This temple has a foundation. We need not wander far to find what it is. “Behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious.”(1st Peter 2:6) “Other foundation can no man lay that is laid, which is Jesus Christ”.(1 Corinthians 3:11). “Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone; in whom the whole building fitly framed together grows Into a Holy Temple in the Lord: in whom you also are built together for a dwelling place of God through the Spirit”.(Ephesians 2:20-22) It is fitting that the Son of God should take humanity, in order that He might be the foundation of this human temple. It rests on Him, for its coherence, beauty, grandeur, and very existence. It's walls are cemented by His precious blood. Every stone in the pile bears His image and is fashioned after The headstone of the corner. His truth is the basis of all faith in the church. His righteousness is the ground of all pardon, acceptance, title to life. His Spirit prepares and adorns each individual member bringing him into the structure and keeping him there. Each soul, and all conjoined, rest and rely on Jesus Christ alone as the source of strength, union, and perfection. The whole heavenly architecture is of Him and for Him, and His Divine virtues are felt in every part of it, from the base of the summit.
|
Yet the spiritual temple, reared by the hand of an Infinite Spirit, is nevertheless no shadowy edifice. It is in a high sense real, being composed of human beings. Angels may contemplate the work and aid in it, but they form no part of it. You, says our apostle to Christians, as lively , (that is, lively, animated), stones, are built up a spiritual house. Such Is the value and dignity of a human soul, made in the image of God, redeemed by the Son, and indwelt by the Spirit that there is a consummate Glory in a structure of which every component part is such a soul. In other places the individual believer is represented as a temple of God; but here, by change of figure, which beautifully and expressly brings forward the fellowship, multitude, and Union of believers, the whole is set before us as compacted into one perfect structure. The stones are no longer masses of granite or marble, but men and women, redeemed and sanctified, and hereafter to be perfected and glorified. Every saint has his appointed place. The temple comprises all the righteous, whoever have been, are, and shall be to the end of time. We think often of believers as separate existences, and sometimes of the church on Earth at a particular time, but we must also consider the complete body, in which not one true servant of God is missing, from righteous Abel to the last to shall be summoned to Glory by the final trumpet.
Firstly, it is a spiritual house. The apostle Paul speaks of a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Here we may say with him, "that which was not first which was spiritual but that which is natural and afterwards that which is spiritual" (1 Cor. 15:46) Such is the order of Divine revelation to the human mind. We are led from the material to the immaterial. Common apprehensions fail to reach this, and there are many who never get beyond that which can be seen with the eye and felt with the hands. But in proportion as we gain insight into God's plan and are elevated by faith, we learn to value the things unseen and awake to the knowledge of a vast and glorious spiritual universe, of which all that surrounds us is but the husk and the emblem. Our Lord was continually engaged in lifting the minds of His disciples from all the glory of their physical shrine to the wonders of an imperishable house. You remember when they would have attracted His attention to the buildings of the Temple, He replied, “See not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be throwing down". (Matt. 24:2) All was to make way for a masterpiece of spiritual architecture, which only the wise and the believing have eyes to behold.
Secondly, it is very obvious that, of this spiritual temple, the Builder and Maker is God.(Hebrews 11:10). It is for His glory and for His residence. The plan and execution are all His. In all ages of the world, His Eye has contemplated this structure, and His Arm is carrying it forward. In the spiritual temple, God is pre-eminently doing His own work; manifesting His own perfections; exalting created intelligences to purity and happiness; and producing those heavenly virtues which are more precious than all the marble, gold, and gems of the Earth, and which are wrought only by the Spirit of Holiness. Shortly after this, the church began to take on its new and Christian form. But those who came under the New Testament influence from out of Judaism were steeped in association's derived from Hebrew rights. The apostles therefore, themselves Jews, found it natural and important to address them in terms derived from the old economy; and hence we find no figures more abundant than those which are derived from the temple and it's rights. In this instance the mind of the Apostle Peter, full of the strains of Old testament Psalmody, thinks of his adorable Redeemer as predicted in the 118th Psalm. The words of David are: "the stones which the builders refused is become The head stone of the corner. (Vs. 22). All in a glow with the image, his imagination under Divine influence, Peter proceeds to carry up a spiritual structure on this foundation and to fill it with worshiping, spiritual Israel. So he breaks forth: " to whom coming as unto a living stone, this allowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 2:4-5). The warmth of Oriental style does not shrink from all that our more severe rules might regard as a mixture of metaphors. The rapid transition of mind here certainly gives origin to a double figure; the same people who in one clause are called the temple are in the next represented as the worshipers. Both Temple and worshipers, in the type, were intended to show forth the Church of God, or the entire body of sanctify believers. From these words, therefore, I invite you to consider with me the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ as a temple.
