Temple - Ephesians 2:12-22

We open the word of God now to Ephesians 2, where we have been studying this wonderful work of grace that God has done.

On the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ, through the shedding of his blood, has broken down the wall of sin between sinners and God. He has reconciled the lost sinner to a holy God. That's a wonderful truth. He said, I have come to seek and to save that which was lost. I suppose this is pictured most beautifully in the parable of the prodigal son. This boy who once was in fellowship with his father, but then because of disobedience and selfishness turned his back on his father and left home. There was a time when the human race was in fellowship with God, had everything that they could want, and yet Adam and Eve turned their backs upon God, and they left home. And they fell into sin, and this poor boy fell into sin and got worse and worse until he ended up with the pigs. But then he said, I will arise and go to my father, and he did. He was reconciled to his father. This is a picture of what Jesus Christ has done for us. We can't be reconciled to the Father by good works or by religion, by good intentions, or even by repentance. It's only by repenting of our sins and then trusting in Jesus Christ.

So Ephesians 2:1-10 have talked to us about being raised from the dead and set upon the throne. And then Jesus Christ died to reconcile us to the Father, then he died to reconcile Jews and Gentiles. There's a fleshly difference, a racial difference between Jews and Gentiles. He broke down the physical wall between Jews and Gentiles, Ephesians 2:15. He broke down the legal wall, Ephesians 2:14, and he broke down the spiritual wall, Ephesians 2:13. Every wall that stood between Jews and Gentiles, Jesus Christ broke down on the cross. And now the Jew and Gentile who will trust in Jesus Christ becomes a part of the one new man, this one body, the church. I trust you have received Christ into your heart, and you know the meaning of this word reconciliation, reconciled, brought back to God.

Now, the last lesson left us at Ephesians 2:19. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners. I like that. We're no longer strangers because Ephesians 2:19 says that we're in the household of God, and we're no longer foreigners because he says we are fellow citizens with the saints. You see, the unsaved man is a stranger. He's not in the family. And the unsaved man is a foreigner. He's not a part of the citizenship of heaven. But oh, what a tragedy it is when a man lives this way and dies this way. Dies a stranger, dies a foreigner, when Jesus Christ has made possible such a wonderful salvation. So every Christian now is a fellow citizen with the saints. Our citizenship is in heaven, says Philippians 3:20. Jesus said to his disciples, your names are written in heaven. In the Greek and Roman cities, as also among the Jews, whenever a baby was born, his name was inscribed on the citizenship roll. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ has a citizenship roll, it's the Lamb's Book of Life. And if you're saved, your name is written there. You're a fellow citizen with the saints.

Notice, please, that these are living saints. If I emphasize this in our studies, it's only because it needs to be emphasized. People don't have any idea of what the word saint means. It means a set apart one, a purchased one, one who belongs to God. These are living saints, not dead saints. A saint is not someone who lived such a wonderfully religious life that God made him a saint after he died. No, these are living saints. Paul writes to the saints at Ephesus. Paul says, greet the saints. How do you greet a dead person? No, these are living saints, who are members of the household of God. God has a household. Now the devil has a household. Jesus said to the Pharisees in John 8, ye are of your father, the devil. The devil has a household. He has children. John the Baptist in Matthew 3 saw the Pharisees coming to him and said, you brood of vipers, you children of snakes. Now, who's the snake in the Bible? Satan. Satan has a household, but God has a household.

You remember back here in Ephesians 2, every unsaved person is called a child of disobedience and a child of wrath. So the devil has his household, children of disobedience, children of wrath, but God has his household. As many as received him, Christ, to them gave he the power, the authority to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name, says John 1. And 1 John 3 says, beloved, now are we the sons of God. You can know that you're one of God's children, simply by trusting in Jesus Christ.

Now he changes the picture in Ephesians 2:20-22, and talks about the church not as a household, or not as a citizenship, but as a temple. And are being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. This means the foundation that they laid. These apostles and prophets are not the foundation. This is the foundation that they themselves laid.

