I fear that many believers think of the blessing of God in the life and ministry of the church is something we pretend to experience. As a pastor, I have encouraged many discouraged people to spend time with the means of grace only to be met with a look that so clearly says, “I’ve been there and done that, give me some counsel that works.” The clear implication is that the means of grace given to the church are empty rituals.  If that is you, then let me suggest that you need a different perspective. 

On his first missionary journey Paul said something startling to the believers in Derbe. He said, “[through] many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”[1] Nearly twenty years later, toward the end of Paul’s life, while in his last Roman imprisonment, he said something similar to Timothy, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”[2] This phrase bookended his ministry and was an accurate description of the Apostle’s life. Paul was no stranger to persecution. For instance, just prior to addressing the believers in Derbe he had been stoned and supposed dead by the perpetrators. And by the time he wrote to Timothy he had endured much more than that. The Apostle enumerates some of those troubles in the eleventh chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians. Paul spoke of what he knew.  

We, on the other hand, do not have this sort of familiarity with hardship. Life is amazingly good in the west. When was the last time you were beaten with rods, shipwrecked, adrift a night and a day at sea at any point, let alone for your faith? Probably not in recent memory. But persecution is secondary to the interests of this article. I want you to think about the church. Let me explain. Go back to Paul’s days in Derbe. After preaching the gospel there he returned to Lystra, the city that stoned him.  He went to Lystra to do more than encourage the disciples. He went to make sure that elders were ordained and installed in every church. Paul loved the doctrine of the church and he loved the church. And concern for the church did not waver throughout his life. In the list of hardships mentioned earlier, he caps it off saying, “Apart from the other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.”[3]  Paul loved the church and continually sought her good even and especially in the midst of his own difficulties.

Our Experience Today

I wonder if such a thing can be said by believers today.  Church seems so, dare I say, extra. Church is something we attend if we have time. A second service is almost unheard of on the Lord’s Day and a good many with access to such a blessing treat attendance as a game day decision. 

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