This post has been bubbling up inside me for over a year, and I think it’s time I articulated a specific area in which I have spent many months researching: worship in the assembly. The pandemic of 2020 wreaked havoc on all areas of life, and none more important than that of our worship practices. I think faithful church members grew in their ecclesiology (functioning of the local church) through these past months, through which they understood the role and purpose of the local church. God is very clear on the purpose of our gatherings as believers, and it’s time we paid attention to what the Bible says about gathered worship.
Let me begin, not in 2020, but with Mosaic worship practices recorded in Leviticus 23. This is the chapter where Moses told the Israelites everything God had told him regarding the celebration of the seven feasts. These feasts occurred at various points throughout the year, but they always occurred with an assembly. A simple reading of this chapter reveals the word “assembly” no less than twelve times. Every feast they celebrated, they were to gather as a congregation before the Lord and worship him, according to the institutes he designed.
Fast-forward to worship in the temple (both Solomon’s and Herod’s) and we see the Hebrews journeying to Jerusalem to celebrate their feasts. They traveled in groups, anticipating their worship at the temple by often singing Psalms of Ascents on their journeys. Three of the feasts occurred in the spring months, and three occurred in the fall, with the Feast of Weeks falling in-between. These annual pilgrimages reminded the Israelites who they worshiped, and united them with fellow Jews on their journey.
On this point, have you ever noticed in First Kings the continual references to kings that followed in the institutions Jeroboam set in place in chapter 12? First Kings 12:28-30 states, “after seeking advice, the king [Jeroboam] made two golden calves. He said to the people, ‘It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. And this thing became a sin.” Jeroboam set up these shrines on the roads to Jerusalem, trying to keep the Israelites from journeying to Jerusalem because he was afraid that they would plead allegiance to the rival king, Rehoboam (12:27). And what did the Israelites do? The worshiped at the shrines Jeroboam built. He even went so far as to institute a festival “like the festival held in Judah (12:32).” In response to this corrupt worship practice, God sent a prophet to prophesy the coming of Josiah, who would lead the Israelites back to worship of the true God. Over the next 300 years, kings continued to walk in the ways of Jeroboam, “who caused Israel to sin (2 Kings 13:11),” until Josiah appeared and reinstituted the festivals in Jerusalem, along with the destruction of all false worship practices (2 Kings 23). The Israelites knew what God had instituted for their worship, yet they did not obey in worshiping God according to his standards.
The king [Josiah] stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD – to follow the LORD and keep his commands, regulations, and decrees with all his heart and all his soul.
2 Kings 23:3
Lastly, we see in the New Testament that Paul addressed the assembly multiple times. He charged Timothy to continue in the “public reading of Scripture,” (1 Tim. 4:13), he encouraged the churches that gathered in Ephesus and Colossae to sing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs when they met (Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16), and he listed many of the churches meeting in Rome in Romans 16. We further see in Acts the gatherings of believers, including the prayer meeting where fellow Christians joined together to pray (Acts 4), and Paul and Barnabus gathering believers at the synagogue (Acts 13).
Why is it important to understand where gathering as an assembly is mentioned in the Bible? It is only through study of God’s Word that we see the call and command from God to his people to gather. Gathering is not something we do simply because it is fun. The idea to gather and worship God was instituted by God, not man. From the beginning, God called his people to gather in worship, and so we continue to do so until he returns. God’s Word is complete and there has been no new revelation or word from God to abstain from assembling. When we look at the whole of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, we see God’s people surrounded by social and political upheaval and turmoil. Even through the risks of journeying to Jerusalem for festival, or for publicly declaring loyalty to Jesus, believers elected to obey God and gather as an assembly to worship.
This same charge to assemble is before us today. May we look to the Israelites, New Testament believers, numerous generations throughout church history, and most importantly, God’s Word, for encouragement to continue to gather. Soli deo gloria.
For further reading from Acceptable Worship, see Why Do We Sing?
Additionally, see Worship in the Assembly from Religious Affections Ministries.
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