Focus: The Temple Builder (Pt.1)

Text: Zech.6:13

"EVEN HE shall build the temple of the Lord; and HE shall bear the glory."

This text of Scripture in the book of Zechariah points to the Messiah as the temple builder. He is the Branch that would branch forth. He is the individual who would be both priest and king. He would be the builder of the temple, and in that temple the crown shall be deposited and positioned. The Messiah shall be the builder of the temple. 

Zechariah says, "Even he shall build the temple of the LORD…" In the Hebrew, the personal pronoun is emphatic, and that means that only the Messiah shall build the temple, not anyone else. Jesus Christ says to the Jewish authorities, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (Jh.2:19). The people thought that He was referring to the Jerusalem temple, but John says, "But he spake of the temple of his BODY" (Jh.2:21). Jesus' body is God's temple. 

In Heb.10:5, the Lord Christ says, "A body hast thou prepared me." The word 'prepared' means 'to construct.' God constructed Christ's body in the womb of Mary. God made Christ's body to function as His temple. Paul says that in Christ "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." God fully dwelt in Christ. Paul says that God was in Christ "reconciling the world unto himself" (2Cor.5:19). 

Christ's body is God's temple, and believers, interestingly, make up the members of His body. As believers in Christ, we are the flesh of His flesh and the bone of His bones, and He is our head - the body's head.

He is building us. He says, "Upon this rock I will build my church" (Mt.16:18). The church as a whole is the temple of God. Paul says, "Know YE not that YE are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1Cor.3:16). The little word 'ye' is plural; it refers to all of us as believers in Christ. We are collectively the temple of the Lord. Paul says again, "In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord" (Eph.2:21). We are, according to Paul, "God's building," and we are all together growing unto a "holy temple." The word 'temple' refers to the holiest place in the temple where God resides. The church is God's temple; Christ is building it.

At the consummation of all things in the book of Revelation, Christ says to the individual members of His church, "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God…" (Rev.3:12). In the temple that Christ is building for God, the overcomer and believer in Christ will be a pillar in it. Also, as individuals, Paul says, "What? know ye not that your BODY is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" (1Cor.6:19). Each believer's body is the awesome shrine of God. God inhabits our bodies as His sacred space. 

Our body is built to house God. God wants to feel at home in our bodies and to be in charge of it. Our body is meant to serve as God's medium of manifestation.

It is interesting to know that in the new heaven and new earth, there will be no temple. John writes, "And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it" (Rev.21:22). The temple is more than a place or physical structure; it is a person - the person of Christ and the Father, and remember that we are eternally connected to and with Christ. We are members of His body, and He is the head of the body.

Here's the bottom line: Christ is the builder of the temple of the Lord, and interestingly, He is also the bearer of the glory and majesty of royalty. The temple and the throne shall be together. Christ will be both priest and king. He will rule from His temple throne. He who builds the temple will wear the crown and sit on the throne. He will connect the throne and the temple together.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter