Why God’s Greatest Glory Manifests In His Temple

The Temple of God is our focus as we continue our series on the Holy Spirit in John fourteen through sixteen. We’ve covered the Holy Spirit in us as Jesus followers. Shared about the actions of the Holy Spirit out in the world. Then looked at the Holy Spirit coming on us — not in us but on us. And today, we are concluding with the Holy Spirit among us. In us, on us, and among us. We’re going to see that the Temple of God is the focal point for the manifestation of the Glory of God. I’m talking God’s glory Himself — I’m not referencing the statement ‘let’s do something for the glory of God.’ You know, ‘we built this church for the Glory of God.’ ‘We are living our lives for the glory of God.’ There’s wrong with that. The Word of God tells us that whatever we do in word or deed, we should do to the Glory of God. What we will focus on is the Holy Spirit Himself moving in our midst. Manifesting God’s Glory — God’s very Presence sometimes to a remarkable and unforgettable degree. There’s some powerful life changing truths here. If you are a person who struggles with self-esteem, than this podcast is for you. Once you understand the truth about ‘God’s Temple’ and ‘what it really is,’ self-esteem issues will melt like a snowball in a hot August sun. Why God’s Greatest Glory Manifests In His Temple, that’s our point of focus on this week’s Light On Life.

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Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

God considers the Temple — the local church — the group of believers coming together in Jesus Name as holy, sacred, separate. That’s who you are!

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Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
This week’s question is:

Question: Share a testimony on how the Holy Spirit functioned among your local group of believers. Share your story in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

For more teaching on the book of John, please click on the links below to listen to some of those podcasts.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 47 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 40 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on iTunes and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic, you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com

Prayer

Well, again welcome.
Let’s go before the Lord.

Father God, thank you that you are Lord of all the earth. So magnificent are you in your Holy Temple. Open to us the truths of your Word. Help us to see your glory and might. May it be that as the world gets darker, the light of glory becomes brighter among your people. We give you all the credit for these things in Jesus Name, Amen.

God’s Temple: The Church of the Living God

So in John’s gospel, we’ve now completed several podcasts on the work of the Holy Spirit both within a believer, that is also known as ‘the Holy Spirit within’ and the Spirit’s work resting ‘upon a believer.’ — so The Holy Spirit within and the Holy Spirit upon a believer — those manifestations have different purposes.
And, we also looked at the Holy Spirit and His role in working among the unsaved to get them to Jesus.
Repeating this: The Holy Spirit within, the Holy Spirit upon and the Holy Spirit out in the world.
Today we are going to look at the role of the Holy Spirit in the Church.
So, one thing is evident: Jesus made the Holy Spirit available for us and we need Him.
We need Him functioning in all His roles.
We can’t fulfill the plan of God without Him, the Holy Spirit.
Can’t do it — can’t be done.
If we could know everything we should know on our own, and if we could be everything we need to be without the Holy Spirit, why would Jesus say we need Him?
The truth is, you can’t know everything you need to know on your own and you can’t be everything you need to be by yourself.
You need a Helper — you need THE Helper, the Holy Spirit of God working in your life.
What we need to know is how He works so that we can cooperate with Him.
Today, we’re going to focus on yet one more way that He works.
We’re going to look at the Holy Spirit and how He works in the Temple.
Go over with me to the book of First Corinthians.

