 What we're looking at is the cleansing of the temple found in Luke chapter 19, verses 45 through 48. And so let me begin reading to you at verse 45 or read to verse 48 and we'll get into our study. Luke chapter 19 beginning at verse 45, Luke writes, then he went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold. And it's saying to them, it is written, my house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. And he was teaching daily in the temple, but the chief priests, the scribes and the leaders of the people sought to destroy him and were unable to do anything for all the people were very attentive, very attentive to hear him. And so what we have here is we have, as a backdrop, we have a time where Jesus has entered into the village of Bethany and he did so on Sunday. And he had spent the night in this particular village there just outside of the city of Jerusalem. The Bible tells us in Mark chapter 11 verse 11 that Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. When he had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, he went out to Bethany with the 12. And so the Lord had entered in on Palm Sunday, and he had looked at the at the temple and the things that were going on. And then he had left. He went to a place called Bethany. And now as Luke is writing here, it is now Monday. And the Bible tells us in Mark 11 12, the next day they came out from Bethany. And then in verse 15 of the same chapter they came to Jerusalem and Jesus went into the temple. And so Jesus entered into Jerusalem, looked around and saw what was taking place in the temple, went back to the city of Bethany, spent the night there. And then the next day he came back into the city of Jerusalem and directly went to this area called the temple. Now I want to give you some insight into this and I want to develop this. It's going to take a little while to do that because I want to give you a context into what's taking place here so you can see why Jesus and what Jesus is doing. And so as we look at this, we're going to be looking at it in some detail and let me remind you of some of the things that many of you already know or perhaps informed some of you who aren't really aware of these kinds of things yet. In the nation of Israel, the temple was the center of Jewish worship because the temple was a place where the Jews met with God. Originally in their lifetime, in the history rather of Israel, around 1400 or so years before Christ, under a man by the name of Moses, the nation of Israel would meet with God but they didn't meet in a temple. What they met with God in was called the tabernacle. The tabernacle was a portable tent, a portable meeting place. And so under Moses, the nation of Israel met with God in this tabernacle. In the book of Exodus in chapter 30 verse 6, the command was put the altar in front of the curtain that is before the ark of the testimony, before the atonement cover that is over the testimony. God said, where I will meet with you. So God met with the children of Israel in the tabernacle, but the tabernacle wasn't a permanent structure. It was simply a portable tent of meeting. You see in 1400 years before Christ, the nation of Israel had yet to enter into the promised land and therefore they had no permanent structure. But in the time of Solomon, around 970 years before Christ, right in that general area, Solomon, the king, built a temple and he built this temple to be a permanent place of worship and he did so in the city of Jerusalem. Now Solomon's father is King David. King David wanted to build the temple because he was a worshiper of God. But God had said to King David, you shall not do so because your hands are filled with men's blood. David was a warrior king and God said it's not appropriate for you to build a temple of worship to me. And so David drew up the plans and provided the funds, but his son Solomon was given the privilege of building the temple for God. And so when he built this temple, which was intended to be a permanent place of worship, they had what would be called a dedication service. And when he was dedicating the temple to God, Solomon prayed, and this is what he prayed. It's found in 1 Kings 8 verses 28 and 29. Solomon said, Give attention to your servant's prayer and his plea for mercy, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said my name shall be there so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. And so he is dedicating this temple and he said, I want this to be a place of prayer. I want this to be a place where you will turn your ear and hear the cry of your people. And as he was praying, God responded in 1 Kings 9 verse 3. The Lord said to him, I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me. I have consecrated this temple which you have built by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. So Solomon said, may your ear be attentive to our prayer whenever prayer is made. God said, I've heard and received and I'm answering and the answer is yes, my heart is with you. So that's where Israel meets with God. And that's where sacrifice is made and that's where worship of God occurred. Jesus is now entering into this temple and he's entering into the temple with the intent of cleansing it and he's not simply physically going to clean it out. He's cleansing it from its spiritual pollution. Now when you read your Bible, you're going to discover that this is the second time that Jesus actually cleanses the temple. He cleansed it when his ministry first began and he now is cleansing it when his ministry is being concluded. In John chapter 2 verses 13 through 17, John said the Passover the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and dobs and the money changers doing business. When he had made a whip of cords, he drove them out of the temple with his sheep and oxen, poured out the changers money, overturned the tables and he said to those who sold dobs, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of merchandise. Then his disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house has eaten me up. And so Jesus meek and mild, the one that we have pictures of carrying a little lamb on his shoulder kind of looking kind of weak and soft. You can almost picture it as he was there in this temple the first time and it says that he fashioned a whip so you could almost see him staring at what's taking place while he's just putting this whip together. Think about that for a moment. He's just looking at it and you could almost see the anger in his eyes as he put together this whip and then when it was finally made goodbye drove him right out of the place. Sometimes we need to understand this and we'll see this more clearly in just a moment and I'm going to get ahead of myself for just a moment. I'll come back. I'll reel it back. We need a balance of all times in these times. We need a balance. You know the pendulum is interesting in the life of the church because the pendulum sometimes swings all the way onto one side and that word that would be where it finally reaches its apex might be law and then sometimes that pendulum swing and it comes back up to the other side and up there it would be you know liberty or license really and what the Lord wants is he doesn't want us to be caught up in law but he doesn't want us to be caught up in license either. It has to have a balance in it and that would be the freedoms that we have in Christ. We live by the grace of God exercising the love of the Spirit and thus we don't live under the law. We live under grace but we don't take it and use it for license but we live in the grace of God so that we might love others and love our God and Jesus so very often today in the church is being portrayed I think as kind of like even very weak in that you know people have this idea well and I don't want to come off like a legalist with you either but it's just simply true it's an observation that is absolutely true and that is that there are some today maybe a good portion of those who profess to be Christian who are living lives that really aren't dedicated to Christ are not sanctified they're not living holy lives I mean they're doing something on Saturday that's affecting the way they listen to the word of God on Sunday. On Saturday they're going out doing whatever it is that they feel free to do you know and just doing whatever maybe sleeping with their boyfriend sleeping with their girlfriend going out clubbing whatever and then there they are in church on Sunday and when somebody says to them you know I'm concerned for your walk with the Lord I love you and I'm just telling you the truth what's the first thing they say hey don't judge me what gave you the right to judge me that's the first thing they cry they cry out freedom in Christ but Jesus didn't die on a cross to set me free to be a drunk on Saturday and a worshiper of God on Sunday he didn't we don't understand that and so what's happening is we have fashioned in our own mind a meek and mild Jesus that isn't consistent with the overall picture you have to see Jesus for who he is he is holy he has authority and he's watching his father's temple being desecrated and the people being disillusioned and the first time he fashions a whip and drives them out but he has to do it a second time it's been said hardness and habits of sin are not necessarily cleansed the first time that they are dealt with and that's true I look at my own life look at your own you're a believer in Christ he convicts you he deals with you sometimes he chasens you you know he's he's my father and my father has every right to chasen me and those whom the Lord loves he chasens the word said be zealous therefore and repent and so he may teach me a lesson and I might say oh I've learned that lesson I never want to go under the the the correction of the Lord again and maybe a year or two later I find myself being corrected some some lessons aren't learned the first time they're given and in this particular case it's a great example of that hardness and habits of sin are not necessarily cleansed the first time they're dealt with and so he's going to once again cleanse the temple now he's arrived on Sunday as mentioned he entered into the temple precincts he then left spent the night in Bethany and he was thinking about what he saw the next morning he comes back and he enters into what is called the outer court now the court the the temple we're just there last week it's so weird living in the day that we live that you can see you know last week I was in Jerusalem but last week I was in Jerusalem and when you're when you're looking towards the western wall you're looking towards the western wall on your left will be north on your right will be south you're looking towards the western wall your fate you're actually looking to the east but the western wall is what you're looking at off to the right they have what they call the southern steps the southern steps are the one place that you know a positive fact that Jesus Christ walked on as he would go in to the temple area so he would walk up the southern steps as he would go into the temple they had the temple area divided into four into four courtyards they had what was called an outer court then they had a second court that was a court of the women they had a third court that was called the court of Israel and then the fourth court that was called the court of the of the priests and so the Gentiles were allowed to be in that court and the outer court there and so Jesus is in that area Jesus is moving into that area there and as he's doing so very often in that court that outer court there would be places where rabbis would will set up shop if you will they they would mentor their their rabbinic students and so Jesus very often would go into that particular area and he would give lessons and he would share and so this was a place of activity now in that outer court it was it was okay for Gentiles to come but they couldn't enter any further and so in this court of the Gentiles there had been tables that were set up and there were what were called and we still have them to this day money changers and the money changers were there as well as merchants who sold doves and oxen and and sheep they would sell oil and salt all of this was for the Passover festival it had become like a marketplace it would become it was crowded and and it was noisy it was it was dirty and exceptionally smelly it was like chino we've all been to different places here in our beautiful city that that you know i mean if you were blindfolded you'd know where you were and that's how it was it was just dirty and smelly i mean you know oxen don't raise their hand and excuse themselves so they can go to the restroom so it was crowded it was smelly and it was noisy and it was dirty it would be something like having the church's foyer they just expand it has to obviously have to be larger but just picture that and and just picture you know doves in there you know and and and sheep in there and and oxen in there and and they've been there for a while and they relieve themselves all over and and it's crowd and that's what it was like and and that's what Jesus had seen and that's what was going on it was a marketplace there were booths that had been set up for the purchase of sacrificial animals there were money exchangers who were there you see shekels the jewish currency were the only coins permitted for money offerings or the purchase of sacrificial animals and so if i were coming from another country and i was bringing my currency i couldn't make my offerings with that currency i couldn't do business i had to exchange it and so they had these money changers who were there and so corruption obviously had crept in and there were high exchange rates and the pilgrims were being defrauded the temple was being desecrated it was being profaned and the pilgrims were being robbed there was a prophet that was being made off of the sincere pilgrims who had come to celebrate this feast now how had this happened what had made it possible for them to make a profit off of these people well in order to celebrate Passover it was necessary for the pilgrims to bring an offering so there were concession stand fees that were charged and the priests there had established inspectors now they wanted to give the appearance of honoring the law because the law of moses had given regulations related to acceptable offerings to god if you take notes Leviticus in chapter 22 verses 21 and 22 says this when anyone brings from from the herd or flock a fellowship offering to the lord to fulfill a special vow or as a free will offering it must be without defect or blemish to be acceptable do not offer to the lord the blind the injured or the maimed or anything with warts or festering running swords do not place any of these on the altar as an offering made to the lord by fire there were regulations and the offerings that were being made to god had to have a perfection if you will they had to be outstanding they weren't to be something defective at all now the people were supposed to be learning something through this regulation they were to be learning that it was of utmost importance to offer to the lord that which was best you weren't to hold anything back from the lord gifts to the lord were not to be worthless they weren't to be an afterthought because god was teaching them that he deserves better in the book of malachi in chapter 1 verse 8 it reads when you give blind animals as sacrifices isn't that wrong and isn't it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased try giving gifts like that to your governor and see how pleased he is says the lord almighty try and give to him that which is worthless and see whether he receives that and that's just your governor well people often uh i think it's human nature we often short change the lord on the one hand we want to sometimes appear generous on the other hand sometimes our own interests are more important i remember hearing of a man who came into the house and told his wife that their cow had given birth to twin calves and he said you know i'm so pleased and blessed i'm going to give one of them to the lord and keep the other for ourselves and so she said which one are you going to give to the lord he said i'm not sure yet but one of them is his and a couple days later he came in and he was very sad and he looks at his wife and he says the lord's calf just died that's a joke but that's what we do that's what we can do the lord's calf just died and i'm keeping for myself and so the lord gave a regulation he said you don't give to me the blind you don't give to me the maimed you don't give to me the crippled you don't give to me the diseased try giving it to your governor and see if he's pleased with that you don't do that and see so they needed to learn even as a church to this very days needs to learn the same lesson the lesson is he deserves our best not the afterthought's not what we have left over he deserves our best and that's basically what the lord is teaching them when he teaches them that in malachi 1-8 well to make a profit the inspectors would declare the offering unfit and so as the inspectors looking at this animal they would say oh i'm sorry i found a defect in it and so they would confiscate that animal and since these people needed an offering for the celebration then they had pre-inspected animals that they would sell to them and they were making money the pilgrim very often paid up to 10 times the value of the animal so they were ripping them off there's a historian by the name of josephus and josephus informs us that the syrian governor cestius gallus requested the high priest to take a census of jerusalem to convince nero of the importance of the city and the jewish nation the method used by the high priest was to count the number of lam slain at passover which was 256 500 then he multiplied that number by 10 the average number of persons served by each lamb using the lowest computation of 10 people per lamb resulted in a population of 2.7 million people uh he also computed the number of jews president in jerusalem at passover was no fewer than 3 million and so when you've got this kind of number 2.7 to 3 million people coming in many of them coming from outside bringing their sacrificial animals having them declared unfit purchasing something that was already pre-inspected you can see how much money was being ripped off of the pilgrims and how much money was going into the pocket of the priest with these incredible crowds much profit was being realized another thing is at that time they would pay their temple tax which was for the maintenance of the temple as is found in exodus 30 verse 13 and again i mentioned this foreign currency was unclean so it was exchanged for shekels at a 25 percent rate of exchange and guess who profited the most the former high priest anus anus was the father-in-law to kuyifus kuyifus was the high priest that year he controlled this bizarre and so what did jesus do that's your introduction verse 45 he went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it