Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Don’t forget that every Wednesday at 7pm, we have a Bible Study & Prayer time.

Join us as we continue in our series on the book of Psalms and as we seek to pray together as a church.

Starting at 6pm on Wednesday, we offer a light dinner for those that care to join us.

This week’s dinner is homemade turkey and rice soup.

On occasion, I like to remind everyone of volunteer opportunities that are available as a church.

Some of those volunteer opportunities involve community outreach, some include internal ministries, it just depends on what is needed for the time being.

Currently, we’re looking for a treasurer starting immediately—if you’re interested in serving in that way, there are a few requirements—you must be a member in good standing, you need to be comfortable utilizing a computer, and you need to be willing and able to talk with the bank on the church’s behalf.

If you’re willing to serve as a treasurer, come and talk with me as soon as possible.

In addition, we’re always looking for volunteers to sing, play instruments, and help in different elements of our public worship.

This includes reading Scripture, leading in corporate prayer, or really anything else that we might need.

Note, that the musical volunteers will need to be available each week, whereas, the volunteers for readings, prayer, and whatever else, will be placed on a schedule with other people.

Please be aware of the following dates.

On Wednesday December 22nd and 29th, we won’t have a Bible Study & Prayer time.

Instead, please join us for the following special events:

Christmas Eve, at 7pm in the Auditorium, we’ll gather together for Carols & Lessons.

This is an old tradition that you might not be familiar with, but essentially, we’ll sing several carols together and interspersed with the carols, we’ll have a brief lesson from Scripture as we trace the redemptive storyline in the Bible.

Following Carols & Lessons, we’ll move back to the Activity Room for dessert and fellowship.

I’ll give you more details about this as we get closer to the event.

On New Year’s Eve, we’ll plan on gathering together from 7pm-12am our New Year’s Eve celebration.

This is really just a time to fellowship with one another and enjoy food as we watch the ball drop.

Of course, you’re more than welcome to come and go as you please.

Let me remind you to continue worshiping the LORD through your giving.

To help you give, we have three ways for you to do so: (1) you can give in-person through the offering box in the front of the room.

This is where you would give cash and check giving—checks should be written to Grace & Peace and if you’d like a receipt for your cash gifts, please place it in an envelope with your name on it.

If you’d prefer, you can also give with debit, credit, or ACH transfers either by (2) texting the number 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or (3) by visiting us online at graceandpeacepa.com and selecting giving in the menu bar.

Everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Psalm 36)

Our Call to Worship this morning is from Psalm 36, which is a psalm of David that focuses significantly on the contrast between the evil or the wicked and the loyal love and righteousness of God.

David, despite experiencing the wickedness of unbelievers finds relief in his knowledge of the nature of the LORD, who brings blessings to all believers.

Please stand and read Psalm 36 responsively with me—I’ll read the odd-numbered verses; please join me in reading the even-numbered verses:

Congregational Singing

Joy Has Dawned

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus

Scripture Reading (Luke 1:5-25)

Our Scripture Reading over the next four weeks will look at passages concerning hope and Christmas.

I’ve asked Stacey to read our Scripture reading and as she comes up, let me just give a brief synopsis of what we’re about to read.

The passages for the next four weeks are all out of the first chapter of Luke, which shows us prophecies concerning the births of John the Baptist and Jesus, it shows us the response of the people to these prophecies, the births themselves, and the response of the people towards those births.

These passages will show us an example of hope in the births of John the Baptist and of Jesus, and the expression of hope from Mary and the other parents.

Stacey please read Luke 1:5-25 for us.

Sermon

Introduction

This morning’s sermon is the start of our Christmas series as we prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ; and this year, we’ve chosen to do a sort of modified advent series.

We’re still following the traditional themes that have been utilized in the past, but instead of changing themes each week, we’re going to focus on one theme every year.

This year’s theme is the theme of hope.

And because we’re spending the next four weeks talking about the theme of hope in conjunction with Christmas, I wanted to utilize this morning’s message to do two things: (1) I want us to walk away with a firm definition of what hope is and (2) I want us to fully understand why we can have hope as we remember the birth of Jesus; but I do want to state, that as an advent message, this might be considered a little unusual because our methodology for advent is a little unusual this year.

I would liken this to what someone does when they get to the edge of a swimming pool—they sort of cautiously dip their toes in the water.

In many ways, today’s message is just us dipping our toes into our Christmas series and that’s evident in a number of different ways, but probably the most distinct way, is simply that I’m not preaching from what would typically be considered an advent or Christmas text.

I’m preaching out of Ephesians 2:11-22, which if you have your Bible, please turn to it.

And while you’re turning there, let me give you a bit of context.

Our text for this morning is Ephesians 2:11-22; Ephesians is a smaller epistle written by the Apostle Paul to the Christians in Ephesus.

The purpose of Paul’s writing of Ephesians was to show the scope of God’s plan of salvation for all mankind.

In other words, the letter exists to show how the spiritual blessings of God were planned and given to those who believe, with the ending of Ephesians showing us the implications of God’s plan of salvation for all mankind.

In Ephesians 2; Paul is still expressing the scope of God’s plan of salvation and he explains this by utilizing the imagery of the temple, but you’ll notice as we read the text, that the temple is only mentioned by name in the last few verses.

However, my argument is that Ephesians 2 is all about the temple and to properly understand Ephesians 2, we need to understand the temple.

