Why gather in a church for worship?

Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven and said: "O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below--you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way…

"But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! Yet give attention to your servant's prayer and his plea for mercy, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, `My Name shall be there,' so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive…

"As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name--for men will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm--when he comes and prays toward this temple, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name” (1 Kings 8:22-43).

Why do we build churches? When Solomon dedicated the Temple in Jerusalem he said, will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! God is infinite; He fills the universe. In Psalm 139 David wrote, O LORD…You know when I sit and when I rise…You discern my going out and my lying down…Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there…If I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. Since God is everywhere and sees everything we do, why bother building churches?

Faithful believers have been setting up places of worship for thousands of years. The earliest place of worship was the altar. At the altar, believers prayed to God for mercy and offered Him gifts to show their gratitude. The first altar specifically mentioned in the Bible was set up by Noah after surviving the great flood. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob also built altars; listen to what Jacob says as he dedicates his: "If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father's house, then the LORD will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth" (Genesis 28:20-22). When Jacob set up his altar, he thought of it as a place where he could speak to God, receive blessings, and offer gifts of thanks.

But it wasn’t until Moses led the Israelites to Mount Sinai that God gave specific instructions on how to build a place of worship. It was an elaborate movable structure called the Tabernacle, or Tent of Meeting. It was called the Tent of Meeting because in it God would meet with Moses and the priests. The structure needed to be mobile, because the Israelites were years away from settling in one place. This Tent of Meeting remained the focal point of God’s worship until Solomon built a permanent Temple in Jerusalem almost 500 years later.

The basic design of the Tabernacle and the Temple were the same. The main building was surrounded by an enclosed courtyard. In the courtyard was a huge altar where people brought animals to be sacrificed. God’s Law said that the penalty for sin was death, but in His loving generosity God accepted the blood of animals in place of the blood of sinners. Also in the courtyard was a large basin of water; this was used by the priests to cleanse themselves, because no one who had been in contact with blood was allowed to enter the sanctuary. Behind the altar and basin was the main building. The first room was called the Holy Place, and only priests were allowed to enter it. It contained a table with loaves of bread and goblets for wine; there were also candles and a small altar where incense was burned. At the back, veiled by a curtain, was the Most Holy Place; this small area contained the Ark of the Covenant, an elaborate box holding the Ten Commandments written by God on stone, the Book of the Law God dictated to Moses, some manna from the journey through the desert, and Aaron’s staff. Only the High Priest was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place, and only once a year on the Day of Atonement.

When Moses dedicated the Tabernacle, God showed His presence in a miraculous way. Exodus chapter 40 says, Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Centuries later, when Solomon dedicated God’s Temple in Jerusalem, we are told When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled his temple (1 Kings 8:10-11). Earlier I asked the question, ‘why do we build churches?’ We build them because God blesses those places dedicated to His honor and worship.

The Tabernacle and the Temple were designed to teach us about our relationship with God. God could be found in His Temple, but He was unapproachable. We are lawbreakers, and our sins have incurred a debt of blood. No one bloody with guilt can stand in God’s presence. Only the priests could sacrifice the animals and announce God’s forgiveness; only the priests could take offerings and bring them before the Lord. The priests working in the sanctuary served as a bridge between holy God and sinful man.

But when Jesus came to live and die and rise, the Temple system of worship was made unnecessary. Jesus has become the Tent of Meeting; Jesus has become the High Priest, Jesus has become the sacrifice. Jesus shed His blood in place of ours, so that our sins could be forgiven. John says, He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). When Jesus died, all sins were paid for, ending the need for animal sacrifices. Peter writes, Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God (1 Peter 3:18).

After He died, Jesus rose from the dead and returned to heaven. There, He has taken over the job of the High Priest; it is He who now serves as our go-between with God. Paul writes in 1st Timothy chapter two, there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. John says, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One (1 John 2:1). Paul also tells us, Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us (Romans 8:34).

Because Jesus is now our High Priest, we no longer need earthly priests to take our prayers and offerings to God. Indeed, Peter says that you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). Because of Jesus we can act like priests, praying directly to God in the Savior’s holy name.

Jesus has done away with Temple worship as Solomon understood it. Consider the Master’s words to a Samaritan woman as they drank water at Jacob’s well: "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem…God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth" (John 4:19-21, 24). The Tent of Meeting had been portable so it could always be near God’s people wherever they were. Jesus is now that Tent of Meeting, the place where we can find God wherever we are in life. This is made clear in the second chapter of John’s Gospel. Jesus had found merchants buying and selling in the Temple courtyard and had sent them packing; when challenged on His authority to do this, Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

Jesus is both Temple and High Priest; because of His death, no further sacrifices on the altar are needed. But Christians have not abandoned having places of worship; we have just changed them a bit. We still have an altar, where we bring our prayers and gifts to God. We still have a basin of water for cleansing, although we only perform this washing once when we are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We still have a table where bread and wine are served, although now they are used to bring us Jesus’ body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins and the building of our faith. We still have candles to remind us of the presence of the Holy Spirit, a cleansing fire and the Light of God’s Wisdom.

But the Church is not really a building of wood or stone or metal. The Church is made of people who have faith in Christ and want to share that faith with the world around them. In the Gospel of Matthew chapter five, we see the foundation that Christ established: Jesus…asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. Peter believed in Jesus as His Savior, and He was willing to speak of his faith out loud; it was in reference to this rock-solid confidence that Jesus said, on this rock I will build my church. Paul picks up on this theme in Romans chapter 10 when he writes, if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Faith and public confession; these are the construction materials used by Jesus to build His Church.

Every Christian is a part of the Church; Paul writes: you are…members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit (Ephesians 2:19-22). Peter adds, you…are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:5). We are called to be priests who live to serve God. And where do priests go to do their work? A house of worship, of course! Although we do not see God’s glory in this place as Solomon did in the Temple, we know that Christ is present in His churches. He speaks to us through His words preserved by the Spirit in Holy Scripture. He embraces us in the water of Holy Baptism. He comes to us in His body and blood, offered in the bread and wine of Holy Communion. Jesus said, where two or three come together in my name, I am there with them (Matthew 18:20). Our Lord is everywhere; He fills the universe. But in God’s house, we experience His grace in a profoundly personal way. We are told that our sins are forgiven. We hear the Word of God that builds faith, wipes away tears, replaces fear with courage, gives clarity where there is confusion, and offers hope in times of despair. We are allowed to touch Him as we eat and drink at His table.

So long as sin exists, there will be a need for churches. When sin leads us astray or causes us pain, we need a place of sanctuary where we can flee to be forgiven and protected. That sanctuary is the Church. God does not live in earthly structures, but when we gather in His name, we find strength in being united as one, and we can stand securely because He is our firm foundation.