CƠ-ĐỐC NHÂN VÀ SỰ NHÓM LẠI

Kinh thánh: Hê-bơ-rơ 10: 19-25

Câu gốc: HÊ-BƠ-RƠ 10: 25 – Chớ bỏ sự nhóm lại như mấy kẻ quen làm, nhưng phải khuyên bảo nhau, và hễ anh em thấy ngày ấy hầu gần chừng nào, thì càng phải làm như vậy chừng nấy.

*******

BIBLE AND CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP

Bible: Hebrews 10: 19-25

Main verse: HEBREWS 10: 25 – Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

*******

– Gathering together to worship the Lord and to have fellowship to each other is one of the important aspects of Christian’s life. It’s so important to our spiritual life that many Christians felt difficult to keep it regularly.

– On the contrary a lot of Christians have abandoned the gathering so easily just because of a very small reason, like a light rain before the time or the day is rather too lovely for a walk in the park than spending one hour in the church.

– That happened because according to the Bible, everything that benefits for the soul is always hard for the flesh to do, as it was written in Paul’s letter to the Galatians:

GALATIANS 5: 17 – For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

GA-LA-TI 5: 17 – Vì xác thịt có những điều ưa muốn trái với những điều của Thánh Linh, Thánh Linh có những điều ưa muốn trái với của xác thịt; hai bên trái nhau dường ấy, nên anh em không làm được điều mình muốn làm.

– From the ancient time, when God chose Israelites to be His people, He had established laws for their gathering in front of Him and to perform ceremonies as a nation.

NUMBERS 10: 3 – When they blow both of them, all the congregation shall gather before you at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

DÂN SỐ KÝ 10: 3 – Khi nào người ta thổi loa, toàn hội chúng sẽ nhóm lại gần bên ngươi, tại cửa hội mạc.

– When Jesus came to the world to do His ministry, He also used the gathering of people to teach them about the Kingdom of God and other matters relating to the salvation in Him:

LUKE 8: 4 – And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to Him from every city, He spoke by a parable.

LU-CA 8: 4 – Khi có đoàn dân đông nhóm lại, và người của hết thảy các thành đều đến cùng Ngài, thì Ngài lấy thí dụ mà phán cùng họ.

– When the church established, gathering to worship the Lord, conducting church’s matters, reading the Bible and listen to the Apostles’ sermons and others’ testimonies became one important part of Christian’s life.

ACTS 1: 15 – And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, altogether the number of names was about a hundred and twenty.

CÔNG VỤ 1: 15 – Trong những ngày đó, Phi-e-rơ đứng dậy giữa các anh em, số người nhóm lại ước được một trăm hai mươi người.

ACTS 13: 44 – On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.

CÔNG VỤ 13: 44 – Ngày Sa-bát sau, gần hết cả thành đều nhóm lại để nghe đạo Chúa.

– When Paul did his ministry among Gentiles, he also used a gathering to talk to them and new believers about the salvation in Jesus Christ:

ACTS 16: 13 – And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there.

CÔNG VỤ 16: 13 – Đến ngày Sa-bát, chúng ta ra ngoài cửa thành, đến gần bên sông, là nơi người ta thường nhóm lại đặng cầu nguyện; chúng ta ngồi xuống rồi thì giảng cho những đàn bà đã nhóm lại.

ACTS 20: 7 – Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.

CÔNG VỤ 20: 7 – Ngày thứ nhất trong tuần lễ, chúng ta đang nhóm lại để bẻ bánh; Phao-lô phải đi ngày mai, nên người nói chuyện với các môn đồ, và cứ giảng luôn cho đến nửa đêm.

– The gathering of God’s children is so important to Christians’ lives that God has commanded that we should not forsake it except in the most extreme circumstances:

HEBREWS 10: 25 – Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

HÊ-BƠ-RƠ 10: 25 – Chớ bỏ sự nhóm lại như mấy kẻ quen làm, nhưng phải khuyên bảo nhau, và hễ anh em thấy ngày ấy hầu gần chừng nào, thì càng phải làm như vậy chừng nấy.

– According to the verse that quoted above, as Christians see that our lives are shortened each day on Earth and know that the day we meet the Lord is nearer, we must try our best to attend every gathering with other fellow Christians as much as possible. For we Christians in the modern time, it is the Sunday service of every week.

