January 28, 2024 - INSCRIPTIONS FROM THE HEART

IFH: January 28, 2024

Why do we have Solemn Assembly?

Source: Rev. Sunder Krishnan. He is the former Senior Pastor of Rexdale Alliance Church in Toronto.

The Apostle Paul writing to the Ephesians says: “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Ephesians 6:18. So in one sense we can pray any kind of prayer, anytime, anywhere. But the Scriptures also talk about the importance of discerning certain seasons in which certain responses are more appropriate than others. For example the writer of Ecclesiastes says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to embrace and a time to refrain.” Ecclesiastes 3:1,4-5.

Jesus was very conscious of seasons. Read the gospels and you will find on many occasions when people would ask Him to do something and He would say ‘my hour has not yet come’, ‘my time has not yet come’ and then finally ‘Father, the time has come’. Jesus discerned when the time of rejoicing was and when it was time for weeping. To be feasting and rejoicing when the Lord calls for repentance and mourning is no light thing.

Why assembly? Why do we all have to do it together? Why can’t we be left to do this privately among ourselves? You see when a group of people gather together and assemble, what that is saying is that more than one, two, three or five people but the entire body of believers is serious in doing business with God together.

Why bother with Solemn Assembly? It is where Jesus said: apart from me you can do nothing. It comes out of a conviction that if anything useful is going to be accomplished for the kingdom in the church, God is going to have to do it. Nothing else will last no matter how glitzy it looks, no matter how impressed the world may be. It counts for nothing if it doesn’t flow out of the life of Christ within us. As John Piper said, “prayer is simply the translation into a thousand words of one sentence – apart from God we can do nothing