Why Don’t We Have A Temple?

Sermon Transcript

Last week’s was like a two- or three-part set because it was the world’s longest sermon. But if you were here with us, I hope it proved to be profitable in the end because we tried to sort out the mystery of Melchizedek in Hebrews chapter 7.

 

And in so doing, I trust we came to the conclusion that the writer of Hebrews came to, and that is that the priesthood as the Old Testament knew it is passé. As a matter of fact, for the most part, the priesthood is passé. The only priesthood left that matters is the priesthood of Jesus Christ standing and interceding for us before the Father. And we said his intercession is so good, it’s like we are priests ourselves in that we have access to God.

 

And I know that took several charts to sort out parts of that passage, but we got around to it. And I know that for some of you, as you talked to me this week, you said that was helpful in answering some questions. But I recognize those questions are largely academic because no one’s coming in with a thirst for the Levitical priesthood. Few people knew the Melchizedekian priesthood, so there was no interest in that.

 

But this week’s topic is a little bit different as we get to Hebrews chapter 8. I decided just to take the first five verses for us to take a pause and look at because the issues that are addressed there are issues that I find we are more apt as evangelical 21st century Christians to have a bit of a fuzzy line of delineation between old covenant and new covenant—not when it relates to the priesthood (most of us had that settled before we came to church last week), but when it comes to this one.

 

We like to have a bit of a bleed over from Old Testament to New that we need to clarify today. We get to this and we talk about the concept or the question of the temple.

 

Last week, why don’t we have priests? Settle that. Why don’t we have a temple? If you ask that question of modern 21st century churches, some people will say, “Well, we do. We just call it the church.” If you do a search on the Internet for churches and church names in any large city or small city, you’re going to find names of churches that have actually adopted the word temple, or you even find a tabernacle or house of God.

 

I came up with several this week. Even famous preachers like Spurgeon in London. What was the name of his church? The Metropolitan Tabernacle. I mean, these are names that we have drawn over and put in the stead or the name of the church and said, “Well, here, we meet here at the believer’s house of God,” or “We meet over here at this particular believers’ or Christian temple,” or “The Metropolitan Tabernacle,” whatever it might be.

 

There’s all kinds of bleed over in terminology. But it’s important for us to make a clear line of delineation. I know that Spurgeon knew the difference. I want to make sure that we know the difference so that we don’t get into the pattern of thinking that in some way the building that you’re sitting in now, some tilt-up cement building, takes the place of God’s Old Testament tabernacle or Old Testament temple.

 

So, I’ve pared down the worksheet so that we only have one chart today, relatively small, compared to last week. But I think as we get into this, we need to start to deal with and talk about and try and unravel a bit of God’s work in the Old Testament of the temple.

 

Let’s read our text first, beginning in verse number 1 of Hebrews chapter 8. If you haven’t opened your Bible yet to that, you’re going to need it open, Hebrews chapter 8. Look at verse number 1. He says,

 

The point of what we are saying is this,

 

and there’s a lot that you have to go back to to catch that this is a summary of the entire book so far. Everything that comes after this, he’s starting to go and touch on points we got from the very, very first chapter.

 

This is not just, “Here’s the point of the Melchizedekian priesthood,” although that’s a part of it. He’s saying this is the point of what we’ve said from the beginning, from the first verse of Hebrews chapter 1. He says,

 

we do have such a high priest who has sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven.

 

That comes right out of the first few verses of the book.

 

What kind of high priest? Read that sentence again, middle of verse 1:

 

We do have such a high priest.

 

You’re going to have to go back into the end of chapter 7 to get that. Take a look at it. What’s the last phrase of chapter 7?

 

This appointed Son who has been made, what’s the word? Perfect forever.

 

We have a perfect high priest. And what has he done? What we learned from the first chapter: he sat down at the right hand of this throne of majesty, and where is it? It’s not on earth. It’s in heaven.

 

And he serves, present tense, in the sanctuary.

 

It’s another word we use. I grew up in a church where they call the main auditorium here—they call it “the sanctuary.”

 

The true tabernacle set up by the Lord and not man.

 

Now we have the perfect priest. He’s interceding for us and serving before the Father—not on earth. He’s serving before the Father in heaven. He calls it the sanctuary or the true tabernacle.

 

Every high priest, back down here now to earth, verse 3, is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. That was Levitical priesthood. And so it’s necessary for this one, the Melchizedekian priest, Christ himself, to have something to offer.

 

Now, not here on earth, though. If he were on earth, he couldn’t be that priest. For there are already men who offer gifts prescribed by the Mosaic law in this Levitical priesthood. They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and a shadow of what’s in heaven.

 

That’s why Moses is warned when he was about to build the tabernacle way back in the book of Exodus,

 

see to it that you make everything according to the pattern that I show you on the mountain.

 

Here is a differentiation that is often not made as we think about the tabernacle or the temples of the Old Testament. He’s making a pretty startling statement here. And that is that all of those were—look at the words—we might want to just copy or circle them—the word copy. It’s not the real deal. It’s not the substance. It’s only a shadow. It’s not, as verse 2 says, the true tabernacle. It’s only a representative tabernacle. It’s just a picture, a symbol of the real thing.

