Attention to Details and the Help of a Friend

Most people don’t realize it, but preaching is a team sport! I rely on our team of teaching staff to help plan and lead worship services, and I often poll them for ideas and needs that they see. We brainstorm, plan, and collect stories or information for each other. But beyond that, the staff is a creative team that brings another perspective that is often pointed in a fresh and different direction.

This week, I discovered once again that we are all involved in the teaching ministry of our church. My friend Karl was paying attention to one of our “Arrival” messages on prophecies fulfilled by Christ. One of those was the timing of the Messiah’s arrival. It was prophesied by Malachi to happen when the Temple was still standing. So I mentioned that there were times when there was no Temple, and I noted TWO Temples.

But this week, I received a question about that. “Weren’t there 3 Temples?” So, I went back to my research. The Temple of Solomon was erected during Solomon’s reign but was destroyed when Babylon conquered Jerusalem. The Hebrews were carried off in exile, leaving behind the rubble of Solomon’s Temple. Decades after the exiles returned, they began to construct another temple. This Temple stood until Pompey invaded and destroyed it around 63 B.C. Then, Herod began the 3rd Temple in 19 B.C. It stood until the Romans destroyed it in A.D. 70. Thanks, Karl, for pointing me back to check my notes and find that I had missed something.

This is the church at work, friends. We remind each other, we question, and we clarify because we want to know and live in the truth. It’s too important. My mistake didn’t change the theology of our church. I had simply grouped two periods of time into one, but the main point was still the same. Four different periods of time had an absence of the Temple: before Solomon, at the time of exile, between Pompey’s invasion and Herod’s construction, and then after the destruction in A.D. 70. So, the Messiah had to be born in one of the three eras where a Temple stood.

Thanks, Karl, and thank you, FBC Family!