REEDER: Well, clearly there are three words for church in the Bible. There's the word that I think
it's only used three time, kerek, which the Scots get the word, kerk; we transliterated into English
is church. But that focuses on the facility. The other word, ekklesia, they're the ones called out;
and sunagogi, those are the ones called together. And so, there is the called out ones are called
together. And we have a commanded scripture. Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.
Now I can start listing biblically, psychologically, emotionally, practically
all the benefits that the church meets together. But I really don't need to. If God commanded it,
there must be a reason. He doesn't do things arbitrary. He does them on purpose in terms of
how he created us, how he saves us, and how he sustains us. So there must be something
very clearly in place about meeting together. The Lord's supper, for instance, during the
pandemic, we did not administer the Lord supper by virtual streaming because five times in the
text it says in 1 Corinthians 11, "When you come together, when you meet together, it's a gathered
assembly." You can send worship out for people to look at and participate in from a distance,
but you still haven't worshiped in the fullness until you've gathered together. The means of
grace are not only vertical. They're horizontal. We're not only making melody in our hearts to God,
we're speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And so, you need those means
of grace that are vertically focused, but horizontally experienced with one another
made in the image of God so that we are members one of another, all those one of another text.
Well, I would just mention one other thing to support it. Up until a couple of hundred year ago,
in my tradition where I served the Lord from conviction, the Presbyterian Church,
if you had gone to one of their buildings, it would not have been called the church. It
would've been called the meeting place. A guy call me one time and said, "Can you tell me where your
church is?" I have this kind of weird sense of humor. I call it sanctified irony. My wife calls
it sinful sarcasm. But I couldn't help myself, I said, "No, I don't have the slightest idea."
He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "Well, some of my church is on an airplane. Some of it's at
the mall. Some of it's at school. Some of it's in a home." He said, "No, no, I'm talking about
your church." I said, "Well, I'm talking about the church." I said, "Oh, I know what you're
asking me. You're asking me for the place where my church meets. That's what you're asking me."
That's why it was called the meeting place. And so, the church, it's not, "Here's the church,
here's the steeple, open the door. There's the people." The people gathered are the
church and the called out called together ones. It's fine for us to have a place to
meet that has architecture, conducive to our theology and conducive to our worship
and conducive to discipleship. But that's not the church. That's the meeting place.
And so, I think clearly the weight in the scripture is the meeting together. That's why
facilities are used. They facilitate worship. Worship is done by the gathered assembly.
Remember the woman at the well? She says, "Where do we worship?" She was asking location. He said,
"No, no, it's the we that are worshiping. Worship in spirit and in truth. It's how you worship
together. She wasn't talking about lifestyle worship individually, whether you eat or drink
or whatsoever you do to the altar of the glory of God. She was talking about gathered worship.
And that's what Jesus was telling us. Let me put it this way. The Bible says
that Paul ... that John, excuse me, was in the spirit on the Lord's day.
Now, what does that mean? Well, the spirit is always in him every day, but there's something
about being in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I think that is the special presence of the spirit
in the gathered assembly of God's people when they meet to give him worship on the Lord's day.