The Temple of God

Amen, so we started off this year with the new little series called the glory of God. As we embark on a new year what does 2019 hold for us? We don't really know but as a culture, we have a habit of making New Year's resolutions and I proposed a resolution for us as a spiritual family this year that in 2019 this would be a year that we would fall more in love with God. That's my New Year's resolution. I hope it's yours. I hope that together we can stand at the end of 2019 and look back and say we love God more now than we did at the start of the year. the week. We think God's thoughts more. That we feel God's feelings more. That were acting and living more in line with God's Kingdom at the end of this year than we do today. In order for that to happen; We don't need more seminars. We don't need tricks and techniques. We don't need a book or a resource. What we need for that to happen is encounter with God himself. Only God brings true transformation in the kingdom. And so this entire series is built off of this verse that we find in 2nd Corinthians Chapter 3 Verse 18. It says: "We all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another." That's my heart right now. I want to be transformed by God to look like God, to live like God. I want to love like God. I want to forgive like I want to think and feel and act, I want to be conformed to the image of Christ. And what this verse tells us is that that happens not be by an act of my will or by an act of my choice. That happens by encountering and experiencing what the text calls beholding God Himself. we need to behold the glory of God and so we started by talking about the presence of God. If we're going to behold the glory of God, we've got to be with him. We got to encounter Him. We got to stop talking about him, Or knowing about him, we got to talk with him. There's a world of difference between knowing about God and knowing God. We got to be with him. In fact, the defining characteristic of the people of God has always been the presence of God. That's what will set us apart. That is what makes us have anything of substance to offer anyone. Without the presence of God, what do we have to offer anyone? We're not smart enough. We're not strong enough. We don't have the resources to bring forgiveness and redemption or life or peace or hope. By ourselves, we have nothing to offer. But if the presence of God is with us, we have everything to offer.

And so last week we talked about the sacredness of God. That we need to treat that reality, we need to treat the presence of God as a sacred and holy thing. We can't take God for granted. We should never become complacent or overly comfortable with our God because our God is a consuming fire.

Our God is high and exalted and lifted up and there is no one and no thing like Him and we need to treat Him with reverence, and respect; with the honor and dignity that God is due. This morning. I want to continue with this train of thought and I want to talk about the temple of God. In the story of redemption, in the story that the scripture lays out for us, the temple of God - the place where God meets with his people is a central reality of the heart and plan of God. I think it's very easy for us to not see that we think of the temple as a building or a tent or this or that something that's that's optional. But when we look at the story of God as a whole it's starts with the temple and it ends with a temple. Genesis chapter 1 is a temple chapter. It's a genre of literature that was common in the ancient Far East to describe the creation of the world and the presence of God in the midst of his people in a temple. Genesis chapter 1 tells us that God made the heavens and the Earth, not to be separate but to be together. That when God created all that exists his intent his design his heart and his passion was to dwell with his people in the midst of his creation. That's what the opening chapters of our scriptures tell us. God created the Earth to be his Temple that he might dwell with us as our God. We see this beautiful imagery don't we in Genesis Chapter 3 of God walking through the garden with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day God spending time with his creation loving them. They having the chance to behold his glory, to grow, to experience him in all of his Beauty. That's the heart of God for creation. Of course something goes very wrong in chapter 3. We violate God's law, we choose not to walk by faith. We listen to the LIE of the tempter. We rebel against our rightful King and sin separates us from God. We're removed from the garden, we're cast out from the presence of God. Heaven and Earth are separated.

And we're left wondering what's going to happen now. I often am grateful that I'm not God. You should be. I'm grateful that y'all aren't God. I've met most of you.

