The Connection Between the Jewish Temple and the Church

Hey, we’re Aaron and Jennifer Smith, your hosts of the Marriage After God podcast, where we desire to help you cultivate a marriage that chases boldly after God’s will together. And in today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about the Jewish temple and the Christian Church and the significance in scripture in our lives.

So wherever you are watching or listening to this podcast, we want to invite you to subscribe. That way you never miss an episode. You can do this on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify. Again, wherever you listen or watch. And if you haven’t yet, please take a few minutes today and leave us a star rating and review. These reviews not only bless us and encourage us, but they also help other people find our podcast. We often like to share comments that people have left, reviews that people have left. Just again, to show you guys that these really bless us and encourage us, but also so that you can hear what others are saying. So this review today is from Jay-Z 6 0 5. It says, for married couples to listen together. Thank you both for, oh, this is a five rating, which is awesome. Thank you so much for that. It says, thank you both for pouring into married couples. I think it’s often overlooked to pour into marriage, but so important. Thank you both for the time that you take to do this for us, it’s an answer to prayer.

Amen. That’s so cool. And she’s right if it’s a she actually, I don’t know. She

And he

Or he,

They’re one. So

Marriage is important and especially nowadays, it’s being attacked a lot. So that’s our heart is to help marriages refocus on Christ and find the biblical connection. Yeah.

Yeah. So we’ve been really excited about this series that we’re doing on Jesus. We hope you’re excited about it too, a non prophecy. And so today, like Erin said, we just have a really cool unique conversation about the roles and relationship between the temple mentioned in the Bible and the church, which is going to be good. Do you have anything about life that you want to share? Anything that’s been interesting lately?

No. I’m thinking that I’m having allergies for the first time in my life.

Oh yeah. Will you keep going on and off? You’ll say, I think I’m coming down with something,

But then nothing comes about it. But I get some sort of headache and my eyes are hurting, so I’m thinking that it’s allergies

Seasonally. This is the time when it hits. This is

The time hits people, but I’ve never had allergies before, but I heard that they can come and go.

But hopefully that’s it. The reason being is because getting ready to go on a little trip, we’re going to fly to Ohio area, Kentucky area for our wedding to visit family. Really? The kids are so excited. Some of our kids haven’t been on an airplane have they? Has Edie.

I don’t think Ed, Edith and Wyatt, even last time he was on an airplane, he was

Like, they hardly remember a baby. We’ve been driving a lot the last few years, but we are flying. And one of the cool things about this trip is it’s very close to the arc, which we have taken some of our kids to already. I think I was pregnant with Edith last, is it

Called the Arc

Experience? The Arc Encounter Encounter?

That’s what it’s,

So Ken,

We’ve been twice

Now, ham and his team built a life-size arc. And so yeah, we’ve been twice I think, and so maybe three times, I can’t remember. Every time we actually, I think it has been three times. Every time we go visit family in the area, we try and take

The kids, drive down, go to the ark. It’s a life-size replica of Noah’s Ark. Yeah, it’s pretty

Awesome. So I told the kids today that we were going to be doing that at the end of the week, and they’re so excited.

I’m excited we make these things about them, but really we like to go. So we’re talking about out the Old Testament temple and the church and the connection between the two because it matters. Because oftentimes as believers we kind of forget that there’s a connection that we’re the church. And it’s not like God just neglected everything that he talked about in the Old Testament. And now it’s like this new thing. It is a new thing, the church, but there’s a connection, there’s a tie back. It all points to something and it all has a meaning. So

Starting out with the Old Testament, it’s mainly focused on the relationship of God and the Israelites,

Which is why there’s this natural like, oh, that kind of feels like it’s

Theirs.

Then in Gone,

The New Testament, this is ours, but it’s not really, it’s all connected, woven together all.

And so in the Old Testament, you do mainly see this relationship of God and the Jews, but something to recognize is that there’s a purpose in that. There’s a purpose in that relationship and that God had an intention to reveal himself to the world through the Jews. And that’s what he was doing. And after God led his people out of Egypt, he had to set them up with something. He had to give them a temporary, he wanted a temporary dwelling place for himself so that he can show that he’s with them. So remember when they leave Egypt and they’re wandering in the wilderness. And so that’s when we, before the temple that we know of the big beautiful thing, they had a tabernacle, which was a movable, foldable packable temple. Essentially what it was, the tabernacle was a big tent. And this would be, that’s why they called it the tent of meeting or the place where God came to meet with the leaders of Israel. And this was the tabernacle.

One thing that I was looking into as I was digging for some things to share with you guys about this was the Bible project. How I found them originally I think was through YouTube. They would make these short videos about

Each book of the Bible would

Be each book of the Bible animated themes of the Bible. It’s animated, it’s fun to watch. But I was reading a blog post about the tabernacle and they brought up correlations mentioned in the way that it was designed and the decorating that related to the Garden of Eden. And I didn’t see the symbolism before. I thought it was really strong.

If you, back in the Old Testament, when God’s describing how he wants the tabernacle to be set up and built, the tapestries had designs of trees and plants and flowers and pomegranates and fruits. And then you had in the metal

And the utensils that they used in it, everything had a meaning. And I love that

Symbolism of the Garden of Eden, which is when God walked with man.

So this is again, another experience that God’s giving them.

So we’re walking through the history of it started with this temporary place. It was a tent that God wanted to meet with his people in and eventually God why they were wandering. But eventually they go into the promised land and they set up a city. They set up a home that’s permanent, supposed to be permanent. And so then

King David was the one that kind of wanted to build this, but God told him,

Why don’t you share that part?

Wait, it’s going to be your son. So it says, the Jews under King Solomon built a holy temple in Jerusalem for the Lord. This is happening around 9 57 by 5 87. So about 30 years later, it was destroyed at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.

So that thing didn’t even last.

It barely lasted a generation.

But this was the one built by, this was Solomon’s temple, which by the way was the most grand

Temple

Made because of all the gold and all the David Solomon’s dad gave him everything he needed

To build it, all the resources.

And we’ll read about that a little bit later, about that whole dynamic.

And with that destruction during that time was also the deportation of the Jews to Babylon, which we’ve mentioned I think in the last episode when you talked about Daniel. Yeah, we’ll

Talk about it a little bit either in this episode or the next, but this was a judgment on the people of Israel because they turned their backs on God. And so God, it’s like, okay. And I always think that’s interesting that God was okay with allowing his temple to be destroyed. We would think, no, that’s his thing. But he’s like, what he cares more about is the hearts of the people, not just this grand building. And then we got around 5 38 bc. So about 49, 50 years later, after they are sent to Babylon, under ruler Cyrus, there was an ex that the exiled Jews could return and build their town and temple the city. And so they did that. And that was completed around five 15. And so we have now this new town, this new city of Jerusalem, the new temple being built, which is the second temple. So we have the first temple at Solomon’s, we have the second temple. And this was,

It’s a little tricky because if you’re doing some research, some people say that there was more than two or three temples, but really what’s happening is, so there was the tabernacle, which was temporary. There was Solomon’s temple, and then there was this second temple that came after the deportation and the exiled could come back. But over time, the second temple was desecrated. Plundered. Yeah.

It wasn’t secured

Very

Well. And so it was taken advantage of quite a bit.

And so King Herod Roman rule comes on the scene and they began rebuilding around, lemme see, rebuilding of it beginning in 20 bc. And that lasted about 46 years.

So this is the Herod’s temple, which is the second temple, but it’s essentially built upon, it’s the same temple that happened, that second temple continued to be kind of torn down and then fixed up and then remodeled, and then now Herod’s like, we’re going to make it grand. This is going to be my temple.

So at the timing of how long that took to complete, now the timeline is right around 26 ad,

Which this is right around the time of Jesus. So the temple that Jesus talks about in the New Testament is Herod’s temple. This is the second temple. This is the one that they all knew. This is the one that they all worshiped in. This is the

One that it’s known as the hi temple.

And so we have the tabernacle, we have Solomon’s temple, we have Herod’s

Temple. This is also the meeting place for the Sanhedrin, which if you guys have heard that name or phrase, it’s just that the highest rule of Jewish law took place

Here, the spiritual leaders, the people that took the word of God and turned it into laws for men. So we’re going to be talking about Bible prophecy in the temple in a little bit, but we want to talk about God moving in the Jewish people for a second. So at what point do the Gentiles come into the picture? Because everything we just talked about was God and the Jews. These were Jewish temples. The Gentiles were not necessarily a part of these. The picture who is God’s relationship with the Jews, he wanted the tabernacle with the Jews. He wanted the temple with King Solomon of the Jews. And then Herod’s temple, who is a Roman by the way, which is very interesting rebuilds in his own image of a temple, the second temple, which is still for the Jews, this he’s ruling over the Jewish city of Israel in this area.

