What Is the Church? Part 5, The Temple of God

“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.” 2 Corinthians 6:16b

2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1 – What Is the Church?  
Fifth Sunday in Epiphany  – February 4, 2024 (am)   

I. What is the temple?

If we are going to answer the question, ‘What is the church?’ by saying, ‘the church is the temple of God’, it’d be good to make sure we all understand what, exactly, a temple is and how whatever a temple is has played a role in the life of God’s people. And so, here’s a definition I'd like us to work with this morning: The temple is where God dwells with His people to bring reconciliation and restoration. Notice two things about this definition - the first is that it doesn’t specify a place. It’s not necessarily a building. Second, it gives purpose to the temple, an aim, an intended result to the place where God dwells.

Nick did a wonderful job for us last week in resurrecting the dead metaphor of ‘flock’. While the idea of a temple isn’t quite ‘dead’ today, I believe a similar approach this morning will be helpful - namely, walking through the pages of scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, to ensure we understand this theme of temple. And as we do that, asking 3 questions along the way, my prayer is that this will result in worship of God, an elevated view of our responsibility as the church, and a clarified vision and heightened longing for the end time picture of the forever temple.

Those three questions will be, What is the Temple?, How is the Church the Temple?, and So What? (always a helpful question!)

The Eden Sanctuary

When you think of God dwelling with man, what’s the first instance that comes to mind? The opening pages of Scripture! At the climax of creation, God creates His image bearers and tasks them with spreading His presence across the whole earth by being fruitful and multiplying. He gives them rule and dominion, as kings and queens, to rule and care for the earth. (Gen. 1:28) While Adam and Eve were placed in a single location, their charge was to spread God’s image bearers across the planet, resulting in the whole earth being filled with His glory.

Sin

Yet sadly, Adam and Eve doubted God’s goodness, they doubted His Word, they failed to trust Him, and instead of ruling the earth as His representatives, His image bearers, their sinful hearts longed to rule as their own kings and queens, their own sovereigns, with they themselves being the ones to know right and wrong, good and evil. And in this act of rebellion, Adam and Eve severed the perfect relationship they had with the triune God. We get a glimpse of what was lost in Genesis 3 as it describes the scene after their rebellion. God is walking in the garden looking for Adam and Eve and yet are Adam and Eve walking with Him, like they most likely did the day before? No, they are hiding from His presence. They have separated themselves from the friend with whom they’ve shared intimate communion and now they feel shame and guilt. So the very ones tasked with obeying God’s Word and growing His presence in the earth have already failed. And as a result, they are sent away from the garden sanctuary of Eden.

The Tabernacle

Fast forward a bit, and we find that God has chosen a specific family and has blessed them, saying they will be a fruitful people, filling the earth, and will be a blessing to the nations, and He will be their God. Sound familiar? And these people, after being rescued out of 400 years of slavery, find themselves wandering in a wilderness en route to a rich, fruitful land that’s been promised. Shortly after their departure, God comes down to meet with their representative, and shares how this nation can live in relationship with Him. He shares how they are to be set apart, different from the surrounding nations. And even more than giving them His Word, He also tells them that He will be with them, dwelling in their midst, and He gives careful attention to describe what that dwelling place must look like. He details what the outer courts and inner courts must look like and include, and what the Holy of Holies - the most exclusive place, where God Himself will dwell, must be like. This tabernacle will provide a way for God to dwell with His people, a place to atone for their sin, and give them assurance that He is with them as they go out, bringing His laws and His word to the nations around them.

