The Importance of Righteous Zeal (Acts 9; Philippians 3:4-6)

One of the things we talked about last Sunday[1] was Saul’s misplaced zeal. He genuinely believed he was carrying out God’s will by killing the first followers of The Way. He felt like the defender of the faith, the one with the most "biblical" backbone. He makes that clear in Philippians 3:5-6.

“…circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.”

He was the one doing something about idolatry and what he perceived as a betrayal of the faith. He was tragically wrong.

When God stopped Saul on the road to Damascus, God didn’t correct Saul because he hadn’t memorized enough of the Torah, or because he lacked conviction and courage. He corrected Saul because Saul misunderstood what kind of Messiah Jesus is—and therefore what kind of kingdom Jesus brings. Part of his conversion was coming to grips with how badly he had misunderstood God and God’s plan in spite of having all the information he needed.

Then we talked about a few times historically when Christians sincerely believed they were doing God’s will but were, in fact, working against the heart of Christ: The Inquisition; the Crusades; the church’s long defense of slavery in the Southern states, etc.

In nearly every one of these moments, the church was not trying to rebel against God. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they were convinced they were on the side of righteousness. Like Saul, they were not.  

I started thinking about times in my life where I saw a zeal for righteousness lose its way. I grew up in a denomination where churches split over what kind of covering women should wear, what Bible translation to use, and whether or not Christians would have to go through the tribulation. Yes, they were zealous for honoring Scripture (as they understood it), but surely the division it caused (and the message it sent to people hurt by these positions and arguments) was not what Jesus had in mind for his children.

I couldn’t shake the sense that we aren’t done with this topic. If sincere, Bible-believing Christians have been this wrong before, where might we need Jesus to lovingly interrupt us today?”[2]

To be clear, I love that this church is full of people zealous to follow Jesus. I’ve been here almost 30 years, and I have known some of you that long, and I know your zeal. It’s a beautiful thing. But if you have been here long enough, you’ve been through a whole lot of differences of opinion about how to live in the Kingdom, from worship styles in our Sunday Service, to responding to Covid, to our discussion about immigration and ICE last Sunday in Message+, and to a multitude of other things. We are a people zealous to follow Jesus, and we at times have remarkably different conclusions about what faithful discipleship looks like.

Sometimes, it’s disagreements over matters of personal conviction, aka, “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”[3]  That’s fine; no Damascus Road intervention needed. But sometimes personal convictions were taught or defended as normative for all, and that needs a Damascus Road intervention to teach us something about humility and grace.

Other times, someone was right and someone was wrong about what Jesus is calling us to think and do. That can still happen. In those moments, we need Jesus to confront us on the road we are on.

So. I started a list of things sincere, zealous Christians disagree about, then went online to find what others were saying - and they had things to say. I have pared 15 pages of notes down to 9. As we go through just a portion of them, I want to challenge us to ask,

“Is it possible that I hold a position that reflects a misunderstanding about what it actually looks like for God’s Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven?“

Keep in mind that the issue will not be, ‘Does that person even care about God’s kingdom?’  Zeal for following Jesus will be assumed. The question for each of us to ask is,

“Does my zeal cause me to look more or less like Jesus, and my community to look more like His kingdom?”

I tried to end up with a list that will challenge all of us at some point - and maybe multiple points – to do one of two things:

1. Challenge us to give grace because we’ve made our opinion a law when it ought to be an issue of conscience, or

2. Challenge us to humility because we might be wrong.

Honestly, I kicked against the goads on this one. There are a lot of ways this could go wrong.  This list will be imperfect and incomplete. Don’t get hung up on things that don’t apply to you. But if the Holy Spirit starts to nudge you about one of these or something that didn’t make the list, I encourage you to be humble and responsive.

We start with the things closest to home. We have a deep, God-given desire to protect what is precious: our children, our bodies, and our health. This zeal is rooted in stewardship. That’s a great start. Does our zeal contain grace, and does it cause us to look more and more like Jesus?

Discipline

The zeal: We parents want to obey Scripture, raise godly children, and take discipline (correction) seriously, as we should.

The distortion: Authority can be emphasized without comfort and relationship, and behavior modification can replace spiritual formation. Some parents may fear using any firm correction because they associate discipline with past trauma or authoritarianism.

