Word of Salvation – Vol. 36 No. 22 – June 1991

 

Zeal For God’s House

 

Sermon by Rev. J. Rogers on John 2:12-25

 

Beloved congregation,

When Jesus began His ministry at His first coming, He showed us what his second coming was going to be like.  You can see the joyful aspect of it in the first half of this chapter when Jesus went to that wedding in Cana of Galilee.  That points to the marriage supper of the lamb between Christ and His bride, the Church.  It’s going to be a great time of celebration.

In today’s text, we see the other side of Jesus’ coming: the judgement aspect.  Jesus showed us what that is going to be like by driving all those businessmen out of the Temple of God in Jerusalem.

But what exactly was going on in the Temple?  Why did Jesus become so upset?

It was the time of the feast of the Passover, when the people of Israel commemorated the deliverance from Egypt under Moses 1400 years before.  This feast began as a family festival, but by the time of Jesus, people used to offer their Passover lamb at the temple.

Any animal offered as a sacrifice to God had to be perfect and therefore it had to be inspected by the priests before it could be offered.

Well, the high priest at the time was Annas.  And he had a little scheme going.

What happened was this.  You would have your animal for your offering inspected.  The priest, would often make sure he would find something wrong with it.  And so you would have to buy another animal from one of the merchants in the temple, no doubt at an exorbitant price!  And, Annas the high priest, got a percentage!

People soon gave up bringing their own animals and just bought them at the temple stalls.  So Annas had a monopoly.

At this time, the people also had to pay their annual Temple tax.  That had to be paid with a Jewish half-shekel.  No other money was accepted.

So the currency had to be exchanged for the required Jewish half-shekel with one of the money-changers in the Temple.  Of course that would cost you something.  And Annas would get his rake-off from that as well.

Here were God’s people coming to worship God and they were being ripped off by the very men who were supposed to be serving them in offering their sacrifices to God!  That got Jesus angry.

Here was His Father’s House, a holy place, the place upon which God the Almighty, the only God, had put His holy name.  Here was the place where God, who had saved His people, now lived among them and wanted them to come and confess their sins, offer their sacrifices and prayers and receive His forgiveness.

And the very people who were supposed to preserve the holiness and purity of the temple were prostituting it to their greed.

Jesus was angry.  He grabbed some rope, made it into a whip, and drove all the merchants and their animals out of the temple.  He threw over the money-changers’ tables, scattering their money all over the floor.

And do you know what?  No one tried to stop him for a moment.  Oh sure, after a while when things had cooled down some Jews came up to Him and asked Him to give them a sign to show His authority for daring to act in such a way in their temple.  But they all had a guilty conscience.  So none of them tried to stop him.

But, as the first part of the chapter shows, signs are only given to humble believers to strengthen their weak faith.  Signs are never given to people with guilty consciences who refuse to repent.  So Jesus said that the only sign He would give them was that if they destroyed this temple, then in three days He would raise it up again.

John tells us that Jesus was speaking of the temple of His body.  But was Jesus only talking about the temple of His body?

No, He wasn’t.  When the Jews handed over Jesus to be crucified, not only was Jesus’ body destroyed (in a way), so also was the old temple in Jerusalem.

When Christ died, the great curtain in the temple, which kept the holy place, where God lived, secret, was ripped apart, from top to bottom.

This shows us that the old temple and its worship was finished.  And so Jesus rose again, to be, along with His people, the new temple – the new, spiritual place where God lives with His people.

But of course, if these people who asked Jesus for a sign had had believing hearts they would have seen that Jesus had already given them a sign.  For in this act of cleansing the temple, Jesus was fulfilling the prophecy in Malachi 3:1-3:

‘Behold, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me.  And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,’ says the Lord of hosts.
But who can endure the day of His coming?’
And who can stand when He appears?  For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap.
And He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.’

The Lord Himself had come suddenly to His temple.  And who was able to endure His coming?  Not those sons of Levi, the priests.

He had come and cleansed `My Father’s house,’ as He called it.  What greater sign could they want?

Teaching of the Passage

But why did Jesus perform this daring and radical deed?  The disciples knew.  We read that they remembered that it was prophesied (in Ps.69:9) about Jesus, ‘Zeal for thy house will consume me.’

Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, does zeal for the house of God consume you?  Does a love for the house of God burn within your heart?

            ZEAL FOR GOD’S HOUSE MUST CONSUME US.

But what exactly do we mean when we speak about zeal for God’s house?  In Jesus’ case, it meant that He had such a love for the holiness and purity of the temple, the place where God lived among His people, that He could not tolerate men defiling it.

In our case, it means just the same thing.  But let’s translate it into NT terms.  We don’t mean that we should have any more respect for this building in which we gather to worship than we should have for any other building.  Let us not call this building a sanctuary.  It’s not.  You, people of God are the sanctuary.  You are the Holy Place.

And we, as a congregation, should have such a love for the holiness of the church of Jesus Christ, where God lives among His people today, that we will not tolerate it when men defile her.

And there are two very important reasons why this zeal for God’s house should consume us.  And the first is simply that it is God’s house.

1.  It is God’s house

In his letter, James (1:27) says, `This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.’  Why should we keep ourselves unspotted from the world?  It certainly doesn’t mean we should not mix with unbelieving sinners.  Jesus did.

