September 15, 2024. Sermon Title: Cleansed for Worship

First Mennonite Church

September 15, 2024

Cleansed For Worship

Text: Malachi 2:17-3:18

Today, we will focus on a passage in the Minor Prophet of Malachi. Malachi means “My Messenger” or “My Angel” in Hebrew. This word appears three times in the book of Malachi. In chapter two, God refers to the priests as his messengers who speak on his behalf. But in chapter three, God promises to send his messenger to prepare a way for the Lord. The coming of John the Baptist is often believed to be the fulfillment of that prophecy in that he came as Jesus’ forerunner. John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the crowds: “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

But to better understand the passage before us, let us see a bit of the context. Last Sunday we saw the prophet Haggai urging the people of Juda, both the newly arrived returnees from the Babylonian captivity and those who were left in Jerusalem to come together to build the temple. The people did come together and they rebuilt the temple. Worship in the temple was reestablished. The religious festivals were once again celebrated. But by the time Malachi began his prophetic ministry, the joy and excitement of seeing the temple rebuilt was over and a feeling of spiritual lethargy had begun to creep in the hearts of those who ministered in the temple.

In response, God then tells the priests: “A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty.

“It is you priests who show contempt for my name.

“But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’

“By offering defiled food on my altar.

“But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’

“By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.

The priests had become complacent in handling their sacred duties and they began to neglect the quality of the sacrifices offered to the Lord. As for the people, many violated their marriage vows, thus breaking the social fabric through their unfaithfulness. In two, verse 16, God accuses the men, saying, “The man who hates and divorces his wife does violence to the one he should protect. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful.”

Employers were withholding payment to their laborers. The orphans, widows, and aliens were not cared for. Yet when the people came to worship they were weeping and crying because they felt God was not present. They felt abandoned by God. They were not sure if the temple was good enough for God or if whether their worship was acceptable to God.

But the contempt towards God as revealed by the poor quality of the sacrifices and the collective spiritual and moral decline that had spread from the priests to the worshippers was caused by the perception that God no longer loved them and that God was no longer abiding by the covenantal promise to bless those who do good and punish those who do evil. The priests were leading the complaint against God. “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?” The priests were saying.

We are not told why the priests accused God that he not only allowed the wicked to prosper but that he was also pleased with them. Thus they were questioning, “Where is the God of justice?” As we know, there is a long biblical tradition of questioning the prosperity of the wicked. Job 21:7-25, Jeremiah 12:1, and the Psalm 75 ask that question.

But then comes God’s answer. He will send his messenger. The messenger will come to the temple to prepare God’s people for his arrival and presence with them. But God also asks the priest, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?

At the coming of the messenger, the temple will be the first to be purified. Then he will purify the priest and then all the people. God’s messenger will purify as the one who purifies gold or silver. His coming will be as the launderer ready to wash with harsh soap. God told his people that he would not accept their worship until they had been cleaned and purified. God will not make himself present among his people, but until they have been washed thoroughly. Only after a proper cleansing will their worship be acceptable to God. Only after they have been purified will they be able to enjoy God’s presence and they will become his treasured possession. Once the temple is purified, God’s glory will once again fill his temple. Only when God’s people had been washed that they will be robbed in white in their hearts and their worship be acceptable to God.  

Malachi, for his part, also warns his hearers of the coming judgment: “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap” (3:2). Like one who burns away the dross in order to refine gold, God will also burn away all the evil within his people. Like one who uses harsh soap to clean a garment, God will bleach out the stains of iniquity and sins his people have committed. Refining gold and cleaning clothes are positive activities, but from the perspective of the gold and the clothing, the process is a hard and painful one.

My dear brothers and sisters, how do you feel when you enter this place? What is your perception about God when we pray, when we sing and when we hear his word? Do you feel his presence, or feel that he is aloof and distant? Do you hear his whisper that he loves you? Or because of what is happening in your life you feel he has abandoned you?

Malachi says that on that day when God cleanses and purifies his people they will become his treasured possession and he will spare them, just as a father has compassion over his child he will have compassion over those who serve him. God says that on that day whe he cleanses his people, “all the nations will call them blessed, for they will be a delightful people on the land.”

According to our New Testament passage in Luke, Simeon said that the coming of the Baby Jesus will be the One from God who will reveal the thoughts of many hearts. The Lord knows our hearts and the thoughts and feelings we have when we come to this place.

The Jews desired for the day the Messiah would come. They thought it was be day when all their troubles would vanish and those who oppressed them would be vanquished.

In the times of Malachi, the people wanted God to come and his justice to prevail. But they were only thinking about others not of themselves. Malachi asked them, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?

These are serious questions even for us today. If God, if Jesus, if the Holy Spirit makes himself present today, can we endure, are we willing to endure the personal crisis he might bring upon us? Will we be willing to be pruned, put to the fire as when purifying gold or silver? What deep washing and cleansing will we need? We might want God presence to move amongst us. We might desire to see the power of the Lord act in our midst, just as those of Malachi’s times, but we need to know is that when the Lord makes himself present, the first to be cleanse is not the world, but we his people.

So, let us allow Lord to cleanse this place. Let us allow him to wash and purify us. Then we will comprehend the depth of his love. Then we will experience the closeness of his presence. Then we will shine among all other people for what the Lord has done in our lives. Then we will be God treasured possession. Amen!

Pastor Romero