 

Now, when we see those pictures and drawings, maybe in the back of your Bible or some sketch in your study Bible, we think back to the flannel graph stories of our youth. We picture the building, and that’s usually as far as we think. And the Bible is saying here, well, wait a minute, that’s just representative of another place, something else.

 

A place where Jesus, according to the writer of Hebrews, is now serving and ministering as a priest. He can’t do his priesthood down here, and he can’t do it in an Old Testament temple. He’s got to do it in the real temple, and the real temple isn’t here on earth.

 

1. Israel’s “God Houses” Need to Be Understood

 

Number one on your outline, what’s important for us to do as we think this through is to try and come up with figuring out Israel’s—I’ll just call them this—God houses, because that’s what they were. They were presented to the people of Israel as, “Here’s the place if you want to meet with God, you come here.”

 

As a matter of fact, one of the nicknames for the tabernacle was the tent of what? Meeting. Tent of meeting. Going to go meet with who? With God. It wasn’t a social hall. It wasn’t a banquet hall. It was a place for me to connect with God.

 

It was the place where often it is said God dwelt. It’s the God house. It is the house of God, which is the terminology often used in the Old Testament.

 

Let’s understand these. And of course, the best way to understand multiple temples and tabernacles in the Old Testament is to put them in a chart. And we love charts here at Compass Bible Church. So let’s quickly just fill this one in. This will only take a couple minutes, I promise.

 

Two hours later. No, seriously.

 

The Tabernacle

 

The tabernacle. We have in the Old, when it comes to Israeli God houses, only one tabernacle, and it lasts for a long time. The person associated with that is Moses. When you talk about the tabernacle, you’re talking about something that God instructed Moses to make, just like our text here in Hebrews 8 says. The person associated with the tabernacle, Moses.

 

The text, if you want to jot it down and look it up later, you can read all about it, is in Exodus chapter 26. Matter of fact, chapter 26 through 36, you’re going to read all about God’s instructions, his detailed instructions for them to leave out of Egypt, go into the desert and build this thing called the tabernacle, which literally means the tent, nicknamed tent of meeting. Go set up a place where I’ll put my glory. I will put in a visible way my representative presence, and you can go and carry this around.

 

It’s like a tent. You take the stakes up, roll up all the curtains and all the coverings and all the ropes and take it with you as you travel around throughout the desert for 40 years, which is a little bit longer trip than Moses had in mind initially.

 

When was it built? Just for time frame here, roughly 1445 B.C. Very important time frame. That’s when God let the people of Israel out of Egypt, and off they go into the desert, and immediately they get instructions about building the tabernacle.

 

The tabernacle, believe it or not, as it went from place to place, ended up lasting through 959 B.C. This is when it was replaced. And it was replaced not by men or being destroyed. It was replaced by God.

 

The tabernacle was done. It was folded up, put away, not by people, but by God. God said, “We’re done with the tabernacle.” And why was that? Because we were going to build a temple.

 

What’s the difference between the tabernacle and the temple? One was portable, one was not. One was the RV, one was the house, right? That’s what it is. So the God RV—we’re done with that.

 

And it lasted for quite a long time. Look how long it lasted. I mean, almost 500 years.

 

Temple #1

 

And now God says, okay, we’re going to build this thing. We’re going to build a temple. And that one is associated with Solomon. Temple number one. Solomon’s temple, it’s often called.

 

David wanted to build it. God didn’t let David build it. David was known as a warrior, expanding the borders of Israel. Solomon inherited a kingdom of peace. And God sent him and allowed Solomon, your son, this man of peace, to build the temple.

 

A prosperous time. It was a glorious building. It was incredible. And everyone lamented later on in the history of Israel that they couldn’t build a temple like Solomon did because that was an amazing building.

 

The text for that, if you want to read about it, there are several, but the instructions come in 1 Kings chapter 6. God gives instructions to Solomon. He says, “Build this thing. It’s going to be like this. It’s going to be this size, this big. Got this court. Got this room.” All the instructions as to what to put in it. You can begin to read about that in 1 Kings 6.

 

What year was that? Well, 959 because that was the replacement of the tabernacle. How long did this one last? Well, not quite as long, but it lasted quite a long time. 400 years or so, 586 B.C.

 

And if you know your Old Testament history, you’ve already got the last box filled in. This wasn’t God folding up the temple. Well, it was, but it was discipline and he used a foreign king. His name, Nebuchadnezzar. He was the king of Babylon.

 

And in 586, after all of this terrible news and all the sin and idolatry of Israel, God allows—actually uses actively—armies of Babylon led by Nebuchadnezzar to come in and rout the temple. And that was the end of Solomon’s temple as we knew it.

 

Okay? That all familiar? That’s review of Sunday school stuff there, right? Okay, let’s move on to the next box. Just shift them over here.

 

Temple #2

 

Temple number two. Often called the second temple, creatively enough. The person associated with this, Ezra. Your Bibles, if you know, picture, maybe you’ve taken my Old Testament survey class, that should be clear. Ezra was the guy.

 

After the Babylonian exile, they were put into the doghouse and couldn’t have a godhouse for 70 years. The text you can read about that, Ezra chapter 6. The foundation of the temple was laid. They were ready to go, get this thing going.

 

As a matter of fact, some of the latter prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, talk about the post-exilic period. Haggai, in particular, very upset that people are settling back in Israel, and they’re not giving due attention to building the temple.

