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BIBLICAL COMMANDS AND PRINCIPLES FOR A LOCAL CHURCH MEETING Christians’ lives and local churches are weak for many reasons but one primary reason is that the Commands and Principles for a Biblical local church are not being obeyed!
1) Lord’s Supper is central and foremost at every meeting in the local church. No Lord’s Supper = No local church. Lord’s Supper prepares believers for Christ’s return in the air to be received by Him. 1 John 2:28 abide in the Lord How can you abide if you don’t confess sin at the Lord’s Supper & look for His coming? Have confidence when He appears in the air. Not shrink away in shame when He appears. This verse & many others teach Christ only receives the faithful believers, Romans 11:20f, 14::4; 1 Cor 10:12; Heb 10:26-31, 39; 1 Peter 4:17; 2 Peter 3:17; 1 John 2:28; 2) Place to meet, can change as needed according to circumstances. 3) Day to meet & it should be more often as we see the Lord’s coming, Heb 10:25. In China some local churches meet daily. 4) When to meet. 5) Reading, exhortation, and teaching of Scripture, 1 Tim 4:13. 6) Prayer, 1 Tim 2:1f, 8. 7) Leadership, 1 Tim 3:1-13, one believer leading, there should be unity among believers. 8) Matt 18:20, two to three believers can establish a local church. There must be an agreement and commitment among the believers to obey God’s commands and principles to be a local church! 9) Acts 2:38, believers need to be baptized to be a local church, no unbelievers should be a part of a local church, it is not an evangelistic meeting. 10) Few in number, Heb 13:17, leadership can’t watch over souls of believers they don’t know and manage the local church well with large numbers, as well as can’t be kept secret in all circumstances. 11) Self-governing. 12) Self-supporting. 13) Self-propagating. 14) No registration with local governing authorities. 15) No building of buildings. 16) No robes or special garments for leadership. 17) No involvement in State’s military or wars since the Church is a spiritual not earthly entity. 18) No evangelism, 2 Col 6:14-18, but this can also exclude unbelieving believers. But Biblical preaching, teaching, & the Lord’s Supper should have unfaithful believers repent or leave. 19) No women leadership, 1 Tim 2:12. 20) No public announcement of local church meetings, No advertisements of such. 21) No infant baptism or baptism of unbelievers, Acts 2:38. 22) No paid “professional” leadership. 23) No mission agencies. 24) No para-church organizations. 25) No inter-church organizations, though fellowship and working together on projects would be acceptable. Each local church is self-governing.
All commands and principles of the local church can be obeyed with only 2-3 baptized, faithful believers.
These commands and principles should be very understandable.
Local churches should be secret, quiet, peaceful, flexible under guidance of the Holy Spirit via the leadership and believers in unity.
How do you expect to grow as a believer if you are not a part of a Biblical local church? God commands us to grow! 2 Peter 3:17f
NOW YOU CAN EASILY SEE WHY MOST 21ST CENTURY LOCAL CHURCHES ARE WEAK, APOSTATE, LAODICEAN, REVELATION 3:14-22 CHURCHES AND WHY MOST BELIEVERS ARE WEAK TOO.
PRAY LEAVE SUCH LOCAL CHURCHES, 2 COR 6:14-18 START A BIBLICAL LOCAL CHURCH BE BLESSED
How is the social club you attend on Sunday? Do you study yourself,
make friends, raise your hands, sing, listen to
speeches, etc.? A “church” without
the Lord’s Supper is not a New Testament church! Acts 2: 42 And
they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ [n] doctrine
and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in
prayers. 1 Corinthians 11: 20 Therefore
when you come together in one place, it is not to eat
the Lord’s Supper.
But even those who say such things may not know they themselves lack truth or obedience to it. I have been contemplating this for years. What is the…. PURPOSE
OF THE CHURCH? There is no direct
command saying the local church meeting should have the
Lord's Supper when it meets. 'When you meet as a local
church, have the Lord's Supper. Luke 22:14-20 "This is My body
which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me." This verse
indicates that the exact purpose of meeting together as
a local church was to eat the Lord's Supper!!! And did
the Corinthian local church only meet once a month and
at that time have the Lord's Supper? No! NO! It was
meeting at least once a week if not many times a week.
There are local churches worldwide meeting every day.
Some do in China. Hebrews 10:25 "not forsaking our own assembling together........and all the more, as you see the day drawing near." Here is a clear
command to meet together as a local church "all
the more" as
you see the day coming when the Lord Jesus comes in the
air to receive faithful Saints! And
I make the point clear, only faithful Saints are
assembling together to have the Lord's Supper and only
the faithful Saints will be taken up to be rewarded for
their faithfulness! The
unfaithful come and go as they please, though some may
not come at all. I know multitudes of them in China too.
And the assembling together as a local church would
definitely include the Lord's Supper, the basic purpose
of the local church! And meeting together was not on
ZOOM. Meeting together is face-to-face, mutual
encouragement. God certainly could have ZOOMED the
Message of Himself down to earth but He came
face-to-face!!! And eventually, He even would live in
the believer. 1 Corinthians 11:26 "For as often
as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the
Lord's death until He comes."