The Temple

Skip ahead, and God’s people failed to trust the one who dwelt among them and suffered 40 years of wandering in the desert before arriving to the land of promise. They’ve not fully obeyed the Lord, as the worship of false gods has plagued this nation, resulting in constant fighting with their neighbors. In an act of rebellion, these people reject God and want to establish a king for themselves (sound familiar?) so that they may be like the nations around them. Instead of bringing the love of God and His ways to the world, the ways and worship of the world overtake them. Yet God, in His mercy, chooses a king who will follow Him with his whole heart and steer the people towards their Maker. And as this king, King David, considers his own living situation - a beautiful house of cedar - in comparison to the dwelling place of God in the tabernacle - a tent (II Sam. 7:2), he sets out to build a permanent, beautiful place for God to dwell - a temple. And God, again in his mercy, astounds David by telling him that his son will build a house for God, and moreover, God will also establish an eternal rule and reign through this son, not just as a son of David, but like a son of God himself (II Sam. 7:12-14).

As Solomon, David’s son, finishes constructing the temple, he rightly calls out the absurdity of the fact that the God who spoke the galaxies into existence has chosen to dwell in a stone structure created by man (I Kings 8:27). And after dedicating the temple to the Lord and asking for his blessing, God responds to Solomon, stating His intention to bless and set apart this house, to keep His name there forever. Yet, God warns Solomon - should the king and people turn from God and worship and serve other gods, “this house will become a heap of ruins…and the Lord will bring disaster on them. (I Kings 9:8-9) While the structure was where God chose to dwell, it wasn’t the structure that would keep Him there - it was the hearts of His people, walking with and serving their King as His representatives on the earth.

Sadly, the ruin spoken of came to be, as these people were unfaithful to God, rejecting the one who had delivered them. The prophet Jeremiah gives us a picture of what life had become for these people. Their trust had become in the building, the structure, while their ways and lifestyle had simultaneously ignored the Word of God that dwelt in the temple. 

3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. 12 Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim. (Jeremiah 7:3-15)

Ultimately, to spoil the ending, these people are sent off into exile and God’s glory departs from the temple.

Jesus - Immanuel

So, when the opening pages of John’s gospel tell us that the Word of God tabernacled among His people, you’d be forgiven if you thought this was a flashback. Yet it’s not. The Word of God, John tells us, was not re-written on tablets, but became flesh. Became a man. Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, dwelt among, tabernacled among us. And this man, John tells us, is not only man, though He is fully man, but He is also fully God - Immanuel, God with us. And the glory that departed from the temple, signaling God’s departure from HIs people? John writes, “and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth…For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.” (John 1:14, 16-18)

What tent and cloth, pillar and stone, altar and incense, slaughter and sacrifice, cleansing and purification had all pictured, had all pointed to, had arrived.

And it was Jesus’ ministry and life on earth, and what He came to do, that show us God’s ultimate plan for dwelling with His people and bringing reconciliation and restoration. It was never about a building, a location.

He told an “outsider”, when asked about the true location of worship, that the day had arrived when true worshipers of God won’t need to pick the right mountain or find the right coordinates. Instead, the true worshipers of God are those who worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4). And later, in addressing the “spiritual leaders” of the day, who found their identity in the external, physical advantages they perceived, he enraged them when he said that “something greater than the temple is here” (Matt. 12). And another time, after condemning the temple practices of the day, he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” which, John tells us, “he was speaking about the temple of his body.” (John 2)

The place of worshiping God and the means for access to God are ultimately found in the Son of God, who, as the sacrificial lamb, paid the penalty for the sins of those who would trust in and receive His sacrifice, thereby tearing down the curtain of the temple that separated an unclean people from God’s holy presence. He now serves as our great high priest, daily interceding on behalf of his people before the throne room of heaven.

The Church

After defeating death and breaking the curse of the first garden, Christ ascended to Heaven, leaving His disciples here on earth. Before leaving, He told His disciples that another Helper was coming, to be with them forever. This Helper was the Spirit of God, the third person of the trinity, and He would dwell with them and would be in them. He would teach them all things and bring to remembrance all of Christ’s words. (John 14) Lest they be sorrowful about His pending departure, Jesus told them that it was to their advantage that He leave, for if He did not go away, the Helper would not come. (John 16)

And His final charge was to go out into the world and make more disciples, more men and women, boys and girls, who will be God’s representatives, His image bearers, in a dark, sin-stained world. They were to do this by teaching God’s Word and instructing them in all Christ had commanded. And this charge was accompanied by two realities - first, that Christ’s rule and reign was the basis for this charge, and second, that He would be with them until the end.