God’s Temple: Being in the Know

1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV) — Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

You have to be ‘in the know.’
‘Do you not know’ implies the fact that the Corinthians didn’t know about the moving of the Spirit of God in the Temple.
‘Do you not know that you are God’s Temple?’
Who is the you that Paul refers to?
The word ‘you’ — ‘Do you not know that you’ is plural.
‘You’ in this verse doesn’t mean ‘you as an individual.’
It means ‘you as a group.’
That’s why ‘you’ is plural.
The self-respecting Jesus follower in the city of Corinthian did not know that they, — the whole church — all the believers are God’s Temple.
When I say the whole church, you m ust take this down to the local church level.
To apply this truth, think Church local instead of Church worldwide.
What does local Church look like in Corinth?
In Corinth, local Church, first century church took place in house churches.
House churches are where believers met.
Five or ten people gathered together in brother so and so’s home, while in neighborhood five miles away, 23 people were meeting in brother zamma zamma’s home — that’s local Church.
None of them knew they were the Temple.
The Corinthians did not have a Temple revelation and that was all throughout the city.
Paul is letting them know though — He’s informing them.
Do we dare say that many today in our 21st century churches are in the same boat as the Corinthians were?
They don’t know that when you, that is any group comes together in Jesus Name, that bunch of folk in that physical location is God’s Temple.
And, here is why you need to know it: the Spirit of God indwells the Temple.
So, He is here now!

God’s Sacred Temple

Now there are several pictures given in the scriptures that let’s us know how valuable God’s concept of Temple is.
A definition here will help us and with that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.
Paul said, “Do you all not know that you are God’s temple?”
There are two different Greek words for temple in the New Testament.
One of these words is ‘naos’ — this is the word Paul uses here in 1 Corinthians 3:16.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple — that you are God’s ‘naos?’

The word ‘naos’ refers to the inner part of the Temple.
The inner part of the Temple is the sacred part of the Temple.
It’s the Holy of Holies part of the Temple.
You know the Temple comprised the Outer Court and the Inner Court.
You know, the inner Court, the Holy of Holies was separated with a curtain that was 20 feet tall and 4 inches thick.
The Holy of Holies is where the glory of God rested upon the Ark of the Covenant.

Exodus 26:34 (ESV) — 34 You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the Most Holy Place.

Leviticus 16:2 (ESV) — 2 and the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat.

The Glory of God was in the ‘naos’ — the inner part — the Holy of Holies part.
You are the Temple — naos — the Holy part.
God considers the Temple — the local church — the group of believers coming together in Jesus Name as holy, sacred, separate.
It’s not about the donuts, or the coffee you get at Church — it’s about the Glory!
Now, the manifestation of the glory, that is when the Glory of God becomes visible where it can be seen, that manifestation is called Shekinah.
The Shekinah glory of God is the visible manifestation of the glory.
Hold onto that thought.
Now, there is a second word for the Temple and it’s the word ‘hieron.’
‘Hieron’ is Temple general.
That is, it is the general word for Temple which includes all the parts of the Temple like the outer courts.
Paul is saying by the Spirit of God that the local Church is not ‘hieron’ — it’s ‘naos.’
The local Church, is not the Temple general — it’s the Temple sacred.
The Lord considers believers coming together as sacred, holy thing.
When you view Temple like God views it, when you see it like He sees it, great things take place for people.

God’s Temple: How Healing Happens

Matthew 21:12–14 (ESV) — 12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” 14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.

The religious leaders were not looking at Temple the right way.
As soon as the Temple was straightened out, the lame and the blind were healed.
Now with this, understand this ‘power principle’ in the area of healing.

Luke 5:17 (NASB95) — 17 One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing.

Gods’ power is always present — but it’s not always manifest.
The Temple had to be straightened out before there was manifestation.
You’re not Temple general, you’re Temple sacred.
God’s Temple is holy because He manifests His Presence in the inner court not the outer court.
We need to look at Temple like the Lord looks at it.
God’s power is present now, right now but what we want is manifestation.
And with that thought, here is the Historical Background of the Day.
How does the Lord view Temple — His people coming together in a group?

In ancient times, in order to protect temples that had large deposits of great wealth stored in them two stratagies were used. First many of these ancient temples had temple police functioning as a small mercenary army to protect the assests. The second strategy used by some of these false little -g – god temples was to pronounce a curse in the name of the deity against anyone who violated the sanctuary.[Charles H. Talbert, Reading Corinthians: A Literary and Theological Commentary on 1 & 2 Corinthians, Rev. ed., Reading the New Testament Series (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, 2002), 19–20.]

