A New and Living Temple
Ez. 47:1-12
In the short time my wife and I have been here at Beth El, pastor Eric has been speaking about how Jesus said He would build His Church. But Ez. 47 is about a Temple. What’s the connection? The Church is actually the new temple of God, according to 1 Cor. 3:16-17 and 6:19-20. We are all individual temples, and together, we form the corporate temple. Temples are very important to God, and often spoken of in scripture, as in our text this morning. The Temple of God is meant to communicate some really important facts about God, our relationship with Him, and our mission as His people.
Did you know that the Garden of Eden was a sort of Temple, and Adam and Eve were to function as priests in that Temple? They had fellowship with God there, and the work they were to do was in service to God. (They were also to expand that temple.) There’s a sense in which the place Jacob spent the night when fleeing his brother Esau was also a temple. He saw a ladder coming down from heaven with angels ascending and descending on it. That’s what a temple is, a place where God and man meet.
Later, of course, God brought His people out of Egypt, and brought them to Mt. Sinai. Did you know Sinai was also a sort of Temple? God speaks of the mountain of the house of the Lord in Is. 2 & Mal. 4. He speaks of a stone that became a mountain in Daniel 2. Sinai was a mountain where God’s presence was manifested, and Moses went up to Him there as a sort of priest for his people. It was on Sinai that God also revealed to Moses the plans for the Tabernacle, a structure designed to allow God to dwell with and among His people, a tent that was a Temple. The whole point of that Tabernacle was relationship with God. It was a visual aid of the OT!
Now King David loved God, but he thought the Tabernacle wasn’t sufficient for the glory of God. He wanted to build God a more permanent structure. God told him that was a noble thought, but he wasn’t the man to do it. He gave David an amazing prophecy, which is called “the Davidic Covenant,” which we read in 2 Sam. 7. God said He would build a house for David, not the other way around, but one of his descendants would also build a house for God. Now we know the first fulfillment of this was the Temple Solomon built. Later, that Temple was destroyed, and a second Temple was built after the Exile. But those two temples, important as they were, never really fulfilled the prophecy God gave David. Why?
Because the Jewish people kept missing the point, missing God’s heart and His plan. They settled for having a physical temple and external rituals instead of realizing the point of it all was a true, heart relationship with God through faith. The Temple was just a means for God’s people to draw near to Him. It was never intended to be a huge, hypocritical religious enterprise that actually kept people away from God. That’s why both temples had to finally be destroyed completely. God said He was sick of all the religious show without reality behind it. (Is. 1)
Jesus came to the Temple and cleansed it twice, because it had become so corrupt and greed-centered. The first time He did that, the Jewish leaders asked Him by what authority He did it, and what sign would He show that He had such authority? He said “Destroy this temple, and in three days I’ll raise it up!” (Jn. 2:19-21) This absolutely infuriated them, and they had no idea what He meant by it. How could one Man rebuild a temple that had taken hundreds of men over 46 years to build?! But the Bible says He spoke of the Temple of His Body. (Jn. 2:21) Later, in Matt. 24, when Jesus told His disciples the Temple would be completely destroyed, they couldn’t believe that either. How could it be that the Temple, the place people met with God, would be destroyed? It was the center of Israel’s life! How could anybody find God then, serve God, be with God?
What they didn’t realize was that Jesus Himself the true Temple or Tabernacle, the place where the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in a human body? (Jn. 1:14; Col. 2:9) The descendant of David spoken of in 2 Sam. 7:13, 14 who would build the house of the Lord, was actually not Solomon but Jesus! He fulfilled everything the OT Tabernacle and Temple stood for, the place God and man met. He fulfilled all the Law of God. He is our High Priest. He became the Lamb, the true sacrifice, offered to take away the sins of the world. He was the stone the builders rejected, who, when He rose from the dead, became the Chief Cornerstone of the Temple of God.
But while a cornerstone is the most important stone, the one to which all others must be oriented and connected, it is not the only stone. Jesus was the perfect Temple, that’s for sure. But He has also come to build a new temple, a new house for God to dwell in, made not of stone or brick and mortar, but of “living stones,” human beings who have been reconciled to Him by faith and are part of His Kingdom. (1 Pet. 2:5) He said, “I will build my Church.” That Church is the new and living Temple of the Living God!
The Lord Jesus began this “building project” when He called His first disciples to Himself and began training and equipping them. But they couldn’t really enter into their true destiny as they were. They were not yet fit to be part of the very dwelling place of God until they had been justified and sanctified. That’s why the greatest work Jesus ever did was done on the cross. He was not merely our Teacher; He was our High Priest as well. A priest represents others before God. When Jesus offered the temple of His body to be crucified dead and buried, He offered Himself as the sacrificial Lamb of God. That was His work of intercession. He stood between us and God’s wrath, providing redemption and forgiveness and cleansing, so that we might be acceptable to God. The cross made possible the new creation. Because of the cross, we’re made fit to become the Temple of God!
As Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the Temple was torn from top to bottom. The tearing of that veil through Jesus’ death made a way for any and all people to come into the presence of God. It showed that the Temple itself was about to be expanded and transformed, and so was the priesthood! The Temple would be made up of people from all nations and those people would be a kingdom of priests. (1 Pet. 2:9) No longer would priests be made up only of the sons of Levi. Jesus was inaugurating what we know today as “the priesthood of the believer.” This is the glory of the Messianic Age in which we live. Now, all believers may come into God’s presence, be indwelt by Him and empowered by Him. All may offer sacrifices of praise and worship and thanksgiving. All may represent God to man, and man before God. All may become part of the Temple of God and the “building project” of bringing others in as living stones.
When God poured out His Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, He filled individuals, but He also began to build a corporate body, a corporate temple, made of first 11, then 120, then 3000, then 5000 believers, and it has grown and grown ever since (like Ezekiel’s river.) When the Spirit comes upon a person and begins to live in them, they are baptized into Christ, which makes them into a temple and part of the corporate Temple of God. God desires to dwell with us and in us, and His ultimate goal is to fill all of creation with His glorious presence! (Hab. 2:14) God was with and in Jesus, and He is the perfect example of what God desires for all!
John the Baptist was the prophet sent to prepare the way for this. He was shown to baptize people in water to prepare them inwardly to submit to the One who would come and baptize them in the Spirit and with fire. The sign John was to look for would be a visible coming of the Spirit upon the Messiah. (Jn. 1:32, 33) Messiah means “anointed one,” and the anointing or pouring of oil on someone was symbolic of the coming of the Spirit. (Jacob poured oil on the rocks.) Jesus was the One who was anointed with God’s Spirit in all His fullness, and He came to inaugurate a new age in which the Spirit would fill, direct, and empower people. All sorts of people would now have the Spirit poured out upon them, because Jesus had paid for sins and made it possible for God to do this.
The Jews knew that it was by the Spirit that God’s presence could actually be with them. He was the One who had guided them, who had empowered their prophets to give God’s Word to them and keep them on God’s path. They knew that He was the power for godly living, and when they grieved Him, they were helpless. Some rabbis even wrote during the long years of the intertestamental period that maybe the Spirit had left them because of their many sins. They looked longingly for Him to be poured upon them again someday, like water. (Is. 32:15; 44:1-3) They knew that was what would restore them as God’s people.
Every year, during the Feast of Tabernacles, they would perform a ritual which anticipated this. At a certain point in the festivities, a priest would fill a golden pitcher with water from a pool, then lead a procession to a point near the Temple where he would pour this water out as a symbol of the Spirit. In Jn. 7:37-39, we read of Jesus stepping up before the crowd right at this strategic moment, and declaring that if anyone thirsted, they should come to Him, and out of their innermost being would flow rivers of living water. We’re told He spoke this in reference to the Spirit. By doing this at that precise point, He showed them that the ritual actually spoke of Him! I’m sure this must have seemed totally audacious to the priests at that time (A thirty-year-old itinerant rabbi was the giver of the Spirit?!), but with 20/20 New Testament hindsight, we can understand it perfectly!
The outpouring of God’s Spirit could only happen because of Jesus. Before His coming, the Spirit only came upon prophets, kings, and sometimes, priests. Ordinary people could not receive Him. But today we live in the dispensation of the Spirit, the New Covenant is a Covenant of the Spirit. In Ex. 17, Moses was told to strike the rock, and waters would flow out for the people. 1 Cor. 10:4 says this was a picture of Christ! He is the Rock who was smitten and afflicted on the cross, so that living waters could flow out to us to quench our thirst forever, and then flow from us to bring life to the world. Gal. 3:13, 14 tells us Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, so that the blessing of Abraham might come upon us by faith and we might receive the Spirit. Because Jesus died to atone for our sins, we can be blessed with God’s Spirit.
That’s why the new Temple is a Temple of the Spirit. The 47th chapter of Ezekiel prophesied this. The waters rushing out of the temple in an ever-expanding way are symbolic of the new age of the gospel and the Holy Spirit which was still in the future for Ezekiel, but began in earnest on the Day of Pentecost, and continues to our day.
Both the prophet Joel (3:18) and the prophet Zechariah (14:8, 9) spoke of this same theme, of waters that would flow in the last days. Joel said a fountain would flow from the House of the Lord, and Zechariah said living waters would flow from Jerusalem, the city of God. Now we understand from various scriptures (Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:4, 5; Rev. 21:9, 10) that we are the House of God, His new Temple, and we are also the city of God, the New Jerusalem! So then, living waters will be flowing from us. Or will they?
Who is the real Source of these flowing waters? Is it not the Lord Himself? Of course! He is “the fountain of living waters.” (Jer. 2:13; 17:13)
That’s why, in Revelation 21:22, we see that God Himself is the Temple in heaven, and in Rev. 22:1, we see a river of the water of life flowing from the Temple, in fact, it flows from the very throne of God! He is the Fountain of Living Waters. The Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), and He is the flowing river of living water that gives life to all who are in relationship with Him. Ps. 46:4 says there is a river which makes glad the city of God. The Spirit is that river and we are that city. God is the Source, but He wants to flow out from the Temple and the City of God, which is us, the Church, the people of God, and reach others through us.
The living waters are the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. They represent the blessings of the gospel; forgiveness, redemption, fellowship with God, purpose in life, the fullness of the Spirit with His fruit and gifts, the glory of God and of His Kingdom. God has provided these blessings for all mankind. He wants to indwell everyone and be in every place, so that all of creation might be filled with His glory for all eternity.
Both Peter and Paul taught that believers are being built into a temple, a dwelling place for God by His Spirit. A Temple is where God dwells and where He is worshiped; it is a place where God and man meet and have fellowship. It’s a place of worship, a place where we can come to learn of God and find forgiveness. It’s a place of intercession, where people pray for the Kingdom to come and God’s will to be done. As all of this goes on the Temple expands, and new living stones are added to its walls. So the Temple speaks much of the gospel and our mission for God.
As part of the Temple, we’re called to: be witnesses, ambassadors, priests, worshippers, intercessors. We must “represent” God to man and man to God as a royal priesthood. We must let the rivers of living water flow!
What does it take for us to be part of God’s “building project”? How do we partake of those living waters, so that we can be refreshed ourselves, but also be part of bringing that river to the world?
Jn. 4:10; Ps. 116:12, 13 – The blessing of God is a gift of grace, provided for us by the death of Jesus. But we need to ask for the living water. We need to take the cup of salvation. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Drinking is a simple act that a child can perform, yet it must drink for itself.
Jn. 7:37-39 – In order to drink this living water, two things are needed: thirst and faith. Thirst means a sense of need. Desire for something more, something better. Desire for life. Desire for God. Desire for His presence. Desire for forgiveness and holiness. Jesus also said we must believe or trust in Him (vs. 38 & 39) We must believe God wants us to draw nigh, and has made the way through Jesus. We must believe He wants to give us salvation and life. He wants to fill us with His Spirit. Gal. 3:2-5 make this very clear. The Galatians heard and believed; that’s all it took. If we hear and believe these blessings are available to us, we can obtain them.
Eph. 4:25 – 32 & 5:18-21 – There’s an ongoing lifestyle which makes possible the flowing river within. We must learn what to do and not do, in order to cooperate with the Spirit and allow His unhindered flow in our lives. We must learn to not grieve Him, not to speak, think, or do what grieves, but to think, speak, sing, give thanks, pray and praise in such a way that His life in us bubbles up and flows forth. It’s not legalism. It’s yielding and cooperation. God is the Source. God does the work. But we must participate, by being like a valve that opens to the flow. That’s why we worship on Sundays. Why we read and hear the Word. Why we pray. The flow of God’s Spirit takes place through such. But we must learn that as a daily discipline or we dry up.
1 Cor. 3:16-17 and 6:19-20 plainly teach us that individually and corporately we are God’s temple, so we must not do anything to dishonor that Temple or the God who dwells there!
One more thing. The Master Builder builds the Temple, not we ourselves. Doesn’t that indicate He must place the living stones where they’re meant to go? Don’t they each have a place? Heb. 10:24, 25 – we must not forsake the assembling of ourselves. We must not just casually go or come. We need to be faithful and stay put, so that we play the part we’ve been assigned. You are a living stone in the Temple of God being built at Beth El Bible Church, or wherever God has placed you! 1 Cor. 12:24 says God composes the Body; He puts us where we’re supposed to be, gives us the gifts He wants us to have, the function we’re to perform, etc. If you belong here, please commit and stay put. If you have a problem, speak up. If you aren’t supposed to be here, that’s fine. We want you to go where God wants you. But too many today take this too casually! Don’t do that! There’s work to do, an important mission to fulfill, and every stone must be in its place! The waters will flow to you and they will flow from you if you’re in the right place, and that will make a difference in the world.