Read: Revelation 21:22-27
I saw no temple in the city. (v. 22)
The church my wife and I attend meets in a classic church building. It’s beautiful, the kind of building people often don’t expect to see in a small town of 400 people.
In our promised land of the new heaven and new earth, we might expect to see a glorious church building. After all, God is a great architect. He gave Moses detailed directions for constructing the moveable tabernacle, where God dwelled with his people (Exodus 25-30).
But the truth is that we won’t need a church building in our promised land, for “its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (Rev. 21:22). The tabernacle and temple were places people would go to meet with God. We often think of churches today in the same way—and they are. Indeed, it’s a blessing to have a place to go and join others in worship, even while we know that by the Holy Spirit, God is everywhere, that we can pray to him and meet with him anywhere at any time.
One of the glories of the new heaven and new earth is that we’ll be with God himself and Jesus himself, not through the Holy Spirit, as wonderful as that is for us today, but they themselves will be there. They will be the temple. All of the new heaven and new earth will be a church, a place where by God’s grace we will worship and serve him with full hearts.
As you pray, give thanks for the opportunity to worship with your church family now, and for eternity!
Rich Bawinkel is a retired pastor who has served churches in the Reformed Church in America and the Kingdom Network. He is married to Anne and serves as a musician in their local church, as the administrator of the Kingdom Network, and on the Words of Hope Board of Directors.