IT IS NOT SERIOUS!!! Because there is no
Lord's Supper at every meeting! At the Lord's
Supper, it is a time to confess sin, some Saints may be
disciplined, and some believers may even drop dead, such
as Ananias and Sapphira. So you
see why the Church today worldwide has become an
apostate Laodicean Church, it excludes the Lord's Supper
from its meetings!!! Indeed, there is a famine in our
land — a famine of truth and knowledge. Ask your leadership
to start obeying the NT commands and principles for a
local church Why obey the command to have the Lord's Supper? 1) 1 Corinthians 11:20 When ye
come together therefore into one place, this is not to
eat the Lord's supper.
(You come to my local church
meeting but it is not for the purpose of obeying my
command to have the Lord's Supper!) 2) The Lord's Supper focuses on
Christ's 1st Coming, Death, Resurrection, Ascension,
Rapture, and 2nd Coming! What are the local churches
worldwide focused on now? The idol, your preacher, who
gives a message, and a false worship. Let me tell you a true story: I
attended a fellowship meeting, not a local church, in
China and saw this Chinese girl excitedly raising her
hands, singing, and dancing in front of her seat. So as
the curious person I am, I went up to her and asked her
if she was a believer. She said, "No." 'I just came to
sing and have a good time.' I have talked with other
Chinese who do the same. Christian meetings are the best
show in town! 3) The Lord's Supper promotes a
holy life. As the Lord Himself suffered and died on the
cross to forgive all sins of the world, we as believers
should follow in His ways and live a clean sacrificial
life for Him. 4) The Lord's Supper is a time to
confess our sins and to allow the Lord to forgive our
sins, to repent from sins, and to allow the Holy Spirit
to once again fill us for service. 5) God uses the Lord's Supper as a
time to purify His Church, to forgive our sins. 6) God uses the Lord's Supper to discipline (judge), His Saints, just as He disciplined Ananias and Sapphira by putting them to death. Acts 5:1-11 7) The local church was established for the whole purpose of worshipping Christ via the institution, the Lord's Supper, established by the Lord Himself. The good Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord's Supper are the centrality of the New Testament local church. 8) If you observe the Lord's Supper
as Jesus commanded, then your local church will be
blessed! 9) Since the Lord's Supper is the
purpose of the local church, it is the basis upon which
the local church was established, and then all other
Scriptures can be related to it and taught from it. 10) Some may say there is not
enough time in a local church service to observe the
Lord's Supper. "Observance of the
Lord's supper constituted the church meeting." The following is a
Question and Answer Dialogue between Zane Hodges, a
great Greek Scholar from the past from Dallas
Theological Seminary, and a very inquisitive believer by
the name of Bill. (All highlights and the enlargement of
font size are for emphasis and are mine.) (Dialogue with Zane Hodges, Greek Scholar PhD.) Zane, I recognize that 1
Cor. 14:26 mentions some of the activities that
ordinarily go on in a "Breaking of Bread" Service - but
I really don't find any other examples or even
principles that seem to mandate it.
However, it seems to me that the first-century church
regularly had "the Breaking of Bread" [Acts. 2:42, 46;
20:7, etc.] and that surely teaching and singing were a
part of these times. [Our church has communion at least
once a week - generally as a part of the larger worship
services.] Hi Bill, In the NT there is
no such thing as a morning "worship" service built
around a sermon. After all, Sunday was not a holiday in
the Roman world. It was a work day. Slaves could come
only at night.
Thanks for your help on this subject. Bill
Have a good weekend, Zane Thanks, Zane. The fact that they were to wait to
eat until everyone arrived shows that that is when they
expected to eat the Lord's deipnon--i.e., first. The
breaking of the bread was BEFORE the meal, the cup AFTER
it. The whole thing is the Supper. Thanks, Zane. Hi Bill, (1) Verse 34 is
like my saying, "If you are too hungry to wait until
everybody gets there and the supper can start, then grab
something to eat before you leave the house!" Very
practical, but the idea some have seen here ("Dispense
with the supper") is off the wall.
Is the idea in verse 21 about the
same?
Thanks, Zane. This Truth shows
how far we have drifted from the NT commands and
practices of the 1st-Century Christian Church. 8) If you observe the Lord's Supper
as Jesus commanded, then your local church will be
blessed! 9) Since the Lord's Supper is the
purpose of the local church, it is the basis upon which
the local church was established, and then all other
Scriptures can be related to it and taught from it. 10) Some may say there is not
enough time in a local church service to observe the
Lord's Supper. No observance of the Lord's Supper = No New Testament church So you can easily
see how most of the local churches worldwide at the end
of this Age are Apostate disobedient Laodicean churches
and will receive their rightful Judgment as Jesus states
in The Revelation 3:14-22. Overcoming the problem that there is not enough time in a local church service to observe the Lord's Supper is very easy. Simply teach these many reasons why the Lord's Supper is all important and establish the local church on the basis of the Lord's Supper! And then the following week the gathering of the Saints will be the faithful Saints who are preparing themselves and waiting for the Lord's return in the air, the Rapture. The Rapture for the faithful Saints, not all will be going up at this next Rapture.
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