The Damascus Road Question. Does our discipline aim merely to control behavior, or to build authentic disciples? Does our zeal contain grace, and does it cause us to look more and more like Jesus?

Vaccines

The zeal: Protecting bodies and communities by getting vaccines and/or protecting autonomy and freedom by rejecting them

The danger: distrust of medical advice becoming unhealthy cynicism OR trust of medical advice becoming unquestioning loyalty.

Damascus Road question: If Jesus were physically present among believers who disagreed on this issue, would our words and posture look more like a conversation at a table of fellowship or more like tribal warfare? Does our zeal contain grace, and does it cause us to look more and more like Jesus?

Psychology vs. Faith for Emotional and Mental Healing

The zeal: Relying exclusively on spiritual maturity/supernatural healing OR relying exclusively on therapy and medicine.

The danger: Spiritualizing pain away or psychologizing sin away. One side fears that psychology denies sin (ignoring the soul's depravity).The other side fears that the church denies trauma (ignoring the body/mind's complexity).

Damascus Road question: Does our approach help people boldly bring their wounds to Jesus and others for healing, or would it cause them to hide and isolate out of shame for what we might say? Does our zeal contain grace, and does it cause us to look more and more like Jesus?

* * * * *

Beyond our homes, we have a zeal for our 'teams'—our nation, our politics, our people. But Saul's story warns us that when we commit ourselves to any identity flag other than Jesus (in Saul’s case, Jewish Pharisaism defended with Zealot means), we risk confusing the Empire’s culture with the way of the Kingdom.

Political Allegiance/Idolatry

The zeal: Wanting good leaders, biblically moral laws, and cultural stability.

The danger: Excusing sin in parties and people to gain cultural power; the temptation to baptize political strategies as “God’s plan”; defending the words and lives of leaders more fiercely than the teachings and the life model of Jesus.[4]

Damascus Road question: If Jesus refused to take the throne of the Empire to save the world, why do need the throne of the Empire to join in his mission? Does our zeal distract us from or cause us to bemore and more focused on Jesus?

Confusing the American Dream with the Kingdom of Heaven

The zeal: Gratitude for freedom, prosperity, and opportunity (which tracks with a just society).

The distortion: Material success, national identity, and personal advancement becoming signs of God’s Kingdom arriving.

Damascus Road question: Does our vision of a “blessed life” look more like Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount—or more like our culture’s promise of comfort, security, and upward mobility?[5] Does our zeal create a life in which we look more and more like Jesus?

Military Action to Stop Christian Persecution (e.g., Nigeria)

The zeal: Protecting persecuted believers, as we would like to be protected.

The danger: On the one side, are we failing to take the action we can to protect God’s persecuted children; on the other, are we trusting violence to do what resurrection love alone can do, and assuming Christ’s kingdom advances the same way empires do?

Damascus Road question: How would Jesus counsel us to protect his persecuted followers?[6] Does our zeal choose a path that looks like the path of Jesus?

Church as Prophetic Voice

The zeal: For the church to offer prophetic critiques of culture and pastoral care within existing cultural structures.

The danger: Becoming ideologically or politically captive to movements that give us platforms, prestige and power, then failing to speak gospel truth to power lest we lose our comfort and privilege.[7]

Damascus Road question: Are we consistently speaking Jesus’ Kingdom truth to the Empire’s power? Does our zealous message cause us to sound more and more like Jesus?

* * * * *

Many of us feel the fire of our zeal most when we see the brokenness of the world. We want to be the hands and feet of Jesus. This is a good impulse. Once again, does our zeal cause us to look more and more like Jesus? I offer one trend often associated with the Left, and one with the Right. In both cases, that challenge is how to respond when we start expecting the State to do the Church's work.

The Social Gospel

The zeal: A sincere concern for justice, the poor, the marginalized, and the oppressed.

The distortion: The fruit of the gospel being treated as the root of the gospel.[8]

Damascus Road Question: Are we proclaiming the same good news Jesus announced—repentance, reconciliation, and restoration—or only the practical outcomes of an embodied Kingdom? Does our zeal contain actions and words that point more and more clearly toward Jesus?

Christian Nationalism

The zeal: A desire to honor God publicly, preserve moral order, protect religious freedom, and see the nation flourish under righteousness.

