Who Will Build a House?

You look at the history of the Bible, and for 400 years, the first dwelling place built for God was a tabernacle tent. And God, so to speak, lived there for 400 years. And then there was a temple. David dreamed up the idea, and God approved it. God liked the idea, but He didn't allow David to do it. He allowed David to gather materials. Solomon built it. And in Solomon's prayer of dedication, the Hebrew word, the divine shekanah, the visible manifestation of God's presence, filled the temple as it had hovered over the Holy of Holies with the tabernacle tent. And God lived there for about 400 years. And then that house was destroyed. Judah went into captivity, came back. There was a reconstructed temple that was nowhere close to the glory of the first one. There is no scriptural evidence that God ever, in that sense, moved in to the Reconstruction Temple. There's no reference to that, that the glory of God filled the Holy Place. But there was the Reconstruction Temple for about 500 years. And in the days leading toward the time of Christ, for about 90 years, there was Herod's Temple. And then, of course, that temple was destroyed in 70 AD. And since that time, there has been no temple. And because God brought about a brand new phase, a different type of dwelling place. But let's turn back to 2 Samuel 7. I am always struck by David's deep desire that he wanted God to have a place to live. He was moved. He was inspired. And he went to Nathan the prophet to lay out his dream. 2 Samuel 7, verse 1.

And that was something that David was moved. He wanted to build a place to bring the very Holy Place, the Ark of the Covenant, the tablets, the pot of manna, all of that. He wanted a place for that to be set aside for God to dwell on. Then Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. And it happened that night that the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, Go and tell my servant David, thus says the Lord, would you build a house for me to dwell in? For I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle. And the story goes on that here is one who has asked, why have you not built me a house of cedar? From David in verse 8, he said, I took you from the sheepfold to be ruler over my people, over Israel. The story goes on how moved God was at David's request. Notice in verse 27, For you, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, have revealed this to your servant, saying, I will build you a house. Therefore, your servant has found it in his heart to pray this prayer to you. That was a prayer of David. Again, God allowed Solomon to build that temple. It was dedicated right around 970 B.C. I pulled out my old Haley's Bible Handbook. There is a section about the temple in the glory of Solomon's reign. I wanted to just look at a few items here. This is page 218. Israel had gone for 400 years with only a tent as God's dwelling place among them, and God, as things, had been satisfied. Yet, when it seemed expedient that they have a temple, God wanted to have a say as to the kind of building it should be. He gave the plans for it to David in his own handwriting, that it would be exceedingly magnificent of fame and glory and all the earth. Well, David had wanted to build the temple but was forbidden because he was a man of war. God helped David in his wars, but it appears that God thought it best for a man of war not to be the builder of God's house. The temple was built of great stones, cedar beams, and boards overlaid with gold. The gold and silver and other material used in the temple is variously estimated to equal in our money from $2 to $5 billion. No doubt the most costly and resplendent building on earth at that time. The pomp and grandeur of the temple may have served a purpose, but its gold became the object of cupidity to other kings. Well, it gives speaks of the general plan, the size facing east. Later, it says that the temple was built by 30,000 Israelites and 150,000 Canaanites. And there are references in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles that bear out those numbers. Every part prepared at a distance from the site and put in place without sound of hammer or any tool. Just as far as I'll read there. I've been up close and personal with some construction sites, and I know a lot of you have as well. There's an excitement that goes along with building something great. It's contagious, especially when you have various crews who all work together. If you work with people where it's like you're going to need a certain tool or bit of material, and the person next to you is just handing it to you, like you're reading each other's mind. It's a beautiful thing. We look at this temple, and it's generally referred to as the first temple or Solomon's temple. But 30,000 and 150,000 people were involved in the building of this beautiful edifice.

In modern times, if we go back the last couple hundred years, there have been some tremendous building projects that have taken place. The Eiffel Tower. The only person I can name who was a part of that was old Gustav Eiffel himself. The brains behind it all. The man who was the architect, the engineer, the overseer of the building.

But there were thousands of others who were involved in it. But it's called the Eiffel Tower. We have the Hoover Dam, and it was built between 1931 and 1936, named after then-President Hoover. We have a transcontinental railroad, and that last spike was driven at Promontory Point, Utah in 1869. We have all kinds of fabulous building projects, Empire State Building, and usually you look, and like Solomon's Temple, it's one man, one person, that's given all the credit. And yet there were thousands, tens of thousands, who were involved in the actual building.

