Laodicea - Be Hot or Cold | A Sermon on Revelation 3:14-22

Introduction
Whenever I’m traveling around, people will often ask me, “Where did you come from?” or “Where are you traveling from?” I find myself all over Georgia—sometimes for conferences, meetings, or simply visiting family. Just yesterday, for example, we went down to visit my mother-in-law.

When people ask, “How long did it take you to get here?” or “Where are you from?” I usually say, “Dalton.” Sometimes people know where that is, and sometimes they don’t. So I’ll add, “It’s just south of Chattanooga, Tennessee.” That usually helps them get their bearings.

Every now and then, they’ll respond, “Oh! Dalton—the carpet capital of the world.” I remember back in college, before I became a pastor, I was studying textile engineering. Professors would mention Dalton, saying, “Seventy-five to eighty percent of the world’s carpet comes from there.”

I used to raise my hand and ask, “Don’t you mean Georgia?” No. “Don’t you mean the United States?” No. They meant the world—literally the world. Dalton earned its reputation as the carpet capital of the world because so much of the world’s carpet is made here. And now, not just carpet, but all kinds of flooring materials as well.

Cities often become known for something—Chicago, for instance, is called the Windy City. Hopefully, what we’re known for is good and not something bad.

Laodicea was a wealthy city in ancient Turkey where a group of Christians comprised a church.  They were known around the region for banking, eye ointment, and fine textiles.  Unfortunately, they were also known for their lukewarm water supply that was neither cold and good for drinking (like nearby Colossae’s cold drinking water) nor hot and good for healing (like Hierapolis’ hot springs). Laodicea’s water supply was lukewarm and Jesus said so was their faith.

Revelation 3:14-22
¹⁴ “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the Amen—the faithful and true witness, the beginning^[e] of God’s new creation:

¹⁵ “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! ¹⁶ But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! ¹⁷ You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. ¹⁸ So I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see. ¹⁹ I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.

²⁰ “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. ²¹ Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne.

²² “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.”

Neither Hot nor Cold
Jesus said in verse 15 – “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other!”

Those words: “I wish that you were either hot or that you were cold.” Of course, what is He talking about? He’s not talking about water. He’s talking about their spiritual life—their faith.

To be hot is a good thing, to have a hot faith. That means you are on fire for Jesus, excited to be serving Him. You don’t mind coming to church, you don’t mind volunteering, and you don’t mind giving, because you’re excited and on fire for what Jesus is doing in your own life and in your community. You want to share that with others. It’s easy for us to understand that having a hot faith is a good thing. Jesus is the most important thing to such a person.

But Jesus says, “If you’re not hot, I wish you were cold.” And we might think, Well, how can being cold be a good thing? Why would Jesus want someone to be either hot or cold? Because if you’re cold, it means you don’t care about Jesus at all. You might not even be thinking about Him. You’re just living your life however you want, without faith. All you’re doing is living for yourself, often doing the wrong things—even bad things.

So why is that good? Because if you’re living like that, at least there’s a chance something will shake you and snap you out of it. If you’re sinning all the time, doing terrible things, and then something happens—maybe you get into a car wreck that rocks your world, or you’re diagnosed with a disease—it might shake you awake. You realize, Oh my gosh, I need to start getting my life right with God. I’ve been living a coldhearted life, but now I know it. Then, the next step is repentance and turning to God.

So, living a cold, dark life can at least give you the chance to change. But Jesus says the Laodiceans were not hot and not cold. They were lukewarm. And that is very, very dangerous.

If you are lukewarm in your faith, you claim to follow Jesus. You look like you’re following Jesus. You may act like you’re following Jesus. But you lack true passion and commitment. You’re not fully obedient to Him. Maybe you’re doing it for show, but not for real.

It’s dangerous because it blinds you to your need for repentance. It blinds you to the fact that you need renewal. And it risks giving you an excuse to keep going in the wrong direction—walking away from Christ when you should be turning back to Him.

See, if you were cold, you would know it. You don’t have to tell a drunk that he’s not doing the right thing. He’s ashamed of it. He knows it. He knows he needs to change. The struggle is being able to change, but at least he knows.

But there are many people in the world—and maybe even some of you reading this—who fall into this category. You’re not hot. You’re not cold. You’re lukewarm. From the outside, people might look at your life and say, “Well, they go to church, they give money, they do good things, they dress nice, they act like a good person, they say they follow Jesus. Looks like they’re a Christian.”

