Next week in our Discovering Life Bible study, we’ll be talking about the days of the temple. So I was wondering – what is the temple today? Is there one?
There are three things that I could find in the New Testament that could be considered the Temple today.
The Body of Christ in the whole world, made up of every true believer. The Worldwide Church. (see Ephesians 2:21 and 2Corinthians 6:16
The body of the individual believer, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. (see 1Corinthians 3:16, 6:19)
Jesus Himself – His physical body. (see John 2:18-22)
You could, of course, argue that all three are "the Body of Christ". So the Body of Christ is the temple today. And if you’re a believer, you’re a part of it.
As you may know, nowhere is the place where believers meet called a "temple" (except, of course, for when they met in the physical temple in Jerusalem). So I think we need to be very careful not to equate the Old Testament Temple with a church meeting place. Today, the place we meet is not important (though meeting together is (Hebrews 10:24-25)) – we worship God "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:21-24). In fact, we worship God in Christ.
Did I miss anything? Is there anything else in the New Testament that could be considered a temple today?
Solomon Dedicates the Temple Painting attributed to James Jacques Joseph Tissot
Nathanael and I have been reading Ezekiel. A very important book – but also very heavy – as the sovereign God judges His people, and the nations which have afflicted His people.
So it was such a breath of fresh air to read to read this passage from Ezekiel 34 – so I thought I’d share it with you.
God has been talking about the shepherds of Israel – who weren’t really shepherds, because they were feeding themselves instead of the sheep! His sheep were being preyed upon by “the fat and the strong”.
So God promises to shepherd Israel Himself – revealing Himself as the Good Shepherd. And Jesus would show that He Himself is the same God – who had compassion on the sheep who had no shepherd (Matthew 9:36) – who came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10) – and He would be the Good Shepherd who would lay down His life for the sheep (John 10:11).
For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.
And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.
I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. (Ezekiel 34:11-16)
Not long ago I finished reading One or Two: Seeing a World of Difference by Peter R. Jones. The book basically goes through Romans chapter 1 in the light of modern culture. Particularly, the focus is on the Apostle Paul’s well known words: …they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! (Rom 1:25)
Literally that’s the lie – which is what? They worshipped and served the creature, rather than the Creator.
I would certainly recommend the book for anyone who wants to understand religions and modern culture, and what their neighbour may be thinking.
Peter Jones is also the Executive Director of a ministry known as truthXchange. I thought you might enjoy this little video about the ministry, and about the concept that Peter Jones takes from Romans 1:25 – what he calls One-ism and Two-ism.
Last night I went to the small house we are renting as an HQ for the church. Every Saturday night we’ve been getting together there as a group of men to study God’s Word.
I arrived about a minute early to find no one there – and I realized I’d forgotten my key. No problem – there should be one or two others with keys.
I waited, and eventually one man came… then left. Then some others came, and we talked for a while. Finally we got in touch with the man who was supposed to be teaching. And about 45 minutes later, the study began! 🙂
Yes, someone eventually came with a key.
Last night and this morning (at our Sunday worship) I was reminded again and again – we need one another.
People have been writing their names on one of the walls at the café. Here are the first few!
There’s a reason why God tells us in Hebrews: Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:23-25)
Rod preached this morning, and reminded us what Jesus said in John 15 – This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (John 15:12)
We’re looking forward to a couple of very special days in March. On the 25th, we’ll be celebrating the 2nd anniversary of the church plant in Jesús María (see the countdown in the sidebar to the right). Can you believe it? It’s wonderful to see what God is doing in the church community. This morning Shari counted at least 80 people worshipping with us – and not everyone was there. Two years ago, there was no church worshipping in that housing development.
Also, coming to demonstrate the love between churches, is a team from Canada! On the 29th of March we’ll be welcoming a joint team from Mirror Alliance Church and Innisfail Baptist Church. I like to call them the MI Team. But that doesn’t mean their mission is impossible.
Well, humanly speaking, I suppose it is!
They’ll be working with the believers here to serve the community. They’ll be serving at the community centre, in Bible studies, and they’ll be helping with some construction in the café. They’ll be here during Holy Week, using the time as an opportunity to reach out to children in the community.
We need one another. May Jesus words in John 13 be a reality in the weeks ahead: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35)
I finished another book today – in this case, I was listening to the audio version. The book was Slave by John MacArthur.
No matter what you think of MacArthur or his theology, I bet you would agree that the theme of slavery in Scripture – especially that we are slaves of Christ – is a theme we as a Church today have not meditated on enough. So it’s worth taking time to do so.
How did the early believers think about slavery? What was slavery to ancient Israel, and to the Roman Empire? How does this relate to our adoption by God as his loved children, and to slavery to sin?
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a slave of Christ. (Apostle Paul – Galatians 1:10)
This past Sunday I preached from Nehemiah 3. But actually, I used it as an excuse to talk about studying the Old Testament in general.
Questions about how to interpret the OT – particularly in light of the New – are not always easy, to say the least. In 2000 years, the church has taken a number of approaches, from the wild to the wonderful. So my post title is a tad presumptuous.
But I thought it would be useful to at least talk about a few basics. I decided to share them here, because you might find them useful, and because you might want to add – improve upon – correct – my thoughts. 🙂 This is a very brief summary…
Foundations
If you listened to my sermon on Luke 24 here, you know what the theme of the OT is – Jesus Himself. The Messiah redeeming His people. I used that as a starting point.
Studying the OT: Two Dangerous Errors
Christians have taken two common approaches since the days of the Early Church.
One is allegorizing. This is where everything in the passage has a hidden, secret, spiritual meaning. Maybe in the story of David and Goliath, the 5 smooth stones are the 4 Gospels and Paul. Or in Nehemiah 3:1 the High Priest is actually Jesus. Or your pastor. Or you.
Regarding other passages, maybe you have your own "promised land" to reach, or your own "giants to kill".
This approach says: The most important thing to do is find the deeper spiritual and hidden meaning of the passage. What does this all mean to me?
The problem is, of course, that this is highly subjective. It ignores what the author may have intended, and puts the passage in the power of the preacher – or you. It can really mean almost anything.
The other error is moralizing. This is the Aesop’s Fables approach – every passage has a moral for me. These morals may be biblical, but again they ignore what the passage is actually saying plainly and assumes that it has a direct application for me.
Of course, according to 1Timothy 3:16-17 all the Bible is useful for me – but is it all about me? Of course not.
The moralizer says that the most important thing is to find the moral of the passage for me.
No, I’m not actually the main character of the Bible.
Put the Passage in its Place
God didn’t leave the Bible to be interpreted however we want. Why not do something crazy, and actually read things in context?
This means we need to put the passage in its place. First, in the context of the book it’s in. How does it fit with the flow of the book? Why did the author include this part? How does it fit with the overall message?
Then, put the passage in the context of the entire Bible. How does it fit with God’s overall plan?
5 Questions to Ask
Here are five questions – or at least five types of questions, to ask about a passage you’re reading. Ask them in order – that’s important.
What actually happened? What does this passage literally and simply mean? I know it’s crazy, but do you know what’s actually happening in Nehemiah 3:1? That’s right, some priests are working on the wall in Jerusalem. There’s no reason to think this didn’t happen literally in history.
What did the author write this? What did he want his first readers to understand? Give the author a little credit – maybe he actually had a reason for writing what he did. What was he trying to say? This can be tricky – we can’t read anyone’s mind – but we can get a pretty good idea by reading the book carefully.
In the context of the book, where is God? What is God doing? What can we learn about God and His character and plan? God isn’t actually mentioned in Nehemiah 3, but we can still learn some things about God. For example, this is part of an answer to a prayer earlier in the book.
In the context of the whole Bible, where is Jesus? How does this passage relate to the Messiah and His Gospel? Of course, some passages are direct prophecies. But others (like Nehemiah 3) are an important part of God’s plan to bring the Messiah and the Gospel to the world (ie the Gospel was to go out from Jerusalem, Jesus would be born of the tribe of Judah…). Other times we can see how Jesus is greater and more perfect than something, like how his death on the cross was complete when animal sacrifices were not. Or Jesus was faithful like Moses but greater than Moses. The book of Hebrews has some great examples, including these ones.*
What does this passage say about the people of God? What are they doing? What are they like? One of the big differences of this approach is that we’re not starting with God’s people – and even here we’re not assuming that God’s people in the passage are a direct equivalent to ME. Starting with the plain meaning of the passage the context and with God makes a HUGE difference. However, in that context, the Bible has a lot to say about God’s people – and from that we can learn how we should live.
Even though every passage (strange as it may seem) is not directly about YOU (or ME), after answering these questions you’ll see how every passage is useful to you. You can see the Gospel, God’s unchanging eternal plan, His perfect character, the beautiful Messiah, His grace, and depending on the passage you may even learn what it looks like to be a faithful follower of God – or what it looks like to be unfaithful.
I mentioned the example of Jeremiah 29:11 (read more in I’ve Been Conned), and at the end said that if anyone wanted to give this an initial try they could head over to 1Samuel 17. A classic place to start.
There’s much more that could be said, but I hope that’s a useful starting point when you’re studying a passage in the OT.
* Here it’s useful to find out if there are any direct links to the NT in your passage. Does the NT quote any of this passage? Or allude to it? Or mention the same people or place names?
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, some Greek NTs which include a list of quotes from the OT, and other books such as 
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