CHRIST
COMMANDS PURITY, POWER AND PRODUCTIVITY
This past Lord’s Day, we celebrated Palm
Sunday, which signifies the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into the city of
Jerusalem. Jesus commissioned a donkey (which
had never been ridden before), and the adoring crowd draped it with clothing. Next, they spread tree branches in the path
of Jesus and cried “Hosanna,” which literally means “save now.” Their cries of worship deeply disturbed the
Jewish hierarchy.
On the next day (Monday) prior to his passion,
death, burial and resurrection, Jesus Christ pursued three pivotal points of
ministry in and near Jerusalem. [See Matthew, chapter 21]. Firstly, he purified the temple. Secondly, he performed dynamic miracles of healing. Thirdly, he cursed a fig tree for its profound
lack of productivity. Each of these
ministries constitutes an impartation of rhema for our contemporary church.
Religious leaders had allowed God’s temple
to be polluted by persons who charged visiting worshippers exorbitant fees to
exchange foreign currencies and purchase animals for sacrifice. Jesus acted swiftly to overturn their tables
of usury and greed. The gospel of John
records that prior to Passover, Jesus discovered “in the temple those that sold
oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting…he had made a
scourge of small cords [and] he drove them all out of the temple, and the
sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the
tables. And said unto them that sold
doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house a house of
merchandise.” (John 2:14-16) The gospel
of Matthew records more of his strong verbal rebuke: “My house shall be called
the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” (Matthew
21:13) Apparently, Jesus had no
tolerance whatsoever for the pollution of the temple of God and the perversion
of the things of God.
Immediately following the temple,
the House of God was transformed into a place of miraculous healing. The blind and the lame were drawn to Jesus,
and they were cured (instantaneously and permanently) by the awesome power of
God. Herein lies an important lesson. Although according to scripture, “money
answers all things” (Ecclesiastes
10:19), it was never intended to become (and can never be) the panacea for our physical,
emotional or spiritual ailments. Money
is an important medium of exchange for goods and services, but it must be
acquired and used by the institutional church as prescribed and deemed
acceptable by God. As such, we must never enter into financial partnerships
or covenants with those who would simply
use the church (and the people of God) to achieve their own selfish
agendas.
That evening, Jesus left Jerusalem
and lodged overnight in Bethany. More
than likely, he stayed at the home of his close friends, Mary, Martha and
Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
The following morning (Tuesday), while Jesus was returning to Jerusalem,
he became hungry and sought to retrieve fruit from a fig tree. The fig tree had grossly misrepresented
itself; its leaves were quite plenteous; its fruit was nowhere to be found. Jesus cursed the fig tree because it did not
live up to its created intent or its name.
“Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever,” Jesus commanded.
(Matthew 21:19) Mere seconds later, the
fig tree withered away and died. When
the disciples marveled at the immediacy of that tree’s demise, Jesus deftly transformed
a personal loss into a teachable moment.
He assured his disciples, “Verily I say unto you, if you have faith, and
doubt not, you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also
if you shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the
sea; it shall be done. And all things,
whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.” (Matthew 21:21-22) Phenomenal promise!
These three dynamic occurrences in
the final week of Christ’s earthly ministry offer a clear illustration of the fundamental
requirements of Christianity: purity,
power and productivity. The atoning blood of Jesus Christ liberates
us from the power and penalty of sin. (Colossians
2:14-15 and Ephesians 2:15-16) And the Word
of God purges us from the practice of sin. (I John 3:9) Therefore, Jesus issues a blessed assurance
to believers: “Now ye are clean (purified)
through the word which I have spoken unto you.” (John 15:3)
No comments:
Post a Comment