Why Live Streaming Cannot Replace In-Person Worship

With many churches still not gathering due to COVID-19, some people I know are sharing that even after the coronavirus is no longer an issue, they want to stay home and live stream church services from now on.

How should the church respond? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. This is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

And you can post your question on our Facebook or Instagram accounts and email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, a British zoo is having a little issue with five parrots who spent time together during a coronavirus quarantine. It seems the birds spent their time together teaching each other to shout profanities. The Lincolnshire Wildlife Park says the five African gray parrots named Eric, Jade, Elsie, Tyson, and Billy were given to the facility by different owners in the same week, so the birds were put into quarantine together before going on display. Well, zoo officials say the time alone gave the parrots time to teach one another their favorite swear words. The birds were put on public display, but they were soon removed when zookeepers discovered them cussing at each other and at the zoo patrons. There's got to be a bad apple among those birds or their owners, I guess, you know, that's pretty wild. Can you imagine you're taking your little kids to the zoo and look mama there's the parrots and the bird cusses at the kid. Oh my Lord, that would be embarrassing.

Yeah, that would be embarrassing. Well, I'm glad that they quarantined the birds again and kept them away from them. What we need is spiritual regeneration. That is the answer for these particular birds. Yeah, so what we're really saying is pray for the parrots. That's right. Well, let's get to our first question of the day.

This was posted on our website from Gerald. He says, when someone becomes a Christian, at what point should they be baptized immediately after conversion or should it be a long process? I was talking with someone who says the biblical model for baptism is immediately after someone professes faith in Jesus, because if you profess faith and wait a few weeks to be baptized, who knows what could happen to you for various reasons, you might not make it to your baptism.

What do you think? Well, it does seem like in the Book of Acts individuals would be baptized pretty quickly after professing faith in Jesus Christ. Of course, in those days and with the persecution that the church was experiencing, choosing to be baptized was a very significant step.

Identifying with Jesus in baptism, the Jesus who had just been crucified, that was something that you wouldn't take lightly. Shortly after this time, what's kind of interesting is that during the days of the early church, Christians began to take a different approach. When people would convert to Christ and seek to be a part of the church, they'd enter into a long process of discipleship.

You think of it like a new members class, for example, this class would usually take about a year. So after being discipled, really in the core teachings of the Christian faith, you know, sometimes it would be the creed or the Lord's Prayer talking about those things, then they'd be baptized, usually around the celebration of Easter. And I think that's actually kind of an interesting point, too, to think about the Christians being baptized during Easter. And the idea there was baptism was all about joining Christ in his death and resurrection. Now, personally, I think for converts of Jesus, it's very important that we try to ground them in the truth prior to just dunking them. I've seen people sign up to get baptized who had no idea what baptism or the Christian faith was all about.

Really, what they were looking for was an experience. And churches too often are happy to give people the quote unquote baptism experience, because it looks good to be able to say we baptized 12 people or 120 people this year. Baptism is about discipleship. Jesus said, Go into all the world and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you. So the question that I have is, are we making disciples?

Are we grounding people in the truth of who Jesus is and what the scriptures teach? Now, if somebody believes in Jesus and they've not been baptized, they need to be baptized and really immersed into the life of the church. Now, we often think of baptism as an individual thing. It's my time to tell people about my faith.

But it isn't all about you. It's about Jesus and his bride. In baptism, God speaks to us of the washing away of all of our sins by faith in Jesus, and God extends his promise to his people. And like Paul said, for in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.

That's First Corinthians chapter 12, verse 13. So whether we wait a week or a year before we baptize an adult, my question is, do they know and embrace the gospel? And do they understand that this isn't about them, but about their union with Jesus and his body? And by the way, I think that there are examples in history of people also waiting too long. You know, at one point in the ancient church, there was this period where people were waiting to the very end of their lives to be baptized.

So right when they were on their deathbed. And the idea there was they had embraced this idea that baptism in and of itself washes away all of your sins. And so they thought, well, boy, rather than getting baptized early, having my sins dealt with and then living a sinful life afterwards. Why don't I wait till the very end, sort of, you know, get all my my sins finished, and then I'll be on my deathbed and then then I'll be baptized and I'll be good to go. Well, confusion about what baptism actually is and does.

