A Heavenly City

by Pastor Chad

One of the most difficult, most arduous sporting competitions in existence is ultramarathon racing. An ultramarathon is any race that exceeds the length of a marathon (which is 26.2 miles). In each ultra, there are aid stations strategically and mercifully located throughout the race course. These aid stations provide respite, help, nourishment, and medical services. So, for example, if someone is running a 100 mile ultramarathon, there will be aid stations set up every 15 miles or so to assist the runner. Aid stations serve as outposts for ultrarunners as they undertake one of the hardest athletic challenges known to mankind. 

In many ways, this is a good picture of the church. The local church is a heavenly outpost. As Christians, we traverse the fallen world as strangers and foreigners. The church is an embassy of heaven, meant to be a place of refuge and aid for all who are called out of this world. 

In Hebrews 11:16b we read, “Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” God has prepared for us a city. So where is this city? Or what is this city? In Revelation 21:9–11 we read of such a city: “Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, ‘Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.”

This city–the New Jerusalem–coming down from heaven is the “Bride of the Lamb”, that is, the bride of Christ. Well, where else do we see such language? In the New Testament, the Church is described as the Bride of Christ. As wanderers in a fallen, strange world, followers of Christ are meant to find the church as a place of refuge or sanctuary city. The local church is an institution organized to be a picture of the heavenly city we will one day see. The local church is meant to be a way station in a broken world. Are we a perfect picture of what heaven will be like? Absolutely not! But we certainly are an institution founded by Christ as a safehouse on this dangerous earthly voyage. 

This is the reason the local church is so important. As an outpost, one’s faith best flourishes when lived out within the local body. In fact, there is no other place on earth to receive the kind of grace and blessing one needs to maintain a healthy walk with the Lord other than within a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church. By that, I do not mean a group of believers that simply get together for a Bible study–as wonderful as that is. A church, however, is far more than a Bible study. We are an institution founded and organized by Jesus for the worship of Almighty God. Our mission is to worship God in a way that is biblically mandated and historically coherent. That includes, but is not limited to, worship in Word, prayer, service, discipleship, proper administration of the Word and ordinances by an ordained pastor, and the gospel mission. The Church is not a confederation of loosely organized, unaffiliated, disconnected groups. To view it as such is to reject the vast evidence to the contrary within the New Testament and to ignore the clear precedent within church history. Jesus did not start a Bible study group. He did not start a social club. He did not form a political party. He founded and established the church. And it is through the institutional church that God readily and prolifically pours out His grace.