The Temple of God's Spirit

Well, here we are on the first day of Unleavened Bread. And it's a busy week with Passover service, not to be much observed this Holy Day. Sabbath services in two more days, and then another Sabbath service to conclude the Holy Days, which will all go very quickly as it normally does. A lot of preparation thought goes into our preparation for this period of time. We've anticipated a great deal. We come having prepared ourselves spiritually, most importantly, for the Passover service and this occasion. And then it's a time to kind of reflect, to set, be instructed, to walk through the Scriptures, and to prepare ourselves as we observe these Holy Days, and once again go through, in a period of time this year, in 2009, of the plan of salvation that God is bringing to pass.

These Holy Days here kick it off as we picture the time of Christ's sacrifice on the Passover and then this Days of Unleavened Bread together with us. As I mentioned last week in the Sabbath, it's easy to kind of blend the period together, but the Passover is a distinct time, and these Days of Unleavened Bread are also distinctive. I thought it would be good to go to a few Scriptures that bring the two together to help us to understand how separate the two occasions are, and especially to focus our minds on the Days of Unleavened Bread and what they mean to us and what we should take away as we go into this period of time.

If you will, please turn over to John 2. I want to begin in a different spot, normally, than perhaps the traditional spot we might think about. In John 2, we have one of the favorite scenes that I have in the Scriptures. It is that of Jesus cleansing the temple. You remember, on at least two occasions, we have records of Christ going into the temple and overturning tables. Every time I read those, going over them over the years, I heard them taught.

I'm always going to kind of thrill out of it because the temple, the priesthood, the Jewish authority that was centered there represented the bureaucracy and the man of the time. And here's Jesus going in and turning it over and essentially showing them that they had it all wrong. Now look in John 2, verse 13. When did he do it on this occasion? At the Passover time.

The Passover, it says, of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And he found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves and the money changers doing business. When he had made a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changer's money and overturned the tables.

It was a lending house. It was a Merrill Lynch. It was a Bear Stearns. It was a Bank of America. And they needed to all be overturned. They had taken the temple and the structure and the whole system and they had turned it into a trading place.

And people were buying and selling and it was a for-profit occasion for those that had bought the franchise or had bought their particular concession. Meaning a spot and a place in the temple where they set up their stall and they sold their items for people to buy as they went into the temple. And they marked it up and they made their commissions and they did all of these things. And it was just a capitalistic approach. Not that capitalism is a great evil. That's not my point. But they were taking something and a place that was holy and they turned it into a money-making scheme, obliterating the entire purpose for it.

And so it was a time and so often happens in God's plan to overturn the tables. Sometimes God just does that. He kind of tips things up in his church, in among his people, and he overturns the tables. The key is to know when God's doing it and not to do it humanly speaking. But that's what this occasion was. And he said to those who sold doves, Take these things away and do not make my father's house a house of merchandise. Then his disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for your house has eaten me up.

So the Jews answered and said to him, What sign do you show us since you do these things? Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews said, It has taken forty-six years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days?

But he was speaking of the temple of his body. He had no reference whatsoever to that temple that was, in history we call the second temple or Herod's temple. It took a forty-six year period to take that temple that had been there from the time of Ezra and Nehemiah and then build it into what was really a very elaborate, very attractive edifice.

But forty-six years in the process, but that's not what he had in mind. He was speaking of the temple of his body. Therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them and they believed the scriptures and the word which Jesus had said. They didn't understand it at the time. They put it all together afterwards.

So, here at the Passover time, we have a picture of Jesus overturning the tables in the temple. An earthly symbol where God dwelt, where God's presence was to be. Remember in that temple there was a holy place. There were altars. There were all the rituals, the utensils and everything, the sacrifices.

All of the rituals that taught about God and how humans could approach God. There was also the holy of holies, where God dwelt among them. And in that holy of holies, there was the Ark of the Covenant. The holy of holies of this temple that Jesus visited was a little bit different from the holy of holies of the first temple. The temple that was built during the time of Solomon. And we'll see what the difference is in a few minutes.

But I want you to understand that even though this was a temple, there were the sacrifices, Jesus Christ was there. You can see that he wasn't necessarily taking part in the service in the traditional way. He didn't go in there to offer a dove, or a bowl of grain as an offering, or a lamb, or a bull.

He went in and he overturned the tables.

He changed things out. And he told them how wrong their ways were.