Knowing that, read the next verse in First Corinthians three.

1 Corinthians 3:16–17 (ESV) — 16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

What does the word ‘destroy’ mean?
Well, I can tell you straight out, you don’t want no part of that!
The first thing you should know is that the two words ‘will destroy’ is one word in the Greek and it’s future tense.
Future tense doesn’t let us know when in the future this will occur.
But, just know that it will.
The Greek word ‘destroy’ means to cause harm to in a physical manner or in outward circumstances, destroy, ruin, corrupt, spoil¹
Some of the ancient writings show that the word was used in connection with the destruction of a house.
Lowu Nida says the word means to ruin or destroy something, with the implication of causing something to be corrupt and thus to cease to exist.²
Again, you don’t want any part of this — this thing we have going on when we come together is sacred.
The Temple is holy.

God’s Temple: It Is Finished

The concept of God’s people as His Temple should be no surprise to us.
The Old Testament foreshadowed it.
The Psalmists prophetically weighed in on this one day.

Psalm 114:2 (ESV) — 2 Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.

What about Ezekiel’s prophecy starting in chapter 40?

Ezekiel 40:1–4 (ESV) — 1 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck down, on that very day, the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me to the city. 2 In visions of God he brought me to the land of Israel, and set me down on a very high mountain, on which was a structure like a city to the south. 3 When he brought me there, behold, there was a man whose appearance was like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring reed in his hand. And he was standing in the gateway. 4 And the man said to me, “Son of man, look with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart upon all that I shall show you, for you were brought here in order that I might show it to you. Declare all that you see to the house of Israel.”

In verse five, we have measured out the East Gate to the Outer Court of the Temple.

Ezekiel 40:5 (ESV) — 5 And behold, there was a wall all around the outside of the temple area, and the length of the measuring reed in the man’s hand was six long cubits, each being a cubit and a handbreadth in length. So he measured the thickness of the wall, one reed; and the height, one reed.

In verse seventeen, we have measured out the Outer Court of the Temple.
In verse twenty and twenty-four, the dimensions for the Northern and Southern Gates are laid out.
Drop to verse twenty-eight, now you have the specs for the Inner Court.
In a vision, Ezekiel received all of this from the Spirit of the Lord upon him.
So, what we have here are detailed descriptions of the temple’s layout with specific measurements, such as the size of gates, rooms, and pavements.
Detailed information is given about the dimensions, windows, palm trees, and stairways of every gate and court.
Every detail of the Temple’s layout has been meticulously planned.
In case you don’t know it yet, this is who God is — meticulous — attention to detail.
Chapter 40 ends and chapter forty-one continues the theme — more detailed descriptions of other portions of the Temple.
Chapter forty-two, same thing.
Now, we come to Ezekiel forty three — and here is where this gets exciting.

Ezekiel 43:1–2 (ESV) — 1 Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing east. 2 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. And the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory.

Here’s what should get you excited.
In the vision, the Temple was built first, then the glory came!

Ezekiel 43:3–5 (ESV) — 3 And the vision I saw was just like the vision that I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and just like the vision that I had seen by the Chebar canal. And I fell on my face. 4 As the glory of the Lord entered the temple by the gate facing east, 5 the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

The glory of God came in from the east.
It filled the temple.

Ezekiel 43:6–7 (ESV) — 6 While the man was standing beside me, I heard one speaking to me out of the temple, 7 and he said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever…

Do you remember what Jesus told His disciples in John 14 about the Holy Spirit?
He said, — ‘you know Him,’ Jesus said — for He dwells with you and will be in you.’
There’s no let up here.
Revelation closes with this same thought.

Revelation 21:3 (ESV) — 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

Go back to the vision.
There’s another part.
The Temple is built, the Glory comes.

