September 9, 2007 Sermon Synopsis

“God’s Building” 1 Corinthians 3:9-17

Today we celebrate and dedicate our new building addition.

I told the children about a man who built a chicken house. He planned it, bought good materials, built it, and filled it with nice equipment. But he didn’t put any chickens in it. “The chickens would mess it up,” he said.

I asked the children, “Can you call it a chicken house without any chickens?”

The analogy should be clear. A church is just another building without Christians in it. A human being is just another person without God’s Spirit in it.

We need to fill our lives with Jesus, so that our building will be filled with God’s people.

Ephesians 2:22 tells us, “In Jesus you are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

Our scripture passage (1 Corinthians 3:9-17) is about a church building program.

HISTORY LESSON
About 56 AD the Apostle Paul was in Ephesus. It was his third (and final) missionary journey into the region. The Christian movement was barely 25 years old. There was heavy persecution of Christians and Jews throughout the Roman Empire.

Back home in Israel, things looked bad. God’s House (the Temple) in Jerusalem was still in use, but heavily controlled by Roman military. Jerusalem would be the center of conflict between the Romans and Jewish Terrorists for the next few years, until the Roman army took full control of the city and destroyed the Temple.

The early Christians first met in synagogues, but later met in houses. They couldn’t get a permit to build a church building because they were a despised movement, originating from a difficult part of the world.

A few years earlier, Paul and Apollos helped establish a church in Corinth. This town was full of temples to a variety of Roman and Greek gods. The Christians lived and worked amidst the temples of false gods.

Paul tells them something interesting. He makes an analogy and compares the new congregation in Corinth to a building. The church is like a building. “We are … God’s Building,” he told them in verse 9.

WE LIKE TO BUILD THINGS
Part of our human nature is to build things. It adds an air of excitement (and stress) to our lives. Sometimes building programs are difficult times for churches.

The story is told …
A man had been shipwrecked on a remote island for 20 years. When a ship finally arrived, his rescuers were impressed with the three buildings he had built and asked about them.
“Well,” the man replied, “this is my house, and that building over there is my church. It’s a wonderful church and I hate to leave it.”
The rescuer asked, “And what is the third building over there?”
The man replied, “Oh, that’s the church I used to go to. When it was being built there was such a fight, I just had to leave …”

I’m thankful for a peaceful building program. God was certainly in control (most of the time).

THE BIBLE IS FULL OF BUILDING PROGRAMS (MORE HISTORY)

Genesis starts with examples of good ones (Noah) and bad ones (Tower of Babel).

Israel worked (as slaves) on building programs in Egypt (Rameses and Python).

In the wilderness, Israel built a large tent for God to live in. It was known as God’s dwelling place. God gave them the plans and they built it. You can visit a re-creation of the tabernacle at the Mennonite Information Center in Lancaster (http://www.mennoniteinfoctr.com/tabncle.html).

When Israel became established in the “promised land” they began to build houses and live in towns. They began to question, “Why do we live in nice houses, while God still lives in a tent?” In 2 Samuel 7:2 King David remarks, “Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”

King David made plans to build a temple, but he wasn’t allowed to because he was a warrior and had shed the blood of others.

David and Bathsheba’s son King Solomon took on the project. He was a beautiful building high on a hill, for all to see for miles around.

500 years later that temple was destroyed by the Babylonian army and the Jews were taken captive.

About 70 years later they returned and rebuilt a new temple on the ruins of the first. Ezra and Nehemiah tell the story – it was a struggle to find both funds and workers. Not uncommon for a building program.

About 350 years later, Herod (called King of the Jews), rebuilt the temple again. He made it one of the largest and most beautiful buildings in the entire region. It was built at great expense and by burdening the people of the region by obligating them to work (slaves) and heavily taxing the people. The final touches of this temple were still under construction when Jesus walked the earth.

The building was completely destroyed by the Roman army in 70 AD. Josephus (The Jewish Wars) tells us that the Romans set the building on fire and the gold melted down into the foundation. The stones were dug up to find the gold and not one stone of the foundation was left in place. Complete destruction. It was gone for good; nothing remained but the retaining walls.

Each of those structures was called “God’s House” by the people. None of these remain today.

THE CHURCH IS LIKE A BUILDING

The early church didn’t build buildings. This was probably a good thing for the new movement. A building program to early-on may have diverted their attention from their primary task of witness and service.

The Apostle Paul tells them that they are a building. 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple?”

It seems that God was building the new temple out of people – something that couldn’t be destroyed.

Paul tells them (1 Cor 3:10), “I laid a foundation … others are building on it with a variety of building materials.”

Peter said, “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house …” (1 Peter 2:5).

In another place Paul said, “In Jesus the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple to the Lord.” (Ephesians 2:21, see verse 22 also)

WHAT TURNS A BUILDING INTO “GOD’S HOUSE”?

The world is filled with empty temples and cathedrals, many of them are museums. It seems that the emphasis was put on building a building instead of building the church (God’s Building).

These are all just buildings – very nice and beautiful buildings – but they are just buildings. They are all destined to be destroyed some day.

The Tabernacle became God’s House when God’s presence filled it (shekina glory).
The Temple became God’s House when the ark (God’s presence) was placed in the “holy of holies.”

Paul tells us, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you”? (1 Cor 3:16)

A building is turned into “God’s House” when God moves in.

Has God moved into your life?

This new temple, God’s new building, can never be destroyed. Jesus showed us that a life filled with God can be torn down (crucified), but it will rise up again.

We (the congregation) are God’s Building because we have lives filled with God’s Spirit.

We can get into trouble when we don’t have God in our lives, in our church. Our building will need some repairs that only God can make.

The church is just human beings filled with God’s spirit.

This new church building can only be “God’s Building” when it is full of Christians being faithful to our Lord in witness and service.

Otherwise it’s just a chicken house without any chickens – not much good for anything.

“The Lord is in his Holy Temple” Habakkuk 2:20