In the Old Testament, God instituted one specific place of worship - the temple in Jerusalem. It was filled with the glory and holiness of God. But soon religion became cold, formal and lifeless - worse still - corrupt. So God allowed the Babylonians to destroy the temple and take His people to captivity. Although God allowed some of the Jews to return 70 years later to rebuild the temple, many Jews remained in foreign lands even to the time of Jesus. The diaspora (scattered Jews) worshipped in buildings we know as synagogues as they were far away from the temple.

In the gospels we read of Jesus teaching in the synagogues in the north where He lived. But when He went down south to Jerusalem, He would teach at the temple grounds. That was how the Jewish people practised their faith in those days in those times.

Let us look at the early days of the Christian Church.
Acts 2:41-42
The beginning of the Christian church and the activities they did together can be seen in these verses. They gathered for lessons by the apostles. They were in fellowship. Fellowship doesn’t mean sitting around the table to chit chat, eat and drink; fellowship to them was communion in the spirit, sharing the word of God and encouragements. That’s why Paul wrote to the Corinthians - “if anyone has a psalm, let him share”. They also had the breaking of bread which may refer to the Holy Communion.

Acts 2:46-47
Here we see the things the places and things they did together. They gathered in temples and individual homes as evidenced from the phrase “house to house”.

Acts 5:12-16
They gathered at the precinct in the temple known as Solomon’s porch. The gathering became quite huge by and by, because the Lord added to them day by day. v16 says a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities. But size wasn’t the only thing that made them so noticeable. Solomon’s porch was a very happening place. Sicknesses were healed. Demons were driven away. This group of Christians were held in high regard by the people. “They were held in high regard but some people did not dare to join them.” This was because they were a new vibrant group that worshiped God in such a vibrant manner. The authorities took notice of this and before long, the early Christians had to abandon gathering at temples because of persecutions by non-believing Jews. The first martyr - Stephen - was stoked to death. After that the believers fled the city and were scattered in different places from Judea to Samaria. For a while they worshipped in the synagogues of those places together with other Jews, but by the time the gospel of John was written (1st C), they were expelled from the synagogue because they believed Jesus was the Messiah. They hence had not choice but to worship in each others’ homes. When Gentiles came to believe in Christ outside of Judea, all the more those churches established had to hold services in homes.

Now that we are on the WFH arrangement, which means ‘worship from home’, there are some advantages to it. The early Christians worshipped from each others’ homes.

4 advantages of the current WFH arrangement:

1. You bring Jesus into your house

Although a number of us attend church 3/4 times a week, not many of us worship as a family in our own homes. We segregate our activities - secular from spiritual. The speaker doesn’t know if our home is Christian or secular. So although sometimes the entire family belongs to the church, all Christians, all believers, but we do our own things. Very seldom do we worship together. Even when we say our prayers before bed, many of us do it individually by ourselves. That is if we pray at all.

Some of us may realise that our home activities are very much secular. We bring work home to do. We shout at our children, “Finish up your homework! Why are you not studying?” Or we gossip over the phone with other people. Or we quarrel with our spouse.

Now that we have live streaming for worship, we have more opportunities to join in worship services, because sometimes we find it difficult to make our way to church after a hard day’s work. But now with just a touch of a few buttons, we can join the service. Those in Adam and Woodlands have Wednesday night services, and those in TK and Serangoon have Tuesday night services. But now even Adam and Woodlands can tune in to Tuesday night services and vice versa. That’s one advantage. We have more services to attend and it’s easier to attend them.

Luke 10:38
A woman by the name of Martha welcomed Jesus into her house. Why did she welcome Jesus to her house? We might not exactly know what she was thinking at that time but her actions show she wanted to throw a feast/cook for Jesus. She cooked and tried to be hospitable towards Jesus. But the Bible says this was a distraction. “She was distracted by much serving.” However, her sister Mary was seated at the feet of Jesus listening. So Jesus gave Martha this bit of advice, “Martha Martha you are worried about many things. There’s only one thing that’s needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which is to sit at My feet.”

One thing is needed: to sit at the feet of Jesus. Serving and others things are not necessary things.

Our government tells us to go out to do necessary things only, otherwise, stay home. And now the Bible tells us, even when staying home, only do the necessary things. Free up ourselves from mundane affairs and take time to worship God with brothers and sisters, because there’re more opportunities and it’s easier now.

Parents right now also have the opportunity to teach their children using the materials given by the church. They double up as RE teachers. This is a very good opportunity as the contact most parents have with their children often has to do with school work. Religious education is actually the responsibility of parents and not the religious education teachers.

Having live streaming is hence actually bringing Jesus into our homes. When we come to the church building, the atmosphere is naturally conducive for reverence. Because we are conditioned this way. “It’s so serene. There’re pews. There’s a pulpit here.” But the home is different. YIH come back home from work. Doing our bag to the floor. Slump into a sofa. Put our feet onto the coffee table and turn on the tv. We chill for some time before we wash up. Home is different from church. This isn’t to say we shouldn’t be comfortable at home. It’s to say when at home, we may not be as God conscious as we are at church. But religion is supposed to be meshed in our lives, right? Now that we worship God from home, it promotes God consciousness in us. The home environment is usually secular because it’s not a place of worship. We have newspapers and magazines. We have our work stuff and hobby stuff. It’s sometimes very messy. But the speaker suspects when we prepare ourselves for worship, we tidy it a bit. It’s psychological, which is good. So this is one advantage.

