Doctrine of Church Attendance

[Timothy]

Yesterday morning my pastor preach a sermon regarding Church attendance and what to expect at Church.

Still stewing over it internally.

His text was Luke 4:16-22:
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?

The basic points were that Jesus was a Church goer (so should we be), the Gospel was proclaimed in Church (we should proclaim it as well), and all eyes should be on Jesus (not on our own selves and traditions).

What are your thoughts about his message?

Does this scripture demonstrate we should attend Church whenever the door is open? Should Church be Gospel centralized at all times?

Note: Our Church is going through a dry spell with many skipping Church. I believe he felt lead to teach the Sunday morning crowed about the importance of Church.

 

[rsc2a]

[quote author=Timothy]What are your thoughts about his message?[/quote]

My thoughts are that your pastor preached a sermon using a text that wasn't even remotely addressing the issues that he pulled from it.

 

[pastorryanhayden]

[quote author=Timothy]What are your thoughts about his message?

My thoughts are that your pastor preached a sermon using a text that wasn't even remotely addressing the issues that he pulled from it.
[/quote]

Agreed.  Unless he made it clear that the synagogue was not the church, and that it was just Jesus' habit to go to the synagogue (a habit that translates well into church.)

Either way, if was a relatively minor abuse of a scriptural text, and one I'd be prone to overlook. There are several texts in Acts and a very famous one in Hebrews that would have served his purpose better.

 

[rsc2a]

[quote author=pastorryanhayden]Either way, if was a relatively minor abuse of a scriptural text, and one I'd be prone to overlook. There are several texts in Acts and a very famous one in Hebrews that would have served his purpose better.[/quote]

Yup. I'd even overlook it generally (although note it mentally). But since we were asked our opinion...

 

[subllibrm]

[quote author=Timothy]What are your thoughts about his message?

My thoughts are that your pastor preached a sermon using a text that wasn't even remotely addressing the issues that he pulled from it.
[/quote]

Pretty much. I never understand why a man will try to stretch a text to make a point when there are other perfectly good texts that actually address the issue at hand.

 

[Timothy]

[quote author=Timothy]What are your thoughts about his message?

My thoughts are that your pastor preached a sermon using a text that wasn't even remotely addressing the issues that he pulled from it.

Agreed.  Unless he made it clear that the synagogue was not the church, and that it was just Jesus' habit to go to the synagogue (a habit that translates well into church.)

Either way, if was a relatively minor abuse of a scriptural text, and one I'd be prone to overlook. There are several texts in Acts and a very famous one in Hebrews that would have served his purpose better.
[/quote]

It was expressed that this translates well into Church.

 

[Ransom]

Church attendance isn't a "doctrine." It's something you do. It's a practice.

 

[Binaca Chugger]

What are your thoughts about his message?

Common fare for a fundy.

Point one is stretched a little to far.  The church and the synagogue are very different.  The purpose for Jesus being there was very different from what he was trying to preach.  Even those things aside, he assumes that Jesus was a regular synagogue attender, which is a pretty big leap to make.  There are only a handful of recorded occurrences where Jesus attended a temple or synagogue or feast.  Hence, if we want to be like Jesus........ a few times in our life is good enough? 8)

 

[ALAYMAN]

If ever there was one who might justly plead that the common worship of the community had nothing to offer him it was the Lord Jesus Christ. But every Sabbath found him seated in his place among the worshipping people, and there was no act of stated worship which he felt himself entitled to discard.

Even in his most exalted moods, and after his most elevating experiences, he quietly took his place with the rest of God’s people, sharing with them in the common worship of the community. Returning from that great baptismal scene, when the heavens themselves were rent to bear him witness that he was well pleasing to God; from the searching trials of the wilderness, and from that first great tour in Galilee, prosecuted, as we are expressly told, “in the power of the Spirit”; he came back, as the record tells, “to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and” — so proceeds the amazing narrative — “he entered, as his custom was, into the synagogue, on the Sabbath day.”

“As his custom was!”

Jesus Christ made it his habitual practice to be found in his place on the Sabbath day at the stated place of worship to which he belonged. “It is a reminder,” as Sir William Robertson Nicoll well insists, “of the truth which, in our fancied spirituality, we are apt to forget — that the holiest personal life can scarcely afford to dispense with stated forms of devotion, and that the regular public worship of the church, for all its local imperfections and dullness, is a divine provision for sustaining the individual soul.”

“We cannot afford to be wiser than our Lord in this matter. If any one could have pled that his spiritual experience was so lofty that it did no require public worship, if any one might have felt that the consecration and communion of is personal life exempted him from what ordinary mortals needed, it was Jesus. But he made no such plea. Sabbath after Sabbath even he was found in the place of worship, side by side with God’s people, not for the mere sake of setting a good example, but for deeper reasons. Is it reasonable, then, that any of us should think we can safely afford to dispense with the pious custom of regular participation with the common worship of our locality?”

---B.B. Warfield, Selected Shorter Writings (P&R, 1970), 1:421–422:

 

[Timothy]

What are your thoughts about his message?

Common fare for a fundy.

Point one is stretched a little to far.  The church and the synagogue are very different.  The purpose for Jesus being there was very different from what he was trying to preach.  Even those things aside, he assumes that Jesus was a regular synagogue attender, which is a pretty big leap to make.  There are only a handful of recorded occurrences where Jesus attended a temple or synagogue or feast.  Hence, if we want to be like Jesus........ a few times in our life is good enough? 8)

"as his custom was, he went into the synagogue"

 

[Bob H]

[quote author=Timothy]What are your thoughts about his message?

My thoughts are that your pastor preached a sermon using a text that wasn't even remotely addressing the issues that he pulled from it.
[/quote]

I hate to say it but I have to agree with ya   

 

[Timothy]

Church attendance isn't a "doctrine." It's something you do. It's a practice.

My words. Pastor didn't say "doctrine" ....