Understanding Our Role as God’s Temple

Posted on by korgrocker

“What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said: “I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
2 Corinthians 6:15-16 NLT

The Temple in Jerusalem was sacred to the Jews. The first one, built by Solomon, David’s son, and using materials David had accumulated in the last years of his reign and life, was magnificent. It was built around 959 BC and lasted for 400 years until it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and his forces in 586 BC. The second Temple was built under the guidance of Zerubbabel about 70 years later and lasted until 70 AD, when the Romans destroyed it. And that is the situation that still stands today. There will be a future Temple in the New Jerusalem, but this one will be very different. Revelation 21:22, “I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple”. Jews today have mixed views about the Temple, with some of the orthodox persuasions expecting such a building to appear through Divine providence, perhaps with the coming of the Messiah.

Early in His ministry, Jesus visited the Temple in Jerusalem and cleared the merchants from the courtyard. John 2:16, “Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”” The Jewish leaders weren’t too happy about this and in the following verses in John we read, “But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.” “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body”. And that introduces us to Paul’s New Covenant pronouncement that “we are the temple of the living God”. Paul said to the Corinthians in his first letter, “Don’t you realise that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself” (1 Corinthians 6:19). 

In our verses today, Paul asked the question, “How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols?” The picture emerges of the Temple, pure and holy, the place where God lives, and then someone brings in an idol and starts worshipping it. Those who knew the law of Moses would immediately declare such a person as being worthy of death under the laws of the nation of Israel. Worshipping idols in the Temple would have been unthinkable to a Jew, but Paul associated this picture with the partnership between a believer and an unbeliever. Those of us who are believers, pilgrims like us who are in Christ, are now God’s temple on earth. His Spirit occupies every believer in Jesus. With that understanding, Paul’s meaning is clear. Any believer who participates in the worship of an idol is guilty of betraying God in the same way as someone worshiping an idol in the Jewish temple.

There are two implications of being God’s Temple, where the Holy Spirit lives. Personally, each believer has a responsibility to maintain a Temple free of idolatry, immorality, and all manner of sin. We call that being sanctified. The Temple within us is a place where God is glorified. Each believer is also part of a Temple that consists of all believers. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, “Don’t you realise that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. ” Peter also wrote about this in 1 Peter 2:5, “And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God”. 

Paul continued to quote Leviticus 26:12, “I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people”. It is an awesome and holy situation to be the place where God dwells. No more of a physical building, an entity outside of us. Instead, through our own holiness, we become “living stones”, a corporate building full of God and His Spirit. However, if that was the case, what is stopping the church from being a force far beyond anything ever seen on this planet? God walking around this world inside a huge human Temple? But of course, this is a spiritual Temple, unrecognisable by the secular society in which we live. We “living stones” do God’s work in the lives and communities of people around us. We are the “salt and light”, ensuring that God’s Temple continues to live and hold back the forces of evil that would otherwise overwhelm and destroy this world in which we live. 

So, fellow pilgrims and “living stones”, what strategy do we have in place to ensure that the Holy Spirit will continue to dwell within us? It is sin that destroys that union, but we know that, and we do our utmost to live lives worthy of the One who died for us.

Dear Heavenly Father. We thank You for all that You have done for us. Help us, we pray, to live in a way that is worthy of You and Your Spirit. Amen.

Human Nature

Posted on by korgrocker

“Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him. But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew all about people. No one needed to tell him about human nature, for he knew what was in each person’s heart.”
John 2:23-25 NLT

In Genesis 1:27 we read, “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them“. Now, God is perfect in all His Being, and the implication of this verse is that His design for mankind was also perfection. Of course, we know that mankind cannot access or claim anything of God, but by being created in His image, we are wired with an understanding of who God is and show at least some representation of His ways. There is nothing bad or sinful in God. But sin came along, as we know, for our enemy, satan, destroyed what God intended. Human nature had become corrupted and is still corrupted today.

So against this backdrop Jesus declared His message of God’s Kingdom. And to support what He said He did many “miraculous signs”, and we read that “many began to trust in Him”. But the account in John continues, “But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew all about people.” Jesus knew who He could trust and who He couldn’t. There was no-one better than Him who knew what was in a person’s heart. As God He knew the end from the beginning. But that didn’t stop Jesus preach the news of the Kingdom of God – He knew that some would believe though most wouldn’t.

