In his sermon 'The Divine Warrant for Weekly Preaching,' Peter Allison addresses the idea that weekly church attendance and listening to sermons are optional, a view popularized by authors like Frank Viola. Using Acts 15:21, Allison argues for a biblical foundation for weekly preaching, tracing the practice back to Moses and the Levites who preached the Word of God in synagogues across generations. He explains that Moses is often used as a metonymy for the law or the Word of God, asserting that preaching is not a New Testament invention but a practice established by God. The sermon highlights the historical role of the Levites, who were dispersed throughout Israel to teach and preach, ensuring the Word of God was accessible in every city. Allison emphasizes the importance of local worship places, where God's Word is preached and read every Sabbath, and argues that this should be a key consideration in personal decisions like moving or settling down. He concludes by urging the congregation to prioritize family worship and regular engagement with Scripture for spiritual nourishment.

Our scripture reading is from Acts 15. I'd like to go back and look at one verse that we have considered in the light of the greater context, but I thought it was worth taking a closer look at it. And that is Acts 15, verse 21. In verse 21. For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues, every Sabbath." May the Lord give us understanding that we may know His testimonies.

Gracious Father in heaven, please open our hearts to receive your word with meekness. Please instruct us and bring light to us. And please sanctify my lips that from a vessel of clay the riches of your grace might be proclaimed to us. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, the church as a church is under attack today in ways that it hasn't been in the past.

And it might be said that, it might be justly said that there are many reasons for that related to the sins in the church itself. And so I thought it would be helpful for us this morning to look at this one verse and what it has to say about the church and what we do. A number of people today are saying that the church is optional. It's optional. Frank Viola has published a lot of works critical of church as evangelical Christians commonly understand and practice today.

And he wrote in one of his books, and this is an exact quote, The popular notion that the weekly church meeting was for the sake of hearing a sermon is without biblical warrant." End of quote. He's saying the idea that we should come to church every week has no biblical warrant. And many people have similar thoughts. And maybe they aren't that direct about it or clear about it, but they have similar thoughts that church is something that is an option or even something that should be avoided by true Christians who are led by the Spirit. We want to stay away from a church that just preaches the Bible every Lord's Day.

The church needs to be involved in other things, in ministry things. And it's true, we need to be those who are led by the Spirit and involved in ministry, but I wanted to look at this idea. Is there divine warrant that we should listen to a sermon every Sunday? Is there a warrant for this? Well, I want to provide this morning a firm scriptural foundation for the divine warrant.

The scriptural command that the weekly church meeting is for worship that centers on the reading and the preaching of the Word of God. And I want to use this statement by James in the 21st verse as our starting point. We've already looked at the main thrust of this text, this whole text, this chapter. And it wasn't directly to talk about the Divine Warrant for church meetings and for preaching on Sunday. But it is here.

It is a secondary thing that is in this text. And I wanted to just take a moment and look at it. We could summarize this text as the Word of God, James said, has been read and preached in the synagogue in every city each Sabbath day for a very long time." This is an indicative statement of what is. It's an observation. It's an observation that James is making about the length and the history behind the ceremonial law that was being changed.

But this secondary point is still a point. This is an observation that He made. It's not a command to do so. It's simply an indicative statement that this is what's done. But this summary statement of what is happening each week in every city is a very clear summary of what the Scripture does command elsewhere.

And that's exactly what we want to look at this morning. So we'll start with the beginning. Moses. Moses has, throughout many generations, those who preach Him. Now, Moses is mentioned 788 times in the Scriptures, and that's a lot.

The only names that are mentioned more are Jesus and God. And everybody else is a distant fourth. Not even half the times that Moses is mentioned. And one of the reasons that his name is mentioned so frequently is because it stands as a metonymy. A metonymy for the law or the Word of God.

A metonymy is a figure of speech in which one idea or one object takes the place of another object. But they have a close association. Metonymy literally means a change of name. Remember Metamorphosis? It's a changing.

It's a change of name. So for example, Hollywood. We talk about Hollywood to represent the movie industry. We might say Hollywood does this or Hollywood does that. Or we might talk about turf.

This is my turf, that's your turf. We're using it to talk about our expertise or our haunts where we live or work. Or we might talk about the press to refer to newspapers and other media and so forth. Or We might say of somebody that they should keep their nose out of other people's plans. Meaning the nose is referring to their interest in their inquisitiveness or their presence in their plans.

Well, those are all metonymes where one thing is put for another. And Moses here is being used as a metonymy for the law of God. It's not Moses that's being preached. It's Christ that's being preached. Joshua 1-7, and I'll just give you a few examples.