– As the Bible has indicated, because Christian’s gathering to worship the Lord and to have fellowship to each other is one of the benefits for our spiritual lives, so it becomes a target for Satan to attack us. In this kind of spiritual battle, he won most of the time.

– In order to understand the importance of Christian gathering and fellowship, and to strengthen our faith in this aspect so that we can win over Satan’s attack, we are going to consider its characteristics and Satan’s temptations to lure Christians away from Sunday services.

– The first characteristic of Christian gathering and fellowship is to make known to other people that we are God’s children. As for many actions in human life, when we keep doing a particular thing repeatedly, other will certainly know who we are.

– For example, people in a neighborhood will recognized a person who wakes up and leaves house in the early morning 5 days a week as a worker or an employed one. As the same way, they will recognize who is a student as he or she catches school bus every morning from Monday to Friday except summer time.

– It’s also the same for Christians as we leave house each Sunday in proper attires for Sunday services. Our neighbors will certainly know that we are God’s children and on our way to present ourselves before Him although we might not yet tell them as such.

– None of our neighbors will think that with that kind of proper attires we are going to a party or a wedding ceremony. Nobody goes to wedding every week and nobody goes to party early every Sunday morning. In the same way none of our neighbors will think we are going to a picnic or doing shopping with that kind of proper attires.

– Sunday is usually a day for other people to relax after a week of work. They can sleep longer and wake up late, they can take time at breakfast tables, they can do some yard works around the house or go to shopping late afternoon. But for Christians, Sunday is the day we come before God and have fellowship to each others. That makes us being different from unbelievers.

– That’s why we Christians should go to church every Sunday except in some extreme circumstances like being sick or in some kinds of emergency. And we should go with proper attires rather than normal clothes as for other occasions.

– We need to let others know that we are going to worship the Lord and having fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. That’s the way we make our personal testimony silently to our neighbors and we will certainly received blessings from God as He has promised

MATTHEWS 10: 32-33 – Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father Who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father Who is in heaven.

MA-THI-Ơ 10: 32-33 – Bởi đó, ai xưng ta ra trước mặt thiên hạ, thì ta cũng sẽ xưng họ trước mặt Cha ta ở trên trời; còn ai chối ta trước mặt thiên hạ, thì ta cũng sẽ chối họ trước mặt Cha ta ở trên trời.

– Many Christians lost God’s blessings in their marriages, in their families, on their children, in their works, in their health and still wondered why those happened. They did not know that that happened because they forsook to keep attending the Sunday gathering and fellowship regularly as it should be.

– Many nations on earth also have experienced the same as their Christian leaders forsook the Sunday gathering and fellowship. They never accept it as the basic cause of their decline in prosperity and national safety, as it is happening in America. People always have the tendency of never accepting that they are losing blessings from God. That’s why they have been losing them until disasters strike.

– Moreover, as Jesus said, whoever denies Him as Lord before men, and abandoning or forsaking Sunday gathering is one of the acts, will be denied before God Who is in heaven. That means Christians who did that might lose the salvation in Him. Therefore we should be careful not to forsake the Sunday services.

– Because of the probability of losing salvation in Jesus Christ if one forsook the Christian gathering, so Satan always try to temp Christians not go to Sunday services and fellowship by many reasons, big and small.

– We should know that Satan always attack us in every aspect that affects our eternal life. He does not want anyone to be saved. So when Satan try his best to make Christians forsaking or abandoning the Sunday gathering and fellowship, we know right way that it’s important to our faith and our eternal life.

– Many faith-weakened Christians argued that although they have not go to Sunday gathering anymore but their faith is still strong. It’s a personal illusions and that’s kind of argument have deceived them, for it is quite contradicting to the principle of faith in God’s Word. Scriptures indicate that real faith must be shown by action, as it was recorded in the letter of James:

JAMES 2: 26 – For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

GIA-CƠ 2: 26 – Vả, xác chẳng có hồn thì chết, đức tin không có việc làm cũng chết như vậy.

– As God’s words in Hebrews 10: 25 has commanded that Christians should not forsake the gathering together and fellowship, and some Christians are not going to obey that, how can they claim that they still are obedient children of God? Disobedient Christians cannot expect to have God blessings in their lives.

– Therefore, we should obey God’s command carefully in this matter so that we can make our silent testimony to neighbors that we are God’s children who always gather together on the first day each week before Him, to worship Him and to have fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

– May God bless us constantly as we try our best to attend Sunday services regularly throughout our lives to the end of the earth. Amen.

(will be continued)