“Jesus and the Temple”
Certain of Jesus: The Gospel of Luke
January 16, 2011
Luke 19:45-48
Last Sunday was Palm Sunday in the Gospel of Luke.
Jesus,
King Jesus, came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.
And in doing that in that way, He was saying that He was the Messiah and that He was coming as King. A king like no other king.
And that king, deserving all worship, came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey and weeping over the sin of the city.
He knew that Jerusalem and Israel and the world would reject Him. And so, this King wept.
And what did He did do next?
He went to the temple.
The Gospel of Mark tells us that He went to the temple and looked around.
I think He looked around to survey how things were in His domain. Not good.
And then the next day, this next little paragraph happened. Verses 45-48.
“Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘'My house will be a house of prayer'; but you have made it 'a den of robbers.'’ Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.”
I don’t think that this is Jesus’ first time doing this in the temple.
The Gospel of John presents Jesus doing something very similar very early in His ministry–in John chapter 2.
But it’s been a couple of years since Jesus had done that and business had returned as usual.
And Jesus has been mostly in the North with His public ministry.
But now Jesus has come to town. And He has come to clean house.
Let’s read the first two verses again.
“Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘'My house will be a house of prayer'; but you have made it 'a den of robbers.'’”
This probably happened in the Court of the Gentiles, that’s the part of the temple that was open to those who were not Jews.
Non-Jews, Gentiles, were allowed into the Court of Gentiles to pray and to find out more about the God of Israel.
But the Court of Gentiles had been turned into a shopping center and financial exchange.
Now, you have to get this picture into your head.
This temple, Herod’s Temple, was huge. It took up one sixth of the land mass of old Jerusalem. It was a wonder of the ancient world. The outer dimensions would cover twelve football fields.
It is estimated by some scholars that up to 75,000 people could be accommodated in the court of the Gentiles. That’s 5 times the size of the Bryce Jordan Center.
And all of those religious pilgrims who had come for the Passover needed to have a sacrifice and needed to pay their temple taxes with the right currency.
So, with the blessing (and percentage-taking) of the High Priest, they had commandeered the Court of Gentiles to be a place for buying sacrifices and exchanging money.
And this made King Jesus very angry. Again v.45
“Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘'My house will be a house of prayer'; but you have made it 'a den of robbers.'’”
This is not the usual picture of Jesus that we get, is it?
This is not a gentle Jesus, meek and mild.
This is an angry Jesus, zealous and wild.
I have three phrases this morning to describe the Jesus we find here in Luke 19:45-48 and the first is this:
#1. RIGHTEOUS ANGER.
Jesus is acting like an Old Testament prophet.
But more than a prophet with just words, Jesus is in full action–doing something about what He sees.
Listen to Mark’s description of Jesus in the temple from Mark 11:
“On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.”
Jesus is actually violent here.
Have you ever seen anyone turn over a table?
I thought about putting a table up her and demonstrating, but I thought that would be too much for the kids.
You can see it in your mind’s eye, anyway.
A table full of money just flipped over and Jesus forcibly keeping people from carrying merchandise through the temple.
This is a confrontation.
Jesus is being brazen and forceful.
He is angry and it is coming out in His actions.
But it’s a righteous anger.
Jesus is mad about the right things and in the right way and taking the right action.
So often, our anger is not righteous. Right?
We get mad about the wrong things in the wrong way and take the wrong action.
That’s why James says in James chapter 1, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”
So often, our anger is not righteous.
We get mad about the wrong things in the wrong way and take the wrong action.
But there is a righteous anger and Jesus shows it to us.
An anger that gets mad about the right things (like God’s glory being attacked and God’s people being harmed), mad in the right way (to the right proportion) and takes the right action–here it’s Jesus “cleaning house.”
Jesus’ example here reminds me that there is a godly kind of anger that I need to remember.
I need to remember it so that I live it out when the time comes.
I probably won’t have a reason to overturn a table in godly anger. I’m not King over the temple.
But there will be times when I should get mad at sin and should say or do something that will seem culturally inappropriate but rises to the level of the sin.
There are times to confront in godly anger.
But I also need to remember this godly anger because so often my anger doesn’t “bring about the righteous life that God desires.”
How about you?
In what ways did you get angry this last week? Is there anyone you need to apologize to?