Joshua 1-7 says, Only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you." Moses is the channel is the messenger through whom that law came and so it's called that Moses commanded them or a little later in Joshua 8.32. And there in the presence of the children of Israel, Joshua wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. The law of Moses. Well, no, that's not a man-made law. It's not saying it's a man-made law that Moses originated it.

It's the law of God. But Moses was the messenger that brought it. Or a little earlier, I should say, now Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel in Mount Evol, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the children of Israel as it is written in the book of the Law of Moses." You see how Moses is being used here as a metonymy. Or when he died, David charged Solomon to walk in the ways of the Lord, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his judgments, and his testimonies as it is written, he told Solomon, in the Law of Moses. You see, the law of Moses is used a number of times, ten or twenty times, to refer to the law of God.

One of which is actually just a few verses higher in verse 5. It was necessary to command them to keep the law of Moses, it says there, about circumcision. Well, we know it's not Moses' law, it's God's law, but He's being used for that. And so, When it says here that Moses is preached, it's speaking of the Word of God that's preached. And it's Christ that's being preached because when Jesus explains himself, Paul talks about them preaching Christ from Moses and the prophets.

So to say that Moses is preached is saying that the law of God is being preached and that law spoke of Christ. So Christ is not saying that Christ is not being preached here. It is Christ that is being preached. But Moses is a very common biblical metonymy for the law of God. So Moses has had throughout many generations.

So the law of God, Christ has been preached through many generations. So How long is that? How long has this been going on? Well, many people will say that there is no divine warrant for the synagogue system, That it was just a providential development that happened around the return from captivity in Babylon. But let's look at a few passages.

In Exodus 33, verse 7, It says, Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp. So this is the tabernacle that had the altar and whatnot in it was in the camp. And they were camped around it. This is outside the camp. Moses pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of Meeting.

The Tabernacle of Meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the Tabernacle of Meeting, which was outside the camp. This is where people were going. This is 1500 years before Christ. A thousand years before the captivity almost.

And this is a meeting place that is separate from the temple or the wilderness tabernacle. This is a meeting place for the people who went to seek the Lord. This foreshadowed Christ's crucifixion, which was outside the camp. And this command to go outside the camp is repeated in Hebrews 13. Verse 11, For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned outside the camp.

Therefore, Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach." That's the writer of Hebrews to the New Testament church. For we have here no continuing city, but we seek one to come. We are to go to Christ outside the camp. In Psalm 74, Asaph, who is a contemporary of King David.

So we've gone from 1500 BC to 1000 BC in rough terms. He's a contemporary of David. He ministered during David and Solomon as a Levite, as a leader of music actually, he was one of the three heads of the music. That was a part of the temple, but it was also part of the synagogue worship. In Psalm 74, Asa speaks about all the meeting places being burned to the ground.

It's the same word that's used in Exodus 33. He says In Psalm 74, 8, They said in their hearts, let us destroy them altogether. They have burned up all the meeting places of God in the land. Now this is not talking about the temple meeting place. This is talking about other meeting places.

Because he's already talked earlier in this psalm about the temple being destroyed or burned. This is plural. There's only one temple, but this is plural meeting places and they're throughout all the land. The temple was only in one place and it's only one. This is throughout the land and they're plural.

See, there were meeting places throughout the land and Asaph in David's day is referring to them. Now this psalm is usually understood as referring to Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of the temple in 586 BC. But there may have been other times before that. Just five years after Solomon dies, We read in 1 Kings 14, in Rehoboam's reign, Solomon's son, that Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem. And he took away the treasures of the house of David and the treasures of the king's house.

And he took away everything. He also took away all the gold shields that Solomon had made. So here's something just a few years after Solomon's death that the temple is being ransacked. So I would say when Asaph describes that, yes, it certainly is prophetically speaking of that time, but there may have been times in his day where something like this was happening. So how long has this been happening?

Well, we can go all the way back to Moses in the wilderness to see a tabernacle of meeting set up outside the camp that the people of God went to. We see a reference to it in David's day. That all the tabernacle, all the meeting places have been burned down throughout the land. So it's been going on a long time. Many generations.

It's an ancient practice because it was a practice that God commanded. He instituted it. It says Moses has throughout many generations those who preach Him. Those who preach Him. Those who preached the Law were the Levites.

And we can see this from three different things. First, the Levites were distributed throughout the land. They were specifically dispersed. So all the tribes had an inheritance, and it was a specific plot of land in Israel, in Canaan. But the Levites were not given a land.

