Summary
Pastor Jon Noyes preaches out of Luke 19:45–48, showing how Jesus’ cleansing of the temple was a deliberate, prophetic act of judgment that declared His authority as the true temple where God meets His people. He calls the church today to examine whether Christ finds in us a house of prayer or a marketplace of distraction, and points to the Lord’s Table as the place of free grace, communion, and fulfillment in Jesus.
Transcript
Last week, Pastor David had like 75 verses. This morning I have four. It doesn't mean I'm less of a man or a preacher. It just means they don't trust me as much. It's good to be with you guys. We're gonna be in the Gospel of Luke picking up in chapter 19, starting in verse 45, going through 48. Now as I read this out loud, guys, I want you guys to try to resist the temptation. I know you wouldn't zone out, but just kind of let everything go by because this is a story, an account, a true account. This happened in history that we all know about. It's about Jesus cleansing the temple, and I think there's a lot here for us that perhaps we haven't ever thought about. So picking up in verse 45, we have Jesus, He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling, saying to them, "It's written, 'And my house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a robber's den.' And He was teaching daily in the temple, but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among them, the people were trying to destroy Him, and they could not find anything that they might do for all the people were hanging on the very word He said." Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the opportunity to... gosh, just do this. Thank you for the opportunity to gather with your people, to talk to you because you're the God who's there. You're the God who has taken us out of darkness and into His marvelous light, and you've paid an ultimate price for us, giving your son so you might have many sons and daughters. This morning as we go through your Word, would you be with us? Would you give us insight? Would you hold me steadfast and honest, pure to your word? Would it be you that's speaking? Through me, a broken vessel. And as always God, would you just help us transform into the image of your son? Just so when we leave here, we look just a little bit more like Jesus. Help us love you more and each other better. In Christ's name, amen. So Luke is slowing down his gospel here. Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem. We're kind of entering the final act of the gospel, and the geography is shrinking. That's why I mean the pace is slowing down, but everything kind of intensifies at the same time. So over the next, well, a couple months, everything's going to get more and more intense as Jesus. He approaches the cross. So he's entered the city and he set his eyes on that final object. He sets his eyes on that cross, and the first thing that he decides to do as he enters the city is go straight to the temple. And the timing here I think matters significant. The scene follows immediately after Jesus is lamented over the city. If you guys remember Pastor David did a wonderful job here where we have Jesus, he weeps and he prophesies judgment. He says the days will come, not one stone will be lifted upon another. So the destruction of Jerusalem and ultimately the destruction of the temple are got to be complete. And Jesus, he reinforces that again in the next chapter in 21, well two chapters later, 21, and he's speaking clearly about the coming devastation that comes to that holy city in AD 70. And the short scene in Luke's Gospels, it's no minor interlude. You know I feel like sometimes when we get to these places, that's why I wanted before we read it to resist the urge of kind of just going into our mental spaces, which is fine. When we get to these familiar passages, Luke isn't wasting time, he's not mincing words. Everything he writes is intentional with a purpose. And this is actually a thunder clap that we see this morning. We're standing right at the edge of Jesus' passion and with his entry into the temple, the story now races toward the cross. But before that Luke gives us a striking episode here, a true count, a real life account. This happened. Jesus, he cleanses the temple. And it's one of those moments again that we want to rush past and we're really trying to resist the urge not to. I want to, I just want to slow down and think. And if you're able to, I don't know if you're able to, I'm able to do this, like put myself in the shoes of maybe one of Jesus's followers, put myself at the scene. Because what we're about to witness here, it's not just a minor correction of something that might have gone slightly wrong. It's a divine confrontation of something that needs to be fixed and it's not just a moral rebuke of corrupt worship practices. This is a symbolic act of judgment. The cleansing of the temple is the beginning of something so much more. And Luke is super brief. He says, "Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling." This isn't a mild correction. It's a confrontation. It's a reclaiming. You see, Jesus, when he comes to the temple, notice he doesn't ask permission. He's not