October 2026 - where two or three are gathered

Matthew 18:20 is a well-known verse which is often quoted in our gatherings. “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst.” In this verse we have three simple thoughts:

1. ”Two or three” are the Smallest Number of people that can meet together! God is not interested in quantity; it is our hearts He is interested in and our willingness to gather.

2. “Gathered together in My name” is the Simplest of Gatherings. No details about the type or prescribed format of the gathering. We recall that in the wilderness the Children of Israel were given incredibly detailed instructions from God about how to worship, and there were severe consequences when these instructions were disobeyed. The important instruction for us is that we gather in His name. This means that the Lord Jesus Christ is central to all our gatherings, and everything we do when we meet should be to His glory.

It also means that to gather in His name, we must be obedient to His instruction as given in the Word of God and ensure that uncontested sin creates a barrier between us and Him. We know that in 1 John 1: 9 we are told that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We are thankful that we have a great High Priest who advocates on our behalf and that He is loving and caring for His own.

3. Finally, this is the Sweetest Fellowship. Why is this? It is because He is in the midst! The hymn puts it better than I can... ”Where Jesus is, ‘tis heaven there.”

When the Lord Jesus was here on earth, he was often “in the midst” He was “in the midst” at Bethlehem and aged 12 in Temple. He was” in the midst” of a rabble crowd at Nazareth, the town where He grew up in, and on a boat in a Storm in Mark 4. We see Him between two malefactors on the Cross in John 19, and in the Upper Room with His disciples John 20. What a privilege we have of the guarantee of His presence when we meet together, no matter how large or small the company, albeit with the warning that we at gathered “in His name.”

We can breakdown the verse like this:

• Devine Place - “Where”

• Devine Testimony - “Two or Three”

• Devine Assembly - “Are Gathered”

• Devine Fellowship - “Together”

• Devine Authority - “In My Name”

• Devine Presence - “There am I”

• Devine Centre - “In the midst of them”

Colossians 3:11 “Christ is All and in All”