Flipping Tables

Welcome to Insights. This is Pastor

John. Today we're going to be talking

about flipping tables.

So, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just

thank you for an opportunity to look at

your word, to

open our hearts and spirits to receive

from you instruction and wisdom. Help us

Lord to be good stewards with your word

and to do the things we need to do Lord

to honor you. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. So

we we all are familiar with

Jesus going and cleansing the temple

after the triumphal entry. But

he actually did this twice. And I want

to look at both instances and tie this

all together for you so you have a a

much clearer understanding

of why he flipped the tables and what it

means to us today. So the first time he

flipped the tables is at the beginning

of his ministry

and it takes place 3 years before his

crucifixion.

And if you go into the Gospel of John

and uh

uh chapter 2,

this takes place right after Jesus has

come back from the wilderness. He begins

to call disciples.

He calls John and Andrew and Peter and

James

and Nathaniel.

And then uh as as he's he starts his

ministry going and preaching in the

local synagogues, he hasn't gone up to

the temple yet. He hasn't presented

himself in Jerusalem. He hasn't publicly

proclaimed his ministry. He's just

working in Galilee at this time. And

so to truly understand the first thing

that happens is after he started calling

his disciples,

he gets called to the wedding in Canaa

of Galilee and uh his mother's there,

his brethren are there and Jesus comes

with his disciples

and Mary goes and asks tells him that uh

she wants she wants them to provide wine

for the for the wedding feast. And

Jesus' response to her was, "Woman, what

have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not

yet come."

And then his mother tells him, tells the

servants at the wedding, do whatever he

tells you. Now, the first thing that

happens here is the fact that we

understand that Jesus is all man. He's

all God. But he also honored and

fulfilled

the law. And one part of the law was to

honor your father and mother and to

honor God. So in obedience to the word,

Jesus to the scriptures and to the law,

Jesus goes ahead and he performs this

miracle. This miracle

uh

he precedes anything else that he's

going to do as far as his ministry goes.

And it's the beginning of the miracles

that he performs.

And uh in verse 11 it says, "This

beginning of miracles did Jesus in Canaa

of Galilee and manifested forth his

glory and his disciples believed on

him." And as we're looking through this,

the very next thing is where we're going

to go. In verse 12, it says, "And after

this, he went down to Capernaum, he and

his mother and his brethren and his

disciples, and they continued there not

many days.

And the Jews Passover was at hand. And

Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now he's

performed the miracle of turning water

into wine in Galilee. He goes to

Capernaum.

He does many miracles there. His mother

and his his brothers and sisters and his

disciples are all with him. And then he

goes from there. He goes to Jerusalem.

And this is where we're picking up in

verse 14. It says, "And found in the

temple those that sold oxen and sheep

and doves and the changers of money

sitting. And when he had made a scourge

of small cords, he drove them all out of

the temple and the sheep and the oxen,

and poured out the changers money, and

overthrew the tables,

and said unto them that sold doves, take

these things hence, make not my father's

house a house of merchandise." And his

disciples remembered that it was

written, "The zeal of thine house hath

eaten me up." Then Jesus answered the

Jews, and said unto him, "What sign

showest thou unto us, seeing that thou

doest these things?" And Jesus answered

and said unto them, "Destroy this

temple, and in three days I will raise

it up."

Then said to Jews, 40 and six years was

this temple and building, and wilt thou

rear it up in three days? But he spake

of the temple of his body. Now grab get

this. This is three years before his

crucifixion. And he's telling them three

years ahead of time, I'm going to be

back and I'm going to die. And three

days later, I'm going to raise from I'm

going to raise up from the dead. And

then therefore he was risen. When

therefore he was risen from the dead,

his disciples remembered that he had

said this unto them and they believed

the scripture and the word which Jesus

had said.

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the

Passover in the feast day, many believed

in his name, when they saw the miracles

which he did.

But Jesus did not commit himself unto

them because he knew all men,

and needed not that any should testify

of men, for he knew what was in man. So

Jesus begins his public ministry the

same way he ends his public ministry, by

the way. and uh

he goes in and he's wants he's he's

showing them how to restore temple

worship to what it should be. And that's

what we're looking at. That's the reason

he flipped the tables. So

Jesus cleansing the temple, it's a

profound act that underscored some

several things about Jesus. It

underscores his authority. He had all

authority over the temple. the sanctity

of worship as it should be and the need

for purity and religious practices. Now

remember why the money changers and and

those that sold sacrifices are there and

where they're at. They're in the they're

in the court of the Gentiles. They're

outside the beautiful gate. Jesus comes

in to go into the temple and these

people are they're exchanging money. And

if you don't know about the money

changers, what they did was it was a

temple currency at that time. So if you

didn't have

if you didn't have an offering of wheat

or any of these other things that they

had, you could use a substitutionary

offering of temple currency. And so the

money changers were there because people

were coming for the Passover and they

were coming from all different countries

and they would exchange the currency

they had for temple currency and then

give an offering on their way into the

temple. That's why the money changers

were there.

And then for people who weren't farmers

and who needed to to provide peace

offerings and different offerings

uh so that the high priest could and the

priests could make their offerings for

them. People who sold the oxen, the

sheep and the doves were sitting there

also. And what got Jesus uh and the

reason he did this is because they were

doing it in the temple. They weren't

doing it outside the temple. They were

in the temple and in and it defiled

the purpose of the temple. And I want

you to keep something else in mind at

this time. All right? The Holy of Holies

was separated from the rest of the

temple by the temple veil.

only one person could enter into there

and it was the high priest and he could

only go in once a year and when he took

in the sin offering for Israel

the rest of the time they never went

behind the veil.

And so

the first thing Jesus does in this

process is he's establishing the

sanctity of worship. Stop and think

about this.

When you go to church,

what is the first thing you do?

Are you going there? Do you enter into

church? Do you go into the sanctuary and

pray before service starts? or are you

out in the foyer of the church

uh

with

not having your mind on God, but yet

you're there having fellowship with

other believers. And so when Jesus goes

in and cleanse the temple, he restores

its intended purpose as a house of

prayer

by driving out the merchants and money

changers. He condemned the

commercialization of worship

emphasizing that the temple should be a

sacred space dedicated to God rather

than a marketplace for profit. And this

act was a direct challenge to the

corrupt practices that had infiltrated

the temple where the focus had shifted

from genuine worship to financial gain.

That was the first reason he that's why

he he dumped out their money, flipped

the tables, and drove the animals out is

because God's house, what where we go,

where we meet, where we congregate

is supposed to be a place dedicated to

pray, prayer, praise, and worship and

hearing the word of God. And so the

first thing he does is he drives these

people out who have commercialized the

worship in the church.

The second reason he did that was to

demonstrate that he had divine authority

even over the temple and by taking a

decisive action like he did he asserted

his role as the messiah and the rightful

authority over the temple. It's this is

uh is recorded in all four gospels

highlighting its importance in Jesus

ministry and his mission to confront and

correct the abuses within the religious

system of his time.

And if you stop and pray about it and

you truly think about it, we've done the

same thing today. Churches are no longer

places of sacred worship. They're no

longer places where we go to recognize

who Jesus is. 99% of the time when you

come in, you're it's a house of

merchandise. We walk in, we've got

t-shirts for sale, we got clothes for

sale, we got books for sale, we've got

all these kind of things, but there's no

call to prayer. There's no call to

action. People come in, they congregate,

they get their their lattes and and

their caramel macchiatoos and they're

standing in the foyer of the church and

they're drinking coffee and and they're

having snacks and it's basically a

social club.

And I know this might offend a lot of

people, but that's not why you go to

church. It's not a social club. It's a

place you go to show reverence to God.

And if if we're our focus is not on God,

it's not on Jesus, it's not on the word,

it's not on prayer, praise, and worship,

then we have a deficit. And we need to

correct that.

The other thing that Jesus did by going

in and flipping the tables is he called

people to righteousness

by confronting the greed and

exploitation present in the temple. He

challenged the religious leaders and the

people to examine their own practices

and motivations. Why are you going to

church?

And this cleansing serves as a reminder

for Christians to maintain purity in

their worship, but to prioritize genuine

devotion over material concerns.

It's important that we understand that

our reason for being a church is Jesus.

Made this statement last week. There's

two parts of the gospel that need

definitely have to be followed. The

first one

is evangelism. And evangelism is getting

the message of the gospel to people

who've never heard it. In other words,

bringing new people into u church.

And then the second part of the gospel

that is so necessary is disciplehip.

In other words, bringing people to a

place uh where they they're maturing in

Christ and they're able to take and

effectively use the gospel to reach

other people. You'll hear a lot of

pastors make this statement. is a very

true statement.

Sheep beget sheep. Pastors lead sheep.

Church growth depends on the people

having a vision for their own church of

reaching the communities where they live

in. But for them to do that, they have

to be discipled and led by a pastor who

understands that.

So there's some historic

significance also with what's going on

here.

He does this at the beginning of the

Passover.

There were pilgrims visiting the temple

from all over the known world at that

time. And Jesus's actions were not only

a response to the immediate situation,

but also a fulfillment of prophetic

expectations regarding the Messiah's

role in purifying worship. His cleansing

of the temple is seen as a pivotal

moment

that foreshadowed

the ultimate transformation of worship

through his death and resurrection which

would establish a new covenant between

God and humanity. Remember Jesus said,

"I come not to destroy the law, but in

me all the law should be fulfilled." And

while he's hanging on the cross, the

final thing he says is, "It is

finished." What was he referring to?

everything that had been prophesied up

to that point was fulfilled.

