The Doctrine of the Church (Part Four)
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If you want to, you can go ahead...
...and turn to Ephesians 2 in your Bibles.
We’re going to be continuing our study...
...on the Doctrine of the Church.
For the last two weeks...
...we’ve been looking at...
...a second aspect of...
...the church’s foundational OT conceptualization:
The Church as the sacred place...
...of God’s special presence on the earth.
But, once again, we didn’t make it...
...nearly as far as I had hoped.
So, once again...
...after we review...
We’re going to pick back up...
...where we left off last week.
-But first, let’s begin by reading...
...the passage that we ended with last week...
...at the end of Ephesians 2...
And then we’ll pray and ask for the Lord’s help.
This is the Word of the Lord:
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.
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Pray
-We started all of this in the book of Genesis
Remember:
27 So God created man in his own image...
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over . . . every living thing that moves on the earth.”
But:
8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east...
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
Out of all the earth...
This was a sacred space...
One that held the place of highest priority...
...for the stewardship of man...
Because it was the place of...
...God’s special presence on the earth.
-But of course, man sinned...
...and broke the peace that he had with God:
24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Because of his sin:
He was driven out of the “sacred space”
And with that:
He lost the privilege of God’s special presence.
He lost his access to...
...the sacred place of mediation (the Tree of Life)!
-And we traced that idea out...
...throughout much of the Old Testament.
Jacob’s Ladder
The Burning Bush
The tabernacle:
8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.
Not quite Eden...
...but it was a huge step forward.
But again…
There was always THIS reminder:
31 “And you shall make a veil… It shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it...
33 ...and the veil shall separate for you the Holy Place from the Most Holy.
Again, a painful reminder of...
24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Later a more permanent sacred place was constructed:
Solomon’s Temple
But, it too failed to deliver any ultimate...
Return to Eden
Peace with God.
Because it too:
1 ...can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.
And the thrice holy God...
...would accept nothing less.
And so, Solomon’s Temple was destroyed...
The “east gate” (Genesis 3)...
...was closed again.
But remember the promises that followed:
26 I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore.
27 My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
28 Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”
9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former...
-Remember:
A temple was rebuilt...
...within a hundred years or so...
...of most all of these prophecies.
But:
10 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord...
12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid...
Why?
It paled in comparison to Solomon’s Temple
It was even more paltry...
...when compared to the one Ezekiel saw!
Yet the Lord said:
9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’ ”
So we asked...
...and began to answer:
How would God EVER...
...come to FULLY and PERMANENTLY...
...dwell among his people again...
...given the fact that they were now...
...inherently sinful...
...and insufferably fallen?
And we started with this:
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory,...
Tabernacled!
It was in the incarnation of Jesus Christ...
...that the presence of God returned...
...in its fullness to dwell with men!
Remember Paul saying...
19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
We didn’t look at this one last week...
...but think about it’s significance...
...to the theme of this study:
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom...
Think about that in light of this:
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)
12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,
20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,
You see, Jesus...
Is where God dwelled fully on the earth
Is where the blessings of Heaven...
...are mediated to the earth.
Is Where atonement and intercession...
...are fully and finally accomplished.
Is the place where eternal life (the tree of life) can be accessed.
Jesus is the true Temple!
And it’s through our union with him...
...that we too, by extension...
...are made into a holy temple...
...for God to dwell in:
Remember how it all came together:
18 And he is the head of the body, the church....
19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
20 and through him . . . making peace by the blood of his cross.
21 And you, who once were alienated...
22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
That’s how it all comes together!
The church is the Temple of God...
...because God dwells within her.
God dwells with in her because:
Of her spiritual union with Christ
Christ has made her holy and blameless in him.
And the New Testament...
...couldn’t be any clearer!
Last week we ended with:
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...
17 And he came and preached peace...
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.
That’s where we made it to last week...
But there’s so much more!
Peter employs a similar metaphor:
He refers to Jesus as:
4 ...a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,
Then he says of the church:
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.
Sounds like a Temple to me...
What about you?
-Paul said similarly in:
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.
16 ...we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
(He cites Leviticus 26:12)
“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And says the church...
...is the ultimate fulfillment of that!
Brethren, that’s how the promises are realized.
Is that clear enough?
Why would we try to go back...
...to a physical building in the middle east?
We have Christ
We are in Christ
The Spirit of Christ is in us.
What more could we want?
-Now, I mentioned to you...
...at the end of service last week...
...that this same Temple motif...
(The Church as the Eschatological Temple of God)
...was all over the book of Revelation.
And I asked you then...
...if you wanted to take the time...
...to trace some of that out...
Or just move on to the next doctrine.
Only a few of you gave me your feedback...
But the few who did...
Seemed enthusiastic about...
...plowing the depths of this idea further.
So, that’s what we’re going to do.
You can turn over to the book of Revelation if you’d like.
We don’t have to look...
...very far into the first chapter...