I don't know about you, but I'd be tempted to just wipe out the whole thing and start over. I'd be: let's go to plan B. The beauty, the beauty of our God, and the glory of the story of scripture is that God does not and will not give up on us or his creation. God is absolutely committed to repair the damage that we created within his Creation. And so the story starts in a garden, it ends in a city with a garden in it, The city, the New Jerusalem, descends, At the center is the Garden, at the center of the garden is God himself. And the Clarion Cry Of The Book of Revelation is that at the end of times when the consummation of the kingdom comes God will once again dwell on the earth with his people. Heaven and Earth will be together. He will be our God and we will be his people forever and ever. See the temple of God is a really really big deal. Because that's where the presence of God is found. Temple of God is a big deal. As we start walking through the story of scripture, the story of redemption. We see that the temple keeps showing up when there's definitive moves in God's Plan of Redemption. And the first time we really see it happen is after Moses has led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt. Through The Exodus he leads them out of slavery and towards the promised land. And there on the mountain he received from God the Ten Commandments and the rest of the law that would govern God's people as a nation. And in the midst of that Law God gives them very specific instructions to build something unique. He wants them to build a tabernacle. It's a tent, a tent of meeting. A very special tent. He gives them precise and specific Instructions about how to build it, what goes in it, who can approach it, who can enter it and how it should operate. It is to be at the center of their camp. And they build it and something amazing happens. In Exodus chapter 40 we read this: "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle." Can you imagine that? Can you imagine? Here you are, you received this command from the Lord, you build this Temple or this Tabernacle, you set it up. It's it's a tent like all the other tents around but it's special because God made me special. This is sacred. This is God's place. And there, once it's done, everything is done correctly in obedience to what God says all of the sudden the cloud of the glory of the Lord hovers over the camp and it descends upon the Tabernacle and the glory of God fills it. Can you imagine? What's a sight that must have been! What a moment, what encouragement. Hey! God is with us! God With Us. Yeah, we're wandering through the Wilderness. Yeah, we got a bunch of enemies ahead of us. God is here. When I need to talk to. That's where I go. When I need to know that God is with me. I just looked there.

God is with us. "Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle." The fullness of it was so much that Moses couldn't even enter into it.

"Throughout all their Journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from Over the Tabernacle the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, they did not set out until the day that it was taken up. 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 throughout all their Journeys." These were a people that were led by the presence of God. If the Cloud State on the Tabernacle, what did they do? They stayed. If the cloud lifted and began to move? What did they do? They follow it because the presence of God was everything.

Cloud by day, Fire by night, God was with that.

Keep going on in the story. We jumped forward many generations. Now, the people have entered into the promised land. They've begun to drive out the enemies. They've established the kingdom. They've actually established the human King. Saul didn't work out so well, but now they got David a man after God's Own Heart. And David says, why should I do well in this beautiful house, when my God is in a tent? He says that I want to build a temple for God. And God says well, that's a nice idea David, but you're not the dude to do it. I'll let your son do it. I'll let your son do it, and Solomon the son of David takes upon himself this project and he builds a temple for God in Jerusalem That was one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the Ancient World. Kings and queens traveled from Africa and Asia and all over the known world to witness the architecture, the gardens, the beauty of Solomon's Temple. It wasn't just the design. It wasn't just the art. It wasn't simply the architecture. Because what was truly amazing about Solomon's Temple is that God's presence dwelt there Just like it had in the Tabernacle. We read about this in second Chronicles chapter 7. Solomon completes this amazing Temple for the Lord. He prays a prayer of benediction and blessing over it and in chapter 7 verse 1 it says: "As soon as Solomon finished his prayer fire came down from heaven consume to the burnt offering in the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the temple." Once again, I'm like, oh, I wish I could have been there. What a moment that would have been! Here's Solomon dressed as a king. He's standing before the people. Everyone's gathered. There's this magnificent edifice of the temple. They lay out sacrifices in front of it for the Lord. But nobody has to light a fire. Solomon prays when he's done praying fire comes down, consumes the sacrifices, and God moves into the temple.

It continues, it says: "And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's House." That's why we talked about the sacredness of God last week. Got to treat God's things with God's instructions, with respect and reverence. Even on the day when one of the priests was allowed to go into the holy of holies. They would tie a rope around his ankle with a little bell on it in case he did something wrong either intentionally or unintentionally and like Uzzah last week gets struck down they could at least drag him out.

God's presence is nothing to be trifled with. God's presence is sacred and holy and powerful and profound and God chose to have his presence dwell in Solomon's Temple.

As much as I read those stories and I long to have been there. Here's the reality, the Israelites that had the presence of God in the Tabernacle. They still rebelled and an entire generation had to wander around in the wilderness for 40 years until they all died off.

It's like man if I could have been there to see the glory of God. I'd be living right. The glory of God showed up at the at the temple, verse 3 says this: "When all the people of Israel saw the Fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and they worshipped and give thanks to the Lord saying for he is good and his steadfast love endures forever." What a moment. I mean they they erupt in spontaneous worship. But if you keep reading the story, even with the presence of God in the temple, their hearts are constantly drawn to other gods. They constantly wander. They are constantly chastised and disciplined through the prophets and by God himself. To the point that just a few short Generations after this event. God raises up the Assyrians and then the Babylonians in judgment against them. And Israel is leveled. The city of Jerusalem is ransacked and destroyed so much so that the historians describe it not one stone was left upon another. The Babylonians entered into the temple and remove the sacred things of God and took them back to their temple in Babylon. And all of this happened by the will and plan of God. Because even though his presence was in the temple the people rebelled and rejected Him. Now, once again God doesn't give up on his people. Say Amen. Like you mean it. God doesn't give up on his people. The land is destroyed, the walls of Jerusalem are gone, the temple is no more; but God speaks through his Prophet Jeremiah. He says do not despair, do not give up. You will be in Babylon for 70 years, but I have not abandoned you. I'm not forsaken you I will never forsake you. Even when you are faithless, I am faithful.

