![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/305\/2018\/03\/1024px-1610_Cecco_del_Caravaggio_Christ_expulses_money_changers_anagoria.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Gospel reading for last Sunday was about Jesus cleansing the Temple.\u00a0 The sermon we heard here in Australia reminded us that Jesus continues to cleanse temples, overturning the tables and driving out the money changers in the Temple that is the church and the Temple that is the believer.<\/p>\n
We attended Bethlehem Lutheran Church, a large confessional congregation with three services (ours was packed) in downtown Adelaide.\u00a0 Pastor Pfeiffer preached on this text:<\/p>\n
14\u00a0<\/sup>In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.<\/span>\u00a015\u00a0<\/sup>And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.<\/span>\u00a016\u00a0<\/sup>And he told those who sold the pigeons,\u00a0\u201cTake these things away; do not make\u00a0my Father\u2019s house a house of trade.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a017\u00a0<\/sup>His disciples remembered that it was written,\u00a0\u201cZeal for your house will consume me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>So the Jews said to him,\u00a0\u201cWhat sign do you show us for doing these things?\u201d<\/span>19\u00a0<\/sup>Jesus answered them,\u00a0\u201cDestroy this temple, and in three days\u00a0I will raise it up.\u201d<\/span><\/span>20\u00a0<\/sup>The Jews then said, \u201cIt has taken forty-six years to build this temple,\u00a0and will you raise it up in three days?\u201d<\/span>\u00a021\u00a0<\/sup>But he was speaking about\u00a0the temple of his body.<\/span>\u00a022\u00a0<\/sup>When therefore he was raised from the dead,\u00a0his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed\u00a0the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.\u00a0 (John 2:14-22)<\/span><\/p>\n
The problem was not buying and selling sacrificial animals and conducting currency exchange.\u00a0 It was doing these things inside<\/em> the Temple, which was supposed to be a house of prayer and a place of reverence.\u00a0 The Temple was the place where God was truly present.<\/p>\n
Then the text moves to a reflection on \u201cthe temple of his body,\u201d underscoring the truth that Jesus Christ is the true Temple, and His body is literally the dwelling place of God.\u00a0 When this Temple is destroyed at the Cross, in three days it will be raised up at His resurrection.<\/p>\n
Pastor Pfeiffer pointed out that the New Testament speaks of other, related temples.<\/p>\n
The Church, as the Body of Christ, is also referred to as a Temple:<\/p>\n
You are no longer\u00a0strangers and aliens, but you are\u00a0fellow citizens with the saints and\u00a0members of the household of God,<\/span>\u00a020\u00a0<\/sup>built on the foundation of the\u00a0apostles and prophets,\u00a0Christ Jesus himself being\u00a0the cornerstone,<\/span>\u00a021\u00a0<\/sup>in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into\u00a0a holy temple in the Lord.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0(Ephesians 2:19-21)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And the individual Christian, in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, is also referred to as a Temple:<\/p>\n
16\u00a0<\/sup>Do you not know that you\u00a0are God\u2019s temple and that God\u2019s Spirit dwells in you?<\/span>\u00a017\u00a0<\/sup>If anyone destroys God\u2019s temple, God will destroy him. For\u00a0God\u2019s temple is holy, and you are that temple. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)<\/span><\/p>\n
do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?\u00a0You are not your own,<\/span>\u00a020\u00a0<\/sup>for you were bought with a price.\u00a0So glorify God in your body.\u00a0 (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And Christ periodically cleanses the Temple that is the Church.\u00a0 The Reformation, in my view, was such a time.\u00a0 And church bodies and individual congregations, in the tribulations and conflicts they have to endure, may be experiencing Christ\u2019s cleansing.<\/p>\n
And Christ periodically cleanses the Temple that is \u201cyou.\u201d\u00a0 He makes a whip, overturns our tables, and drives out what is worldly and corrupt in us.<\/p>\n
The sign that He shows us for doing this things is His resurrection from the dead.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Painting by Cecco del Caravaggio [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Gospel reading for last Sunday was about Jesus cleansing the Temple.\u00a0 The sermon we heard here in Australia reminded us that Jesus continues to cleanse temples, overturning the tables and driving out the money changers in the Temple that is the church and the Temple that is the believer. We attended Bethlehem Lutheran Church, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":32171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10,11],"tags":[4430,6368,2000,6371],"class_list":["post-31982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible","category-christ","category-church","tag-christs-resurrection","tag-jesus-cleansing-the-temple","tag-sermons","tag-temples"],"yoast_head":"\n
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