“THE TEMPLE - REVISITED”
Some people are prone to repeating themselves. They say the same thing, over and over, like as if in repeating it, the same thing is repeated. Think of Dorothy and her first steps in Oz. Everyone says the same thing to her: “Follow the Yellow brick Road!” (Not 'hello' or 'where you blown in from?')
“I've said it before and I'll say it again!” “If it's worth saying, it's worth repeating.” In the famous words of Colonial Hathy, the elephant from The Jungle Book: “If I said it once I've said it a thousand times..., er what was I saying? Oh yes, an elephant never forgets!”
Wise words are worth repeating and here, in the heart of his letter, Paul revisits a theme he's written of before, and of which he'll write again. It's central to our sense of identity/purpose: “We are the temple of the living God.” He's repeating himself: “God's temple is holy and you are that temple!”
(2 Corinthians 6:16 / 1 Cor. 3:17)
So why is Paul bringing this up yet again and what does it mean, exactly? To understand Paul's temple metaphor, one needs to know the history of the temple. For one thing, the temple was really the culmination of a long series of altars and shrines that God's people had built to mark the spot where they'd had an encounter with God and experienced his powerful presence. They had come to see the temple as a kind of final resting place for God and a sign that God favored them, no matter what...
Jesus, however, made clear that God's promises regarding the temple were not to be fulfilled in a building but in a person, when he attributed such prophecies to himself: “Have you never read in the Scriptures,” he asked. “'The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone...!” (Matt 21:42)
His quote from Psalm 118 had long been understood to refer to the temple, but as the martyr, Stephen, declared, “the Most High doesn't live in temples made by human hands!” (Acts 7:48)
No one explores this theme more than Paul. No one knows Old Testament scripture better. And what's more, as he has witnessed lives being transformed, relationships restored and sinners being reconciled with God Paul sees first-hand how the rapid growth of the church reflects well the ancient Garden Commission – to help see God's presence spread to the four corners of the earth!
And as Paul points to the implications repeatedly throughout his letters he winds up addressing some rather timeless questions such as 'who am I?', 'why are we here?', or 'where do we go from here?'
Paul addresses the identity issue collectively: “Don't you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and the Spirit of God lives in y'all? God's temple is holy and y'all are that temple!” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17) And again, “Together, we are His house, built on the foundation of the apostles.., and upon the cornerstone that is Christ Jesus... Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by His Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:19-22)
Who am I? I'm part of God's living temple, a bearer of His Spirit, and thus of his very presence!
In his book, Do What Jesus Did, Pastor Robby Dawkins shares a dream he had early in his ministry. In the dream, he's sitting in a church sanctuary filled with several hundred people but these people are doing messed-up stuff. Some are having sex in the pews, gangsters are threatening others, prostitutes are soliciting business, people are doing drugs or fighting with each other while Rob races around trying to stop it all. “If you aren't going to honor God's house, then get out - now!”
-2-
Suddenly the Lord is standing next to him. 'Why would you send away those I've sent in? Why would you cast out the very thing you've been asking for?”
Shocked, Robby responded, “But God, I didn't ask for this!”
“You prayed for the lost and now here they are,” God said.
As Robby stepped out of the church, scratching his head, the church disappeared and he found himself standing beside a railroad track. As the train approached, he began to move away but was told to get on it. As he grabbed on to the speeding train he noticed a sign on its side, that read, “Move of God”. After some effort, he pulled himself inside the door and found himself back in the church sanctuary with all the same people he'd just left still doing all those terrible things in God's house. Confused and dismayed, he asked, “This is the train? This is a move of God?”
Again, God leaned in, and said, “Yes. Now keep it simple. Love them. Let Me change them. I just want you to bring me into the mix. Don't focus on their wrongs, help them focus on me.”
(from Robby Dawkins' Do What Jesus Did)
What kind of temple are we to be? One in which those far from God come to find, in us, that they have access to the God of grace, to the cornerstone of life and the healing power of his love for us!
As Paul wrote: “Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ... Now all of us can come to the Father thru the Holy Spirit...!”
