God’s Presence in His Temple (Sunday Sermon Nov 10, 2019)
Hello Church, open to Psalm 65:4. That’s our primary text, but we’ll be all over Old & New Testament today.
Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
to dwell in your courts!
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
the holiness of your temple!
This is week 11 of our overview of the Old Testament. We have 6 more weeks to go, hitting these major themes that make up the Old Testament and lead us to Christ. This week we focus in on the theme of The Temple..
And I know many would say, “Man, you talk about The Law last two weeks, now the Temple, could you pick anything more boring to preach on?”
Because, let’s be honest, many people start strong in their Bible reading in Genesis and most of Exodus, until it starts getting into the laws, regulations for the tabernacle, those detailed measurements, the fabrics and colors of the priests clothes, their cleansing routine, types of animal sacrifices for different sins, and we’re thinking...
“I’ve got stuff to do today, how does any of this help me today!”
I believe that’s why many Christians don’t spend much time reading the Old Testament, or (when they do), they don’t enjoy it, because they don’t really know the whole story of the Bible.
Purpose
I’m doing this series (in large part) so that when reading the Old Testament...
We’ll see not only its value for our life today
We’ll see more clearly how it point us to Christ (as one story about Him)
Now, (I’ll admit) this theme of the Temple is difficult to teach. Not because its complex, but mainly because in order to do justice to it, you’ve got to basically just overview the whole Bible.
The Temple theme starts on the first page of the Bible (Gen 1-2)
The Temple theme finishes in final page of the Bible (Rev 22)
And in every major section of Scripture, through the whole Bible, the Temple is central to everything happening.
And in Biblical theology (which is what we’re doing in this series) we’re wanting to get the whole Bible story:
Biblical theology doesn’t ask... “What themes in the Bible are relevant to modern people?
Biblical theology asks a different question, “What do the Biblical authors themselves say is important?
What central themes do they all keep repeating? And how to those central themes trace through the whole story of the Bible to give us one united story in scripture? That’s what Biblical Theology does.
So that’s what I want to do with this theme of temple. We’ll look at it through the whole Bible in 3 sections:
The Temple’s Past Glory
The Temple’s Fulfillment
The Temple for Christians Today
1. The Temple’s Past Glory
The Temple had past glory, but in order to see this we need to start where the Bible starts: in Eden, with what we might call the Garden-Temple.
A. The Garden-Temple
10 weeks ago, when studying (Gen 1-2) I argued that “in the Garden of Eden, all the elements of the Temple are there.” It’s widely believed that the 1st temple was the garden of Eden.
The basic idea is...
Eden is a temple because God walks with man there. Man could freely enjoy God’s presence. That’s essentially what a temple is: where you can be with God.
Adam was ‘the priest’ in this garden temple, given the priestly service of working and keeping the temple pure and undefiled through obedience to God’s Word
Adam fails as the 1st priest in God’s temple by defiling this temple through sin, and now must be evicted, but NOT before God acts as Priest by killing an animal to cover the shame of their nakedness (a picture of atonement) which will later be tied to the temple.
As sin increases, God eventually must cleanse the earth with a flood. He starts over with one priest, Noah (and his family) who immediately coming out of the ark to set up a small sanctuary to meet with God and offer sacrifice, receiving the same command as Adam, “multiply and fill the earth with my image.” So essentially the whole earth becomes God’s temple.
However, everyone after Noah gathers into one city to build what we’ll call a “Temple-Tower” to reach the heavens for their own glory.
B. The Patriarchs
And as we move to Abraham, Isaac & Jacob we begin to see these mini-sanctuaries, proto-temples, especially this one location called Bethel, which means “house of God.”
Abraham stops at Bethel, then later his grandson
Jacob stops at Bethel also. He puts up his tent, offering sacrifices on an altar, and God meets with him. The only time this combination of things occurs is in the Tabernacle and the Temple.
Gen 28:16-17 “Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said,“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” Then it speaks of a “ladder with angels of God ascending and descending from the presence of God.” This is a well-known picture of a temple. He even pours oil on a rock there, something later done in the construction of Solomon’s temple stones.
