The Season of Advent: The Hope of Jesus' Coming

 

“Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,

that the mountains would tremble before you!

As when fire sets twigs ablaze

and causes water to boil,” Isa:64:1-2a

During this time of year many Christians celebrate the season of Advent, which is observed over four Sundays and leads us to the Christmas-Nativity of Jesus. Advent is the beginning of many Churches liturgical year.

Advent means coming, and the first Sunday of Advent looks into the years to come to that moment when Jesus Christ will descend from the Heavens and be seen by all who dwell upon the Earth.

 The coming of Jesus Christ is a real hope for all peoples in all nations. Jesus’ Advent, that is his coming, gives humanity a hope that the human race will not go extinct and faded into the darkness of death and non-existence, but rather, has a future ordained by the great Creator God who brought all things into being, the very God who called forth Abram out of Ur and led Israel out of Egypt and has come to us in the person of his Holy Son Jesus Christ. It is this God, who assures his human children that there is a true hope of a future awaiting us.

 Hope

 The coming of Jesus gives hope to a world which has been wracked with strife and countless problems that it will one day know peace, true peace, even when this peace seems remote amidst the turmoil of the world. Be assured that there will come a day when the heavens will be rent at the sound of the heavenly trumpet which will sound and all eyes will see him.

 Christians have long watched for the fulfillment of this blessed hope of the coming of Jesus.

 “while we wait for the blessed hope--the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,” Tit:2:13

This time of the blessed hope of the coming of Jesus and the conditions which will be resident upon the Earth and lead up to Jesus’ glorious coming is spoken of in Apocalyptic imagery, which was  taught in the Rabbinical Schools of the day, in our Lord’s own Olivet Prophecy. Matt:24, Lk:21 and Mk:13.

 Conditions

 Jesus’ employing Apocalyptic oratory devices depicting human civilization struggling with conditions ranging from everything from spiritual deception to war, economic challenges, to natural disasters to epidemics; each challenge growing in intensity up until that moment when our Lord Jesus comes at the sound of the Heavenly Trumpet.

"Look, he is coming with the clouds," and "every eye will see him, even those who pierced him"; and all peoples on earth "will mourn because of him." So shall it be! Amen” Rev: 1:7 

“then they will see the Son of Man coming with the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory” Mk: 13:26

 Come Down O Lord

 This time of the coming of Jesus is what the Prophet Isaiah in a prophetic prayer expressed in Apocalyptic language when he cried out to the God of Israel to come and bring his salvation to Israel and to all nations. The Prophet was calling for the hope of the coming, the Advent of Messiah so that all nations, not just Israel, would know the one true God.

 “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,

that the mountains would tremble before you!

As when fire sets twigs ablaze

and causes water to boil,

come down to make your name known to your enemies

and cause the nations to quake before you!

For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,

you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.

Since ancient times no one has heard,

no ear has perceived,

no eye has seen any God besides you,

who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

You come to the help of those who gladly do right,

who remember your ways” Isa: 64:1-5

 This coming down of the great God to this earth is the hope of all humanity. This is the hope that Christians, that is, believers in Jesus live in continually. But not just someday, for in the message of salvation has Jesus come down to them through the Gospel .Jesus has come in all the power of deity even now to set the captives of this world free to live under his reign even now. To live as children of God, not just some day

 When we hear the message of the Gospel which is sounded like a trumpet throughout the Earth, it is, as if, the Heavens have been rent asunder and we see our God in the person of God’s Holy Son Jesus Christ.

 Jesus comes to us and when he does the high places of our lives, like mountains, are shaken, and brought down before him.

 When we embrace Jesus as our Messiah, the Holy Spirit, like a fire, is kindled in our lives. When Jesus comes to us it is an Apocalyptic moment and the water of the Spirit boils within us and we are then moved to live out Jesus’ coming to us each and every day not just some day.

 “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!

As when fire sets twigs ablaze

and causes water to boil, (1-2a)

  Having Come to Us

 As we live out the hope of Jesus’ coming to us, others can see his coming in our lives and then they too can come to know Jesus through the people of God.

