Spring Cleaning for the Soul

I. Introduction

My friend went to visit his 86 year old grandfather in a very rural area. The two men spent a great evening chatting the entire night away, so, at dawn, my friend’s grandfather prepared breakfast of bacon and eggs. My friend noticed a film-like substance on his plate, and questioned his grandfather asking, “Are these plates clean?”

His grandfather replied, “They’re as clean as cold water can get ‘em. Just you go ahead and finish your meal”.

For lunch the old man made hamburgers. Again, my friend was concerned about the plates as it appeared to have tiny specks around the edge that looked like dried egg and asked, “Are you sure these plates are clean?”

Without looking up the old man said, “I told you before, those dishes are as clean as cold water can get them. Now don’t you worry, I don’t want to hear another word about it”.

Later that afternoon, as he was leaving, his grandfather’s dog started to growl, and wouldn’t let him pass. My friend yelled and said, “Grandfather, your dog won’t let me get to my car”.

Without diverting his attention from the football game he was watching on TV, the old man shouted to the dog, ‘COLDWATER, GO LAY DOWN NOW, YA HEAR ME!!!”

Unlike my friend’s grandfather, most of us have a little different definition of the word clean when it comes to our homes. This time of year, especially, as the days get warmer and the grass gets greener, we tend to occupy ourselves with this idea of Spring Cleaning. That time when all those things that over the winter months have cluttered our floors, desks, and lives can be swept out and thrown away. Those things we have held on to for no good reason can finally be let go. And when it is all complete, when all the Spring Cleaning is finally done, that we really realize just how badly it needed to be done.

Today’s text can be found in John 2:13-22:

“The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and 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 place of business.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body. So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.”

In celebration of the Passover, it was a typical practice for the Jews at that time to travel to Jerusalem in order to make a sacrifice for the sins they had committed during the past year. As their scripture told them, they would take the most pure of their flocks, an ox, a sheep, or a dove, and hand it over to the priests to perform the sacrifice. However, the priests of the temple had a little side enterprise going where they would refuse the animal the someone brought for sacrifice because it wasn’t pure enough. The traveler would have no other choice but to purchase or trade the sacrifice they had brought, usually at a much higher price, for one which was “approved” by the temple. Along with this, these travelers would also have to exchange the currency they had brought with them for currency that was “approved” by the temple at an exchange rate which was also unfair for the travelers. All the while, those people selling the animals or exchanging the currency would split their profits with the priests of the temple. Basically, the priests were getting rich off of the people in the name of God. To make matters worse, all of this was being done in the courtyard of the temple.

Imagine it this way: you come to church next Sunday and, before you come in, you’re told that the money you put in the offering plate has to be in the form of dollar bills that were printed only in the Denver mint from 1998. Anything else will not be an acceptable offering. Lucky for you, though, there’s five or six stands set up in the lobby that will gladly give you those specific bills at an exchange rate of three dollars for every one they give you. Then, at the end of the day, the people working in those stands in the lobby will split their profits with all of us preachers. Not a very fair way of doing business and especially not a very fair way of worshiping God.

Although this practice had been going on for a number of years, on this particular day, we see Jesus take a righteous stand against it. He makes a whip out of cords and begins to drive the “approved” livestock and their owners out of the temple. He overturns the tables filled with “approved” coins of money exchangers makes them leave as well. Where we normally have seen Jesus take a passive stance against the priests of the temple, this time, He takes action. And it hits the priests rights where they live. Any money they stood to make that day was now gone as the people dove for the spilled coins and the livestock ran out of the temple.

II. Spring Cleaning for the Past

As we consider this story of Jesus, we also need to consider our own needs to be cleansed. Each of us is a temple to God in our own right. The day we accepted Jesus as our savior, the Holy Spirit came upon us and dwelled within us. How clean is your temple this morning?

I’ve told you before that we all have a past and, in all of our cases, it’s a past we’re not proud of. We’ve all done things that today, in reflection, are things that we’d prefer weren’t mentioned. The enemy uses that past against us. It’s his way in to remind us that we aren’t as righteous as we claim to be.

Holding your place there in John, turn with me now over to Ezekiel 36:16-21:

“Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Son of man, when the house of Israel was living in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds; their way before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity. Therefore I poured out My wrath on them for the blood which they had shed on the land, because they had defiled it with their idols. Also I scattered them among the nations and they were dispersed throughout the lands. According to their ways and their deeds I judged them. When they came to the nations where they went, they profaned My holy name, because it was said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord; yet they have come out of His land.’ But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went.”