C. The Exodus
All this leads to Exodus, where God’s tells Israel to build The Tabernacle (which is basically a portable temple). This makes sense, since they’re journeying in the wilderness and a portable, mobile place to worship God is helpful so that as they go it can be picked up and moved.
What’s beginning to be clear at this point of the story is that God is just far too holy to just show up among the Israelite camp and meet with them. They’d all die in their sin.
Ex 33:7-11 “Moses used to take the tent & pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, & each would stand at his tent door, & watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend & stand at the entrance of the tent, & the Lord would speak with Moses. When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.”
Moses alone could go into the tent and speak with God face-to-face.
Ex 19 “God told Moses, ‘Set limits for the people all around, saying,‘“Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death.” ‘ “
So at one level we see God’s humility in that he’s willing to dwell in a tent, just like the people since they all lived in tents. But at another level God is so holy, no one could come close. They couldn’t even come to the mountain where this “tent of meeting” was lest they die.
PROBLEM: How could God be anywhere near these sinful Israelites and have them NOT die?
Answer: The Sacrificial System (performed by the Priests).
When you look at the detailed regulations for priestly cleansing rituals, garments, and sacrifices they were to perform you begin to see the seriousness of sin and the need for a holy and pure High Priest to make atonement for sin.
These Priests at the end of a day would have been covered in blood. They were slaughtering animal-after-animal, knee deep in blood, and it would’ve been exhausting work... that never stopped. Every day certain sacrifices needed, every year, others sacrifices required.
And much time is spent in Scripture also laying out the specifications of the Tabernacle. Which seems strange, if you don’t understand the significance: open flowers woven into the fabrics, a basin made to look like a lily, Seraphim to guard, lampstands made that look like trees with branches… what is all of this?
It all reminds us of Eden, the first temple.
But, according to Heb 8:5; 9:24; 10:1, these were “copies of the true things” and “shadows of the good things to come.”
So tabernacle decorations:
Point back reminding us of Eden
Point forward filling us with anticipation for the beauty and perfection of the new heavens and earth which are yet to come.
D. The Temple in Jerusalem
Eventually, after 40 years in the wilderness, Israel makes it to the promised land. King Dave later makes plans to build a permanent structure as The Temple in Jerusalem. And Solomon finally completes this work.
Josephus, the Jewish historian, said, “the outward walls of the temple in those days were covered with so much gold that they were blinding in the fiery splendor at sunrise…. its beauty was so well-known that no one had seen a truly beautiful building until they had seen the temple.”
And for nearly 400 years Israel experienced the glory of this temple. So we read in Psalms:
Ps 48:9 “In your temple... we have thought on your steadfast love, O God”
Ps 5:7 “But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.”
Ps 27:4 “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, (why?) to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.”
Ps 29:9 “...in his temple all cry, “Glory!”
But that "glory” and “beauty of the Lord” experienced in the temple was cut short by sin, and then God’s judgment through the Assyrians and Babylonians (who destroyed the temple in 586BC).
E. The Temple in Exile
The Temple in Exile finds some hope. After about 70 years of exile in Babylon a few faithful Jews returned to Jerusalem to rebuild a smaller version of the temple. That’s actually what the book of Nehemiah is about.
But God’s presence never filled the temple like the first temple, because of so much sin in Israel. And for hundreds of years the faithful remnant of believing Israel longed for a new and better temple to come...
That’s how the Old Testament ends... with hope of something to come.
This leads us to point #2:
2. The Temple’s Fulfillment
The Gospel of John wastes NO time showing this coming Temple fulfillment.
In John 1 we hear this announcement, “The Word became flesh & dwelt among us” (literally) “The Word became flesh & tabernacled among us” ..This new & better temple had come down from heaven.
John 2:19 Jesus is making this clear (many believe standing in front of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem) he says,
“Destroy this temple and in three days I’ll rebuild it”
It took 10,000 workers 43 years to build this temple. Jesus says, “Knock it down, and I’ll rebuild it in 3 days!”
John tells us later after Jesus resurrected, “the disciples remembered Jesus words & knew he was speaking of his body (as temple).”
