Sermon Tone Analysis

Who we are in Christ?

Preached in Southbridge on 7-31-05

Lesson Text: 1 Cor.

6:19 and 1 Peter 2:5

*KNOW WHO YOU ARE* \\ \\ The question, “Who am I?” is a question that everyone asks themselves at some point in their life.

It is a question that desperately needs to be answered.

Our understanding of who we are determines how we live our lives.

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If we think we came from an accident billions of years ago and that there is no God, no purpose, then there is no reason to live a moral or even a so called “good life.”

\\ The truth is: The only one who knows us well enough to teach us who we really are, are not our parents, not our friends, but our Creator.

The one who made us is the only one that knows us well enough to teach us who we really are.

And that goes for Christians and non-Christians.

This morning I want to talk to you about who and what we are in Christ.

Who and what are Christians?

*Our lesson text*:

 

Our lesson text today are two verses.

The first is:

*/1Pe 2:5  /*/you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ./

And the second is:

*1Co 6:19  */Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?

You are not your own, /

 

The fist thing Peter tells us is that we are living stones that are being built up as a spiritual house.

There are two ways in which Christians are called the house of God or the Temple of God one way has to due with each Christian being one small part of the bigger picture, that is that we together are the Temple of God and God dwells in our midst.

But there is another way in which we are the Temple of God and that’s the one I want us to look at and think about this morning.

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*Temple** of God*

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*1Co 6:19  */Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?

You are not your own, /

 

Now think about this; You are the very Temple of God.

What does that mean?

Do you know?

I didn’t have a very good idea of what that meant because we don’t have temples in Spencer.

We have coffee shops that have pagan symbols and little statues and we have pagan stores but we don’t have huge temples like they did in Corinth at the time when Paul spoke or in Israel when they had the Temple of the Lord.

If we go to India or some Asian country we will run across some of these temples erected to pagan gods but we really don’t have temples like Paul had reference to the Temple of Israel, of The Lord.

So what was the Temple of the Lord in the Old Testament all about?

If we understand that Temple we will understand what Paul is talking about when he says you are the Temple of the Holy Spirit.

The Old Testament Temple had many purposes but I will list a few so we can get an idea of what the Temple was all about.

*Purposes for Building the Temple:*

 

First, why was the Temple even build or what was its purpose?

It was built to honor the name of the Lord

            To Honor and Praise Yahweh, It was a place to glorify God.

It was a Holy place were God dwelt in a special way

It was built to burn incense before Him or to carry out religious activates, to offer burnt offerings, and sacrifices.

The Temple was a Holy place, a place were God dwelled in a very real and special way.

It was a place of communing with the Lord.

We know that God doesn’t live in a physical place but we also know that God did dwell in the Temple in a special way.

SCRIPTURE

 

The Temple was Holy and a place of Worship, and of communing with God.

SCRIPTURE

 

The old Testament Temple was really just a shadow of what was to come.

We are the very dwelling place of God, our bodies are now the Temple of God.

What does that mean?

It means we are Holy and devoted to God.

We no longer need to worry about traveling to a place or building to commune with and worship our God, He is with us at every moment of everyday.

*/1Co 6:19  /*/Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,/

 

*/2Co 6:16  /*/What agreement has the temple of God with idols?

For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people./

Brothers and Sisters we have become, in Christ, the very Temple of God and we need to remember that.

The Temple was to be kept clean and Holy.

We are to keep our bodies clean and Holy.

The inner parts are to be clean and Holy.

Remember what Christ said to the Pharisees:

 

*/Mat 23:26/*/  You blind Pharisee!

First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

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*/Heb 10:22/*/  let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

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*/Jam 4:8/*/  Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

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We need to keep our thoughts and inner being swept clean and Holy.

But you know we are even more that that.

*Priests of God*

Lets turn again to our text:

 

*/1Pe 2:5  /*/you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ./

And again in:

 

*/1Pe 2:9  /*/But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

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We are Priests of God, Holy and royal Priests of the living God.

Now we’re going to take a look at the Old Testament priesthood and what it meant to be a priest.

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*HOLINESS OF PRIESTS*

            The first thing to notice is that Priests were Holy:

 

*/(Lev 21:6 ESV+) /*/They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God.

For they offer the LORD's food offerings, the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy.

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You see the priests were brought to God to be Holy (Leviticus 8:1-5).

They were washed in water (Leviticus 8:6).

They were anointed (Leviticus 8:10-12).

And they were clothed in special garments (Leviticus 8:7-9,13).

They were set apart by God to be Holy and serve Him.

Some of the duties a priest would carry out were things like:

 

offering sacrifices to God

 

*/(Lev 1:1-9 ESV+) /*/The LORD called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock.

"If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish.

He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD.

He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.

Then he shall kill the bull before the LORD, and Aaron's sons the priests shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

Then he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces, and the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire.

And Aaron's sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, the head, and the fat, on the wood that is on the fire on the altar; but its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water.

And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar, as a burnt offering, a food offering[1] with a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

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The priests were to pronounce benedictions

 

*/(Num 6:22-27 ESV+) /*/The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance[3] upon you and give you peace.

"So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them."

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They were to teach the law (Leviticus 10:11; Deut.

24:8).

They were to light lamps and keep them burning

 

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*/(Exo 27:20-21 ESV+) /*/"You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn.

In the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the LORD.