11. The Spirit and the Temple - I Am Who I Am - Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

I invite you to get out of Bible get out your your Bible and turn with me to the New Testament to Paul's first letter to the Corinthians first Corinthians we're chapter three first Corinthians chapter three we're coming around the bend just a few more weeks in this series we've been in on the Holy Spirit as a part of this bigger series called I am Who I am where we're exploring the Christian God what a Christian means when they say when they say the word God and we've been camping out the longest on the spirit which is series on the father and on the son and now on the spirit because as Josh and I said many times the spirit for many of us especially in Western culture is kind of the the most difficult or ambiguous often confusing or mysterious part of the triune God Father Son spirit to relate to and so we just thought let's just take a good long while let's just cover as many passages as we can in the New Testament and in the scriptures about the spirit of spirits role in the spirits work in our lives so today what we're going to explore is the role of the spirit in in creating and inhabiting and indwelling temples temples which I'm sure is a burning question for all of us like this the spirit inhabit temples like you woke up thinking about that this morning but it actually is it actually really is a quiet important burning issue even if we don't know about it and that's what we're going to let Paul talked to us about in first Corinthians is the spirits role in creating and in inhabiting his pimple Paul wrote this letter to a church in the city of Corinth ancient city of Corinth which was the the Las Vegas of the ancient Roman Empire it's actually funny it was a it was a town located on an isthmus between an inlet from the Med Iranian see and so on and it was a port town like a harbor town big population lots of transient population people coming in and out and there was a it was actually so the city was so well known for entertainment for the sex industry for being a hub for the worship of all of the Greek and Roman gods loads of temple to everywhere um in kind of Greek language of the day the word Corinthian became just a synonym for being sexually promiscuous or sleeping around so you could actually say oh you're such a Corinthian and you're not talking about where they're from if you don't know right you're talking about their lifestyle right and so this was the kind of city and so Paul strategically chose it as a place to set up a community of followers of Jesus of Christians and so this church he founded it he hung out for about two and a half years set up leaders and then he went on to plant a new church and then he started getting reports about how this church was falling apart and he wrote a letter to address all of the ways that this church was falling apart and it's sitting in your lap and you call it first first Corinthian so the first he's going to hit at a number of topics we're going to look at two places where he hips at problems where these these Las Vegas Christians have completely misunderstood the gospel and so the first one is it is in Chapter three and what he's going at essentially this church is being torn apart because people in the church have kind of fixated they've had a few different teachers and pastors over the church and some people have kind of fixated on different like leaders or teachers or pastors and they've can't they've become divisive about it and they've kind of set up little parties within the church and we're like we're about this guy we think this guy is really awesome and and it's not just that they like different people it's that they're actually starting to divide and starting to you know split off and that the church is on the verge of splitting and look at champ look at first Corinthians chapter 3 look what he says just I wanted to get a feel for the problem he's talking about 1st Corinthians chapter 3 look at verse verse 3 he says listen you all are still worldly since there's jealousy quarreling among you aren't you worldly aren't you just acting like mere humans listen when when one of you says hey I follow Paul I think he's the best but then somebody else is saying I follow this other guy Paulus I think he's the best aren't you mere human beings so I'm just a sample of what's going on here you have jealousy of quarreling people dividing because they have their favorites theologians or teachers or pastors or whatever it's just surely not a problem the Western Church as ever but those right and so people elevating and power grabs and people thinking they're better and that their theology is more correct or whatever and so is this and there's splitting and so on and parcel Paul's like dude you're acting like you're not Christians you're acting like your greatest allegiance is to your little party or to your correct theology and not to the one to whom all of these different Christians are actually have given their allegiance and that is that is Jesus you're actually acting just like the rest of the world acts so he combats this he goes through at this issue in a lot of different ways one of the arguments that he pulls out to say do you see how ridiculous you're being is look down in verse 16 it's not one that you and I would think to say look down in verse 16 he says listen don't don't you guys know that you all the you there is plural you need a Texan y'all put in y'all right there don't you all know that y'all are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in the midst of y'all listen if if anyone destroys God's temple referring to splitting it up in these divisive you know jealous quarreling way God will destroy that person God's temple is sacred and y'all together are that temple now he he has about five different you know reasons he pulls out for why this is really screwed up behavior for Christians but this is one of