So, let’s read Ephesians 2 in its entirety and then I’ll explain how we’ll work to understand this passage:

Now, I’ve already hinted that we’re going to look at this a little bit differently and the reason for that is due to the main idea of this text—the temple.

The Christians reading this text in Ephesus would have had a decent understanding of the temple, which would’ve helped them in understanding what Ephesians 2 is about.

Christians today, typically don’t have a solid understanding of the temple, so they miss a lot of what Ephesians 2 is about.

(1) So, the first part of this message is going to be focused on discovering what the Bible teaches us about the temple, particularly in the Old Testament, The Old Testament Tabernacle and Temple and then the second part of this message is going to be a breakdown of Ephesians 2:11-22, The New Testament Temple.

So, the first section will give us a systematic introduction to the temple from the Old Testament and the second section will give us an expositional understanding of Ephesians 2:11-22 in light of our understanding of the temple.

Doing so will help us to see what Paul means when he states that believers are made into the temple of God and it will give us an understanding of why we can have hope as we reflect on the birth of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Illumination

The Old Testament Tabernacle and Temple

It is difficult to consider the temple imagery found in Ephesians 2 without first discussing the temple itself (and of course, its predecessor, the tabernacle).

The tabernacle is first described in detail in Exodus 25-31 in which the LORD tells Moses to take up a contribution from the people for the building of the sanctuary, that God may dwell among them (Exodus 25:8); the idea of God dwelling amongst his people is important for the understanding the purpose of the tabernacle and the temple.

God wanted to dwell amongst his people and to help accommodate his dwelling with them, he has them build a place that fits his specific requirements and details.

Now, we don’t have time to work through the specifics of all those details, but I do want us to note that God was very specific concerning all the details of the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, the table, the lampstand, altar, court and even those who served in the tabernacle and what they wore.

I also want us to note that God wasn’t just specific concerning the details of the physical building itself, but he was particular about what the Israelites were to do in the tabernacle, who could do what, and when these different rituals were to be done.

And again, although we don’t have sufficient time to work through these details, it is important for us to note the specificity of the LORD in the creation of the tabernacle because it emphasizes two key details: (1) that God wants to dwell in the midst of his people, but (2) his people cannot dwell with him according to their own ideology or man-made system, they must dwell with God in the manner that God has set forth for them.

Of course, as you continue reading through Exodus, it isn’t until the 40th chapter that the tabernacle is completed in which Moses describes an amazing event that wraps up the book of Exodus.

In Exodus 40:34-38, Moses describes this cloud that covers the tent of meeting and the glory of the LORD filling the tabernacle.

And he tells us that every day, throughout the journeys of the Israelites, “the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel.”

(Exodus 40:34-38)

It’s very clear then, that the tabernacle served as a dwelling place for God on earth.

Now, of course, we know that the tabernacle was temporary—I think it is fairly obvious that it was always meant to be temporary considering the materials that it was made of and its ability to be taken apart and moved.

And, of course, it makes sense for the tabernacle to be like this, because at this time, Israel didn’t have a permanent land and thus, the tabernacle would need to be mobile.

It isn’t until 1 Kings 5 when Solomon drafts thousands of people to build the first temple of the LORD.

Solomon utilizes the tabernacle as a model to build the temple, so the temple is built in a specific manner with specific materials, which again, we don’t have sufficient time to comb through:

However, I do want us to consider Solomon’s prayer as he dedicates the temple—in 1 Kings 8:22-53 there’s a lengthy dedication for the temple given by Solomon.

Solomon starts this prayer in 1 Kings 8:23, “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants” and then a few verses later, Solomon says, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth?

Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!”

In the parallel account of the dedication of the temple in 2 Chronicles 6-7, we’re told that when Solomon finished his prayer, a similar even occurred as when the Israelites finished the tabernacle. 2 Chronicles :1-2 tells us that “when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the [temple].

And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’s [temple].”

(NASB)

Again, just like with the tabernacle, it’s clear that the temple served as a dwelling place for God (at least until a certain point in time.

(Ezekiel 20 tells of the glory of God leaving the temple)

Of course, we do have to remember that the temple had other purposes as well:

It was the primary location for worship during the centuries that it stood—though, obviously, the Israelites weren’t the greatest at properly worshiping the LORD, which is why we read about King Josiah pulling down statues of false gods within the temple and removing the temple prostitutes in 2 Kings 23. (That is also why God’s accusation against the Israelites in Malachi and the other prophets focus so much on the Israelites’ worship being incorrect).

The temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices

It housed the Ark of the Covenant, which housed the Ten Commandments (and according to the author of Hebrews), Aaron’s rod and a pot of manna.

It was the primary location of many of Israel’s feasts and celebrations, and I would argue that the reason for the temple being the primary location for sacrifices, worship, feast, celebrations, and the location of the Ark of the Covenant is simple—its where God chose to dwell on earth amongst his people.

And it is through the institution of the tabernacle, the temple, and really through the Law of God that shows us a glimpse of true shalom (true peace) and man’s complete inability to obtain peace apart from God.

The New Testament Temple (Ephesians 2:11-22)

Fast forward a few hundred years and we read John making the argument that the Word, who was with God and was God, “became flesh and dwelt among us.”

There is that word again, dwelt.

And I don’t know how much of a theological point we can make from this, but I personally love the fact that dwelt in John 1 translates the word σχηνοω (skenoo), which comes from the root σχηνη, which is translated as tabernacle.

John 1 literally tells us that the Word became flesh and tabernacled amongst us.