A New Kind of Temple

Division

Prior to starting in this church, I had worked at Hunter Water. When I first started there, I worked in the old building which was situated between Hunter Street and King Street. You may remember it, because on one the Hunter Street side it was a beautiful building which must have been close to 100 years old. The King Street side was very much on the ugly side, which I suspect would have been built probably somewhere in the 60’s - although don’t quote me on the dates.

Inside the building, however, it was like a rabbits warren. I suspect it was a matter of years and years of tacking on new rooms, and various extensions. It was very easy to get lost as you walked between all of the connected buildings.

Because of the many disconnected spaces, the various different departments within the organisations were physically separated. And because of the physical separation it was very easy for the different groups to work in isolation of each other.

Now this is obviously a problem. You see, Hunter Water really only has a very limited objective - to provide water and wastewater services to the people of the Hunter. That’s it. Now because of the size of the task, it necessarily needs different groups - customer support, maintenance of network, planning of network, building and I could list more. But it is very important that each group knows what the next group is doing because it is all interrelated.

For example, if a pipe keeps breaking and needs replacing, but the planning group know that it should be a bigger size, then if you have open communication, you can get a cheaper and better result for everyone.

Now anyone who has worked in government organisations know that this sort of communication is actually a fantasy, but when there are physical barriers, it becomes even harder to keep talking to one another.

Well, after a few years of working there, the powers that were, made a decision to sell the buildings we were in, and build something from scratch in the Honeysuckle area. And that is what happened.

Now, while I’ve voiced my complaint in the past that they built it too small (I’ll leave that complaint for another day), but they made very deliberate efforts to have very open office spaces where one group led onto the next.

Now I don’t want to pretend this suddenly fixed all of the problems, but even simple things like having a common lunch room where you could have casual conversations, but see what is happening elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the kind of divisions I’m describing, actually happen everywhere and the church is not immune. We all get so caught up in our own little task, that we fail to see what the group a few blocks away are doing.

But it’s not just the physical barriers. We love to throw other things in for good measure. We particularly like to point to the other church’s poor theology. Or perhaps they are too Pentecostal… or maybe they are too conservative.

Now don’t get me wrong. One of the things we take pride here at Tanilba Bay is the cooperation between the various churches here. And it is a wonderful thing. But it doesn’t take much for a barrier to go up.

Let’s say one of the other church’s in our area starts doing something wonderful and is getting lots of attention - queue those feelings of jealousy, the ones we pretend aren’t there, but they are.

But it’s not just the divisions between us and other churches. You see, it is so easy for us to look down on other people who are different from us and judge them. Whether it’s based on race, or a class difference. Maybe they’re part of some weird sub-culture or they’re at one of the extremes of the political spectrum. Whatever our bias might be, we can look at some people and think - I don’t think we want that sort of person at our church.

This morning as I continue my series that I’ve titled - “How to Build a Church”, I’m going to continue to look at the theme of the temple throughout the bible, but in particular, I want to consider how a detailed analysis of this theme will actually show how we should be tearing down the barriers not building them up.

That might seem a little strange at first given that when we first think of the temple in the bible, it seems very much like an exclusive club.

So I’m first going to go back into the Old Testament, but we’ll end back where our bible reading was earlier in Ephesians 2 and as we do I want to explore the importance we should be placing on the breaking down of barriers when we think about building a church.

Temple in the OT

Now last week I took us to the Old Testament books of 1 and 2 Chronicles.

You might recall that I took us right in the middle of a rather intense focus on building a temple - a focus that started towards the end of King David’s reign, and through to the early part of King Solomon’s reign.The middle section which I focussed on last week was when Solomon asks for wisdom.

Prayer of dedication

Well, this morning, I want to start at the end of this temple focus we see in 1 & 2 Chronicles - that is, when Solomon stands and gives an almighty prayer of dedication of the temple in 2 Chronicles 6. Note that you’ll find an almost identical account in 1 Kings 8.

Now there are a few remarkable aspects of this prayer that I want to draw your attention to.

God is not limited to location

Actually, my first point is not one I want to focus on, but I just find it interesting.

You see, sometimes the Old Testament describes the temple as the dwelling place for God, and for this reason we assume perhaps they think God is literally confined to this place. But the start of the prayer makes it clear that Solomon knows only too well that this isn’t the case. In 2 Ch 6:18 it says: “But will God really dwell on earth with humans? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple that I have built!”