You remember the phrase that I gave in my sermon on the Sabbath from the book of Haggai?

Consider your ways.

He was essentially saying right there, God in the flesh to the Jews, consider your ways.

And interestingly, it was at the time of the Passover when we are to consider our ways.

And the temple that he had in mind there was something completely different than the temple that actually stood, or what the Jews understood in their own way.

The story that Jesus was pointing to, and what he was bringing out, didn't begin there.

It began long before.

And there's one particular point, I think, that at least we can join the story. And that's back in Exodus 13.

When God brought Israel out of Egypt, he passed through in the evening of the Passover service, Chapter 12 gives us the entire story, the plague on the firstborn.

He passed through the Egyptians, and he passed over the Israelites because they were under the blood of that particular lamb.

And in Chapter 13 of Exodus, beginning in Verse 3, we find what followed from the Passover.

Moses said to the people, Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out of this place.

No leavened bread shall be eaten.

On this day you are going out in the month Abib.

And so, they were to keep a period of unleavened bread, as we will see, no leavened product to be eaten.

It shall be when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites and the Amorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep the service in this month.

Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord.

Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, and no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters.

Now, let me just stop right there.

This is what we should have done by sundown last night. Gone through our homes, brought out the leaven, and tossed it out. Okay? Now, to whatever degree you and I have done that, we have done it.

I hope that there has been more time gone into spiritual de-leavening than there has been physical de-leavening.

That's up to you, and that's up to me. A lot of us combine this time of year, this experience, with a kind of a general thorough cleaning, house spring cleaning, as we say. And that's fine.

But over the years, I've come to realize that if we spend more time obsessing with the physical aspect of it, to the detriment of the spiritual, we're missing the point. It doesn't take anything away from what the Scripture tells us to take the leaven and put it out, and to keep it, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians, to keep it with the new leaven and put out the old leaven.

But by sundown last night, to whatever degree we did that, we got it out. All right? Some of us have situations.

You may have a mate that's not in the church, and they want their bread during the days of unleavened bread. I grew up in a home like that. My dad didn't keep the days of unleavened bread, but I did, even though the house wasn't probably completely de-leavened by my mother, because my dad was a working man, and he wanted his bread and things like that. And so I grew up in a home like that. And I recognize that you do what you can in the circumstances. It's the most important thing that you focus on your own responsibility. You're not responsible for anyone else in the house that chooses not to keep it. That's the way it is. But we put it out. And then when we eat bread, a bread product, during this period of time, it should be unleavened. That's the teaching. It says, seven days you will eat unleavened bread, and it's not an issue to get hung up on one way or the other. If you decide to fast during the day, or during the days of unleavened bread, or if you just don't eat a matzo, cracker, you know, trisket, or whatever during that period of time, again, it's not that's not the point. But when you do eat bread, it is to be unleavened during this period of time. And focus upon the spiritual teaching that is there. This is really what we should do. Because you move into verse 8 here. It says, you shall tell your son in that day. And this is in the context, or really talking about explaining yourself to a child, to anyone. This is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came out from Egypt, or I came up from Egypt. We should be able to explain to anyone why we do this, why we go through this physical ritual.

I, one time in my earlier years in the ministry, had a sermon that I gave. I probably would, I know I've given it up here for the benefit of the church. And the emphasis was probably a bit too much on the physical aspect of it. I remember giving that very first time that I ever gave it in the ministry. And there was an individual in the church who commented he had just been a new person. And actually, he didn't really stay around with us very long after that. But he took it as a kind of a hazing ritual, and a kind of like a fraternity sorority type thing, this idea of de-leavening. And you know, if you take it to such extremes that you miss the spiritual dimension. And over the years, I've thought about that and recognized that as this individual looked at it, he didn't see the spiritual side of it. And perhaps I overemphasized the physical aspect of it.

And I've learned from that over the years. When you look here at verse 8, the emphasis on being able to explain why we do what we do. And we should be able to explain, and should emphasize, the spiritual lessons that we learn more than the label reading, more than worrying or obsessing about whether or not we got it all out, or if there's something there. Because I will guarantee you, no matter how hard you work, there's still a crumb some place in your home. Okay? And if there's not a crumb, there's a spiritual crumb. And it's probably you and me, okay? So let's understand that. Put it out, get it out, do what you do the best you can, but focus on the spiritual. And during the time, don't go looking for that hot pastrami sandwich at the deli, intentionally at least, and be able to explain and understand from a spiritual perspective. He goes on and says, it shall be assigned to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes that the Lord's law may be in your mouth.