Where you were mad about the wrong thing in the wrong way and took the wrong action?
You and I need to “be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for [our anger so often] does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”
But Jesus’ anger did.
Here’s why.
#2. PURIFYING HOLINESS.
That’s what Jesus’ anger was. It was a purifying holiness kind of anger.
Jesus is mad because these people were taking something that was supposed to be about holiness and worship and evangelism and selfishly turning it into...money.
See what He says in verse 46.
“‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘'My house will be a house of prayer'; but you have made it 'a den of robbers.'’”
Jesus quotes two different Old Testament prophets to make His point.
The first is Isaiah chapter 56, verse 7.
This is one of those Old Testament passages that gives us a glimpse of the heart of God for those who are not yet His own, in this case, Gentiles.
Listen to what God promises:
“And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to serve him, to love the name of the LORD, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant–these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
Not just Jews.
The temple was for Jews, but not just for Jews.
And this is the Court of the...what?...Gentiles.
They had pushed the Gentiles out and not left them room for prayer or for hearing about the God of Israel.
The nations were not allowed in to pray.
And that incensed Jesus.
Because it was so contrary to the heart of God.
Nobody could pray with all of that commerce in the temple!
So Jesus says that the temple has been turned from a house of prayer to a “den of robbers.”
He is quoting Jeremiah chapter 7, verse 11.
Where Jeremiah stands at the same place, at the door of the temple and scorches the people of Jerusalem for their sins.
Listen to it in context.
This is Jeremiah chapter 7.
“Stand at the gate of the LORD's house and there proclaim this message: 'Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!’ If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, ‘We are safe’–safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD.”
Do you see why Jesus picked that passage to quote at this moment?
God is calling them to reform their ways.
To repent.
To change.
Or else.
God wants to the temple to be holy but they were making it unholy.
And that had to change.
Purifying Holiness.
That’s why we often call this action of Jesus, “Cleansing the Temple.”
He was taking what was unclean and making it clean again.
He was taking what was unholy and making it holy again.
He was taking what was impure and making it pure again.
Purifying Holiness.
Now, what is the application of that?
When I was growing up, I thought that this meant that it was wrong to sell things in the foyer or the fellowship hall at church.
And still I do think we need to be careful about that. We need to check our motives and try to keep business away from our major gatherings as a church family.
But the Church Facility is not the temple, is it?
What is the fulfillment of the temple now?
Who is the temple now?
We are the temple, aren’t we?
Individually, bodily, Christians are all temples of the living God.
And together, we as a church family are a temple–the meeting place between God and Man.
Not the building, but the people.
We are the temple.
So, what does this mean for us?
It means that Jesus wants us to be purified, too.
He wants us to be holy, too.
He wants us to be a people of prayer, not a cave of thievery.
One application of that would be, again, to not love money.
You can only have one master, God or money.
It looked like Money was winning at the temple.
But then Jesus came around and cleaned things up.
I think that one thing that we should do because we’ve slowed down and read this passage is to do some self-evaluation of our own hearts and lives.
What needs to be cleansed?
What needs to be purified?
What needs to be kicked out of hearts and lives to make way for holiness?
We are the temple, and Jesus wants it pure.
I believe that Jesus was fulfilling another ancient prophecy when He did this.
Malachi 3, verses 1-3.
Listen to this:
“‘See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. [John the Baptist] Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the LORD Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.”
Jesus was coming to refine and purify His people.
Are we submitting to His cleansing power?
Now, I never thought about this until this week. Never in my life.
But it seems to me now that Jesus’ violent cleansing action was successful for about one week.
I never thought about it. I think I assumed that it went right back to business-as-usual the next day.
But it seems from reading verses 47 and 48 that Jesus didn’t need to clean out the temple again that week.
The money changers stayed home or set up outside somewhere.
The people selling merchandise and sacrificial animals stayed away.
And Jesus set up shop in the temple and made it the center of His ministry that week.
I never noticed this before. Look at verse 47.
“Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.”
“Every day he was teaching at the temple.”
Jesus made the temple His pulpit.
And the people were listening. They listening every day.
The other gospels make it clear that He would come into town each day and teach the temple and then go out to Bethany each night.
The picture I get is that King Jesus has reclaimed His temple at least for now.
