The Church: Temple (1 Pet. 2:4-8)
Here’s my second message from our series, The Church, looking at the metaphor of temple (07/12/20). You can catch the audio and video here.
I’m just on social media for the memes. Not the meanies. There are plenty of those. But the memes are great. Especially the ones about how bad 2020 has been. I’ve loved the ones with the celebrity before-after picks. Like with Samuel L. Jackson or Matthew McConaughey - making fun of the toll that 2020 has taken on all of us.
We’ve felt empty, tired, discouraged, directionless. Even useless at times. At least I have. But why might that be the case? Perhaps we’ve forgotten the source of our strength. We’ve lost sight of our calling together.
Coming out of this long, strange season, I want us to ponder and pray together and ask: what is the church? Who are we again? We’re looking at six different metaphors for the church we see in our Bibles. They teach us so much - about who we are, about how we’re to live. We’ve looked at family and body. Today, we take on temple.
Now, when I say the word temple, what comes to mind? Probably a religious building of some sort. I think of my trips to Japan. The epic temples there devoted to idols.
Maybe you’ve grown up in the church and you’ve heard of the massive temple Solomon built for Israel. And that was rebuilt over the years. Where God’s people met with the Lord.
We find here in 1 Peter 2, as well as in other places in the New Testament, that we, the people of God, the church, are called the temple, by our God, together. And understanding that makes all the difference. Here’s the outline I’m going to follow this evening. We’ll look, first, at where things are going. Second, how things will get there. And, third, what this means for us.
Now my kids haven’t been amused, but at least once a day over the last few months, I’ve said things like, “You remember - back in the day - when we used to go to restaurants?” Or, “You remember - way back then - when we used to walk around the mall?” Now they’re not laughing. But do you remember back when we used to go on trips? You type your destination into your Maps app on your phone. It brings up where you’re going. You can then see and follow your pathway to getting there.
It’s so important - as we take on this image of the temple - to ponder both. Our destination. Our pathway. And what we’re going to find out - as we do - is, as my seminary buddy Ryan Lister points out, that they’re both the same. Where we’re headed on our journey. How we’ll get to that place. The answer’s the same. Now what could I possibly mean? My daughter keeps asking me to take her to see her cousin. Where are we going? Bloomington. How do we get there? Bloomington. What? You should be confused. Let me explain.
Our Destination
My first point: where things are going. But to understand that, we have to first go back to the beginning. To the garden. To where it all starts. What do we see there? God’s creation, yes. With Adam and Eve as its pinnacle. But more important than that - the presence of God is there. God is with them.
Now peek ahead to the end - where we’re going - our destination. Hear with me God’s word in Revelation 21.
Rev. 21:1 Then 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.
Rev. 21:2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev. 21:3 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.
Rev. 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
What do we see there? The garden of God - the city of God - has now filled the earth. And what’s at the center? The presence of God once again.
Now we do see God give His people a temple in the Old Testament. But this isn’t the way things were meant to be. God still seeks out His people. But as Mark Sayers puts it, “His presence now would have to be mediated and partial.” He goes on:
“His presence would be mediated through fire, cloud, sacrifice, temples, curtains, and codes of purity. There could be a relationship, but only mediated through religion. There still could not be full life in His presence. The relationship remained fractured.” (Mark Sayers)
Eden is like a temple. A picture of the way God’s creation was meant to be. With God’s presence at the center. It’s God’s sanctuary. Fast forward to the end, again, and the entire earth has become a temple. As Lister puts it, “All of heaven has collided with the whole earth to make a perfect sanctuary for God to dwell with man.” That’s where we’re going. What’s our destination? The presence of God - forever. And it’s going to be amazing. But the question is: how are we going to get there?
Our Pathway
Let’s move to the second point: how things will get there. That temple in the Old Testament - where God’s people came - pointed ahead to the destination. But it also pointed ahead to the pathway.
Jesus comes on to the scene. God pursues His people again. Christ is “Immanuel” - God with us. The presence of God comes to earth. The religious leaders ask Jesus for a sign in the gospels, and He responds like this: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). Everyone’s confused. John explains it this way: “But He was speaking about the temple of His body” (v. 21). Jesus is the true temple. He is where people meet the presence of God.
But there’s still a problem. God’s holy. We’re sinners. All of those Old Testament sacrifices point ahead to His ultimate sacrifice. Where He pays for our sins in our place. The temple of the curtain is torn in two. We now have full access. To the presence of God. Through Jesus the temple. As Sayers call it, “the redemptive presence of God.” That’s the first and main part of the answer to the question, “How will things get there?” The presence of God come to earth in Jesus.