So I’ll just leave it as a correction: don’t ever think God is just limited to special ‘religious’ places.

Focus on reconciliation

But there is another aspect that I really want you to see in this prayer of dedication - and that is that it has a strong focus on the reconciliation of humanity with God.

I would in fact suggest that this reconciliation is in fact the over arching theme of the entire bible. Following the fall, humanity became estranged from God, and the rest of the bible has God reconciling people back to him.

Well in this prayer, this idea takes front seat.

He says things like: When anyone wrongs their neighbour… or if they are suffering defeat or hardship… and if they then turn to the temple and give praise to God, may God hear their prayer.

In this way, the temple becomes the reminder that no matter what happens, God is there and wants to help them from their mess.

Now I want you to keep this idea in your mind as we keep going: as the temple is the dwelling place of God - it becomes a symbol of reconciliation.

Focus on foreigners

But there is another aspect of this prayer that I want to draw to your attention, and it is one that is easily forgotten.

In 2 Ch 6:32, he starts talking about the foreigner. Now remember, this is in the middle of the Old Testament when the focus is clearly on the nation of Israel. But even in the Old Testament it is clear that God’s heart is not just that Israel are reconciled, but that all people of every nation are reconciled.

And for this reason, the temple is also a place where foreigners can come and pray to the One and Almighty God. This idea is going to become particularly important when I shortly get to Ephesians 2.

What happens to the temple

Well, what I want to do now is actually track what happens to this temple between this dedication of Solomon and when we get to the time of Jesus - because it has quite an interesting history.

You see, even though the temple was meant to be this symbol of reconciliation, bringing all people together, unfortunately, the reality was, it was frequently forgotten. People continued to sin, and the temple was more superficial then anything else.

The temple attacked

In fact, it wasn’t that long after the temple was built, that it gets attacked by the Egyptians. It was only a matter of decades, occurring five years into the reign of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, that in 1 Kings 14:25 we see the Egyptians carrying off much of the furnishing of the temple.

The temple goes into even more disrepair, gets attacked again. Undergoes a few repairs, but not before 586 BC when this time the Babylonians rise up and completely ransack it.

Second temple

That was in fact the start of the period of 70 odd years in exile. When they came back, one of the first things they do is to rebuild the temple. This is often referred to as the second temple, and it became a central point for Jewish worship.

But this second temple also has a rocky history. It was again subject to various attacks.

Herod’s Temple

Interestingly, shortly before the time of Jesus, King Herod is credited with essentially a re-build of the temple - and it was this rebuild that Jesus would have seen.

You might recall the episode in John 2 when Jesus throws over the tables of those trading in the temple. He then makes the claim that he will destroy this temple and rebuild it in thee days.

Interestingly though, they respond that it has taken 46 years to build. That 46 years is actually a reference to the time of Herod’s rebuilding.

Jesus the temple

But if I go back to what Jesus said, about destroying the temple and rebuilding it in three days - this becomes particularly relevant to here I’m going with all of this.

You see, the temple was central to what God was doing, but you need to remember that the Old Testament was always intended to foreshadow Jesus.

You see, in John 2, where I just got that quote from Jesus, it spells it out clearly for us that when Jesus said he was going to rebuild the temple in three days, he was actually referring to his own body.

You see, Jesus takes the place of the temple.

Think about it...

The temple was that dwelling place of God on earth - well, Jesus is God on earth.

The temple was the contact point where we can connect to God - that is exactly what Jesus does… allows us access to God.

And as I mentioned earlier, the temple was the symbol of reconciliation, and it is Jesus who provides that reconciliation for us.

Jesus is our temple.

If you follow this temple theme in the Bible, you see that it comes to a climax in the person of Jesus Christ. The physical temple of the Old Testament was only ever an imperfect foreshadow of Jesus.

Herod’s temple destroyed

And you need to note, as magnificent and imposing as Herod’s temple stood, it was only a matter of a few decades after Jesus, the year 70 AD that it was completely destroyed by the Roman army.

The Church

Now what I hope this very brief history of the temple shows, is that while it was significant, something better was needed. Indeed, something better was in fact always intended.

And after Jesus fulfills that, we see that from this temple, we then see the establishment of the church.