 

The bottom line is they needed a new temple. Why? Because Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the first one. The year for this, 515 B.C. So we had about a 70-year interval here before God gives the decree through the foreign Persian king, and we set up temple number two.

 

How long did this one last? Well, you’ve got an interesting and sordid history of the second temple. But let’s say for clarity and simplicity’s sake, 63 B.C.

 

Now, if you really know your intertestamental history, you’re raising your hand in your mind going, wait a minute, what about Antiochus Epiphanes? What about Judas Maccabeus? What about that whole thing?

 

We’re going to say the desecration of Antiochus Epiphanes—are we just, this is a waste of my breath right now. Some of you are thinking that. And Judas Maccabeus’ restoration—we’re going to say that wasn’t a complete destruction.

 

But we are going to say temple stuff came to a screeching halt in 63 B.C. when Pompey, the general in the Roman army, came in and pretty much put the temple out of service.

 

Now, don’t get confused because we’ve said—we’ve called this one the second temple. Okay, people are going to say the next column that’s next to it is really a continuation of the second temple because it was kind of just a reconstruction. But it was such a major reconstruction after a period of really non-use in the temple that we can call it just for clarity’s sake the third temple.

 

That’s why I put it in quotations because a lot of people say, “Well, that’s not really the third temple, that’s the tail end of the second temple.” But it’s a completely new place because someone else got involved.

 

“Temple #3” — Herod’s Temple

 

You know his name? It was the guy who had built the temple in Jesus’s day. His name was Herod. Herod, by the way, was not a Jew, obviously. He wasn’t interested in worshiping Yahweh of the Old Testament. He was pulling political rank to try and unite the kingdom. And a lot of people do that. They’ll use religion for political means. That’s all Herod was doing.

 

He poured the coffers of Rome into rebuilding the temple. A continuation, if you will, the second temple—we’ll call it the third temple. It’s often called Herod’s temple. It was the one that Jesus walked in.

 

He looked at all these columns. He asked Peter, “What about this? What do people say about this place?” He said, “Not one stone is going to be left on the other.” Remember all that? That was Herod’s temple that he was looking at and pointing to.

 

Again, this is intertestamental stuff, but if you want to read about it, most of you have an electronic copy, or you can read it on the internet. Josephus, in his antiquities, the 15th section of that—you can call it chapter 15, but it’s a big chapter. I think it’s 138, paragraph 138. We start to talk about the rebuilding of Herod’s temple. Josephus, Antiquities, section 15.

 

When was this built? This was built in 19 B.C. At least that’s when it started. And Herod poured all of his money into this, and they started reconstructing the temple in 19 B.C. By the time Jesus got on the scene, I mean, this thing was just decked out. It was all completed, and all the stuff was going on under the tight, watchful eye of the Roman Empire.

 

How long did this one last? We know this is an important New Testament date because this happens during the period of the writing of the New Testament. It went down in A.D. 70. A.D. 70.

 

And most of us date the writing of Hebrews prior to A.D. 70 because the writer of Hebrews is writing like it’s all still going on, right? So we have to date it before 70 A.D. That’s why we gave the date of Hebrews based on some other factors, mid-60s.

 

But just after this was penned, not long after, someone—who was it—would come in and destroy the temple in 70 A.D.? Do you remember this? Titus.

 

The reason people know that is because if they go to Rome today, there’s a big arch in Rome. You been there? You world travelers? It’s called Titus’s Arch. And if you look at the—you got to get up on a ladder to see it—but if you look carefully at it, or you see the plaques that are by Titus’s Arch in Rome, you’ll see that the inscription, the relief on it, are pictures of the Romans bringing back the menorah. That’s a famous picture. Remember that?

 

It’s on Titus’s arch because they ransacked the temple and in 70 A.D. the temple was destroyed. As a matter of fact, they were so concerned about it being destroyed that they didn’t—interestingly enough—Jesus called this one, didn’t leave one stone left upon the other, turn them all over. So that was the end of Herod’s temple.

 

Okay, that’s review for a lot of you. You know all that stuff, right? Bringing it all together, remember that. Okay.

 

“Temple #4” — Ezekiel’s Temple

 

Okay, fourth temple, in quotes, for counting, but you know, we are counting, I guess. Fourth temple. I didn’t know there was a fourth temple. Well, there’s not yet, but they’re looking to build a fourth temple. People say, “Wow, they’re going to build a fourth temple.”

 

If you go to Israel with us—we’re still on for the Israel’s trip. When we go there, we will visit, if we have time, and I’m sure we will, we’ll plan it in the schedule, we’ll visit the temple institute there in Jerusalem.

 

Not only are people anxious to build the temple again and their plans underway, the scripture actually predicts this as a reality, and there’s one temple that was described and promised by God to be built that was never built, but it was predicted in the Old Testament.

 

This is the fourth temple, and it’s associated with the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel predicted a temple that would be built that was not Herod’s temple. It was not the Judas Maccabeus reform of the old temple. It wasn’t Ezra’s temple. This was a different temple.

 

Now, it was prophesied between the first temple and the second temple, but here it really ends up being the fourth temple. If you want to read about this, all the instructions start in Ezekiel chapter 40.