At the time of Ezekiel, the nation of Israel had done evil in the eyes of the Lord. Much like you and I had done in those years before we accepted Jesus. We had defiled the name of God and profaned it. We were unclean and deserving the judgement against us. Now, continuing in Ezekiel 36:24-27:

“For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

Just as He did for the nation of Israel, God made it so we would be cleansed of our filthiness. He gave us a new heart and a new spirit, separating us from the lands and places where we did evil. Then He gave us His Spirit which would cause us to recognize when we strayed from His path and help us to remember the good which was now within each of us. In doing this, He gave us the greatest shield we could use in those times when the enemy would test us, He gave us His forgiveness.

III. Spring Cleaning for the Present

Today, in our present lives, we are faced each day with trials and tribulations that will test each one of us regardless of how strong our walk with God is. In some cases, we stay victorious in Him. We pass each test through our strength and reliance on His Word and the power of prayer. In some cases, though, we do not. We fail in our tests. We find ourselves saying the wrong thing or acting in a way that is not a reflection of the Truth we have learned. Society would tell us that once we fail, we may as well give up and return to the ways that are acceptable to them. But, if you turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 1:7-12:

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.”

Based on this, our failures are not reason to return to the lives that we once knew. If we fail, we can still find redemption in the blood of Christ, and forgiveness for those times when we come up short. But more than that, we have received an inheritance which will stand strong against all things both of heaven and of earth.

Society tells us that we are wrong, that we are placing our belief in an unseen thing that will never be true; but this is the same society that tells us that only the riches we have here in this life are what matter, that tells us that we should only listen to our own wants and desires when it comes to finding peace, the same society that tells us that murdering an unborn child is an acceptable means of birth control. Society tells us that we are wrong; but I say that society, especially the one around us today, is wrong.

We have the unshakable reliance in the promise that our sins will be forgiven and that we will have redemption for it. With that truth, whether we are successful or we fail in our daily walk, we have nothing to fear.

IV. Spring Cleaning for the Future

As we prepare for what lies ahead, the things in our future, we look around at the things that are happening on a global scale and can almost point them out word for word in the prophesy of the end times from our Bibles. We see nations rise and fall, we see our own nation in decline for it’s willful turning from God, we see attacks on our brothers and sisters around the world as they stand up for Christ. A lot of you can remember the numerous world leaders who came to power that were labeled The Anti-Christ only to see them fall away. But I can assure you, the times are coming. Governments and nations are aligning themselves in ways that we never would have believed would happen before.

But we have hope.

Hope that is found in 1 John 2:15-20:

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.”

Regardless of how distressing these times will become, we have the anointing from the Holy One to rely on. The job before us is clear. We must remain vigilant in our belief and our battles with the enemy. We must look for forgiveness in our times of failure in order to remain reconciled with God.

And we must do what we can to win those that we know and love to Christ. Where our words fall short in melting their hearts of stone, we must provide an example for them. We must be that shining light in their darkness so they can see.

V. Conclusion

This message I’ve brought to you this morning is titled “Spring Cleaning for the Soul”. In my words, I have tried to demonstrate how, as we proceed with our own “Spring Cleaning,” that we try to clean ourselves for our past, our present, and our future.

Back over in John 2, verses 18-22, it reads:

The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body. So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.”

The Jews asked Jesus after He had disrupted the livestock and moneychangers, on what authority did Jesus have to do the things that He did? And Jesus said to them that if you destroy this temple, I will raise it up in three days. The Jews just thought He was talking about the temple itself there in Jerusalem, but that wasn’t the case. Jesus was talking about Himself. Just a few weeks ago, we celebrated the fact that Jesus, who had died on the cross, and remained dead for three days, rose again. In doing so, He showed His true power, the power over death and the enemy himself. His power over death has been passed on to each of us in our inheritance. Once we accepted Jesus as our savior, we became eternal beings that would one day stand with Jesus. We no longer had the dreadful judgement of eternal damnation awaiting us. As you do your own “Spring Cleaning” this year, I want you to remember the “Spring Cleaning” that Jesus did at the temple; but more importantly, I want you to remember the “Spring Cleaning” that He did on that first Easter morning, when He rose, and in doing so, claimed each of us as His own.