We Pray For Holiness
Pastor Marq Toombs • October 04, 2020
Sermon Overview
ACTS 2:42–47
In this passage we see a church that’s devoted to being the people that God calls us to be. They’re devoted to the apostles’ teaching, to prayer, and to fellowship together. It’s a community that’s filled with the life-changing power of the Spirit and one that gives us a glimpse of what our church can be for another and the world around us.
Sermon Transcript
Today, we are entering into the book of Acts, going back to the book of Acts, as we continue our series on prayer for this fall season. As you know, we've been going back and forth, from Jesus's prayer in John 17 to the book of Acts, to see how the church fleshed out that prayer in their daily life. And we're learning along the way, how to echo the prayer of Jesus and also to become a people of prayer ourselves. But before we get into all of that, I want to address something that a friend of ours mentioned to me. A couple of weeks ago, we were talking about his experience at RPC and he said, it's a fairly new experience for him. He hasn't been in a church quite like ours before, and he had a question for me. He said, why is it that, that you and all of the other guys who preach at RPC stand in one place? Why don't you move around and work the stage, right? And I thought about it for a second. And I thought, well, there are three answers I could give him.
One of them I gave him was well, we have this imaginary pulpit in front of us that we sort of lean on and we're, in our minds hiding behind. I thought, well, that won't do any good. That won't make any sense. Then I thought, well, he probably doesn't know that we are the frozen chosen. And so, then I would have to explain all of that.
And then I told him, well it's, I think it's because when we came out of quarantine, we only had one camera and the camera was right in front and we wanted to do a good live stream. And so Zach came to me, at least, maybe he didn't tell the other guys this, but he came to me and he said, look, man, this is your world right here. You can't go outside this. I mean, this is it. This is all the space you have. And so, I keep that in mind. I feel like I'm sort of boxed in. And then I remembered we had, now we have a couple of other cameras, so I could actually move an inch or two to each side if I wanted, but I probably won't, after this initial movement. I'm gonna just stay right here. This is my lane.
I know that many of you have had an incredibly tough week and next week, or this week, might not get any easier. I know that. And I know that for a lot of you, it took just everything you had just to get outta your house and drive across town to be here today. And so, I want to say on behalf of the session and staff of RPC, that we're very thankful that you make those sacrifices. For those of you who are at home, that's no criticism. We know that you're also making incredible sacrifices to engage in the life of this community. And with all of that in mind, I want you to know that I have no intention of wasting your time today. I was tempted after Ryan's devotional for confession to say, well, that's the sermon. I mean, let's just go right to the table, but I want to build on some things that you heard in that, I want to make the most of this time. And as Gandalf said, in the mines of Moria, "I wanna risk a little bit more light today."
And so we're going to enter into a story in the book of Acts that is very familiar to all of us. And I tell you that I want us to go to Jerusalem, I want us to visit that church. Their service started at 9:00 AM the way ours did, with a little bit more flash and bang, perhaps. But I want us to visit that church, because there are a lot of things we can learn about Christ and his church just by visiting the church in Acts 2. I've visited that church many, many times over the course of my ministry, and I've always walked away having learned something new about Christ and about his church, just by going to Acts 2. I've learned new things, new ways of thinking, new ways of doing ministry, but I've also misused that passage at many times in my ministry. And I confess that to you now. I haven't misused it with you, at least not yet, but I hope to avoid that today, and hopefully repair some of the damage and undo some of the things I might've done in recent years in working through this passage.
And the reason I say that is because we have a tendency to go to the book of Acts, enter into the story in Acts 2, and just imagine that what's happening there is totally brand new, something fell out of the sky, no one had ever thought about it before. And then we just pick up the story there and move forward. And most pastors have a tendency and we're well intentioned, trust me when I tell you this, we mean well when we go there and we say, yes, we wanna be that kind of church. And so we generate programs and ideas, and we try to find ways to restore that church in the 21st century, or we try to find ways to emulate that church, and what it leads to, often, more often than not is a whole lot of guilt tripping and fear-mongering. And I want to avoid that as much as possible today. In fact, God help me, I will avoid it in every possible way.
