“Temple - House of the Lord “
Text: Ephesians 2:19-22
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Subject; What can the biblical motif of temple teach us about worship?
Complement; God desires to meet with his people and God’s people desire to worship him.
“temple mediates God’s presence until we are in God’s presence.”
Idea: Temple mediates God’s presence and anticipates it's fulness.
Introduction...
For some people the sacred space is their garage... their cabin... their fishing spot... it's a place that refreshes and renews...
Mountains are often places of worship – height and view...
For believers we think of the church building/sanctuary as that sacred space...the place where we worship/pray/repent/hear the preached word...
And since March its been missing and placed in a unique online format...
In scripture the place of meeting with God is woven into the fabric of the story of redemption.
Scene 1 Garden of Eden - Genesis 1
God among his creation
No barriers; no go-between needed.
Then the Fall...
Genesis 3:8 ...the Lord God ... was walking in the garden in the cool of the day,... 9 ... the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
{...they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden}
God calls “Adam where are thou”?
Scene 2 Exiled from Eden...
Sin is the great barrier that separates.
Reconciliation is needed.
Notice our text eph 2:19 “foreigners and strangers...
Also v. 12 ? “separate....excluded...without hope...without God”
Everyone of us begins life in exile... are away from God... all through life he is calling us home... come home... come home
“Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling... calling o sinner come home”
Why do you linger when Jesus is calling...calling for you and for me...see on the portals he’s watching and waiting... waiting for you and for me...
Scene 3 Abraham – God makes a covenant and Abe builds an altar...
Genesis 12 “ I will bless you...through your seed A. all the world will be blessed.”
Gen 12:7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring[c] I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
**** ~The makings of a temple in very basic form...
Scene 4 Moses – builds a “Tent Of Meeting” (Tabernacle)
Exodus 25
8 “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. 9 Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.
...right after giving of the law...
Portable
proto-type of tabernacle!
(includes Holy of holies/ark of cov)
God’s presence -- Above the cherubim of the ark of the cov
Ex 25:22 There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.
Note: it's God’s idea/plan... he gives the design to Moses.
***Tabernacle -- Access to God’s presence is still limited and depends on the priest entering holy of holies (once a year); day of atonement
Scene 5 Solomon’s Temple (~970 BC)
Solomon builds the 1st permanent temple ( 1 Kings 5)
7 year project
Ark of the covenant is brought into the Holy of Holies
Temple is Filled with smoke...God dwells/abides – 1 Kings 8:10
Scene 6 Destruction/Exile; 70 Years. (586-539 BC)
Approx. 400 years of 1st temple usage
**Now...A great Crisis for Israel!
Where is God?
Why did this happen?
***We think no church for 6 months was difficult... imagine no church buildings in the entire city/province.
Crisis of faith!
Away from the temple = away from God (temple mediates)
Away from the land
Pray toward Jerusalem ... while in Exile
Jere 29:5 – 7
God’s word to exiles...? build houses and settle down... pray for the prosperity of the city; if it prospers, you too will prosper.
Then after 70 years ... a re-gathering.
“God desires to meet with his people”
Scene 7 2nd Temple Is Built By Zerubbabel (_539 BC_)
(King Cyrus of Persia makes a proclamation- 539/right after the Exile!)
Plain...modest in comparison.
However, Herod expands it... 43 years of construction
Jews have great pride in its magnificence & splendor
Haggai 2:9 “the glory of the present house will be greater...”
Scene 8 Jesus dwells among us (John 1:14) as the “temple”
“the word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood...
****God made his dwelling among us”
God comes near... in Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus takes ownership of the temple...
“my house shall be a house of prayer for all nations...” (Mk 11:17)
Past ...present and future...
Now God’s presence is mediated by the incarnation –
John 2 Jesus visits the temple...
“Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”[c]
18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body.
***Jesus calls himself the “temple”
He will be our priest
His own blood will be our means of atonement
John writes: “We have seen his glory...”
Scene 9 Pentecost...
The Church Is Now The (Temple) (Assembly) “Dwelling Place Of God.”
So... what is “church” – it's where God meets with his people!
“Assembly” – ekklesia!
Church as temple – eph 2 and 1 cor 3
“joined together”
eph 2:21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Individually too;
1 cor 3:16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
Wherever...whenever... “God with us” (indwelling)
***Our call to holy living is because we are temples of the HS (1 Cor 6:19)
We too are instruments of mediating his presence to the world!!!
Sacraments of communion and baptism, and (Preaching is priestly}
Illustrate? family habits... birthday/anniversary/Christmas meals
Who is invited into that circle?
Relationships are deepened...
God’s presence is in his people individually and corporately.
**Yet we still want more...
he’s still invisible and “hidden” so that people require faith...
Scene 10 (Gathered) – “assembly” ...”ekklesia”
The Second Coming Brings To Conclusion The Plan Of God To Be With His People.
– Lamb is temple – no actual temple in heaven (?)
No longer any need to mediate God’s presence!
Now the dwelling place of God is with his people!!!
Revelation 11:19 says the doors of God’s temple in heaven were opened and the ark of the covenant was seen within the temple, indicating the veil has been removed.
Rev 21:18 says the streets of this city-temple will be pure gold. Beale suggests this is because the entire city is the “holy of holies” of Israel’s temple (Beale, “Eden, the Temple,” 25).
So what...
(1) God desires to meet with his people
(2) his holiness requires mediation.
(3) God’s indwelling Spirit calls us ...
(4) there’s more to come!!!The gathered Church is a foretaste of heaven.../ every tribe and people and language
Invitation to believe...repent...
