Dharius Daniels - Jesus Has Left the Building

So, in Matthew 21, verse 12, it says Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all those 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, „my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it into a den of robbers.“ The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. I want to talk for a few minutes from this subject, with your prayers and, hopefully, God’s power: Jesus has left the building. Jesus has left the building.

I want to ease into this introduction with a question: Have you ever found yourself in a place and space where someone walked into the room that made you want to walk out? For some of us, there have been times when a person’s entrance into our environment makes us want to exit. It could be an ex—oh, I know I’m at the right service—a co-worker, an employer, an employee, or an agitating associate who erroneously assumes you are friends. They really think we’re close. The point I’m making is, family, it is possible to be in environments affected by individuals that become so uncomfortable that we come to the conclusion that if they are going to stay, then I have to leave.

I argue not only is this reality relevant for people, but it is also relevant for God. When God walks into a room, certain things have to walk out. Light and darkness cannot coexist in the same space; light always drives out darkness. So, God’s entrance produces an automatic eviction because when he comes in, some things have got to go. This is why praise is a spiritual discipline and not just an empty exercise. This is why praise is more than church aesthetics and ecclesiological excitement. Praise, ladies and gentlemen, is an invitation for divine habitation. The Bible says God inhabits the praises of his people. You’ve heard it said when praises go up, blessings come down. The Scriptures teach when praise goes up, God comes down, and when God enters the room, whatever is not godly, whatever is unauthorized, whatever is not permitted by God’s presence has to walk out.

When the King walks in, is there anybody here that can testify? When God steps in, some things have to step out. That’s why I need him. I need him like you need your coffee; I need him like fish need water; I need him like the birds need the sky; I need him like my lungs need oxygen; I need him like my body needs blood. Because when I have him, and when he comes into my space, things that are not like him get evicted from my space. Because when some things walk in, some things walk out. But the converse is also true: just as when God walks in, some things walk out; when God is put out, some things walk in.

I think the passage we just read in Matthew paints a picture of what I’m trying to proclaim. Jesus has a conversation, family, with the Church of his day, and is communicating to them, „Y’all put me out.“ He makes the statement, reclaiming ownership and reminding the people whose church it really is. He is trying to get them to perform a self-assessment so that they can make a self-adjustment. You cannot improve what you are unwilling to assess, and he’s trying to get them to see that the entrance of Jesus’s presence represented the ending of one type of expression of church. Did you hear what I just said? The entrance of Jesus represented the ending of one type of expression of church.

Jesus, in essence, comes and proclaims in Matthew 21, „You all need to quit doing church like this.“ He’s saying you have evolved into an institution that is inconsistent with God’s intention. He says, „Instead of being a place that is empowering, equipping, and encouraging, you have become a place that is exploitative, entertaining, and irrelevant.“ He says, „I came to introduce you to something new.“ The writer of Hebrews puts it this way in Hebrews chapter 8, verse 6: „But in fact, the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the Covenant of which he is mediator of is superior to the old one, and since the new covenant is established on better promises; for if there had been nothing wrong with the first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.“

What is he talking about? Covenant, new, old, superior, inferior—what does that mean? Well, ladies and gentlemen, the Old Testament—that word „Testament“ means covenant—so the New Testament is the new covenant. The writer of Hebrews is writing to people who are holding on to the old covenant instead of embracing the New Covenant. Because how many know we not only need God’s help to hold on, but we also need God’s help to let go? These people were holding on to something that was inferior, something that was less than God’s best. They were in love with what was not working for them, and Jesus says, „Listen, this new covenant I’m trying to introduce you to is better.“ He said, „In the Old Covenant, if you had a sin issue, you had to go to a man who was a priest, and then that man had to take care of the issue with God. But in this new covenant, you can bypass the man; you come straight to me, and I take it to the Father for you.“ He said, „In the new, in the Old Covenant, if you sinned, you had to offer a sin…“