Zeal for Gods House — Zac Poonen

Jesus as the Pattern of Zeal for God's House

We know that God has given Jesus to us as an example and it must be our desire to see him more clearly in newer and newer aspects of his glory so that we can follow him and be increasingly conformed to his likeness.

The Holy Spirit, as we have said throughout the years, seeks to show us different aspects of the glory of Jesus and his method of transformation is to show us the glory of Jesus in the scriptures and to stir us to be gripped by that which we have seen and then to work in our hearts to transform us into that likeness.

So I thought of one aspect of Jesus' glory that we could just look at in John's Gospel Chapter 2. In John's Gospel Chapter 2, we read that Jesus came in verse 13 to Jerusalem and there he saw merchants selling cattle and sheep and doves for sacrifices and money changers behind their counters.

And Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out. He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And to those who were selling the doves, he said, take these things away.

Stop making my father's house a house of merchandise. His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for thy house will consume me. We have many times looked at Jesus' humility, his purity, his love, compassion, goodness, gentleness, so many things.

I was thinking today about his zeal, his tremendous passion to do the will of God. It was like a burning fire within him that could not be quenched. And that is one purpose of the baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire.

Without that, it's very easy to become sluggish. Or if you once had it and you don't seek to stir it up all the time, it's very easy to become sluggish. And when we become sluggish, it's very easy to be discouraged and to give up hope.

And so it's good for us to allow the Holy Spirit to show us this aspect of the glory of Jesus. That he was gripped by a zeal, a tremendous concern in his heart for the house of God, for the purity of God's house.

He was not bothered what people thought about him because he had a zeal for God's house. The vast majority of Christian preachers today are very concerned about what people think about them. And so they are diplomatic in God's house.

Rejecting Profit and the Marketplace in the Church

People can do business in God's house. It's going on everywhere. You know, exactly it's what it says here, The Father's house has become a house of business and merchandise and profit. You know, the principle of all, when it says here, Don't make my Father's house a house of merchandise or living Bible says, Don't turn my Father's house into a market.

What is the principle of the marketplace? The principle of the marketplace is profit. If it were not for profit, there would never be a market anywhere in the world. Whether it's stock market or a vegetable market or a fruit market or a meat market.

Any market, the fundamental principle is profit, gain. And we could paraphrase Jesus' words into saying, Don't turn the church into a place where you're seeking profit or honor or gain for yourself. You know, that profit can be in terms of money.

It can be in terms of certain other benefits. It can be in terms of honor. It can be in terms of anything. But Jesus is dead against anyone who comes to God's house for personal profit or gain. Or who tries to make some profit or gain for himself out of God's house.

In every denomination in Christianity, I have seen people who come to the church for profit, for gain. And they continue to live there because there is nobody there who's got a zeal for God's house. We have seen through the years how people come to CFC and try to do business here.

Well, that's the surest way to turn this church into Babylon in no time at all. The quickest way to turn a good church into Babylon is to allow people to do business in God's house. Make profit for themselves.

That's the basic principle of Babylon. You read Revelation 17 and 18 together. You find that's the principle of Babylon. It's the principle of marketplace, of profit. So Jesus did not turn the money changers out from the marketplace in Jerusalem.

He turned the money changers out from the marketplace in the temple. He was saying, in the marketplace you can make profit. No problem. But you can't come into God's house and make profit. No. And wherever we see anyone seeking to make profit in the house of God, we have to drive them out.

If the zeal of God's house consumes you, you'll do that. If the zeal of God's house does not consume you, you won't do it. And that's how Babylon is built. So we can say, where there is no zeal for God's house to keep it pure, particularly from the spirit of the marketplace, in no time at all, it will become Babylon.

When Paul left Ephesus, he knew that those other elders would turn it into a marketplace where they would each seek their own gain and honor and profit and gather a little group around themselves. And he said, then it will be Babylon, in no time.

So the only way to protect a church from very quickly turning into a place where people come to get some benefit or some profit for themselves and make God's house, the church, into a place of doing business, is if God can find some people in the church who are gripped by the same zeal that Jesus had.