The distortion: Confusing the Kingdom of God with national identity; prioritizing cultural dominance over cruciform witness.[9]

Damascus Road Question: Are we proclaiming allegiance to a cruciform King who will bring about Kingdom ends by Kingdom means, or are we looking to the Empire to bring about Kingdom ends by Empire means? Does our zeal refuse to step out of the ends and means of the kingdom, and does it cause us to look more and more like Jesus?

* * * * *

Finally, there is our zeal for the 'House of God.' We want to be orthodox. We want to protect the truth. But if our defense of the truth isn't characterized by the fruit of the Spirit, we may find ourselves like Saul: protecting the letter of the Law while dishonoring the heart of the Law – love - by trampling on God’s children. Does our zeal cause us to look more and more like Jesus?

Deconstruction vs…..Not Deconstruction

[Note: it seems like everyone describes deconstruction differently. Here’s what I mean: someone looks at their faith and sees something built shoddily on an unstable foundation because of bad teaching, hypocritical experiences, etc. They decide to tear it down. Some don’t start over and instead walk away. Others start rebuilding their faith, seeking a more stable foundation and more quality building material. This is about the Rebuilders.]

The zeal: On one side: protecting traditional orthodoxy, resisting relativism or cultural syncretism;. On the other: a zeal for authenticity, perhaps also a claim to protecting original orthodoxy; refusing to pretend everything is okay where there is doubt, hurt and confusion.

The danger: The danger for the defender is a defense of traditional orthodoxy without love or humility that might lead them to agree maybe not everything was what it should have been; the danger for the deconstructor who wants to rebuild is revisiting their faith without a humble curiosity that may lead them to reuse some of the material initially torn away..

Damascus Road question: Does our zeal contain both truth and grace that keep us humble and curious (as we always have more to learn), and does it cause us to look more and more like Jesus?

Christian Celebrity Culture

The zeal: Wanting strong leadership, gifted teaching, and effective ministry.

The danger: Confusing gifting with godliness, or excusing abuse because “God is using them.”[10]

Damascus Road question(s): Would Jesus recognize our definition of leadership as resembling His—washing feet, telling the truth, and laying down power—or something else entirely?[11] Does our zeal contain integrity, and does it cause us to look more and more like Jesus?

End-Times Fascination

The zeal: Taking Scripture seriously and longing for Christ’s return.

The danger: A fear-driven faith (when Revelation was meant to be hopeful!); moving from watchfulness to withdrawal and neglecting love, justice, and neighborliness now because it’s all gonna’ burn.

Damascus Road question: Does my focus on the future make me scared of the world, or does it make me care for my neighbor? Does our zeal for Christ’s return fuel loving outreach, and does it cause us to look more and more like Jesus?

* * * * *

In almost every case, the problem is not necessarily what followers of Jesus care about—it’s what we stop caring about. Maybe we stopped caring about people on the other side of an argument, and broke the bruised Isaiah said God would not break.[12] Maybe we are so zealous for a country to look like the Kingdom that we forgot the model of Jesus: sacrifice, love, invitation, example.

The most dangerous thing about being zealous for something is that it often feels indistinguishable from righteousness. Like Saul, we are sincere. Like Saul, we are certain. Like Saul, surely we are wrong in at least some ways in at least some places. And like Saul, we still need Jesus to stop us on the road when we misunderstand what kind of Messiah Jesus is – and, therefore, what kind of kingdom Jesus brings.

If Jesus is interrupting us today, I don’t believe His first words would be condemnation. As with Saul, I believe the first thing He would say would be our names, spoken tenderly, calling us to truth and healing by pointing us back to the nature, life and ministry of Jesus.

_____________________________________________________________________

[1] Acts 10

[2] Pete asked this question in Message +. Good work, Pete!

[3] James 4:17

[4] Zealous to defend our political side as the one that can bring the most good to the nation (good!), but not zealous to confront sin when it wears our team’s colors (not good).

[5] Zealous to enjoy God’s blessings and steward opportunity (good!), but not zealous to embrace the way of the cross when it costs comfort, status, or security (not good).

[6] Zealous to protect persecuted Christians (good!), but not zealous to ask whether the cross, rather than the sword, truly reveals the path of Jesus (not good).

[7] Zealous to be relevant or to be faithful (both good!), but not zealous to remain free from captivity to any power that competes with Jesus’ Kingdom (not good).

