The Church: The Temple of God
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The Temple of God
The Temple of God
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
Scripture reveals to us a God who is present with His people. Yahweh, isn’t a distant figure existing outside human reach, but throughout the scriptures He reveals Himself as a God who is immanent, who is close, who wants to dwell with His people. From the very beginning this has been His way
He walked with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden (Gen 3:8)
He was with His people in the wilderness guiding them as a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night (Ex 13:21-22)
His presence filled the first temple in Jerusalem (2 Chron 7:1-3)
1 As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. 3 When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”
Then Jesus, God’s own son came to earth and dwelt with mankind (John 1:14)
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Yahweh is a God who makes His home with His people. He is familial, relational, He is loving. It’s who He is and we know that He doesn’t change (James 1:17)
James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
And so - when Christ left earth and returned to heaven after his work was completed He made sure that His church knew that He wasn’t abandoning them, God wasn’t removing Himself from His dwelling place. (John 14:16-18 )
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Many Jews believe that Yahweh’s dwelling place was destroyed in AD 70 when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by Roman armies - But as we saw in last week’s passage in Mark, the temple was cursed by Christ for its hypocrisy and His Presence had departed it long before AD 70.
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The idea of the temple in the Old Testament was:
The actual place where God’s manifest presence dwelt.
The place where He was to be worshipped.
This was so much the case that all worship of God in locations other than the temple were forbidden and seen as idolatrous.
But Jesus said that an hour was coming when people would worship God outside of Jerusalem and it wouldn’t be counted as idolatry but as true worship! How could this be?
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
INDIVIDUALLY THE TEMPLE OF GOD
Being a Christian isn’t just a case of doing Christiany things, it’s not about being a nice person, or just believing in God - a Christian is someone who is indwelt by the Spirit of God. They are a walking temple. It’s upon them that the manifest presence of God now dwells and it’s in them that God is now continually to be worshipped.
CORPORATELY THE TEMPLE OF GOD
Just as each individual Christian is the temple of God - the church gathered is also called The Temple of God.
16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
So when we come together and meet as the Ekklesia of God, we are collectively the dwelling place of God on earth. Church is where God’s presence is manifest, it’s where His glory is revealed. When sacrifices of praise are offered by us in worship, His glory falls, when His word is heralded, His glory falls, when the church prays, His glory falls just like it did when Solomon made that great offering at the consecration of the first temple.
Just as the temple in Jerusalem was to be kept holy and free of idolatry, so too the Church of Christ must be a holy place, kept free of idol worship - whatever those idols might be, power, fame, buildings, legacy, money, anything that takes the place of God in our worship we must purge them from our midst.
Each time the temple was destroyed in Jerusalem it was destroyed because of pagan idolatry. When God’s people began to behave like the world around them, and worship their gods - God would send prophets to warn them and if they didn’t repent He would send judgement. It feels like the visible church in this part of the world is in that situation again - facing pressure to become like the world and worship the idols of the world, but we must resist or be destroyed.
LIVING STONES
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
So Christ is likened to a living stone, rejected by men but chosen by God. And our connection to Him is that we too are living stones, because of His new life in us. We were once dead but now we’re alive (Eph 2). We are rejected by the world but chosen in Christ by God, Eph 1:4-6
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
And we’re being built up into a Spiritual house. By who? Who is doing the building here? It’s not us. It’s a divine passive - it’s God who is doing the building,
18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
It’s Christ that builds the temple. It’s the reverse of the temples in Jerusalem, made by man for God, now God’s temple is made by God with man! And so it’s not us as Pastors or evangelists or whatever that build the church - it’s God. And because God is the builder and not man - the structure will never fail, no matter how bad things might look through our blinkered view.