In 70 years you will come back. And exactly what God said happened. After 70 years, they began to come back. They came back they begin to rebuild the city. They rebuild the walls. They take it upon themselves to rebuild a temple. It's not anything like Solomon's Temple. It was much smaller. In fact, on the day it was finished and dedicated. those that were old enough, there wouldn't have been many of them, but those that were old enough to remember Solomon's Temple wept. Because this new Temple was so small and paltry in comparison. But it wasn't just the building. It wasn't just the size. The main difference is that the presence of God, the glory of God, never descended on that second temple like it had on Solomon's. And so though they were back in the land, though they had the wall, though they had the Temple, the presence of God was not there with them.

And they wondered and they waited. Where are you God? What are you going to do? Where is your presence? What will set us apart?

They didn't wait for a week. Didn't wait for a year. They didn't wait for a generation. They waited for 400 years. 400 years without a prophet to speak. 400 years without the presence and the glory of God in their midst. 400 years of ups and downs, freedom and slavery. 400 years of waiting. Until God moved again. This time, God does something different. This time, God does something radically unexpected. We know this verse next verse very well from Christmas time. John chapter 1 verse 14: "For the word became flesh and dwelt among us." The word is Jesus. This is about the birth of Jesus. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. The amazing thing about this verse is that John chose a very specific word for the word dwelt. It literally reads, the word became flesh and the word "Tabernacled" in our midst. Takes a noun, Tabernacle, and turns it into a verb. I like that. He "tabernacled" in our midst. John is making a deep and profound statement. In the same way that the glory of God took up residence in the Tabernacle, in the same way that the glory of God took up residence in Solomon's Temple, now the presence and the glory of God has taken up residence in the person of Jesus. God came to us. God in our midst, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus came to be the new and better Tabernacle. Jesus came to be the new and better Temple. He is the Temple, God in our midst. It's one of the reasons that they decided to put him to death because he kept talking about it. And one time He said, that you see this Temple. By this time, it's Herod's Temple, it's a little bit bigger, little bit more ornate, still no presence of God. He says if you think that this is where the presence of God is I tell you I'll tear down the temple and in three days. I'll raise it up again. And they Mock and they laugh at him. You crazy Jesus! This took forever to build, you're going to tear it down and rebuild it in three days?

You see they didn't understand that the temple, it wasn't made of stone. The temple was not made of wood. It wasn't constructed by human hands, the temple had now been in case in flesh. Temple con carne!

Come on now.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us. Now, this is this is beautiful and amazing, but family, hear me it gets better.

It gets better cause God's not done. He's just getting started and warmed up when he sends Jesus as the temple. Jesus comes and brings the presence and the power of God to bear on this world. And in his life and in his death and in his resurrection, he is Emmanuel, God With Us.

But he's going to ascend. So he gathers his disciples his family and he says don't worry. I'm not going to leave you like orphans. I'm not going to abandon you. I'm not going to take the presence of God away from you. I'm going to ask the Father, He's going to send the comforter. He's going to send the presence. And the presence of God, will not be near you. It won't be beside you or in front of you or behind you or above you. The presence of God will now dwell, where? In you! In you. The same Glory that filled the Tabernacle, the same Glory that filled the temple, the same Glory that filled Jesus will dwell within you. I don't think we get that. I don't think we live like that. I want to live like that. I want to live like that. I want to know the reality that we are the temple of God. Not this building. This is just wood and metal and let's be honest, another Monsoon could take this thing down like that.

This thing will not last forever. But every single one of you that I see here in this room you've been made in the image of God you've been made with eternity in your hearts. You will last forever.

