The Holy Temple

You know, we're in a time in history when God is restoring his church,

his bride, to continue his kingdom work here on earth, to operate in power and

authority over darkness and evil,

over sickness and disease, and to win souls for eternity.

We are his ambassadors, his legal representatives, his army,

and we must be prepared and ready to take over enemy territory. Who wants to be ready?

You know, I really feel, and I feel that in my spirit, that we're on the cusp

of seeing miracles, signs and wonders break out in the church as souls are won over for heaven.

So let me pray before I begin.

So Holy Spirit, I just thank you, Lord, for this morning.

I thank you, Lord, for your church, Lord, your bride, Father.

I thank you, Lord, that even as I speak, you are preparing hearts to receive.

I thank you, Lord, that you would speak through me this morning.

In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Amen. Well, let me read to you this morning. I'm using a computer.

I haven't used a computer up here before.

I hope it doesn't disappear. If it does, I have notes underneath, just in case.

So let me read to you this morning a well-known Bible story.

I think just about everyone is familiar of the account of Jesus entering the

temple and being angry about what was going in there, upturning tables,

hurling a whip around at what was going on.

You can actually read this account in all of the Gospels.

So it's definitely important. But let me read to you from John 1.

From John, the account from John to begin. So to set the scene,

Jesus has just entered Jerusalem and it was close to Passover time when he entered

into the temple courtyard.

Now, as a side note, the temple in Jerusalem was really big.

It was some 36 acres in size. It was massive.

One of the walls was like 900 metres long. It was huge.

It was made of huge stones fashioned together without any cement.

And I was reading that one of the largest stones that you can go and visit is

some 14 metres long, 4.6 metres thick and 3.3 metres high.

So something like probably the size of this room would be close to it.

So it was big. And they think that that particular rock actually weighs around 570 tons.

That's one very big rock. And people put it that they built that.

No machinery, no cranes, no nothings, no cement, just the sheer weight of the

rocks holding everything together.

So I hope you get the picture of how big the temple was.

Now, the temple was a busy hub for offering sacrifices of all sorts,

such as the peace, thanksgiving and atonement offerings every day of the year.

And on the three annual pilgrimage festivals, one of which was Passover,

all of Israel was invited to come to offer special sacrifices and to celebrate.

They liked to party, the Israelites.

Now the temple had a couple of main areas. The law reserved the inner court

for the Jewish men who had kept themselves ceremoniously clean,

of course. Everyone else...

Was only allowed in the outer court, which was the main gathering place for

worship and religious activities.

And Jesus primarily taught in the outer courts because everyone could gather there.

The good news was inclusive of everyone. And this has never changed to this very day.

In the inner court of the temple, and I know many of you know this,

was the Holy of Holies, the earthly dwelling place of God's presence.

A veil separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple where God dwelt.

This signified that man was separated from God by sin.

Only the high priest was permitted to pass beyond the veil once per year to

enter into God's presence for all of Israel and make atonement for their sins.

So let me read now the story from John. So Jesus cleanses the temple.

Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went to Jerusalem.

And he found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves and the money

changers doing business.

When he had made a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the

sheep and the oxen, and he poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.

And he said to those who sold doves, Take these things away.

Do not make my father's house a house of merchandise.

Then the disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for your house has eaten me up.

So the Jews answered and said to him, What sign do you show to us since you do these things?

Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

Then the Jews said, It has taken forty-six years to build this temple,

and you will raise it up in three days.

But he was speaking of the temple of his body.

Therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he

had said this to them and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

So just a few thoughts to begin.

Perhaps you've been at churches in the past where you've seen things happen in modern day church.

It seems not much has changed. Let me give you a bit of an analogy.

The selling of things in the temple. To me, this represents people, leaders,

pastors, coming to church with their own agenda and promoting and selling their

own ideas and trying to expand their own church to expand their own ministry.

The selling of different types of animals.

This represents people using the church as a thoroughfare, going about their

own business, looking busy, but not being in unity or of one mind causing distraction

in the church, not focused on God at all.

And then to the money exchanges. Now in ancient times, the temple had a different

currency than the Roman coin.

To give money to the temple, which was required by law, it had to be in temple

coins because the Roman currency was considered unclean.

The money exchanges took advantage and would have charged hefty fees to exchange the coins.

So really this was representing the opposite of Christ's free gift of salvation.

It has no cost or price attached. It is available to all, not just the rich.

Dare I say that there are some churches out there that are driven solely by finances.

And lastly, the overturning of the tables. This represents structures in church

that are not godly, the way we run church, the way we plan services,

the preaching that omits the truth or could possibly offend.

