Jesus Weeps and Whips to Build the Church

We are called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and he's given us an example not only how to live the Christian life but also how to do his work and the main work that Jesus is doing in the world today is what he described in Matthew 16 and verse 18. We need to see this as the main work that Jesus Christ is doing in the world today. In the last part of verse 18 he says I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overpower it.

He never there was no church built in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament there were just a lot of godly people individual you know Jeremiah, Moses, Abraham all they were all individuals but the church is meant to be a body and it began on the day of Pentecost there was no church before that and it was not possible to build a body before the Holy Spirit came upon people and they were filled with the Holy Spirit then they became a body. It's not possible if you're not filled with the Holy Spirit you will not be able to become a body with others and that's why it's important that every brother sister should seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

It's a personal thing between you and the Lord and the Lord will know give you an assurance if you're filled with the Holy Spirit or not and it's not once for all. It's in Ephesians 518 the word is not be filled to the spirit but be being filled with the Spirit. That's not so clear in the translation in English but that's how the original language is be being filled with the Spirit which means I must constantly be filled with the Holy Spirit.

That's the only way I can be used by the Lord to become a part of his body and if you don't seek that personally see I can't pray that you should be filled with the Holy Spirit. You've got to seek God yourself because God knows if there's anything in your life that's hindering it and if there's nothing hindering he will not hesitate to fill you with the Holy Spirit. There's only one thing that will prevent anyone from being filled with the Holy Spirit that there's something in his life which is not willing to open up to the Lord and if it is a church with Jesus built we can be absolutely sure the powers of hell will never overpower it.

The devil is always seeking to overpower the church in some way or the other and we can learn examples from the other times when Satan tempted. If you turn for a moment to Genesis in chapter 3 and see the first time where the devil got between God and man. What did the devil do first of all? This has come to me more and more recently and I've spoken about it again and again.

For most Christians if you ask them what was the first sin that Eve committed I'd say 99% of Christians would say she took of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That's what I believe for most of my life but you know scripture has got such a depth about it that if you meditate on it you discover things which you don't see at first sight. What do we read in Genesis chapter 3 the last part of verse 6? She gave to her husband who was with her and he ate.

So this is one thing I want you to notice. Where was Adam at that time? Right next to her. Now picture this in your mind.

Adam and Eve are standing just next to each other. That's what it says in verse 6 and here's the devil talking to Eve and God had given her a head. She was to be the helper.

He was the head. The first sin was that she did not submit to the head God had given her. If she had said hang on serpent God's given me a head let me consult him before I take this the story would have been so different.

It's like many wives today. They don't have to consult their husband. They do what they like.

That's not the way God intended and look at the calamity that came because of that. Okay what is Adam's first sin? Not eating the fruit. What was he doing there watching this conversation going on between Eve and the serpent? Why didn't he tell his wife keep quiet and don't talk to that serpent? Why didn't he tell the serpent I'll answer for her.

Talk to me. Like many husbands who see things going wrong in their house and they just keep quiet. That's how Adam was.

So I see that the first sin was not eating the tree from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It is a failure on the part of Eve and the failure on the part of husband. The same thing that's happening throughout the world today even in Christian homes.

We're supposed to help one another husband and wife so that we don't sin but both of them sinned because one did not help the other and one did not seek to consult with her husband. So Jesus is building a church where we seek to help one another where we are one. We're not going to stand and see the other person just doing something wrong and not question it.

Jesus would not stand back and watch something going wrong and keep quiet. He would act immediately. He would particularly when he you know we read that he we just read that he chased the money changers out of the temple but he always waited to see when is it when is the right time.

I see for example in John's gospel. Do you know that Jesus chased the money changers out twice? I don't know whether all of you know that. I mean I read the Bible many times but I never realized that till much later.

Jesus began his ministry with chasing out the people out of the temple. John chapter 2. Everybody knows that the first miracle Jesus did was at the marriage of Cana where he turned the water into wine. What is the next thing he did after that? What's the second thing he did? John chapter 2 and verse 1 to 12 is turning the water into wine and the next thing after that is verse 13.

He went into the temple 13 and 14 and he saw people selling oxen and doves and he made a scourge of cords. He made a whip and he chased them all out of the temple and he said take these things away. Stop making my father's house a place for business.

And then his disciples remember and zeal for your house will consume me. If there's a verse I would encourage you all of you to meditate on and practice if you really love the Lord. It's this verse, verse 17.

Pray that it'll be true in your life. I prayed many times that from a very young age that I became a believer. I said Lord I want that to be true in my life.

That zeal for the house of God will burn me up, consume me. Lord that I'm not gonna sit and see money changers in the temple and just keep quiet or go to them and say gentlemen will you please think about this. This is not a good thing.

That's not how Jesus spoke. He took a whip and chased them out. Zeal for God's house consumes them.

Today's preachers are far too gentle and that's why the devil has taken over so many churches. We need more people who have a zeal for the house of God, for the purity in the house of God. And I want to ask all of you brothers who are sitting here particularly.

How much of a zeal do you have that there should be purity in this church? Do you have a just a weak desire or do you have a burning passion? This church must be a pure church. That Satan will never get a foothold in anybody's life or in this church. So three and a half years go by.

Jesus is coming to the end of his ministry and you find in Luke chapter 19 as you read as we heard earlier. Luke 19 verse 35. They brought a colt and put the coats on it and Jesus sat on it and they he rode on that donkey into Jerusalem and the whole crowd were 37.

Luke 19 37. This is the end of his ministry just a few days before he was crucified. We saw in John chapter 2 the beginning of his ministry.

Now this is the end of his ministry and they were saying blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. And we read here in verse 41 when he approached Jerusalem he wept over it. That's the other thing I believe God needs people who will not only have zeal but who have tears.

Who weep before the Father when they see something wrong in the church. When something's wrong in a church it's like a sickness. How many parents weep when their child is sick? The child is seriously sick and the doctor says there's not much hope.

They weep and weep and weep because they care for their child so much. Many of you have been believers for many years. Has everything been perfect in the churches you've been to? When you see something wrong in a church do you criticize? Do you find fault with the elders? Or do you say this is my church.

I want to weep over it. I want to weep before the Lord. Not in public to get honor but before the Lord.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem and what's the next thing he did? He entered the temple. He was 45 and began to drive out the people who were selling. This is the second time.

He already did it three and a half years earlier. This is the second time and he said don't make my house a house of merchandise. When he first came to the temple he told them in John chapter 2 you have made verse 16 my father's house a place of business.

But the second time when he came it says in the book in the Gospel of Mark the same event is described in the Gospel of Mark and there he says you have made my father's house a robber's den. What was once a place of merchandise you're making business in my father's house finally became a robber's den. So that's how it is.

That's what we've seen very often. Once we permit a little bit of wrong in any church it gradually becomes a place of business. It's not a bad word but when it becomes a robber's den it's really serious.

So what I want to say is the Lord wants to build his church and I want to say that he wants every one of us to say Lord I want to be a part of that. You made me a member of this body. I may not be able to preach.

I may not be able to do many things that the elders in the church can do but will you give me a burden just to pray and that you will build this church and make it one body and everything that hinders that one body from coming especially unrighteousness and money matters. Help me to stand against it not be a weak like a woman. Oh how sad it is like that.

No. But in our heart to have a whip against the devil and I believe God wants people who have a concern the same concern that Jesus had. He wept and he whipped and that's the word that's come to me.

You got to weep and whip in order to build the church. May the Lord enable all of us to have that not at people but against the devil to stand for the Lord. Amen.