Your Need for Face-to-Face Church

“When Paul saw [the brothers from Rome], he was encouraged and gave thanks to God.” –Acts 28:15

The Apostle Paul was bound, a prisoner en route to Rome as promised by Jesus to preach the gospel in Rome (Acts 23:11). His initial commission upon encounter Jesus on the road to Damascus was to be persecuted for Jesus’ name sake (Acts9:16). Having survived storms and a shipwreck, the prisoner Paul need to take strength to complete his mission.

What did the Lord Jesus Christ use to strengthen His servant? The local church. Some of the Christians belonging to the church in Rome made the more than 30 mile trek just to encourage Paul. Something Paul had written a few years before to this very church in Romans 1:12, how he longed to meet with them face-to-face “that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.”

Paul wrote to the local church in Thessalonica how intensely he longed to see them face-to-face (I Thessalonians 2:17). The author of Hebrews reminds Christians to not neglect the Christian gathering (Hebrews 10:25). Why should we regularly attend church gatherings? The Scripture says, to encourage one another as the day of Jesus’ return draws near.

The Apostle Paul needed encouragement and Jesus sent the church to gather and give him encouragement. The early church faced many trials and persecution, yet called to gather regularly for encouragement.

Yet, many modern Christians do not believe they need Jesus’ encouragement He only provides through His church. Paul reminds the local church in Ephesus that Jesus loves the church “and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25-27).

The word translated “church” is ekklésia, meaning to call out a people to gather. To be a Christian is to be gathered regularly to worship the Lord Jesus Christ who loves His people and transforms us by His Word. The “one another” commands of Jesus, the very commands the church is commanded to teach disciples to observe in the Great Commission, are not commands that can be obeyed in isolation. There is a required presence togetherness, to hear Jesus’ call out His people to gather, to ekklésia.

To walk the Christian life is dangerous alone. Even Paul needed the mercies Christ blesses Christians with through the local church. Hear the call to come. To gather. Be blessed by He who loved you and gave Himself for you by being face-to-face in the gathering of the local church. Do not fall prey to the danger of thinking you do not need church, but worship Jesus in your own way. Worship Him in His way. The blessing of regularly gathering with the saints.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the bright lamps of local churches throughout this dark world. Grant Your people a passionate eagerness to gather, to serve and love one another, to display Your glory and mercy to all. Grant us humility and fill our hearts with Your love. Bless us that Jesus would be glorified in and through the local church. In Jesus’ name. Amen.