The thing I want us to do today is to see this story from a slightly different angle. I want us to look at it slant, if you will, and see that there's more to this story than meets the eye. What we have happening here as we travel back to Jerusalem, is we see a newborn church, the newborn church of Jesus Christ. Before we enter into that church and explore some of the things happening there, I want us to take a few steps back and we're gonna make a couple of pit stops and check out a couple of historical markers on our way to Jerusalem. And so, I want you to ride along with me as we go on this journey. You know that we started this series on prayer in 2 Corinthians, 2 Chronicles 7, and it was a section of that story where God comes to his people and says, "If my people pray," and then he tells what he will do. And that was God's response to King Solomon's prayer that came right before that, where King Solomon set out a platform, and he got on his knees and he lifted his hands, and raised his eyes to heaven. And he prayed that God would come down and fill the temple that was newly constructed, that that temple would be dedicated to the service of God for the life of the whole world. And as Solomon prayed these things, God responded.
And we see in 2 Chronicles 7, as we take this quick pit stop and look at this historical marker, 2 Chronicles 7:1-3, we find the story behind the story in Acts 2. "After the construction of the temple, Solomon prayed. "And after he prayed," scripture says that, "Fire came down from heaven and consumed "the burnt offerings and the sacrifices "and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. "And the priest could not enter the house of the Lord "because the glory of the Lord filled the temple. "And when all the people of Israel saw the fire come down "and the glory of the Lord on the temple, "they bowed down with their faces to the ground "on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks "to the Lord saying, 'For he is good. "'His love endures forever.' "And after several days of worshiping and feasting, "and celebrating, King Solomon sent the people away "to their homes, joyful and glad of heart, "for the prosperity that the Lord had granted "to his people, Israel."
Does any of that sound familiar to you? It sounds an awful lot like the scripture reading we heard before the sermon, the scripture reading from Acts 2. 'Cause in these two stories, you see God doing similar things, but what he did in shadow form in the Old Testament, in 2 Chronicles 7, he does in a real form in Acts 2. We see the fulfillment of God's promises in Acts 2. We see fire come down, we see heaven opened up. We see God's glory, descending upon his people. And all of these things are fulfilled in his people. Why does all of this matter? It matters because when we look at the temple in 2 Chronicles 7, we see a magnificent structure. We see a sacred space of beauty and glory. We see that for a time, God's holy presence was willing to dwell in and among that temple.
It only lasted a few hundred years. And at the end of that few hundred years, as God looked upon his people and he saw their boredom, he saw how they were engaging in the life of the world, spending six days of their week worshiping the idols of the world around them, and then trying to devote one day to him at his temple, at the end of all of that relationship, God said, that's enough. He was tired of watching his people play in the house of the Lord. And so, he withdrew his glory from that temple and moved away. You've heard that Elvis has left the building. Well, Elvis has nothing on Yahweh, when he departs from the temple. Yahweh has left the building.
And what did he leave them with? He left them with this magnificent structure that became a tomb, to remind them of the death and decay at work in their community, but he didn't leave himself without witness. He didn't leave himself without promises. He promised that, at some point he would return. He would bring his glory back to his temple, back to his people. And when he came back to his temple and back to his people, he would establish a new temple that was much more glorious, more grandiose. It was cosmic in scope, large enough to encompass not only a space in Israel, not only large enough to encompass a space in the world, but to encompass all of the universe. This is the vision the prophets give us as each of them talk about God's promise to come back and dwell with his people again. So the glory departed, but the glory promised to return. God promised that his glory would return to his temple, but not in the way that anyone expected.