 “come down to make your name known to your enemies

and cause the nations to quake before you!” (2b)

 This means that, our lives are to be lived out in the Apocalyptic reality of the coming of Jesus. The lives of Christians are to declare as a trumpet that our God has come down as the Prophet has prayed.

 Our God has, in the person of Jesus comes down and continues to come down to each and all through his Holy Son Jesus through the Holy Spirit. 

 We are as Christians to have our lives filled with the Apocalyptic reality of our Lord Jesus’ coming, his Advent to us, not just someday in the years to come but even here and now. Our lives are to be lived out with this present hope which is to declare the future reality of Jesus’ coming, his Advent, to all people.

 This is Hope of the Advent season, the hope of Jesus’ coming to each and all now, not just someday.

Benediction: May we each and all live out the reality of our Lord Jesus’ coming to us through the Gospel, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.

 

Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor 

Topinabee Community Church

Topinabee, Michigan 

If You Would Like to Know More About or to Support the Ministry of Topinabee Community Church You Can go to Our Web Site.

https://topinabeechurch.org/index.html

You Can Follow Topinabee Community Church on Face Book 

https://www.facebook.com/Topinabeecommunitychurch

                    "If It Is Not About Jesus, It Is Not About Anything"

All Things New

 

Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" 2Cor:5:17

We live in a time when hope is diminished in the land. It is is a time when some people feel that their lives are meaningless and without hope. Hope is dead for many and unfortunately even Christians can succumb to this sense of hopelessness.

Hopelessness

 Hope for many is dead, some don’t even know that there can be hope, they live out their hopelessness in meaningless pursuits or they live with misplaced hopes looking to something in which to find their needs met, yet it never seems to fulfill that deep need.

Dead Spiritually 

Many people pass through life unaware of what Jesus Christ has accomplished on their behalf, that everything needed for salvation has been accomplished for them by and in Christ. This salvation is there for them , an all-new life is there ,they could experience it, yet they do not.

They do not know that a whole new life is there for them, but instead of this new life much of humanity goes its way in ignorance or indifference, and in some cases rejection of who Jesus is.

They are dead spiritually, that is, they are not living that life which they could be, as were all of us, until through Jesus, God moved to make away for a whole new life.  

"And You being dead in your sins and the circumcision of your flesh" Col: 2:13a.

This is how we all conducted ourselves, dead in our sins, yet, this is the state of spiritual slumber humanity lives out of in the ignorance of who Jesus Christ is.

 We “lived” in death. There was no hope in this ignorance of who our Lord is and all that Jesus has done for humanity. This sense of deadness characterizes the lives of millions. Too many follow after meaningless pursuits and attempts to give humanities' temporary existence meaning, but nothing answers this need.

All around us there are those whose lives are marked with attempts to gratify the flesh hoping to fill this hopeless void within themselves. It is almost, as if they are searching for evidence that they are alive. These varies pursuits might tantalize and stimulate for a time, but it can't last.

Many think only in terms of “the now” , many people seem to be going nowhere ,lives becomes meaningless, hopelessness leads some to a life of futile pursuits , sin and debauchery.

One reason the society around us is degrading into sinful life styles and the abandonment of moral purity is, the loss of hope. When hope fails moral restraints are cast away, the idea is "live for the moment".

This is the very state that our Lord has come to set us free from, to give us all redemption, to instill new meaning to life all through Jesus, we could not have done it for ourselves.

"He has quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses “Col: 2:13b

 New Creation

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" 2Cor:5:17

 We are new creations, now, not will be. This newness is experienced by belief and faith in who Jesus is, that is, when we believe in Jesus we see what Jesus has done for us our lives are made new in Him.

The early church thought deeply about the entrance of Jesus into human history ,they pondered its meaning, they asked "what did it mean?" what had changed in humanities relationship with God? 

St.Paul says in  2Cor:5:14 "we have considered", this tells us that though prayer, discussion, and most possibly with contention the early church developed a theology regarding the incarnation and it's impact upon humanities relationship with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  

What is it that they considered? "That one died for all, therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who for them and was raised again"  2Cor:5:14-15  

"I am the Resurrection"

  "I am the Resurrection" when we read this so often we think of this as speaking of Jesus' coming again from the grave , or any future resurrection, but Jesus says this even before his own death.

The resurrection is who Jesus is not just an event that Jesus is a part of. The bodily resurrection of Jesus only showed what has always been eternally true. Death can not hold him, this is why we read in the Book of Acts, which quotes the Psalm.

 "you will not permit your Holy One to see corruption"Act:13:35

The power of Jesus being the Resurrection changes us , and all things forever, for if Jesus does not live we could not live either. 

 In Jesus "all died" , and in Jesus the same "all", we are told, has been "raised" . Jesus could do this as being fully God yet fully human. He has brought the race(all) out of death into life, and can be entered into by simply accepting it by grace.  

Out of death we are brought into a new life with and by and Him. Jesus Being God , is not bound or confined by time, therefore his life, death and resurrection has eternal impact, stretching from eternity past and into eternity future , and touching even all humanity.

The Death of Nothing

There was nothing, that is materially, in the nothingness of the past before creation , and out of this nothing, and it was into the nothingness of death God spoke and brought the material creation into being. The Lord God brings creation and life out of the death of nothing.

"In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth" Gen:1:1 

In the Gospel of St. John, the Apostle is moved by the Holy Spirit to open his account of the life of Jesus in the eternity past , even before the Great God brought the universe into being.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God .He was with God in the beginning"  Jhn:1:1-2 . 

St. John here is using an important literary device, by equating the coming of the Messiah with the uses of the words " In beginning", we see the opening words of the creation epic. St. John is stating that the introduction of Jesus into human history ,as one of us, is a creation event, an all new creation, and in Jesus this new creation is accomplished , as well as, speaking that the very one who created is the one of whom St. John and the other Apostles were proclaiming. God has brought life out of death by Jesus alone. Jesus is life incarnate and has come to retrieve our material nature out of the nothingness of death's grasp.

All Things New

When we see this, and come believe that God makes All Things New in his Son Jesus, this gives us hope of the New Creation that he has made us to be in Jesus; and that we could not have done this on our own . He did it all for us through Jesus Christ.

We are now a new creation, made new, then we walk in newness of life, this new life is what St. Paul wrote of to Roman Christians in his epistle Rom:6:4,  we are now alive and in Jesus.

We are assured of a life in eternity with our Lord Jesus Christ, we have hope . A real hope. A hope that is ours' here and now not just someday in eternity to come, but an all new life here and now upon the Earth.

To Whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory mystery among the gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of Glory" Col:1:27

This hope sustains us even in the face of adversity and crisis, ever with our eyes focused on Jesus, as the One ,who gives us such hope, Rom:8:18-25.

In Eternity 

In the end, what has been made true is that the New Creation which he has made us to be , will be ours' completely and fully. It will be what Jesus has already accomplished for us all fully experienced.

All Things Made New in Jesus. All those things of this life ,and even the old creation will all pass away, leaving only the New Creation . Rev:21:1-3.  

 These words speak of things that are, in truth, beyond the minds of any of us to fully take in and comprehend.

God gives each of us just a glimpse of this eternity that is for each who will but freely receive it.

Yet, there will be some, that will reject this freely given Gift of God, they love their sin more than their Savior. 

But God has called us to have all things made new in his Holy Son Jesus, even here and now and on into Eternity.

Benediction: May we each and all live in that newness of life found only in Jesus, today, tomorrow and forevermore .Amen.

 

Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor 

Topinabee Community Church

Topinabee, Michigan 

If You Would Like to Know More About or to Support the Ministry of Topinabee Community Church You Can go to Our Web Site.

https://topinabeechurch.org/index.html

You Can Follow Topinabee Community Church on Face Book 

https://www.facebook.com/Topinabeecommunitychurch

                    "If It Is Not About Jesus, It Is Not About Anything"

The Cloud

 

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight"Acts:1:9

 After giving the Disciples, the Great Commission of proclaiming the Gospel Jesus was then taken up into the Heavens and enveloped with in a cloud. At the Accession of our Lord Jesus Christ, he was enveloped by a cloud which hid him from his Disciples immediate view.

