FRIDAY
The gospel writers give us lots of revelations of Jesus as the new temple of God. Let’s work through some more of them in rapid-fire-fashion to close out this week.
- Jesus is the Trunk of Tree of Life
- Jesus is the Source of the River of Life
- Jesus is the cornerstone
- Jesus is the High Priest
- Jesus is the Sacrificial Lamb
- Jesus gives access to the Most Holy Place
John 15:5 (NIV) 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Jesus is the source of eternal life. Believers in Jesus are figuratively then grafted into the tree of life to have his eternal life and produce spiritual fruit. In Jesus we not only eat from the tree of life to find eternal life, but we are grafted into the tree of life to produce good fruit.
In Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well he asks her to give him a drink of water, which she says was culturally inappropriate for him to do because she is a woman and a Samaritan and Jews didn’t associate with Samaritans.
John 4:10 (NIV) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
John 4:13–14 (NIV) 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 7:37–38 (NIV)
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
Jesus said this on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, a feast in which the people of Israel would set up tents and live in them for 7 days to celebrate God’s deliverance in the wilderness wandering period. On the last day of the feast the people would carry water from the pool of Siloam to the temple as an offering to God.
As Jesus was teaching in the temple courts he tells the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.
Matthew 21:42 (NIV)
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“ ‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
Later in Acts, Peter and John say to the Sanhedrin while they are standing trial.
Acts 4:11 (NIV)
11 Jesus is
“ ‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’
The cornerstone may very well be the cornerstone of the temple. This would be a massive stone at the corner of the foundation that does the most important work in supporting the structure.* So Jesus is the most important foundational, structural piece of the new temple God is constructing in the church. (see also 1 Peter 2:4-10)
You’ll remember from week 1 that Adam is presented as a priest in the Garden of Eden. Jesus favorite designation for himself, which is a Messianic phrase, is Son of Man (Hebrew: adam). One of the primary roles of the priest was to perform the sacrifices in the temple atoning for the sins of the people to mediate between the people and God.
Matthew 9:6 (NIV)
6 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”
Hebrews 7:23–27 (NIV)
23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
26 Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
So Jesus is our great high priest who sacrifices for the sins of God’s people. He has the power and authority to forgive sins as no priest before him had.
John 1:29 (NIV) 29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Hebrews 9:11–14 (NIV) 11 But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. 12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. 13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
So Jesus is the sacrificial lamb who atones for our sin so that we may be in the presence of the living God.
When Jesus died the synoptic gospels say that the curtain of the temple (the curtain between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place was torn in two from top to bottom.
Matthew 27:51 (NIV)
51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split
As the High Priest could only access the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement after sacrifices have been made, now access to the presence of God is made available through faith in the atoning death of Jesus on the cross.
*It could also be referring to the capstone at the top center of an arch. The meaning is the same—it is the most structural piece of the building without which the building would collapse.
Additional Content
Reflection
Jesus fulfills all of these types from the Old Testament temple worship. Marvel at God’s glorious plan of salvation.