Should Christians go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem?

Once a local centre for worship was needful. If you have a bullock and you want to sacrifice it, you must go somewhere to do it. If you have a material offering to bring, geography is a consideration; you must go to a place of worship. But when worship is restricted to the heart and spirit, does the place matter? We think sometimes that a special place for worship is essential, but we do not find it so in John 4. The Lord spoke of the necessity that worship should be "in spirit and in truth."

No more delightful unfolding of the subject of worship, with special reference to our own time, can be found than in our Lord's words to the Samaritan woman in John 4:21-24. His pointed and heart-searching words made the woman feel the seriousness of having to do with God; and she desired to learn from Him where God could be found, for there was much controversy in the land concerning this subject. Her fathers had worshipped for centuries on Mount Gerizim, but the Jews affirmed that in Jerusalem was the place where men ought to worship. She was stating her difficulty to the One who could best answer it. He was the Father's well-beloved Son, Who had come from heaven to lead willing hearts into sweeter intimacies than had ever before been known. He said "Woman, believe Me." Oh, that men had been willing then: oh, that men were willing now, to listen to the Son, and believe every word from His gracious lips! Instead, many listen to the voice of religious leaders, and follow them blindly. "Woman, believe Me, the hour comes, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." The day for material religious centres is past. Those who point to a building and speak of it as the "house of God" are two thousand years behind the times in their thoughts. God being now revealed as Father, He will be satisfied with nothing but the overflowing of the heart from those who are in the conscious relationship of children. "Worship in spirit and in truth" is what He desires, and "the Father seeks such to worship Him." Costly buildings, gorgeous ritual, and elaborate vestments are an offence to Him, for they are relics of Paganism and Judaism. Any simple building, even a private house, will suffice as meeting-places for God's saints during the Christian era. The true rallying centre is indicated in Matt 18:20. "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." Let us beware of men's "high places." We are not called upon to destroy them, as Josiah did in his day; but it is our duty to reject them, and to be obedient in all things to the Word of our God.

There is no earthly sanctuary today. There is no place of special sanctity whither we must resort. Neither in Mount Gerizim nor at Jerusalem do we worship. The Father has been revealed to us in the Son. We have received the indwelling Spirit and the full Word of God. Hence we may each of us retire from the world, and shutting our door, we may realize the presence of God, and receive the blessing and uplift that His presence brings.

Under Christianity there is according to our Lord (John 4:21-24) no such earthly centre as we see there will be in that day. Even Jerusalem has for this vanished. "Believe me, the hour comes when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem worship the Father." The holy places made with hands are now abandoned for the true, even heaven itself, which Christ has entered. Further, it is the hour to worship the Father, of Whom we hear nothing at all as such, nor of worship in spirit and truth. Christianity is wherever the true worshippers adore the Father and the Son in the power of the Spirit. The place on earth is of no moment; only the true object, the true worshippers, and the true principle and power. This only is genuine catholicity.

This will be seen more clearly if we turn to the teaching of the Scriptures. The woman of Samaria questioned our Lord concerning this subject, or rather as to the place of worship; and in His reply, He vouchsafed to go far beyond the limits of her question. "Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:21-24). In the first place, our Lord here plainly teaches that there would be henceforward no special place of worship on earth. Jerusalem had been the sacred place where the temple of God had stood — the place to which His people wended year by year from all parts of the land. (See Psalm 122.) But together with the rejection of Christ, their house, hitherto the house of God, was left unto them desolate (Matt. 23:37-39) ; and never since that time has there been a material house of God upon earth. The Church is now the habitation of God through the Spirit (Eph. 2:22); and our place of worship (as seen in the last letter) is now inside the rent veil, in the immediate presence of God.

But you say: What has this vision of Zechariah to do with us now? Surely we have no house to build; we have no cathedral to erect; surely there is no building of human architecture that has now to be reared. This is absolutely true. God is not now to be worshipped in this place or in that place, in this mountain or in that mountain. The worship of God is by the Spirit of God; it is in spirit and in truth that the Father seeks worshippers to worship Him. The essentials of worship are within the worshipper. Worship now springs from what was once the fountain of all evil. Evil thoughts and all evil action arise out of the heart of the natural man; and it is from that same heart begotten by the Spirit and indwelt by Him that worship and praise ascend to God like a fragrant incense.