There are a lot of errors here. I think sometimes we can be too quick, just sort of baptize someone even though they don't understand what's going on. And we do it, you know, because we want to show that we're performing baptisms as a church. And then I think there are other instances where people can wait too long, maybe because they're thinking that, you know, like in the ancient church, I need to wait till I'm very close to my death. Or maybe because they just feel like I'm not worthy to be baptized and I'm going to wait until I feel like I've grown in my faith enough to merit this ritual, this baptism.

Well, both of those views are wrong. I think we have to understand the gospel, what's happening. And then when that's the case, we're baptized into the local church.

And so there's flexibility here. But hopefully that gives you a little bit of insight as to why different people have done different things throughout history, Gerald. You know, if I had to wait till I was holy enough to be baptized, I don't think I would have ever been.

Yeah, me either. It's funny when you think about it, you know, people waiting till they're on their deathbed. The reality is, though, man, I feel like even when I'm there, you know, we sin against the Lord in thought, word and deed. You can tie us up, you know, on a bed or you can go off into the mountains and hide away in a cave. The fact of the matter is sin will follow us because it's inside. Like Jesus said, it's not what comes into us that defiles us. It's what comes out of us, out of our hearts. And so we can't run away from it.

We can only run to Jesus and he forgives us. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question for us, you can call us at 1-833-843-2673.

That's 833-THE-CORE. Hello, my name is Darlene from Sacramento, California, and I have a question for you, Adriel and Bill. I have a housemaid that embraces the Catholics.

Can you address this for me and tell me what books I can order from you all to have her read? Okay, thank you very much and I love you both and you're doing a fantastic job and I'm praying for you. Thank you. Bye bye. Hey Darlene, thank you for your sweet encouragement there.

We send you our love as well. And I really appreciate the prayers and I think that's so wonderful that you want to talk to this person about Jesus. I mean, I was brought up nominally Roman Catholic, so we would go to mass every once in a while. It wasn't an every week thing for us, but I spent a little bit of time in the Catholic Church and I still have a lot of family members who would identify as Roman Catholic. And of course, you know, Catholics, they hold to a lot of the core teachings of the Christian faith in terms of the doctrine of God, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the incarnation, Jesus being the God, man, the eternal word of the Father, assuming humanity. Those are things that they get right on, but there are some significant differences between how Protestant Christians and Roman Catholics view the Bible and the church. Now, usually when I'm talking to friends who they're engaging with their Roman Catholic friends and they're looking for resources, I always say, well, it depends on who you're speaking with. There are a lot of Catholics who they aren't converts to Catholicism, they are cradle Catholics, you know, meaning they were raised in the Roman Catholic Church.

If that describes this friend of yours, I'd say focus on something a little bit less argumentative, polemical, that simply introduces them to who Jesus is and the core doctrines of the faith. You know, I found that this is the case, and even for me, it was the case, you know, spending time in the Roman Catholic Church, I really didn't understand the gospel. It sounds terrible, but I just I didn't know the basics of the Christian faith. And I think there are a lot of people who are raised in the Roman Catholic Church who have been there for years and years and years. But if you ask them, you know, what is the gospel? They have a really difficult time answering that. Look, I'm not just trying to pick on Roman Catholics, the fact of the matter is in a lot of our churches, Baptist churches, Presbyterian churches, if you sit down with someone you say, give me a clear articulation of the gospel, we have a hard time.

So I think we need to focus on that. And so, Darlene, you know, one book that we often will share on this program is by Michael Horton, Core Christianity, which is going to be a real helpful, basic introduction to who Jesus is and some of the core doctrines that that Christians embrace and that even your friend who's a Roman Catholic should be able to embrace. Another book that might be helpful in terms of just understanding what the gospel is a little book by Timothy Keller called The Prodigal God.