 

When is this one going to be built? I wish I could tell you. At the beginning of the millennial period. Or perhaps before, but it will be in place by the millennium.

 

What’s the millennium? It’s a TV show. It’s really cool. No, it’s not. It is, I guess. I don’t know. I think it is.

 

Millennium. Are you all familiar? We’re in the church age. We’re going to have the rapture. Eschatology is right. Seven-year period. After the seven-year period, we’re going to have this thing called the millennium. What’s that all about?

 

Romans talks about it. It’s a time when God restores Israel and brings all the promises to bear that he promised in the Old Testament including this great temple that Ezekiel prophesied would take place.

 

And there’s going to be a temple there. Why? Because we have a lot of people with unredeemed bodies that come out of the tribulation that populate the millennial kingdom, and they are Israel, and God there is going to deal with them through again a representative dwelling place called the temple.

 

When is that done? A thousand years later, the end of the millennium. Who terminates this one? This is a great story. God does. As a matter of fact, God says no more temples because the temple is now going to be God himself.

 

Temple is going to be in this new place called the New Jerusalem, and God himself will dwell there.

 

Now, I never—I’ve never found a chart like this before, so I created one this week. This might sort out a few things. Next time you run into a biblical temple, you got to ask, is it the tabernacle, the first temple, the second temple, the third temple, or the fourth temple? And maybe that’ll help sort out the fact that there’s different dimensions and different requirements and different stuff.

 

Four temples and a tent. Could have called the message that. Four temples and a tent.

 

Okay, what’s the writer of Hebrews say? That’s a helpful chart. Threw it in. No extra charge there. Copy, a shadow, a pattern. Okay, that’s what it is. It’s not the real deal.

 

Copy, Shadow, Reality

 

Here’s the problem with our thinking about the Old Testament. We think these small-minded people think that God lived there. No, they didn’t.

 

Let me give you an example. Turn with me to the Old Testament book of 2 Chronicles. Haven’t been there lately, have you? 2 Chronicles. Go to 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles in the Old Testament. 2 Chronicles chapter 6.

 

Let’s jump into a discussion that’s going on with Solomon talking about the construction of his temple, which was a big, big deal. We were moving from a tent to a temple, from the RV to a house. God was going to have a house.

 

Now, the discussion, you’ll find, includes phrases that a lot of people take literally as, “Wow, this must mean that God lives there.” No, they knew that when they were building it, that God couldn’t live in this box.

 

Look at how they described it. Let’s start in verse 6. You read verse 1, for instance, God dwells there. “Well, they think God lives there.” No, not really. Take a look at verse 6. This is 2 Chronicles 6, verse 6.

 

But now I’ve chosen Jerusalem for my…

 

This is interesting. What to be there? Name to be there. Okay?

 

And I have chosen David to rule over my people.

 

Solomon says,

 

my father David had it in his heart to build a temple for the, what? The name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

 

Now, they just said God’s going to dwell there. Well, they know God isn’t going to live in a house, but his name is going to be there. There’s going to be a place that is so representative of God, it’s like his name is there.

 

And that’s all the name is, right? Do you have a name? You’ve got a name. Is that you? No, but it represents me. It’s just a few letters. It’s a few phonetic sounds, but it’s not me. I’m different than my name, but my name is a representation of me.

 

The name, I hope, brings thoughts of who I am. When you say Mike Fabarez, you think of the person. And that’s what a name does.

 

And so there is some manifestation, a representative manifestation of God there. And he says it’s like God’s putting his name there in the city and in this temple.

 

Verse 8,

 

but Yahweh said to my father, David, because it was in your heart to build a temple for my name. You did well to have this in your heart. Nevertheless, you’re not the one to build the temple, but your son, who is your own flesh and blood, he is the one who will build the temple for my name.

 

Who’s that? Solomon.

 

Drop down to verse 17. Now he’s going to dedicate this with a prayer. He’s built the temple. It’s all decked out. He says this:

 

and now, oh Yahweh, God of Israel, let your word that you promised to your servant David come true.

 

But just so anybody looking on, they might think they’re, you know, they’re thinking God’s living in a house.

 

Will God really dwell on earth with men? No. The heavens and even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built.

 

Please don’t think these are primitive people that think they got God locked away in the inner room of the temple. They don’t. They realize this is just like a name. It just represents God. It’s a special manifestation of God’s presence, but it’s not God in a box.

 

Okay? Give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy. Oh, Yahweh, my God, hear the cry and the prayer of your servants that your servants are praying in your presence.

 

Now, this gets interesting.

 

May your eyes be open toward this temple day and night.

 

Now, see how he’s other and transcendent from this temple? Now, he says, you know, just look to this place if you would. He says,

 

this place that you’ve said you’d put your name there. May you hear the prayer of your servant as he prays it toward this place. Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place.

 

Hear from, where are they hearing from? Where’s God hearing from? Heaven. What’s heaven? Underline this.

 

Your dwelling place.

 

And when you hear, forgive.

 

Man, that’s just so important to know. There’s not a tent or a building in the Old Testament that anybody thought God lived in. They knew that God lived in heaven.

 

And in that regard, I think they have a clearer thinking of God and where he lives than most of us do as we look back at the Old Testament because we think, “Well, God was in a building.” God wasn’t in a building. They understood this. Even the guys that built it understood it, and they’re completely transparent about it.

