Video Transcript: From Paradise Lost to the Eternal Temple

Another major biblical theme that shows the continuity of the Old and New  Testaments, is the story of the journey from paradise lost to the eternal temple.  Let's begin by looking at the testimony of one of the leaders of the early  Christian church and how he used the Old Testament to highlight the  significance of what God had done in Christ. I'm talking about Stephen, Stephen was detested by the Jews who were particularly frustrated by his wisdom in  answering their charges. In view of the great threat he represented, they  solicited false testimony of blasphemy against him, and brought him before the  Sanhedrin that council of 71 men that was both the legislative body and the  Supreme Court of the Jews. Acts 6:13, summarizes the charge they brought  against him. This fellow never stopped speaking against this holy place, the  temple and against the law. It's interesting that these are the same issues that  came up in Jesus trial. And as with Jesus there, what got Stephen killed? That's  because as John Stott has written, nothing was more sacred to the Jews and  nothing more precious than their temple and their law. The temple was a holy  place, the sanctuary of God's presence. And the law was Holy Scripture, the  revelation of God's mind and will to speak against either was to speak against  God or to blaspheme. While the Sanhedrin was correct, that God's temple and  law are very important. In fact, they're at the heart of what God has been doing  and continues to do in redeeming this fallen creation of his. But the Jewish  leaders were wrong as they had so often been during Jesus ministry, in their  failure to focus on the heavenly realities represented by the temple building and  God's law. God commissioned the building of the precursor to the temple, the  tabernacle, shortly after he delivered his people from Egypt and gave them his  laws to live by. It was a sign that God was present with his people, and the  particular care taken to build transport and service. The Tabernacle represented  the difficulties inherent in having a holy God live in the midst of an unholy  people, ever since the fall into sin, when Adam and Eve made a bid for  independence, and afterward found themselves out of communion with God,  and excluded from the garden, all of humanity had suffered the effects of  separation from God. Not complete separation, for God was still present and  graciously providing what his world and its inhabitants needed for day to day life, but God was committed to reestablishing the type of relationship that had  existed in paradise. That was difficult, because of the holiness of God and the  persistent sinfulness of people. But God worked particularly with Abraham to  teach him about his holiness and how he could share in that holiness and live  the blessed life he had in mind for him. But God's instruction reached another  level after he delivered Abraham's descendants from Egyptian slavery. He  brought them to God's holy mountain, where he gave them his laws for life. And  among these were laws providing for the people to have the Holy God live  among them without destroying them. It was common knowledge after all, that  one could not see God and live. God made a special provision for Moses to see 

His glory without dying. But his provision to be with and yet separate from Israel  was the specially designed and constructed tabernacle, or tent of meeting. Well,  after the people obeyed all of Yahweh's instructions about the tabernacle, and  the work was finished, then Exodus 40:34, tells us the cloud, which represented  the presence of Yahweh, the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting in the glory of  the Lord filled the tabernacle. Then the people knew that God was in their midst  and, and he stayed there with them in all their travels. And nobody said what a  lot of bother. That was a greatest thing that Israel could imagine. Yahweh living  in their midst, protecting them, and leading them wherever they would go. In  fact, this was nothing less than God formally reestablishing his presence on  Earth, once again, God communed with the people who were the crown of his  creation. At least a representative portion of them. He again lived with people,  as he had lived with Adam and Eve or much the same as he had lived with  Adam and Eve in paradise. It wasn't quite the same. The Garden of Eden had  been a perfect place with sinless people and this place was not perfect, nor  were the people sinless. In fact, a whole generation was disqualified from  entering the Promised Land, yet God found a way to live with them. And with  that, the people were now ready for the journey to the land of Canaan, the New  Eden. And as long as God walked with them and led them on the way to that  earthly paradise, they would not lose their way nor lose their heart. From the  beginning, however, God's presence with Israel was not an unmixed blessing.  For example, although often, Israel often witnessed the benefits of God's  presence in their exodus from Egypt, they also suffered the consequences of his presence at times. For example, when he punished them for disobedience. It  was difficult for non holy people to live with a holy God. And this would be  proven over and over again throughout Israel's history. After several centuries,  the tent of meeting disappeared. Although the Ark of the Covenant representing  God's throne was still housed in temporary quarters in Israel, King David,  enjoying a measure of rest from his enemies had it on his heart to build a  permanent house for the Lord, the temple. His desire to do this was a  demonstration of his commitment to keep God at the center of Israel's life. It was a commendable desire, a good commitment. But God informed David that  instead he God would build a house for him David an enduring dynasty and it  would be David's offspring who had built his temple. That's in II Samuel 7. Well,  that promise of God to David found fulfillment initially, at least through David's  son Solomon, who built the temple some years later. And after its completion, as we read in I Kings 8:5, the Lord came to dwell in that temple. Now that didn't  mean any more than it had in Moses day that Yahweh's proper home was in any structure, fashioned by human hands. But by showing up at the temple in all his  glory, God was reaffirming, that he intended to dwell with and among his people. And this house of God was a magnificent place a magnificent temple. Solomon  spared no expense in building and furnishing it. But within just a few 100 years, 