You may even look at your own life and say, “Well, I’m not a saint, but I’m not a sinner either. I’m somewhere in the middle. I go to church. I do the right things. I’m pretty good.”

But you don’t realize Jesus is not number one in you life. You have other things ahead of Him. That’s idolatry—putting something before God.

So if you are lukewarm, it’s dangerous because it gives you an excuse to keep coasting, to avoid change. Everyone else thinks you’re a good Christian. You even say that about yourself. But you don’t realize there are serious problems you need to address.

The lukewarm faith of the Laodicean Christians blinded them to their true spiritual condition. Jesus spoke the hard truth they needed to hear. And maybe it’s a hard truth some of us here today also need to hear.

Rich, but Actually Poor
Jesus said in verse 17, “You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”

You know, sometimes there can be in us a false sense of self-sufficiency.

Now, I’m the kind of person who believes in self-sufficiency. I like the idea of being able to do for myself. I like being independent, and that can be a good thing. But there are times when that sense of self-sufficiency crosses a line—when you feel like you can do it all yourself. And that’s not a good thing.

I think for many people, this is a natural progression in life. When you start out young, you struggle. You don’t have much income. You don’t have much knowledge. It’s hard to get a good job because you don’t yet have the training or experience you need. So, in those early years, you often realize just how vulnerable you are. You rely on others, and life feels difficult.

Maybe you’re going into debt because you don’t make enough money. You’re borrowing, struggling because you can’t do things on your own. You don’t know how. And so, many people at the beginning of life find themselves praying: “Lord, please help me. Please help me. I don’t know how I’m going to pay the bills at the end of the month. I don’t know what I’ll do if my car breaks down. It’s old, it’s secondhand, it’s got lots of problems—it’s constantly giving me trouble. Lord, please don’t let my car break down. I can’t afford to fix it.”

Have any of you ever been through that kind of life? Maybe you’re in it right now. You pray: “Lord, please help me. Don’t let my tire go flat. I can’t afford to buy another one.”

But then what happens? God answers prayers. Over time, you may get to a point in life where you’ve saved up a little money. Now, you still don’t want that tire to go flat, but not because you couldn’t survive it—rather, because you’d rather spend that money on something fun, like going to see the Braves. If you get a flat now, you can handle it. You don’t like it, but you’ll be okay.

And that’s when the shift begins. You start to think: “Well, it’s okay. I can handle it myself. I don’t need anyone to step in and save me.” Of course, you’d never say that out loud—especially in church. Church people don’t talk like that. But somewhere, way in the back of your mind, a thought creeps in: “It’s okay. I don’t need God to bail me out of this one. I can handle it myself.”

And that is where the danger comes. You start to develop this false feeling of self-sufficiency: “I’ve got insurance. I’ve got money in savings. I can do it myself.” And when that happens, you start to think you don’t need anyone else—and you don’t need Jesus.

That is a very dangerous place to be. Because our hope is not in our talents, not in our insurance, not in our savings, and not in our money. Our hope is in God. We don’t need to walk around constantly feeling fearful and vulnerable—but neither do we need to walk around with the false pride that says, “I can handle this life all by myself.”

Because the truth is: we can’t.

And that’s exactly where the Laodiceans found themselves. They were known for their wealth, and they believed they could handle life on their own.

Our hope is not in our money.

Well Clothed, but Actually Naked
The Laodicean's were known for their textile industry, making fine clothing that everyone around admired. People wanted clothing as good as the Laodiceans’. But Jesus said they were naked. Isn’t that interesting? He says, “You’re naked. You need to buy some white robes from me.”

In Scripture, nakedness symbolizes shame, exposure, and vulnerability.

Now, the Laodiceans thought they were finely clothed. They believed they were people to be admired. Their fashion was on point. But Jesus saw through their outer appearance. He said, “You might wear nice clothing. People may admire you for your fashion. But to me, you’re naked and vulnerable. And you ought to be ashamed of your spiritual condition, not proud of the clothing you’re wearing.”

Spiritual Blindness
The Laodiceans were known not only for their textiles but also for their eye ointment. They had a famous medical school that trained healers, who went out and treated people across the region. From that school, they developed a special ointment—a salve called the Phrygian powder. It was applied to the eyes and was believed to heal diseases, correct dysfunctions, or soothe pain.

