Will you please turn to the Gospel according to John, John chapter 2. We will read from verse 13 through verse 22.
And the passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
And He found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:
And He made a scourge of cords, and cast all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables;
And to them that sold the doves He said, Take these things hence; make not My Father’s house a house of merchandise.
His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for Thy house shall eat Me up.
The Jews therefore answered and said unto Him, What sign showest Thou unto us, seeing that Thou doest these things?
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
The Jews therefore said, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt Thou raise it up in three days?
But He spake of the temple of His body.
When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He spake this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
Will you please turn to Matthew, Matthew chapter 21? We will begin with verse 12 through verse 17.
And Jesus entered into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold the doves;
And He saith unto them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer: but ye make it a den of robbers.
And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple; and He healed them.
But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were moved with indignation,
And said unto Him, Hearest Thou what these are saying? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea: did ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise?
And He left them, and went forth out of the city to Bethany, and lodged there.
Dear Lord, we do know that we have much to thank Thee for. But over and above all, we want to thank Thee for Thyself: Thou who art the only begotten Son of God, the Beloved of the Father.
And yet, in obedience to Thy Father, Thou willingly camest into this world to be the Lamb that taketh away the sin of the world. Lord, what Thou art, and what Thou hast done, are way beyond our understanding. We worship Thee.
As we continue in Thy presence, we look to Thy Holy Spirit to breathe upon Thy written Word and make it living and working in each of our lives. O dear Lord, open our understanding. Open our hearts toward Thy Word, toward Thyself. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
According to the record of the four Gospels, we find that our Lord Jesus, when He was on earth, cleansed the temple in Jerusalem two times.
Once, as recorded in John 2, He did it at the beginning of His public ministry. He went to Jerusalem, entered into the temple, and cleansed the temple.
Then again, we find in Matthew 21—and you can also find it in Luke 19—that toward the end of His public ministry, He once again entered into the temple and did the cleansing.
Brothers and sisters, to me, I feel these two acts show us the real spirit of the ministry of our Lord Jesus.
You know, this began not only after He took up the public ministry. You remember, even when He was twelve years old, that was the year at which the Jewish family would make their son, who had reached the age of twelve, a son of the law.
It was during that time that our Lord Jesus, when He was twelve years old, was taken by His parents to Jerusalem, to the temple. There He was made a son of the law. In other words, there He became responsible for His own relationship with God. He was made a member of the commonwealth of Israel. He had the right to ask questions and the right to answer questions.
Now, usually, if a boy was made a son of the law in Jerusalem, he would go back with his family. But something happened.
Instead of going home with His parents, He remained in Jerusalem, in the temple. His parents tried to find Him, and on the third day they found Him in the temple. There He was listening to the rabbis, and He was asking questions. And not only that, He even answered some of the questions.
Now His earthly mother was grieved. She said, “Son, why did You do that to us?” And you remember the answer of our Lord Jesus. He said, “Why are you worried? Why do you want to find Me? Do you not know that I must be occupied with My Father’s business?”
To be a son of the law is not only to be responsible morally before God for oneself. To be a son of the law, in actuality and in reality, is to be occupied with the heavenly Father’s business. And this was what our Lord Jesus did when He was twelve years old.
Because He was still a minor, He went home, submitting Himself to His parents. And as He grew up, we all remember that for thirty years He was hidden in the hills of Nazareth.
During those hidden years of our Lord Jesus, we find that He became a carpenter. Most likely, Joseph died early, and He had to take care of the family. But when He was thirty years old, He stepped out to begin to do His Father’s business.
He went to Jerusalem. He went to the temple. Why? Because the temple was supposed to be the house of God. The temple was supposed to be a place of worship. The temple was a representation of God being with man.
But when He went into the temple, what did He see?
Now, brothers and sisters, if you remember, way back after God delivered His children Israel out of Egypt, He brought them to Himself at Mount Sinai. There He gave them the law to make them His covenant people.
After He gave them the law, He asked them to do one thing. It is recorded in Exodus 25:
Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
In other words, God’s heart, from the very creation of man, is to dwell with man. He wants to make man His dwelling place, His resting place—a place where He and man can live together in unity, in harmony, in joy, and in peace.
