Matthew 21:12-17

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 7:1-14

Introduction

I’m Going to Ask for a Show of Hands…

But, I Don’t Expect Anyone to Want to Admit to What I’m about to Ask

But if Everyone will Be Completely Honest…

Everyone will Raise Their Hand

You Ready?

How Many of Us, at Some Point in Our Lives…

Have Thought that the Bible is Boring?

All of Us have at Some Point, Right?

Maybe it was When We were Younger

Maybe it wasn’t When We were Younger

Or Maybe that’s how You Feel Right Now

Do You Know Why You & I have Found the Bible Boring?

Lack of Understanding

Some of Us May Need to Try Reading Different Translations

Others May Need to Put More Time/Effort into Study

But I can Promise You…

As Someone Who Used to Find the Bible Incredibly Boring…

That When You Begin to Understand it…

You’ll Be Amazed at How Interesting & Impactful it Becomes

Even Stories You’ve Heard a Thousand Times…

Can Take on a New/Interesting Light…

With Deeper Understanding

Matthew 21:12-17

Last Week, We Saw Jesus Make His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

He Entered with Pomp, Cheering, Excitement, and Praise…

In a Royal Procession…

Much like that of Roman Emperors & Commanders

Except He Entered the City with Humility/Peace…

Riding on a Donkey

Typically, Roman Processions would End at the Temple…

Where There would Be a Sacrifice and a Feast

And that’s Exactly Where Jesus is Headed

But Not to Make a Sacrifice or Throw a Feast

The Last Thing We Read…

Was that the Crowd Introduced Jesus as “The Prophet”

When You Think of a Prophet…

You Probably Think of a Person Who Reveals a Message from God

But the Prophets are Much More Interesting than that

The Ways in Which They would Reveal God’s Message…

Were Often Unconventional/Shocking

God Often had Them Perform Demonstrations…

Or Make Radical Life-Changes to Get Their Point Across

Here’s a Few Examples

God Told Hosea to Marry a Prostitute…

And then Raise the Children of Her Prostitution

God Told Jeremiah to:

Wear a Yoke Around His Neck

Smash Clay Pots

God Told Ezekiel to:

Play War with Little Objects

Lie on His Left Side for 390 Days and on His Right for 40 Days

Bake Bread Over Human Feces and Eat it

Shave His Head with a Sword…

Not Mourn the Death of His Wife

God Told Isaiah to Go Around Naked for 3 Years

The Reason for These Unconventional/Shocking Performances…

Was to Gain the Attention of the People

In Our Text, We’re Going to See Jesus, the Prophet

And He’s Bringing a Message from God to the Temple Establishment…

And He’s Going to Deliver that Message…

In Some Pretty Unconventional/Shocking Ways

Matthew 21:12–13 (NASB95)

12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. 13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a robbers’ den.”

Mark Tells Us that this Took Place on the Day After His Triumphal Entry

His Triumphal Entry was on Sunday

So this Took Place on Monday

“Jesus Entered the Temple”

This Doesn’t Mean He Entered the Actual Temple

He Entered the Temple Complex

Specifically, the Court of Gentiles

He Finds that it’s Been Turned into a Marketplace

People are Buying and Selling

There were Money Changers for Those that Live Outside the Region

When Jesus Saw this…

He Drove Them All Out and Overturned Their Tables & Chairs

He’s Come to Deliver a Message…

And He’s Making Sure it’s Heard Loud and Clear

The Prophet has Just “Cleansed the Temple”

But Why?

What was So Wrong about What They were Doing?

It wasn’t Wrong to Buy & Sell Animals for Sacrifice for the Passover

God Allowed that in His Law…

For Those Who had to Travel from Far Away…

To Celebrate the Feast

It wasn’t Wrong to have Money Changers During the Passover

People Traveling from Other Regions Needed to Exchange Their Money…

In Order to Pay the Temple Tax in the Proper Currency

So What were They Doing that was So Wrong?

We Get 2 Clues from the Text:

Matthew Only Specifically Mentions One Type of Sacrifice Being Sold:

“Doves”

What Demographic of People were to Sacrifice Doves?

The Poor

Those Who couldn’t Afford a Lamb

It’s Very Likely that These Salesmen and Money Changers…

Were Overcharging the People & Lining Their Pockets

In All Likelihood, They were Taking Advantage of the Poor

Upon Driving Them Out and Overturning Their Tables…

Jesus Quotes 2 Prophets

He First Quotes Isaiah:

Isaiah 56:6–7 (NASB95)

6 “Also the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, To minister to Him, and to love the name of the Lord, To be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the sabbath And holds fast My covenant; 7 Even those I will bring to My holy mountain And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”

Did You Notice Who God was Talking to in the Context?

“Foreigners” or “Gentiles”

God’s House will Be a House of Prayer…

“For All the Peoples”

Where is it that the Priests Allowed this Marketplace to Be Set Up?