 

Copy, shadow, reality, heaven, picture, representation, building, Old Testament.

 

Why the Copy?

 

Now, why would God do this? God did it for the same reason my kid this summer, when we took our little summer vacation, went into the gift shop at the Hoover Dam and bought this little plaster of Paris, little two and a half inch tall picture of the Hoover Dam.

 

Now, it wasn’t a picture. It was a statue. So it was cool to an eight-year-old. And he had his allowance burning a hole in his pocket. And he just looked over the edge like I did. We took all the pictures. We scared mom. You know, our hearts were leaning over. And we just thought, wow, that was the coolest thing, Dad.

 

You been to the Hoover Dam? Impressive. Wow. See?

 

So they go into the gift shop after ordering the ice cream that Dad has to pay for. They go up and go into the gift shop, and they buy their little plaster of Paris thing of the Hoover Dam.

 

Just the other day, I walked in my kid’s bedroom, was going to pray with him and put him to bed, and I saw the little Hoover Dam statue, you know. And I picked it up and said, guys, do you remember that place? Wasn’t that amazing?

 

Oh, yeah, Dad, that was so cool.

 

Any excuse to delay bedtime, they’re good at that.

 

So we talked for about five or ten minutes about how cool the Hoover Dam is, how amazing that is. And you remember leaning over that and feeling the air rush up that big stone thing, and wow, amazing.

 

And we stood there looking at that little thing going, that’s an amazing place. Why did my son want to buy that little thing? Well, he was so enamored with it, he wanted some representation of it.

 

That’s all the temple was. God had hoped that we would look at the temple if we were Old Testament saints and go, isn’t God’s dwelling place amazing?

 

It was the best building in town. It was the most elaborate and luxurious place you could find. Why? Because they wanted to remember God lives in an amazing place and God is an amazing person. That’s what the temple was all about.

 

But it was easy to get myopic in your worship and think we were going to meet at a place where God lived.

 

And what’s great about this transition from a priesthood discussion to a temple discussion is not only is the priesthood a symbol and representation of what we need—an intercessor before a holy God—so is the place that we worshiped.

 

And he said, you know what, that place is passé now. Why? Because the priest has now stepped into the presence of God. And the intercessor we need—that was represented by the Levitical priesthood—and the place of God’s name dwelling, you know what? We don’t need the priest anymore and we don’t need the building anymore because Christ is pulling it off in the presence of God himself.

 

Was it important in the Old Testament? Absolutely. But everyone knew it. They understood it—that the temple was just a picture.

 

As a matter of fact, remember those great words from Isaiah 66 verses 1 and 2? God says through the prophet Isaiah, heaven is my throne, the earth is my… Where then is a house you can build for me?

 

He says, my hand made all these things. Say, your little planet down there is my ottoman. I love to put my feet on it. It’s a great little place. It’s really comfy up here from the throne room of heaven.

 

Oh, and you got a little building down there? It’s like a pebble in my sandal. It’s nothing.

 

See, now God isn’t physical, but he’s saying, please get yourself in perspective. Your little gaudy house there that I told you to build that’s supposed to remind you of me is a lot like a two and a half inch little painted figurine of the Hoover Dam. It’s nothing compared to the real thing.

 

And God wants us to recognize that. As a matter of fact, let’s put it this way as we get back to Hebrews chapter 8. If we understand God’s houses from Israel’s perspective, let us turn our attention to what’s really going on in Christ’s life right now because he’s not in a temple like the Old Testament priest. He’s in the very presence of God.

 

And that is a pretty huge and impressive magnanimous place. It’s incredible. The text says this. Take a look at verses 1 and 2 again.

 

The point of what we’re saying is this. We do have such a high priest who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven and who serves in the sanctuary.

 

Not the earthly one, the heavenly one. And that was to take our attention to say, not only do you not need the priests anymore, this little house—man, think about it—our priest has entered the real house.

 

2. God’s Real House Needs to Be Appreciated

 

God’s real house, number two, needs to be appreciated. And I think for all of us as New Testament believers, we need to erase the caricature out of our mind and get back to thinking, now what is Christ really doing? Where is he right now?

 

Caught for just two seconds the A Few Good Men on TV last night. Did you see that? Love that Jack Nicholson line, you can’t handle the truth. Remember that?

 

You want the truth when it comes to the throne room of God? Okay.

 

Here are people thinking, you know what, fine then, if this isn’t where God is an amazing building, well then what’s the real house of God all about? See, I mean, the real response from a New Testament perspective, you can’t handle that. You can’t handle the dwelling place of God.

 

As a matter of fact, one passage—okay, two. Two passages on this.

 

The first one I want you to see is 1 Timothy chapter 6. Can you find that one? 1 Timothy chapter 6. Look at verse 13. Go to the very, very bottom of verse 13. Last three words starts a new sentence. Awkward verse division here in verse 14, but start at the end of verse 13.

 

I charge you to keep this command.

 

Are you with me? 1 Timothy 6:13 and 14.

 

Without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about, verse 15, in his own time.

 

And then he goes off on God for a minute.

 

God, the blessed and only ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who, this is an important phrase right here, underline it, lives in unapproachable light.

 

Where does God live? Unapproachable light.