So He asked His delivered people to make Him a sanctuary. And you remember, they made the tabernacle.
The tabernacle was with them throughout the wilderness journey of forty years. After they entered into the promised land, it was David who had the heart to build God a permanent temple. And it was his son Solomon who built the temple.
You remember, when Solomon dedicated the temple, he—who was the wisest of men—knew that God does not really dwell in any physical building, because God fills the universe. So he said, “What is this that I have built?” It is only a place where You may put Your name. It is a place where people can come and pray. It is a house of prayer for all nations. It is a representation, a symbol, of the presence of God among His people. That is all it is.
But unfortunately, the children of Israel were unfaithful to God. They worshiped idols. They sinned against God again and again and again, until finally God allowed them to be taken captive into Babylon.
But in God’s grace, God brought them back after seventy years of Babylonian captivity. Unfortunately, only a remnant returned.
The rest of God’s people found their home, their rest, their business, and their prosperity in the land of captivity. They lived for themselves. But only a remnant among them, whose spirit was stirred by God, were willing to leave everything, brave the dangers of the journey, and return to Jerusalem, which was a ruin, for one purpose only: to rebuild the temple.
And this was the temple that our Lord Jesus visited while He was on earth. But outwardly, it was very different. When the remnant returned, they were only a few people and were very limited in their resources, so the temple they built was rather small.
But King Herod, at that time king over the Jews, was not an Israelite; he was an Idumean. Yet he was on the throne, and he was a great builder.
So he enlarged that temple built by the remnant, to make it a glorious, gorgeous, wonderful beauty, adorned with precious stones and with all the offerings of the world. The Jewish people at that time took great pride in that temple.
You remember, when the remnant returned from Babylonian captivity and started to build the temple, the Samaritans came and said, “We want to help you and build with you, because we also worship God.” Yet, you know, they were such a mixture.
So in those days Zerubbabel and Joshua, and the leaders of the returned remnant, said, “No. We will build the house of God by ourselves. In spite of our limited resources, we will build it ourselves.”
But during the time of our Lord Jesus, the Jewish people allowed King Herod to enlarge the temple and make it such a gorgeous, glorious temple—a pride of the nation. You know the spiritual condition of the people.
But during that time, something more happened in the temple area. The temple was a place of silence, a place of serenity, a place of worship. There should have been a sense of the presence of God.
But instead, you find that in the temple area there were sellers of oxen, goats, sheep, and doves, and there were money changers. So you find that it became a very noisy place, like a bazaar.
It had lost all sensitivity in the people. They were attending a bazaar instead of attending a place of worship.
Now, why? How did it happen? It is because, you remember, God commanded His people that three times a year they must travel to Jerusalem to worship God at the temple.
And when they came to worship, they were not supposed to come empty-handed. They should come with a basket full; they would come offering sacrifices.
And you know, if you tried to lead an ox, a goat, or a sheep all the way, traveling hundreds and thousands of miles to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice, it was rather inconvenient.
So, for the sake of convenience—for expediency’s sake—they said, “Now you do not need to do that. You can just bring the money, and we will provide the sheep and goats and oxen and those that have been approved. You just buy them.”
Now, is that not convenient? And not only that, because people came from all corners of the world, they had different currencies. In the temple there was a temple currency, so they had to change their money.
“Now, do not worry. We have money changers right here at the temple, so you can change the money.” Now, how convenient it was!
But, you know, behind that, the priests tried to make a big profit and showed favor to the merchants. So it became a place of merchandise.
This went on year after year, month after month, day after day, and nobody thought anything of it. Everybody took it in stride, believing that this was the right thing to do. What else could you do?
But not for our Lord Jesus.
When He came into the temple and saw all the things that were going on, the Bible says:
Zeal for Thy house shall eat Me up.
There was a fire burning in His heart. “How can you make My Father’s house a house of merchandise?” What sacrilege!
So our Lord did something that was most unusual for Him, because He was meek and lowly. He came into this world to be the Lamb of God, sacrificed for the sin of the world.
Yet at that time, you find that He made a scourge of cords. He drove out the money changers and the sellers of oxen, sheep, and goats. He overturned the tables of the money changers. He drove out all these animals, and He told those who sold doves, “Take these things away. You make My Father’s house a house of merchandise.”
