THE CHURCH THAT JESUS BUILT

The Church That Jesus Built
by Keith Giles

In 2 Samuel, chapter 7, we read where King David looked around his opulent cedar palace and concluded that it wasn't right that he should live in such splendor while God lived in a tent outside the city, hovered over the Ark of the Covenant.

When David tells the prophet Nathan that he intends to build a house for God the prophet enthusiastically tells David that he is certain God will be with him no matter what he plans to do.

That night God nudges Nathan awake and lets him know that it's usually better to ask God what He thinks before you just go ahead and endorse someone's impulsive idea.

God tells Nathan to let David know that He doesn't live in that tent, and that He can go wherever He wants, and that He has never asked anyone to build a house for Him. Not ever.

Instead, God tells David, in verese 11, to sit back and allow Him to build a house for David. "The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you."

What follows is a beautiful prophecy concerning the Messiah. "When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son." - (2 Sam 7:12-14)

I am amazed to see how God not only promised to build a house for David, but that this promised Messiah would be the only one to build a house for God.

Yes, we do know that Solomon was allowed to build a temple to God, but God was always clear that He did not reside in Temples built by men, nor did He require a special building to house His Spirit.

As I read this prophetic passage I have to wonder, "What house did Jesus build for God?" We know that Jesus didn't commission any buildings. We know that His Disciples didn't build any temples either.

The only thing that Jesus ever built that could qualify as a "House for (God's) Name" is the Church. This means that you and I are the fulfillment of this prophecy.

"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple." - 1 Cor 3:16

What is the purpose of a Temple? It's a Holy Place. It's where people can go to find God, to approach Him and to enter into His presence.

If you and I are now the Temple of God on this Earth, this means that whenever people come to you, whether they know it or not, they are standing in front of the Temple of the Living God.

"But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast." - Hebrews 3:5-6

Even though we often think of the Church as a building, it is not a building. The Church is a organism, not an organization. The Church is made only of living, breathing people who carry around with them the Holy Presence of the Living God in their hearts.

"In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." - Ephesians 2:20-22

God lives in you. He has made His home in you, by your faith in Christ Jesus and the finished work of Christ on the cross. This is not a small thing. In fact, the ripping of the veil in Solomon's Temple, the cloth separating God and man, was ripped from top to bottom the very instant that Jesus accomplished His work on the cross.

"And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." - Matthew 27:50-51.

God didn't wait even one second longer than necessary to remove the veil which separated us from Himself. Let's be careful not to hang up a new veil in its place.

We are the only House that God has ever asked for. We are the only Temple ever commissioned by God to house His Holy Presence. That's who you are. That's who I am.

The True and Living God has built for Himself a living, breathing Temple on this Earth and we are it.

Meditate on this today. Realize that this is who God has made you to be.


-kg
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