Cleanse the temple
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Recap
As we’ve walked through John, we’ve been reminded that following Jesus is not about checking a religious box.
It’s about seeing Jesus for who He really is—and allowing what we see in Him to change us from the inside out.
We’ve talked about the importance of beholding Jesus, to recognize that He is not simply someone we add to our lives, but the One our lives are ultimately about.
We’ve talked about humility, obedience, abiding, and the question, “Is Jesus enough?” And as we see Jesus more clearly, the natural response is to follow Him and tell others about Him.
We saw that with Philip and Nathanael. Jesus called Philip to follow Him, and Philip immediately went and found Nathanael. Nathanael was skeptical, but Philip didn’t try to win an argument. He simply said, “Come and see.”
Nathanael came, encountered Jesus, and realized that Jesus knew him more deeply than he could have imagined. What began with skepticism ended with worship and confession: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
And Jesus told him there were greater things to come.
Last week, we began to see those greater things at a wedding in Cana.
The wine ran out, Mary brought the need to Jesus, and then she told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Family, we sat with that.
What would it look like if we actually did whatever He told us?
We talked about trusting God’s timing and surrendering to His will and His way. So often we make our own plans and ask God to cosign them, when He is calling us to let Him lead.
The servants didn’t know how everything would turn out. Jesus told them to fill the jars with water, and they filled them to the brim. They could fill the jars, but only Jesus could turn that water into wine.
That reminded us that our responsibility is to be faithful. The power to transform belongs to Him.
And we said that obedience doesn’t earn His love—it expresses ours.
John tells us that through this first sign, Jesus revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. The miracle showed them more of who He was and gave them reason to trust Him more deeply.
Now, as we keep reading, we follow that same Jesus from a wedding in Cana to the temple in Jerusalem.
At the wedding, we saw His power to transform. In the temple, we will see His zeal for His Father’s house.
And family, that invitation to trust Him and do whatever He says still stands—even when He confronts something we’ve grown comfortable with.
Let’s look at John 2, beginning in verse 13.
13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.
15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.
16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”
17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”
21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
So we arrive here at the passover
what is the passover tho?
The Passover is a jewish festival that in a nutshell helps them to remember and celebrate God delivering them from Egypt
If you remember the story where God struck all the firstborn in egypt except those whose houses were marked with the blood of a lamb
pause …
this festival a clear picture of the messiah to come was considered the most important jewish festival
So we hit the time of the passover
13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.
This is a time where people will pilgrimage from all over the world to jerusalem just to partake in this festival and thank God
and I want to be careful here,
at the time there was nothing wrong with this
people gathering to worship God is a good thing
Something we should really stay in the habit of doing
having the seller there at the temple also wasnt uncommon.
people were traveling a long way to get there
their animals either may not make it or they couldnt bring them with them
so they had to purchase their sacrifice when they got there.
I am saying all this to say nothing that’s happening in and of itself is a real issue.
these are things that are seemingly good and helpful
this is where the problem comes notice these 3 words in the beginning of verse 14
14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.
In the temple
the merchants werent just around the temple on the way, they were in side the walls.
Zeal for your house
Zeal for your house
the problem wasn't that they were conducting business
the problem was 2 fold
Where they were conducting business and how
Where were they in the temple
temple graphic
they were in the outer courts
this would be the area where mainly gentiles would worship
notice in Matthew as he recounts a cleansing of the temple event
He claimed Jesus said this
Matthew 21:13
13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
This is huge family
Sometimes we get so caught up in catch phrases we forget Christ is coming back for His church not just the saint.
