A House of Prayer

As we continue, I'd encourage you to turn to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 19.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

And as I was coming up, I was thinking about how every aspect of the morning is worship.

The singing is worship, the giving is worship, the reading of scripture is worship, the hearing and explanation of it is worship.

And so right now we're worshiping as we read God's Word, Luke chapter 19.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

I will be reading verses 45 through the end of the chapter.

And if you don't have a Bible with you, there should be a Bible there on the shelf right in front of you, a black hardcover Bible.

And you can find the scripture passage on page 879.

And if you don't own a Bible, please, following this service, take that Bible home with you as our gift.

We want you to have it.

And so please avail yourselves to that.

Take it home.

Keep it as your own and read it.

We'd love for you to have that.

Luke chapter 19, beginning in verse 45.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

As he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, It is written, My house shall be called, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.

And he was teaching daily in the temple.

The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him.

But they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.

This is God's word.

Two weeks ago we celebrated Palm Sunday, and as we celebrated, we talked about the fact that that was the beginning of Passion Week.

And the Passion comes from the word, the Latin word for suffering.

And we saw the suffering of Jesus.

We thought about uh during that week, uh during the treasure box journey and Good Friday, uh, the suffering of Jesus.

We saw in his death, we saw the agony of the crucifixion, of his having a crown of thorns, of being beaten and whipped and mocked and hung on a cross.

But we also talked about the greatest suffering wasn't anything that you could see with your eyes.

It was the fact that on the cross Jesus bore the wrath that we deserve, that God poured out the cup of wrath upon him that we deserve.

He suffered and died in our place, and he rose again victoriously physically on the third day.

But during that service two weeks ago, when we looked at the triumphal entry, we also talked about the word passion, is also used in another way.

Uh we talk about passion, and a dictionary definition says passion is any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, uh, such as love or hate, a strong or exagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire, uh, according to dictionary.com and Webster's dictionary says passion is intense driving or consuming feelings or convictions.

And my friend Stefan C.A., he likes to say we're more passionate than rational.

And we really are.

As much as we like to think that we're rational, objective people, more often than not, we are driven by our passions.

We are driven by our uh by this, our hearts that are fixed on something, and oftentimes our passions are disproportionate uh to what is happening.

Uh sometimes something small happens, but uh but what what's going on in our hearts and we respond uh out of proportion to the reality around us.

Uh we we are so driven by these intense feelings or convictions or emotions that um oftentimes we react and then we realize later uh how uh out of balance we were.

And so we are passionate people.

Jesus was uh a passionate man.

But unlike us, who oftentimes our emotions don't line up with uh and our reactions don't line up with what's what's really happening, uh Jesus' passions were were uh always in perfection in relationship to what was happening.

One author, uh Philip Riken, noted this Jesus was not weepy or sentimental, but he did cry about the things that broke his loving heart.

He wasn't moody or bad-tempered, but he was angry about hypocrisy and injustice.

In the intensity of his emotions, we see the true perfect humanity of Jesus.

And we saw two weeks ago as Jesus was coming over the hill and saw the city of Jerusalem unfold before him, that he began to weep.

And we notice that that weeping there wasn't a word for quiet sobbing, but it was loud wails of lament.

And he wept because of the sure and certain judgment upon Jerusalem that was imminent and about to overtake them, and did uh not too long after.

But perhaps more shocking than that is what we see here in verses 45 through 48.

Jesus is in the temple area.

He comes, now he's in Jerusalem, he's in the he comes into the temple area, and he sees in one particular location in the court of the Gentiles, uh, these money changers and these who were selling pigeons, who were selling uh animals to be sacrificed.

And Jesus goes in and he overthrows tables.

Have you ever seen a table overthrown?

It is a violent act of somebody coming in and everything, all of the wares, all of the things, and just taking and throwing it over.

And running the people out.

The other gospel in Mark 11 and in Matthew 21, it says that he wouldn't even allow anybody to carry anything through the temple.

Was this over the top?

Was Jesus being emotional?

Was he being erratic?

Was his reaction here disproportionate to what was going on?

How do we reconcile this with what we know about Jesus?

Uh an old poem says, Gentle Jesus, meek and mild.

Jesus describes himself as gentle in Matthew 11, 29.

He says, I'm gentle and lowly of heart.

In Matthew 5, 5, Jesus says, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Was Jesus being gentle or meek?

We need to recognize that gentleness or meekness is not weakness.

Uh in fact, uh meekness or gentleness is power under control.

Only those who have the power and the authority to do something and choose to refrain from it are truly meek and gentle people.

And Jesus was meek and gentle, but he also at times demonstrated perfect righteous indignation over uh moral offenses, dishonoring God and abusing others.

So is Jesus' reaction to the situation in the temple justified?

How do we understand what happens here?

What's really going on beneath the surface?

And how does this situation affect us today?

What are the applications for us?

So I want us to wrestle with that this morning and begin to think about some of the uh implications for us as Christians as a church.

But let me ask you another question, a little bit different vein, uh, but related to what we're going to talk about, and we'll see how these tie together a little bit later.

Um, but uh have you ever asked yourself, why am I here?

And I don't mean that in some kind of philosophical existential way of validating your existence, why am I here?

I mean, why are you here today?

Gather together as God's people, as the assembly of God's people as his church.

Why why are you here?

Why are you worshiping?

What is the purpose for why we are here?

What is our mission?

What is our objective?

Why are we here?

Different people have defined it differently, and let me just give you a couple of different uh ways that people answer that question, and uh, there's a lot of overlap and similarity between the different ways that uh some have answered this question.

Uh what is the mission of the church?

I've heard it described using the acronym for the word wife, W-I-F-E.

And some uh have said that uh the the mission of the church can be summed up in these uh with uh these four letters representing four aspects of the church, and the W standing for worship, the I standing for instruction, uh the F standing for fellowship, and the E standing for evangelism.

So worship, instruction, fellowship, and evangelism, uh based in part on Acts 2, 42 and 43.

I've heard others describe it to say, well, it's uh we're here to win, build, equip, and multiply.

We're here to win the lost, we're here to build up the body of Christ, we're here to equip them for the work of service, and then we're here to send them out so that they can multiply and bring others to Christ so we can begin the whole process all over again.

Uh in answering that question said, Well, uh, I think about it in terms of the great commandment and the great commission.

Uh, two different passages in the gospel accounts.

The great commandment is in the Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and in Mark's version of this great commandment, he's asked, Jesus is asked, what is the greatest commandment?

And Jesus answers, the greatest commandment is this, to love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind and with all of your strength.

This is in Mark 12, 29 through 31.

So he says, the greatest commandment is love God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

And then he says that second is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself.

And all of the law and prophets can be summed up in this loving God and loving others.

And then the great commission found in Matthew verses chapter 28, verses 19 and 20.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

And so the great commission is to go and make disciples, to see people come into a relationship with Christ and become Christ's followers, to teach them to observe everything that God commands in his word, to how the truth of God's word commands the believer in every area of their lives and their thoughts and attitudes and actions and reactions and character and relationships.

And so some say that this is why we are here.

But all of those really say the same things in different ways, and some are more expressive than others.

In the Old Testament, in Micah chapter 6, Micah says this He has told you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6 · chapter mention

So we are to declare the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, his cross, his death and resurrection, and we are to demonstrate the gospel by showing love and mercy and compassion so that people might see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven.

And that's why we're here.

So, how does that fit in with what we see here in Jesus cleansing the temple?

Jesus passionately cleanses the temple.

And how does that fit in?

Well, in this confrontation, we'll see that Jesus exercised his authority in two areas.

First, we see Jesus' sovereign authority over the temple, and then second, we will see Jesus' sovereign authority over the truth.

So let's take those uh verses 45 and 46.

Jesus' sovereign authority over the temple.

Let me give you a little bit of the backstory of what's happening here.

I said this was during the Passion Week.

This actually takes place the day after the triumphal entry, according to Mark chapter 11, verse 12.

