WWUTT 2072 Jesus Cleanses the Temple (Matthew 21:12-17)

When Jesus entered Jerusalem in the triumphal entry and the people were singing his praises, they expected him to go to the king's house, to the palace.

But that's not where he went. He went to a better house. He went to the temple, when we understand the text.

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we're in chapter 21 this week, yesterday reading about the triumphal entry, and we're going to pick up from there in verse 12 and go through verse 17 out of the

Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who were selling doves.

And he said to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a robber's den.

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the marvelous things which he had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, saying,

Hosanna to the son of David, they became indignant and said to him,

Do you hear what these children are saying? And Jesus said to them,

Yes, have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself?

And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there. We have six verses that we're looking at here, broken into two parts, so a set of three verses and another set of three verses.

And both parts are broken up the same way. You have an action, and then

Jesus responding to the action with a quote from the Old Testament from the prophets. And then there's a resolve.

So in the first part, you have Jesus coming into the temple and driving out the moneychangers.

There's the action. And then he quotes the scripture, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a robber's den.

And then the resolve, the blind and lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. And then the second part, the chief priests and the scribes see what

Jesus is doing. The people that continue to shout his praises, you have the action there. He responds to the

Pharisees quoting from the Old Testament out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies. You have prepared praise for yourself.

And then the resolve, verse 17, he left them, went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there.

And really what this is demonstrating to us is, again, who Jesus is. That's been the objective that Matthew has had in writing this gospel to show us that Jesus is the

Christ, the son of the living God, as Peter proclaimed him to be back in chapter 16.

So we're seeing that his identity as the son of God who goes into the temple, which is the house of God.

That's where he goes right after the triumphal entry. And so Matthew continues to show us Christ's divinity, even through this account that we read about here.

So let's come back to verse 12. Jesus entered the temple and drove out those who are buying and selling in the temple.

So this is the event that we refer to as Jesus cleansing the temple. This is the second cleansing.

There was a cleansing at the beginning of his earthly ministry, which only John writes about in John chapter two.

This is the second cleansing, which is really at the conclusion of his earthly ministry, because he's going to be crucified the following Friday.

Matthew makes it look like the cleansing of the temple happens on the same day as the triumphal entry.

We read about Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey's colt. That was the reading yesterday, chapter 21, verses 1 through 11.

And this also in fulfillment of the prophets. This is a fulfillment of the prophets because God has ordained it.

He revealed these things through the prophets, not because he looked down the tunnel of time and saw that these things were going to transpire this way, but he arranged that they would happen this way.

Hence, the statement Jesus makes here in this section, out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have prepared praise for yourself.

Another translation puts it, you have ordained praise for yourself. It is God who has arranged this.

And so the fulfillment of prophecy that we see even in the triumphal entry and the people expecting their king to come and singing his praises,

Hosanna to the son of David, which we see the children saying, even in the temple here in this particular section, again, showing the divinity of Christ.

But as I said, Matthew makes it look like all of this happens on the same day. That's different from, say,

Mark, who shows it happening on two different days. Jesus rides into Jerusalem in the triumphal entry, the people sing his praises.

He goes into the temple and looks around, but then he leaves. And then the next day, so this would be on Monday, he comes back into Jerusalem and cleanses the temple.

Matthew doesn't put it that way, but it's not as if there's a contradiction here, because again, Matthew is showing us that Christ is the king.

He is the son of David, the rightful heir to the throne. So when Jesus comes into Jerusalem, where would you expect the first place for him to go?

If he is the king who is promised, this is the king that the people were expecting.

Where do you think the people would expect him to go? Here's our king. He has come in. We've sung his praises.

This is his processional. So where's the first place they expect the king to set foot?

He's going to go straight to his home. He's going to go to the palace.

At least that's what the people think. So he would go up to the palace and kick the

Herod's out, and then he would sit on his throne and he would reign and he would kick all the Romans out. And everybody would come alongside him and a great army would be risen up to follow this great king and driving out the

Romans and Israel would be a great empire again. And there was expectation among the people that that was the way these events were going to transpire.

But he doesn't go to the palace where he deserves to sit on that throne.

He goes into the temple. But again, this is showing who

Jesus really is. He is far above any earthly king. He goes into the temple, the house of God, because that is

God's house. So of course, that's where he would go. That's where the son of God would go. And so he enters into the temple now again,

Mark has him going into the temple, leaving and then coming back the next day and cleansing the temple. But as I said, there's not a contradiction here.

