The Special Character of the Church of God as the Place of His Special Presence—Matthew 18:20
Matthew 18:15-20 is one of the first two passages in the New Testament where the term church is used, and it contains the first explicit mention of the local church in the New Testament. It culminates in the great promise of v. 20. Very obviously this is a promise of the special presence of Christ. Please notice three things about this promise.
Its Specified Limitation
The promise of v. 20 comes attached to a very plain condition or limitation, “For where two or three have gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst.” The stated limitation found in these words is the assembling of the local church, the formal or public gathering of the people of God. Upon what grounds do I assert that these words specify the assembling of the local church? Let me set three grounds for this assertion before you.
The first is the context assumed in v. 20a. The passage from verse 17 on deals with the local church. The “two or three” mentioned in v. 20, then, is simply a graphic way of emphasizing that even the smallest conceivable local church possesses this great promise of Christ.
The second is the verb used in v. 20a. The words, “have gathered together,” are a translation of the verbal root of from which both in English and in Greek the word, synagogue, is derived. The Christian church is, in fact, called a synagogue in James 2:2 where the same verbal root is used: “For if a man comes into your assembly (or synagogue)…”
The third ground upon which I assert that the words of v. 20a designate the formal gathering of the local church is the qualification given in v. 20a. I am referring to the words, “in my name.” Matthew 10:41 provides a parallel use of this phrase. To receive a prophet in the name of a prophet means to receive him in his official character as a prophet, to receive because he is a prophet. It is, therefore, not any gathering of men, or even any gathering of Christians which forms the specified condition of this promise, but the gathering in Christ’s name. This phrase has reference to the gathering of Christ’s people in their official character as His church and under His authority. It designates the gathering in view as one which is officially and formally and intentionally a gathering of Christ’s people under his authority. One commentator has clearly seen the significance of this phrase when he says that gathering in Christ’s name “is a synonym for the new society. The ecclesia is a body of men gathered together by a common relation to the name of Christ: a Christian synagogue.”1
Let me illustrate the significance of this phrase. A number of years ago I worked in large warehouse with a number of other Christians. The warehouse was owned and operated by Amway Corporation. At lunch we would eat together. We often opened lunch with prayer and spent the whole time discussing biblical issues. There were more than two or three of us. That lunch gathering was, however, not a gathering in Christ’s name in the meaning of this text. It was a gathering of Christians, true enough, but it was a gathering of Christians in the name of Amway Corporation and because of hunger, not in the name of Christ. We were gathered as Amway employees and not as Christ’s official people. We could not by any biblical right claim the promise of Matthew 18:20. The specified limitation of this promise is the assembling of the local church officially in Christ’s name, because they are a church, and in their character as a church. That, and that alone, is the condition which must be met for the claiming of this promise.
Its Clear Implication
The plain implication of this promise is that the Lord Jesus Christ in His identity as the eternal Son of God is promising the special presence of God to the church. This is the implication of the promise itself. Who but God Himself could keep such a promise as this? Who but God could say, Wherever across the broad globe my disciples should gather till the end of the age, there I will be present.
This is the implication of the allusion to Old Testament types and promises. We remember passages like Psalm 46:4, 5: “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy dwelling places of the Most High. God is in the midst of her…” Or we remember Isaiah 12:6: “Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” Or we think of Jeremiah 14:9: “Yet thou art in our midst, O Lord, and we are called by Thy name; Do not forsake us!” Or Hosea 11:9: “I will not execute My fierce anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, And I will not come in wrath.” Or Zephaniah 3:5: “The Lord is righteous within her; He will do no injustice. Every morning He brings His justice to light; He does not fail…” Or Zechariah 2:10: “Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord.” When Christ gives the promise contained in Matthew 18:20, there is a clear allusion to such Old Testament types and prophecies.
But we know that this is a promise of the special presence of God with His people from the identity of the one speaking (John 1:1, 14). Two things are affirmed in John 1:1 and 14. First, they affirm that Jesus is God. Second, they affirm that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament types and shadows. When we read of the Word tabernacling (literally) among us, we are informed that in Jesus we have the new and greater tabernacle and the new and greater temple by means of which God dwells among His people.
Jesus in Matthew 18:20 promises in His own presence the presence of God with His church. Now let me enunciate the clear significance of this. Even though God is everywhere present in the world and in human society, yet this promise must mean that He is present in a special way with His church. The gathered church is a holy place. It is the special possession of God with a peculiar relation to God. Of all the high and solemn and ennobling realities that surround gospel worship, the greatest and, therefore, the controlling reality is that God is present in His holiness and grace.
