Why You Should Go (or Should Have Gone) to Church, Today
God has ordained the salvation of His people. They were chosen to be His before creation (Eph 1:4, 5). God the Father gave them to His eternal Son, our Lord, who then was sent into the world to satisfy God’s eternal law, once His children were found to be in Adam. Adam’s transgression was a singular act, a crime committed by the federal head of a people called, “humanity.” In this, Adam served as a type of the second Adam to come, the anti-type, Jesus Christ.
When the early church met, Adam and Eve’s sons appeared before God with their sacrificial offerings. These were required because Adam’s sin (original) was imputed to all of his seed (offspring). Humanity’s relationship with God, their Creator, had become enmity. There was an alienation, a separation. Knowledge of God had been diminished, and love had been estranged.
Cain and Abel came to church, a gathering before Almighty God. The sacrifices of worship, brought by both men, revealed their hearts. When the prescription for acceptable sacrifices was communicated from Adam to his sons, Abel brought a blood atonement, in obedience of faith. Cain brought vegetables. Abel and his sacrifice were accepted. Cain and his sacrifice were rejected, for the same reason Adam was removed from the presence of God: disobedience to God’s word/law.
Worship is a gift of God. It is the privilege to come into the presence of the Eternal One. God is worshiped in the right way by His chosen people. God calls out His people, the sheep of His pasture, and He gathers His flock for their blessing and benefit.
When Christ, the Good Shepherd, gathers His people in the Spirit for corporate worship, we are taught right access and approach to God the Father. What we often call, “church on Sunday,” is actually our reasonable service of worship. It is our joy, and indicative of our salvation. It separates us from the world, as God’s holy ones. It demonstrates that we are a peculiar people of His own possession. We are believer priests heading for the Temple. It is hardly a burden…more like a family BBQ gathering on a holy day (holiday).
The acceptable sacrifice, the anti-type of Abel’s sacrifice, so long ago, is the Lamb of God, whose precious blood was shed for the remission of our sins. We remember Him, that is, Christ Jesus, our Lord, who gave His life, a ransom paid for us to be freed from our obligation to what was legally required for us to have access to our Holy God. Thus, it is a celebration on Sunday morning, as much as it is a solemn memorial. This is why God has given us our song book, to sing on approach to the Temple of His presence, the Psalms.
Singing the Word of God, the songs of our salvation, brings joy into our hearts. The Words are not repetitious, as the songs of the heathen, but they tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love for us (Rom 5:8; 1 Jn 4:19). Our worship is acceptable because the Spirit guides us into the presence of God the Father (Jn 4:23–24; 16:13), and that place, before His throne, is called, “in Christ.”
Christ is the Head of the church (Col 1:18), and we are His gathered body (1 Cor 12:13). As members, we gather to listen to our exalted Head, who has all authority in heaven and on earth (Mt 28:18), to do all God’s holy will (Eph 1:11; 3:11). It is God’s will that we should hear Christ (Rom 10:17), and when the preacher mounts the podium to proclaim Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor 1:23), we have our Word from the Lord.
The Word of the Lord is like food for the sheep (Jn 10). It is manna from heaven, the Bread of life come down from God, for our spiritual nourishment (Jn 6). Our Good Shepherd takes us to the tablelands (plateaus on mountain tops), where we are fed from the riches of His spiritual storehouse. He has prepared a meal for us in the presence of our enemies (yes, they are watching whether you go to church or not). We receive the assurance of His grace, in the privileged access of feeding on the truth, in a world of garbage heap religion, as the goats have their pasture in the valley of despair, too. The Spirit leads us to higher ground on Sunday morning.
The trek to the high place on Sunday is filled with dangers and distractions. “The weekend” has a notorious reputation, contrasted with, “the Lord’s Day.” When Moses was on the high mountain at Horeb, the people had a party at its base. When Jesus and His three disciples were atop the Mount of Transfiguration, there was a power failure at the bottom of the hill.
God’s people lose their way when they are not in God’s chosen place of exalted worship. Sure, the cults and religions have their tower of Babels, but Christians worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth (Trinitarian worship), with the Bible, the Word of God, and voice of Christ, leading us and teaching us, in our approach to His holiness.
In conclusion, our family gatherings each Sunday, are holy for a number of reasons. They help identify us. They are for our feeding on God’s Word, our health and well-being, and for our protection from the enemy’s legion of wolves. They give us privileged access to our Maker and Redeemer that the rest of the world does not have, thus, highlighting us as recipients of grace.
We are citizens in God’s kingdom, and we find joy and peace in the gathering of the righteous, in the Spirit (Rom 14:17). Finally, we are being prepared, in a tutorial kind of way, for an eternity of bliss-filled worship, in the presence of God and the Lamb. This is why you should go (or should have gone) to church, today.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
November 21, 2021
