Fully Devoted: The ChurchSample

Two Temples

Throughout the biblical story God has been moving closer and closer to humanity. It was always His intention to live with His creation. He literally walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. And when our relationship was fractured by sin, God was not okay with that separation. He has continued to pursue a covenant relationship with people. From the very beginning of the story, He has been inviting us back to a Genesis chapter one reality. 

When God led the Israelites out of Egypt, He went before them in a pillar of cloud and fire. When He established the Law, the way of relating to Him as His chosen people, God also gave Israel instructions for the tabernacle. The tabernacle was this mobile touch point between heaven and earth. Wherever the Israelites went, God went with them and the place His presence resided was in that holy tent.

When David became king over the nation, he longed to build God a more permanent residence, and that dream came to life through his son, Solomon. But when the nation was fractured and the people were conquered and taken captive, that temple was destroyed. Their guaranteed touch point with God was gone. 

After 70 years of exile, the Israelites were allowed to head home, but they quickly realized that they would not be whole again until they rebuilt the temple, reinstituted the Law, and held up their end of the covenant that God wanted to have with them all along. So the temple was rebuilt, and for hundreds of years, that was the place where the glory of God touched earth. But this was still not the kind of closeness that God wanted.

See, the priests were the only ones allowed in the holiest part of the temple. And even then, when God came in His fullness, it was only one guy on one day who got to be in the room behind the veil where the Ark of the Covenant was.

God longs for intimate connection with us. In fact, He’s so passionate about being with us that His next move was to become one of us! Jesus is the fullness of God—God in the flesh. In other words, He brought the essence of the temple to life. To see Jesus was to look God in the face. Let that sink in for a second. 

But what about those of us who were born after Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension? We get to live on the other side of “It is finished.” See, when Jesus surrendered His life on the cross, He bridged the gap between us and God. The veil in the temple tore in two from top to bottom—this is so powerful. Jesus demolished every barrier. Through His brokenness, He healed our relationship with God. By becoming one of us and laying down His life for us, He unleashed God’s presence for us. Now, it’s not just one priest on one day in one place who gets to experience the presence of God. 

It’s all of us—we’re all called to be priests, wherever we are, and we get to carry the presence of God with us wherever we go.

Yep, Paul lays it out super clearly: 

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? 1 Corinthians 6:19 NIV

From the very beginning, God has been the God who walks with us. He has been moving closer and closer to us, and now, He literally resides in us—within us on an individual level and on a communal one. Watch what happens when the Holy Spirit shows up on the scene at the very beginning of the Jesus movement. 

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. Acts 2:1-3 NIV

The presence of God filled the whole house in the same way that it filled the tabernacle, the same way it filled the temple–showing us that we, God’s people, are the new temple that God was choosing to dwell in. 

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5 NIV

This has big ramifications for us personally and interpersonally. The way we treat each other matters. We’re all part of this house God is building to bring His presence to all of humanity. 

And we also get to recognize the incredible reality that we carry the presence of God individually. Just as the Spirit of God rested on each of the disciples, He lives in each of us. You carry the presence of the living God with you wherever you go!

And this changes the way we walk and talk. It’s why Paul could say stuff like, “If God is for us, who could be against us?” (Romans 8:31). It’s why Peter and John boldly extended hope to a man who had been crippled for more than 40 years (Acts 3:2, 4:22). It’s why no manner of threatening or mistreatment could keep them from talking about Jesus. God was with them. God was in them. And He is in us. Do you realize the power you have from God? The One who is in you is so much greater than anything the world can throw at you.

The pillar of fire, the tent of meeting, a physical building, the person of Jesus. All of these are like the footprints of God as He moves toward us. And the place He decided to leave His next mark? Our hearts. 

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 NIV

Journaling Questions   

• What verse or verses stand out to you from today’s reading? Write them in your journal.  
• In your own words, describe how God has been moving closer to people from the very beginning of the biblical story.  
• What do you think it looks like to be God’s temple personally? What do you think it looks like to be His temple together? 

Memory Verse

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 NIV