What makes the Prince of Peace flip tables and chase people out of the temple? In this powerful exploration of Jesus' temple cleansing, we discover a Savior passionate about protecting sacred space and genuine relationship with God.
The temple courts had become a marketplace where vendors exploited worshippers - particularly Gentile seekers who could only access the outer court. Money changers demanded exorbitant fees, animal sellers rejected perfectly good sacrificial animals to sell their own overpriced alternatives, and the entire system transformed worship from relationship into transaction.
This revelation challenges our modern faith practices. Have we reduced our spiritual lives to religious rituals, Bible reading schedules, and church attendance out of duty rather than devotion? Jesus didn't suffer and die to establish more religious obligations. He came to restore relationship.
Perhaps most powerfully, Scripture teaches that we are now God's temples - the Holy Spirit dwells within believers. This prompts uncomfortable but necessary questions: What tables need flipping in our lives? What needs to be driven out so God's presence can fill us completely? The good news is that this cleansing process doesn't involve shame, but rather confession, true repentance (changing direction), and embracing the Holy Spirit's strength.
Ready to move from transactional religion to transformational relationship? Join us as we discover how Jesus' righteous anger points the way toward authentic faith and spiritual breakthrough.
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Episode Transcript
Hello Madison Church.
It's so good to be with youtoday.
I am excited to be here and Ilove hope.
So getting to start the HopeSeries is it's an honor.
I love it.
On a brief note, two briefnotes before I get into
(00:22):
everything.
One is if this is your firsttime here, please don't judge
Madison Church by what I have tosay.
The real people will be backshortly.
So that's the first thing Iwant to get out of the way.
(00:47):
Been amazing prayer partnerswith me and my husband, as he's
been going through quite a lotof medical things, and I just
wanted to give you a real briefupdate.
He has been working forliterally years to have a
surgery that he needed to haveand he was able to have that
surgery finally a couple weeksago now Just this week they were
(01:09):
able to close him up andhopefully start healing.
Thank you for all of yourprayers.
If I may be so bold as to askfor your continued prayers for
his healing, because the nextcouple of months are really kind
of a big deal for him.
It's one of those surgeriesthat you can only have one time
and it's life-altering.
(01:29):
So if he can heal up and Godhas got him this far.
I think he's going to continue,but I appreciate all of you
praying for the long duration ofall of this and would really
cherish your future prayers.
So, now that we got all thatgood stuff out of the way, we're
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starting a new series today and, even though it has a little
bit of a different focus thanthe last series, we're kind of
continuing on in the Bible,right when we left off.
Um, yeah, last week I was goingto say yesterday where, where
Stephen left off last week.
Um, last week Stephen talkedabout surrender right, and it
was a really powerful message.
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I listened to it online.
If you weren't here, Irecommend um going in and
watching it.
It's it's worth your time.
Um, he talked about the tensionbetween the expectations that
the disciples and the crowd had.
You know, welcoming Jesus, theyhad this big parade, they're
welcoming him as the king versusthe reality of purpose and the
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nature of God's kingdom.
The people were rejoicing, butJesus was weeping because they
were missing the point.
They were missing the peacethat he was offering, the peace
that he would be offeringthrough his soon death and
resurrection on the cross.
Death on the cross and thenresurrection.
We'll get there.
So right after that scenario iswhere we're going to be
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starting today.
It's in Luke 19, 45 through 46.
And it says this when Jesusentered the temple courts, he
began to drive out those whowere selling.
It is written he said to themmy house will be a house of
prayer, but you have made it aden of robbers.
Now, oftentimes the gospels,and even more so with what we
(03:25):
call the Synoptic GospelsMatthew, mark and Luke we will
see the same biblical accounts,the same stories that are told,
but they're told throughdifferent styles and sometimes
they have different details thatare emphasized in them.
He says this In Mark.
(03:47):
He gives us a little bit moreinformation.
So I kind of just want to touchthere for a moment.
Mark 11, 11 says Jesus enteredJerusalem and went into the
temple courts.
