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The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
During February we are going to work our way through the gospel of John our theme is Responding to the Living Word.
Today we are talking about The Angry Jesus.
Prayer
Lord, Your blessings are full toward us.
We have more than we ever thought we would have.
Help us not to want more until we have shared what we have.
When you trust us with much or little, we know we are responsible to You for the way we use all of it.
A tithe of what You have provided is in our hands this morning that we might bring it to You for the doing of Your work in the world.
Make us loving and wise stewards of the resources You place in our hands.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Text
John 2:15-16 NKJV
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!”
Scripture Reading
John 2:13-22 NKJV
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
13 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 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!”
17 Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”
18 So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?”
19 Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
20 Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”
21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body.
22 Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.
Introduction
Jesus’ anger is a sensitive issue.
Is not anger a sin?
The Scriptures admonish us to be “slow to anger”.
The writer of Ecclesiastes warns, in Chapter 7 verse 9, “Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry, For anger rests in the bosom of fools.”
Paul suggests that we can be angry, but he cautions in Ephesians 4:26-27 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.
Anger in itself is not an inappropriate emotion.
An early church father said, “The greatest anger of all is when God is no longer angry with us when we sin.”
For God to give up on His people is a far greater terror that for Him to show His anger toward us.
We can be grateful for what we are told in Psalm 145:8, “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy.”
Anger is a characteristic of the eternal God, and it is one evidence of a healthy personality.
But it must be a disciplined emotion, harnessed and carefully directed against evil wherever it is found.
Aristotle observed that it is easy to become angry, but to be angry with the right person to the right degree at the right time for the right purpose in the right way, that is not easy.
When Jesus came to the Jerusalem temple, He was moved by zeal for the house of the Lord.
In His anger He drove out the exploiters of God’s people using a cord He had made with His own hands.
What made the Lord so angry?
Shouldn’t we be watchful so that we do not become guilty of committing the same sin that so roused Jesus’ anger?
- Jesus was angry with those who were content for evil things to remain as they were.
The people Jesus drove from the temple were part of the religious establishment.
They should have known better.
But they had fallen into compromise and then into eager cooperation with the exploitation of the pilgrim worshippers who came by the thousands each day to the temple.
Two groups felt His wrath that day, the money changers and the sacrifice inspectors.
They had turned the house of the Lord into a “tourist trap,” “a hideout for thieves,” a merchandise shop, a house for barter and trade.
The one changers were at the temple to perform a useful function, to change the coins of the provinces that bore the graven image of an animal or man into coins suitable to pay the taxes to support the temple worship.
The money changers had the worshippers at their mercy.
A man’s temple tax amounted to two days wages.
The money changers would exact another days wages just for changing of the money, a 50 percent profit.
The sacrifice inspectors also took advantage of the worshippers.
Many people would bring their own turtledoves or lambs for the sacrifice.
But if the offerings dod not pass the careful examination of the inspector as to their suitability for sacrifice, the owners had to buy a costly replacement from the temple stock.
Of coarse the animals kept in the temple pen were not examined with the same care.
In the trading back and forth, the sacrifice inspectors were making fat profits from their dishonest double standard of inspection.
Our Lords anger flamed out at these temple thieves, t=for they not only exploited the people but were also content to allow things to stay as they were.
The prostitution of worship did not trouble them.
Injustice was rampant.
The money changers treated sacred things and feeling with contempt in their rush to line their money pouches with unfair gain.
When God’s people see injustice flourish and indecent gain made from the things of God yet do not speak out, then watch for the anger of God.
His wrath is kindled against those who are willing to look the other way.
2. Jesus was angry with those who would not pray when they came into God’s house.
The three other gospels place the cleansing of the temple at the last of Jesus’ ministry rather than at the first as does John.
It is not clear whether there were two cleanings of the temple or one cleansing placed by the gospel writers in different chronological order.
It is entirely possible that there were two.
A quick reflection reminds us that cleansing temples is not a once and for all job.
Like the need for reformation and revival in the church, it must happen again and again.
It is likely that before the day was over, the people were back in business.
If so, it is not unlikely that Jesus met them again at the close of His ministry with the same anger and hurt in His heart.
Each of the gospels records that Jesus’ anger was in part a reaction to their callous willingness to turn the house of prayer into a den of robbers.
Anyone who comes often to the house of worship needs to be careful not to handle sacred moments with disdain, indifference, or preoccupation with other things.
What do you do when you come to the house of prayer?
Are you more concerned with who sits beside you that you are with getting in touch with God?
Do you pray here, or do you purposefully maintain barriers between you and God?
Are you determined to tune out God and refuse to answer Him incase before you know it He has rearranged the furniture in your life?
This is a place to pray!
Be alert.
For god comes in judgement and anger to overturn the tables of our lives, spill our plans on the floor, and call us to worship Him!
3. Jesus was angry with those who tied all their religion to a building and to religious rituals, but also those who thought they didn’t need the temple.
Surely John’s account of the cleansing of the temple at the first of our Lord’s ministry is a way of announcing that the end is seen from the beginning.
Jesus had come to offer His body as the temple of God.
He would say to the woman at the well in John 4:21-23, Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
It is not buildings or rituals that finally bring us to God.
They may help, they often intrude.
But in Jesus, a new day has dawned, the kingdom of God is arriving, and the people of God are to be watching and open to what is about to happen all around them.
A building must never be a substitute for the worship of God, and the opposite is also true, saying you don’t need church must never be a substitute for the worship of God.
The building or location is only the wrapping that surrounds us as we worship the God who is above all.
Neither can our rituals substitute themselves for God.
Anytime a person relies on baptism or church membership for security in God, they are worshipping at the wrong alter.
Conclusion.
God chastens us not because He doesn’t love us but precisely because He does love us.
He moves against us at any place where we exploit or agree to the manipulation of others for personal gain.
He is determined to break into our business as usual attendance in this place and call us to genuine prayer.
He is unwilling to leave us to counterfeit worship or second rate religion.
Of all the things we have to be thankful to God for, don’t forget to thank Him that He cares enough to become angry with us.
Until next time
Stay in the Blessings
Giving
I really want to encourage you to be diligent with your Bible study time, because God has so much more for us than we can get from just going to church once or twice a week and hearing someone else talk about the Word.
When you spend time with God, your life will change in amazing ways, because God is a Redeemer.
Theres nothing thats too hard for Him, and He can make you whole, spirit, soul and body!
You’re important to God, and you’re important to us at www.refinerylife.org
When it comes to prayer, we believe that God wants to meet your needs and reveal His promises to you.
So whatever you’re concerned about and need prayer for we want to be here for you! Or even if you just want to say Hi, you can contact us
2022 IS A YEAR OF REPENTANCE AND BLESSINGS
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