 Hey smart Christians, welcome back. Does the Bible require Christians to go to church? The reason why people ask this question, especially now during this time of pandemic is that people have gotten kind of comfortable with not going. It's a lot easier to sit home and either watch it on Zoom or catch a recording of it either on YouTube or on TV or what have you. Well, the issue here is, is it a requirement in the Bible to go to church? Well, the most famous passage that people turn to is found in the book of Hebrews. Let's go there. Starting in chapter 10 verse 24 says, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. Verse 25, not neglecting to meet together as it is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. So you see the writer saying, let us stir up one another to love and good works. Well, before we get into verse 25, the issue is, how do you do that if you are a part? There are some benefits for being in the church. One, obviously you want to do some things individually, but it's the corporate body that's the most effective. You come together and worship corporately. You come together and pray corporately. How do you pray for someone realistically all the time? If someone is not around you, if you don't know anything about them, they don't know anything about you. If I don't know what's happening with you in your life and you don't know what's going on with me in my life, then it's going to be hard for us to even pray about each other. But then that also brings up the next issue that we ought to do corporately, and that is to fellowship together. We need to be together. There's no part of your body that's not together, right? Though my hand might be separated from this hand, they still come together. Also, you need to corporately hear the word of God. Just as it was the custom of the apostles in the early church as the church was founded, they met together as often as possible. And so he says in verse 25, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some of you, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day coming. So somebody might say there is no specific command to go to church. Well, a couple of things. One, the word church, our word church, is not a word that's actually found in the Bible. It's kind of took on its own meaning, but where the word comes from, it's kind of from a German derivative of the word, I believe it's Kirsch. But to look at the words that's used here in Hebrew as well as in other parts, there's two words I want you to think about. One, you've heard this word before, that is the word ecclesia. Well, what it is is it's the gathering. It's the assembly. It's a congregation. And so if you want to be a part of the body, the only way that you can actually be a part of the body as it's called the ecclesia is that you be a part of the gathering, the congregation, the assembly. There's no such thing as a one person assembly or one person gathering. That just, that's counter to what the word means, right? And so the writer says, as you see the day approaching and in order to stir up love and good works, you need to come together. Don't get in the habit of not coming together. And the word that's used here is the Greek word epesunagoghain. It is where we also get the word synagoghain, where we get the word synagogue, the Jewish version of the church, if you will. And so he's saying, do not get in the habit of not coming together. Some of you have gotten the habit of not doing so. Now, through no fault of our own, many of us have not been allowed to do so because of the pandemic and different restrictions and so forth, churches deciding to hold more meetings over zoom and so forth. But as things kind of kick back into an even without there being a pandemic, don't get in the habit of doing things by yourself. You cannot have this old saying, I can have church by myself. No, you can't. It is literally impossible to have a gathering by yourself. And so be like they were and be in the habit of meeting with one another, having this daily fellowship as often as you can. And granted, the body is made up of many local bodies. It doesn't have to be necessarily one body. Obviously, you can't do that because of the sheer number of believers. And just like in those days, they had multiple different gatherings, one at this part of town, one at that part of town. But because they saw the need as so important to be together, they made sure as often as they could to get together. And they were the ones that introduced the whole concept of coming together at the first day of the week on Sunday. So do not neglect the assembling together. So the question is, are Christians required to go to church? Well, the answer is yes, if you want to be an obedient Christian.