All of these great feats are attributed to one, when in reality, tens of thousands of average, ordinary, everyday people did the work to make it happen and to bring it to realization. But many hands worked together to make it happen. The tabernacle tent, we think of Moses. He's the one, for instance, in Exodus 25, was given the blueprint in those chapters. We're told of certain ones. It was Bezalil and Aholiyeb, who were given this special gift. They were craftsmen, and yet God enhanced their abilities to be able to form and fashion the very accoutrements that would go into that tabernacle tent.

But you think of the tabernacle, you think of Moses, and yet who knows how many thousands may have been involved. And the first temple, again, we think of Solomon. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 3. Because the time came, with the events of this very day, long ago, when the building on a new house began, once again, who will build a house for God? It's an honorable question. It's an honorable work to be a part of.

1 Corinthians 3, beginning in verse 9, there was Simon Corinth who bickered over who was their favorite servant. And Paul was pointing out, it's all about God. It's all about Christ. We have to build on His foundation. There's no other foundation that will last. All of us just simply add a little bit more.

And of course, now we have a process that has continued almost 2000 years. Verse 9, for we are God's fellow workers. So we together in the church, our fellow laborers on this holy temple, you are God's field. You are God's building. According to the grace of God, which was given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how He builds on it.

You see, each of us has our own part of building the overall spiritual temple of God. And we need to take great care of what type of character is being built. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Speaks of the materials, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw. Each one's work will become clear, for the day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test each one's work, what sword it was. If anyone's work which he has built on endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so through fire. 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. So yes, hundreds of years, God lived in a tent. Hundreds of years, God lived in a temple, a glorious temple. Hundreds of years, he lived in a lesser temple. But then, with the events of this day, God began building a house for himself, using us as the laborers of raising the walls and building upon. He's building a spiritual temple. Hundreds of thousands of average, everyday workers have gone before us. They've devoted their lives to building a spiritual house for God to dwell in. We get to the book of Acts.

In fact, let's go to Acts 1. In the book of Acts, we read of various individuals who were there at the very beginning. We read of many more as the book of Acts unfolds, and they all have their part in laying a foundation and building their own, the spiritual temple, the church of God. You know, there can be no more honorable calling than to help hold up somebody's hands. Remember how Moses, as long as he held up his hands, Israel was having the victory, and then Aaron and her came and helped because he just, through fatigue, couldn't hold them up?

It's not all about us. Christ is the one building this. We're just support personnel, but it's an honorable calling. Average, ordinary, everyday people. The Spirit of God was poured out upon the church in Acts 2. The sound from heaven, a mighty rushing wind, filled the house. The divided tongues of fire that sat upon each that were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other languages as the Spirit gave them utterance. The Spirit of God came and empowered them. I said a while ago what a beautiful thing it is to work with a crew of workers where you almost read each other's mind.

Maybe it's putting hay in a barn and the fellow unloading from the truck knows how to lay it to the next person in just the right way to make the job easier. The one who's framing the wall knows exactly what to do to help the man who he's working with. The one who's finishing the concrete knows what the next person needs. I'd like to go back with you to so many of these personalities in the book of Acts.

These are the ones who began laying with Christ the foundation. These are the ones who began building. I think there are lessons from each person we'll look at. There are big names like Paul and Peter, and we're going to skip over those names. Once in a while, a little window opens up, and here's a rather obscure person who has mentioned, and there's a lesson from each one. And in the process, I think we'll have a list of lessons that we can use as far as asking the question, and we'll build a house for God today.

We continue doing that, and we can learn from those who have gone ahead. The first person that I'd like to speak with you about it was a mother. Mothers are special. Every one of us had one or has one. I stood last Sabbath about this time at a cemetery, and I looked at the gravestone of my mother.

It just is stunning to me that it's been that long. She died when I was 27, but it brought back a lot of memories. It's good to go back and plug in your roots. But there was a mother present in Acts 1. A mother we first were introduced to at the beginning of some of the Gospels in Matthew 1 and then Luke 1. She wasn't just any mother. She was the one who lived at that time whom God the Father decided, I will use this woman, Mary, to be the one to bear the Christ child.