They didn't have an inheritance because the Lord was their inheritance. But they were given 48 cities. And those cities were scattered, dispersed throughout all the different tribes. Joshua 14, 4, For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, and they gave no part to the Levites in the land except to cities to dwell in with their common lands for their livestock and property." That's two tribes there that are mentioned. In 1 Chronicles 13-2, David says, to all the assembly of Israel, if it seems good to you, and if it is of the Lord our God, let us send out to our brethren everywhere who are left in all the land of Israel and with them to the priests and Levites who are in their cities and their common lands that they might gather to us." See, David is talking about these Levites here that are scattered throughout the land, the priests and the Levites, that are in their cities and their common lands to come to Jerusalem.

You see, these priests, these Levites, were distributed, and their purpose in being distributed was to teach the people and to lead worship. And we see that. So that's the second point here. The Levites are the ones who are doing this preaching. We see that.

Why? Because they're spread throughout the whole land. These cities are distributed everywhere. In fact, one person said, I haven't verified this myself, but one person said that there was no place that was farther than 10 miles from one of these Levites. So in Deuteronomy 27, 14, it gives an example of Levites leading in worship.

And that's where they are doing the antiphonal cursing and blessing. The Levites shall speak with a loud voice and say to all the men of Israel, cursed is the one who makes a carved or molded image and abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman and sets it up in secret, and all the people shall answer and say, Amen." So the Levites are leading worship. They're leading this. And the Levites also taught the people. Deuteronomy 24, verse 8, "'Take heed in an outbreak of leprosy that you carefully observe and do according to all that the priests and the Levites shall teach you.

Just as I commanded you, so you shall be careful to do. All the way back in Moses' day, the Levites were charged with teaching the law of God to His people. Move forward to Jehoshaphat's day in 2 Chronicles 17. In the third year of his reign, it says Jehoshaphat sent leaders and it lists all the leaders that he sent. Ben-Hael, Abedaiah, Zechariah, Nathanael, Micaiah, to teach in the cities of Judah, and with them he sent Levites.

Remember, and it names all the Levites that he sent. And so they taught in Judah, and they had the book of the law of the Lord with them, and they went throughout all the cities of Judah and taught the people. Now, Jehoshaphat, remember, is somebody who was careful, concerned about the law of God. He was a good king, but there was wickedness in his land. He had Ahab just to the north of him who was bringing in Baal worship and idolatry.

In fact, he even had children intermarrying with that family. So there is a need for reform. And so he's sending out these additional Levites who are going to all the cities and teaching the people. And in Hezekiah then, a little later, Hezekiah gave encouragement, 2 Chronicles 30, gave encouragement to all the Levites who taught the good knowledge of the Lord. Hezekiah is encouraging these people whose charge, whose job it is to teach the Word of God.

2 Chronicles 30-22. And they ate throughout the feast seven days offering peace offerings and making confession to the Lord God of their fathers. Or even Josiah to go to the next king. And Josiah was somebody who brought great reforms to Israel. And it says of him that there was no celebration of the Passover like that since I think since they came out of Egypt, if I remember correctly.

Anyways, it was a long time. There had never been a Passover celebration like in the days of Josiah. And so it says in 2 Chronicles 35, then He said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to the Lord. The Levites, that was their job. That's why they were dispersed throughout all these cities.

And then in Nehemiah, after the captivity, Nehemiah who was governor, Ezra the priest and the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people. There we have it again. The Levites' responsibility was to teach. Nehemiah 8 and 9. He said to the people, the day is holy to the Lord your God.

Do not mourn or weep for all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. But the key there is, Again, we have from Moses to David to Jehoshaphat to Josiah to after the captivity, it's the Levites that are the teachers of God's people. And this is also described in the Psalms. That those who preach Him. In Psalm 49, It says, I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness in the great assembly.

I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness in the great assembly. I do not restrain my lips, O Lord, you, yourself, none. Now that is the word for preach. And we know that because there's a couple places in the Bible where the New Testament quotes Old Testament passages. And so we can see, Okay, what word in the Old Testament are they translating as preach in the New Testament?

We can do that. In Romans 10-15 is one example. Paul quotes Isaiah 57 verse 2 in Romans 10-15. And Romans 10-15 is a very familiar passage. How shall they preach unless they are sent as it is written?

And here's very quotes from Isaiah. How beautiful are those who preach the gospel of peace who bring glad tidings of good things." How beautiful. How shall they preach? He says, unless they are sent. That word, preach, There is the special word that's used in the New Testament to refer to the proclamation of the Gospel by God's messengers, as opposed to the general, what we call, gossiping of the Gospel, the evangelizing that everybody does, or should be doing.