 

Whom no one has seen or can see. Because if you did, you’d blow up, right?

 

To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

 

The point of Testament authors, like the Old Testament authors, is if you got in a place where you really were to be in the living room of God, your head would explode because you can’t be there. It’s too amazing. It’s too majestic. It’s too perfect. It’s too holy. You’ve never seen anything like it.

 

Why? Well, it’s not even a physical place. What’s interesting, though, about heaven is the confluence of a physical priest dwelling and living in a non-corporal place. And there’s a mind twister for you.

 

Where is heaven? It’s somewhere because Jesus is somewhere right now. You ever thought about that? Heaven’s not just a dimension or some kind of weird dimensional non-earthly reality. It actually has to be a place because Jesus has taken his resurrected body to a place and he is seated apparently next to some unapproachable beam of something that is the intellect and motion and will of the Father of the universe.

 

And the Son now is forever incarnate in that body and he lives in unapproachable light.

 

And if you say, well, wait a minute, which no man can see—how is that because there’s lots of discussion in the Bible about people seeing God’s dwelling place.

 

Here’s one, Isaiah chapter 6. Do you remember that? Isaiah, who said heaven is God’s throne—at least God said through Isaiah—and the earth, it’s an ottoman for me to put my feet on. He was one who in the beginning of his book, in chapter 6, encountered a vision, and that’s the important thing to say, of God.

 

These are what we call in biblical interpretation apocalyptic passages. Apocalyptic. Apocalyptic, by that I mean there’s a genre of scripture that is highly symbolic. Apocalypse means revealing.

 

When God reveals things that would blow our brains up if we could comprehend them, he puts them in symbols. The book of Revelation is called the apocalypse. Why? Because he’s something to people that they couldn’t really even take in. So he’s revealing this in symbolic fashion.

 

So here is Isaiah. He has a vision of the throne room of God.

 

Verse 1. Remember this text?

 

In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on the throne high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the what?

 

And we’re not talking about the one in Jerusalem. This is the real place.

 

Above him were seraphs. What? Seraphs.

 

Those are the interesting class of angelic beings who are pretty funky. Each have six wings. With two wings, they cover their face. With two wings, they cover their feet. And with two wings, they’re flying around and they’re calling out to each other, holy, holy, holy is Yahweh Almighty. And the whole earth is full of his glory. There’s reflections of his glory everywhere, even on the planet.

 

At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

 

Woe to me, I cried. I’m ruined. I’m a man of unclean lips. I live among a people of unclean lips. My eyes have seen the King, Yahweh Almighty.

 

Wait a minute. I thought no one could see God’s dwelling place. Well, no one can.

 

This is a vision that Isaiah is having, an apocalyptic vision, a symbolic vision of God’s dwelling place. And it’s really weird. And if you want an expansion of this, right in the margin, Revelation chapter 3—I’m sorry—Revelation chapter 4 and Revelation chapter 5. There is a blown up explanation of this place.

 

And I had a professor once, one of my early professors in Bible school. It was so interesting because here we’re trying to really be, you know, these little scholars and understand the Bible. He gave us a coloring assignment in college. And he said, “Here’s your assignment. I just want you to color, draw, sketch for me what’s going on in Revelation chapter 4 and 5.”

 

It’s a fantastic assignment. Because he thinks, you know, not only can you not process the dwelling place of God, you can’t even process the symbolic apocalyptic description of the dwelling place of God.

 

And you should have seen the drawings we came back with. It’s one of the hardest assignments I had in Bible school. And I tried to draw everything that I saw there in Revelation chapter 4 and 5.

 

And I fancied myself somewhat of a, you know, I can draw a few things. I couldn’t draw that. I buried it deep in my file somewhere because it’s the most bizarre thing.

 

Not only are these seraphs—we learn about the seraphs—you got these living creatures. Do you remember those from Ezekiel? Remember those from the book of Revelation? They got faces that are all different. You got a lion and you got this ox. It’s just bizarre. Wings all over, eyes everywhere? What does that mean? Draw that tonight.

 

A crystalline sea? Okay, I can kind of picture that. He goes on and on and on, and here’s how it all starts in chapter 4. He says, a door was opened and I was asked to come on up. You want to see my house? Come on in. It’s bizarre.

 

What’s the point? It’s an amazing place. And God has one physical item there. It’s the person of the incarnate Son of God.

 

And he’s got one thing to do. Stand there and represent me and represent you to a holy God that no one can even look at. And he’s there saying, you know that gym guy? Hey, Sally, Linda, those guys, I love them. I’m representing them. I know they’re not holy. I know they don’t deserve to live in your presence. But I’m here because of my righteousness.

 

I want to represent them and I want to minister on their behalf.

 

And Jesus stands as our mediator, our intercessor in the most bizarre place. Everything else there is spiritual. Every other person is software. But there’s one physical being who the Bible says still bears the marks of the crucifixion on his body. And he ministers for you and me in the presence of God.

 

It’s an amazing place. It’s an amazing place. Appreciate God’s real house.

 

Now, verses 3 and 4. Go back to Hebrews, if you would. Is you appreciate the house of God in your mind, and you say, that’s too weird, I don’t want to live there. And yet everybody’s telling me from the time I’m five, you want to go to heaven.

