YOU HOUSE GOD!

Friday 24 January

“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20 (NIV)

And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

How many times have you heard someone say they are going to go to church? It’s something that has become common amongst the Body of Christ today. Despite its frequent usage, is this statement accurate according to the Bible? Let’s investigate further shall we?

Before we get there, the idea of going to the ‘house of the Lord’ first started in the Old Testament. The Jews would meet in the tabernacle which later became the temple and later on would gather in the synagogues. What we need to understand is these buildings were types and shadows of the real in the New Testament. Why? The tabernacle e.g. represented the body, soul and spirit of man. The presence of God would dwell in the Holy of holies in the ark of the covenant.

Before the Holy Spirit came and lived in the believer, these types and shadows were pointing them to Christ. After Christ, there was no more need to worship in a set location. Look at the words of Jesus to the woman at the well in John chapter 4.

‘Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth’… John 4:20-23

So worshipping the Father in Spirit means we worship Him in the Spirit regardless of our location. In truth, means in the reality of Christ. These are the only two stipulations that Jesus made.

So what then is the house of God? The answer is simple: The Christian. The new creation in Christ houses God now, not some building somewhere. Physical structures are no longer the house of God, believers are!

“However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands.” As the prophet (Solomon) says: Acts 7:48, 1 Kings 8:27

The ‘temples not made with hands’ is where His presence dwells now. We don’t come to a building that is called church, the church gathers as two or more in a place. Why do we come together?

There is ultimately one reason why we gather. It is to be taught the Word of Christ. Through the teaching of the Word we are equipped and perfected to live for Christ and to disciple others. Church gatherings are not to be for entertainment or infotainment. That’s called a club.

There is also an individual and collective element to being the temple of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 3:16 says:

‘Do you not discern and understand that you [the whole church at Corinth] are God’s temple (His sanctuary), and that God’s Spirit has His permanent dwelling in you [to be at home in you, collectively as a church and also individually]?’

Now this just doesn’t apply to the Corinthian church (members) but to every Christian gathering, everywhere.

1 Peter 2:5 confirms this idea. ‘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.’

Now I am not suggesting that Christians should not gather together. I am saying however that we need to come together as the church not ‘to church’, having the right understanding and for the right reasons, with the teaching of the Word being paramount as back in the early church.

Hebrews 10:24- 25

‘And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.’ If you are in Christ and Christ is in you, you are the house of God. You are the church, the building of God. Wherever there is two or three of you gathered in His name you have the church.

APPLICATION

Have the consciousness that you individually and gathered together corporately, are the only house of God that He dwells in by His Spirit.