Isaiah 56:1-8 (NIV)  

¹ This is what the Lord says:

“Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed.  ² Blessed is the man who does this—the man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

³ Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”  And let not any eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.”

⁴ For this is what the Lord says:

“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant—
⁵ to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.  ⁶ And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant—⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer.  Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”  ⁸ The Sovereign Lord declares—he who gathers the exiles of Israel: “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.”

Luke 19:45-20:2 (NIV)

⁴⁵ Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling.  ⁴⁶ “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

⁴⁷ 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.  ⁴⁸ Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.

^20:1 One day as he was teaching the people in the temple courts and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders came up to him.  ² “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said.  “Who gave you this authority?”

Jesus went to Jerusalem claiming to be the King.

Jesus enters the city with a gentle confidence, a King offering a different sort of Kingship and a different kind of Kingdom to the people.

This gentle King offers love and grace, and gets out the bull whip and clears the Temple.

Jesus has declared Himself to be the King.

Today I want to help you to understand why Jesus came to the Temple to declare Himself to be the King.

I will attempt to answer two questions by explaining what does the Temple stand for or imply and what does the cleansing of the Temple mean?

What was the Temple?  The Jews could do specific things only at the Temple. 

1)      They could meet God face to face (a personal encounter.)

Psalm 63 David says, “So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and your glory.”  Psalm 27 David says, “That all the days of his life he wants to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His Temple…”  “Come” my heart says, “seek his face!” Your face, Lord, do I seek.

The Temple was a place where people could meet God.  The Jews had a special claim was that God’s royal presence, His face, was at the Temple.  God had created a place where people could come in and get to know God personally.  The shekinah glory, the overwhelming face and presence of God dwelt in the middle of the Temple in a place called the holy of holies.  That room was hidden by a thick curtain and only the chief priest could go in there once a year, and he went in with a rope tied around his waist in case he died in God’s presence, the body could be pulled out.  God’s royal, raw presence was in the Temple.

2)      The Temple was a place of sacrifice (a blood sacrifice.)

People were selling animals to the pilgrims to use as a blood sacrifice for their sins.

In Scripture, Yahweh is both infinite and personal.  He is love and holy; transcendent and imminent.  Over us, and near us.  He is more than a force, but Yahweh was a Person, they had the Temple where people could meet God.  Because God is both infinite and personal, because He is holy and personal, they couldn’t go into the Temple just as they were.  They had to deal with their sin before encountering God.  This is why the altar is there at the Temple, to deal with people’s sin.

The Bible says we must deal with God.  That you and I were created by God, and thus every bit of our energy and money and mental acuity was a gift from God.  Do we honor and respect God as though He is our owner?  No.  Do we give God the gratitude that we should for the gift of our lives?  No.

We want to be our own masters.  We think everything we have been given, we can do whatever we want with the gifts He has given us.

God still loves us, but what is to be done with this betrayal, this breach of trust?  The Jews were given the Temple; a place where they could meet with God after completing the necessary sacrifices. 

The Jews knew that if they were going t approach God they needed to have made some sort of amends, some sort of payment.  The payment was animal sacrifices (blood payment). 

The Jews understood that the wage of sin is death, so they needed a system to come back into the presence of God.  The system was ineffective because the sacrifice had to be done over and over again.

Hebrews 10:3-4 “But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year.  For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

Every time you went to the Temple you were reminded you were a terrible sinner and deserved death.  It wasn’t complete, the connection to God was not fully reconnected.

So, what does the cleansing of the Temple mean?

1)      No more fake spirituality

2)      The purpose of the Temple became subverted

3)      No prayer was happening at the Temple

4)      No fake worship

5)      Jesus wants His authority, He is claiming to be King, God

6)      Become a house of prayer

Worship involves the whole person.  When we worship, does peace come?  Are we set right again in the world, with God in charge and not us?  Does God become more real, bigger, more beautiful, more gracious as you worship?  In the light of God’s grace, does our anger, our frustration wane our trust grow?  The Temple was built and God inhabited the Temple in a special way so that people could meet God.  Do we know God personally?  That is what Jesus is about.

John 2:19  Jesus answered them, “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up.”

Jesus comes into the Temple and acts like He owns the place.  He can do that for you too.  We all need to experience this; where Jesus comes into our lives and starts rearranging, start reprioritizing, starts reordering.

We are the ones shouting, Hosanna!  Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!

When God shows up and knocks at our door, we either let Him in, no boundaries, or say, ‘no thanks.’

If we let God in, He will start something and promise to bring it to completion.

Jesus will replace the Temple because where we meet God face to face is through Jesus.  No one comes to the Father except through me.

The old system of sacrifice is replaced by Jesus’s sacrifice on the Cross.  That intimacy we had with God in the Garden of Eden, will be restored.

When Jesus dies on the Cross the curtain separating the holy of holies is torn, heaven is available.  The presence of God can come into our lives.

It all starts with saying ‘yes’ to Christ.  Jesus will come into your life; He will make you into a new creation.

You must be willing to let Him make the changes that are necessary for you to be with Him forever.

Give Him everything you have, it will make all the difference.

Review the themes in today’s sermon, pray about your thirst for a personal relationship with Christ.  If you have questions call, let’s get together, let’s work on our relationship with Jesus together.

May the God of the universe begin moving and recreating your life.  God bless.