Even though our Lord Jesus knew very well that this temple was only a representation, not the real thing—because He is the real temple of God—He could not allow such a thing to happen.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.
It was not the temple in Jerusalem. It was Jesus, the Son of God, who became the Son of Man. He is the real temple: God with man, Emmanuel. Yet this temple was a representation, and our Lord Jesus simply could not allow such a thing to happen.
You know, when He did these things, He knew very well that He was against all the hierarchy of the religious world—Judaism. He was against Judaism, the religious system. He was against everything. He knew what He was doing.
But the zeal of His Father’s house devoured Him. It swallowed Him up.
Brothers and sisters, you remember, it is prophesied in Psalm 40:6-8:
Sacrifice and offering Thou hast no delight in;
Mine ears hast Thou opened:
Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast Thou not required.
Then said I, Lo, I am come;
In the roll of the book it is written of Me:
I delight to do Thy will, O my God;
Yea, Thy law is within My heart.
Now, brothers and sisters, is not our Lord Jesus a sacrifice? Surely He is. Is He an oblation, a meal offering? Yes, His whole life is a meal offering to God—pure, perfect.
Is He not a burnt offering unto God? Yes. He offered Himself completely to God, acceptable to God His Father. Is He not a sin offering? Yes, because He is the Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world. He is all these things.
But He said, “This is not really what God wants.” What God really desires is a man who does His will.
The reason why our Lord Jesus came into this world is more than just to be a sacrifice, an oblation—more than just to be a sin offering and a burnt offering. Yes, He was all of these things. But behind what He was and what He did was the Father’s business. The zeal of His Father’s house devoured Him.
Brothers and sisters, there is a thing called zeal. We know it even in this world, in the natural world. There is such a thing as zeal.
Some people are zealous for a cause, and because they are so zealous for that cause, they are even willing to sacrifice themselves. Some people are zealous for money, and for money’s sake they are willing even to die for it. I have seen people doing it.
There are people who are zealous for love. Because they love certain people, they are willing to do anything, sacrifice everything, in order to have that person. Yes, there is such a thing as zeal in this world, but these are strange fires.
These are fires that burn in the flesh. But so far as our Lord Jesus is concerned, it is a different fire. Yes, there is a zeal. It is a zeal for the Father’s house. It is a zeal for the Father’s business. It is a zeal for the Father’s will.
And that zeal devoured Him. That zeal swallowed Him up. This zeal made Him as if He forgot Himself completely.
You know, there are two kinds of fire in the Scripture. One is the strange fire—that is the fire of this world, the fire that comes from the flesh. And it is all for ourselves, eventually.
But there is a zeal; there is a fire that comes down from above. That is the fire that God is pleased with. And this is the fire that was burning in the bones of our Lord Jesus.
You remember Luke 12. He said:
I came to cast fire upon the earth; and what do I desire, if it is already kindled?
Oh, brothers and sisters, there is a fire burning in the heart of our Lord Jesus concerning His Father’s house. It is for this reason that you find He did the thing that He did.
Thousands, tens of thousands, of people were going in and out of the temple, and nobody seemed to notice anything wrong. Everybody just took it as usual.
Not until our Lord Jesus came—and He simply could not stand it.
It is not a matter of convenience. It is not a matter of expediency. It is not a matter of profit. It is a matter of worship.
When He did it, He was challenged by the Jews. “By what authority do You do that? Why do You do it? On what basis are You doing it?”
And our Lord Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
They said, “This temple was being enlarged for forty-six years, and You say You can rebuild it in three days?” They did not know that our Lord was referring to His own body. “You may destroy this body of Mine, but in three days I will raise it up.”
His disciples remembered what He said after He was raised from the dead.
But did our Lord Jesus succeed in cleansing the temple? No. After the cleansing, it was defiled right away. During His three years of public ministry, things did not change a bit. Not only did they not change; they got worse.
And that is always the case. When anything is done disregarding the Spirit and the Word of God, and is done out of convenience, out of expediency, out of profit, it always degenerates more and more.
So it was at the end of the ministry of our Lord Jesus. During His last entry into Jerusalem before His crucifixion, He went into the temple and cleansed it once again, giving it another chance.
And you know what He said?