them this is one of them and you just put it out there as if it's just kind of self-evident like don't you know y'all are God's temple and the God's Spirit is in your mitt so therefore temple a sacred therefore you shouldn't be acting like this and it's assumed I guess he thinks that they'll just hear that and be like oh yeah good point or whatever and you know I don't know I don't know what comes into your mind when you hear the word temple we don't have really anything in our cultural setting that it all recreates the experience or is anything like temples they were in it they were incredibly common in the ancient world especially in chorus the Las Vegas of the ancient world there were temples everywhere and so so what what does Paul mean by this that he can just kind of bring out the side comment and be like don't you remember like you all together form this temple and that God's personal presence in the spirit is in the mist which means that the church isn't your little like pet project it's not your social club that you can organize just the way like you want it to according to your preferences but rather this is God's as God's temple so he uses this to argue against division in the church Paul does this in a lot of different places he pulls out this idea of y'all or the temple he used this this argument y'all are the temple to combat racism in the early church if you read his letter to the Ephesians that he's writing to churches who were kind of being torn apart by this Jew and non-jew divide and there's cultural tensions in the church and he says listen Ephesians chapter 2 he says listen you all are God's temple God's built you all together into one house together you're the temple where God lives by his spirit and so we might hear that and we think like wow that's great Paul fight racism fight division unity riot and we like that we think that's awesome what a great way to go Paul turn the page with me to first Corinthians chapter 6 the next the next problem in this church that Paul targets there's mister just full of problems right reading first Corinthians is both scandalizing and really encouraging at the same time because we like okay Christians were messed up from the start which means there's hope for the rest of us right so so here he's targeting something that he heard about that a number of the men in the church are doing and they're continuing a practice that was just super common in Corinth and that's before a lot of these men were Christians they participated in the worship at the different temples and shrines around there just everywhere in in Corinth and one part of the worship of many gods involves getting drunk and having lots of sex and particularly sex with prostitutes or sex workers who were hired to work at that temple and if it was like a fertility god a god or goddess that you worship who brings fertility and rain whether to humans or to the ground or to your cows or something part of the worship of these gods involved getting drunk and having lots of sex and so a number of these Christians were like whoa Jesus died for me I'm free I'm freed from my sin and they just would like which is why I'm going to keep doing this right because I'm free from sins and has no hold on over me and so there was no in their world to be religious was not the same as being moral if you're a religious person as a Greek or a Roman and you worship Apollo's and Zeus or whatever like Apollo's and Zeus sleep around you know so like why can't I as a Roman citizen so this was a huge shift in their thinking so Paul combats this and look at look at how we go through this look at first Corinthians chapter 6 look at verse 15 he says listen don't don't you know that your bodies are members of Christ himself shall I then take the members of Christ if I have given my allegiance to Christ put my face into him I've been united with him I'm my body is linked to his so to speak should I then take the members of Christ and unite them with the prostitute what what you're kidding me right you're kidding really you think that's logical don't don't you know that the one who unites themselves with the prostitute is one with her embody don't you remember what our foundation story in right remember what the scriptures say about the meaning of marriage and sexuality and gender and so on the two will become one flesh for whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in what in spirit so we have this idea that that you have you have Jesus and Jesus is the one in whom the presence of the eternal creator God dwells and if I put my faith in Jesus I'm bound to him in spirit and underneath this is this idea that we've been looking at all throughout this series is that what Jesus his life was for me his death was for me his resurrection was for me I grabbed onto him and face and by his spirit his personal presence takes up residence in my lives and it's like I become one with him it's like I get married to Jesus that's what he sang here when you put your faith in Jesus you've entered a covenant you've accepted his covenant commitment to redeem you and it's like you're married to Jesus you become one with him and so should you take a body that is now identified and part of Jesus and then go join it with someone that you are not in the marriage covenant with and you would just say that that doesn't make any sense at all you're acting insane as a Christian right you're betraying your identity as a Christian when you sleep with someone that you're not married to now go down to verse 19 he brings out a second argument here he says by the way don't you know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have received from God you are not your own or some of your translations read you do not belong to yourselves you were bought at a price therefore honor God with your bodies do you notice he pulls out this same exact reason that he did in chapter 3 so he addresses the whole church and they're like dividing