Sunday, May 27, 2012,
7:14 a.m. – the Lord woke me this morning with the song “Not by Might” playing in my mind.
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Matthew 21:1-22 (quoting 12-13, 18-22 NIV 1984):
Jesus entered the
temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned
the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is
written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but
you are making it a ‘den of robbers.’”
…Early in the morning,
as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the
road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to
it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.
When the disciples saw
this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.
Jesus replied, “I tell
you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was
done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw
yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever
you ask for in prayer.”
My Understanding: People
coming to the temple, especially travelers, had to purchase what was required
for sacrifice, such as sacrificial animals and the like. The money changers
were those who exchanged Greek or Roman currency into the currency needed to
purchase these sacrificial objects, and merchants sold them what they needed. The
problem did not lie in the fact that they were selling or exchanging currency
but in where they chose to do this. They were doing it inside the temple, God’s
holy dwelling place intended for solemn worship and prayer, and for the
teaching of God’s truths. Allowing marketing, selling and exchanging of
currency (human business practices) to go on within the temple turned God’s holy
place into a market place instead of a holy place of prayer.
Today’s Temple
And, this is happening in today’s church here in America.
For one, the church has joined with the United States government in a
contractual or covenantal relationship (501c3) which binds it to the government
in the sense of the government being able to stipulate what it can or cannot do,
and what the preachers can and cannot say from the pulpit. This puts the
government in the place of God over the church in some areas, and Christ takes
a second seat to the government where the government sets down their rules and
regulations.
By joining with the government in this covenantal
relationship, thus becoming a legal corporation underneath the U.S. government,
the church has turned itself into a business of men that is marketed just like
any other human business. It is advertised just like any other business and
uses the same kinds of marketing techniques, including lies, deception,
manipulation, propaganda, and often selling short the truth of the gospel of
Jesus Christ in order to appeal to the flesh of man. Many of today’s churches
focus most of their time, resources and attention on the “worship service”
which often is nothing more than just entertainment or a big production (show).
The goal is often to make the unsaved comfortable, i.e. to make church “user
friendly” to the world, to be non-threatening and non-judgmental, and to make
church a “fun” place to go so the world will like it.
Yet, that is not the Biblical model for church. For one, the
true church of Jesus Christ is not a physical building. God does not dwell
within the walls of today’s churches, nor is the “sanctuary” within those
physical structures the sanctuary of God. We do not enter into the presence of
God when we enter a physical building. It is just a building and nothing more.
The true church is the people. God now dwells within human hearts, i.e. the
hearts of those who have come to him in faith in Jesus Christ via repentance
(turning from sin) and a decision to follow Jesus Christ in obedience.
So, when Christians are gathered together in the name
(character, purpose, and will) of Jesus Christ, no matter where they are, that
is the church. And, the purpose for their meetings is to pray, fellowship in
the Spirit of God, share in communion with one another and to receive the
teaching of the word. As well, the meetings are to be participatory not
spectator-oriented or even preprogrammed participation. We are all parts of the
body of Christ and we have all been given gifts to be used within the body of Christ
for the edification (strengthening, encouragement, instruction, teaching,
inspiration, urging, and advancing) of one another in the Lord Jesus. And, it
is the Holy Spirit who directs these times together, leading us in word and
deed according to the gifts within us and our faith in Christ. To me, true
church takes place in small group settings where people care and pray for one
another, where there is fellowship in the Spirit of God, where we each have the
opportunity to share a word from God (according to scriptural teachings) or a
song, or what God is teaching us, and where the Bible is actually being taught
and not man’s teachings.
When Jesus quoted the Old Testament in his phrase “Den of
Robbers,” he quoted from Jeremiah 7:11. In context, Jeremiah was given a word
from God to give to the people of God (the Lord’s house), which today is the
church (the people of God; the body of Christ). The people were coming to the
temple to worship God. Yet, God’s word to them was that they needed to reform
their ways and their actions. They were trusting in deceptive words of false
teachers. The people were ascribing to the physical building (temple) some kind
of supernatural power. The buildings (physical structures) had become the
object of the people’s faith instead of the God of the buildings. Jeremiah told
the people, basically, that the temple without godliness in the people was worthless.
God said: “Will you
steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow
other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house,
which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable
things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you?
But I have been watching! declares the Lord.” ~ Jeremiah 7:9-11 (NIV 1984)
And, God has not stopped watching. He is very much aware of
what goes on in his name and in his temple (in the hearts of individual believers
in Christ and in the corporate body of Christ). And, he is not pleased with how
his church (the body of Christ) has been turned into a market place to market “the
church” to the world by making the gospel palatable and by making the church
appealing to the flesh of man. The church is the body of Christ. It is for true
followers of Christ to gather together for mutual edification and encouragement.