In the Court of the Gentiles

This was as Close to the House of Prayer…

As Gentiles were Allowed to Come

This was Their Place of Worship & Prayer…

And Yet the Temple Establishment Allowed it to Become a Marketplace

Or as Jesus, Quoting from Jeremiah, Called it:

“A Den/Cave of Robbers”

This Phrase Comes from Jeremiah 7

In Jeremiah 7, God Tells Jeremiah to Stand in the Gate of the Temple…

And Preach to the People

They Believed, “Since We have God’s Temple, We have God’s Favor”

They were Living Wickedly But Claiming They were Saved…

Because They had God’s Temple…

And Therefore, God’s Presence with Them

They weren’t Gathering in God’s House to Pray/Worship

They were a Band of Thugs…

That were Treating God’s House as Their Hideout

But Jeremiah Tells Them that God, Because of the Wickedness of the People…

Has Destroyed His Dwelling Place Before…

And He will Do it Again

And He Did Not Long After that, Using the Babylonians

Jesus’ Reference to Jeremiah Speaks this Message:

“You’re Just like the People of Jeremiah’s Day”

“You’re Misusing God’s House of Prayer…”

“For Your Own Benefit”

“You’ve Turned this House of Prayer/Worship…”

“Into a Hideout for Crooked/Corrupt Thieves”

As King, Jesus Triumphantly Entered the Capital City

And as the Prophet, Jesus Cleansed the Temple

Matthew 21:14–17 (NASB95)

14 And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant 16 and said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise for Yourself’?” 17 And He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

In 2 Samuel 5, Before David Captured the City of Jerusalem…

From its Former Inhabitants, the Jebusites…

They Told Him that the Blind & Lame could Stop Him

They were Saying, “There’s No Way You could Take this City”

“Even the Blind & Lame could Stop You”

After David Successfully Captured Jerusalem…

He Began to Mockingly Refer to the Jebusites as “the Blind & the Lame”

And the People Began Saying:

“The Blind or the Lame Shall Not Come into the House”

But Now Jesus, the Messianic Son of David…

Allows the Blind & Lame to Come to Him Inside the House (Temple)…

And He Heals Them of Their Infirmities

We Also See Children Shouting Throughout the Temple:

“Hosanna to the Son of David”

They Most Likely Picked this Up from the Processional Crowds

Children are Always Listening & Imitating

Do Our Children Hear Us Praising King Jesus?

The Jewish Leaders were Witnessing All of this…

And They were Hating it

Isn’t it Interesting that They had No Problem…

With the Temple of God Being Turned into a Corrupt Marketplace…

But They Can’t Stand the Fact…

That People are Being Healed & Children are Praising God?

They Can’t Believe What They’re Hearing

They Say to Jesus, “Don’t You Hear What They’re Saying about You?”

I Love Jesus’ Answer!

“Yes, I Hear Them”

“Have You Never Read the Scriptures Before?”

He’s Speaking to Experts of the Scriptures

That’s like Asking a Marine Biologist if They’ve Ever Been to the Ocean

Then He Quotes from Psalm 8

In this Psalm, David is Speaking Directly to/about God

By Jesus Quoting this Psalm in the Context of Children Singing about Him…

Jesus is Implying that He is God

“It’s So Obvious that Even the Children can See it…”

“But You Supposed Experts of the Scriptures Can’t”

After that, Jesus Left and Went Back to Bethany

During the Passover, Because There were so Many People in Jerusalem…

People would Often Camp Outside the City

In the Evenings, Jesus would Go to Nearby Bethany to Stay the Night

Application

I Feel like this Passage of Jesus Cleansing the Temple…

Is Often Used to Say:

“See, Even Jesus Got a Little Angry & Rough Sometimes”

But When You Dig a Little Deeper into this Familiar Story…

You Realize that’s Not at All What We’re Seeing in this Passage

Mark’s Account Tells Us that…

After Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem…

He Went to the Temple and Looked Around…

And Then Went to Bethany for the Night

It was the Next Day that He Returned & Cleansed the Temple

This wasn’t an Outburst of Anger

It was a Calculated Prophetic Demonstration

He Wanted to Warn the Temple Administration…

That What They were Doing was Wrong…

And He Wanted Them to Get the Message Loud & Clear

In Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon that Jesus Referred to…

Jeremiah Told the People…

That God would Once Again Destroy His Temple

I Believe by Referring to this Passage in Jeremiah…

Jesus was Hinting the Very Same Thing…

To the Jewish People of His Day

Just 40 Years Later (70 AD)…

The Temple would Again Be Destroyed by the Romans…

Because of the Corruption of the People…

And Their Rejection of the Messiah

For the Past Several Months…

Matthew’s Focus has Been on the Values of His Kingdom

The Lowly/Least/Last of the World…

Are the Honored/Greatest/First in His Kingdom

The Jewish People Despised:

The Gentiles

The Blind & Lame

Children

These are the Lowly/Least/Last

But the King has Come to Set Things Right

He Welcomes the Gentiles to Worship at the Temple…

And Cleanses Their Area of Prayer/Worship

He Welcomes the Blind & Lame in the Temple…

And Heals Them

He Welcomes the Praise/Worship of Children in the Temple…

As a Beautiful Thing that God Desires

Jesus is King of the Lowly/Least/Last

Jesus is Going to Return to Earth…

In Similar Fashion to How He Entered Jerusalem

And His Purpose is Also Similar to His Purpose in the Temple

He will Come to Judge, Cleanse, and Rescue

He Found the Jews and Their Temple in a State of Corruption

And Because of that, Destruction was Their Fate

How will He Find Us at His Return?

How will He Find this Church?

Are We Allowing Corruption to Take Place Here?

Is this Place just a Hideout for Hypocrites & Sinners?

Do We Care More about the Money We Bring in…

Than the Praise/Worship that is Offered to God?

Are Outsiders Welcome to Worship Here?

Are the Broken/Suffering Welcome Here?

Are the Little Ones/Poor/Humble/Lowly Welcome Here?

We are the Temple of God

Are We in Need of Cleansing?

Do We Share the Values of Our King?

How will Jesus Find Us When He Returns?

And What are You Personally Bringing to the Table?