Jesus fulfills the former Temple (saying) “I’m the true & better meeting place between God & man”
Jesus fulfills the former Temple (saying) “The only Temple you need to worship God is... me. You enter into God’s presence through me now!”
This becomes very clear on the cross.
Mark 15:37-39 Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom!” The “holy of holies” is now fully opened in Christ!
Jesus’ death shows the old temple was torn down
Jesus’ resurrection shows the new temple has been raised up. The true temple was destroyed (on the cross), and then (as Jesus said) 3 days later it was reconstructed and raised back up. So that not only Jews but now all people/nations can enter into Gods presence through Jesus.
Now, the way this temple theme works out from here is amazing. This is where we need to linger a while.
3. The Temple for Christians Today
Here’s the main idea, which I’ll say now then show us in Scripture:
If we’ve come to Jesus as our temple, God actually makes us his Temple.
Eph 2:20-22 [The Church]“built on the foundation of the apostles & prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
So...
We don’t need money (you can’t buy or rent this temple building)
We don’t build (like Solomon) with “wood” “precious stones” & “gold”
God builds this temple by His Spirit, through His Word.
1 Cor 3:16 “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.”
Here’s the BIG idea of The Temple you’ve got to understand... The Temple is about enjoying God’s presence.
1 Peter 2:4-5 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
“As you come to him” – we’re able to enter God’s presence.
I had a lunch conversation with another pastor a number of years ago. I really didn’t know much about his church, so I asked something like, “What do ya’ll believe?”
His answer to me was “We don’t focus on all that stuff, we just want to be in the presence of God.”
I said, “We want to enjoy God’s presence also, how do y’all enter God’s presence? What do you mean by that exactly?”
He went on to make clear that, basically, they try to enter God’s presence through lots of music & emotionalism.
What does the Bible say is the way into God’s presence? Well, historically, The Temple!
The Bible NEVER teaches that emotional music gets you into God’s presence
The Bible teaches... (from front to back) you enter God’s presence with a Temple & bloody sacrifice!
The Bible teaches... you stay in God’s presence through holiness & purity!
Ps 65:4 “Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!”
We see this same idea in James 4:8 “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
Look, we can’t separate what we do in our bodies from God’s presence in our lives.
2 Cor 6:14-17 “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst & be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing, then I will welcome you.”
This isn’t God saying, “Be good people, because it’s good to be good and NOT bad.”
No!
God is demanding “go out from their midst.” We must go out from what is unholy
God demands, “be separate from them, says the Lord, & touch no unclean thing, then I will welcome you!”
G.K Beale, writing about all this said, “Participation in this new temple provides the basis for purity & holiness, just as the priests participation provided the basis for purity & holiness in the Old Testament.”
Think about that.
In the Old Covenant, if you were one of the Priests of Israel, your job in serving in the temple required you to live holy, to cleanse yourself & obtain from certain things, because you participation in the priestly work of the temple. Your priestly work provided the basis of your purity & holiness. You lived holy (at least in part) simply because you were a priest of God and didn’t want to defile God’s temple. ------(Beale’s argues)
In the New Covenant we’re all (as Christians) called “priests of God”, we’re all in service to the temple, and he’s saying that priestly participation in the Temple provides the basis for our holiness & purity. So we shouldn’t watch certain things, speak certain ways, think about impure things... Why? Because you’re a priest of God & don’t want to defile His Temple (which is your body).
And it says (in 2 Cor 7) in his conclusion “Since we have these promises, [The promise of being God’s temple] beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body & spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”
Many Christians think of honoring The Temple (that’s our body) and think about food and exercise. This has some truth in it, but that’s NOT the emphasis of Scripture. The primary way to NOT defile our bodies (which are Temples of God) is by remaining sexually pure.
1 Cor 6:18-20 “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
I was speaking to my kids about this earlier this week in reference to Catechism: “if you’re body belongs to the Lord, can we do whatever we want with our body?” They said, “No! Because it’s God’s body!”
So it’s unthinkable for us to imagine these Old Testament priests going into God’s temple and doing whatever they wanted.