Like many things that our Lord did and said, at first the Disciples, and we, may not have fully grasped the import or the message. Nothing that Jesus did, or does, is an accident. Everything that relates to Jesus is of great importance and speaks to us about who our Lord is and what he does.

What message do we find then in our Lord being enveloped by a cloud? What does this teach to those who follow our Lord?

To understand why Jesus was taken into a cloud we need to return to the Old Testament, the body of writings that we are told speaks to us about Jesus. John: 5:39-47, Luke:24:25-27,44-45

The Cloud in the Wilderness

That is, all the Old Testament speaks to us about Jesus Christ. The Old Testament is the Incarnation Anticipated as the New Testament is the Incarnation Accomplished.

Jesus is found throughout the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. The Writers of the New Testament understood this, and after the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit to give them inspiration and understanding, they began to see our Lord throughout the Old Testament.

Jesus is there, even in the wanderings of the Children of Israel. St. Luke , in his history of the Apostolic Church records the sermon of the Deacon St. Stephen to the religious leaders. St. Stephen’s message points away from the Temple at Jerusalem and toward the person of Jesus. St. Stephen is insistent that Jesus, and not the Temple, is the focus of God's purpose and our relationship with God.

 St. Stephen declares that Jesus is and always has been this focus, even citing that Jesus is God and, as such, Jesus is the very one who led Israel in the cloud that went before them, which was manifesting the presences of the Lord.

"This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spoke to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give to us" Acts:7:38

St. Stephen is telling the Jews, and we, that it is Jesus who there in the cloud. This cloud which was a visual manifestation of the Lord's presences and is found in several places in the Scriptures.

This cloud is the Shekinah, in Hebrew it means to dwell or to inhabit. It shares a common entomology with the Hebrew word Mishkan, a form which is used for the Tabernacle, where God dwelt, where the people of Israel met their God. 

Meeting God

Moses met God as the cloud descend atop the highths of Sinai. The manifestation was one of power and was accompanied by the blast of a heavenly trumpet. Tempest and lighting and roaring of thunder. The whole of the mountain was shaken, showing that the Lord God was present.

"The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.” Then Moses told the Lord what the people had said."Ex:19:9

"On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.

The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain."(16-20)

Moses met the Lord in the Tabernacle as the cloud descend to it.

"And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses."Ex:33:9

The Cloud on the Mountain

The one who descended there upon the mountain was the very one who came in the Person of Jesus Christ, there the Lord "proclaims the name of the Lord" to Moses.

"And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children's children, to the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. And he said, If now I have found grace in your sight, O LORD, let my LORD, I pray you, go among us; for it is a stiff necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance." Ex: 34:5-9

 Moses met the Lord surrounded by the cloud, and hears God's word and Moses' responds by worshiping.

 When the Cloud Moves

As the Lord God led Israel through the Wilderness toward the Promised Land, Israel would encamp and stay in a given place until the cloud moved, when the cloud moved Israel moved, when it stopped, they stopped. This tells us that God was controlling the overall direction of the people of Israel. At the close of the book of Exodus, after a display of the glory of God, we read.

"And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys." Ex: 40:37-38

 Cloud On the Temple

At the dedication of the Temple at Jerusalem the very presence of the Great God, the same that is seen leading Israel, is here, descended to the sound of Trumpets as one hundred and twenty priest sing hymns of praise to God in unity, and fills the Temple with his glory so fully, that the Priest could not stay in the Sanctuary but were forced to go out into the court.

"And came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were in unity, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endures forever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD; So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God." 2Chron:5:13-14

When they were in unity, then the glory filled the Temple, the presence of God was manifested in a powerful way as they worshiped and gave glory to the God of Israel. We see ,that in this moment at the Temple of God what is spoken of in Psalm:22:3- "God inhabits the praises of His people". This speaks of that where our Lord is praised his presences is manifested. 

Our Praises does not "work up" God's divine presence, it simply brings us to realize that he is present. Jesus is with us. He is within the Temple of his church.

