Bishop Ogles’ Sermon
Presiding Bishop Anglican Orthodox Church Worldwide
We are oft fortunate to get copies of Bishop Jerry’s sermon notes. Today is one of those Sundays. Bishop Jerry also provided a video what he calls Mini Sermon:
Today’s sermon starts off with the collect, and like always, it will give you a lot to consider in your heart.
First Sunday in Advent
Time to Clean House
Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
3 December 2023, Anno Domini
The First Sunday in Advent
The Collect.
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LMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.
¶ This Collect is to be repeated every day, after the other Collects in Advent, until Christmas Day.
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fter this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days. 13 ¶ And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, 14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: 15 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; 16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise. 17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up18 ¶Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? 19 Jesus answered and said unto them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? 21 But he spake of the temple of his body. (John 2:12-21)
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ND when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, 2 Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. 3 And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. 4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. 6 And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, 7 And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. 8 And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. 9 And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. 10 And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? 11 And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. 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. (Matthew 21:1-13)
I selected these two textual passages to reveal a point salient to the entire ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the first Gospel text from John 2:12-21, our Lord was just beginning his ministry. Its setting follows immediately after his miracle and turning the water into wine at Cana of Galilee. In fact, that first miracle was not yet His time of ministry according to the words of Jesus to His mother, Mary. So the cleansing of the Temple at Jerusalem was the very first act of His ministry. As you can see, these two events of cleansing the Temple occurred at the very beginning (John 2) and the very last of His ministry (Matthew 21).
Why is this so?
The coming Passover was referred to as the ‘Jew’s Passover’ in John 2:13 because it was no longer the same as that first Passover which the Old Testament referred to as the Lord’s Passover. The Jews, like most modern churches, had added the traditions of men to the day. The Temple was infested by beasts and money-grubbing men making merchandise of the House of the Lord – sound familiar? The Temple needed a cleansing, even in its legal sense, from the infestation of the world into the things that belong to God alone such as praise, worship and glorification. It was never intended to be man-centered on money, entertainment, or false miracles.
Three years of our Lord’s ministry go by when the time of the Passover again approaches the land. Our Lord allows His disciples to prepare for His coming into Jerusalem by sending them for the colt and ass upon which the Lord would ride. He was wildly received by all of Jerusalem with loud acclaim, but only five days later, the same voices that praised Him would call for His crucifixion.
Upon entry for the last time of His earthly ministry into Jerusalem, what does the Lord do? He once again goes directly to the Temple and cleanses it of the merchandisers the second time. As you will know, the Jewish merchant treasures his merchandise and money, yet, the strong hand of the Lord Jesus Christ chased them out leaving behind their scattered mammon and treasure. Jesus was physically strong and manly. He must have presented a formidable figure as He chased those boogers out of the Temple this last time.
What is significant about these two cleansings of the Temple? NOTE: The first was His first act of His earthly ministry, and the second was the LAST act of His earthly ministry. What does that mean to us?
It means the Temple had devolved into its previous condition of spiritual uncleanness in only those past three years. The greater meaning to us is this- each of us, and the whole Church of God, need a constant self-examination, recommitment, and cleansing in the way of a continual reformation.
The Lord’s Church had become filled with merchandisers in the way of indulgences and other extremes at the time of Martin Luther and the English Reformers - the Gospel, like the Jew’s Passover, had been corrupted and twisted to gain lucre for the coffers of Rome. It needed cleansing like never before, and the Great Reformation achieved that cleansing by insisting on a return to biblical faith and worship.
The Lord compared the Temple to His body which is the true Temple of God, but now He named us as His Body to be cleansed to reflect the glory and honor of its owner – the Lord Jesus Christ.
Once again the Church, by and large, stands a mere shell of the Church reformed by Luther, Cranmer, Calvin, and others. It has become enmeshed with a spirit of greed and careless abandon of the things of God – entertainment centers and venues of imitated miracles and false claims of gold that glitters only but without genuine substance. The Gospel has been again twisted and the Bible trampled upon by the hands and feet of man and beasts.
Not only does the Church need a constant reformation to remind it of its high calling in Christ, but each of us as believers need to re-examine our faith and depth of our commitment to His Holy Name.
Advent Season is a time of preparation for the coming of the Lord – first, in remembrance of that blessed night in Bethlehem when He was born as a little babe and laid in a manger – a time when the great angelic host appeared to lowly shepherds and not the royalty of Israel. The second preparation is that of His Second Coming in power and glory to deliver His elect and to bring judgment upon those who have rejected His sovereignty. This is a continual process and a serious one. Let us begin while it is yet light.