up according to theology and teacher parties and they're being really mean and jerks about it and so he says don't you all know that y'all are the temple and when he's combating racism in the church and people are ethnic groups are elevating themselves above one another and so on you know you all are God's temple we're God's Spirit dwells and we say go Paul fight racism fight disunity fight division in the church and then all of a sudden Paul's like heads at sex and he's like don't don't you know like why are you sleeping with someone that you haven't made a lifelong marriage covenant to don't you know that you're gods temples and the Spirit dwells within you and some of us are like oh yeah the racism and like division I'm stoked that Paul like is against that but you're going to use the same like whoa sex like that's a little extreme Paul right right and so maybe this is one of those places where I don't take the Bible so literally or whatever it was just kind of Paul's deal or whatever you know so but he good he appeals to the same exact reason yet you are God's temple y'all together a God's temple and then you individually are God's temple where his Spirit dwells therefore like don't allow racism to divide your church don't allow theological differences to rip apart your church and don't sleep around don't have sex with someone that you're not Marik for Paul it all goes together it just all makes sense based out of this idea that you are God's temple you regard temple now there might be some of us when we get to the sex thing and we're like okay we're totally on the same page here there might be some of us you know we would self-identify as Christians but we're kind of leery and not sure what we think when the topic of sex in the scriptures and Paul and Jesus comes up and there might be some of us here you would not self-identify as Christians near like Christians are weird when it comes to sex you know bizarre so how how do we how do we get at this so what I want to do is I want to get underneath this because clearly this is really an important idea for Paul Paul can just bring out this this idea that you are God's temple collectively and individually and for him this idea has so much importance that it actually has the power to complete reshape our community life but also to reshape my individual life even to reshape something so foundational to me as my understanding of sex it gets a complete overhaul if I could just understand that I'm a temple where God's Spirit dwells and so what's the backstory here and that's what I want to do because because when Paul says the word backs it says the word temple there's something very clear that was coming into people's minds and that's something that came into people's minds was a whole storyline and an actual building but I'm going to show you a picture of and so what we're going to do is we're going to look at the backstory like what is Paul really getting at and what would what should we be hearing because what Paul says to a group of people into individual Christians you all are the temple he's actually he's throwing a huge Hand Grenade out there that explodes but because of our cultural distance and time distance we don't hear the explosion we just like temples that's weird that's what people believe in a long time ago or whatever we're modern people you know so we don't hear the explosion anymore and Paul's a day to say something like that was was explosive so we're going to look at the backstory and then and then we're going to focus on what Jesus said about himself at the temple and then come back around to these passages and what it means for us to be God's temple back story the temple Jesus's temple what it means for us to be a part of the temple you guys with me okay so so let's look at go back to chapter 3 with me let's just look at the language Paul's used here Paul uses here chapter 3 verse 16 don't don't you know that you heard yourselves or God's temple and the God's Spirit dwells in you he just assumes this like oh yeah oh yeah I've heard Paul talk about this a whole bunch before yes yes we are we are God's temple what is that what does it mean for Paul to say that when when Paul saying this he's writing this somewhere and like the fifties of the first what we call the first century BC excuse me AD after Jesus and and when Paul says this there is actually he's a Jewish rabbi who's given his allegiance to Jesus the Messiah and for a Jewish rabbi to to write a letter and say you all are the temple when he says the word temple there's just one thing that that is in his mind in terms of background and it's an actual building it's an actual building that's still standing when Paul's like writes these words right here and where's that building located some of you some of you know this in Jerusalem it's in Jerusalem here's a picture at least a recreated model of it for a Jew the temple refers to one thing only it refers to a building that existed in the city of Jerusalem now this is a large scale model of the temple that would in the rough shape that it would have been as accurately as we can tell from ancient sources this would have been the shape of the temple that jesus knew and cruised around this would have been the shape of the temple that the early Christians would have known that Paul would have known and so on and actually this cool this model is is located in Jerusalem and it was a large outdoor full like small scale model of the whole city of Jerusalem in the 1st century and the size of this model is actually about the size of this whole floor right here it's so off oh dude you can I just stood there for hours just getting to it and there's no as sad as there's no little people like they didn't go that far right but every other little detail it's just incredibly detailed and there's you know walkways around it you can see it from every angle whatever so this model of this temple is actually quite a large quite a