Pastor David B. Curtis
Pastor David B. Curtis
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Good morning, Bereans. We are continuing our study in 1 Peter this morning. As we come to our text, we find that Peter now changes the metaphor of milk that he used in 1 Peter 2:2-3 to metaphors of construction in order to establish that believers are living stones and Yeshua is the cornerstone.
Let's read the text,
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Yeshua the Christ. For it stands in Scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." So, the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," and "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 1 Peter 2:4-8 ESV
Eight times in these five verses we see the idea of rock or stone. In the Tanakh, God's stability, strength, and perseverance are often described by using the analogy of rock as a title.
For I will proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God! "The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. Deuteronomy 32:3-4 ESV
There are basically two ways of thinking or approaching truth—Eastern thought and Western (Greek) thought. Westerners are abstract thinkers. We like to put information in definition and proposition form because we like organization. We like words that carefully explain. For example, if I were to ask you who God is, what would you say? You might say that He is love and that He is almighty, holy, just, righteous, awesome, and omnipresent. Close your eyes and tell me what you see when I say these words. You don't see anything because the words love, just, and holy are not picture words. They are definitions. This is information that doesn't really affect us. It is abstract.
A Hebrew, an Eastern thinker, thinks in the form of story or picture. If you ask them who God is, they answer that God is my rock, shepherd, bread, shade, living water, Father. This is all very personal—God is "my." It is also very pictorial—you can see these! The most common symbol in the Tanakh for God is "shepherd." The second is "rock."
The metaphor of Yeshua as a rock or stone is found in the OT in the Psalms, Isaiah, and Daniel. In Psalm 118:22, He is described as a rejected stone. Isaiah 28:16 refers to Him as a building stone while in Isaiah 8:14-15, He is portrayed as a stone to stumble over. Daniel depicts Him in chapter 2, verse 45 as an overcoming and conquering stone (i.e., kingdom). Yeshua uses these passages to describe himself in each of the synoptic gospels.
This section is talking about a Temple, a spiritual Temple, which Peter calls a "spiritual house."
you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Yeshua the Christ. 1 Peter 2:5 ESV
I want to talk to you this morning about this spiritual house, which is a reference to the Temple. One of the most central themes in all of Scripture is that of temple. From beginning to end, the God of heaven and earth is active in creating a holy, paradise where he can dwell with his creation. The temple is the local center of divine presence. In the ancient Near east, the temple is the "home" of the god.
Where does the Bible's story of temple begin? There will be disagreement on this, but I would say that the temple theme begins in Genesis 1-3. There "temple" gets introduced as the meeting place between God and humanity. The temple mediates the presence of God to his people. The Garden of Eden functions very much in this way.
The creation story is told in a period of seven days. This is significant! In the ancient Israelites' world, temples were always dedicated with a seven-day ceremony. Eden is a prototype of the tabernacle and the temple.
And just as the entrance to Israel's first temple faced east and was situated on a mountain (Exodus 15:17), the temple described in Ezekiel was also to face east (Ezekiel 40:6) and to be built on a mountain. Similarly, Eden's entrance faced east (Genesis 3:24) and was on a mountain (Ezekiel 28:14).
Later on in the Hebrew Bible, God instructed Israelite leaders to incorporate garden imagery into the tabernacle and the temple. The tree of life is symbolized by the lampstand in the tabernacle and temple (Exodus 25:31-40).
During the wilderness wandering, Yahweh initiated the building of the tabernacle, where sacrifices would be offered so that men could come into his presence.
And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. Exodus 25:8 ESV
When the tabernacle was finished, this cloud of Shekinah glory descended upon it in such a manifestation of God's glory that Moses himself could not even enter it. Shekinah comes from a Hebrew root, which means "to dwell." The Shekinah glory of God was the manifestation of the presence of Yahweh. When Solomon's Temple was completed, the cloud again descended so that the priests could not enter. The cloud symbolized the dwelling of Yahweh among men.
Once the people entered the promised land in the book of Joshua, the temple pattern was established. The temple is promised (2 Samuel 7:1-16), built (1 Kings 5-8), destroyed (2 Kings 25), and rebuilt (Ezra 3).