What a remarkable woman she had to have been and what a treat it will be in the family of God to just sit and listen to some of her stories. Because you know how mothers are. They file it all away. Kind of like when Christ, when He was left behind at age 12. And with all that happened, at the end of that chapter, it says, she kept these things in her heart. So Mary was there. Acts 1, verse 12.

Then they returned it to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying. Peter, James, John, and Andrew. Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew. James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James, also called Libbius Thaddeus sometimes. 11 names, because there's no one yet who has replaced Judas. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

Now, four brothers are mentioned in the Gospels. Two, we know, came along and were called and used in a powerful way. But Mary is there. The word continued comes from the Greek word, proscarteo. It means to adhere to, to be devoted or constant, to be steadfastly attentive to, to give unremitting care, to continue all the time in a place. And then it says, with one accord. And the Greek word means with one mind. God help us to reach that point to whether we have a level of unity in the body of Christ that has been so elusive for so long.

But those were different times, nor were they. Continued and with one accord, and Mary is one of those who had mentioned. Mary continued with the eleven and with the others. She was specifically chosen of God. She was the one who, when the angel revealed to her what was going to happen.

I tend to go back to that quite often, back there early in Matthew or in Luke, where the angel informed her that you are going to bear the Christ child. And when the plan was laid out before her, what did she say? She said, Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, let it be to me according to your will. I go back to that because there are times the phone rings and I'm given a job when I don't want to do it.

And I go back to that and I kind of struggle with myself. And I say, Yes, sir. And I go. She continued. She was there from the time, well, before even the conception. She was there, of course, from the birth. In fact, she was the only one that we know of who was there from the birth to the death of Jesus.

She continued all through his growing up years. She's the one that walked by him when he was about 30 and it was time for his ministry to begin. At a wedding in Cana of Galilee. And she just went by and said, They have no wine. And you know his reply. Well, what am I going to do with you, Mom? And then he went and changed the water and the wine.

Better wine than they had served before. A remarkable woman. She continued. She kept those sayings in her heart. Of course, she was told by the man's name was Simeon, when he the one who had waited to see the Messiah. And he held the baby and he told her, A sword will pierce your heart also. How much must it have hurt to see your son? Even though she knew he was the Son of God, but to see your son hanging there on a cross.

And hear your son say to John, his friend, this is your mother, giving John charge over her. Mary is anything but an average, everyday, ordinary person. She was a person who was very special and she submitted to the will of God, Come what may, whatever that will of God is. We don't know where the will of God will take us. Not a one of us does. But God help us to have that attitude and just simply to say, Let it be to me according to your will.

We'll come right back to Acts, but let's look at 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15, right at the end of the resurrection chapter. Verse 58, it says, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. I look at the life of Mary, there are a lot of lessons, but to me, she's the one who continued through the best of times and through the worst of times.

And when they gathered together, waiting the Spirit of God, she was there, with one accord, waiting for the promise from on high. What a remarkable laborer she has been and will be as the plan of God goes forward. Chapter 3 of Acts, we are introduced to another worker. But let me tell a story first. It goes back to my youth.

I believe it was in 1959. I was a mature seven. Well, immature seven, I'm sure. My dad had gotten to the end of a Reader's Digest article, and there was a little white space at the bottom. Sometimes they'd have a little funny, a little quotable quote. And once in a while, there'd be an advertisement. And that advertisement said, Are you interested in the plain truth? All capital letters. And there was a name and an address, and he had written in. And literature began to come. And then a correspondence course began to come. And then it began to find out, as I was coming in for breakfast to get ready to do chores and go off to school, that Dad and Mom looked, they looked tired, but there was an excitement for what they were talking about. They had been sitting up to 1am or 2am, going through a correspondence course that was helping them to understand what was in the Word of God that they had never been able to comprehend. And there was a light, so to speak, that was shining. God had turned on the switch, and they were hooked to the day they died.

In Acts 3, we have Peter and John, yes, a couple of the big names, but they go to the temple, verse 1, at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple. Who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. And fixing his eyes on him with John, Peter said, Look at us.