And also just a side note, this is the temple that gets destroyed in 70 AD that Jesus prophesied about himself would be destroyed himself in Matthew 24, 2. So if you guys want to go look that up.

So we have all of this around the Jews in God, this relationship of God coming to his people. And this is where Christians nowadays we get caught up is because we think that that’s all behind us and that there’s this distinct like, oh, that no longer applies, and now there’s Christians and we’re just going to get rid of the Jews. But there’s a message that has always been there from the very beginning about us, unless you’re of Jewish descent, we’re all gentiles that are being grafted in to the kingdom of God, into the family of God. And the Bible over and over again talks about what a true Jew is, one who is by faith. A son of Abraham is one by faith, not by lineage.

Something I was talking to the kids about in our Bible time this morning was just, so we were talking about prophecy, and I have this resource that I want to share with you guys, but I have to get the title and everything so I can’t share it right this second. But we were reading through it and they were talking about how Moses prophesied about a prophet that would come, and that was 1400 years before Jesus. And so the kids and I were talking and discussing how generation after generation after generation, the people would get taught about this prophet God’s word and about prophecy that would be fulfilled. And it was really neat just to hear their little minds kind of wrap around what it meant to share stories. And I told them when I was a little girl, my mom and my aunt taught me about who God was, and now I’m sitting here talking to you guys about who God was. And so they got to see kind of that picture, and then they’re jumping in saying, and when we have kids we can teach them. And I said, yes, this is how tradition and things got passed down. And I told them, it’s so cool that God had a people, that God had the Israelites and the Jews, that they protected his word and the prophecies that were written about and that was preserved

And that was one of the intentions that God had, that he would’ve a people for himself, but that people would preserve his message, his revelation, because again, he was revealing himself to the world and he chose to use a people to do this. And so God definitely loved those people. But where, so we have the church being incorporated in the New Testament, but at what point is the Gentiles to be included? Was this always a part of God’s plan or is this something that like, oh God, just last minute was like, oh, and by the way, you get to benefit also.

No, we were always a part of the plan from the beginning. And I believe that because Jesus said he came and died for all,

For the

World, for everyone,

For God. So love though the world, not just the Jews, not

Just

Yes. And that doesn’t mean he didn’t love the Jews. No, he absolutely loves the Jews and still does to this day. Nothing in his heart has changed towards the Jews, which is another problem that some Christians have is they think that God no longer is considering them, but that’s not true. He loves them. They were a chosen vessel for his purposes, for his glory to reveal who he is to the whole world. And he did that all throughout the Old Testament, using the Jews to reveal his power, his majesty, his control, his kingship, his lordship in the nations. That’s what he was using the Jews for. But ultimately he wants the whole world incorporated into his family. If you think of the first verse I think of is not John three 16, but the one that it says that he wishes that nun should perish, but all would comes to the knowledge of the truth.

That’s his heart for the whole world, that all wood comes to the knowledge and that knowledge of the truth came through the Jews. So I think to start with, we should start with God’s promises and prophecies about the defeat of Satan and the redemption of man because that started essentially in the first two chapters of the whole book of the Bible in Genesis chapter one. In Genesis chapter two, we find out exactly God’s heart because if you think about it, Adam and Eve were not Jews. They were the first man and first woman, but the Jews did not begin until Abraham long, long time after that. And so we have God coming to Adam and Eve and they sin and they fall and God promises them and the whole world through them how he’s going to do defeat this enemy of ours, the enemy of man and the enemy of God and how he’s going to redeem man.

Is that the first prophecy in the Bible about crushing Satan?

That’s one of the first prophecies in the Bible. I can’t verify if it’s the first one because I think it is. It probably is, but this is a prophecy that God gives himself. It’s not a prophecy through a prophet. God gives this prophecy and he gives it to the devil. He’s like, I’m going to have the seed of the woman and that seed, that child of this woman is going to destroy you, which I think is incredible.

