The Temple

[Christsfreeservant]

Wednesday, May 04, 2011, 7:30 a.m. – When I woke this morning, the song, “Hallelujah,” was playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Revelation 11:

The Two Witnesses
1 I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there. 2 But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. 3 And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” 4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. 6 These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.

7 Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. 8 Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 9 For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. 10 The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

11 But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.

13 At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

14 The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.

The Seventh Trumpet
15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ,
and he will reign for ever and ever.”

16 And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying:

“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
the One who is and who was,
because you have taken your great power
and have begun to reign.
18 The nations were angry;
and your wrath has come.
The time has come for judging the dead,
and for rewarding your servants the prophets
and your saints and those who reverence your name,
both small and great—
and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”

19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

My Understanding: The Greek word used in Revelation for temple is naos, which is a specific reference to the Holy Place and to the Holy of Holies where God Almighty dwells. I Co. 3:16 says: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” We, the Body of Christ are God’s temple where his Spirit dwells, and within our individual hearts is the Holy of Holies. Acts 17:24 says: “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.” When Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, the veil in the physical Jewish temple of Jesus’ day was torn in two. This veil once separated man, with the exception of the high priests, from the awesome presence of Almighty God, which is why we needed human priests to go before God’s presence on our behalf to offer sacrifices for our sins. Jesus Christ became that perfect sacrifice once-for-all, making the way, thus, for us to come into God’s holy presence via God the Son. So, we can enter into the Holy of Holies now any time of day or night, through Jesus’ shed blood on the cross and via his resurrection.

So, when John was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told to go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and to count the worshippers there, he was not being asked to physically measure a physical temple. He was being asked to evaluate and to examine the church, the Body of Christ, Christ’s temple, which is in the individual hearts of true believers in Jesus Christ, as well as it is collectively the Body of Christ. The letters to the seven churches give us a glimpse of the type of results that were found by “measuring” the “temple.” The altar is a place where we meet God in prayer, but it is also a place of sacrifice and worship of God. Romans 12:1-2 says this:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

This is the kind of worship and sacrifice that God requires of us at his altar. So, this would most certainly be one of the measurements by which John would evaluate the temple, though scripture as a whole, as applicable to believers in Jesus, would be the measurement by which John would examine the Body of Christ, the church. He would assess our individual hearts and Christ’s church, as a whole, on the basis of the truths of God’s word, in particular the New Testament teachings regarding the Christian life. I Co. 11:28 says: “A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.” And, 2 Co. 13:5 says: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” So, we are asked to examine our own hearts and lives to make sure we are in a right relationship with God, too. John was asked to appraise the hearts of individual believers, and the collective Body of Christ, and to appraise its altar, i.e. whether or not those in Christ Jesus had given their lives as living sacrifices to God, and to count (weigh; regard; reckon) the number of worshippers there, i.e. those who are putting Rom. 12:1-2 into practice in their lives.

John was not the first servant of God told to go and measure the temple. Ezekiel (Ez. 43) was also told to measure the temple and then to describe to the people of Israel what he found. His measurement, as well, was not for the purpose of measuring a physical temple with physical measurements, but was for the purpose of examining and evaluating the hearts of the children of Israel. We, the church, are now Israel. God made us one with Israel in Christ, so that those who believe in Jesus Christ are true Israel and those who do not believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord, though they may be of Jewish descent, are not God’s people and they are not inheritors of the promises of God. Scripture is clear in this matter. Ezekiel’s purpose in measuring was to then tell the people what he discovered so that they could be ashamed of their sins. That was certainly the purpose, or one of the main purposes of the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3. The purpose of the examination was, as well, or as primary, was to reveal to God’s children the awesomeness of God’s glory and holiness among them so that they would be convicted of their corruption, via following the pattern of the world, of God’s sanctuary, the Holy of Holies in our hearts.

He was asked to exclude the outer court which was given to the Gentiles. Again, scripture is clear that those outside the Holy of Holies are those outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ and thus Jews and Gentiles (by physical birth) alike are in the outer court and are considered as Gentiles due to unbelief in Jesus. The division now is believers and non-believers. The believers are the ones in the Holy of Holies where God dwells and the non-believers are those outside the temple, i.e. those outside of Christ. John was told to exclude the outer court because this evaluation (measurement) was not to examine non-believers, but rather to evaluate those who profess belief in Jesus Christ as Savior. So, the “Gentiles” who will trample to “holy city” are those who are outside of faith in Jesus, and the “holy city” is the heavenly Jerusalem, i.e. God’s kingdom, which dwells in the hearts of believers in Jesus Christ. So, the “holy city” here to be trampled is also not a physical city on the earth, but it is the city of God, believers in Jesus, who are supposed to be a light to the world. In Revelation 12 we learn about the Dragon pursuing the woman’s offspring, who are believers in Jesus Christ, and we learn in other chapters in Revelation concerning how the time of tribulation will be a time of great persecution and martyrdom for believers.

The “two witnesses” are to be taken symbolically, not literally. They are in the spirit of Moses and Elijah and they represent those who are testifying for our Lord Jesus Christ in these last days before Jesus Christ returns. Ez. 9:4 says: “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.” I believe these witnesses are those who grieve and lament over the sins in the church and who are giving witness to the church of this kind of measurement that John was asked to do in evaluating the spiritual condition of the temple of God, and these witnesses are those who are calling out to the church to repent of their sin and to turn back to God in faith and obedience before the time of judgment to come upon the earth. I don’t know how much of this is to be taken literally and how much is to be taken symbolically, but what I do know is that our Lord’s return is near, that judgment is imminent, that judgment will begin with the family of God, and that God is presently in the process of this kind of measuring of his church and he is calling out to his church, via his witnesses and servants, to repent and to give their hearts in entirety to God.

So, my prayer for all of us today would be that we, individually, would take the time before God to do this kind of heart examination, to see where we are yielding to sin’s deceitfulness and/or to see where we are failing to give Jesus Christ our all on the altar of God as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is our reasonable service of worship to Him. I pray we will repent of any known sin, and that we will follow Jesus wherever He leads us. Time is ticking away. Judgment is coming. Get right with God today!

Hallelujah / An Original Work / May 3, 2011

Hallelujah, hallelujah!
He is coming, hallelujah!
He’s our Lord God
And we love Him
For He saved us from our sin.

He is with us, hallelujah,
And He loves us, hallelujah!
We adore Him,
And we worship
Him for He’s our Lord and King.

He’s our Savior, hallelujah!
He provided our redemption;
Paid our ransom;
We’re forgiven;
In His death He bore our sin.

He is risen, hallelujah!
Conquered death, hell, sin, in vict’ry;
Sent His Spirit;
Lives within us;
Cleansed and purified within.

He is coming, hallelujah,
To receive us, hallelujah,
as His pure bride
for our wedding
to our Lord God, priest and King!

Live in vict’ry, hallelujah,
For He freed you, hallelujah,
To obey Him;
Turn from your sin;
Walk in fellowship with Him.

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