large thing so this was a magnificent magnificent structure it was one of the wonders of the ancient world the temples that Jesus and Paul would have known would have been architected and done by one of the one of their kings a guy named again in Herod this was the form of the temple that they they would have known it but some kind of Jewish or Israelite temple would have stood in that spot in the city of Jerusalem for over a thousand years when Paul's writing these words there has been some kind of temple or structure one couple versions of it got torn down and burned down or whatever they're eventually rebuilt but there's been a temple or something like it in that spot for over a thousand years I just think about that a thousand years is a really long time and this building was the center of all of Israelite and Jewish life and culture and religion this building like it's hard for us to really grasp the significance all about all I can do is to say we're Americans think of the symbolic significance of the White House of the National Monument and of the Statue of Liberty and then put them all together and you're almost to what this building would have represented to a Jewish person so it was the White House this is where is where the leadership of the whole nation was housed in the buildings around the temple this is like with the center of their their governance and so on it was their National Monument it was a an architectural building that told a story every single part of this building had symbolic significance and told and told a story and so it's like their Statue of Liberty they look at it and they find the story of who they are as as a people and tells them of their story and so so what what is that story and why and actually just think about this so that building is standing there and and what is Paul he's a Jewish rabbi become a follower of Jesus and what what where does he say the temple is located where's the temple for Paul apparently it's a group of people who can't get along sitting in a house church in the city of Corinth and he says y'all are God's temple and he also says it to a group of Christians sitting in the city of Ephesus and he says it in about a bunch of other letters now I mean that's about it as explosive as me trying to say to you all like let's start a new movement let's retake America like ridiculous like that or something and so if I were to say like y'all are the white house and you left right because what a ridiculous idea but that has that's exactly the same effect of what Paul is saying I mean this building is standing and he's talking to followers of the Jewish Messiah and saying y'all are the temple no Paul the temple standing at Jerusalem no no no no no y'all are the temple and in fact you individually are each a temple for God's presence in the Holy Spirit to dwell it's a very very evocative inflammatory involved with volatile statement that Paul's making why is it why is he making it it's part of what the story of what that building tells so what our temple temples are not buildings that we really have an equivalent to anymore but think about the most easy way to think about it and this is not unique to Israel almost all human cultures for most of human history have some concept of sacred space or of temples or of shrines the idea that there's something transcendent there's something bigger than all of us there's something going on in the world that that we feel cut off from or that we're disconnected from but that's part of what makes life beautiful and strange and wonderful and there is meaning and if that meaning is connected to some kind of being or person who's responsible for all of this and and temples and shrines and sacred spaces or spaces where our space here we are at normal day-to-day space somehow overlaps with sacred space with the divine space it's a space where it's not like your living room or something or like the park where we all hang out it's some unique space where our existence overlaps with the divine and where we meet with and we experience that ultimate transcendent thing that when I watch a sunset it's just like holy cow the universe is the most crazy place and there must be something going on here and then the Sun sets over and then you forget about it or whatever you go on with your day and so those moments of transcendence and meaning that we feel like this something going on here those are all concentrated into these places of sacred space we call them temples or shrines and in the storyline of the Bible this is that building tells the storyline of the entire Bible because in the storyline of the Bible sacred space and human space were completely United and overlapping or at least that was the ideal and that was the purpose and you find the description of that ideal union of sacred space in human space at what part of your Bible where do you find it page 1 and 2 that's your PI board is called we called the Garden of Eden the Garden of Eden is the Bible's way of talking about a space where God's space and human space just completely were in union and there was a close personal connection and relationship between creator and creation between the Creator God and the image bearing creatures of God and harmony and so on but of course you know the good times only lasts about two pages right and so right so these image bearing humans they they refused to submit themselves to the wisdom and generosity of the Creator they define good and evil for themselves and so they create this rift they drive heaven and earth apart so to speak and so what what remains are these little these little moments with these little places where God keeps pursuing pursuing humanity to restore that relationship and to keep heaven on earth United and what those little spots were heaven on earth still overlap or what we're called temples this is where Israelites perceived that the God of the universe was still pursuing and trying to reconcile