A zeal that consumed him. You know, like a burning passion. In the world there are so many people who have a tremendous zeal for wrong causes. Think of all these suicide bombers. We know they are totally mistaken.

But they have such a tremendous zeal, such a tremendous zeal to go and die for something false, for a false religion, imagining that they are going to heaven and getting a surprise when they die, discovering where they actually went.

But think of their zeal. And I believe that wherever we see zeal in the world, zeal that the devil puts into people's hearts, whether it is to make money, or to promote a false religion, or to fight for some land or property, or the passion, wherever we see that, that should challenge us.

When we see the zeal of businessmen to make profit, gain, that should challenge us to see whether we have the same zeal for God and for his house. It was a characteristic of Jesus. There was a burning passion within him for the Father's glory in his house.

And when we come to the church, that's how we should come, with a burning zeal for the Father's glory to be seen in the church. That means the spirit of the marketplace should have been driven out of my life completely.

All of us should be able to say at the end of our lives, in all the years I lived in CFC, I made no profit from anybody of any sort. I did not get any gain or any honor or anything. Then you can say that the spirit of Babylon was not found in you at all.

But if a little bit of that spirit is found where we seek some credit for something, or we want some respect from the others for being considered senior or spiritual or some stupid garbage like that, or whatever it is.

I come to the house of God with the spirit of the marketplace to get some honor for myself. That's the spirit of Babylon. And I pray that God will always preserve in the church people who will identify that spirit and crush it and drive it out.

Jesus turned out the money changer and said, get away from here all you fellows who are coming to the temple to buy and sell. Don't make my father's house a marketplace. And the disciples remembered, zeal for thy house will consume me, will burn me up.

Fervent Service and the Rejection of Spiritual Sluggishness

That's how we are to serve the Lord. There is a verse in Romans chapter 12 which says that when we serve the Lord, we must be fervent in our spirit. Revelation 12 verse 11. The Living Bible says, Never be lazy in your work, but serve the Lord enthusiastically.

Never be lazy in your work, but serve the Lord enthusiastically. That means the opposite of zeal is being lazy. God never created man to be lazy. He wanted man to work for six days even before sin came into the world.

He ordained a day of rest and then six days of work. And after sin came, the Lord told Adam, you are going to earn your bread by the sweat of your brow. That means you got to work hard and perspire in order to earn your living.

And there was no place for laziness there. And how much more when we serve the Lord that there is no laziness in anything. Like it says, you are fervent in spirit serving the Lord. If I pray lifelessly as if we are in a funeral.

If I sing lifelessly as if Jesus did not conquer Satan, just did not rise from the dead. If I am sluggish and lazy to study the scriptures, if I am sluggish and lazy to seek God's will, if I am sluggish and lazy to look for opportunities to serve the Lord, to bless people, if I am lazy about these things, then I am sluggish.

And then I can't inherit the promises. It says in Hebrews 6 that the opposite of faith and patience, we were thinking the other Sunday about faith and patience, long suffering. That means we ask God for something and we don't give up till we get it.

And the opposite of that, we read in Hebrews 6 in verse 12, is being lazy, is being sluggish, spiritually indifferent. And it says that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promise.

There is a tendency to sluggishness in our flesh. Just like we are tempted to overeat and indulge in illegitimate sex. And oversleep. We are also tended, we have a tendency to sluggishness in our life.

Particularly when it comes to spiritual things. Even many believers who are very zealous to work late hours and work hard to make money, when it comes to spiritual things they are sluggish. So it's not that they are by nature sluggish, because when it comes to other things, like making money and looking earnestly for good jobs, they are very zealous.

Their sluggishness is limited to spiritual things. And I think that proves they don't really believe that these things written in the scriptures are true. They don't really believe that it's worth going all out for these things that are written in the scriptures.

Which means they don't have faith. That's why we need to look at Jesus and see how zeal for God's house consumed him. There was a burning passion in his life. Throughout his life, I mean, many a time he would get alone with God to find out where am I got to go next, father?

