Jesus Cleanses His Father's House: Part 1

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Jesus Cleanses His Father's House: Part 2

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I'd like to speak to you this morning as we continue our journey through the 4th
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Gospel, the Gospel of John, and I'd like to speak about the Son of God, Jesus Christ, cleanses
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His Father's house. The Son of God cleanses His Father's house.
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So please turn with me to chapter 2. I'd like to begin in verse 12 and read it to 22.
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We will not get this all in one message today. This will be a two -part series. There's a lot here.
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There's a lot of details. But by God's help, we're going to see what the
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Lord has for us today. Beginning with verse 12 to 22. Hear the word of the living
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God. After this,
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He went down to Capernaum. He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples.
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And they did not stay there many days. Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand.
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And Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves and the money changers doing business.
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And when He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen and poured out the money changers, the changers' money, and overturned the tables.
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And He said to those who sold doves, Take these things away.
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Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise. Then His disciples remembered that it was written,
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Zeal for your house has eaten Me up. So the Jews answered and said to Him, What sign do
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You show to us since You do these things? Jesus answered and said to them,
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Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then the
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Jews said, It has taken forty -six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days?
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But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore when He had risen from the dead,
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His disciples remembered that He had said this to them. And they believed the
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Scripture and the word which Jesus had said. May God bless the reading of His word to our hearts this morning.
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Let's pray. Our Father in our gracious, merciful, yet just and holy
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God. Our prayer comes from the heart of the psalmist.
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From Psalm 84 this morning. We cry out with Him, How lovely is
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Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts. My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the
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Lord. And my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
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Lord, I pray that this will be our passion, and our utmost desire in life, and even in death, when the time comes to call us home.
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Lord, to behold Your face. Lord, to behold the beauty of Your holiness.
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Help us to understand this, Lord. By Your blessed
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Holy Spirit this morning, Lord, I pray that You would sanctify us wholly. Cause us to understand,
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Lord. We cannot do nothing unless Your Holy Spirit gives us the power and the illumination from Your word.
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We thank You for Your word, Father. We bless You for it. We ask this in the name of Your Son, the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and by the power of Your blessed Holy Spirit we ask for Your honor and glory.
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Amen. Verse 12, After this
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He went down to Capernaum. He and His mother, His brothers, and His disciples, and they did not stay many days.
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Basically, Jesus and His family and His disciples leaves to Canaan. If you notice in verse 12, that they went down, lower.
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Later we will see it goes up to Jerusalem on higher ground. Jerusalem is the headquarters.
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But here they went down to Capernaum only a few days. Soon after the
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Lord went up to Jerusalem. Let me ask the question. For what reason does our
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Lord do this? For what reason? Well, there is a Passover feast.
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This is a big deal. Many, many people go to this. Basically, if you study the feast, there are three annual feasts that each
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Jewish man was required to attend annually in the
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Holy City, Jerusalem. The first one here is, of course, the Passover.
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The Passover feast is one. These are the main feasts. The second feast would be the
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Feast of Pentecost. The Feast of Pentecost. You had the Passover. Then you had the
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Feast of Pentecost. And then third is the Feast of Tabernacles. Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.
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In which our Lord Jesus deliberately, literally violates, by the way, the man -made religious traditions that were set forth by the
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Pharisees. And by their traditions they annulled the
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Word of God. But Jesus perfectly upholds the Law of God, as we well know.
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He upholds it in its perfect statutes, in all of its perfection.
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Faithfully fulfills it to its perfect standard. We know that, what the Scripture says, that He did not come to destroy the
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Law, but He came to fulfill it. I'd like to keep in mind that our Lord Jesus Christ also has the supremacy over God's house.
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He has the supremacy. That is, over the temple, back then.
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And, of course, the temple was destroyed in 70 A .D. by Titus. And today,
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He has the supremacy over His church. So that transition's made.
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So if people say, well, the temple's gone and was destroyed in 70 A .D., which that was a fulfillment of prophecy, that's true.
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But Jesus is ruler over His church. So, He alone has the right to rule and to reign over His Father's house.
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I'd like to set that forth before you in my introduction here, because this is so important of who is going to cleanse the temple.
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Now, we have just witnessed by our Lord, as we have looked at in the past several weeks, the miracle of Canaan, in which
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Jesus turns the water into wine. A miracle, better yet, as the
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Word of God says, a sign that proves He is divine, and proves that He's the Messiah, and proves that He is the
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Word of God made flesh. That is John's purpose. He's evangelistic.
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And that He is God, who was with God, the Father. And He's the
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Son that was incarnate, made flesh, and by whom He made the worlds.
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As we looked at in the first miracle, John records the beginning of miracles that Jesus did in Canaan, which actually was a private miracle.