himself to his people and that was the whole concept of what that building was about you would walk into that building and if you read the description of that building you can read it for you no geek note-takers of you in the book of first kings first Kings chapter 6 through 8 and you read the description of going inside this building and it was full of gold and jewels and pictures of a angelic figures and so on but also full of all of this garden imagery there's pomegranates you know like engraved everywhere and there's almond blossoms you know one into the artwork and the gold architecture and and there's the smell of incense and there's fresh bread there every day and there's flowers engraved everywhere you go in and it's like I'm going back to the garden this whole building was was to recreate the experience of reentering the garden and so you have these priests and they on behalf of our broken screwed-up humanity go into the very presence of God in all his whole and all is well again and they offer these sacrifices that are offered for the sins of the people and it's like God and humanity are reconciled and United here in this space and so I mean they could have made so much money if they could offer tours of the temple you know but the problem but the problem was that actually because this was such a unique and sacred and holy space only a few could go in it wasn't like for general admission you know because this is this is a unique sacred sacred space it's not to be defiled is the language the Bible's use or it's not to be mistreated or just treated like any any other kind of space it's kind of like our concept of the bathroom actually huh as Americans so how many of you would ever eat dinner in your bathroom how many of you would do that no I don't see any hands why wouldn't you do that because that's gross that's why you wouldn't do it and I don't I don't even have to argue that like I don't need to give you five reasons why it's gross you just know that's gross and it's because in is this is in for Americans the the bathroom is holy it is a holy sacred space which means it's a space that's set apart for a unique set of activities and only those activities it's right right namely namely right so like going to the bathroom or dental hygiene now here's what's funny here's the great ironic contradiction of some because you won't eat in the bathroom but what do you stick in your mouth every single night in the bathroom right your toothbrush which is what a gross thing like you stick it in there every night and then like you put it back and it's just sitting there with half of the food that you just got out of your mouth on it and you stick it back in the next morning and the next night that's gross but see but see what that shows us is that our concept do we look at temples in the ancient world we think ah how primitive or that's cute or the so silly or whatever but it's like now every culture has its own concept of sacred spaces and usually like they're not fully logical and our version of the bathroom is not logical at all if we really wanted to be logical we would brush our teeth in the kitchen anyway that's just a different thing so so that's that's the idea here and so you have the sacred space this for the union of human beings and their creator this is a place where this is a place where we're reimagining what what human beings are for and what they're like and you have these human beings these representative priests in the presence of the Creator and all as well and there's no division there's no separation or whatever that's what this building was about this building was about the hope of God and humanity being reconnected and reconciled and relationship close personal relationship that was what this building was about and it they would do these rituals in the building that constantly pointed them forward to to this hope now there's the problem there's a problem that develops throughout the storyline of the Bible and that problem is because this building the symbolic building because it is actually a physical thing or a building the people of Israel became fixated on the symbol instead of the reality to which it pointed and so you can read the great prophets you can read Isaiah you can read Jeremiah or Ezekiel and they'll all point out this huge problem that you have like people going into the temple in Jerusalem and like they were like well God's with us his presence is here with us and so they do like you know sing the songs in the choir and offer the sacrifices or whatever and then they go back and sleep with their neighbor's wife whatever and don't gives like their workers their wages and don't keep the Sabbath or whatever and so Jeremiah is like did you think hold on here so you think that you have a relationship with God because there's this building in Jerusalem don't you remember that the whole reason there's this building of in Jerusalem is to remind you of this reality of the story that God's pursuing you that he's he's constantly moving forward towards you despite your sin he gives you a means to to reconcile you and offer sacrifices for your sins so the relationship can be restored don't you know the whole point was about this transformative sharing of space so that you rediscover your humanity through forgiveness and grace and repentance and so on and so the prophets are just like dude you've missed the boat you've missed the boat entirely and this is this is precisely both the reality and the problem for when Jesus steps on to the scene what you flip back a few pages with may past Romans passed the book of Acts put back up about 75 pages with me to the Gospel of John the Gospel of John chapter 1 hey guys done hmm Gospel of John chapter 1 just page page 1 so so the story of Israel taking advantage of the temple abusing the temple surely we have a relationship with God look at our nice building we have a temple for goodness sakes then the temple means that God