[8] Zealous to pursue justice, mercy, and good works (good!), but not zealous to proclaim reconciliation with God as the source of that work (not good).

[9] Zealous to preserve Christian influence and moral order (good!), but not zealous to follow Jesus when His way conflicts with national pride, political power, or cultural dominance (not good).

[10] Zealous to support gifted leaders and effective ministry (good!), but not zealous to insist on Christlike character, humility, and accountability as non-negotiable (not good).

[11] Would I defend or overlook this leader’s message, character and actions if they had no platform but were, instead, my next door neighbor, or led in my church?

[12] Isaiah 42:3; Matthew 12:20

Harmony #6: Zeal For The House Of God (John 2:13-22)

Now the Jewish feast of Passover was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple courts those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting at tables.[1] So he made a whip of cords (rushes) and drove them all out of the temple courts, with the sheep and the oxen. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.[2] To those who sold the doves he said, “Take these things away from here! Do not make my Father’s house a marketplace!”[3] 

A couple things to note:

• Selling these animals was actually a service to distant travelers who could not bring their sacrifices with them. All the merchants could recover their money and animals. Jesus didn’t take away their livelihood.

• However… the priests rented space rather than gave it, which drove up costs; the priests and Levites often resold animals offered as sacrifices back to the sellers, who sold them again; and the money changers often took a premium.[4]

• Finally, This market was in the temple courtyard, specifically, the areas set aside for Gentiles to worship. Gentiles couldn’t worship at the temple at the very place God has set aside for them to be welcome. This marketplace had become a place of greed and fraud, and it’s presence in the outer courtyard hindered worship.  

His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will devour me.”[5]

We should note that the goal of Jesus’ zeal was to purify, not ruin. Jesus removed the problem from the temple, but he didn’t ruin the people. He rebukes them, but he doesn’t destroy them. Why not? Because the goal wasn't to humiliate them or ban them from using the temple as God intended. It was “zeal for the house of God’ that consumed him, not “zeal for calling down judgment” on the defilers of the temple. The goal was to clean the temple. In fact, Jesus is going to tell Nicodemus right after this that “God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but to save it.” 

So then the Jewish leaders responded, “What sign can you show us, since you are doing these things?” Jesus replied, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.” 

The response of the Jewish leaders – the Pharisees – is interesting. They are more curious than anything. There is no record Jesus got in trouble for this, and it is not brought up at Jesus’ trial. It appears to track with what the people thought a prophet would do: protect the temple. Prophets had the authority to speak and act prophetically to cleanse the temple. They just asked for his credentials (a sign).

Then the Jewish leaders said to him, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and are you going to raise it up in three days?” But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. So after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the saying that Jesus had spoken. 

Jesus’ claim about being the temple shifted the focus of God’s presence on Earth away from a geographical place like the temple to the person of Jesus.[6] Also note: after the first miracle, they believed in Jesus. After the cleansing of the temple, the believed the Scriptures. I suspect that language is not accidental. We worship Jesus (not the Bible), but we trust the person of Jesus and revelation of God through Scripture that points toward or tells us about Jesus. That trust is foundational to our flourishing as followers of Jesus.

* * * * *

Jesus apparently cleansed the temple twice: the first Passover of his ministry (recorded only in John) and last Passover of his ministry. He bookended his life of ministry by focusing on His house and His people.  He never cleansed a Roman or Greek temple, though God knows they needed it. He didn’t cleanse a Samaritan temple, which was even worse to the Jewish people because their temples had incorporated pagan worship. The only temple he cleansed was the one where Yahweh was worshipped. The zeal of the Lord that consumed Jesus had to do with a zeal for the temple, God’s dwelling place.

God’s concern for the purity has always started with His people. Biblical prophets consistently spoke of God’s judgment on injustice beginning with God’s household. I’m going to walk us through some examples starting in the Old Testament and ending much closer to our time.