most of its treasures were traded for Israel's protection or taken as the spoils of  war, and shortly after it was demolished along with the city of Jerusalem. An  inferior replacement was built by Zerubbabel in the years following Israel's return from exile. And then a couple of decades before Jesus was born, Herod the  Great undertook a major renovation and expansion of this temple that  Zerubbabel had built. The main part of Herod's temple was completed before his death in 4 BC, but work on it continued until 63 AD just seven years before its  destruction. Now, all of these temples were important insofar as they  represented the presence of God with his people. However, since God does not  live in houses made by men, they were nothing in themselves. Indeed, what  God had in mind was a more glorious house to come. Connected with the arrival of one whom the Prophet Haggai described to Zerubbabel. In Haggai 2:7 as the  desired of all nations. The Lord's work through Haggai was this, the glory of this  house will be greater than the glory of the former house. And in this place, I will  grant peace. Zachariah also spoke of a coming temple and its builder in an  allusion to God's promise to David, that an offspring of his would build a temple  for the Lord. That is to say, although David's son Solomon built a temple, God  had another of David's descendants and another temple in mind To more  completely fulfill his intentions, Zachariah said in chapter Zachariah 6:12-13.  This is what the Lord Almighty says, Here is the man whose name is the branch. That's a reference to Christ. And he will branch out from his place it is he who  will build the temple of the Lord, and He will be clothed with majesty, and will sit  and rule on his throne, and he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be  harmony between the two. That is between kings and priests. Zachariah focused more on the builder than the building and furthermore implied that the temple  was always meant to be more than a building. But just what he meant wouldn't  be very clear until Jesus made it so by his words, and actions. For example, do  you remember the story of Jesus cleansing the temple, as found in chapter 2 of  John, the Gospel of John He chased the money changers and vendors out of  the temple saying, How dare you turn my father's house into a market? At that  time, John writes, his disciples what recalled what was written in Psalm 69:9,  zeal for your house will consume me. The psalmist, who wrote that had been in  deep distress, he was persecuted, alienated, scorned and falsely accused,  sometimes even by his own brothers, he remained faithful to God. But no one  understood his great zeal for God's house. zeal that separated them not only  from the enemies of God, but also from those who were supposed to be God's  friends. Well, the disciples then saw that Jesus had the same zeal for God's  house that the Psalmist had expressed. And later, Stephen, the martyr, who  would become a martyr would also share that zeal. The disciples together with  Stephen came to see, moreover, that Psalm 69, if not, if not written with Jesus in mind was at least substantially fulfilled in him. And they came to understand  Furthermore, that Jesus himself replaced the physical temple as the most 

intimate point of contact between God and His world. That's why Jesus had told  his challengers, that if they destroyed this temple, meaning his own body, he  would raise it again in three days. Both Jesus and Stephen, were zealous, not  so much for the temple building itself. As for what it represented, the point of  contact between God and His people. What good is the temple, if it's only a flea  market, and not a house of prayer, where unholy people can commune with the  holy God. And, as Stephen implies in his history lesson to the Sanhedrin. Real  blasphemy is thinking that God can be confined to a building is important as was the building of the temple, it was just a symbol of a connection with God that  could become real only through Jesus. In Himself, Jesus represents the  essence of Temple, the presence of God that destroys all self centered and  human made religion. That's what got him killed. And also Stephen got him  killed, who told everyone who would listen what it meant to connect with God  and also that Jesus was the God approved one and the only one for whom it  could be done. And now, I want to connect these things to yet another scripture  passage, II Corinthians 6:14-18. The context is that Paul is writing to the  Christians in Corinth, about the impossibility of fellowship and harmony between the temple of God and idols. He begins this way. Do not be yoked together with  unbelievers for what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or  what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between  Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?  What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? So far, these  are points about which no good Jew would have disagreed. But then the apostle goes on to contribute to a further understanding of the meaning of Temple in  saying this, For we are the temple of the living God that would have astounded  Paul's listeners, it might have almost sounded like blasphemy to call the the  Church of Christ, the temple of the living God. But Paul, like Stephen, before  him, had seen that Jesus was the real temple of God to which the structures of  Moses tabernacle and Solomon's temple merely pointed. And if Jesus is the real temple of God, then those who constitute the body of Christ are also in the  manner familiar to the Jews of his day, Paul used scripture from the law, the  prophets, and the writings to support his statement that we are the temple of the living God. Verse 16b is from the law, specifically from Leviticus 26:11-12, as  God has said, I will walk with them and walk among them, live with Him and  walk among them, and I will be their God and they will be my people. Now, Paul  says that this statement still stands. In other words, that the full extent of God's  promise to dwell with His people had not been realized by Israel, until the death  and resurrection of Jesus and what happened at the ascension and Pentecost.  But now, Paul is saying God is present with you and in you. Next, Paul, quotes  from the prophets and specifically from the prophets, Isaiah and Ezekiel, in  Isaiah 52, and Ezekiel 20. Therefore, come out from them and be separate says  the Lord, touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. This is what Paul means 

