5. A New Temple

Ephesians 2:11–22 ESV

11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 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.

Introduction

I am not a great softball player, but one year I decided that I would try out Church softball. I don’t have a really strong arm but I can catch so because I am left handed and pretty tall they decided to put me on first base. So I got the biggest softball glove I could find and I stretched out to get the ball. We had this shortstop that had great aim and a cannon of an arm so half the time I would catch the ball just for self preservation.

And along with still having my gargantuan softball glove, I happen to still have my Church softball T-shirt. Yup. My Church growing up was called “Temple Baptist Church”. Growing up this never seemed weird to me, until I one day someone saw my shirt and asked me, “How can your Church be both Jewish and Baptist at the same time?”

Because in their experience the only group of people who talked about going to “Temple” were practicing Jews and the idea that they could also be “baptist” was confusing to them. And it made me wonder, Why would those who first named my childhood Church call it “Temple Baptist?” I don’t really know, because it has been around since the late 1800’s but I imagine that it had something to do with the second half of Ephesians Chapter 2.

Tension

And as far as I know, most if not all of you are not Jewish. Some of us may have done some research on ancestry.com or something and found that the “melting pot” of our heritage has some Jewish descent but by enlarge we are not a Jewish people and so when Paul says, “you Gentiles” there is a very real sense in which He is including us in that category.

And we may just shrug our shoulders over that idea today, but in the days of the early Church this divide was a much bigger deal. For 2,000 years God had set apart a particular people to be His chosen people and as we touched on last week, that meant that they were given privileges, resources and responsibilities that the rest of humanity did not have access to.

One of the things that they had access to was the Temple in Jerusalem, the place where God’s presence was said to dwell. It was a magnificent and meticulously built structure that was originally built to very exact specifications that God had given his people…but did you know that during the time frame of the Bible the Temple building in Jerusalem was actually built three different times?

That the Temple that Jesus walked into would have hardly been recognized by Solomon who built the first one. That one was destroyed by the Babylonians at the time of the exile almost 600 years before Jesus walked the earth. But after the 70 years of exile, God moved in the hearts of pagan Kings to send His people back to Jerusalem and they began to rebuild the Temple.

The Bible records that when they finished a portion of the it there was a great celebration, but the old men grieved because the glory of the rebuilt Temple was nothing like the first. That diminished reproduction stood for hundreds of years until King Herod the Great decided to completely remodel, refurbish and upscale the Temple in Jerusalem, to win political favor with the Jewish leaders.

This was the Temple that Jesus walked into. The Gospel of Mark tells us:

Mark 11:15–17 (ESV)

15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”

John then tells us of the religious leaders response,

John 2:18–20 (ESV)

18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”

Of course Jesus was not talking about the brick and mortar building that they were standing before that day. He was talking about a different kind of dwelling place for the presence of God. He was talking about Himself.

Colossians 2:9 (ESV) 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

So the idea of a Temple, or a dwelling place for the presence of God was something that Jesus was passionate about defending and promoting, but not necessarily the kind that is built by hands.

And I brought us through all this talk about God’s Temple because our text today concludes with a description of how this temple principle is realized today in the Church. It says, “... the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.” (Eph 2:21b)

How that happens among God’s people is what we are after today. So if you have your Bibles, open them up to Ephesians chapter 2, it’s on page 976 in the Bibles in the chairs. As you are turning there I will pray and we will dive into the idea of TEMPLE and the Church together.

Truth

So remember that Paul is writing this letter to the Church in Ephesus. Ephesus is quite a ways away from Jerusalem and was populated mostly by Gentiles who had probably never been to Jerusalem and possibly had never heard anything about the Temple there or what happened there.

But the Christian Church was a movement that was initiated by God through the Jews. They were the only ones to hear about it at first, but then it spread to the Gentiles, which is great news for us. Still, one of the issues among the early Church was working out long standing differences between Jews and Gentiles. So Paul continues by saying...

Ephesians 2:11–13 (ESV)

11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—

Without going into all the messy details of circumcision, the big idea was that God gave Abraham a private symbol of the covenant or promise that he made with them. So the Jews would distance themselves from those who were not Jewish by referring to this private symbol and calling all Jews “uncircumcised”.