He looked around at everything,but since it was already late,
he went out to Bethany with the12.
So it had been a pretty big day.
Right, there was traveling thedonkey, the palm waving the
parade, big day, right, therewas traveling the donkey, the
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palm waving the parade, all that.
And here it says that after allof that happened, jesus went to
the temple and he looks around,he sees everything that's going
on there and he leaves, and Iimagine this is my
interpretation.
This is not part of the Bible,but this is what I imagine when
I read that.
I imagine that Jesus is takinga deep breath, he takes a big
sigh and, with a heavy heart,he's like I don't have the
(04:29):
bandwidth for this right now.
I need to go back to Bethanyand sleep on this.
This situation needs to behandled, but I'm going to need
to sleep on it.
And then Mark goes on a littlebit to give us just a few more
details about that encounter inthe morning.
Mark 11, 15 through 18 says Onreaching Jerusalem, jesus
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entered temple courts and begandriving out those who were
buying and selling there.
He overturned the tables ofmoney changers and the benches
of those selling doves and wouldnot allow anyone to carry
merchandise through the templecourts.
And as he taught them, he saidis it not written my house will
be called a house of prayer forall nations, but you have made
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it a den of robbers.
So what's even happening here?
Right?
I mean, why is Jesus flippingtables and chasing people out of
the temple?
That kind of seems like theopposite of what Jesus should be
doing at the temple right andthere are a couple of things
here that are happening that thewriter and the original readers
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would have understood that2,000 years later we can miss.
Part of it is the setup of thetemple.
The temple had differentsections, different courts, and
the outermost court was thecourt of the Gentiles.
The next is the setup of thetemple.
The temple had differentsections, different courts, and
the outermost court was thecourt of the Gentiles.
The next was the court of thewomen.
The following one was the courtof Israel, or also called the
(05:56):
court of men, and then theinnermost court was the court of
the priests which, as the nameimplies, only the priests could
enter.
So you had to qualify, you know, to be in the different courts
and the court of the Gentiles,that outermost court, that is
the area of the temple that onlynon-Jewish people could enter.
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They couldn't go further.
They could only be in thatouter court and this is the
courtyard that Jesus is in.
Be in that outer court and thisis the courtyard that Jesus is
in.
So, because the area isaccessible by Gentiles, by
non-Jewish people, it wasintended to be a place of
evangelism and outreach.
The Jewish people could witnessto their Gentile neighbors and
tell them about God.
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But instead of this court beingused to evangelize the Gentiles
, it was being used to exploitthem.
This court being used toevangelize the Gentiles, it was
being used to exploit them.
Instead of praying for theGentiles, the priests were
praying on the Gentiles, whichis pretty disgusting.
There were Jewish moneychangers in the courtyard who
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exchanged all kinds of differentforeign coins for the Jewish
coins that would be accepted inthe temple, and they would do
this at really crazy highexchange rates.
So they're taking advantage.
There were animal vendors.
Gentiles would come to thetemple, but they might not have
an animal to sacrifice.
Maybe they traveled a greatdistance or they didn't know
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they were supposed to bring one.
So the vendors would sell themoverpriced animals.
And even if they came to thetemple with animals, these
people would examine them andtell the worshipers their
animals were unacceptable.
So now, if they wanted to offera sacrifice, they had no choice
but to buy one of theiroverpriced animals.
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The Gentiles didn't necessarilyknow better, so they were
perfect victims for thissituation.
So if we imagine what this lookslike, a person abandons their
former ways.
They want to worship and theywant to honor God.
They want to be in relationshipwith God.
So they go to the temple and,being new, they don't
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necessarily have a solidunderstanding of those Old
Testament sacrificial systemrules.
They know to bring an animalfor sacrifice.
Perhaps when they get there,the vendor says, hey, welcome,
we're so glad you're here.
God really wants a relationshipwith you.
Unfortunately, your animaldoesn't cut it.
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It's not okay.
We have laws around here aboutthese things and your standard
is lower than ours.
