The Temple of the Holy Spirit

Due to technical challenges the sermon on 15th April was not recorded. In its place, here are some notes of the topics which Andrew covered.

Andrew started by reminding us of the “Mission shaped church” series we have been following since January. In summary we had covered the following points:

• there is a disconnect between church and the everyday culture around us;
• we are still called to be a missionary people;
• the inherited model of church still has value and we are called to seek renewal of what we do;
• we seek “fresh expressions” of church and “fresh expressions” of mission.

All that is well and good and important, but if we only consider the practical aspects of church we miss out on the most important dimension – the spiritual dimension.

We need to pursue a spiritual solution to the challenges of mission.

The church is a spiritual house:

Hebrews 3v6. “But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.”

1 Peter 2 v4-5. “As you come to him, the living Stone — rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him — you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

1 Peter 4v17. “For it is time for judgement to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”

1 Timothy 3v15. “If I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.”

We each are the temple of the Holy Spirit

1 Corinthians 6v19-20. “Do you not know that your (singular) bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.”

The church is the temple of the Holy Spirit

1 Corinthians 3v16. “Don’t you know that you (plural) yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”

If all that is the case, and we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, what should we expect will happen in the temple?

Read Isaiah 6v1-9.

• The temple is the place where we encounter God (v1)
• It is a place of worship and adoration (v2-3)
• It is a place where God’s holiness reveals our sinfulness (v4)
• It is a place of forgiveness and reconciliation (v6-7)
• And it is a place of calling and sending (v8)

Is that how we see church? Is that how we see our church?

We finished by calling on God again to build His kingdom here…