Jesus entered the temple and drove out ...

Matthew 21:1-22 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

 When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” ⁴ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

⁵ “Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold your King is coming to you,
Gentle, and mounted on a donkey,
Even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

⁶ The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them, ⁷ and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their coats on them; and He sat on the coats. ⁸ Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. ⁹ The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting,

“Hosanna to the Son of David;
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord;
Hosanna in the highest!”

¹⁰ When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” ¹¹ And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.”

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.”

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.

¹⁸ Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. ¹⁹ Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.

²⁰ Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?” ²¹ And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. ²² And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

“It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a robbers’ den.”    In how many churches today would Jesus have the same reaction? How often it seems as though the business of the church over shadows the purpose of the church, being a house of prayer, worship, a place to gather in the presence of the Lord. Churches today have the difficult task of balancing ministry and business. The larger the church, the bigger the building, the more programs, the higher the staff payroll, the more expenses, the more challenging that balance becomes. I’m not saying it’s bad to have a big church, many great things are done for the Lord by many large churches and ministries, it’s simply a fact that the larger a church or ministry becomes, the more challenging it is to properly balance the purpose of the church with the business of the church. For the church it can come down to a question of are we accountable to the board or to the Lord? Is the mission based on a financial plan or God’s plan?

At the root of every church, ministry or Christian organization, one question will help to answer those other questions. Is the mission and focus primarily toward building the church, growing the ministry, building a great organization or is the focus on building the kingdom of God? In speaking about individuals worrying about how their needs will be met Jesus says:    “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ ³² For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”    It’s not that as individuals or corporate entities we should neglect the responsibility of being good stewards and planning and providing for ourselves and our families.  But, as individuals and groups, if we will seek His kingdom, rather than trying to build our own, He will provide all we need. We will not need to worry about it.

Many people use the challenge that the institutional church faces in balancing ministry and business as an excuse to no longer be part of a church. They cite the focus on finances and the excesses of church buildings and staff as reasons to not be part of a church, claiming they can worship and serve God without those things. In that case we need to recognize what it says in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17:    Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? ¹⁷ If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.    In the same way Jesus overturned the tables and drove out the money changers from the temple building, He will drive out all that is not God centered in our individual lives as well.       Hebrews 10:23-25 says:        Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; ²⁴ and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, ²⁵ not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.     We may not need big buildings or church programs to worship and serve God, but we do need each other.  1 John 4:20 says:     If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.      It is true that we can meet God and worship and fellowship with Him on a mountain top, in the wilderness, by a quiet stream or anywhere we make Him our focus. A question there though becomes are we really worshipping God, the creator or are we worshipping the creation? Are we seeking God or the pleasure of His creation?

Jesus says: “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock (the revelation that Jesus is the Christ) I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”      Jesus wants to build His church, but it’s not a building or an organization that He wants to build. The word church, in that verse is the Greek word ecclesia, which is an assembly of citizens. It is an assembly which gathers for the purpose of political authority. The church that Jesus wants to build is not a place for people to gather, it’s not even necessarily a house of prayer. Jesus says:   ”where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” (Matthew 18:20)   The church that Jesus wants to build is a gathering, an assembly of citizens of the kingdom of heaven, whose purpose is to govern and rule here on earth. The church should not remain securely in the confines of a building, but rather should go out to the places where the gates of hell influence the earth. Jesus says His church has authority there, to bind up evil and darkness on earth and to loose the realities of heaven on earth. Today’s text says: And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.  Jesus says:  “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. ²² And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

It is true that Jesus may indeed enter many churches today and drive out those who are focused on the business rather than the true purpose and mission of the church, to be His authority on earth. He will also though overturn everything we set up in our own lives that hinders us from becoming who He has called us to be.

May our prayer truly be: Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.   Amen.