People from all around craved this ointment and were willing to pay good money for it. Of course, that only made the Laodiceans even more wealthy, since they were selling medicine that others desperately wanted.

And yet, ironically, Jesus said they were “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” Blind! They had this famous eye ointment, but they couldn’t even see their own spiritual condition. They were blind to how wretched they truly were.

Their wealth, their self-sufficient attitude, and their lukewarm faith had blinded them. They needed more than ointment for their eyes. They needed Jesus to cure their spiritual blindness.

Revelation 3:18–19 says, “So I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich.” He’s not talking about physical gold. He’s talking about something spiritual, something that’s been refined. He is saying, Let your character be refined. Let the fire of tribulation and trial refine who you are on the inside.

Build up treasures in heaven—not by hoarding wealth on earth, but by doing good deeds, serving the Lord faithfully, and sacrificing for His kingdom. Then Jesus says, “Buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness.” They needed the Lord to give them spiritual clothing—to cover up their sin and their shame. He also says, “Buy ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see.”

And then Jesus says, “I correct and I discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.” It’s a hard word, but not an unkind word. It’s not unloving. He speaks it for their sake. He says, “I love you, and I correct those I love.”

Is Jesus Knocking on Your Door?
So if you are here today and feel the Lord convicting you—if you sense He has placed a hard word upon your heart—don’t puff up with pride or get defensive. The Lord is not speaking to you from a judgmental spirit. He speaks as a loving parent to a child, saying: “I see this in you. You don’t see it. You’ve been distracted, and you’ve missed it. But I’m showing you for your own good—to help you be better, to heal you, to cover your shame, and to give you true riches in heaven.”

Perhaps there are some listening who feel Christ convicting them today. Has your faith grown lukewarm? Is Jesus truly the most important thing in your life—or has something else taken His place?

Don’t you long to go back to the time when you were on fire for Jesus? When you were excited just to worship Him? When serving wasn’t an obligation but an opportunity you craved? Maybe on the outside you still look like a Christian, but on the inside the passion has faded. The wholehearted commitment and obedience have diminished. That’s dangerous. It blinds you. It leaves you naked and ashamed.

So you try to cover it up—with the outward appearance of godliness—but you lack the inward spiritual power of true godliness. And no matter how hard you try, you cannot hide from Jesus. Remember, He is the one with eyes like burning fire. He sees into the very center of your soul. He knows what’s really in your heart when no one else can see.

And yet—I love what Revelation 3:20 says. Even though He sees the good, the bad, and the ugly in every one of us, He does not run away. Instead, it says He stands at the door and knocks. He knocks. He waits. He longs for us to open the door.

If we will welcome Him in, He will come and sit with us like a friend. He will share a meal with us—a meal of reconciliation, a meal of healing, a meal that nourishes us so we can grow into all He wants us to be.

As we close this message today, I want to give you an invitation. Whatever the Lord has spoken to your heart, listen. How will you respond?

Maybe He is calling you to turn around because you’ve been going in the wrong direction. Maybe you’ve been cold, and He wants to set you on fire. Or perhaps, more dangerously, you’ve been living a lukewarm faith. But Jesus does not want you blind. He does not want you deceived.

He wants you to see your true need. He wants you to turn to Him. He wants you to come home.

Return to Nazareth | A Sermon on Matthew 2:19-23

Introduction
I have preached on a lot of different Scriptures over the 25 years of my ministry. I figure I have preached at least 1,000 sermons at this point in my life. But I have never preached on the passage I will speak about today. It is near the beginning of Matthew, but not the very beginning. During Advent, we studied to story of the Wisemen coming from the East to visit Jesus at His birth.  They gave him gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  But evil King Herod wanted to kill the newborn king of the Jews.  So Mary and Joseph had to flee to Egypt with the baby Jesus. And then we come to Matthew 2:19-23.

Matthew 2:19-23
¹⁹ When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. ²⁰ “Get up!” the angel said. “Take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead.”

²¹ So Joseph got up and returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother. ²² But when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to go there. Then, after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee. ²³ So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said: “He will be called a Nazarene.”

