Jesus Cleanses the Temple! !

Matthew 21:12-17

Mark 11:15-19

Luke 19:45-48

Matthew 21:12-17, Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” 14 Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant 16 and said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?” 17 Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.

The final week of our Lord’s earthly life and ministry. On Wednesday, He will die. But our text today is the previous Saturday. The day after His inauguration, His coronation, His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Friday, He had entered into the city of Jerusalem to the cries of, “Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.,”

Tens of thousands of people hailed Him as the King, the Messiah, the Deliverer, the Savior. It was a wonderful day in one sense, because He was receiving praise that is due His name. The procession Friday had begun outside the eastern gate, as Jesus, coming from Bethany. Already a large group of people gathered with Him, and another large mass of people inside the city were coming to meet Him.

Both the groups surged together outside the eastern gate, and then the procession began. The procession went through that gate into the city.

The hosannas rang out for long a period, but the procession finally ended at the temple.

Mark 11:11, And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve. Jesus returned to Bethany, He spent the night with Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and the ¹² disciples. He goes right back to the same place He had left back to the temple.

Matthew 21:12-17, we find out what happened when He arrived there. At this time of Passover, Jerusalem is literally filled with people. Maybe 4, or ⁵ or more times its normal size. Pilgrims from all over that part of the world have pushed their way into the city to participate in Passover. To celebrate Passover, one must be inside the city of Jerusalem.

The only way that everybody could get into the city of Jerusalem was if they moved the boundaries, because inside the wall, the people could not be contained.

So, it was customary, at Passover time, to put out a little edict that extended the boundaries of Jerusalem to encompass at least the villages of Bethany and Bethphage and other surrounding areas.

Why? Because the city couldn’t contain the pilgrims. The inns were all full. The homes of friends were all full. The people who would rent out a room were all full. The people who owned a home in Jerusalem, which they only used during this season, had come to use that home.

The hospices, run by Pharisees, or Zealots, or any other group, were occupied. The open areas within the walled city were filled up with little tents and campfires where the people were settling in for the Passover season.

Still there were too many people to fill that city anymore, and so they spilled out beyond the wall into the areas surrounding the city and set up their tents and their camps. They stayed with friends in Bethphage and Bethany and other surrounding villages.

Jesus, along with others, and His 12 disciples, were staying in a home in Bethany the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

One of the places in the city that was most crowded with pilgrims was the temple. The Jewish law forbid that anyone should sleep in the temple. They were not allowed to do that. They would camp as close to it as they could.

All around the temple grounds, the outer wall of the outer courtyard would be pilgrims in their tents and their little blankets, sleeping out in the night. Some of them were sleeping in the buildings adjacent to the temple that were owned by the temple proprietors.

So, the city is literally exploding with people. The temple is the focal point of everything. All week long it is alive with pilgrims coming to see it. They were coming there to pray. They were coming into the court of the women to put their offerings in the trumpet-shaped receptacles that hung on the walls.

They were coming with sacrifices and offerings of all kinds to give to God, to seek cleansing from their sin, as well as ceremonial cleansings, purification rites. The temple was so busy and the center of everything.

To this temple that Jesus comes and introduces us to one of the most amazing and marvelous scenes of this last week of His life. Jesus enters into the temple and demonstrates to them again the nature of His kingliness and the nature of His kingdom.

The kingly credentials of Christ. 1. Divine mission. Jesus showed He was on a divine mission. V 12, Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.

Then Jesus went into the temple of God Some manuscripts do not have the word “of God.” There are some other good manuscripts that include it. One of the more difficult textual issues to try to resolve. The temple of God is never used in the New Testament as a phrase anywhere except here.

It seems unlikely that some scribe would put it in. But if you understand what Jesus is about to do, it makes all the sense in the world that Matthew writing. This was the temple of God when Jesus is about to describe the utter ungodliness of its activities.