I wonder if the enemy thought it was going to be through Eve’s seed specifically, not thousands of years later.

Well, I was doing some research for a message I was going to give on Sunday for Mother’s Day, and I was looking up, and it was actually was the seed of Eve directly because inside Eve was all of the genetic information and DNA for all of humanity was inside Eve. And every baby in a womb, even at an embryonic state, they start off with like 6 million plus cy or eggs. So a female embryo has 6 million.

Well, you just said 6,000,

No, 6 million. Wow. Plus they don’t know the exact number, but it’s over 6 million eggs. By the time they’re mature, it’s down to 300,000 to 500,000 eggs. No one knows why it decreases, but interesting. That’s a lot of eggs. So inside Eve in her womb, even before being pregnant, had all the genetic data, all the information, all of the, it is just a kind of incredible thing. I was thinking literally all generations came from her body,

Her seed, well being the first woman, definitely. Yeah.

Yeah. Her seed actually contained the seed of Jesus.

Yeah, I just meant in her generational timeframe.

Well, you see right away

Him trying to

Destroy the sons of Eve with can and Abel went right in and God’s like since crouching in the door, Cain, he’s like, be careful

Elliot. Somebody gave Elliot at a book exchange a book of biblical jokes, Bible jokes, Bible jokes, and he said one the other day, and I might butcher it, but it goes something like this, why didn’t, didn’t God accept Kane’s sacrifice? Why he just wasn’t able.

That’s true.

Okay, sorry, go ahead. He wasn’t able. Moving on to the important stuff.

Okay, so we’re trying to talk about does the Gentiles, do we non-Jews come into the picture?

Where do we

Fit in? Is it in the New Testament only or is it in the Old Testament? And in reality, God’s plan from even before the world began was to make for himself a people who loved him and serve him and worship him by choice, not something that’s forced by someone that would yield their own will to him in worship. And so his plan was not just to pick the Jews and say, okay, now you’re my people and this is who it’s going to be and everyone else is excluded. That’s not reality. The truth is that he chose and blessed Abraham and his offspring specifically to be a blessing to the whole world. And this is actually what the Bible says about Abraham is that through his offspring, the whole world would be blessed.

You have a little note here that this is the first prophecy in the Bible about the church.

Yeah, this would be the first pre about the church, which is that the whole world is going to be blessed not just his offspring, not just his children and his children’s children, but through him and them, the Jews, the whole world would be blessed. And so calling Abraham out and making him into the nation of Israel was a means to this end. The purpose was to through him bring the world in from the very beginning. So I want to talk about how Jesus, even the Old Testament is told to us as to be the builder of this church. He’s the man. And so in first Chronicles chapter 17, one through 15, it

Says it’s a little much, but it’s a lot. But bear

With us.

Yeah.

It says, now this is about building the first temple. Okay, not the tabernacle, the first temple. Now, when David lived in the house, lived in his house, David said to Nathan, the prophet, behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent, the tabernacle. And Nathan said to David, do all that is in your heart, for God is with you. But that same night, the word of Lord came to Nathan, go and tell my servant David, this is God speaking to Nathan, thus says the Lord. It is not you who will build me a house to dwell in for I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up Israel to this day, but I have gone from tent to tent and from dwelling to dwelling in all places. Real quick, I want to make a note that Jesus makes this kind of same analogy.

He says, the son of man doesn’t have a place to live just like the foxes living hole, and this is kind of God. He’s like, I’ve been from 10 to tent dwelling, ding like I don’t have a home with you guys. Then he says, in all places where I’ve moved with all Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people saying, why have you not built me a house of cedar? Now therefore, thus shall you say to my servant David, thus as the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a name like the name of the great ones of the earth, and I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more and violent men shall waste them no more as formally from the time that I appoint judges over my people, Israel and I will subdue all your enemies.

