Fire From Heaven
Pastor Matt Bell
Sermon Summary
In this sermon, Pastor Matt explores the transition from the Old Covenant's physical temple to the New Covenant's spiritual dwelling—the Church—inaugurated by the fire of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Grounded in 2 Chronicles 7, the message contrasts the conditional and temporary nature of Solomon's temple with the completed, eternal work of Christ, emphasizing that the promises of God are now fulfilled exclusively in His chosen people, the believers. Addressing the contemporary tendency toward idolatry, the exposition underscores that true national and personal renewal cannot be achieved through political salvation or natural lineage. Instead, genuine revival demands that the Church recognize its spiritual bankruptcy, confess its sins, reorder its affections to seek God's face, and enact true repentance—a transformation exclusively wrought through the preaching of the Gospel.
The Temple's Progression: The dwelling place of God moves from the temporary Tabernacle (Moses), to the physical Temple (Solomon), to the eternal Church (Christ).
Covenantal Contrast: The Old Covenant was conditional and temporary; the New Covenant is superior, permanent, and secured by Christ's shed blood.
The Antidote to Idolatry: A mandate for the Church to practice humility, heartfelt prayer (confession), seeking God's face (demoting idols), and actively turning from wicked ways.
True Hope for Renewal: Healing and revival are born of Gospel-driven heart transformation, not political maneuvering or human leaders.
Sermon Transcript
Introduction: The Dedication of the Temple
Second Chronicles chapter 7. If you have your Bibles open with me there in 2 Chronicles chapter 7, we're going to look at a verse this morning that may be familiar to you if you've been around the Christian faith for a while. Second Chronicles 7:14 is a very famous verse that is often quoted and used. It was even this week read by the president of the United States, as there's a group of people in Washington, D.C. over the last week who were reading through the Bible straight through. When they got to this portion in 2 Chronicles, chapter 7, they had President Trump read this verse from the Oval Office. So this is not an uncommon verse. In fact, if you know any verse from Second Chronicles, it's probably this one.
It providentially happened that as we're reading our way through the Bible in our "Year of the Bible" plan, this passage, 2 Chronicles 7, was in our text this week. I thought it would be a good one to look at this morning. This verse is an important verse, and the idea contained in here is a lot bigger than how it is often used and applied. There are ways in which this verse cuts to the very core of who we are as human beings. I'm praying that God would use our time together in His word to cause all of us to examine our hearts at the deepest and most fundamental level. I pray that the Holy Spirit would convict each of us today, that we would not leave here just having had a good time in church, but that we would leave convicted by the Holy Spirit, and that we would be changed to be more faithful to the Lord.
The context of this passage is that the third king of Israel, King Solomon, David's son, has built a house for God, a temple for God. You may recall several weeks ago, King David said, "I want to build you a house, God." And God said, "You're not going to build me a house; instead, I'm going to build you a house," speaking of David's lineage, which culminates in Christ. But God also told David, "Your son, which comes after you, he will be the one that builds me a house. He will be the one that builds me a temple."
David has passed away. Solomon now is king, and he has spent seven years on this construction project building God's temple. In chapter 6, he offers a prayer of dedication. There's this huge celebration of the Ark of God, which represents the presence of God coming into the new temple that's been built and dedicated to the Lord. That's chapter 5. Chapter 6 is a prayer that Solomon prays in front of the whole nation, on his knees, with his hands lifted to the Lord, praying on behalf of the nation. Chapter 7 is what happens after Solomon prays his prayer.
We're going to jump right in. I invite you to stand with me as we read the word of God today. We're going to look at the first three verses of chapter 7, skip a portion that talks about how many sacrifices they made and the celebration, skip down to verse 11, and then read through the end of the chapter.
2 Chronicles 7:1-3, 11-22 (ESV)
As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD's house. When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever."
Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king's house. All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the LORD and in his own house he successfully accomplished. Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. And as for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to rule Israel.’
"But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And at this house, which was exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’ Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore he has brought all this disaster on them.’"
