Jesus said…anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works… John 14:12-14
How are we able to do greater works than Jesus? Well, it’s certainly not because we are better than Him. The way we do greater works is in two parts. One, the Holy Spirit is given and promised to all believers. The second way, is by being the Church.
When Jesus came, He didn’t simply call individual disciples. He formed a community, a family, people chosen to love and continue His work in this world. This assembly was meant to be a foretaste of heaven, a place where people would care for one another, encourage one another, and build one another up. It’s a community empowered and led by the Holy Spirit so that it can be a presence of Christ in the world.
The believers in the early church show us exactly how to do this, how to be Christ in the world.
Acts 2:42-47
The Believers Form a Community
42 All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.
43 A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. 44 And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. 45 They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. 46 They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity— 47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.
The early church was able to accomplish greater works #1 with the Holy Spirit and but also by being a community, a body, in the beginning and all the way through. And any time we try to do it on our own, it never works nearly as well as when we do it together.
Why do we do church? Why do we need a church, a community of believers?
What we’re doing here is about relationship. These things that we do for each other, with each other, for God all draw us closer together and closer to Jesus. The love, support, encouragement, learning, sharing
My job according to Acts 20:28 is to:
Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. Acts 20:28
Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. 2 Timothy 4:2
Shame on me if I don’t because James 3:1 says I will be held accountable.
I’ll be real honest with you, will church always be fun or easy? No. Sometimes it will hurt, and sometimes it’s hard to hear what God wants us to know. And that’s because none of us really like to do it wrong. We care about God, we love God, so of course we only want to do right by Him. Yet, we all fall short. So today, I want to encourage you to be a church, to be at church, be together as a church.
So I’m going to share with you 8 Reasons that the Bible says as to why we should go to church. Also 6 excuses that people offer as to why they don’t go. That way when you hear some of the excuses, maybe you’ll have some understanding and verbiage you can use, or when you are tempted by these excuses, you’ll recognize it.
But before we get too far I want to clarify something…..There’s a terminology issue. When we say “go to church,” we think of a building. But according to the bible, the church is not a building at all. Church is the people who believe in Christ: whether universally or locally, it’s the people and not until we are together are we doing church.
So yeah, the church is scattered throughout the week, but when they gather together like we are here this morning, now church is happening. So the biblical question isn’t “should I go to this certain building on a certain day of the week”, rather it’s “should I gather with other believers on a regular basis.”
So let’s look at what the bible says about whether or not we should go to church as believers in Jesus?
- The first reason you should go to church according the bible is because Jesus expected that you would. He spoke as though it was just a given fact of reality that people would be attending church, gathering together as a group of believers. He even gave instructions on how to make sure that gathering didn’t get messed up.
Matthew 18:15-17, Revelations 1:10-11, 2:1, 12, 18
You should also go to church according to the bible…..
- Because the early believers did. The pattern of gathering was followed by the early church. They would gather every Sunday and they would get into the word and they would pray and they would do the same types of things that many churches do today. So that pattern of gathering was assumed by Jesus and it was followed by the early church.
Acts 2:42, 11:22, 15:4, 16:5, 20:7, 1 Cor 1:2, 7:18, 11:28, 16:1-2, 2 Thes 1:1, 1 Tim 3:15, Rev 1:10 (all of these scriptures that talk about the early church gatherings)
You should go to church according to the bible…..
- Because of Hebrews 10:25 where God commands us to. You see, we knew the early church was gathering, but here in Hebrews 10:25, there’s a warning saying don’t stop this assembling of yourselves together!
“Let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” Hebrews 10:25
God only wants what is best for us. So don’t stop. That’s God’s command to us. That’s what He wants to see in our lives – a continuing gather of believers.
You should go to church according to the bible…..
- Simple as it sounds, God has ordained pastors and teachers who are here to minister to you. In Eph 4:11-12, it says that Jesus has gifted pastors and teachers, and their job is to equip God’s people so they can go and do the work of the ministry.
Study the passage for yourself. It’s very clear that God is the one who set up this whole church thing, and it’s His idea to have certain people teaching.
You should go to church according to the bible…..
- You are designed to be ministered to by other people. Not only are the pastor and teachers gifted to minster to the body of Christ, but every single person in the church is gifted with different gifts.
