On Sunday, 14th January, we consecrated the new church building of the main church here in Lomé, Togo, West Africa.
It was a joyful occasion, and a good opportunity to consider why we build the church and why one goes to church.
It was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,
Acts 7:48-50
“‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
Did not my hand make all these things?’
Solomon build the most magnificent Temple to the Eternal. But we must remember, as Stephen says here, that the Most High does not live in a house made by us. As God said through the prophet Isaiah, He made all things and no earthly building can contain Him. When Solomon dedicated the great temple he had built, he confessed that even the highest heaven could not contain God, much less the temple he had built. (1 Kings 8:27). So we don’t go to church because that is where God dwells, because God is everywhere.
Thus says the LORD:
Isaiah 66:1-2
“Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house that you would build for me,
and what is the place of my rest?
All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things came to be,
declares the LORD.
But this is the one to whom I will look:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word.”
God considers “he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” Do you tremble at God’s word?
Many think of praying, praising God and brining our offerings to God when they think of why one goes to church, but the most important reason to church is to hear God’s word. Consider this warming in Ecclesiastes:
Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.
Ecclesiastes 5:1
We often think of going to church to sing praises to God and to bring our offerings, but here God tells us that our focus should be on listening to His word. The main reason one attends worship services (which might be better called “services of God’s word”) is to hear God’s word, which creates and strengthens our trust in Jesus’ death to pay for our sins and His resurrection to give us eternal life.
One can build thousands of churches, but without faith in what Jesus has done, none of that pleases God. One can give millions of dollars to the church, but that does not earn one favor with God. That does not give one eternal life.
You only have eternal life through Jesus’ perfect life of obedience to God in your place, His death on the cross in your place to pay for your sins, and His resurrection from the death to conquer death for you. Jesus has already earned God’s favor. These is nothing left for you to do! Jesus has done it all.
Our worship, our praises, our donation/offerings to the church are simply ways that we thank God for the great salvation He has already given us in Jesus. And we learn about what God has done through Jesus by listening to His word.
A new church pot and building is certainly a blessing, but it is the pure word of God that we teach in the building that matters. The Gospel we preach each week “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.‘” (Romans 1:16-17).