What have I got to do? He was always on the lookout for opportunities. Once he heard the voice of his father saying, go outside Israel. You know, he never went outside Israel. He once said, I haven't come for others.

I've been sent to the lost sheep of Israel. But once he heard the father saying, to go outside Israel to the land of Tyre, north of Israel, which is today in Lebanon. And he had a passion. And he walked 50 miles.

Maybe 18 or 20 hours burning passion to do God's will. And he went there and there was one needy woman whose daughter had a demon. That's the one the father saw from heaven. There's one needy woman there who's got a demon-possessed daughter.

Nobody can help her. She's crying out to some unknown God. But the God in heaven heard her even though she was not a Jew, even though she didn't have the true faith. Probably an idol worshiper. But God cares for even the idol worshippers because they don't know.

They're doing it in ignorance. We may look down on them but God doesn't. Because God sent his son to die for them. So God didn't look down on this woman idol worshipper. Maybe that's how her child got a demon.

God sent his son. And there Jesus was ready to walk all that distance. Drive out that woman's that demon out of the daughter in the land of Syrophoenicia. And then walk back 50 miles, another 20 hours for one soul.

God knew that he could depend on his son to walk 40 hours to help one soul. Just like earthly companies depend on people to work 40 hours to make money for them. God could depend on his son to walk 40 hours to help one soul.

But the reason why Jesus heard that voice and was led to the right places was because he had this burning zeal for the father's name and for the father's house. Nobody could shift him from that zeal. And that's part of his glory that we need to acquire.

The Holy Spirit has come to give us that zeal and concern. I believe it is that same zeal that very often we may think why don't we hear the voice of God? How is it that some people are led to those in need and I am not led to those in need.

I thought of that. You know when we look at the life of Jesus because Jesus had learned from me. How is it that Jesus in an amazing way we don't see any external evidence but I think it was all inward was led to different people who were in need to help them.

We would think it was accidental. It was not accidental. He walked listening to his father and so he ran into people who were in need all the time. Like I said the other day when he and his disciples were walking through Samaria and they were all hungry instead of all of them going together to the hotel to eat lunch as they normally did this particular day he said you go I am not going.

Why did he say that? He was hungry just like the others but he heard a voice don't go so he sent them and sure enough after they had gone this woman came to the well and through that woman not only the woman was saved the whole of Samaria many people turned to the Lord but what I am trying to say is that voice could be heard by Jesus only because he had this burning passion for God's glory for God's house to be built he had burning passion that this one earthly life of his should count for God before his time on earth is over he was gripped by this all the time he would walk down a street and this burning passion burning within him all the time he is something like a business man who is always thinking of money money money money.

I can imagine his mind also thinks of bright ideas now and then to make money but Jesus was thinking like that all the time the glory of the father and the father's house and needy people around him and needy that was the thing just imagine if a man's mind is always occupied like this just like a business man's mind is always occupied with making money or somebody else in an office is always occupied with how to get a promotion.

Jesus' mind is always occupied with a burning passion for God's glory and concern for people and how he can help needy people and how he can set people free from the bondage of Satan. He walks down a road and the Holy Spirit says stop look up into that tree and sure enough there is a man there.

This is how he lived. You know it is such an exciting life that you run into people who are in need who are in the way. And you can look through the Gospels and see so many instances like that where it wasn't an accident we think it was an accident that he came across these needy people.

No the father led him and the father led him because he saw in his heart a tremendous zeal for his house. See this verse in Psalm 132. Psalm 132 Lord do you remember that time I am reading from the Living Bible.

David's Zeal to Build God's House

Lord do you remember that time when my heart was so filled with turmoil. Has your heart ever been filled with turmoil. Do you know what turmoil is. Turmoil is oh like an agitation going on in the heart.

Can you remember some last time when your heart was filled with an agitation usually about some earthly thing. But not here, not for David. Remember that time when my heart, this is David writing was so filled with turmoil.

I could not sleep. I could not rest thinking how I should build a permanent home for the Ark of the Lord a temple for the mighty one of Israel. Then I vowed that I would do it that I wouldn't give any sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids.

