Rev. Zhang Keyun, chairman of Jiangsu CCC & TSPM, shares three attributes of a church in a sermon named "The Temple of God" in the dedication service of Nantong City One Church or Diyicheng Church.
The temple of God is a place of peace
The pastor speaks that every Christian hopes to get peace from God and God grants us peace through the church. However, people feel different kinds of peace at different times.
The background of the book of Jeremiah is that God speaks through the prophet about "peace" to the Israelites in the moment of national crisis.
At that time the temple in Jerusalem was repaired and many believers from all sides gathered to worship God. But there was a wrong perception in their minds that their nation and people were safe since they had the temple and found the Book of the Law. The Lord ordered the young prophet, Jeremiah, to tell the people: "Do not trust in deceptive words and say, 'This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!' If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly..." This told them that nothing could provide real peace unless they changed their actions.
Rev. Zhang states that cognitive problems existed not only in that age, but also occur in the church today. For example, the Bible is used to heal diseases by some people. Some may claim that everything will be prosperous and well as long as you believe in Jesus Christ, while the reality is that faith refers to not merely your membership in a church or where you were baptized. Moreover, we can't just think that only we or persons like me can please God, seemingly that our life and faith practices are the standards.
We will challenge the unity of the church if we establish the standard based on ourselves. "Our faith needs both passion and reason. Our faith life requires rich content and solid foundations. God wants to grant peace to everyone he loves, but people can only receive it under some conditions... God gives the real peace when a church becomes the church of God and the temple the real dwelling of God." He adds.
The temple of God is holy
God pointed out, through Jeremiah, that the reason why God's people lost peace was that the holiness was absent inside them, Rev. Zhang shares. Jeremiah mentioned that the shepherds of the sheep, the officials, did evil things with their wages, refused to obey God's words and didn't care their flock.
Apart from the sins of the shepherds, the prophets at that time also committed sins, who were moral judges, losing their holiness and the spiritual power to heal diseases and preaching false teachings. They spoke visions from their own minds.
In terms of the people, God called them rejected silver and broken bonds, who had faint hearts with thriving appearance. In God's eyes, they needed to be destroyed and rebuilt so that the temple of God could turn out to be a temple of blessings.
God told them that the essence of faith laid in the dependence on God rather than on the holy temple or the Book of the Law. He reclaimed his words, showing that the people of God should not worship in the holy temple while living a sinful life and instead, they should rectify their life with repentance.
As believers, the temple of the Lord where the Holy Spirits lives, we should be vibrant witnesses.
The temple of God is glorious
The pastor stresses that the temple will lose its holiness without God's presence and believers who don't fulfill their duties are away from godliness. The temple is glorious because it lifts up Christ and the cross. But if it loses the presence of Christ, truth and the life, the cross on the church becomes our shame.
Actually, the cross dipped in the blood of Christ will never change its essence and image for our unholiness, however, every Christian shall polish it with his own life and daily life that witnesses the Lord.
For the church, it should seek the value of worship and ministries to honor God, being a home for souls.
Translated by: Karen Luo
