OUR MEETINGS
of blessing. How precious this is! What a blessing this is! We can only enjoy such
Since the church is the assembly called out by God from the world, it should meet
continually. Meetings enable God’s called out congregation to be supplied,
established, and perfected, that the goal of God’s calling this assembly may be
accomplished.
I. GOD’S ORDINATION FOR THE BELIEVERS
1)“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” (Heb. 10:25).
Here the assembling of ourselves together refers to our Christian meetings. God
has ordained the way in which every living thing in the universe should exist.
God’s ordination is the very law by which a particular species lives. If the living
thing obeys that law, it will survive and be blessed. God is the same toward us
who have believed in Christ. God’s ordination for us, which becomes our law of
existence and blessing, is the meetings. As water is to the fish, and air to the birds,
so are the meetings to the Christians. As the fish must live in the water and the
birds must exist in the air, so the Christians must maintain their spiritual existence
and living by the meetings.
II. A REQUIREMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
1)“…sheep…be one flock” (John 10:16).
Every kind of life has its own characteristic, and usually, many characteristics.
The spiritual life we believers have received, being the life of God in us, also
possesses many characteristics. For example, the hatred for sin and the separation
from sin are characteristics of this life. The desire to draw near to God and the
willingness to serve Him are also its characteristics. One of the many
characteristics of our spiritual life is to flock together, to meet together. John 10:3
and 16 show us that since we are saved, we are the Lord’s sheep. The
characteristic of the sheep’s life is to flock together and to dislike isolation from
the other sheep. Hence, the Bible says that we are not only the Lord’s sheep, but
even more, His flock (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2). In order to be a sheep which shares
in the blessing of the flock, we must meet together with the flock. The
characteristic of the spiritual “sheep life” within us requires this of us.
III. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BELIEVERS’ MEETINGS
1)“For where two or three are gathered together into My name, there I am
in their midst” (Matt. 18:20).
Here the Lord especially promised that wherever two or three of us who belong to
Him are gathered together into His name, that is, meet in His name, He is in our
midst. When we meet in His name, we enjoy His presence in a special way. His
very presence undoubtedly brings us enlightenment, grace, supply, and all kinds
rich blessing by meeting together.
2)“And rising up that very hour, they returned to Jerusalem and found the
eleven and those with them assembled together…and as they were speaking
these things, He Himself [Jesus] stood in their midst and said to them,
Peace to you!” (Luke 24:33-36).
This speaks of the two disciples who left Jerusalem to go to Emmaus. On their
way, when they discovered that it was the Lord who had appeared to them, the
Lord disappeared from them. Immediately they returned to Jerusalem, where they
should have remained originally. When they arrived, they found the apostles and
those with them assembled together, and the Lord appeared among them. They
and the apostles and the other disciples all enjoyed the Lord’s appearing and
experienced the blessing of the Lord’s presence when He returned among the
disciples for the first time after His resurrection. This is also an evidence of the
importance of meetings.
3)“And when the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled, they were all together
in the same place…and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:1-4).
After He ascended, the Lord Jesus sent the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was
poured upon the disciples when they were meeting together, and they were all
filled with the Holy Spirit outwardly. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost was not upon the disciples who were by themselves. Rather it was upon
those disciples who were meeting together. Anyone who did not participate in that
meeting missed an unprecedented blessing outpoured from the heavens. Again,
this shows us the importance of meetings.
4)“And let us consider one another for inciting to love and good works, not
forsaking the assembling of ourselves together…but exhorting one another,
and so much the more as you see the day [of the Lord’s coming] drawing
near” (Heb. 10:24-25).
What is mentioned here shows us that meetings can cause us to consider one
another for inciting to love and to exhort one another for good works. This causes
us to have spiritual fellowship with the saints to receive the life supply from them.
Thus, we must not forsake the meetings, and so much the more as we know that
the Lord will soon come back. Our Christian life is not like the life of a butterfly,
which does well on its own; our life is like the sheep’s life, requiring that we flock
together and live a meeting life. Consequently, we need to meet, and the meetings
are crucial to us.
