Focus: Let The Church Be The Church!

Text: Jer.51:51

"Strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the Lord's house."

Something doesn't just seem right about the church of today. Jeremiah lamented as he watched the destruction of Jerusalem and the sanctuary of the Lord by the Babylonians, "How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!" (Lam.4:1,2). 

The apathy and lethargy in the church is increasingly alarming. In the words of Jeremiah, "Strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the Lord's house." We see more of strangers than godly and kingdom-minded people in the Lord's house.

Who are these strangers? Hosea says, "Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned" (Hos.7:8). We have a bunch of half-baked Christians in church. They are strangers to the Spirit's way.

These strangers are people whose tongues betray them. They are people of strange incense, strange fire, strange worship, strange tongues and language, and strange gods. Their beliefs and values expose them for what they are. Their attitude, behavior and character make their faith spurious. They are the mixed multitude of people who only long for onions, melons, cucumbers, fish, leeks and garlics. They are strangers to themselves and others (Jb.19:3). 

These strangers are called 'strange children' and people of a strange speech. These strangers are people who go after strange flesh (Jud.1:7). They are people who pronounce shibboleth as sibboleth in our churches. Their tongue betrays them (Judg.12:6). The Scripture says, "I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places" (2Kgs.19:24). 

Jeremiah says, "Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?" (Jer.8:19). About these strangers, John says that Jesus Christ "found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise" (Jh.2:14-16).

John says that these strangers "went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us" (1Jh.2:19). Matthew reports to us a similar incident, "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" (Mt.21:12).

Let the true church of God arise! We can't continue to allow strangers to the commonwealth of God's people fill the sanctuaries of the Lord's house. The church must be the church - instrument of illumination, vehicle of vision, and medium of manifestation!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter