God's Temple

Transcript

Now turn with me, if you would, to the Gospel According to Luke, Chapter two. The Gospel of Luke, Chapter two. And once you found that, go ahead and stand with me for the reading of God's word this morning.

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Love it. Singing as they go. One little play of the song can get it stuck in your head. And what a great song to be stuck in the head. So notice these words here found.

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Oh, by the way, today is a feast day, a special feast day. Thank you. And that's why the scripture readings are a little different than just the fourth Sunday after the Epiphany. It's actually today the presentation of our Lord. So you'll see what that means here in just a moment.

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Notice these words as found In Luke chapter 2, we'll pick up in verse 22. When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, the parents of Jesus brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord. And they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. Now, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.

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This man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace according to your word.

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For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. And the child's father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, this child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed, so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed, and a sword will pierce your own soul too. There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Phaneuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage.

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Then as a widow to the age of 84, she never left the temple, but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came and began to praise God and to Speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.

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Thank you Lord, for your holy word. And now we pray that your Holy Spirit would come among us, your very presence descend upon this room, this sanctuary. In your name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.

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What a fascinating story here. I mean we could, I mean, I think you can tell from just these few verses that we've read. This is quite a story of the life of Jesus. In fact, remember, there's not a lot of birth narratives of Jesus. Mark doesn't have any, John doesn't have any.

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So you've got Matthew and Luke to lean on for those infant narratives. And without them, of course, we wouldn't even know about the wise men coming to Jesus, for instance, in Matthew. Or we wouldn't know about this scene of Jesus, 40 days old, coming to the temple per the custom of the law of Moses or the law of God, which notice how it says it in the text. The law of Moses and the law of the Lord, it's the same word. In other words, God joins his word to the word given by these prophets and these apostles.

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And this is why we can say confidently this is the word of God. And so here's Jesus as an infant. We get a little snippet and then we get another one. Remember him at 12 years old. So we get him at 40, you know, the birth narrative, of course.

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And then we get 40 days, he's lifted up in the temple by Simeon. And then Anna the prophetess comes and also praises God in this momentous story here this morning. And then of course what we get mainly in the Gospels are the years 30 to 33 of Jesus three year ministry.

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Well, what's going on here in this text? A lot, of course, but one big thing that I want to share with you today, and it starts really with the temple. And our Malachi reading in fact sets us up for this because it really is, you know, Malachi is the last prophet of the Old Testament. It's the last one in our English copy, of course, and last one of the 12 or the minor prophets. And he is dated to around 430 BC.

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So we have that 400 year gap, remember, just like in Genesis to exodus, you turn one page and 400 years expires. And then you get what the birth narrative of Moses, the towering figure of all of the Old Testament, okay? Then we move all the events of Israel and then we come down to Malachi, this prophet, and boom, 400 years of silence. In other words, the Bible just, you know, when you turn from Malachi to Matthew, it just skips over about 430 years of history, okay? And God says, okay, now perk up again.

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There's a prophet in the wilderness, John the Baptist, something's about to happen. And everybody recognize, well, that's the first prophet since Malachi, really. Now many people claim to be prophets, but everybody knew something was special about John. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. They couldn't deny that he was a prophet.

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And so it begins. We turn again 400 years and then we have the birth narrative of Jesus, who obviously is the towering figure of all of the New Testament. He's the new Moses. That's the point. He's the new Moses, a better Moses, and he gives the law from his own mouth, not to a man, but as man, God, man, what a savior again.

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So we need to begin with the temple. I mean, here's Jesus. You know, this is a presentation of our Lord at the temple. And of course we could say many things about this was the custom of the parents notice the parents bring the child. Jesus can't bring himself at this point.

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He literally is an infant. He can't even walk. You know, we have some babies in our own life. You know, Jessica's sister just gave birth and Yesenia from Tir church, our assistant at the church also just gave birth. And you know, I mean, these little babies, you just have to carry them around.

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And here's Jesus being carried around. Can you imagine that? I mean just, you know, we see we just went through Christmas, so we considered those moments. But what about 40 day old little baby, you know, and here he is and we get this story. So what about the temple?

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What about the temple? Well, we need to consider temple in general, I think first, which is just look around. All over the world, through all of human history, there have been temples built right all over the place. I mean, we go back and look at the old Aztec or whatever. You go anywhere, you just flip the globe and place your hand down there.

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If people are there, they built a temple. Trust me, it's going to happen. Now what is a temple? It's a meeting place at base God or the divine and man. It's real simple terms.

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It's a place of meeting between heaven and earth. And this is why they often are called even in the Old Testament and of Course, if you know about pagan, polytheistic, you know, religion, it's always on a high place, right? Why is it always. Why is the temple always on a high place? Well, because you're closer to the heavens, right?

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It's where Earth and heaven are closest together. Think about that. It's where heaven and Earth are close so that you can hear from the gods. Okay? In pagan thought.

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And it's interesting that when they build the temple, remember, it's where. On a mountain in Jerusalem, you know, Jerusalem. On a mountain. Right. It's on a mountain in Jerusalem.

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Why? Where does God meet with Moses on a mountain? Where does Jesus ascend when he gives the Sermon on the Mount? Well, a mountain. You see, now you say.

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You say, why the similarity here between pagans and, you know, biblical faith? Well, it's too much to get into. The short answer is this. Nature itself points us up. It just really.

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And, you know, I hope we can all get there in our own way. If not, it's confusing. It never points us down. We always look up for causes, not down. Okay, we look to the heavens, all right?

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And so what's in the heavens? What do the heavens represent symbolically, but the divine, the power, the energy, whatever you want to call it, whatever pagans have called it, whatever that is, the Great One, the high God, et cetera, et cetera, it's always some higher almighty power that. That they're trying to touch on Earth. This is the whole point of the Tower of Babel, right? It's to reach up to God.

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If we want to talk to God, we got to climb up. That's the thought. Naturally speaking. That is not the way the Bible works. Bible works in the opposite direction.

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Not us climbing a ladder to God, but him coming down to us. You see, when we're blind, because we don't have the word of God and we're only relying on nature, we're just groping to get close. And sometimes pagans get close to being right, but they're still so far away. They're still so far away because when the Tower of Babel was built, remember, it was a big deal, you know, it's the biggest building in the world, assuming at that time. Right?

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And yet the text tells us that God had to come down to see it. He couldn't even see it from where he was. It's just a little thing to him. Let me go down and see what they're doing down there. Can't even see it.

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They weren't even close. Is the point if he doesn't come down. We are left in darkness. That's the point. We don't know who he is.

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We're not rescued. We're still in our sins, and so on and so forth. And so the temple is a meeting place and always has been. And people kind of get that sense that we need these meeting places today. There's meeting places, old ones that have been abandoned, new ones that are being built today.

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And so, too, in the Bible, God tells them to build a temple. And remember, you get temple imagery even in Genesis, where God and men meet. And there's things to do, right? Things to eat, things not to eat. Already we have liturgy and worship happening in the garden.

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That moves then to a tent. Remember, with. With the tabernacle, God says, I want to live among you. And I said, okay, yeah, we want that, too. Well, I'm going to go right in the center.

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You remember how Israel was set up, Tabernacle in the center, the tribes around it. An ancient way to set up the general or the king and all his army. And he's right in the center. It's a tent that he's living in. And you remember David finally says, hey, hey, listen, listen, I'm living in a nice house.

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God's still dwelling in a tent. We got to fix this. We got to get this. I'm going to build a temple. And God says, no, Debbie, you're not going to build a temple.

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In so many words. And Solomon builds the temple, and it's glorious and it's beautiful. And then God descends and makes it more beautiful because he fills it with his presence. And remember the Old. The Hebrew for presence is face.

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So anytime you see presence, God's presence in the Old Testament is always God's face. This is why. This is what Moses says. Lord, if your presence doesn't go with us, I'm not going. Remember when he says this, in other words, if your face doesn't go with us, I'm not going.

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The whole point is to have you with us. Not to just go somewhere, not to just get to some destination. You are the ultimate destination. God, his presence, his face shining down on us. That is home.

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So the temple also was a revelation of God's word. It was, you know, the word of God was given from the temple, from the tabernacle, of course, and we. And we know that and remember the whole history. You move from the garden, temple imagery to the tabernacle, the tent, to an actual Solomonic temple, then to the temple being destroyed. And remember, God's presence leaves the Temple.

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We're told this in Ezekiel. And he moves from the inner part of the temple, remember the Holy of holies, to the outer courts, to the top of the temple, and then to the mountain, and then flies away. Ibad, the glory has departed. That's what that means. And his glory did depart.

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He left the temple because they had abandoned him and what he had called them to do their vocation, to be a light to the nations they were not. And so God left his temple, and then the second temple was built. You remember this with beginning, really in post exilic times. But then it was made into a wonder of the world by the Herodians, remember Herod and his family. And you can look this up yourself.

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It literally was one of the wonders of the ancient world in the first century, even among the Romans, okay? And so this is the one that Jesus looks at, remember and, and says, hey, you know these. All the disciples are like, man, look at this building. Look at these, look at these stones. Look at that, man, the detail here, right?

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And Jesus says, it'll all be down. It'll all come down. And then I'll rebuild it in three days. Now what do we do with this? What's going on here?

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Well, this is the return of God to his temple. This right here is. He's come back finally. He's come back. Here he is in the temple.

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Simeon's waiting, of course, Anna is there, the parents are there, the holy. And now Jesus, the son of the living God Yahweh comes to his temple. But notice the kind of coming it is. You would imagine it'd be in power and pomp and whatever else. And instead it's a baby with a diaper on.

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That's how God comes. And that's a little surprising, isn't it? Well, didn't Malachi tell us as much? Thus says Lord. See, see, Malachi?

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He's like, look at it ahead of time. Here, prophetically, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly appear to his temple.

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Indeed, he is coming, says the Lord. And of course, this is a long awaited day. A long awaited day. But no one could have guessed God was going to show up as a baby. And he said, why, what in the world is that about?

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I don't know for sure, but one thing I know about babies is they're kind of irresistible. You know, if a baby, you know, in a waiting room, for instance, you're mad because you're still waiting and a baby looks over at you and just thinks you're funny because you look funny, you know, I think some babies think I look funny. And they just start laughing, you know. You know, and he's just, like, looking at me. I'm like, you know, kind of look down and you keep looking.

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He just look, you know, just laughing. I mean, everybody starts to chuckle. If you don't, you got something wrong with you. Okay. I was in a meeting, in fact, academic meeting a couple months ago, and somebody after they presented, and it was a pretty good presentation, you know, everything they said, you know, I just really don't like children.

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And I'm thinking, well, that's not, you know, that's not something positive. If you don't like kids and babies, something's wrong with you. Okay, I'll just be honest with you. And a little baby, a little infant baby that's just trying to, I mean, you know, cracking that smile. That is.

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I mean, we've all seen the videos where. Oh, and here we are laughing. You know, it's some little kid looking at us on a screen. Well, yes, yes, God returns to his temple, but not in thundering power like on Mount Sinai, not in a pillar of fire, not in a cloud of smoke, not with the earth shaking and lightning rolling, but rather as an irresistible little baby. And he's lifted up.

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He's lifted up among them, just like we have done so many times here, where I lift up the child and give them to the Lord. Whether in baptism or dedication, we all know that kind of thing should happen to our children. We should give our children back to God, which was the custom. The firstborn is given to God. In other words, the first fruits right off the top.

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That's God's, not yours. And here he is in his temple again, and nobody would have guessed it, but he's a baby. I mean, that is wild to me. And surprising again, it's. He suddenly appears, and Simeon picks up on it.

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An old man and an old lady, they pick up on it. Now, what does that remind you of? Abraham and Sarah, I hope, right? Two older people that God says, all right, I'm going to start my rescue plan to save the world. And you're like, let's go.

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I bet you're going to use the Navy SEALs, Delta Force. Nope, I'm going to use two old people that are barren, by the way. And I'm going to create a massive family. You can hear Abraham on the other line. Go silent.

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Me, Sarah. Have you met Sarah? God, you know. Yeah, Abraham, I have. Some of us, perhaps when we get older, we think, oh yeah, there's just no place for me.

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There's a place for you in the kingdom. There is no retirement for the kingdom of God. It's all the way until we see him face to face. All the way. Well done, good and faithful servant.

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Right? All the way. Here's, you know, we're even told Anna's age, which you're not supposed to ask, you know, a lady's age, right. But the Bible's like, don't worry about it, I got you. You know, she's 84 and she spent most of her life, adult life, as a widow.

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And the Bible's big on taking care of widows. And she's given herself to prayer and fasting. That's her ministry. She can't go to Mexico, she can't go to church. She can't even, she can't do much of what a lot of us able bodied people would be able to do that end up not doing.

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But she can pray and she can fast and she can plead with God on others behalf. And you know what? That's what Jesus, we're told, does. Continually makes intercession at the Father's right hand for us. What a ministry.

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What a behind the scenes ministry. And yet the Bible set up.

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Yeah, it's the ones that are hidden oftentimes that God says, I will reveal in the end. That's the way he likes to do it. He likes to keep it hidden and then reveal it. But the ones who are showy, the ones who are out front, that's the ones. Oh yeah, yeah, Keep moving, let's go.

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You don't get the praise.

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So here he is, the baby returns. And yet, and yet, before we get too mushy and you know, oh, let me touch him, you know, be warned with here again. But who can endure, Malachi? Who can endure that day? Who can endure that day?

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You're thinking, how do you reconcile that? Like there's a baby, anybody can, I mean everybody is welcome to look at that baby and smile, you know, perfect little skin. You know, I always like to bite them, you know, nibble at them. I mean if you don't nibble on your kids, you just don't really love them that much. I think personally, I mean, maybe I just overstepped my bounds here, but I mean you don't want to nibble at them.

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And they're just, they're irresistible, you know, Here he is. And yet, and yet Malachi said, whoa, whoa, whoa, listen, when he comes, his mission, who can even endure his coming. What does he mean? Well, remember what he said. Refiners, fire, Fuller soap.

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What has this little baby come to do but to destroy the works of the devil? And he is afoot even today, isn't he doing his bidding, causing suffering in all sorts of ways. And Jesus, this little baby has shown up in weakness to overcome what seems to be insurmountable, which is evil in the world. Sin, shame, bondage, addiction. That baby that was listed up in that temple at 40 days old.

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He has come to destroy the works of the devil. And nothing less. Nothing less. And when he comes to us, he comes to do the same thing. This is why one of my professors back in the day, it just stuck with me.

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He said, you know, God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy. He won't stop until you're free. He won't stop until your heart has changed. He's easy to please. Little bitty movements toward him.

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He thinks, love it. Come on, just like a parent. Any little thing, right? Wobbly baby, right? You know, at least that's the way my kids did it.

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And then they fall, right? And we think, oh, great job, buddy. Let's go, man. You took a step. It's like, take a step.

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Get. Get a life, man. Look what I can do. Listen, that's a baby. They're taking baby steps, as we say, right?

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Any little baby step toward God. He loves it. Come on, come on. What does a parent do? Come on, come on.

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You know, and they come to the parent, right? Yeah. And they pick them up and they're always holding their hands up, right? That's why we hold our hands up. He's our father, right?

