2015.06.07_New Jerusalem

Jesus, the True Temple

We have not been left alone in this world. The Lord is with us, and He is guiding us towards the glorious kingdom of Heaven. Concerning that kingdom we will later enter, Revelation 21:2 says, “Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” In order to lead us into that kingdom, night and day the Lord is interceding for us, helping us and praying for us. Whilst we are on the earth, we should not be swayed by the ways of this world, but rather be led by the Lord to establish a more solid and perfect temple than that which was in Jerusalem.

When a disciple of Jesus saw the grandeur of the Jerusalem temple, he said, “How great these buildings are here!” But Jesus answered him prophesying, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another, and all will be thrown down” (Mk 13:1-2). The first temple built was the tabernacle in the wilderness which Moses built according to God’s instructions. That was later constructed as a temple during the reign of Solomon but was ravaged a number of times due to foreign invasions. The temple which the disciples were admiring was a grand building that was completed through elaborate efforts over a long period of 46 years.

For the Jews, the significance of the temple was not only its size. The temple was the centre of their faith, a place where they met God and thus received peace. The name Jerusalem is a compound word formed from ‘jireh’ and ‘shalom’, the meaning of which may be interpreted as “the city of peace”. The temple of Jerusalem was a kind of pattern and a guide for mankind to wait upon the coming Christ until Jesus Christ came to the earth.

The role of the temple of Jerusalem was only effective until the coming of Jesus Christ. The ordinances of the Law were instituted on the temple built by hands only until the time of reformation. Jesus Christ came as the high priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, and having obtained eternal redemption entered the Most Holy Place once for all (He 9:11-12). Thus the atoning sacrifice offered annually was offered once and for all, and the temple built by hands was no longer required.

Even so, the temple of Jerusalem is vitally important, for it was like a breakthrough that would rescue humanity from despair. The temple was the only place that man could meet God. There the Jews offered sacrifices to God, received forgiveness, and thus obtained peace. For this reason, Jews who resided in foreign countries away from Jerusalem returned to Jerusalem and visited the temple during major feasts and festivals.

Anyone entering the temple was required to pay a temple tax of half shekel. However people entering the temple did not always carry half shekel with them. Hence there were some who took advantage of this to make unreasonable profit by exchanging money inside the temple with the connivance, and much to the pecuniary emolument, of the priests. The more people longing for God gathered at the temple, the more profit they made.

The problem did not end there. Sacrifices offered to God had to be of cattle, sheep or doves, however in the case of the people who came from foreign countries, it was not easy to prepare such offerings in advance. Animals offered as sacrifices had to be pure and without blemish. Yet it was difficult to maintain the animals in such conditions for those traveling long distances. Consequently, a number of people selling cattle and sheep were inside the temple.

When Jesus saw those settling cattle, sheep and doves in the temple, He drove them out saying, “Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” So the Jews who saw this answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?” to which Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” When they heard this, they wondered and asked, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But Jesus was speaking of His body (Jn 2:13-22).

The role of the temple of Jerusalem was only put in effect until the coming of Jesus Christ. Just as a map is required only until we find our way to a new destination, the temple was no longer necessary once the One who was prophesied to come actually came. This is the reason Jesus said, “Destroy this temple!”

From another angle, Jesus was speaking of His own death when He said, “Destroy this temple!” He then spoke of His resurrection when He said, “I will raise it in three days!” The body of Jesus Christ that resurrected from the death was not a temple that was soon to disappear; it is the true temple that endures forever.

We Have Become the Temple of God

Jesus Christ has ascended into Heaven. Yet God’s temple is still on the earth, and that is the faith God has given us. When that faith resides in us, God abides in us. If we received faith, it does not mean we received a philosophy or that we have changes our mindset in accordance with the teachings of the church. God’s given faith may be logically incomprehensible. Nevertheless, if that is God-given, we must trust and follow it. If we possess God’s given faith, then a temple more solid, beautiful and perfect than that of Jerusalem is in us.

Revelation 21:3 says, “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.” For the tabernacle of God to be within us means that God dwells inside us. The same message is also mentioned in John 14:20, “At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you”. Wherever God abides is thus the temple. 1 Corinthians 3:16 says, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” John 14:23 also writes, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” This means that when we accept God’s given faith, God will regard that as His tabernacle and make His dwelling in us.

