Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Begin your time with God by reading the following passage from Matthew…

Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it into a den of robbers.” 
- Matthew 21:12-13

A little historical background:

After His triumphal entry to the city of Jerusalem, Jesus heads straight for the temple. If Jerusalem was the center of the Jewish world, then the temple was the center of Jerusalem. This was the time of the Passover celebration, a week long festival during which tens of thousands of pilgrims traveled to the great city to worship and celebrate. 

This was also tax time for the Roman government (very convenient of the Romans huh?). In the outer temple courts, the money changers set up their booths to exploit those who need to pay the Roman tax. There were also those selling animals (doves, lambs, etc.) for sacrifice in the temple. The temple priests were required to inspect the animals being offered for sacrifice to be sure they were acceptable. They (the priests) would often reject animals brought in from the outside and force people to buy those being sold inside the temple courts, which were 10 times more expensive. The priests got a cut of the profits from the sellers and they both got rich off of the poor people trying to follow the rules.

Jesus saw all of this exploitation going on and He lost it. He was angry not just at the exploitation and corruption, but at the fact that those who were being exploited were people trying to obey the law and worship God. Worse still, it was the ones who were supposed to be leading the people to God who were doing the exploiting!
When you realize what was really going on, you can understand why Jesus was so upset. In fact it kind of makes you angry too doesn’t it? 

Before you get too upset, consider this…

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. – 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed long ago, but the temple in which God lives by His Spirit is alive and well today, it is His people, it is you and I!

Let’s turn this story inward for a moment…Jesus comes to His temple today. 
He comes to your heart and to mine, what will he find there? 
What do you think Jesus wants to “overturn” in your life? 
What does Jesus want to drive out of your heart? 
What areas of your life are getting in the way of your desire to worship God with a pure heart?

Close your time by praying these words from Psalm 139:23-24...
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Pastor Jeff Frazier