So let me jump now to the passage that was read earlier, that is Ephesians 2, starting at verse 19.

You see, in these few verses, the Apostle Paul is painting a picture of the church, that is, the people of God who have been called to be God’s chosen people.

In verse 19, he uses kingdom terms, that is, “citizens”, and household concepts to describe His church. Both the kingdom and household metaphor start to point to God’s intimacy with the church.

But as we get into verse 20, the metaphor changes to that of the church as the temple. And he gives us a little picture of how this church is built.

The foundations

And like any good builder knows, the most important aspect of any building, is getting the foundations right.

In fact, like Jesus famously said in his sermon on the mount, don’t build your house on the sand or the rain will wash it away!

So what are the foundations for the church?

Well, you need a chief cornerstone, and that cornerstone must be Jesus Christ. He is the one that will hold everything together.

So with Jesus as the cornerstone, we then build it up with the apostles and the prophets as the remainder of the foundation.

Now I know that sometimes today we use the word apostle in a more generic sense, picking up on the root meaning of the word, which is “sent one”. In this way, we might talk about someone having an apostolic ministry who is essentially leading the charge of the gospel.

But, I suggest that on this occasion, the word apostle should be read in the more narrow sense of the twelve disciples, along with Paul and James. These specific men established much of the teaching and understanding we have today and it is recorded for us in the Holy Bible.

So what does it mean then to have Jesus as the cornerstone and the apostles and prophets as the foundation?

Well, in practice this means that their core teaching needs to inform the very essence of who we are.

For this reason, it is so very important that we spend time in God’s word. Studying it. Meditating on it. Applying it.

What drove those apostles, needs to be the same thing that drives us. And if you don’t spend time in the Word, you won’t know what it is.

Reconciliation

But let me just now suggest one aspect which I’ve already touched on earlier in this message. And that is in the word ‘reconciliation’.

I suggested before that this is one of those important overarching idea running throughout the bible - in fact, perhaps the most important.

God wants to bring all people back into relationship with him.

If we look at the whole chapter in which our passage is found today, we’ll see that this is the case.

The first ten verses are indeed a very sharp and powerful description of the gospel. Starting with us being dead in our sin, but Christ restoring us to nothing less than God’s handiwork - or as another translation puts it, his masterpiece!

But as we get into verse 11, Paul picks up on the separation that we have between us and Christ.

Now Paul is writing to a Gentile audience, and so he also points out, not only are they separated from Christ, but also from citizenship of Israel.

On one level you might say, well of course they weren’t citizens of Israel, by very definition, if you are a Gentile, then you’re not a Jew.

But here’s the thing, the Jews were always meant to be a blessing to all the nations - this goes back as far as Genesis 12 when God gives that first promise to Abraham. It also goes back to the idea I said before where Solomon’s dedication prayer says that the temple should also be a place for the foreign nations.

But the Jews forgot all that. Over time they became more and more focussed on themselves.

But as Ephesians 2 highlights, Christ destroys that barrier. Just look at verse 14: “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.”

You see, at the cornerstone and foundation of the church, we have peace. All those barriers that are placed up are torn down.

One temple

There is only one temple. While there are a lot of expressions of church throughout the world, they are all expressions of the one true church.

Let me read again verses 21 and 22.

Ephesians 2:21–22 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

As I read this short passage, I get this picture of all God’s people standing together and forming a building. A building that isn’t the type of rabbit warren like the building I first worked in at Hunter Water - one where everyone is divided and separate. But one where it is all open. Where we can communicate freely. Where we can work together and in harmony.

This is what the church should be.

Now I am well aware that this sadly is not the case. I would suggest there is probably very few if any church that is more than a few decades old that hasn’t had a significant internal fight in their history.

But if we have Christ as our cornerstone, peace and reconciliation should be in our very essence.

Conclusion

So what does this teach us about how to build a church?

It tells us that if we want to build a church, we better start by opening up our bibles.

It tells us that if we want to build a church, we better take seriously the things that God takes serious. And chief among that is his love for his people. A love that is expressed through works of reconciliation.

As we get these foundations right, the rest should work out quite naturally.

When we start to get this right, then we start to see the temple in the way it is meant to be.

God dwells in his holy temple, so let’s make it a place that is fitting for him.

Let me pray...