he drove them out when it says he drove them out matthew 2112 same event jesus went into the temple of god and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple overturned the tables of the money changers in the seats of those who sold doves the word drove in the original language the new testament is written in what is called common or coin a greek and the word drove in the original language is a word that speaks of something that was done with violence it was an aggressive act when he drove them out he did it violently he drove them out with force because jesus exercises absolute control over that temple it says in mark 11 verse 16 he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple he just exercised complete authority this gives us an insight into what is called righteous indignation he was righteously angry over how things were going on how the temple was being operated and what did he say to them it says in verse 46 it is written my house it's a house of prayer now mark says mark 1117 is it not written my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations a house of prayer for all nations again the outer court was the only place all nations could assemble in the temple precincts it was the one place where jew and gentile could come together in the worship of god it's interesting but there was a warning that was given to gentiles to not enter certain areas of the temple in the late 1800s somewhere around 1871 or so a plaque was discovered and it was there in the temple precincts and it says no man of another nation to enter within the fence and enclosure around the temple and whoever is caught will have himself to blame that his death ensues i as a gentile could not proceed further than the court of the gentiles if i moved into precinct the court of the women or whatever if i moved into that precinct then i could be put to death and you actually have an incident in the new testament where something like that occurred it's found in the book of acts in chapter 21 in the book of acts in chapter 21 verses 26 through verse 31 that portion of scripture records how how paul entered the temple and the jews thought he brought a gentile in and so in acts 21 verse 28 it reads that they said men of israel help this is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people the law and this place further more he also brought Greeks into the temple and is defiled this holy place and in verse 31 it says they were seeking to kill him because that's what they would do and so this court of the gentile was the one place that they were permitted to come and it was the one place where they could be taught the word of god it was the one place that they could worship alongside of the jew the court of the gentile this area was filled with people but it was filled with people profiteering from the religious faith of people and when jesus saw that he got angry the temple is not a marketplace the temple is my father's house the temple is a place of worship two things make him angry the desecration of the temple and the disillusionment of god's people these things angered the lord jesus christ you see one of the worst things that a person can do is to take advantage to profit off of somebody's religious faith that's one of the worst things you can do it's like politicians and they do this you're seeing it now it's political season you see politicians who quote their favorite scriptures you know and they just do you know suddenly they become bible scholars and and they well why did they do that they do that to appeal to american sensibilities because i would prefer the average american would prefer a person with some kind of faith to be in that white house they don't want an atheist there they want somebody who reflects the values and the morals of the better portion of the population they want that and so we know that we're not we're not you know hillbillies we're not bumpkins and you know this will go out to the south listen you in the south i'm just using that i'm not saying that you're ignorant we have we have bible studies in the south and watch i'll get a letter for this but anyway profiting off somebody's faith selling religion we're doing that right now in the united states it was a time and i'm paraphrasing there was a time when the church was known for preaching for power and for purity that's what the church was known for preaching the word of god the power of the holy spirit and the purity of the life of the believer but today's church is enthralled with popularity personality and things that really don't matter and uh this could sound like like oh there's just some some jealous preacher up there right now just complaining against the body of christ who gave you the right to judge now that's an observation that comes up 45 years of walking with jesus christ in 42 years of teaching the word so i've got something to say i've earned the right to do that the bottom line is that's what's taking place for people are beginning to choose where they go to church not based on whether jesus is there but based on whether or not it helps me in my career to be there it's a fact and if it's entertaining i don't have to walk out knowing jesus better as long as i can walk out with my bible and say that i opened it once or twice during the service that's a fact and some of the largest churches in the united states are also the less holy ones because the word of god's not being taught one of the best and most famous churches not best but most famous churches and as a preacher who starts out by saying this is my bible i'll believe everything it has to say etc etc etc and then never opens that up for an entire church service so everybody's quoting that they're going to take their oath to believe the bible and then he misquotes scripture it doesn't use it at all i'm not saying that as a cranky old man that's just a fact it's a fact that's happening it happens all the time it does it happens all the time the word of god isn't being on it it isn't being taught it's alluded to but it isn't being rightly divided and this is happening and so there are churches that are growing in numerically but the people in the pew aren't getting to know the lord of the church because we're marketing jesus and one of the things that we discovered a long time ago is when the word of god is rightly divided it cuts to the heart