Encouragement
LUKE 19:45-48 - Jesus Cleansing The Temple
"Then He entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. "It is written," He said to them, "My house will be a house of prayer", but you have made it 'a den of robbers'. Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on His words."
Luke's account of this dramatic temple cleansing happened soon after Jesus travelled into Jerusalem for the last time before He was crucified. As He approached the city, He wept over its spiritual state (Luke 19:41), and when He walked into the temple, He set to work straight away, "driving out" those who were doing business in the house of God. The Lord Jesus was filled with fiery zeal (but there is no mention of Him being angry). He was doing what God wanted done, and He had every right to take the measures He did, because it was His Father's house which was being desecrated! Jesus quoted Isaiah 56:7 which says "....for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations." God's desire was always that people of every nation, tribe and tongue would come to know His saving grace through Jesus Christ and draw near to His glory. As Jesus walked into the temple, He saw people of all nations represented there, but they were not seeking the presence of God in this place of prayer. Instead, what He saw was a lot of haggling, money changing hands, refuse and litter from the trade of typical eastern merchants, and the waste products of hundreds of animals and birds kept in the outer courts, defiling the place of worship and even carried into the inner courts on the sandals of the worshippers. Instead of echoing with the soothing sounds of psalms of worship, the Holy Place was filled with a cacophany of birds twittering, and the bleating of sheep and goats. Instead of the sweet smell of incense wafting through the air, the smell of sheep dung dominated. No wonder the Lord could not stand still!
The temple had its own currency, and people who came to purchase sacrifices or pay their temple tax (which was required of every man, woman or child) had to use the services of one of many money changers who did business in the outer courts. These people exploited the worshippers, charging them more than was necessary. And the men who sold the animal sacrifices had no qualms about selling weak or defective animals, which they knew God had told them not to offer. It must have been distressing to Jesus that some of the 'traders' in the temple were really priests, who should not have been touching 'unholy' things; they should have been fulfilling their duties in the aspects of worship in the temple. Jesus called them all a den of 'robbers'!
There are multiple aspects to this message.
Firstly, I believe that Jesus wants to do the same sweeping cleansing of the church at large today. He has been merciful and extending grace to the servants of the Kingdom, and the people of God, but in these last days, He is calling us to cleanse the House. Too many earthly kingdoms are being built at the cost of God's Kingdom and the honor of His name. Too many lives continue to head for eternal damnation while sitting within the courts of the sanctuary. Instead of being a place of worship,prayer, and the fear of the Lord, the temple may have become a place of fun and social interaction, business connections, political activism and sometimes even financial excesses and exploitation. Instead of Spirit anointed worship, we may be offering to God well rehearsed songs which entertain the congregations, and people come in and go out with their lives untouched and unchanged because they never encountered the Glory. The Lord grieves at the rivalry and division between (and even within) churches, and the lack of mercy and love. God says in Hosea 6:6 "I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings." He wants to manifest His end time anointing within the inner courts of today's temple. He wants the church to prepare for the second coming of His Son; but although the Bride has been busy doing many things, she has not begun to make herself ready.
The second aspect is the cleansing of the 'personal' temple. Paul said to the church in 1 Corinthians 3:16 & 17 "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple."
And in 1 Corinthians 6:19 & 20 "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."
The Lord is calling His people to begin to nurture and nourish their own temple, in which His Spirit dwells. As Paul said to the Corinthians, we are not our own - Jesus redeemed us with His own life blood. If Jesus is the Lord of our lives, we belong to Him - our temple is His! Paul wrote that if anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him! God deals very strongly with those who damage or desecrate His temple! Sometimes, the child of God can be his/her own enemy in terms of not guarding and nurturing the temple. Many of us work 7 days, and never take a Sabbath; or we may work through the night and deprive our body of rest. We do not maintain the temple with regular exercise and relaxation, and some of the food (and other substances) we injest can actually be quite destructive to it! While we may be very affronted if someone tried to harm our temple, we fail to see that we are really sinning against the Lord when we neglect our own well being and expose ourselves to what is harmful.
Thirdly, the Spirit of God seeks to bring cleansing to the personal temple in terms of what we as followers of the Master take into our minds through what we read, watch and listen to. He is looking for us to radically change what goes into the temple through the eye gate and the ear gate. He also sees what we have allowed to remain in our hearts and minds, which defile and pollute us, and hinder our spiritual growth. Unforgiveness, pride, offence, envy, criticism, and hypocrisy, among many other things, are as poison to the temple of God. They are no different to the animal waste, which Jesus was so disturbed to see defiling His Father's house. It is abhorrent to Him and makes the temple unclean. It makes it difficult for Him to remain. The brother of Jesus wrote in James 3:9-12 "With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water." Light and darkness cannot mix!
Fourthly, the temple is polluted when we compromise the values of the Kingdom and walk with the values of the world in terms of personal morality. God has called us to be holy, because we are a part of Him. But if our lifestyles begin to reflect the doubtful standards of the world, there is no way the temple can be clean or holy enough for a Holy God to dwell.
I believe the first step towards cleansing the temple is conviction and repentance. Even as I write this message, I feel the Holy Spirit bringing me to repentance, for many negative things I have said and thought this weekend. We can then ask the blessed Holy Spirit to have His way in us, and fill the temple with His presence. As we feed on the right 'food' - not just for our physical life, but feeding on fresh manna daily, as we consume God's Word and walk in it's cleansing power - the presence of Jesus will be manifested more and more within and through the temple as He delights to dwell in it.
Finally, In this passage, there are three kinds of people besides Jesus :-
1) The people who were buying and selling in the temple. (Folk who use the Gospel and the Lord to their own advantage or personal betterment. They have no desire to serve the Lord or commit their lives or substance into the Kingdom).
2) The chief priests, the teachers and the leaders of the Jews who were plotting to kill Jesus. (Those who are within the establishment of the church but against the moving of the Holy Spirit and not in agreement with everything in the Word. They are more in line with the spirit of the Age and the spirit of the world, rather than with the Spirit of the Lord and the Word of Jesus. They may also be very good and upstanding people but walking in a religious spirit).
3) The people who admired and loved Jesus and 'hung on His words'. (Faithful disciples who are following the Lord because they love Him and live their lives by His Word. They are committed to Jesus for better or worse and obey Him whatever the cost).
My prayer is that we will all be part of the third group - disciples of the Lord Jesus, walking with Him, and living in submission to His Word and His Spirit. These are the disciples who keep the temple clean! These are the ones who constantly seek the Lord in prayer, and stand as a beacon of light in this dark world, drawing men and women of other nations/ faiths to the revelation of Jesus. These are the ones who the Lord looks at and says "She/he is my house; a house of prayer for all nations"! These are the temples who delight the heart of Jesus, because they hold His presence as sacred and holy, and make their lives a place where He can dwell! These are temples who have thrown out all that is not necessary, and made room for Jesus!
May God's Word be the cleansing power in your temple. May the Lord Jesus give you the strength and enabling to throw out everything unclean from your temple so that God can fill it. May you be a holy tabernacle, in which the precious Spirit loves to dwell - a house of prayer and worship for all nations! God loves you!
Minoli Haththotuwa, 01 March 2010
www.wingslikeeagles.info
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