Before Jesus came into this world, the people of the earth were divided into two group – Jews and Gentiles/Pagans.
If we observe closely both the groups have the same setup of worship. Both the Jews and the Gentiles had the below;
1. Temple to worship
2. Priests to help people worship
3. Sacrifice offered for worship
But when Jesus came, the situation entirely changed because God Himself came and became the temple. Jesus told the people to break the temple and that He will build it up in 3 days. God came down to the earth and declared that He is the temple. He also became the High Priest as well as the perfect sacrifice.
It is written in Hebrews 5:5-10
“So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU ”; just as He says also in another passage, “YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK.” In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”
If Jesus being God needed to pray, then how much more do we need. Jesus is our model. Jesus didn’t have the need to pray but he has set an example for us.
According to Ephesians 5:2, Jesus became the perfect sacrifice. Now we don’t need any sacrifice because Jesus has become a perfect sacrifice for us. Where there is forgiveness of sin, there is no longer any offering for sin. (Hebrews 10:12-18)
Now because of Jesus, we are being built up together as a Holy temple of God. Church is not a place of worship, but we are the church gathering in a place to worship God.
Few things that the early century church did were that the believers were baptized, devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to breaking bread and prayers. (Acts 2:41-47) The early church knew each other’s needs. Now a days we have all become very selfish while the early church shared everything. When they come together, each one had a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. And all these things were done for building each other up. (1 Corinthians 14:26)
We are the temple of God, Jesus is our foundation and Holy Spirit is building up as God’s holy temple.