And as the young church grew, look at what we find in the book of Acts and the parallels with Genesis 1:

And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem… (6:7)

But the word of God increased and multiplied (12:24)

So, the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily (19:20)

It is the Word of God that goes out, bears fruit and multiplies the number of those who bear His name, image, and likeness (the real NIL), and some 2,000 years later, we find ourselves in the era of the church, continuing God’s mission that started in a garden in Genesis. And so as we find ourselves in the age where Christ continues to build His church, we must ask ourselves …

II. How is the Church the Temple?

Where God Dwells

Working with our definition, I believe we can say that the church (the people of God, the body of Christ, the household of God, His flock) is where God dwells to bring reconciliation and restoration.

How does that happen? Let’s reflect on the 2 Corinthians passage we began with.

In the context of addressing sin within the Corinthian church, Paul calls out the folly of mingling pagan idolatry with the temple, just as inconsistent as it would be to mingle light and darkness or righteousness and lawlessness - it shouldn’t happen!

And of the promises that Paul quotes, notice where he starts - a relationship. God’s promise, quoting from Leviticus 26:12, Exodus 29:45, Jeremiah 31:33, and Ezekiel 11:20, to be in relationship with His people as their God. To dwell and walk among His them. It is on this basis that Paul says to the church - we are the temple of the living God. We are where He dwells!

Elsewhere when Paul says, ‘you are God’s temple’ (I Cor. 3), it’s a plural you. Y’all are God’s temple! Of course, God’s Spirit dwells in the redeemed individually, but we must also shed our individualistic framework and understand that God’s Spirit dwells amongst the locally gathered body of Christ, the church. Amongst us, here in this room. The church is where God’s Spirit dwells and walks.

We aren’t the temple of God because of our architectural superiority or any form of external attractiveness. We aren’t the temple of God because of any moral superiority we can claim. We are the temple of God because of His promise of grace, His pursuit of us, His choosing to dwell amongst His people and bring them into a saving relationship through faith in Jesus and the gift of His Spirit.

Sanctified, Separate, and Cleansed

And yet, there is a responsibility to respond - look at what Paul says next - referencing Isaiah 52:11 - be separate from the world, be clean! Be strange if you must, be weird, if that’s what it’s called, “go out from their midst” - separate yourselves. Not in an exclusive way, but in a don’t-look-like-unbelievers-in-how-you-live-and-conduct-your-life kind of way.

The call to the church, to the temple of the Lord, is to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”

Staying on this theme, let’s look at I Pt. 2, a text we’ve looked at already in this series.               

On the heels of declaring who the people of God are - a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, a royal priesthood - Peter urges his readers to do what? Live differently - abstain from the passions of the flesh (fight sin!), keep your conduct among the Gentiles (those currently outside the church) honorable. Why? Sin wages war against our souls. Look back through the pages of scripture to see what happened when sin entered the camp. Even as cleansed, purified saints, when sin is in our midst, we lose out on the sweet, refreshing, life-giving communion that flows from a heart that’s right before God. Sin puts a kink in that line. Sin wages war against us. We also lose credibility to those watching us. Notice that the Gentiles will speak against the church as evildoers - persecution will come - but there will be a day when they see the good deeds of faith and will give God the glory. We don’t win over the watching world by becoming like them, by blending in. We as the church, the sanctified, separate, and cleansed house of God, win over the world by the way we live.

The Word

The Church also fulfills its role as the temple by heralding the Word of God. Knowing, trusting, and obeying God’s Word has always been central to bearing His image and advancing His mission. We already saw how Acts described the growing early church, using the same instructions given to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28 - fruitfulness and multiplication.

We could list many things that went wrong on that fateful day in the garden, but near the top would be Eve succumbing to Satan’s manipulation of God’s Word, so much so that she herself misquotes it and doubts its goodness in her life. Choosing to reject the Word of God, Adam and Eve take matters into their own hands and decide for themselves what is right and good.

