Page 8 - Is Church an Option?

perfect.” Now the writer crosses the river and we move from the church visible to the church invisible, from the church militant to the church triumphant. What the writer is saying here is that when Christians gather in worship, when we bow our heads in prayer before the throne on high, we are joining with the Apostles John, Peter, James, and Paul. We are joining with Luther, Calvin, Whitefield, and Spurgeon. It is as if when we come to worship, they - - the saints of old, the church triumphant -- are holding Christ’s right hand, and we the church militant are holding His left hand here on earth.
4. It is a divine fellowship—“You have come...to God, the Judge of all...and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant...” In Christian fellowship and worship, the writer tells us that we actually come to God as revealed in Jesus. It is said that a friend of Leonardo da Vinci’s, looking at the unfinished picture of the Last Supper, was entranced by the loveliness of two silver cups on the table in front of Jesus, and immediately rejoiced at the artistic skill of their design. Leonardo was so agitated that he immediately took his brush and painted them out. He said, “It is not the cups that I want you to see, it is that face -- the face of Jesus!” Isn’t that what worship is all about, dear reader? Isn’t this the heart of worship?
5. Finally, corporate worship in church is a redeemed fellowship— “You have come...to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.” When all is said and done, sin causes a need for this type of admonition. The voice that cried from the blood of Abel spilt by Cain shouted, “He is guilty...he is selfish...he is evil...he is lost...he should be judged!” The same could be said of you and me. If this were all there were, then hope would be gone and we would never lift our heads again. However, here is where the Gospel enters. As our sins cry out to God for punishment and vengeance, something else happens, according to the writer of Hebrews. The sprinkled blood of Jesus -- or, as the converted heathen who killed Jim Eliot called it, “the drip, drip blood of Jesus” -- speaks louder and louder and louder, until it drowns out and silences the very crying of our sins. What does the blood of Jesus say? It says, “It is finished. I have made an end to sin.” It says, “I have brought an
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