Matthew just doesn't insert that this happened on two different days. He is showing the succession, an immediate succession so that you see this king who has come is a king above any earthly throne.

Where does this king go? Not to the palace that was inhabited by the Herod's. He goes into the temple, the house of God, which the people would not have understood.

And even the disciples may have been confused by this, but would have understood it later. Hence why Matthew, one of the disciples, is writing that very thing here in just that way.

Jesus entered the temple. And what does he do going into the temple? He drives out those who are buying and selling in the temple, overturning the tables and the money changers in the seats of those who are selling doves.

Why were they selling these animals? They were selling them for sacrifices. The doves and the oxen for sacrifice.

He had cast them out before John to bidding them not to make the house a house of merchandise, a house for merchants.

But it was supposed to be a house of prayer. And this place where the buying and selling is going on, this is in the outer court where the

Gentiles would worship. This is supposed to be a house of prayer for all the nations.

That's the citation exactly given in John two. But the nations are not allowed to be there.

The Gentiles are not able to come in and worship because that place of worship for the Gentiles has now become a place of of merchandise.

We're buying and selling here. We're we're taking advantage of people who need to come and sacrifice by selling their sacrifices to them and probably even, you know, selling them for much more than they were worth, probably saying things like, you know, how much is it worth to you to get forgiveness for your sins so you should be willing to pay more?

This fills Jesus with rage. This is holy anger from the son of God and that he turns over the tables and the money changers driving them out of the temple and quoting to them from Isaiah 56.

It is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a robber's den.

Here's the reference from Isaiah 56, starting in verse six. Also the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh to minister to him and to love the name of Yahweh, to be his slaves, everyone who keeps from profaning the

Sabbath and takes hold of my covenant. Even those I will bring to my holy mountain and make them glad in my house of prayer.

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar for my house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.

Now Matthew doesn't include that part in the citation here, but the understanding would definitely have been implied because anybody, any

Jew that would have been reading this particular gospel account would have known that this place, this, this was the place where the

Gentiles were allowed to worship and here they're not able to worship because of the merchants. Jesus drives them out.

You see his love and his compassion for Gentiles here in the way that he drives the money changers out.

Of course, they are profaning the house of God, this house of worship and house of prayer. Certainly that is the zeal that has filled

Christ's heart first and foremost, because he doesn't want God's name to be profaned, to be blasphemed in this way.

The way that the Pharisees and these money changers are doing so, but he also demonstrates love and compassion for a people, a foreign people who would desire to come to God and know him.

Jesus showing his love for Gentiles and that he drives the merchants out of the place that was designated for the

Gentiles to worship. You are making it a robber's den, Jesus says, which is also an

Old Testament reference that comes from Jeremiah chapter seven. So Jesus quoting two passages here in his anger against the profaning of God's house.

And then in verse 14 is the resolve of this particular, uh, this first interaction here, the blind and lame came to him in the temple and he healed them.

So here it becomes a house of prayer and a house of honor. They come to Christ, the son of God, and asked to be healed by him.

And the miraculous working of God is demonstrated in their midst. And then in the second part, the chief priests and the scribes, they see the marvelous things which he had done.

And the children, they hear the children shouting in the temple saying Hosanna to the son of David and they became indignant.

So there are children there who are singing Jesus praises. They're repeating the same things they may have heard their parents say the day before in the triumphal entry, praising

Jesus saying Hosanna to the son of David. And here they see him in the temple. And so they sing his praises in this way.

And this goes back to something that Jesus had said previously to the disciples, little children wanted to come to him and the disciples tried to prevent them.

But Jesus said, do not hinder them for to these belong the kingdom of God. And even before that,

Jesus had stood a child in their midst and had said, unless you become like children, you cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

And so these two references in previous chapters build up to this, where we see children there in the temple singing

Jesus praises, Hosanna to the son of David. And this makes the

Pharisees enraged. They are filled with rage over this. Here these children are exalting this man who doesn't deserve this attention, at least according to the

Pharisees. They believe that he's blaspheming. They've heard what he has said before about who he is.

They're looking for a reason to put him to death. So they say to him, do you hear what these children are saying?

They're saying Hosanna to you, Yahweh saves through this man who they're calling the son of David.

And the Pharisees are going to, you hear this, like, are you going to, are you going to amount up an insurrection right here, where you're going to gather up peoples to yourself and, and ascend the throne again and throw out the

Romans. You're going to stir the Romans into a fit. That may have been some of the concern that the Pharisees had here.