And in one sense, we don't have to read any further, do we? Because you know the story.

A divine miracle was performed, and yet we should look at what the man did. Verse 7, He took him up by his right hand, his feet, his ankle bones received strength. Verse 8, So he, leaping up, stood and walked, and entered the temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God.

And they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the beautiful gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Here's a man we aren't even given his name. But the time came when God, through his servants, said, look at me. We don't have any money. We don't have anything to give you. But what we have, we'll share in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.

And once upon a time, for every one of us, we were going about our lives. We were doing our own thing. It is as though God, yes, He usually works through other human beings, but God said, look on us. Look on me. I've got something I want to invest in you.

What was our reaction? Well, I think this story is told here. To teach many lessons, but one of those is that when God pours out His calling, it should fill us with a gratitude beyond words to express. The man was leaping and running and praising God.

Many of us remember a time when Mr. Herbert Armstrong would talk about, I remember one time he said, he thought maybe 90% of his prayers were just simply those of thanking God for what he had given to him. And I think there's a pattern or lesson there we can learn. Do we praise God? Do we thank God with all of our heart and soul? There is so much in the Bible. We have in the book of Psalms, any of them that begins with the word hallelujah or praise. Hallelujah is a Hebrew word just means praise ye the Lord. There are whole sections. Psalm 145 through 150, those last Psalms are Hallel Psalms, praise Psalms. And it ends by saying, let everything that has breath praise you the Lord.

Giving thanks to God, we have so much to be thankful for. The breath of life, I hope we thank God for our family. Sometimes we let these opportunities get away, don't we? Especially when we're separated by distance. But I think while we live, while we have a degree of health, find your family, find your loved ones. Sometimes find your family that may live in your own house and tell them, I love you. I appreciate you. I'm grateful for you. We should thank God for being a part of the body of Christ. We have the blessing of having a wonderful congregation right here to fellowship with. We have so many wonderful people and it's a precious blessing.

We have members who live in areas where they might be the only one in a country, but we're blessed with so much here. We can thank God for His forgiveness, for the gift of His Spirit.

You know, King Saul was called. You could go back and look at the story there in 1 Samuel 10, the first 8 or 10 verses. Saul was called and somewhere around verse 6-7, he was told, my Spirit will come upon you and you will be changed into a different man.

Now, we could debate how far that went in Saul's life, but the same applies to us.

God poured out His Spirit upon us. Slowly over time, it takes a lot of struggle because sometimes the things we struggled with 40 years ago are the things we, if we let down, we still struggle with today. There are always all kinds of things. That's why Christ says sufficient to the day is the evil thereof. We have enough to pray about and to struggle with each day without worrying about what's on down the line. We were given a part in the work of God. We have a beautiful creation around us. We are blessed with relative safety in the midst of an increasingly dangerous world. I'm thankful for our country. I love the red, white, and blue. Again, keep your place in Acts, but notice Hebrews 13 verse 15.

Hebrews 13 verse 15. Therefore, by Him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. That's what a lame man did once upon a time as God called him and God poured out a very special miracle. He began running and jumping and praising and thanking God. And let us never get to the point where we forget to thank God for everything. In Acts chapter 6, we meet some more of the laborers. We're skipping over so many.

We skip over Barnabas. He was a little bit more history as told, but I want to look at just some of these. We don't know that much about at times, and sometimes it's just one little event.

But here we have a situation where there was a need for a different office in the church to take care of some of the needs. The Greek-speaking widows were being neglected, and the apostles realized we were first commissioned to preach the gospel. We need to set aside others.

And so, we have a number of names here. They went to the church, and as it says in verse 3, Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, that we may appoint over this business.

But we will give ourselves continuity to prayer and the ministry of the word.

The saying, please the people, the whole multitude. They chose Stephen. Stephen, notice, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit.

That'd be a nice thing to have written about you in the Word of God.

Stephen, a man of faith, full of faith and the Holy Spirit.

And then it mentions Philip. We'll come back to him in a minute.

Five other names. We really don't know much about them.

But Stephen, one of these seven who were set aside to oversee some of the business of the church.

It is interesting that in verse 6, they prayed, they laid hands on them. And notice what happened in verse 7.

Then the word of God spread, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. That last phrase is easy to skim right over.

