A Consuming Zeal - Sep 20

zeal/zēl/noun

great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective.

In sports you might say, “She laid it all on the line.”

In terms of effort you might say, “he gave it his all”

Zeal, is putting all of your energy into a single purpose.

I want to show you the greatest act of Zeal that you will ever know.

It was the Zeal that Consumed Jesus Christ.

So, open up your Bibles to John 2.

John 2:13–16 HCSB

13 The Jewish Passover was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple complex He found people selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and He also found the money changers sitting there. 15 After making a whip out of cords, He drove everyone out of the temple complex with their sheep and oxen. He also poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned the tables. 16 He told those who were selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning My Father’s house into a marketplace!”

Imagine that you are good obedient Israelite...

You are obeying God’s command to celebrate the passover

You have travelled for 3 days to get to Jerusalem, so that you can celebrate the festival at the temple.

You brought your money with you, because its too hard to bring a sheep on a 3 day journey.

So, you wait in a two hour long line in the temple, waiting to buy a temple certified sheep.

You finally get to the front, you hand your money to the cashier, but before you can buy your sheep a massive commotion takes place.

Jesus, has made a whip out of cords, and he is driving out the sheep from the temple. He’s driving out all of the animals. Then he goes to the table where you were standing and flips it over. Your money is gone, your sheep is running down a random street in Jerusalem, and there is chaos all around.

You here Jesus yell out, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”

Its a pretty crazy scene. Not one that you ever expect to happen, especially at the temple.

Its really easy to identify that Jesus, in this scene, has got some ZEAL. He is passionate about the temple.

Why is Jesus Passionate About the Temple?

The temple was a very important building for the entire nation.

it was where people could come to worship God.

it was where people could come to confess their sins, and recieve forgiveness of sins.

it was where people could pray.

In the temple was a room called

The Holy of Holies

This inner room could only be enterred into one a year by one person a year, the high priest. Everyone else was kept out by a large thick curtain.

In the Holy of Holies was the Ark of Covenant.

There was also gold images of two heavenly beings called Cherubim. These beings had large golden wings, and those wings met together above the ark of the covenant.

God said to the Israelite people, that he would be there, above those Golden wings. His spirit, his presence was there.

And so, in a very real way,

The Temple was the place where God lived.

Why was Jesus driving out all the animals and turning over the tables?

Its because God’s temple was being run as a business, and not as a House of God. It had turned into a for profit establishment, it had turned into a place where those who were in control where making a lot of money, weilding a lot of power, and using it all to serve themselves.

John 2:17 HCSB

17 And His disciples remembered that it is written: Zeal for Your house will consume Me.

One of the things that you need to remember about Zeal is that it is consuming. What you are zealous for takes over in your life. What you are zealous for dominates your thoughts, and filters how you see the world.

Jesus saw the world through the lens of his purpose. He was the Son of God who was here on a mission. That mission was so that people could be connected to God. So that people could worship God. So that people could pray to God. So that people could be called the Children of God.

And in John 2, we see that the temple, the place where people are supposed to be able to do all those things, is being used for all the wrong reasons.

John 2:18 HCSB

18 So the Jews replied to Him, “What sign of authority will You show us for doing these things?”

I know that it says the Jews replied to him, but what that is talking about is the rulers of the Jews, the people who spoke for the Jews. And in this case that means the Religious Leaders. Those who were in charge of the temple.

They must have been taken back by his actions. Who was Jesus to come in and cause such chaos. Of course they are going to questions him.

We might paraphrase their question by saying something like,

“Who gave you the right to do this?”

or “What gives you the right to do this?”

But do they ask Jesus the right question?

They look for a sign of authority, but maybe what they should have been looking for was some serious self evaluation. Maybe they should have considered that the temple had gone so far off course, and they were the ones pushing it off course.

Maybe they should have asked Jesus, “How do we fix this?”

But instead they say, “What sign of authority will you show us for doing these things?”

John 2:19–20 HCSB

19 Jesus answered, “Destroy this sanctuary, and I will raise it up in three days.” 20 Therefore the Jews said, “This sanctuary took 46 years to build, and will You raise it up in three days?”

A lot has changed in building contruction over the past 2000 years. But I still don’t think that there are any massive temples’ being constructed in 3 days flat.