People of God, we should keep ourselves unspotted from the world because we are the holy house of God.  `Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?’ said Paul in 1Cor.3:16.

Christianity is not just adherence to a system of beliefs and strictly practising correct religious worship.

Many people in the OT thought that was what true religion was.  James says it is not.  James says it is to do good and keep yourself unspotted from the world.  Christianity is living in fellowship with the maker of heaven and earth.  Christianity is to have the holy and righteous God, living right within your heart, and present in the fellowship of His people.

The OT prophets had to tell that to the OT people of God time and time again.

Habakkuk the prophet says of God, `Thou art of purer eyes to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.’

Congregation, a holy God will only have a holy people.  At the very least, He will only have a people who are holy in intent.  A people who hate sin as He does and who are struggling daily with the sin in their lives.

Know this, people of God: God does not separate His holy being from His actions.  Neither may we.  We cannot separate our fellowship with God from the way we live.

By trusting in the temple but still living sinful lives, God’s OT people made God’s holy house a den of thieves, as Jeremiah 7 says.  And Annas and the other priests were doing the same thing in Jesus’ day.

What are we making of God’s house today, people of God?  We can make it lots of things.  Paul talks about some of the things we can make it in 1Cor.6.  We can make it a den of fornicators, or a den of adulterers, or a den of covetous people, or a den of drunkards.  How could we do that, brothers and sisters?  Make God’s house a pub!  Well, if you consistently drink too much alcoholic liquor, that is just what you are doing.

Paul goes on.  We can make it a den of slanderers.  What is a slanderer?  A slanderer is someone who says bad things about someone else when they don’t have enough evidence to make it a proper criminal charge and so take a person to court.  Ps.15 tells us that we should have no slander on our tongue.

Congregation, sometimes I hear slander in our churches.  Sometimes I hear people in our churches slandering their fellow Christians.  Yes, even fellow Christians within our own denomination.  Of course we may disagree with our brothers and sisters at times if we feel we have to, but it ought always to be in the right spirit, wanting only to correct a brother whom we love but who we think is in error.

Congregation, this slandering is not right.  Ps.15 tells us we are to honour those who fear the Lord, not revile them.  Let us not make God’s house a den of revilers.  Jesus was consumed with zeal for the holiness of God’s house.  He loved the holy place where the holy God lived with His holy people.  We must also.  Because we are the holy house of God.

And what if we do see a brother or a sister acting in a way which we believe is in error?  Are we consumed with zeal for the house of God enough to be concerned about that brother or sister?  Do we care enough for each other that we want to speak to each other to try to keep each other from sin if we can?

The second reason, congregation, why we should be consumed with zeal for the house of God is this: judgement begins at the house of God.

2.  Judgement begins at the house of God

In Matthew 3:12, John the Baptist says of Jesus that `His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’

When Jesus brought salvation, He also brought judgement.  Those two always go together.  The year of the Lord’s favour is also the day of the vengeance of our God.

And so the sign of turning water into wine at the wedding feast is a picture of the joy that comes with the salvation of God.

In the cleansing of the temple, we see the other side of that salvation, the aspect of judgement.

And God always works on the principle of first responsibilities.  Salvation first came to the Jews.  So did judgement.  Jesus had very little to do with non-Jews.  He left the propagation of the Gospel to the Gentiles to His followers.

Jesus came to bring salvation and judgement on the house of God.  Romans 2:12 tells us that those who have had the privilege of the Gospel being brought to them will suffer a greater judgement than those who have not heard the Gospel.

The first letter of John clearly teaches us that we cannot go on living a life of sin if we claim to belong to Christ.  Sin is the devil’s work.  And Christ came to destroy the devil’s work!  How can we, who claim to belong to Christ, carry on quite consciously working against Christ?

Our God is a God of great mercy, congregation.  But He will not have that mercy spurned.  If we spurn His free grace by making it cheap grace we will learn that He is also a consuming fire.  So then, congregation, let us be consumed with zeal for the house of God and `pursue holiness, without which no-one shall see the Lord’ (Heb.12:14).

Conclusion

There is just one last thing.  Did you notice the exact wording of our text?  It quotes Ps.69 as saying, `Zeal for your house will consume me.’

The word ‘consume’ means to eat up, devour.

Listen to Ps.69 and remember that while Ps.69 is a prophecy of Christ, it first speaks of David’s sufferings because of his concern for the righteousness of Israel and the temple.
            For thy sake I have borne reproach;
            Dishonour has covered my face.
            I have become estranged from my brothers,
            And an alien to my mother’s sons.
            For zeal for thy house has consumed me,
            And the reproaches of those who reproach thee
                        have fallen on me.

Zeal for God’s house consumed Christ didn’t it?  Christ’s love for the church consumed Him as He gave Himself as a saving sacrifice on the cross.

If David and Christ were consumed by their zeal for God’s house, why should we be exempt?

As the hymn-writer says;
            Must I be carried to the skies
              on flowery beds of ease,
            While others fought to win the prize,
              and sailed through bloody seas?  (P/H465:2)

May the Lord make us willing and able to spend ourselves in the service of His church.

AMEN