Mary, Joseph, and Jesus Return to Nazareth
I’ve never preached on this passage.  It falls between the story of Christ’s birth (which we study every Christmas) and the stories about John the Baptist and Jesus’ baptism.  Those stories are so interesting and we focus on them again and again.
But, we just take this little section of Matthew in between for granted as a transitional passage. 
Now, we know Jesus fled to Egypt and then he came back to Nazareth, so we just skim over these 4 verses that tell us the details how he got back to Nazareth.  But one thing I’ve learned in 25 years of preaching the Word of God, every section, every verse, every word is important and packed with significance and meaning.

The Gospel of Matthew intentionally connects Jesus with the story of the Israelites in the OT.  You will remember that another “Joseph” ended up in Israel.  The Joseph of the Old Testament was a dreamer. This was Jacob’s son, Joesph, back in Genesis—the Joseph who wore the coat of many colors.  That Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers, but God was with that Joseph and gave him the power to interpret dreams and he rose to power as second in command to Pharoah.  And then Joseph’s father and his brothers and all his family—the Israelites—escaped a terrible famine by moving to Egypt, where they lived for 400 years.

And here in Matthew, we have another Joseph—Mary’s husband, Jesus’ earthly father—who has now had three important dreams.  In the first dream the Angel of the Lord told Joesph not to divorce Mary because Jesus was God’s Son.  In the second dream, the Angel of the Lord told Joseph to flee to Egypt because Herod was trying to kill Jesus.  And now in this third dream, the Angel of the Lord tells Joseph to take Mary and Jesus back to Israel.

This fulfills the Old Testament prophecy from Hosea 11:1 – “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt.”  This passage from the prophet Hosea speaks of both Israel and God’s Son.  God brought the Israelites out of Egypt through Moses in the Exodus.  And God also brought His Son, Jesus, out of Egypt back to the land of Israel.  But what does this have to do with us today?

First of all, Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecy.
You cannot separate the Old Testament from the New Testament. The OT & NT are intrinsically connected as one whole story of God’s salvation plan. And there are connections there you cannot even imagine.  Even parts you think don’t matter, do. And the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament.  Don’t ever forget. This grand plan stretching across thousands of years glorifies the power and wisdom of God.

Second, Jesus fulfilled everything the Israelites failed to do right in the OT.
And that might not seem important to you personally, but it is.  You can probably think of some regrets you have in your life, things you wish you’d done differently, mistakes you’ve made, sins you’ve committed.  I want you to know that somehow through the mysterious power of God, Jesus fulfilled everything you were supposed to do but didn’t.  It’s not just that Jesus’ blood washes away your sins; it does, but Jesus is also your righteousness.  He completes you. In Christ, your broken past is made absolutely right so you can stand before God fully vindicated.

Third, this passage shows God's ongoing guidance and protection in our lives.
Just as God guided Joseph to protect His family, God is actively involved in our affairs. When we walk with God daily and seek to be in His will, He shows us the way. God’s Holy Spirit is there to guide you to avoid danger, to make good decisions, and to accomplish His plans for you.  But it is His plans, not your own selfish ambitions. Therefore, give yourself to God.  Let Him be in charge and listen to His voice guiding you.

Fourth, this passage shows God cares about the poor and the humble.
By settling in Nazareth, a humble and obscure town, Jesus' life aligns with the lowly and humble. God doesn’t just focus on the power centers of our world—Jerusalem & Rome in the ancient world or DC & Wall Street in our modern one.  No, God’s son was born in the small town of Bethlehem, lived as a refugee in Egypt, and then returned to grow up a Nazarene from an unimportant, backwater town in northern Israel, far from the centers of power and influence. This shaped His ministry among ordinary people rather than the elite.

Holy Communion
Jesus’ journey back to Nazareth wasn’t just a transition or insignificant detail of history. It is part of God’s great salvation plan.  A small, seemingly unimportant town became the place where the Savior of the world was raised.  And that should be an encouragement to us.

Many of you may feel like your life is far from the center of power or influence. Maybe you think your work, your home, or even your struggles seem small in the grand scheme of things. But this passage reminds us that God is at work in the ordinary. Jesus didn’t grow up in a palace. He wasn’t raised in a wealthy family. He lived among humble, hardworking people like you and me. And yet, He was the fulfillment of God’s greatest promise.

That same God is working in your life. He is guiding you. He is protecting you. He is calling you to follow Him. Like Joseph, you may not always see the full picture, but if you trust God, He will lead you where you need to go.