There were a lot of the priests of the Lion of Aaron of the tribe of Levi, who had performed the service of the temple for their entire lives, who later on, their eyes were opened and they realized this Jesus was truly the Messiah.

And it says, a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

That's the end result of setting aside this wonderful office of deacons.

And in verse 8, Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.

You know, we can talk about that. We wonder, well, what does it take to recapture the spirit of the church of Jerusalem? I don't know that we have the answer to that.

The church began with a great bang, an explosion. Remarkable miracles were performed.

God was telling the church, my temple, spiritual temple, is going up.

We look around now and sometimes we hear of great miracles, and that's encouraging.

But a lot of times, we have announcements that somebody we've prayed for has died. Maybe it's time God wants us to learn lessons by hurting.

Maybe He wants to know if we will pray always, if He'll find faith when He returns.

Maybe He realizes there are so many things we don't learn unless we hurt.

We don't know, and He doesn't tell us. But Stephen did great wonders.

And of course, by what he preached, he got himself called in before the authorities.

And we have him speaking before the high priest in chapter 7, verse 1. Are these things so? And what an answer they got!

You know, years ago, the book is You Are the Message.

His book talked about how you have to be a living, breathing, whatever you're selling, whatever you're doing in your work.

It has to be a reflection of everything that you are.

And Stephen was that, because I suspect he did not have a teleprompter.

And I doubt that he even had notes.

And he didn't have something that we take for granted.

Our own copies, because most of us have many copies of the Bible, or on some of our gadgets, my selectively smart phone in that briefcase, there are a lot of versions of the Bible on that.

He didn't have that.

But he began with God appearing to Abraham, and He took them all the way through until He nailed them to the wall of this Jesus whom you took and murdered.

Then it ends up with the fact that His life is taken.

A man of faith.

A man who is introduced to us because he was a servant.

A man who was a great teacher.

But you know, building the spiritual temple often takes the form of giving to others who are in need.

And Stephen was set aside for that very purpose at the beginning. And building the temple takes being able to go and be courageous and go and teach the truth of God, come what may.

He paid for it with His life.

Well, it's interesting as you would follow the story on through, His death was not in vain.

It never is.

His death brought about Philip's evangelistic tour in chapter 8.

It brought about, in one sense, Saul's conversion. The one we know better is the Apostle Paul.

Because Paul was there giving consent when the man was killed.

He brought about the founding of a church in Antioch.

So Stephen demonstrates the fact that God's called us to be servants.

Doesn't matter how menial that task may seem to be. And to always be there when the occasion arises to share the truth.

Well, we mentioned Philip as we read the list of names.

To me, Philip is a man of great vision.

We see that in Acts 8.

It's interesting that Jesus told them before He ascended, He told them, the disciples, you start here, start in Jerusalem, go to Judea, go to Samaria, and go to the end of the earth.

And by the time we get a few chapters into the book, we find that they're still basically hovering right around Jerusalem.

They were sent to the tribes of Israel, but they haven't gone anywhere yet.

In chapter 8, verse 1, there's a great persecution that arose against the church and were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles.

I ponder that. I wonder that. Why didn't the apostles go? They were the ones who were told to go out.

But persecution, sometimes God speaks to us by circumstances, and He allowed persecution to cause the church to scatter abroad.

And here we have verse 4, Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere, preaching the word.

Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.

Samaria. As was mentioned yesterday in the sermon. That's a place where the peoples from Mesopotamia were brought in and planted there by the Assyrians after the Israelites were moved out. The house of Israel was moved out.

They were peoples from up in the Middle East or up in the Mesopotamian area. Different peoples.

And you know the story of Christ going and the woman being surprised, the woman at the well, there in Samaria, and she was surprised that as a Jew, He would have anything to do with her.

Well, here's Philip.

And he goes.

And he preached Christ to them.

Verse 6, The multitudes with one accord heated the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.

Uncleaned spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed.

Many who were paralyzed and lame were healed, and there was great joy in the city. And we have the story of Simon, Simon the Magician.

But as it unfolds, verse 12, He spoke of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, and men and women were baptized.

And when they heard up in Jerusalem, the disciples, the apostles, I'd like to have been privy to that discussion. You know, here's Philip down there baptizing people.

