From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part three of a series. Read part two.

Jesus cleansed the temple not only to restore it to holiness in worship, but also for another vital purpose that continues to this day.

In our last article we saw Jesus' fervent zeal for holiness in worship. He drove out those who were making merchandise of the temple, exploiting the people, and preventing Biblical worship. As we read the verses that follow in the accounts of this event, we find that Jesus had another vital reason for restoring the temple area to its proper use. 

Teaching in the Temple

What did Jesus do after He cleansed the temple? Luke 19:47 tells us that after this, Jesus was teaching daily in the temple during the days leading up to His arrest and crucifixion at the end of that week. In Mark's account of the same event we read this:

Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. Then He taught, saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations' ? But you have made it a 'den of thieves.' " And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching. (Mark 11:15-18)

Jesus cleansed the temple court so that He could teach in it. By this very act, and by the Old Testament Scripture that He quoted, He demonstrated that His teaching is not for the Jews only, but for all nations. As Luke's account continues in chapter 20, we find that Jesus did two things. First, He taught the people in the temple; in other words, He instructed them in sound doctrine. Also, He preached the Gospel to them; He told them they needed to be saved, and that He had come as their Savior. That is the essence of the Gospel.

These two things - the proclamation of the Gospel of salvation by Jesus Christ, and instruction in sound doctrine - must go together. Christians and the church cannot divorce the preaching of the Gospel from the teaching of sound doctrine, the whole counsel of God.

Right and Wrong Responses

In these accounts we also observe a dual response to Jesus' preaching and teaching. There was the right response, and the wrong response.

In Luke 19:48 we read that "the people were very attentive to hear Him." The idea in the original is that the people were clinging closely to Him, and they were hanging on His words. This is the right response.

But we read in the early verses of chapter 20 that the unbelieving chief priests, and scribes, and elders, came and confronted Him. The force of the original language is that they barged in as Jesus was teaching and preaching. They interrupted Him and said, "By what authority are you doing these things?" Jesus had great zeal for His Father's house as a house of prayer for all nations. The Jewish religious leaders had great zeal for their own apostate ways, and they would confront any threat to their counterfeit authority. They could not deny His teaching, so they questioned His authority.

That is exactly what the Devil has been doing from the beginning. The serpent said to Eve, "Has God indeed said...?" Satan always seeks to deny the authority of God, and substitute his own authority disguised as the authority of man. That is just what the religious leaders of Jesus' day did, and it is what false teachers do in all places and generations. That is the wrong response - a response of self-condemnation.

Jesus Deals With the Opposition

Notice also how Jesus dealt with this opposition and gainsaying.

First, Jesus had gotten the attention of the people. No doubt they wanted to hear this Man who had cleansed the court of the Gentiles the previous day. And because the people were listening so attentively to Jesus, there was no place for the opposition to gain an easy foothold. If you understand the power of God, and you spend your time listening to God, there is no time to listen to the Devil.

Secondly, when the opposition finally barged in and interrupted Jesus, He dealt with the opposition decisively. He exposed their unbelief and hypocrisy:

...as He taught the people in the temple and preached the Gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted Him and spoke to Him, saying, "Tell us, by what authority are You doing these things? Or who is he who gave You this authority?" But He answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one thing, and answer Me: The baptism of John - was it from heaven or from men?" And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?' But if we say, 'From men,' all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet." So they answered that they did not know where it was from. And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things." (Luke 20:1-8)

Jesus put them to silence, and they left Him and went away. But in their evil hearts they were undeterred, and they simply sought a better time and place to take Jesus and kill Him, a few days later.

A Foreshadowing of the Spirit's Work Today

Jesus cleansed the temple. He made it a fit place for prayer and worship. And He taught in the temple once He had cleansed it. Once there was the proper setting, once Jesus had removed the distractions of the marketplace and the money-changing, the people could listen attentively to Him.

The same is true for us as believers today. What Jesus did is a foreshadowing of the Spirit's work within God's people today. God no longer lives among His people in a tabernacle or temple edifice, above the mercy seat. Jesus Christ has come. He has died. He has risen. He has gone into the Holy Place in Heaven once for all, and placed His own blood upon the Heavenly mercy seat of which the mercy seat of the earthly temple was only a type.

Jesus Christ is no longer on earth in the flesh. But He said to His disciples in John chapter 14, I am going back to Heaven, but I will not leave you comfortless. I will send another like Myself. I will send God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead. He will live in you. This temple, this physical edifice at Jerusalem, will soon be destroyed. Instead, you will be My temple. You will be the temple of the Holy Spirit, and He will teach you all truth.

And so today, God the Holy Spirit performs that same dual work of cleansing and teaching - in us, His temples. We shall examine this vital truth in the concluding article of this series.

Next: The Holy Spirit Teaches In His Temple

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