Moreover, I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house. This is interesting, like I want to build God a house and God’s like, I’ve never asked anyone to build a house. Wait a minute, instead, I’m going to build you a house. And so he says, when your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring After you one of your own sons, I will establish his kingdom. Who is he talking about? He shall build a house for me and I will establish his throne forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will I not take my steadfast love from him as I took it from him who was before you, king Saul. But I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever in accordance with all those words, in accordance with all this vision. Nathan spoke to David. What’s awesome about this is remember we’re talking about how one thing

Could be here

And yeah, there’s two things. He’s saying two things at once right here. He’s saying, I’m going to build you a house. I will establish your kingdom. I will raise up your offspring to be a king forever, to be established forever. His throne will last forever. Okay? So two things are happening. King Solomon, his son, does build God a temple. He builds the second temple, but his throne doesn’t last forever and his kingdom didn’t last forever even though he was the greatest king, the most known, the wisest king that ever lived in Israel. So

He has to be talking about something else.

He’s talking about two things. He’s talking about David’s son Solomon building a temple, and he’s talking about David’s offspring. Jesus, because Jesus was the son of David from the line of David being established forever that the temple that God’s going to build for Jesus was not going to be one that could be torn down, was not going to be one that would only last temporarily. So we’re seeing right here that the son, that God’s going to raise up, that he’s going to say, I’m going to be his father, and to me, he’ll be my son. That son’s kingdom I’m going to make last forever. So we get this reference that God gives to David and he’s like, you’re talking about building me a house? That’s great. I’m going to do something that’s going to last forever and it’s going to be my own son on my throne.

And when he talks about his kingdom, he’s talking about the church,

He’s talking about the kingdom of God, which is so much more than just the kingdom of Israel. It’s so much more than just a building that can be torn down by man’s hands. It’s a kingdom within his son Jesus, the body of Jesus, the body of Christ, the church, the living temple, and so

Through right there, I love that you said the living temple. And that’s one reason why we wanted to tie these two things together and this episode was the history of the Jewish temple and the role of the church because they are so uniquely tied together and I love that picture.

Well in all the pictures we get in the Old Testament of the Granger of the temple, the beauty of the temple, the purpose of the temple, the use of the temple, those are all images, they’re all symbols. They’re all shadows pointing to the substance which is the actual church of God. And so in the offspring of Abraham, will all the nations be blessed? That’s the promise God gives to Abraham. And so we see in Genesis 12, one through three, one he read that one.

Now the Lord said to Abraham, go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you and I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you. I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

This is God’s promise to Abraham as God comes to say, I’m going to create a people for me myself. He says, I’m going to make your name great so that you will be a blessing. And I love, there’s a podcast, listen to latent flowers. And he talks about this often. He says, anytime God chose someone specifically in the Bible like the Jews or a specific person, the purpose was to be a blessing to the world, not just to the one. And so God chose the people of Abraham and his offspring so that they would be a blessing.

That’s awesome. And I love when I was reading and it says a great name, I’ll make you a great name. And we just read that in Chronicles as well about David. I was just thinking how amidst this prophecy is even this smaller, more simple, I’m going to make your name great, and we’re talking about such a long time ago and we still today, people know who King David was. People know who Abraham was and their name has sustained

And the savior came from them. Yeah,

I just think that’s cool.

Psalm 22, 27, all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord and all the families of the nation shall worship before you. Even in the Old Testament, God speaks of us the intention, the heart of God was always to incorporate the whole world. And this is not a universal gospel that I’m preaching. This is God’s heart. His perfect will is that all would come to him.

We weren’t an afterthought.

We’re not an afterthought. This was not a Jesus coming and then like, oh, you know what? Here’s a good idea. Let’s also include this guy and this guy. No, this

Random piece fits in the puzzle. Let’s use it.

Yeah, there’s a verse and I’m sure we’ve all wondered what it means where it says the first shall be last and the last shall first. I believe Jesus says it. And the idea is when it says the first shall be last, it’s talking about those entering the kingdom of heaven. God came first to the Jews, but according to the word of God, it seems like they’re going to be the last to enter in though they begin to be the last to turn their hearts to Christ,

Accept him and believe him. Yeah, the

Last, the ones that God didn’t come to first, the Gentiles, they would with open arms and say, yes, I want this. I want Jesus. And so we see this picture of God showing his order of things. It’s crazy when he read Isaiah 49, 6,

He says, it is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. That doesn’t sound very specific to any one person or place.