These apostles are of course the New Testament apostles, and the prophets are the New Testament prophets. It amazes people to read in the Bible that there were New Testament prophets. If you look at Ephesians 3:5, Paul talks about this mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. New Testament prophets. Over in Ephesians 4:11, we're told that Jesus Christ gave some apostles and some prophets. Now a New Testament prophet was a preacher. The New Testament church didn't have the New Testament. It was being written. And so the prophets were God's spokesmen in the New Testament.

Now God is building a temple. This temple is being built upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. In whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. It's a beautiful picture.

Now this comparison of the church with a temple would be very meaningful to people at Ephesus because the city of Ephesus had the great temple of Diana. And you'll recall when Paul was preaching in Ephesus that he attacked this temple, and he had to leave town. He was preaching against idolatry and people were being saved and the temple business was going down. The great temple at Ephesus, the temple of the heathen goddess Diana, was one of the wonders of the world, a beautifully rich temple. And of course it would mean something to the Jews too because they had their temple in Jerusalem. It had not yet been destroyed. They had their temple. And so when God compares the church today to the temple, it means something to people because we know what a building looks like. Now in the word of God, there are several temples of God. What is a temple? Ephesians 2:22 tells us, a habitation of God. Where God lives, that's a temple. The first of the temples of course was the Tabernacle. Back in Exodus 40:34, the glory of God moved into the Tabernacle.

Moses collected all of the linen and all of the purple and the red and the gold and the silver and the brass and the different skins of animals and they constructed this Tabernacle. Now this Tabernacle looked like any other tent on the outside, beautiful on the inside, worth millions of dollars. But it was just a beautiful building, just a beautiful tent until one day God moved in. That that made it that made it a temple. It became a habitation of God. And Moses dedicated the Tabernacle and God's glory moved into the Holy of Holies. And God's glory dwelt above the mercy seat. The mercy seat was God's throne from which he ruled the nation of Israel.

Then you'll recall that they built a temple. The Tabernacle was a temporary structure for a pilgrim people moving from place to place. The temple was a permanent structure for the Jews when they got into the promised land. David wanted to build it, but God wouldn't let him. Solomon built it, cost millions of dollars to build, beautiful place. And in 2 Chronicles 7:1, they dedicated the temple and the glory of God came down. God moved in. It became a habitation of God. So the Tabernacle was God's habitation, the temple was God's habitation, but the sad thing is the nation of Israel sinned against God. And the glory departed. The temple was left empty. And so God sent a third temple, his son. In John 1:14, we read, and the word, Jesus Christ, became flesh and dwelt among us. And that word dwelt is the word tabernacled. The word became flesh and tabernacled among us and we beheld his glory. Now his body was God's temple. He was God. He was God in the flesh.

You recall in John 2, Jesus said, destroy this temple, meaning his body, and in three days I'll raise it up again. He had come into the earthly temple of God and found that it was full of thieves. Instead of being a house of prayer, it was a den of robbers. And Jesus said, you destroy this temple, my body, and they did, they put him on the cross. He said, in three days I'll raise it up, and he did. So here are three of God's temples, the Tabernacle, the temple of Solomon, and the temple of Jesus' body. The fourth of these temples in the Bible is the body of the Christian. In 1 Corinthians 6, we're told, what know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own, you're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. You see, your body, if you are saved, is a temple of God. Now, what is God's temple? A habitation of God through the Spirit, Ephesians 2:22. God lives in us. This is an amazing thing.

Today, God does not live in buildings. Now, we have dedicated buildings to the service of God. Our church auditorium is dedicated to the service of God. Our chapel is dedicated to the service of God, but God does not live in our church auditorium. In fact, there is no building on the face of this earth where God lives. Stephen made this very clear in Acts 7 when he said, God dwells not in temples made with hands. Today he is dwelling in a temple not made with hands, the church. This is the fifth of the temples in the Bible. The first is the Tabernacle, then Solomon's temple, then the body of Jesus Christ when he was here on earth, and then the body of the believer, and now the church. Here in Ephesians 2, we are told that the church is a holy temple in the Lord, Ephesians 2:21. It is in Ephesians 2:22, a habitation of God through the Spirit. This is the church collectively as well as locally. The church.

