides a supply that cannot be obtained through only personal contact with the Lord. The presence of the Lord in the meetings always enlightens us and blesses us; it is very precious. This preciousness speaks of the importance of meeting with one another.
2. “They rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and those with them assembled together...And as they were speaking these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, Peace to you” (Luke 24:33, 36).
The two disciples on the road to Emmaus met the Lord, and they walked and talked with Him. Yet even when He explained the Bible to them, they did not recognize Him. However, when the Lord reclined at table with them, their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him as the Lord. Then the Lord suddenly disappeared. Realizing that they were headed in the wrong direction and to the wrong place, they immediately rose up and returned to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they found the eleven apostles assembled together and met with them. While they were meeting, the Lord came into their midst; they received the blessing of His appearing and experienced His presence. Without participating in that meeting, they would not have received the blessing of the Lord’s appearance. This experience shows the importance of meeting.
3. “Thomas...was not with them when Jesus came...After eight days, His disciples were again within, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, though the doors were shut, and stood in the midst” (John 20:24, 26).
Thomas was the last of the eleven disciples to see the Lord after His resurrection. In the evening of the day of the Lord’s resurrection, the Lord came and stood in the midst of the disciples and appeared to them, but Thomas was not with them. After eight days the disciples gathered together again, and Thomas was with them. When the Lord appeared in the midst of them again, Thomas finally saw the Lord. This shows that in the meetings of the disciples—us—the Lord often appears. If we attend the meeting, we will gain the Lord’s appearing; if not, we will miss it. This indicates the importance of meeting.
The Lord’s appearing and presence are the most important point of meeting. In every meeting we should meet the Lord. Listening to a message, prayer, or other matters are not the most important aspects of meeting. The most important point of every meeting is to touch and meet the Lord.
4. “As the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled, they were all together in the same place...And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:1-4).
When the Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost, He did not descend upon individual believers in separate places; He descended upon the disciples when they were meeting together. He did not outwardly fill the individual believers who were separate from one another; He filled the disciples who were in the meeting. Only the disciples participating in that meeting obtained the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the time. Those who did not come to the meeting missed this opportunity. This shows the importance of meeting.
5. “Incite one another to love and good works, not abandoning our own assembling together...but exhorting one another; and so much the more as you see the day drawing near” (Heb. 10:24-25).
The meetings enable us to care for one another, exhort one another, and incite one another to love and good works. The meetings cause us to have spiritual fellowship with all the saints and to receive the life supply from the saints. Therefore, we should not abandon our own assembling together, especially in these last days of deep darkness. If we cease to meet, we will not only lose the blessings of the meetings, but we also will develop a habit of not meeting. Then we will become colder and colder until we have no way to fervently pursue the Lord and serve Him.
There was a brother in a Western country who had not been to a meeting for a long time. Whenever a co-worker went to visit him, he was not home. One day during winter a co-worker went to visit the brother, and he saw a fire burning in the fireplace of his living room. He took the coals out of the stove, allowed them to cool, and then scattered them on the floor of the living room. When the brother returned home and saw coals scattered over the floor and no fire in the fireplace, he was very angry. After he found out that the co-worker was responsible, he went to speak with him. The co-worker said to him, “Brother, you are like one of those cold, dead pieces of coal. Satan has taken you out of the stove of the meetings, causing you to leave the church so that you are no longer burning.” When the brother heard this word, he immediately woke up and began to come to the meetings once again.
By ourselves we cannot burn or be hot. We need to meet with the saints. The more wood or coal there is, the more quickly and brightly a fire will burn. When a Christian becomes isolated, he is cheated by the devil and eventually becomes cold and dead. If we do not want to be cold and dead, we must regularly attend the meetings of the church. The church is the sanctuary of God. His presence as well as the light of His presence are there. Many brothers and sisters can testify that coming to a meeting often causes their feelings of darkness or inward oppression to be replaced with a sense of enlightenment and freedom. Sometimes we feel sad, hurt, or depressed, but as soon as we come to a meeting, we receive comfort, our spirit is released, and our burdens disappear. The meetings remove our burdens and give us a sense of comfort, rest, release, and freedom. They resolve many problems. They provide us with a clear sense of the Lord’s leading, a sense that we often cannot obtain through our seeking of the Lord by ourselves. In the meetings light shines on specific portions of the Bible that are beyond our understanding in our personal study of the Word. They also provide an atmosphere in which people can be brought to salvation, even persons whom we have been unable to lead to the Lord in our individual contact.
In the church meetings God gives grace, and people receive grace. In the church meetings the saints also display the grace that they have received. Whenever we meet, we should not only receive God’s grace but also display the grace that we have received in order to glorify God, shame the enemy, and supply others. Our meetings involve more than only worshipping God and listening to His Word, and they involve more than simply fellowshipping with God and receiving His grace. They also are for our fellowship with the saints about the matters in which we have been graced. We must fellowship with the brothers and sisters in the grace of God and supply others with His grace through this fellowship. Thus, whenever we attend a meeting, we must open our spirit. When our spirit is open, we can supply others with the grace that we have received through prayers, a hymn, or a short word. If our spirit is not open, we cannot receive the supply from others. In the meetings we must supply the grace of God to help others and to receive the grace of God from others. If our spirit is closed during the meeting, the meeting will be low, heavy, and full of death to us. Our spirit must be open and released in the meetings. Once our spirit is released, grace and light will come, darkness and error will disappear, and everyone will receive the supply of life. All death will be swallowed up. Supplying one another and building up one another is a great principle in our meeting. If there is a mutual function according to God’s grace, the grace that we receive will increase. In order to receive grace in this way, we must meet, and when we meet, we must open our spirit.
Christian meetings are important. The Christian life is not an individualistic life; it is the life of a flock that requires us to gather together and to live a corporate flock life. We are like bees and ants that live together rather than by themselves.