No, but he’s talking to Jacob, to the tribes of Jacobs, to Israel is saying, I’m going to make you a light in this world like a lamp on a hill. Yeah, I’m going to use it cannot be hidden. The light that he’s trying to shine is the word of God. It’s the revelation of God about himself to the world so that his salvation may reach the ends of the earth. This is back in Isaiah is hundreds of years before Jesus. His intention has always been to reach the ends of the earth with his salvation. Just like his intention with Adam and Eve was that they would not perish, that they would not eat from the tree of life so that they would live forever in their sin, his intention that he would save humanity through Jesus. So another bit of prophecy from the Old Testament.

So we were just talking about how the church has always been there. God’s heart for the world has always been there, is that he’s going to make us a part of his family through adoption. So he even shows in the Old Testament, how is he going to incorporate us into the family? Hosea 2 23, and I will sow her for myself in the land and I will have mercy on no mercy. And I’ll say to not my people, you are my people. And he shall say, you are my God. This is actually repeated in the New Testament when talking about God, making for himself a new people. And this idea says on those who I have no mercy, I’m going to have mercy on those who say I’m not my people. I’m going to call you my people. And that’s us. We were not his people. We were not under his mercy like God was doing that with the Jews. But because of Christ and his work on the cross and his resurrection, we are now his. And we get to say, you are my God, which I think is awesome. Why don’t you read that next one.

So the next one is Isaiah 56, 3 through eight. Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, the Lord will surely separate me from his people and let not the eunuch say, behold, I am a dried tree for thus says the Lord. To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast, my covenant, I’ll give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. I’ll give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off and the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord and to be his servants. Everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it and holds fast my covenant, these I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar from my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples, for all peoples. The Lord God who gathers the outcast of Israel declares I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.

Who is this talking about?

It’s so good. Do

You remember when Jesus goes into the temple and he’s got a whip and he’s whipping people and flipping tables and he says, my house will be a house of prayer. This is what he was referencing, he was referencing. He’s like, this should be open to the foreigners. This should be open to all that people can come

In and eat. But not in that manner, not in that

In the way they were doing it. Defrauding

The Lord specific here. He says, do not profane it. And I love that you brought that up about Jesus because those around him who were familiar with the word would’ve recognized that this is what he was referring to

And it should have made them ashamed. And this was one of the things that his heart was, he’s like, you’ve missed the whole purpose of this temple. And I love that this whole scripture, Isaiah is talking about the foreigner. The foreigner was not a Jew that is like there’s Jews and then everyone else. That’s how they thought. And that’s how God taught them to think. He showed them. He’s like, you’re set apart, you’re holy. That’s what that means, set apart. But God’s saying he’s like to the ones who are not of my people, if they do what pleases me, if they keep the Sabbath, if they come in and they are a part of us, then they will have a name better than those of sons and daughters. This is about adoption and the name that we get is Jesus’. We get to be named under the highest of the king of kings.

The Lord of Lords is who we get to be named with. And that’s what we’re getting pointed to. Zacharia two 10 through 11, seeing and rejoice o daughter of Zion. For behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst to declares the Lord and many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day and shall be my people and I will dwell in your midst and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. Again. These are all Old Testament scriptures pointing to God’s intention to incorporate all men. Doesn’t matter what nationality, doesn’t matter what location of the planet, doesn’t matter what family you were born into, God’s plan was to incorporate them all

So good. In Ephesians two 12 through 13, it says, remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

So Paul, in Ephesians to the Ephesians, he’s saying all of the stuff that you know of the Old Testament, everything that you know about God and his people, he’s like, you were alienated. You were not of the chosen people, but through Christ Jesus,

You’re chosen.

You’re drawn near, yeah, you’re brought in, you’re chosen. Okay, so that was just talking about how the Old Testament

Adoption,

Talking about adoption, that his plan from the beginning is that we be brought in and made part of the family. So this next prophecy from the Old Testament that perfectly correlates to what God’s going to do for the church. Because remember we’re trying to show God’s talked about this from the beginning, is that he will pour out his spirit on us. And we know this, we’ve experienced it as believers, his spirit lives in us, but he prophesied about this beforehand. So in Joel 2 28 through 32, it says, and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions even on the male and the female servants. In those days, I will pour out my spirit. I love that it points out, it’s like even on the servants, maybe they’re not even of the people, but they’re foreigners. He’s going to even pour the spirit on them.

