Pentecost—What Is the World to Me? The True Temple of God
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).
Jesus promised here to leave us peace, to give us His peace—a peace that is different from what the world might claim to give us. It reminds me of one of my favorite hymns, “What Is the World to Me?” There are only four stanzas of it in our hymnal, but there are eight in the TLH. I’m going to read seven of them and save the last one until the end.
“What is the world to me, with all its vaunted pleasure, when You and You alone, Lord Jesus, are my treasure? You only, dearest Lord, my soul's delight shall be. You are my peace, my rest, what is the world to me?
The world is like a cloud and like a vapor fleeting, a shadow that declines, swift to its end retreating. My Jesus doth abide, though all things fade and flee, my everlasting rock, what is the world to me?
The world seeks to be praised and honored by the mighty, yet never once reflects that they are frail and flighty. But what I truly prize above all things is He, my Jesus, He alone, what is the world to me?
The world seeks after wealth and all that mammon offers, yet never is content, though gold should fill its coffers. I have a higher good, content with it I'll be. My Jesus is my wealth, what is the world to me?
The world is sorely grieved whenever it is slighted, or when its hollow fame and honor have been blighted. Christ, Thy reproach I bear, long as it pleaseth Thee, I'm honored by my Lord, what is the world to me?
The world with wanton pride exalts its sinful pleasures, and for them foolishly gives up the heavenly treasures. Let others love the world with all its vanity, I love the Lord my God, what is the world to me?
The world abideth not, lo, like a flash, ‘twill vanish, with all its gorgeous pomp, pale death it cannot banish, its riches pass away, and all its joys must flee, but Jesus doth abide, what is the world to me?”
This morning, as we hear those words, we might be nodding our heads, hopefully saying “amen.” Yes, that’s true—the world and all its seeking after wealth, power, prestige, pleasure, possessions—all of that is vain and meaningless compared to Jesus. The giving of the Holy Spirit, the preaching of God’s Word, the washing of Holy Baptism, the precious body and blood of Jesus given in the blessed Sacrament—these are the only treasures that give true and lasting peace. I hope all of us can say amen to that.
But our flesh, the world, and the devil—who with their lying and murdering day and night will let us have no peace within or without—have other plans for us. They quickly try to invade our minds with the things of this world, the peace that the world gives, or claims to give, that Jesus is speaking about in the Gospel.
The world’s peace is tied to external things. For the people desiring to build a tower reaching to heaven, that would come to be called the Tower of Babel, the external thing was a little more obvious, and their disobedience of God’s command—that command to fill the earth—was also very obvious (Genesis 9:1). But in our day, we have our own external things that the world boasts of and claims will give us peace of mind and all sorts of other blessings. The internet would help us get to the truth, social media would help us connect with people, smartphones would make us more productive. Similar promises have been made in the past and present around property ownership, college education, new painkillers, and other so-called miracle drugs that at first are purported to be non-addictive.
What can be even more difficult for us to see as a promise of the world are the things that are associated with the visible church on earth. We could be deceived into thinking we need to really be at peace and have legitimacy as a congregation—these things that are somewhat related to the church’s work visibly, but aren’t actually the peace that Jesus gives, don’t actually constitute true worship, don’t actually make the kingdom of God, the church on earth, the church.
From the beginning, Christians worshipped wherever the Word and Sacraments were delivered, not where a building was owned. Jesus Himself taught in synagogues that He did not own, on hillsides, in homes, and in boats pushed offshore that He did not own. The upper room, likely a borrowed space, hosted the Last Supper (Luke 22:11-12). Even in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they were gathered in a house (Acts 2:1-2).
The earliest believers continued this pattern. Acts 2 tells us that “those who gladly received His word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:41-42). They gathered day by day in the temple courts and in their homes, devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers (Acts 2:46-47).
It was not ownership of space, but the presence of the Word and the Spirit that made them the one holy Catholic and apostolic church gathered on earth. The apostle Paul, likewise, conducted worship in flexible and often makeshift settings. In Acts 20, he gathered the church in Troas, in an upper room, where he preached late into the night (Acts 20:7-8). In Acts 19, he taught daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus, a rented space (Acts 19:9). In his letters, Paul greets the churches meeting in homes, like in Romans 16:5 and 1 Corinthians 16:19.
These were not ideal, formal, or sacred spaces by human standards, but they were made holy by the Word of Christ and the fellowship of His people. Worship has always been where Jesus makes His home with His people through the Spirit, not where people build homes for Him out of external things.
Throughout church history, Christians have continued to worship wherever they could gather around the means of grace, regardless of property. In times of persecution, from the Roman Empire to Communist China, believers met in homes, catacombs, barns, or open fields. Missionary church plants often began in living rooms, schools, or tents. The reformers sometimes preached in fields and castles when they were exiled from official church buildings.
Even in modern America, many congregations, especially church plants, rent gymnasiums, libraries, or storefronts. And the consistent thread is this: the visible church is not defined by architecture or assets, but by the preaching of the pure Gospel and the right administration of the Sacraments. Wherever these are found, Christ gives His peace and builds His church, even if that gathering of saints never owns land or a building.
All of this is true. But how many of you have ever experienced trouble in your hearts that we meet as a congregation in this place, and not as I’m sure every single one of you grew up doing—gathering in a traditional church building? You might feel like we’re waiting, like we’re in an embryonic form, waiting to be church, when we finally can have a church. Wondering how much longer we might have to meet in a funeral home chapel. Worrying that we don’t own our own congregational or traditional worship space.
St. Peter, again, and I’m going to give you the words, he preaches at Pentecost, testifying to the people that they put Jesus to death by their sins, but that God raised Him up (Acts 2:23-24). And he tells them to “be saved from this perverse generation” (Acts 2:40). And then it says, “those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:41-42).
“Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:43-47).
Read the rest of Acts, read the rest of the letters, and find one example where any of that is speaking of a voters’ assembly that finds property to purchase, that does a building campaign to build a church building, and lives happily ever after. You will not find it. You in your own life never found that. Was there always peace in the church you belonged to, simply by the fact that they had a building? Did the Word of Christ dwell richly in that place and in your household, because you owned property as a congregation? No. None of us can say that.
You need to remember what God’s true temple is. Jesus tells us today, and I’ll say those words again at the end, but I’m going to give you some other words from Scripture: “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22).
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). You are God’s temple. You are being built up by the Spirit, through the Word, through the Sacraments.
Already now, and for your whole life, we are not waiting for anything. I am not up here telling you that it doesn’t make any sense to plan for maybe trying to own property as a congregation, or that you should get rid of our vestments, or anything like that. But you do need to think about priorities, and don’t get caught in the trap of thinking it’s a “first this, then this, then this, then this” sort of thing, where you’ve got raising enough money to have a church building up at the top, or anything else. It’s all happening at once, the Holy Spirit working through us, but the priorities have to be the Word and the Sacraments. Prayer here together, prayer in our homes together, the reading of Scripture and the hearing of it here and in our homes. That’s where the true temple of God is being built.
The world, and even today when religion seems to matter less and less, they’ll gawk at a new pope, the first American pope. And you look at it. Thousands of people gathered there. One of the most beautiful churches you could imagine, St. Peter’s Basilica, which really, if you think about it, kind of is an emblem of what caused the schism between the Protestants and the Roman church. But beautiful church, and the new pope walking out in beautiful vestments, and that history, and that pomp and circumstance. And it is easy to be duped into envying that.
But Jesus tells you today that the most beautiful temple of God, the most beautiful sanctuary, far beyond anything that a mere human could ever imagine, is the Christian who keeps God’s Word in his heart, in her heart. Keeps it there and clings to it in faith and in prayer. That is the most beautiful church and temple of God. More beautiful than St. Peter’s Basilica. More beautiful than those old Lutheran churches that Lutheran chemists and those guys preached in. More beautiful than the Hagia Sophia, when it wasn’t just a museum or a mosque. More beautiful than any of that. You are God’s temple, built up by the Spirit.
Do not forget even what our confessions say about where the church can be found: “Our churches teach that one holy church is to remain forever. The church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are correctly administered” (Augsburg Confession, Article VII). Do you want to see that? It is here. And when the Word of God is in your homes, it is there. The church of God on earth.
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23). This is one of those times when it’s really good to have at least one person that knows how to use Logos or BibleHub to look at the Greek underneath what Jesus says there. There are only two places that “make Our home with him” gets used. It’s there, and it’s in John 14:2, when Jesus says, “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). Your place in heaven is a mansion that God is preparing for you, that Christ is preparing for you by going to the Father with His blood to offer as a sacrifice. And that same word is what He’s talking about when He says that the Father and He by the Spirit will make Their home in you. They are preparing a mansion for you in heaven by the blood of Jesus, and by the Spirit, They are making you into a mansion. You into a mansion.
“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:15-18). If you love Me, keep My commandments. That’s what Jesus says.
And then St. John explains what are these commandments He’s talking about. In 1 John, St. John tells us, “And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment” (1 John 3:23). If you keep My word, if you keep My word, and love Me in keeping My word, My Father will love you and will come to you, and We will make Our home with you forever.
It won’t be on CNN. It won’t be on Fox News or whatever other station. It won’t get millions of views on YouTube probably. There won’t be thousands of people surrounding you, cheering because they’re around the temple of God that is older than anything a human has ever built. But it’s still the case. Far more beautiful is that Christian that has the Holy Spirit dwelling in them than anything we could ever create, than anything we could ever produce by a building campaign.
“What is the world to me? My Jesus is my treasure, my life, my health, my wealth, my friend, my love, my pleasure, my joy, my crown, my all, my bliss eternally. Once more then I declare, what is the world to me?”
Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, almighty Son of God, send Your Holy Spirit into our hearts through Your Word, that He may rule and govern us according to Your will, comfort us in every temptation and misfortune, and defend us by Your truth against every error, so that we may continue steadfast in the faith, increase in love and all good works, and firmly trust in Your grace, which through death You have purchased for us, and at last obtain eternal salvation; who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen.
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