CaryCOG | Cary Church of God
Today's message "Turning the Tables"
Matthew 21:12-17 NKJV
I. Intro:
A. Matthew’s gospel builds to the Triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
B. In chapter 21, we have the account of Christ fulfilling prophecy by entering into the city upon the colt.
C. What is so striking in terms of Christ’s arrival into Jerusalem is what He does first.
D. This begins our journey into our text today.
II. One must turn the tables of unholy transactions before one can become a house of prayer
(Matthew 21.12-13)
Quote:
The kind of sin here described is not secular business in its own place, but the doing of things in the name of religion which are prompted by mercenary motives. The preaching of the gospel for the sake of gain; wrong financial methods in supporting the church; desecrating of the house of God by social and secular entertainments; methods of raising money which appeal to selfishness and frivolity of man; the use of Christianity in any way as a cloak of covetousness, as an advertisement of business, as a means of social preferment or secular gain – these are things so common on every side of is that hearts of many of God’s children have been filed with humiliation and sorrow, and moved to earnest prayer for the coming of the King once more to cleanse His temple and purge from His Church these shameful profanations.
A. B. Simpson
III. One must become a house of prayer if the lame and blind are to be healed (Matthew 21.14)
Quote:
Purification always leads on to power!
A.B. Simpson
IV. Turning the tables will offend those who benefit from religious enterprise (Matthew 21:14-17)
Quote:
To say that one should not remove them [idols] until no is offended and the have come out of the hearts of all men is the same as if were to say that Christ was wrong in overturning the chairs and changing tables, and chasing the changers out with a whip. For they were not yet instructed in their hearts that they were wrong…Christ would have had to let the things stand until they had all been instructed.
Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531)