This morning we have the privilege of hearing from Sulmani Magadi.
Sulmani and his wife Miriam attend Church of the Resurrection,
where Sulmani also serves as an ordained deacon.
You might recognize Sulmani and Miriam from a couple different places.
They have participated in our worship services both two weeks ago singing
and later on in this service they will also sing with us.
You might recognize them also from having participated in our annual Easter Vigil,
both the year before and the year before that.
Sulmani originally comes from Jha's, Nigeria, where he studied at ECWA Theological Seminary,
and later on he would study at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary,
the same seminary where pastors Tommy and Kevin also studied.
Once again, we are so happy that Sulmani joins us this morning to preach the Word of God.
Sulmani.
Well, good morning. I'm happy to be here with you today.
I just want to thank the Advent leadership for giving me the opportunity,
the honor to share God's Word with you today.
Let's pray before we dive in.
We ask, Holy Spirit, that you would speak to us,
that you would tell us what you want for us to get from your Word,
and that it would revive us, encourage us, teach us, rebuke us, and heal us.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
I want to talk about God's home, the temple of God's home.
When I think of the word home, what immediately comes to mind is the dictionary definition,
a place where one lives permanently as a member of a household or a family.
I remember in the mid-1990s, my father wanted to build a home for his family,
so he contracted builders and they laid the foundation, set up the walls, you know, they built the house.
And once it was completed, we moved in.
But we didn't really move into a house.
We, sorry, into a home.
We moved into a house.
And it was the shared experiences in the house that really made it into a home for us,
that we felt that it belonged to us.
So we laughed together.
We prayed together.
We ate together.
We messed up together.
And that's what really made it home, those wonderful memories that we created.
And it seems like that's what's happening in Genesis chapter 1,
when God creates all of creation.
The first three days, he's preparing these spaces, these places,
for the creatures that he's going to create in the last three days of creation.
And the last, of course, is mankind.
And then on the seventh day, God rests.
And he calls it holy.
Now, in the ancient Near East, during the time when Moses was writing this book especially,
when a deity wanted to rest, there was only one place that they could rest.
That was in their temple.
So here, Moses is using the language of rest that was used in the Aene, ancient Near East.
But that word doesn't necessarily mean a reviving of strength and energy.
And that's not what it means.
What it actually refers to is the act of taking up residence.
So when we are told that God rests, what actually, what that means is that God took up residence.
And so just like a deity would take up residence in their temple,
here God was taking up residence in his creation.
And that was his temple.
So all of creation was his cosmic temple.
And that is what completed creation.
Adam and Eve had a full, satisfying experience of what it means to have a true home.
Because God rested and took up residence with them.
And all of creation, being God's temple, that was his desire all along,
for all humanity to have a true home by dwelling with them.
But then God did something even more amazing.
He decided that he was going to give dominion to mankind, to rule, to steward his cosmic temple.
And interestingly, he intertwined the fate of his temple with the obedience of his children.
He gave them things to do.
And one thing that they should not do.
And we know how the story goes.
Sin came into the world.
And Adam and Eve were exiled from the temple.
Unfortunately, they lost the rest, the home of God.
And so we, in our present homes, no matter how great they are, we know that there is disunity at times.
Sometimes we say words that we can't take back.
And beautiful memories we created in that place called home sometimes have turned dark and sour for us.
Now, as the story unfolds, we see that God wants to create a proximal temple.
So he instructs Moses to build a tabernacle.
And then later on, he tells Solomon to build a splendid temple where his name would reside.
Solomon does.
And Solomon prays a prayer of dedication.
After he prays that prayer, listen to what God says in 1 Kings 9, from verse 3 to 9.
I have heard your prayer and your plea which you have made before me.
I have consecrated this house that you have built by putting my name there forever.
My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.
And as for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked with integrity of heart and uprightness,
doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my rules,
then I will establish your throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying,
You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.
But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children,
and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you,
but go and serve other gods and worship them,
then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them,
and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight,
and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all the peoples.
And this house will become a heap of ruins.
Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss,
and they will say,
Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?
Then they will say,
Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt
and laid hold on other gods and worshipped them and served them.
Therefore the Lord has brought all this disaster on them.
Can you see how yet again God intertwines the flourishing of his temple,
of his home, where he sets his name?
He intertwines that with the obedience of the people,
here in this passage specifically the kings.