Father, we do thank you for your word. I pray that you would speak to each of our hearts this morning. Lord, we've all come in here today from many different places, many different stages of life, all different parts of the city, even different cultures, different backgrounds, different upbringings. But Lord, we share one thing in common: that is you. You have called us to yourself; you have chosen us to be your people. Lord, speak to us, your people, through your word today, and help me to deliver your word faithfully this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.
You may be seated.
Fire From Heaven: The Accepted Offering
My title this morning for the sermon is Fire From Heaven. There are three sections we're going to look at this morning. The first is those first three verses where the offering that Solomon made was accepted. He offered over a thousand sacrifices. In fact, earlier it tells us that there were so many that they could not be numbered on this altar, in this temple, to dedicate what he had built for the Lord.
Solomon prays this prayer of dedication, and it says that as soon as Solomon finished his prayer, to show that the offering had been accepted, fire came down from heaven. This was God's sign, God's stamp of approval. He did it publicly so that all the people could see that God's glory had filled this house.
Imagine that. Imagine being there on that day, seeing this temple which was so glorious, so magnificent. The kings of the surrounding nations streamed into Jerusalem to see the temple that Solomon had built and to hear the wisdom that Solomon had to give. The glory of this house, overlaid with gold and marble and precious stones and precious woods, was beyond comparison and beyond parallel. It was glorious. But on that day, when Solomon prayed, something more glorious than just the physical building happened: fire came down out of heaven.
What would that have been like? I've been in certain places where there are pyrotechnics, where they set off some sort of flame. I was at the Spurs game a few weeks ago, and when they were announcing our team, they had fire shooting up out of the goals, and I could feel the heat of the flame. And that was just a little fire. I can't imagine what that flame must have felt like on that day as fire poured out of heaven. I bet you Solomon's eyebrows were burned off. It was so shocking that all the people's natural instinct was to just fall on their face in humility before the power of God. The offering was accepted. The house had been dedicated. It had been filled with the glory of God.
The New Covenant: A Better Temple
But this is not the only time in scripture that this happens. There are actually two other times where something very similar to this happened. The first time was the first version of this temple, which was a temporary version called the Tabernacle. It wasn't a permanent building. It was a temporary tent that God had instructed Moses to build while the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness. It had to be mobile. But when Moses and the children of Israel had finished putting the Tabernacle together and dedicated it to the Lord, guess what came down from heaven? Fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. This is a picture of God's presence filling that place.
The third time that this happens is the final version of this temple, which is not a physical building, but the church of Jesus Christ. On the day of Pentecost, when the church was assembled and gathered together, God poured out His Spirit upon the church after Jesus died for our sins and rose into heaven. Jesus said it is better that He go to the Father, because then He would send His Spirit upon the church. Ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven, on the day of Pentecost, Jesus poured out His Spirit. And there was seen fire burning above the heads of those who received the Spirit of God.
This day of Pentecost marks the inauguration of this New Covenant that Jesus had instituted. We see this three times: It happens with Moses, it happens with Solomon in the temple, and it happens with Jesus' temple, the church. The day of Pentecost inaugurated the New Covenant, marking the transition from the Old Covenant to the New. It means now that the church, the people of God, are the place where God's Spirit dwells. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We carry the glory of God wherever we go.
The apostles and writers of the New Testament state this in explicit terms.
2 Corinthians 6:16 (ESV)
What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
Did you know that? If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, God's Spirit has filled you. The same way He filled the temple with Solomon, the same way He filled the Tabernacle—you carry the presence and the Spirit of God. This promise that God made in the Old Testament was speaking about the church, about the New Covenant, about the reality that we have today because of Christ.
Paul also says in Ephesians chapter 2 that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets:
Ephesians 2:20-22 (ESV)
...built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
The inauguration of the New Covenant on the day of Pentecost marked the moment when fire came down from heaven and filled the church, filled the people of God. When we come to Christ, when we confess our faith in Him, the Bible says that if we belong to Christ, we have the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit takes up residence in us at our moment of conversion. We pass from death to life, and we have God's Spirit.
