Worshiping in the Heavenly Sanctuary

When Christians come together to worship the Lord, they aren’t the only ones gathering. Today, R.C. Sproul addresses the spiritual communion we share with all of God’s people in all ages, assembling as one body in the heavenly sanctuary.

I preached in a church here in Orlando several years ago, and they had two services on Sunday morning. In the second service, they had about eight hundred people; in the first service, they had about thirty people. It was eight o’clock in the morning. So, I came to the first service in this huge, big building. And there’s over a thousand chairs there, and only thirty of them are occupied. I’m a real draw for a Sunday morning preacher. And I stood up there, and I said to the folks who were gathered at eight o’clock, I said, “I have to tell you, anytime I come to preach in front of such a vast multitude of people, I’m intimidated.” And they laughed.

And I said, “I’m not kidding.” I said: “Do you know what’s going on here this morning? Do you know what the Bible says?” That when we come together in our assembly, we don’t go to a mountain that is belching smoke and lightning and thunder that cannot be touched by human hands. But we enter into the heavenly sanctuary. Into the presence of the angels, of the archangels, of God, of Christ, of the spirits of just men made perfect, and the general assembly on high. This is what we confess in the Apostles’ Creed when we speak of the communion of saints.