I will not enter my house. I will not lie on my bed until I find a place for the Lord. Boy, I am not surprised that God gave the plan of the temple to that man, David. Just like God gave the plan of the tabernacle to Moses.

We read in 1 Chronicles 29 that God gave the plan of the temple to David even though his son Solomon was going to be the cleverest man that ever lived. God could not give the plan the architecture of the temple to the cleverest man who lived.

Isn't that interesting that the cleverest man that ever lived could not get the plan for the temple. But God gave that plan to a man who said I will not give sleep to my eyes or my eyelids till the house of God is built who had a burning zeal for God's house the same spirit that Jesus was going to manifest 1 ,000 years later wherever God sees that spirit, whether it's in a David 1 ,000 years before Christ or in Jesus or in someone 2 ,000 years after Christ like us wherever he sees that zeal God, my whole being burns with a longing that your church should be built that your church should be pure there will be no businessmen in your church.

There will be, church will not be a marketplace and the church will be free from the spirit of Babylon. God will be glorified in the church and then people will be added to the church who should be saved, when that burning passion is in our heart God will sovereignly, just like he let Jesus lead you to a Zacchaeus and to a woman of Samaria who needs to be converted and to different people like that whom he met along the way.

If we find that we have lived many years and we are not meeting such people, you need to ask yourself, why? Why is it in other worldly areas we have success but it's only in building the house of the Lord and by building the house of the Lord I don't mean a building, you know, adding people to God's church, that's building the house of the Lord, so when David says here, I vow that I will not sleep till the house of the Lord is built, it's like a burning passion that people, God fearing people should be added to the church like I've often told our brothers everywhere to pray Lord, if there is a God fearing person who is seeking you, someone's seeking God in this area, will you please lead him to me, or lead me to him, Lord I long that I can be an instrument in your hand to be led to people who are looking for you or to lead people who are looking for you to me, why can't God do that?

Peter was praying, praying praying praying and God led him to Cornelius house say go God is like that, he does that Paul was praying and praying and praying and like that he was led to the Philippian jailer and he'd go to the riverside and he'd meet a Lydia.

His life was like Jesus life because he had a tremendous passion in his life. He wasn't in the church for earning profit, no no no he was in the church to give, not to gain. He didn't want anything for himself, he says in Acts chapter 20 he's talking about the sweat of the brow.

Paul's Labor and the Priority of Building the Church

Paul says to the elders in Ephesus he says in verse 31 see how hard he worked, night and day for a period of 3 years I admonished you there was a man who had meetings every day because he knew he was going to be in Ephesus only for 3 years.

He preached night and day for all those 1100 days or whatever it is there 1200 days that there are in whatever it is in 3 years and all those 1100 days he preached morning and night, 2000 sermons and then what did he do when he went back to his room.

It says verse 34, you know that these hands ministered to my own needs to the men who were with me we worked to pay our own way and thus I showed you verse 35 that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus.

It's more blessed to give than to receive. See Paul worked hard not only to feed himself but so that he could have money to help the poor believers. And he wasn't in Christian work for profit. Oh no that all came much later.

He wasn't going to any church to do business. He worked hard in order to bless people and to be an example to them. He was perspiring in the heat sitting up late at night because he had to also preach.

In addition to all his secular work he had to also preach. And he not only supported himself it says in verse 34 he was also working to supply the needs of his team. And I can imagine they lived extremely simply because they had a burning passion that in the three years in Ephesus a solid church must be built there.

And they succeeded because they had that spirit. And then Paul says but I know that after I go it's going to be different verse 29 and 30 because you fellows don't have that spirit. He tells those elders there you don't have that burning passion that the church is first.

The church must be built. Everything else is second. You know God is always spoken about this even in the Old Testament. You read in the book of Haggai chapter 1 verse 4 verse 3. Haggai chapter 1 verse 3 the word of the Lord came by the Haggai.

The prophet saying the living Bible says is this the right time for you to live in luxurious homes. When the temple lies in ruins. Is it the right time for you to think about your home when the church is in this shape.