We pilgrims have heard the message that Jesus preached, brought to us by faithful men and women who themselves were Kingdom people. And we became part of Jesus’ Church, one of the living stones we read about in 1 Peter 2. But have any of us ever noticed that sometimes a new member of our church or fellowship, after a few weeks or months, disappears and we never see them again? They hear something that they are not sure about, or disagree with, and as a result decide that they will find another church or decide that Christianity is not for them. There are many who would want to follow Jesus for the good bits, but turn their backs when they hear something that might mean they have to change their ways. Human nature kicks into self-preservation mode, taking the person back into the kingdom of the world with all its ways.

Dear Father God, through Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary, we can come to You with all our baggage and all our sinful ways. And we pray that Jesus’ redeeming blood will cleanse our hearts. You promised to put a new heart within us, a new nature restored to Your image. And we thank God that through Jesus’ righteousness You see hearts that can be trusted. Amen.

The Living Cornerstone

Posted on by korgrocker

“You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honour. And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.”
1 Peter 2:4-5 NLT

I recently looked on as a man in the village where I live was laying the foundations for a new house. He approximately dug out the foundations, and poured the concrete, before the arrival a few days later of the builders. But the bricklayers were delayed until they knew exactly where to start building. The surveyors had some fancy equipment that they used to measure and mark the orientation of the walls and finally the builders made a start on the first corner. The knew that they had to get the foundations right, because it was from them that the future of the house would depend. 

Jesus is “the living cornerstone of God’s temple” Peter wrote. But what is this temple? We can find the answer very helpfully and clearly in Ephesians 2:19-22, “So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit”. God’s temple is made up of all the believers in Him. There are no unbelievers in His temple.  Jesus taught twelve men about His kingdom and they founded the temple, or what we call the church, but we remember that Jesus sets the standard for the whole “building”. He is the “living cornerstone”. 

The Old Testament prophets were well aware of the foundational role of the Messiah, still to come. We read in Isaiah 28:16, “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem, a firm and tested stone. It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes need never be shaken”. 

As we look around us we find that there are many other spiritual foundations other than the one we know and love, the one that “God’s temple” is built upon. Building ourselves into a spiritual temple based on anyone other than Jesus will result in a chaotic collapse when the storms of life come against it. Jesus warned the Pharisees of the danger of rejecting Himself as the Cornerstone, as we read what Jesus said in Mark 12:10-11, “Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures? ‘The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see’”. 

We pilgrims are ourselves “stones” that are being built in God’s temple, the church of Jesus Christ. There will be other “stones” around us, but as anyone who has watched a craftsman building a dry stone dyke knows, there are rough edges to be smoothed down to form the wall. So we “living stones” will find that being built into God’s “spiritual Temple” may be a painful process. But there is no other way to be a citizen of God’s Kingdom. Those Christians, people who profess a faith and belief in God, but who refuse to be a part of the church, will sadly miss out on the fullness that God has for them. After all, in Heaven we will be part of a great multitude of fellow believers, worshipping our glorious Heavenly Father. No solitude there!

“Living stones”, the “living cornerstone”, “spiritual temple”, “holy priests“. All these entities represent a new kingdom, totally foreign to our everyday world. But we note that this kingdom pleases God. As such we want to be a part of it. So, fellow pilgrim “stones” join with me in the praise and worship of the “living Cornerstone” Jesus Himself.

Dear Lord Jesus. We reach out to You today, grateful for the opportunity to be part of what You are building, a temple that will be finally completed on the day when You return. Amen.

Blessings Together

Posted on by korgrocker

“As soon as I have delivered this money and completed this good deed of theirs, I will come to see you on my way to Spain. And I am sure that when I come, Christ will richly bless our time together.”
Romans 15:28-29 NLT

Paul was looking forward to meeting with the believers in Rome and sharing a time of rich blessings. And not just a normal fellowship time, but one which would be “richly bless[ed]” by Christ. There is something special that will happen when Christians meet together. The common belief and faith in God draws Christians from all walks of life, even different ethnicities, together in a rich fellowship. It’s because God, through His grace and mercy, has forgiven us for all our sins. The coming together as believers is a foretaste of what will happen one day when we are all in Heaven. Joined together in perfect fellowship, as we all worship God together.

Gavin Calver, the CEO of the Evangelical Alliance, shared recently that he and 22 of his fellow church members went for a Men’s curry night earlier this year. The owner of the restaurant was intrigued, because there were 15 different nationalities and an age range from 16 to 80 represented in the group. He concluded that they must all be Christians because there was no other organisation that could unite such a diverse group of men. Christians, when they fellowship together, are immediately noticed. And if Christ is in the midst there is no stopping the impact it will have on the world around us.

