Cleansing the (Your) Temple – Jesus (Yeshua)Untitled Sermon (4)

Cleansing the (Your) Temple – Jesus (Yeshua)

My sermon is titled TABLE FLIPPING JESUS

Matthew 21:12–17 CSB

Jesus went into the temple and threw out all those buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. He said to them, “It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves!” The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonders that he did and the children shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant and said to him, “Do you hear what these children are saying?” Jesus replied, “Yes, have you never read: You have prepared praise from the mouths of infants and nursing babies?” Then he left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

See we truly serve a radical God.

We serve a God who radically Split The Red Sea…

We serve a God who enables us to Slay Giants in our lives…

We serve a God who Walks On Water …

And commands the Storm To Be Still…

We serve a God who gives us Victory Over Death…

And we serve a God who wants to Radically Flip Tables that don't belong in our lives…that don't belong in his Temple…

Jesus can and will radically change your life from the inside out in an instant and all you have to do is back away from the table so he can flip it!

In order for God to part seas and slay giants in your life you've got to first let him flip the tables - which represents sin and distractions and anything else that takes your eyes off Him and radically remove it from your life.

Church I don’t know about you, but what Jesus did here is charismatic; what He did here was radical and what He did here, He is still doing.

Jesus is still a jealous God. He still gets filled with righteous anger, He still is not OK with His people having things in their Temple that do not belong, and He is especially not OK when they know they have things that don’t belong…but they are OK with it.

Church, we’ve become OK with too many things that Jesus wants to radically remove from our lives.

Church, it’s time we wake up and make some radical moves. It’s time we stop settling for luke-warm religion that keeps us riding a fence, that keeps us hugging a line because I’ve got news for you!

The devil built that fence and he owns both sides of it. The devil made that line in the middle of his property so that you are hugging a line owned by the devil, so that you can feel comfortable being a luke-warm Christian…

Revelation 3:16 CSB

So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth.

Meaning There Is No Room For Watered-Down, Fence-Riding Christianity Anymore!

Christ wants us to be on fire, spirit filled, doers of the word type of Christians so church if there's any tables that need Flipping let's let Christ flip them right now so that we can be the on fire Christian he created us to be!

Right here the Scripture is telling us that Jesus is ready to protect the temple and throw anything out that doesn’t belong, flip any table that is keeping you from an on-fire relationship with Him.

Church we are closer to Christ’s return now than we were when we came in here. There are people in this world that need Jesus and it’s our responsibility to show Him to them, but we can’t because we’re comfortable sitting at the tables Jesus wants to flip!

How can we win someone to Christ with all these tables taking up room that Christ should be occupying?

We've got to surrender all and allow Jesus to sanctify us holy and then you won't have to tell someone you're a Christian they'll know it…

You won't have to try and sell them on becoming a Christian they'll want it because When You Are Sold Out To Christ people will want what you have…because they won't see you, they'll see Jesus …

And people were always drawn to Jesus, because He had the Spirit Of God living in Him, and he allowed Him complete control over Him and His life…

And when He went back to heaven, He sent that same Holy Spirit to us to allow us to have what He had… and once that spirit came to live in us, we became the Temple that Jesus wants to keep clean so that His Spirit can have control over that temple.

The scripture says Jesus threw out the ones buying and selling. ..

We know that the ones selling were cheating people and charging twice the going rate for things, but have you ever thought about why He had a problem with the ones buying?

See the ones buying were buying an animal to sacrifice to God for their sins. What they were supposed to do is bring an animal from home that was the best and that was truly a sacrifice for God. But instead of giving God their best and doing what it took to bring the sacrifice on the trip -- because they have a relationship with God and are truly thankful that he’s forgiving their sin -- they just go through the motions. They traded a relationship with God for religion and traditions.

See many of these people were coming from far away. It took a lot more effort to bring an animal all the way from home and keep it alive on the trip…to keep it fed and healthy…so that the high priest would accept it once they got to the temple.

So instead of doing that, they just bought one when they got to the temple.

But here is the problem: the lesson, the growth, the building of faith, rarely happens from the religious act or when you get to the temple. God uses the journey to the temple to show us who He is and what He wants from us.

Church going through the motions and having religion is a trick straight from the devil to keep us from having a deep, true and meaningful relationship with Jesus.

You can't say enough Hail Mary's; you can't do anything to get to heaven EXCEPT ask Jesus Christ to come into your life and be the Lord of your life. And then you must dive into the word and let it begin to transform you -- and through this transformation, you are building a relationship with God and that makes you want to give him your best.

Here's the thing -- that relationship with Him is absolutely necessary because He's the one who enables us to do it the way He tells us to. That relationship with Him is what enables us to be willing to let Jesus radically change us and flip those tables that don't belong.

So Jonathan that has a religious tradition, just buys a sacrifice when I get to the temple…BUT Jonathan that has a relationship with Jesus takes the time to carefully pick the best sacrifice -- and do what it takes to bring it on the trip, because the relationship I have with Jesus enables me to do my best!

So when we cop-out and we merely fulfill our religions duty, instead of trusting in what God commanded us to do…we, Number One, miss out on the awesome relationship with Jesus, and, Number Two, we cheat God of being able to transform us…because it is not about the simple act of a sacrifice…it’s the journey and all the little things you have to rely and trust God to get you through…on the way to make the sacrifice that God is trying to show us.

So, when Jesus saw people being cheated by the temple, He got mad, but when He saw how the people were OK with being cheated because it was allowing them to ride the fence, to be comfortable with religion, He started braiding a whip…and then when He saw that they were getting in the way of the Gentiles praying -- that was the icing on the cake.

He put the whip to use and started flipping the tables, swiping the money off the tables in a radical way.

It was the beginning of Passion Week, and Jesus is flipping tables, slinging money everywhere…but He was actually cleansing the Temple!

This is such an example of how one or two tables that don’t belong represent so many stumbling blocks, not only in our paths, but in other people’s paths also, and Jesus wants them gone.

Church it's the beginning of a new year and Jesus is still in the table flipping business and he's passionately longing to cleanse your temple so that he can light the fire within you!

He wants to radically eradicate the tables in our temples that don’t belong there! This one table where they were buying and selling represented corruption in the church; it represented people choosing religion instead of relationship with God and it also represented a distraction for the Gentile believers who were trying to pray!

Church that’s one table and we have many more tables today.

What happens after Jesus radically cleanses the Temple? Scripture says then the blind men came to Him for healing.

See, in order for healing to take place, we must allow Jesus to radically cleanse us.

He cannot begin to HEAL us…

He cannot begin to TRANSFORM us into the man or woman He created us to be until we let Him in our house…

and when He comes in, He doesn’t want to simply repaint and put new carpet down…He wants to radically remodel us.

He wants to flip the tables……the sin……the stumbling blocks……the baggage……the guilt……the shame…

And get us cleansed in the sight of the Lord… and then start the healing process.

He can start building us back up and then we begin to see The Effect Of Loving A Radical Jesus!

Then you will be a little charismatic, because when you start with a Life Full Of Tables and all of a sudden you’ve got a Temple Full Of The Holy Spirit…you can’t sit still or be quiet because You Know That Jesus Cleansed Your Temple!

It is time we let Jesus get radical in our lives; it’s time we embrace the journey and expect Jesus to show up and show out because that’s how Jesus acted when the temple was a building…but now every one of our bodies are a temple.

Jesus paid it all to have an intimate, pray without ceasing, 24/7 365, up to date white hot on fire, let me tell you what Jesus has done for me type of relationship.