A Praying Church (Part 1) – Matthew 21:12-13
Do you have a family name?
Were you named after someone famous?
Did you know that God has a name for His people and His churches? The name is a “House of
12Then 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. —Matthew 21:12
The system became corrupt through the buying and selling of animals for sacrifice along with the exchanging of currency for temple currency.
Pilgrims had to exchange local coinage for Tyrian coins because of the purity of the silver of the coins. —William Cook
The setting was also in the Gentile Court. All of the extra curricular activity prevented the Gentiles from worshipping.
13And 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.’” —Matthew 21:13
The expectation…
1Thus says the Lord: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for My salvation is about to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. 2Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it; who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.” 3Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, “The Lord has utterly separated me from His people”; nor let the eunuch say, “Here I am, a dry tree.” 4For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant, 5even to them I will give in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. 6“Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants— everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant— 7even 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.” —Isaiah 56:1-7
The reality…
1The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!’” 3Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.’ 5“For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, 6if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, 7then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. 8“Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. 9Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, 10and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? 11Has 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. —Jeremiah 7:1-11
The righteous anger of Christ was present because the temple was no longer a place of
God wants to do something.
God wants to build His
God wants to build His
God wants to build His
God will not do it without
Prayer is the path that leads to Kingdom-Building.
When God is preparing to do something, He stirs His people to pray. —David Butts
The religious people of Jesus’ day turned it all around to build themsevles. This led to an absence of prayer. Where there is the absence of prayer, there is the presence of selfishness.