• Here is Amos, in a classic example of God addressing the need for purification among His own people. This is pretty typical prophetic language on this issue: Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light, as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him.  Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it? “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.  Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:18-24)

• Ezekiel had a vision about how God felt about the corruption in the Israelite community. For you have not walked in my statutes, nor obeyed my rules, but have acted according to the rules of the nations that are around you… Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it…”  The heavenly bearers of judgment on the unmarked were to “begin in my sanctuary” (Ezekiel 9:4-6; 11:12)

• When Jeremiah wrote about God’s coming judgment on the violent corruptions of the nations (not just Israel), we read this:“Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it….So I took the cup from the Lord's hand, and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it: Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials…” (Jeremiah 25:15-18)

• Peter, writing several decades later, is one of several New Testament authors talks about it again. “Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner… It’s judgment time for God’s own family. We’re first in line. If it starts with us, think what it’s going to be like for those who refuse God’s Message!” (1 Peter 4:12-13; 17-18, The Message)

• Augustine, in the 400s: “He then is eaten up with zeal for God’s house who desires to correct all that he sees wrong there. Let the zeal for God’s house consume every Christian wherever he or she is a member.”

• The Protestant Reformation (1500s) was all about this issue.

• The Great Awakenings (1700s, 1800s, some argue the Jesus Movement in the 1970s) were certainly about evangelism, but an awful lot of it was revival from within.

• Alexander Maclaren, (1826 - 1910) a minister in England for 65 years who was twice president of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and president of the Baptist World Congress in London in 1905, wrote a commentary I read a lot when I do sermon prep. Here is his commentary for this section:

A church as an outward institution is exposed to all the dangers to which other institutions are exposed. And these creep on insensibly, as this abuse had crept on. So it is not enough that we should be at ease in our consciences in regard to our practices as Christian communities. We become familiar with any abuse, and as we become familiar we lose the power of rightly judging of it.

 Therefore conscience needs to be guided and enlightened quite as much as to be obeyed.How long has it taken the Christian Church to learn the wickedness of slavery? Has the Christian Church yet learned the unchristianity of war? Are there no abuses amongst us, which subsequent generations will see to be so glaring that they will talk about us as we talk about our ancestors, and wonder whether we were Christians at all when we could tolerate such things?

They creep on gradually, and they need continual watchfulness if they are not to assume the mastery. The special type of corruption which we find in this incident is one that besets the Church always…It is all Christian communities, established and non-established churches, Roman Catholic and Protestant. The same danger besets them all. There must be money to work the outward business of the house of God. 

 But what about people that ‘run’ churches as they run mills? What about people whose test of the prosperity of a Christian community is its balance-sheet? What about the people that hang on to religious communities and services for the sake of what they can make out of them? We have heard a great deal lately about what would happen ‘if Christ came to Chicago.’ If Christ came to any community of professing Christians in this land, do you not think He would need to have the scourge in His hand… if Jesus Christ had not thus come, over and over again, to His Church, Christian men would have killed Christianity long ago...

We and our brethren, all through the ages, have been corrupting the Water of Life. And how does it come to be sweet and powerful still? That unique characteristic of Christianity, its power of reformation, is not self-reformation, but it is a coming of the Lord to His temple to ‘purify the sons of Levi, that their offering may be pleasant as in days of yore.’ So one looks upon the spectacle of churches labouring under all manner of corruptions; and one need not lose heart. The shortest day is the day before the year turns; and when the need is sorest the help is nearest...

I believe too, with all my heart-and I hope that you do-that, though the precious wheat is riddled in the sieve, and the chaff falls to the ground, not one grain will go through the meshes. Whatever becomes of churches, the Church of Christ shall never have its strength so sapped by abuses that it must perish, or its lustre so dimmed that the Lord of the Temple must depart from His sanctuary.[7]

God does not abandon His people. He intends the church to be a glorious bride (to use last week’s language), and to be salt and light in this rotting and dark world. So He’s going to do work in His people. And He intends for that salt to be salty, and that light to be bright.

When we (rightly) mourn and condemn the sin all around us, just know: God will deal with His children first so that when they go out into all the world to preach a gospel that transforms heart, soul, mind and strength, they are bringing the solution to the problem in word and deed, not adding to it.

How do we respond?

1. Identify what needs to get out of temple. [8] What most threatens to occupy the space God has set aside for His purposes in the church? What corrupting influences needs to be cleansed? I wrote down 5 things the broader church in America is wrestling with right now based on conversations and insight from those who study these things. Last night, at a wedding reception, Sheila and I sat with a young couple who live downstate who cited at least three of them for why they and many of their friends are struggling with church.  