For with a strong hand, the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. God's lost is to be in our inner being, in our inner man. You will keep this ordinance in its season from year to year. So the Israelites went out that first Passover, that first experience of Unleavened Bread, and they did this in haste. We know the story, and they had to leave quickly as they went out of Egypt. Now, God was doing something with the people here that was unique. He was working with the descendants of Abraham and forming them into a nation. He was fulfilling his word, his promise to Abraham, 430 years to the self, same day the Scripture tells us. And they came out, and they had many experiences to go through and would go through. One of the first things that they did when you go through Exodus is, certainly they went to Mount Sinai, they received the Ten Commandments, and then immediately, as we know, they built a golden calf. We've all seen the movie, we know that. They built a golden calf, and then they had to kind of start all over again. But you know, when you go through the rest of Exodus, you find that a number of chapters deal with the building of that original tabernacle, beginning in chapter 30, really. Instructions go from chapter 30 to chapter 31, and then later on, it picks up again in chapter 37, the latter part of chapter 36, chapter 38. Elaborate preparations for this material that went into the tabernacle, the altars, the instruments, the silver, the gold, and everything. Chapter 39 talks about the garments of the priesthood. And you come down to chapter 40, and they, after a period of several weeks, the work was all done.

They had sewn the robes and the garments for the priests. They had made all of the instruments for the rituals of the sacrifice, the altars, and the very elaborate workings of that work would make up this temporary tabernacle that was to be very mobile, that they could put up, then take down, fold up, pack away, and haul with them as they were on their way to the promised land that we know took a number of years. In chapter 40, it comes down to where they finally erected this tabernacle. On the first day in verse 2 of the first month, you will set up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting. You shall put in at the Ark of the Testimony, that's the Ark of the Covenant, and partition off the Ark with the veil. And then it goes through the chapter to explain the various elements that would all be brought together to get the tabernacle set up with a functioning priesthood. Moses and Aaron and his sons, verse 31, it says, then they'll wash with their hands and their feet with water from it, from the water of this particular labor that was set up. And that was to make themselves ritually purified to be able to make the offerings. Whenever they go, verse 32, whenever they went into the tabernacle of meeting and when they came near the altar, they washed as the Lord had commanded Moses. We go through a foot washing ceremony with the Passover service, as the example shows from Jesus. And it is an exercise in humility. But it's also a holdover in the ritualistic part of what the priest would do is they washed before they had to go in to make a sacrifice. In a sense, we wash each other's feet before we take the symbols of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the night of the Passover. And it says, he raised up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar hung the screen of the court gate so Moses finished the work. And then in verse 34 is what's interesting. Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of the meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. This was the unique moment. This was a physical tabernacle of goat skins and hides and fabric and woven in gold and everything else. It was very, very nice. It wasn't your little Coleman pop-up tent in the wilderness here. It was a very, very nice affair. But the important matter, even more so than this Ark of the Covenant, the most important part of this tabernacle that was set up was what happened at that moment in verse 34 and verse 35, where the glory of God filled the tabernacle, where a cloud covered it. And Moses could not go in because the cloud rested, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day, and fire was over it by night, in the sight of all the Lord of the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. This was God in that cloud filling that tabernacle in a very unique moment in time. And that was to show them God's presence was indeed among them. We read about that here in Exodus as having been a part of the tabernacle. Now, God's intent through such an elaborate structure was to dwell among His people.

And the sacrifices, the priests, and everything that was connected with this tabernacle, all was designed, when you really understand it, it comes down to this, was to design to show man how to approach God. You can make a whole study of the temple and tabernacle and all of that rituals, and it's a fascinating study, should you ever desire to do it on your own. It would take several weeks of Bible studies or special presentations to kind of go through it all. I did once years ago in a study, but I haven't done it for quite a while. But every detail that we find from Scripture regarding that, with the priests, with the sacrifices, the building itself was designed to help man become before God. That's all. Through repentance, humility, through sacrifice, they came before God because that's where God dwelt among His people.

And it tells a wonderful story of salvation, ultimately. But as we look at what happened here, God was there. Now, you know the story. They eventually came into the land. They went through a series of experiences. They eventually set up a monarchy. Saul became the first king. He disqualified himself. And then David became the king. David wanted to build a house, a permanent tabernacle or temple for God. God said, no, you're not going to do it, David. You've been not quite the ruler that you should. You've been a bloody man. I'm going to let your son do it.

David died. His son Solomon came on. Solomon built the temple that we call the first temple.

It was a beautiful temple from all accounts that we have within the Scripture. You'll turn over 2 Chronicles, chapter 5. We'll go right down, zoom in on the moment when they consecrated that tabernacle in 2 Chronicles, chapter 5. After they had built it, gone through the structure, they then were to bring the ark into the temple, the Ark of the Covenant. Verse 2 tells us that Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes of the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel in Jerusalem that they might bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord up from the city of David, which is Zion. Therefore, all the men of Israel assembled with the king at the feast, which was in the seventh month. All the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the Ark, and they brought up the Ark of the tabernacle of beating and all the holy furnishings that were in the tabernacle. The priests and the Levites brought them up. And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled before the Ark were sacrificing sheep and oxen. The priests brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord into its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple to the most holy place under the wings of the carob. The carob beams spread their wings over the place of the Ark. The carob beams overshadowed the Ark and its poles. The poles extended. It goes on to talk about that, and the tablets were in it, what was in it. And then it comes down with the singing of verse 13 of the trumpeters, and the singers were all as one to make one sound to be heard in the praising and thanking the Lord. They lifted their voice with the trumpets, and they praised God. It says, For he is good, and his mercy endures forever. And the house of the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God. And then in chapter 6 and verse 1, Solomon spoke, The Lord said he would dwell in the dark cloud. I have surely built you an exalted house and a place for you to dwell in forever. And so on this second occasion, at the dedication of this house, this temple, a permanent temple structure, God's glory filled the house.

Now that is unique to understand. We read about it back in Exodus, where that happened, and we now see that in this temple, built with God's permission within the nation under the monarchy, under Solomon, and with the attendant priesthood, and according to the pattern, God's glory filled the house, which was a symbol and a sign, as clear as any sign, could be for a people, that God was pleased, that God was there. And that's what's important for us to at least focus and to understand, because it truly was where God was working and what He was doing, and it was where God was in that glory, the glory of the Lord. Now, again, keep in mind the temple that we found Christ going to, a different place. We overturned the tables.

We said, you've made my father's house a house of merchandise. A lot different from this, seen here. Again, you look at the flow of the story of Israel. We know that the nation's story was one of ups and downs, and eventually, after a division of the monarchy and the nation of Israel and to a northern and southern kingdom, Israel to the north, Judah to the south, ultimately, after many, many times of problems, and the Assyrians, the Babylonians came, and the city of Jerusalem was destroyed, and the temple was destroyed and burned, this first temple.

We come down to the point where I had you last Sabbath in the sermon that we talked about in the book of Haggai and the story of Ezra during the time of Ezra, where after the destruction of the temple, 70 years later, the Jews were allowed to return under the decree of Cyrus, the king of Persia, to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. We went through that story, how they began to rebuild. Now, what they rebuilt was not as elaborate as this temple that we find here at the time of Solomon. In fact, as we remember reading in the book of Ezra, those who remembered this particular temple and its glory wept when they saw the structure that went up during the time of Joshua and Zerubbabel, because it was nowhere near as elaborate and beautiful. In fact, it was probably not much more than just a stone building. Think of a cinder block building by our standards today. They didn't have cinder block back then. They actually cut stones out, but it would have just been a very kind of plain stone building without the gold and the silver. They didn't have all of that, and it was not painted and it wasn't as elaborate. Think of, if you will, maybe on our own model today, I was just cut Indiana limestone blocks that would be stacked one on another to create a stone building that was functional as a temple, but it wasn't beautiful. It wasn't quite this place. And there was something else missing with the temple that they rebuilt during the time of Joshua and Zerubbabel. What do you think that might have been? What would have been missing?

The very thing that we read about right here in verse 14 of 2 Chronicles 5, the glory of God.

You don't find in the story in Ezra or Haggai the glory of God filling that temple in the same way. In fact, if you'll turn over to Haggai chapter 2, you find an interesting statement.

The prophet Haggai. Let's turn again there. In Haggai chapter 2 verse 3, the question is asked, Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing? It is just a functional building.

Yet God said, Be strong, Zerubbabel. Be strong, Joshua. Be strong, all you people of the land.

And work. For I am with you, says the Lord of hosts. I am with you. God was with them. He said, According to the word when I covenant with you, when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remains among you. Do not fear. Do not fear. God was still with them, but he didn't fill this temple with his glory in the same manner that we saw with either the tabernacle in the wilderness or the temple during Solomon. He says, Once more, I will shake the heaven and earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all the nations, and they shall come to the desire of all nations. And I will fill this temple with glory, says the Lord of hosts.

He said, I will fill it with glory. Now, remember that we saw on two occasions that the glory of God filled the tabernacle, filled the temple as a tangible demonstrable proof in the sight of the hundreds or thousands of people gathered that God was with them and that his presence was there among his people. Here we find it stated just a little different. He said, I will fill this temple with the glory, says the Lord of hosts. But he didn't fill that temple during the time of Zerubbabel and Joshua in the same way. He says, The silver is mine, the gold is mine, the glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts.

And in this place I will give peace, says the Lord of hosts. So, God here foretells of a time of greater glory far beyond what any in that day could imagine, and yet there was not a filling of that temple with the cloud and the image that they had had before. And yet he still says to the people, I'm with you, don't fear. And he had already said in chapter 1, consider your ways. An age-long instruction to God's people to examine yourselves, to make sure that we glorify God with our lives. We see God actually pointing ahead to something. Now, sometimes the commentators will say that here in chapter 2 and verse 7 that the, certainly the desire of all nations is a reference to the Messiah, to Christ. And I will fill this temple with glory.

Some commentators say that this was talking about when Jesus came and walked in the temple when he was God in the flesh on the earth, just as we read back in John chapter 2.

But I want you to think about this for a moment. Did Christ or did God fill that second temple or the New Testament period? Did He fill that temple with glory in any way like we read here in the other temples? And when Jesus, yes, He didn't walk within it, so God was there.

What did He do? What did He do? Excuse me? He kicked Him out. He turned over the tables. I guess I could walk up here and turn over a table. But I won't do it. Maybe this is why I'm trying to have the table here. He turned over. I don't see that as really the glory of God filling the temple in the full sense of what Haggai here says, even though Christ didn't walk there. So again, you have to sometimes look at how commentators will interpret the verses. And is that really the fulfillment of this particular time and of this period? In fact, when you come to the time of the New Testament, what do we read? What tells us about what we really understand and learn about the temple? The temple of Jesus' day was a temple that had been rebuilt. It was essentially built around what was built by Joshua and Zorubabel, and it was quite beautiful. But again, not even anywhere near what it was in the time of Sollum, but it was better than what Joshua and Zorubabel built. But it had been expanded. It was quite an elaborate structure in the complex there in the temple area that Herod the Great built. But there were a lot of internal corruption problems, and certainly we know that because those were the Jews that engineered the death of Jesus Christ. They did not recognize God in the flesh when He came.

So the temple by then had lost some of its really deep spiritual luster. In fact, Jesus said, destroy this temple and I'll raise it up in three days. It says in John 2 that He was talking about the temple of His body. But there are other scriptures in the New Testament that talk about the temple and are instructive for us as well. Because even in what Jesus was statement there in John 2, we see that the temple was taking on a whole different significance than anything from the past. The temple of His body? What did that mean? And we know, again, that that temple, Christ's body, was raised up again in three days and three nights.

This week it literally falls according to the week that Christ's death happened. We kept a passover on Tuesday night and we have that example in the same way. Three days and three nights later will take us to that time when Jesus was resurrected. So that scripture was fulfilled.

And then the apostle Paul takes us through a little journey that shows us that the temple has a greater application to even you and I. You turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 16. Paul startles his audience with this statement, or actually a question, 1 Corinthians 3 verse 16.

He says, Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy.

Which temple you are? He writes to Christians. He writes to a group of people like you and I, and he tells them, Don't you know? Don't you understand that you are the temple of God, and you are that because God's Spirit dwells in you? That is the glory of God.

That filled the temple, that filled the tabernacle, by receiving and having the Spirit of God dwelling in us, we become a part of the spiritual body, the spiritual temple, that God is putting together. In chapter 6, 1 Corinthians, and verse 19, he repeats this in the context of this practical discussion about morality. And he says in verse 19, Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?

Who is in you whom you have from God and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. And so we are part of this spiritual complex called the temple today by the fact that we have God's Holy Spirit within us.

And if we turn over to Ephesians chapter 3, we even bring it down closer to home.

In Ephesians 3 and beginning of verse 14, Paul writes, For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might through His Spirit and the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Verse 17 is the key verse, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. If Christ dwells in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, as we've read in these scriptures, then we understand that that is how and why we are part of our bodies are a temple. We are part of a larger spiritual temple that is the body of Christ. Other places, Ephesians 1, for instance, goes through and shows that the church, what the church really is, as the spiritual organism is knit together. It is a part of a spiritual body, and God dwells in us. The glory of God should fill us in that sense. We don't see a cloud hanging over our heads. We don't see ourselves enveloped in a cloud of incense or glory as we walk around. But the reality of these verses tell us what we have just been a part of, what we're walking through with a Passover, these days of our loving bread, that through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that was given once and for all. We have access to the Father, and by repentance and by faith, God's Spirit is given to those who yield in that way, and it dwells in our heart, as it says here, by faith.

Christ lives his life in us. In a very real sense.

And that's why we don't have a temple today. That's why we don't have a tabernacle or need a functioning priesthood in the way of the Old Testament and the sacrifices, because we have a high priest. And his one sacrifice, once and for all, has enabled us to even stand before God.

But the reality is, it comes down to this, the Holy Apollis, if you want to look at it right now, is your heart, your life, where God's Spirit dwells.

You know, sometimes we...

I've been to Jerusalem a number of times, and I've walked around that rock that today has that gold dome over it.

I was a kid when I went in that building, and the only time that I did and saw that rock, and I didn't know what I know now, but our archaeologists, some of them think that if you're Muslim, that's the only way you can get in that dome with a rock today. But you could see the actual indentations in the rock where the Ark of the Covenant sat in the spot called the Holy Apollis. So I guess I can say I've looked upon the Holy Apollis, because when I was 21, spent a summer in Jerusalem, at that time, the Muslims didn't care who went into the dome of the rock. You could walk in there. And I was awed by it at that time. I would love to go back in it again today, but they won't let heathen like me go in.

Because with what I've studied, what other archaeologists have surmised, you can actually look at a part of that rock, and you can, as one expert says, as he feels, and I'd be willing to bet $20 if I were betting, man, that he's right.

That that part of that rock that is under that gold dome in Jerusalem was the spot where the Ark of the Covenant sat, which means that it was where the Holy Apollis was in the time of the temple at Sallam, time of Sallam. So you could literally look upon the former spot today.

And I guess I can say that I have.

Only it's not holy anymore.

Theoretically, had I been in there at a time in the past when it was, I would have been zapped.

My face would have been melted just like jello, which is what happened in the Indiana Jones movie when the guy looked on the Ark of the Covenant. You remember the movie?

It was just a mannequin filled with jello, and they put a heat lamp in there and turned it on, and that's why he melted. That's Hollywood. But I guess, theoretically, at one point, we would have been zapped. But you could go in there today, and you wouldn't be because it's no longer holy.

The Holy Apollis, if you will, is where Christ dwells in Ephesians 3.17 here tells us that He dwells in our hearts, in yours and in mine.

And if you really believed that, if you really, truly believed that, all of us, any of us, that by the fact that we repented, we were baptized, we had someone who was a minister of God lay hands upon us and asked the God of heaven to give us His Holy Spirit, and God did give His Holy Spirit, joined it with our human spirit in our being, if you will, however that happens, wherever and whatever.

But according to Scripture, Christ dwells in our hearts through faith.

If we believed that, we could do anything.

If we really believed that, it would make all the difference in our meager, silly, petty, daily lives.

I'm talking about mine. You can use your own words to describe yours.

Because I get pretty meager. I get pretty petty at times. And I fritter away time and emotions on things that I can't do anything about, or get upset with situations over people, and harbor envy, and get angry, and get a little bit jealous, and think things that I shouldn't think, and say things that I shouldn't say, and don't quite apply myself the way that I do.

Because I will lose sight of this.

But at times when I can get a glimpse of it, I think I can make a little bit of progress.

I just think I can do some good things. How about you?

This would make all the difference to every one of us every day as we crawl out of bed at four o'clock, five thirty, six, or whenever we get out of bed, and hit that floor, and grumble, and think, why am I not in Florida?

Why do I have to do this? Punch that clock, go to that office, do that, go here, go there, every day?

And we think about our lives, and I have to get up just like you do. I don't commute to an office, but I do have to get into an office. I have to get into, behind a desk, I have to do things. I always have a big to-do list every day. I just don't have as far commute as you guys, some of you do.

But I have to make some purpose, some meaning out of what's in front of me on my desk every day, just as you do wherever you go, or with whatever it is that you do when you get up. If we really believed this, it would make all the difference, and we would be able to do anything.

This is the heart and core of the Gospel, and this is really what Christ was pointing to.

If you will, the desire of all nations has come to us at this time, and He's working in us.

And hopefully we have a measure of peace, and we are agents of that peace. But we come to the days of unleavened bread, and we are told that we are to put out the leaven, keep the feast, examine ourselves, consider our ways, renew our commitment, eat unleavened bread during this period to show a picture to us that we still aren't human. We still have, we still sin, we still need to admit it, and to be forgiven.

I mean, by the fact that you and I took the bread and wine on Tuesday night, that was a demonstration in faith that we understand we need God's grace.

We are sinners, and we need His help.

But then we come to the days of unleavened bread, and we are instructed to put off all of these things because the name of the game through these days is change. Now, for seven days, we are going to really truly picture the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We picture His death the other night. Now it is time to picture His resurrection and to picture His life within us and to examine ourselves to see just how much He is within us. And when it's all said and done, the change that we are to focus on has to come down to what you and I decide to do.

Forget about changing anybody else this week. You're not going to change anybody.

I will guarantee you, you're not going to change me. And I will guarantee you, I'm not going to change you. I'm not going to change my wife, and she's not going to change me. She'll vouch for that after 36 years of experience. I hope I've changed a bit. We've worked with each other and worked on each other, but there are some things that we haven't yet fully expunged from our character. The reality is, I'm the only one that can change myself. And some of the issues that I face and matters that are before me can be pretty deep, just as whatever it is that you might see and consider about yourself. There's a statement in Stephen Covey's book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, where he quotes Albert Einstein. Albert Einstein said, the significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. The significant problems we face can't be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. Apply that to the difference between a spirit-led life and a non-spirit-led life, between conversion and unconversion, and we have to realize that who we are and what we are was a result of a time when we weren't converted.

But we keep these days to put things off and to put things away and to change. In Colossians chapter 1, chapter 3, verse 1, Colossians the third chapter, Paul here sums up the essence of really what we should focus on during these days.

If you want a chapter to focus on, if you haven't already picked one for yourself, Colossians 3 is a very good candidate. It ties in directly with the meaning of these days. Verse 1, he says, Think of the glory that filled the tabernacle and the temple. That was the presence of God.

Here's the list. Verse 8, you like lists? Here's your list. Put off anger. Wrath. Flying off the handle.

Malice. Malice. From the word mal, bad, evil. And we think evil. We harbor thoughts of envy or evil.

Sometimes say bad things and even do bad things. Put off blasphemy, saying that we're Christian and not acting like one. Saying we're God's people and the next-door neighbor who wouldn't know the difference. Filthy language out of your mouth. Vile words. Do not lie to one another since you've put off the old man with his deeds. Put on the new man who was renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. We're supposed to be putting on a new man, created in a different image.

Verse 12 really begins a different list of the things that we are to put on. It says, as the elect of God, therefore holy and beloved, put on tender mercies.

So we put off the other things, but we always have to put something on to replace a bad habit with a good habit, with a good order of conduct. Tender mercies put on kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. I've known some of you for 26 years, and you've known some of the others in this room for even longer than that. Some of us have been together in the Church of God for a long time, and we've had many opportunities to bear with one another and forgive one another. We've had many complaints about one another, and there will probably be time for future complaints about one another. One of the things we should learn is that, you know, in time anybody can change.

And sometimes, even if there is no change in certain situations, the change is ultimately still up to us in how we react to someone who may not be quite so lovable, that we put on a bit of tender mercy and kindness. And we understand and we work with. It doesn't mean we tolerate certain situations, we don't address them, we don't deal with them, but we work as a priesthood together to make sacrifice, spiritual sacrifice, with one another and for one another as Christ has forgiven us, so also we must do as we do. But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which also you were called in one body and be thankful. Let the peace of God rule in our hearts. Above all things and at all times, no matter how passionate we get, no matter how difficult some of the challenges may be, we all got to let God's peace rule in our hearts. Go back in our thoughts to what it was said about the desire of all nations there in Haggai that is going to come to and bring peace. God said, I will give peace in Haggai, in this place. It wasn't necessarily a physical spot on the earth and a building. The peace that God talks about is the peace that comes in our hearts, and it comes there because Christ is in our hearts. God's Spirit is working within us, and that peace of God will rule in our hearts to which we were called in one body. That body is a spiritual body, and it is connected with Jesus Christ who is, in a sense, the temple to which we all are part, joined, and ultimately spiritually will be a part of. This is a pretty good list for us to think about during this period of time and to pray about, to examine ourselves against. Again, if you haven't found another spot or discipline or ritual to put yourself through, I don't want any of my comments that I made earlier, brethren, about the leaven to be misconstrued. I do believe that putting out leaven, and I do put out the leaven. I vacuumed my car. I made sure it was all put up in one spot, and I dumped it all in the mire trash bin as I was going into mire the other day.

