Cleaning Out Your Temple For God

   Today, we will look at the verses of John 2:12-25.  John 2:12-25 says, "After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days. When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.  So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.  To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person."
   As we can see, Jesus was very angry at the merchants and sellers in this passage. They had turned the church into a market place. Jesus knew that God's house was a place for worship and focus upon the Lord God our Savior. The people were full of greed and love for the "world." If ungodly people set up sales stands outside of your church, taking the attention away from the church wouldn't you be angry? So what can we as christians learn from John 2:12-25? We should keep God's temple clean! When the bible speaks of a temple, it can mean a building for God's place of worship or our own souls! 1 Corinthians 3:16 says, "Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?" So we must keep both of these clean! Is your temple filled with hate, lust, sexual morality, lies, anger, greed, or other sins? God wants you to clean it out! (Aren't your grateful that our God is a forgiving God?) If we want God to be with us and live in our temple, we must clean out or hearts and ask for forgiveness of sins.
   If you met with Jesus today, would he see your heart forgiven and pure? Or would he see sin that you have tried to cover up and have not yet asked for forgiveness? Do you have your heart right with God???