Though it doesn’t really make any difference as far as letting us know what temple it was, it says Jesus went into the temple of God. Jesus went to God’s temple. This to say that He was on a divine mission. If Jesus had of done what the people wanted Him to do, He would have gone to Fort Antonia. Because Fort Antonia housed the Roman army.

Or He would have gone to the palace of Pilate, and He would have started the military coup. He would have overthrown Pilate and all His entourage. Or Jesus would have eliminated the Roman army and liberated the land and the people.

But Jesus didn’t go there. Jesus went to the temple of God. That was where He wanted to be.

• The temple is the issue, not Rome.

What is going on militarily, politically, socially, economically is not the major issue. The Messiah did not come initially in His first coming to solve those problems, although He will, in His second coming, solve those problems.

But before Jesus comes as King of Kings and Lord of Lords to establish His own glorious and eternal kingdom, and to solve all problems that exist in the earth today. He first must come and be received by men in their own hearts.

So, Jesus first coming was as Saviour before He could come as full and final glorious King in His kingdom. Jesus’ focus is with worship now, not with society or politics. The temple is the issue not Rome.

• Our Lord is not concerned with the people’s relation to Rome.
• Our Lord is concerned with the people’s relation to God.

This ought to be abundantly clear to any student of the New Testament, because when Jesus came the first time to Jerusalem, this is exactly where He went also.

John 2:13-17, we will find there how He began His ministry at Passover.

When Jesus started His ministry, He started it at the temple. When Jesus ends His ministry, He ends it at the temple. In the intervening years Jesus witnessed many things.

• He has seen social injustice.
• He has seen economic inequities.
• He has seen oppression by the Romans.
• He has seen deprivation.
• He has seen the poor suffering abuse.
• He has seen a lot of things, but His mission never changes.
• His whole ministry here is given a very clear perspective.

He was concerned with how people worshipped. Jesus was concerned with their relationship to God, not their relationship to earthly kingdoms. Compare to the relationship between men to men His focus was on relationship between men and God.

By going to the temple as the first official act after His inauguration, He is identifying for us clearly the territory of His mission. Three years had not changed that purpose. He goes right back to the temple.

Even though Jesus had passed and seen many things inconsistent with God’s design and God’s will, as it was between men and men, the priority thing was between men and God. For only when Men are right with God can men be right with men.

Many things needed a soldier. Many things needed an army. Many things needed a social reformer. But more than that, men needed God, and they needed true worship. They needed to know God’s standard, God’s will, God’s purpose for their relationship to Him.

Peter picked it up from the Lord.

1 Peter 4:17, 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? Judgment begins at the house of God. As long as things were wrong in the house of God, they would be wrong in the nation.

The measure of any society is the relation it has to God. Worship is the issue. Read Romans 1, worship is always the issue.

The problem with society is not that it has bad laws. The problem with society is not that it has human inequities. The problem with society is that it has abandoned God. Some would accuse us of being indifferent to the national political issues, and social issues. That is not true.

We are not indifferent to those things, but we know what Jesus knew and what Peter reiterated, that judgment must begin at the house of God. Christ came to cleanse the temple. Christ, cleanse the Church. Because that alone is the hope of society, country and the world.

What did Jesus find when He came to the temple? He had cleansed it once, and it had gone back and reverted to exactly what it was the first time He came.

Then why bother? Because He came to the temple to vindicate the holiness of God. The issue wasn’t whether they reacted rightly, but the issue was that they should see the holiness of God. It was the revelation of God’s holy will and purpose. It demonstrated His vengeance against sin, violation, blasphemy, and false religion.

When Jesus cleansed the temple, we realized there was no revival really.

• There was no real reform.
• There was no real renewal.

They were right back, three years later, doing the very same thing they did when He came the first time. But that doesn’t mean He shouldn’t come. He should come, because God must reveal how He feels about false religion.