My house shall be called a house of prayer: but ye make it a den of robbers.
He was quoting Jeremiah 7. In Jeremiah 7, you find the children of Israel at that time still had Solomon’s temple, and they still went to the temple to worship.
But their moral condition and spiritual condition were such that they shed blood, robbed, stole, committed adultery, and worshiped idols. Then they came to the temple and said, “The Lord’s temple, the Lord’s temple, the Lord’s temple are these.”
In other words, after they had committed all these grievous sins, they came to the temple and said, “Now we are covered. We are okay.”
I remember when I was in the Philippines. There was a cathedral called the Cathedral of Black Jesus. That was the cathedral where robbers, after they had robbed, would go and say a prayer. Then they would say, “Everything is covered.”
And that is what they were doing.
So the prophet Jeremiah said that what God demanded was that they honor God and honor man—not make the temple a cover for continuing in sin and transgression.
Our Lord Jesus quoted Jeremiah 7:11:
Is this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?
How people today make religion a cover for their sins.
But thank God, when our Lord Jesus cleansed the temple, the blind and the lame came to Him and were healed. The children began to sing, “Hosanna to the Son of David. Salvation! Blessed be the Son of David!”
You know what happened? The priests were indignant. They told the Lord, “Tell these children to shut up.” And our Lord Jesus said:
Yea: did ye never read,
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings
Thou hast perfected praise?
And the Lord left Jerusalem and went to Bethany. Is that not a picture?
Brothers and sisters, are we a people who are marked by the zeal of God’s house? Do we not understand that after we believe in the Lord Jesus, the first real Christian experience is consecration?
Have you consecrated yourself to the Lord? It is like a bar mitzvah among the Jewish people: you are being made a son of grace, not a son of law.
When you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God—which is your reasonable service, your spiritual worship—have you done that?
If you have never done that, you have not begun the Christian walk. No matter whether you have been saved for ten years or twenty years, you have not started to walk as a Christian.
But thank God, by the grace of God, as we are constrained by the love of Christ, we do give ourselves to the Lord.
Now, what does it mean when you present your bodies a living sacrifice? When you consecrate yourselves to the Lord, what does it mean?
Does it not mean that from now on you ought to be occupied with the Father’s business, no longer occupied with your own business?
Even doing your own business is an avocation, not your vocation. Your vocation is to be occupied with your Father’s business.
And what is your Father’s business? Your Father’s business is what He wants to do, what He wants to have. He wants a house. He wants to dwell among people in unity, in harmony, in peace, and in love. And we are His house.
Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus said:
Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
In other words, the temple in Jerusalem was but a representation. Because of its misrepresentation, God allowed it to be destroyed. But in its being destroyed, we find the reality of God’s house being brought in.
They destroyed the body of our Lord Jesus, but out of that body that was broken on the cross came forth the church, the house of God. He is the Rock, and He said, “Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
And the same zeal that devoured Him should be the zeal that swallows us up.
The world will say that you are radicals. But to be a Christian is to be radical—special, peculiar, people of God. We do not live for ourselves any longer. We live for God. We live for Him. We live for His will. We live for His house.
May the same zeal swallow us up.
Dear brothers and sisters, is it time that we should wake up? Do not be like the thousands and thousands of Jewish people who frequented the temple and saw nothing wrong.
As I was meditating on all these words, a hymn came to my heart. It was a hymn written by Charles Wesley. He wrote it long, long ago, but the spirit of that hymn is everlasting.
I would like, brothers and sisters, that we would sing this hymn together. It may be new to some of you, but actually it is an old hymn. I will read the words, and when we sing, I hope we sing not only with our voice, but with our heart.
Jesus, Thine all-victorious love
Shed in my heart abroad;
Then shall my heart no longer rove,
Rooted and fixed in God.O that in me the sacred fire
Might now begin to glow;
Burn up the dross of base desire,
And make the mountains flow.Thou who at Pentecost didst fall,
Do Thou my sins consume;
Come, Holy Ghost, for Thee I call,
Spirit of burning, come.Refining fire, go through my heart,
Illuminate my soul;
Scatter Thy life through every part,
And sanctify the whole.My steadfast soul from falling free
Shall then no longer move,
While Christ is all the world to me,
And all my heart is love.
May we sing it together.