Some Assembly Required
Week one - “People, Places, and Things”
Hebrews 9:1-15 and Ephesians 2:18-22
A lot of life is “going to” somewhere.
Israel went to The Temple
Temple history
Ark of the Covenant, the moving tent
David builds a palace, decides God needs a home too only God isn’t going to let him build it
Solomon (David’s son) gets to build The Temple (1 Kings 6-7)
“Going to the Temple” was a really big deal - only one place you could go to have access to God…sort of
1-5 That first plan contained directions for worship, and a specially designed place of worship. A large outer tent was set up. The lampstand, the table, and “the bread of presence” were placed in it. This was called “the Holy Place.” Then a curtain was stretched, and behind it a smaller, inside tent set up. This was called “the Holy of Holies.” In it were placed the gold incense altar and the gold-covered ark of the covenant containing the gold urn of manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, the covenant tablets, and the angel-wing-shadowed mercy seat. But we don’t have time to comment on these (things) now.
6-10 After this was set up, the priests went about their duties in the large tent. Only the high priest entered the smaller, inside tent, and then only once a year, offering a blood sacrifice for his own sins and the people’s accumulated sins. This was the Holy Spirit’s way of showing with a visible parable that as long as the large tent stands, people can’t just walk in on God. Under this system, the gifts and sacrifices can’t really get to the heart of the matter, can’t assuage the conscience of the people, but are limited to matters of ritual and behavior. It’s essentially a temporary arrangement until a complete overhaul could be made.
11-15 But when the Messiah arrived, high priest of the superior things of this new covenant, he bypassed the old tent and its trappings in this created world and went straight into heaven’s “tent”—the true Holy Place—once and for all. He also bypassed the sacrifices consisting of goat and calf blood, instead using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all. If that animal blood and the other rituals of purification were effective in cleaning up certain matters of our religion and behavior, think how much more the blood of Christ cleans up our whole lives, inside and out. Through the Spirit, Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable, so that we can live all out for God. —Hebrews 9:1-15
When Jesus died, the Temple curtain ripped apart - full access to God
*God has always been able to get to us, but we haven’t always been able to get to God.
Jesus upends the whole deal
“Going to church” - not a thing
19-22 That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home. —Ephesians 2:19-22
Differences between Temple and Church
- The Temple used
- The Church is people, all the people, together embodying the Kingdom of God here and now; and when necessary, we use
Every person is a piece of the whole, but Ashley Ridge Church is also a piece of the greater picture - so, we’re simultaneously only one piece and also the specific piece God chose for this time and this place.
Ashley Ridge needs a
Summerville needs a
“Summerville needs us.” Which is really just another way of saying we need God, because we are Summerville, and we are the church, and when we come together, God dwells and abides with us. We need that.
But if we build it, it will fall apart. If God builds it, and if Jesus is the cornerstone, then the foundation is set for eternity.