As we come to the Lord’s Table today, remember that Jesus is our righteousness. He fulfills everything we have failed to do. He washes away our sins and makes us whole. And He invites us to follow Him—not to the great cities of power, but into a life of humble obedience and deep faith.

Come to the Table.  Receive His grace.  And trust that wherever you are, no matter how small or ordinary it may seem, God is working in your life.

Standing on Holy Ground | A Sermon on 1 Kings 8:27-30

Introduction
Today, we begin a new series about the Holy Temple.  But don’t think this is just a series of lectures about some ancient ruins of a long, lost temple.  What the Bible says about the Temple is highly relevant to your life today.  The New Testament teaches that Christians are the “Temple of God”, that each one of us is a “living stone” in God’s spiritual temple.  I want us to understand the full ramifications of what this means for how we are to live every day.  So for the next 4 weeks, we will explore the Biblical concept of Holy Ground.  And we will end on August 25^th a special rededication service for our “Holy Ground” here at Pleasant Grove Methodist Church.

Our Scripture today is 1 Kings 8:27-30.  This passage is part of King Solomon’s prayer when he dedicated the first Temple he built in Jerusalem in 957 BC.  Solomon asks an important question.

1 Kings 8:27-30
²⁷ “But will God really live on earth? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have built! ²⁸ Nevertheless, listen to my prayer and my plea, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is making to you today. ²⁹ May you watch over this Temple night and day, this place where you have said, ‘My name will be there.’ May you always hear the prayers I make toward this place. ³⁰ May you hear the humble and earnest requests from me and your people Israel when we pray toward this place. Yes, hear us from heaven where you live, and when you hear, forgive.

Will God really live on earth?
In his prayer, King Solomon asks a wise question:  Will God really live on earth?  For thousands of years, human beings across the globe have worshiped in sacred places.  There is archaeological evidence of sacred rituals in caves as far back as 100,000 years.  The oldest evidence of a temple is Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey that dates back to approximately 9600 BC—that’s 11,000 years ago.  Obviously, people have always felt the need to worship God in special places—whether natural or manmade.

Christians believe God is omnipresent – meaning God is everywhere.  If I go to church, God is there.  But God is also with me when I go on my morning walk.  And God is with me when I lay down to sleep.  And God is with me when I go on vacation.  Psalm 139:7 – “I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence!”  If we believe in an almighty, all-powerful God, we also understand God can be everywhere.  So why go to the trouble to build and worship God in a temple, or a church, or even in special place we deem “Holy Ground”?

People sense a deep need to worship a Higher Power.  Christians call this higher power God.  But we also inherently seem to understand, something troubles and separates us from God.  Isaiah 52:2 reveals, “It’s your sins that have cut you off from God.”  Sin separates us from God who is Holy and Sinless.  This was not always so.  Originally, God dwelled in perfect Holy Communion with humanity.

Heaven and Earth and Holy Ground
In the beginning, God made heaven where God and His angels dwell, and God created earth where animals and humans live.  Then God made the Garden of Eden where God and humanity abide together in perfect harmony.  

Unfortunately, Adam and Eve sinned and broke their relationship with God through disobedience.  Their sin separated them from God.  And all creation suffered from this “great fall” that corrupted everything.  Romans 8:20 says, “all creation was subjected to God’s curse.”

It’s not so much that God can’t be around us because we’re filled with so much disgusting sin
(as guilt and shame ridden people often think of it).  God has always loved us unconditionally and desired a relationship with us aven after we sinned.  The problem is:  we cannot abide the holy presence of God.  Hebrews 12:29 says, “Our God is a consuming fire.”  God’s holiness is like a beautiful light emanating from a brilliant and holy fire.  Our sin is an impurity that would burn up in the presence of God’s absolute holiness; we could not survive it.  So God’s act of separating from us is actually an act of merciful grace.  

Yet God has never stopped loving us.  And God always wants to be with us.  And God started working from the very first moment we sinned to save and reconcile with us, but it’s a very difficult and expensive to rescue us.  It’s a plan thousands years in the making and cost the death of God’s very own Son—Jesus Christ.  And so, from the very beginning, God has made special places to be in His holy presence.

