06 A TEMPLE

Scripture: Psalm 48, 1 Peter 2:5

As we explore the design of the temple in all its forms, a garden, a tent, an architectural wonder we get to see what happens when God makes a place on earth his dwelling place. Wisdom, justice, healing, righteousness, worship, protection, all these flow from the place where heaven and earth meet.

In the same way that the priests, the laws of the Torah and the feasts of the Jews all point to Jesus, so too does God use the temple as a picture of who Jesus is and what he came to earth to do. He is God and humanity come together, he poured out his wisdom, healed the sick, directed people to true righteousness, lived a life of worship and prayed protection over his disciples.

In his life Jesus showed himself to be the blueprint of the temple that Moses saw on Mt Sinai. In his death, Jesus removed the cherubim from the entrance to the garden, forever allowing humans back into the presence of God. And in his returning to heaven, Jesus ensured that every single human that calls on him as saviour, can receive his spirit and just like him, become a living temple.

This is the reality that the church is called to live in. To be a community of the word of God, led by the Holy Spirit. A community who provides healing to the nations, wisdom to the world, who trust in a just God, who are humbled by the righteousness they’ve been clothed in, who are a refuge for the stranger and who sing of the glory of God.

A community whose Immanuel is neither a baby nor a man but instead the Spirit of God, is beautiful and God is praised because of her.