to say, since God is among and in you must be separate and distinct from the  world. You say, if the people of God cease to be separate in moral holiness from  the rest of mankind, they cease to be the people of God. And then Paul  concludes with verse 18, which is a modification of a selection from the scripture called the writing from from II Samuel 7, where God says, I will be a father to  you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. The  original words were a promise given by God to David that he would always  maintain a father/son relationship with David's offspring, but the fulfillment of this promise is in Christ, and consequently, in those who through union with Christ,  participate in his sonship. And of course, that includes the believers, of both  sexes. Now, let me summarize what I've been saying about the scriptural view of the temple of God, because it's an amazing thing. And it gets at the heart of  what God is doing on this earth, and the purpose for our lives. First of all, the  temple is a building, that building with the different courts and places for  sacrifice, and inside the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, the temple was at the center of Israel's religious life, the most important  structure they ever had, when Israel was taken into captivity was an awful  disruption and tragedy for families and tribes and the whole nation. But the worst thing about it, the worst thing about it was the destruction of the temple. The  temple of God was more than a building. It was a city, Jerusalem, the city of  God, the building represented the City of God. And so what the psalmist and  Jesus after him actually experienced was a consuming zeal, not just for the  temple, but for the City of God. Indeed, the building itself meant nothing if the  city were destroyed. The temple of God was even more than a city for  Jerusalem, what's Jerusalem represent, but God's whole cause God's whole  enterprise. When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, it was not just the city that was  his main concern, but that God's cause was being undermined, because God's  own people were not being who he had called them to be. Nor would they even  be able to be the people God intended. Until he himself Jesus became the  sacrificial mediator who helped people to get right with the holy God. And so the  essence of what the temple meant, was found only in Christ Himself, and  afterwards in the members of His Body, God's true people, the Israel of God.  And that's why throughout his ministry, including the temple cleansing, Jesus  was saying, Don't get hung up on the symbols of a connection with God. But  concentrate on the reality of it. See the symbol the temple is only good if it helps you to connect with the father. Jerusalem is only a holy city if you remember the  connection with the father that it represents. Israel itself is a worthless nation if it does not represent and model the kingdom of God where there is harmony  between God and His creatures. And God is the doing even more than this too  in his spirit filled people he is rebuilding what was destroyed by sin. He once the  whole creation is his temple, just as it was in paradise. Then there were no  special circumstances necessary for Adam and Eve to meet God and no special

place where it had to happen. They could meet God ever anywhere and  everywhere because it was all good, with no sin to mess it up. That's the end to  which God is bringing the New Jerusalem in which there is no temple because  the temple is aboard God Almighty and the Lamb is Revelation 21:22 says, In  the meantime, God calls us to Holy lifestyle that proves our salvation. As Paul  says in I Corinthians 6:19, do you not know that your body is the temple 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 body. God  wants to build us into a house fit for a king, by the power of the Holy Spirit. That  will hurt at times. But it's necessary. Because God won't live in a house he can't  use. But if his house suits his purposes, He will fill it with his glory. And just one  more thing, if that happens, if God fills his house, his house today with his glory.  People can't help but sit up and take notice. They may not always like what they  see. But they will have to notice they will have to respond because everybody  has to bow sooner or later. Everybody has to worship the King. If those around  us do not make it soon, let it not be the fault of God's house.