...before we see this idea show up.
Look:
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands,
13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.
What is being pictured?
A heavenly temple?
With a priest-king cultivating and keeping it?
Does that sound familiar?
Remember?
12 And say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch . . . he shall build the temple of the Lord.
13 It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.” ’
14 And the crown shall be in the temple of the Lord...
15 “And those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the Lord...
Look what Jesus tells John:
20 As for the mystery of the . . . the seven golden lampstands . . . the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
Of where?
Of Asia Minor, right?
That would be:
“Those who are far off!”
Now, watch what he says...
...to some of those churches:
7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
Remember that for later.
12 The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it...
12 ...and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.
And look what happens later:
4 And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
The people of God, right?
The “Called out assembly” of God’s people.
The inheritors of the promises to Abraham.
Watch:
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Maybe this is a good time to remind you:
9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’ ”
Watch what John is told about this assembly:
14 . . . “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
All of that will be very important soon.
Just remember it.
-Now, due to my own inadequacies...
...and the likelihood of us getting off topic...
...we’re going to skip over...
...the mentions of the Temple in:
Chapters 11 & 14-16...
And jump right in...
...at the acropolis if the book of Revelation:
Chapter 21!
(I would encourage you to turn there)
And we’ll jump in in Verse 1.
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
(An entirely new creation)
(No more sea — chaos and calamity)
So, John’s final series of visions...
...shows him the future consummation of all things.
And the language he uses...
...comes straight out of the OT prophets.
It first shows up:
17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.
In Isaiah Chapter 66, he adds:
22 “...the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord...
Peter added:
10 ...the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed...
12 ...the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!
13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
So, this new creation:
Completely eradicates the effects of sin.
Now, watch what was connected to that:
17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem...
Didn’t Jerusalem already exist?
THIS IS NOT THAT JERUSALEM!
It’s a NEW Jerusalem.
A NEW Holy City for God to dwell in!
Look back at Revelation 21:
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth...
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem...
There it is!
John gets to behold it in a vision!
But Watch:
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God...
What did he say in Isaiah?
18...I create Jerusalem...
By the way — remember Jesus saying this?
2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
That’s the language of a bridegroom...
...making preparations to receive his bride, right?
Well, watch this:
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
She’s all dolled up!
Arrayed in splendor!
Pure, chaste, and waiting.
You may say:
“That’s just a similitude”
“He’s just comparing the new Jerusalem to a bride”
You would be correct.
What John is seeing is a city.
It’s a vision.
But, what does it stand for?
I’ll give you a little hint:
9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,
With that in mind...
...look again at the language of the prophets:
1 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch.
2 The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.
3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married.
5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
Watch:
18 But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness.
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people...
Alright, look back at Revelation 21:
After John sees this magnificent city...
...that God has created (not men)...
This proclamation rings out from the heavens:
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man...
“dwelling place” = “skene”
“tent” or “tabernacle”
This is not a brick and mortar city.
This is a symbol for an “assembly” of people!
And watch the promise of all Old Testament promises...
...be invoked at the end of the verse:
He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
“dwell with them” = Verbal form of Skene
He will tabernacle among them!
Finally, the conditions to the conditional promises of the Old Testament...
Have been met:
3 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them,
4 then I will...
11 I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you.
12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.
Remember Ezekiel 37?
21 then say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land.
By the way — “their own land”
Is the whole world!
The New Heavens and Earth!
13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.
14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.
15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,
Back to the promises in Ezekiel:
22 And I will make them one nation . . . And one king shall be king over them all...
23 They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
24 “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes.
25 They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever.
26 I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore.
27 My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Alright, back to Revelation 21.
3 . . . “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Guess what Isaiah predicted?
6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
7 And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
BTW — That ain’t happening for anyone...
...who rejects the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ!
And neither is this:
10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
And neither is this:
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.
20 No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.
That’s hyperbole, BTW.
It would negate the other promises if not
Now, watch this:
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” . . .
When did he tell that to John?
At the end of the First Century A.D.
This is a work that has already begun.
It started with the Resurrection of Christ...
And continues on through...
...the work of the Holy Spirit in the church...
...and will continue to be built...
...until it reaches its final consummate glory...
...that we’ll see in the verses that follow!
Let me try to persuade you of that:
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Meaning that he’s the ruler of it...
The one of pre-eminent rank.
16 For by him all things were created . . . all things were created through him and for him.
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Watch:
18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
Watch the frequency here:
5 ...Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth...
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
While we’re here:
19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God...
22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
24 For in this hope we were saved...
We are already partakers in the New Creation.
(Just not in its fulness)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Remember:
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”. . .
15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus...
18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
3 ...According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Are you convinced?
Here’s a good application for us to end on:
6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.
(Sound Familiar)
Salvation by Grace Alone is affirmed clearly!
But…
The imperative of the whole book of Revelation is:
7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
Any Questions?
