Luke 19:45-48 Jesus at the Temple

 

·         Jesus came directly from riding the colt into town to the Temple.

o   He drove out the merchants.

o   “It is written, ‘My house will be a house of prayer’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”

§  Notice that He did not say that God said, “My house will be a house of prayer”.

§  How have things changed, or have they?

§  Those selling the animals for sacrifice were supposed to be there. The problem came when they were selling their wares at exorbitant prices.

§  God’s house was not to be a house of preaching or teaching, but one of prayer. Have we missed that?

§  Does this describe us/today’s church?

·         Loss of focus

·         Loss of priorities

·         Loss of passion.

·         Loss of commitment.

·         If we are not intentional, a loss of our relationship to God.

§  When we come back to the altar of God as a lifestyle instead of only when we have problems, we will see the power of God work in our lives and those we come in contact with.

§  Where is the prayer in today’s church? We seem to have made the church into a coffeehouse, entertainment center and a country club. If Jesus were to come into today’s church, would He angrily say, “My house is to be a house of prayer, not of all these other things?”

·         How do we make it a house of prayer?

·         Where do we start?

·         If we intend to fight spiritual battles and to resist evil, where will we get the power to do so, if not with prayer?

·         If we wish to take back our country from the evil that has invaded it, we must pray. Right now, we need a tsunami force of prayer. It may not seem that praying would do much, but it has the ability to release spiritual power. We may not always see the result of our prayers, but they do make a difference.

o   He taught in the Temple daily while the religious leaders tried to come up with a way to kill Him, which they could not do, since He was too popular with the people.

§  Would our religious leaders also seek to remove Jesus and His teaching from today’s church? Sadly, they have because Jesus’ popularity with today’s church goer has diminished and been replaced with other teaching promoting self, New Age, and prosperity. Taking up our cross is not appealing to the modern crowd.