PERSPECTIVE IS EVERYTHING

Matthew 21:12–17 ESV

12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 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.” 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 did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these 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’?” 17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.

WHY DID JESUS DO THIS.

WHAT WERE THE SELLERS DOING?

THEY WERE HELPING PEOPLE GIVE AND SACRIFICE.

THEY WERE PROVIDING A SERVICE TO THOSE WHO WERE IN NEED.

HOWEVER THEY HAD TURNED THE COURT OF THE GENTILES FROM A MISSIONARY BUSINESS INTO A MERCENARY BUSINESS.

THEY HAD LOST THEIR PERSPECTIVE OF WHAT WORSHIP AND SACRIFICE WAS.

WHAT IS WORSHIP?

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Worship Modern people tend to restrict worship to what happens in church on Sunday. Ancient Israel had a much broader concept of worship, offering worship in the home as well as in the temple several times a day, not merely on the sabbath and at great festivals. Worship involved both the individual family and the whole nation.

WHAT IS SACRIFICE?

John 1:39 ESV

39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.

Hebrews 13:15 ESV

15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

Romans 12:1 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

2 Corinthians 5:14–15 ESV

14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.