You know, there are some Catholic converts, for example, who maybe had been evangelical Christians for a while, and then they began to be attracted by the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, and they joined the Catholic Church. And I think if you're talking to someone like that, then maybe a resource that's going to be a little bit more dense, focusing on the differences between Roman Catholicism and Protestant evangelical theology, two big differences are going to be the doctrine of justification. And justification is a word that the Apostle Paul uses throughout the New Testament in his letters, but you also have it in other places. And it's the idea that God accepts us as righteous in his sight, not because of anything we've done, but solely because of the righteousness of Christ that is given to us credit to us and received by faith alone. It's God having forgiven all of our sins and counting us right in his sight. And so the Catholic Church teaches something differently about the doctrine of justification.

And so, you know, that's one area where you might want to explore. And actually, my friend Michael Horton, who is on this program with me with a host with me for quite some time, he actually just released an amazing two volume set on the doctrine of justification. The first volume is all about the history of the doctrine and the second volume really gets into the sort of nitty gritty biblical arguments and why this is just such an important doctrine to understand another set of resources that might be helpful. And again, this is going to be more for people who are already familiar with some of the theology. There was a set that was published by I think it was Zondervan publishing. It's called the five sola series where they unpack the five solas of the Reformation, you know, grace alone, faith alone.

Our authority is the scripture alone, our ultimate authority that is Christ alone and God's glory alone. They have five different books talking about each of those sort of reformational principles. And that might be another helpful resource. So check out those resources, Darlene. And I hope that the Lord blesses you and your in your friendship and your conversations with this person.

Darlene, thanks so much for your call. We appreciate you being a regular listener here at Core Christianity. By the way, we just received some exciting news. You probably know that Core Christianity has a social media presence and we found out that we have surpassed 10,000 followers on our Instagram account, which actually changes the way Instagram works and allows us to offer you something even better.

Yeah, I mean, this is pretty exciting, Bill. I mean, it's just another way in which we're trying to get the word out. So we want to use things like podcasts, social media to help people understand the core truths of the Christian faith.

And now on Instagram, we have the ability to do what's called swipe ups. So you go to Core Christianity's Instagram account, click on our stories and you'll see the day shows and other great articles that we produce. And you can see it all directly on our Instagram.

So check out our Instagram account and follow us if you don't follow us to get some great resources through that avenue as well. We'd also like to invite you to consider joining our inner core, being part of that group of people that supports this ministry on a regular basis and helps us continue in our work in spreading the gospel and empowering Christians to share their faith more effectively. Yeah, for a monthly donation of $25 or more, you can be a part of that team. And again, we are a listener supported program. And if you've been blessed by the answers to the questions you hear on this program, would you prayerfully consider joining the inner core?

As I said, it's $25 a month. And we also make sure to send you throughout the year some neat updates about the ministry. So I do want to invite you to partner with us by going to corechristianity.com slash inner core, or give us a call to learn more.

The number is 833-843-2673. We'd love to have you be part of that inner core team that makes this ministry possible. Let's get to another question. This is from Jeff who posted on our Facebook page. He says, recently people have shared with me they're not going to come back to in person services at our church, even after COVID restrictions are lifted, because they enjoy live streaming more than going to the service.

How can I encourage them to come back? Yeah, you know, Jeff, these really have been strange times we've been living in difficult times. I know, I know for myself as a pastor, I never would have imagined that the primary way I would be getting the word out for a season would be through, you know, online messages that we'd be giving, especially early on, when everything was first sort of picking up with the Coronavirus. Most churches, that's, that's all they were doing.

Now, we've been having an outdoor service. And it's been wonderful to be gathered again with the people of God. But there are still, quite a few members of my own church who are just streaming online, partially because they're immunocompromised or afraid of the Coronavirus. So we've tried to be sensitive to them in that. But, you know, let's look into the future and thinking about, you know, in the next year, hopefully, Lord willing, as things begin to settle down, and maybe there's a vaccine. What do you say to people who, you know, they kind of like being at home on Sunday morning and drinking their coffee and just watching everything on a on a computer screen or on their laptop?

How do you convince them to come back? And I really think that they ought to come back because there is something that is missing when we just do quote, unquote, church online. In fact, personally, and I know that this might be a little bit controversial, but please feel free to call us and, and dig in a little bit deeper on this question. I don't think that internet church is church. Now, that doesn't mean that we can't benefit from hearing the preached word, you know, over a computer or that kind of a thing. But the gathered assembly when the church comes together around God's word to receive the gifts that God gives to us, baptism, the Lord's Supper, these things that Jesus himself instituted that we can't receive through a computer screen or on a television.