What are we going to do about it? Well, Peter and John went down, laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Verse 17, Philip was a man of vision.

He was in some regards run out of his own house in Jerusalem.

There was this age-old animosity between Jews and Samaritans. But that's where he went to preach the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ.

There is an old saying that goes something like this.

Some see what is, while some see what can be.

May God grant that both are compatible.

And you know, that's true in the church. That's true in any endeavor. We need those who are the visionaries, and we need those who can take care of the status quo of what's right here in front of us. We need all types.

Stephen was one of vision.

He just simply went to Samaria and began preaching to see what God would do through him. And in the process, many others were called to help in the building of the temple.

Verse 26, after that time there in Samaria, Verse 26, Now the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is desert.

And we have the story of the man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the queen.

And the story unfolds where this man was baptized.

And who knows what kind of impact a man of great authority could have when he went back home to Ethiopia.

Verse 40, Philip was found at Azotus.

Over on the Mediterranean Sea.

Excuse me, Caesarea.

Passing through, he preached in all the cities until he came to Caesarea. That's on the Mediterranean.

And that's where he was.

It's interesting that a lot of years later, he basically was run out of Jerusalem because of the persecutions that were brought about by a man named Saul.

Saul was called, became the Apostle Paul.

He traveled far and wide, and on his last trip back to Jerusalem, the one that led to his being taken captive, he came by ship to Caesarea. And where did he stay?

He stayed at Philip's house.

Stayed at Philip's house.

And so there we have another paths crossing again. Interesting.

Chapter 10, we are introduced to a man named Cornelius.

He has some pretty nice things said about him as well.

Chapter 10, verse 1, there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian regiment, a devout man, a one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people.

And prayed to God always, gave generously, feared God, prayed always.

That's how he was used in building the temple, as this chapter goes and leads to his conversion along with his household.

A centurion had command of 100 soldiers.

Sometimes they were sent out for years, served in a certain area, and may have been called back to Rome, may have been sent somewhere else.

He understood what it was to tell men, go do this.

He was accustomed to having them do what they were told.

God rewards those who diligently seek Him.

That's what we read about Cornelius.

God rewards those who fear and revere Him.

And Cornelius had the deepest awe of God.

And his law.

And his way. And his plan.

And those are some of the keys on how we build the temple for God today.

In Acts 12, we are introduced to a man who's sometimes called Mark, and sometimes John Mark, and sometimes Marcus.

But John Mark was a deserter. He became a deserter.

I may have told the story before, but in a congregation a long time ago, probably 30 years ago, there was a man there at church, a young man.

He was in his army, Dubs, and he came up right after church, and he said, well, Mr. Dobson, I want to tell you, I've gone AWOL.

And I said, I think the best advice I can give you is, you better call your superiors, turn yourself in, take your licks.

And he told me, well, I've got to get out of the army. I said, well, there's a legal way to do that, but you sign on the dotted line and they own you, and it's your call.

Well, we were happy to have him come back. He was in the congregation a few months later. He went back. Yeah, yeah, it was hard on him. But he came back.

But John Mark went AWOL. You remember the story, Paul and Barnabas? They were going to go out again.

And, well, on the earlier trip, John Mark had gone partway, and then he left.

We're left to wonder why.

Did he miss home? Was he immature?

Well, we don't know.

But this time, Paul said, there's no way he's going with us. And Barnabas, who was his uncle, said, yes, he is.

And they had the sparks flying between them so that Paul took Silas and Barnabas took John Mark, and they went separate directions.

But it's a beautiful story to realize that it all turned out for the good.

Because the young man who had deserted, late in life, Paul, in writing to Timothy, said, oh, by the way, when you come, bring Mark with you. I've got a job for him.

But you see, Barnabas, that wasn't his name. It was Joseph.

Or Joseph. And the apostles renamed him Barnabas, which means the son of encouragement.

Barnabas was one of those people who left people feeling better behind him in his wake.

He was able to say the things that lift them up.

It's William Barclay in this part on wherever John Mark left them, that he made the comment how important it is to have just one person who believes in you and who will exhort you, lift you up.

And it bore great fruit. This man who deserted was someone who could be depended on, not just by Paul, but also by Peter to the very end.

So we should never underestimate the power of encouragement.

That's one of the great tools of building the temple of God.

Because this world is depressing.

And a lot of us come in here week after week, and the world is just clouded up and stormed all over us.

And we have our wounds that we bear on the inside and we hide.

And we need someone to let us know that they love us, they appreciate us, that they're praying for us.

We need their encouragement.

That's one of the great tools of the Spirit of God, to be able to encourage and to leave people feeling better behind you in your wake.

Acts 15, there's another man who is mentioned.

His name is Silas. I referred to him in passing. He's the one that traveled with Paul after Paul and Barnabas went their different ways.

But Silas, we are told, is a prophet.

Acts 15 tells the story of how the question of circumcision came to the church.

That we have those now in the non-Israelite areas. The men are uncircumcised. Do we now require them to be physically circumcised?

And the decision was rendered, no we don't.

Circumcision is of the heart. It is spiritual.

With baptism, the unfitting, sinful part is rolled away and left behind.

Now, they needed to inform the church. Here is what we're going to teach. This is what we're going to practice.

Acts 15, verse 22, then it pleased the apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, who was also called Barcipus, and Silas, leading men among the brethren.

And notice in verse 32, now Judas and Silas themselves being prophets, also exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words.

Actually, here where they were in Antioch, they left, verse 34, they left Silas there to help fill in some of the needs. But Silas, a prophet. Now, there are there are prophets like Agabus, the one who prophesied of the great drought over the Mediterranean world. There are prophets like Elijah Elisha.

And then the word can also mean those who could teach, those who could preach under inspiration, those who had an inspired gift of being able to instruct and to teach. And maybe that's more so what Silas did, but he also was a man of great vision. He was able to keep the big picture in mind because as chapter 16 tells us, as he travels with Paul in this second journey of Paul's, they ended up in prison. I've never been in prison except to go visit people.

Thankfully, every time in coming out, the door is open. And then I hear that door clang behind me. So far, life's not over yet. But being in prison, here they were, and they weren't even just in a prison, they were way back on the interwar. And what happened at about midnight?

They were singing praises to God. The bleakest situation, and they were singing praises to God at about midnight when the earthquake broke up the prison. So as I say, a man who could keep the big picture, sometimes we lose our security blankets and we have to step out in faith to follow God in a direction and place in a situation where we have not gone before. But Silas was able to rise above the dire straits of what was at that time and go forward because he could see what God's greater purpose was. In Acts 18, we have a couple more laborers. They're a married couple, Priscilla and Aquila. A pair of tent makers, they're only mentioned six times in the New Testament, but every time they're mentioned, they're mentioned together as a team. They were a married couple. They met Paul and Corinth during this second trip. Acts 18, verse 1, after these things, Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome, and he came to them.

They were the same trade. By occupation, they were tent makers. Paul worked at that trade while he was there. He reasoned in synagogue every Sabbath, and the story goes on. And here we have Priscilla and Aquila mentioned a number of times, and they always worked together.

There is a great value in doing God's work, in building God's temple. If we're unified as a family, everyone doesn't have that blessing. Many of you know what it feels like to come here alone, and others to maybe come here with your spouse, but your children didn't follow you here.

I'm sure all did better jobs than we realized at the time, teaching them, bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, but they reach a point where they make their own decisions.

And we can't make them. We wouldn't want to make them. We would want them to want to be here, because it's their conviction. The Christian home is a tremendous tool for spreading the Gospel, for building the temple. Wherever Priscilla and Aquila went, we read of their home being opened to travelers and congregations that even met there. Never underestimate the power of a good example. Never underestimate the power of hospitality and the impact it can have on others.

Chapter 18, let's look at a little bit more. We've got so many names that we're introduced to, but Chapter 18, a little later here, verse 24, we have a man who is a great orator, an eloquent man.

And that's a wonderful tool. We've had tremendous orators in the church over the years.

Some of us go back long enough, you remember so many of them. And sometimes they stayed in the saddle till death do we part, and then other times it seems like Satan was able to get to them.

It's the danger of having pride come in. We all have to guard against that.

Acts 18, verse 24, a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he only knew the baptism of John. Hmm, he's missed part of the picture.

