The House of His Delight
Session 3: Zeal for His House
I. God’s Zeal for the House of Prayer:
In the last two sessions of this series we’ve been looking at truths related to how God defines the house of prayer. The theme of this message however is that we as a house of prayer would understand the zeal that the Lord carries for this house. As we stare at His zeal in this session hopefully we will be impacted by His intense emotions for His house and see that as a modern day house of prayer we should contend to have that same zeal and ought to be people who fight for His house in our day.
A. Not Enough to Have the Title:
God isn’t after ministries with the title “house of prayer;” He wants houses defined by prayer in reality. This is perhaps the simplest truth we have looked at; the house of prayer is to be a house primarily identified by prayer far above every other pursuit. The foremost reality of His House is that it would be a place of continual prayer and that it’s activities would be ones that are supportive and strengthening of the mandate to pray. God has great zeal to make sure that there are places in the Earth that make prayer the absolute center of all they do and that those places remain committed to actually pray.
B. Why Jesus Cleared the Temple:
During Jesus’ life He violently cleared out all the non-prayer stuff out of His Father’s house. In this wild act He was declaring that this building was not His house of prayer just because it had a title. He expressed His Father’s heart that the house of prayer be set apart for His purposes; that it actually and fully be a place of prayer, dedicated to that agenda and committed to stay that way. He prophesied that a time was coming when His Father’s house would become that set apart reality; that God’s house would be a house of prayer for real.
“Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’” The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them (Mt. 21:12-14).”
C. How God Defines His House:
What we are witnessing here is how God wants His house defined. Jesus’ clearing of the temple wasn’t mostly in protest to the need for a market related to the temple services. His actions were a response to the religious leaders of the day who had allowed the activity of His Father’s house to become something other than a place of prayer mostly. He was setting the record straight about what the house of the Lord was supposed to be defined by.
D. Point Repeatedly Stressed in the Word:
Prayer is the purpose of the house; it’s the point and focus. While other things will occur there in a limited way God identifies His house as a house of prayer. This specific aspect of His house is repeated again and again in His Word, emphasized in Isaiah, Matthew, Mark and Luke.
“Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” The Sovereign Lord declares— he who gathers the exiles of Israel: “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered (Is. 56:7-8)”
“It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer (Mt. 21:13)”’
“He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations (Mk. 11:17 NASB)?’”
“It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers (Lk. 19:46).’”
II. Zeal to have His House be a House of Prayer:
As we can see above, the Lord defines His house as a house of prayer. He has great zeal on this point; He wants the house of prayer established and sustained as a place of prayer to Him. There are many biblical testimonies from history where this reality was lacking or was being challenged and God’s zeal for His house was aroused. This zeal was expressed through various messengers who loved the Lord’s house and who felt God’s emotions about what was lacking. They rose up in their day to demand that God’s house of prayer be given the priority it deserved from the people. I want for us to focus on this zeal and understand what this means; God has holy, violent zeal for His house and throughout history He commissions people to carry that same zeal to see His house established as a house of prayer and then maintained as one. This is the Lord’s way.
A. Christ’s Zeal for His House:
Jesus felt this zeal. The same scene described above in the synoptic gospels is also told in the Book of John with some unique perspective included as a first hand witness. John records additional insights about what was going on in this violent episode; he said that it was zeal for the house of God that drove Jesus to this outburst.
“Jesus went up to Jerusalem…he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and…exchanging money. So he made a whip…and drove all from the temple…and overturned their tables…he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me (Jn. 2:13-17).”
B. David’s Zeal for the House of Prayer:
The passage that the disciples were remembering was a quote from David specifically about the afflictions that David underwent because of his obsession with the house of prayer in his day. David’s zeal for God’s house was intense, he felt deep responsibility to build and ensure the existence of the house of prayer in his day. His zeal for the house of prayer was intrusive; every area of life was affected, and he endured great scorn from his family and his subjects as a result of His love for God’s house.
“I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face. I am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother’s children; for zeal for your house consumes me…I…endure scorn…people make sport of me. Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards (Ps. 69:7-12).”
C. Cyrus Calls for the Exiles to Build the House of Prayer:
In the midst of wicked Babylon, God’s zeal shows up again and He commissions the king of Persia; Cyrus, to pay for His house to be built. Ezra organizes the exiles living in Babylon to go back to Jerusalem to build God’s. His zeal for His house manifested in a lost king to pay for it, a priest to lead it, and then about 50,000 people to walk about 1000 miles through the dessert to get back to Jerusalem to build it.
“In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia…the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation…This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: “‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord (Er. 1:1-3)”
D. Haggai Proclaims God’s Zeal for His House of Prayer:
After the exiles return and begin building God’s house they get discouraged and stop building. God’s zeal begins to rest on the Prophet Haggai and he confronts the people and tells them to get their priorities right and do whatever it takes to build God’s house.
“This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’” Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?...Give careful thought to your ways...Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored (Hg. 1:2-8).”
E. Nehemiah’s Zeal for God’s House:
During the period of the returning exiles Nehemiah came into Jerusalem and learned that the house of prayer was being neglected, misused and that prayer had actually stopped. Filled with God’s zeal for the house of prayer he furiously put things back in order and got the night and day prayer and worship reality going again.
“I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room…then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God…I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields. So I rebuked the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God neglected?” Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts (Ne. 13:7-11).”
III. Defining Characteristic of the New Testament Church
At no point has God been content that there would be merely a historical example of the house of prayer or even that there be a real time building with that name; He wants the reality of it. The way that God saw to this and administrated the house of prayer in the Old Testament was through the priestly ministry. God’s zeal still burns for His house of prayer; this is why He carried over the priestly ministry into the genetics of the New Testament Church.
A. God Intends for the Priestly Ministry to Continue:
Jeremiah gets a profound word about God’s future plans for the priesthood; not only does God proclaim that the priesthood will continue He says that He is going to do something that will greatly expand the priesthood so that it would be imposable to count the number of priests who minister before Him.
“This is what the Lord says: ‘If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed time, then my covenant…with the Levites who are priests ministering before me—can be broken…I will make…the Levites who minister before me as countless as the stars in the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore (Je. 33:20-22).’”
B. God is Calling Gentiles into this Priestly Ministry:
That expansion of the priesthood has everything to do with Gentiles being brought into the Kingdom of God. Long ago God said that He was going to bring Gentiles into His house of prayer from all the nations in order for them to come serve in His house of prayer. He is committed to having His house full of priests that will minister to Him.
“I…am about to come and gather all nations and tongues…I will set a sign among them (lost gentile nations), and I will send some of those who survive to the nations…to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations. And they will bring all your people (Israel), from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord...They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings…And I will select some of them (gentile believers) also to be priests and Levites,” says the Lord (Is. 66:18-21).”
C. God Defined His House as a Priesthood:
When Jesus reiterated the words that God had said regarding His house being a house of prayer Jesus is speaking into the life and calling of the New Testament Church; He is essentially saying that the Church is going to be some version of a priesthood because that’s what went on at the house of prayer; priests ministering to the Lord through prayer and worship.
“It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer (Lk. 19:46)’”
D. God Destined the Redeemed to be Priests:
God redeemed man and brought us into relationship with Him. He defines that relationship in many glorious ways but one primary characteristic that we don’t have much revelation about yet is that He calls us to be priests forever; this is what we’ve been saved into and what we have been made to be.
“with your blood you purchased for God men from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be…priests to serve our God (Re. 5:9-10)”
“To him who loves us…and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father (Re. 1:5-6)"
“Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him (Re. 20:6)”
E. The New Testament Priesthood:
With a proper foundation of the fact that we’ve been called to be priests before God now we can make better sense of passages like the one below that identify New Testament priestly responsibilities.
“you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light (1Pe. 2:5-9).”
F. Carrying God’s Zeal for His House in Modern Times:
As members of the Church of Jesus we are called carry out the functions of the priesthood under New Testament regulations; that is that we are to offer up spiritual sacrifices and declare His praises. While we may not have previously given this much thought, the New Testament priesthood is currently in effect and this requires that there would be those who would see themselves as priests and take this calling seriously carrying God’s zeal for His house in modern times.