Holy Week - Cleansing Of The Temple

John 2:12-17 (Amplified Bible)

12 After that He went down to Capernaum with His mother and brothers and disciples, and they stayed there only a few days.

13 Now the Passover of the Jews was approaching, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

14 There He found in the temple [[a]enclosure] those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting there [also at their stands].

15 And having made a lash (a whip) of cords, He drove them all out of the temple [[b]enclosure]--both the sheep and the oxen--spilling and scattering the brokers' money and upsetting and tossing around their trays (their stands).

16 Then to those who sold the doves He said, Take these things away (out of here)! Make not My Father's house a house of merchandise (a marketplace, a sales shop)!(A)

17 And His disciples remembered that it is written [in the Holy Scriptures], Zeal (the fervor of love) for Your house will eat Me up. [I will be consumed with jealousy for the honor of Your house.](B)

This story impresses upon us two very Important Turth:

1. THE HOLINESS OF GOD’S TEMPLE.

First and foremost, the God we worship and serve is a Holy God! And therefore any temple where His presence might dwell must be holy. Whether you look at the temple under the Old Covenant or the one that now exists under the New, God’s temple is holy!

2. THE POWER OF JESUS TO CLEANSE THE TEMPLE.

Everyone of us sins against God and our bodies from time to time. It is impossible for us to live completely pure and holy lives. We need help, and God is willing to help us.

Jesus can make each one of us a temple of the living God. When God gave Moses all the commands for constructing the Tabernacle, He had the Israelites make a Tabernacle out of wood, different types of cloth, skins of animals, and precious metals. Then when it was all put together according to plan, God had the tabernacle and every person and thing that would enter in it sprinkled with blood. You see, God took common every day sorts of things and then He made them holy.

So today, God can take our sinful self and cleanse us. He can make you and I a temple for the living God.

Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)

Place Your Life Before God

1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.