He must reveal how He feels about blasphemy. He must say, very clearly, how He feels about them who treat Him in an unholy way. This was something God have been used to, because He sent the prophet repeatedly to call Israel back from idolatry, and often they had immediate reform, which degenerated ultimately into an even worse idolatry.

But God never stopped doing that because God always must speak the truth and reveal Himself as holy and hatred against sin. So, Jesus comes to the temple again, and His purpose is to show again how God feels about the evils of men.

Please stand with Jesus in this scene and see what is happening. Imagine the city of Jerusalem packed with people. Chaos. The temple is the focal point. Masses of people there. As Jesus comes to that place. A great outer wall of colonnades and columns that surrounds the whole temple area.

Through that main opening, He enters into the Court of the Gentiles. (The Court of the Gentiles because anybody could come). Once you enter the Court of the Gentiles then the gate called the Beautiful Gate. (Remember a man begging at that gate in Acts 3).

Inside that gate was the Court of the Women, and that was a place where the Jewish women could go, and the Jewish men, but no Gentiles. There was a sign by the Gate Beautiful that said if a Gentile went in there, he would lose his life.

Walk through the Beautiful Gate, you would come to the Court of the Women with the trumpet-shaped vessels for the receiving of the money. Money was to be given for certain reasons of cleansing and offering.

In the Court of the Women, the Jews would be gathered. There was a gate in the Court of the Women called the Nicanor Gate. It was a gate made of Corinthian bronze that took 20 men to open and close. Massive door. Walk through the Nicanor Gate, you will enter into the Court of the Israelites, the Jewish men could go in there.

The Court of the Israelites is where they would get ready to give their offerings. The men would take the sheep, or the turtledove, or the pigeon or whether it was a grain offering or whatever kind, and they would get it all prepared in the Court of the Israelites. They would take it to another gate which went into the Court of the Priests.

The Court of the Priests was the burnt offering altar and the altar of incense. They could look through that opening, as they handed the priest their sacrifice, as he took it in and slaughtered it, or took it in and offered it.

They would stand in that court of the Israelites and watch as their offering was being made. From the Court of the Priests, there was another little door. It entered into a 600 square foot courtyard. At the back of which was what was called the Naos, the Holy Place. It was a small, little building which included in it the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was, separated by a veil into which the high priest could enter only once a year on the Day of Atonement.

The interesting thing about the temple was that it starts at a low point, and all of this ascends until Naos crowns Mount Moriah so that there is a sequence of steps, apparently, going from court to court. Now, Jesus walks in the outer wall and stands in the Court of the Gentiles.

Since it was the Court of the Gentiles, the Jews felt if Gentiles could be there, so could anything else. It was known in those days as the Bazaar of Annas, Annas being the high priest, a corrupt and vile man, who saw the temple as a way to get power and wealth.

Annas had a great idea. He and his priests sold concessions. In other words, you could buy space in the Court of the Gentiles,

and there you could come and sell sheep, lambs, doves, pigeons and make money exchanges. Sell oil, wine, salt, and other requisites that go along with sacrifices. You paid dearly for those concessions, because here is how the system worked.

Every offering had to be approved by the priests. When you finally got into the Court of the Israelites, and you brought what you were going to give, it had to be approved. They had approving stations even before you got that far in.

But the priests had to say, “You sacrifice is okay.” The odds were that if you bought it outside the temple, it was not going to be approved. If you had raised a lamb way out where you lived and brought that little lamb in to be offered, they would say, “That lamb is not acceptable. You must have a lamb purchased in the Court of the Gentiles. Go see so-and-so.”

So, you must go to buy a lamb from him. According to Edersheim, the Jewish historian, you would pay ten times the value of that lamb. So, you were extorted and fleeced. It was almost like you were taken by robbers.

“A pair of doves could cost as little as 4p outside the Temple and as much as 75p inside the Temple.” This is almost 20 times more expensive. William Barclay. Poor people, according to the Levitical law, didn’t have to bring a lamb because they couldn’t afford lambs. So, they were allowed to have a dove or a pigeon in the place of a lamb.

