Let Jesus come In
12. And Jesus went into the temple of god, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
13. And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
14. and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.
Let Jesus Come In
Matt. 21:12-14
Not long ago I preached a sermon entitled, “The danger of not getting better”. It is just a fact, when we have had an encounter with Jesus, there ought to be some changes in our lives. Things that we use to do, we ought not to do those things no more. Places that we use to go, we ought not to go those places no more.
Many of us right here tonight have confessed that we have indeed had a meeting with Jesus. We say that, Jesus lives in our soul. We say, “We know Him, He has pardoned our sins”. We call Him our bright and morning star, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. We says that He is our lily down in a valley.
When we are in trouble, we want Him to come and see about us.
When we are down, we depend on Him to come and pick us up.
When we are burdened, we want Him to come and lift heavy burdens.
When we are lonely, we want Him to be a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
When we are sick, we want Him to be a doctor in a sick room.
When we are broke and no money in our pockets, we want Him to be silver and gold.
When we are hungry, we want Him to be cattle on a thousand hills.
We want Him to do what He promised He would do, but we don’t want to do what it takes to get those promises.
I’m wondering tonight, how many of us have really met Him? I’m not questioning your profession, but I’m saying that maybe you need to question it, because no one can meet Jesus and still be the same.
When you have met Jesus, you can’t love like you use to love.
When you have met Jesus, you can’t live like you use to live.
When you have met Jesus, you can’t look like you use to look.
When you have met Jesus, you can’t lie like you use to lie.
When you have met Jesus, you can’t lust like you use to lust.
Zacheaus the Tax Collector met Him, and Zacheaus said, I will return fourfold to those whom I have taken away from.
The blind man met Him. And somebody ask him how was it that he began to see, he said, I really can’t tell you how it all happened, all I know is that I once was blind, but now I see.
The woman at the well met Him. She went running down town telling everybody to come see a man.
Saul the persecutor met Him. He was on his way to Damacus to bring back bound in chain anyone who called on the name of Jesus. Jesus said to him, Saul, Saul why are you persecuting Me, it’s hard to kick against the pricks.
Saul’s name was changed to Paul, he became one of the greatest writer of the New Testament. You ought to meet Him tonight. I declare when you meet Him, you cannot be the same.
We certainly need Jesus to change some thing in our churches today. Our churches ought to be at peace better. We ought to care about one another better. We ought to have a better brand of fellowship with one another simply because we have had a meeting with Jesus.
I challenge each of you tonight as you go back home, look in the mirror and ask yourself the question, what changes has He made in my life. Somebody has already testified, “I’m not what I ought to be, but thank God, I’m not what I use to be”.
Well, if you know you are not what you ought to be, are you working to get any better? All it really takes is a meeting with Jesus, He said, “Whosoever will, let him come”. I dare you tonight to really let Him com in.
To the drunkard, I dare you to let Him come in.
To the prostitute, I dare you to let Him come in.
To the gay and lesbians, I dare you to let Him come in.
To the gambler, I dare you to let Him come in.
To the backbiter, I dare you to let Him come in.
To the church gossiper, I dare you to let Him come in.
Let’s see what happens when Jesus comes to the temple.
Often we associate the word “temple” with a church building or a place of worship. Tonight I’m not talking about a literal church building, but I’m talking about what happens when He comes into your body.
1 Cor. 6:19 says, “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”. The Bible also says that God dwell in houses not made by hands.
If you are a believer tonight, then Christ is dwelling within you. That means you ought not to bring the same old mess to the church that you did before you became saved. There ought to be a change in you.
If Christ is in you, then you ought to let your light shine no matter where you are. You ought to be the same at Walmart, as you are at the church. When I see you at Dollar General, the light ought to be on. When I see you traveling the highways, the light ought to be on. (Barber and beauty shop).
We just ought to be excited about knowing Jesus. When Jesus comes in there ought to be a special joy that comes in. You just ought to get excited when you hear someone call Him Name. His name is the sweetest name I know. The more I call it, the better I feel.
As we look at the setting of our text tonight, we see the second time where Jesus cleaned the temple. He did it once at the beginning of His ministry in John chapter 2. And again near the end of His ministry found in the Synoptic of the gospel.
This was at the beginning of the last week of His earthly ministry.
Look at how He changed the temple from the account of St. Matthew.
He drove out sin
The first thing He done was to drive out sin. Verse 12. “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves”.
There was a section in the temple called “The Gentile Court”. This court was a place where the Gentiles were permitted to come and watch Israel, and see how they served and worshipped the true and living God. But the religious leaders were there seeking only to make money.
And they would set up camp in the Gentile court. This drove a lot of the Gentiles away. The leaders were taking away animals that people brought as their sacrifice. They were telling these people that these animals were not good enough. Their sacrifice was to be without spot or blemish. Now, it really wasn’t anything wrong with the animal but they were telling the people that it would not be accepted.
And they would say, we’ve got some temple animals over there, one that will be acceptable by the priest, I’m sure you can go over there and buy you one. And they were selling these temple animals for a jacked up price.
Moneychangers were those people who would exchange coins with pagan symbols on them for acceptable coins that could be used in the temple. And they charge a fee for exchanging money. You couldn’t use pagan money in the temple. See, many of these people were a long, long way from home and rather than going back home and getting what they needed, it would be better to just make the exchange.
