Sermon Audio

A History of Temple

God created Man as an overflow, display, communication of his own glory. So that the divine purpose for every single human being on planet earth is to know and be a display of the Glory of God. The way that we fulfill our purpose most perfectly is when we see and delight in God. When the eyes of our hearts are awestruck by his majesty, the tastebuds of our souls are satisfied by He who is sweeter than honey. When we are satisfied by God, God is glorified by us. Our joy and satisfaction is in perfect harmony with reality. Reality Himself. God is greater than the universe, present in the smallest nano-particle, knower of all knowledge, holder of all wisdom, beauty of all beauty, Lord of all lords, King of all kings. God is infinitely worthy. Therefore, for human hearts created in the image of God, holding anything else in higher affection than God Himself is infinite rebellion.

And that is exactly what happened. When the Serpent came into the garden and said, “Did God really say?” He was challenging the centrality of God in the hearts of his creatures. God became not central. God became periphery. God was now regarded as infinitely less than he really is. When that happened, suddenly God could no longer have direct fellowship with his creatures. Suddenly, there was a barrier between God and the creatures that God created in order to display his glory. That barrier was God’s holiness. Because God is infinitely perfect and holy, his holiness is like the rays of the sun. He is the source of all that is good, but if you get too close you will be destroyed. Adam and Eve had to be banished from the Garden Temple, from the presence of God. Everything seemed ruined.

But this was just the beginning of God’s story. God was not finished. He was just getting started with his plan to reveal his fullness in an Adam, but it would not be this Adam. God walked with Enoch, God set his favor on Noah, God was faithful to his plan for this history that he was creating. Then, God chose another man. Abraham was called by God and by faith he received promises to great for him to understand. Abraham’s family became God’s chosen people. Again, this new corporate Adam was given the task of displaying God’s glory. This time they were surrounded by a fallen world, so they were called to be a go-between, a priest nation. God would communicate with them and they would share that blessed revelation with the whole world. But Abraham’s family was still human. Abraham’s family were themselves incapable of communion with God Almighty without being destroyed. So, God gave them instructions. God gave instructions for a little copy of the garden temple that he had to take away from Adam and Eve. First it was a tabernacle, a tent that they carried around with them in the wilderness. But through an elaborate system of ritual purity God made a way for this little people to have a covenant relationship with him.

There was a whole tribe of their nation consecrated to being priests. They were supposed to be perfect in their ritual purity, so that they could kill the sacrifices that would atone for, cover, all the stuff that the people did that came from hearts that didn’t treasure God rightly.

These Priests even had a hierarchy. There had to be a High Priest that would be the go-between between this go-between people and God. The High Priest was selected from one of the families within the tribe of priests each year, and he got to go into the very center of the tent called the Holy of Holies. He had to go through even more ritual cleanliness exercises than the other priests and he had to wear a special robe with bells around the bottom and a rope tied around his ankle just in case he wasn’t ritually clean enough and the holiness of God killed him dead on the spot.

This was serious business. The holiness of God was in the Holy of Holies. The intensity of Goodness that is God himself is a white hot presence that is perfect joy and fullness towards all who are holy, and perfect anger and judgement towards all who are not.

This tabernacle was later replaced by a Temple. Still a small copy of the Garden Temple, but much bigger and more substantial than the Tabernacle. And still the white hot presence of God condescended to dwell with man from inside the protection of the Holy of Holies. Protection for man that is. Not protection for God.

This elaborate system of Temple, Sacrifice, Priesthood, and Priest-nation remained for hundreds of years. The people continued to slip further and further into rebellion on a downward spiral that ended in the destruction of the Temple and the people being scattered throughout the world by the Babylonians.

But that wasn’t the end. His-story was still in motion. He was still carrying out his plan to be revealed to and through mankind. His plan never miscarried. He never dropped the ball. Through all of the long years of His-story, he was making everything right.

After many more hundreds of years, the Temple was rebuilt. It was rebuilt just as God had promised that it would be. The place where God dwells with man. Then there arose a terribly wicked king who reigned as a puppet of the latest empire to have ambitions of ruling the world, Rome. Herod was ruthless and wicked, and he was a tool in the hand of God to again rebuild his Temple. The place where God could dwell with man got a makeover. It was enlarged and made grand. It became a wonder of the world. The great Jewish Temple built by Herod the Great.

All in preparation for this.

Jesus Survey’s His Domains

Jesus enters the City of David. This is not the first time that he has entered this city. Jesus has been to Jerusalem before, but this time is different. This time he enters for the endgame. This time Jesus is officially inaugurating the Kingdom of God. This is like the inspection of the books by the business owner. This is the presentation of the ranks before the general. This is the true King and Creator of all things making a final inspection of the Temple that he has come to supplant.

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

What did Jesus find when he inspected the Temple? How does it measure up? In answer, Mark has given us the account of a living parable that Jesus played out for his disciples. This account of the fig tree is another example of what has been called a Markan sandwich. Mark puts two accounts together, one surrounded by the other, as a signal to us, his readers, that he intends for us to interpret the one with the other. Jesus has visited his temple. Emmanuel, God with us, has visited the place that was constructed so that God could dwell with man. It is such an irony to think about.