waiting for somebody to give him approval. He doesn't appeal to the Sanhedrin. He enters the temple and he takes charge. Why? Because the temple is his. He is Lord and he knows it. And in Luke here in his gospel, he's carefully led us to this moment, the temples where the story began, if you remember. The temple is where Zachariah was serving in silence. The temple is where Jesus, just 25, 26 odd years earlier, where Jesus was found teaching. And at that time, he said, "This is my father's house and now the son returns." And this isn't a moment of impulsive rage either. Jesus is always measured. It was calculated, deliberate, righteous. Jesus wasn't having a bad hair day. He didn't wake up on the wrong side of the bed. He didn't have an argument with a friend and that's not what led him to flip over tables as we read about Matthew or a fashion a whip out of cords. He was fulfilling a prophecy. Specifically, he was fulfilling Micah 3, "The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple," is what Micah prophesies. And this is exactly what's happening. The long anticipated Lord, he enters his house and he's not pleased with what he finds. And he doesn't call it a temple, notice that. What's he call it? "My house." "My house." And in his house, Jesus, like I said, he takes charge, but then he drives out the cellars. He dismantles the system and he quotes Isaiah 56. It's written, "My house shall be a house of prayer." Again, guys, this is not random. This isn't just a, we're not cherry picking verses here. This is about the purpose of the temple, what it was supposed to be. A house of prayer. And keep in mind, the temple, it's not just a house of prayer for Israel, but for all the nations. Outside of the inner court, you had the outer court, the court of the Gentiles, followed by the court of the women. And then the inner court. You see, God set up this system, not just for his people, but for everybody to come and worship. The temple was meant to be the holiest space in Israel. It had been desecrated by religious consumerism. Commerce had displaced communion. Greed had crowded out glory. And the very courts that were meant to welcome the Gentiles, the outsiders seeking God's face, had become a marketplace of noise, fraud, and exploitation. And then the court of the Gentiles had become a stockyard of sorts. The invitation to pray had been drowned out by the noise of selling and buying. Very similar. I get the picture of the New York Stock Exchange. You know, craziness going on. People trying to get what they needed to get. Buying and selling. Selling and buying. And just like in Jeremiah's day, the temple had once again become a den of robbers. But underneath all of the noise was something far more sinister, far more dark. There was collusion that was happening. You see, what had happened over the course of many years, it was the religious establishment, the religious elite, the religious leaders, they had partnered with the merchants to make a profit off of worship that was supposed to be holy and pure. And the house of prayer had become a den of thieves. And Jesus, he walks in, he sees it, and he's filled with the Holy Fury. I wish I could have been there to see this. Do you guys ever wish you could be there to see what Jesus actually did? I mean, I'm hoping in glory. I'm hoping in the New Earth there's like a heavenly DVA. You guys remember those things? They're like recorded shows so you could watch them later. The young ones are like, "Huh?" I'm hoping they have one so I can rewind it and watch certain events. Like, who doesn't want to see the creation event? Ex nihilo. Out of nothing. Everything. How exactly does an immaterial God without larynx or vocal cords, no air, how does he speak everything into existence? Or I'm hoping there's like a divine womb cam. Like, how exactly does the Holy Spirit interact with the physiology of Mary to create baby Jesus in the belly of Mary? I don't know. And I'm hoping I can see this instance too, where Jesus walks in with a holy, holy anger, seeing what these people have done with a passion that's built, actually founded on love and adoration, not just for his God, not just for the Father, but for his people. And out of this love and compassion, he becomes upset and he sees it and then he says to them, "You've made it a den of robbers." And saints, I think that we have to see this when the sacred becomes profane, when worship becomes transactional. Jesus, he doesn't shrug. He doesn't turn away. He overturns tables. And he still does this, by the way. So Jesus, he quotes both Isaiah 56 and Jeremiah 7 and he places his cleansing action with the context of prophetic indictment. The people had turned the house of God into a hideout for the very sins the temple was meant to cleanse. And Jesus, what's he do? He drives him out. But this moment isn't just about purification, just about the driving out of these people. It's about fulfillment. Keep in mind, this space has always been his. Nothing has changed in the divine view. Even if the temple and its priests were faithful, the temple was always Jesus's. And because it was always Jesus's, it was always temporary. All of it was to be fulfilled