Not just that, you know, they believe that Jesus is blaspheming. They certainly thought that there's not just jealousy that is filling their hearts.

That was certainly happening also. But the fact that they, he could be stirring the

Romans into a frenzy. And so Jesus responds to them and says, yes, yes,

I hear what they're saying. Have you never read? And what an indicting question that is, shouldn't you understand what is going on here?

You're teachers of Israel. Have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have prepared praise for yourself, which again is a statement that comes out of Psalm eight and showing that Psalm eight is referencing to Christ and God has ordained, he has prepared that this event would happen exactly this way and filling these children's hearts with glory unto

God that they would sing the praises of son of David, of the son of David right there. Even after he's done this thing of driving out the money changers, he's cleansing the house of God.

And yet the children honor him and exalt him. The Pharisees should have been singing his praises, but it's these children again, giving support to lessons that he had taught previously.

Unless you become like children, you will not inherit the kingdom of God here. These children are doing that very thing.

And the Pharisees are not humbling themselves. And then Jesus also saying to his disciples, do not hinder the children, let them come to me.

What are the Pharisees trying to do? They're trying to stop these kids. Don't let them sing your praises like this.

And Jesus has said it's been ordained. It's been prepared that this day would happen.

And these children would say exactly this out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies.

God has prepared praise for himself. And then the resolve of this second part comes in verse 17,

Jesus left them and went out of the city to Bethany and he spent the night there.

Now, what's going to happen next is we have teachings of Jesus, which at least according to the succession of things that are happening here would have happened on Tuesday.

So beginning in verse 18, we have the start of that Tuesday morning, and then it doesn't come to a conclusion until the end of chapter 25.

So all of these events that we'll read about here, at least according to Matthew's account, would have been on Tuesday.

It could be that some of these things happen on Monday and Tuesday, if we consider some of the other things that were written in Mark and in Luke.

But there's not a reason to have to speculate there. The way that Matthew puts this is that the vast majority of the teaching that Jesus did in that particular week was on Tuesday.

So you have the triumphal entry on Sunday. You have the cleansing of the temple on Monday, which again, we understand that from Mark as Matthew doesn't indicate that it was on different days.

And then you have the fullness of the teaching that he did in the temple, and then his departure from the temple, the woes, the seven woes he gives to the

Pharisees, which are coming up in chapter 23. All of this happened in one day. It all happened on Tuesday.

So we'll pick up from there tomorrow, starting on a different day with the barren fig tree and the authority of Jesus challenge.

We'll look at those two things tomorrow. So verses 18 to 27. But let me conclude here with something that I had pointed out yesterday.

The people anticipated that Jesus was going to become a military emancipator.

He was going to assume the throne, kick out the Herods, kick out the Romans, and make Israel a great empire again.

That's what they're expecting their king to do. Matthew is showing that something greater than that is happening here.

He goes into the temple. He doesn't go into an earthly palace. He goes into the temple because he is the son of God.

He went into the house of God. Of course, that's where he went, demonstrating once again that Jesus is

God. Now Jesus has indeed set us free, but he set us free from more than earthly oppression or earthly slavery and captivity.

He set us free from the bonds of sin and death itself and has even freed us from the wrath of God that we all deserve.

Jesus has done way more than we might anticipate him doing in an earthly kingdom.

In the very courts of heaven, he has canceled our debt and made us fellow heirs with him of his eternal kingdom.

And that is enough for us. You may be experiencing some kind of oppression in this life that you expect to be liberated from.

Maybe Jesus will, but maybe he won't. Rejoice in him anyway, because by faith in him, your sins are forgiven.

And that's far greater than any earthly relief that you could receive.

There are people that are expecting the nation to become Christianized again, whether it's going to happen in our lifetime or in another lifetime.

Maybe it would be in God's plan for that to happen. But if it doesn't, praise him anyway, because he has given you a kingdom far greater than any earthly kingdom, the kingdom of God in Christ.

These things we receive, the great rewards that we receive, we may not see in this lifetime.

We will see them in the next. So continue to trust in God, worship

Christ, whose praise has been ordained, for he alone is worthy of our worship.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read, and may we continue to be awed at the goodness you have shown to us through Christ our

Savior, he who died on the cross for our sins, rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God, where he reigns over everything, even now.

He is coming back again to judge the living and the dead, and all who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

May this truth continue to fill our hearts with hope today, and we live for you, and the glory of Christ and his kingdom, seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

all the other things that we need will be added to us as well. It's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.