Where is God? Part 4: The Temple of God (cont.)

(Part 4 of 6)

Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.
Exodus 33:7-11 ESV

If you asked an Israelite in the days of Moses, “Where is God,” the answer would be the tent of meeting, especially when Moses entered it.

Especially when Moses entered…remember that.

Moses said to the LORD, "See, you say to me, 'Bring up this people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.' Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people." And he said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." And he said to him, "If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?" Exodus 33:12-16

Please note what Moses said! According to Moses, the man that God spoke to face to face, how was it known that God favored him and Israel? What made Moses and Israel DISTINCT FROM EVERY OTHER PEOPLE ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH?

THE PRESENCE OF GOD HIMSELF!

Where is God?
He is in His people individually.

Where is God?
He is with His people collectively.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. I Corinthians 3:16-17

In I Corinthians 6, Paul spoke of each individual Corinthian believer as a temple of God, each believer’s body. In chapter 3, in the quote above, Paul is speaking to the Corinthian church as a whole. The assembly of believers is the temple of God.

Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.
Matthew 18:18-20

Based on everything said so far, I would go as far as to say that the very definition of the church is:
Two or three believers gathered together in the Name of Jesus WITH JESUS HIMSELF AMONG THEM.

What do believers tell nonbelievers? We tell them that Jesus is alive and well, and that it is possible to have a “personal relationship” with Him. But where is He?

He is in those who believe in Him individually and with those who believe collectively.

What makes believers distinct, individually and collectively, from all the people on the face of the earth is not a doctrine or denomination, but a Person, in us and with us.

That means that when nonbelievers encounter believers, individually and collectively, they should encounter Christ Himself, in the believer individually, and with believers collectively. When you “go to church,” you should find Christ Himself in the temple of God. But is this what we find?

Where are the two or three gathered in His name? And what does it mean to gather in His name?

To gather in the name of Jesus is to gather under His authority, for His glory.

Jesus cannot lie.

If He is not experienced in the midst of the two or three who say they are gathering in His name, then they must not indeed be submitted to His authority for His glory. Jesus gave a very specific promise, a very specific condition for His manifestation. We will discuss this next time.

Until we next connect…
Peace.