Church is Important
03/08/2013 12:28
And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight. Acts 20:7
Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. I Corinthians 16:2
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another:and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. Hebrews 10:25
One of the common things that I hear as a pastor is people regurgitating that old line, " I don't have to go to church to be a Christian." I would agree that you do not have to go to church to get to heaven, but as far as being a Christian, a person seeking to follow the teachings of the Scripture, I would disagree.
There are two reasons why you should be faithful to church. First, as we see in one of our text verses, we have a pattern given to us by the Apostles. They consistently met on the first day of the week to preach about the doctrines of the faith. While some consider an evening service unnecessary, I hope you realize the reason that they did not have an evening service was because their service lasted all day and then into the evening. So, we still spend much less time in church than our Christian ancestors did even when you factor in a Wednesday evening service. Christ himself, though He did not go to church because it was not yet established (Heb. 9:16), did frequent the synagogue and temple, fulfilling Exodus 20:8. So, can you be a New Testament Christian without church? The answer is no.
The next reason why it is important to go to church is because it is a command. We are told to go to church. Refer back to our text at the top of the page. That is the simplicity of it. You saying that you can be a Christian without the church is like saying you can be a Christian and drink, lie, gossip, etc. When you neglect a direct command from the Scripture, you are living in open sin (James 4:17). Sure, your salvation is not contingent upon any of these things, but I would be ashamed to say I was striving to be like Christ while living in sin.