ROMANS 12:1-5 - The Worshipping Church - Must We Gather?

So I noticed a few weeks ago that the “New Smyers” closed down—it’s kind of the end of an era in Sykesville. Not only was it the go-to place to get milk and bread and lunchmeat when we lived on Main Street, but it was also the linchpin of the Nupp Family Reunion every year. Smyers was the site of the famous “Popsicle Run” that Jodee’s cousin-in-law would always sponsor for all the kids. We have several years’ worth of pictures of our kids and all the cousins standing outside Smyers on the sidewalk eating whatever treat Greg bought for them—if we ever have another reunion, we’re going to be scrambling to find something to replace the picture at Smyers’ Popsicle Run!

If you’ve ever been to reunions for your family, you know that one of the most important parts of the event is the group photo, isn’t it? Aside from the Popsicle Run one of the most beloved parts of the Nupp reunions was looking through the photo scrapbooks that Jodee would always bring. People loved looking at the pictures, remembering and reminiscing about the times when the whole extended family would travel from far and near for a special day of being together and enjoying those family bonds of love and affection that would be renewed by that occasion. It’s what a family does, isn’t it? A family gets together. And that family photo is a visible representation of the love and delight and joy and commitment that the members of the family have for one another. It’s a powerful and precious thing when families gather with each other.

Last week we began a series on what the Bible teaches us about our worship as a church. In order to understand what worship must look like, we must understand what the church is. And what we saw from all the depictions of the church in the New Testament—a colony of the kingdom, a holy temple, the Body of Christ—is that all of them came down to the truth that a church is primarily a gathering of God’s people. And the better we understand the significance of the church’s gathering, the sweeter and deeper our gathered worship will be.

And so what I want to show you from the Scriptures this morning is that

A Christian TREASURES the GATHERING of God’s FAMILY in worship

If we want our corporate worship here at Bethel to be meaningful and deep and (most importantly) Biblical, then we must come to understand how massively significant it is that we gather here every week. The passage that we read together earlier from Romans 12 contains one of the best-known statements about Christian worship:

Romans 12:1 (ESV)

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

We are called to present ourselves to God for worship—and certainly part of what that means is that you get your actual body gathered with other believers for worship! I say this because the New Testament is as clear as can be that gathering isn’t just what a church does--

I. A church gathers by its VERY NATURE (Romans 12:1)

The Greek word for “church”, ekklesia, literally means “gathering”, or “assembly”. A church doesn’t just gather, a church is a gathering! One way to think about this is to say

A church exists by GATHERING the way a FIRE exists by BURNING

A fire that is not burning is not a fire. A church that does not gather simply cannot be a church! There is a common aphorism that Christians often quote that says that “We don’t go to church; we are the church.” And that’s true as far as it goes, but you have to take the next step—you are the church when you are gathered as a church.

There is simply no other way to read what the Bible says about the nature of a church but to understand that it is meant to be a gathering of believers. The Apostle Paul simply assumes that a church will gather regularly—he uses phrases like “when you come together as a church” and “the whole church comes together” (1 Corinthians 11:18; 14:23).

Also, the New Testament is full of commands for what the church is expected to do as a church—and all of those activities require gathering together:

Colossians 3:16 (ESV)

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

--TEACHING and ADMONISHING one another (Colossians 3:16)

can only take place when you are gathered together.

1 Timothy 4:13 (ESV)

13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

--READING SCRIPTURE to one another (1 Timothy 4:13)

Not just privately in your own home or your own devotions—you are commanded to gather together to hear the Scriptures read publicly.

Hebrews 10:24–25 (ESV)

24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

The word there for “stir one another up” actually has the connotation of

--INCITING one another (Hebrews 10:24-25)

It’s the Greek word where we get the word “paroxysm”—a strong or even violent reaction of passion. You can’t stir one another up to love and good works unless you gather with one another.

Jesus instructs us that when someone refuses to listen to warnings about sin that is taking over their life that gathering together to deal with them is our way of

--PROTECTING one another (Matthew 18:17, 20)

17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Matthew 18:20 (ESV)

20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Church discipline (as we will see later on in our series) is a church body’s immune system that keeps the sickness of sin from spreading through the body and destroying it. And that immune system only works when the church is gathered together as a church.

None of these things that God instructs a church to do can be done apart from one another—a church exists by gathering the way a fire exists by burning. If you want to say “We don’t ‘go to church’, we are the church”, then finish that statement Biblically: “And we are the church when we gather as the church!”