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A private miracle. And we looked at it as, this was a very important sign,
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His very first miracle, that He did among family and friends, and our
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Lord embarks on His three -year ministry. We're going to see here why we know it's three years in a few minutes, but here now in this section in chapter 2, we come to the second miracle our
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Lord does. People say, how is this a miracle? It's a significant miracle, and it's a tremendous miracle, because think of it, as we will see, there are literally tens of thousands of people in this area, of the outer court and among the temple.
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And we will witness our Lord doing a very significant miracle, because it's not a private miracle.
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Here it becomes public. It becomes public. And again,
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I want to say, tens of thousands of people. Now, you've got to understand, if you've ever gone to a fairground, so to speak, how crowded and how many people are just hoarding in by the masses.
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Even this, what happens, will make that look small. Thousands and thousands of people are participating.
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They are not just sitting back and watching. They're just not the bystanders that are watching either.
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Actually, they are right in the middle of this drama that's taking place, and actually the
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Lord is actively driving them out of the temple with holy anger and zeal.
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This is not an act of bad temper. This is not an act of sin. Actually, Scripture says, the
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Apostle Paul says, be angry and sin not. There is no sin whatsoever to the
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Son of God, because we know He did no sin. This is an act of holiness.
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This is an act of justice. This is an act of the zeal of the Lord that is actively driving these people out of the temple.
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And keep in mind, the first miracle was an act of compassion. This is an act of holiness.
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Turning the water into wine was an act of compassion. But here, this is a miracle that's driven by God's righteous, holy anger.
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So we see something of the heart of God in this. And as we look into this miracle, we see a glimpse, so to speak, a preview of what we will be seeing in the future judgment that will come, of course, as I've already mentioned, the destruction of Jerusalem, of the temple, in A .D.
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70, that was temporarily. But most importantly, this is a preview of the judgment that will become a reality forever before the throne of God at the great white throne judgment.
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It is a glimpse of this that I believe is clarified.
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Now within this message, we will be looking at four points I would like to bring out.
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We're going to look at the first two points today, and I'm breaking this up because there's a lot here. And that the
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Lord would help us to understand with clarity of His zeal as He cleanses the temple,
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His Father's house. So this is a two -part message. So the first part is today, and Lord willing, we'll continue it next
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Lord's Day. My four points is this. My first is found in verse 14.
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Verse 14, Jesus' discovery of evil in the temple.
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Jesus' discovery of evil in the temple. And second, in verse 15 through 17, Jesus' authority, or Jesus' right to cleanse the temple.
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Then God willing, we will finish this message, my third and fourth point next Lord's Day, which is
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Jesus' power to raise the new temple in verses 18 through 21.
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And then fourth, we will look at Jesus' objective as achieved, that the disciples believe the
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Scripture in His Word, which is found in verse 22. But we'll finish that up, Lord willing, next week.
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Today, let's begin and look at the first two points and the first point.
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First, let me get the context. Again, I think it's important that we look at, once again, as I've already read,
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I've already read verse 12. Let's look at verse 13. It helps us get the context. Now, the
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Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. It's a lot there.
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But beginning at this point, let's keep in mind that we have the Lord's first witness as He travels to the holy city of Jerusalem.
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Interesting to note here also to observe that the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, concentrate and focus on Jesus' Galilean ministry.
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And John doesn't focus necessarily on the Galilean ministry. He focuses on the Jerusalem ministry of our
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Lord. John has here his focus and his crosshairs on the
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Lord Jesus Christ and that we would see who He is. He is to bring
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Him out as the Son of God, the Messiah. And He goes to Jerusalem.
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So He focuses on Jesus' Jerusalem ministry where Matthew, Mark and Luke focus on Jesus' Galilean ministry.
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We see that in our study as we go forward in John in the future that our
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Lord attends these feasts in the Gospel of John.
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We see this in John chapter 2 verse 13 right here, the Passover.
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Then we will see that in John 6 -4 and John 12 -1 is all
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Jesus attending the Passover. And then in John chapter 7 verse 2,
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He's at the Feast of Tabernacles. And then in John chapter 10 verse 22, He's at the Feast of Dedication.
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Also in John chapter 5 verse 1, He's at what we would say an unnamed feast.
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We don't know the name of the feast, but which is probably may have been the
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Feast of Purim which is according to Esther chapter 9 verses 26 -31.
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So our Lord is being a devout Jew as He is, as the
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Son of Man. And He is fulfilling the law and He attends these feasts.
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So as again, the Synoptic Gospels focus on our Lord's Galilean ministry, John focuses on His Jerusalem ministry.
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And the reason I bring that out is because those different accounts do not contradict each other.
