Jesus, the Builder and the buildings.

1. The heavens and the Earth:    God created the heavens and the Earth by His Word.
 John 1:1-3” In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” 1:14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Through Jesus, all things, the heavens and the earth and all that we see therein were made. 

2. Noah’s Ark:  God spoke to Noah and gave him the exact measurements and plan to make the ark to escape the incoming destruction of the world by the flood. God used His Word, Jesus, to give His instructions to Noah. Also the Ark itself points to Jesus, the Savior of the mankind to escape the destruction of the world. Thus Jesus was the entire reason behind the building of the ark.

3.  The Tabernacle and the Temple:   God spoke to Moses and gave him the instructions and the plan to build the Tabernacle, a place where people can come to offer their sacrifices for the atonement of their sins and worship God offering their sacrifices of thanksgiving. Every single detail of this place of worship, and the sacrifices point out to Jesus, who offered Himself as a sacrifice for the atonement of our sins. He was the Lamb of God Who was slain to take away the sin of the world. The Tabernacle was the place of worship when the people of Israel were traveling from Egypt to Canaan  for forty years.

 King Solomon built the Temple at Jerusalem as the place of worship when the people were settled in their promised land of Canaan. This Temple exactly resembled the Tabernacle and the same sacrifices and offerings were made and all these pointed to Jesus. This temple was desecrated and destroyed many times when the people of Israel were not faithful to God and His commandments.But again and again it was restored. Jesus himself refers to Himself as the Temple and said, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” As on date this Temple is not there in its place and it is said that when this Temple is again reconstructed then Jesus will come. It is also said that all the materials needed for this construction are readily available and as soon as they are sure of the original place on which the Temple stood the construction will start and it will not take much time to be completed and so do not think that the Second Coming of the Lord will be further delayed.

   

 4. A special place for His disciples: Jesus, the builder is preparing a special place for His disciples. John 14:3, “ I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be      where I am.”

   5.    New Jerusalem, the wife of the Lamb:  In the book of revelation chapter 21, we read about a glorious building that comes down from the heaven and we read that it is the New Jerusalem which is the wife of the Lamb.  Jesus Christ, with the help of the Holy Spirit is building up His bride to present her in the presence of God the Father, faultless and without any blemish. Rev 21: 11 reads, “It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal.” His bride is His Church, the congregation of His saints.

  

        6.   The invisible church:  The church is being built by Jesus for the last 2000 years through His disciples and followers. In spite of persecution and martyrdom, this construction has flourished and almost reaching its final perfect completion. The love, desire, and longing for the construction of this work has seized many people, rich and the poor, educated or illiterate, men or women, such that they crossed the barriers of nations, languages, social customs, cultural and climatic changes, natural calamities and so many other difficulties in spreading the gospel and adding up the church building. The church which belongs to Jesus is being built through all available modern technologies and also without any such technologies.

7.      The believer:  Every individual who has believed in Jesus Christ as personal savior is being constructed as a new creation in Him and is being perfected by the Holy Spirit to be the bride of the Lamb. In Peter 2:4,5 we read,  As you come to him, the Living Stone( Jesus), you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.


8.  The house built by Wisdom: In Proverbs 9: 1-12, we read that Wisdom has built up a house and invites people to go into the house and partake in all the food items it has prepared for them. The house is a safe building supported by seven pillars. Wisdom has prepared her meat and mixed her wine. Jesus Christ is Wisdom personified. He has built a safe house for us, the fellowship with Him and His saints. It is the Church. He has prepared a table for us with meat and wine. He calls and sends out his servants to call from the highest point of the city, “…..come to my house...Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed.” The construction of this house is completed.  It is the house of our salvation. Jesus has offered His body as the meat and His blood as the wine so that whosoever eats of His body and drinks of His blood shall not die but have everlasting life. This means accepting the death of Jesus as our sacrifice of atonement. Believing that Christ died for us and his blood cleanses us from all our sins. His servants are calling out from high places so that all people can come to know of this open invitation to enter into the house of salvation built by Jesus. 

Jesus cried out in a loud voice and gave up His spirit

Matthew 27:50-54 New International Version (NIV)

 ⁵⁰ ….and when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

 ⁵¹ At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split ⁵² and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. ⁵³ They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.  ⁵⁴ When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

Jesus cried out in a loud voice ------why? A cry of triumph and victory over the enemy whose head He had just crushed?  A cry of accomplishment of doing His Father’s will?   A cry of the extreme pain He is experiencing for you and me?  All these and more. His crying out in a loud voice shows that He was very much alive at that moment and His life was still whole in Him. He had said that “No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself.” He could have continued alive even in the greatest tortures if he had pleased. Or He could have given up His life as soon as He was crucified, avoiding the torture and the humiliation and the pain of the cross. But He chose to remain in the cross for more than three long hours experiencing the cruelties and at the proper time He gave up His spirit in the hands of His Father God shouting with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” This  shows the vehemence of His affection and strong confidence in God, and His being fearless of death. Also He spoke in a loud voice since He wanted Him to be heard and his words attended to. Moreover, being able to express Himself in such a loud voice amidst the extreme pain, declared Him to be more than a mere man. After such agonies in the garden, and so much fatigue in being hurried from place to place, and such loss of blood by being scourged, crowned with thorns, and nailed to the accursed tree, where he had hung for some hours, to speak with so loud a voice was more than human. This loud voice is one of the reasons which made  the centurion to cry out, "truly this man was the Son of God",

His shouting  in a loud voice at the time of His death accomplished the following:

1.    The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The curtain that divided man from entering into the Holy presence of God was torn by God Himself from top to bottom. Only to accomplish this plan of salvation for mankind, He had sent His Son into the world and allowed Him the cross. If only man believed in the atoning death of Jesus, he will have the courage to enter into the Holy presence of God at any time to attain mercy and forgiveness of his sins. No man can see God without holiness.  The death of Jesus offers forgiveness of our sins and His blood cleanses us from all our sins and makes us worthy to see God.

2.    The earth shook, the rocks split. The heavens and the earth and all that we see were made through Him and for Him. When He died, the nature, the works of His hands could not bear it and so the earth shook and the rocks split.

3.    The tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.  It foreshadows the great event that will happen to the believers when Jesus comes again to gather His saints. Also the death of Jesus has resurrected us who were dead in our sins and iniquities and made us witnesses unto  His death and resurrection.

4.    When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”  It is really a wonder that the lowly death of Jesus on the cross made people declare “Surely he was the Son of God!”   It is the work of God and it is marvelous to our eyes.

Thank you dear Jesus for dying for me so that I can live for ever!