Sinners Made Saints — How’s Your Temple Building Going?
1 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted
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· 11 viewsChristians are the temple of God, and must give its building priority.
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Text: 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
Theme: Christians are the temple of God, and must give its building priority.
Date: 08/8/2021 Title: 1_Corinthinas_07 ID: NT07-03
In the first-century Mediterranean world, people thought they knew where the gods lived when they were on earth. The gods dwelled in temples, holy places set apart for them and the rituals associated with their worship. So, if you needed healing, you would go to the temple of Asclepias, the god of healing. If you were wanting children you went to the temple of Aphrodite. Even the Jewish people, who understood that God could not be contained in any earthly building, believed that God had chosen a special temple as his home on earth. As long as the temple in Jerusalem existed, they would make pilgrimages in order to offer praise and sacrifices.
The New Testament also teaches that God dwells in a temple, but with a radically different sense of the nature of that temple. If a pagan Roman were to ask Paul, "Where is the temple of your God?" he might answer, "Every person who has received God's grace through faith is a temple of the living God. And every gathering of believers is God's temple." It was a stunning answer. It still is. This morning I want you to consider the implications of this truth for you life.
In these two verses the Apostle teaches three amazing concepts
The Church is a Divine/Human Community
The Church is an Indwelt Community
The Church is a Sacred Community
I. THE CHURCH IS A DIVINE/HUMAN COMMUNITY
I. THE CHURCH IS A DIVINE/HUMAN COMMUNITY
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple ... ?” (1 Corinthians 3:16a, ESV)
1. do you know know?... Paul begins this verse with a rebuke of the Corinthian believers
a. he scolds them for not understanding the essential relationship between confessing Christians and the Creator of Heaven and Earth
b. Christianity 101 is this — Christ in you, the hope of glory
1) much of the failure of believers living holy, and sanctified lives, characterized by good works, stems from ignorance of this great truth ... you are God’s temple and God’s Spirit dwells in you
2. let me give you three characteristics of the Church as a human institution and as a divine institution
a. there are more, but these, I believe, are the most important
A. THE CHURCH IS A HUMAN INSTITUTION
A. THE CHURCH IS A HUMAN INSTITUTION
1. the Apostle writes to the Corinthian Christians, you are ...
a. he recognized that they are and we are the Church; a congregation full of sinner/saints who retain our fallible human nature even after conversion
b. as the theme of this series on 1 Corinthians reminds us — we are sinners become saints
c. the Bible has a number of ways of describing the human nature of the church ...
2. 1st, we are the ekklesia — the called out ones
a. in the New Testament the Greek word ekklesia is the most common word translated as the English word church
b. the word refers to a physical group of people meeting in a purposeful assembly
1) everywhere in the New Testament the word Church is used in reference to a congregation of Christians meeting together for worship, prayer and fellowship
a) if you’re a Christian this morning you’ve been birthed from above, AND you’ve been birthed into a family
2) folks, I've got to be honest with you, I've never figured out how so many professing Christians believe their faith will take them to heaven when they die, but it won't take them to church on Sunday
a) there is something wrong with that kind of faith — it's certainly not a biblical faith!
b) a Christian outside a church is like an quarterback without a team, or a conductor without an orchestra
c. the purposeful assembly God has called us to be a part of is His Church
1) our purpose as a congregation has been clearly defined for us in the Bible
2) we are to be a worshiping people
3) we are to be a witnessing people
a) these two sum up the great commandment of loving God and loving people
3. 2nd, we are a kingdom of priests
a. in the Old Testament, access to God's presence was the exclusive privilege of priests
1) it still is
b. the difference is that believers are made priests unto God and enjoy direct access through Christ's death and resurrection
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1–2, ESV)
c. the Apostle Peter called the Church "a holy priesthood" and tell us that our responsibility is no longer that of offering animal sacrifices, but of offering "spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ"
1) what are spiritual sacrifices?
a) Hebrews 13:15 says that lips full of thanksgiving and praises to God are a spiritual sacrifice
b) Romans 12:1 tells us that our bodies, offered as living sacrifices to God, are a spiritual sacrifice
c) Matthew 5:23 tells us that financial gifts to be used in the church, are a spiritual sacrifice
d) Acts 10:4 tells us that our gifts to and prayers for the poor are a spiritual sacrifice
e) Ephesians 5:2 tells us that living a life of love is a spiritual sacrifice
f) Philippians 4:18 tells us that any gift that meets the need of a fellow believer is a spiritual sacrifice
4. 3rd, we are a fellowship of saints
a. from a human viewpoint, the church is a local body of believers spiritually united in fellowship by the common experience of faith in Jesus Christ
ILLUS. The British author, C.S. Lewis once wrote: "The New Testament does not envisage solitary religion. Some kind of regular assembly for worship and instruction is everywhere taken for granted in the Epistles. So we must be regular practicing members of the church. Of course we differ in temperament. Some find it more natural to approach God in solitude; but we must go to church as well. For the church is not a human society of people united by their natural affinities, but the body of Christ, in which all members, however different (and he rejoices in their differences and by no means wishes to iron them out) must share the common life, complementing and helping one another precisely by their differences.
b. fellowship is the lifeblood of the church
1) for the early Christians, fellowship was not church-sponsored, biweekly bowling parties, nor was it tea and cookies, and sophisticated small talk in Fellowship Hall before the worship service
2) it was an almost unconditional sharing of their lives with the other members of Christ's body
c. that's what the fellowship of the saints is all about
5. the Church is a human institution — that’s obvious for all to see ... but it is more
B. THE CHURCH IS A DIVINE INSTITUTION
B. THE CHURCH IS A DIVINE INSTITUTION
1. just as the Bible has ways of describing the human nature of the Church, there are also illustrations describing the divine nature of the Church
2. 1st, we are a fellowship of the Spirit
a. the Apostle Paul writes that the great mystery of the Gospel is "Christ in you"
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20, ESV)
1) if Christ lives in me, and if He lives in you, then He lives in His Church because the Church is us!
2) this makes the church Divine in nature
b. supernaturally, God indwells each believer through His Holy Spirit
1) He indwells me at the same time He indwells you
2) I don't understand it, but I accept by faith that my God is big enough to live in the hearts and lives of all believers in the world at the same time
a) the Apostle Peter wrote in his first epistle that we are all "partakers of the divine nature"
c. it is this divine presence within us that draws us together as God's people into fellowship and love
1) it means that we are more uniquely related to each other than any other people on earth
d. what does this relation mean for us practically?
1) it means that no believer is to be outside the scope of our love and fellowship
ILLUS. Just before the beginning of the Sunday service at Saint Bartholomew's on Fifth Avenue, New York City, a man wearing a large hat was discovered sitting in the front row. An usher moved to his pew, leaned in, and discreetly asked him to remove his hat. The man replied that he would not. The head usher was then summoned, made the same request, and received the same answer. About that time the president of the parish women’s group arrived and was asked to assist. She had the same dismal result. Finally, with only two minutes remaining before the opening hymn, the senior deacon of the parish was summoned. He tiptoed up beside the man and tried to seize the hat, but the man dodged the attempt and there was not time for further attempts.
As the opening hymn began and the procession entered the church, the man stood, removed his hat and did not put it on again.
At the conclusion of the service, the four frustrated people waited for the man at the rear of the church. The senior deacon approached him and said, "Sir, about the hat: perhaps you don't understand, but in the Episcopal church men do not wear hats inside the church.” The man replied, "Oh, but I do understand. I've been an Episcopalian all my life. As a matter of fact, I've been coming to this church regularly for two years and not a soul has ever greeted me. But this morning I've met an usher, the head usher, the president of the church women, and the senior deacon."