Most historians feel that in today’s currency, a couple of birds might be worth a nickel or a dime, but you would have paid five pounds for them there. If you wanted to exchange your money because you had to have exactly a half-shekel, so you had to have the right change and if you came from a foreign country with foreign currency, and it had to be changed, you would pay 25 percent fee just to make small change.

They would pay dearly for concessions inside the temple. Because they would work along with the priests to extort the people, to cheat the people. All this is in the name of religion! Jesus walks in. His eyes, His ears, and His nostrils are filled with the sights and sounds and smells. The stench of a stockyard, the arguing, bargaining, and scolding of people bargaining over the price of animals. The noise the animals make. All the chaos

of the crying animals being slaughtered. Blood. It is a scene that’s unbelievable. This is Jesus’ turf, because this is the house of God, and it has been turned into a cave for robbers. Jesus comes and sees this horrifying but familiar scene. Christ came, first, to deal with men on a spiritual level.

Christ came to throw out corrupt worship and to bring in true worship. He is on a divine mission. 2. Divine authority. As Jesus came to do the divine mission it comes with divine authority. If we can’t see that He is the Messiah because of His mission, we ought to see that He is the Messiah because of His authority.

The most powerful thing going on in that country was the temple. The high priest was a powerful man, who is next to the High Priest was equally powerful was the Head of the Temple guard/police. Then you had all the orders of priests. There were thousands of them. There was an organizational structure there that was very strong.

If you walked past the Gate Beautiful, for example, and you were a Gentile, the Romans had given them the right to kill you. They had plenty of power. They had great authority within the walls of that temple arcade area.

But they were about to meet somebody over whom they had absolutely no power. V 12, Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.

If you think Jesus is just always some meek, lowly, gentle person, maybe you ought to study this a little more deeply. We don’t know how many thousands of people were in there. We do know how those kinds of extortionists, money- grubbing, money-hungry people want to hang onto their money.

• We know how they want to hang onto their prosperity.
• We know how they wanted to hang onto their business.
• We know how much the priest didn’t want to be shamed in front of the whole population.
• We know how much they didn’t want their power challenged.

• We know how they would have thought themselves that would have been to be made shameful in the eyes of the population of the city by some Galilean, would be Messiah.

But that is exactly what happened. Against all of what they would think would happen, it happened. drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, Not only the sellers, but the buyers, too. He just threw everybody out of there that was involved in that enterprise.

The leaders couldn’t stop Him.

How did He do it? We don’t know, it doesn’t say. Maybe it was just His word, ‘Out.’” That could do it. One word got Lazarus out of the grave. He spoke the worlds came into existence when creation occurred. So, He could have done it with His word, but there was more than that, because it also says He overthrew the tables of the moneychangers.

He went through the place and started flipping tables and kicking them over. He demonstrates not only His vocal authority, but His physical presence as well. Remember back in John 2, He made a whip, and He threw them out by use of a whip.

Maybe He made a whip again. Or maybe He had the same whip. He overthrew the table of the moneychangers. They were sitting on their little stools, with their little stacks of coins, and He just started flipping them. Can you imagine those people hustling to collect every coin?

He threw over the seats of those who sold doves. Sitting on a seat with a crate full of birds. He just started kicking over crates and knocking over stools, and flipping tables, and throwing people out of there. He cleared the place.

Mark 11:16, And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. He wouldn’t allow anybody to carry any vessel through the temple.

What was going on was probably simply understood.

The eastern gate of the city was where they would come in. Just to the left of the eastern gate is the temple area. If you were coming in the eastern gate and wanted to go to Zion, and you had something you wanted to deliver, or bring, the easiest way was not to go all the way around the temple, but just to go through one of the side entrances to the general courtyard and go right straight through and just use it like a street.

They apparently were using the temple area just like a thoroughfare or a street like any other public street. Jesus just stopped that immediately, and nobody carried anything through there. It may also imply that nobody carried anything out of there, that they had to get thrown out and left all their debris there.

Now, if you can get all those people to split and run and leave their stuff behind, they are scared. Now, this is the same Jesus, riding on the colt, the foal of a donkey, meek, lowly, and humble.

What is the difference? Jesus came meek and lowly. He came as one who was to die in humility.

But at the same time, He also gave a glorious demonstration of the reason for which he came, and that is to change men from false worshippers to true worshippers. Jesus went to the temple. Jesus never used the same power He had to overthrow Rome.

The only thing He wanted to do was clean up their corrupt worship.

Why didn’t they stop Him? They couldn’t. They were pressed the chief priests. Because the crowd was hailing Him as the Messiah. The people hated the bazaars of Annas. They themselves started an insurrection that put them out of business even before 70 A.D., when the temple was destroyed.

So, the people were with Him, and they couldn’t handle Him. For a moment, the place was clean. It wouldn’t be very tidy. Animals all over the place; birds all over the place, crates, stools, tables, money, it wasn’t tidy but clean.

V 23, Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” A dumb question. As if He needed any authority.

They should have known by what authority, shouldn’t they? So blind were they. We feel like cry out for Christ to cleanse today as He did then. 3. Commitment to the Scriptures. Jesus revealed a commitment to divine Scripture.

V 13, And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” Jesus quotes Isaiah 56:7, “Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices Will be accepted on My altar; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

Mark 16:17, 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.’”

By studying the scriptures carefully, we can see Matthew leaves out- “of all nations.” Matthew leaves it out because His audience is primarily Jewish. The Lord says I Am doing something consistent with the Word of God. As Messiah, He was always hooked to the Word of God.

In the Gospel of John Jesus repeatedly says that I never do anything that the Father doesn’t show Me to do. I never do anything that the Father doesn’t tell Me to do. Everything Jesus ever did was consistent with the Word of God. He vindicates His anger by basing it on Scripture.

God said through Isaiah that ‘My house shall be called the house of prayer.’” The temple was to be a place of prayer. It was to be a quiet place, a place of worship, a place of devotion, a place of meditation, a place of contemplation, a place of confession, a place of prayer, a place of praise.

A place where people went to commune with God, to seek God, to open their hearts to God, not a stockyard, or crooked bank, or a thoroughfare for people carrying on their worldly business.

1 Samuel 1, Hannah. She went to the temple, and Eli the priest sat on a seat by the post of the temple of the Lord. She went there to seek God.

• She was in bitterness of soul.
• She prayed to the Lord.
• She wept bitterly.
• She vowed a vow.

That is what the temple was for. It was for a person to go and find some quiet. The court was where a Jew or a Gentile could go and seek God. A place of silence, a place of meditation, a place to vow a vow to God. Hannah was there and Eli saw her lips moving. She found there the face of God that she sought. God wonderfully heard her prayer and gave her a child.

Remember how it was when the temple was dedicated?

1 Kings 8:29-30, that Your eyes may be open toward this temple night and day, toward the place of which You said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. 30 And may You hear the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel,

when they pray toward this place. Hear in heaven Your dwelling place; and when You hear, forgive. A place of quiet and a place of confession.

Psalm 27:4, One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.

It is a place where we can see the beauty of the Lord in worship, and where we can seek Him, inquiring of Him there in His holy place. They had turned it into a crooked bank, a stockyard, a thoroughfare. Blasphemous. V 13, but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”

A cave of robbers. Another Old Testament quote from Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 7:11, Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the Lord.

Instead of being a place for true worshippers where people can rob and be protected by doing it. You have made it a cave of robbers. They can come here, and they are safe. Robbers used to hide in the caves.