2 Chronicles 5:11–14 (ESV) — 11 And when the priests came out of the Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves, without regard to their divisions, 12 and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, their sons and kinsmen, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar with 120 priests who were trumpeters; 13 and it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord), and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever,” the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, 14 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

When the Temple was clean — when the praise was pure and holy — the Glory came and filled the Temple.
It was already there, can I tell you.
But it came into Shekinah manifestation!
Now look what happens in Ezekiels prophecy?

Ezekiel 47:1–5 (NASB95) — 1 Then he brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, water was flowing from under the threshold of the house toward the east, for the house faced east. And the water was flowing down from under, from the right side of the house, from south of the altar. 2 He brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate by way of the gate that faces east. And behold, water was trickling from the south side. 3 When the man went out toward the east with a line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits, and he led me through the water, water reaching the ankles. 4 Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water, water reaching the knees. Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water, water reaching the loins. 5 Again he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not ford, for the water had risen, enough water to swim in, a river that could not be forded.

Do you remember what Jesus said about water flowing?

John 7:37–39 (ESV) — 37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

You have to see the progression.
The Temple is built — you, all of you together, your group, your church, your Sunday School class are the Temple!
When the Temple is built, the glory comes.
I will dwell with them and they will be my people and I will be there God.
When the Glory comes, Water starts flowing out of the Temple.
It starts flowing out of you and you and you.
It washes away cancer — it washes away heart disease — it washes away every sickness and disease!

The Temple in the Gospels

The Temple is in the gospels.

Mark 16:15–17 (ESV) — 15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe:

Them!
These signs will follow them that believe.
Them is plural!
It’s plural in the Greek.
Check it out.
Signs follow them — not just him [they can follow an individual] — not just you [they can follow you] — them!

Mark 16:17 (ESV) — 17 … in my name they will cast out demons;

In my Name — THEY!
They, the group, — they the Temple.

Mark 16:17–18 (ESV) — 17 …They will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

They will hands on the sick!

Mark 16:19–20 (ESV) — 19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

The Lord working with them.
Don’t forget they.
Don’t forget them.
Did you ever notice this in the book of James?

James 5:14–15 (ESV) — 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church,

Elders is plural.
That’s a group.
It’s right to pray for healing in the presence of a group.

James 5:14–15 (ESV) — 14 …and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

The Temple and God indwelling all of you as a group is huge in the New Testament.
The power is in the WE not in the me.
God’s way is to gand up with WE.
Forget trying to be the Lone Ranger.

Now, Father God thank you for your indwelling Presence. That is your Precious Presence in the midst of us. We thank you for the manifestation of your glory. May the healing power of God sweep the Temple today in Jesus Name.

Right now, if you are out there, receive your healing.
Reach out to Him and believe you receive it in Jesus Name, Amen.
Why God’s Greatest Glory Manifests In His Temple.
You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

#S3-025: How Timely Adjustments Unlock The Presence of God [Podcast]

__________
References:

William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1054. ↩
Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 232. ↩

emeryhorvath.com

Equipping people to pursue God's glory

Why God’s Greatest Glory Manifests In His Temple

Podcast: Light on Life Season Eleven Episode Forty-Five

by Emery Horvath

Listen to the Audio

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Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

For more teaching on the book of John, please click on the links below to listen to some of those podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Prayer

God’s Temple: The Church of the Living God

God’s Temple: Being in the Know

God’s Sacred Temple

God’s Temple: How Healing Happens

God’s Temple: It Is Finished

The Temple in the Gospels

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Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download |Subscribe in PlayerFM

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

For more teaching on the book of John, please click on the links below to listen to some of those podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Prayer

God’s Temple: The Church of the Living God

God’s Temple: Being in the Know

God’s Sacred Temple

God’s Temple: How Healing Happens

God’s Temple: It Is Finished

The Temple in the Gospels

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