in Christ regardless of the temple conditions or the priestly conditions who are in it. Jesus doesn't just remove the cellas. He takes over the space. Luke tells us that he was teaching daily in the temple. He commandeers the temple for himself. He establishes his presence and authority right there in the heart of Israel's religious life. And what's he teaching? Well, Luke doesn't tell us. But that's kind of the point. Day after day, Jesus confronts falsehoods, not just with fury, but with truth. And this is, again, it continues today. How do we confront lies? It's always with truth. How do we confront deceptions? It's always with truth. And this is what Jesus is doing. And the people, they're captivated. They're hanging on the every word of Jesus is what Luke tells us. Jesus has become the center. He's now the focal point of divine instruction, not the scribes, not the priests. You see, Jesus right here and before us has become the truer prophet, the truer priest, and the truer temple. Everything that the temple stood for, the prayer, sacrifice, instruction, mediation, is now fulfilled in Jesus. The temple is no longer a building of stone, but it's a person. Jesus is not just walking into sacred space. He is sacred space. He's not just teaching in the temple. He is the temple teaching. And then this shift, it's subtle in the text. But when we think about it, it's staggering. It's staggering what has happened in just these four verses. He's fulfilling Isaiah 56, not just by cleansing the physical temple, but by becoming the place where the nations will meet God. And this is where this is what Paul would go on to argue on Maz Hill if you got Mars, Mars Hill for you non-Bostonians. Are you guys okay? You're so quiet. You're so, I love you guys. Do you guys love me? Okay, why do you love me? Nate, why do you love me? Because God loves me. How about I'm made in the image of God, so you have to love me. Because I'm made in the image of God, I'm of inherent value, dignity, and worth, and unworthy of your time, even your time this morning to listen to as I blabber on. But that means I have to love you too, because you're made in the image of God. And even if you don't believe that tough, the image of God's still stuck on you. Oh, it's so good. You guys remember Paul on Mars Hill? You guys remember what he argued? He's up there, he's arguing with the, I mean, the best and the brightest minds, not Christian minds, not Jewish minds, secular minds. These are the best minds. These are the Einstein's. These are the Newton's. These are the people, these are the Jordan Peterson's of the day, you know? And he says, "The God who made the world and all things in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all people life and breath and all things. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God if perhaps they might grope for him and find him, though he's not far from each one of us. For in him we live, we move and exist." You see, Paul knew this. Paul was recognizing Jesus as the true temple. He was recognizing that the temple is not just a building, it's represented, it was meant to represent the meeting place between God and humanity, and in the New Testament the temple is now Christ himself. And because we are in him, Paul tells us, "You are the temple of the Holy Spirit in first Corinthians," which means this, "Jesus is still walking into temples today." This is incredible. Jesus is still walking in the temples today, not temples of stone, but temples of flesh. Jesus is still walking in and through you and me and our church. And when he enters, he inspects. And what does he find? Does he find a house of prayer or a marketplace of distraction? Does he find communion or consumerism? Does he find people who hunger for the Word, who hang on every word that he speaks? Does he find religious motion with no spiritual substance? This text, it isn't just about what happened in the temple 2,000 years ago. It's about what's happening in us right now, even as we sit here this morning. Jesus is still entering the temple and he's claiming it for himself. "I am Lord." And Jesus is pointing, it wasn't lost on his audience, by the way. Look what Luke says next, "The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were trying to destroy him." You see, these people, they weren't just offended by Jesus' tone. They saw a right in front of them at that very moment. They saw themselves being displaced. Jesus had walked into their domain. Jesus had claimed it for his own and then Jesus turned the crowd toward himself. The people were hanging on every word. He'd become everything that they thought they were. The chief priests, that is. He was acting as a priest. He was acting as a prophet. He was acting as a teacher. He didn't just challenge their authority. He obliterated it. He rendered their authority completely obsolete and they knew it. In just a few verses, we see the lines of conflict are drawn in the sand. Jesus, he doesn't reform the temple system. He pronounces its judgment. The old way, the way of mediated access, institutional corruption, and national exclusivity is coming down. Not one stone will be left, if you remember. And in its place, a