brings conviction and causes discomfort that's a fact that's a fact when it's properly properly because there are times when jesus speaks with such tender mercy and there are other times that he fashions a whip and you get all of that when you go through the word of god see and so what's taking place is jesus is upset my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations but you have made it into a den of thieves and so this beautiful house that had been built to the honor of god where god said my presence will be my heart will always be there has become a stable filled with spiritual pollution and physical filth people ripping off pilgrims so that they could somehow profit off of them seeing his father blasphemed his house desecrated moved him to action and he responded with a zeal as it says in psalm 69 verse 9 because zeal for your house has eaten me up sometimes the zeal for jesus can be misunderstood sometimes people can misunderstand your heart there have been many times in my ministry where what i've said has been misunderstood and i understand that the multitude of words sin does not lack there's always going to be opportunity to say the wrong thing i understand that and the more that you speak the more inclined you are to say something in error that's true and there are times where you can speak in such a way that that you can appear to some to be angry over something when in fact you're not angry in fact you're just passionate i know that i know that just from from life i mean my my wife marie i'll give you an example my wife marie comes from a quiet family so her family you know as she grew up very just real moderate very quiet my family now we could be sitting at the dinner table and you could think a fight is broken out and we're just talking anybody understand what i mean i mean your family may be like that too i mean and marie comes in and she thinks that these people are always mad we're not we just talk like that that's what we are we just give our opinions that's the way it is and so do you know i've been with marie since 1975 and i still to this day 40 some years i'll say her to her honey i'm not angry i i feel passionate about this i still do that because you look at me like what are you so mad about i'm not mad about anything i'm not mad at all i just get passionate about these things right and so even my church listen if i have to tell my own wife that the church what's the old mad about that cranky old man i'm not i'm passionate about these things zeal for your house has consumed me jesus said they remember that because there are some things that made him angry some things made him angry some things made him cry it's interesting that we never read anything that made him laugh isn't that interesting no i'm not saying he had no sense of humor i'm certain i mean look at his boys that he hung with he had to have a sense of humor but jesus jesus when he went in there and and you would understand that you would understand that what if you took a job assignment somewhere else this is your home you took a job assignment somewhere else and you're gone for two years and you come back and you're looking forward to coming to church and you walk in and you see it in total disarray it smells there's thievery going on right in front of you how would you feel how would you feel you you might feel like what's going on here or if i took off and took a sabbatical and i come back in six months and everything's in total disarray and i come in and i'm expecting to see the church in order going and operating the way it's supposed to and and and staff members have been ripping off the sheep and it's a mess and there are weeds everywhere and places falling apart even i and i'm no messiah i would walk in and i'd be upset what's going on here well imagine jesus walking into the house of prayer for all nations for all nations you made it into identities and the righteous indignation just pours out of christ and he drives them out they were disillusioning the people by marketing faith that's again it's nothing new you see that in the old testament you see it in the new prophesied by by for example by the apostle peter second peter chapter two verses one through three there were also false prophets among the people just as there will be false teachers among you they will secretly introduce destructive heresies even denying the sovereign lord who bought them bringing swift destruction on themselves many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute in their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up their condemnation has long been hanging over them their destruction has not been sleeping there were false prophets in the old testament and there will be false teachers amongst you they make up stories in order to greedily take your money god hates hypocrisy and he cleans up and guess what he cleans up his own house first in first peter four seventeen it is time for judgment to begin with the family of god if it begins with us what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of god the temple a house of prayer for all nations faith in him is something he wants all people to enjoy not just the nation of israel in the early ministry of jesus he he began to send his disciples out and and they were to preach his message and remember with me we've been going through the gospel of matthew at first they were to go to the lost sheep of the house of israel he said in matthew 10 5 and 6 these 12 jesus sent out and commanded them saying do not go into the way of the gentiles do not enter a city of the samaritans go rather to the lost sheep of the house of israel after his death and resurrection they were sent from jesus them judea samaria into the utter most parts of the earth with the message of the gospel intended to bring all people to salvation through jesus christ one of more beautiful scriptures you find is found in revelation 5 verse 9 because there it says they sang a new song saying you are worthy to take the scroll to open its seals you were slain have redeemed us to god by your blood out of every tribe tongue and people and nation there's neither jew nor gentile there's neither male nor female you're all one in jesus christ we've been brought together through faith in him and that's the number one thing and and in heaven we'll be singing a new song worship and praise to him