Titles of The Church (2)
Sermon by Pastor Sylvia Chan
Today we continue to study the titles of the church, let’s turn to:
NAU 2 Corinthians 6:16 16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
NAU Ephesians 2:21 – 22 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
These two passages point out that:
- We Christians are the temple of God: “we are the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16)
- The temple of God is where God dwells: “I will dwell in them…” (2 Corinthians 6:16), “a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22)
The Temple Of God And The Presence Of God
I don’t want to go into the Old Testament sacrificial system regulations, we just focus in the temple of God.
The temple of God is where God dwells, when people come into the temple of God, they can sense the presence of God.
Today there is no physical temple of God anymore, the temple was destroyed in AD 70. We cannot examine whether people can sense the presence of God inside the physical temple of God.
I think for those of us who come from non-Christian families, we did enter into the pagan temples before. I can recall that when I entered into those pagan temples, even though I didn’t see anything supernatural, but I could sense some kind of presence there. When Pastor Bentley and I were serving God in Singapore, one time we went to Cameron Highlands in Malaysia; We joined a tour package to visit different tourist spots. One of those spots was a Chinese Taoist temple; We didn’t want to go in, so we waited outside while the others went in. I looked at the idols at the front gate and the front court, I sensed that it was the enemies’ territory; The enemies were looking at me while I was looking at those idols.
If people can sense the presence of the evil power in the temples of demons, then people should sense the presence of God in the temple of God.
The Glory Of The Lord Jesus Opened The Spiritual Eyes Of Simon Peter
In Luke 5 there is an interesting account of the Lord Jesus calling Simon Peter and some other disciples.
NAU Luke 5:1 – 10 1 Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around him and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; 2 and he saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. 3 And he got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And he sat down and began teaching the people from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” 6 When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; 7 so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” 9 For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.”
Before the glory of the Lord Jesus, Peter’s spiritual eyes were open, he saw his own sinful condition, he felt at the Lord’s feet and asked the Lord to depart from him. Please notice this, even though he asked the Lord to leave, but he knelt down before the Lord, he did not run away.
The Glory Of God In The Temple Of God
We are the temple of the living God, if we are truly living up to the meaning of this title, when people come into our midst, they can sense God’s presence. That holy presence of God will arouse a sense of awe and a sense of worship in their hearts just like in Simon Peter’s case. Unlike the presence of demons makes people uncomfortable, the presence of God can draw people to Himself.
The glory of God is closely linked with the presence of God. What should we do so that people can see the glory of God when they come into the church?
1. First of all, does the Lord Jesus live in us?
NAU Galatians 2:20 20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.
Only when the “I” have been crucified and “I” no longer live, then Christ lives in us. If the “I” is still strong and dominant, Christ will not live in us. How do we know whether “I” live in us or Christ lives in us?
- Do we live our lives for the Lord or do we live our lives for ourselves? Are the things of the Lord more important or our own things more important?
- When there is a conflict between our own interest and the interest of the Lord, which one do we choose?
- When our will is different from God’s will, are we wiling to submit to His will? Can we say as what the Lord Jesus says, “Not my will, but yours be done”?
If we live a God-centered life, people can sense God’s presence in us. They may not know what it is, but they can sense something different in us.
2. When we come together, we need to have the attitude of worship
If we Christians don’t have an attitude of worship, how can we expect non-Christians to respect God?
- When we worship God, we humble ourselves and God is exalted. If all the time we want to exalt ourselves, there’s no worship.
- When we worship God, we offer up sacrifice. When we come together, each one offers something to God. For example: Someone shares about the precious lesson they learned from God, someone may share some insight in the word of God to edify one another, someone may offer a song, someone may offer up some food that he or she prepared, etc.
- When we come together we think of what we can give to God and to one another, we don’t think of what we can get. If we come with the wrong attitude to get, there’s no worship. The Lord Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)
- Are we living a God-centered life or self-centered life? If God is not the center of our lives, His presence won’t be with us.
Gospel and Salvation 