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Lord, help. Help. I'm falling. Help. And he is there to help.

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He is a parent that woos us. Not demands, not sits on the couch. He's active in our life, wooing us, calling us to himself, helping us to walk. Think about it. In his ways, do we stumble?

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Of course. But does it get a little easier once we continually do it? Absolutely does. From experience, even addictions can be broken. And we can walk new in his ways.

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People can change, is the point. But not by themselves. Not by the psychologists, not by the self help videos, but by the spirit of the living God, the same spirit that guided Simeon here. Okay? God returns suddenly to his temple and he's a refiner's fire, burning away the dross and purifying, making one.

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That's what you know, to be pure is to be one thing. And by the way, the word demonic or demon has to do with division, by the way. So to be one thing, that is what holiness looks like. Isn't that interesting? It's kind of.

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Oh, okay. How does that. What does that even mean? Well, haven't you had a thing where you said to yourself, even, why did I do that? That's division.

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That's division. You see? Why do I think that? Why do I feel that way toward that person? I don't want to, but I do.

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Those are division, divisiveness. God says, listen, I want to purify. Purify, make one love, love to know and love God again. And then the fuller soap. Not.

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Not always. You know, we don't always like, oh, yeah, know exactly what that is. It's like some sort of stinky thing that cleanses. In other words, sanctification is a stinky business. It's not always nice.

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It's tough, and it stinks. But if you want to be clean, got to go through it. You got to go through it. You got to be willing to go through it. And he's calling us to just that.

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That's why he comes. And this is why the cross brings both of these images together of the weakness of a baby, and yet the cleansing power and the stinkiness, Dirtiness of the cross, of the blood that was shed for us. You know, Ezekiel recounts the departure of God from his holy temple, but he also predicts God's return. And you know what happens in the prediction of his return? Water comes out from the threshold.

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You remember this Water comes out of the temple. And remember that the temple was a place of forgiveness of sins, right? But now we are to see that Jesus is the temple of God. In other words, all the sacrifices are wrapped up in him and the blood that he spills for the forgiveness of sins, if we. In other words, he is the.

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Jesus is the gathering place of God and man, because he is both God and man. Jesus is where heaven and earth meet, where reconciliation happens, where atonement is made through the vicarious sacrifice of Messiah. Jesus is the new temple of God where God dwells on earth.

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And when he's crucified and dead, what happens when the soldier pierces him? Blood and water. Blood and water flow. He's the new temple. And it's the blood and water of baptism and the Lord's Supper that is given now to the whole world for the forgiveness of sins.

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Yes. And the transformation of the Holy Spirit in our life through this sacrificial meal. You see, he is the temple bread that was given. He is the light in the temple that was dim at one point and now shines brightly.

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Now, finally, we are the Temple of God, Jesus says. What does that mean? It means that we are little locations where heaven and earth meet. Because when we are born of the Spirit, filled with God's Holy Spirit, we too become meeting places where people, when they bump into us, should meet God in some way. We too are to speak the words of God, just as the temple did.

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We too are to offer forgiveness of sin, sins to people. Not that we can do it, but we must forgive to be forgiven. We are a forgiving people. We are a loving people, just like the temple was. And we are the gathered people of God, the meeting place of God on earth.

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Which is why he calls the church not only his temple, but the Body of Christ. So today are you forgiven of your sins. No longer do you have to go to some temple high place because God has come after us in Jesus Christ. Now we go directly to Him. Remember, the veil was torn.

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The Holy of Holies is open because he is the Holy One. And he comes to our life to make us holy. And he won't stop until he does. Gently drawing us like little children to his good Father arms. Are you walking in his ways?

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Are you stumbling to get to Him? Just keep trying. Just like that little baby. Just keep trying. Let's go together.

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We have a good father. We have a good brother, the Son of God. And we have in us the power of the Holy Spirit. Praise be to God. Amen.

Total Duration 00:31:50