We Are the Temple
Part Two in the Temples of the Holy Spirit series
(topical)
1. The WWII generation was a special generation, sometimes called "builders."
2. This is the generation that built or purchased our facilities.
3. It began in early 1949, 1954, 1956.
4. After all the sacrifices, work, and toil, the folks who built this facility naturally wanted to celebrate their labors for years to come.
5. And they chose to do so in with proper Theology. On Highland Park Church bulletin shells, for perhaps 30 years, was this statement, "A house for God’s people."
6. And that’s exactly what a church building is. It is not "God’s House," but "A House for God’s People."
7. Is it a big deal if someone calls a church building, "God’s House?" No, it’s not a big deal. But all inaccuracies have consequences. The difference does determine much of what is done in a church building. By calling a church building "God’s House," you are setting the tone that the building is a shrine. By calling it "a house for God’s people," you are accurately reflecting that the building exists to benefit us, not God, though we may use it for God’s glory and for God’s purposes.
8. This is very different from the Old Testament Temple which represented the special presence of God on earth, but not His absolute presence.
9. Isaiah 66:1-2, "This is what the LORD says: ’Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?’ declares the LORD.
10. Matthew 12:6, "I tell you that one greater than the temple is here." The presence of God in Jesus is absolute, unlike the presence of God in the Temple.
11. Jesus is greater than the Temple and Jesus is greater than even the indwelt believer because, " …in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form" (Colossians 2:9). God does not simply have His presence established in Jesus as He does us; Jesus is God. Therefore, God is present in the fullest sense in Jesus.
12. The concept of God’s presence is one of relationship. We cannot get more or less of God, but we can have unique relationships to Him. And the New Covenant believer is indwelt by God the Holy Spirit just like the Shekinah glory dwelt in the Temple.
13. The Temple motif is all over the New Testament. This is just another reason why our understanding of the Old Testament greatly amplifies our understanding of the New.
Main Idea: We are God’s Temple in more than one sense, we do what took place at the Temple, and we are participating in building God’s Temple.
Today, we will look at the first two of these three truths.
I. WE Are the Temple
A. COLLECTIVELY
Our church family is the Temple
1. 1 Corinthians 3:9, "For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building."
2. Being a Christian demands that we are become team players in a church family. We are not like spiders with our own individual webs who fend and look out for ourselves; we are more like a colony of bees coordinating our skills for the benefit of the hive.
3. When Christians try to be lone bees apart from the hive, they are fighting what is naturally meant to be. We are God’s fellow workers, not His lone workers. Together we are the building, the Temple.
B. UNIVERSALLY
The universal church -- meaning all true believers -- are the Temple
1. Ephesians 2:20-22, "…built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."
2. Not only are we to be connected to brothers and sisters in our church, we are also one with all true believers of all times
3. We need to keep going back to our foundation, the Scriptures, which are the only dependable record of the teaching of the Apostles and Prophets.
4. We are not built upon any church, but the stones in the true temple are those stones who are submissive to the teaching of God’s Word… so we have both a heritage, building upon past believers, but also future, preparing for future believers so they can build upon us!
5. But every generation must realign itself with the foundation of the apostles and prophets. The only sure record of their teaching is the Scriptures. Our faith should not be built upon legends or accumulated traditions. We need to make sure that we are level, because every generation of Christians is off the mark somewhere. Our cultures, eras, and experiences all color our version of Christianity -- and sometimes distort it. Past Christians have embraced slavery or the annihilation of indigenous peoples (like the American Indians). Modern Christians tend to integrate materialism into the equation, for example
"When my wife and I went to Italy to celebrate our 25th anniversary, we actually ate pizza alongside the tower of Pisa. The church bell tower was started 1,000 years ago. After building a few levels, the tower foundation sunk and it began sloping. They abandoned the project for a while, but then a century or two later, they add some more stories to the tower, but veered the new work a bit in the opposite direction to offset the slant.
In our case, the foundation is solid, but every generation slants in a wrong direction. If the slant continues in the same direction for generation after generation, the top of the building no longer sits squarely above the foundation.
The Reformation was an attempt to correct generations of erroneous slant. But the Reformation is not over. Every generation must realign itself with the foundation."
Ed Vasicek
C. INDIVIDUALLY
You and I are the Temple
1. Our bodies, specifically I Corinthians 6:19-20, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."
2. We are tenants in our temple (God owns our bodies)
3. Our bodies are not evil (do not confuse the body with the flesh, our sin nature)
4. Abusing our bodies is no way to glorify God
• In the Corinthians context here, the verses are applied to sexual immorality.
• But harsh treatment of the body as a way to become godly is also condemened:
Colossians 2:20-23, "Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence."
D. When Individual Temples Gather, They Make ONE Larger Temple
1. If you have a molecule of water, H20, and you add it to a lake, you still have water. So it is with being Temples of the Holy Spirit.
2. Matthew 18:20, " For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
3. John 4:21-24, "Jesus declared, ’Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.’"
4. It is the presence of believers gathering together in Jesus’ Name that brings about His special presence, not where we gather.
5. We do not have to "bring down" the presence of God; when we gather in His Name, He is there.
II. We DO What Took Place At the Temple
A. MEDIATING forgiveness
We are the ones who bring the message of forgiveness and explain the Gospel. People used to come to the temple to seek forgiveness; now, the temple comes to them and offers them God’s grace.
B. WORSHIPPING by Offering Sacrifices
• Again, the average Jew went to the synagogue primarily to learn, though they did pray and sing as well, acts we would consider worship, and they did to -- but not the primary form of worship; the Temple was considered the place of worship, because that is where sacrifices were offered.
• All men commanded to appear 3 times a year there, but the Rabbis found a way to reinterpret this; at the time of Jesus, a man was considered especially devout if he went once a year, and some went once in a lifetime or every 4 or 5 years! (see "Pilgrimage at the Time of Jesus" by Shmuel Safrai, Jerusalme Perspective, January 1, 2004).
• But we offer sacrifices as part of our daily routine!
1. Of PRAISE
Hebrews 13:15, "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name."
2. Of EVANGELISM
2 Corinthians 5:17-18, "For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life And who is adequate for these things?"
3. SACRIFICES
I Peter 2:4-5 "As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
4. PRAYERS
Revelation 5:8, "And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints."
C. Displaying The GLORY of God’s Holiness
On the crown of the high priest, "Holiness to the LORD"
D. Enjoying the PRESENCE of the Lord
• in our lives…Abba…can pray in an instant, can practice His presence anytime
E. We are Temple, PRIESTS and a sacrifice
I Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."
