“The Lord Comes to His Temple”
Malachi 3:1-4

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
The Presentation of Our Lord—February 2, 2020

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Believe it or not, there’s an even bigger holiday today than Super Bowl Sunday!  Because, today, February 2nd, marks the traditional Christian holy day of The Presentation of Our Lord. 

According to the Old Testament law, giving birth to a boy caused a woman to be ceremonially unclean for a period of 40 days, during which she would be in semi-seclusion, and at the end of which she would offer a sacrifice to the Lord.  The ceremonial law also commanded that every firstborn son must be presented to the Lord. 

So, as recorded in today’s Gospel Reading, on the 40th day after Jesus’ birth the Holy Family of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus journeyed to the Temple at Jerusalem, about six miles north of their temporary home at Bethlehem, like walking from here at Block to Paola. We commemorate The Presentation of Our Lord today because counting forward from our celebration of Christ’s birth on December 25th we find that the 40th day is February 2nd.

A big surprise awaits the Holy Family at the Temple in Jerusalem. For, as they enter the Temple courts they are greeted by the aged Simeon, a faithful believer in the Lord’s promise to send a Savior.  “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, ‘Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word.  For my eyes have seen your salvation.”

These events were prophesied over 400 years earlier, in today’s Old Testament Reading from Malachi, which is a double prophecy of both the Messiah and the forerunner of the Messiah:  “‘See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

The forerunner of the Messiah that Malachi prophesies is Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist. As the angel told John’s father Zechariah: “And he will go on before the Lord . . . to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

“See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple.  The messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the Lord Almighty.”  That is the second part of the prophecy.  After the forerunner comes the Messiah himself.  He is the LORD, whom the world for so many centuries has been seeking and waiting and longing.  He is “the messenger of the covenant” Malachi prophesies, meaning that the Messiah comes to earth with a message about God’s covenant, God’s agreement with you, God’s arrangement with you how you can be saved.

God’s covenant with you isn’t what you’d expect.  You’d expect God to say, “Well, IF you do these things, and if you DON’T do these things, then I’ll reward you with eternal life in heaven.”  That is the kind of covenants we make.  It’s only if you earn something that you get rewarded.  You get what you deserve.  But God knows that kind of spiritual covenant would only mean our damnation, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. . .  the wages of sin is death.”

“But because of his great love for us,” Paul says in Ephesians, “God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”  Because of his great love for you, God established with you a covenant of GRACE.  That means it’s not earned or deserved by you but is a GIFT.  “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Jesus Christ is “the messenger of the covenant” Malachi prophesies, proclaiming the Good News of your forgiveness: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. . .  For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. . .  I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. . .  For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life.”  That is Good News for YOU from “the messenger of the covenant.”

“The Lord you are seeking will come to his temple.”  We can see a three-fold fulfillment of the Lord coming to his “temple.”  The first “temple” the Lord Jesus comes to and dwells within in this world is actually individual people, like you and me.  “Do you not know that your body is a temple?” Paul asks in 1st Corinthians.

And the first body that the Lord Jesus dwelled in as his temple, in a very special and unique way, was his mother, the Virgin Mary.  The angel announced to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”  For nine months our Lord greatly honors and glorifies womanhood by his own presence in the womb of a woman, his mother Mary.  And through faith in him, the Lord Jesus also dwells in YOU as his temple. 

So the first “temple” the Lord Jesus comes to and dwells within in this world is actually individual people, like Mary, in whom he dwelled in a special and unique way, and all believers, like you and me, in whom he dwells by faith.  “Do you not know that your body is a temple?”

“The Lord you are seeking will come to his temple.”  The second “temple” the Lord Jesus comes to and dwells within in this world is the invisible Church, composed of all believers in Christ.  Peter says, “Like living stones, YOU are being built together into a spiritual house.”  The “living stones” of this invisible, spiritual temple are all believers in Christ in both the Old and New Testament eras, including you.  As Paul says in Ephesians, “You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.  In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.  And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

So the second “temple” the Lord Jesus comes to and dwells within in this world is the invisible Church, composed of all believers in Christ.  “Like living stones, YOU are being built together into a spiritual house.”

“The Lord you are seeking will come to his temple.”  The third “temple” the Lord Jesus comes to and dwells within in this world are the places of worship where his people gather together here on earth.  “For where two or three are gathered together in my name,” Jesus promises, “there I am among them.” 

When Solomon dedicated the first Temple at Jerusalem, the glory of the Lord filled the Temple in the form of a cloud.  But, because the people of Israel fell away from the Lord, the prophet Ezekiel later saw a vision of the glory of the Lord departing from the Jerusalem Temple.  At the time Malachi prophesied that the Lord would once again come to his temple, the Temple at Jerusalem was derelict, and the people were again falling away from the Lord.

At about the same time as Malachi, Haggai likewise prophesied that one day the Lord would return to the Temple at Jerusalem: “‘In a little while . . . the Desire of All Nations shall come, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

“The Lord you are seeking will come to his temple.” As recorded in today’s Gospel Reading, these prophesies of Malachi and Haggai that the Lord would once again dwell in his EARTHLY Temple at Jerusalem were first fulfilled forty days after Jesus’ birth: “Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord . . . and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord.” 

Exactly as Malachi and Haggai prophesied, the Lord finally returns to the Temple at Jerusalem.  But this time, the Lord comes to his Temple not in the form of a cloud, but in the form of a Baby.  “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

And some twelve years later, the Lord returned to the Temple again, in the form of a young boy from Nazareth: “They found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. . .  ‘Did not you know that I had to be in my Father’s house?’ he said.”

And some eighteen years after that, the Lord returned to the Temple yet again, in the form of a Rabbi who often taught there: “Every day I was with you,” Jesus said, “teaching in the temple courts.”  Luke reports, “He was teaching the people in the temple courts and preaching the Gospel.”

“The Lord you are seeking will come to his temple.”  Where NOW, today, is to be found the earthly temple where you may encounter the Lord?  “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am among them.” 

You encounter Jesus right here, and wherever God’s people gather together in his name.  He speaks to you in his Word.  You talk to him in prayer.  You praise and thank him in the Liturgy and hymns.  He makes you born again by water and the Spirit and washes away your sins in Holy Baptism. 

In the Temple at Jerusalem, Simeon took up the baby Jesus in his arms and declared, “Lord, now let your servant depart in peace . . . for my eyes have seen your salvation.”  In this temple, too, YOU encounter Jesus physically, in flesh and blood, as he gives you his own body and blood in Holy Communion.  And then you sing out like Simeon: “Lord, now let your servant depart in peace . . . for my eyes have seen your salvation.”

So the third “temple” the Lord Jesus comes to and dwells within in this world are the places of worship where his people gather together.  “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am among them.”

“‘See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me.”  The first part of the prophecy was fulfilled by John the Baptist, who prepared the way for the Messiah.

“Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the Lord Almighty.”  The “temple” the Lord comes to is, first of all, individual people, like his mother Mary, in a special and unique way; and by faith, all believers, like you and me.  “Do you not know that your body is a temple?” 

Secondly, the “temple” the Lord comes to is the invisible Church, all believers in Christ.  “In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.  And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” 

Finally, the “temple” the Lord comes to is the places of worship here on earth where his people gather together.  “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am among them.”

“The Desire of All Nations shall come . . .  the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple.”

Amen.