They had to have a rope around their leg so if they did violate the temple and they died, they could drag out their body without others being killed touching them.
The point is: If our bodies are God’s temple, it should be unthinkable to us to just do what we want with them.
Do you ever read the Old Testament and see these priests of God with Temple prostitutes and think, “How could those priests serve in God’s temple, then go sexually defile themselves that same day?”
Yet the church does the same thing, then wonders Why is our worship so often dead or dull, so devoid of the Spirit’s presence?
His temple is defiled! You can’t defile His temple all week, then have a gathering of the royal priesthood for worship on Sunday but ignore that during the week many of the priests played around with could we call it ‘temple prostitutes.’ Of course it affects God’s presence among them!
You say, “Pastor, why do you have to stop and linger on this issue?”
How can I NOT pause here and have us think about how what you look at on your phone is directly related to the nearness of God’s presence you experience ...or why He often seems so distant?
How can I NOT bring up how sexual sin is the primary reason the New Testament gives for how you can defile God’s temple in your body?
2 Cor 6:16 “We are the temple of the living God; as God said,“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst & be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing, ---then ---I ---will ---welcome ---you”
Have you defiled God’s Temple w/ sin?
Have you used your body for things that have distanced you from the nearness of God’s presence?
Do you feel even now a regret & guilt that His Temple needs cleansing?
O church, let me remind you there is VERY good news!!!
Hebrews 10:19-22 “Brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience & our bodies washed with pure water.”
Hebrews 4:14-16 “Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy & find grace to help in time of need.”
Some of you came here today struggling with sin, others with suffering. (This morning) your body hurts, you’re going through trials/suffering... and you long for that new world to come.
2 Cor 5:1-2 “if the tent [tabernacle] that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. In this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling”
John describes this in Rev 21:1-3 “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’ ”
This is like the Garden-Temple in Eden, only better. We’ll ALL be in the presence of God again, with NO sin and NO suffering. And John says, in this vision of new heaven, in v. 22, “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty & the Lamb.”
Often in times of suffering/trial we’re so eager to leave these bodies & go to heaven. But sometimes just as often (in times of ease & enjoyment) we’re NOT eager to leave here at all, we’re perfectly content to stay here with our families, with our stuff we like, and just keep on living for everything down here.
If we’re honest we’re often like Solomon, who spent 20 years building the Temple, but only 7 years were actually spent working on God’s temple, he spent the rest of the time building his own palace & personal luxury house.
You know something else I’ve noticed? Often there are those who say “No, I’m ready to go to heaven, ready to leave!” But even those people who want to go to heaven aren’t eager to go there because God is there.
Tragically when you look around it’s clear... God is far more passionate to dwell with us, than we are with him.
How many people do you know that are desperate to live in the presence of God?
Many people are happy to leave this world of suffering behind for heaven...BUT ...
How few are interested in God being there to dwell with?
Yet (praise God!) here’s the good news:
The Bible does NOT give us a God who sits back and waits for us to seek His presence with zeal, while he does nothing until we finally get around to choosing to come to Him. No, from front to back the Bible shows a God who initiates towards His people and seeks to dwell with us, even overcoming our stubborn wills and our lack of interest in seeking Him.
Moses didn’t say “O God we’re all down here wanting so badly to be with you, we can’t take it anymore, we just want to spend time with you, give us some way to be with you.” No!
God initiated & came down (in Tabernacles/Temples) because of His passion to be with his people.
Church, we often lack this passion. We’re more interested in beautifying and improving our houses in the ways we want. We have little zeal for God’s house [the Church] or for God’s Temple to be pure and holy as he desires.
BUT ...praise God!
Jesus came down and in his last hours he sweat drops of blood at the thought of being separated from God’s presence. He agonized at that thought of being removed from God’s Temple, but was cut off from God’s presence and allowed the temple to be destroyed... to create a way into that temple with NO walls.
Jesus came down saying, “Zeal for your house consumes me” - he was passionate that God be worshiped, not just in a small sanctuary or temple, but that “the whole earth be filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea”!
And we can know this... He won’t stop until that happens.