God promised David that his son would build his house and reign forever and ever. Solomon partially fulfilled this promise by building the glorious Jerusalem temple. But because of Israel's sin, Babylon became God's instrument of judgment, and his people were carried off into exile. They burned and pillaged the city of Jerusalem, destroyed its temple, and seemingly eliminated the hope of God's dwelling with his people again.
And even when the new temple was built once the people returned from exile, those who knew of the glory of the first temple wept because God's presence would not gloriously manifest itself there as it had before (Ezra 3:13).
Because of Israel's constant sin, the glory of Yahweh left the Temple.
Then the glory of the LORD went out from the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. Ezekiel 10:18 ESV
When the canon of the Tanakh closes, the Temple is empty, Yahweh's glory had departed. He was not dwelling with his people. Ever since the Temple's rebuilding after the return from the Babylonian exile in the late 6th century BC, the Temple in Jerusalem had been an "empty house." God had not taken possession of the Temple the way He had filled and indwelt the desert Tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-45) and Solomon's Temple (1 Kings 8:10-11). The Holy of Holies was an empty room because the Ark of the Covenant was not there. When did the glory of Yahweh return? The glory returned in the person of Yeshua.
The Temple in Yeshua's day.
The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Yeshua went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. John 2:13-14 ESV
The "Temple" here is of course the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. This was actually the third Temple. The first Temple was built by Solomon (see 1 Kings 6-7). When Solomon dedicated the Temple, almost one thousand years prior to this account, Yahweh's glory fell in power upon that place. Upon the dedication of the Temple, as the people prayed, the Shekinah glory of God descended in such awesome majesty that no one could even enter that holy Temple. God claimed that place for Himself. He received it as His house, and it would be a place where He would meet with His people.
The second Temple was the one rebuilt by the Jews returning from their Babylonian captivity (Ezra 6:15). This third Temple was known as "Herod's Temple."
Solomon's Temple (and previously the Tabernacle) was the place where the glory of Yahweh was displayed to His people. There He met with them. There His eternal and holy presence was symbolized. But due to Israel's sin, the glory of Yahweh had departed long ago.
The Greek word used here for Temple is hiero. It indicates that this was the "outer court" of the Temple area. We tend to think of the Temple as a single building, but it was much more than that. The Jerusalem Temple's most sacred spot was the Holy of Holies into which only the high priest could enter. Next was the Sanctuary, which was limited to the priests, and then the Court of Israel where the laymen could gather. Following this was the Court of Women, limited to Jewish women. Finally, there was the Court of the Gentiles. The Court of the Gentiles was a huge area about three football fields long and about three football fields wide. It was meant to be a very sacred place, a place into which Gentiles from any nation could enter and pursue the God of the Hebrews and realize some sort of an experience with God. But the Gentile worshipers could not go beyond this. The signs on the wall expressed that to do so would be at the peril of life.
This outer court was described by Josephus in his, War, which reads (5.5.2):
"…there was a partition made of stone all round, whose height was three cubits: its construction was very elegant; upon it stood pillars, at equal distances from one another, declaring the law of purity, some in Greek, and some in Roman letters, that "no foreigner should go within that sanctuary" for that second (court of the) Temple was called "the Sanctuary" and was ascended to by fourteen steps from the first court.
Josephus' quote of this warning is somewhat condensed, and the full version is seen from the discovery of one of these rocks in 1871. Zondervan reads: "No Gentile may enter within the railing around the Sanctuary and within the enclosure. Whosoever should be caught will render himself liable to the death penalty which will inevitably follow."
The disdain for Gentiles and failure to understand the nature of worshiping the Lord was found in the way the Court of the Gentiles became host to what was called, "The Bazaars of Annas."
"At one time the animal merchants set up their stalls across the Kidron Valley on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, but at this point they were in the Temple Courts doubtless in the Court of the Gentiles (the outermost court)."(D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991), p. 178).
The well-known high priest granted permission to family members to begin what looked like a flea market in the area reserved for Gentiles where they could seek the Lord and worship Him. Noisy animals, bargain hunters, and crass merchants crowded the area that should have provided dignity and quiet contemplation for worshipers. Kickbacks and fees for the priestly family kept the bazaar in full swing to the total neglect of why the Temple existed at all.
This area called the "Court of the Gentiles" was the place designated for teaching the Gentile nations about the one true God. It was the only place where Gentiles could offer prayer to Yahweh. This was the one place where the Gentiles had the opportunity to come close to God in His Sanctuary.