And when the kings don't obey the Lord,
when the people don't obey the Lord,
there are dire consequences.
Starting with the end of Solomon's reign,
the people did not keep the law.
King after king after king did evil in the sight of the Lord.
Peter Lightheart tells us that before the temple was finally destroyed,
it was looted seven times.
It's like each looting represented a step back,
a decreation of the temple,
because the people, and more specifically the king,
refused to repent of their sins and follow the Lord.
They were destroying their home.
And by the time we get to 2 Chronicles 25,
the temple has been looted three times.
We're told in verse 1 to 5 that Amaziah was a good king.
He was even familiar with the law of the Lord.
His father had been assassinated.
And when Amaziah became king and had consolidated his power,
he executed the assassins who killed his father.
But he didn't execute their families because he knew from the law
that you do not kill the families of those who commit sins.
Only the one whose sins shall die.
So one would expect that the temple would flourish,
that the home of the Lord would flourish,
and that Israel would still have a home under Amaziah's reign.
But something went wrong.
Something went terribly wrong.
Backstory a little bit.
During Jehoram's reign,
and Jehoram is Amaziah's grandfather,
Edom,
the nation state of Edom,
which at that point was a vassal to Judah,
rebelled against Judah.
So now during Amaziah's reign,
he wants to bring the Edomites back under the reign of Judah.
And it's something that God seems to approve.
But he makes his first mistake
by allying with Israel.
He asks the northern kingdom to help him
to take it over.
So a thousand men were sent from Israel.
The problem with this is that the northern kingdom
had at this point already forsaken the Lord their God.
And so inviting them into this endeavor
was inviting corruption into Judah.
You woke up this morning
and oh how you needed pep.
And like most people,
you wanted to make coffee.
That's where you get your pep.
And so you brew the coffee.
And as it's brewing,
the aroma is wafting up to you.
It's calling your name,
saying that it wants you to drink it.
And you can't wait.
You put in the creamer.
Oh, you put in the sugar.
Stir it.
Put it to your lips.
You take a sip
and then you immediately spit it out
because you actually put salt
instead of sugar.
That's what's happening here.
Judah cannot mix with Israel at this point
because it's like coffee mixing with salt.
Who does that?
Righteousness and evil cannot work hand in hand.
But it gets worse.
From verse 7 to 11,
we see that a prophet tells Amaziah
to break the alliance.
And to his credit,
the king does so.
And he gains victory over Edom.
But then,
after he gains victory over Edom,
he sees their gods
and takes them for himself.
We see that in verse 14 to 16.
Idolatry.
He takes the idols of Edom,
brings them back to Jerusalem,
sets them up as his gods,
and worships them,
making sacrifices to them.
I'm not even sure how that makes sense
because the Lord your God
helped you have victory over Edom.
And the gods that couldn't save them
are the gods that you take to worship.
God sends a prophet
and tells him
to correct his ways.
But his heart has been hardened
by the idolatry.
And he tells the prophet
to shut up
or he'll kill him.
At this point,
God is no longer with Amaziah.
Now,
the 100,000 men
that he sent home,
he broke the alliance with them.
They were, of course, angry.
And probably because
they couldn't, you know,
take part in the plunder
and they didn't have any honor
associated with war
because they were allowed
to keep the money.
So on their way back up
to the northern kingdom,
they attacked some cities of Judah.
And understandably,
Amaziah is angry with them.
And so,
puffed up by his victory
over Edom,
he sends a declaration of war
to Joash.
And here we see
Amaziah's third mistake.
It's a prideful disposition.
The king of Israel
told him,
this unrighteous king of Israel
tells him not to be puffed up
with his victory,
to be content with it.
He wouldn't listen.
And it was his pride
that led to his destruction.
So, three things
lead to the destruction
of Amaziah
and the fourth looting
of the temple.
The king makes
an unholy alliance
with another people.
The king commits adultery,
idolatry.
The king commits idolatry.
And
the king is prideful.
And that is what leads
to the vessels of God
being looted
in the temple.
And in some ways,
the looting of the temple
is a picture
of what happens
to Amaziah
and what would eventually
happen to the people.
The gods of Edom
looted him
and made him
their slave.
So Amaziah is destroyed.
This was true
to God's word
to Solomon.
