Sermon Central
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Cleaning House
Contributed by Jason Winters on Oct 12, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: Getting things in order
CLEANING HOUSE
After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days. When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!" His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."
John 2:12 -17 (NIV)
1. THE HOLINESS OF GOD’S TEMPLE.
A. Under the Old Covenant.
"For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD. There I will meet you and speak to you; there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory. "So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. ” Exodus 29:42-45
B. Under the New Covenant.
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.” 1 Corinthians 3:16 (NIV)
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. ” 1Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)
C. Holiness is God’s will for us.
It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable... For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
2. THE POWER OF JESUS TO CLEANSE THE TEMPLE.
“Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” Acts 2:38
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