True worship is "in spirit"; that is, not in flesh, not in bodily posture. This word of our Lord negatives the ritualistic and ceremonial line of things which has been a snare to so many. Our capacity to offer worship in spirit lies in the possession of the Spirit of God — the Fountain of living water springing up into everlasting life — as is also indicated in Philippians 3:3. The Spirit of God may engage our spirits in true worship at any time and in any place; not merely in some sacred shrine as in Judaism.

To attach the idea of a sanctuary now to any building on earth is then so far to abandon christian ground, and to go back to the Jews' religion; which is not only dishonouring to the Lord, but far more damaging to souls than many imagine; because it throws them at a distance from God, and necessitates their requiring a humanly-ordered priesthood to come between themselves and God. This the natural man likes, because it gives importance to men; while he rebels at the thoughts of divine grace, and refuses the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. But, blessed be God, we have remission of sins, and we have boldness to enter where He is. Hence we are welcomed with "Come boldly to the throne of grace." Do we know what it is to be inside the veil, in the sweet consciousness of God's "perfect love" and in the enjoyment of "perfect peace," while our hearts at the same time are going out to the Father in worship and thanksgiving? It need scarcely be said that this is not the sinner drawing near in order to be cleansed, but the worshipper entering in with boldness, because he is cleansed, and has "no more conscience of sins." Hence it is written, "Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." (Heb. 10:22.) Our Lord referred to this remarkable change in the character of worship. He said to the woman of Samaria, "Believe Me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father … But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit, and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:21-24.) Worship then must be "in spirit;" suited to the nature of God, and "in truth," or according to God's own revelation of His mind. Happy indeed are those who thus worship the Father!

To attach the idea of a sanctuary now to any building on earth is then so far to abandon Christian ground, and to go back to the Jews' religion; which is not only dishonouring to the Lord, but far more damaging to souls than many imagine; because it throws them at a distance from God, and necessitates their requiring a humanly-ordered priesthood to come between themselves and God. This the natural man likes, because it gives importance to men; while he rebels at the thoughts of divine grace, and refuses the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. But, blessed be God, we have remission of sins, and we have -boldness to enter where He is. Hence we are welcomed with "Come boldly to the throne of grace." Do we know what it is to be inside the veil, in the sweet consciousness of God's "perfect love," and in the enjoyment of "perfect peace," while our hearts at the same time are going out to the Father in worship and thanksgiving? It need scarcely be said that this is not the sinner drawing near in order to be cleansed, but the worshipper entering in with boldness, because he is cleansed, and has "no more conscience of sins." Hence it is written, "Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." (Chap. 10:22.) Our Lord referred to this remarkable change in the character of worship. He said to the woman of Samaria, "Believe Me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. … But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:21-24.) Worship, then, must be "in spirit" — suited to the nature of God — and "in truth," or according to God's own revelation of His mind. Happy indeed are those who thus worship the Father

Here are two passages culled, one from the first, and the other from the last but one, of the divinely inspired prophets, both pointing forward to the glorious time when Jerusalem shall be God's centre for Israel and for all nations. And we may assert, with all possible confidence, that the reader will find all the prophets, with one consent, in full harmony with Isaiah and Zechariah, on this profoundly interesting subject. To apply such passages to the church, or to heaven, is to do violence to the clearest grandest utterances that ever fell on human ears; it is to confound things heavenly and earthly, and to give a flat contradiction to the divinely harmonious voices of prophets and apostles.

It is needless to multiply quotations. All scripture goes to prove that Jerusalem was and will yet be God's earthly centre for His people, and for all nations. But, just now, that is to say, from the day of Pentecost, when God the Holy Ghost came down, to form the church of God, the body of Christ, until the moment when our Lord Jesus Christ shall come to take His people away out of this world, there is no place, no city, no sacred locality, no earthly centre for the Lord's people. To talk to Christians about holy places or consecrated ground is as thoroughly foreign to them — at least it ought to be — as it would have been to talk to a Jew about having his place of worship in heaven. The idea is wholly out of place, wholly out of character.