Acts 21:18(elders also) the question is this though why would Paul,James,the elders ect. think to be "purified" in a temple that was done away at the cross 20-30 years after the cross? We can see it one way but they acted as if it still meant something as if it had not yet been removed.
Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Gal 2:17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
Gal 2:18 For
if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
Gal 2:19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that
I might live unto God.
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Gal 2:21
I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
By keeping the law to satisfy God for any reason is to frustrate God.
Righteousness does not come by keeping the law and never has, because we are all sinners and all have failed to keep it perfect. Jesus the thing that the laws all pointed to made an end of the sacrifices and offerings, because we can look straight to Christ without some animal symbol or earthly symbol. Jesus is my lamb, He is my high Priest and my body is the temple.
One thing that Jesus tried to point out when He was here was that we should stop looking to the physical and look to the spiritual. The time that the sacrifices and offerings became useless was when Jesus fulfilled them.
Why did Paul go to the temple or visit (participate) in the feasts 20 years after the Cross? Because it was the best way to witness to the Jews "When in Rome do as the Romans do". He gathered with the people to witness for Jesus.
Joh 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
Joh 4:11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, ...
Joh 4:12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, ....
Joh 4:13 Jesus answered and said unto her,
Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: (Literal water and Spiritual water)
Joh 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of
the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Joh 4:15 The woman saith unto him, Sir,
give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. .....
Joh 4:20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
Samaraitans couldn't worship God in Jerusalem, but rear where they were standing was a temple that they did worship in, and she wanted to know where was the best place to worship God.
Joh 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me,
the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. (Both temples were destroyed.)
Joh 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. (the Jews were Gods people and understood God best, the samaritans still had some idols that they worshiped).
Joh 4:23
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the
true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth:
for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him
must worship him in spirit and in truth.
It isn't about the temple and the sacrifices and the outward keeping of things but being filled with the Spirit that counts.
The had come when true worshiper would worship God in Spirit and Truth, It is the same Today, Building a temple would be an insult when Jesus just wants to live in our hearts.
1Pe_3:4 But let it be the
hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the
sight of God of great price.
Rom_2:29
But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that
of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
2Co_3:3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God;
not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
Joh 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
Joh 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Joh 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Joh 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is
born of the Spirit.
Joh 3:9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Joh 3:10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
Joh 3:11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
Joh 3:12 If I have told you
earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe,
if I tell you of heavenly things?
Joh 3:13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
Joh 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
Lets not lift up the things of this world and try to create a worldly temple for Jesus to dwell in, when He wants to live in our hearts. Spiritual things are Spiritually discerned and and this business about creating worldly temples and worldly governments is not part of Gods plan.
Jesus owns this world and,
one day will rule this world, but as it is, the majority of the world worship other Gods and when Jesus rules everyone will worship Him. When Satan, sin, death and every unsaved person is destroyed, than Jesus will set up and rule this world.