But then take care of that one last little bag that couldn't get out of my regular trash.

I'm not too cheap to not... I do pay for a rubbish pickup, but when it comes down to this time of year, the schedule doesn't always work out. There's always just a little bit, and usually a bag full, and so it's usually the mire gas station bin was where it all goes. So I do believe in those things, and I do do those things. I think I've just learned over the years to get it all in, hopefully, a better balance, and may not be perfect there. I also believe in a certain amount of ritual as a discipline to our lives. Otherwise, we just get into theory and fantasy about what we think we know and what we are doing. I have to have certain habits, as do many of you, and walk myself through. There are certain spiritual disciplines and spiritual matters, physical readings, and books, and ideas, and lists that I will make and work through, and think about, and go back to, and rehearse to help me in my spiritual life. I just don't sit there and think that I'm going to absorb my osmosis, and the fact that I've got God's Spirit, and all of this is just going to come upon me in perfection, just isn't going to happen. It won't happen with you. So I put myself through certain disciplines, because I feel that that's valuable and helpful, and to try to avoid all the legalistic entrapments that can come when you look more to that than you do to God's Spirit, to the Spirit of the Law, to the Word of God, and a relationship with God. It's a fine balance. That's why I think these days of Unleavened Bread and putting out of Unleavened is so important, and why God still wants his new covenant Christian to put those things out. Because it is enough of a discipline to remind us of the larger, deeper spiritual truths to which we are called, and we need those things. I think God in his wisdom knows that, and God's people with the wisdom of God and the help of God's Holy Spirit know what to keep and what to put off. We know how to do it and how to apply it in our life.

In the end, we are all going to come down to where hopefully the peace of God rules in our heart. Let me take you back to that scene where Jesus overturned the tables and bring in the thought of Jesus as the desire of all nations, coming and bringing peace in this place, and the glory of the latter house being greater than any in the former. Is it us? Is it you? Where we are right now? That is the full embodiment of those verses?

No, not really. As important and as vital as it is to our life to understand that truth, that God's Spirit is in us. In a sense, as I say, the Holy of Holies is where God's Spirit is within our heart individually. There's something even greater to which we're going to look for. It's not just us. We're still feeble models in temporary clay vessels.

Turn over to Revelation 21. I think you'll see where God reveals to us where the glory of all of those scriptures will ultimately come to pass. And it'll be far beyond the millennium.

It'll be in the time of the new heavens and the new earth, and the time of a new Jerusalem.

Revelation 21 and verse 22, where it says, I saw no temple in it. Meaning this Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven. That verses 9 through 21 talk about.

The Revelation shows us there, I saw no temple in it. Now, this is at a time when there will have been a temple. Ezekiel tells us there's going to be a temple in Jerusalem during the millennium. But that's another part of the story. When we come to this part of the time, I saw no temple there. The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated. The Lamb is its light. Christ is the light. Now, this is far bigger than you and I and anything we can explain. This is language and imagery to explain a time and a place beyond the time of our own limitations. So, take it for what it is. Understand it as best we can.

Don't try to spiritualize it away, but also don't try to apply so many of the physical limitations to it that we are all bound for, because what is described here is something far beyond anything we can imagine. The nations of those who are saved shall walk in this light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day. There shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.

But there shall be, by no means enter it, anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

And the Lamb is its light. That is the ultimate picture. That's the ultimate template.

That is the future. That's why all that we do and all that we go through is so valuable and so important today. So, brethren, as we enter into the days of an oven bread, use this time wisely.

Find your spot in the Scriptures. Find your time with God. And use this time to put off the local oven, to put on the new man, and above all, let us keep the feast.