I hope I'm not offending anyone.

The lack of maturity of believers and the lack of love and unity that goes on in some churches.

And the church's failure as a whole to pull down these structures renders the

church sick and powerless.

Now, when Jesus entered the temple that day, he was making a statement that

his church was to be a holy place, a place of prayer.

He was removing what was never meant to be there in the first place.

He was about to change the temple once and for all.

Through his death, resurrection life was coming.

The old temple was being dismantled. His powerful gospel of the kingdom realm

has built us into a holy temple, not made with hands.

Jesus Christ was the rock, the bedrock foundation for the new covenant church being established.

Ephesians 2, 19-22, Christ our cornerstone.

Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens

with the saints and members of the household of God.

Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in him the whole building, being fitted together,

grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together

for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Christ is our rock. Christ is our rock.

The afternoon that Jesus died, at the very moment when he took his last breath,

the temple veil was torn from top to bottom.

No longer would that high priest need to enter the Holy of Holies on our behalf

because God was no longer there.

The old covenant had ended, and the new covenant had begun.

The holy temple lives in us. We are the dwelling place for the holy.

You know, some 70 years after Christ was crucified, the physical temple and

Jerusalem were left absolutely desolate, destroyed by the Romans,

just as Jesus had prophesied.

1 Corinthians 3 Don't you realize that all of you together are the temple of

God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple, for God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

You are that temple.

We are His holy dwelling place on earth. 1 Corinthians 6.

I've got a song in my head about this verse. Do you not know that your body

is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is within you, whom you have received as

a gift from God, and that you are not your own property?

You were bought with a price. You were actually purchased with the precious

blood of Jesus and made his own.

So then honor and glorify God with your body. As our bodies are a temple for

the Holy Spirit, we have a real responsibility to care for our temple and to

keep it clean and in order.

Do any of my children remember that song? Maybe.

So, going back to the tables in our text today.

Tables are important, so long as they are God's tables.

Tables are mentioned all throughout the Bible and represented a place of relationship,

communion and togetherness, a place to gather for discussion,

meals, celebrations, negotiations and to worship.

The first mention of a table in the Bible is actually in Exodus when God gives

Moses instructions to build a table for the tabernacle made of fine wood and overlaid with gold.

On the table, 12 loaves of unleavened bread were placed there by the priests each week.

These were called the showbread or bread of the presence and represented God's

provision and sustenance for Israel.

And then in Psalm 23, you all know that psalm, I'm sure, we read,

You prepare a table in the presence of my enemies.

In this psalm, God is the good shepherd who protects us when we are at his table.

He's actually going into battle for us on our behalf. And that's what that psalm is about.

I did a study on that psalm once, and that really opened my eyes that the Lord

is going into battle for us all the time.

When we're seated at his heavenly table with him.

Now in the New Testament, of course, Jesus was with his disciples at the Last Supper, Luke 22.

When the hour for the meal had come, Jesus reclined at the table and the apostles with him.

He said to them, I have earnestly wanted to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

For I say to you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

And then again, if you keep reading a bit further down in verse 28,

Jesus shares with his disciples that they will be dining with him again in heaven.

Let me read that to you. Verse 28, You are those who have remained and are stood by me in my trials.

And just as my Father has granted me a kingdom, I grant you the privilege that

you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones

judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

So we have a table in heaven already prepared for us. Amen.

And then in Revelation 1991, we're invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb,

which is the great heavenly table.

Wonderfully blessed are those who are invited to the feast at the wedding celebration

of the Lamb, we read in Revelation.

So God's tables communicate the kind of relationship that God wants with us,

one of relationship, one of communion, one of friendship, one of intimacy,

one of provision and protection, and one of celebration and worship.

But now let's turn our attentions to human tables, the sinful tables in the

temple that we read about before.

Many of these tables are forged in our own hearts unintentionally,

out of pain, out of hardship, out of trauma, and other tables,

we manage to form ourselves from our own sinful flesh.

You know, in our house, many of you have been to our house, you know that I've

got that big square, hard, old, recycled hardwood table.

It is so heavy to move.

Even the chairs, when you pick them up, weigh a ton, and they're very uncomfortable

to sit on for a long period of time.

And occasionally when I walk past it and I bump my leg, it's like, ouch!

It always leaves a big bruise on my leg. You know, the tables we have formed

in our hearts can be a bit like this.

They are stubborn and they don't like to be moved or upset.

They can cause blockages to the blessings of God flowing in our lives.

They distort our vision and they cause us to stumble because they're always

in our way. They're always in our forefront.