Church buildings were come and go they've never been the church. This is not the temple. We are the temple. We are the temple. Over and over and over again in the New Testament that is made clear. That God is doing something with us. 1st Corinthians 3 16-17 says: "Do not know that you are God's Temple and that God's spirit dwells in you?" Now because we come from a culture of radical individualism, we read this and we hear it in the singular. In English the word "you" can be singular or plural. It's efficient been confusing. Most languages don't do that. Most languages give us a specific word for the singular and a specific for the plural so that we can tell the difference. We don't have it and so most the time we read this and and we just insert our name. Jeremy, Do you not know that you Jeremy are God's Temple and that God's spirit dwells in you Jeremy. That's not what the text says. Let me put it in Texanese for you. Do y'all not know that y'all are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in all y'all?"

That's what the text says. I am not the temple. You are not the temple. We are the temple. We are the temple of God. I'm a brick. I'm a nail. I'm a stud. You're a brick. You're a part. We're a part, God's is forming us together into his dwelling place, so where we go the presence of God goes. In the same way that people could look to the Tabernacle to see God, in the same way that they could look to the temple, in the same way that they could look to Jesus to see what God is like they are to look to us - to see what God is like.

And that's awesome until we get to verse 17. Because it says: "If anyone destroys God's Temple, God will destroy him. for God's Temple is Holy and you are, y'all are, that Temple.

I was listening to a message by Francis Chan. One of my favorite preachers, he was talking about this text and the dedication of the temple. And he said imagine what it would have been like at Solomon's Temple. Solomon prays, fire comes down the people began to worship. And one of the Israelites grabs a sledgehammer walks up to the temple and starts taking a swing at it. Could you even imagine? Here they are, everybody is praise and worshipping. The glory of God is there and you're just taking a sledgehammer whacking away at the temple.

Looking around for lightning bolt. Can you even imagine? Defiling the glory of God. Well why is it then that we have no trouble talking smack about the church.

Oh, we, we really think it's all about us, don't we? And we talk about the church in terms of our preferences. We talk about people in terms of our preferences. We judge and label and divide. We love to be right - and they're wrong. Oh we talk about the church so poorly. Just look at Facebook.

Just watch, I'm not talking about the world hear y'all I'm talking about us. I'm not calling the church to lead on this. We've got to start treating as holy what God calls Holy. God called his church Holy. We better treat it that way. If we work against God's church we work against God. I got to tell you. The one thing I don't want in this lifetime is to be on the opposing side of God. He always wins.

" oh, I went to his church and they sing a song I didn't like. We went to a church, that Pastor - he had a beard and tattoos and he preached way too long."

Y'all don't even know!

We we look at our denomination. Well, we figured it out. The Baptists. like yeah, we got it down - those Lutheran's, those Catholics, those Pentecostals. And the Pentecostals are like y'all don't even have the Spirit....

We throw stones at each other. We criticize each other. We're taking a sledgehammer to that which God has called Holy. And then we wonder why the world doesn't want anything to do with the church when we're tearing each other apart? Hey, come on in! We'll criticize you all day long! Oh I can't wait. Sign me up.

Judgment begins with the house of the Lord. I'm telling you this cuz I love you. I'm telling you this cuz I need to hear it.

We need to treat God's holy things as holy and God's holy thing in this world right now is the church. the church.

I love it when God is in control, which is all the time, but I love it when I realize it! When I first planned out this sermon series, I wasn't going to be preaching this sermon this week but some things happen and it got switched around and now this sermon ends up on MLK Day. And all we need to hear that. We remember the legacy not just of a man, but of a movements. A movement founded on the principles of love, a movement founded on the principle of equality, a movement dedicated to see Justice in our country. Remember Martin Luther King. We remember and here's thing, we might be tempted to remember him and say: I'm so glad MLK did what he did. I'm so glad we had the Civil Rights movement cuz now we've got Racial equality and everything's okay.

Take your head out of the sand.

I don't know that there's much difference today as 60 years ago when Martin Luther King stood up in a Pulpit and he said 10 on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in the country. That's a problem y'all. Listen to me. That's a problem. That's a problem because God's building how many temples? One. Does He got a white temple and a black Temple? We got us a conservative and a liberal? We got an American and a something else? NO! He's got one Temple, made up of everyone everywhere, all tribes, all nations, all people come together in Christ at the cross and are made into the temple of God. When we separate ourselves from each other.

We devalue the gospel. We deny its power. The power of the Gospel is not just to radically saved individuals. The power of the Gospel is to so radically save individuals so that they are made into a new community, a new people, a Dwelling Place of the Lord.

Oh family,

that we would we would get the gospel and live it. I love Galatians chapter 3, it says this: "In Christ Jesus, y'all

are Sons and Daughters of God, through what? Through faith. Is it through birth, nationality, through denominational ties, through moral behavior, through spiritual accomplishment? No, none of that matters. Paul says I count all of that as rubbish in order that I might know Christ.