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As, in parenthesis here, as liberal theologians would like to see that contradict each other, they'd like to make it that so that they can say, oh, the
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Word of God is in contradiction to one another, but the Word of God is not. Instead, can
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I say this? It actually complements each other. It complements each other and proves to us that our
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Lord's three -year ministry and the signs that followed Him, that He is truly the
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Messiah, He is the Son of the Living God, He is the King of Israel, He is the Christ, He is the Anointed One.
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So in this phase of His three -year ministry, it continues all the way through chapter 3 and verse 21 in John's Gospel, in this
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Jerusalem ministry. And He both began and ended
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His public ministry by cleansing the temple at Passover time, twice.
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The Lord deliberately does this. There's a cleansing. It's interesting, too, to note that He cleanses it here at the beginning of His ministry and He cleanses it again at the end of His three -year ministry.
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And within that matter of time, it's like in three years, they're right back doing the same thing.
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But this is a miracle. Here He is at the Passover. Very significant. You know
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Jesus is our Passover, right? He's our Passover Lamb. The Passover is an annual feast commemorating the time when the children of Israel were delivered by the power of God, as we know the story from Exodus chapter 12, from the slavery in Egypt by the tyrant hand of Pharaoh.
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And the children of Israel led through the Red Sea as God opened up the sea.
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They walked on dry land and actually they went into the wilderness and then eventually to the promised land.
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God delivered them. God is a God of deliverance. So the first celebration of the
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Passover is actually recorded there in Exodus 12. So here we see as the
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Son of Man, Jesus, again He's a devout Jew. He goes up.
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He went up to Jerusalem for this important feast on the Jewish calendar.
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Then verse 14, this is point one. Jesus' discovery of evil in the temple.
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He discovers evil in the temple. Scripture says, and He founded the temple, those who sold oxen and sheep and doves and the money changers doing business.
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Doing business. Again, this is no small gathering.
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This tens of thousands of people, literally tens of thousands of people gathered here at the
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Passover. People that came all over, came from all different directions, comes to this celebration.
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These worshippers came from, we can say so -called worshippers, from all over Israel and the
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Roman Empire to Jerusalem. John MacArthur's got an interesting, a very good quote.
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And it helps us to see the background of what's going on here. His commentary, this is what he writes.
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Because many traveled large distances, it was inconvenient to bring their sacrificial animals with them.
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Opportunists, merchants, seeing a chance to provide a service, and probably eying considerable profits during this time.
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They set up areas in the outer courts of the temple in order for travelers to buy animals.
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He goes on to say the money changers were needed because the temple tax, they paid annually by every conscientious
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Jewish male that was 20 years of age or older. According to Exodus 30, 13, 14,
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Matthew 17, 24 -27. It had to be in Jewish or Tyranian coinage.
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It's interesting, isn't it? Why? He goes on to say, he tells us why. Because of its high purity of silver, high cost of the silver.
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So what did they do? He explains this. He says those coming from foreign lands would need to exchange their money into proper coinage for the tax.
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So the money changers would charge a high fee for exchange with such a large group of travelers.
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And because of the seasonal nature of the celebration, both the animal dealers and the money exchangers exploited the situation for monetary gain.
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That became a den of thieves, according to Matthew 21, 13.
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And I'll end the quote here. He says this religion had become crass and materialistic.
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End quote. Gives us a little idea of what was going on there. And the corruption in the
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Father's house, which is supposed to be a house of prayer. Now, do you see actually what's happening in the temple here?
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Do you see it? A temple of worship, a temple of prayer, of the sole purpose of praise to the
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Holy God of Israel was corrupted. One more quote.
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Jewish historian Alfred Etterschein, in his classic book, Jesus the
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Messiah, which really gives a good background of what is going on here. I've got a small quote here, but MacArthur, no doubt, draws from Etterschein on this.
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Etterschein says this, We can picture to ourselves the scene around the table of an
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Eastern money changer. The weighing of the coins, the deductions for loss of weight of the coins, deductions for the loss of weight, and arguing, disputing, bargaining.
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And we can realize the terrible truthfulness of our Lord's charge that they had made the
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Father's house a market, a marketplace, a place of traffic.
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But even so, the business of the temple money changers would not be exhausted. Through their hands would pass probably all business matters connected with the sanctuary.
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It's appalling. It should be appalling. And here
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Jesus our Lord found this in the temple. The one word that really comes to my mind is desecrated.
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They desecrated the temple. A place that is meaning to be a place of prayer.
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Desecration actually means, as in the temple, meaning as a sacred place, a place that is to be a holy sanctuary was now violated.
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That's what desecration means. It was in the court of the Gentiles where so much of this commercialism that was taking place that was made into a regular commercial marketplace within its walls.
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The temple that was once a place to enter in from the outer courts to the inner courts and to the holy of holies where men, where the priest would offer up the sacrifice before the holy
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God for the sins that were committed. A place of worship has now become a place of corruption, desecrated.