Mark 11:12

Jesus comes to the temple now.

He's in Jerusalem, he comes to the temple, and one author described the temple this way.

He says, The temple was a building of magnificent splendor, the crowning jewel of Jerusalem.

King Herod had spent vast sums of money to renovate the temple complex with its massive stones of dazzling white marble.

It was one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.

And this author says that the temple was the place where uh uh where uh Israel's pilgrimage.

They were coming here to the temple uh during Passover.

They were uh coming in pilgrimage.

Uh he said that this is the center of Jewish religion.

This is uh where uh God is centrally worshipped uh during uh this era.

It was the dwelling place of God on earth.

That was how it was described.

Uh it was uh the place where God had promised to meet his people, the very house of God.

And that those are the descriptions of what the temple was to God's people and what it ought to have been.

And like the triumphal entry, Jesus here uh reacts, and this was a fulfillment of prophecy, a deliberate fulfillment of prophecy.

In the last book of the Old Testament, in Malachi chapter 3, verse 1, it says, And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.

Malachi 3:1

And the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

So in Malachi it says that the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.

And even in Jesus' first uh advent, we see this being fulfilled, that Jesus came suddenly to his temple, like a whirlwind coming in to the temple courts.

In fact, that Malachi passage in the next verse uh says that when he comes, he will come like a refiner's fire and like a fuller's soap, coming to cleanse and to purify.

What made Jesus so mad?

What was it here that made Jesus so mad?

So angry with this righteous indignation.

And we need to understand a little bit more of the background and some of the passages that Jesus quotes to really get a full sense of what uh Jesus uh is saying here.

Um tens of thousands of people were coming to Jerusalem during this week for uh as pilgrims, on a pilgrimage during Passover.

And what one of the things they needed was uh were pure spotless sacrifices to offer.

Uh they were also coming in accordance with Exodus uh chapter 30, verses 11 through 14, and there it says that every male would need to pay a half shekel temple tax.

And so they would come, and and not only would uh the Jews come, but those who were God fearers would also come.

And there was a place there in the temple courts uh called the court of the Gentiles where they would come, and that was the place where those who uh who weren't uh Jewish would come to worship God and to meditate on scripture.

Well, these money changers and and these who were uh who were who were selling had set up their tables in the court of the Gentiles.

They were money changers and they had set up uh tables to sell animals to sacrifice.

People would come with all different types of currency, but the only currency that was accepted was the the local shekel.

And so what they would have to do is they would need to come, and whatever currency they had, it was like a money exchange, and they would come and they would take their currency from where they were coming, and then they would uh exchange it for the appropriate money so that these uh so that the men could offer this uh this tax to the temple while they were here in Jerusalem.

Uh but what had happened was these money uh changers uh were charging exorbitant rates uh of exchange.

I mean they were they were ripping people off when they were they they were giving uh pennies on the dollar uh for for the money.

It was like a payday loan.

Um they they were giving money and and and they were and in return they were getting just a fraction of it.

And the money changers were were making a killing.

They were making a killing off of the people who had come to worship God.

And those who were selling animals, you could buy animals outside of the temple area.

Or you could bring in you could bring your animals with you if you wanted to carry them.

It oftentimes would be uh difficult.

Um the problem was is as you as you would come, uh the temple authorities had appointed inspectors to inspect the animals to make sure that they were up to snuff, to make sure that they were pure and spotless.

And so uh these animal, these uh animal inspectors would look at these outside offerings that were brought into the temple court, and oftentimes uh they would determine that they weren't worthy of being offered.

And so, even if you bought your animal outside the temple courts and brought it in, you may end up not being able to use it, and you'd have to buy an animal there from uh from the sellers who were there inside the court of the Gentiles in the temple area.

More than that, historians tell us that the booths there in the court of the Gentiles were owned by the family of the high priest.

Uh and so not only were you having to buy it, but you had to buy it from these from these sellers, and the sellers were part of the family of the high priest, and the high priest was making money off of the sales of these animals.

One historian says that a, for instance, a pair of turtle doves inside of the temple area could cost up to 15 times as much as what you would pay outside the court, uh, the temple courts.

And so that's what's happening here as Jesus comes into the temple.

This is the second time he's he's confronted the leaders.

We find the other time in John's gospel, uh, early in Jesus' ministry.

And so now Jesus is coming into the temple area, and all of these sellers are there, and these money changers are there.

And Jesus comes and he says, It is written, verse 46, and he actually quotes two different passages of Scripture.

Uh and it really helps us to understand what is happening here.

Uh notice in verse 46, he says, It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer.

I want you to turn to the passage of the Old Testament where that comes from for a moment, Isaiah 56.

Keep your finger here or put a bookmarker in Luke 19, but turn to Isaiah 56 for just uh a few minutes.

Isaiah 56 is a is a passage in this in this uh book written 700 years before uh Jesus' ministry.

And here in Isaiah 56, Isaiah is writing about the salvation of foreigners.

And and look in verses 6 and 7.

He's talking about the foreigners who come and join themselves to the Lord.

And look at verses 6 and 7.

It says, And the foreigner who joins himself to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servant, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it and holds fast to my covenant, these I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer.

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples, says the Lord.

This is what the Lord God Almighty declares that the temple was to be a house of prayer for all people, not just the Jews.

In fact, the Jews missed this point entirely.

That God had set up the temple and selected them so that they could be a blessing to all of the nations.

That they were to be about world evangelism for the glory of God.

In fact, in 1 Kings chapter 8, verses 41 through 43, we see Solomon dedicating the temple.

1 Kings 8:41–43

And in the midst of Solomon's great prayer to dedicate the temple, he says this in verse 41.

He says, likewise, when a foreigner who is not of your people Israel comes from a far country for your namesake, for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm.

When he comes and prays towards this house, hear in heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you and do your people as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.

From the foundation of the temple, they were to be about reaching the nations for the glory of God.

God chose the Jews to be his conduit to bring salvation to the world ultimately through the person of Jesus Christ.

And in Jesus' day they were excluding from the temple the very people God had desired to reach through the through them.

Keep in mind, they had set up in the court of the Gentiles.

The one place that was set aside for foreigners to come and to worship, and this is where they had set up, not only were they indifferent to the lost, but they had positively put up barriers for them to worship.

I was trying to think of a modern equivalent, and imagine if the only place that you could worship was was Walmart on a Saturday and four busloads of people from Winnipeg had just got dropped off.

And then throwing animals on top of that.

That wasn't a redundancy.

No, throwing animals on top of that, and imagine that that was the context of the place where, the only place where foreigners could come and worship.

They had blocked the Gentiles from coming to honor God.

My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations.

Interestingly, Luke, the gospel writer who's most concerned with the nations, doesn't mention that, but this verse would have been so familiar because it's a verse describing the very temple of God and its purpose to be a house of prayer for all of the nations.

Well, the second quote that we find here in verse 46 is you have made it a den of robbers.

And the second quote is from the book of Jeremiah.

So turn to Jeremiah chapter 7.

Jeremiah 7 · chapter mention

If you're in Isaiah, just go a little bit further forward to Jeremiah chapter 7.

Jeremiah 7 · chapter mention

Jeremiah chapter 7 is a famous sermon given by Jeremiah at the temple.

Jeremiah 7 · chapter mention

In Jeremiah chapter 7, verse 11, it says this.

Jeremiah 7:11

If you have it open to Jeremiah chapter 7, look at verse 11.

Jeremiah 7 · chapter mention

It says, Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?

Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord.

So Jeremiah here is calling out God's people.

He is calling out uh the Israelites because of what they have done in profaning God's name, uh, even in the very act of worship.

Now, look earlier in Jeremiah.

Look at verses five and uh five through seven.

Uh in Jeremiah chapter seven, verse five, it says this for if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice for one another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave you of old, to your fathers forever.

So he says that when they're here in the temple, they shouldn't oppress the sojourner, the traveler, the one who's coming from afar.

They should remember the fatherless and the widow to show them mercy and and to to extend grace.