Maybe you remember the boy David calling out Goliath by saying, “who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 1 Samuel 17:26 (ESV)

It was never a compliment or even a neutral statement of fact to call someone “uncircumcised”. The idea is that…THEY are not a part of US and over time the hard hearts of the Jewish people decided this meant that they are not as good as us.

God did instruct them to remain separate in order that they would be an example for the other nations of what living right with our creator God looked like, but the Jews went a different way and instead used the separation as an opportunity to look down on the other nations. Not unlike some Christians today who separate themselves from others and then consider them less than.

Whenever God’s people are not being the example they are supposed to be, the people around them don’t learn about God’s plan and what it looks like to be in a right relationship with Him. This is what it looked like in Paul’s day..

12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

The best way to describe the condition of the Gentile at this time in history is to be “without”. They were..

Without Christ - This is not saying that Jesus has abandoned them, but that they were separated from the idea of a coming Messiah, Savior or Christ. They didn’t even know to look or one or hope in one because God’s people were not the example they were supposed to be.

Without Citizenship - even if they somehow did make it to the Temple in Jerusalem, they had no legal status to participate in all that was there.

Without Covenants - They were strangers to these promises that God had made. They had no awareness that there even was a plan. And this caused them to be...

Without Hope and

Without God in the world.

It’s interesting because the Greek Word translated “without God” here is ἄθεος (atheos) and it is where we get our English word “atheist” or someone who didn’t believe in God. Which is something of an ironic twist, because outside of Isreal, Gentiles would often call Jews “atheos” because they didn’t ever have any idols in their homes and the one physical mark of their faith was a private one.

But Paul is reminding the Gentile Christians in the Church that this was their condition before they met Jesus…but now v13...

13 But now in Christ Jesus [not just the promise of a coming Christ, but in Jesus himself] you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

This is our first theme

This new “temple” welcomes those who are far off (Eph 2:10-13)

And To make sure the Gentiles understand how they are welcomed, Paul takes a short side path to describe how

This new “temple” brings the near and far together (Eph 2:14-18)

As a Jewish Christian, Paul has been talking to the Gentiles Christians using exclusive language, but listen to how he has moved to inclusive language to show how “in Christ” the “you, they and theirs” become “we, us and ours”.

14 For he himself [Jesus] is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

Since we are talking about the temple principle, I have to stop for a moment and flesh out some of the language here that is easy to miss…especially for us Gentiles. We can understand the concept behind the phrase, the dividing wall of hostility but to the Jewish ear in the first century they would have heard something more than just a principle. Because this was the name of an actual wall.

Some of the “upscaling” that King Herod did to the Temple complex was to expand the foundation to be significantly larger than it ever was before. This included expanded courtyards surrounded by porticos. The outermost courtyard, the one that was the farthest away from the Holy of Holies where God’s presence was said to dwell was the “Court of the Gentiles”. (blue arrows)

From the writings of Josephus, the first century historian, we learn that this courtyard had boundary walls that were 3 cubits or 5 feet high. (red arrows) He tells us that on these boundary walls there were signs posted there that were written in both Latin and Greek. The signs were warning signs to remind those of who was in and who was out when it came to getting closer to God.

Archeologists have unearthed two of these signs, this is what one of them looks like, and from it we read the words, “No foreigner may enter within the barricade which surrounds the sanctuary and enclosure. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death.”

Hmmm...I wonder what they mean by that? It’s pretty clear isn’t it. I would say “hostility” is a good name for that wall.

But even though the Jews would have pictured the wall there at the Temple, Jesus didn’t come to just break down a stone wall. He came to bring us all peace with God and in that... peace with one another. He has “made us both one” verse 15...

15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

One commentator I read this past week likened this One new man in place of the two idea to something like two rivers coming together. The Jewish people being the smaller of the two rivers and as if flows through time this larger river flows right on into it so making the waters from the two rivers indistinguishable from each other as they flow together under a whole new name.

The early church father St. Chrysostom (Chris-is-stom) likened it to God taking one statue of silver and the other of lead and melding them together to make one that turned out to be Gold. So that one doesn’t become the other, but both become something new, something even better than before.