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And how did a commercial, I got a question here, think of this, how did a commercial marketplace like this, a market within the temple, ever get into the temple of God?
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How did this happen? That's a good question, isn't it? Well this desecration didn't happen overnight.
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There was a time period. And I really believe this. The desecration was, according to the scriptures, was birth from greed.
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It came from an evil heart. That's where greed came from. And by the way, where does greed come from?
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Greed comes from a wicked heart. So it's really a heart issue that's happening externally here.
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And Jesus knows this. How do we know this? Because if you see, he's the discerner of hearts.
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And we'll see this later on, but now in verse 23, now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he did.
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In verse 24, but Jesus did not commit himself to them, because he knew all men.
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And he goes further. And he had no need that anyone should testify of man, for he knew what was in man.
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He knew man had a deceitful heart. That's really the problem here.
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That's why there's desecration. That's why there's corruption. That's why there was merchandising and greed and all this taking place right in the temple.
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Well, what about God's view on this desecration in the temple? Well, if we see Jesus' view, we know it's
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God's view, right? God's angry with it. Jesus is the
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Son of God. He's the Son of Man. He's angry with it. It ignites. It fires him.
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The zeal just blazes up in him to cleanse his father's house. Let's look a little bit in the
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Old Testament what God says about this. Turn with me to Isaiah, please. Isaiah chapter 1 really lays into this and gives us a very good understanding as to what
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Jesus felt being God in the flesh. And the
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Father, the Father's house. And he found that the Father's house became a marketplace of oxen and sheep and doves were sold.
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But look at Isaiah 1, starting with verse 11.
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To what purpose, the Lord says here, is the multitude of your sacrifices to me?
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He says, the Lord, I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams.
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Listen carefully to the Lord's language here through the prophet Isaiah. I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle.
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I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or goats.
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There's a reason why. He tells. He says, when you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand?
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To trample my courts. That's in question. Who has required this from your hand to trample my courts?
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In verse 13, bring no more futile sacrifices, incenses, and abomination to me.
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The new moons, the Sabbaths, the calling of the assemblies.
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I cannot inquire, or I'm sorry, I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.
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Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates. They are a trouble to me.
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I am weary of bearing them. And then he says in verse 15, when you spread out your hands,
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I will hide my eyes from you. And even though you make many prayers, listen to that, many prayers
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I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. And then he says this, wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, and put away the evil of your doings before my eyes.
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Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.
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In verse 18, he gives the invitation, come down, let us reason together, says the Lord. Notice how merciful God is, but yet he's so holy.
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Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
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And though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. And if you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.
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But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword. In other words, judgment will come, for the mouth of the
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Lord has spoken. Folks, that's God's view of it. In other words, he was sick and tired of these people that had hands full of blood.
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It was nothing but religion, externalism, to play church.
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Don't we see this today? A lot of people play in church. And God says,
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Jesus even said it to the Pharisees, you honor me with your lips. You give lip service, but your heart is far from me.
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This is what Jesus, this is how God feels. All the prayers, all the sacrifices, all that externalism is not going to do any good.
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Jesus, God says it in Isaiah, wash yourselves, make yourselves clean. Put away your evil, your doings from before my eyes.
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This is actually repentance. This is the definition of what repentance is in detail.
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Stop it, cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.
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And James says that pure religion, that's pure and undefiled religion. So the
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Lord comes to the temple. He finds the sheep, the oxen, the doves, these animals that were to be sacrificed were sold there, and tens of thousands who attended the great feast were...
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Wow, can you even imagine the loudness of all this that was going on? The commercial, the commotion, and all these people in the marketplace not even having a thought of the holiness of God, and all they wanted was the money!
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Greed! And our picture would still... Even thinking of this would even come short of the actual scene.
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There's much more details here. Can you picture thousands of animals and people, and all that's going on here, and the smells, and the people just defiling the temple of God?
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All in the name of God. A place that's supposed to be a house of prayer and worship.
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For what? What? For greed. For gain. For filthy lucre, as the old
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King James puts it. The temple was a place of prayer, and now it's become a den of thieves.
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The tragedy of all this business was carried on in the courts of the Gentiles, and the temple is like business as usual.
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And this was the place where the Jews should have been meeting the Gentiles and telling them about the one and true holy
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God! That's what's supposed to have happened. The Gentiles didn't know about this
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God, but that was the outer court. But the Jewish people, that should have known better, should have said, this
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God that we worship is a God of holiness. There was no fear of God.
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Don't we see the same today? With the charlatans that have filled the churches by the dozens.
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We touched on it today. Oh, they're good speakers. They can tell you the stories.
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They're motivational speakers. But they have nothing to do with Jesus and His sufferings and His cross.
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They said, you see them on the television all the time. These charlatans pleading and begging for money.