 

Here’s the thing, you’re not really going to heaven. You may go there at a short stop off, but that is not your future home.

 

There is something else that’s for us. It’s called the New Jerusalem. It’s going to come down out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband, and he’s going to set up for us a physical place where, by the way, the Lamb of God is going to rule from the center of that place. And that’s where you and I are going to live.

 

So even the living room of God, it’s a distant place. And we’ll go there as software for a while, in spirit, if you die before the coming of the kingdom. But one day you will be placed in a new place. It’s down here on earth. It’s the new earth.

 

And by the way, it’s not that there’s a new earth and that’s it. He also creates, according to Revelation 21, a new heaven and a new earth. Apparently it’s going to rearrange the pictures on the wall or something’s going to be different about the new heaven. No reference to sin anymore.

 

Back to Hebrews chapter 8. Look at verses 3 and 4.

 

Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer.

 

That’s his intercessory work. Christ is doing that. Not on earth. He was on earth. He couldn’t be that priest because there’s people doing that right now, and that’s irrelevant, we learned in chapter 7.

 

But what is Christ doing now? He’s interceding for you and me. Remember the picture we painted from the beginning of the book of Hebrews, and we painted it again last week.

 

Christ has done such a job representing us to a holy God, our creator, who lets us live—not only live, but live with his blessing. The only way we get into the presence and the grace of God is riding in on the robe of the great high priest. Remember that? That’s the picture.

 

His work is so good and so perfect. It’s much like last week’s applicational point. His work is so perfect that in the scripture, because I know we’re thinking temple, temple, wait a minute, The Bible says something about the temple in the New Testament.

 

No, we don’t have temples in the New Testament. Here’s the amazing thing.

 

3. We Are the Temple

 

Number three on your outline. We are the temple. And that becomes the amazing twist of theology in the New Covenant.

 

It’s as though he has provided such a great intercessory work on our behalf that we now can stand back, as the New Testament writers say, “I have such access to the presence of the living God that you can look at me and say, no longer do I need a temple. I am a temple.”

 

Take a look at it with me in Romans. Let’s start in 1 Corinthians 3. Two passages will be done.

 

The Corporate Temple

 

1 Corinthians 3. Realize Christ’s priestly work is so perfect, it’s like we become God’s house. We become the dwelling place of God.

 

Now, if you say, well, I knew that, maybe you didn’t know this. There are two senses in which that’s true in the New Testament. And don’t miss this. There’s two senses in which that’s true.

 

1 Corinthians chapter 3. When we talk about the temple of God, we often talk about verse 17, and we’ll get there, but we should start in verse 7. Because it’s not what most people think.

 

By the way, as a side note, a footnote here, you can go back through all my CDs, you’ll find I don’t call the buildings that we meet in—not only do I not call it the temple, I never call it the sanctuary. Have you noticed that? Announcement guys may do it from time to time, but I don’t do it.

 

Because the building we meet in, I mean, think about it. Certainly a tilt-up cement, you know, reconfigured warehouse is not the temple. And it’s not the sanctuary, not the tabernacles, none of that.

 

It’s a place where the temple meets.

 

Take a look at this. Verse number 7.

 

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything.

 

They’re rallying around their favorite teachers, and he says, don’t do that.

 

But only God who makes things grow, the man who plants and the man who waters, have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.

 

For we are God’s fellow workers, and you, now this is important because in Greek there’s a difference between you, singular, and you, plural, and the only place we have that in English is in the South, right? They say y’all. Okay, so put that in here.

 

This is not you individually, or you as an individual. Y’all, all of you, are God’s field, and what else are you? God’s building.

 

Here’s the great thing. God doesn’t have a building, right? In terms of stucco and cement and brick and mortar. We are God’s building.

 

Now, we’re not a building, clearly, and we’re not a field, but we are seen as that by God. Keep reading.

 

By the grace that God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder.

 

Now, Paul says, when I worked on building your life and building faith into your life and building biblical knowledge and knowledge of Christ in your life, I was building and then I left you. I was a missionary and someone else came and built on that. They taught you.

 

But each one should be careful how he builds into the spiritual lives of the church. No one can lay a foundation other than the one that’s already been laid and that is Christ Jesus. You have a relationship with him.

 

If any man builds on this foundation, if anyone tries to teach you and build you up in Christ using gold and silver and costly stones, truth and sincerity and integrity in their teaching, man, that’s great.

 

Wood—but there’s other things too—there’s wood, hay and straw. There’s stuff that isn’t sincere and it’s not genuine and it’s not always accurate.

 

His work, whoever builds on the church and builds into the church, it’s going to be shown for what it is because the day, the day of judgment, will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.

 

What’s the context here? The people that are investing in building up the body of Christ.

 

If what he has built survives, he’ll receive a reward. But if it’s burned up, he’ll suffer loss. He’ll be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. He’s going to have a tough time, and there’ll be some sorrow and some loss on Judgment Day. But he’s saved, but he’s a bad church leader.

 

Verse 16.

 

Don’t you know that you yourselves,

 

that’s helpful as plural,

 

are God’s,

 

here it is, not just building, he’s going to up the word,

 

God’s temple,

 

and that the Spirit of God lives in y’all, okay, there’s the plural.

 

If anyone destroys God’s temple, what are we talking about? The people of God, the organization of God, the church of God, God’s going to destroy him.

