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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman
God's
New Paul, in 2 Corinthians
6:16, wrote that we who have God's Spirit within us are God's temple in
this New Testament era. "What agreement is
there between the Theologically speaking,
Paul's Jewish heritage viewed God's creation of earth as His original
temple, His dwelling place that Revelation 21 foretells will be recreated.
The Mosaic tent in the desert was also God's dwelling place, only
to be replaced by the Jerusalem
temple that had a glorious inauguration (1 Kings 8 and 2 Chronicles 7).
Sadly, in all three instances God's temple was corrupted by God's
people. In Jesus' earthly days
His temple was a place of commerce (Matthew 21:12).
In these New Testament
days God has His new temple. Similar
to the inauguration of the Old Testament temple in Jerusalem, His New Testament temple had a glorious inauguration as God's Spirit
came to dwell in His people (Acts 2) which also happened in Jerusalem. Sadly again, God's people
have consistently humanized God's divine temple with their divisiveness,
commerce, politics and more. What
might God do about this? It is
His temple. If He chooses to
renovate or reconstruct it, He will, as we've seen before.
Revelation 2:5 notes
Jesus saying that "if you [Ephesian church] do
not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand [your church]
from its place," which He eventually did.
Revelation 3:16 records Jesus saying that "because you are
lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you [Laodicean
church] out of my mouth," which He also eventually did. From what I see in the
various styles of what we commonly call church in our western world, it doesn't look like the
dwelling place of Jesus. We
have hijacked God's temple, and like the Revelation 3 Laodicean temple, we
have renovated it into our temple that looks more like a Fortune Five
Hundred corporation than our Lord's dwelling place.
Look around at what we call church.
Do you see Jesus? I see divisiveness,
politics, commerce, organizations and lifeless buildings.
What do non-Christians see and what should they see?
Do they see Jesus, and what should that look like?
Each individual
Christian is also God's temple in which He dwells (1 Corinthians 6:19 -
20). A non-Christian should
see Jesus, alive, well, and working in and through the lives of His people
that forms His temple, but do they? Yes, I sound negative,
but so did the prophets in Old Testament days, and so did Jesus as seen in
Revelation 2 and 3. Is Jesus
knocking on the door of His church today (Revelation 3:20) and why would
He be standing outside of His church anyway?
We must let Him in or else fall to the same fate as the Ephesus
and Laodicea
churches. On a positive note, I do
see a glorious church as this age concludes.
Jesus will have His temple back, but it will come with a great cost
to His people, many of whom will be martyred for the life of Jesus they
demonstrate to a wicked world (Revelation 7:9- 17).
Beyond that, there will be the new earth, a brand new temple
of Scripture
References Matthew 21:12 "Jesus entered the
temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He
overturned the tables of the money changers
and the benches of those selling doves." Revelation 3:20 "Here
I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens
the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me." 2
Corinthians 6:19 - 20 "Do you not 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; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with
your bodies."
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