If your home was in this shape you'd be concerned. What I mean is supposing you are living in a house where the walls are cracking and the roof is leaking and the floor is sinking and the doors are not closing properly.

Even if one of these things happen we would be concerned. And the Lord says look at the state of my church. Look at the state of my temple. In those days it was a temple. Look at the state of my church that applies to the church.

How much concern do you people have for that. Does it concern you like your own homes would concern you. Consider your ways. And that is why you sow so much but you harvest so little. I think of many many believers who read the bible everyday.

They got a plan to read through the bible in one year. What do they get out of it. Almost nothing. That's what it says here. You sow much but you harvest little. What a lot of reading. How much of harvesting.

How much of anointed words. God speaks to you very little. There is not enough food to eat. The Lord says consider your ways. Go up to the mountain verse 8 and bring wood and rebuild the temple. You look for much verse 9.

And when you bring it home I blow it away. Sometimes God himself allows a financial disaster to happen. He says I blow it away. I blow it away because you haven't got your priorities right. Because my house verse 9 lies desolate and each of you is concerned only about your own house.

That's why your lives are dry. There is no dew. There is a drought on the land verse 11. And on all the labor of your hands you know I believe that God's will is that whatever we do with our hands should prosper.

That's God's will that whatever we do prospers. I believe that Jesus was not a failure as a carpenter in Nazareth. If he worked as a carpenter he did it successfully. He wasn't the richest carpenter in Nazareth because he was an honest person and he helped a lot of poor people.

But I'm sure there was success in his in his labors. I believe that's God's will. God has not called us to be failures. No God did not create Adam to be a failure. The Bible speaks about the man who meditates on God's word and obeys it and stays out of worldly ways as one who will prosper in everything that he does.

In other words if we put God first and zeal for God's house consumes us. That means we seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness first. God will so bless the little that we do to take care of our earthly needs that it will be far more than if other people spend 10 times that time to take care of their earthly needs.

And that will be an amazement to people around us. How does that happen? That happens because that man trusts God. But the world is so full of unbelieving believers that they can't believe that's true.

They can't believe that it's like that. It is like that it is God's will that we should be like a tree always green never dry always bearing fruit, always in a good mood always rejoicing always triumphant always victorious never in debt.

God's Call to Confront Sin and Restore the Church

These are all new testament passages. And that can happen if zeal for God's house consumes us. See Isaiah chapter 59. Isaiah chapter 59 it speaks about a time we can apply it to the church where it says in verse 9 it's because I am reading from the living bible.

It's because of all this evil that you are not finding God's blessings. No wonder you are in darkness when you expected light. No wonder you are walking gloomy. No wonder you grow up like blind men verse 10 and stumble in broad daylight.

Then it says here truth is lacking verse 15 and the Lord saw it, the Lord saw the condition among his people and it was displeasing in his sight, the Lord saw the evil and was displeased to find no steps taken against sin, the Lord was wondering why is there nobody in Israel who will take a stand against all this sin going on here.

And he saw that there was no man and he was astonished that there was no one to intercede. There are few places like this in scripture where the Lord says I looked for a man and I couldn't find one. We say why does God need a man.

Can't he do it on his own. No he doesn't. He always looks for a man. When he wanted to reach Cornelius he looked for a man and Peter was unwilling to go. And God told him again and again Peter said I'm not willing to go.

And God told him again. Finally God convinced him you better go. God needed a man. I mean there are 10 ,000 angels there that are ready to preach the gospel to Cornelius. But no God needed a man. And God needs men today and women.

And he saw that there was no man. He saw that everybody was seeking their own. They were all seeking their profit. They claim to follow the Lord but they were interested in their own gain. And it was displeasing in his sight.

And he saw that there was no man. And he was astonished that there was no one to intercede. No one to say God do something in your church. Revive your church. Purify your church. Drive out the money changers once again.

Drive out the business men. Drive out the people who make the church a marketplace. Drive out the spirit of Babylon. And when he found there was no man he himself stepped in and his righteousness upheld him.