Jeremiah 7:4-11, where the robbers were hiding in the caves, and they were safe there, out of the way, unfound, and secure. Jesus says to them that you have provided a cave for robbers to hide in in the temple of God. They can do their robbery right in the place they are hiding. Such protection of extortioners is blasphemous. God’s house is to be a temple to worship, pray, and commune with Him. 4. Compassion. V 14, Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. Jesus is still there. He is standing there amidst all the debris and here come the blind and the lame, who always hung around the temple

anyway. Because where God was, and that is where the people were. They needed to beg from the people, and God. So, that was the best place to be. No doubt the Court of the Gentiles filled with people who are begging from God and men.

The fury of Jesus was enough to dispense all the able people o ran for their lives under His authority. We would think that these people would be cowering in some dark corner, scared to death. But not so. Because Jesus Christ exhibited the perfect balance of holy vengeance and compassion.

Those who were guilty see His anger. Those who are true seekers see His compassion. Marvelous. Jesus stands in the temple, and they come to Him. If you want to see the compassion of God in Christ, you see it in His healing ministry.

One of the reasons there are ill people, and disabled people is so that God, in His mercy, can dispense to them His compassion and thus reveal that element of His person.

If there were no ill people, if there were no crippled principal, if there were no suffering people, we would not see a dimension of God’s character which is revealed to us. Keep in mind, for those that love Christ, all those disabilities are very, very temporary. But they give God occasion to reveal to the world His compassion.

Do you think the Pharisees cared about those people? If the poor people came and were overcharged hundreds of times for a couple of pigeons, do you think they cared about the poor? They were making money off the poor. They were making money off anybody that possibly could come within their grasp. They didn’t care.

They were like Israel of old in many ways. They abused the poor, despised those who were infirm. But not Christ. Matthew 11, when a disciple of John the Baptist comes and says to Jesus, “Are you the Messiah? John wants to know.”

Matthew 11:5, The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

The Lord didn’t heal just to display His power. It did do that, but that wasn’t the only reason. Jesus could have displayed His power many ways. The reason He healed was to display his compassion, that God is a God of great compassion.

What a beautiful balance. We are not afraid of Christ. Jesus Christ someday is going to come to this world in great and devastating eternal judgment.

• We know Jesus Christ holds in His hand the keys to hell and death.
• We know Jesus Christ is the judge, given judgment by the Father.
• We know that He is the one who controls the eternal destiny of every soul.
• We know He has the right to send men and women to hell forever.
• We know He can breathe out any judgment He wants anytime on anybody.

Yet we come to Him in absolute trust, confidence, and love because we know that He loves us. Because in balance to that is His divine and merciful compassion.

True worship is in the name of the Lord meeting the need of someone. That is a far greater worship than a sacrifice. 5. Credential. V 14, Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. He just healed them all.

They were probably only representative of the deaf and the dumb and whoever else was ill and begging. He healed them in front of everybody that was left. Everybody else would have known very soon, when they started running around town talking about their miracles.

V 15, But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant Wonderful things, the miracles, the astonishing, amazing, wonders that only God could do.

Only God can create eyes. Only God can create legs. Only God can create eardrums where none exist. Only God can do that. Powerful testimony. The chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things He did they were very displeased.

How could they be displeased? They could care less about the crippled people and the blind. They had no thought for them at all. There was no compassion in them. A compassionate person intimidates an uncompassionate person.

A powerful person intimidates an impotent person.

• They were intimidated.
• They are so angry.
• They are so resentful.
• They are so jealous.
• They were full of wrath.

They could have cared less about the healing of those people. The only thing they were mad about was Jesus Christ was putting Himself on display, and they couldn’t handle Him. They were such hardhearted rejecters.

Malachi 3:1, “Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the Lord of hosts.

They would have remembered that He would suddenly come to His temple. But they wouldn’t have Him as their Messiah. He didn’t check in with them. He didn’t ask their advice on anything. He came from Galilee.