is willing right in our midst so things must be great between us right because the building is there and and so Jesus came on to the scene just like Isaiah just like Jeremiah just like Ezekiel fully convinced that the temple had just become a farce convinced that the temple had become corrupt that it was being taken advantage of by corrupt leaders corrupt rulers and that it was no longer serving its purpose as a sign pointer to God's heart to be reconciled and rejoined to humanity in the goodness of the garden and so all in all of the Gospels the theme of the temple comes up look at John's late doing it look at the first sentences in the beginning was the word the Word was with God and the Word was God he was with God in the beginning through him all things were made and without him nothing was made that has been made now josh already explored john chapter 1 a couple months ya months lessor would go in when we were doing the series on Jesus as the Son of God John is what'swhat's story is the echoing right here what biblical story is the echoing in your memory right here in the beginning right he's borrowing the first words from page 1 of your Bible he's retelling the story of creation but retelling it now through with with the lens on of this new revelation of who God is who Jesus revealed god to be the god is this being who was one the one through God who is Father Son and spirit and so his his word his word to describe the son or Jesus is this phrase the the Word of God as God spoken word in Genesis chapter 1 and so Jesus was both with God and he was God so was he with God or was he God exactly exactly right so when I'll give you 500 dollars if you can explain that to me right so that's not the point so he's retelling a story of Genesis 1 here that that actually it's the Creator God who's actually entering into and becoming a part of his creation go down to verse 14 this is really what I want to focus on here verse 14 the Word of God or the word scuse me became flesh that is God became human and made his dwelling among us now just look at that little word in verse 14 that four little phrase made his dwelling made his dwelling this is this is such a fascinating little word when you think of you know the word dwell has kind of been revived in the English language because of the magazine some of you know the magazine dwell all about modern home architecture and so on but for the most part do we use the word dwell anymore the home where I dwell do you say that you say dwell no we just don't really is its kind of an old-timey word or something like that or by Bible words so made is dwelling this is a solid solid biblical word and it's the biblical words that the prophets used and that the story of Israel constantly used to describe that building that building is where the very presence of God the spirit of God dwelt dwells and so when when the author of John is using this little phrase right here made his dwelling literally it means to set up a sacred space Jesus comes among us as the place where heaven and earth overlap and unite humanity and deity perfectly United in other words Jesus is sacred space Jesus is where God and humanity meets together in perfect unity and harmony the salah' John begins begins his story now if you want to turn there or you see it up on the screen and chapter 2 there's a story I'm leading you on a trail this will all lead back to first corinthians trust me trust me I lead you on a trail but this is uh this is a story about Jesus going to the temple and it's in well I'll just let the story tell itself when it was almost time for the Jewish Passover Jesus went up to Jerusalem in the temple court he found people selling cattle and sheep and doves and other people sitting at tables and they were exchanging all of all of this money and so meek and mild Jesus he made a whip out of court and he drove everyone from temple courts and the sheep and the cattle and he scattered the coins of the moneychangers and he overturned their tables now let's just stop right there so you know if you're familiar with the story of the Bible you've probably heard some version of this story before but this is really intense remember what in our culture what's the equivalent of the temple I name three spaces what are they White House National Monument which we've livered it now it's like tomorrow morning you were to take a flight right to like you know the White House and get a little past for some event they're having there but in your back pocket was a whip and you just started running around like doing something like this what would happen to you what would happen to you I mean did the guys with the mics and so on I mean they would like you know clobber be like burying you and you know like you would disappear in a black SUV and you'd never be heard of for the ride for something right so that's what would happen that's what would happen that that is in our setting exactly what Jesus is doing right here if you read the story all the way through in all four of the Gospels the stories about Jesus in the New Testament this is the event that put the target on Jesus's head from the religious leaders at his trial you go read the story of Jesus's mock trial this is the event that gets brought up as to why they have the right to execute him and put him to death this event was absolutely crucial this was the most inflammatory thing that Jesus ever did why did he do it why did he do it to those who were selling the doves he said get out of here stop turning my father's house into a market his disciples remembered then that it is written and they quote from the Psalm Psalm 69 zeal for your house will will consume me so let's stop right there Jesus his grew up soaked in the Hebrew Scriptures he knows Isaiah he knows Jeremiah he knows Ezekiel he knows that they all pointed out that the temple had become a total joke a complete joke that Israel had taken mistaken the symbol the building for the