In the Old Testament you have a collective people typifying the church. One of the primary things this people should impress us with is the matter of meeting. Beginning from the night of the Passover they continued to meet. They had the Passover in their houses, but I don’t consider that as a meeting. But in a sense it was a kind of home meeting. But there was no individual Passover. The Passover was not held by individuals. It was held by houses. The Passover Lamb was not killed for any individual, but for the houses.
Then continuing that Passover they were gathered. That was a meeting. They were gathered to be an army. Right after the Passover they began to fight. So they needed to be formed into an army, and that formation into an army was their meeting. Right after the Passover all the children of Israel became a meeting people. They met, not only every day, but all day and all night. You might ask, How could we meet like this? But if you read Acts 2 and 4 there was this kind of atmosphere or at least this kind of aspiration. The three thousand and the five thousand, after being saved, had the aspiration, I believe, to stay together day and night. Once again I say that one of the primary things the children of Israel did that should impress us is their meeting. They became a meeting people. It was through that meeting that God did everything. God did nothing outside of their meeting. God did nothing without that meeting. God did everything through that meeting.
You have to realize that those people who were there meeting together were a type of the church. What is the church? The church is a people meeting together. This is the ekklesia, a people called out to meet together. Suppose there is no meeting. Where then is the church? If there is no meeting, there is no church. The church is just the meeting. The church is not only the meeting people, but the people meeting. The meeting people may not meet. But when the people are meeting, surely everybody is in the meeting.
Suppose we don’t come together anymore. Suppose we are dismissed forever. Where is the church? Then we are scattered. Dismissed is a good word, but we don’t like the word scattered. If the church is scattered it means the church is in captivity. When so many saints miss the meetings I wonder whether they have been dismissed or scattered. If you have been dismissed, that is very good. But if you have been scattered, that means you are captured. I don’t like to offend you, but I must be frank and honest to tell you the truth: if you don’t come to the church meeting, you are in captivity.
I have missed the meeting very few times within the past twenty years. When I was not in the meeting I had the feeling that I was left in prison. There was not one time when the church was meeting and I was not in the meeting that I had a good time. I cannot say that the church was meeting and I stayed home and had a good time. I cannot say how pleasant it is that while the church is meeting I am staying home. What is your feeling when you stay home from the meeting? Captivity! You have not been properly dismissed. You have been captured. You are in captivity. We must see what is the church. The church is not just a meeting people; it is a people meeting.
In a recent meeting with the sisters I said that human life is vanity and that the Christian life is meaningless without the church life. Then what kind of life is meaningful? It is neither the human life nor in a sense the Christian life. There are millions of Christians today on the earth, but many of them do not have a meaningful life. They are Christians, yet still their Christian life is meaningless because they don’t have the church life.
Now I must add that the church life is just a meeting life. The Christian life needs the church life, and the church life is a meeting life. Your human life is vanity. Your Christian life needs the church life, and your church life must be a meeting life. If you don’t meet, you don’t have the church life. If you don’t have the church life, your Christian life is meaningless.
If you want to have a life full of reality you must be a Christian. But even as a Christian you cannot by yourself reach the reality. Yes, Christ is reality, but this reality could only be reached and experienced in full in the church life. If you don’t have the church life, you don’t have the reality of the riches of Christ in full. Christ can never be touched and experienced adequately unless you are in the church. So if you don’t have the church life your Christian life is aimless. There is no goal, no purpose. The purpose, the goal, the aim of the Christian life is the church. And you have to realize that the church is a people meeting. The church life is just a meeting life. There can be no argument. The fact is the fact. Don’t tell me that you have been a Christian for years and that you do not meet with people often. Don’t tell me that you stay home by yourself. I would say you are a poor Christian. But hallelujah! I am an enjoying Christian. I enjoy Christ! I experience Christ! How? By meeting with the saints. No one could call me a poor Christian. I enjoy the Lord Jesus all the time with the saints.
I would illustrate once again with the wedding day. The wedding day is supposed to be the most pleasant day. On the one hand my wedding day was very pleasant but compared with the meeting days, there was a different flavor. On a pleasant meeting day there is only honey. There is not a bit of vinegar. But many times on the wedding day there is not only honey but also vinegar. The wedding joy couldn’t last as long as the meeting joy. In 1942 and 1943 we had a big revival and even tonight when I have a little recollection of these meetings I am so happy. When I think about the meetings in Elden hall in 1969 and 1970, my! I am so happy.