CLEANSING THE TEMPLE
The shouts of Hosanna still rang loudly in ears of the citizens of Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday. A large gathering of people were on hand to see Jesus as he rode into the city as the King of Peace on the back of a colt. Jesus continued down the dusty streets while the disciples and the rest of crowd fell in behind him in a long processional until he finally came to the Temple.
I think that it is worthy to note that it was to the place that was built according to his own design and by his own order and that was dedicated to his worship, where the glory of God shown down upon the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies.
He did not go to the Tower of David which was the stronghold of Zionism in the city to set up a garrison of power. Jesus had no designs to build an earthly kingdom as we mentioned this morning, but he did have great plans for his own house. After all, this was his house and he entered the temple through the Eastern Gate, or the King’s Gate, because he was the King, reigning over his own kingdom.
Upon entering the temple grounds Jesus’ first encounter was with the Court of the Gentiles. This was the area of the temple grounds where Gentiles could come to shop, to pay homage to the God of Israel, or satisfy their curiosity, but they were allowed to go no farther without obedience to all of the ceremonial law.
In the Court of the Gentiles the Jews had set up a marketplace, a mall of sorts, where all manner of sacrificial animals and offerings could be purchased.
It was at that moment that we read what happened next.
Matthew 21:10-14, "And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them."
I have often wondered just what Jesus would have seen that day that caused so much righteous anger to rise up within him?
Surely these moneychangers and shopkeepers were no more frustrating to Jesus than so many of the religious leaders had been on the streets! Why did Jesus lash out with such force against these business people who seemed to be actually doing a service to those who came to worship at the temple?
The one thing that keeps coming to my mind is the scripture in 1 Peter 4:17, "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?"
I think that here we find the key to why Jesus acted the way he did that day.
God’s House is meant to be a house of prayer. This building, this sanctuary is appointed by God, through the hearts of his people to be place where we can come together collectively, or individually, to meet with the Lord and to hear his Word.
The problem was that these business men, those who ran the tables, who bought and sold sacrificial merchandise, had absolutely lost there reverence for the temple and what it stood for.
They had turned something sacred and beautiful into a money-making scheme that took advantage of anyone who came into the temple area empty-handed.
Illustration:
I know that most of you have traveled to different locations for a vacation. It seems that we never go anywhere away from home without making a discovery that we have left something very important at home.
There were a few instances that I can remember where we arrived at a distant city to discover that my wife left most of her clothes at home. Now I ask you, of all the things to leave by “accident” why would it be the clothes that we need? Leave a toothbrush or the shampoo behind, yes, but your entire wardrobe? I have often wondered if they were really left by accident. (I’m only joking. I know her better than that – or do I?)
Needless to say there were no outlet malls or discount stores around and so we were forced to go wherever we could and pay whatever price was posted. We had no choice and to try to get around paying that price would have cost more than just biting the bullet and buying what she needed right then.
That’s not a fun thing to do when you are traveling on a very limited budget to begin with.
Now let’s go back to the Court of the Gentiles and see what upset Jesus so very much!
Was it wrong for those who owned the shops to be there to supply the needs of those who came to worship. I don’t think so. Was it wrong necessarily that they had set up shop inside the temple complex? Well, that could arguably be wrong but I don’t think that this was the point that caused such anger to rise up in Jesus?
What was it? I believe that it was the “Love of Money”, the root of all evil, that had found its place inside the very House of God. The Love of Money, specifically, the love of huge profits from the sale of sacrificial animals and offerings for those who arrived without any was what made Jesus so angry. The problem was that these men were price gouging everyone who came by. They cared less for those they were supposed to be helping and they only cared for their own welfare and profit margin.
Illustration:
All of us grow angry at the news of some unscrupulous merchants who will charge exorbitant prices for necessities in times of trouble. Most of them are willing to do so because the fines are worth the chance to make huge profits. During recent days in Florida, when the hurricanes were threatening the state there were a number of these cases. Here are few example cited from the Florida Department of Agriculture facts in 1998.
· A sheet of plywood from a Broward hardware store that recently sold for $9.95 now going for $29.95.
· A four-pack of batteries at a Miami Beach newsstand carrying a price of $4.95, after being sold for $1.49 just days ago.
· A two-gallon bottle of water in Bradenton that recently sold for $1.90 now going for $3.
· A candle from a Miami Beach hardware store going for $3.95, after carrying a price tag of 99 cents earlier in the week.
Illustration:
Examples from the Business Courier website of Cincinnati, Ohio carried this article concerning the hiking of gasoline prices immediately after the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York:
Rumors of imminent price hikes caused long lines at stations across Ohio Tuesday, fed by isolated cases of gas stations charging up to $6 a gallon in wake of the tragedy. The attorney general’s office said there were complaints of gas stations in Cincinnati charging from $3 to $5 per gallon.
Illustration:
One other on a personal note comes from the Vietnam War era. While serving as a security guard for the US Army at Long Binh in 1969, it was one of my duties to ride “shotgun” on every civilian tank truck that came to our little compound to fill our water tanks with fresh water from wells that were dug by the Army.
The local villages had very little, if any, fresh water supplies. They bathed, washed clothes, washed and watered their animals and drank of the water of the muddy Mekong River. As you can imagine, diseases and sicknesses were the result.
The reason that I had to guard these water tankers is that it was my duty to see to it that not one gallon of water was left on these trucks before they left, even if it had to be emptied on the ground. In man’s inhumanity to man, those who drove those trucks would take what little fresh water was left on the truck and sell it at exorbitant prices to the local villagers who could least afford to buy it. Sometimes the price would go for around $5 Piasters per gallon. That wasn’t much in our money. If I remember correctly, the US Dollar was worth approximately 130 Piasters. But, when you consider that the average income was less than $300 Piasters a month, that was a lot of money for one gallon of fresh water.