“The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.” 1 Cor. 12:12
“The whole body fits together. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” Eph. 4:16
We have gifts of encouragement, words of wisdom, we have words of knowledge, the gift of hospitality, discernment, prophecy and so many more. We have all these different things according to the bible that come from all of the believers. But you don’t have them all yourself. And since you can’t self-feed all the spiritual nourishment you need, you should be surrounding yourself with the Church.
If you are feeling like your life is missing something, and you haven’t been with the Church, get to church. It’s very likely you are missing out on all this great nourishment that God designed you to need. You need to be ministered to by other people.
Rom 12:6-8, 1 Cor 12:4-12, Eph 4:16
You should go to church according to the bible…..
- Because it is not good for man to be alone. Let’s face it, if we’re alone too long, we just get weird. Proverbs 18:1 says that he who isolates himself seeks his own desire (meaning he’s selfish). And he rages against all wise judgement.”
I kid you not, there are actually warnings in the scripture that say “you are not meant to be alone.” Kind of like God said to Adam, it’s not good that man be alone. And it’s not good that any Christian should be alone, isolated from the other Christians in their community. We get weird when we’re alone! Being in church and being involved in fellowship keeps us on track.
You should go to church according to the bible…..
- Not only do all the other believers have gifts, so do you. You have gifts that other people need. And look, it’s not all about you. You should go to church not only to receive, but to pour out and minister to other people’s lives. You just may be the blessing they need. Maybe your gifts can be something that keeps someone else’s life on track or brings into their life something wonderful from the Lord.
You should go to church according to the bible…..
- You cannot fulfill your calling without doing so. You cannot fulfill the commands of Jesus outside of the context of being around other believers. His great command to us was that we would love one another, and in fact it’s how we will witness to the world – when they see the love we have for each other.
John 14:35 “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
How can someone who isolates themselves fulfill God’s purpose for their lives without being in community with other believers?
John 13:35, 15:12
Answering Excuses:
- I’ve been hurt by the church. That has to be the #1 excuse I have heard. And it’s difficult to deal with because it’s followed by true stories of genuine pain. But there’s a problem in the way we’re phrasing it.
You’ve been hurt by people in the church, but it’s not as if the entire body of Jesus Christ has somehow betrayed you.
If I was hurt by someone of a different race, but then held onto a grudge against all people of that color, that would be racism. The same thing is happening when people say they have been hurt by the church, and they kick out of their hearts every single person who belongs to Christ – every gathering of Christians.
In all reality, there’s actually some unresolved bitterness going on. And really the only solution is for them to do some soul searching and bring it to God. Please know that if you’re part of Christ, you’re a part of His body, and you need to reconcile or find a new church that you can be part of.
- That people are too busy. And honestly, priorities guys, priorities.
- Another excuse and it’s probably the only legitimate one is when someone has physical inabilities, like when they can’t leave the home or they have some kind of handicap. That’s a legitimate excuse. So my encouragement to them would be to try and bring Christians to them if possible or start something fresh and new so that they can gather with believers and just do their best.
- I’ve also heard people say, “Can’t I just do church on my own, in my own house, with my own family or just watch it on TV, or take in a podcast?” No, that’s not church. Your thinking of church as the ritual that happens on Sunday, instead of realizing it’s a gathering of believers and that all of the above has to take place for it to be church.
God has a fullness for you in church that you’re missing out on when you try to do it that way. And when you do your own home church and when you disassociate with the churches around you, you’re sort of anointing yourself as the pastor of your own family, and you’re kind of becoming their church, you’re the leader, you’re the council, you are everybody in the church to them and that’s a little bit weird, don’t you think.
- Another excuse I’ve heard a lot, and I have to say I think it’s the strangest of all the excuses not to go to church, is “I don’t believe in organized religion.”
I want you to follow with me and imagine what disorganized religion might look like. Is that like where everyone gathers together, but nobody knows what day or time they are gathering, or maybe we do rock, paper, scissors and the winner has to teach, and we just open to a random passage in the bible because preparing the study ahead of time – well that would be just far to organized.
The idea of not having organized religion is ridiculous. God organized this religion and people can add stuff to it. Now I’m not into that, but I am into the stuff God gave to us in the Bible…..Regular meetings, Community Prayer, Teachers/Pastors, Real Fellowship, Bible Teaching.
The last excuse is….
- I just can’t find a good church. There is no such thing as a perfect church. No such thing as perfect people either. Church is for the imperfect people. It’s where we find grace and love no matter what our past are like. It’s where we learn to be like Christ.
Besides, if we were perfect, then we wouldn’t need God and none of what I just went through would exist.