How do we pilgrims feel when we are around other Christians? Is it something we look forward to, or is it a chore that we have to endure? This is where the “one another’s” comes into play. We read in Romans 12:10 (AMP), “Be devoted to one another with [authentic] brotherly affection [as members of one family], give preference to one another in honour“. Sometimes we find it difficult to work this out in practice, particularly if there is a person we cannot stand. But often God takes us into situations where He is wearing away the rough edges and prejudices that we carry with us, preparing us for the life to come. We read in 1 Peter 2:5, “And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God“. We have to remember that the analogy Peter used about being built as living stones in a temple is very apt and accurate. We are not bricks, factory produced and all exactly the same. We are unique and individual “stones” and to enable us to fit to the next “stone”, some rough edges might have to be chipped away. Of course we would much prefer God to use His hammer and chisel on the next “stone” but most of the time we discover that it is in fact our rough edges that he removes.

So rather than shy away from others in our churches, we should seek out the “one another’s”, always looking for opportunities for fellowship. And by doing so we will indeed find the rich blessings that Paul wrote about.

Dear Father God. In Your master plan, You are building is into a spiritual temple to Your glory. Rather than fight it, please help us to submit to Your loving reshaping. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Ark

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then, in heaven, the Temple of God was opened and the Ark of His covenant could be seen inside the Temple. Lightning flashed, thunder crashed and roared, and there was an earthquake and a terrible hailstorm.”
Revelation‬ ‭11:19 NLT

Look at the sequence of events in Revelation 11 regarding the third and last terror. The trumpet sound penetrated loud and clear over the earth. Then shouts were heard in Heaven, declaring that the time for the rule and reign of Christ had come. The elders gave praise to God, thanking Him that together with Christ’s reign comes the judgement of the bad and rewards for the good. And this chapter in Revelation then bows out with another confirmation of what is about to happen. We read that the Heavenly Temple of God is exposed for all to see, and, even more, the inner place where the Ark of His covenant is kept, will also became visible. But who will be able to see it?

All those residing in Heaven would have been no strangers to God’s Temple. They were in Heaven with God Himself. So this mighty Temple edifice must have become visible to all those on the earth. Imagine the process of looking up and seeing the Temple of God, and its inner parts, even those parts that were the most sacred. And as though to emphasise the event, there was a terrible tropical storm, complete with thunder, lightning, and hail. An earthquake completed the impact of this amazing event. But is that really what John saw in his vision?

In the beginning of chapter 11 in Revelation, John wrote about being asked to measure the Temple. And we concluded in a blog a few days ago that the Temple referred to God’s people. But we know that from 1 Peter 2:5, “And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple… “. As an aside, we thank Him that all we have to do is make ourselves available as living stones. He is the Master Builder. He will do the building. Making us fit into the living stones either side, above and below takes a lifetime of diligent attention. Thankfully God is very patient!

The elders, in their prayer in the previous verse, defined the people who make up the Temple – “…Your servants the prophets, as well as Your holy people, and all who fear Your name, from the least to the greatest…”. So at long last, by the visibility of God’s Temple, we have a public demonstration of who God’s people really are. And their relationship with God is exposed, as portrayed by His Ark. Presumably within the “Temple” there would also be all of God’s attributes there to see. His grace and mercy. His love and kindness. But also His righteousness and awesome presence, enough to instil a deep sense of foreboding, even fear, in those who don’t know Him. God’s holy people will experience the thunder, lightning and earthquake as well, but with a joy because of what was coming.

Is it too late for all those who didn’t know God to turn to Him? Having lasted this long through all the terrors and woes, perhaps they have become even more hardened of heart. But in this pre-End-Times season of grace, we have the time to turn to God, if we haven’t done so already. God’s love will always soften hearts, if we let Him.

Paul wrote in Romans 13, “Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbour, you will fulfil the requirements of God’s law“. And, “This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armour of right living“. (Romans 13:8,11-12). If Paul wrote two thousand years or so ago that the time for salvation was limited, how much more that must be the case today. God’s patience with mankind will one day come to an end, and the season of grace in which we live will end. We don’t know when the seventh trumpet blast will be heard. But it’s coming.

Father God. We thank You for Your love, always there and available for us to embrace. We join together in praying for our neighbours and friends, that they too will feel Your loving touch, while there is still time. In Jesus’ name. Amen.