reality which has reconciled relationship and God and humanity knit together in sacred space and so Jesus is doing just what Jeremiah did when he Jeremiah stood up in the temple and said listen this place is a farce and God's going to bring his judgment on this and Jesus is doing is doing precisely that except even more because he's totally interrupting the sacrificial system right there's no animals being exchanged anymore and so for who knows ours for a whole day no sacrifices that day I mean and he's getting the attention of everybody declaring publicly through these actions this is a total joke this is a joke look how the story finishes next line then the Jews and specifically the Jewish leaders at the temple if you read the story that goes on they say what sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all of this which is exactly what you would ask right like who are you to walk into the White House and act like you own the place Jesus ANSYS destroyed this temple and I will raise it again in three days now they replied oh so it's taken 46 years to build this structure this temple you're going to raise it again in three days and then the author the Gothard John he stops the story and then he turns at you the reader and he whispers in your ear and you know what temple he's talking about right is he talking about this joke of the building anymore an answer is no the temple he was talking about was his was his body so if if Jesus as the Gospels claim is he is the temple that's the point that the stories are trying to the Jesus is the one to which this building and the story and its symbolism was Ultima pointing of this union of the creator and created this union of God and humanity and perfect harmony and in perfect relationship and the building has become such a joke that here is the temple but it's not a building it's a person it's the person of Jesus and it's that it's the person who is in fact God become human to be and do for us what we could never do for ourselves and so Jesus says that this this building no longer serves its purpose the true temple is here and the true temple is here to do and fulfill the reality to which the temple pointed and notice what he say this temple will be rebuilt when three days what's he what's he pointing forward to he's pointing to his death he's pointing to his his death which would be the place where humanity's sinfulness was dealt with God's justice was brought upon it and Jesus absorbed the collective effects of humanity selfishness and sin and evil to himself he led to do its worst to him right the the Creator God becomes weak and takes into himself all of the mess that we that we have created and in in the rituals of the temple this was all the whole point of what sacrifice was about was we created such a huge mess in this world we have these the death of these animals to remind us of what the gravity of just the horror of what humans have caused in God's good world and so here is the Creator God taking that into himself in Jesus but it's pretty but it's not just to make us feel horrible about ourselves the whole point is to reconcile human space and God space together and so the temple will be raised right what human sin caused in the world and brought to death God's passionate love and covenant commitment will create new life out of and so this temple will be raised and so then in Jesus's resurrection from the dead he becomes the temple he's this little walking talking space where heaven enters over left and then it gets even better of course because jesus promises that he's going to send out his spirit his spirit to those who look to him in space Jesus says I'm going to give them the gift another Jesus right as we've been talking about in this series another comforter my personal presence with you and so if Jesus is the temple and he gives the gift of his spirit than those who grab onto Jesus in-phase are also what what what are you if you grab onto Jesus you're the temple this is all of this is in the back of Paul's mind when he just throws out this line 2 Corinthians the Corinthian what you're going to divide up your church because you think like this teacher and their theology is better than that teacher and they're all you're kidding me you're kidding me yeah what you're actually doing is you're reintroducing into the temple all of those old human sinful selfish agendas that like created this whole problem in the first place so Jesus is the place where all of that died where humanity's sinfulness and selfishness died and was dealt with and was raised and Jesus is now the temple and for those who attach themselves to Jesus by God's Spirit you all together collectively are you are the temple and they need dresses individual Christians who have attached themselves to Jesus in faith and and if what's true of Jesus is now true of them his spirit is now personally present in them then all of a sudden like your your life is sacred space and your life is shared space right that's the whole point is that God's space and human space come together in this sharing of space where there's healing and where there's reconciliation and so he points out to these guys in corners who are going around and they're sleeping with people who who they're not married to and he's just like holy cow you're treating your life as if it's just your own private space now I mean the line that he used is exactly your body doesn't belong to you anymore it's it's a temple it shared space I have a a children's book that can read to my son and it's called your body belongs to you and it's a little book about like healthy physical boundaries and how nobody's supposed to touch your body except through you know like ice that your body belongs to you whatever and where they step when mommy and daddy change your diaper or whatever you know like this kind of it's one of those type of books your body belongs to you and like dude if there's a mantra if there is a mantra