“Sanctuary” Old Testament = apartness, holiness, sacredness, separateness; set-apartness, separateness.
“Sanctuary” New Testament = reverend, worthy of veneration; set apart for God, to be as it were, exclusively his; in a moral sense, pure, sinless, upright, holy.
During my first few years of high school we lived on a hill overlooking a lake, a bird sanctuary. It seemed like the ducks and other water birds instinctively knew when shooting season was to arrive - they would flock to Lake Hakanoa safe in the “duck knowledge” that the bird sanctuary was a place set apart for them to provide both protection and sustenance.
I discovered that a sanctuary has a distinct and known boundary . . . sometimes a physical barrier to keep threats out. And that special rules apply inside a sanctuary that don’t apply outside it’s boundaries.The one’s for whom the sanctuary has been created (my ducks) know they are safe there, they do well there and multiply there.
If we are locked into an old mind-set concerning the Church, when we hear the word ‘sanctuary’, we immediately think of Church buildings, auditoriums and cathedrals designed and built for worship. This is very common thinking, but it’s not Kingdom-thinking.
Brass plaques stating stone and steel and timber structures as “The House of God” is an Old Testament idea, quite foreign to the Church we read of in the Bible. I think it’s good for churches to have buildings, and they should be fine looking buildings – but if we think that a building is the sanctuary, we think wrong.
The truth is that a sanctuary is something I can be. It’s not something I go to. I can be a sanctuary! Just think about the power of that when it comes to effective and powerful impact in the world . . . My life is set apart for God. God can live here without fear, no part of my life is a threat to his presence. God does well here, and he multiplies here!
Now that is what any believer would want: the presence of God doing well and ever increasing. And, actually, it’s what the world wants . . . people in whom the miracle presence, the healing and saving presence of God, lives and increases.
We really want that, but we don’t always want the rest of the deal . . . a life that has a distinct and known boundary . . . sometimes a physical barrier to keep threats out. A life to which special rules apply that don’t apply outside it’s boundaries. We want an ever increasing presence of God, but at the same time we want to live like the rest of the world! We can’t!
It doesn’t get preached a lot these days does it . . . holiness.
There’s a beauty and a power in holiness that sets us apart in the world (yes, there’s a price to pay), that is an absolute key to reigning with Christ where we live – being the Lord’s minister in a lost, hurting world.
The Psalmist said, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. There’s a beauty, attractiveness, a fragrance that comes when we give ourselves to the Lord to be sanctified, when we become a sanctuary for God.
-
1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
-
2 Timothy 2:20 - 21 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honour and some for dishonour. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honour, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.
The thinking that says “The Church Building” is the sanctuary, or “Sunday is a holy day” is the thinking that leads to compartmentalism in our lives. That is, we have a ‘Christian’ compartment, a ‘business’ compartment, a ‘family’ compartment, a ‘recreation and entertainment’ compartment . . . and God is rationed as to what compartment he get’s to be in!
In other words, we want Jesus to be our saviour, but not our Lord. Or, we expect Jesus to bless our entire life, but have only surrendered a part of our life to him.
-
2 Corinthians 2:14 – 16 (NLT) But thanks be to God, who made us his captives and leads us along in Christ's triumphal procession. If we’ve not let him capture us (maybe just a compartment or two), he won’t be able to lead us in triumph. But if we’ve become his captive, he will lead us in triumph.
Now wherever we go he uses us to tell others about the Lord and to spread the Good News like a sweet perfume (NKJV - and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place) This is the beauty of God, the product of a life wholly captured by him, being released all around us. A strong fragrance on you won’t conform to compartments - it stays on us no matter what street we’re on.
But this fragrance is perceived differently by those being saved and by those perishing. To those who are perishing we are a fearful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved we are a life-giving perfume.
So the fragrance – the beauty of holiness – will get two reactions.
• Those who are perishing will not like you – here lies a great problem, we want to be liked! We want to be popular, we don’t want to be thought of as ‘just a little different’.
•But, those who are “on the way”, those who are “being saved” – your holiness, your separateness, is a life-giving aroma.
Hebrews 12:14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Pursue peace – don’t go out of your way to make yourself odious to people, just let the fragrance of holiness do what it does. Pursue – go after peace, build those bridges, diffuse that fragrance . . . you may just find they’re “being saved”.
To “pursue” means to run swiftly in order to catch a person or thing, to pursue (in a hostile manner); in any way whatever to harass, trouble, molest one; to seek after eagerly, earnestly endeavour to acquire.
If we don’t pursue peace and holiness in this manner, people aren’t going to see the Lord! The Bible is telling me that my set-apartness, together with my bridge of friendliness, will cause people to see Jesus!
There are three things to keep out of the sanctuary.
1.Worldliness. 1 John 2:15 – 16 . We can’t have both . . . we can’t have a love of the world and a love of the Father in the same life at the same time.
The antidote? - Galatians 6:14 (Phillips) "Yet God forbid that I should boast about anything or anybody except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, which means that the world is a dead thing to me and that I am a dead man to the world."
It’s only with much pain that a pastor writes “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Timothy 4:10)
Please dear friends, don’t love the world – love people, but not the things of this world.
2.Double-mindedness. James 1:8 A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Be single-minded, say ‘this is me, I am living a separate life everywhere and in every situation. I am holy and separated for God when no one is watching me and when people may laugh at me – the beauty of holiness around my life is never put to one side’.
3.Shallowness. 2 Timothy 2:3 – 4 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. So you had a trial of faith – toughen up! So you suffered – you’re a soldier!!! So God didn’t answer your prayer when and how you expected – grow up! Don’t be shallow. You want fragrance? Let the rose be crushed.
Praise God in His sanctuary!
That’s you! Called as a minister of Jesus Christ! Not some wimp-out scared that someone might think you’re a little different. You are different, you carry the Lord God Almighty inside you – that’s what makes you different.
2 Corinthians 6:16 – 18
You are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
"I will dwell in them, and walk among them.
I will be their God, And they shall be My people."
Therefore
"Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you."
"I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the Lord Almighty.”
(And the world is waiting for the sons of God to be manifested)
