Shalom from Jerusalem,
We have had an incredible Sunday and Monday. When you enter the old city of Jerusalem it is like you step into a time machine and travel back in time. The streets are bustling with vendors and people from every nation visiting the holy sites. Dotting the crowds as you look around are the Orthodox Jews in their black top hats and clothes with white shirts. When you go to the Western "wailing" wall you hear Scriptures be read in Hebrew and Psalms being chanted. You see Rabbi's teaching their disciples. The city today is "only" about 600 years old and was built over layers of the Crusaders and the Byzantine empire and the time of Jesus and before that David and Solomon - but as you read between the lines you can see the time of Jesus... You can see Jesus confidently walking up to the temple collonade to teach his disciples and crowds of people gathering to over hear his powerful teaching.
I'm overwhelmed by the grandeur of Herod's temple EVEN AS IT LAY IN RUINS. The smallest stone laid in the temple platform was 7000 pounds. The heaviest stone was 400 tons. That's right - about 800,000 lbs.! These stones are dressed and polished. Amazing.
Many of the Jews and Christians believe there will be a third temple that pales the Solomon temple and Herodian temple in majesty. They believe it will be a physical structure that bustles with activities like it bustled with in Solomon and Jesus' day. You have to be here to understand the magnitude and perhaps offense of what I am about to write ... BUT I BELIEVE THEY ARE UNDERESTIMATING THE POWER AND LOVE AND GLORY OF OUR GOD BY MISINTERPRETING SCRIPTURE IN SUCH A WAY!
THE THIRD TEMPLE IS ALREADY BUILT - IT IS MORE GLORIOUS AND MORE BEAUTIFUL AND COVERS MORE AREA WITH ORNATE FINE DRESSING THAN ANY PHYSICAL TEMPLE EVER COULD COVER. Jesus told his disciples that a physical temple would not continue to stand. In Matthew 24:1-2 It says, "Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings.
[2] "Do you see all these things?" he asked. "I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." In light of this bad news - throughout Jesus ministry Jesus held out BETTER NEWS. Listen to the words of Jesus recorded in the book of John right after Jesus cleanses the temple: Joh 2:19-22 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." [20] The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" [21] But the temple he had spoken of was his body. [22] After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken." Jesus teaching regarding the temple was so scandalous and so prevalent that in Jesus trial his speaking against the temple was one of the accusations of his adversaries as a reason he should be condemned. Indeed,regarding Jesus crucifixion it says in Mark 15:29, "Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, [30] come down from the cross and save yourself!"
Jesus is the temple! The temple was all about God dwelling with His people. People needed to bathe in pools. Sacrifices needed to be made for sin. All of this was so that the people could be at peace with God and relate to him ... so that they could be his people and he could be their God. All of this pointed to the relationship that was beyond what they could ever imagine in the person and work of the Messiah- Jesus. Jesus is the the very presence of God - Immanuel - God with us! John explains this to us in John 1:14 right before he tells us about Jesus telling us that in 3 days he would raise a temple beyond our wildest dreams. "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." The DWELLING OF GOD HAS COME TO US IN JESUS!
This is a dwelling that is greater even than the massive stones of the Herodian temple as the temple of the body of Christ fills ALL THE EARTH. Peter writes about this in 1 Peter 2:4-9 "As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— [5] 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. [6] For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." [7] Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone," [8] and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. [9] But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. [10] Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
There is no more need for sacrifice in this temple for the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world once and for all has been slain. As it says in Hebrews 7:27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. No longer do the people need to take bath after bath as they ascend the temple mount to try and get clean enough to meet with God for we have been recipients of Jesus sacrifice once and for all through "one baptism for the remission of sins." The cloud of the glory of God that fell on Solomons temple at it's dedication has fallen on us through the gift of the Holy Spirit... 1Co 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
One of my favorite thoughts related to the temple is that it is the place that was set apart to bear the name of our LORD - Yahweh. It was to be a show piece representing the one true God - When the first temple was dedicated Solomon wrote- 1Ki 8:29 May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, 'My Name shall be there,' so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. Now the place where the NAME is put is far more glorious for it fills all the earth - It is the body of the temple Jesus as it fills the earth - Each and Every One of us who bear his name through baptism.Mat 28:18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Mat 28:20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
YOU ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD!! Hallelujah! May your life be praise and thanksgiving and bring Glory to the NAME!
The pictures are from:
The Mount of Olives
Gethsemane
The Pools of Bethesda
The rock of the supposed site of Calvary at The Church of the Holy Sepulchre
The Western Wailing Wall
The Upper Room
Golgotha - the place of the skull
The garden tomb
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