and we have to be very careful to be inclusive in the sense of welcoming into fellowship all nations all nations in many years ago some of you have heard the music of the guchettas brothers how many of you have i see some of you haven't the guchettas brothers um the guchettas brothers let me tell you a real quick story as if i could really do that but i'll try i was here in this in this room here i was actually in the back when i heard somebody playing the guitar in a fantastic way i happened to like flamenco and i heard this guy picking and i said oh my that boy can play and i came walking out and it was art and jose guchettas so they were here on this platform just doing their music at that time i had a worship leader by the name of tony logan and i spoke to tony and i said those guys can play why aren't they sharing their music with us in the church he said yeah that'd be a good idea so we started working with them and the guchettas brothers had a background their father had introduced them to music as little boys and to make a living they they played mariachi that's what they played but they are incredible musicians especially doing the bolero style of music i'm saying all of this to get to a point i'll get there don't worry my mother used to say can't you just get to the point i am i am getting to that point so with that said we introduced them to our congregation they began to play their music for our church jesus said look on the fields they are white to harvest that includes every nation tongue and people everybody go out into the whole world and so i really believe that whatever you're comfortable singing in we ought to give you that opportunity to sing in that language if they were chinese i'd have had them share in china i don't really care i really don't be interesting but i as long as they don't drive i'm good oh shut up i'm playing there are no cars in heaven see now somebody's gonna write me a letter but i really do i believe that i mean if they sing in russian sing in russian i don't care see because god understands every language and just because i don't it's not about me anyway is that it's about him worships about him so i get a letter after they come and sing and they say this is the united states speak english well i got a feeling that jesus understood their praise and i got a feeling that we've got as a church the church not just this place we've got a lot of growing up to do to begin to welcome and accept people for who they are and how they worship the lord jesus christ because my house shall be a house of prayer for all nations not just for israel not just for the lost sheep of the house of israel go out into the whole world and preach the gospel because when you read revelation out of every nation tongue and tribe there are people worshiping god and that's god's intent isn't it is to reach the world with the gospel of jesus christ and that's his desire and so as this is taking place he's upset because the people are being disillusioned because they're being ripped off and so what does he do he cleanses it and then verse 47 and we'll move to our conclusion he was teaching daily in the temple but the chief priest scribes and leaders of the people sought to destroy him and were unable to do anything for all the people were very attentive to hear him he taught in the temple day by day he more than likely stayed either in bethany at night or in that garden that was just outside of the city walls but the chief priests and scribes and leaders wanted to destroy him you see jesus's action of cleansing the temple infuriated the leadership of israel why because it brought delight their hypocrisy and the greed and they were outraged because it was exposed again remember this always people don't always appreciate it when their sin is revealed they just don't sometimes they get angry at you when you share with them they get mad you know but there's a saying that i learned when i first got saved i've said it to you before i'll say it again um if you throw a rock into a pack of dogs the one that barks is the one who got hit and when you're sharing the gospel sometimes there are people who get so upset it's because very often they're the most convicted and sir the ones they're the ones who are responding they were not appreciating having their sins exposed and their anger the bible says was so great they wanted to destroy him and they had for some time wanted to kill him they had even resolved to do so but they were unable to do anything why because verse 48 tells us the people were very attentive to hear him they were unable to mount an attack on him but man did they ever want to ultimately they did find a way to get to him and they did it through Judas they finally found a way to get to him the one who ate beside him lifted up his heel against him the one that he poured his life into turned him in for 30 pieces of silver they found a way when you resist the lord you can find a way to try and and stop the song if you will to try and keep it from sounding and they found a way through Judas they thought they were concerned the bible tells us in in john 11 47 and 48 the chief priest in the Pharisees gathered a council said what shall we do this man works many signs if we let him learn like this everyone will believe in him the Romans will come and take away both our place in nation what are we going to do in Luke 22 verse 2 the chief priest inscribed sought how they might kill him before they feared the people Jesus's influence in ministry was so great that they tried to find a way to to take him out and finally they were able to find the way because one of his close associates was also greedy like they and for 30 pieces of silver the price of of a slave during that day he sold Jesus out and so how does the lord how does the lord respond to me as a minister if I if I desecrate his work or I disillusion his people he responds with anger and how does he respond to us as believers if we have the same kind of attitude that these people that we think that religion is a means of profit faith is a way to get gain he responds with anger to the state so what am I supposed to do fear him and love people worship him and love people remain honorable before him and serve him love people encourage them to know Jesus Christ because you know he is the lamb of God but he's also the lion of the tribe of Judah