2) let it never be said of this Church that we neglect the fellowship of the Spirit that binds us together
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, ... .” (1 John 1:7, ESV)
3. 2nd, we are the Body of Christ
a. this was the Apostle Paul's favorite analogy for the Church
b. this analogy also reminds us of the supernatural dimension of the church
1) just as Jesus was the incarnation — the infleshing — of God on earth, so the church is the incarnation of Jesus in our world today
2) it is through his body the Church, that God seeks to accomplish His will and to advance His Kingdom in this world
c. each person in the Body of Christ has been put there by God and has been given spiritual gifts, and abilities that are essential to the life of the total body
3. 3rd, we are the Temple of God
a. when Paul taught the Corinthian believers that they were the temple of God, the unbelievers in Corinth were perplexed
1) they could not conceive that a group of Christians could call themselves a temple and claim that the Spirit of God was dwelling in them
a) the Gentiles had trouble conceiving of a temple without a building or a temple without a graven image of a god within the sanctuary of the temple
2) they could not comprehend how the Christian’s invisible God could inhabit a visible human body
3) even more, they couldn’t comprehend why any God would want to inhabit a human body
b. there are still many people in the world around us who don’t get it
1) they can understand the Church as a human institution, but not a divine institution
c. we frequently refer to the church as an institution
1) when we call the church an institution we are saying that it is an established public organization
2) in Linn Missouri that institutional church is represented by groups of professing Christians who meet in designated church buildings, under different denominational labels, and follow prescribed schedules for weekly worship and teaching
3) like other social institutions we are characterized by laws, customs, mores, traditions, and a social life
d. But We Are So Much More Than a Social Institution
ILLUS. Charles Colson has written: "Biblically the church is an organism not an organization. It is a movement, not a monument. It is not a part of the community; it is a whole new community. It is not an orderly gathering; it is a new order with new values, often in sharp conflict with the values of the surrounding society.
1) that leads me to my next point ...
... the Church Is a Divine/Human Community
II. THE CHURCH IS AN INDWELT COMMUNITY
II. THE CHURCH IS AN INDWELT COMMUNITY
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16, ESV)
1. the Church is a supernatural entity — it is alive from the inside
a. it exists because the Father willed it, Christ established it, and the Holy Spirit indwells it
b. this is what make Christianity unique among all the other world religions, and societal institutions
A. THE HOLY SPIRIT INDWELLS ALL WHO BELIEVE IN JESUS
A. THE HOLY SPIRIT INDWELLS ALL WHO BELIEVE IN JESUS
1. the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit indwells all who believe in Jesus Christ — there are no exceptions to this
a. the gospel of John records Jesus testifying to this fact in the city of Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:37–39, ESV)
b. Jesus promised that those who believed in Him would receive the Spirit of God
c. the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost — forty days after Christ’s resurrection — was the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise
2. this is not merely a spiritual indwelling but a real physical indwelling
“No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.” (1 John 4:12–14, ESV)
a. think about this for a moment ... the Creator of the universe ... the Covenant Maker with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ... the Exodus Planner of Israel ... the Red Sea Parter ... the Sender of Fire and Brimstone on immoral Sodom ... The Provider of Water, Manna and Quail ... the Destoyer of Walls ... the Sender of His Son ... this God indwells you through His Holy Spirit — the Third Person of the Trinity
B. THE HOLY SPIRIT BRINGS LIFE-CHANGING EFFECTS
B. THE HOLY SPIRIT BRINGS LIFE-CHANGING EFFECTS
1. the indwelling Spirit comes to a soul dead in sin and creates new life (Titus 3:5)
a. this is the new birth Jesus spoke of in (John 3:1–8)
2. the indwelling Spirit inducts the new believer as a member of Christ’s universal church
a. this is the baptism of the Spirit, according to (1 Corinthians 12:13)
3. the indwelling Spirit gives spiritual gifts (God-given abilities for service) to the believer to edify the church and serve the Lord effectively for His glory (1 Corinthians 12:11)
4. the indwelling Spirit helps the believer understand and apply the Scripture to his daily life (1 Corinthians 2:12)
5. the indwelling Spirit enriches the believer’s prayer life and intercedes for him in prayer when we don’t know how to pray (Romans 8:26–27)
6. the indwelling Holy Spirit empowers the believer to live for Christ to do His will (Galatians 5:16)
a. there is more, but this is enough for you to chew on over the coming days
7. the Holy Spirit is perhaps the least understood, and least acknowledged, member of the Trinity, but He is the executor of all God’s decrees, and Christ’s redemptive work
a. Paul writes in his letter to the Christians at Ephesus that we are a habitation of God through the Spirit (Eph. 2:22)
b. it’s the Spirit that births us from above, indwells us, and makes us one in Christ
ILLUS. Every once in a while we sing the chorus, Bind Us Together. I was written by Bob Gillman back in 1974. It’s a hymn that prays for unity among believers. The first stanza reads Bind us together With cords that cannot be broken. The cord that binds believers together is the Spirit who indwells all Confessing Christians.
