Church - A Place Like no Other

There is a place that is so special it can not be compared to any other place on earth. I want to share with you some insight the word of God gives us about this place we call church.

In Moses’s day God met with his people at Mt Sinai. It was a physical location where God manifested his Holy presence. This account can be found in Exodus‬ ‭19:16-18‬

“Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.”

This encounter with God caused the people to tremble, when was the last time we trembled at the presence of God? God required everyone to prepare days in advance just to come to the mountain and if anyone touched the mountain they were to be killed. You see God wanted this encounter to be anything but common or ordinary. He did not want it to be a casual experience and he didn’t want there to be any confusion about his holiness or power.

How does this Old Testament account relate to the modern day church? The writer of Hebrews writes a very descriptive correlation in chapter 12.

“For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)”

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭12:18-24‬

Something miraculous happens when the church of Jesus Christ enters into the presence of God. There is a shifting, a transferring of locations. There is a threshold that is crossed from the profane to the Holy, from the common to the uncommon, from the natural to the supernatural. We enter into a spiritual place where thousands upon thousands of angels are gathered in worship. A myriad of angels, too many to count all worshiping God along with us. This gives us a great perspective on the modern church and how it really is a place like no other.