This is a blessing, a benefit, and a part of why the New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant. In the Old Covenant, to be in the presence of God, you had to travel to Israel. You had to travel to Jerusalem. You could only go into the presence of God if you were a Levite—meaning you were an Israelite, Jewish, and of the particular tribe of Levi. To go into the very presence of God, the Holy of Holies, only the high priest could do that, and he could only go in one day a year. One man, one day a year.
Here we have this abundance of riches. Here we, as a part of the New Covenant, can experience the presence of God, the goodness of God, the Spirit of God all day, every day. We can gather together with the people of God, the church, and experience Him building us together as a dwelling place for His Spirit whenever we want, wherever we are. We don't have to travel to Jerusalem. In fact, if you go there, you won't find a temple; you'll find a mosque. We are the temple that Jesus is building. We are the temple that Jesus is filling.
Here is what is happening with Solomon as part of the Old Covenant, but there are a couple of things you need to know about this Old Covenant as you continue reading through the Bible.
First, the Old Covenant was conditional. God had said, if you do these things, then I will bless you, but if you turn to idols, curses will come upon you. The people entered into that agreement with God. Did the people remain faithful to God? No. That's the whole story of the Old Testament. The New Covenant is not based on our works; it's based on God's work. It's based on the work of Christ and His merits on our behalf, meaning it is far better and far superior.
Second, the Old Covenant was temporary. It was never intended to be permanent. The arrangement God instituted at Mount Sinai was meant to eventually point people to Christ. The whole point of the Old Covenant was Jesus. It was always Jesus—to create the conditions which would be perfect for Christ to come into the world and be the Messiah, the Savior, not just of the Jewish people, but of all people. Jesus repeatedly says that the Old Testament scriptures were written about Him. So what we're reading today was written to them, but it's ultimately about Christ, and it has its fulfillment in Christ.
Finally, the Old Covenant was completed. Before Jesus goes to the cross, He serves His disciples the Lord's Supper, gives them the cup, and says, "This is the cup of the New Covenant." The Old Covenant has passed away. It is fulfilled. It is over. Now that Christ has come, there's no more need for that Old Covenant. We are not cleansed by the blood of animals, which can never take away sin, but we now have our hearts sprinkled clean by the very blood of Jesus. It is a better covenant with better promises, a better sacrifice, a better high priest, and a better temple. Everything about the New Covenant is far superior in every way.
The New Covenant people of God is the church of the living God, made up not of one race, but of every race. Every nation, tribe, and tongue is being called into the New Covenant people of God. It's not based on your ethnicity or your bloodline; it's based on the blood of Jesus.
Who are God's chosen people today? God's chosen people are those who belong to Christ. If you belong to Jesus, you are God's chosen people. Jesus was so clear about this. He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." There's only one way to be in covenant with God, and it's through Jesus Christ.
That is the most offensive idea in the world. You only have to change one word in that sentence to make it totally agreeable to everybody. Change the word the to the word a, and nobody has a problem with it. But Jesus didn't say, "I am a way." Jesus said, "I am the way." If you say, "Jesus is my way, you have your way to God," you're not following Jesus.
If you reject Christ, according to Jesus, you are not one of His people, irregardless of your natural bloodline. We are not saved by being born into the right family. We are saved by being born again by the Spirit of God, having the work of Christ applied to our lives.
There's a lot of confusion about this today, especially regarding Israel because of the war with Iran and all the politics. A lot of people today think that the Jewish people have this Old Covenant with God that's still going. They don't. It's over. The only way to be in covenant with God is through faith in His Son, Jesus. That's it. Everyone is called to believe in Jesus—Jew and Gentile. In fact, Jesus speaks to the Jews of His day and says to them, "You're not sons of God. You are sons of your father, the devil. You brood of vipers." This idea that anyone is in relationship with God outside of Christ is an antichrist idea. By definition, everybody needs Jesus. Even if you're Jewish, He is your Messiah.