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Send me this much money and God will bless you with more. All in the name of God. How does
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God feel about that? And folks, all of a sudden, suddenly,
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I like this, suddenly, the
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Lord comes to His temple. You know, this is a prophecy. This is another prophecy.
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It's not here, but yeah, the prophecy is given in Psalms. But how about Malachi?
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Look at Malachi chapter 3 with me. Right before Matthew. The last book of the
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Old Testament. This is incredible, because here it speaks about the coming messenger, which is
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John the Baptist. Notice what it says in verse 1. Behold, I will send my messenger. That's speaking about John the
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Baptist. And he's the forerunner. And then He will prepare the way before me.
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And then notice what it says. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to where?
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His temple. His temple. Even the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold,
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He is coming, says the Lord of hosts. You know, the host means the Lord of the armies.
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And the scripture says that God is like a man of war. He's holy.
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He's just. He's righteous. Notice in verse 2.
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But who can endure the day of His coming? Who can endure it? And who can stand when
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He appears? Now, I want you to see the definition here. For He's like a refiner's fire and a laundry's soap.
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And He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver. What is He talking about? He's talking about cleansing here.
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He will purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer for the purpose.
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Here. Here. But offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.
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An offering in righteousness. There has to be a cleansing in order to have worship that's pure and holy and spirit and in truth.
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He's coming. He suddenly comes to His temple. He's like a refiner's fire, a laundry's soap.
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He refines. He's a purifier of silver. And He will purify the sons of Levi.
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Worshippers. Look at...
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Just go back a little bit. Go to chapter 2. Look at verse 17. Notice the same language that the prophet speaks was the same language that Isaiah spoke about being wearied.
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God was wearied. Verse 17, You have wearied the Lord with your words, yet you say...
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Oh, He knows the hearts in man. He knows what's in man. And He says, Yet you will say,
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In what way have we wearied Him? And that you say, Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the
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Lord, and He delights in them? Oh, where is God? Where is the
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God of justice? Oh my. What way have you wearied
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Him? We've wearied Him. What way? In other words, it's these people, these evil hearts are speaking, and...
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Beloved, this is... The verse, what it's saying is that God is wearied by people who do not submit to Him.
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He's wearied with that. There's no submission to His authority. And they even argue points against His divine revelation.
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But think of this. When justice does come, when God does send justice, Oh, they would be sorry that they even ask for justice.
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And then it goes on to say in Malachi, notice the rest of it, of those verses, 4 and 5, notice what it says,
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Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the Lord, as in the days of old, as in the former years, and I will come near you, near you for judgment, and I will be a swift witness against, notice what he says, against, against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against the perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners, there it is, and widows and orphans, and against those who turn away an alien, because they do not fear me.
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No fear of the Lord, says the Lord of hosts. That's God speaking, folks. That is
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God speaking. That's the way He feels about this. Well, that's just a small picture of the heart of God in this.
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And then the temple, our Lord suddenly appears in the temple and He literally cleanses it.
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He's the purifier of silver. He purifies the sons of Levi.
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He cleanses, He literally cleans out house. He cleans house. Second point, we see
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Jesus' right and authority to cleanse the temple. His right and authority to cleanse the temple. Look at verse 15.
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Scripture says, When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.
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First we see that Jesus made a whip of cords. I've heard so many people even say to me, Yeah, when the Lord got angry that day,
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He just whipped people and beat them. No, there's nothing in the scriptures about Jesus beating people here.
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Nothing. Where does people get these ideas? They read into it their thoughts, but that's not what the text says.
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He actually made a whip of cords. Where did the cords come from?
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This is interesting because the cords, think of it, all the animals that were there, thousands and thousands of animals, there would be cords of rope lying around all over the place that would literally drive the animals.
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There were animals everywhere and the animals had to always be tied with the ropes as well, not only drive them, but tied with ropes with the crates in the marketplace.
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It's become a marketplace, sad to say. But Jesus picks up cords. He made the cords out of ropes and He braided them into a scourge.
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He does this for a reason. Like Brother Lawson said, a one -man
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SWAT team. Isn't it the truth? Think of this.
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One man, the Son of Man, against thousands, tens of thousands of people. One man braided cords with ropes.
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Ten thousands of people who had no idea who would do this. They didn't know who He was.
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They will find out. Jesus makes a whip, a scourge, and His power is unleashed.
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Wouldn't you say this is a tremendous miracle? You know, we would have a hard time just driving after this little building was full if it was a serious situation to drive people out of here.
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But Jesus drove out tens of thousands of people in His Father's house. And the temple,
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He drives them out. That's a miracle. It's a huge miracle.
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And that's what the Scripture says. Notice, He drove them all out of the temple. He drove them all out.