 Where He Meets Us Still

 Like in the Temple and Tabernacles of ages past, our Lord still meets us today within his church, the living Jesus who came and dwelt among us as one of us in his incarnation still meets us.

 "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." Jhn: 1:14

We meet our Lord in the Tabernacle of His humanity. It is here that God reveals himself to each and all in the person of His Son Jesus.

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from  you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me" Jhn:17:6-8

Jesus in the Cloud

The very one who led the people of Israel through the self-illuminating cloud of the Shekinah is the very one who came to humanity in the person of Jesus.

This truth is also seen atop the Mount of Transfiguration where Jesus is seen glorified by the overwhelmed Disciples. Here the voice of God affirming the divine Sonship of Jesus is heard and the cloud surrounded them all as the fell before His glory. 

"While he yet spoke, behold, a bright cloud enveloped them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear you him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only" .Matt:17:5-8

This moment of seeing the glory of Jesus in the cloud is again an affirmation that Jesus is the one who led the Children of Israel in their Journey toward the Promised Land. 

The cloud would have invoked within the minds of the first Disciples, all who were Jewish, the racial memory of the cloud that their ancestors followed. They would have understood the message of Jesus being enveloped by the cloud.

This told them, and tells us, that the one whom protected, provided for, and led Israel will do the same for the Church. That Israel, as St. Stephen called them "the Church in the Wilderness". As the Lord was with Israel before the incarnation, so Jesus is with his people the Church in the wilderness of this world after the resurrection.

 Jesus Hid By Cloud

Acts records that the cloud hid Jesus from the Apostles view, this teaches us all, that we are to walk by faith and not by sight, to trust our Lord Jesus that he is and will always be with us. And it is when we worship in unity giving Jesus praise, it is then, that we come to discern his abiding presences within the Temple of the Church.

"Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him" Heb:10:38

Jesus, in his accession, is demonstrating that he will lead his Church, protect and provided for it in all of its wanderings throughout the ages just as he did with the Children of Israel. 

In all that the Church faces, Jesus is with us, with all Christians. Jesus will lead us forward moving us ever onward, overseeing the Church's journey to the Promised land of his Kingdom, and even when we enter times of the encampments of little progress, where the cloud of his leading makes no sign of moving, even as with Israel, Jesus will be there as our Shepherd in times of hardship, whatever occurs, he is there with us by way of the Holy Spirit.

"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." Jhn:14:15-20

 Jesus' ascension, and being hid by the cloud speaks volumes, it tells us that Jesus will lead us onward to the conclusion of His purpose for each and all and is far from being an abandonment of his people, it is rather, a powerful affirmation that Jesus is ever with us as he was with Israel, and that he will do more for us than we can even begin to grasp.

None need to fear, Jesus is with us, his eyes are upon us, he will lead us onward. Jesus is the one in the cloud who is ever present in each of our lives. The cloud tells us all that Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us he will lead us all to the Promised Land of his glorious Kingdom.

Jesus is as he spoke to the Disciples in Matt: 28:20b. "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age".

Benediction: May we each and all ever trust our Lord to lead us and guide us ever in life, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.

 

Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor 

Topinabee Community Church

Topinabee, Michigan 

If You Would Like to Know More About or to Support the Ministry of Topinabee Community Church You Can go to Our Web Site.

https://topinabeechurch.org/index.html

You Can Follow Topinabee Community Church on Face Book 

https://www.facebook.com/Topinabeecommunitychurch

                    "If It Is Not About Jesus, It Is Not About Anything"

A House for All Nations

“My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations” Mk: 11:17

After his glorious entrance into Jerusalem, which was in many respects an Apocalyptic moment, our Lord Jesus  Christ entered the Temple of God and into the court of the gentiles. This outer court was the part of the Temple where the gentiles were confined to stay. This area had become a “marketplace”, and some people used it as a short cut to cross the Temple courts to get where they wanted to go.