Setting empire measures of success. Last week we talked about how God loves to use the “are nots” to confound the “are.” God specializes in using the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. The success of the temple of God needs to be measured by the standards of the Kingdom of God. Worldly standards tend to involve two things when it comes to the success of organizations: how big you are, and how much money you have. Nothing wrong with either of those. If a church can be large and cash flush, more power to ‘em. It’s just not a Kingdom standard for success.

• Sometimes churches are big because they are crushing it when it comes to building a compelling community of truth and grace; sometimes they are big because they have light shows and free giveaways and a great coffee bar onsite; sometimes they are just situated in the right place at the right time. All kinds of reasons. Big is not bad, but it’s not automatically good.

• Sometimes churches are small because they have fallen out of the race through sin permeating the church, through bad leadership, or through the compromise of truth; sometimes a town died; sometimes the only people left after revival were those who were serious; sometimes they are situated in a place hostile to the gospel. All kinds of reasons. Small is not bad, but it’s not automatically good.

• Some churches have tons of money, some don’t, and the reasons for that are all over the map: what part of town is the church situated? What kinds of jobs to the congregants have? Are they recession-proof? What happened during COVID? Gas price hikes?

How does God measure success in his church, both globally and locally? That’s what I’m interested in. I would love to hear from you about this in Message+, but here’s a broad summary: Kingdom fruit. People being transformed into the image of Christ in whom the fruit of the Holy Spirit increasingly characterizes personal and corporate life.

Confusing empire power with kingdom influence. All throughout church history, whenever the church has become too deeply embedded within the halls of cultural power, it has compromised the church. It started with Constantine. He legalized Christianity, and under his rule persecution dropped dramatically. Christians began to have access to cultural comfort and wealth. It’s no surprise that they loved this change. Who wouldn’t? But almost right away, they began to passionately argue that things that weren’t okay for the previous 300 years were now okay. It turns out all those things were things that Constantine liked.

Their principle cracked; they began to love the power and comfort that came with cultural access and authority more than the power of God working through a faithful church. This pattern repeats over and over throughout history. The kind of kingdom influence that genuinely transforms cultures come from the ground up, not the top down. Christianity is a servant’s revolution.

In addition, we can take our cues from culture about how we ought to use power instead of looking to Jesus. Over the past few years, the very public reckoning in some areas of church life in America have revealed places where a love of and abuse of power looks like the world and not like how God intended his church to function. When the New Testament talks about those in positions of leadership or authority, it constantly stresses the servant nature of that position. In response to a couple disciples’ request to eventually “sit at his right and left hand” (places of authority), Jesus said,

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:20-28)

Fear of “them.” It usually sounds like this:  “If ‘they’ get their way, this is the end of…” And from that comes a whole movement based on fear often with an almost apocalyptic concern. Like Sam says to Frodo, “This is the end of all things!” But that is the exact opposite of what Scripture tells us God has given us: not a spirit of fear, but of “power, of love, and a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

I have a concern that we look at whatever the latest challenge is to Christian life and teaching and respond as if we are thinking, “Well, looks like this one is bigger than God.”  Isn’t that functionally what we are saying when we panic in the face of cultural challenges? But as long as there has been a church, there have always been empire values that have pressed hard against the gates of the Kingdom. Sin has never stopped crouching at the door. This has always been true. Yet God hasn’t left his throne; He hasn’t abandoned his church; he hasn’t closed His Word or stifled his Holy Spirit. The church goes on. It has always gone on.    

Celebrityism. It is easy to fill the temple courtyard with people on pedestals. This, too, is as old of the church. Paul called out the factions and basically said, “Stop it! We don’t follow people!!”[9] We all have people we admire and trust; that’s not a bad thing. But they didn’t build the temple; they don’t set temple agendas; and they don’t get our worship or loyalty. There is something compelling about the idea that there is someone out there who I know is always speaking the truth, who always sees the world correctly, who whenever they speak or act, we can trust it’s good and true. But…that’s only Jesus. There is never a time we don’t filter people’s words, actions and character through the filter of God’s word.

We also have to be careful not to import celebrities from their cultural pedestal onto a church pedestal. Being a “big deal” in the eyes of the Empire carries no automatic weight in the Kingdom. It’s easy to think, “If we could get HIM or HER, then people will pay attention to the church!” And then it’s easy to think, “I want to be in small group with them, or sit nearby on a Sunday morning so we become friends.” Wanting to be their friend isn’t a bad thing in itself, but is a bad thing if it’s because you think they are cool or that somehow their friendship matters more than others.