This brings us to my third point about the promise of Matthew 18:20…
Its Scriptural Consequences
If Christ is specially present in the midst of every gathered local church, the necessary, scriptural consequence of this is that he must be worshipped in the local church so gathered. Thus, in the promise of His presence, there is the divine institution of New Covenant worship. This promise contains the divine institution of New Covenant public worship for three reasons. By means of these three reasons we will also grasp something of the scriptural depth and richness of this promise.
First, where God manifests Himself in a special way to His people, there He must be worshiped. Genesis 12:7 records, “And the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to Him.” Joshua 5:13-15 records the appearance of the captain of the Lord’s host to Joshua. In response we read, “And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, ‘What has my lord to say to his servant?’ And the captain of the Lord’s host said to Joshua, ‘Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.’ And Joshua did so.” In many passages (Exod. 25:8, 9, 21, 22; 29:42, 43; 30:6, 36; 40:34-38; Lev. 16:2; Num. 17:4) the Tabernacle is described by God as the place “where I meet with you.” Obviously, however, the tabernacle was for that very reason the place of formal worship. Part and parcel of the dedication of Solomon’s temple as a place of worship in 1 Kings 8 is the account of how “the cloud filled the house of the Lord” and “the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord” (vv. 10, 11).
The same principle may be illustrated from the New Testament. You remember when in Luke 5:1-11 the Lord Jesus manifested His glory to Peter in the great catch of fish that Peter’s response was to worship. Verse 8 records, “…when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” You remember the vision of the ascended Lord given to John the Apostle in Rev. 1:10-18:
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, saying, “Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”
Here Jesus is seen in His glory walking in high priestly attire in the midst seven golden lampstands (vv. 12, 13). These lampstands are the seven local churches who have sent their messengers to the Apostle. This imagery assures each local church of the presence of the risen Christ in their midst. The point which must not be missed is, however, that the whole scene of this vision is one derived from the imagery of the Old Testament temple worship. Jesus is garbed as a high priest; his churches are pictured as lampstands; and so the setting is clearly the setting of worship.
The second reason why this promise contains the divine institution of New Covenant worship is that where God causes His name to be remembered, there is a place of worship (Exod. 20:24-26; Deut. 12:5-8; 16:5, 6; 26:2, 10; 1 Kings 8:16-20, 29; Mal. 1:6-14 with 1 Tim. 2:8).
Exodus 20:24 in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.
Deuteronomy 12:5 But you shall seek the LORD at the place which the LORD your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come.
The third reason why we know that this promise constitutes the divine institution of New Covenant worship is that the presence of Christ constitutes the church a Temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Pet. 2:5; 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Cor. 14:25).
It is often said that in the New Covenant God no longer has a literal temple, a geographical place where He has put His name and commanded that He should be worshipped. This is, of course, true in a very important sense, but this must never be thought to mean that there is no special place where God is present , that there is no special place where God has put His name, or that all formal or public worship of God has been abolished. There is still a spiritual place and a spiritual temple where God has put His name. Wherever two or three are gathered together in Christ’s name, there is a place of worship, there is a temple of God, there is the spiritual place where God is to be worshipped!
We must not miss the practical impact of this reality. If God is present in the church, then what Jacob said may be applied to the church: Genesis 28:16-17 records: “Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.’ He was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’” Assemblies of the church must never be viewed in a common or profane way. The promised presence of God teaches us the sanctity of the formal gatherings of the church. The assemblies of the church are holy. They are set apart from or different than the assemblies or gatherings of every other society whatsoever. They must, therefore, be viewed differently. Furthermore, our conduct in them must be regulated differently. If the ground upon which we stand in the assemblies of the church is holy ground, then we must take off our shoes.
1 EGT, p. 241.
Dr. Sam Waldron is the Academic Dean of CBTS and professor of Systematic Theology. He is also one of the pastors of Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Owensboro, KY. Dr. Waldron received a B.A. from Cornerstone University, an M.Div. from Trinity Ministerial Academy, a Th.M. from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. From 1977 to 2001 he was a pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church of Grand Rapids, MI. Dr. Waldron is the author of numerous books including A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, The End Times Made Simple, Baptist Roots in America, To Be Continued?, and MacArthur’s Millennial Manifesto: A Friendly Response.
