Church Attendance in the End Times | Don't Stop Going to Church
- Summary: "Oh, we love the Lord. We just don't go to church." This is an increasingly common attitude among Christians in these latter days of the Church Age. But it's an outlook that deprives them of the many blessings Jesus intends to be found within the assembled church. For your own personal well-being — as well as to obey the Lord's Word — don't stop going to church!
Hebrews 10:24-25
- • The Holy Spirit-inspired Scripture is issuing a warning, especially to those living in the end times of the Church Age ("now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near"). This charge from God is to “not neglect our church meetings … [our] meeting together”. Remember Jesus' warning that in the last days "...the love of many will grow cold" (Matthew 24:12, NKJV). That will likely lead to increasing numbers of believers leaving church attendance out of their priorities.
• There seems to be a drift in America, a slow but steady migration away from church attendance. Yes, I realize that some have left churches where they were personally hurt or offended. Others have left churches that they felt were “dead”. Still others may have succumbed to the end-time danger that Jesus warned of — “the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12, NKJV).
• The reasons for declining church attendance vary from person to person. My hope today is to offer some compelling biblical encouragements, some very positive and beneficial reasons why we should “not forsake the assembling of ourselves together”. Readers, if you are tempted at this point to check out, please give me just a few more minutes of your time. I promise you that what you will read is for your good, for your benefit.
- • Jesus’ regular custom was to attend the “church” of His day, the synagogue. So Jesus was a living (and perfect!) example to us of the value of believers assembling together.
- • The early Church in Jerusalem grew dramatically and began to have a favorable impact for God even across the northern Mediterranean regions.
• Their lives and their effective ministries were energized by their daily public and private gatherings — “in the temple courts … and in their homes”.
• Now let’s look at some of the wonderful benefits of Christians assembling together.
- • The assembled church experiences the edifying preaching and teaching of the word of God.
• When the church assembles, there is an opportunity for powerful, uplifting, corporate praise (“a hymn”).
• The assembled congregation can experience the supernatural “gifts of the Spirit … that build up the church”. Among these may be healings, prophecies, and “revelations” such as a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom.
- • This was the worshipful atmosphere of the early Church that led into the dramatic events of the first, great New Testament Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4).
• As a pastor from New Zealand once said, Spirit-inspired worship can “crack the hardest heart in the place”.
- • Many today have quit going to church because they feel like uninvolved spectators, with no meaningful role in the church. Sadly, that is true in many churches, where the attitude is “we pay the preacher, and he does the work.”
• But God’s intention is that the these five named ministers in the churches train and equip the congregation's people, so “[that they should do] the work of ministering” (vs. 12, Amplified).
- • The communion, the Lord’s Supper, is an occasion for great unity and common devotion to the person of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
• Many Bible studies on healing teach (correctly) that there is divine healing available in the partaking of the communion (1 Corinthians 11:23-30, especially vs. 30).
- • It’s easy to talk about loving people. The important thing is to put love into action.
• The gathering of believers presents numerous opportunities to express love in action. You can sit and encourage someone who is going through difficult times. You can arrange to bring a meal to a new mother. You can hear of a sick member and take time to go to his house to pray for him. Many similar opportunities are discovered when the saints get together. There will always be needy people present! And that allows you to reach out to them with the love of God.
- • God comforts us. That is wonderful. But in doing so, God has at least two motives. The first is to bless us directly with His gracious comfort. The second is to have us take that God-given comfort and share it with others needing a touch from the Lord. The assembled congregation, I guarantee, will have some present who are needing a word of encouragement and comfort.
• I recall clearly, 38 years ago, when my late wife and I were in a church service shortly after my wife’s mother had died of cancer. Two different ladies came up to her after the service and spent a few minutes grieving with her and offering their love and comfort. Both ladies were older and served as comforting “mother figures” to my wife for those few moments, as she mourned the loss of her own mother. There will be many such opportunities for you to be a bearer of God’s comfort to those in the church who are going through similar difficult times.
In closing, permit me a few brief comments on the concept of “strength in numbers” as it applies to the Lord’s Church. Be encouraged personally to be a part of those numbers. You need the church, and the church needs you!
- •
Matthew 18:19-20 …if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.- • There’s great power in even a small number of believers gathered in Jesus’ name. If they agree together in asking the Lord, He will grant their petition. When even “two or three” are together in His name, Jesus said he was in their very midst.
- •
Ecclesiastes 4:9, 12 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor … [12] Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.- • Again, there is strength in numbers. Don’t be one who isolates himself from fellow believers. Such a “one may be overpowered”. But two together can mount a defense, and we are indeed in a spiritual warfare against our “adversary the devil” (1 Peter 5:8). And a threefold cord, says the word of the Lord, is not easily broken.
Be willing to obey God’s command and to go against the modern tide that is forsaking church attendance. I appeal to you, my fellow Christians: don't stop going to church. Why go to church? As we have seen, there is much value in believers assembling together.
- • We can both give and receive helpful encouragement.
• We follow the matchless example of our Savior, who was a regular attender of His synagogue, the Jewish predecessor of our Christian local church.
• We profit from the example of the early Church that Jesus founded, as we see them meeting daily(!), both in the public assembly and in one another’s homes.
• In the church service we experience Holy Spirit-anointed preaching and teaching of God’s word.
• Worshipful praise to God uplifts our spirits and provides an opportunity to experience the presence of God.
• We are benefited and edified by the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit.
• Through the pastors and other “fivefold ministries” in our churches we are trained and equipped so that we too may be able ministers of the Gospel.
• We share in the unifying blessings of the Lord’s Supper, the communion.
• In the assembled congregation we find numerous occasions to demonstrate love in action, not just in words.
• We are able to share God’s comfort with those who desperately need it.
• The bible clearly teaches a spiritual fulfillment of the old saying that there is “strength in numbers”.
• Determine to be committed to a local church. That’s where you will not only find that corporate strength, but you also will contribute to it by your presence.
-------------------------
Shortcuts to Major Topics:
Christian Living
Doctrine & Theology
Evangelism
Faith
Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Healing
Hearing from God
Holy Spirit | Pentecostal Topics
Jesus Christ
Ministry
Power of God
Prayer
Salvation
The Church
Various Topics Not Listed Elsewhere
Victory over the Devil
Word of God
Sharing is great!
If you've been blessed by our
sermon on Don't Stop Going to Church,
please share it with your friends.
Email them the browser link. Or
you can post the link on your social
media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
Thank you for sharing God's Word!
©2013, 2015, James H. Feeney.
Copyright statement.
Pentecostal Sermons and Bible Studies
by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.