Today's sermon spoke about this topic, and the preacher, one of our Senior Pastor's brothers, made some very good points about how this question should be answered. !
The text was from 1 Kings 12
26 Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. 27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.”28 After seeking advice, the king 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.” 29 One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. 30 And this thing became a sin; the people went even as far as Dan to worship the one there.
Some of the points made are as follows:
- Jeroboam was king of the Northern Kingdom just after Solomon died
- Solomon had strayed from the correct path and created idols and temples for worship to false gods
- Jeroboam was worried that if the people from his kingdom went to Jerusalem to worship, he would lose their allegiance
- Jeroboam decided to keep them from going to Jerusalem, he would build two duplicate altars (of the altar in Jerusalem) in the northern kingdom, along with golden calves for the people to worship.
- Jeroboam led his people into sin, instead of making life more convenient
On top of these points, we should look to Jesus, and see what He did, and the commands of the early church fathers:
- Jesus frequented the synagogue, as well as the temple on the sabbath
- The writer of Hebrews commanded the early Christians to 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
- The Apostles also pointed out that each of us is a member of the body of Christ. The hand cannot say to the foot, I don't need you.
Although Christians are not REQUIRED to attend Church, we NEED one another. We are called to community, not to isolation. If once we accept Christ as savior, we are not required to do anything else, not supposed to bring fellowship and love and support to one another, as well as lead others to Christ, then God would just bring us home immediately. We ARE CALLED to community, and to support one another, as well as lead others to Christ.
So the bottom line is Yes, we do need to go to church to Worship God, not because we are REQUIRED, but because it is good for us, and for our fellow man.
