The Holy Temple of the Lord
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
If you have your Bibles please turn to
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household,
So prior to Christmas at the service we had with communion, we looked at the various functions of the Blood of Christ. This is why so much of God , Jesus, the Bible is a never ending well of faith and knowledge. This is why you can read the Bible and find new lessons and meanings each and every time. It is impossible to ever get to the bottom of the well. Instead we continuly get nurished from this Spiritual food. This is one that we didn’t get into yet and that is that we are no longer strangers but have become citizens within God’s people. As I have stated before there were ways to become a part of the Hebrew nation in the Old Testament but through Christ that way has been paved and all it takes is simple faith in Jesus. We have become members of the household.
If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root,
I like this explanation. The Covenant with Abraham that God made so long ago is still in place to this day. So going back through each covenant that God makes with humanity. Those covenants all build upon each other and God has stayed faithful through each one of those covenants. Culminating in the covenant that we Share with Jesus. We now share in the nourishing sap. Because of what Jesus did we have been put in the same household as God’s Chosen people. If you believe in Jesus you are now God’s chosen people. This is an incredibly momentous thing that Jesus has done for us.
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.
The chief cornerstone was very important in ancient building. When a building was built the entire building had to line up with the chief cornerstone. This is crucial because our faith, our ministry, need to be currently aligned with Christ. So Jesus the author and cornerstone of our faith. So whenever we are doing anything we need to make sure that we are aligned with what Jesus did and what He taught. We as a church need to make sure that collectively we are aligned with Jesus. Together we are the church. Together we worship Jesus and move closer to Jesus together.
And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
We are actively being built. So in the Old Testament God lived in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple. Now in the age of the church, God’s temple, his dwelling place is us. We need to be actively moving toward Jesus and deepening our faith within. This is called the sanctification process.
Albeit sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit, yet it is equally true, and this we must ever bear in mind, that the Holy Spirit makes us active agents in our own sanctification.
Our Position And Our Purpose, Volume 57, Sermon #3245 - 2 Corinthians 7:1
Charles Spurgeon
Spurgeon is correct and this is the part that we as Christians need to take a lot more serious. The Holy Spirit gives us discernment, understanding the Bible give us discernment. However it takes us being active to truly turn away from sin. This isn’t as much as giving you a long list and things you can’t do. It is more of living like Jesus did. The more you fill your life with Godly things, the more that you won't want to do those sinful actions anymore. God has written His laws on our hearts. He is dwelling inside us, we are in God’s family. We must take active action to move closer and ensure that our lives are aligned with Jesus.
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—
Because of what Paul was doing within the Gentile world, he found himself in prison. Yet this wasn’t something that he got discouraged about. Jesus was our suffering Messiah. The apostles and particularly Paul believed that to suffer these injustices was to be closer to Jesus. There a couple of points I want to make here about faith. Time and time again Paul finds himself in prison. Peter and John in the book of Acts find themselves in prison. Throughout history people have found themselves in prison. I want to briefly share the story of John Bunyan who wrote the Pilgrim’s Progress
in 1660 Bunyan was arrested for preaching without official permission from King Charles II; he was to spend the next 12½ years in Bedford County Gaol. The initial sentence was only for 3 months. All He had to do was agree to stop preaching the Gospel. During those 12 and half years , he preached inside the prison and made shoe laces to support his family. He also wrote the book the Pilgrim’s progress. That book has sold over 250 million copies since it was published in 1678
My point in telling you this story, is that God works through all situations. I doubt John Bunyan thought his book would go on to inspire and sell that many copies. Yet he stayed faithful to God. John knew that he couldn’t agree to stop preaching the Gospel. Yet that required him to be in jail. When we stay faithful whether it is here or in eternity you will be rewarded. Futhermore you never know how far God takes your faithfulness. 1
Paul considered it an honor to go to prison for Jesus. John Bunyan could not agree to stop preaching. Suffering is about perspective. Both of these men could have given up and the world would not have blamed them. But they couldn’t give up because of what Jesus had done, and because of what Jesus continues to do. Their foundation was aligned with the cornerstone.
Paul goes on to say in
I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ,
I am less than the least. We talked about it at the beginning of this series, We are not to forget where we came from. We came from sin into the Lord’s house. This is the only transformation that works. So many people will take on new ways to improve themselves with the new year around the corner. And honestly that is great, we should strive to be better. However when we aren’t doing with God then we are missing the point. Think about Paul for a second. He was a high ranking Pharisee. We know from the book of Acts that he was there when Stephen became the first martyr. We also know that he was actively trying to crush the Christian believers. Now here is what I want you to think about. If you were in charge, is this man you would pick to go out and preach about Jesus? Yet that is who God picked. Through God’s boundless grace, Saul is transformed into Paul.
There is two sides of the coin that is pride. One side is ego. The other side is self deprecation. God loves you enough to send Jesus. He formed you in the womb. He knows the number of hairs on your head. Through God’s grace he tranformed Paul.
This is what God did in his life. Imagine if you gave yourself fully over to God, what He can do in your life?
All of this came seem overwheliming but it is little steps of faith each and everyday. Each day we follow the Path that Jesus laid out in front of us, each step and each day. Those steps and days add up over time until we reach the destintaion that God has for us.
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is why church is so important. The church age is supposed to be making the wisdom of God known to the to the world. The church is supposed to be preaching the Gospel and preaching the redemption that has been given to us through Jesus Christ. We are supposed to be preaching that Jesus was born of a virgin, that He was both fully man and fully God. That He went to the cross for our sins and that He died and rose again on the third day. This is why the church needs to realign with Jesus on a constant basis. I pray that people will do that. I pray that the church on a large scale gets back to the Bible. The church is the one that is supposed to help people find Jesus. We are supposed to be the temple and body of Christ.
In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.
In Jesus and through faith in Jesus we may approach God. I can’t necessarily put into words how important these words are. The creator and sustainer of all of this around us. The one who created you and I , the one who sent us Jesus. Because of Christ, you can freely go to the Father anytime. You have access to the Holy Spirit that provides discernment and comfort and guidance. You have access to peace and joy. I’ll be honest, I do not know how people live without the ability to freely approach God. I lived quite away awhile without God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit in my life. It is not something that I ever wish to go back to. I’ll be honest it was a false joy in my life. I didn’t truly enjoy life like the way that I do now. Of course there are hard times now, just like there were then. There is a big difference now, I pray, I have fellowship with other believers. My life has a true purpose now. If you are not careful, you can sleep walk through life, you will miss the beautiful moments even in times of suffering where God is there with you.
We are going to close with this verse today.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Let us pray
