December 4, 2012 Your Protective Savior

Your Protective Lord Luke 19:45-46 Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. 46 “It is written,” he said to them, “’My house will be a house of prayer'; but you have made it 'a den of robbers.’” AS YOU consider Jesus’ love for you, it is necessary for you to pause and consider Jesus’ great love for his temple, his “house”. God gave the Hebrews in the Sinai Desert his picture of the Savior in the Tabernacle. That picture grew and expanded with the temple in Jerusalem in Solomon’s reign. 1 Kings records how excited God was to have the Temple built that his people might worship him as the glory of the Lord filled the Temple. God is the King come to his throne to receive honor and worship from his own. Sadly, as God’s house is desecrated many times, God causes its destruction and rebuilding twice before Jesus comes, rebuilt a third time, then destroyed in 70 AD. Why? Vagrant sin had entered. Sin-wielding merchants turned the Temple into a profit center, cheating the devout with false rules. Money and prestige worship replaced God worship. When Jesus cleanses the Temple, he shows he is about to clean the human temple, the soul, from its vagrant occupiers that cheat people from their worship of the Lord. Once again, he is about to build a new temple but this time it’s different. Ephesians 2:21 In Jesus the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. The “whole building” is Jesus’ church, his new temple. The temple is gone, it’s irrelevant now. What matters is the church—that’s you—not a building but you. Are you caring for Jesus’ church, your very relationship with your Lord? You must keep the temple clean. Keep out the vagrants. Be filled with God’s glory and worship him only. It’s True! Jesus is very protective of his church. Keep it clean.