It is where we learn that coming to Christ means death to the flesh of man, and
it means choosing to leave our worldly lives behind us in order to follow Jesus
Christ in complete surrender to him and to his will for our lives. Nowhere in
the Bible does it teach us that church is supposed to be “fun” according to man’s
will and desires. It is to be filled with joy, love, peace, kindness,
gentleness, encouragement, teaching in the word, etc. but church is not here
for the purpose of entertaining us or the world. We are supposed to be lights
to the world and we are to go out into the world and to make disciples of all
nations, teaching them to obey Christ and his commandments. The church is not to
be built on man’s marketing techniques but on the salvation of souls as we
spread the true gospel of Christ.
False Fruit (taken in part from “Into the Sea,”
10/06/2010)
Jesus cursed the fig
tree because it gave the appearance of having fruit, but it did not bear fruit.
The disciples asked how this tree withered so fast, and Jesus then told them
that not only could they do what was done to the fig tree, but that they could
tell “this mountain” to throw itself into the sea, and it would be done if they
had the faith and did not doubt.
I wondered what that
meant, so I prayerfully began to search out the scriptures to see what this
meant, in the context of the previous verses. I reexamined the previous verses and
their meaning. The fig tree is a fair representation of much of today’s church
in America. This church being represented here, thus, is symbolic of a tree
that advertises, by its leaves, that it is bearing fruit, but the advertisement
is false. It is a fruitless, dead tree upon which God has cast his proclamation
of judgment and a demonstration of his power to carry out what He said he would
do. Then, Jesus told his disciples that if they believed and did not doubt, they
could not only do the same as was done to the fig tree, but they could also say
to “this mountain,” “Go throw yourself into the sea,” and it would be done.
So, if what Jesus
did was representative of a proclamation of judgment against His people, then
to do what he did would thus be to also proclaim judgment on God’s people (as
is written about in scripture) who have the appearance of righteousness but are
really dead. The whole gospel includes the fact that God will judge. The Bible
says that “judgment begins with the house of the Lord.” I believe God will
judge his people first for their fruitlessness, their sins of idolatry and
spiritual adultery, and their refusal to repent and to turn back to God in
faith and obedience. He will again cleanse his temple of “robbers.”
So, if to do what
Jesus did to the fig tree means that we, as well, proclaim judgment of God on a
fruitless people who claim to be God’s people, then what would it mean to tell
“this mountain” to throw itself into the sea? That was my question to God, so I
looked up “this mountain” in the scriptures, which then led me to Mount Zion,
which then led me to Zion, which eventually led me to an understanding that
Zion was another word for Israel and that the church is now Zion and the
mountain is the heavenly Jerusalem. So, if we tell “this mountain,” i.e. Zion
(the church) to throw itself into the sea, what does that mean in this context?
That was my question to God, so I looked up the phrase “throw into the sea.”
I learned that the
idea of being thrown into the sea had to do with judgment. So, to throw oneself
into the sea would thus be to judge oneself. Also, being thrown into the sea
meant death, potentially, so to throw oneself into the sea would be to bring
about death in oneself. This brought this passage of scripture to mind:
“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the
Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their
thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life
of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their
hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to
sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust
for more.
“You, however, did not come to know Christ
that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the
truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life,
to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to
be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created
to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:17-24 NIV 1984).
I believe what the
Lord is showing me here is that he is telling his disciples, not only that they
can do great miracles in the physical realm, but of greater importance is that
they could see great miracles of God in people’s lives in the spiritual realm
if they just believed God and did not doubt. They could, in faith, proclaim the
whole gospel of Jesus Christ which tells people that we are sinners in need of
a Savior, that we have to acknowledge that fact to God, that we have to repent of
(turn from) our sin, that we must die to our old lives (throw ourselves into
the sea), that a day of judgment (the withering of the fig tree) is coming,
that Jesus provided the way for us to be free of our sin - the penalty of sin (eternal
separation from God in hell) and the bondage to and control of sin over our
daily lives - and that true faith and belief in what Jesus did for us in dying
on the cross for our sins means that we also must die. The “mountain” that must
be thrown into the sea thus represents all obstacles to our faith and
commitment to Jesus Christ, including the mountain of having the appearance of
righteousness but denying its power in our lives (not bearing fruit).
Not By Might / An
Original Work / March 29, 2012
Based off Zechariah 4
“Not by might, and not
by power,
But by My Spirit,”
says our Lord, God.
“Mighty mountain, O
what are you?
Before Christ you will
become level ground.”
The hands of our Lord,
Savior God,
Formed the foundation
of His church.
He alone will complete
the work
He began in His
servants’ hearts and minds.
Who despises small
beginnings?
Much can be done in
Christ’s strength within.
Be of courage, and
trust your Lord.
All sufficient He is
for all your needs.
Opposition and apathy:
Holy Spirit will set
us free!
We can be overcomers
in our faith
In our Lord, and our
Savior, King.
Don’t be troubled by
God’s timing.
He has ev’rything in
His command.
Hasten to obey His
commands fully,
Trusting Him to work
all for good.
Not by might nor by
human strength,
But by God’s power;
strength within;
My dependency now on
His working
His will in me in
righteousness.
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