Believe it or not, but we’ve got folks today who is coming to church and exchanging our worthy worship for the pitiful praise.
Jesus saw this and He took a stick and drove out the moneychangers and those who sold and bought for monetary gain. When Jesus entered your temple did He drive out the sin that has invaded your courts?
I’m wondering tonight, has He driven out lying?
Has He driven out cheating?
Has He driven out hypocrisy?
Has He driven out Malice?
Has He driven out Envy and Strife?
If Jesus has shown up at your temple, it ought to be a change in you. It won’t make any difference who you speak too and associate with, if you got Jesus.
You don’t mind speaking to folks. Even right now in the church, we’ve got certain folks that we will speak too. Ain’t nothing wrong with speaking and being nice to folks. With Jesus, there is no respect of person.
If Jesus has shown up at your temple, you won’t allow your past to affect your future. We won’t allow these little problems and our big pride to hinder our forward progress. You can get along with folks because sin had been driven out and love is drilled in.
I think it was Solomon that said, “Love will hide a multitude of sin”. When Jesus comes in we can love folks that we know don’t love us. We can love them when they do us right, and we can love them when they do us wrong.
He brought in prayer
Not only did He drive out sin, but He brought in prayer. Verse 13, “And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves”.
Momma them use to say that, “Prayer is the key and faith unlocks the door”. I just don’t believe that, as Christian, we are praying like we ought to be praying. Some of this evil that has crept into the church, if we were praying folks, we could have prayed some of this stuff out of the church. The Bible says, the prayers of the righteous availeth much.
Jesus saw this happening in the temple and deems it as sin. He called them a den of thieves. A den was a place where thieves hung out. And because they were stealing people’s money in the temple and trying to cover it up, He called them a den of thieves.
Many of us in today’s world are hiding in the church. What do you mean preacher? Some of those same things that we did while we were in the world, we’ve brought it into the church.
We have come in the church and have confessed a hope in Christ, but instead of allowing Him to cleanse us, we are trying to mix His righteousness with out filth.
Some are hiding in the pulpits.
Some hiding on the Deacon ministry
Some hiding in the choir stand.
Some hiding on the Usher board.
Some hiding in the pew.
Tonight, we ought to be praying and praying sincere with God. yeah, we ought to be praying in the Spirit. Who knows the heart of God greater than the Spirit of God.
We ought to be praying for the right things and for the right reasons. Many of us are hiding behind our prayers. Our prayers ought not to be rehearsed prayers. You ought to be able to talk to God just like we do one another, after all He said that we are to come to the throne of Grace boldly.
I tell you tonight we ought to be praying folks. Some of us are here right now because of the prayers of those who has gone on before us. Their prayers have brought us through danger seen and unseen. We certainly ought to be praying, because we ought to see that our children need our prayers.
He brought in Healing
Not only did Jesus drive out sin, and bring in prayer, but He brought in healing. Verse 14, “And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them”.
I tell them at the church where I preach the most that sickness is not of the kingdom of God. If you will notice in Scripture, every time Jesus had an encounter with sickness, He had to heal it.
If you are sick tonight, and you really want to be healed, get sincere and get close to God, and watch your sickness go away.
Now I’m by no means saying that if you are sick, you are not a Christian. But your good days ought to outweigh your bad days. We are Christian, and because we are Christian we are suppose to be Christ-like. He is our perfect example and He was never sick, we are sick because of sin.
Most of us now-a-days, we can go any where we want to go all week long, we can go to the hair dresser and get our hair all fixed up.
We can go to the rummage sale on Saturday with no problem.
We ain’t got no problem whatsoever going to the mud slide.
But come Sunday morning, we are too sick to come to church.
Many sick folks will get mad if the preacher don’t come and see them. They want the preacher to come see them, but they don’t want to come see the preacher. They brought the blind and the lame and those that had various sicknesses to Him, in the temple, and He healed them.
I need to show you this and I’ll be finished, prayer and healing will not come in, until sin has been driven out.
And we need to allow Him to come in and heal our blinded eyes.
We are blind to the truth
I heard, Jesus say, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
I believe, when we let Jesus come in,
He will heal us of our evil and emptiness,
I believe, when we let Jesus come in,
He will heal us of procrastination and persecution.
I believe, when we let Jesus come in,
He will heal us of our crooked, and cunning ways,
I believe, when we let Jesus come in,
He will heal us of falsehood, and failure,
I came by here tonight to tell you,
To let Him come in.
When you let Him come in all of your worries
And all of your fears will be gone.
You will be able to have joy,
Unspeakable joy.
Every morning, that I rise,
I’m going to let Him come in.
In the noonday hour,
I’m going to let Jesus come in.
Late over in the midnight hour,
When my pillow is all wet with tears,
I’m going to let Jesus come in,
Why should I feel discouraged,
Why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely,
And long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion,
A constant friend is He,
His eye is on the little sparrow,
And I know, He watches me.
Is there anybody here tonight,
Who will be a witness,
Wave your hands,
Stand up on your feet,
If you have let Jesus come in.
He died for you,
Surely, you ought to live for Him.