of American culture it is what your body belongs to and if I'm a Christian if I'm a Christian its riche and that's a good idea that's actually there's so much about that that's really good don't get me wrong all right but but it is it is a reshaping of my concept of who my body belongs to and what it's for if I'm a Christian then all of a sudden I've attached myself to Jesus and so my body actually doesn't only belong to me it actually also belongs to another that is its maker right and that is the one who dwells personally in my life and is here to heal me and reconcile me to himself if I'll just if I'll just stop acting the way that I used to act it's recognizing that my life and my body and that this life and this bodies is shared this shared space and this is really where I think man it comes down to it this is where it's hard for us to hear and the best thing I can liken it to is like the day-to-day struggle of like spouses or roommates in the reality of shared space my first apartment I moved out for my parents the first apartment I ever got I had a roommate he was a good friend of mine and some of you know this you used to have a best friend right and then they became your roommate and then you realize oh my gosh no no that was really bad and so you know I'm I'm personally I'm not I'm not the most I've gotten better but I'm not the most cleanliness of the kitchen in particularly so I had this roommate and and he was he was he was really hyper aware of all that kind of stuff and so I lived off of those little box pastas mirror box pastas when you were some of your like my entire diet is a little box possibly by and their teeth and so one time I was making some box pasta it was spiral noodles and the one of the noodles we were had this happened the noodles falls out and it goes down under the electric burners and then it just sizzles into a black crisp right under there right and so as I'll bummer and yeah so afterwards he turned off and you get the black noodle and and so I had this black crisp noodle and apparently somehow it just it ended up in the sink and we didn't have a food disposal and so there was like a little growth cup thing that collects all the food you know and you take that thing out that nasty thing and somehow the noodle when I was washing the dishes got lodged under and then it just sat there for a while he sat there for about a month and and my roommate like he did I remember we had our first kind of like really intense talk about how's this going for us living together and he was like dude Tim the black noodle what what and so he took me in like and he showed me like the and it was not black anymore it was like black and green and orange or whatever like living was this living this living thing there that was my that was and the reason it stuck in my memory is because it's this first this first kind of adult experience of really recognizing how important shared spaces shared the kitchen with shared space it was unique holy space set apart for the preparation and consumption of food and I violated that space but and I violated it because I just treated it like it was mine and like I didn't like it in my space I don't pay attention to black noodles in the sink apparently and I don't that's not a value and that's not important to me and the whole challenge of roommates and of getting married and of sharing space together is yours it's not your space anymore and actually what what if the person you're sharing your space with actually knows better than you about how the space needs to be maintained are you willing if this is all about relationships is it are you are you willing to hear out the fact when the spirit points out and says hey let me share space like that that activity that you're doing like that's the black noodle thing right like that's not going to lead to life that's not going to lead to health and growth and a deepening of this relationship actually like letting that thing fester is going to rot and ruin you that's what Paul is doing right here he's saying letting selfish agendas in the church rip us apart that's rot and that that's not that's that's not going to lead to life in our shared space but sleeping with someone that you're not married to that will actually begin rot and ruin your body and soul and mind and so the spirit of you your body doesn't belong to you anymore if you're a Christian your body is a temple that shared it shared space do you see what Paul is getting at right here this is a very powerful concept it seems to me and and it's all linked to the presence and the reality of the Spirit and so here's what I'd like us to do and in the time that remains that we're here for worship I want us to hear hear these words of Paul and if there are things about our collective life here where you recognize that your attitude or whatever the way you're viewing things and our collective life here that door of Hope is act it's not healthy it's selfish it's it's about the divisive or whatever then I would just encourage you allow just ask the spirit to point out like where am i choosing not to recognize this as shared space and as we go into worship I encourage you to ask the spirit to point out areas in your own life what you do with your body things that your choices that you're making that do not lead to lot and allow the spirit to point those out and to be like dude black noodle black pickle like that's not you're not going in the right direction your body doesn't belong just to you it's shared sacred space for healing and for relationship with your Creator he's a very powerful words that Paul Paul addresses to the church and I think we we need to hear them and allow the spirit to speak to us as well amen amen let me close in a word of Prayer you

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

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Length: 53min 23sec (3203 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 21 2017