In Christ Jesus y'all are Sons and Daughters of God through faith, for as many of you were baptized into Christ you put on Christ. Christ comes first. Christ before America. Christ before Creed. Christ before race. I'm not an American Christian. I'm a Christian that lives in America. I'm not a white Christian. I'm a Christian who's got a melatonin insufficiency.

Christ comes first. That's how we got to treat each other. I got to look at you and I got to see Christ.

"There's neither Jew nor Gentile." Can you imagine how scandalous it was when the Apostle Paul wrote that? "There's not Jew or Gentile. There's not slave or free. There's no male and female. You are all one in Christ."

We're one in Christ. So when we divide, when we separate, we are violating the will and the heart of God.

Taking a sledgehammer to the temple.

Based not on the values of the kingdom but the values of the world.

The gospel is the hope of the world. Not democracy, not nuclear warheads, it's not capitalism, it's not who sits on the Supreme Court next or who wins another election. The hope of the world is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The hope of the world is the love of God. Martin Luther King said only love can turn an enemy into a friend.

Only love does that. It's not a law, not legislation, not politics or money. It's love. Love does that. We have to embrace the fullness of the Gospel.

Martin Luther King said this way. He said: "Injustice anywhere is a challenge to Justice everywhere."

Here's my experience in the church, in my experience of the Evangelical Church, on Martin Luther King Day. We celebrate what he did. We acknowledged it, but but we're inwardly going. Well. I'm not racist and I didn't live back then I didn't participate in racism and I don't treat people badly. So it's not really a problem for me.

And to that I say good, don't be a racist. It's bad. Hear me, when you belittle others based on their race, when you use derogatory slang or language about them, don't do that.

That doesn't let you off the hook for dealing with the realities of Injustice in this world. It's not it's not enough to sit back and say what I'm not a racist therefore. It doesn't matter to me it matters to you because you are a part of the temple of God and the temple of God is a place where the presence of God dwells and where God dwells:

There is worship and there is justice. There's worship and there's justice. You know in Second Chronicles chapter 6 before the fire comes down on the temple Solomon prays this amazing prayer of blessing and benediction over the temple. And he says, he says a lot in that, I I encourage you go read it through this week, read 2nd Chronicles chapter 6, listen to the heart of Solomon about what he wanted the temple to be the right in the middle of it. He says this he says about the template says "Listen to the pleas of your servant. Listen to pleas of your People Israel when they pray towards this place. Listen from the heavens your dwelling place and when you hear forgive and if a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and comes and swears his oath before your altar in this house then hear from heaven and act the judge your servant repaying the Guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness." You hear what he's saying. Let this place be a place of worship. Let this be a place where when we come and we pray and we seek you we find you and we worship you but he also says let this be a place of justice.

We have separated what God never wanted torn asunder.

We've separated worship and Justice as if we could do that! As if God is pleased with worship from bloody hands.

The temple was always to be a place of worship and a place of Justice.

We are the temple. And we need to be a place where people can encounter and experience God and worship him and we need to be a place where people can look and see the justice of God.

And that takes intentionality. That takes effort that takes energy that is hard work.

One of my other favorite quotes from Dr. King was this: |He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." I wish that the Civil Rights Movement had fixed our problem. But it hasn't. I think in fact in many ways it's worse today.

then it was then I'm glad some of the laws have changed. I'm glad of the progress that we've made but sometimes we take that progress and interpret is what we've arrived. Y'all we haven't arrived. Culture is far from True equality. That doesn't really bother me as much as the fact that the church is far from True equality

We need to love each other. This is what Jesus said. I want people to look at you and see the way that you love each other is a demonstration that I am with you and that you belong to me.

We need to be leading the way. We need to be leading the way we need to put the gospel before our politics. We need to put the gospel before party. We need to put the gospel before preference.

We need to lead the way, we are a community of worship and we are a community of Justice because we are the temple of God. If God dwells within us worship must happen and Justice is the way it's done.

Oh that God would help us.

Oh that the love of God would change our hearts.

Oh that we might be filled with an overwhelming zeal and love for one another and for the world which God loves. God loved the world so much that he gave.

Love gives. This Martin Luther King day, Let's not just remember what happened in the past, But let's stand on the shoulders,

and keep fighting for justice. Keep pursuing equality. Keep demonstrating love. Let's be the temple, the presence of God in our world. Amen.