GOD IS BUILDING
HIS HOUSE
Almost four years ago, when Sharon and I were on our
sabbatical, Randy and Ang invited us to go to Chicago for the weekend. They
graciously suggested that we choose the sites we would want to see. The first
place I wanted to go was to a church service at Moody Memorial Bible Church.
The
church had been built in the 20’s so Dwight Moody would never have seen this
building with his name. But other famous preachers filled the pulpit there,
preachers like Harry Ironside, R. A. Torrey, Alan Redpath and Warren Wiersbe.
So there was both a historical and spiritual nature to my desire to see this
place of worship.
Having
never seen any pictures of the church before, I was amazed at the architecture
and the ambiance of the place. I could not stop taking pictures of everything.
That is, until a very authoritative lady usher came and told me to stop it.
Apparently the flash messed with the TV cameras (which I could not locate).
Nevertheless,
between the singing and the preaching, I glanced around frequently in awe of
the building we sat in. But it strikes me now that the building itself is
meaningless. Without Christ-centered, God-worshiping believers, a building like
this can easily serve as a community hall, a convention center, or even a
museum (much like Hagia Sophia in Istanbul). So the building itself loses its
aura when the purpose for which it is built ceases.
Everything
in our world is temporal; it all has an end. When we build something we expect
it to be useful for a long time. But the truth is that our buildings are
disposable.
God,
however, is building a house that will last for eternity. That house is a place
of worship where God will be given his worth forever and ever. Using Luke 21 as
a starting point, I would like to tell you about this house.
1. Admiring the trees; ignoring the forest
You have heard the expression: “You can’t see the forest
for the trees.” The idea behind it, of course, is that someone is looking too
close at the details to see the big picture.
Jesus
was spending a lot of time in the temple at Jerusalem teaching and making his
presence known. Some of his disciples, many from Galilee, likely had not see
the temple before. They remarked how beautiful it was and might have said,
“Don’t you think so, Master? Don’t you think it’s awesome?”
The
temple was a sight to behold, for sure. It was not the first temple on this
site – that would be Solomon’s temple 900 years earlier. Then there was the
second temple built 100 years after the destruction of the first temple by the
Babylonians. This second temple was renovated by Herod fifty years before this
particular moment with Jesus, and was still being renovated. It would take
another thirty years to finish.
Even so,
at the time of Jesus, the temple was covered in gold plates so that when the
sun shone on it, the temple was impossible to look at. Other parts were built
with blocks of white marble so that from a distance it looked like a mountain
of snow. And then, wealthy patrons continued to add costly touches, such as a
gold sculpture of a vine set with clusters of grapes which were precious
stones.
But the
significance of the temple to the Jews was beyond measure. To them it occupied
the central place in their national, religious and cultural life. It signified
a thousand years of God dealing with them; it signified the very presence of
God among his people.
So as
the disciples focused on the trees, what was the forest they were missing?
2. Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple
“But Jesus said, ‘As
for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on
another; every one of them will be thrown down,’” (21:6).
The
temple was rotten to the core. Jesus had driven out the money changers; he had
exposed the hypocrisy of the priesthood; and the spiritual leaders of Israel
were plotting to kill Jesus – the Messiah they had been waiting for. Even the
disciples failed to see that the reality of the temple was standing right in
front of them.
Jesus
was saying that the usefulness of the temple had come to an end with his
arrival. The sign of God’s presence was the temple; the reality of God’s
presence was Jesus. God would put his Shekinah glory in the temple in the OT;
now the glory of God stood in flesh, the man from Nazareth. Everything that the
temple represented was found in Jesus.
What the
temple had been saying in glittering gold and religious ritual was now see and
heard in a living man. No more need for signs. The temple’s table of showbread
was unnecessary – they had the Bread of Heaven now. The temple’s candelabra
signifying the light of God was now outshone by the Light of the World.
Sacrifices of goats, bulls and pigeons were moot with the Lamb of God. The
blood of goats is replaced now with the blood of Christ. No more signs are
necessary; the temple served its purpose – tear it down.
What
Jesus predicted took place as he said it would. The temple was completed in 63
AD, but a Jewish revolt against Rome was boiling over. So the Romans sent
troops to surround the city and choke it out. By 70 AD, the invaders breeched
the walls and began a wholesale slaughter of the people.
Josephus,
the ancient historian, tells us that the temple caught fire and those gold
plates melted into the cracks and crevices of the temple walls and floors. The
soldiers dug up every stone to get at the gold, so that not one stone was left
on another, just as Jesus said.
3. What were
the signs of this prophetic fulfillment?
The disciples do not react in unbelief for once, but with
an amazed sense of wonder. When will this happen Teacher?
Jesus
goes to great lengths to explain the signs of this event. What is worth noting
is that he does it in OT prophetic language which they would have understood
very well. It is problematic for us, however, because we are not used to such
language and so it sounds futuristic to us.