And Jesus is passionate about his church.
the word refers to His church as the bride of Christ
He loves the church he protects the church he is passionate about the church not just 242 church,
but the church as a whole the people of God
Even though the temple is not the church, it is still a house of worship
It is still a of prayer
So as jesus gets to the temple courts and instead of seeing people praise he sees salesmen
He wasn’t amused
He didn’t care if they had a great band or if the speaker waxed eloquent
there was a problem
they had allowed worship to deteriorate to commerce
the men of God who are supposed to be leaders in the temple have allowed ‘s house to become a flea market
and not only that they are hindering the worship of the gentiles believers in this as well.
because notice where they they’re in the outer which is the only place that Gentiles are allowed to come to worship so now it’s full of salesman probably noise and everything’s going are buying their sacrifice so now it is hindering the worship of other believers
there so much we can unpack here but I want us to bring it home Ask yourself the question,
What is supposed to look like?
not what does church look like?
dont ask yourself what has it looked like,
or even how does it feel.
the question we ought to ask ourselves is what should it look like
His church is not a cooporation its not a bank His church is a house of prayer this originates in Isaiah 56:7
7 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.”
Meaning this Our God and father is accessible
To all people
he is bringing us to a place where we can reach him and have communion with him the father
this was the direct purpose of the temple.
and family if we are honest this in a similar way this is the purpose of the church where we come together to be equipped to serve God but I want you to notice this in Mark 11:17
17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”
The point he is making here is clear that this is meant for more than just ethnic Israel
this is accesible for all nations
So who are we to put up barriers in the church that make a certain people groups feel unwelcome
How do churches do that?
and I want to get specific here for a second family
cas I think we do this and dont even clock it as sin
look at whats happening in this text
the outer courts, where the gentiles worshipped, is where the tables were set up where the marketplace was
This the area where the group of people who were outsiders looking in, trying to find their way to God, could come and see
they were the ones getting blocked by the mess and Isaiah just told us why that mattered to God
a house of prayer for all peoples Mark says for all the nations not just for us
not just for people who look like us or come from where we come from
family I gotta say this plainly when immigrants, when people from other cultures, walk into a room and get treated like they are less than
less deserving of honor
less deserving of dignity
less human
and that treatment is coming from people wearing the name of Christ
Friends can I say it?
That makes you no better than the Pharisees
heres the thing, we have done this
We have allowed good things to be our God
where our jobs take priority over our faith
where politics is preached from the pulpit
where churches run like for profit companies
church we have made God's house exactly what Jesus flipped tables over
and here's the part I need you to hear
that is not a gospel barrier
A gospel barrier is where someone hears truth from scripture and they disagree and dont follow
this isn’t that
the gospel was never the obstacle
the gospel says WHOEVER calls on the name of the Lord will be saved
it never said whoever calls on the name of the Lord and is from the right country
sometimes we act like people can’t be in our country but then act like we want to take them the Gospel.
that is a human barrier
that is an evil barrier not rooted in God’s word
that is preference dressed up as conviction
and Jesus didn’t gently suggest they rethink it
he made a whip
we don’t get to say we love God's house while we let it become a place where some of his image bearers can’t go and feel loved.
we are to worship by no other name than the name of Jesus
not the name of America
the name of a president
the name of tradition
No other name in heaven or on earth can save
it is by the name of Jesus
We have one purpose and that is to glorify him in spirit and truth
and to do the Fathers will
yet we allow anything it seems to be in the church
preachers who aren't qualified according to scripture, still standing behind the pulpit
leaders living in sin they haven't repented of, still leading like nothing's wrong
men and women up front who don't honor God's word with their own lives Jeremiah said it like this
11 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.
