You Are The Temple

1 Corinthians chapter 6

19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

I was once visiting Chicago and came across one of those men with a cardboard sign asking for money. As I talked and prayed with him I heard a pitiful story of death and violence that swirled around both him and his family. His sister had died and other family members had suffered and died.

Having given him a pitiful small amount of money I laid hands on him and prayed for him. An open wound on his head confirmed that he had been brutally mugged the night before. I left with little doubt that he too would soon be dead on the violent streets of Chicago.

A former prostitute Annie Lobert consumed a large amount of cocaine to bury the pain and went completely blind. I knew it was over," she says. She had a vision of her own funeral and saw her family lamenting that she had been a prostitute.

In that dark moment, Lobert called out for salvation. "Jesus, please save me - I don't know if You're real, but I don't want to die," she said.

When an ambulance came to get her, the doctor told her she should have died from the quantity of cocaine that she had consumed. "God must be with you," he said. "I knew that Jesus heard my prayer," says Lobert - "I laid there, and I had this peace come over me that was nothing like I had ever felt in my entire life. And I knew God gave me a second chance."

The former prostitute started reading her Bible and recovered from drugs, but was afraid to go to church because of what people might think of her. Much to her surprise, the people that she met there embraced her.

God began to heal her from her past, and the Holy Spirit testified to her spirit that she was beautiful, chosen, and set apart for Him. "I started to stand on Jesus' words - that I'm whole, that I'm healed, that I'm pure. And that gives me peace."

Lives in ruin. One restored to be the temple that God called her to be.

In the book of Haggai the Prophet confronts the leaders to restore the temple….

The leaders had been humbled by their exile to Babylon, hopeful in their return to their Promised Land, and then so discouraged by opposition in their rebuilding of the temple that they had quit (Ezra 4:24). Now, sixteen years later, with Haggai blaming their lack of food, clothing, and shelter on their failure to rebuild the temple, the Jews were receptive to his message of rebuilding the Lord’s house. (source google)

The temple was the place where God chose to dwell –

It was incredible and no other building on earth was like it physically or spiritually

Stones up to 40 tons – unable to be moved by modern machinery heights varying in description from 15 to 20 stories high created in such a way that they were architecturally perfect – huge blocks of rock that were so precisely placed together by some of the 100000 men working on the project at one time that you could not slip a piece of paper between them

Despite the magnificence of all that was there undoubtedly the centrepiece of this majestic complex was the Temple itself. A building of shining white marble and gold, with bronze entrance doors, it was said that you could not look at the Temple in daylight as it would blind you. The attention to detail in its construction is exemplified by the placing of gold spikes on the roof line of the building to prevent birds sitting on the Temple and soiling it. (Jewish virtual library.)

• But at the core of the temple was the Holy of Holies (Kodesh HaKodashim or debir), the innermost chamber

The Temple precinct, located on the extended Temple Mount platform was huge and in Herod’s extended precinct 1 million people could gather

The Temple edifice had three distinct chambers:

Temple vestibule or porch (ulam)

Temple sanctuary (hekhal or heikal), the main part of the building

But at he core was the Holy of Holies it was here in the innermost chamber that the people met with God.

It was here that the angel appeared to Zechariah in such dramatic circumstances.

8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.