Nevertheless,
Jesus gives three signs that show us he was absolutely right and that it did
happen:
a) Jerusalem
surrounded – It was only 40 years later that this picture would become a
reality. Jesus said, “When you see
Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is
near,” (21:20). He tells them to run to the hills when they see this army
coming. Many Christians were reviled for doing just that because the patriotic
Jews stayed to defend their temple. But Jesus said that day would be hard on
pregnant women and the sword would fall on many of them. “Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the time of the
Gentiles are fulfilled,” (21:24).
b) Signs in the
heavens – The second sign that this time had come was the signs in the
heavens. Jesus said, “There will be signs
in the sun, moon and stars,” (21:25a). This is that OT language I
mentioned. You can find this exact type of symbolism in Isaiah and Ezekiel
where the prophets talk about the judgment coming on the nations that attacked
Israel.[i]
Did they actually see signs in the heavens when this happened? No, this is
highly figurative language describing the fall of nations. They would describe
the rise and fall of nations as being like stars falling from the heavens.
Now,
what causes readers to think that this is Second Coming material is v. 27. “At that time they will see the Son of Man
coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Jesus’ Jewish disciples
would have heard this and understood that he was talking about Daniel 7, one of
the most popular prophecies of that day. It spoke about a time when God’s true
people would be vindicated after their suffering at the hands of beasts. The
“beasts” were pagan nations. Daniel writes about a scene of a great law court,
in which God, the Judge, announces his verdict and finds in favor of ‘the Son
of Man’ against the beast. Then the Son of Man is brought on a cloud to share
the throne of God himself. So the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple is
God saying to those who killed his Son, “You despised and rejected my Son, put
him to death – your own Messiah. So here’s your judgment: Your temple is gone
but Jesus is enthroned in heaven.”
The
destruction of the temple is at the same time the vindication of Jesus as
Messiah.
c) “This
generation” – How do we know that this is history and not future? Jesus
says, “…this generation will certainly
not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass
away, but my words will never pass away,” (21:32-33). One scholar said that
“heaven and earth” were colloquial for “the temple and the Torah.” More
importantly, Jesus said “this generation” will see the destruction of the
temple. And they did.
Some who
see this passage as still to come may not be wrong. This may be a microcosm for
the times leading to the Second Coming. But it is first fulfilled in Jesus who
is proved right in his prediction, and confirmed as King of kings in the
destruction of the temple.
4. What this means for us
What does this mean for us? All this history stuff is
sort of interesting but how does it relate to me?
John
takes a slightly different perspective in his gospel on this temple event.
After Jesus cleared the temple, the Jews demanded a sign from him to prove his
authority to do what he did. Jesus replied, “Destroy
this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” The Jews replied, “It
has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it
in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. (John
2:19-22).
Through
this declaration we begin to understand how Jesus saw himself. Everything that
the temple signified was now found in Jesus alone. He is the person and place
of sacrifice where forgiveness is found and God’s voice is heard and God’s
glory and presence are encountered. What the believers saw in the destruction
of the temple and its rituals was a passing of the old imperfect order for the
new and perfect order in Christ.
Paul
used temple imagery in writing to the Ephesians saying how there was no longer
a barrier between Jew and Gentile. All are one in Christ. “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens but fellow
citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief
cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a
dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit,” (Eph 2:19-22).
What is
Paul saying? He is saying that there is a new temple and it is us. Where God
symbolically dwelt in the temple, he literally dwells in the people of God.
After the story of the vineyard, Jesus referred to himself as the cornerstone.
Paul picks up on that and says the foundation and chief piece of this new
temple is Jesus.
Peter
joins Paul in this imagery when he wrote, “You
also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy
priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ,” (1
Peter 2:5). And then he also refers to Jesus as the chief cornerstone
in the very next verse.
There is
no coincidence here but a deliberate reference to a significant reality: God
doesn’t need a temple made with human hands. He lives in the body of Christ,
the church. He is right here in the life of this community, and in the
worldwide church that bears Christ’s name.
If you
look around you right now, you will see the faces of people you know. You see
people who have flaws and who sin and who may have hurt you. You don’t see the
glory of God. But if you look again and you look through the lens of the Grace
of God, you see people who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. You will
see a people who have been shown mercy and love. Can you see them now? These
are living stones testifying to the power of Christ to take broken people and
make them new again. We are being built (ongoing tense) into a spiritual house
that is suitable for God to dwell in. One day that house will be finished and
we will know the fullness of the presence of God. Until then, we keep striving
to stand firm in our faith and reflect the mercy that has been shown to you.
Christ
is the high priest of this temple, the great and ultimate sacrifice for sin,
the cornerstone that all we want to line up to. We are the reflection of God’s
glory together as the people of God.
God is building his house.
The material of this house is you and me.
He has torn down the old house to make room for a new and
lasting house.
This temple begins and ends with Jesus Christ.
We are that house where true worship takes place.
AMEN
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