Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
– John 2:19–21
This is one of the many places in the gospel of John where we see Jesus as the fulfillment of all the Old Testament has been pointing to in a way that totally transforms our lives. And there’s so much we could talk about here, especially when you go back to John 1:14 that says, the word became flesh and dwelled among us. The word for dwelled there is tabernacle. So that’s the picture in the Old Testament of the Tabernacle where God’s glory was dwelling, his presence among his people in the Tabernacle.
John 2:19–21 portrays Jesus as the Tabernacle of God.
John is saying, Jesus is the Tabernacle. Jesus is the glorious presence of God among us. And then you come to chapter two and it’s the same picture, but this time with the temple, Jesus is referring to himself as the temple. You want to see the place where the glory and presence of God dwells? Look in front of you, look at my body. He is the temple, the dwelling place of God himself.
You want to encounter God? Then you go to Jesus because he is God in the flesh. And then so if you just keep reading in the gospels, you know that when Jesus died on the cross for our sins, the curtain of the temple was torn in two and the way was made open for sinners like you and me to come into the presence of God himself, to be welcomed into relationship with him, restored to relationship with him.
How is that possible? Through what Jesus was saying right here through his body, paying the price for our sins. And then, so the story keeps getting better, and you read through the rest of the New Testament because for all who trust in Jesus, we’re not just forgiven of our sins, but we’re filled with his Spirit so that our bodies become what? Temples of the Holy Spirit. Obviously not in the exact same way that Jesus is the temple here in John 2, we are not God in the flesh like Jesus is God in the flesh.
John 2:19–21 reminds us Jesus’ sacrifice has made us temples of God.
But the fact that God’s glory, his Spirit dwells in you and me today, does this not just totally transform everything about our lives? For you and I to realize one, that we have life in Jesus through his death and his resurrection, and not just some ordinary bland life. We have extraordinary full life because we have the Holy Spirit in us today.
Now, that’s not to say that ordinary is bad. There are many ordinary things we do on a daily basis, but don’t forget and the ordinary day-to-day things you will do today, tomorrow, the next day, you have the extraordinary supernatural Holy Spirit of God dwelling in you, which means supernatural power, supernatural peace, supernatural comfort, supernatural hope, supernatural joy, supernatural wisdom. I could keep going on and on.
This verse encourages us to walk in step with the Spirit of God.
So let’s pray in light of all of this. God, help us to live in light of what your Word teaches us. First and foremost, oh God, to praise you for all of this. God, to praise you for your Word. How it all points to Jesus with such unity and consistency. There’s nothing like your Word Jesus. We praise you as the center of all history, the center of the Bible, the Word made flesh. Jesus, we praise you as the Savior who died on the cross for our sins, whose body was destroyed and three days later raised from the dead.
We praise you for forgiving us of our sins through faith in you and filling us with your Holy Spirit. And so we pray, help us to live in the fullness of your Holy Spirit today. Lead us, guide us, direct us. Help us to walk with sensitivity to your Spirit, not grieving your Spirit, but obeying your Spirit and walking in the power and the joy and the comfort and the hope and all that we have flows from your Spirit in us today. And help us to be holy as you are holy, and to share the gospel as witnesses according to the power of your Spirit in us.
Prayer for the Orochi People
And God, we pray in your Spirit today for the Orochi people of Ukraine, this small remote people group in Ukraine, especially amidst war.
God, we pray the peace of Jesus, the truth about Jesus, the love of Jesus would spread to the Orochi people of Ukraine, that they might be reached with it and they might be reconciled to you, that they might hear the good news and receive it. That the door is open for relationship with you, life to the full. And God, we pray that over the Orochi people of Ukraine, even as we pray, you’d help us to live in the fullness of what your Word teaches us about who Jesus is and who we are. Temples of the Holy Spirit. In his name we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