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The temple was the Father's house and He would not have it. He would not have these religious, filthy
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Pharisees desecrate His Father's temple. It's interesting in Luke chapter 2,
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I've already referred to this, but it bears repeating again in verse 49 and 50. We see the first words of our
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Lord Jesus Christ at the age of 12 years old. Luke says this, and He said to them, speaking of Mary and Joseph, they go looking for Him.
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It's like they find Him among the doctors and the lawyers and the teachers.
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And they come after Him and they actually ask, where have you been? And He says, why do you seek
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Me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business? Even that, even that.
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There He is revealing who He is. Isn't that great? Twelve years old!
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You know what the Scripture says in verse 50, but they did not understand the statement which
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He spoke to them. They didn't understand it. I got to thinking about this.
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Have you ever wondered that if Mary, Mary was there that day with the family and the disciples. That day that Mary, something might have clicked.
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I think at the miracle of Canaan and Jesus turning the water into wine, something clicked too and said this is no ordinary man.
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But here, it must have went through her mind about He's doing business now.
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He's doing His Father's business. His Father's business.
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Now in the temple, they were doing business as usual, but Jesus came to do Father's business and there was a complete contradiction in what they were doing and what
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He's going to do. He's going to cleanse it. And He does. He drives them all out.
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He attended the Father's business for the very first time here. The wicked money changers were doing their business as usual as I said and then turning the
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Father's house into a place of business, a den of thieves and now Jesus does His Father's business.
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Cleanses it. He drove them all out. That's how He did it. He drove them all out.
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He basically drove the merchants out, the money changers, the people that was doing corrupt business.
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He overturned the table of the money changers. Warren Wiersbe says this here, quote,
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The condition of the temple was a vivid indication of the spiritual condition of the nation.
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Their religion was a dull routine presided over by worldly minded men whose main desire was to exercise authority and get rich.
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Not only had the wine run out of the wedding feast but the glory had departed from the temple.
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End quote. Echabod. The glory of God has departed. Apostate.
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Now the glory of God was gone. You know the Apostle Paul even went, jumped with me to the first Timothy chapter 6 and listen to the
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Apostle Paul, what he says about this. I personally used this when
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I departed from the charismatic church when my uncle went from gospel preaching to charismatic word of faith preaching of the prosperity gospel and I said, and I was very young in the
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Lord and I just basically went to him crying, this is my uncle married to my father's sister and he was a father in the faith for me.
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I said, I went to these scriptures right here with tears and he still did not get it and he, just because I was probably younger but I always thought about the scripture says don't let no one despise my youth and I still respected him and I didn't want to rebuke an elder because the scripture says against that too and I was very careful but I came to him as a nephew and as a
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Christian and as a young convert and I said, Uncle Wendell, listen to what the scripture says.
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Verse 3, First Timothy 6 If anyone teaches otherwise does not consent to the wholesome words even the words of our
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Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which accords with godliness he is proud knowing nothing but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words which come from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men, corrupt minds and destitute of the truth.
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No wonder he got mad at me, right? But this is God's word who supposed that godliness is a means of gain.
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Don't we see that in the word of faith movement today? From such withdraw yourself.
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I literally took that as a command from me to withdraw myself and ever since that time until the day of his death we had a wall up.
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But you know I could not, I had to depart. He thought it was because I got brainwashed going to bible seminary.
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That's not the case. I said no, I'm bible washed. And I was basically saying look and then it goes on.
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Now godliness with contentment is what? Great gain. And then Paul says well for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can't carry nothing out.
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As Spurgeon says hold things with a loose grip because it's all going to go.
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And having food and clothing with these we shall be content. Then he says this in verse 9 but those who desire to be rich and rich fall into temptation.
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He's speaking to the church folks. They desire to be rich fall into temptation in a snare and to many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.
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Why? Verse 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
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See that'll take you into an apostate way into the road of hell because it's an idol.
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It's an idol. And God has taken second place third place, fourth place and it goes downward.
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So there was absolutely nothing cruel or unjust in any way our
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Lord's zealous actions that He brought to the temple here.
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There was simply an indication and demonstration of His holiness, His righteousness against the sin of greed.
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Have you ever thought about how our Lord would think of things if He was... He sees it, of course. He sees and beholds it.
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But what if He was here in the flesh and He were to go to churches and if He was around in America and looking at these so -called televangelists begging and using the name of God for greed and gain ill -gotten gain as the southerners would say.
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Look at verse 16 and 17 He said to those who drove soldoves take these things away do not make my father's house a house of merchandise.
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Verse 17 Then the disciples remembered that it was written zeal for your house has eaten me up.
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You know what that word means? Eat me up means consumed. Folks, Jesus was consumed with the zeal of God.
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The disciples remembered it. The cleansing of the temple was the first public presentation of Jesus to Israel.