 

For God’s temple is sacred, and y’all are that temple, okay?

 

Here’s the first aspect that you need to know. We are like the house of God, not in the building that we meet, but as we gather together and we as the church do what the church does, and as a preacher stands up and preaches to you, and as we invest in one another’s spiritual lives, we as an organization, as a network of believers who are meeting as one organization, the church, we are God’s temple.

 

Why? Because the intercessory work of Christ was so good. His mediatorial work of leading us into the presence of God and making peace with the Father was so good that you and I are like that special representation of God placing his name on a building.

 

Now he’s placed his name. Now watch this ironic point. He’s placed his name, the name of the incarnate Son, Christ himself, on this organization.

 

As a matter of fact, we like to call ourselves what? Christians. See? The name of God. Just like the Old Testament representation.

 

We now, an organization, represent God in this world, and God has access to us, and we have access to him because of Christ’s work. We are the temple.

 

Last week, I said, you don’t need a priest. Why? Because you are the priesthood. This week, you don’t need a temple. There are no temples in the new covenant age, because we are corporately the temple of God.

 

See, that’s a big truth.

 

Now, you’re saying, well, that’s not the way I heard it. You heard it this way, chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians. And this is valid too.

 

The Individual Temple

 

As a matter of fact, if you want to talk specifically about your own life, see, this holds true as well. This follows.

 

1 Corinthians 6. Look at verse 19. Context here, sexual immorality, sexual sin, seeing the prostitute—shouldn’t do that. Why?

 

Well, one reason is this, verse 19.

 

Don’t you know that your body,

 

now this is not talking about the body of Christ. Now we’re talking about your own physical body,

 

is a temple,

 

notice it’s not the temple, like in the first part in chapter 3, now we’re talking about your body is an individual temple,

 

a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you’ve received from God.

 

I love this phrase, and remember it well.

 

You’re not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body.

 

Your body is a temple.

 

We together, when we meet, are the temple of God, and God loves the church so much, He says if there’s people that destroy it or tear it down, God will destroy them.

 

Secondly, though, as a part of that, if you’ve repented of your sins and put your trust in the great high priest, the mediator who makes you right before God and you’ve run in on the coattails of the great high priest and you now have access to God, here’s the thing.

 

You yourself, your very body itself is a place that houses the specialized and focused presence of God. It’s called the Holy Spirit.

 

See, the Father dwells in unapproachable light in a place called heaven. That’s his real house. It’s a bizarre place. Try and draw it someday. Christ himself is resurrected and now is seated at the right hand of that unapproachable light.

 

But there’s a third person of the Godhead. The Spirit of God is sent now to have an active presence in my life that is even more glorious when we gather together in fellowship, that we are corporately the temple, and individually when I leave you tonight and I go to my own house, I can look at myself and say, you know what? Because of God’s active work in my life, I am the temple of God.

 

That’s an amazing truth. Do you need a temple? Don’t need a temple. We could meet under a tree outside if we had to. We are…

 

Caught that. Somebody did it. Good.

 

We are corporately the temple of God, and we are individually temples of the living God. That is a sobering and amazing truth. It has staggering implications.

 

It’s much like that little Hoover Dam thing, model, plaster of Paris. We are those. And across our lives should be the clarity of God’s representative name. We are Christians. We are followers of the incarnate God. We are his people.

 

How you live, how you think, how you act, what you do with your body, and what we do as a church is sacred.

 

I hope that elevates our view of who we are and who we are corporately. And I hope ultimately it gets us to remember that we don’t need a fancy building in Jerusalem to worship God.

 

Jesus had a gal who came to him once and said, you know what, you guys say you should worship there. We say we should worship over here. She was a Samaritan. Remember this, John 4? And he says the time is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship him in spirit and in truth.

 

You don’t have to travel to Jerusalem anymore. We have access because of the mediatorial work of Christ to the holy God. That’s good news.

 

Let’s pray.

 

God, please give us a sense of the profundity of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ in an age when all of the ceremonies and the symbols of a representative place of presence on this earth has been exchanged from brick and mortar to individual lives—individual lives that network together in individual churches that you say are so important to you, you equate it to the Old Testament temple.

 

Please, God, help us to raise our own view and our own perspective and our own reverence for the work of God, not only in our lives, as I think most of us came in recognizing that we are the temple, but corporately as a church.

 

Help us to make the church glorious, a place where your name dwells, where people in Aliso Viejo and Laguna Niguel and Mission Viejo and San Juan Capistrano say, there are people working together to represent the name of God in this culture. And whether they believe us or don’t, God, they recognize that there is a sense of commitment and excellence and hard work that we put in to making sure that what we do here is done with a kind of reflection of the goodness and glory of God.

 

God, it can start with the programs that we do, this outreach here at the end of the month. There are so many things that we have an opportunity to engage in with a heart and a mind that raises it from the mundane to something sacred.

 

So God, change our thinking about this that we might recognize that those fancy buildings of the Old Testament, though it would have been interesting to walk through them and to see them, is nothing compared to the privilege that we have of housing ourselves, the third person of the Godhead, and joining together as a reflective and representative presence of the living God on this earth.

 

God, make your presence glorious in our lives, corporately and individually.

 

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.