His house being desecrated
His house being disrespected
the pulpit losing its power because we have let go of the sacredness of it
the church should be holy lead by people who are striving for holiness
we have to remember family he is coming back and when he comes back he is coming back in power
and he is coming back for a church that is pure and we as believers need to remember that we need to walk in that
we need to honor him with our lives remembering this
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
We cant presume upon Grace we are called to more
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
family can I be real with you for a second,
this isn't me up here acting like i have it all figured out
I don't
I think I heard my wife say amen
I still have to fight my flesh everyday
I still have to die to myself daily
And I don't want to do that every day! nor do I succeed at doing that every day
Now I do know this about myself
I know I cannot walk this life out without the spirits help
I know I am tempted and struggle the most when I am not in his word
I struggle even more when I dont surround myself with his people, who are encouraging me to walk worthy
This is why we need each other family and why isolation is a scheme of the enemy
but family hear me out
just cas i struggle doesnt mean the standard changes
holiness is still the call and family if you're sitting here right now and you're comfortable in something you know isn't right,
i pray the spirit is just turning in your stomach
I pray you are uncomfortable
i hope something in you is unsettled
that discomfort isn't condemnation, that's the Spirit doing his work
he's not shaming you,
he's inviting you to let him clean you up
we should be striving to walk in purity through the power of the holy spirit that lives in us
instead many of us quench the spirit by making excuses
I gotta move
it is in this power that Ephesians tells us we are building a place a dwelling place for God
A place for encounter a place consecrated and set apart for our lord
22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
family this is how we build his church
this is how we join in a place where God dwells and is pleased
If we are honest tho family most of us are content in a building that Christ would walk into and flip tables
We are ok walking into a building the spirit left a long time and just doing things because thats what we do
But Jesus
See He is passionate about His fathers house and this is prophesied in the Old testament
Malachi 3 says he will suddenly come to his temple
Zechariah 14 says there will no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord
Psalm 69 says zeal for your house has consumed me
We get it and this is Jesus showing the disciples once again he is who he says he is.
He is the messiah
the one prophesied in the word
He is the Christ
With a whip he braided himself
he sends out the animals with force,
with his hands he dumps the money out and flips that tables
Going after the religious self righteous of the time
Jesus didn't just wait for them to feel like changing or passively talk about what was wrong until maybe one person moved
he came in with a whip and force
family we cant tiptoe around sin
and more importantly we cant tiptoe about God’s house
Our friends are dying and going to hell because we are scared to offend them
People are dying and going to hell because we are too busy to talk
Family we need to stand together
know who God has called us as a church to be
He has called us to be Salt and light to our community
and we need to be it
we need to be who he has called us to be walking in him but notice here as Jesus walked this out as he cleansed the temple what was teh disciples response?
17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
the disciples saw him and believed
the religious saw him and were angry
and notice some of that back and forth as Jesus talks about rebuilding the temple
They thought he was speaking of this physical temple
so they were like you it took over 40 years to build it
But what Jesus meant was when they destroy him he will raise up in three days
And john notes here that after He rose from the dead, they remembered this moment that jesus prophesied what would happen
Jesus the temple of the Lord
2 Corinthians says on his face shined the glory of God
Jesus the one who came to take the sins of the world
the great redeemer
Our high priest
family i want to ask you something and i want you to actually sit with them, not just hear them
what has worship deteriorated into in your own life
what tables would Jesus flip if he walked into your heart today
is there someone you have made feel like an outsider in gods house, by your words, your silence, or how you treated them
are you presuming on grace right now, calling it freedom when its really just disobedience you're comfortable with
and if he cleansed the temple of your heart tonight what would he find
Someone here may be like yo Devon this isn’t the Jesus I heard about my whole life
The Jesus that is always kind and and accepting, soft spoken but at the same time you may also be thinking, Devon I want to get to know this jesus
The real Jesus
I had a moment where I thought I knew him but I want to really know Him
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
all you have to do is believe in your heart and cofess with your mouth and I want to give you the opportunity to do that
Dont leave here not knowing jesus as your savior
Some might say Devon I believe I just am stuck in my sin.
I have gotten comfortable in my mess and I stpped letting him in to clean me up
The first step here family is to want to lay that sin down
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
He is faithful to forgive. You just have to bring it to him family stop holding on so tightly to the things that destroy
He has given you a new mind, so your heart if you're tuly in him isn’t comfortable in sin
22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,
23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
the thing is family we just have to be willing to lay it down
and I wanna give you a chance to do that as well. a song is gonna play and the altar is open.
Lets do the hard work of wrining out our sins today to be the temple of the lord that is pure and seeking after him lets pray