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An important one by the way because He presented Himself as the Messiah. The Messiah's ministry began in the temple.
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He came to purify His father's house according as we read in Malachi 3 1 -3. This is my father's house.
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This was a direct expression of His distinct claim as the
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Messiah. At the wedding of Canaan He demonstrates in His deity as an act of mercy and care.
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And here in Jerusalem in the temple He showed His power and His authority. And that's why they came to Him.
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We'll look at it, Lord, really next week. But these religious people, the Jews answered and said to Him What sign do you do these things since you do these things?
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You show us since you do these things. In other words Who do you think you are in our words today?
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They basically asked Jesus Who do you think you are? What kind of authority do you have?
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Oh, beloved. We know that answer, don't we? We're talking about the one this is the
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Son of God in flesh. This is God in flesh. He's the one that is to be worshipped.
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In flesh. Jesus said as we've been looking at in the
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Sunday school lesson about discipleship. Making disciples.
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Jesus says all authority is given to me. Not some. All authority. Well, we'll look at that next
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Lord's Day. He shows His power and His authority. So, at the time here those six disciples these six disciples as we've looked at they knew their
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Old Testament very well, folks. They knew their Old Testament very well because immediately they thought of Psalm 69.
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And I'll read it to you. Because the zeal for your house has eaten me up and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
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That's David speaking. The disciples knew that passage from Psalm very well. David wrote it.
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And now what was David doing? David was actually calling for worship. He was calling for true worship.
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And he says this. Basically, this is what he's saying. He's calling for people of God for true worship.
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And what does he get back in return? He gets resistance. He gets hatred. He gets hostility.
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Verse 10. Look at verse 10 of Psalm 69. When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting that became my reproach.
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And then verses 11 through 12. I also made sackcloth my garment and I became a byword to them.
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Those who sit in the gates speak against me and I am a song of the drunkards. Pain, folks.
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He understood the pain. He was a man after God's own heart. And here he was calling Israel in song to turn to God in true worship.
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So what's this text actually say in regards to the house of God? A lot. David is describing himself as a zealot for the house of God.
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Is he a zealot just to be a zealot? No. You know why he is zealous for God's house? Because of God's glory.
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Because of God's holiness. Go through the whole book of Psalms in this altar and time and time again he talks about worship the
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Lord in the beauty of holiness. Worship the Lord for He is great and mighty in deeds. Worship the
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Lord in His purity and who He is. Oh magnify the Lord with me. Let's sing songs of praise as brother
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Keith was talking about this morning. Look folks, that's what David is talking about. He is saying let's return back to worship and then he gets resistance.
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He does the very best to call them back to faithfulness. But they are hating him for it.
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In verse 9, the zeal for your house has consumed me. Eaten me up.
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What about our Lord Jesus Christ? The perfect holy man. The Messiah Himself.
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Totally consumed with the zeal. Why? Why? Again, simple question, simple answer.
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Cause devotion for God's glory. Folks, this is the demarcation line here.
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That separates it. Excuse me. For God's honor.
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The Father's house and reverence. And David felt this. Jesus felt it.
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And Jesus felt it far deeper because He is God in flesh. Consumed with the glory of God.
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David was consumed with God's glory. Jesus, that's
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His heart. His Father to be glorified. And he saw that His Father wasn't being glorified.
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And Jesus demonstrated righteous, holy anger against the irreverence and blasphemy.
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Because God's name was taken in vain. Look at the law of God. That's always in the
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Jewish mindset of worship. That's what
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God was basically saying in those ten commandments. Thou shalt worship the
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Lord thy God in Him only shalt thou serve. Shalt not have no other gods before me.
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Shalt not worship any other images made in the image of man and so forth.
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And then the fourth commandment. Keep the Sabbath day.
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Keep it holy. That goes on. That's not done away with.
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Even though the Sabbath day is changed into the Lord's day. We call it the Lord's day because of the resurrection.
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We don't make it a Saturday Sabbath like Jews did. No, the transition has been made.
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But there's something there. See, it speaks of worship. The first four commandments. Actually the first three.
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The fourth is like right in between to divide the vertical to the horizontal.
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Because we get a little foretaste of heaven when we come to meet together and sing the hymns and hear the preached word and worship our
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God in the beauty of His holiness. Because there's a reason we come together, right?
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There's horizontal. But first of all, there's worship vertically. And I love this.
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An old seminary professor, he put that on the chalkboard like R .C. loved to do. He drew the line vertical and then he drew the line horizontal.
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What do you have? The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's where man is reconciled up.
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Sinful man is reconciled to a holy God. Well, there's so much more
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I got to say. My time is technically up. What about the temple? The temple, well, there's no more temple.
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In other words, there's no more building. It was destroyed in 70 A .D., right? What about the temple?