I get a picture of
#3. SOVEREIGN MAJESTY.
Just like we saw
last week, Jesus is in complete control here.
He has changed the temple, cleansed it, made it holy again.
And it is HIS TEMPLE!
Remember back in chapter 2 when a young man named Jesus came to the temple with his family?
Luke is the only gospel that has that story.
Mary and Joseph and Jesus come to the temple and then the family heads home assuming that Jesus was with them, but He wasn’t.
He was back at the temple, amazing the teachers of the Law.
What did He say to His parents when they found Him?
“Why were you searching for me?” “Didn't you know I had to be [...where?] in my Father's house?”
Jesus was, even right then, aware of and claiming to be God’s Son.
And if the temple is God’s House, then it is Jesus’ House.
In my mind’s eye, this is the closest that things get during Jesus’ ministry to being the way things ought to be.
The son of David teaching (ruling?) in the temple of the Lord.
And of course, that means that this is the last straw with the Jewish Religious Authorities. V.47
“But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. [They didn’t want this. This is not the way it should be! He has to die!] Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.”
Sovereign Majesty.
They couldn’t kill Jesus until Jesus said that they could.
And the people “hung on his words.”
That’s what you do when the King is speaking.
When the King is righteous and dispensing righteous teaching.
You hang on His every word.
What did He say?
Did you get that?
Of course the leaders couldn’t kill Jesus, He was reigning in sovereign majesty.
Are you and I hanging on His every word?
Do we yearn to catch each word that drops from His mouth?
How many are reading the Bible through this year?
How many are (whether or not you’re taking the challenge), how many have a plan to read their Bible regularly and hang on Jesus’ ever word this year?
These are the words of the King!
Listen to what Psalm 19 says about them:
“The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever.
The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous.
They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.
By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”
Hang on every word that comes out of the mouth of our Sovereign Majesty!
One more thought and then we’re done.
Jesus was more than just the Lord of the Temple.
He was, the fulfillment of the Temple.
Jesus is the true temple.
The first time that Jesus cleansed the temple back in John chapter 2, He said, “‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’ The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”
This temple that Jesus was cleansing was just a picture of what Jesus was going to be and do.
Eventually, this week, the bad guys in verse 47 get their wish. They kill Jesus.
They tear down this temple of Jesus’ body.
But even that was part of His Sovereign, Majestic Plan!
Jesus died to pay the penalty for sin.
And then Jesus came back from the dead to give life to all who believe in Him.
He is sovereign master even over death.
And those who put their trust in Him gain forgiveness, heaven, and everlasting joy in the presence of His sovereign majesty!
Jesus is the fulfillment of the temple.
Messages So Far In this Series:
Certain of Jesus
The Back-Story of Jesus
The Birth of Jesus
Jesus - A Very Special Child
Preparing the Way for Jesus
Jesus Is the Son of God
Jesus in Galilee
Jesus and the Sinners
Jesus Brings Real Joy and Rest
Jesus' Followers Are Different: Part One
Jesus' Followers Are Different: Part Two
Jesus' Followers Are Different: Part Three
Jesus' Followers Are Different: Part Four
Amazing Jesus
Disappointed with Jesus
Loving Jesus Much
Jesus' Real Family
Jesus Is Lord
Who Is Jesus?
Following Jesus
Sent By Jesus
Q&A With Jesus
Sitting at Jesus' Feet
Jesus Teaches Us to Pray
Jesus Is Stronger Than Satan
More Blessed Than Jesus' Mom
Jesus and the Judgment to Come
Being Real with Jesus
Jesus and Our Stuff
Be Ready for Jesus' Return
Jesus and Tragedies
Set Free By Jesus
Jesus and the Surprising Kingdom
Jesus and Jerusalem
Jesus at the Party
The Cost of Following Jesus
Jesus and the Lost: Part One
Jesus and the Lost: Part Two
Jesus and the Lost: Part Three
Jesus on Money
Sneering at Jesus
Jesus and the Great Chasm
Jesus Said to His Disciples...
Thanking Jesus
Jesus and the Coming Kingdom
Jesus Says, "Keep Praying"
The Proud, the Humble, and Jesus
Jesus Does the Impossible
Why Did Jesus Come?
Investing for Jesus in 2011
King Jesus
