The Church, Our Jerusalem
The Church, Our Jerusalem
Why God’s people must become our centre again, and why the Church remains a covenant community of formation from generation to generation.
There is a statement in Psalm 122 that recently arrested my attention.
“Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, where the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.”
Psalm 122:3-4
Jerusalem was more than a location on Israel’s map.
It was a centre.
The tribes lived throughout the land. They had homes, families, farms, businesses and responsibilities in different places. Yet God gave them a common centre around which their covenant identity was continually reinforced.
There the tribes went up.
Jerusalem was associated with worship, instruction, celebration, government, sacrifice, memory and the presence of God.
Israel was scattered geographically, but they were not meant to become disconnected spiritually.
They had a Jerusalem.
And as I read Psalm 122, I began thinking about one of Paul’s remarkable statements:
“But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.”
Galatians 4:26
There is a Jerusalem from above.
And Paul calls her our mother.
This opens a beautiful biblical picture of what God is doing through Christ and His Church.
Under the New Covenant, our spiritual centre is no longer a geographical city to which every believer must travel. In Christ, we have come to the heavenly Jerusalem, and we have been incorporated into the covenant people of God.
Because Christ is the Head of His Body, the community gathered around Christ necessarily becomes central to Christian life.
The Church is His Body, His Bride, His household, His temple and His people.
Perhaps one of the great needs of our generation is to rediscover the Church as our Jerusalem, the covenant community in which our lives are formed around Jesus from generation to generation.
The Jerusalem Above Is Our Mother
Paul develops this idea in Galatians 4 through the story of two women, Hagar and Sarah.
He uses them to represent two covenants. Hagar corresponds to slavery. Sarah represents freedom and promise.
“Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.”
Galatians 4:28
Immediately before this, Paul declares:
“But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.”
Galatians 4:26
That language is profound.
Mother.
A mother does more than host meetings. A mother gives birth, nurtures, forms, teaches language, preserves memory, creates belonging and raises generations.
Paul is not merely giving us sentimental language for the Church. His immediate subject is the heavenly Jerusalem and the freedom of the New Covenant. Yet elsewhere, the New Testament repeatedly connects this heavenly reality with the gathered people of Christ.
Christianity therefore cannot be reduced to “Jesus and me.”
Christ saves individuals, but He does not leave us as isolated individuals.
He brings us into a people.
“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people.”
1 Peter 2:9
Generation. Priesthood. Nation. People.
The Gospel creates a community.
Isaiah Saw Zion Restored
Centuries before Paul wrote Galatians, Isaiah spoke prophetically concerning Zion and Jerusalem.
“For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns.”
Isaiah 62:1
Isaiah was first speaking hope concerning Zion and Jerusalem and their restoration.
Yet listen to the language God uses:
“You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.”
Isaiah 62:3
Then:
“You shall no longer be termed Forsaken... but you shall be called Hephzibah... for the LORD delights in you.”
Isaiah 62:4
And then the imagery becomes unmistakably bridal:
“As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”
Isaiah 62:5
Isaiah first speaks to Zion within Israel’s story, but Scripture carries this Zion and Bride imagery forward until it reaches its climax in Christ and the New Jerusalem.
“Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.”
Ephesians 5:25
The Church is Christ’s Bride.
And by the time we arrive at the closing chapters of Revelation, something remarkable happens.
“Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.”
Revelation 21:9
What does the angel show John?
“And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.”
Revelation 21:10
The biblical images converge.
We Have Come to Mount Zion
Hebrews makes the New Covenant reality even clearer.
“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem... to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven.”
Hebrews 12:22-23
Notice the tense.
You have come.
Not merely, “One day you will come.”
In Christ, something has already happened.
We have come to Mount Zion. We have come to the heavenly Jerusalem. We have come to the assembly. We belong to the people of God.
So when I call the Church our Jerusalem, I do not mean that the institutional Church simply replaces geographical Jerusalem.
I mean that in Christ we have come to the heavenly Zion, and the Church is the covenant community of those who belong to that Jerusalem.
The Woman, the Child and the Dragon
Revelation 12 gives us another fascinating image.
“A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.”
Revelation 12:1
The imagery reaches deeply into Israel’s story, particularly Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37.
The woman gives birth to the Messiah, the male Child who will rule the nations.
So we should not simply say, “The woman is the Church.”
The picture is richer than that.
She represents the covenant people of God from whom Messiah comes. Yet after the Child is caught up to God, the woman remains in the story.
She is persecuted. She flees into the wilderness where God preserves her.
“to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
Revelation 12:17
There is continuity in the story.
God has always desired a people, a people through whom His purposes are revealed, a people gathered around His Messiah, a people preserved by His grace, and a people carrying the testimony of Jesus into the world.
The Church Was Always in the Heart of God
Sometimes Christians speak about the Church almost as though it were God’s emergency arrangement.
Israel happened. Something went wrong. Then God came up with the Church.
But Paul gives us a much larger vision.
“according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Ephesians 3:11
The Church is not God improvising.
God has always been moving history toward a people united in His Son.
“to gather together in one all things in Christ.”
Ephesians 1:10
The centre is Christ.
Everything converges in Him.
Therefore, when we say the Church must become our centre again, we are not making the Church an idol.
We are saying that Christ is the centre, and Christ forms a people around Himself.
From a City We Visit to a People God Inhabits
Here the biblical story becomes even more beautiful.
Under the Old Covenant, Israel travelled toward Jerusalem.
They came to the temple. They came toward the place uniquely associated with God’s dwelling among His covenant people.
But through Christ, something extraordinary happens.
God begins building people into His dwelling.
“Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.”
Ephesians 2:19
“In whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”
Ephesians 2:22
Jerusalem Was a Generational Centre
This brings me back to Psalm 122.
Israel’s tribes lived in different places.
They had farms, businesses, homes, families and responsibilities.
Yet Jerusalem reminded them that none of those things could become their ultimate identity.
“There the tribes go up.”
Children grew up watching parents journey toward Jerusalem. Generations learned the songs of Zion.
They learned the stories. They learned worship. They learned sacrifice. They learned covenant.
That is what the Church must recover.
The Church Must Become the Centre Again
We live in a world of competing centres.
Work can become a centre. School can become a centre. Sports can become a centre. Entertainment can become a centre. Social media can become a centre. Politics can become a centre. Career can become a centre.
Even the biological family can become so self-contained that the larger family of God becomes peripheral.
Then church receives whatever time remains.
But the New Testament gives us a richer vision.
“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
Acts 2:42
Church was not merely an event added to life.
It became a way of life.
The Church Is the Hub
Perhaps this is language our generation can understand.
The Church is the hub.
Not because a building is sacred. Not because pastors need attendance. Not because institutions need preservation.
But because God forms His people in community around His Son.
The Church should become the place:
- where generations find spiritual fathers and mothers;
- where children discover models of faith;
- where young adults discover calling and purpose;
- where marriages receive wisdom and support;
- where the lonely discover family;
- where the wounded receive care;
- where doctrine is learned and truth is preserved;
- where gifts are discovered and developed;
- where leaders are formed;
- where the poor and vulnerable are remembered;
- where believers learn to pray;
- where missionaries are sent;
- where people celebrate and mourn together;
- where the Table is shared;
- where Christ remains central.
That is Jerusalem.
The Mother of Us All
“Jerusalem above... is the mother of us all.”
Galatians 4:26
A mother forms generations.
This means the Church must think beyond attendance numbers.
The question is not merely: How many people attended this Sunday?
The greater question is:
What will our children believe? What songs will they sing? What theology will shape their imagination? What stories will they tell their children?
God designed the biological household to raise children within the larger household of God.
The family and the Church were never meant to compete. The household at home is formed within the household of faith.
From Generation to Generation
“One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.”
Psalm 145:4
Where does that happen?
Wherever generations remain close enough to one another to tell the stories.
The Church becomes the place where spiritual memory survives.
Without community, every generation is tempted to start from zero.
With community, one generation hands revelation, wisdom, experience and testimony to another.
Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you.”
Psalm 122:6
What if we learned to pray this way for the Church again?
Lord, give Your Church peace. Protect her unity. Heal her wounds. Purify her witness. Strengthen her leaders. Raise her children. Restore broken families. Give her wisdom. Fill her with the Spirit. Make her beautiful again.
We should refuse to become cynical about the Church.
She has failures. She has scars. She has sometimes misrepresented Christ terribly.
But Jesus has not abandoned His Bride.
He still loves her. He is still sanctifying her. He is still building her.
“I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
Matthew 16:18
Come Home to Jerusalem
Our generation urgently needs strong churches.
Not celebrity platforms. Not Sunday performances. Not religious corporations.
Churches.
Families of believers gathered around Jesus.
Places where Word, Spirit, prayer, fellowship, sacrament, mission and love meet.
Places children can call home. Places teenagers can wrestle with questions. Places young adults can discover calling. Places adults can build covenant friendships. Places elderly saints remain honoured and needed.
Because God never intended His people to wander alone.
We have a city. We have a family. We have a mother. We have a Body. We have a Bride.
We have come to Mount Zion. We have come to the heavenly Jerusalem.
And at the centre of it all stands Jesus Christ.
Perhaps the Church must become our Jerusalem again.
Not merely somewhere we go, but a people to whom we belong.
Jerusalem above is free.
And she is the mother of us all.
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