The Last Temple

My attention was drawn to the significance of the Torn Veil the other day. The Veil was a curtain in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in the days of Jesus.

The Temple was divided into a number of different areas and at the West end of the site stood a massive building, 15 stories high. It was an enormous construction that was divided into two rooms. If you went up the steps and into the first room you would see a small altar for burning incense, a table with bread on it and a 7 branched lamp stand called a Menorah. In front of you you would see a curtain which separated this room from the next. This room was known as The Holy Place. The room behind the curtain was called The Holy of Holies. Once a year, the High Priest would go through the curtain into the Holy of Holies and offer a sacrifice on behalf of the nation for their sins in that past year. That day was called the Day of Atonement. God allowed His Presence to be in that room and that is why it was called the Holy of Holies. Only the High Priest could go in there, and only once a year. It wasn’t open to anybody and everybody.

Now it’s the Veil or Curtain that is interesting.

This wasn’t just some ordinary bit of cloth. It was 60 feet high and it was about 4 inches thick! At the exact moment that Jesus died, that curtain was ripped straight down the middle from the top to the bottom – by God. To understand what this means, and how it applies to us as we come out of lockdown and consider our way forward as Church, we need to travel back in time a little.

In Genesis, at the beginning, God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden, at the end of each day….and they would chat about how the day had been and about what tomorrow might bring.

Later, in Exodus, God, having brought the Israelite people out of slavery in Egypt, told Moses to build a Tabernacle – a Temple in a Tent. This had an area called The Holy Place and an inner bit called the Holy of Holies. God promised that His Presence would rest in the Holy of Holies.

About 600 years later again, King Solomon got to build a permanent Temple building. You can read about its dedication at the end of 2 Chronicles Chapter 5. God’s presence filled the Temple. That temple was later destroyed and subsequently rebuilt. King Herod later modernised it on a grand scale and the work was completed just before Jesus began his ministry.

OK. So what’s the point. The point is this. In the Tent Temple and in the two later Temples built of stone, God let His Presence rest there because He wanted to live among His people. But He always had a better plan. One day He was going to live in His people. We are living in that day now, when God lives in His people, not just among them. So, for the last 2000 years there has been no Temple made of stone and wood. God has been living in His people. We are the Temple now.

Back to the Veil….I had misunderstood the tearing of the Veil. I used to think that it signified that the way in to Gods presence was now open. What it really means is that the way is now open, and God is coming out to live in His people. Jesus’ death opened the way. The curtain tore at the exact moment of Jesus death. It’s as if God couldn’t wait!

For centuries He had been waiting for this moment. Now the one perfect sacrifice for sin had been made. One sacrifice, once, for all time. Now His people were a Holy people, made holy by the blood of Jesus. Now He could live in His people.

In Acts 17 Paul says that God no longer lives in a Temple built with hands. He has chosen to live in us rather than just among us. Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that we need to go to a church building to encounter the presence of God, as if the Church building was a modern replacement of the temple. No! He is in us. Closer than close. “Where two or three are gathered together, I am there with you” Jesus said. (Obviously a building is a useful tool – a roof over our head while we gather. It could be a home, a hall, a cafe. But any building is simply a tool).

So what’s the significance as we come out of lockdown? Some of our thinking needs to change, I believe. The Temple that God is building and living in is not confined to ‘my church’ or ‘my denomination’. It is only complete when we are all included and functioning together. The Body of Christ is not simply ‘my church’ or ‘my home-group’ In fact, ‘my church’ or ‘my group’ is simply a part of the Whole Body, and the Whole Body is His new Temple – the Last Temple.

It’s time to realise that we need each other to be complete, and as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians Ch. 12, no part of the body is better than another. No group or denomination or stream or local church is better than another. It’s time to honour those who are not part of ‘our church’. It’s time to prefer them (put them first), to promote them, to look for ways to serve them.

Finally, there are many believers who are now beginning to feel that God is wanting them to relocate/change the way that they function as church. They are feeling the call to something new. This is something that God is doing all over this nation. He is re-organising the troops! Don’t be nervous. Don’t be afraid to push out, to listen to Him and have a go. Don’t be afraid of risk or possible failure. But always remember that wherever we are and whatever church looks like for each of us, we are all part of the Temple that God is building for Himself. A temple not made by hands, a place where He enjoys living in us.