Now, that's what makes the church gathering the church gathering. And when you think about how the scriptures talk about that gathering, and this is, Jeff, this is how I would encourage people who still were unsure about coming. You just think about the wonder, the beauty, the glory that the scripture talks about when it talks about our coming together as the people of God, even in the prophets. The Prophet Micah, for example, he saw a day when all the nations would be flocking to the Lord gathering around Mount Zion. Micah chapter four says, It shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills, and peoples shall flow to it. And many nations shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths and get this, or out of Zion shall go.

Go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Now, try to picture that with me, this image that the Prophet Micah is giving to us. He's saying, Look, in worship, there's coming a day in the latter days, when the nations of the world are going to flock to the highest mountain to Mount Zion, where God lives, where God resides in the Old Testament throughout the Psalms. That's what Zion was. It was the house of the Lord. It was God's address where God dwells. And the prophet is forcing a day when the nations, the people of the world are all flocking to God's dwelling place. Well, guess what? That's right now.

That's what's taking place right now. If you don't believe me, turn to the book of Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12, in verse 18, is talking about Christian worship, what happens when we gather together as God's people. Get this, the author of the Hebrews said, You have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.

For they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear. He's talking about the giving of the law at Mount Sinai, this terrifying event, right, that the people were trembling. He says, that's not where you've gone, or where we're coming when we gather together for worship. We're not going back to Sinai to receive the law, if you will. He says this, verse 22, You have come to Mount Zion. Think about, again, that passage I just read from Micah in Micah chapter four, you, followers of Jesus, right now, believers who are gathering together for worship, you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Get this, brothers and sisters, when we gather together for worship, do you know where we're going? You're not going to, you know, First Baptist Church of wherever it is you live, or, you know, the Bible Church of this, you know, here's what the author of the Hebrew says, when we gather together for worship as God's people, receiving God's gifts, where we're going is Mount Zion. The nations are flocking. And so what I would say, Jeff, to this person, you know, the people who say, Oh, man, I just want to stick, you know, to doing the live streaming thing.

I don't really want to go to the service. I say, No, no, no, you know what we're missing out on. We're gathering together with the people of God. And you just think about in the Bible, the sort of theology that the scripture gives to us, God himself took on flesh, Jesus, the eternal Son of God assumed humanity so that he might come and redeem us to be in our presence to know us and so that we might know him and know God through him. The Christian faith is is an incarnate faith, if you will, we're not disconnected. And so I think there's something about us as God's people as the body of Christ, gathering together, being in one another's presence to receive these gifts that God has given to us, that if we're just sort of live streaming a service or watching preaching online, we don't get that. We need to gather together and we need to be known. We need that kind of fellowship with other believers where they know us and can encourage us and frankly, hold us accountable.

I know that that's another sort of controversial thing. You know, we all like to be on our own and we don't want anyone to question us or to challenge us. But one of the beautiful things about the body of Christ is we should provide for each other the kind of fellowship that that helps us to grow in our walk with the Lord in holiness, the author to the Hebrews again earlier in Hebrews chapter three said we should encourage each other day by day while it is called today, lest we're hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And then also in Hebrews chapter 10, speaking I think directly to your question, the author of the Hebrews said, verse 24, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near brothers and sisters. We need fellowship. We need to gather together as God's people and not only do we need it, but we're privileged to participate in it, to go up to Mount Zion together to receive God's gifts.

It's not about, you know, something we're doing primarily. It's about something that we're receiving. God is inviting us to receive his gifts. What are his gifts? The gospel, the shed blood of Jesus Christ for us, for our encouragement, for our nourishment. We need that. And so I want to encourage people positively by saying, look, when we can gather together, we should gather together.

And when you realize those great gifts that we're getting, it's not a question of, you know, maybe I just want to fit this one out. It's boy, I can't wait to be there with God's people to receive the good gifts that God has for me. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone number, if you'd like to connect with us, you can call us 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at CoreChristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this podcast and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.