To emphasize that we meet with God and encounter His special gracious presence in worship, we’ve looked at our responsibility to “construct a tabernacle” in which God promises to dwell (Ex. 25:8; Lev. 26:11–12; 2 Cor. 6:16). We may genuinely draw near to God in worship. As we do so, God fulfills His covenant promise to dwell among us.

There is a corporate, or group, blessing in this. God blesses us most fully in this corporate setting. To grasp this, we take another step in our understanding of corporate worship.

The body of God’s people gathered for worship is not only the present-day tabernacle or temple of God (Eph. 2:22) and the present-day special dwelling place of God (2 Cor. 6:16), it is also a piece of heaven and a taste of the age to come.

In the Old Testament, God’s throne room was the Most Holy Place. Solomon “prepared an inner sanctuary within the house in order to place there the ark of the covenant of the Lord. The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in height, and he overlaid it with pure gold” (1 Kings 6:19–20), and thus was shaped as a cube. Solomon also placed two cherubim in the inner sanctuary overlooking the ark of the covenant (vv. 6:23–28). God is enthroned above the cherubim (2 Kings 19:15; Ps. 99:1; Isaiah 37:16). This Most Holy Place was therefore God’s throne room.

This Most Holy Place was also an earthly representation of God’s heavenly dwelling. “I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold. the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them’ ” (Rev. 21:2–3).

The heavenly city is God’s dwelling place. The book of Revelation pictures it as a perfect cube. This is the most holy place. “The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal” (Rev. 21:16).

When we enter into worship with God’s people, we come “to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 12:22). We approach God’s throne room. We enter the most holy place. When Christ died, “the veil of the temple [hiding the most holy place] was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matt. 27:51). Scripture exhorts us, “Since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,…let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:19–22).

When we enter God’s throne room, we enter heaven. The worshiping assembly of God’s people becomes a piece of heaven. When we enter worship, we should therefore expect to encounter God, be “enlightened,” taste “the heavenly gift,” partake of the Holy Spirit,” and taste “the good word of God and the powers of the age to come” (Heb. 6:4–5). We should expect to taste heaven.

The church gathered for worship is a special dwelling place of God in the Spirit. It is a piece of heaven. As such, the church gathered for worship has the seal of God’s love. “The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the other dwelling places of Jacob” (Ps. 87:2). The refreshment of heaven awaits us as we self-consciously construct our worship with God’s purpose in mind.