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We will now consider five aspects of meeting.
God has ordained a way of existence for every living creature in this universe. God’s ordination for a creature is the law of existence for that creature. Fulfilling this law enables a creature to survive and be blessed. If a creature does not follow this law, it violates God’s ordination and thus suffers unnecessary loss. God has ordained that chickens live on land, not in water; thus, chickens cannot live in water. God has also ordained that ducks live in water, so ducks cannot stay away from water for long. Furthermore, birds must be in the air and fish in the water. This is God’s ordination. These ordinations are the law of existence for these creatures.
God has also ordained that Christians must meet in order to live or survive. To Christians, meeting is like water to fish or air to birds. Just as fish need to live in water and birds need to live in the air, Christians need to maintain their life by meeting. Once a Christian stops meeting, he is like a fish out of water or a bird that is not in the air. He has no way to survive. Brothers and sisters, once we are saved, we are a person in the church, and we cannot be individual Christians. To be a Christian, we must be one in the assembly, and this assembly is the church. The meaning of the term church is “the gathering of the called-out ones.” This implies that the nature of the church involves meeting. Without meeting, the church cannot exist, and there will be no church. The life of the church hinges on meeting. Therefore, the church is intimately related to meeting. This is God’s ordination.
We must be deeply impressed with this point. Originally, we were descendants of Adam living in the world. When God called and saved us and we answered His call, He immediately set us apart from the world. God does not desire for us to be individual Christians after we have been set apart. Rather, He desires to gather all the called ones into an assembly, which is the church. Although we cannot say that meeting alone constitutes the church, we can say that the church is in the meetings. If Christians did not meet, it would be difficult to have the church. Deciding not to meet is almost the same as prohibiting Christians to have the church. Whenever we stop meeting, we are separated from the church. If we do not attend the meetings, we are detached from the church.
The need to meet is according to God’s ordination. We need to meet just as fish need water, birds need air, and man needs to breathe. This is God’s ordination, and it should never be violated.
Every kind of life has its own characteristic or characteristics. The spiritual life that we obtained, the life of God in us, has many different characteristics. Staying away from sin and abhorring sin is a characteristic of this life. Desiring to draw near to God and to serve God are also characteristics of the life within us. Flocking together, that is, assembling, is another characteristic of this life. The life within us wants us to flock together with other believers, to assemble with others. This characteristic demands that we be joined to others instead of being individualistic. Our physical life depends upon drinking water. If we do not drink water, we will be thirsty, but we feel comfortable when we drink water. Similarly, the spiritual life within us has the characteristic of wanting to meet with other Christians, of wanting to flock together with other believers.
In the New Testament the word flock is the same as assembly. The Lord Jesus said, “I have other sheep...I must lead them also...there shall be one flock” (John 10:16). The flock is the church. A shepherd knows that sheep do not like to be isolated; they like to flock together with other sheep. This is amazing. Sheep do not like to roam about in the mountains and fields on their own. This is a suffering and unpleasant experience. However, sheep feel comfortable and at ease when they are in a flock. Christians are the Lord’s sheep. The “sheep’s” life in us demands that we flock together and assemble. If a new believer does not come to the meetings, he will not have much joy, peace, or comfort. If he comes to the meetings, however, he will have joy within as he sings, fellowships, prays, praises, and worships with the brothers since this is a characteristic of the divine life. Christian meetings are the issue of this inward requirement of life.
There is a personal aspect as well as a corporate aspect of the grace that God gives to man. According to the personal aspect, we can receive grace when we read the Bible, pray, seek after God, and contact God. However, there is a corporate aspect of grace that can never be obtained through just our personal contact with God. It can be received only in the meetings.
We must also realize that the personal aspect of grace is not as weighty even though it is practical and necessary. But the corporate aspect of grace, the grace received in the meetings, is great and weighty. For example, a person can be touched by the gospel and receive salvation when he thinks of God or reads a spiritual book or a portion of the Bible on his own. However, his salvation will not be as strong as it could be if he is in a meeting. Those who are saved in a personal way may not have a salvation experience that is thorough or strong. When a person experiences salvation in a meeting, however, his salvation will be strong and thorough.
The light we receive when we read the Bible by ourselves can be small and limited. But when we read the Bible with others, the light we receive can be great and unlimited. Similarly, although we can touch the Lord’s presence in our personal prayer, it is often limited. But there is an aspect of the Lord’s presence in the meetings that exceeds an individual experience. Even in our prayer, we are often limited to trivial matters when we pray by ourselves. Our prayer for crucial matters is often ineffective. This is like moving boxes of different weights. We may be able to move a box that weighs twenty pounds, but it is impossible for us to move a box that weighs twenty thousand pounds by ourselves. If we attempt to move such a large box, it will be impossible. If we attempt to move it, it will still be in the same place even after twenty years of effort. In order to move it, we must gather others and move the box together. This is a principle in prayer. There are many things we cannot move by ourselves that must be brought to the meeting.
There are some spiritual matters for which the personal aspect of grace is insufficient; hence, they must be brought to the meeting. Some people constantly try to overcome a weakness or shortcoming by themselves. They pray repeatedly, but no matter how much they pray, they are unable to overcome. If they would be willing to bring that weakness to the meeting and ask others to pray with them, they will easily overcome it. Likewise, there are matters that cannot be understood through individual seeking, but they can be easily understood if we are willing to seek with other brothers and sisters. This shows the importance of meeting.
There are many examples of this in the Bible. When the Lord Jesus appeared to the disciples on the evening of His resurrection, they rejoiced to see Him. However, since Thomas was not with them, he missed the Lord’s appearing (John 20:19, 24-25). Mary Magdalene’s experience of the Lord’s appearing was fresh on the morning of His resurrection (vv. 1, 14-18). However, the weight and richness of that appearance cannot be compared to the Lord’s appearance in the meeting. When the Lord appeared to His disciples, He breathed into them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (v. 22). The Lord also charged them, saying, “Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you retain, they are retained” (v. 23). Such an appearing in which the disciples received the Holy Spirit and were commissioned was not experienced individually. It was experienced in the meeting.
Concerning the two aspects of grace that God gives to man, although the personal aspect is fresh and sweet, it is far less important than the corporate aspect. Thomas missed a great blessing because he was absent from the meeting that evening. However, he was present when the Lord appeared again in the evening of the following Lord’s Day, and it was then that he obtained the blessing he had missed (vv. 26-29). If he had been absent from the second evening, he would have suffered a loss that could never have been regained.
On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out when the disciples were gathered together; He was not poured out while the disciples were having their personal prayer time (Acts 2:1-4). These examples show that if we want the Lord’s presence, the Holy Spirit’s outpouring, and the Lord’s blessing, we must meet together. Understanding the Bible, answers to prayers, understanding God’s will, deliverance from sins, and the solving of problems are often matters that cannot be solved individually. But once a person goes to the meeting, there is a way. Therefore, Christians can never be without meetings.
I repeat, there are two aspects to the grace that God gives to man: the personal aspect and the corporate aspect. Grace in the personal aspect can be obtained in private, but grace in the corporate aspect can be obtained only in the meetings. Therefore, a normal Christian should not neglect his personal contact with God, nor should he neglect coming to the meetings to worship God with the saints. To neglect either aspect will cause us to suffer loss. Moreover, the loss suffered by neglecting the corporate aspect is greater than the loss suffered by neglecting the personal aspect. Rarely can Christians who only have a personal aspect and not a corporate aspect continue to stand firm before the Lord. It seems that those who are somewhat loose on the personal side but who continue to meet can still be sustained before the Lord. This shows that the corporate grace is greater, weightier, and more important than the personal grace. Hence, we must meet.
Christians should not only meet often but should also meet to the extent that meeting becomes a habit, and thus, a meeting life is produced. We need to see that meeting is not an occasional act of Christians; rather, it is the Christian life, just as eating and washing daily are part of the human life. Every morning we need to wash ourselves when we rise. Then at noon we need to wash our hands again. We need to wash our hands several times a day. Furthermore, we need to eat three meals a day and drink water many times. These are not occasional acts; rather, they constitute our living. The meeting of Christians is the same; it is a living, not an occasional act.
If Christians do not meet, it means that they do not live. If man does not eat, he cannot live. He will starve to death. Likewise, if Christians do not meet, it is the same as committing suicide. They are killing the Christian life.
It seems as if the believers at the time of Pentecost did nothing but meet. They met from morning until night. Many people ask us why we meet every day of the week, meeting in the mornings and also in the evenings. Frankly speaking, however, we do not meet as often as the believers at the time of Pentecost. Meeting is the Christian life. As soon as Christians stop meeting, they stop living.
Hebrews 10:25 says, “Not abandoning our own assembling together, as the custom with some is.” Abandoning the assembling together will eventually become a habit as well. A Christian who develops a habit of not meeting is in a dangerous state and will certainly be unable to stand firm.
Concerning our meeting together, these five points should be adequate for this lesson. In the following lessons, we will consider how to meet and the different kinds of meetings.
