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right at the end of that chapter as it is divided in our S 2 beginning in verse 19. so then you are no longer strangers and Aliens but
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you are fellow citizens with the Saints and you are of God's household having been built on the foundation of the Apostles and the prophets Christ Jesus himself being the Cornerstone in whom
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the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy Temple in the Lord in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the
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spirit and we've touched on this idea all the way through starting in Eden
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by nature of his dwelling in it it makes it the temple the church is the place of God's dwelling in the spirit Paul tells us here in Ephesians we saw this last week and I'd like to revisit it actually out
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of Acts 7 in Stephen's defense the idea that the temple this Temple this era as we've looked at our timeline and sort of lined these things out
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we talked about these major phases of God's creative activity what we typically think of as Creation in Genesis 1
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going down to that last Temple that Heavenly Temple we see descending in Revelation 21 22 but we have also the Tabernacle
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the temple the physical Temple that we think of starting with Solomon's Temple and then the church and we have these sort of five major movements or phases of God's creative
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revelatory activity of making a dwelling place for himself and as we're running down to the end here we're talking about the church and Stephen picks up this idea in his
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defense as he's um giving this this speech this summary of God's activity in in his communication with his people
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his people in verse I'm going to start in verse 44 of Acts chapter 7. he says our fathers had the Tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness just as
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he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern which he had seen and having received it in their turn our fathers brought it with Joshua in Joshua in upon dispossessing the Nations whom God
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drove out before our fathers until the time of David David found favor in God's sight and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the god of Jacob but it was Solomon who built a house for him
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however the most high does not dwell in houses made by human hands as the prophet says Heaven is my Throne the Earth is the footstool of my feet what kind of house will you build for me says the Lord or
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what is the place that there is for my Repose was it not my hand which made all these things these things he's referring of course back to Isaiah
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66 and in Isaiah 66 we can read that same quote there but I'm going to read the first six verses in Isaiah 66 because I think he gives us a little more picture
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of what what Stephen is picking this up for why is he why is he wielding this at the Jews at this particular moment in his defense his defense God says through the prophet in Isaiah
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66 beginning in verse 1 thus says the Lord heaven is my Throne the Earth is my footstool where then is a house that you could build for me and where is a place that I may rest for my hand made all
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these things thus all these things came into being declares the Lord but to this one I will look for him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my word
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but he who kills an ox is like one who slays a man he who sacrifices a lamb is like the one who breaks a dog's neck he who offers a grain offering is like one who offers swine's blood he who burns
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incense is like the one who blesses an idol as they have chosen their own ways and their soul Delights and their Abominations so I will choose their punishments and bring upon them what they dread because I called and no one
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answered I spoke but they did not listen and they did evil in my sight and chose that in which I did not Delight hear the word of the Lord You Who tremble at his word your brothers who
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hate you who exclude you for my name's sake have said let the Lord be glorified that we may see your joy but they will be put to shame a voice of uproar from the city of voice from the temple the
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voice of the Lord who is rendering recompense to his enemies so Steven's picking up of this phrase here specifically in conjunction with the
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temple but he's talking to exactly these people those who have excluded as we see here in verse 5 who hates your brothers who exclude you for my namesake and say let
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the Lord be glorified it's those people that Stephen is addressing in the midst of his defense
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God's human Temple is inadequate because of the human maid Temple the temple made with hands as he's Stephen is bringing this point out in in seven uh 49 I think it is it's inadequate because of God's
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Transcendence that's what Isaiah is getting at that's what Stephen is getting at God is transcended but it's also inadequate because of the association of these people who are meant to be holy with sin
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I mean what are the things that Isaiah is listing out here are these not sacrifices that they were told to make and yet God is saying they're doing them according to their own desires they're doing them according to their own wishes
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they're not doing it because they're heeding my word they're doing it almost as a form of idolatry even Solomon's Temple was quote unquote handmade and that's actually the word