He put on righteousness like a breastplate. Verse 17 speaking about Jesus coming down to earth and a helmet of salvation on his head. We are also told to put righteousness as a breastplate in 1 Thessalonians 5.

And we are also told to put the helmet of the hope of salvation on our head and the garments of vengeance for clothing. And then it says here verse 17. He wrapped himself with zeal as a mantle. How wonderful the breastplate of righteousness.

That's for us the helmet of the hope of salvation and the mantle of zeal for God's house clothed with that. I really believe that God is looking for many brothers and sisters like that even when he spoke to the church in Laodicea.

Laodicea's Lukewarmness and the Call to Repentance

Revelation chapter 3 to the leader of the church in Laodicea write verse 14. I know your deeds. You are neither cold nor hot. You think everything is alright with you. You say I have no problems. Verse 17.

I am rich and I have increased with goods become wealthy. I need of nothing. And you don't know your real spiritual condition. It's a terrible thing when a believer does not know his real spiritual condition.

Here is an elder brother who did not know his spiritual condition. And the apostle John had to tell him. Imagine an elder brother in a church in the first century that he could not hear what God was trying to tell him.

Listen fellow you are wretched. You are miserable spiritually. You are poor, blind and naked. And he didn't know it. And God had to tell John, John please write to that fellow and tell him what his condition is and tell him it's because I love you verse 19 that I reprove you.

If I didn't care for you I would not reprove you. I would just leave you alone and let you die in your miserable condition. But he said I love you fellows. That's why I reprove you and I discipline you.

You know when a man does something wrong if God loves him God will discipline him. God will give him some sickness so that the fellow can repent. If God has given up on him he will live a healthy life and die and go to hell.

But if God loves him since here he will discipline him very often. He disciplines as we read in 1 Corinthians 11 by sickness so that the chap will wake up as many as I love. I discipline. I feel sorry for the people who are not disciplined.

That means God has given up on them. Like it says in Hebrews 12 a father only disciplines his own children. He doesn't discipline all the children that are not his children. And when a child does something wrong it's like you see somebody on the road side some child doing something wrong.

You don't go and spank him. Why? He is not your child. But if your child did 10 of that you'd spank him. That's how God is. He doesn't discipline people whom he has given up on. I believe there are some believers who have disobeyed God so much that God has given up on them.

Go ahead. Do whatever wrong you like. I'll never discipline you boy. That's a terrible condition to be in. Thank God. If you are still being disciplined thank God. If God is still disciplining us it shows that there is still hope for us.

It shows that he is still treating us like his children. And then he says in the light of this discipline what does he say in verse 19. Be zealous. Be zealous. Don't be lazy. Now let this discipline get the sluggishness out of your life and repent.

Even in our repentance there can be a lazy type of repentance and a zealous type of repentance. There is a lot of difference between the two and I think a lot of people don't make much progress in the Christian life because even their repentance is so sluggish.

Zealous Repentance and Honest Confession

Ok. Lord I am sorry I sinned. Yeah it's true. I sinned. I am sorry. Even when they ask forgiveness they say well I am sorry brother if I did anything wrong please forgive me. You think those sluggish people will get anywhere nowhere.

Do you know what zealous repentance means. It means if I have wronged you I do not send letters to you. I come and speak to you face to face. It's always easier to send a letter than to face to face. Proud people.

Humble people write letters. Humble people speak face to face. Face to face brother I am not. If I have done wrong brother I am sorry for what I did. I did wrong. Now don't say that if you don't believe it.

If you don't believe it just keep your mouth shut. Go and do something else. Don't go and say if I did something if I hurt you. This type of garbage is third rate useless good for nothing. Confession which should be thrown in the garbage bin.

It's better you don't confess at all. Don't go and confess to somebody saying if I did something wrong forgive me. If you are not sure don't confess it. Say lord I don't have any light that I did anything wrong.

Wait maybe wait 5 years. You will get light on it. Then go and do it. Then when you confess be zealous. Say brother I am sorry I did this wrong to you. I spoke to 5 people against you and I want to tell you that I have gone to those 5 homes and withdrawn my words.