Temple People pt 1

Introduction

Overview of temple people theme - the why

The concept of a temple is probably one of the hardest for us to understand as modern/postmodern people. In polytheistic or pagan religions, every god usually has a shrine or temple, where there would be a statue or idol to worship. Most temples would be referred to as the house of a specific God, and there would be sacrifices made to that god or goddess in or in front of his or her temple.

I don’t think most of us experience church that way. In any religion where temples were a central part of worship, they were seen as a somewhat dangerous place - a place where gods live in the form of idols, a place where heaven meets earth, where the anger of the gods was satisfied. So when I say that I think we should begin to think of ourselves as temple people, I would understand some strange looks.

But for the Jewish people, their temple was similar to pagan temples but with one major difference.

1st - no idols. Because the temple in Jerusalem was built with full knowledge that our God could not be limited to a simple sculpture. But it was still tremendously daunting for anyone to approach, and only a select few could go into the innermost holy place without being struck dead.

And yet, a this temple is exactly what Peter, Paul, and even Jesus himself use to describe the church. This is expansive - it extends to how we gather in worship, but also how we live out our private, family, and public lives. Peter especially felt it was important to emphasize the idea what we ARE the temple - the spiritual house of God - in his letter to Asia Minor, commonly called 1 Peter, and he want us to realize that this identity affects every aspect of our lives.

Identity as individuals

I’m not a huge fan of the word “individual” - it sounds so impersonal to ‘categorical’ even clinical. But there is a better word that at first seems worse: member.

Paul is known for describing each unique Christian as a member of the body of Christ. This is what I mean by member. And he makes it clear that each of us live as unique temples of the Holy Spirit as he lives in us.

But Peter echos by describing us as members of a spiritual house in complex metaphor that begins with stones being built into a temple for the Holy Spirit.:

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 1 Pe 2:5.

Overview of temple theme - especially Acts

If we look at the story of Peter’s own life, this is exactly what we see, and in some very ironic ways

Naming at a temple “the rock”

Leads the church, seen in the earlier part of acts - much of this happens near the temple in Jerusalem - until it DOESN’T

But the first 12 chapters of acts, while focusing on Peter’s ministry actually reveal something else - they show a version of the temple that is bursting out of every natural boundary

Physical - temple stuff happening in homes and on the streets

Priestly - priestly stuff being done by ordinary, untrained dudes; actual priests become Jesus-followers

Geographic - Jerusalem temple-type activities happening outside Jerusalem, even on the road

National - Jewish temple-type stuff including non-Jews

FC

But let’s be honest - we don’t really see this kind of ‘temple level’ holiness happening in our experience of the church today? Evangelism with power? Healing? Holiness encounters? Does going to church ever feel like being on top of Mount Everest? I think honestly church has become something else. I think it’s easy for it to become a ‘program’ - something with a a beautiful structure even, but no fire. And the same is true of our personal spiritual lives. Shouldn’t it be as amazing as those moments: Philip evangelizing while traveling, Peter having a vision on his rooftop? I think so.

Here’s the problem - according to the word of God, our identity is supposed to be found in our worship of the creator.

A temple is just a building if it is not devoted to worship and prayer, specifically.

As temple people, our faith turns into empty religion if it is not devoted to worship and prayer.

INT & RO

So what needs to change to get this devotion back in place and see our lives resemble more closely that of Peter, the apostles, and most importantly Jesus himself?

We need to have a complete re-framing of what worship and prayer DO in the context of daily life, as a community and as individual members of that community, but first I believe we gotta get a better grasp of who we are in Christ according to 1 Peter chapter 2:4-10

Exegetical Outline

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.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Pe 2:4–5.

RO restatement

I’d like us to come out of this with a completely different perception of the words “prayer and worship” - not separate activities, but the single, unified strategy for EVERYTHING we are called to DO as members of the body if Christ, and more important, the only way in which we become who we are called to BE.

“According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled[b] master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

16 Do you not know that you[c] 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.”

First Point

God Builds His People thru Worship

God Builds His People thru Prayer

As Christians, the tendency is to skip from the

Second Point

STOP - stop self-judging, lay down your perceptions, lay down criticism, lay down “doing it right” - just stop, pause, be still, even if all you have is a minute

BE - go ahead and invite God to be with you and then be bold enough to invite YOURSELF to just be there with him. It might feel weird, you might not even really feel like he’s there - so what: he is. Be with him and just talk to Him and receive from Him silently.

DO - treat prayer as an action. Treat it as the most productive work on your to do list. And then treat it as an action that encompasses your WHOLE to-do list - even hugely important tasks that involve saving lives, or big tech, or life decisions, or college plans, or SATs - whatever it is - choose to believe that the most important progress you will make today with XYZ is in lifting it up to God faithfully in prayer. Not perfectly, not eloquently, not even necessarily “correctly” - don’t treat prayer as something you can do and work as something you must do. Treat them both as two sides of the same coin. Prayer is the ultimate ACTION, that moves the heart of God, so that your hands and feet and mouth and work in general are moved BY HIM.

“As you come to him”

Call to Action

STOP - stop self-judging, lay down your perceptions, lay down criticism, lay down “doing it right” - just stop, pause, be still, even if all you have is a minute

Invitation for Prayer