(Ephesians 2:13, 18)
When we go out of our way to help others, when we're slow to anger and quick to forgive, when we surprise those who view the church as closed off and narrow-minded by being kind and humble, or offer to pray for those in need of God's help, encouragement or healing presence; when we simply yet sacrificially invest in those around us, as Paul wrote about how and his colleagues “We serve God whether people honor or despise us, slander or praise us. Our hearts ache but we always have joy; we're poor but give spiritual riches to others.” When we do these things, we show God's goodness.
(2 Corinthians 6:8-9)
One of you shared how when you were on bedrest with a very hard pregnancy, having made 10 trips to the ER, you found yourself one night being attended by the nurse on night shift. She was asking a number of medical type questions when you turned toward her and expressed interest in her, asking her questions about her personal life. At one point the nurse, abruptly asked, “Are you a Christian?” You were taken back. The two of you hadn't even been talking about faith.
When you affirmed that you are, your nurse replied, “I knew it! I could just tell!” It felt good to say it out loud. The two of you wound up connecting and encouraging one another. In that moment you had a powerful sense that God was with you, blessing you and your nurse alike with his presence...
That's who we are – we're bearers of His presence! No wonder Paul writes with such urgency!
“But NOW you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far off, but NOW you've been brought near to God through the blood of Christ! NOW all of us can come to the Father thru the Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us! So NOW you Gentiles are no longer slaves and foreigners...! You are citizens and members of God's family!” (Ephesians 2:13,18-19)
“Because of God's grace to me I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. NOW others are building on it... For God's temple is holy and NOW you are that temple!” (1 Cor 3:10, 17)
“As God declares: 'At just the right time I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.' Indeed, the ‘right time’ is NOW! TODAY is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2)
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I remember reading those words to Gina. Gina had been raised by homeless parents and had never been to church until a friend brought her for an evening of Alpha. She had such a good experience she kept coming. Those of us in her small group took turns picking her up and driving her home. By the end of the course Gina was attending Sunday morning worship and had met with me to talk about her being baptized. It was just 6-7 weeks later that I got an urgent call to pick up her son.
By the time I arrived, Gina was gone. She was pretty heavy and died for a heart attack. She told me that this verse, 2 Corinthians 6:2, was the verse chosen for the day in her devotional that she had decided to get baptized. “When I read that verse it just sounded so urgent. Then I realized that though I am still pretty young, none of us know how much time we got. The right time is NOW!”
There's an urgency at work here. When do we start work as Christ's temple? Now is good!
So how does this work? If we're to draw others into Jesus' presence we must be pursuing His Jesus ourselves, and to do that we must spend time in his presence by reading and applying his Word, participating with His Spirit in prayer & praise and by partnering with other temple people.... because none of us is a temple on our own! “For we are the temple of the Living God!” (2 Corinthians 6:16)
Remember Robby's dream? “Suddenly, I saw a cloud form in the ceiling of the sanctuary. Lightning bolts were shooting across the cloud and the Lord said to me, 'Call down the cloud!'
It was a cloud of His presence. I asked for the cloud to rest on the people and lightning bolts began surging thru the people, changing them one by one, and as they changed, they bolted out the church door, (so to speak). I thought, 'Well, that was that! It was exciting but now it’s over.'
But then all the people who went out brought other people back in and prayed for them. As a result more and more people were being healed and changed. I woke up with tears in my eyes.”
(from Robby Dawkins' Do What Jesus Did)
Fact is, each of us is a bit crippled in our own way, resistant to change. In this Kingdom clash between the already and the not yet, we are His wounded healers, embodying his message of hope to a hurting world, bearing his Spirit through whom such healing is possible. For some of us, the Breakthru revelation is that God loves others so much that He's even willing to use us to reach them! It's not that we have to be amazing; it's that He's amazing! God doesn't call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
This is what it means to be a living temple – looking for opportunities to show how good God is by helping where help is needed and praying for those around us to be healed and uplifted by His Spirit, by His very presence, which is within us. Yes, outwardly we struggle, we're imperfect, we're wounded ourselves – but God chose to live inside us to carry out His plan of salvation.... thru us!
So, let'sget out there and help make people aware of how good God really is!