I know this is a bit technical this morning, but this is an important point because so many people are totally confused about this today. Even many of our politicians who claim to be Christian apparently don't even know there's a New Testament. Our allegiance is to Christ, His church, and His kingdom, above every other nation, even our own nation. The kingdom of God will last forever, and that is the kingdom that you and I are a part of.
Just as the fire showed the sacrifice had been accepted in Moses' Tabernacle and Solomon's Temple, so it is with Jesus' temple, the church. The fire that came down on the day of Pentecost with the Holy Spirit shows that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross has been accepted and applied.
The Answered Prayer: Humility and Repentance
Moving on to the next section we read this morning, the prayer that is answered. The Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said, "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice."
Verse 13 hits us kind of strange if we only read chapter 7: "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people." Where is that coming from? That's specifically coming from the prayer Solomon prayed in chapter 6. Solomon had prayed, "God, if your people turn from you and turn to idols, and you in your justice and your discipline send hardship upon us—drought or pestilence—Lord, if that happens and your people turn back to you, God, hear our prayer and see our repentance." God is just answering the prayer Solomon prayed.
He says that if His people are being disciplined because of their sins, "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." We see examples of this as you continue to read 2nd Chronicles, where God's people stray, but then prophets come, the word of God is rediscovered, reforms are brought, and the nation is renewed.
But for us here today on the other side of the cross, who are the "my people" today in 2026? The New Covenant people of God is the church. So this verse is something for the church. What is His name? His name is Jesus. The question for us is, is this how we are living? Are we living a life of humility, of prayer, of seeking the face of God, of turning from sin in repentance? Or are we, as the people of God, living lives seeking after other things?
The Bible calls seeking any part of creation above God idolatry. Paul talks about that in Romans chapter 1. The human heart has this bent—iniquity—towards idolatry. We naturally tend this way in our fallen human nature. It is incumbent upon us as God's people not to just hear the gospel one time, say, "Yes, I believe in Jesus, I've got my ticket punched to heaven," and then la-di-da, wait for Jesus to come back. No, it's incumbent upon us to constantly examine our hearts to see if idolatry has creeped in. The culture around us is doing everything it can to get our eyes off of Jesus. To slip into idolatry, all we have to do is nothing.
This past weekend, it was one of the rainiest weeks I ever remember in San Antonio. I needed to mow my backyard, like, two months ago. I was shocked when I got out there to mow the yard just how quickly the weeds had taken over. Weeds I could not see at the beginning of the week were up to my waist. What did I have to do to get those weeds to grow? Nothing. You don't have to do anything to have your whole yard taken over by weeds. And so it is with the human heart. To have idolatry take root in your heart, all you have to do is nothing.
God gives us wonderful blessings: relationships, marriage, children, recreation, food, intimacy, money. But when I make the goal of my life pursuing anything else other than Christ—when I take my eyes off of Him and His glory—it becomes an idol in my life. So we have to constantly go through this process of humbling ourselves, praying, seeking God's face, and turning from our wicked ways.
First, humble ourselves. What does it mean? It means we recognize that God is right and we are wrong. Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," which means recognizing our great spiritual need. The songs we sang this morning were tailored to helping us recognize this:
Jesus, thank you for your blood.
Thank you for washing away my sins.
I'll never know how much it cost,
To see my sin upon the cross.
They're designed to help us see that we are spiritually bankrupt in the presence of a holy God. We must not sit there in pride and arrogance saying, "I'm doing good. Maybe these people need grace, but I had a pretty good week." The Bible says God resists the proud, the arrogant, the self-sufficient. He opposes those who think they can live life on their own terms separated from their Creator. But He gives grace to the humble.
"The essential vice, the utmost evil, is pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that are mere fleabites in comparison. It was through pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice. It is the complete anti-God state of mind." – C.S. Lewis
In fact, to rightly approach the communion table is an exercise in humility. We come to the table saying, "Jesus, if it's not for your grace, your mercy, your sacrifice on the cross, your shed blood, I am a condemned sinner."
