In this message we come to this point, that is, when we meet, we meet to enjoy Christ with God. When most people go to a Christian gathering or a Christian meeting, they wouldn’t say that they go to offer something to God, or even to enjoy something. Usually they say that they go to listen to the preaching or to listen to the Word or to worship. Of course, this is not wrong, but this is altogether from the human point of view concerning a religious meeting.
In the New Testament we have not been charged much to meet together. Of course it does charge us, but not that much. The first time that the New Testament says something about Christians gathering is in Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three are gathered together into (Gk.) My name, there I am in their midst.”
The book of Acts didn’t charge the newly saved ones to meet together, but they gathered spontaneously every day. In Paul’s writings he did instruct us a little bit in 1 Corinthians 14 how to meet. First Corinthians 14:26 may be considered the unique verse that tells us how to meet. That verse says that when we come together as the church, each one should have something. This one has a psalm. Another one has a teaching, and another one has a revelation. The last two are tongues and interpretation of tongues. This means you have to come together with something. Using the Old Testament term, do not come empty-handed. You should come with something in your hand. You should be filled to come to the meeting to do something. But even in this verse Paul doesn’t mention that you have to offer something and that you have to enjoy something and that you have to rejoice.
Once again you can see how that the New Testament with its clear teaching in plain words needs the Old Testament picture to illustrate it. A picture is always better than a thousand words. Some things you just cannot describe by word. Suppose you try to describe my face by writing. You would need so many terms to describe the shape of the nose or the two lips. But if you simply have a photo you can be so clear about my face. Right away you can see two ears and one nose. You can see two eyes and one mouth, two cheeks, and a forehead. You don’t need to exhaust the dictionary. You can simply look at the photo. This is the reason that God teaches us in the Bible in somewhat a kindergarten way. Firstly, there are the pictures in the Old Testament; then there is the word in the New Testament.
In the Old Testament you do have an excellent and wonderful type of how to meet. I love it. In 1959 I had a thorough study of the Pentateuch with the saints in Taiwan. In that year the Lord showed us many marvelous things concerning how His people should meet. It was at that time we saw that God redeemed His people mainly for the purpose of meeting.
The children of Israel were down in Egypt, under the tyranny of Pharaoh and in the slavery of the Egyptians. But then they were redeemed and delivered out of that tyranny and slavery and brought into the wilderness. In the Life-study of Exodus we pointed out that the word wilderness here is not a negative term. It is a positive word. The Lord said that He would bring His people into the wilderness to meet. In their meetings what did they do? They feasted with God and with one another. They feasted before God and with one another. God then spent a long time to train them how to meet in the way of feasting. God didn’t teach them how to sing a solo or a quartet. God didn’t write a hymn book for them. God didn’t even teach them to kneel down, to bow down, to prostrate. He didn’t teach them how to be quiet, how to meditate, or even how to shout. That was not God’s teaching concerning His people’s meeting. The singings, the solos, the quartets, the being quiet or the being noisy are all religious inventions.