Following Jesus to the Temple

David W Palmer

After the wedding, Jesus led his disciples to Capernaum for a few days. Then, like many other people in his homeland, he went to Jerusalem for the Passover:

(John 2:13 NKJV) Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

To onlookers, Jesus and his followers were merely a group of travellers journeying to Jerusalem for the feast; they seemed like ordinary Sunday morning churchgoers. And like so many others, when they arrived they went into God’s house. But what happened next was completely unlike anything any of them had ever seen before:

(John 2:14–16 NKJV) And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. {15} When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. {16} And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!”

Jesus—God’s beloved Son—must have been horrified by what he witnessed in his Father’s house: money-changers, merchants using the religious system to extort money, and people focused on business instead of focusing people on God. In an extraordinary surge of passion and supernatural strength, Jesus “drove them all out of the temple.”

Our Lord “poured out the changer’s money and overturned the tables.” Wow! When Jesus came under that Sampson-like anointing to cleanse his Father’s house, he went right for the money trail. He completely disrupted the flow of finance that wasn’t originating in, and empowered by, faith in God.

(Hebrews 12:25–27 NKJV) … “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” {27} Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

We see from Hebrews 12:27 that this is prophetic for us right now; Jesus is doing the same thing today as he shakes his house to the very foundations:

(1 Peter 4:17 NKJV) For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?

In our current season, God is not only shaking the doctrinal foundations of his church, but he will also shake all of its money flows. When Jesus is in this mode, everything and everyone feels his zeal, and hears the cracking of his whip; nothing will be left that is not overturned in his house-clean.

Jesus is again saying: “Take these things away! Do not make my Father’s house a house of merchandise.” I don’t think he is necessarily banning ministry products, or we may have to include Bibles, commentaries, dictionaries, devotionals, and all study aids. However, he does have his sights on those who convert Christianity into a religious system that diverts money to themselves—making other people believe that they cannot please God or receive blessing without paying them.

None of us can avoid coming under Jesus’s prophetic eyes (Rev. 19:12), nor dodge the cracking of his whip when he is in this mode. So, let’s get ahead of this by taking some initiative; now is the time for us to clean house—to “back-burn,” if you like. If we “judge ourselves,” we will not be judged:

(1 Corinthians 11:31 NKJV) For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.

(John 2:17 NKJV) Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”

Jesus’s all-consuming zeal won’t be diverted or requited until his Father’s house is completely cleansed—and until his bride is pure, chaste, and glorious:

(Ephesians 5:25–27 NKJV) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, {26} that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, {27} that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

Let’s get with Jesus’s program on this today; it’s time for some spring-cleaning—especially in our money flows. Make sure that all of your financial transactions are based on God’s word, and coming from faith: “whatever is not from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23 NKJV). It’s also time to put all uncleanness out of our personal temple—let’s do some urgent self-judging here and now, rather than wait for Jesus to bring his judgment. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit is a very faithful helper in this. And let’s devote ourselves to cooperating with Jesus in sanctifying and cleansing his bride with the “washing of water by the word.” Our part is obviously not to judge and criticize, but to pray the word, encourage, teach, and testify.

Remember: for Jesus, zeal for Father’s house (and his bride) is all consuming; he won’t be diverted or stopped until his mission of cleansing and preparing is complete.

(1 Corinthians 11:31 WEB) For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

(Revelation 19:7 ESV) Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready.