“Assembling Of Ourselves” — It’s Not An Option

24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Hebrews 10:23-24
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I approach writing this blog with both a note of sadness and madness. Admittedly more on the side of sadness, but the madness is lying close by under the surface.

I’m not exactly sure when things started to change, but it seems like the commitment and desire for God’s people to be faithful in church going has been in decline for sometime. When I say “church going” please understand that I’m referring to both Christianity and the Messianic/Hebrew Root movement.

Question:
If I’m correct in my assessment (and I do believe reality bears this out), what is the reason for this? Why the lack of commitment to the assembling of ourselves together?

And just to be clear, I’m not talking about why folks miss Sunday evening or the Wednesday night prayer meeting that most conventional churches have/had. I’m talking about a once-a-week time when there is an assembling together of the believers that are in local proximity to one another.

Back to the “Why?”

Since this shift hasn’t happened overnight, it appears it’s something that has been slowly gaining ascendancy.

First off.

Sunday no longer is considered a set-apart day like it once used to be — among the world and the Church. There was a time in our country when pretty much everything was closed on Sundays. And everybody, whether they went or not, knew it was the day when Church attending folks gathered and set apart the day.

Now, Sunday isn’t any different than any other day. This, I believe, has subtly influenced and impacted the mindset of God’s people. It’s now a day when, in our busy lives, we get to do things, go places, get even more things done. It becomes easy to justify and “miss” every now-and-then.

If this happened back in earlier days the pulpits would be filled with preachers declaring the sinfulness of this sort of behavior. The old preacher Moody decried the fact that some of his people spent a part of the day riding in their buggies or going for leisurely horseback rides. Is that excessive? I don’t know. But I do know it was this sort of preaching that kept God’s people from slipping down the slippery slope we find ourselves on now.

The preachers don’t preach as they once did. There’s too much a stake monetarily to risk running off folks with good old-fashioned, truthful hard preaching. The blame lies to a great degree at the foot of us preachers.

But, that’s not even my main concern in writing this.

My main concern is in relation to Messianics.

We who rail on the “Christians” for not keeping the Torah, Sabbaths, Festivals, Foods are even more lackadaisical when it comes to our Sabbath day assembling. Honestly, I have been disappointed how Messianics hop around assemblies, don’t assemble at all, or are just satisfied with doing the computer assembly fellowship thing.

Let me say this as nicely as I can:

WILLFULLY NOT ASSEMBLING TOGETHER WITH OTHER BELIEVERS IS WRONG AND DISOBEDIENCE TO SCRIPTURE. (This is where the “mad” part starts to ooze out.)

What the heck did the Apostle go around establishing? Anyone …?

Answer:

Local assemblies where local believers got together to worship and praise God together as a body in Messiah.

Interestingly too, Paul (under God) set up guidelines for the assemblies to maintain once he was gone.

Such as:
Elders, Pastor-teachers, Shepherds
Along with: Deacons

Paul lays this out very clearly in his writings. A good example of the structure for local assemblies is in Philippians 1:1-2.

“Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Local assemblies are comprised of: Saints, Bishops (elders, Pastor-teachers, Shepherds) and Deacons.
I don’t know of too many, if any, home-fellowships that have these components of a biblical gathering.

Perhaps it’s, in part, because those of us Messianics that have left normative Christianity felt we were burned, lied to, and just don’t have it within us to undergo such a thing again.

Got it. I’ve been there. I am still, in ways, there.

BUT —

That’s no excuse for us blowing it on such a basic thing as this. We’re not talking seminary level understanding of Biblical hermeneutics.

We’re taking about the milk of Scriptural understanding. The same sort of thing that frustrated the writer to the Hebrews …

“For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.” Hebrews 5:12.

When I got saved (and ever since) there was implanted within me the hunger and desire to “go to church.” I’ve always been drawn to placing myself within the confines of a church that preached the Bible truthfully and passionately.

I quickly realized I needed to be preached to, instructed, guided, corrected, loved. And it seemed very plain to me that the one place God set up for that to happen was at an assembly of like-minded folks.

At this point in my walk of faith, I don’t even care to argue whether one should assemble on Sunday or Saturday for fellowship and preaching.

JUST GO!

To do anything less puts you in even a worse condition than what got Moody so upset. At least those “sinful” buggy and horseback riders assembled that day with one another at the place they were privileged to go.

They probably should have concealed themselves from the Pastor a little better :-)

I am begging and pleading with God’s people here … search the Scriptures and see if what I’m saying is so.

To quote my childhood TV hero Ranger Andy:

“You’ll find it in the Bible/You’ll find it in the Bible/You’ll find it in the Bible ’cause you know it’s there.”