2. Our houses can become places of worship

Rom 16:5
Paul greets people and the church that is in their house. We see it also when Paul wrote to the Corinthians and Colossians. “The church which is in their house”

Paul greets people who open their homes as places of worship. Then he would have a list of other people he wanted to greet as well. It seems people who opened their houses for worship were very connected to their brethren in that location. It’s easier to know each other better when in a smaller group.

When the live streaming was started last week, the church realised there’re some lone and/or old members who may not know how to operate the gadgets. So arrangements were made for old people to worship together with members close to their homes. There’s opportunity for people to gather together and know each other better. There’s a couple who’s in evergreen but there was an older woman staying close to them. So the old couple invited the older sister to their home and had the live streaming in Sabbath Day. Although the couple had seen the older sister before, they didn’t go beyond the ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’. But after having the older sister in their homes and got to know her better, they started to take care of her - brought food to her home, gave her advice in the COVID-19 situation. They lived within walking distance but hadn’t visited each other before this.

2 Sam 6:11-12
A man by the name of Obed-Edom had the ark of the covenant placed in his home for some time, and God blessed him. God blessed him because the ark of the covenant was housed within his residence. That even came to the knowledge of the King - King David. So King David brought them ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem.

It’s always a blessing to open your house for worship. It’s not just about opening your house for Jesus, it’s also about making your house a hub where people receive blessings.

The speaker listened to the Prime Minister’s speech at 4pm this afternoon. To make sure what he promotes in the sermon doesn’t go against what the government advises, he realises from 7 April onwards, one is supposed to keep to their own families, not even extended families. But this is a temporary thing. We pray that it will not last too long. When this situation has eased out, when the pandemic is over, it’s always good to remember it’s a blessing to open your house for worship. Or when it comes to a situation where a gathering of 10 people is okay, we can start having fellowship.

Last week people who gathered in their homes had a beautiful fellowship. Some didn’t do it fellowship but gathered online on zoom. If we take the initiative to host and invite people to livestream, that is a form of gathering in the spirit and God will bless you for that.

3. We have an opportunity for evangelism

Acts 10:24
At that time, Cornelius gathered his close friends and relatives physically in his house. Today the situation doesn’t allow us to do that. But today the livestream can still allow us to reach out to people. Because some friends don’t like to come to a church. In the past we invited then to our homes for informal gatherings, and people do respond. But now we can send our worship link to our friends. When we have a special topic, we can send them the poster, topic and link. The upcoming worship evangelism will discuss “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

Some of us have unbelieving family members. Perhaps out of 8, 3 are not believers. We can now do our ‘All 8.’ Now that we bring church/live-streaming into our houses, we can bring our non-believing parents, children, siblings to listen in. Some church members have their domestic helpers to believe. We can give our maids a 1h break to listen in. Or perhaps we have tenants. We can invite them to join us. Now we can’t knock on our neighbours’ doors but when the situation is better, perhaps we can. We never know who is in need of Jesus but has not had the opportunity to meet Him yet.

Luke 19:1-6
A man really wanted to meet Jesus. Because he was very short, he climbed up a tree to see Him. Nobody knew how much he wanted to see Jesus, except Jesus. When Jesus walked under the tree, He looked up and told him to come down for He would go to his house.

Send the link to your friends. We may not know, but they may need it. That they perhaps be blessed like the short man Zacchaeus who wanted to meet Jesus.

4. We may be bound to our homes, but the gospel is not bound

There are quite a few of us who stay alone. Now that we cannot come to church, we may feel like we’re quarantined. Live streaming is the answer! So quarantine? No problem!

Acts 28:30
Here talks about Paul. He dwelled for 2 whole years in his rented house. Before that he had gone all over the place to preach the gospel. But now he was restricted because he was under house arrest. Still he had many things to do! He received all who came to him. He proclaimed the Kingdom of Heaven. He preached all things regarding Jesus with confidence, with no one forbidding him. So we may be alone but we can receive live-streaming, and if we are able to preach the Bible, we can also stream out to other people.

If not for the COVID-19 situation, we in Singapore would never embark on live-streaming.

Paul was on house arrest, but the gospel was not bound.

In conclusion, we read Acts 16:40, 15. v15 is about a lady called Lydia who is mentioned in v40. Paul and his companion Silas went out of prison and entered the house of Lydia because earlier, Lydia constrained them to stay at her house. And who is Lydia? A Jewish woman who had no place to worship. There was no synagogue in the place she lived - Philippi - at that time. v13 says she gathered with some people at the river. The imprisoned Paul was able to baptise somebody, and then went into the house of a newly converted woman who worshipped by the river because there was no place of worship. It describes many of the situations we are facing now.

Paul was imprisoned but he could baptise somebody. This woman who had no place of worship worshipped by the riverside. The gospel reached her and she was baptised. Then she was somebody who welcomed the workers of God to her house.

We see that in whatever circumstances we are in, we have a God that enables us. In the midst of an incapacitating situation, we will be enabled, just like the case of Paul. Just like the case of Lydia.