And I don’t think that when Jesus gave this sign, he was asking for the Pharisees to literally destroy the temple and see if Jesus could rebuild it on his own in 3 days.

So what is going on here?

John 2:21 HCSB

21 But He was speaking about the sanctuary of His body.

All throughout the history of Israel, the people knew the value of the temple. They knew that it was the place to worship, pray and confess sin. They knew that it was the home of the ark of the covenant, which was a reminder and picture of God’s promise to care for his people. They knew that it was the place where God’s Spirit was.

But we know something now that they might not have known then.

The Temple was a Picture of Jesus.

Jesus is the one that we worship.

Jesus is the one that we can confess our sins to, and be forgiven.

Jesus is God in human flesh, God with us, God living on this earth with his people.

Jesus is the way that we can pray to God.

And so the Zeal that Jesus is talking about is not for the building that he was in that day.

Jesus Zeal is for people to be able to relate to God properly, and that Zeal consumed him.

For Jesus was talking about the temple of his body.

In John 2, we see Jesus purifying the temple, bringing it back to its original prupose.

And that image foreshadows what Jesus ultimatly would do in order to bring you and me back to our original purpose.

The Greatest Act of Zeal

Jesus lived for a singular purpose. To give God glory by making a way for us to be saved from sin.

Jesus ultimatly accomplished this purpose on the cross.

Those religious leaders asked for permission from Rome to crucify Jesus on cross. When they recieved the permission Jesus was tortured and killed. Now the whip was in the hands of a Roman soldier, and it fell on Jesus.

Now it was Jesus himself being driven out of the city, down Jerusalem road to Skull hill, where he would die.

At the very moment that Jesus died, that massive curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom by the hand of God. The Holy of Holies was no longer just available once a year for the High Priest to enter in to.

Zeal literally consumed Jesus. His passion, the one thing that he lived for, is what took his life. He lived to make a way for people to be allowed to know God, and to love God and to be forgiven by God.

What was the sign that Jesus had promised?

John 2:19 HCSB

19 Jesus answered, “Destroy this sanctuary, and I will raise it up in three days.”

Alive

Death could not hold Jesus. He was resurrected to life on the 3rd day. He is alive today. And so when we sing our songs to him, he can recieve that worship, because he is alive.

ANd his Zeal, is also very much still at play. He longs to see people made right with God. He deeply desires that you would know

what it is like to be able to worship God,

to pray to GOd and know that he hears you.

to confess your sins to God, and see that you are forgiven

And because of the Zeal of Jesus, we can have God the Holy Spirit make his home in our lives. Yes, when you put your trust in Jesus, God himself places his spirit within you. You become a temple, a sanctuary, for God.

Purity becaues of Jesus

In his Zeal, Jesus drove out the impurity from the temple. That Zeal should be alive and well in your life. Become zealous for purity. Be passionate about holiness and righteousness.

We can get lazy about these things, we can let little sins go and become big sins, and soon find ourselves looking a lot like that temple that day. We’ve lost our purpose. But Jesus is Zealous for you. He is zealous for your purity.

The religous leaders asked the wrong questions. They said, “By whose authority are you doing these things.”

Don’t question God’s authority inyour life. Don’t fall for the lie that you get the final say. Instead, submit to God’s rule in your life. He’s in charge of you wether you recognize his power or not.

And so don’t push back against his work. If God is convicting you tonight, let him make you pure. Confess your sins to God, and be forgiven.

Consumed by Zeal

Jesus was consumed with a passion to live his life for the Glory of God.

If you were to write down the things that you are consumed by, I wonder what they would reveal about you.

What do you think about when you are trying to fall asleep at night.

What do you spend your time praying for?

DO you spend time praying at all?

What consumes You?

If you want to have a passion for God I have three bits of advice for you.

Pray to God for this passion.

It comes from Jesus, not from you. SO ask him to give you his passion.

Get some friends that you can start holy habits with.

Challenge each other to pray daily, to read your Bible daily, to chase righteousness and to follow what Jesus taught.

Get to know Jesus.

He’s the only one worthy of your zeal.

He laid his life on the line for you, will you give him your life?

He gave his all, how much of yourself will you give to him.

Don’t hold anything back, Give him your very best.