 I think what God intends for the church is that we to know people with no concept of their standing in the world. If they have wisdom and righteousness, they have wisdom and righteousness. Hang out with them. That’s Kingdom life. #message+ #smallgroups  #potlucks #lobbytalk #coffee #hikingfishingBBQmoviesmealsetc

Consumerism. We live in a consumerist culture: we buy, we use, we discard. If we don’t like what we buy, we buy something else. Things are expendable. And you have noticed, people become expendable in a consumerist culture. We use and discard if they don’t make us happy. Churches can become expendable: we use and discard if they don’t make us happy. God and His kingdom can become expendable: we use the parts we don’t like and discard the parts we don’t until we created a space where (it turns out) God’s priorities and perspective perfectly align with ours. Huh. Church is a covenant community, and that’s a world apart from consumerism.

2. Pray for godly zeal.

 If we are like Jesus, zeal that our lives and our church become a holy space, “set aside” for God’s purposes, will consume us.

So, for what should we be zealous to remove and put in the courtyard of our church and our lives?  I mentioned some bigger picture issues to take out, and there are certainly more. I want to end by focusing on tangible Kingdom attributes that we are called to put in. And when God calls us, He equips us, so I know when can do this with His help. When we are zealous to see these things, the church flourishes as God’s transforming presence is made manifest in our transformed lives.

• Love – agape loving people well  

• Peace – bringing righteous order to sinful chaos

• Mercy – giving grace (unmerited favor) wherever possible

• Kindness – treating others with goodness

• Faithfulness – being a righteous presence others can count on

• Truth-telling – speaking honestly about…everything.

• Humility – having a modest/honest estimate of ourselves

• Generosity – giving to those in need

• Gentleness – strength under control in the service of others

• Self-control – not ruled by our appetites

• Prayer – regularly communicating with God

• Righteousness – doing that which God would approve

• Service – looking to serve rather than be served

• Nurture – caring for those who are hurting or broken

• Boldness – a fearlessness to do and say what is righteous

Help us, Lord, to play our part in this church becoming increasingly a holy community of love, truth, prayer, worship, repentance, forgiveness, justice and mercy – a place for people of all neighborhoods and nations, a place where the grace of Jesus’ saving atonement is central, a place where God’s name is honored in our words and actions and God’s presence is experienced as transformative, saving, and healing. May zeal for the integrity of your house, guided by your Word and empowered by the Holy Spirit, consume us.[10]

 
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[1] “They transformed what should have been a place for worshipful prayer into a noisy market.” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

[2] “John’s record of the temple cleansing immediately after the miracle at Cana (vv. 1–11 note) offers an important key to the whole of Jesus’ ministry. In these events are signaled replacement of the old order (water of ceremonial cleansing, Herod’s temple) with the new (the wine of salvation, Is. 25:6–9; the risen Lamb as the new temple, Rev. 21:22).”(ESV Reformation Study Bible)  This event is probably distinct from Jesus’ cleansing the temple at the end of his ministry (Matt 21:12–13; Mark 11:15–17; Luke 19:45–46). (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

[3] Malachi 3:1-4 “Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight…he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, till they present right offerings to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.”

[4] Benson Commentary

[5] Psalm 69:9

[6] “No two scenes can be more different than the two recorded in this chapter: the one that took place in the rural seclusion of Cana… the other that was done in the courts of the Temple swarming with excited festival-keepers; the one hallowing the common joys of daily life, the other rebuking the profanation of what assumed to be a great deal more sacred than a wedding festival; the one manifesting the love and sympathy of Jesus, His power to ennoble all human relationships, and His delight in ministering to need and bringing gladness, and the other setting forth the sterner aspect of His character as consumed with holy zeal for the sanctity of God’s name and house… they cover the whole ground of His character, and in some very real sense are a summary of all His work.” MacLaren’s Expositions.

[7] MacLaren’s Exposition

[8] This can be really personal as well as corporate. “Do you not know that you [the church] are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you… For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17) The church is “the household of God” (Eph. 2:19).  Believers are “a spiritual house” (1 Pet. 2:5); “God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Cor. 3:17).

[9] 1 Corinthians 1

[10] Colin Smith, https://openthebible.org/sermon/zeal-for-gods-house/