As God graciously gives His law to His people throughout the Old Testament, it was stored at the center of the tabernacle, and later the temple, and it was those who ministered there that communicated the Word of God to the people and it was also where the people gathered to hear God’s Word.

As Peter writes, he tells the living stones, the holy priests, to long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation (v. 2). Here, spiritual milk is a metaphor for the Word of God. Just as infants need nutrient-rich milk to grow, develop, and mature, so we need God’s Word to grow up into salvation. Just as an infant without milk will starve, so a Christian without God’s Word will suffer.

And later, in speaking of those who stumble over the rock of offense, Jesus, Peter writes, they stumble because they disobey the word… (v. 8).

Faithfully heralding the Word of God is part of what it means to be His temple.

Priesthood/Sacrifices

We also see here that, as God’s temple, each member of the church serves as a priest.

As you come to [Jesus], 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 (vs. 4-5).

Isaiah foretold a day when foreigners would be joined to the Lord, to minister to Him, to love Him, and to be His servants. And God would bring them into His house of prayer, where their burnt offerings and sacrifices would be accepted on His altar. (Is. 56:6-8)

And, having just studied Romans, we are familiar with what sacrifices this ultimately refers to - spiritual sacrifices, as Peter says. Our bodies.

Just as priests serving under the old covenant knew what type of sacrifices were acceptable and also knew the ramifications of offering unclean sacrifices, so we, as priests, now offer our very bodies, our lives, our wills, our desires - all of us - as living sacrifices to God. This, Paul writes in Romans 12, is our spiritual worship.

Just as Christ gave His body for His bride, the church, so now we, as members of his body, fulfill our priestly duty by offering our bodies as living sacrifices to God. 

Do you hear the high calling? It’s striking that we are described in scripture with the lowly metaphor of a flock, and yet at the same time, we are the very place where God dwells. And this, this is no metaphor. This is truly what we are. Church, we could spend the day exploring what it means for us to be the temple of God, but alas, we must aim towards a conclusion…

III. So what?

Do we simply tuck another feather in our caps of theological knowledge? Or does this matter day in and day out? I pray it’s the latter. And to that end, I have one take away for us (with six sub-takeaways):

Remember…And Be Who You Are!

You all remember the iconic scene in The Lion King - Simba, the heir to the throne of the pride lands, has been living away in exile, believing the lie that he’s responsible for his father’s death. As the pride lands waste away under the rule of his evil Uncle Scar, Simba runs into his old cub mate, Nala, who urges him to return and sit on his rightful throne. Feeling ill-equipped and lacking confidence, Simba hears a voice from the skies call down to him, “Remember who you are. You are my son and the one true king. Remember who you are.” Now, if only I could sound like James Earl Jones… This reminder springs Simba into action and he responds like the king he is.

Church, we must remember who we are and respond accordingly.

Reconciled to God and one another (Eph 2)

We’ve already looked at Ephesians 2 in past weeks, but it further builds out what it means to be the temple. Paul writes that, having been separated from Christ, alienated and strangers to His promises, without both hope and God, we are now brought near through the sacrificial blood of Christ, reconciled to God in one body. There is no place for hostility amongst us! It was killed, destroyed, on the day Christ hung on the cross. Look to your left, look to your right, look at your family, look at your spouse, look at each person in the room and know that whatever grounds you might think you have for division, hostility, bitterness, angst, envy, jealousy, strife - none of those reasons hold up in the temple, the dwelling place of God, the church. Be reconciled to God and to one another.

Built and Joined together (Eph 2)

Notice how else Paul describes this coming together - “you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and 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.”