newer and better temple was being raised, Jesus himself. The place of presence, the center of worship, the dwelling of God with man is now found in the person of Jesus Christ. In this moment, it also reveals something of God's posture toward worship. The temple wasn't a commonplace. It wasn't to be profaned. It wasn't secular. It was holy ground. It was set apart for communion, for relationship, for connectivity with God. So let's be remembered, or reminded rather, when we gather for worship on Sunday mornings, we're crossing the threshold from secular to sacred. That's why when we're up here, the pastors, the elders here, we remind you that sometimes we pray that there's a thin space that's created between heaven and earth here and now. Pastor David says it so well that this is a theater of the future. What that means is that as an on-looking world looks in at what's happening on Sunday mornings at the church global, the church Catholic, it should be a preview of what's to come. But just a glimpse through a fogged lens perhaps, but a preview nonetheless of the glory that awaits us as we enter glory with God forever and ever to worship Him uninhibited by these sinful bodies. We have new bodies. It's a theater of the future and not because of the building. Thank God we meet in the gym if you haven't noticed. The reason why that this gym right now guys, we are claiming it for Christ. Christ is present in this gym and he says this is mine. This is a sacred space. This is a holy place because of the presence of Christ among us, among His people. This becomes a holy place. The church, it's not a playhouse. It's not a market. It's not an event. It's a people called out by God gathered in the name of Jesus indwelt by the Spirit, hearing the voice of Christ preached in His Word and sung in His songs. This space that we inhibit, that we sit in right now, it's holy. Not because it feels holy. Sometimes it doesn't. Have you seen the black curtains hanging behind us? Not because it looks holy. Certainly not because it sounds holy. It's holy because Christ is present among us and He's still claiming His house as His own. Luke, he shows us a Jesus who doesn't shy away from judgment. He enters the temple and announces, not with words alone, but with actions. The time is up. The system is crumbling. The structure will fall and He, Jesus, in the center of it all stands firm. He's teaching, speaking, loving, drawing, being the very temple that the building failed to be. And now in Him, the invitation goes out again to all nations, to all the outcasts, to all the foreigners, to any who hunger and thirst, righteousness can be yours through Christ. He welcomes you in this place, not to come by or sell or trade, but just to receive. The temple's been cleansed. The veil is going to be torn. The final sacrifice given. And in Jerusalem, Jesus, He walked into the temple courts and began the cleanse. He drove out the cellars. He shut down the system and He called it my house because it was His. You see, He wasn't just another prophet critiquing corruption. He was the Lord returning to His temple. What followed wasn't just a warning, it was a shift. The temple was giving way to something far greater. The building was passing away. The person was standing in its place. Everything the temple represented, sacrifice, access, forgiveness, communion, is now found in Jesus. And what He began in the temple that day that we just read about, He's going to finish just a few days later on a cross. See, that's what this table in front of us right here points us to. This table right here, dressed in white. The element's covered. It doesn't point us to our worthiness. It doesn't point us to our performance. But instead, His body given, His blood poured out. The cleansing that couldn't come through coin or animal now comes through the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This table, it's not a marketplace. You'll notice there's nothing to buy here at Sole. There's nothing to earn here at Sole. All there is for you to sit and receive, freely given, fully sufficient. And in this bread and cup were reminded of the body and the blood of the true temple. The place where a judgment and mercy meet. So in a while, we're going to invite you to come not to a marketplace but to a table. Not to a system but a Savior. He's here. And He still calls it His house. And as we come to the Lord's table this morning, we come not as people entering a temple made of stone but into the presence of the living Christ. He is here. The true and the better temple is here present with us. How? I have no idea. I have no idea how this works. Practically speaking, I wish I did. But I know it's true. And as we come, as we receive for what's already been made ready for us, I just pray that our hats, like the crowd in the temple that day, hang on on every word that Jesus would have for us. So in a while, I can't wait. I can't wait to meet you at this table. You guys are incredible. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the opportunity to preach your word. Would you continue the work that's been done in each and every one of us completing it in your due time? In Christ's name, amen.