Well, he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

And when they desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren rode, exhorting the disciples to receive him. And when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.

Here we have a man with great natural talents, but he also was a man of humility. He was a man who was teachable. And those are great talents, great traits for building the temple of God today. It didn't go to his head. Sometimes there's a danger. You have those where it's all fluff.

I mean, when you look at the heart, you look at the way they are inside, you find outwardly it's a show. What a wonderful thing it is to find someone who has this conviction and zeal and eloquence. And it's an issue of the heart. It's a beautiful thing. It's a great tool that God can use. Let's go to Ephesians 2, and we'll wrap this up shortly. Ephesians 2, and notice beginning in verse 19. Ephesians 2, beginning in verse 19. Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. By looking at some of these workmen, work women, workers, I should say, that's safer, these workers who have gone before us, some of the traits that they had are the traits that we need to emulate, because those traits, those gifts were brought out by the Spirit of God working in their lives. We need to have staying power and have it said about us that they continued in one accord, like that group of about 120, which included Mary, the mother of Christ. We need to be those who praise God, like a man who had been lame for 40 years and suddenly was healed, and he leaped, and he was praising God wherever he went. Let us never forget, always the thanks goes to God.

It's not about us. It's about God, His plan, His family, His temple.

We need to be people of vision, like Philip, who looked and saw what might be if he'd just go down to Samaria and begin preaching the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. And there was tremendous growth. And everyone else, being Jewish, didn't really want to have anything to do with those people down there. We need to learn from even mistakes. John Mark Yalhe, he aborted on his first trip. He stumbled. He fell. He got back up.

We all do, too. We make mistakes. But we shouldn't let it get us so down that we just don't get back and engage the battle, the struggle, the race once again. We need to keep the big picture in mind, like Silas with Paul, who from back in the inner ward of the prison, the bleakest of times, who singing praises to God, and thanking God that they were accounted worthy to suffer for His name's sake. What a marvelous example. We need to set a goal that our homes can be places that reflect the love of God, like the home of Priscilla and Aquila did. And we need to be those who are humble, teachable, especially in the area of some of our own strengths. And realize even those strengths are among those good gifts that come from God. They're not ours. They were given to us.

Long ago, I've read different versions of a story that I'll close with, and I've probably told you about it before. But hundreds of years ago, there was a building of a great cathedral.

Yes, it was a cathedral. It was a great construction project in Chartres, France.

And the story goes where it had been going on for a lot of years. In fact, the people who started in the construction, they died before it was ever ended. It went on so long. From Italy, a visitor was sent to go and inspect the work. He arrived at the construction site late in the day, he walked into the building. He would hear noise, and he would go to see what was being done.

He heard pounding on metal. He walked over, and he found a man pounding on a piece of metal on a anvil. And he went over and said, you sir, what are you doing? He said, I'm pounding on metal all day long. I make these bars that'll go on the windows from the beginning to the day's end. All I do is pound on metal. He went a little further. He heard another different type of noise, and he went over, and it was someone who was a glazer. He worked in glass, and he was forming and fashioning the little pieces of glass that would go into the stained glass of what turned out to be a beautiful cathedral. And he went and said, and you sir, what are you doing here on this job? He said, from early in the day until the end of the day, all I do is I form and fashion glass. That's all I do is I work with glass.

Well, he went a little further, and he heard someone pounding and other noises, and he came across a carpenter, and he asked him, you sir, what do you do? And the man said, I'm a carpenter. I form and fashion some of these beams, and from early until late, all I do is just form and fashion pieces of wood. And he went a little further, and it was getting darker as the sun was setting. And he heard another noise, and he came across an older lady. And he went over to her, and she was sweeping up pieces of metal and glass and wood. And he said, and you, Matt, what do you do? And she looked at him with a fire burning in her eyes. She said, I am building a cathedral to the glory of Almighty God. Now, four different people. Three going through the motions, three just doing what they could do, and the one was fueled with a vision. And let us be among those who have the vision to see what God has called us to. And as we began, we asked the question, who will build a house for God to dwell in? And the answer to that question is, you will. We will. God has called us to be the people who step by step are being changed into completely different people, who will become the firstfruits, who will become the children of light, who will become those who show the way for so many others as the next phase of God's plan comes along.