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that we see here in the New Testament kind of comes up again and again the the actual phrase is you know we say made with hands but it's basically a conjunction handmade that this Temple is
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handmade in Isaiah 66 God contrasts the man who is humble who is contrite with the one who lives with idols um and this idea of handmade and New
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Testament terms is usually denoting something ill or something evil in Mark and you know this is connecting these things back together with Stephen and Mark
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as they are trying Jesus before the Sanhedrin we read the accusation here in Mark 14 in verse 58 it says that well
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57 they stood up and began to give false testimony against him saying we heard him say I will destroy this Temple made with hands handmade and in three days I will build another maid without hands
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not even in this respect was their testimony consistent but this is the charge that they're bringing when they're trying Stephen this is where Stephen's whole defense kicks off if you look slightly back in Acts chapter 6
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just before the defense in seven we read they stir up the people in verse 12. the elders the scribes they came up to him dragged him away brought him before the
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council verse 13 they put forward false Witnesses who said this man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the law for we have heard him say that this Nazarene Jesus who will destroy this
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place and alter the Customs which Moses handed down to us so they're using that same accusation against Stephen that he's proclaiming the one who's who's saying he's going to destroy this Temple
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um we looked a little bit I'm going to turn there as well as we sort of work through some of these Illusions in Hebrews chapter 9.
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and again we could read just about the whole book of Hebrews or even just the chapter 9 in Hebrews but he makes this point here in in the latter half of chapter nine of Hebrews again this idea
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of handmade or made with hands as he goes through the symbols and the elements of the Tabernacle and he's talking about the the contrasts and the priests who are not able to
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do anything that that lasts anything that ministers to the people in perpetuity he says in verse 11 but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come he entered through a
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greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this creation this creation and not through the blood of goats and
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calves but through his own blood he entered the holy Place once for all having obtained Eternal Redemption again a little bit further down in 24 he says well I'm going to start in 23
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therefore it was necessary for the copies of these things in the Heavens to be cleansed with these but the Heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these for Christ did not enter a
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holy Place made with hands a mere copy of the true one but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us nor was it he
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nor was it that he would offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy Place year by year with blood that is not his own otherwise he would not have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world
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sorry he would have needed to have suffered often since the foundation of the world but now once at the consummation of the ages he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself so the writer of
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Hebrews is telling us here and we looked at this just a little bit the idea that when Moses has shown the pattern and when David is given a blueprint to hand down to Solomon that it is a representation given to him by
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God he says God gave me all of these things to write down that it is in fact a a representation of something in the heavenlies something in the Heavenly
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Realm and the writer of Hebrews is drawing here saying this new creation
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that that creation that thing into which Christ entered as he was making sacrifices not of the mortal or perishable as we're going to read in elsewhere in Paul creation but it is this indelible Act of God that is
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beginning here that that what Christ entered into was not of this creation not made with hands um and again it's this idea that in
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these moments here Christ at through through God's instruction entrusted men entrusted men to do these things to work upon them to physically construct them now there is
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an involvement of man as we've talked about in the church that there are Elders there are teachers there are evangelists who are given a pattern from God a blueprint to follow in building
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God's household but it is now again as it was at the first a direct action a direct intervention of God's will to create new
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create new in Acts 17 or yeah later in Acts 17 . Paul again looking at this idea of made with hands is going to use this
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but he says here as he's standing in the midst of them and declaring to them you know I'm looking around at all of your idols and then he says in verse 24 The God Who made the world and all the things in it
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does not dwell in temples made with hand handmade temples nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all people life and breadth and all things um of course there's a huge amount of
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theology wrapped up in there but he's getting at this point that God does not dwell in temples made with hands he says here um at the end of that sermon in verse 31
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because he has fixed today in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead Paul is
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contrasting those Idols that do live in temples made with hands with the um with Christ raised from the dead and
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this is where we're going to start to connect the connect the Resurrection the estate of the Resurrection man as New Creation is that creative act of God that is
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book um the temple and the mission of God calls this an unresolved Paradox um he talks about this idea of what we we have sort of referred to as the special revelatory presence of God God
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is omnipresent and yet he makes a manifestation of his entering into the temple and in fact as a as a form of judgment in one of the prophetic Visions he makes a a show of his special
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revelatory presence leaving the temple as a mark of judgment
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the reason that he does that goes back to the whole thread that comes from from here frankly to the end and we're going there in our our verses today but today but he desires to dwell with his people
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he desires as he did at the first to walk with man as we see him walking with man in the garden we're looking at again from our perspective we we live in time we have to follow the timeline
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as he's working out the manifestations of resolving the block the breach made with between man and God
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because of sin he does give that act of Grace to his people in increasing
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magnitude as he moves forward so the Tabernacle is of course a shadow of the temple the temple itself is frankly a shadow of the church and so we're going to get into some of what Paul says about this but it is a
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it is an escalation as it moves through but part of it was that God is showing to his people in that special revelatory presence that he was with them that he he did dwell with them but
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not as not as completely as he does now and that's where we're going with our verses here is is the fact that he now dwells in US as that Temple it is a
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my temples made by hand warning the Israelites not to do what the pagans do and that is Limited to that building right he can he
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concedes to dwell Within but he wants to make sure this is not I'm I'm on the present I'm I'm the god of the universe yeah I mean you know you look at the Psalms
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where can I go to escape from your presence there's also um and I don't have the verses to hand but there's a thread that gets built in the profits if you follow it of God's rebuke of them
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basically saying you're holding up the temple saying oh we've got the temple nothing's going to happen to Jerusalem because God is here and God is saying it's not the temple it's because you're my people and he
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lets the temple in some respects get destroyed as an object lesson to them I am still your God I am still in control of these things the temple is not they they effectively made the temple
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idolatry and that's part of what Stephen is indicting them for here and I think his reference again back to Isaiah is to say you know you're you're holding up the temple you're holding up these sacrifices you're saying oh here you
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know we've done all the things that we're supposed to do because we're doing we're being good obedient folks here in the temple but you're not actually serving the heart of God in any of these
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foreign God does these things you know take the law what are we told about the law later on it was a school Master it was meant as instruction but
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it has been superseded now we live in an estate where the law written on our hearts right there it was a a lesson pointing to us a time a state that would
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be inaugurated by Jesus's action similarly there was an estate in which man and God dwelt together in harmony that was ruptured in sin
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these manifestations of that are acts of Grace pointing to a more complete dwelling in harmony that is coming in this age in
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which we live does that make sense I mean one of the things I had this little bit later in my notes I was actually talking with Aaron about this because he's preparing a study for uh
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January I think you know I said there are these moments and I don't know if this happens to you but happens to me fairly frequently where you look at some things the inscription you go man how did you guys
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miss that and it's like you're swinging the nunchucks around it comes right back and hits you in the face um you know sometimes I look at the the people of Israel and say you had the the pillar and the cloud you could see it
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right there and yet you went off and you did all these sins and it comes back around and says we've got the holy spirit in US and here am I trotting off to do all of these sins you know it's
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it's an object lesson for us um so yeah the what we're looking at here in Acts what we're looking at here in
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Ephesians Believers are identified with with Christ um and existing in this new creation state I'm going to turn to Second Corinthians I'm going to be all over so you don't necessarily have to follow
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all of these passages with me but in second Corinthians 5 Paul and we're gonna we're gonna touch on a couple of things here throughout the lesson but Paul says in verse 1 of chapter five
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for we know that the Earthly tent which is our house is torn down if the Earthly tent which is our house is torn down we have a building from God a house not made with hands Eternal in
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the heavens the heavens so that that action of God that enduring um not handmade is the contrast that's being brought up here
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again in Ephesians a little bit earlier in chapter two he says starting in verse 10 for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus
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for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them and I think oftentimes we get into um we look at verses like this and this is one of those you know pitfalls if you
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will of of memory versus we start to think about this from a very particular event oh we were prepared for good works that's where we're going with this don't miss the fact that this is the
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creative activity of God that God as Creator is doing this as he says we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works it is an
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act of creation therefore remember that formerly you the Gentiles In the Flesh who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision which is performed in the
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flesh by human hands remember that you were at that time separate from Christ excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of Promise having no hope and without God
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in the world but now in Christ Jesus you who were firmly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for he himself is our peace who made both groups into one and broke down the
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barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity which is the law of Commandments contained in ordinances so that he in himself he might make the two into one new man thus
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establishing peace and might reconcile them both in one body to God Through The Cross by having put to death the enmity so again we're we're looking at a new creation State God's workmanship and and
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here in uh Ephesians Paul is contrasting God's workmanship those things created by Christ with that circumcision made by hand handmade Beale and his book
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actually takes some of these connections all the way back to Daniel too in the prophecy of Daniel 2 of course the statue made of the different Metals is representing the empires of the earth and it is smashed to Pieces by what
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by a stone cut without hands there's a there's this Stone without hands that is that is cut without hands
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that is crushing and subduing this statue subsuming it becomes this mountain this statue representing all human Empire all human striving for
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Dominion all of that effort that we see in the Nations for for power on the earth is smashed and is is you know completely taken over subsumed by it and that image of that mountain I
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think is intended to be a picture of the you know Christ of course is the stone cut without hands but that mountain is the expansion of
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the church throughout the whole Earth his Dwelling Place encompassing the globe growing and growing and growing as it is added to day by day
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you can even call back to mind we talked about this in the Tabernacle the instructions given to them that that Joshua fulfills for them that altar was what an uncut stone that altar that they
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were supposed to bring into it was a stone pulled from the earth without tools or workmanship on it uncut um and so we have this idea this this uncut Stone idea we're
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going to tie it together here with Christ's identification of himself in Luke Chapter 2 is where or chapter 20 is where I'm going to go you could also go to Matthew 21 both were counting I think
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but Luke 20 in verse 17 Jesus looked at them says what then is this that is written this Stone which the builders rejected this became the Chief Cornerstone everyone who falls on that stone will be broken
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to Pieces but on whomever it falls it will scatter him like dust again if you return to our our Ephesians um passage there Ephesians 2 in verse
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as he's talking about these things and drawing them together he says you are no longer strangers and aliens fellow citizens you are of God's household having been built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets
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Christ Jesus himself being the Cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy Temple holy Temple in the Lord in whom also you are being built together into a Dwelling Place of
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God in the spirit so Christ the Cornerstone we are built we the temple of God the church are built on that Foundation the apostles the prophets Christ himself as the Cornerstone
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Christ died to enable this creation do we think about it in those terms think of John 1 and the creative
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activity of the word in what we call perhaps the original creation this creation here we see in John 1 this image of the word as he calls it
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in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God he was in the beginning with God all things came into being through him and apart from him nothing came into being
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that has come into being in him was life and the life was the light of men the light shines in the darkness and the Darkness did not comprehend it and we could go on we could read in in
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14 the word becomes flesh but I think you understand where I'm going with this John sums up the old creation nothing came into being apart from him
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Jesus is dying on the cross here enables this new creation John's statement here remains true nothing has come into being apart from him this new creation enabled
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by his death burial and Resurrection on the cross is a creative action of God through Christ Jesus do we carry that notion when we're thinking about it I
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mean I think a lot of times I guess I'll speak for myself I have a tendency to think of Christ and his work upon the Earth overcoming obstacles doing these Mighty Deeds dealing with these points
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of the law and and of sin and all these things that he's dealing with but do we think of it as those are very true and good but do we think about it as a work of
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creation as creative activity when we're talking about God as creator this is the inauguration of the new
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so this is something that he his membership he wants them to do this and then he doesn't says they're nine he says that says that the glory of the latter great as a performer I think
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the Tabernacle the temples and then the temple as it is now we're all
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right and and I don't want to put words in your mouth but it is concession it is not the reality of this because of where we are on the timeline it is concession to these people
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unable to walk through this without visible manifestation of of God's
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but that because of the weakness because of the hardness of our hearts because the harnesses the harnesses they needed to see that Tabernacle moving with them setting up in Camp they needed to have a
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place in Jerusalem to direct their prayers but it was never to be the end-all be-all yeah even marriage
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even marriage is not the end of be all because Jesus says in the age to come they will not be right marriage so it is concessive it's got it's got Grace
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giving a visual but then also trying to guard them against making that visual permanent because it's not in the New Jerusalem does that clarify is is meant in terms
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in the house in the way that we dwell in our houses right and and you know we could go back and look at that in in Solomon's dedication he even says basically how will he dwell here on the earth with us um because he is God he is omnipresent
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so it is yes it is concessive it is it is an act of grace to the people to have that because they have not yet in the timeline sense achieved this the state
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because Christ had not yet come um so yes think about this you know this is not to take away any of the other realities of Christ's work but think
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about Christ's work also his death on the cross is an Act of Creation by the word by the power of the
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word um and this act is an act of recreation I mean we use the phrase he says it to um Nicodemus and we tend to use it fairly flippantly I think at least in the South born again
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rebirth the idea that this is a new creation this is a creative a a generative Act of God that his work his power is is doing this even through
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death I mean what does he say in in John chapter 12. chapter 12. at least this is where my brain went
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I'm going to start in verse 20 I guess of of John 12. there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast these then came to Philip who was from the Sada of Galilee and began to ask him saying sir we wish to
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see Jesus Philip came and told Andrew Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus and Jesus answered them saying the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified truly truly I say to you
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unless a grain of wheat falls into the Earth and dies it remains alone but if it dies it Bears much fruit he who loves his life will lose it he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life
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eternal if anyone serve me he must follow me and where I am there my servant will be also if anyone serves me my father will honor him now my soul has become troubled and what shall I say
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father save me from this hour but for this purpose I came to this hour father glorify your name
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is the regenerative Act he is the seed that falls to the ground and dies and dies okay that's what he's getting at here is that seed must fall to the ground die
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you you plant the seeds in the soil where they where they break open and become the new fruit if you simply keep them preserved on the Shelf they have no act they have no
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generative power to multiply to be fruitful and so Christ's death here leads him into his resurrection his first roots of the new creation if we go back to First
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in First Corinthians 15 you look like you have a question Brewing now
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yes and that's the other half of what he's saying here is if if the seed falls to the ground and dies then it will grow then it becomes the plant that is bearing fruit it is not
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the cross is not the end for Christ this is one of the issues with with one of the issues with the crucifix you don't leave Christ on the cross right because it is his death burial and resurrection
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and that's where we're going the resurrection as the first fruits of that but he must first die that's what he's getting at with his disciples there is it troubled even him but he recognized
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for this purpose he had come he had to die to inaugurate this generative Act
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and frankly this ties into where Chuck has been for the last couple of weeks in Romans and I'm not going to rehash all of that but death is necessary for this reality
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as a physical item and we understand that God's presence in those spaces was spaces was to help the people but Church up there sure my next question is
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well is church similar to as Paul said love the one thing that carries over into the new creation you know okay hope love but the greatest thing is love all love but I don't think that's true right
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because then he would go off on this Rabbit Trail we say well which church right is it the Catholic church is it so yeah right okay so here's and and we'll probably solve this a little bit next week as we finally resolve the this
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piece here I'm going to tell you everything you need to know about Revelation next week so come no I'm kidding but in Revelation we've read it a couple of times God's presence is their
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manifest right he is the light that suffuses that whole creation we understand it to be somewhat different from the state in which we live right because frankly if this is it I want my
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money back as other theologians have said um we're looking for that physical presence of God that manifests presence of God on his throne in the midst of his City ruling and reigning over his people
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but we are working towards it steadily even in this estate and so we go back to the idea of church um you know we can go for the the difference between
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Capital C or lowercase C the church Universal the church as Paul conceives of it here in his writings that body of Believers those living stones that are being shaped together built up
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into the household of faith of whom Christ is the head is distinguished from the visible manifestations here on the earth that frankly have problems I mean I ran
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into this this more than once and I recently heard somebody else struggling with it again when you look at church history this throws a lot of people off I think for most of us we're not exactly
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thrilled with the Theology of the Catholic church for a good several hundred year period right and there's a lot of people that look at that and go how do we Trace The Unbroken line of
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Faith from Jesus to our present day if we have to go through the Catholic Church frankly there were a heck of a lot of people out there Faithfully serving God preaching his word in spirit and in
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truth who are not recorded for us well I guess the
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but I wonder if that word shouldn't be church but it should be disciples because that's where Jesus commanded his followers to ought to make disciples that is where we
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with them sure Adam where are you and and we did actually start at the kind of the first lesson talking about what is the mission of the church is he's we're told to make disciples but the term that we use for the assembly the the large group of
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disciples is the church isn't it right they solve it by just saying that the only denomination that's going to work
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can't just give up on it because you're not saying to give up on it but we don't we don't I think we can't try to explain in a way or use a different word we just have to own the fact that
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yeah it's not perfect because God hasn't totally manifested all that he's going to do to do but that Community is real and if we
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look at this regularly we can realize that the church is more than it looks like right now
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um I think that's a good point and I want us to to take that as we move forward is one of the things I'm trying to get across in this lesson in particular as we think about God as creator
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remember remember as you go through life as you encounter the issues in the church or you encounter this is still the creative activity of God and it will not fail because he does not fail to
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manifest his creation gloriously Chuck you had your hand up I think maybe the solution is to continue to remind ourselves against institutionalizing the church
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that's fair we we have dry juice to maintain a firm non-denominationalism without ignoring the pluses and minus
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minus the nominations but but the tendency is to institutionalize at that point you've created just as much an idol of the church I think this is what Ariel you're getting as they did with the
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temple and and you know the building even becomes we call the place where we sing and everything that's called The Sanctuary you know it's like we're just trying to lean toward that
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idolatry but the church is made up of disciples but it is a corporate Body of Christ and I think we just have to keep reminding ourselves that it's not an institution yeah Jenny you had your hand up
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the treasures of all the nations will come that I will fill this house
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and so that's that's what we're dealing with is the fact that we inhabit this at risk of sounding very dispensational we inhabit this church age anticipating that final Temple to come
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but we we live in the midst of unfolding activity of God we are in the middle of his creative work his activity building
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his church I want to read um before we run out of time this morning and we're going to have to do some of the rest of this next week um but in First Corinthians 15.
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Paul is connecting the resurrection of Christ for us here um I'm going to start in verse 20 I mean I thought I might read all of First Corinthians 15 because
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but I'm going to start in verse 20. he says but now Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who are asleep who are Since By A Man Came Death by a
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man came also the resurrection of the Dead for as in Adam all die so in Christ all will be made alive but each in his own order Christ the first Roots after
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that those who are Christ those who are Christ at his coming then comes the end when he hands over the kingdom to the God and father when he has abolished all
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Rule and authority and power so talking about Christ's death his burial his resurrection Christ used that metaphor of the seed falling to the ground dying growing and being fruitful Paul is
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picking that up for us here saying by this Resurrection buy this first fruits Christ is the the first harvest of that and of course I think many of you have heard the the concept going all the way
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back to to Deuteronomy and Exodus the the offering of the first fruits the the delivering of the first fruits to God as a as a way to honor him the the first
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and the best of the Harvest Christ is that symbol for us Christ is the uh the the anti-type of that symbol for us as he says here I'm going to pick up again
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in verse 35. uh but someone will say how are the dead raised and with what kind of body do they come you fool that which you sow does not come to life unless it dies and
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that which you sow you do not sow the body which is to be but a bare grain perhaps of wheat or of something else but God gives it a body just as he wished and to each of the seeds a body
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of its own All Flesh is not the same flesh but there is one flesh of men another of beasts another flesh of birds and another of fish there are also heavenly bodies and Earthly bodies but
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the glory of the Heavenly is one and the glory of the Earthly is another there is one glory of the Sun and another glory of the Moon and another glory of the stars for a star differs from star and Glory so also is the resurrection of the
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dead it is sown a perishable and it is raised in imperishable bloody it is sown in dishonor it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power it is sown a natural body it is raised a
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spiritual body if there is a natural body then there is also a spiritual body so also it is written the first man Adam became a living Soul the last Adam became a life-giving spirit however the
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spiritual is not first but the natural then the spiritual the first man is from the earth earthy the second man is from heaven and as is the earthy so also are
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those who are earthy and as is the Heavenly so also those who are Heavenly just as we have borne the image of the earthy we will also bear the image of the Heavenly and this brings us all the way back around to the idea of being
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created in the image of God we are being recreated in the image of Christ okay so as we talk about man as a new creation hopefully we get to touch on that some next week
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but this is what Paul is tying together for us is this death burial and resurrection of Christ is a creative act it is necessary to inaugurate this age of being of Life of all of the things
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that we Delight in and are blessed by is manifests creative act of God through the word made flesh the Incarnate Word Christ Jesus he is the creator of the
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church and he is the Cornerstone on which it rests without Christ without the resurrection and Paul says this in in First Corinthians just a little ahead of where I picked up in in 15. and what
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does he say here if we have hoped in Christ well he's already talking about the resurrection but he says if Christ in verse 17 of chapter 15 if Christ has not
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been raised your faith is worthless and you are still in your sins then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished if we have hoped in Christ in this life only we are of all men most to be pitied so without the Resurrection
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the church is nothing more than a huge group of people who are among all men most to be pitied so the resurrection is fundamental it is the the very beginnings of that Cornerstone
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on which the whole structure rests in Jesus that whole building is being fitted together into uh that that living Temple the the power of God in the spirit shaping these
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Living Stones God calls and causes his people to be a holy people to be a place where God dwells in the spirit there he is pleased to dwell we read here and and
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we will have to pick up with second Corinthians next week as we sort of wrap up the study but hopefully this helps you think about these things as you go forward which is to say not to take away the
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fact that that Christ in his action is removing the stain of sin that by the shedding of his blood he has made that atonement he has overcome the obstacles he has done
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Mighty Deeds yes but also with it remember that this is creative action of God his death burial and Resurrection begins this period of New Creation as
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the as the writer Hebrews says something not of this creation let's close in prayer as we go upstairs to worship God
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our heavenly father we do thank you for the ministry of Christ for that Cornerstone and that sure foundation on which we rest we thank you that it is unshakable unmovable because you have established
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it we ask that you would be at work in us that we would indeed be those Living Stones shaped and fitted together that we would be diligent in our Outlook to shape ourselves by your
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spirit to fit together that we would look to our brothers and sisters the stones on either side of us above and below that we would seek to dwell together in unity in harmony building up the edifice of the church
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before the Nations father we ask that you would build your church that you would manifest Your Glory before the whole world we ask that in whatever small way you have anointed
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us to it that we might magnify you that we might offer sacrifices acceptable to you in the beloved father we ask all of these things in Jesus name amen