I will be presenting this "sermon" by Alexander in installments. Sermon is in quotes, for though typical for his day, the length would activate the pulpit committee in our day. His father, Archibald, was the first professor at Princeton Seminary, where he also taught. This is a perspective of the church well nigh lost today. Bear with the vocabulary (I am contemporizing some, but not all) and you will be richly rewarded in your soul. Be blessed!
It is difficult, if not impossible, for us to enter into the feelings of an ancient Israelite in regard to the temple at Jerusalem; yet, unless we do so in some degree, we lose the force of numerous figures in the new testament, which captured the imagination of the Jew. To him, that structure was the best of all earthly things. It was the citadel of his Commonwealth and the sanctuary of his church. To this spot his face was turned in devotion, wherever he might wander on the Earth's surface. It's walls contain all that he held most splendid in ceremonial and most sacred and mystery. It was the center not only of Palestine only, but of the world, for his Lord had said, " mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people” ( Isaiah 56:7). It's pomp and praises, the volume of its harmonies both vocal and instrumental, it's bleeding and smoking propitiations, it's odorous clouds of incense, it's ablutions and sprinklings, it's throngs of exalted worshipers, it's festive processions, and it's inaccessible mysterious shine, all conspired to hold his admiration and his affections like no other material structure ever gained over human hearts. Hence the most available charge against our Lord Jesus, and that which was best fitted to infuriate the people, was that He had spoken contemptuously of the holy place. It was not unnatural that in a period of formal religion, the minds of the people should have become knit to the external structure. No gleam of it's higher mystery and spiritual intention had yet broken upon their worldly minds. it had not yet been revealed that God is a spirit and that they who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth, anywhere, everywhere, and not only at Jerusalem or in this mountain. And yet, from the beginning, God had been preparing His church for better things by means of this visible type and clearing the way for the setting up of a house not made with hands. Even in the most elementary stages of religious discipline all that is outward, tangible, or formal, is in it's nature temporary, and is used to symbolize something greater and lovelier, beyond the domain of sense. The day was rapidly approaching when this glorious architecture should be given to the flames and when Israel should be without an earthly sanctuary. The vanishing of the typical system was foreshadowed, when the veil of the temple was rent into from top to bottom. (Matt. 27:51; Heb. 10:19-22) This is from our fellowship's study of the Gospel of John, in a question format. May you be blessed in meditation and contemplation.
John 18:1-11 The betrayal of the Son of Man Vs 1-2 The setting: brook Kidron in biblical history: 2 Samuel 15:13-23; 1 Kings 2:36-46; 2 Chron. 30:13-20 Do you see any significance in the Lord choosing this place to often pray? Vs 3 According to John in this verse, who is leading this band of men that came out from the priests and Pharisees? Does this give you an idea that Judas's role and motive exceeds a mere 30 pieces of silver? Vs 4 Consider the weight of Jesus's knowledge in the light of Luke 22:44. Was it the impending torture that cause great drops of blood to fall in his agony? #2 Why did Jesus ask, "whom seek ye?" Vs 5 How is their answer the clearest testament of unbelief they could give? And note that Judas was one with them, he stood with them. Vs 6-10. All the major translations except the ESV & NIV have the "he" in italics. Even the interlinear shows an italicized "he". No ordinary "he" caused his captors to fall to the ground. Only an extraordinary HE would allow his captors to arise again and do their deed. Don't miss the covenantal significance here. The mediator of the old covenant was sent by the I AM. (Ex. 3:13-14) The Mediator of the New Covenant, sent by the I AM, is the I AM. (Isa. 9:6) Vs 8-9 Here we have John 17:12 being fulfilled, our Lord's High Priestly prayer to the Father already in effect! The language, “that the saying might be fulfilled” shows that the prayer bears at least the same weight as OT prophesy/scriptures. Vs 10-11. Is Peter's unbelief masquerading as devoted zeal? Do we see such a thing in our own lives? Which is easier, spiritual belief and renewal, or fleshly outward zealous acts? The Pharisaical example? #2 What was in the Father's cup that our Lord was required to drink? There is an intriguing connection between the first and last verses of John 17. In the opening of His High Priestly prayer, our glorious God come in the flesh, the Beloved Only Begotten pf the Father, prays that the Father may glorify Him in order that He may glorify the Father.
In verse 4, Jesus says that He has glorified the Father on the Earth, and that surely is referring to His constant message that He came out from the Father and the Father sent Him and the words and works which He did were of the Father and not of Himself.(Vs 8) I believe this glorification of which He now requests of the Father, exceeds all the glory that has surrounded Him upon the Earth by His ministry and perfection. This glory is that which inseparably connects His glory manifested on the Earth with His glory He Eternally receives at the Father's Right Hand. This Glory verifies that He indeed has done all the will and work of the Father in bringing His children, His household (using the words of Hebrews 2:13, 3:6) into the presence of the Father.(Jn:14:6-7; Heb.10) This Glory that he requests from the Father is the vindication, the justification of which 1 Timothy 3:16 speaks. Paul gives us the definitive answer as to how such Glory was accomplished in Romans 6:4, "Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father". And this Glory of the Father is the Father's Glorious Spirit as is implied in Romans 8:11. It is the verification that our Lord Jesus is that Righteous man that couldn’t be found in the Old Covenant! But HE is now the Righteous Man by whom God will judge the world. And it is this same Spirit of Glory that shall quicken our mortal bodies as it did the Glorious body of Christ. This same Spirit is sent from the Father at the request of the Son(John 14:16-18, 26, 15:26) to give us that glorious Eternal life that is the Bosom Relationship that is God(1 John 5:20). This prayerful desire of the Beloved Son of God who is the Son of man, is the subject of the rest of the text of John 17. This description of oneness & unity is truly out of this world, for this world lies in wickedness and division and strife. But this description is that of the oneness of the Beloved God. And so our Jesus ends his prayer in verse 26, implying that he will continually proclaim the Father's Name to all His children. And why will He do this? In order that the Eternal Love that He has had with the Father may now be in His children and He adds, "I in them". And how is this accomplished? That same Glorious Spirit that raised our Jesus bodily from the dead, that Glory of the Father in resurrection power, is placed in our hearts as His Spirit of Adoption, His Spirit of Family Love. It is the Spirit's continual cry of Abba Father in our hearts that is the continual testimony that we are loved with the same Love that has been the union of Father and Son for all eternity. (Rom. 8:14-17; Gal. 4:4-7) Our Father of Glory(Eph.1:17) has done everything Eternally necessary to bring us into that inseparable Union of the Father and Son by his Spirit of Love for all Eternity. All that He commands us to do is to believe in Him whom He has sent(John 6:29), His Beloved Son Who took upon Himself our flesh that He might be the Son of Man, that Righteous Man whom God requires that we might lose our sins in His all sufficient atoning work of grace and be found in Him clothed in His Perfect Righteousness before the Father.(Phil. 3:9) Consider carefully & prayerfully Ephesians 1:14-21. Are we comprehending with all the saints this Love of Christ that flows from the Bosom of the Father and that is shed abroad in our hearts by His Spirit. This comprehension is of necessity if we are to be filled with all the fullness of God. 1 Corinthians 8:6 "But to us there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we in Him: and there is but one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by Him." Vs 20 This portion of His prayer is for those who believe the word of Christ's witnesses who beheld the Word sent from the Father. Acts 1:1-4, 20-22; 2 Peter 1:15-19; 1 John 1:1-3; 1 Cor. 1-8. We have the original source documents, not just hearsay!!
Vs 21 #1 Note that our Jesus' prayer that we may be One in the Father and the Son, is according to the Father's will stated in Ephesians 1:9-12. #2 Describe this oneness that Jesus is praying about, who is the description of this oneness and its reality? Does this oneness have an origin? Does this not relate closely to John's purpose in writing his epistle, that we might have fellowship with the Father and with His Son? #3. How does the last phrase in this verse define the true gospel witness? Note the word "sent" again. John 5:38, 6:29, 11:42 Vs 22 #1 What is this Glory that Jesus has already given these men? #2 What is the purpose and work of this Glory? Vs 23 #1 Describe the shift in the "in location" in this verse compared to verse 21. John 14:21-23 #2 What is added to the believers witness in the world in this verse compared to verse 21. #3 What kind of love is to be exhibited to the world? Vs 24 This verse seems to be sort of a prayer request to the Father regarding John 14:2-3. #1 What does Jesus say is the reason for His wanting us to be where He is? #2 What definition does Jesus give to His glory here? Vs 25 What does Jesus say that we have known, that the world has not known? Vs 26 Jesus returns His prayer to the Name of the Father as in vs 6, 11,-12. Describe, in this context of Jesus words, the kind of Love that He is talking about. Ponder this indwelling Love, and Christ',s indwelling, and His Abba Spirit that is given unto us. Rom. 8:15-17; Gal. 4:4-7 Our Jesus, who prayed this prayer has been placed by the Father at His Own Right Hand, the place of All Power and Authority for all Eternity, as the Father's assurance that every word of this prayer is true and will be made true to those who believe the words of His witnesses. Ephesians 1:16-23 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day, For my flesh is food indeed and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me." John 6:53-57o