Uh and so to truly understand this in

its best way, we need to go over to

Matthew

um chapter 21

and uh starting in verse 12. Jesus now

to understand this Jesus has come to the

triumphant entry. He's entered into

Jerusalem. He's been proclaimed the king

of the Jews. They have they have uh

shouted hosana as he went down the

street riding on the on the colt. And

now he comes into the temple to teach.

And as he goes into the temple,

he ca he once again this is three years

later. It says, "And Jesus went 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 seeds of them that sold

doves."

It's really, really kind of curious here

when you stop to think about this. Three

years earlier, he had done this same

thing. He had driven them out. He had

come in to restore true worship in the

temple. And within three years they were

doing they went right back to exactly

what they had been doing before.

And so

after he flipped the tables of the money

changers and the seats of them that sold

doves, he said unto him, "It is written,

my house shall be called the house of

prayer, but ye have made it a den of

thieves." And there's there's a change

here. When he came the first time and

flipped the tables, he said, "You have

defiled my father's house." Now he comes

back and he says, "You've defiled my

house and you've turned it into a den of

thieves."

And listen to what he does afterwards.

And the blind and the lame came to him

in the temple and he healed them. And

when the chief priests and scribes saw

the wonderful things that he did, and

the children crying in the temple, and

saying, "Hosana to the son of David,"

they were sore displeased,

and said unto him, "Hearest thou what

these say?" And Jesus saith unto them,

"Yay, have you never read? Out of the

mouth of babes and sucklings, thou hast

perfected praise."

And he left them and went out of the

city into Bethany and lodged there. And

why is this so important?

The religious leaders didn't want to

change. They got angry. They they were

offended at Jesus's

assertion of his authority. Remember,

he'd already angered them by saying uh

before Abraham was, "I am." He had

already proclaimed, "I am God. I am who

you're supposed to be worshiping." and

they didn't like it because that meant

they would have to change and that's he

was he was inserting his authority.

And so we have to realize that

our worship

is based on Jesus's authority and his

place. He says, "I am the way, the

truth, and the life, and no one comes

unto the father but by me." There's a

million ways to get to Jesus,

but there's only one way to get to the

father, and that is through Jesus. And

we have to make sure that we keep our

perspective correct. Now, I want to

jump over to Matthew 27.

And um it's it's really amazing when you

actually allow this to minister to you.

Jesus is on the cross

and he

is being crucified

and listen to what he says.

He it says this is verse 50 uh chapter

27 verse 50. Jesus, when he had cried

again with a loud voice, he yielded up

the ghost.

And behold,

the veil of the temple was rent and

twain from top to bottom, and the earth

did quake, and the rocks rent.

And this is significant because of what

it uh signifies. Remember Jesus went

into the temple, he restored worship

twice. He restored the sanctity and

purity of worshiping God to into its

proper perspective. And he said that no

man cometh unto the father but by me.

I'm the way, the truth, and the life.

And then at when he gives up the ghost,

in other words, when his physical body

dies,

the father rips the temple veil from top

to bottom.

And that temple veil separated man from

God. It was you could not go past the

veil. God's place. And what that

signifies is by ripping that temple veil

from top to bottom, it's like a curtain

is opened up and man through Jesus is

now allowed to enter directly into the

presence of the father. And this is the

true restoration of proper worship

through Christ.

So I want you to keep in mind Jesus

cleansing the temple is significant for

its demonstration of his authority.

It's a call for purity and worship.

It fulfills prophecy

and it challenges us as believers to

reflect on our own practices and to

ensure that our worship remains focused

on honoring God sincerely and without

distraction.

And that is why it's so important to

understand what it truly meant for Jesus

when he what it meant to us when Jesus

went in and cleansed the temple.

Remember, he announced his public

ministry by cleansing the temple and he

concluded his public ministry by

cleansing the temple. So, that should

tell us how important

cleansing our own temple is to God. We

need to keep the proper perspective in

what we're doing. So, as you go through

this week, stop and think about it. when

you go to church

um and when you enter into worship, what

is the driving force behind you going

into church? When you go to church, are

you going there to truly enter into

praise, prayer, and worship or you going

there as a social event?

Because we weren't called social event.

We were called to prayer, praise, and

worship to recognize Jesus for who he is

and enter into fellowship through Jesus

with the father. So, I'm going to leave

that with you. Let's pray. Lord, we just

ask that your word ministers to us and

ministers to our hearts and minds. You

help us, Lord, to remember that it is

because of you and you alone that we

have access to God.

Lord, help us to keep these things in

perspective as we make our way through

the week. And help us, Lord, to realize

that that is more important than

anything else that we can experience.

And we're careful to give you all the

glory and all the praise in Jesus' name.

Amen.