• He kept confronting their sin as if they were sinners.
• He wouldn’t recognize their righteousness.
• He wouldn’t recognize their self-styled holiness.
• He blasted them with the fact that they were sinners.

They rejected Him. They were so locked into their self-righteousness. They could come up being jealous. He didn’t fit their picture. They were just angry. Jesus accepted divine worship.

V 15, the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” He accepted divine worship. The astute, learned leaders of Israel may not have known who He was, but it was clear to the kids. Very simple for them to believe. The evidence was overwhelming.

They had just seen somebody who healed people. They had just seen somebody throw out all the corrupt and evil people in the temple. It was clear to them who this was. V 16, and said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?”

And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?” They wanted those children to stop. Blasphemy. You can’t worship this man in the temple of God.

You could sell cattle at an exorbitant price, cheat people out of their money, do all the rest of the stuff, but you couldn’t worship the Messiah there?

The worship of the true God in the true form just could not occur in that place. They asked Jesus that Are You going to allow this? V 16, And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?”

Jesus would have smiled a little to think of this whole amazing event. If the Lord can’t get the praise out of the mature people, He gets it out of the immature.

How could these kids be so understanding? They were insightful enough to see that He had healed people, and that is overwhelming. But where did they get the idea that He was a son of David? Remember what had been going on all day and the day before?

The kids learn from their parents. They were just echoing what they heard the day before, only it was no problem for them.

It seemed really clear now. Mom and Dad yesterday had been shouting, “Hosanna to the son of David, the one coming in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” They had been praising Him as the King, and as far as these kids could see, it was clear that that is who He was.

In Luke’s account of the coronation day, the triumphal entry, the chief priests came and said, “You better tell these people to stop.” Jesus said to them, “If they don’t sing My praises or praise Me, the stones will cry out.”

Jesus quotes Psalm 8:2.

Psalm 8:2, Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger. Two Hebrew words used to refer to infants under the age of three, because Hebrew mothers suckled their babies until they were about three. In other words, even little babies can simply, and in an uncluttered way, praise God.

Jesus is using that Psalm as an illustration of what is going on. If God will not be praised out of the mouths of the mature, He will be praised out of the mouths of the immature. God is going to get His praise to His Son.

Luke 19:40, But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”

• Like the stones, Christ is to be praised.
• Like the children, Christ is to be praised.
• Like people, they are to praise Him as well.

He will get praise either from mature people or infants or rocks if need be. Jeus just alludes to that Psalm as an illustration of what is happening. Understand that these were 0–3-year-old babies all chanting together, “Hosanna to the son of David,” but rather an allusion to that principle there.

What a glorious event. The fury of those leaders simply because of their unbelief. All the evidence was in and even little children could see it.

Conclusion.

Jesus was rejected. V 17, Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there. Jesus left them. Simple physical act, there was a volume of truth. He really left them, because the next day, in verse 23, they come and say, “By what authority do You do these things, and who gave You this authority?”

V 27, So they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.” And He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. He left them. He had nothing more to say. Genesis 6, “God’s Spirit will not always strive with man.”

There comes a time when He leaves. It may be that in our life Christ has revealed Himself, showing Himself to be a divine Saviour on a divine and spiritual mission to clean your life and bring about true worship. It may have been that He has revealed Himself to be worthy of worship.

What is your verdict? Are you like the little children, who in the wonderful simplicity of their youth, taking into their little hearts what they saw, could cry out, “Hosanna, save now, O son of David”? It was proof enough for them.

Or are you like the hardhearted religious leaders who are only angry because He is making such claims on your life, because He is calling you to accountability? Because He’s confronting your sin? It is either one or the other.

No middle ground. You either embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour Or you refuse Him. You might hear the voice of the Spirit of God calling you to see and know and understand and embrace the Saviour. You might respond.

Open your heart to Him even now, who came to die for you, to rise again for your salvation.