The Church is the House of God
Part 3
28th October 2016
In the Old Testament, the Temple in Jerusalem was sometimes called God's house, and sometimes called God's temple. Similarly, in the New Testament, and until Jesus comes back, the church is called both God's house and God's temple. It's where God lives, and it's where God is worshipped.
Last week, we looked at Ephesians 2v19-22, where Paul says the church is a holy temple. This week, we'll study 1 Peter 2v4-5, where Peter says the church is a spiritual house.
1 Peter 2v4-5
As you come to him, the living Stone - rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him -
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.
In Ephesians, Paul called Jesus the chief cornerstone. Here, Peter calls Jesus the living Stone. All spiritual life comes from Him. And - if we're Christians - you and I are other stones in the walls of God's temple. Jesus is the living stone, and we are living stones.
There is a responsibility here. If you're a Christian, then You are a stone in the building that is God's temple. So it's important that you're part of a local church. The temple is not a lot of stones scattered around wherever they want; it's a building, in which the stones are joined together. God wants us to be as close to each other, as joined to each other, and as committed to each other, as stones in a wall. If one stone isn't in place, there's a hole in the temple of God.
That doesn't mean we have to be in Sunday morning worship absolutely every week. But it does mean we should be there whenever we can. And church isn't only about Sunday morning. We should be available for each other all the time.
God is building us together to be the place where God lives. Jesus promises us in Matthew 18:20 that whenever we meet together as church, Jesus is there with us. He says "where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them".
Peter calls us a holy priesthood because we all serve in God's temple. We offer spiritual sacrifices to God.
In the Old Testament temple, animals were sacrificed to God. But now that Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, has been sacrificed for us, there's no longer any need - any reason at all - for animal sacrifices. That's why God allowed the Jerusalem temple to be destroyed. We don't need it any more. Instead of a temple made of ordinary stones, God now has a temple made of living stones - men, women and children, including you and me. Instead of animal sacrifices, we make spiritual sacrifices.
Hebrews 13v15
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
We sing praises to God, and we particularly do this in church - in the assembly of God's people.
And we offer to God a second sort of sacrifice:
Romans 12v1
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your
spiritual act of worship.
Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross to pay for our sins, and to win for us God's forgiveness and eternal life. Our righteous response to this is to sacrifice ourselves for him, day by day, choosing to live his way, and not our way, to trust the Bible, and not our own thinking, to do what leads to His glory, not our comfort. This is true sacrifice. This is true worship.