In the ancient world, stones were not “joined together” with mortar, but were shaved down to fit perfectly together. Just as each stone was chipped away and refined to fit into something far more glorious, so God shapes and forms each believer (sometimes painfully) to be “joined together” into something far more glorious, the “dwelling place of God” (Eph. 2:22; see also I Pet. 2:4-5). In the early church, this process of shaving down differences to fit together as a dwelling place of God was particularly painful (see Rom. 14). (Beale & Kim)

Does it ever feel uncomfortable, perhaps even painful? Is community hard? Does it disappoint you? Is it easier to simply stay to yourself? Friends, we are not a group of individual pillars, spread out across a plain. Rather, by God’s grace and mercy, we are being joined together! And I love that image of being joined together into something far more glorious than any one of us could hope to be on our own!

Separate and holy (II Cor 6, I Pt. 2)

We must also heed the call to holiness, to right living, often against the flow of culture. We must be a transformed people, not conformed to the patterns of our age. Peter and Paul, as we saw this morning, have a ‘therefore’ following their citations of our being the temple - we are to flee sinful passions and cleanse ourselves, pursuing holiness.

As the place where God dwells, is sin in our midst? Do we look different from the world around us? Are we living according to the grace given us by crucifying our flesh and its desires and walking by the strength of God’s spirit? Further, are we helping each other towards that end, finding regular patterns of confession, accountability, encouragement, rebuke?

Long for the Word (I Pt. 2)

One way we strive towards holiness is by rightly handling and submitting to God’s Word. If we are to be fruitful and multiply, God’s Word must be at the center of our thoughts and actions. Just as the temple held God’s Word and was where His people would come to receive the Lord’s instruction, so our gatherings here and our lives throughout the week must feast on the Word of God. Do we long for His Word, as Peter instructs? Is it our meditation, day and night (Psalm 1)? Is it our very life (Mt. 4)?

Offer spiritual sacrifices (I Pt. 2)

And then, in response to His cleansing and Word, do our lives respond in selfless giving, or are we prone to worshiping the countless idols of our hearts - self, comfort, rights, pleasure, autonomy, etc.? Do we awake each morning with our eyes on our Great High Priest, who gave Himself for us, and respond with hearts of gratitude, gladly laying down our lives for others?

No Temple (Rev. 21:22)

Some of you may have noticed that I didn’t finish tracing the theme of temple all the way through Scripture. For just as the opening pages describe God’s dwelling with man, so the final pages depict the same, also in a garden-like creation. Except, in this new creation there will be no temple at all. Listen to how John describes it in Revelation 21:

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. 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.” (3-4)

And a few verses later…

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. (22-25)

Our story will end with God’s presence, fully, finally, and foreverly with his people in the new creation. God will be with his people and his glory will fill the earth. Just like in the Garden of Eden, He will walk with His people, yet this time, it will not be an innocent people, but a redeemed people.

Proclaim His excellencies (I Pt. 2), that the earth may be filled with His glory.

And as we look forward to that day, let’s remember that we, as the reconciled, joined together, separate and holy, Word-of-God-saturated, self-sacrificing people we are, do all of this that we “may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

We can be guilty of making good things the ultimate things. As we can idolize our children or family, we can also idolize our local church body. We can fall into the trap of thinking that this is it - the sweet fellowship and friendships we have here, the way we teach, the way we sing, the way we do this or that, the way we tailgate…this is it!

Except, it’s not. Friends, these are all good things, these are all God-given things, but these are all shadows of things to come. For a day is coming, when these sweet expressions of God’s goodness will not be confined to the roads of Galusha (and other places), but rather, His glory will fill the earth! And so, we don’t live into these realities so that the name of Grace Church of DuPage will mean something in the end. In fact, I’m not sure our name will even appear in the footnotes of history. Instead, we live into these realities to proclaim His excellencies to a watching world until the day when all of creation shouts His praises for ever and ever. The day when we see the bridegroom coming to bring His bride home, when we will truly and finally be with God in His presence forever more - the temple realized.

So, Grace Church, we, as a local body of Christ, are His temple, where He dwells with His people to bring reconciliation and restoration. Let’s live in that reality.

NEXT SUNDAY: What Is the Church? Part 6: A Pillar and Buttress of the Truth, Paul Rupple