The fate
of his resting place
was intertwined
with the obedience
of God's people,
specifically
the kings.
after Amaziah's death,
king
after king
just does evil
before the law,
before the Lord.
And
Manasseh
is the last straw.
Eventually,
the temple
is destroyed.
Nebuchadnezzar
comes and he
exiles the people
to the Babylon,
to the east,
just like Adam and Eve
were exiled
to the east.
the place
of God's rest
is no more.
Israel
is no longer
God's home
and the people
of God
no longer
have a home.
So after the exile,
under the guidance
of the prophets,
the Jews
rebuild
the temple
and reinstate
worship.
But by the time
Jesus arrives,
things aren't
as they should be.
Because
in John chapter 2,
we're told that
Jesus goes into
the temple
and he clears it,
saying,
take these things
away.
Do not make
my father's house
a house of trade.
My father's
house.
Jesus is here
claiming ownership
of the temple.
He's saying it's his.
Not only that,
he drives out
those who sell
and those who buy
in the temple.
He overturns
the tables
of the money changers
and the seats
of those who sell pigeons
and he would not
allow anyone
to carry anything
through the temple.
Jesus is shutting
down temple worship.
And he's shutting
down God's
resting place
because he's
doing something new.
Though every king
before Jesus
in some way,
in one way
or another,
failed,
Jesus would not fail.
He was victorious
in his obedience
to God
from first
to last.
Unlike Amaziah,
he did not make
an unholy alliance.
He did not
commit idolatry.
He only worshipped God.
God.
And he was not prideful.
He was humble
and obedient
even unto death
on the cross.
So when he shut down
the temple,
he was inaugurating
a new temple,
the temple of his body.
And through him,
by his death,
the people of God
would also become
the temple of God.
Not a building,
not a structure,
but the people of God
would become
the temple of God,
his resting place.
This is why we're told
in 1 Peter 2
that we are like
living stones
being built up
as a spiritual house
to be a holy priesthood,
to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God.
What's amazing
is that God's presence
in us
and through us
and with us
is secured
by the obedience
of King Jesus
who will never fail
completely.
God's resting place
will never again
be destroyed
because Jesus Christ
is our perfect king.
He will never change.
And that means
that God is going
to stay with us
forever.
This is wonderful
and amazing news.
God is with us.
Take a moment with me
and think about this.
Think about the magnitude
of that statement
that you and I
are God's resting place
if we believe in Christ.
Heaven,
the highest heavens,
cannot contain God.
God.
He's majestic.
He's all-powerful.
His glory
is beyond comprehension.
He does great wonders.
I mean,
just think about
who God is.
It is this God
that has chosen
to rest,
to take up residence
in you
and me,
to make us
his home
and by so doing
give us
a home.
and this is
great news
because it means
Christian
that no matter
where we are,
we are home.
God is with us.
We've been welcomed
back from exile,
from the dark.
We are no longer
cast out of Eden.
We are safe with him.
We are loved by him
and he is not
going anywhere.
And yes,
we long for,
we ache for the time
when we don't have
to contend
with sin anymore.
We know that it's not perfect.
We have that feeling
in our heart
that it could be better.
We struggle with
the sin around us.
We struggle with
the darkness.
We struggle with
what we see
on the news
every day.
We struggle with
that disunity
with other believers
because of denominational
distinctions
or whatever
the case may be.
But,
in the midst of all this,
we are not alone.
The spirit of glory
and of God
rests,
has taken up
residence
on us
and we are home
and we are his home.
It also means
that wherever we go,
we are,
we are the source
of hope
to the world.
It is,
it is by looking at us
that the world
can see God
and understand
what that real sense
of home
actually is
because we are
God's presence
in the world.
and oh,
how I long
for anyone
who does not
know Jesus Christ
to come and join
home.
If you don't know him,
what are you waiting
for?
It's dark
out there.
There is no joy.
There is no peace
in exile.
And Jesus
is inviting you
to come
and be part
of this fellowship,
to come and dine
with us.
Brothers and sisters
are waiting
to embrace you.
Why don't you
come home?
Come.
Come to Jesus.
Let us pray.
Father,
we pray that you
would continue
to make us aware
of your,
your presence
with us,
that you are home.
You are our home
and we are yours.
And that we live,
that we live out
that truth
in the midst
of current difficulties
and be light
to the world.
Amen.