In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. John 2:14 ESV
"Those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves"—the sacrifices to be offered in the Temple needed to be certified as "without blemish" by a priest, who charged for the service. If they brought their own animal, it would most likely be rejected so people were forced to buy their approved sacrifices. Many pilgrims would purchase a sacrifice in the Temple rather than herd it for several days on their way to the Holy City for Passover. It was a convenience to purchase sacrifices at the Temple, but the price- gouging was often terrible. Later in the First Century, Rabbi Simeon (son of Paul's teacher, Gamaliel) crusaded to lower the price of a pair of doves from two gold dinars to one silver dinar; one percent of the original price.
"The money changers seated at their tables"—it was required by the Law that a Temple Tax of a half-shekel was to be paid once a year. Coins that bore the portraits of the Roman Emperors or other pagan portraits were not permitted to be used in paying the tax (Exodus 20:4) and so moneychangers, for a profit, exchanged these coins for legal Tyrian coinage which was not stamped with an image.
And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. John 2:15 ESV
Yeshua didn't come into the Temple to teach them what the Bible says about Temple worship. He didn't politely ask them to take all of their animals and money out of there. He overthrew their tables and threw them out. Yeshua's action was angry and violent. Have you ever had someone in your home overthrowing a table on which all the food has been set out? Have you seen this being done in a restaurant as a guest explodes in fury with the way he has been served or with the quality of the food? It was a violent action to move from table to table—maybe twenty or forty such tables—and send money going everywhere.
"And making a whip of cords"—the word "cords" is schoinion, which is a rush or plant. Luke uses this word in Acts 27:32 to describe the ropes on a ship. This was by no means a deadly weapon. It was basically a braided rope. The Temple Police strictly enforced the rule that no weapons or sticks were allowed in the Temple precincts. Yeshua probably took this from one of the animals that were tied up.
"And drove them all out of the temple"—the Greek word for "drove" is ekballo which means "force to leave, drive out, expel." The same word is often used to describe Yeshua's driving out demons from the afflicted.
The Greek masculine plural, pantas (all), argues for Yeshua's driving the traders out and not just the animals (which the neuter plural, panta, would identify).
"He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables"—the words "poured out" are significant in Scripture. This is liturgical language. These words are used in the Hebrew of the Tanakh, in the Greek translation of the Tanakh known as the "Septuagint Translation," and in the New Testament in connection with the "pouring out" of the blood of sacrifice on the altar and with the "pouring out" of God's wrath. In this case, it is the pouring out of God's wrath—a prophetic sign performed by Yeshua as "The Prophet" of Deuteronomy 18:14-20. Such a sign performed by a Prophet indicated a future fulfillment. In this case, Yeshua's action signifies the Temple's destruction, which took place in A.D.70 when Yahweh brought His judgment on the Old Covenant people for rejecting the Messiah and thereby rejecting God's Covenant of salvation.
And he told those who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade." John 2:16 ESV
"My Father's house"—by claiming God as His "Father," Yeshua was citing authority for His action. They had turned a place of worship into a bazaar.
How does one man with a braided rope drive thousands out of the Temple?
Why didn't the Temple officials arrest or physically restrain Yeshua from carrying out this extreme action? The Temple was under the control of about three-hundred Temple Police. Fort Antonia was next to the Temple, and the Romans had built it high so that they could sit on the top and watch what was going on. If needed, they could dispatch a Roman garrison to go down there and stop any kind of threatening action. Why, then, was Yeshua allowed to do this? How could He get away with this?
The answer to "why" is found in the fact that any force used against Yeshua might very well have incited public rebellion. So rather than physically arresting or restraining Yeshua, the authorities simply challenged His authority or right to do what He did (2:18).
The Tanakh predicted that Messiah would come and purify the Templ
And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day. Zechariah 14:21 ESV
Yeshua's action perhaps brought this prophecy to the minds of the godly in Israel who may have wondered if Yeshua was the Messiah. By cleansing the Temple and throwing out the traders, Yeshua was showing that the age of the Messiah had come. That Yeshua was fulfilling these messianic expectations would have been obvious—especially to the disciples, who had just seen the miracle at Cana with all its messianic implications.
The "how" He was able to clear the Temple may be explained as we look at the incident in the Garden of Gethsemane when the soldiers came to arrest Him. Yeshua went out to meet them and asked, "Whom do you seek?"
