Meeting Jesus - Jesus Clears The Temple
This weekend marks one year since I announced to the church I was serving in Arizona that behind the scenes I had been interviewing with Beach Church, that I would be stepping down from leadership at Calvary, and that, on December 6, I would preach “in view of a call” to be either voted in or rejected as the Lead Pastor at Beach Church.
It was a difficult season for my whole family. It was not a move initiated by me, rather, it was initiated by the Pastor I trusted, and was supposed to secede.
He went away for a five-week Sabbatical, and when he returned, he gaslighted me, he made me think there was something wrong with me, and then said to me in a nutshell: “God told me not to leave and for you to go. Find another church to serve.” Perhaps you know that sting of church hurt as well. When we moved to Arizona, we planned on staying there the rest of our lives. My family invested in the community. We established meaningful friendships.
Church hurt is the worst hurt to overcome, because it happens through people often trusted, respected, and loved. In the Old Testament, a boy named Joseph had brothers who were jealous of him. They were going to murder him, but instead made money off of him and sold him to slave traders from Egypt. In time, Joseph became the second in command to Pharoah, and God used him to save the lives of the Israelites.
In the Old Testament, a boy named David was selected by God to become King. The current King of Israel did not want to give up his throne, so he spent his remaining days trying to kill David. Saul threw spears, David ran. Eventually, David would become King of Israel. In the New Testament, a man named Paul taught that Jesus was the Messiah and Savior of the world so much, he was chased out of city after city, he was stoned, beaten, thrown into prison and eventually beheaded as a rebel.
In the New Testament, a man named Jesus was God in the flesh. He walked the world caring for the blind, the beggar, the deaf, the crippled, the broken. He loved the outcasts, the misfits, and brought joy to their lives through miracles and life-change. He professed to be the Savior of the World, and was beaten, mocked, and crucified. But three days later he came back to life. Lived among his disciples for another forty days, then returned to Heaven with a promise that he would return one day. In each of these situations, God brought victory through tragedy. Sometimes, the worst hurt we experience is hurt that comes through the hand of people we trust.
God will bring victory to your life through tragedy! That is what God does!
In today’s passage of scripture, the people of God were getting hurt at the church, and Jesus had enough.
Luke 19:45-48 (NLT2)
45 Then Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people selling animals for sacrifices. 46 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.” 47 After that, he taught daily in the Temple, but the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the other leaders of the people began planning how to kill him. 48 But they could think of nothing, because all the people hung on every word he said.
Why did Jesus get angry at the money changers in the temple, but not at Mattthew or the other tax collectors? Jesus didn’t flip Matthews table over for gouging people on their taxes. Why did it bother Jesus so much?
Because, prior to the cross when Jesus paid the price for our sins so that we could have a right relationship with God, the temple was the place his people could be forgiven. At the temple, the people of God could worship, hear scripture, make sacrifices, and be made right with God. The temple is where they could have their relationship restored with God.
Please understand that today,
THE CHURCH SHOULD BE A PLACE OF RESTORATION, NOT HURT.
The people in charge of the temple, the priests and the teachers of the law, were not guarding the sanctity of the temple, but were allowing and even participating in the corruption, and making money from it. The temple had become a place of hurt, not restoration. It had become a place where people were robbed, not blessed. It had become a place of insecurity, filled with people who honor God with their lips, but their hearts remained far from him.
That made Jesus angry. Jesus loved God and he loved God’s people. He was angry because he saw how the people were deceived and damaged. So he took action. Grabbing cords, flipping tables, and chasing these people out of the temple, Jesus showed he came to look out for the people of God that the Religious leaders stopped caring about. Roughly 580 years BEFORE this scene God had some harsh words of rebuke for the Religious Leaders of Israel. Through the Prophet Ezekiel God gave the religious leaders a good old fashioned whooping.
Listen to these stinging words of rebuke:
Ezekiel 34:1-6 (NLT2)
1 Then this message came to me from the LORD: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds, the leaders of Israel. Give them this message from the Sovereign LORD: What sorrow awaits you shepherds who feed yourselves instead of your flocks. Shouldn’t shepherds feed their sheep? 3 You drink the milk, wear the wool, and butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve. 4 You have not taken care of the weak. You have not tended the sick or bound up the injured. You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with harshness and cruelty. 5 So my sheep have been scattered without a shepherd, and they are easy prey for any wild animal. 6 They have wandered through all the mountains and all the hills, across the face of the earth, yet no one has gone to search for them.
