The Place or the Person?

The Shift: From Place to Person

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash: From place to person—Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John 4 that the hour was coming when worship would not be tied to this mountain or Jerusalem. True worshipers would worship the Father in spirit and truth.

I remember when Avatar came out. It was the first of its kind. The director had to wait nearly ten years for technology to catch up just to finish the film. The world was buzzing. All I heard from everyone was, “You have to go see it!”

I waited.

Why?

Because I’ve never been much of a follow-the-world kind of guy. That can be a strength. It can also be pride disguised as independence. But this time, it exposed something deeper.

There’s a church in Atlanta that has been buzzing lately. 2819. The question keeps coming: Have you seen him? Have you been there?

I watched a few clips. I tried to resonate.

Nothing.

Not because I am above it. But because I have learned something about crowds. The world can get caught up in a place or a personality and miss the Source.

And I don’t want to miss the Source.

I don’t want surface-level excitement directing my time. I want to discern my time. Steward it. Let God direct it, because it is His.

My hope is that when you read this, you will be reminded of a Person, not a place. Not a director. Not a preacher. Jesus.

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From the Beginning, He Chose

In Deuteronomy 16:5–6, Moses tells Israel they may not offer the Passover sacrifice in any of their towns, but only at the place the Lord their God will choose to make His name dwell.

This is covenant language. Moses is speaking under the Mosaic covenant to a people about to enter the promised land. And one thing is clear: God chooses the place of worship. Israel does not.

Why?

Because worship is not consumer-driven. It is covenant-governed.

Throughout the Torah, God centralizes worship. He protects His holiness. He guards His people from creating religion in their own image.

Now fast forward to the Gospels.

Jesus sends His disciples to prepare the Passover.

You will find a man carrying a jar.
You will find a furnished upper room.
You will find a prepared place.

He does not ask their opinion. He directs.

Under the Mosaic covenant, Yahweh chose the place where His name would dwell.

Now Jesus chooses the place of Passover.

That is not incidental detail. It is theological declaration.

Jesus is exercising the authority of Yahweh.

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Let’s Go Further

In John 2, Jesus says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John tells us He was speaking about the temple of His body.

Under the old covenant, worship was tied to geography. A chosen place. A sacred location.

Under the new covenant, worship is tied to a Person.

Jesus is the true Temple. The dwelling place of God among men.

And at Passover, He becomes the Lamb.

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Never Finished Challenge: The Passover Test

Passover remembered deliverance from Egypt. The lamb’s blood marked the doorposts so judgment would pass over the firstborn.

That lamb was substitution.

John the Baptist sees Jesus and says emphatically, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

Grace alone.
Faith alone.
Christ alone.

Jesus is not merely the new location of worship. He is the sacrifice that makes worship possible.

He is the place.

So here is the test.

When you go to worship, what do you leave remembering?

The personality?
The production?
The charisma?

Or the holiness of God and the cost of your redemption?

Do people walk away remembering you more, or Jesus more?

Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John 4 that the hour was coming when worship would not be tied to this mountain or Jerusalem. True worshipers would worship the Father in spirit and truth.

The shift is not from sacred to casual.
It is from place to Person.

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What Does Today Say About God?

For the past thirty days, I’ve had unsettling health scares. Headaches nearly every day. Breathing that has not felt normal. A new mental weight.

(I will receive your prayers).]

But one thing has remained constant. Time with Him.

Recently, after struggling just to open Deuteronomy, God reminded me of something simple and profound.

I do not have to move my body to a building to meet Him.

The Temple has already come.
The Lamb has already been slain.
The veil has already been torn.

Today, I met Him.

And He met me.

Despite my physical weakness, there is peace.

Despite your past, present, and future—because of Christ—there is a place for you.

What a Father.
What a Friend.
What a King.

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