Mark 11:17 “Then He taught, saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it a 'den of thieves.'”
We have seen that under the new covenant that the priesthood has changed. In the same manner however, under the new covenant the temple of God has also changed. In the above quoted passage of scripture Jesus confirmed to us the purpose for God’s temple being on the earth, i.e. “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations”. Jesus was referring to the physical temple in Jerusalem where He was teaching at the time, which as our Lord predicted, was destroyed in the year seventy AD. The veil in that temple was torn in two when Jesus was crucified on the cross, symbolising the fact that God no longer dwells in a temple made with human hands. So if under the old covenant, the presence of God dwelt in a temple made with human hands, where does God’s presence dwell under the new covenant? Scripture teaches us that under the new covenant that the saints themselves have become the temple of the living God, for God now dwells within each one of His saints (1 Corinthians 3:16). Nevertheless even though in this current age the temple of God has changed, the purpose of His temple remains the same. In other words because believers are now the house of God, it is the saints who are called by God to become His house of prayer for all nations.
Revelation 14:13 “Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, "Write: 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.' ““Yes," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”
Although the church of our Lord Jesus Christ is one church, it is currently in two locations. There are the saints who have already died in the Lord and have gone to be with Him in heaven. The above quoted passage of scripture teaches us that these saints are currently resting from their labours. In other words they no longer labour as they did when they walked on the earth. The apostle Paul confirmed that truth to us when he stated that when he left the earth to be with the Lord that he would have finished his race and that his good fight of faith would have ended (2 Timothy 4:6-8).
Colossians 4:12 “Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”
And then there are the saints who are still on the earth. These are the saints that have not yet entered the rest that our Lord has prepared for them, for the scripture teaches us that the saints on the earth still have works to accomplish (Ephesians 2:10). So what are the works that the saints are supposed to perform while they are still on the earth? One of the works that the saints are called to do is to pray, for in the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul teaches us that the saints labour in prayers. And so we see that the saints on the earth labour in prayers before God, whereas the labour of prayer for the saints in heaven has ended.
Michael E.B. Maher
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