Acts 7:47-50

Acts 7:47

The Temples of God.

Note:

I. The physical creation. "Heaven is My throne; and earth is My footstool. Hath not My hand made these things?" These words refer directly to the material creation, and imply that God fashioned the heaven and the earth to be a temple to Himself, in which He might manifest His glory.

II. The second creation, or Judaism. God became nearer man in Judaism than in the material creation. He was pleased to concentrate the symbol of His presence in one special locality, first in the Tabernacle, afterwards in the Temple. The Temple on Moriah was not the goal, it was only a stage in the onward march of the Divine economies.

III. The third creation, or Christianity. Christianity is described in prophecy as a "stone cut out of the mountain without hands." God's proper templets holy humanity, and under the Christian dispensation He has found the temple He so earnestly coveted.

J. Cynddylan Jones, Studies in the Acts,p. 159.

References: Acts 7:51. Parker, City Temple,vol. iii., p. 445.Acts 7:51. S. A. Brooke, Sermons,p. 164.Acts 7:54. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxvi., p. 422.Acts 7:55; Acts 7:56. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xiii., No. 740; H. Melvill, Voices of the Year,vol. i., p. 58; E. M. Goulburn, Acts of the Deacons,p. 147.