Holy Ground
In Genesis, we see God is primarily working through individuals and individual families.  Therefore, worship is primarily done by individuals or their families and private altars.  In Genesis 6, God told Noah to build an Ark to save his family and a remnant of the animals from a great flood.  Afterward, Noah built the first altar mentioned in the Bible.  As God painted a rainbow across the sky, Noah worshipped God on holy ground.  

In Genesis 12, God appeared to Abraham and blessed Him at Shechem, promising to make His descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.  So Abram built an alter and worshipped God and they cut a covenant together.

In Genesis 22, we find the disturbing story where God tells Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac, the miraculous child of promise on holy Mount Moriah.  Isaac carries the wood for the sacrifice up the mountain as Abraham mournfully seeks to obey God in this terrible request.  It is hard to understand, but  this story foreshadows God's plan of salvation for humanity.  Mount Moriah is the same hill as Mount Calvary.  God cries out and tells Abraham not to sacrifice his son.  God provides a ram to take Isaac's place.  2,000 years later, Jesus--the Son of God--carries the wooden cross up Mount Calvary and is crucified upon it to atone for the sins of the world.

In Genesis 28, we find Isaac's son Jacob sleeping on another piece of holy ground in a place he names Bethel, which means “House of God”, because there he dreamed he saw a ladder upon which angels where ascending and descending from heaven to earth.

In Exodus, God broadens His focus from individuals/families to a whole nation—the Israelites.  In Exodus 3, God appears to Moses in a burning bush and tells him to take off his sandles because he is standing on holy ground.  God tells Moses to go to Pharaoh in Egypt and let God's people (the Israelites) go free from slavery.  

Then in Exodus 20, Moses climbs up holy Mount Sanai where God gives him the 10 Commandments and the Law for His people.  This is how God's holy people are to live.  God's people became a nation.  They were slaves, but God rescued them from Egypt.  

As the Israelites wander through the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land, they dwelled in tents Since His people lived in tents, the Holy, omnipotent God who dwells in the glory of heaven humbled Himself and came down and lived in a tent alongside His people.

The Tabernacle

In Exodus 25, God gives instructions to build a Tabernacle, Israel’s first worship center.  That's how bad God wants to be with us, despite our stubborn, sinful, rebellious nature.  For 440 years, the Israelites worship the Holy and Living God, Yahweh, in the Tabernacle, an elaborate tent complex designed to mimic the Garden of Eden, the intersection of Heaven and Earth.  Here are some of the ways the Tabernacle was designed to mirror the Garden of Eden:

• The Menorah Lampstand in the Tabernacle looks like the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.
• There are pomegranates embroidered on the priestly garments to represent the fruit of the garden.
• There are cherubim guarding the Holy Place in the Tabernacle that houses the Ark of the Covenant (the footstool of God); these represent the cherubim guarding the entrance to the Garden of Eden.
• The holy presence of God is with His people in the Tabernacle as He was with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

The purpose of the Tabernacle was to make space for holy ground where people could once again dwell in the presence of God.  And all the elaborate rituals of the Old Testament Law where meant to make it possible for sinful humanity to come into the presence of their holy God as much as possible.  

The Israelites worshiped God in the Tabernacle for 440 years until they settled down in Israel.  And finally, after most Israelites were dwelling in houses and not tents and the king of Israel lived in a palace, God finally told King Solomon to build a Temple--a permanent structure, not a tent.  The pattern for the Temple was much the same as the Tabernacle—mimicking God's original plan to dwell with people in the Garden of Eden.

Then and Now
Despite God being beyond physical containment, He chose to make His presence known to the Israelites in the Tabernacle and then the Temple.  These worship centers served as the focal points for prayer, worship, and the experience of God's presence.  The temple was a physical reminder of God's covenant with Israel and His promise to dwell among His people.  The temple was a place to seek God's mercy and forgiveness and healing. 

Of course, God is not confined to a specific building, no matter how sacred and glorious it was.  God is still everywhere.  But the ancient temple in Jerusalem was the communal place where the ancient people of God (Israel) gathered to worship together.

Together
And that's a key word for us to take away today:  together.  God’s people are meant to worship God together.  Of course, we can and should worship God every day in our own personal ways and in our own personal spaces.  However, our worship is always incomplete if we do not join together with other believers as a community.

Conclusion
There is much to unpack as we examine the history and purpose of the Temple.  I'm going to share more over the next few weeks.  I hope you will stay tuned as we examine a number of important ideas and themes connected to the Temple.  Stay tuned!