If you want to sacrifice ananimal, you're going to have to
buy one, and today is your luckyday because I have all kinds of
super acceptable animals overhere at a really awful price.
How many would you like?
(08:48):
So when Jesus cleansed thetemple, he was not only angry at
the temple being abused andmisused, he was also showing
concern for these new peoplegetting ripped off.
He was also showing concern forthese new people getting ripped
off, and let's not forget thatat this time when Jesus was
there, it was right beforePassover Passover's in a few
days so this would be one of thebusiest times at the temple,
(09:12):
kind of like Black Friday.
This is the day they make alltheir money and there's Jesus
chasing them out.
It's kind of fun, isn't it.
The courtyard will be filledwith all these people traveling
really long distances to bethere.
And what does everybody need?
(09:36):
They need lambs Perfect,unblemished, one-year-old lambs.
So it's specific.
And guess who has them at superinflated prices?
You got it.
These people selling in thetemple court.
This is the kind of this iskind of like those people who
bought a bunch, bought up awhole cases and cases of hand
sanitizer in early 2020, andthen waited for a little bit and
(09:57):
then sold them at 20 bucks abottle.
Remember that that was fun,wasn't it?
It's kind of like that.
They basically there's a demand, there's a low supply and now
the price has skyrocketed for noactual reason, and Jesus is
angry.
He's angry about this.
They are turning what Godintended for a relationship, for
(10:19):
a real, genuine lovingrelationship and exchange right.
They're taking that and makingit a transaction.
God doesn't want atransactional relationship with
us, and I mean to maybe put itinto perspective.
You probably have atransactional relationship with
your boss, right?
You go to work for a set amountof time or for a set amount of
(10:42):
tasks and they give you acertain amount of money, and
it's transactional.
Your boss may or may not beyour friend outside of work.
Some people are lucky enough tohave bosses that they're also
friends with, but most of thetime it's just a transactional
relationship.
God doesn't want that.
He doesn't want that at all.
He's not saying, hey, come inand pay your money, come in and
(11:03):
buy your lamb, come in and doyour sacrifice, come in and
follow all the rules.
He's saying I want arelationship.
(11:29):
So again, verses 45 and 46 inLuke 19,.
A place to learn about God, aplace to worship him, a place to
have relationship with him.
The temple represented the verypresence of God, and Jesus said
they have made it a den ofrobbers.
A den of robbers, a place wherethieves go after committing
(11:51):
crimes.
A hideout that allowed them tofeel safe and secure.
Robbers thought they wouldavoid punishment because of the
den that they were hiding in,just like the leaders and
vendors thought they would avoidpunishment because of the
temple that they were hiding in.
You know, when Stephen firstasked me to talk about these
(12:13):
verses, I was like heck, yes,who doesn't want to talk about
that one time?
That Jesus had a holy temple,tantrum and flip tables and
chase people out, that's so muchfun.
That pumps me up, that gets meexcited, but then I realized the
not so fun part of these verses, and that's the part where we
realize what this means for ustoday.
(12:33):
Not as fun, so bear with me aswe go through that.
Okay, the temple, the place thatrepresented God, place that
represented his presence, wasmeant to be a house of prayer.
House of worship, house ofgenuine relationship and
(12:54):
commitment to God.
And people had made it a placewhere they were doing personal
business for personal gain,personal financial gain, it's
probably some social gain, madeit transactional, a place where,
instead of introducing andteaching people who didn't know
(13:15):
about God, about his love andhow to have that relationship
with him, they were not onlytaking advantage of them, but
they were making it about tasksand rituals.
They were missing the pointthat God doesn't just want blind
obedience.
God doesn't just want strictsacrifice for the sake of
(13:36):
following the rules.
God wants relationship with hispeople.
Maybe you're in this room andyou've made coming to church a
ritual.
You've come out of habit.
Maybe you read your Bible,maybe every day at 3 or 4.
But it's out of duty.
It's what good Christians do.
This isn't the relationshipthat God wants with us.
