What did Jesus say about church buildings?

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.

A few words may well be added here concerning worship in "the hour that now is" (i.e. Christianity). Its fullest expression is found in John 4:21-24. Those who suggest that the Samaritan woman raised the question of places of worship in order to turn aside the keen edge of the Lord's exposure of her evil life are not quite just. What she had in her mind more probably was the difficulty as to where He could be found of whose holiness the Speaker was making her conscious. The Samaritans said one thing and the Jews another; where then was the true religious centre? The Lord replied, "Woman, believe Me" — note His words. He speaks with authority; He knows God as no other could know Him; and He only can reveal His thoughts. "Believe Me, the hour comes when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." Samaritan worship never had a divine standing — it was an abominable conglomeration from the beginning (2 Kings 17:41); Judaism, on the contrary, was originally of God. But both must stand aside now. The Father stands revealed in the person of the Son of His love; all distance is ended. Sanctuaries and ecclesiastics are worse than useless now. The place of assembly matters little — school-house, barn, private dwelling, etc. The Father seeks those who are conscious of intimate relationship with Himself, and who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. Nothing else will satisfy Him "in the hour that now is." It was doubtless a delight to Him when Hezekiah reopened and repaired the slighted Temple (2 Chron. 29:3); but such service could have no value today.

Nevertheless what had before occupied her mind, at once comes out, as she now says, "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Should I worship at Mount Gerizim, or in Jerusalem? is the point. It is to be observed that whenever you get a soul exercised about its state, and about the truth, Satan will seek to obstruct that soul, by raising questions, and difficulties, as to the differences which have taken place among the people of God. Here this poor soul says, "You say in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship," while "our fathers worshipped in this mountain." Gerizim was a well-known name in Israel's history, and there the Samaritans had a sort of mongrel worship. The Lord takes the opportunity of revealing what was altogether new — the worship of the Father in spirit and in truth. His reply is most remarkable, — "Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." First of all He speaks to her of the gift of the Spirit, and now He proposes that she shall know the worship of the Father. "Ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." The Father must be revealed before He can be worshipped. This the Son was doing. Worship, connected with an earthly Jewish system, gives place to the introduction of heavenly relationships. This change depends upon the revelation of the Father in the Son, a change not then apprehended, but nevertheless true as connected with the presence of the Son here; hence He could say, The hour comes, and now is" (ver. 23).

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.

A glance at the inspired epistles to Christians is enough to show how entirely the ritualistic system was unsanctioned by the apostles. Not a word is found as to the erection, not to say ornamentation, of any kind of ecclesiastical building. So immaterial was their place of meeting, as taught by our Lord Himself, and carried out in apostolic times, that He said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matt. 18:20.) After Judaism was set aside, we have no mention of any place of worship on earth for Christians; and we find that the people, and not the building, are spoken of as "the house of God." (Heb. 3:6; 1 Tim. 3:15.) This is, doubtless, because the character of the present dispensation is spiritual, and not fleshly as in Israel's time; and this is why we have not one word of instruction about clerical garments, or ecclesiastical decorations, or furniture.

16 The first general idea, that of which we are to speak, is the Church (e ekklesia). The word, however, I shall at once drop, and employ the literal rendering of the Greek word so translated: the Assembly. Technical words obtain a conventional meaning, which introduces great confusion into people's minds; for, though the local growth of thought produces language, in moral education, words become names, and create rather than express ideas. Take, as an instance, this word Church. It is applied, as all know, to buildings appropriated to ecclesiastical services. But the church is the house of God; and the building is treated as the house of God, though God has expressly declared that, under the Christian system, He will not dwell in temples made with hands; that where two or three are gathered together in His name - the true church so far, and so called in the passage - there Christ is in their midst.

And any supposed difficulty of reconciling with John 4:21 Jerusalem becoming a centre for all nations is imaginary, or rather arises from the confusion of "the hour that now is" with the day that shall be. Our Lord was contemplating the time of His rejection and His approaching absence in heaven; the prophet had in view the day of His glory for the earth, which is still future. Distinguish the times, and the objection vanishes. Jerusalem has no place in the Christian system; in the coming day of Jehovah it will have a greater and holier place than it ever had of old; and no wonder with the name of Jehovah Shammah!

The temple, the altar, the worshippers, all are measured.‎ Christian worship comes in between the suspension of Jewish worship in the past and its resumption in the‎ future. Christians have no place of worship on earth;‎ they enter no earthly temple. The holiest in the sanctuary above is their one and only place of worship (John 4:21,‎ ‎23, 24; Heb. 10:19-22); their sacrifices are praise to God and practical benevolence to men (Heb. 13:15-16). But this is very different from Jewish worship both in the past and in the future. A temple and altar are essential to Jewish worship. While for the force of the figure it is not essential to suppose the existence of a material temple then in Jerusalem, yet prophecy demands the erection of a stone temple, and the reconstruction of the Jewish polity, both secular and religious, during that deeply solemn period between the Translation (1 Thess. 4:16-17) and the Appearing (Jude 14, 15).‎

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

Every religious system which takes its stand upon the law, invariably assumes a Jewish character. We need not look round far to understand this, nor to apply it. Why is it that men have magnificent buildings, or the splendour of ritual in the service of God? On what model is it founded? Certainly they are not like those who gathered together of old in the upper-room. The temple is clearly the type, and along with this goes the having a peculiar sacred class of persons, the principle of the clergy being founded upon the notion of the Jewish priesthood. The service, where that is the case, must depend upon what would attract the senses — show of ornament, music, imposing ceremonies, everything that would strike man's mind, or that would draw a multitude together, not by the truth, but by something to be seen or heard that pleases nature. It is the order of what the word of God calls the "worldly sanctuary." Not that the tabernacle or temple had not a very important meaning before Christ came; but afterwards their shadowy character became apparent, and their temporary value was at an end, and the full truth and grace of God were manifested in the person of Him who came from heaven. When Christ was rejected from the earth and went back to heaven, all was changed, and the heart-allegiance of God's children is transferred to heaven. The true sanctuary for us is the name of Christ. What the Old Testament connected for an earthly people with the temple, the New Testament does with Jesus. "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." If there were ever so few true to that, they would reap the blessing. It is of great importance to trace things to their principle. When the apostle wrote to the Galatians, only the germs were showing themselves; they had not got to the length of consecrated buildings and castes of men, with all the pomp and circumstance of religious worship suited to the world, which we see around us now, the result of the gradual inroads of error upon the Christian professing body. But still there was the beginning of the mischief, the attempt to bring in the principles of the law upon Christians. And what is the effect? You only fall into the position of Ishmael, out of Isaac's. To be thus identified with the law is to be an Ishmael, to forfeit the promises and to become a mere child of the bond-woman. This is the argument that the apostle uses to deal with the Galatians, who were flattering themselves that they had made immense progress; but it was really a slip out of liberty into bondage.