III. THE CHURCH IS A SACRED COMMUNITY
III. THE CHURCH IS A SACRED COMMUNITY
“If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:17, ESV)
“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, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20, ESV)
1. Paul’s plea to the believers at Corinth is to live holy, dedicated and consecrated lives
a. his plea is based on the premise that we are the dwelling place of the Lord Almighty
1) too many believers have missed the great impact of this truth
2) we will treat the church building as if it is sacred space, while God’s true sacred space — our own bodies — we treat in unholy ways
a) this is what too many believers at Corinth are guilty of and Paul writes to correct it
2. we forget that we belong to God, and assume that we belong to ourselves
a. let’s be frank, the idea of being controlled by someone or told what to do by someone else is anathema to most Americans
1) our nation was settled by robustly independent individuals
2) we became a nation when we staged the first successful rebellion of a colony against its mother country
b. we like to claim that our nation was built on rugged individualism
1) Americans believe that their fundamental right is to determine what is right for themselves — radical autonomy is the order of the day
3. but everywhere, everywhere in the Scriptures God drops the atomic bomb truth that — if you are a Christian — you do not belong to yourselves, but you belong to the God who has saved you
a. 164 times in the Old Testament God proclaims “I am the Lord”
1) translation? “I am God, and you are not”
b. God proclaims His absolute sovereignty over every area of our lives
1) we belong to Him and not to ourselves
4. if that is true — and it is — then that makes us a community of the holy
a. did you hear what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:20? “ ... for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
b. the Apostle gives a dire warning for those who would ignore this
“If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:17, ESV)
Let me end with a brief word of application. All four gospels record what we refer to as the cleansing of the temple by Jesus. In Matthew’s gospel we read, "And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you are making it a robbers' den." And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them." (Matthew 21:12-14, NASB95)
If the world is going to see God in these — our earthly temples — we may need some cleansing from time to time ...
cleansing of selfish attitudes
cleansing of ungodly values
cleansing of sinful behaviors
God is in the pruning business. Like a husbandman prunes vines so that they might become more fruitful, God is busy in our lives clipping away or pruning away everything in our life that is not bearing fruit for Christ. Even this is accomplished by the work of the Holy Spirit.
The cleansing of our lives can be relatively painless, or at times brutal. It's less painful if we have a regular devotional life and spend time with God daily. It can be very painful if we store up those selfish attitudes, ungodly values, and sinful behaviors, and then have to suddenly deal with an overload of guilt and shame when God finally gets a good hold on us.
Whether you know it or not, you are in the midst of a building project. That project is the Temple of God. What are you erecting on the foundation that is Jesus Christ? Is it a glorious building which brings glory to God? Or is it a shack of inferior material and workmanship? In spite of all your earthly accomplishments, the most pressing goal in your life is building up your Temple.