They answered him, "Yeshua of Nazareth." Yeshua said to them, "I am he." Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Yeshua said to them, "I am he," they drew back and fell to the ground. John 18:5-6 ESV
In the original text, it is simply, "I am." That's the name of the covenant keeping God—the "I am who I am." And when He said, "I am," just the words caused the soldiers to go back and fall on the ground.
What happened in the Temple was a miracle! Yeshua was like Samson under the power of the Holy Spirit. He cleared thousands out of the Temple court.
Does it surprise you that Yeshua should experience real human anger? It shouldn't because Yeshua is both fully God and fully man. He experienced all of the human desires and conditions that we experience, but unlike us, He did not sin. His anger is righteous anger. He is angry at the pollution of His Father's house. The money changers and merchants are robbing Israel through their inflated exchange rates and He is angry because the Gentiles are being robbed of the opportunity to worship and of the opportunity to be instructed in the true faith.
I think there should be times when we reflect this righteous anger. We need to be more like Yeshua in that area. Yahweh's being dishonored should make us angry.
So the Jews said to him, "What sign do you show us for doing these things?" Yeshua answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." John 2:18-19 ESV
Here the word "Temple" is not hiero which indicated the "outer court" of the Temple area. The word for "Temple" here is naos which refers to the Sanctuary of the Temple area, including the Holy Place and the "inner sanctum" or place where God dwells (i.e., the "Holy of Holies").
The Sanhedrin later used Yeshua's words about destroying the Temple as a capital charge against Him at His trial (Matt. 26:61; Mark 14:58; cf. Matt. 27:40; Mark 15:29). This was dishonest because Yeshua had said, "Destroy this Temple," not, "I will destroy the Temple." Furthermore, Yeshua was speaking of His body, not the Temple.
The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking about the temple of his body. John 2:20-21 ESV
What is the temple? It is the body of Christ. Berean, the God's promise to David that his son would forever sit on the throne (2 Samuel 7) was ultimately fulfilled in Yeshua the Christ (John 1:14).
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 ESV
The word "dwelt" here is skenoo, which means "a tent." Yeshua came and pitched His tent or tabernacled among us. Here we see the true and better temple built in the incarnation of Yeshua the Christ. Yeshua is the place where God would dwell with humanity, for "in him the fullness of deity dwells bodily" (Col 2:9). The ultimate place where God is known, served, worshiped and present is in Christ himself.
It didn't take long for humanity to tear that temple down. The crucifixion is the ultimate destruction of the temple of God. The Resurrection is its ultimate rebuilding. Yeshua the Christ, the true temple, is promised, built, destroyed and rebuilt, just like Solomon's temple in Jerusalem.
Yeshua uses this stone motif of himself in the Gospels when talking to the Jewish leaders about the parable of the vineyard. Yeshua, in the parable, is telling His audience that He is not a prophet—He is the Son. That is the basis of His authority. He owns the vineyard. He has been sent by His Father to possess what is His. But they will reject Him and put Him to death:
But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' Mark 12:7 ESV
Instead of respecting His Son, the vine-growers saw an opportunity to take the vineyard for themselves. So, they took this son and killed him.
And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. Mark 12:8 ESV
The implication in the story was absolutely clear. Now the Son had come to Israel, and they were fulfilling this prophetic parable exactly as our Lord described. They had failed to hear the long line of prophets that God had sent. Now they would reject the word of the Son, and they would kill Him. Yeshua is prophesying His own death at the hands of these religious leaders. In a few short days, they will deliver Him to their own authorities and condemn Him to death.
Yeshua then applied the lesson of the parable by an appeal to the Scriptures in typical Rabbinic manner. This method of finishing off a parable with a Scripture quotation is regularly found among the Rabbis.
Have you not read this Scripture: "'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?" Mark 12:10-11 ESV
Yeshua quotes here from Psalm 118:
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Psalms 118:22 ESV
He told them that the Son they were rejecting would become the cornerstone of the new temple of the New Covenant in which would come a whole new way of life.
Notice who it is that rejects this stone. It is the "builders!" Who should have known a good stone when they saw one? The builders! This referred to the religious leaders— those who should have understood the Scriptures. Yet due to their spinning of God's Word to create a religion of self-dependence in legalism, they rejected Yeshua the Christ.