Next, humble ourselves and pray. The type of prayer he's talking about here is the prayer of confession. This isn't just a la-di-da prayer of "God bless this, God help me hit green lights and find a close parking spot." This is an impassioned prayer of confessing our sins, asking for forgiveness, and begging for mercy for the sake of His Son.
In Luke chapter 18, Jesus tells the story of two men praying. One is a proud, quote-unquote righteous man who says, "God, I thank you that I'm not like these sinners, not like this tax collector over here." That is the prayer of pride. Then there's the tax collector, who wouldn't even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast and prayed, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Jesus said the tax collector went away justified. Every week when we come into the presence of God and sing of the glories of Christ, we should not sit there with hard, callous, stony hearts. We should beat our chests and say, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Not a one of us is without sin. The good news is that the fire came down, the sacrifice was accepted, and our sins can be forgiven.
Then, seek my face. This means to forsake seeking after idols. Whatever we were pursuing other than God, we demote it, and we seek after God. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." If we put anything else first, we might not bow down before it physically, but we're bowing down before it in our soul.
Finally, all of that is for naught if we don't turn from our wicked ways. True repentance is not just in word; it is in action. It is a 180-degree turn. It is ceasing from the sinful behavior.
The only way this humility, prayer, seeking, and turning can be brought about in the soul of a person is through the preaching of the Gospel. It shows us our need for a Savior, humbles us, brings us into His presence, and leads us to turn from our wicked ways. And then God says, "I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land." This is a beautiful promise. I believe every nation can have true renewal, but it only comes through the preaching of the Gospel.
The Futility of Putting Hope in Man
There is a third and final point that underscores everything we've seen so far: the instructions God gives to Solomon.
God told Solomon, "If you will walk before me as David walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you... then I will establish your royal throne." But He also said, "If you turn aside and forsake my statutes and serve other gods... then I will pluck you up from my land, and this house I will cast out of my sight and destroy it."
Did Solomon remain faithful to the Lord? No, he did not. Towards the end of his life, Solomon built altars and idols to foreign gods and led the people in the worship of idols. It was a conditional blessing, and Solomon chose that path. The people followed him, and God did exactly what He said He would do: He destroyed that temple.
Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived. God bestowed upon him knowledge and understanding more than anyone. He was also the greatest king who ever lived. Mankind has never produced a political leader so gifted. Under Solomon's rule, the nation flourished with economic prosperity the likes of which the world had never seen. Silver was regarded as worthless; gold was as plentiful as stone. He had the strongest army, expanded the territory, and made peace with surrounding nations.
And yet, even Solomon fell into the sin of idolatry. This underscores the futility of putting your hope in man. If putting your hope in Solomon was misplaced, then certainly putting your hope in any political leader we have today is misplaced. Yet so many Christians put their hopes in politicians, thinking, "If we just get this person elected, everything will be okay."
There is only one we put our hope in. It is the one who said of Himself, "Something greater than Solomon is here"—and that is Jesus. The hope for our nation is not politics or politicians. The hope for our nation is Jesus, His kingdom, His gospel, and the church living it out. True national renewal will not come through political means; it will only come through the Gospel advancing and true heart revival. We don't need more politics; we need more preaching. Our hope is in revival, not in Republicans, Democrats, or libertarians.
There is some good that can be done politically, and I thank God for that. I celebrate some of the political wins in my lifetime, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade. But hear this: that was done through political means. What can be done politically can be undone politically. Because hearts were not changed, abortion just moved from clinics outside the home to people taking pills inside the home. It just moved location.
We need a fundamental change at the core of our being. We need new hearts, and the only way we get new hearts is through Jesus. It starts with us. If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways. When we do that, I believe the fire will fall in the church, the presence of God will fill the church, and the church will go out into the world to expand the kingdom of God, and we will see renewal in our land.