Well, what I love about New Testament terminology is that we’re servants of Christ. And so when I see that word servants, I was just thinking about people who are worshiping him, not necessarily, yeah, we are just interesting play on words.

And then he says, I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth wonders. By the way, we just had

Northern lights like literally everywhere,

Which is crazy. We were talking about how not normal that

Is. We didn’t actually see them. We missed it by a day. We

Could can kind of see purple in the sky, but wasn’t

The next day it was lighter

Northern lighty.

No, but seriously, across the whole United States, people were posting pictures on social media.

Well see when crazy,

Where am I at? Okay. And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. We haven’t seen that yet. Good. The sun shall be turned to darkness in the moon to blood before the great awesome day of the Lord comes and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. I love that. And the Bible does this over and over and over again. It says, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That word everyone means world

All.

So anyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus, anyone who calls out to him and says, save me like the man on the cross, remember me. When you go into your kingdom, Jesus says, surely today you’ll be with me in paradise. This is the heart of God for the world is that the gospel is for all. And so this is what we’re trying to get at with this episode is we’re showing that we’re not an afterthought. This has been the plan from the very beginning.

So the New Testament goes on to explain what the church is, and so we just have some scripture that we wanted to share with you guys to remind us of our role in the story.

What are we?

So starting in Ephesians two 20 through 22, it says, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. So there’s the little connection to the Old Testament prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in Him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit.

So is the church a building that we go to? No, we are the church. We are, we are the building of God. We are the temple of God. The Bible calls us literally individually we’re the temple of God, but as a church as a whole, we are the temple of God. We are the place where God dwells on earth and he goes with us wherever we go. And I love that. So this idea of cornerstone, I just want to make a point of this. We understand what a keystone is, where you take, there’s the bricks are going up and anarch a middle one and it holds it from falling. But the cornerstone, like when they’re building the temple would be the most perfectly square stone. It was perfect. They would

Use it to line up,

They would put it in the corner and everything would be lined off of that stone. So all the walls would

Be was a determined square. Yeah, standard.

So what I love about that is you have the cornerstone and you have a piece going this way and then a piece going this way off of it. And he talks about the foundation of the apostles and prophets. You had the prophets coming in this way and then the apostles going off this way and they’re all lined up with Christ.

Oh, I love that beautiful picture.

Romans 12, five. So we though many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. What I love about this is this emphasizes first and foremost that we’re the body of Christ as a whole. Secondly, it emphasizes that we’re individuals within that body, meaning we’re unique. You’re not me and I’m not you. But then it ends with we’re individually members, one of another that we’re intimately connected and cannot be separated. So you have the unity, you have the individual parts, and then you have the connection between all those parts. And I think that’s really beautiful because when you try and separate any of those, which sometimes Christians do, they separate themselves. They think that they can love God and dwell with God apart from the church, apart from the body of Christ and be separate and say, oh, I just need God and his word and I don’t need anyone else. They’re mistaken. They’d be like chopping my hand off and my hand trying to survive over there without my body. It doesn’t work. No, go.

The next one is again from Ephesians four 16. It says, from whom the whole body join and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

These scriptures are so cool and we like to proclaim them and be like, oh yeah, but we forget what they mean.

Yeah. Talk about how this relates to the role of the church like today.

Yeah. So the role of a church, we forget it is not just to outward focus and outward ministry on the world, to spread the gospel, to be a light to the nations. That’s exactly what the church is for. It’s the dwelling place of God. It’s like wherever the church goes, God goes. And we want people to see God and we want people to have access to God. Yeah.

It’s also not just about us. If you believe in God and Jesus and you’re checking off all these boxes because you’re going to church and maybe even praying, that’s great, but how are you in relationship to the body as a whole? Because this verse talks about being equipped to work properly, to make the whole body grow up in love. And so individually members of one another. It’s not just

That each part of us have a vital part in the church that we’re, we have a ministry to play not just to outsiders but to each other because it says makes the body grow. And the way the body grows is in two ways by numbers and maturity. So depth and breadth. And so not just growing by numbers, but growing by maturity that we’re growing in our relationship with God, that we’re growing in our knowledge. And so when the parts are working properly, we’re growing each other, sharpening each other, encouraging each other, reminding each of the truth.

There’s some verses in the Old Testament, I believe they’re in Exodus about the tabernacle and when it’s being explained, how all the design and the architecture and the giftings of the people that God draws near for the purpose of creating the tabernacle. And I mean these are skilled workmen going to fulfill this purpose of creating the tabernacle. And when we’re talking about Old Testament, new Testament, nothing’s changed. God calls us. We offer to him through our relationship to the body, our gifts. What do we have to offer? What are we giving to make the body of Christ look beautiful and

Holy? It was skill and possessions and it was a free will offering by the way the people of Israel came and gave of their time, talents, and resources and for the sake of the temple of God or the tabernacle I should say. But they did the same thing with the temple. So what’s the purpose of the church? We got a few more scriptures here and then we’re going to be coming to close I believe. I think

So. Yeah.

So first Corinthians 14, 26, purpose of the church. What then brothers, when you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.

So that just confirms what we were just talking about. Yeah.

We’re using what God’s given us, that we sing together, we teach each other. We give revelation that God’s showing us in his word and in life.

And as we do these things, he is glorified, his name is magnified, and

We’re being built up and encouraged. How about you read

Two five, first Peter two, five, 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.

So we’re a spiritual house. We’re living stones. So like you’re a stone, I’m a stone and there’s the cornerstone. There’s Jesus, and we’re all being built off of Jesus. And for the purpose of giving spiritual sacrifices, we no longer, and we’re going to talk about sacrifices in the next few episodes, but there is no longer a need to give life sacrifices. Jesus was the sacrifice for us. Now what we get to offer is spiritual sacrifices, acts of service that we are laying down our own lives, being living sacrifices to the Lord on a daily basis, one Peter two, nine through 10. 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 once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. That’s Peter’s reference to that Old Testament scripture in Hosea.

And he’s not just talking to Jews, he’s talking to and those who believe in

Jesus, Jews and Gentiles, and the purpose of being a chosen race in a royal priesthood, in a holy nation is to be God’s possession and to proclaim his excellencies. That’s what we do. That’s what God wants, is that we would be his and proclaim him. I think sometimes we forget that, that we’re his. We think we have to earn our place with God. I think about my kids. I hope my kids never feel like they have to earn their place as a child of mine. That’s not how it works. They are mine. We are gods because we believe in His son Jesus. That’s what makes us adopted into his family is by faith, believing in Jesus Christ.

So good. So good you guys. Okay, so of course we couldn’t fit everything about the prophecy regarding the temple and the church in this episode, and so I feel like there’s

So much stuff we could have even went deeper into.

I know, but as we’ve encouraged you before, get together with your spouse and do a little digging and try and see if you can find any more scriptures that talk about the church in the Old Testament or even the temple in the New Testament. We do want to share with you that there will be a coming episode where we dive into more about prophecies for the future regarding the third temple. Yeah.

Because there’s been two temples, the church, and there’s going to be a third one. Yeah. What’s amazing is we’re probably the generation that’s going to see it.

Crazy. Crazy to think about. But what’s really cool is this episode will lay the foundation for what we talk about in that episode, and I don’t think it’s the next episode. It’ll be the one following it. So got to stay tuned and yeah, we just hope that today’s episode really drew the picture for you of the importance that the role of the temple and the role of the church has been a part of the plan from the beginning. And it’s God’s story. It’s his masterpiece. It’s what he’s doing in the world for

All, and we were a part of it from the beginning. Yeah. Praise God for that. Why don’t you pray for us? Okay.

Dear Lord, we just thank you so much for just your holy word and the way that you have preserved it over time and through generations, and we just thank you that we get to look back and see your hand at work in so many different ways. We thank you for the gift of adoption. We thank you that you have made us a people for yourself, and we just pray, Lord, that every day we gain new insight and wisdom into understanding your word and to understanding our purpose in being a part of your church. We pray that we would come to you and offer our giftings, our talents, participating in the body so that the growth of the body flourishes and love, and we pray specifically a blessing over marriages. We just pray that together, husbands and wives would love each other, cherish one another and honor you in the way that they interact on a daily basis. We give you all the glory and praise, and we thank you in Jesus’ name.

Amen. Amen. Thank you for spending time with us today, and we pray that you’re blessed by these episodes and we look forward to having you on our next one.