People thought if we just rebuild a temple that's been torn down, God will dwell here. If we just make it prettier and fancier than it was before, God will be pleased. And along the way, God was saying to his people, that's not the temple I have in mind. He's not interested in dwelling in buildings of stone and glass, and wood and gold. He's interested in dwelling, a dwelling place that is living and active, a dwelling place that is made of flesh and blood, people, a dwelling place that can sweat and cry and laugh, a dwelling place that can feel and take action, a dwelling place like you. This is what God is interested in.
And so when you come to Acts 2, you find that this is the fulfillment of what God has been promising in the law and the prophets, that God will dwell with his people again. What do we see in this community in Acts 2:42-47? From a horizontal point of view, sort of a man to man, person to person point of view, we see this really cool church that we would all love to be a part of. Wouldn't you love to place membership in the church at Jerusalem, at least before you found out about all the persecution and trouble that was about to break out on them? But in that moment, wouldn't it have been great to be in a place where everyone's rejoicing and happy and sharing their things, and there's no conflict or strife? How does that happen? How do we get that picture of a church? Well, as one theologian put it, Acts 2 portrays the descent of the heavenly, end time temple of God's presence upon his people on the Earth.
What we see happening in Acts 2 is what we saw in 2 Chronicles 7. It's the same thing happening, but in truer and better ways. We meet, in Acts 2, in this community that we call the church of Jesus Christ, we meet, in those people, the true and better temple of God. We meet a holy people, not a holy place, holy people who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. God has come to rest with his people. He has come to dwell with the community of people that he's called out of the world to his son, Jesus Christ, and all the people in this community are people who, like these stones on the wall behind me, are being fitted together to form a spiritual house. They're being fitted together by the Holy Spirit to form a living and active temple of God in the world. This is not the work of man. This is not the work of a pastor with a grand vision. This is not the work of human beings. This is the work of the Spirit of God in the world.
And so we find, in Acts 2, what we saw in 2 Chronicles 7. We see not only the construction of the new temple, but we also see the dedication of this new temple, as fire falls from heaven, as the Spirit of God blows through the crowd and comes to dwell with the people of God. The promise of the Spirit's indwelling is for you and your children. It's for all who are far away, it's for all who are near, it is for as many as the Lord our God will call. And in this community, we see the Spirit gathering people together in Christ so that they can be a dwelling place for the Lord God. This is the holy place that Jesus prayed for. These are the holy people that Jesus prayed for. When Jesus prayed, as we heard last week, that the Father would sanctify his people by the truth, that he would make them truly holy, this is what he had in mind, was a community of people that are set apart for the purposes of God. The apostles of Jesus Christ all seize upon this imagery in their writings.
Now I'll give you a few examples. In Ephesians 2:22, the apostle Paul describes the Lord's church as a living structure made up of people who are united to Jesus Christ, whose members are joined and fitted together. And they are growing in a holy temple in the Lord. And he says, "In him, you also are being built together "into a dwelling place to God by the Spirit." John seizes on this in Revelation 21, when he shares the vision of Jesus Christ with us. And a part of that says, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. "He will dwell with them and they will be his people. "And God himself will be with them as their God." And then Peter, who preached on the day of Pentecost, and saw this community of the Spirit forming before his waking eyes, reflects back and says, "As you come to Jesus," 1 Peter 2, "As you come to Jesus, a living stone rejected by men, "but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, "you yourselves are living stones. "You're being built up as a spiritual house, "to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices "acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
And with all of that in mind, if you knew all of that and then you showed up to visit the church at Jerusalem, you would know exactly what you were looking at. You'd know exactly what you're getting in for. You're coming into the new temple of God, the living and active temple of the Holy Spirit, where all the stones in that temple are alive. All the stones in that temple are alive because the Holy Spirit indwells them and each stone in that temple is vital to the structural integrity of that temple. You matter. You matter, you mean something in the temple of God.
Your presence in the temple is vital to the mission of the church in the world. Don't ever tell yourself that you don't have a place, that you don't belong, that you don't fit in. It's not up to you to fit yourself in. It's not even up to this community to help you fit in or make you fit in. It is up to the Spirit of Christ to work in your life and find a place in the temple for you. You're needed. You're wanted, you're loved by God. This is the work of the Spirit. And so, what we find here in this temple is we find a church that is not constructed by man's design or skill. It's not a church that is established on anyone's personality or ingenuity. It's not a church that is built on man's wisdom or power. What do we see here? We see a holy community, a living temple, constructed, dedicated and established by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ dwelling in all the members of this holy community.
It's causing the members of this holy community to be permanently connected with Christ and with each other. In Acts 2:42, you see the word devoted there. And we start thinking of devotion, as in terms of commitment, they're all committed. And we like to get commitments from people. If you haven't placed membership yet, we really want your commitment. And I mean that, both as a joke and in serious. Commitment is important, but that's not what this word means. What this word means is that the Spirit of God is taking us and he is making us permanently abide in these things, in apostolic teaching, in praying the psalms, in administering the sacraments, and in sharing life together with each other. This is foundational to the life of the temple of God. And this is the work of the Holy Spirit. And so the Spirit is gathering these stones together and he's gifting each of them with himself, with gifts to share with the church.
Now, what do we find here? We see that this is a new temple in Jerusalem, not a static building, but it is a dynamic people on mission with God. What has happened in Acts 2? What's happened is that out of a cold, lifeless, dead tomb known as the temple, God has raised up a living, Spirit-fired temple out of the rubble. He has resurrected a people for himself, and erected a temple that reflects his glory, that reflects his grace to the world. In our tradition, we often confess the Nicene Creed, "I believe in one holy, catholic and apostolic church," and that's all well and good.
And we believe it, it is true, but there's something else that we need to see in this passage, don't we? Something else we learn about this church is that it's not just apostolic. It's also evangelistic. It's concerned about the life of the world and people coming to know Jesus. It's a church that is altruistic, in the sense that people are sharing their resources with each other, to meet the basic needs of life inside and outside the church. And it's also a church that is charismatic. Whoa. It's charismatic in the sense that it is a church that is filled with the Holy Spirit, empowered by the Holy Spirit, moved by the Holy Spirit, to go on mission with God in the world. And so let's never forget that what God is doing in this congregation, and in other congregations of his people throughout the world is not the work of man. He's not accomplishing this by any might or power in and of ourselves, but "by my Spirit," says the Lord, and this is the work of God among us.
How does the church generate or produce this kind of unity, generosity, hospitality that we see on display in the church in Acts? We see it because the Holy Spirit is at work in them and he is producing these things in them and through them. And he does it for the life of the world. Jesus prayed for us, Jesus prayed that the Father would sanctify us by the truth to make us holy. And he wasn't just talking about the Father doing that for each of us individually in our own personal life. But he's talking about the Father doing that for us individually and collectively, as he builds his temple in the world. And we are one part of this vast, cosmic temple that Christ, by his Spirit, is building in the world.
And if you know from your children's Bible stories, if you know from reading the Old Testament, you know that what God intended for his temple to be was a house of prayer for all nations. The people of God were always intended to be a source, a place, a center point for people to come and meet God. But they were also to go out and gather them and bring them back in, and what are we called to do, as the living temple of God? We are called to go on mission with God in the world. We are called to gather people in the name of Jesus Christ, to come and worship God, our King, and to come to this place of prayer. And so, we do pray for the nations. We pray for our communities. We pray that God will bring more and more people to Jesus through us, and we pray that he will make us holy, that we will be set apart for his purposes, distinct among the peoples around us, not to make a name for ourselves, but to make the name of Jesus greater and greater in the hearts and minds of our community.
As the holy temple of God, we are to be a house of prayer for all nations. We are on mission with God for the life of the world. What do we see in the book of Acts? We see God's fulfilling his promise to make a people in the image and likeness of Jesus, to make a people in which he can dwell by his Spirit. And I want you to know that you are some of those people. You are a part of this temple. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Let us pray together.