Of course the rock Jesus was referring to is ultimately the revelation that Peter had moments before Jesus said this - That He is the Christ. But it’s also true that Peter, along with the other apostles was a foundational living stone upon which Christ built. So you see the church, the temple of God has a foundation. A foundation, not many foundations, not any foundation but one very specific foundation. The foundation of a building may not be visible to our eyes, it’s below the ground but I can tell you it’s the buildings most important facet, if the foundations are faulty it doesn’t matter how ornate the rest of the building is it will fail. So what does scritpure say of the foundation of the church?
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Christ is spoken of as being the chief cornerstone of the church, considered the most important stone in ancient construction it was like a key that held the whole of the rest of the structure together. So the Church is built upon and held together by Christ.
Which Christ? The Christ preached by the Apostles and Prophets (NT Prophets). They are the foundation of the Church. But which apostles and prophets?
I’ve heard it taught in some circles that Paul is teaching that you need to have a modern day apostle as your foundation before you can build your church. But this is not what Paul means here.
In the new testament the word apostle has both a wide and a very narrow definition. It can mean ‘sent one’, and on that definition, we’re all apostles, it can mean missionary, someone sent out by a church to minister somewhere, like a missionary, and in the narrow sense it means the Apostles of Christ, the 12 and arguably Paul too. And it’s the narrow meaning that Paul is using here - he is speaking about himself and the 12, since following his imagery - you only lay a foundation once. You don’t keep relaying it and relaying it, once it’s in, it’s in.
So though on some level we might say apostolic ministry continues today in missionary work or church planting, the office of Apostle is closed. That commission has been fulfilled and their names are already written on the foundations of the new Jerusalem Rev 21:14
14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
No man, therefore, could be an apostle unless—1. He was immediately appointed by Christ. 2. Unless he had seen him after his resurrection and had received the knowledge of the Gospel by immediate revelation. 3. Unless he was rendered infallible by the gift of inspiration. These things constituted the office and were essential to its authority. Those who without these gifts and qualifications claimed the office, are called “false apostles.” - Charles Hodge
21 So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.”
It is noteworthy that no major leader in the history of the church – not Athanasius or Augustine, not Luther or Calvin, not Wesley or Whitefield – has taken to himself the title of “apostle” or let himself be called an apostle. If any in modern times want to take the title “apostle” to themselves, they immediately raise the suspicion that they may be motivated by inappropriate pride and desires for self-exaltation, along with excessive ambition and a desire for much more authority in the church than any one person should rightfully have. (Systematic Theology, 911) - Grudem
So we don’t need the covering of Apostle Karen or Prophet Ken to ensure that we’re an apostolic church. A Church is only apostolic insofar as it holds to the doctrine of the original apostles, the Gospel, the good news, which The Holy Spirit has preserved for us in the Holy Scriptures.
The Temple of God, the Church, therefore is built upon and held together by Christ and is faithful to the teachings of His Apostles as found in the scriptures.
JOINED TOGETHER
Both Peter and Paul talk about how you and I as individual stones of this temple are being fitted together or built together by God. I think it’s an interesting parallel to look back at the construction of the first temple in Jerusalem and see how the stones were fitted then:
7 In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.
And so the stones were chiselled at the quarry, not the site of the temple. I think this world is the quarry - this is the place where we are chiselled and cut to size by the Lord through the challenges and trials of life. We are in the quarry being prepared for our position in His temple; that’s what we call sanctification.
PRIESTHOOD OF BELIEVERS
Peter talks not just about our position in the temple, he also talks about our role there. In this temple of God, the church - you and I, we are all priests. And what do priests do? They offer sacrifices to the Lord. They are chosen, and set apart by God, they are purified before they enter the temple, and then they come to offer sacrifices to God.
Now Christ is our great high priest, so we are again following in His footsteps not just as living stones but as serving priests. And He, our high priest has offered the perfect sacrifice for sin once and for all:
10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
And so we don’t need to re:offer that same sacrifice over and over as the Catholics teach, nor do we need to provide our own sacrifice for sin since it has been dealt with. So what are our sacrifices as priests?
15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
These are the sacrifices which we offer to the Lord day after day. And it is upon this continual sacrifice of praise that the Glory of God falls in His church.