Christ goes to Church

Matthew 4:23-25 (ESV)
And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. [24] So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. [25] And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
He went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. I think sometimes we forget that Jesus was a Jew. Sometimes we forget that our religion is really that of Judaism. We were in the beginning considered to be a Jewish sect. Perhaps that explains somewhat the hostilities over the years between Jews and Christians, whether it was the Jews persecuting Christians in the early centuries, or the persecution of Jews by not so Christ like Christians in later centuries. No one fights like brothers.
But Jesus began his ministry in Synagogues. Paul would later continue his by attending Synagogues. It was natural to do so. This is a place people gathered to hear the word of God. The people who went had a desire to learn and hear the word of God. And it is kind of peculiar, because synagogue worship is not commanded in the Old Testament. It just isn’t. There is the command to rest on the seventh day. Whatever that means, but I doubt it means near as much as the legalists would like it to mean, that you can’t even play. Play can be quite restful, could even be the point of rest. God created the world in six, on the seventh he rested, that is he enjoyed the fruits of his labor. But synagogue worship wasn’t commanded. Jesus gives sanction to it though. He attended.
This is where the fallacy is that you can be Christian without the church. You can’t. Christians are part of a community, we are members of the body of Christ. That body meets to grow together in Christ and to do his work. One can’t be a Christian on their own, anymore than a hand can survive on its own. But even more peculiar is the claim by many of these that to be Christian is to be like Christ, to try to be like him, to imitate him, and yet they think they can do that without going to church! No skipping church isn’t something Christ does, he didn’t do it in the course of his earthly ministry, and neither does he do it today. Christians who are disciples of Christ want to be with him, want to hear him, learn from him, and so they go to church on Sunday, because they know that that is where he is. He is there with his body, the believers gathered together, with his word read and expounded, and he is there in his sacraments baptizing new believers young and old, and giving us his body and blood in holy communion forgiving us yet again. And that is where Christians want to be, in the presence of Christ.