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Well, go to 1 Corinthians 6. I can't finish this all today, but I'd like to get this in.
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What about the temple? 1 Corinthians 6 tells us a little bit about it.
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Look at verse 18. Flee sexual immorality.
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That's a command. He is talking to the current Christians. Flee it.
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Run from it. Why? Well, verse 17, he who is joined to the
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Lord is one spirit with Him. What does God have to do with this corruption, this sinning against your body, immorality, fornication, adultery?
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And then he says this, every sin, in verse 18, every sin that a man does is outside of the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
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That's the reason why. The body means something. At first, it's a problem with the heart.
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But then he says this, do you not know that your body is the temple of the
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Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
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In other words, you have no rights to do what you want to do with your body. You hear this all the time in our culture, even among Christians.
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Don't you tell me what I have to do with my body. But when Jesus is Lord, and He is
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Lord, and He comes to dwell within our body, you can't do what you want to do with it because the temple is the
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Holy Spirit. It's the temple of the Holy Spirit. That has become the temple. Remember Jesus driving out the filth, and the whoremongers, and the sin polluters, and the greed?
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Jesus literally now comes within us, lives within our body by the Holy Spirit, and He drives it out of us.
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That's sanctification, folks. Isn't that wonderful? He drives it out.
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Aren't you glad? And then he says this, this is the reason why. Why can't
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I do what I want to with my body? You've been bought with a price. A high cost of God, the precious blood of the
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Lamb. And then he says this, here it is, therefore glorify God in your body.
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Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are, that's why
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Paul says, you've been bought with a price. You don't belong to yourself. You belong to Jesus.
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He purchased us. He bought us with His precious blood, and we don't do what we like to do.
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We do what God loves, and God abides within. I like what
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Tozer said. He said, when the Holy Spirit takes up residence within you, he says, you can be sure of one thing.
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He will not have no truck with the world. There will be a change.
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Sanctification will take place, and if justification happens, sanctification will happen. Wow, there's so much more
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I could say about this. I was going to go to 1 Peter 4, about judgment begins at the house of God. I'll save that for another day.
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My time's up. I think this is a good place to end. This is a lot for us. How would
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I end in saying this? You know, the glory of God matters, and that's the most important thing about the
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Christian. It's all about the glory of God. That's what our lives are about. We are to glorify
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God in everything that we do. Believers are to adore and worship our
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Lord. Let me just quote one more from the
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Scriptures and we'll close with this. We're familiar with this. I preached on it.
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Keith has mentioned it. I believe Ben's mentioned it. We've all mentioned it here. You know it. So, verse 10, chapter 2,
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Psalm. Let me go to verse 9. You shall break them with a rod of iron,
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Jesus comes, and he shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore be wise,
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O kings, and be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the
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Lord with fear. Rejoice, and rejoice with trembling.
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And kiss the Son, lest He be angry. Like kissing the Son. It's kissing at His feet.
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Not like a Judas betrayal, kissing the face of Jesus, but like Mary kissing
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His feet. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry. You don't want Him angry at you.
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And you perish in the way. And when His wrath is kindled but a little, blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
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You know, when Jesus cleansed the temple, we saw a demonstration of His wrath kindled a little. One day, when
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He comes back in power and glory with all the holy angels, folks, we're going to see it in its full manifestation.
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Jesus is going to purify the church once again. The bride's getting herself ready.
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The rendement. Aren't you glad? He will be glorified with His saints in the day
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He comes. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
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You. There's so much here in this text, Lord. We thank You, Lord Jesus.
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Although, Lord, You honored and obeyed the law perfectly,
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Lord Jesus, You also fulfilled the law to its fullest. And Lord, when the
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Lord Jesus comes back, He'll be coming back in power and glory. But we thank You for the first coming that He came to be the substitute for our sin, our sacrifice.
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No more these animals are to be sacrificed in the old temple.
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But now the one substitute, the one sacrifice, the Lamb of God substituted and died in our place for our sins.
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Sins of all who put their trust in You, O Lord, in Your name.
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Lord, we praise You for this time together. Lord, we thank You for Your amazing grace,
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Your amazing plan of redemption. And despite Israel's rejection of their
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Messiah, Lord, we thank You for the salvation that has come to us, to the Gentiles. Lord, You're still doing a great work.
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You're still cleansing Your temples. Many, many temples that are Yours, that belong to You.
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The temple of our body, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Cleanse us,
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Lord. May we have a time of... We always examine ourselves and judge ourselves that we may not be judged.
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Thank You, Father, for Your great plan of salvation that was all completed in the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, one day we anticipate with faith the day when Jesus Christ will come back in power and glory with all the holy angels and be glorified in the saints.
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Lord, we thank You for this time of worship. And we praise You. And we ask these things in the name of the