But you know, one of these days there is going to be a future temple for the Jews. In Ezekiel 43, we're told about a future temple of the Jews. We're told about this also in 2 Thessalonians 2, a future temple for the Jews. And then one day there's going to be a city, according to the book of the Revelation, a city in which there will be no temple because the whole city is going to be a temple, the holy city. When all sin has been purged, when all sinners have been judged, when Satan has been condemned to the lake of fire, when everything impure has been purged out of the universe, then all of the city, all of the New Jerusalem, all of the universe is going to be the temple of God. God's glory is going to radiate from sea to sea. These are the temples of God.

Now today God is building a temple. Jesus said in Matthew 16, I will build my church. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was on earth, was a carpenter. He called himself a shepherd, but he never shepherded sheep. He called himself a vine, but he never took care of a vineyard. He called himself a door, and he was a carpenter. He grew up in a carpenter's house. He was born in a carpenter's house. He was called the carpenter. Before he began his ministry, he knew what it was to plane boards and to pull out slivers and to pound nails. Jesus was a carpenter when on earth. Now he had been a carpenter before he came to earth. He had built this wonderful creation. And when he came to earth, he was born in a carpenter's shop, and he lived a carpenter's life, and today having gone back to heaven, he's still building.

I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. He's building a home for his children over in glory. And he's building on earth a church. He's not trying to build a better world. I run across this phrase in my reading constantly. We must build a better world. You're not going to build a better world until you have better people.

I believe in every progress that every step of progress we can make. I try to vote correctly. I try to live honestly. I believe in progress, but I'm not foolish enough to believe we're going to build a better world. We're here to build a church. That means to help Jesus Christ cut living stones out of the quarries of sin and cement them by his grace into his temple. He's building a temple.

Let's look at this temple now. Ephesians 2:20, you are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. When did this temple begin? It began with the apostles and prophets. It began after the coming of the Holy Spirit to the earth. The Lord Jesus Christ ended the dispensation of law and began the dispensation of the church at the cross. And Jew and Gentile were made one in this temple when the Holy Spirit of God came down. In Acts 2, the Spirit of God came down upon the Jews. In Acts 10, the Spirit of God came down upon the Gentiles. And this cemented the Jew and the Gentile together into the church. And Jesus Christ today is building a church.

Now, 1 Peter 2 tells us that every believer is a living stone. If you have your Bible in front of you, I want you to look at that passage. 1 Peter 2:5, he says this, ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house. Every Christian is a living stone in the living temple of God. Now, Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. The cornerstone holds the two walls that meet together. What are the two walls? The Jews and the Gentiles. Jesus Christ on the cross has joined Jew and Gentile. He's the cornerstone. He's also the foundation stone.

1 Corinthians 3:11, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. This temple is built upon the rock, Jesus Christ. It's not built upon some human founder. All kinds of religions are built upon human founders. The church of Jesus Christ is built upon Jesus Christ who died for the church. In whom all the building fitly framed together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. Now we can't see this. Somebody's saved here, someone is saved there. We can't see this operation, but God sees it. God sees his temple being built. One by one these stones are being quarried out of sin and being put together for the glory of God in his temple. And you know when this temple is completed, it's going to be called home. Back in the Old Testament when the temple was completed, God moved out of heaven to earth and moved in. When this temple is completed, it's going to be moved out of earth into heaven to be with the Lord forever.

I wonder if you are one of the stones in this temple. I wonder if you have let Jesus Christ come into your heart and save you. I wonder if you are wallowing in the pit of sin. Let Jesus Christ cut you out of sin and put you into his living temple and save you for his glory. Ask him to save you as I pray to close this study. Heavenly Father, we thank thee for this growing glorious temple. May someone now open his heart to Christ and be born again and be set into the temple to the glory of God. May Jesus Christ be praised in our lives, for we pray in his name. Amen.