October 2,2024
Building People of Substance for Works of Power
Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER,’ but you have made it a ‘DEN OF THIEVES.'” Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.
Matthew 21:12-14 NKJV
We used to sing a simple chorus: “Come and go with me to my Father’s house.” The refrain for each verse was, “There is joy, joy, joy!” For those of us who grew up in the Bible Belt, it meant, “Let’s go to church!” It seems like the House of God isn’t talked about much these days.
There are millions of people in our country who are no longer part of a regular church community but still believe in Christ. There are lots of reasons why people stop going to church. Some have had bad experiences with other believers or disagree with some point of doctrine. Others are just not happy with the quality of the music, or the chairs, or whatever. Some people have gone through genuine abuse of one kind or another. That’s really sad.
As a pastor, I’ve heard a bunch of reasons for staying home and praying with the family. Believe me, I am an expert on the subject of church-inflicted pain. You wouldn’t believe some of the things people say to pastors. In addition, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a sermon that I agreed with 100%. I don’t even agree with some things that I preached in times past. That’s called growth. And I have certainly been in services where the production value left something to be desired. In fact, I was leading the worship in most of them.
All that being said, it hurts my heart when I hear of God’s kids living the orphan life. I have a love for the local church. I think it’s clear that Jesus was passionate about his Father’s house. It’s a biblical big deal. From the very beginning, God chose certain places where He could interact with His family. After sin ruined Eden, we see instances where God and humans interact, when heaven and earth converge, and glory follows. Remember Abraham in Genesis 15 when God made the covenant? What about when the Angel of Yahweh stepped in to offer a substitute sacrifice for Abraham’s uniquely begotten son on the mount?
The first time the term “House of God” is used is in Genesis 28. Jacob is on his way to find a wife and to avoid his brother’s wrath. He sets up camp and uses a rock as a pillow. In a startling dream, he sees a ladder from earth to heaven with angels, messengers of God, ascending and descending. Yahweh stood above the ladder and announced that the covenant He made with Abraham was being renewed. Notice Jacob’s first words upon awakening:
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!”
Genesis 28:16-17
Jacob was the least likely of heroes, but God had chosen him for a mission. He would go from being Jacob, the usurper, to Israel, the prince. He would start a family, face some tough challenges, and come back to this place to remember his promise (Genesis 35:15). In this first mention, God gives us some insights into what He means when He says, “My house.” (Genesis 28:10-22)
The House of God is a place of
- Interaction between heaven and earth, with communication going both ways. (v. 12)
- Access to the heavenly realm, the Gate of Heaven. (v. 17)
- The presence of Yahweh and His heavenly host. (v. 12-13)
- Remembering the Covenant. (v. 13-15)
- Bringing offerings to be received by God. (v. 18-22)
- The anointing. The first mention of anointing with oil is in verse 18.
- Conversion to Yahweh worship, “the LORD shall be my God” (v. 21).
This thread of God establishing a place of meeting with His covenant people continues. God commissioned Moses to build a tabernacle (tent) in the wilderness “that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). He even called it the “tent of meeting.” Once David had taken care of business and consolidated the kingdom, Solomon got to work on the temple in Jerusalem. When they dedicated it, the priests couldn’t enter because “the glory of the LORD filled the house of God” (2 Chronicles 5:14}.
Solomon’s temple was destroyed in 586 B.C. Somewhere around that time, the Ark of the Covenant went missing. The second temple was built under Cyrus of Persia and dedicated in 516 B.C. The Ark was never in the Second Temple, but all the rituals and traditions of temple worship were practiced there until it was destroyed in 70 A.D. There’s no record of a cloud ever appearing there. What happened to the glory of the temple?
At the Incarnation, “…the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The word “dwelt” comes from the Greek word for “tent” or “tabernacle.” The message is that the eternal Word took up residence in a tabernacle of flesh, and in that tent they beheld His glory. For the first time in 600 years, God was present on Earth in a physical tent where people could see, touch, and hear Him. Jesus Christ, the Incarnate God present in a human body, walking among human followers, was the place of interaction between heaven and earth until His crucifixion.
After Jesus was crucified, something incredible happened. That glory flowed into all who believed. Hebrews 3:6 says, “Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.” In his first letter to Timothy, Paul says, “I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God.” There are other references, but the point is, the local assembly of believers is the New Testament House of God.
This brings up an interesting question: “I thought Paul said that my human body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” Yes, he did say that: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own” (1 Corinthians 6:19)? He alluded to that idea again in 2 Corinthians 5:4: “we who are in this tent groan” referring to our human body as a “tabernacle.” He dwells in you. Wherever you go, you are a tent of meeting for those around you!
So, is my body the temple, or is the church the temple? The answer is a resounding “Yes!” Both are true. In the letters to the Corinthians, Paul uses both metaphors in quick succession. In 1 Corinthians, he talks about the local assembly of believers when he says, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you” (1 Corinthians 3:16)? In Second Corinthians 6:16, he says, “For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM.”
Peter gives us the key to understanding this seemingly mixed messaging.
Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:4-5
Here’s the deal. Jesus is the chosen and precious living cornerstone. Though humans rejected and crucified Him, God chose to use His death and resurrection as the way of bringing creation back to Himself. All believers are given the same resurrection life. We are chosen and precious living stones, but that’s not the end of it. When we take our place in right relation to the chief cornerstone, we are built into a spiritual house, something much greater than the sum of the parts. In this house, we’re not just part of the building, but part of the priesthood too. We’re all part of a holy priesthood, a team of priests offering sacrifices that are acceptable to God.
Being a believer indwelt by the Spirit is a wonderful thing. It is, however, not the only thing. When the stones are connected, the power is amplified exponentially. We see this in Matthew 18:18-20, where Jesus says that when we pray together, our prayers have more power. This gives us the authority to forbid and allow things in the spirit realm. This power flows from His personal presence in our midst.
When Paul was instructing the Corinthians on how to deal with an egregious sin, he said to do it “when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 5:4). In Acts 4 we see quite a prayer meeting: “…the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). In both cases, they were gathered together. In the latter, they received a fresh empowerment of the Spirit as well.
Here’s the point: Some things only happen when we’re all together as a group. You can’t do it alone. The result of our redemption isn’t just a field with living stones scattered randomly. The stones have to be gathered together, arranged in a way that makes sense, and connected firmly to form a new, living entity: the church. There are some things you can’t do alone, some miracles that will never happen, some situations that will never be remedied without the multiplied power of the spiritual building and the spiritual sacrifices of the Priesthood (not just the priest). One of those sacrifices is prayer. His house, whose house we are, is supposed to be a house of prayer. Get together and pray; pray when you get together.
Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
Revelation 5:8
Pastor Virgil
3141 W. Ironwood Hill Dr.
Tucson, AZ 85741
Catch the message on “The House of God” here.
pastorvirgil.com 