Yeshua portrayed them as a bunch of stonemasons who thought a stone was useless. They studied it and decided that it was the wrong size and the wrong shape and the wrong materials. "Discard it!" they said, and then turned their backs on it, disregarding is significance. But it turned out to be the cornerstone, the most important stone in the building. Yeshua the Christ did not fit the pattern they had in mind for a Savior, so they rejected Him.
After quoting from Psalm 118 in the vineyard parable both Matthew and Luke add this:
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him." Luke 20:18 ESV
Having established Psalm 118:22 as messianic, Yeshua connects it with two other messianic verses about the stone. Isaiah 8:14-15 refers to stumbling on that Stone and Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45 refers to being crushed by it. The Son is on the one hand a "stone of stumbling," to the Jews. But because they were the enemies of Yeshua, this "stone of stumbling" would soon become a stone that crushes and grinds God's enemies and, thus, would be an active agent in their destruction.
And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure." Daniel 2:44-45 ESV
With this stone metaphor, the biblical writers established that the kingdom God built would be founded upon Yeshua the Christ. Every detail in its dimensions, shape, size, and form relates directly to Christ. Without the cornerstone, the building has no value. Paul expressed this clearly.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Yeshua himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22 ESV
Christ is the cornerstone to such a degree that "the whole building," (all the redeemed through the ages), are fitted and joined together into one, "holy temple in the Lord."
Just as Paul did, Peter described the body of believers as "a spiritual house" or a temple that exists for the worship, praise, declaration, and glory of our Lord. We're "living stones" that are joined to Yeshua the Christ "the living stone." In the following verse, Peter declares Christ to be "a precious cornerstone."
For it stands in Scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." 1 Peter 2:6 ESV
God has made Christ the defining factor of his living temple, and every person who would come to God must find his place in relation to Christ.
The message of Christ crucified, the doctrine of the atonement, was very offensive to Jews who were expecting a royal deliverer. Even with Isaiah 53 before their eyes, the Jews had never dreamed of a suffering Messiah. By Jewish law, anyone who was crucified died under the curse of God (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13). To the majority of Jews, Christ was a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. At the same time, Christ is a security, a solid rock, for all who put their trust in Him.
The ESV says, "whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." The NASV has, "WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED." The word "put to shame or disappointed" is from the Greek kataischuno which means to shame because of disappointment in unfulfilled promises. God keeps his promises, and his promises are for those who put their trust in Him, and in Him alone. Israel was rejected because of unbelief. But those who believe will not be disappointed!
Dispensationalism puts great emphasis on a rebuilt Temple and priesthood because they fail to see these as types. Physical Israel was a type and so was the Tabernacle/Temple.
They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, "See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain." Hebrews 8:5 ESV
The Tabernacle was a type. What is the anti-type? Yeshua is the anti-type who replaces the Temple itself. The Temple represented the presence of God among His children in the early days, so Yeshua came and pitched His tent or tabernacled among us.
If you don't build on Yeshua the cornerstone, you don't have salvation. Paul put it this way:
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 ESV
Who is the "we" here? It is Paul and the Corinthian believers. Paul says believers are the temple and then quotes Leviticus 26:11-12.
I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. Leviticus 26:11-12 ESV
To whom is this said? To Israel. In whom is it fulfilled? In the Church. Was Paul looking for a rebuilt Temple? It doesn't look like it. In 1 Corinthians 3:16 and 6:19, Paul refers to believers as the temple of God.
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV
Paul uses the plural to emphasize that the entire Church community is God's Temple (His dwelling place on earth), not just select individuals.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 1 Corinthians 6:19 ESV
"Your body"—refers to the body of each believer. Paul's use of the singular form of "body" may emphasize that each believer is a temple of God. In this context, Paul focuses on individual believers instead of the entire Church community.
One is individual and the other is corporate. It's a plural pronoun. So, both corporately and individually we are the temple of God.
Yeshua left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, "You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down." Matthew 24:1-2 ESV
The stones that made up the Jerusalem Temple were thrown down and were replaced with living stones built on the cornerstone of Yeshua the Christ.
Since the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in AD 70, there are no "sacred" buildings or places. Yeshua Himself is our Temple, not a cathedral or church building. We meet with God in Yeshua. We dwell in Him and He dwells in us. Believers, we are the Temple of God; we are sacred space.
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