You see, where he's quoting from, Isaiah 52 says, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good news. There's the preaching. That's what Paul is saying. That's preaching. Who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings.

There is it again. That's the word for preaching in the Hebrew. Of good things. Who proclaims salvation. Who says to Zion, your God reigns.

He's preaching Christ. Christ is reigning. And Jesus also quotes the Old Testament in Luke 418. Remember, He walked into the synagogue. And He quotes from Isaiah.

He says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor to proclaim liberty. That word proclaim is the word for preach. And so we can go to Isaiah 61 and we can see that it's the same word there that's Preach. To preach good tidings. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me, Isaiah says, to preach good tidings to the poor.

So, see, in the Old Testament, there is preaching. It's not a New Testament invention. And so what James is saying here is that the law of God for many generations, as we've seen going all the way back to the days of Moses in the wilderness, has had those who preach, the Levites, the Gospel. They preach the Word of God. Now they didn't have the Gospel with the clarity and the fullness and the richness that we have it today, certainly.

But preaching is not a New Testament invention. When Jesus comes and He says He is doing what was spoken of in the Old Testament. Now it says, in every city. Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city. And we talked about the cities that were given to the Levites that are scattered throughout the land.

It says the children of Israel, Well, I'm going to read all of Joshua 21. You remember the Levites, after the conquest was done, they came to Joshua at Shiloh and they reminded him of what the Lord had told Moses, or Joshua, or they told Moses, but they reminded Joshua. And he said, The Lord commanded through Moses to give us cities to dwell in with their common lands for our livestock. And so the children of Israel gave to the Levites from their inheritance at the command of the Lord these cities and the common lands. Now, initially as I said, there were 48 of these cities that were distributed.

And they were all over. So you were never very far. And I would imagine, tribal lands could not be sold permanently. They would revert back in the year of Jubilee to the original inheritance, to the original heir, whatever tribe they were from, whatever family, the land would revert in the year of Jubilee. But the cities were different.

In a city, you could permanently sell a place. And so, I would imagine that as more cities are established, remember this is a progressive thing. They came in, God said He didn't drive all of them out so that wild animals wouldn't overrun the land. So there were Canaanites that were still there. They were to drive them out as they grew.

And they didn't always do that very well. But I would imagine that as Israel grew and as more cities were established, that Levites could have purchased homes in those cities as well. They would have needed common lands and so forth. The Levites were the places where the tithes were brought in. They came to the Levites.

And the Levites then gave the tithes to the priests. So wherever people were, there would have been Levites there. See, it is by the command of the Lord that these Levites are distributed throughout. And I think we already looked at some of this, but in 2 Chronicles 17 in the third year, Jehoshaphat sends out these Levites and they went throughout all the cities of Judah and taught the people. So what James is saying is he's just summarizing everything in the Old Testament that was commanded already.

Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach Him in every city, being read." Being read. Moses is read. The law is read. So it's the preaching of the Word and the reading of the Word. And We see this in the New Testament.

Luke 4 says, When Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read, as His custom was. Jesus grew up for 30 years going to the synagogue every week and hearing the word preached. That was His custom. And when Paul went on his missionary journeys, he would go to the synagogue. And We read in chapter 13, and we've looked at this fairly recently, they came to Perga, and they went to Antioch, and they went to Pisidia, and they went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down, and it says, And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue, sent to them saying, Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation in the people, say on." And then Paul stood up and motioning with his hand, he said, Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen.

And he began to preach a sermon. And a little later in his sermon, he said this, Men and brethren, sons of Abraham, you who fear God, to you this word of salvation has been sent. For those who dwell in Jerusalem and their rulers because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day." They fulfilled those very prophecies in condemning Christ. Paul is saying they are reading the law and the prophets every Sabbath day in the synagogue. And in Deuteronomy 31, The law was to be read.

During Deuteronomy 31.9, Moses wrote the law and delivered it to the priests who bore the ark and And they were to read it Before all Israel in their hearing every seven years So that they would learn it So it was being read every week in the Sabbath and it was to be read in its entirety before all Israel every seven years. Now it says the law is read in the synagogues. Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city being read in the synagogues. Well, the synagogue is a Greek word for church. And the church is the people of God.

It's not a building. It's the people of God assembled together. And so to preach in the synagogue means to preach to God's people as they are assembled for worship wherever that might be. It might be in a building, but it might be outside in a meadow. And we find this reference to God's people being assembled for worship throughout the Scriptures.

Psalm 111, 1, Praise the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright. There's a synagogue. The assembly of the upright. That's the church.