Our Lord Jesus was so "in your face". To the flesh, His words conjure up a gruesome picture. But to the Spirit born mind and heart, these are wonderful, soul nourishing truths. In Hebrews 10:5, Jesus is prophetically saying to the Father, "but a body You have prepared for me." This is from Psalm 40:6-8 where the words are "I delight to do thy will O God." Is this a discrepancy? Not at all. The Holy Spirit is teaching us that God gave Jesus a body of perfect obedience to the Father's will, unlike fallen man's defiled and stubborn will that could not do the Father's Will embodied in the Law. "Then He said, Behold, I have come to do Your Will, O God. He takes away the first covenant that He may establish the second. By that Will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." (Heb 10:9-10) Our Jesus' body is the only human body that did and does the will of God perfectly and satisfactory. His body is our only hope of being sanctified--being set apart unto God. Back to John 6:53-57. How are these passages related? Jesus is exhorting us to feast on His perfectly obedient body. His is the only satisfactory obedience that we can offer to the Father. But how do we feast on Him? Jesus language is so distasteful at first glance--"eat my flesh and drink my blood." But he has already told us previously in the chapter what He means. "Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true Bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.........I am the bread of life. He who COMES TO ME SHALL NEVER HUNGER, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN ME SHALL NEVER THIRST." John 6:32-35 Feasting on Jesus is coming continually by faith, and drinking His blood is a continual believing on Him. Do not mistake these for separate actions. "The Just shall live by faith." Romans 1:18--in what? We live by the faith that God has given us a Man, a God/Man in whom the Father is perfectly pleased! (Matt. 3:17, 17:5) He is the Man our faith and hope rests in. He is our acceptance before the Father. (Ephesians 1:6) He is our ONLY righteousness. (I Corinthians 1:30, II Corinthians 5:21, Romans 3:21-23. And as Colossians 2:10a says, "for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead BODILY, AND YOU ARE COMPLETE IN HIM." All of our incompleteness, our inadequacies, our failures, yes, all our plain old sin--all find their answer in the perfect God/Man. He alone is the Father's Pleasure--Hear Him! Simeon’s Confession, a Christmas communion meditation.
“God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets. has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, by whom He made the world, who is the brightness of His Glory and the expressed Image of His Person. And the Word was made flesh and dwelled among us and we beheld His Glory, the Glory of the Only Begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.” And what were the first words of this glorious declaration of the Father of Glory? I say this with the utmost Reverence, Joy and Thanksgiving. The first declaration of the glory and wisdom of the Almighty God was “Waa, Waa”. Jesus uttered those first words that every mother anxiously awaits in that birthing room, that cry that testifies to the life of that little one hidden in her womb all those months. But this cry, that Mary and Joseph heard, was the cry of eternal life in the form of that baby promised unto her by the angel some months ago. And not just a promise to Mary and Joseph, but to all who believe that God is come into the world in the flesh of this baby in this humble, lowly event!. “And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, His name was called Jesus, which was so named by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer the sacrifices according to the law which is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. And behold there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon and the same man was just and devout waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Ghost was upon him and it was revealed unto him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law, then Simeon took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord now let thy servant depart in peace according to thy Word for my eyes have seen Your Salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel. And Joseph and His mother marveled all those things which were spoken of Him.” Revelation 19:10 declares that the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy. And Simeon knew those Prophets, and the Spirit of that prophecy brought him to the temple, and he recognized that this baby was his salvation, his hope of eternal life. In this baby was the consolation and comfort of Israel, and the rest and peace of all humanity who put their trust in this God come in human flesh, and wonder of wonders, he held his Salvation in his arms!!! 1 John 4:2 says, hereby know we the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of Antichrist. Our Jesus told us in John 6 that we are to eat his flesh and drink his blood. In His flesh, that is His body, all the fullness of the godhead dwells (Colossians 2:9-10), and we are complete in Him. It is in our coming and believing this that we eat and drink. Our Lord gave us this reminder, this service of remembrance, this little cup and this mere piece of bread as our oft repeated confession that God became flesh in the Man Christ Jesus, and in the breaking of his human flesh and in the pouring out of his human blood, and in his resurrection and exaltation to the Father's Right Hand is our Hope of salvation and Eternal life, righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost forevermore. And the life we now live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God Who loved us and gave Himself for us. Come and dine the Master calleth!!! Come feast on your Jesus!!! |
AuthorWhile I have been a pastor and Christian bookstore owner for 30 years, my only credentials are that of an old saint who followed his signature with S.S., Sinner Saved! Archives
March 2025
Categories |
RSS Feed