What Makes a Place Holy?

Blog post based on the sermon: “This is God’s House”

This Is God’s House

When I was six or seven years old, my brothers and friends and I were playing chase around the pews after church. A very stern German lady stopped us cold. “You boys stop running in church,” she said. “This is the house of God!”

I’ll never forget the fear of God that put in me. I’m running in God’s house.

I loved that church. It was home. And for years after I moved away, other churches just didn’t feel like church to me. I even wondered, deep down, if God was really there the way He was in my old church. Of course, I knew in my head He was. His Word was there.

So what makes a church the house of God? To answer that, we have to go back to Jacob.

A Young Man on the Run

You know what happened. Jacob deceived his blind father, Isaac, and stole the blessing that was supposed to go to his brother, Esau. And Esau was so angry he wanted to kill him. So Jacob ran for his life, with nothing but a staff in his hand.

That first night alone, he must have been thinking, I have really messed this up. I don’t even know if God is on my side anymore.

And then God showed up.

In a dream, Jacob saw a stairway reaching from earth to heaven, with angels going up and down on it. And God didn’t scold him. God repeated His promise: “I am with you. I will watch over you wherever you go. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.” (Genesis 28:15)

When Jacob woke up, the Bible says he was afraid. But that’s not a phobia. That’s the fear of the Lord, a deep respect that comes from realizing you’re standing in the presence of the God who made everything and owns everything, and that He has been gracious to you anyway. Jacob took the stone he’d slept on, poured oil on it, and called the place Bethel. House of God.

Jacob Was No Match for God’s Grace

What’s so amazing about this story isn’t Jacob’s faith. It’s God’s faithfulness.

God’s plan was to save the world through this family, and His plan would not be thwarted by a foolish young man who stole his brother’s blessing. It would not be thwarted by a disciple named Peter who boasted he’d never deny Jesus and then denied Him three times. And it won’t be thwarted by you and me either.

Here’s where it gets good. Jesus Himself pointed back to this story. When He called Nathanael in John 1, He said, “You will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Do you see it? Jesus is the stairway. He’s the bridge between a holy God and sinful people like Jacob and Peter and you and me. He’s the great X factor between God and all of humanity.

And there’s more. Jacob anointed that rock with oil. Do you know what “Messiah” means? Anointed. And “Christ”? Anointed. Jesus is the Rock, the anointed One, the cornerstone the church is built on. See how it all comes together? Jesus pops out of this story in many different colors and many different ways.

A New Name

Years later, God told Jacob to go back to Bethel and build an altar there. And God gave him a new name: Israel.

Here’s the thing about the name Jacob. It means “one who grabs the heel.” In Hebrew, that’s a way of saying “liar.” Can you imagine? (I’m a grandpa of seven, and I’ve heard some interesting baby names, but that one takes the cake.) Jacob lived up to his name, too.

But God said, “I don’t like that name.” No more Jacob the deceiver. Now he would be Israel, the one who wrestles with God and is blessed.

That’s what happens at church. We all get a new name.

You walk through those doors, and you get to hear that you are not the person who let somebody down at work, or made your spouse mad, or didn’t parent your kids perfectly, or did the things you shouldn’t have done. You are washed clean. Made righteous. Loved by God. His dear child. Someone who will be with Him forever in heaven.

And it doesn’t depend on you. God doesn’t say, “If your repentance is sincere enough, maybe you’ll be saved.” No! It’s all based on the finished work of Christ. Like God told Isaiah, “I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” I like to put it this way: God isn’t depending on how hard you hold on to Him. He holds you in His grace.

What Makes It God’s House

So what makes a place the house of God? Not the building. Not the architecture or the color of the carpet. It’s the house of God because God shows up there, wherever His Word and His unconditional grace in Jesus are proclaimed.

People walk through church doors carrying all kinds of weight. Some are curious. Some, like Jacob, are running.

Every one of us needs to find our place. Not a perfect building or a perfect group of people. We need to find the God who met a liar in the wilderness, gave him a new name, and never let him go.

He’s still showing up. That’s what makes any place a Bethel.