In the assembly of the upright and in the congregation, I will praise the Lord. Psalm 35, I will give you thanks in the great assembly. I will proclaim you among many people. There is the synagogue in the great assembly. God's people gathered together for worship.

And then in Psalm 40 verse 9, we have this statement, I have proclaimed the good news. And you remember what that means. That means preach. That's the word for preach. Proclaim the good news.

That's the word that in the New Testament is translated preach by Jesus and by Paul. I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness. In other words, Christ is being preached in the great assembly. Psalm 49, I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness in the great assembly. Indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O Lord, you, yourself, no." So there's the Word of God being preached, Christ being preached in the synagogue by David proclaiming that as a prophet.

And then James lastly says, This is done every Sabbath. Every Sabbath. And this too is by God's command. Leviticus 23, 3. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation, you shall do no work on it.

It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings." Every Sabbath was what? To be a convocation. To be an assembly. To be a synagogue. To be God's people gathered together.

Every Sabbath is a day of solemn rest, a holy convocation. We're not here because it's a nice thing to do, because we like to talk to each other, because we like to be entertained. We're here because God commanded. That every Sabbath there be a holy gathering of His people and that His Word be preached and His Law read because we need that. See, this could not have been in Jerusalem.

Most people couldn't get to Jerusalem and back every week. For some people, Jerusalem was three or four days' journey away. How can they obey God's command that there be a holy convocation if it isn't in the synagogues that were spread throughout the land that wherein the Levites were preaching? Every Sabbath. 2 Kings 4 tells an account of a notable woman of Shunem.

You remember, she was a notable woman and Elisha was passing by and she would often feed him a meal. And then one day she said to her husband, look, this guy comes by all the time. How about we make a room for him to stay when he comes by? And her husband apparently was agreeable to that because they built a room, and Elisha stayed with them whenever he was in the area. And then Elisha thought one day, what can I do to bless this woman who's been such a great blessing to me?

And he said, well, can I give you a good word to the king? And she says, no, I live among my people. And so Elisha doesn't know what to do for her. He asks his servant, what can I do for this woman? And the servant, Gehazi, said, well, she doesn't have any children.

So Elisha calls this woman to him and says, next year you'll have a child. And she says, don't tease me. But next year she had a child. And when that child was a young lad, he went out with his father into the field and he got sick and he was sent back home. And on his mother's arms he died.

And she called for her husband again. And she said, please send me one of the young men and the donkeys in him. I run to the man of God and come back. And her husband is like, why do you want to go to him today? And this is what he says.

It's not the new moon, And it's not the Sabbath. You see, he was expecting that she would go on the Sabbath, or a new moon, the beginning of the month. But he couldn't figure out why she would want to go on a day that wasn't the Sabbath. You see, there's built right into this story the assumption that the expectation this man had that his wife would be going to hear the preaching on the Sabbath. But why would she want to go to Elisha on someday that wasn't the Sabbath.

I think this is very significant that in setting up life in the promised land. The Lord by His command established local places of worship. God made specific provision that His people as they were scattered throughout the land would have in their own city, in their own neighborhood, a synagogue where His Word was preached and His Law was read. You see, that ought to be a primary consideration when we move. When we physically move.

Are we going to be able to have the weekly preaching and reading of the Word of God? Are we going to be able weekly to gather with God's people? Is there a church that we can meet in within driving distance every week? God made provision for His people. When He moved them from Egypt into Canaan, he made specific provision for them to have preaching of the Word every week.

And we really ought to do the same. It should be one of the first things that we consider when we're contemplating a move. Is there a church there? And when we're selecting a house to buy, it should be something that we think about. Here's my commute to work, and how far to church?

But also, if the Lord made this provision for His people to have that weekly worship, we should also remember this for family worship and make specific provision in our schedules, in our days, that we gather as families to hear the reading of God's Word. Because we need that. We live by every word that proceeds from His mouth. We eat food every day. In fact, most of us eat it more than once a day.

But we need to be eating, feeding on the Word of God. Our spiritual well-being depends on it. May God give us grace and bless us so that we are able each week to hear the preaching and the reading of His Word and in our homes to hear the reading of His Word. Almighty Father in Heaven, we thank You that You have loved us so much that you have made great provision for us to hear your Word and setting aside an entire tribe, not giving them an inheritance in the land so that they could be scattered as a tribe throughout the land to be your preachers, the readers of your word. Lord, may we have likewise a high regard and prize greatly being able to read your word and being able to hear your word as it is preached and read to us.

We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.