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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Your Heart, God's Home |
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Matthew
21:1-13 First
Sunday in Advent November
28, 2010 Today
is the first day of Advent. That means it is also the beginning of a new,
year-long cycle of worship and prayer.
Would you like to grow in Grace and in the knowledge of Christ?
Would you like to know more about the Scriptures?
Would you like to have more and stronger faith? Then
I invite you to intentional and faithful participation in the cycle of
worship and prayer this year. I
will make a promise to you. If
you will faithfully read the daily Scripture Lessons, and if you will
faithfully pray Morning and Evening Prayer each day, and if you will make
a serious and real attempt to attend Church every Sunday, you will grow in
Christ, you will know the Bible better, and you will be far closer to God
than you have ever, ever been. I invite and encourage every person here to
commit yourself to the cycle of prayer and worship this year. Advent
means "coming" and refers to the coming of the Messiah, Jesus
Christ. Since the Messiah has
already come, one emphasis of Advent looks back in time to the animal shed
in Bethlehem where a young Virgin gave birth to a son and called His name
Jesus. In that baby, God took
human form and nature, and dwelt among us.
That was the First Coming of our Lord. At His First Advent Christ
came in weakness and humility. He
was despised and rejected. He
was mocked and tortured to death. He
rose from the dead and went back into Heaven where He is at this very
moment. But His coming in
weakness was not defeat. It was for us that He lived and died. And His life, and His death, and His resurrection, and
ascension were the means by which He taught us about God, and paid the
price for our sins. The
second emphasis of Advent is the Return of Christ. He's coming back.
This time He will not come in weakness.
He will come in glory and power. His Second Advent will be the
triumphant return of the King. He will shake up this planet the way He shook up the Temple in
our reading for today. We can
look at the cleansing of the Temple as a picture of the return of Christ.
He will cast out the money changers and thieves, and He will
restore God's order to creation. It will be a time of fear and sorrow for
those who are outside of Christ on that day. He
will also cleanse His Church. False
teachers and false believers will be chased out. False doctrine will be expelled.
The half-hearted Christians, the double-minded, the spiritual
money-changers and thieves will be cast out.
As they chose to live without God in this life, they will be
allowed to live without Him in the next.
But it will not be a party for them.
They will dwell in unimaginable sorrow forever. Those who are pure
in heart by grace through faith will be welcomed into the presence of God.
They will inherit the New Heavens and the New Earth.
They will dwell in that place where all is perfect peace and
righteousness in the immediate presence of God Himself.
All of this will be accomplished at the Second Coming of Christ,
and Advent looks ahead to the Second Coming as much as it looks back to
the First Coming. But
there is yet another Coming of Christ, which is also an important emphasis
of Advent. This is a Personal Coming of Christ. It is Christ coming into
your life in a way that is just as real, just wonderful, and just as
terrifying as the way He entered into the Temple of God a little more than
2,000 years ago. You, your
"heart," your soul, your life, your entire being, are like the
Temple in Jerusalem. You
were created to be the home of God and a house of prayer.
The Bible has many beautiful things to say about the Temple.
It is holy, (Ps 79:1), the house of God's glory (Is. 60:70, a house
of prayer (Is. 56:7), a house of sanctuary (2 Chron. 36:17), beautiful
(Is. 64:11), and, the palace of God (1 Chron. 29:1). Of all the
descriptive words about the Temple, one of my favourites is found in 1
Chronicles 29:2 where David calls it "the house of my God."
Translating his words from Hebrew into English, we could just as
accurately capture his meaning by saying, "the home of my God."
The Temple is the place where God lives.
Of course it is true that God cannot be contained in a structure
made by people. Heaven is His
throne and earth is His footstool. The
Temple is only the home of God symbolically.
But the truth behind that symbolism is very real, and a large part
of the symbolism is that the Old Testament Temple represents the New
Testament Christian. In other
words, you are a holy place, the house of God's glory, a house of prayer,
a house of sanctuary, beautiful, the palace of God, and the home of God.
This is what Christ came to create in you. But
what kind of a Temple are you? Have
you have lived up to your mission and calling, or have you fallen from
your intended purpose? Instead
of a house of prayer, have you become a house of merchandise and a den of
thieves? 2 Peter 2:8 tells us Abraham's nephew, Lot, was vexed at the
wanton sinfulness of the ungodly. Lot
was no "saint" himself. He
was worldly and greedy, and he chose to separate himself from the covenant
people of God. If he was
vexed at the ungodly, how much more is the righteous and holy God vexed
with us? If Lot found living among the heathen vexing, how much more
is God vexed at the idea of dwelling in a den of thieves?
If God is going to dwell in us He is first going to have to cleanse
us. He is going to have to
reform us. He is going to have to cast out the thieves, the liars, and
double-minded. He is going to have to replace them with real faith, real
prayer, and real righteousness. He
is going to have to restore you to a house of prayer again. Christ
came the first time to accomplish the great work of your cleansing.
He came to take upon Himself the burden of your sin, and to die for
it in your place upon the cross. He
cast the thieves and money-changers out of your Temple.
He took them into Himself, and they died with Him on the cross. And
through the Holy Spirit He continues to renovate and restore you, so that
you are now, and are continually becoming more of the Home of God and the
house of prayer. Open
the doors of your soul unto Him. Yield
your very essence up to His cleansing and restorative work.
Hold nothing back. Give Him complete freedom in your life. Give Him complete authority to drive out the thieves, tear
out rotten wood, and remake you as He sees fit.
When you have given yourself to God in this way, Jesus has come
into you.
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