The Place, the People, the Power

Jacob found a place that he called Bethel, the house of God, because at that place he encountered God through the vision of a ladder.

The people of Israel found a place at the foot of Mount Sinai where God met with them.

God also ordained a tabernacle - a dwelling place - that they would take with them wherever they travelled through the wilderness (and eventually established in Israel before David repatriated it to Jerusalem)

Solomon built a temple to the Lord, and consecrated it as a place for God to dwell. And God responded kindly to it, committing to answer Solomon’s prayer and meet people at this place, even as he reminded him that the heaven is God’s throne, and the earth is his footstool, and he doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands.

In the New Testament, there was an upper room where people had congregated to pray and seek God’s promises; that’s where the Holy Spirit first fell.

The early church met at Solomon’s porch on the temple grounds; it was their place of meeting

Later, Paul’s mission to Philippi took root at a riverside where people gathered to pray

People met in the house of John Mark’s mother, and many other houses across the Mediterranean world in the earliest days of the church.

The importance of a place is not the place itself; it is the fact that there has been a place designated as a place where people are going to meet God. That place might be a church building, or it might be someone’s living room. The key is that it is an appointed place and appointed time, because the significance of that place is the agreement among likeminded people to assemble at that place.

The church is not defined by the size or quality of its building; the church is the assembly of God’s people.

Separation only enhances the yearning in the heart of a Christian to be able to gather with fellow believes. Paul’s letters frequently reflect the yearning of a separated believer to rejoin the company of his brothers and sisters. (Illustration: SARS CoV2 (Covid 19) isolation experience left the church isolated in their homes and highlighted for Christians why gathering was so important and even essential.)

Each one of us is a stone in the building of God’s new temple

1 Pt 2.1-9 - l

Each one of us is a stone - a living stone

Coming together - bound together - we are built up as a temple (habitation of God throught the Spirit - Ep 2.19-22).

It is the people that are the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation.

He 12.25 The church is the assembly of the firstborn

We are the church, but we must remember that it is the ‘we’ that is the church; togetherness is an essental part of what makes the church the church. We can’t just claim to be part of the church when there is no assembly.

Togetherness is the orientation of the church; it is in the very nature and definition of the church that it is people together; it is the assembly. That is why the church sought to be together at Solomon’s porch, and it took persecution to scatter them. But even as they scattered, the magnetism of the church continued to bring people together. If we could get togeter in a house, we’d get together in a house; if we could get a place of business and gather more people there, that’s what we would do; if we could all go to Jerusalem for a conference, we would. But whatever and however we could, we were striving to be together.

Ps 133.1-3 Unity is a central element of the church. Be together. Pray together. Laugh together. Love together.

He 10.24-25 That is why we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together

And when God’s people come together for the purpose of worshipping and seeking God, there is power!

Where 2-3 are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Ac 4.31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together. The power of God comes into the place where God’ people assemble together.