05/21/2020
Are we ready to live, and defend, our faith with zeal? If a group who calls themselves believers wants to come into our place of worship, set up a table, and use it for what we know to be a sinful activity, would we stand idly by as they did so? Jesus was a man who had a zeal for God and His house, and when He turned over the tables of the money changers in the Temple, His disciples witnessed this. But, where do we worship today, and where are the tables that should be offending us being set up?
“His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.””
John 2:17 ESV
We should defend our faith with the zeal of a man who is attempting to put out a fire in his own burning home, but more often than not we attempt to douse the flames of sin everywhere except where doing so can do the most good. Jesus saw that an activity in the temple, which should have been a convenience for worshippers, had become a business, and had not only lost it’s way, but was desecrating the temple. Today we look all around us for sin that needs to be confronted and extinguished, but are we looking in the right places? Do we examine God’s temple to insure it is pure, and turn over the tables in His house today? This was a problem during the time of Jesus, it was also a problem for King David,
“For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.”
Psalm 69:9 ESV
And it is still a burning flame for us today. The difference between then, and now, is that the temple has been relocated, and yet we keep pouring water over the smoldering ashes of the old temple that has been torn down. Jesus demolished what was once the temple, and redirected us; establishing a new temple... a new church...
“Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.””
Matthew 24:1-2 ESV
So if the old temple is gone, where is the new one? Where is the new place where we should should now defend our faith, meet with God, demonstrate our belief by loving Him, and worship our Lord With all our zeal? Well, we only need to turn our attention inward...
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV
Your body is not THE TEMPLE, no, scripture says it is A TEMPLE. Your body, my body, and the body of every other believer has become A TEMPLE. What was once a single building of stone in Jerusalem is now a bodily Church scattered wherever believers go, and is built upon our hope, faith, and belief.
“And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Matthew 16:17-18 ESV
During this time of COVID-19 the church buildings all across America, and even around the world, that are built of stone, brick, wood, and steel, have been standing empty, and the minions of Satan have been celebrating saying “The Church is Dead”, but they are wrong, and their chant is just another lie of the dark one. God’s Church is as alive today as it ever was... even more so than in the past many years. God’s people are once again beginning to see the Church just as the first century Christians did... it exists wherever the believer goes. It is in us!
So let’s go back to the two questions I posed in our opening paragraph today...
“But, where do we worship today, and where are the tables that should be offending us being set up?“
Friends, all worship flows forth from within us. And the only table worthy to be set up there is the Communion Table of Christ.
“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.”
1 Corinthians 10:16, 21 ESV
So all the other tables should be zealously turned over, destroyed, and their debris removed from within us! We need to see ourselves as a temple, and understand that wherever we go we take God, Christ, and the a Holy Spirit with us. This is why Jesus commissioned His disciples to go into the world; they were not going to establish new churches of stone, but to construct the Church of Christ within each soul that came to believe by hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So are we zealously guarding ourselves against the tables of sin that Satan wishes to set up within us? Are we allowing tables that at first blush seem good to cast a shadow over the one true table? Are we believing the lie that the Church is made of stone, brick, wood, and steel? Is this the forbidden fruit we are eating, and which we are allowing Satan to use as he attempts to separate us from God? Well, let’s turn our focus inward, so that in doing so we can see through the glass of our faith into eternity.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the magnificent Church you have built in me, and for abiding there eternally within me. Thank you for your Son Jesus who sends me into the world each day with His gospel on my lips, and for your Holy Spirit who calls out from my lips for all sinners to “Come!” Open the eyes of those who are yet to know Jesus, and open the hearts of the misguided who can’t see that your Church is meant to live within them. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who purifies me, and builds up your temple each day, that I might glorify you in all I do. I praise your name Father, and my voice reveals your Word to the world. I praise you Father, and ask that my eyes become as yours... beacons to a lost world. Hear my prayers in your house, and serve me at your table... now, and forevermore.
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:1-2 ESV
Rich Forbes