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Jesus didn't have to betortured to death for rituals.
We could have done that withouthis death and resurrection.
God wants relationship andsometimes we need to check our
motivations.
Are we here to deepen ourrelationship with God?
Are we praying wrote prayer forthe sake of prayer, or are we
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having an honest heart-to-hearttalk with him on the regular?
And this can be an adjustment.
But it's not too difficult toadjust that right.
It's kind of just a make itaware right.
We become aware.
You know what?
I haven't been in that prayer,I haven't been listening.
While I've been reading myBible I've been coming to church
and forgetting the point.
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It's kind of just a mind shiftcan fix that.
But I think the tougher part isthis one In 2 Corinthians it
says that we are the temple ofthe living God.
We are now the temple of theHoly Spirit ourselves.
He lives in us.
The veil was torn, he breatheshis last on the cross and the
(15:09):
Spirit was released and filledbelievers in the starting of
Acts.
This is the reality that welive in.
You are the temple of the HolySpirit.
Looking in these verses, Ithink that the Holy Spirit would
ask that you spend some timeasking him.
Holy Spirit, is there anythingyou want to drive out of this
(15:29):
temple, holy Spirit?
Is there anything you want todrive out of this temple, holy
Spirit?
Is there anything you want todrive out of this temple so that
it can be filled with yourglory, filled with your love,
filled with your purpose?
And if you do find that there'ssomething that needs cleansing,
you don't have to feel guilty.
There's no shame.
God is not disappointed in you.
(15:53):
Just confess it.
This is not like some kind offormal scheduled meeting with a
spiritual leader and authorityfigure right.
James 5, 16 says therefore,confess your sins to one another
and pray for one another thatyou may be healed.
The fervent prayer of arighteous person is powerful.
So just go to someone you trustand tell them.
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Tell them that you'restruggling with whatever this is
, and ask them to pray with youabout it.
Right, it's easy.
So just confess and then we needto repent, because repentance
is not just change your mindabout something, but it
literally means to do an aboutface, an abrupt turn to face,
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the opposite direction.
So you were going to go right,but then you changed three lanes
in traffic and went left.
You were going to get chocolateice cream, but instead you got
vanilla fro-yo.
You keep confessing.
If you keep confessing the samething but you don't repent, you
don't change.
You're going to keep going inthe same direction.
(16:57):
You're not cleansing the temple, and that's a lot harder, isn't
it?
You struggle to stop doing whatyou know you shouldn't do, but
you're not alone in this.
This is nothing new.
Paul wrote in the book of Romans.
What I don't understand aboutmyself is that I decide one way
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but then I act another, doingthings I absolutely despise.
That was Paul, and even sciencebacks this up.
I mean, anybody ever hear ofNewton's law of motion?
Right, it says an object atrest remains at rest and an
object in motion remains inmotion at constant speed and in
a straight line unless actedupon by an unbalanced force.
(17:38):
Well, you guys, we need anunbalanced force If we're going
to change direction.
We need an unbalanced force.
This is where the next stepcomes in embracing the strength
of the Holy Spirit.
This is where the next stepcomes in embracing the strength
of the Holy Spirit.
So, confess, repent and thenembrace the strength of the Holy
Spirit.
As you're walking this out.
You don't have to try to dothis alone.
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And this, this is where hoperises, this is where change
happens.
This is where relationshipthrives.
This is where we get to movefrom brokenness to breakthrough.
He is with you and will helpyou live in that commitment.
Whatever it is that he asks youto drive out, invite him in to
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fill that space with hispresence.
When Jesus entered the temple,when Jesus entered the temple,
it was his overarching interest.
It was love, a love for God andhis presence.
A love for the temple where Godwould be truly heard, seen,
glorified and worshipped.
(18:44):
A love for his people, so thatwe can know and understand the
truth, so that we have hope, sothat we can move from that
brokenness to breakthrough andso that we can have a genuine
relationship with him, not justa transactional one.
Let's go ahead and pray.
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