particularly love the Apostle Stephen. Before he was stoned to death and became the first martyr of the ekklesia (the church), he preached his last message on the house of God, and told us that God does not live in physical buildings, no matter how large or well renovated they may be. (Acts 7:48). Infact, God asks a question saying:
“What kind of house will you build for me?”
(Acts 7:49).
Paul confirms that again in Acts 17:24 when he says:
“The God who made the world and everything…does not live in temples built with hands.”
But God has chosen to dwell in us:
“…for God’s temple is sacred and you are that temple.”
(1 Cor 3:16-17).
If the same kind of worship and expression that takes place on Sunday morning in the brick mortar temples we have created were to take place inside of us – the temple of the Holy Spirit- I think we would reflect more of Acts 17:6: The same believers who turned the world upside down have come here also… instead of renovating these decaying buildings made by hands lets renovate our hearts which are made by God. The true building and house of God is formed when loving people come together structured by the Holy Spirit – not by an order of service.
Acts 7: 45-54
45 Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, 46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.[a] 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,
49 “‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
50 Did not my hand make all these things?’
51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
The Stoning of Stephen
54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Can you imagine if we sold every evangelical church – sold the property.. paid off each others debts – sent the rest of the money to the third world countries and gathered in each others homes – parks and other places and as actual living stones formed the kind of Church the Spirit of God wishes to dwell in? What a wake up call would it not only be to the church but also the world. Acts 17:6 in living action.
For the first 300 years or so the church existed without buildings, the fasted growing movement without a sacred space made by hands.
- brother Jonathan