Tired of church? Meet with Jesus

We sometimes attend our church out of mere habit, or perhaps because we do not wish to be criticised for non-appearance. Sometimes we go simply in order to meet friends. None of these reasons is wrong in itself. Even habit, or the fear of criticism, can work for our good. But the real reason for attending the fellowship of believers is that we may meet Christ. That should be our purpose, our motive. And what a difference it will make to our spirits if we remember that this is the reason for our attendance. Instead of the mood of routine, we may gather with delight and anticipation.

Of course, we do not meet him bodily. His presence is a spiritual fact. We may put it this way: he meets us in his word and by his Spirit. His Spirit brings new birth, opens our eyes to the truth, unites us with Christ and indwells us in such a way as we may say that Christ and the Father dwell within us (John 14:15-24). His Spirit inspires the word of God and opens our hearts to its truth. By the word of God, Christ governs his church – promising, exhorting, teaching, rebuking, encouraging his flock.

That is why hearing the word of God is so significant when we meet. We gather to meet Christ and to submit our lives to his command. Hearing what he has to say to us in his word is the key element of that meeting. To achieve this, we must ensure that the Bible is fully read in our assemblies and is the subject of our sermons and mutual exhortations. It is the greatest of all pastoral books, because it is the book that the great Pastor (or shepherd) of the sheep uses to protect and lead his own.

When the word of God is central to our meetings, we are acknowledging the grace of God, because it is by the grace of God alone that he has taken the initiative to communicate with us. 
Indeed the word of God should also govern our response to the presence of Jesus. We should reply to him in his own language, so to speak. Our prayers should be scriptural; our songs should be scriptural; our creeds should be scriptural. I take it that is why the Lord’s Prayer has always been a key constitutive part of what Christians do as we gather, since it both prays for the things which God himself wants us to pray for, but also guides our prayers in the right direction. Our worship of the Lord – the totality of our response to him – will be formed and sustained by listening to the word of God with faith. Indeed, faith is the first duty of worship.

What of the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion? The best way to think of the Lord’s Supper is to see the fellowship action of eating bread and wine as a special and important proclamation of the Lord’s death until he comes (see 1 Corinthians 11:26). That is, it rests upon the word of God and ‘acts it out’. For that reason, Christ is indeed present in the Supper, but in the same way as he is always present: spiritually.

The Lord’s Supper is a marvellous gift of Christ to his people. But it is not constitutive of his people; it does not form us into his people. His presence by his word and Spirit does that. When this is confused, we lose perspective on what matters and begin to think that somehow the bread and wine in themselves convey Christ’s body. Attention is then focused on bread and wine, instead of the fellowship act of eating bread and wine together to express our deep unity in the death of Christ and to proclaim his death until he returns.

But we also need to ask ourselves these additional questions: Is Jesus actually present in our meetings? Are we meeting ‘in his name’?  That’s an issue for another discussion.

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