Talk about a whooping! God rebuked the religious leaders for neglecting, starving, and harming his people. He said the religious leaders had not:
Taking care of the weak.
Bound up the injured.
Searched for the lost people or those who have strayed away.
In the name of God, the religious leaders used their position to take care of themselves. In the name of God, they abused people and led them cruelty. Never doubt that God cares about what happens to the people in his churches.
Young. Old. Rich. Poor. Any race. Male or female.
God’s heart beats for people.
People who have surrendered their lives to Jesus.
People who have rejected Jesus.
People who have wandered away from the church.
God loves each and everyone.
And, the thing about God’s anger is that God doesn’t stew, wring his hands, and strike in anger.
Look how God says he is going to handle the situation:
Ezekiel 34:11-12 (NLT2)
11 “For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search and find my sheep. 12 I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day.
Ezekiel 34:16 (NLT2)
16 I will search for my lost ones who strayed away, and I will bring them safely home again. I will bandage the injured and strengthen the weak…
Because he loves and cares, God rolls up his sleeves and says:
I will be their shepherd.
I will find my and rescue my sheep.
I will search for the lost and bring them back.
I will bandage the injured and strengthen the weak.
That is precisely what Jesus did on the earth 2,000 years ago, and that is what he still does today. The church should be a place of restoration, not hurt. Hurt in the church doesn’t only come through the leaders in the church, does it?
HOW WE DO CHURCH MATTERS TO GOD
God not only cares about the religious leaders leading with the heart of Jesus, he also cares about the way we do church. He cares about the way we treat one another. After God rebukes the religious leaders, God has more stinging words of rebuke for the way the people treated one another:
Ezekiel 34:17A-21 (NLT)
17 “And as for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign LORD says to his people: 18 Isn’t it enough for you to keep the best of the pastures for yourselves? Must you also trample down the rest? Isn’t it enough for you to drink clear water for yourselves? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? 19 Why must my flock eat what you have trampled down and drink water you have fouled? 20 “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will surely judge between the fat sheep and the scrawny sheep. 21 For you fat sheep pushed and butted and crowded my sick and hungry flock until you scattered them to distant lands.
Some of God’s people were acting like the religious leaders. They only focused on themselves. They did not care about other people. They did not try to help other people. As the people of God, some had become extremely wealthy and powerful and used their power, wealth, and influence to harm other people.
The bad religious leaders looked the other way while the strong, fat sheep pushed and butted everybody else around. It was the religious leaders role to feed, strengthen, and protect all the sheep. At the temple when Jesus became angry and chased out those merchants, it is because they were hurting people in the name of God. Merchants made an arrangement with the religious leaders of the temple to sell animals for the sacrifices and rip people off.
Just like in Ezekiel, the temple had become corrupted by greed, deception, and hypocrisy. Jesus chased them out, and the religious leaders wanted to kill him. He was ruining their plans to pad their pockets and take care of themselves. But the religious leaders couldn’t find any wrong to accuse Jesus of doing, and the people remained in the temple hanging onto every word he said.
So, we do church right. We love one another and we…
HANG ONTO GOD’S WORD
I say it at the beginning of every sermon. One of our guiding values is Life-Changing truth. We believe if we read and apply the word of God He will change our lives. So, how can you get the word of God from the pages of the Bible, to your heart?
NEXT STEPS: GROW
I invite you to join us for our Next Steps Event. If you struggle with knowing how to read God’s Word and apply it to your life, if you struggle with hanging onto the Word of God, sign up now for our next event. We are going to worship, break out into Intro, Grow and Lead. In GROW, I have created a class to help you read and understand the Bible and how you can make practical application to your life.
Also, another way you hang onto God’s Word is to…
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Our sermon based life groups are going to begin in January. Life groups are going to meet in homes, discuss the sermon from the weekend, how it applies to their lives, and build real relationships with others. The groups will be 10-12 people, living transparently with each other, sharing struggles and victories with each others, and caring for one another.