EXPERIENCING THE FLOW OF LIFE BY BEING IN THE MEETINGS
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in
unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon
the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments”
( Psalm 133:1-2)
Aaron was a type of Christ; his body was a type of the Body of Christ, the church.
The ointment running down from the head over the whole body right down to the
skirts depicts the brethren dwelling together in unity. If you have ever been out of
the church life for a while, you may recall that during that time you experienced
very little, if any, of the anointing. Yes, you still had the Spirit, but you lacked the
ointment running down.
On the other hand, as you sit in a meeting, you often have the sense of something
running down through you. The message may not be eloquent. The meeting may
not seem exciting. The sharing may be weak. You may not understand what is
being said. You may even be annoyed with the way the meeting is going.
Nonetheless, the ointment is running down over you. Time after time, as you
attend the meetings, you will experience this anointing. The result will be a
gradual change in you. Some of the divine essence is being added to you. Be sure
you come to the meetings! God will be wrought into you! Even if you sit there
sullenly disagreeing, the anointing will reach you and work a change in your
being. Such is the wonderful anointing upon the Body that you experience in the
church life.
THE MEETINGS BEING A FEAST UNTO THE LORD
“Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Let My people go that they may hold
a feast to Me in the wilderness.” (Exo. 5:1)
Moses was to tell Pharaoh to let God’s people go to hold a feast unto Him. You
have to realize that the thought of assembling, the thought of gathering, is implied
in this word feast.
I believe we all know that there is no possibility to have a feast if there is only one
person. It is difficult to have a feast by yourself. You may buy some chicken and
some pie and some other things and try to have a feast by yourself. It is hard to do.
Even to have a feast with your wife and children is difficult. Still there is not that
much of a feast flavor. The more people you have, the more flavor you have of a
feast. A feast is a kind of assembled eating. You have to assemble people together
for eating, and this eating implies an assembly. So a feast implies two things:
eating and assembling. Both are crucial. (We) eat by assembling in front of God
and also with God. It is a feast for the people but “unto God.”
The words “unto me” in this verse indicate that when God’s people are feasting,
He is happy. Their feasting is unto Him. It seems that Jehovah was telling
Pharaoh, “I am not happy to see My people under slavery in Egypt. Let them go
so that they may feast to make Me happy. I like to see My people feasting and
rejoicing. I am glad when they do nothing but eat and rejoice. That is a feast unto
Me.” This feasting unto the Lord is by our enjoying of Him where we offer up our
worship to the Lord by praising, singing and rejoicing in the presence of God. As
we eat, drink, praise, sing, and rejoice in the presence of God, we hold a feast
unto Him.
BEING SANCTIFIED AND SEPARATED FROM THE WORLD FOR
JEHOVAH’S WORSHIP
“Please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness that we may
sacrifice to Jehovah our God” (Exo. 5:3)
In Exodus 3:18 God told Moses to say to Pharaoh, “Now let us go a three days’
journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to Jehovah our God.” The term
wilderness is used here in a positive sense; it signifies the realm of separation. A
three days’ journey signifies a journey in resurrection. After their crossing of the
Red Sea and their exodus from Egypt, the children of Israel were separated from
Egypt and they entered into the wilderness by a three days’ journey that they
might sacrifice to God. The baptism in the Red Sea delivered them from the
Egyptians. This indicates that by Christ as the Passover Lamb and by His death
we are separated from the world and brought into the wilderness, the first station
in fulfilling God’s purpose. After our breaking away from the world through
baptism, we enter into a new realm that we may be able to follow the Lord to
worship God (John 12:26).
CALLED OUT OF THE WORLD TO BE GATHERD AS THE CHURCH
“To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been
sanctified in Christ Jesus, the called saints, with all those who call upon the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place.” (1 Cor. 1:2)
In the New Testament, the word church (1 Cor. 1:2) in Greek is ekklesia,
composed of two words: ek, out, and kaleo, called; the two words put together
mean the called out congregation, or the assembly of the called ones. Hence,
according to the literal sense of the word, the church is the assembly of those
called out of the world by God. There must be a great and thorough separation
between the church as the ekklesia and the world as the system, the cosmos, of
Satan. As the assembly, the church is separated entirely for God so that He may
have a means to carry out His eternal purpose.