And then there are other tables in our lives. we could name some of these,

the tables of shame that we carry around, tables of pride, tables of depression,

sickness, unforgiveness, just to name a few.

But the good news this morning is that the Lord wants these tables overturned.

Are you sitting at a table in your heart that needs to be overturned?

Now let me read the story again from Matthew's account, but I want you to listen really carefully.

And I'm going to read this from the Amplified Bible, Matthew 21.

And Jesus entered the temple grounds and drove out with force all who were buying

and selling birds and animals for sacrifice in the temple area.

And he turned over the tables of the money changers, who made a profit exchanging

foreign money for temple coinage, and the chairs of those who were selling doves for sacrifice.

Jesus said to them, It is written in Scripture, My house shall be called a house

of prayer, but you are making it a robber's den.

And then verse 14, look at this. And the blind and the lame came to him in the

porticos and courts of the temple area and he healed them and he healed them.

Did you hear that? Did you hear that?

Once Jesus overturned the tables, the blind and the lame were able to come in

and they were healed, just like that, they were healed.

The sinful tables had blocked them from coming in and entering into Jesus' presence

and receiving his healing.

Wow, has anyone ever read that? That just blew my mind away when I saw that.

Wow, is it that our blockages in our own hearts prevent the Lord from acting

and helping other people because we're so blinded by what we've got going on in our own heart.

You know, Jesus was about to be the resurrected Christ, the Son of God,

and His resurrection life was coming into His church.

The new covenant was being revealed. He was saying, out with the old and in with the new.

And as ambassadors of Christ, we have a responsibility to keep the church a

place of prayer and holiness so we can operate out of heavenly realms, unobstructed by sin.

The church needs to be a place of hope, refuge and healing for the lost,

a place of miracles, a place where everyone can come.

And this starts within our own hearts. We need to keep our temple holy.

Together as a church, we can do great things for God. God will use us. God will use us.

When our temple is clean and free from unholy tables, as I call them,

from blockages and obstacles, with those removed, healing, salvation and freedom

flow freely from heaven, directly from the throne room.

Nothing's in their way.

Like Jesus getting angry, who, by the way, didn't sin in his anger.

If you read one of those accounts, after he entered the temple,

he went away and he said he made the whip.

So he actually took the time. He thought about his actions. He went away. He made the whip.

Then he came back in and drove them all out. So he didn't just respond in anger and sin in his anger.

He did not sin in his anger. We are allowed to be anger, but we're told not to sin in that.

So I thought that was interesting that the Lord gave that example there.

You know, we need to be ready to repent for our own unholy tables.

We all have them. No one's exempt. I have my own.

And church, it's time that we make the temple holy again.

Wait and see what the Lord is going to do in our church, High Life Church,

when we surrender these to him.

You know, when you clean your house at home,

It's never a once-off. So wouldn't that be lovely if you just did your vacuum

to house once and that was it forever?

Wouldn't that be fantastic? Does that happen? No, of course not.

Of course not. And so even though that would be nice, but, you know,

it's an ongoing daily work because dirt and mess continually accumulate day

after day, and so it is with our own spiritual house, our own temple.

We daily should be examining our hearts for unholy tables and structures and

surrendering these to the Lord.

So let me ask you, Josh, can you come up? How's your temple this morning?

Does it need a furniture clean out? Does it need a renovation or perhaps even a demolition?

Tim recently was working on a house renovation out at Kangaloon,

But once things got down to the foundations, they discovered massive termite destruction.

Things were so bad that the project had to be abandoned.

And it became, instead of becoming a renovation, it became a demolition and a rebuild.

But the good news is that it's Resurrection Sunday today.

The Lord is here and he's ready to flip some tables. I feel like I'd like to

go around and flip all the chairs over now, but the Lord is here.

Lord is here. And I hope that this message is speaking to your heart. Is it OK?

Is that OK? You're all very quiet this morning. You're all very quiet.

And you know, as we share communion together, I've purposely put a table there

to remind you it's the Lord's table.

He wants to meet with you as your heavenly Father, face to face.

He's ready to help. If you've got a table in your life, He's ready to flip that over for you.

It's Miracle Sunday. It's Resurrection Day.

Whatever that table is, no matter how big you think that is,

or you think that the process of trying to get rid of that out of your life,

whatever that is, is too big, God is here this morning.

Music.

And Father, I just pray now in Jesus' name, Lord, as you move through this building,

Lord, that you are flipping over tables, things that are not of you,

Lord, things that are causing blockages in people's lives, obstructions from

them, seeing who you really are.

Lord, a mighty, miracle, wonder God, Father, ready to go into battle for us at all.

Music.