Wednesday, April 11, 2007
When I had the opportunity to visit the White House for a meeting with the President, I learned what everyone learns who is going to America’s Executive Mansion. They really check you out before they let you in there. There’s a background check. There are armed Marines at the door checking you out. You go through a metal detector to make sure you’re not carrying anything naughty with you. Believe me, you don’t just decide to drop by the White House, walk right in and make yourself at home!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What Really Upsets Jesus."
They’re very careful about who and what gets into the White House. Why? Because of who lives there!
One of the most startling revelations in the Bible is that you and I have a place like that to take care of. Actually, if you belong to Jesus Christ, you are that place! Because the God of the universe has taken up residence in your body! Listen to the words of 1 Corinthians, chapter 6: "Your bodies are members of Christ Himself ... 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; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."
Now with that as background, let’s look at an unsettling picture that’s portrayed in John 2, beginning with verse 14. It’s our word for today from the Word of God. If all you know about Jesus is the One who cuddles children, touches the untouchable and heals the hopeless, you need to complete your picture. That’s very real, but there’s a lot more to Him. Jesus is all of those. But He’s also the Jesus of this story.
The Bible says: "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 He drove them all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; He scattered the coins of the money changers and He 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!’"
What was it that enraged Jesus? People who did things with His temple that no one’s supposed to do. There’s a five-word caption under this picture: "Don’t mess with My temple!" Today, His temple isn’t a building. It’s all those who’ve given their lives to Him. It’s you and me. And Jesus really doesn’t like it when you do things with His temple or to His temple that should never be done.
But maybe you’ve been getting careless with what you do with the temple where a holy God lives. You’ve been doing things with your body that damage it. Maybe things that dirty it, because you’re dragging the Holy Spirit of God into everything you do with that body of yours - which isn’t yours! Have you been doing things that degrade His temple or devalue it in some way? Have you been using His temple to gratify yourself, to do things that He died to keep you from doing? Remember this, too. What you do with other bodies that He lives in really matters to Him, too. When someone’s trashing a temple of His, He takes strong corrective action.
Be very careful about what gets into that body of yours; what you touch, what you watch, what you listen to. Why? Because of Who lives there! If you know Jesus, you could wear every day the shirt that I saw on a young woman not long ago. It simply said, "Property of God." You are. Live like it.