A Call to Renewal: Part 2

Introduction: Last PM Service we looked at some of the big problems in our world and how to reach a world that is post-Christian. We saw that even in the face of tragedy in culture there is hope. The ebbs and flows of Christianity in culture produce renewals that point people to Jesus in new and ever-growing ways. We find ourselves in a now post-Christian word - what we call a Secular world.

Review last lesson’s slides

Secular Worldview = An attempt to create a system for human flourishing in which the presence of God is absent.

Secularism = the absence of the presence

After teaching last time, I received some positive feedback and had some further conversations along the topic throughout the week which have led me to return to a similarly themed message tonight.

As believers, we are seeking to see the renewal of our culture that has been damaged by the absence of God’s presence.

“Any healing and reviving of our personal and social systems, must begin with an understanding of God’s presence.”

“Those hungering for renewal live with one hand holding tightly in the past and the other hand pointing toward the hope found at the end of the age when God’s presence again fills the universe.” - Kevin J. Vanhoozer

This is the exact opposite of the way the world today views their lives - we live in the present instead of the past and future realities. We want to erase the past and bind the future to improve our today and this mentality is completely self-destructive.

As Christians we must remember the biblical past and place our hope in the biblical future; living for those realities in the only way to renew our current time and moment. The only way to aptly pursue these things is by the presence of God in our lives.

Scripture is a great unfolding drama revealing the importance of God’s presence in the world.

We must understand the role of God’s presence in the world

TEMPLES:

We think of temples as places of worship - like a church

Temples operated as the central hub of gentile nations

“The role of the temple in the ancient world is not primarily a place for people to gather together in worship like modern churches. It is a place for the deity – sacred space. It is his home, but more importantly his headquarters – the control room.” - John Walton

Temples operated as models of the life systems of the world. The ideology of religion illustrated in stone.

Temples went wrong fast

Errant cultures looked for their gods seated in their temples to provide for their needs. Needs of hunger, thirst, fertility, prosperity, war, etc… These God’s were placated by sacrifice. They could be nudged by explicit or harmful actions and they could be persuaded by men. When the life system of the world seemed to be faltering, the priests and worshippers could cajole and even trick the gods into playing their role through magic and ritual.

Babel (Gen. 11:1-4)

Egypt

Baal

Molech

South American gods

NT Temples

Our Modern Temples Are Failing

Once the temples of the ancient world were exhausted, it’s worshippers moved to drastic measures to protect the false thing their hope was resting in. The followers became anxious, confused, and even desperate. We see this in our world as sports, media, societies, politics, cities, brands, celebrities, and countless other environments return empty cups to the table of meaning.

Israel’s temple shone as a prophetic witness to a flourishing and functioning life system.

There had to be similarities to the other pretenders - the false temples.

There had to be differences as well. (John 2:15-17 - Do not love the world)

By understanding these differences we begin to grasp God’s way of redemption and renewal.

The Original Temple: Eden

The creation is a cosmic temple with God’s presence in the center

The world was created as a place primarily for God’s presence.

The Presence of God

God came to dwell in his temple

Day 7 - God dwells among men

Image-bearers Rather than Idols

Idols at teh center of pagan temples were made with human hands reflecting their creators - man.

In contrast God creates humans in His image.

The Expanding Temple

Adam and Eve were called to multiply and fill the earth - thereby expanding the glory of God throughout the global temple of God.

At times this expansion seemed to pause or even reverse, but through all of it we see God’s plan unfold.

Israel as a place still expanded into a global power

The destruction of the Temple and captivity of the people resulted in a dispersion.

The cross work of Jesus brings the Gospel to the Gentiles

So, we see the work of God looking back to Eden and Forward to Heaven.

God’s Temple Showcased His Greatness

Pagan temples had little gods and multiple gods

In Contrast, the earth’s creator is the one true God.

God’s Temple Holds Together Heaven and Earth.

God and man communed together

Humans were holy, obedient, and in relationship with their Father

Adam and Eve chose Autonomy over their priestly role in the first temple.

They rejected God’s pace for their own impatience

They chose a human-powered vision of progress over the divine presence

Their constant companion was no longer God’s presence, but instead shame, anxiety, and isolation.

Was their expulsion extreme? Yes. But necessary as they had chosen to be agents of chaos without the presence of God.

“Human flesh, cut off from God’s presence, mutates into something monstrous - a force that resists the expansion of God’s presence out into the world.”

Adam and Eve’s descendants would then go out into the world with the same desires of priesthood and worship, with the reality of God written on their hearts (Rom. 1:18-), but without the divine enablement of the presence of God.

God refuses to abandon His children

Read pp. 92-93

Conclusion: Our world is similarly reeling from a rejection of God and the failures of their attempted replacements. They have substituted other things to fill the longings and cravings of their hearts. It is only through the presence of God in their lives that the lost will reform, renew, revive, and replicate in this world.

“All other temples fell short, all other competing life systems were defeated upon the cross - they would go on, but their game was up.

“Jesus the new temple, was to birth a new kind of people of God, a new temple, drawn together, transformed and filled with His presence.

We are the Temple of the living God. The church is the gathering of the people of God and the commissioning of those people to the world. Just as Adam and Eve were given the mandate to worship and expand, we now have that commission and power from on high to present a message of hope, life and peace to the world. We must live out the presence of God in this place. We must show what the worship of God looks like in our temples. We must reach with one hand to the past and the other hand to the future, we must prepare our hearts by returning to the presence of our God. We must evangelize the world by presenting the presence of God, we must must prayerfully long for the completion of the presence of God in his creation.