Assembly

by HYDON, G.M. | Category: Names That Need To Be Known | Dec 2006

‘Assembly’ is an exciting word for Christians. It is the name for Christians when they are together. It is a hinge which allows the door of Christian activity to move. But a hinge has to be correctly positioned. We have first to get such fundamentals right, then we shall see how this precious, powerful truth very much needs to apply to us today.

The New Testament distinguishes between those who form a local church (ekklesia) of God and those who, while belonging to it, ‘come together as a church’ (Gk. en ekklesia). Ideally, these will be all those who form the church on a 24/7 basis, and, who, as such, are equally those who are scripturally required to continually devote themselves to assemble together for the various functions of a local church of God as commanded in the New Testament.

This should come as nothing new to readers of the Old Testament. But it will be very helpful to get back to the words the writers themselves used, since sometimes translations are not as precise as the original inspired text. A distinct word for ‘assembly’ is found frequently in the Old Testament, but not in the New. So when we move to the New Testament we must look for passages that use its essential meaning rather than the word itself. The thought ‘assembly’ expresses is certainly woven throughout the whole Bible.

Old Testament

In the Old Testament, the term ‘assembly’ most often applies to the people of Israel. It describes them when they gathered together. The first Bible reference to Israel as an assembly is Exodus 12:6, which speaks of the ‘whole assembly of the congregation of Israel’; all Israel without exception (the congregation) were to assemble in their respective homes to keep the Passover. They were acting in unison in accordance to the command of the Lord, a key feature in the use of the term assembly. Now while they were in their tents in the wilderness, or in their houses in the Promised Land, they were all Israelites, 24/7. But at certain times the whole of Israel was called together (e.g. Deut.9:10), and as such they were then also described as an assembly.

An assembly did not necessarily include all Israel. You will see from reading 2 Chr.29 & 30 that at first the ‘assembly’ included only the king and princes, then the priest and Levites, then the people of Jerusalem and then all who responded to invitations to keep the Passover. The ‘assembly’ thus describes the group that responds to the command to meet at a specific time and place for a specific purpose. The Hebrew word for such an assembly is ‘qahal’ (you can look it up in Strong’s Concordance, number 6951). The purpose of these assemblies was always important. Israel had to assemble where and when they were told to do so, to worship God, to hear His directions for them, and to act in judgement against offenders. You will also notice as you study, that when the people speak with one voice to their leaders, they are called an assembly, for they must have gathered together to agree on what their representatives were to say (e.g. Num.16:2,3; 20:2-6).

We must stress that the assemblings of Israel were not accidental or even casual events. Also, they depended on the people’s acknowledgment of the leaders used by the Lord to call the people together at God’s command (Num.10:7). By contrast, at a low point in Israel’s history the people were typified by independence; there was no acknowledged king and each of the people just did what was right in his own eyes (Judg.21:24,25).

You might in your study note a bit of a complication. The word ‘qahal’ is not always translated into English as ‘assembly’. It is also translated as ‘congregation’. However, there is a different Hebrew word that the Spirit of God has used when He wishes to refer simply to all Israel; it is the Hebrew word edah (Strong’s number 5712), which is used 89 times in this way. It might have been helpful to us if this distinction in the original words ‘qahal’ and ‘edah’ had been consistently shown by using the different English words, assembly and congregation (in this respect the English Revised Version and the English Standard Version are indeed more consistent). You will often find descriptions of the assembling of the congregation, but never ‘the congregation of the assembly’, because the congregation describes the whole, while the assembly describes those of a congregation that gather together (E.g. Ex.12:6; 35:1; Num.1:18; 14:5; 16:19, 42; Josh.18:1). In almost half of the references to congregation the term ‘all the congregation’ or ‘the whole congregation’ is used to further emphasize that congregation is meant to be very inclusive, whereas ‘assembly’ may exclude a portion of the congregation.

New Testament

Now this series is examining names applied to the same thing in both the Old Testament and the New. When the word ‘church’ in the New Testament is describing faithful Christian disciples in a particular city or town, the full term for that is ‘the church of God in (City/Town)’ (e.g. 1 Cor.1:2). If the New Testament had been written in Hebrew then these overall groupings might have been described by the word ‘edah’, because ‘edah’ refers to a whole congregation whether or not the people are all in the same place, at the same time, for the same reason. If you are in a church of God you are in it 24/7.

But Hebrews 10:25 reads: ‘… not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near’. Is this thought of assembling together a frequent and important theme in the New Testament - as it has been shown to be in the Old Testament? Yes, it certainly is. It is a vital hinge to the door of New Testament Christian activity.

God’s purpose

It is impossible to keep all the commands of our risen Lord Jesus Christ without gathering together. You will find important examples of a church of God gathering together in 1 Cor.11:17,18,20,33,34; 14:23,26, in these instances a single Greek word is used (Strong’s number 4905). A concordance search of the word ‘together’ as used in the New Testament gets a bit complicated. But do not let that stop you doing thorough research. The complication is that whereas in English we express the thought in one word: ‘together’, in the language of the New Testament writer sometimes three Greek words were used to express the specific meaning of being ‘together’ as a church: ‘epi to auto’. People who are ‘epi to auto’, together, are so by intent and purpose, not by accident but in order to be an assembly. You’ll find examples of this in Acts 1:15; 2:44; 1 Cor.14:23.

Actions of an assembly

We described this concept of an ‘assembly’ as a hinge in activities that God has designed to be engaged in collectively. That is why He provided the pattern for churches of God. So we will see in the above references for ‘gathering together’, key growth factors such as teaching, fellowship, worship, or prayer, or even judgement - which like pruning is necessary for effective quality growth. Leaders must gather the church for these purposes.

The commands of the Lord were passed on in the Apostles’ teaching, and teaching is a vital requirement in our development as Christians. It opens our minds to greater obedience to Christ and greater service for Him (1 Tim.4:6). The Spirit of God takes up the Word of God through the teacher (John 14:26; 16:13,14; 1 John 2:20). It is something that has its proper place in assembly gatherings, not only individual study (1 Cor.2:13; 4:17).

Paul, writing to the church of God in Corinth, speaks about them gathering together to keep the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he says, ‘when you come together as a church’ (1 Cor.11:18). This is the church of God seen as ‘en ekklesia’ or in assembly. He then went on to teach them about their assembling to keep the remembrance, the high point of the worship of a church of God. It was a command of the Lord that necessitated disciples assembling together.

The importance of gathering together for assembly prayers is adequately shown from the example of the church of God in Philippi (Phil.1:19). Their prayers were what Paul relied on for his effectiveness in gospel outreach. The door of opportunity relied in part on this hinge. Peter would have strongly endorsed the need for assembling for church prayer too! (Acts 12:5,12).

The church of God in Corinth also had to act collectively in judgment of an unrepentant immoral man. Paul emphasized to them that this action required them to be together (1 Cor.5:3-13). It was necessary for the ‘leaven’ to be removed from the assembly in this way, and its purifying effect was vital for the church to progress in holiness.

Not everyone in a church of God will necessarily be at all its meetings; a woman may be in labour, another may be away on a trip. The ones that gather, we may, with special aptness, designate as ‘the assembly’. God’s intention is that disciples of Christ should be together, together in intent, together in purpose and necessarily at certain agreed times together in the same place(s). This is part of His essential recipe for sustained effective growth. Trends toward independence will curtail that growth.

Let us not be satisfied with just the privilege of being part of the congregation. Let us dedicate ourselves in obedience to being part of the assembled company of the church, whenever it meets. This includes the assembly prayer meeting (Acts 2:42).

HYDON, G.M. | Dec 2006
Names That Need To Be Known