Jesus lets loose!

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, and we looked at what the day really meant, and what took place. Today we're going to continue the look at Holy Week and look what happened after Jesus entered Jerusalem.

This morning, we're going to look at the Book of Luke, 45-48, 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.

Wow, what happened? Yesterday we saw Jesus entering the gates of Jerusalem very peaceful and with everyone singing His praises. Today we see Him throwing people out of the Church and people plotting to kill Him. That's quite a transition isn't it? So why the sudden change?

First of all, Jesus came into the Temple, and saw that it wasn't being used to glorify His Father. When a church stops worshipping God and starts worshipping itself, then you have a problem. The house of God should be a place of worship. When you look around and you see the same thing happening inside the walls of the sanctuary that is happening in the world, then it's time to find a church that focuses on God, not on man. Jesus came into His temple in today's passage and saw some things He didn't like. We saw His reaction. Now, we have to ask ourselves if our church would be pleasing to Jesus, or would He start throwing people out? I know the question sounds harsh, but Jesus was the Master of making people look into the deepest parts of their soul and making them answer the questions that they really didn't want to answer. Soul searching isn't always the most pleasant experience, but we grow from it when we answer the questions honestly.

Now you can see in the second part of today's passage that Jesus went right to work after cleaning up the Temple by preaching every day. And I'm sure that some of the things He said made a few people pretty mad. It made them mad enough that they plotted to kill Him. What could He have possibly said that would drive them to the point of murder? Could it have been that He hurt their pride by throwing the money changers out of the temple? Could it have been that He posed a threat to their power? It was probably a combination of both. Let's just call it conviction. Conviction is when an outside source (another believer, the Holy Spirit, the Bible etc) reveals a weakness or flaw in something we've been doing, whether it's intentional, or unintentional. It's that pain that comes when our pride has been hurt. Like we feel like we're being blamed. When we feel convicted, or threatened, we can't respond in anger like the leaders of the Temple did. What we need to do is dump our pride and move forward in a Godly manner. Pride is an easy tool for Satan to use in his battle against mankind, he used it against the leaders of the temple to the point that they handed over the Savior of the world to be crucified.

Today's passage is a great example of what can happen to a church when it fails to follow the Biblical example of how a church should operate. We can find Biblical examples of the church throughout the New Testament, and the Biblical examples of church leadership requirements in 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus. The church should operate under the laws of God, not man. When we allow God to rule in His temples, then they will grow and strengthen, not crumble. They will grow and strengthen, not be punished.

May you all be blessed in this the Holiest Week of the year.
Pastor Mike



For a great excample of a Biblical church, please read Acts:42-47