They're to have pure worship and not follow after other gods and open hypocrisy.

But that wasn't the attitude of the people.

In fact, if you look at verses 8 through 10, what it says there in Jeremiah, behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail.

Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you may not know, and then come and stand before me in this house which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered, only to go on doing all these abominations?

What Jeremiah is saying is these people, they were saying to themselves, Well, you know, we're fine because we have the temple.

It doesn't matter what we do, it doesn't matter how we treat others, it doesn't matter as long as we have the temple.

They took advantage of the poor, getting rich off the backs of others.

But they thought they were safe because they came to worship.

Their sin and ours.

We're to love God and his people, love God and love others.

We're to live out the great commandment and the great commission.

The people in Jesus' day were calloused and indifferent to reaching the lost.

They had put barriers in the way of those trying to seek God.

They dishonored God and disregarded the lost.

We see in Jesus' day they mocked justice, they spurned kindness, they were filled with self-righteous pride.

God has called us to declare the gospel with words and to demonstrate the gospel with our lives.

Prayer and worship are central to glorifying God, but true worship results in a life of compassion and gospel witness.

And it's not an either-or, either I share the gospel or I show mercy and compassion to others.

It's both and.

And that was what the people were missing in Jesus' day, and why Jesus was so indignant righteously in proportion to their sin.

Jesus commands us, let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

So Jesus saw what was happening and he responded appropriately.

We saw that Jesus exercised authority over the temple.

Now, just in a few moments, let's look at this uh briefly at this second area, Jesus' sovereign authority over the truth.

Notice in open defiance to the leaders, it says in verse 47, he was teaching daily in the temple.

Earlier in Jesus' ministry, we found these words.

It says, uh, when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

In the Old Testament, in the book of Ezekiel, we find this stinging rebuke.

It says, The word of the Lord came to me.

This is in Ezekiel 34, verses 1 to 3.

Ezekiel 34:1–3

The word of the Lord came to me.

It says, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, the spiritual leaders of Israel, and say to them, uh, to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God, Ah, shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding yourselves, should not shepherds feed the sheep?

You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, and you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep.

Later in that passage in Ezekiel 34, we find the Lord saying this, I myself will be a shepherd, will be the shepherd of my sheep.

I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.

I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak and the fat, and the strong I will destroy.

I will feed them in justice.

And so the temple area becomes the pulpit of Jesus to minister to the people.

And it says, and he was teaching daily in the temple, and in verse 48 it says, and all the people were hanging on his words.

The battle lines were drawn, the religious leaders of Jesus' day had set their minds to kill Jesus.

The principled men, the leaders of the city, had joined in.

Their rage against Jesus, but they were impotent to harm him until God's time.

So how about you?

Jesus' passion was perfectly appropriate.

One author observes Jesus had passion for the lost, for reaching people who are outside the community of faith.

He had passion for the poor, for remembering to show mercy to people the society had forgotten.

He had passion for justice, for standing against persons and system who systems who perpetrate evil.

He had passion for prayer, for worshiping God with the sincerity of a true heart.

He had passion for making the life of faith the main business of life.

So, how about you?

What is your passion?

Would you join me as I lead us in a word of prayer?

Father, we see a passage of Scripture.

It's so easy for us to look just at the surface and say, oh, this is about buying and selling, but it's so much more than that.

It reveals the heart of Jesus for the lost and for the oppressed.

To show mercy and kindness, to show grace.

To be about pointing people to you.

Father, what are we what are we passionate about?

What moves us and motivates us?

What stirs us?

Where do we f spend our time and energy and effort?

Lord, I pray for us that we will evaluate our lives, not in light of uh just strong emotions, but in light of your word.

That we'll look at our priorities, we'll consider the very purpose for why we're here.

And so, Lord, we pray for your Holy Spirit to stir our hearts, to stir within us a passion for the things that last forever, for glorifying you and for for the lost.

And so, Lord, I pray that you will take your word, take this passage, stir within us a passion for the things of you.

We submit ourselves to you now.

We pray in Christ's name.

Amen.