So, what does he find? On this fig tree, he has seen from a distance that there are leaves on it. Because it is not the season for figs, Jesus knows that there will be no figs. Jesus sees the leaves and knows that there will be no figs. Yet still he goes to the fig tree to see if there will be any figs. The revelation that there are indeed no figs should not have surprised him, yet he speaks a curse upon the fig tree.

What are we to make of this. Certainly, many who like to attack the Christian faith have a hey day with this passage. Jesus has even been accused of a juvenile, temper tantrum here. That is what happens when you read a passage like this and turn your brain off. The words of Mark are begging us to think deeper about this. He tells us that it was not the season for figs. He takes special note that the the disciples heard this. Jesus is setting us up.

The fig tree had showy leaves, but no fruit. The fig tree had a pretty covering, but no fruit. This is a picture of what he saw when he went into the Temple and surveyed the goings on there. He saw a show without fruit. He saw a pretty covering that was covering up zero godliness. Jesus’ inspection of the Temple revealed an elaborate covering and a lack of fruitfulness.

Jesus Closes the Temple

Now we see Jesus exercising his Divine authority over the place that bears his Davidic name.

The Temple of Jesus day had several different spaces. The court of the Gentiles was the only place that anyone who was not Jewish could come to seek God. But the Jewish Temple leadership, the Sanhedrin, had filled this area with the booming temple business. They did not care about the worship space for the Gentiles. They did not care for the poor. They did not care for the sojourner. This is a stark contrast to the definition of leadership that Jesus taught and demonstrated for his disciples in our text last week.

The Temple’s Doom is Foretold

The death of the fig tree is a looming prediction of doom for the temple and all that went with it. This temple had served its purpose. It was supposed to be the place where man could come and dwell with God, and now the very God who had given the instructions for its predecessor from a mountain top in Sinai has taken up his dwelling in man’s flesh, Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. His coming is the fulfillment of all that the Temple was supposed to be. The Temple and its leaders are corrupt and their hearts are far from him. He has closed it down.

The Momentous Occasion

This has been all to help us grasp the momentous occasion that we have witnessed today. Through the testimony of Mark, we have witnessed the cursing of the temple and therefore the closing of the temple.

The closing of the Temple brings with it the closing of the priesthood. The closing of the temple brings with it the closing of the sacrificial system. The closing of the Temple brings with it the closing of Israel as the chosen people of God. But God is not done! He will be glorified in and to mankind through a man of the dust, an Adam, the New Adam. This man of the dust, Jesus Christ has come and closed down the old way of God dwelling with man. And then he took his place on a Roman cross and stood forth as the full and complete revelation of the glory of God in and to mankind. Jesus put Gods infinite justice and infinite mercy on display in an act that crushed the head of the Serpent and set free all who will trust in him for his mercy and bow to him as Lord.

There’s More!

But there’s more. When Jesus died, Mark tells us that the temple veil was torn in two from top to bottom. The veil was the separation between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. The veil was the curtain that was never taken down for fear that the workmen would be struck dead by the Holy presence of God. Instead, it was simply added to. Layer after layer was hung so that the temple veil was a thick stack of curtains cutting off mankind’s access to the living God.

When Jesus died on the cross, that veil was torn in two from top to bottom. It was torn from top to bottom because it was torn by God himself. It was torn because the Temple is closed. The Temple is now Jesus. The radiance of his glory is now on display for all to see. Now, through the mercy of the cross, the people of God are no longer defined by ethnicity or by ritual. Now the Chosen People of God are forever defined by whether or not one has submitted to Jesus Christ.

Then on the morning of the third day, Jesus rebuilt the Temple. The temple is now forever our Risen Christ.

Now, all of the promises of God are yes and Amen in Jesus Christ our Risen Lord. The work of the Temple has been taken up by our Risen Lord.

The work of the Priesthood has been taken up by our Risen Lord.

The work of the sacrificial system has been taken up by our Risen Lord.

The work of the nation of Israel has been taken up by our Risen Lord.

Conclusion

Today, we celebrate the Risen Jesus! The one who stands in eternity as the Lamb who was Slain. He has ransomed a people. All who have thrown themselves on him in faith are his people. When you submit to the call of this Risen One on your life, you are submitting to the call to become part of his Body. His Body is now the Temple, He is High Priest Forever, He is the final sacrifice, He is the chosen Nation. When you submit to that call, you become part of the Temple of His Body. Your witness becomes part of his Priesthood. Your suffering becomes a witness to his sacrifice. You become part of the True Israel.

This is glorious! This is wonderful The purpose of God for mankind fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and now we can be part of that. When we gather as a church, Jesus is with us through His Spirit. All who live in submission to the Holy Spirit are filled with the Holy Spirit and become the place where God has come to dwell with man.