Jesus said, “The word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me” (Jn 14:24). This shows that the tabernacle of God inside us has come down from Heaven. The true temple was not devised in people’s minds not built by their hands. The tabernacle Moses built in the wilderness was a copy and a shadow of the true temple and likewise for the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem. Only Jesus completed the true everlasting temple when He came and obtained eternal redemption not with the blood of animals but with His own blood and entered Heaven. Now He abides in us, and thus we have become temples of God.

Be Prepared in Bright and Clean Linen

Revelation 21:2 says, “Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” After the first heaven and the first earth pass away and a new world of God opens up, the New Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven will finally be revealed in its perfect state. It will be as a bride adorned and waiting for her husband.

Revelation 21 is not the first time the motif of marriage is mentioned in the Bible. When people asked Jesus, “Why do Your disciples not fast?” He answered, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast”, and made reference to marriage all of a sudden (Mt 9:14-15). He also spoke of the parable of ten virgins waiting for the groom (Mt 25:1-13). This motif of marriage can be found throughout the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments. It is written in Hosea 2:19-20, “I will betroth you to Me forever in righteousness and justice, in loving-kindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord”. Then 2 Corinthians 11:2 says, “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ”. It also says in Ephesians 5:31-32, “’For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church”.

A passage that ties closely with Revelation 21:2 is Revelations 19:7-8, which says, “’Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.’ And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints”. While it is the duty of the wife of the Lamb to be dressed in clean and bright linen, the linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.

Originally the tabernacle in the wilderness also had to be covered in fine linen. So long as God’s tabernacle is within us, we also have to be dressed in bright and clean fine linen, as a bride adorns herself for her husband. How great is the bride’s effort and dedication as she prepares for her wedding? And how beautifully adorned would she be? In the old male-centered society, there was a lot more pressure on brides preparing for their wedding than now. But our faith should resemble those brides of the past as they adorned themselves for their husband.

People pursue personal interests or hobbies with an enormous amount of passion and dedication. For example, a person with a hobby of collecting hammers has so many hammers all throughout his house that his family can hardly move around. Yet his passion for hammers shows no sign of slowing down. His sole interest is so concentrated on hammers that even the spoon he uses to eat looks like a hammer to him. If people display such passion and dedication just for their personal hobbies, how much more should we as we wait upon the Lord our groom?

Ephesians 5:25-27 says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish”. The Lord wants to cleanse us, His brides, to be without blemish. Hence we must ensure that our God-given faith does not become stained. As a bride adorns herself for her husband, we ought to prepare our fine line, bright and clean.

For us to come to church, to evangelize, give offerings and service are all ways of preparing our fine linen. In the church, we all need to love each member, share all things good together and care for those around us. If someone is sick, we should pray for him; if anybody is troubled, we must first offer to listen to them and encourage them. And during the service, everyone must work together and contribute so that the whole church, not just I individually, may have a successful worship. Our actions should imitate the way that Jesus ministered on the earth. We ought to display the mercy and love of the Lord who humbled Himself to fulfill the Father’s will, sacrificed Himself completely and persevered to the end.

Although some people are aware that the church needs them, they refuse to sacrifice even the least of their personal lives. We must have hope in the kingdom of Heaven which the Lord has shown us ahead of time through Apostle John. Though we were steeped in secularism in the past, we now need to surrender our own arguments, stubbornness and ideas, and yearn to be a firm and beautiful tabernacle. We have to wait upon our husband as brides dressed in bright and clean fine linen.

If we could remind our brothers and sister of the hope we have, support and encourage them to persevere until the end of our journey to Heaven, they would also encourage us in our hard times. Life in this world has endless challenges to overcome. Making a living for the flesh is difficult enough, yet Christians also have to resist spiritual enemies. Thus in these circumstances, we the members of the one body, must not be hostile to one another. As we pass through this hell-like world, we must prepare for that coming day through our righteous acts. We must strive to be dressed in fine linen, leaving behind the old conduct we had as unbelievers. The Lord will be with us and help us.