100 Days to a Healthier ChurchSample

Day 72 (Sunday)

Today’s Big Idea: God shows up in His new temple. Why are we so surprised when God shows up? Isn’t that what we want and what we’re praying for? But when He does, He changes everything. He sure did on the Day of Pentecost.

Key Verse: “We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” (Acts 2:11–12)

Thoughts to Consider: This amazing event did not take place in the upper room. Acts 5:42 tells us the disciples spent their days in the temple courts. So on the Day of Pentecost, God showed up in courts of the old temple to make the believers His new temple. After all, a temple is the place where God lives. When God lives in us, we’re a temple. The temple is no longer a place, it’s a people. 

Observers on the day of Pentecost watched this happen and wondered, “What does this mean?” We might ask the same question. What does it mean when we realize we are the temple where God’s Spirit dwells? How does that affect what we emphasize when we think of church? Are we treating ourselves and others the way the temple of God should be treated?