Cleanup time at the temple. Luke 19:45-48 Divine justice does not act quickly because God provides ample opportunity for repentance and returning to Him for mercy, but justice remains active. Sin will be punished and addressed fairly and consistently based on its cause. The Lord Jesus' demonstration in the temple, when He drove out those who turned holy things and worship into a commercial enterprise, serves as a warning to everyone who does the same today.
On that day, it foreshadowed what would happen to the temple and the city because they prioritized serving mammon over serving God. They even used what was meant to be holy to make money. Today, it's common to judge the value of the “house of God” by money rather than by worship and testimony. What is visible appeals to people's eyes, but God looks at the hearts and evaluates the worth of unseen things. These are important lessons for us to learn, lest we become like “secular Christianity,” which is, in many places, nothing more than a commercial enterprise.
The crowds at the temple that day likely consisted mostly of pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. Thousands of lambs would have been sold to visitors from other countries so they could participate in the celebration of the feast. Many of these would have viewed the teachings and practices of the Teacher and Healer from Galilee, whom they had heard about, positively. For three years, He had been among the people in the land of Israel, blessing and teaching the truths of God's kingdom. They would have listened to His words as those of the Messiah, as He came every day to teach in the temple.
We, as children of God, enjoy the light of life and understanding that come when we listen to, feed on, and grow from the word of God applied to our souls. At the same time, our souls are nourished; all around us are the powers of darkness that are arrayed against the divine work of God in and through His people. Like those disciples during that tumultuous week, we must stay close to our Lord in these dark days and not let our attention be diverted by everything happening around us.
There will be many kinds of religious attractions during our time that appeal to people seeking a form of religion without the power, obligations, and opposition that usually accompany it. While Jesus was teaching the people, the religious leaders were busy trying to find a way to kill Him. There will be increasing temptations from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, all of which will try to draw us away and cause us to stumble into sin. Fear also will hinder our closeness to the Lord if we allow our focus to shift to the causes and propaganda of fear.
Stay close to the Lord, as close as possible. Commit to listening to His words and following His guidance. When crowds head in a direction that seems wrong to us, but everyone is doing it, turn to the Lord for guidance and ask Him about your doubts and concerns. Also, express thanks and gratitude for the blessings you've received. A “dark week” may be ahead, but the start of a “new week” is just beyond this one. The results of that new “bright and glorious morrow" are far beyond our imagination, and best of all, “We will behold Him, in all of His glory.”
LUKE 20 PUBLIC CONFRONTATION The Lord Jesus Christ traveled the long journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, knowing what was going to happen to Him there. He told His disciples about His rejection, crucifixion, and resurrection, although they did not understand that these events were actually going to happen to the Messiah.
When the Lord Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey, they understood that He was publicly declaring Himself to be the Messiah of Israel. He was fulfilling a well-known prophecy. Each day for five days, Jesus went to the temple to preach the Gospel and teach the people about the kingdom's doctrines and principles. On the first day (Monday), He declared His authority over the temple and what occurred there. By stopping the money-making activities in the court of the Gentiles, He shifted the focus of the lambs the people were buying to the purpose and meaning of the Passover sacrifice and feast.
He went to Bethany to stay overnight and then returned on Tuesday to the temple, where He began to teach the people again. People gathered there from many countries and had come specifically for the Passover feast to remember the deliverance of the children of Israel from the slavery they had endured for four hundred years in Egypt. Those who were scattered around the Roman Empire would have had an interest in kingdom teaching because the kingdom of God on earth was what they were waiting for.
It is our responsibility today not to let our focus on teaching stray from the fundamental truth of the New Testament regarding the kingdom of God. People need to hear about the necessity of being born again to enter the kingdom of God. They need to understand that the kingdom of God is here, and every true child of God is part of that kingdom. It is essential that kingdom principles for living are taught and practiced by Christians.
Because many professing Christians water down the problem of sin, righteousness, and judgment to come that the Spirit of God uses to convict sinners of their need for salvation, it does not mean that we can do the same. The “modern smooth Gospel” that tolerates “your truth” and “my truth” is not the Gospel of God. We have no right to change our message to suit those who want us to be tolerant of sin so that people “feel comfortable in church,” rather than being convicted and condemned, because their sin will find them out. Those who only want to hear about love and acceptance, not grace and truth, are being deceived by those who limit their preaching to please the people.
The teaching of Jesus was very different from that of the priests, teachers of the law, and elders who confronted Him in verse one. This marked the first time during that period in Jerusalem that our Lord faced the established religion. The second confrontation is described in verse nineteen, when the teachers, priests, and, according to Matthew’s account [Mat.22:15], the Pharisees, came against Jesus, hoping to trap and arrest Him because His teachings challenged their traditional, unscriptural authority. The third confrontation involved the sect of the Sadducees, who used a different tactic to try and trap Jesus with His own words [v27].