A church gathers by its very nature—and there are two profound consequences that arise whenever a church gathers. The first is that this weekly gathering

Makes the church visible to ITSELF

Like the big family photograph at the end of the family reunion, gathering together allows a church body to see itself in action—you are presented with the spectacle of God’s people loving one another, encouraging and supporting one another, developing and strengthening those bonds of love for one another and for Jesus. As we saw last week, the church is the Body of Christ, and that means that this is the way Jesus ministers to His people.

Jesus loves and embraces and supports a dad and his young daughter when they lose their wife and mom through the love and support of the church body; He loves and accepts and nurtures a misfit kid from a broken home through the hands and feet and hearts of the youth group leaders and members; He uses the loving friendships in this congregation to reveal Himself in the Gospel to a broken and bewildered family, flooding them with restoration and healing and joy and peace; through His people here He stoops down and speaks loving and friendly words to a little boy who can’t speak on his own; He comforts and sustains and strengthens folks confronted with grave medical diagnoses through the members of His body that pray for them and walk with them—all of the ways that Jesus ministers to His people is put on display for us to see and treasure when we gather together for worship!

Not only does our gathering make the church visible to itself, but it also

Makes the church visible to the UNIVERSE (Ephesians 3:10)

The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians that it is through this gathering that God revealed His great plan of redemption; not only to the physical world, but to the heavenly hosts--

Ephesians 3:10 (ESV)

10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

The great mystery that God revealed through the church was that He was going to reconcile the world to Himself through Jesus Christ—turning us from His enemies to His friends by Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. And the way that the church demonstrates that wisdom when it gathers is in the way that we are able to be reconciled to each other!

We’ve said it before, and it’s worth repeating because it goes to the very heart of why a church exists as a gathering—this gathering together in love and unity and common purpose is something that this world says can never happen! The world around us is defined by division, and the kind of unity that is on display every week here at Bethel simply makes no sense to the world.

Once again—look around this room and ask yourself: How many of these people would you have ever even met—let alone become dear and treasured friends with—if it had not been for the Gospel of Jesus Christ that saved you both? The world says that you people shouldn’t be friends—shop managers should not be friends with the guys who work on the floor, twentysomething women don’t go shopping at Hobby Lobby with retirees; folks with tattoos and piercings would never hold hands with “church people” and sing “Blest Be The Tie that Binds” together; convicted felons shouldn’t expect to be embraced and celebrated like long lost brothers coming home when they return to us; business-owner Chamber of Commerce types aren’t supposed to choose to spend their Sunday mornings with truck drivers and farmers, and on and on it goes!

The unity and love and belonging and commitment here at Bethel could never take place apart from the Gospel doing its work in our lives! Only the wisdom and power of God Himself could pull this off--especially here in this time when everyone in this country is at each others’ throats!! In His wisdom and power and grace and kindness He has fashioned us together as one family from all manner and walks of life—and He has set us as an example to all the hosts of Heaven of just how wise and powerful He is!

The gathering of the church is a massively, eternally significant event—Christian, treasure the gathering of this family to worship! A church exists by gathering as a fire exists by burning—it gathers by its very nature. And even more importantly, the Scriptures tell us that

II. A church is gathered by GOD HIMSELF (Romans 12:1)

If you look back again at the beginning of Romans 12:1—the verse we read earlier that describes how we are to give our whole selves to God in worship—we find that we carry out that giving of ourselves by God’s mercy!

Romans 12:1 (ESV)

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

In other words, it is only because God was at work in you first that you are now able to carry out the work of worship to Him! This is another vital truth about the nature of our gathered worship on Sunday mornings:

Worship is GOD’S work first, before it is OURS

Think of it this way—many years ago when the boys were just little, Jodee and I had taken them to the DuBois Mall to go Christmas shopping. I took Caleb one direction to shop for Mommy, and Jodee took Levi to shop for Daddy. We met a while later, and Levi was so excited about the present they got me, he blurted out, “Daddy! We got you fishy slippers!” (Pretty sure I still have them somewhere…)

Now, the fact that we bought those slippers for our four-year-old son to give me on Christmas Day did not lessen either my gladness in receiving them or his sincerity in offering them, did it? In the same way, the fact that we present ourselves for worship as a result of God mercifully bringing us to salvation does not lessen either the sincerity of our worship or God’s gladness in receiving it.

The gathered worship that we offer every week here at Bethel is a gift we receive from God and give back to God. The Bible is clear that each person of the Godhead is intimately involved in every aspect of the worship we gather to offer back to Him. We see in Ephesians that

God the Father CALLED you to FAITH (Ephesians 1:4)

Ephesians 1:4–5 (ESV)

4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him...

When the Father chose you, He made it possible for you to even desire to worship Him in the first place! He Himself gave you the holiness and blamelessness in which you stand before Him to worship! And the Scriptures are clear that that holiness and blamelessness before the Father was purchased by the death of Jesus Christ:

God the Son REDEEMED you (Hebrews 10:22)

Hebrews 10:22 says that the only way we can draw near to the presence of God in worship is because Jesus Christ has cleansed us:

Hebrews 10:22 (ESV)

22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

You enter His presence to worship only because the blood of the Son has cleansed you! The Father calls you so that you even want to worship, the Son redeems and cleanses you so that you can draw near to worship, and

God the Spirit REGENERATES you (1 Corinthians 2:10-12)

So that you have spiritual eyes to see and delight in God in worship:

1 Corinthians 2:10, 12 (ESV)

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God... 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

God Himself is the One who makes it possible for us to worship Him when we gather. He is both the Source and the Recipient of our worship. As Paul says in Romans 11:

Romans 11:36 (ESV)

36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

When you truly begin to grasp the cosmic significance of what we are doing when we gather here in this place every week, how could you possibly take this time for granted? Remember—God is putting us on cosmic display every time we gather to worship Him! It’s true that the angels in Heaven are constantly worshipping God before His throne, but those mighty, ancient beings in all their splendor and power cannot comprehend what we are doing here on Sunday mornings! 1 Peter 1:12 says that the kind of worship that comes from our redemption in Christ is something “into which angels long to look!” The word there for “longing” has the idea of “stooping down to examine closely”—the “rulers and authorities in heavenly places” are desperate to understand what you and I do when we gather in this room! How could we ever just come here and “go through the motions??”

When you understand that God is the one who has done the work of calling us together each week, when you see that He is the One who is both the Source and the Subject of all of our worship, then it becomes clear that He has the final say in what we do here. He called this meeting, and that means that He sets the agenda! This is not a time for us to do just whatever we want here; this is the time when we gather (in response to His mercies) to ascribe to Him the honor and glory and praise that is due His Name. As John Piper has famously said, “Nobody goes to the Grand Canyon to make themselves feel bigger!” And so we don’t gather here primarily to make ourselves feel better about ourselves—we come here to make much of God’s majesty and glory and grace and mercy in saving us!

When you truly begin to grasp the significance of our gathering to worship with one another, how could you possibly come here with the attitude that this is all about you? We live in such a consumer-oriented society that we import that mindset into everything we do; even the gathered worship of the church. But we see in the Scriptures that when we come here, we come to see how Christ is living in this Body to minister to each other. Do you want your worship to be deep and precious to you? Do you want to see the power of God at work in your life when you attend worship? Then don’t come to worship with a “What’s in it for me?” attitude or the critical eye of a church-shopper; make it your aim to see and serve and love your brothers and sisters gathered here together in this church family!

This is the place where God gathers His people; this is the gathering that reveals the mystery of the ages, that in Jesus Christ God has reconciled the world to Himself and reconciled us to one another. And so this is the Good News for you this morning—no matter how torn or broken your earthly family is, no matter how deeply you have been hurt (or how deeply you have hurt others), no matter how isolated you have become by the consequences of your sin (or others’ sin against you), no matter how hard it is for you to trust others because of all of the pain you’ve been through, the invitation from the Son of God for you today is this: Behold your family!

Look around at the men and women and children sitting in this room and see the Body of Christ presented to you! Here are the hands that will hold yours, the feet that will walk with you through your trials, the arms to embrace you, the hearts to encourage you, the words to counsel you. This is why we have gathered; this is why He has gathered us here, so that through the ministry of this body of believers you might receive the ministry of the One who reconciles you to God and restores the life that has been broken in you. So come—and welcome!—to the Body of Christ!

BENEDICTION:

Ephesians 3:20–21 (ESV)

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What is the difference between saying “Christians go to church” and “Christians are the Church”? What is helpful in that distinction? What does it leave out?

Read through the verses listed under the first point of the sermon outline. How do these Scriptures demonstrate that the church must gather in order to be the church? Which of those instructions does our church do well? Which of those could we do more?

Why is it important to understand that worship is God’s work before it is ours? How does this understanding change the way we approach our weekly worship? Spend some time this week considering the role of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the worship we offer when He gathers us each week.

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