It was here in the gentile court that shops and animal pens, which stank of dung, had been set up for the selling of animals which were to be used in the sacrifices which were offered at the Temple, also, money changers had set up tables to exchange real currency for “Temple coinage” which had no value outside of the Temple complex. This Temple coinage was to be used in the purchase of the animals, the exchange rate was very disproportion in favor of the money changers and the Religious leaders of the day.

The Zeal of the Lord’s House

The abuses of the religious system and exploitation of the common people all for the profit and gain of the religious leaders and their business allies ,the unsavory lot of persons which always abound where such enterprises are being conducted,  and the stench and filth of the penned animals causes a holy anger to arise within Jesus.

Jesus is moved by a holy zeal. Jesus then acts and boldly confronting the money changers, he overturned their tables and scattering them and drove out the “merchandisers” scattering them from the Temple and put an end to persons using the Temple as a short cut to get where they wanted to go.

“On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. Mk: 11:15-16

The Court Stank

This part of the Temple, the court of the gentiles, was the place where non-Jews were given very limited access to participation of the Worship of God. It was in this court that the religious leaders in conjunction with money changers set their tables and booths to exchange money and to sell animals.

The presence of the animals with this area would have created an abundance of filth and a bad stench. This would have kept some persons out of the Temple all together and cosigned the non-Jewish worshipers to a rather unpleasant experiences and discouraged many to stay away all together.

  This why Jesus declared in his sermon that he preached there that the worship of the true God, that the Temple at Jerusalem was to symbolize was intended to include people from all nation. None were to be kept out.

“And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? (17a)

The type of legalistic application of the Covenant quite literally stank and keeps people out and away from the worship of God. Legalism stinks and keeps people away.

 The Religious leaders had exploited the Covenant which God had formed with Israel and used it to make themselves rich at the expense of the people and the virtual exclusion of non-Jews who wanted to worship God.

 “But you have made it ‘a den of robbers” (17b)

Jesus, in overturning the tables, was acting out why he, as the Messiah, had come. Jesus had come to overturn the tables of the Covenant. Jesus had come to do away with religion, which limited the access to God and bring relationship.

 The Religious leaders had developed an “exclusive” merchandising mind set. This “exclusivism” kept some of the people confined in the court of the gentiles did not have access to the court of the Priest or the Sanctuary and ultimately the Holy of Holies, these areas belong  only to the people of Israel and the religious leaders which was reserved only to them.

Jesus proclaimed powerfully by word and action an end to that system and it’s purging. Now, through the work of Jesus all peoples from all nations could offer the sacrifice of prayer and participate in the worship of the Great God  as priest of God under the New Covenant of Grace.

Not a Short Cut

Jesus also shut down the uses of the Temple as a short cut for those who wanted to get where they wanted to go and sealing their merchandise as they went it was no longer a means for their self-advancement.

“and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts”(16)

In Our Temple Courts

St. Paul tells us that we, the Church, Christians, are the Temple of God.

“we are all the Temple of God”1Cor:3:16

 Do we Christians find the same “merchandising” attitude in the Temple courts of our own lives, individually and collectively? Do we have a “money changer” attitude? Are we using the Temple Court of the Church as means to get to where we want to go, socially, financially for our own gain and advancement? Do we each and all have a legalistic “religion” that stinks and keeps some out of and excludes them from the worship of God? Do we have an unequal exchange rate, that is, what we give in return is useless coinage?

Jesus has come to drive out the “merchandising” attitude in our own lives.

As we are all the Temple of God, Jesus Christ has entered all our lives and has turns over the tables of our lives all to rid us of system which cannot even bring us real transformation and salvation.

Jesus rather drives out the “merchandiser” attitude, the “getting attitude” in each one of us. We need to let go of the old ways and become priest of God to offer the sacrifice of prayer, to be a house of prayer ,so that no one need be excluded out in the court of the gentiles. All are welcome in the Lord’s house.

Jesus has entered in and turned over our tables so that we can be house of prayer for all nations.

Benediction: May each and all fully be that Temple where God is worshiped without “money changers” a house of prayer for all nations today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.

 

Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor 

Topinabee Community Church

Topinabee, Michigan 

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                    "If It Is Not About Jesus, It Is Not About Anything"