So when Jesus walked into his own house, that was designed, planned and purposed for prayer and worship, it’s no surprise that his temper was displayed in such a manner.
Here were price-gouging merchants with over-priced merchandise to steal all they could from those who could not afford it. It was as though the people had to buy the blessings of God and right to worship him. IT’S NO WONDER JESUS BECAME SO ANGRY!
Jesus was coming into Jerusalem to freely give all that Heaven had to offer to purchase the souls of men at no cost to them, while the money-changers were charging those that came to make a profit.
Many of those who came from other nations were coming to see what this God of Israel and his Temple in Jerusalem were all about had come with money that had to be converted into the money of the local economy, just as we still do today. I wonder what the rate of exchange was and how much percentage was being overcharged to make that exchange?
The price of the simplest of sacrifices was extreme. Doves were very expensive, not to mention the bulls, goats and lambs that were necessary for some of the greater times of sacrifice.
But let’s not get too judgmental upon those price-gouging, over zealous moneychangers. There is a whole lot of this same kind of thing going on in churches across America right now.
Since when should you have to pay the minister to come and pray with you?
What scriptural right does any church or any preacher have to force you to pay a monthly fee for praying for your long dead relatives to pray them out of a place that doesn’t even exist except in their own creative minds?
Where does the church get the right to charge for a baptism?
What gives the pastor the right to demand your W2 or tax documents so that you can be charged correctly for your tithes and offerings?
Show me one place in God’s Word where we are instructed to not allow anyone to be a member of our congregation unless they give in the offerings and pay tithes!
Oh yes, there is scripture that says we should do those things and there are great spiritual penalties and missed blessings if we don’t do what God says we should, but it never gives me or any other minister the right to excommunicate anyone or to give them any less preferential treatment.
God’s House was never designed for such shenanigans. It was designed and commissioned to be a House of Prayer and a place where we can come together as a family to worship the Lord.
But it’s not just those who “charge” for the blessings of the preacher or the church either!
I cannot begin to say how many people have come to the House of God, even as those who came to the Court of the Gentiles did, seeking after some reality. They were honestly seeking the truth, hoping that there was something real about Christianity! They walk into some of our Pentecostal Churches, and not just ours, but many more, and all they hear about is how the church needs money, money, and even more money!
If we would get our eyes off of building huge institutions, large bank accounts and grand displays that bring glory to the leadership of the local church and get our eyes on saving lost souls, how many more people would be saved?
I know it takes finances to build a ministry but if that ministry is of God and listening to God and moving as the Holy Spirit leads, God will see to it that the need is met without our programs for raising funds. It’s not that I have a problem with the church doing fund raisers or encouraging the people to give. Sometimes those things are not only right but a necessity for the moment. But, when our focus shifts from worshipping God and reaching the lost to bringing in the cash, then we step into the same place as the moneychangers in the temple
Take a look at most Christian TV and radio programming for an example if you wish. It wasn’t long ago that Jim and Tammy Faye Baker were on TV building a Christian playground, draining millions upon millions of dollars from God’s people who were more focused on pleasure than winning souls. God brought judgment upon that “ministry” and he isn’t finished yet.
Right now, you can turn on just about any radio program you want to on the local Christian stations and you won’t listen for 10 minutes before you will hear a tearful plea for you to send your offerings. There was one instance a few years ago where one of the ministries in our area actually said that they didn’t want offerings less than $20 because anything less would be swallowed in administrative costs and nothing would be left over for reaching souls. What a farce! What a slap in the face of all those who would want to see souls won through the media!
Perhaps its time we get rid of the administration and allow the Holy Spirit to speak through the preaching of the Word of God in same manner that he has done for centuries.
If we have to beg for people to send in the support needed, then perhaps its time to just shut up and let God do what he needs to do to either bless our efforts or close us down.
Judgment must and has begun in the House of God. Jesus has already begun to throw over some of the moneychangers in the modern day temple and he will raise up new voices, obedient to his word that aren’t seeking to build their own empires, only to save the lost.
Judgment in the House of God begins when Jesus discredits those use his House for their own profit.
It begins when Jesus silences the voice of those who will misuse and abuse God’s own people and who will cheapen the gospel to make themselves rich.
It begins when Jesus exposes those who are living in unrighteousness while putting on a front of holiness.
It begins when Jesus gives his people wisdom to recognize those preachers who are nothing more than wolves in sheep’s clothing or who are hirelings unfit to minister at all.
Now lest we point fingers at everyone but ourselves, I have one all important question for each of us too.
What does Jesus need to cleanse from your temple right now? Has he already begun the cleansing process?
1 Corinthians 6:19, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"
If our body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost, then that means that whatever there is that is hanging on to our lives that is displeasing to God makes us no better than the moneychangers.
Our own self-righteousness is like filthy rags in God’s sight. If we aren’t being reverent to the presence of the Lord in our own hearts, or we are cheapening the gospel message through our own lives, then get ready because Jesus is going to throw over our tables too.
God expects nothing less than complete obedience. I have said it before and I will say it again, “Partial obedience is still disobedience” and God will not allow us to continue in disobedience.
Are you giving God all that is due to him? Not just your finances but your heart, your life, your talents and skills and your time.
Are you short changing God?
Do people see the reality of salvation in you?
Do they see Jesus in you, or do they see the same attitudes and actions that Jesus saw that day?
It’s time for us to cleanse our Temple before the wrath of God cleanses it for us!