We may remember what we were before, where we came from, but “in Christ” all we can see is that we have been made to be the same Gold!

This is such an important principle for the Western Church today. Our culture right now is bent on dividing people up into groups and then judging the entire group the same. They try and divide us by the color of our skin, the numbers in our bank account, the medical decisions you’ve made, the person you voted for, the gender you are...and on and on. And sadly the hostility that comes from these divisions are leaking into the Christian Church.

What this text teaches us is that when we come to Christ, whoever we were before is now subject to our new identity “In Christ”. That is our primary identity. Do you know what I mean by that? Your primary identity is the one that trumps everything else that you are. Every other role, responsibility, relationship that you might have in the many spheres of your life takes second chair to who you now are “In Christ”.

It is not that we ignore the realities of our differences, in many ways our differences is what makes the Church gathering so beautiful. Like a mosaic of contrasting colors and shapes coming together to make an even more striking picture...but when the many pieces come together in unity...that picture should look like Jesus. We don’t ignore our differences, but we treat them as secondary to who we are becoming together “in Christ”.

The struggle for the early Christian Church was the division between Jews and Gentiles. They had generations of identity forming practices that they had to lay aside in order to take a hold of this new thing that Jesus was making them into.

We are going to look at this in our table talk groups after the service, but let me get you thinking on the question right now: What is it in your life that you know that you need to make secondary to your primary identity in Christ? What is it that you have made more important in your life than coming together in the body of Christ to display him?

Because if you we would call ourselves anything else before we are a Christian, then we aren’t just dealing with an identity issue, we are dealing with an idolatry issue. And idolatry issues always lead to hostility and this will destroy you and the Church.

Thankfully Jesus came to kill the hostility...

17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

This new “temple” welcomes those who are far off, ... brings the near and far together in peace

And lastly this morning...

This new “temple” is a built on an unshakable foundation (Eph 2:19-22)

Here in verses 19-22 Paul brings us back to complete his thought from verse 13. To complete his message to Gentiles like us. The trajectory of salvation was not aimed at us Gentiles. Remember, we were “without”:

without Christ

without Citizenship

without Covenants

without Hope

without God

Ephesians 2:13 (ESV)

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

They were without Christ -> “But now in Christ” (2:13)

They were without Citizenship - > but in Christ...

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,

We might not see it at first glance, but these labels progress in degree to go from being the futhest away to be the closest possible.

To be a “stranger” was to be a foreigner who was just passing through. The onl right you had was to be looked upon with suspicion.

To be an “alien” was to settle in the city and do business, so that poeple knew you but you had no standing.

To be a citizen was to have standing. Now you had the right to speak and the right be heard.

But Paul progresses it one step further. To be members of a household was not just about being heard, but about being cared for. As God had cared for his children throughout their history. Gentiles are now grafted in so that we are members of the household of God.

So while we were without covenants -> Now we are a part of God’s household which is...

20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

And those apostles and prophets were sent out with one foundational truth. We who were without hope, now have hope in...

Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

And if you haven’t gotten the message yet, this new “temple” is not a physical building like it was in ancient times. The idea of the Temple was to have a place that was set apart and made holy, but “in Christ Jesus” God is making a people holy.

Because our “trespasses and sins” separated all of us from our holy God. So in effect we were all “without God”, but now “in Christ” God is within us!

22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Application

When we think of the Temple in Jerusalem most of us get an image of the last one, the one that King Herod built. We know from Josephus and other ancient sources that the King was motivated more by power and politics than by a love for God. In fact, when the King announced his building plan the people were not happy. They didn’t trust him and when began tearing up the old foundations in order to lay new ones they were very concerned.

But he did follow through with what he said and when He was done the Temple complex was exponentially “bigger” than before. And “bigger is better” right? Well not always.

It is said that among the foundations of the ruins of Herod’s Temple you can find his seal marking the stone. Herod’s Temple was more about Herod than it was about God. And in 70 AD, not long long after Jesus returned to heaven the Roman empire came in and destroyed Jerusalem and Herod’s Temple.

Landing / Next Steps

This new spiritual Temple that Jesus is building is set on a shure foundation. The apostles and prophets who teach us about Jesus Christ. As long as we continue in him then we have nothing to fear.