But here’s the second part of the answer. Us. The church. Back to 1 Peter. The apostle calls us a temple. He says in verse 4 that we’re like “living stones.” We’re being built together. That’s critical. Yes, the Bible calls us individual temples of the Spirit. That’s another sermon. That’s true. But we’re built together to make one temple. “Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets” - Ephesians 2 tells us that. With Jesus as the cornerstone. We see that both there and here in 1 Peter 2.
We’re built into a “spiritual house.” That’s what verse five tells us. We’re to offer “spiritual sacrifices.” We give our whole lives in worship. We’re also called a “holy priesthood.” More on that in a bit. But here’s the main thing: we’re being formed into a place where God’s presence can be found. That’s what this image of the temple communicates to us.
So let me circle back to where I started. Where are we headed? The presence of God. That’s our destination. How are we gonna get there? Our pathway? The presence of God. The presence of God in Jesus. God with us. God saving us. And the presence of God in us, His Church. We are His temple.
Our Mission
Now, third, I want to get into what this means for us. Here we get into our mission of helping bring that end-time reality about. There are two main things that we should remember as we think of ourselves as a temple.
We’re first indwelled. Right? Indwelled with the Holy Spirit. As His people, we have the presence of God within us. Ephesians 2:22 puts it like this: “In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
We’re second empowered. Empowered by the Holy Spirit. We see this in the book Acts. The Spirit empowers the early church. But that’s also true of us. Just as Jesus was anointed with the Spirit and sent out on mission, so are we.
So here’s what I think this means. The world needs to look at us and see us as a place where God’s presence is found. They need to see us communing with the living God. They need to look at us and see a vision of what’s to come. God’s people in God’s new creation basking in His presence. That’s why there may be nothing more important than our corporate worship times like this each week. Along with our personal worship times each day. Where we come before His presence. And as 2 Corinthians 3 puts it, we’re transformed into His glory. The Holy Spirit makes us more and more holy. We experience His presence together.
But here’s what else it means. We expand His presence together. You see, in the beginning, Adam and Eve were given this command to cultivate and fill the earth. They were to extend that garden, that temple, until the glorious presence of God covered the earth like the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). But sin put a big wrench in that. Now, thanks to Christ’s work, we’re to jump back into that calling again. Showing His presence. Spreading His presence. Until that final day.
Whereas, in the days of old, God’s people called the nations to come and visit the temple and experience the presence of God, in this new era, what do we do? We take the temple to them. Verse 5 again calls us a “royal priesthood.” We represent God to man. We go out into the world, empowered by His Spirit, spreading the presence of our God. Calling people to bow to King Jesus. Showing people the love and justice found in His reign. Until the heavens and earth come together and serve as a temple again, fully, finally, and forever.
Let me mention a couple of ministries in Karis and how they fit with this. First, our Missional Communities - or small groups in Karis. This time has been hard, but there’s a sense in which our church is more pandemic-proof than some. Because we don’t live or die on this Sunday Gathering. Our vision is to see our Missional Communities as gospel outposts - all over our city - showing and spreading the presence of God.
Second, our Prayer Ministry. We have a group of people praying every week - in what we’re calling our Prayer Collective - for renewal. Let me know or Michael Tooley if you’d like to be a part of it. But what’s renewal? What’s revival? It’s at its most fundamental element experiencing with freshness and power the presence of God. A fire that starts in the church and spreads out across the globe. That’s what we ask for. That’s what we need.
What’s our destination? The presence of God. What’s the pathway? The presence of God. And that pathway - through Jesus - includes and involves us. What a privilege that is! In your workplace - you carry God’s presence. At your school - you show God is near. On walks in your neighborhood - as you chat with neighbors, you have this amazing opportunity and responsibility to bring God’s presence to people. And invite them to be before His glorious presence forever. This is our calling. Until that day. Especially during this hour of trial.
Our Hope
But here’s our problem. We may not realize it, but we still have temples today - and I’m not just talking about over in Japan. We still flock to them, bowing to their idols. They may just look more like shopping malls or football stadiums or political rallies.
Serving them - and not the Lord - have left us in bad place to start with. At the center of our hearts and churches is a confidence in our own strength. In the kingdoms of this world. Not the comfort and power of the Spirit. We so easily turn from His presence.
But 2020 has shaken and rattled those temples and their idols inside. And it’s left us unsettled and confused. Even devastated and dismayed. If the true source of our joy is exposed and removed, we’re left in a really tough place.
But friends, maybe that’s a great thing. Perhaps the Lord will use this to drive people to Him. People who’ve never bowed before His name. But also people like us here in the church - who’ve turned from Him.
Maybe it will remind us of the source of our strength and of our calling He’s given us together. Maybe we’ll be driven to the presence of God once again. Toward gospel renewal. And we’ll live as His temple together. Communing with Him. Experiencing His presence. Carrying His glory - the presence of God - to our neighborhood and the nations. Expanding that presence, as originally intended. Let’s pray.