The Temple Where We Learn Good

Shepherdess Edermira Cruz

STUDY #1164 CHURCH IN THE HOUSES Sunday, January 24, 2021

The Temple Where We Learn Good (Mark 11:15-17) When you come to church, your thought must be this: it is the temple of God: to hear His voice, to see His miracles and to take care of my salvation so that it is always there. In the silence, the reverence, the songs, the Word, when I bring my offerings and when I arrive that I can no longer handle it and I go to God and find His miracles for my life, and He comes out in my favor and does the good I need.

I. In Daniel 6:10 it says, "... and he prayed looking toward Jerusalem," in order to show the affection he had for it.

A. To its stones and to the dust of it (2 Kings 25:9).

1. The temple was set on fire.

2. That house of God, which David had prepared with such interest and which Solomon had built with so many expenses, that house upon which the eyes and heart of God were continually (1 Kings 9:3), was turned into ashes.

3. This was to be fulfilled if these requirements were met: integrity of heart and in equity, to fulfill all that God had commanded him and to keep His statutes and His decrees, on this he depended on to be forever. (integrity=not touched or not reached by an evil; fairness=giving everyone what they deserve).

4. God showed that what interests Him is not the external pomp of worship when life and the power of piety are lacking (devotion to all that is related to all things holy and is guided by the love that is felt towards God).

5. The temple is the place of sanctification, when you have life with God and the power of godliness, when there is none, this is just stones that fire can burn.

6. The people trusted the temple as if it could protect them in spite of all their sins. (Jeremiah 7:4).

II. Those who profited or benefits from sacred activities.

A. Arriving in Jerusalem and entering the temple Jesus:

1. The day came when God visited the temple and "began to cast out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, the day of trial for Jerusalem.

2. Not only did He throw out of the temple those who made it a marketplace, but he overturned the tables of the money changers (currency exchange) and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

3. No one did anything because, although they were made of long view, they understood that fraud was what moved in all of them; for that reason, there was no protest.

4. (V.16) and did not allow anyone to transport goods through the temple.

5. The Jews recognized that one of the signs of honor due to the temple was not to make the holy mount or the atriums of the temple a place of common passage or of carrying objects.

6. To make the atrium a comfortable passageway from one side to the other was already to desecrate the temple.

7. (V.17) Jesus gives them the reason for His proceeding with what Jeremiah 7:11 says: Is this house before which "my name is invoked" a den of thieves before your eyes? Behold, I also see it says Jehovah; Isaiah 56:7... for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

8. The temple is a house of prayer.

9. One could think that the temple was, above all, a house of sacrifices, as the sale of oxen and pigeons seemed to indicate.

10. The Lord calls it a house of prayer.

11. At the beginning of His ministry (John 2:16), Jesus threw out of the temple those who trafficked there, saying, "Do not make my Father's house a market house."

12. Now He accuses them of turning it into a den of thieves.

13. Those who entertain worldly thoughts while in their devotions turn the house of prayer into a place of market; but those who devour the houses of the cities and as a pretext, prefer long prayers, turn it into a den of thieves.

B. To carry the sanctuary, you need the priest.

1. (Numbers 18:1-7, 4-5 and 5) God's government is the great danger.

2. If these instructions were obeyed, there was no reason to fear His wrath.

3. You and your children, it refers only to priests.

4. The priesthood would bear the sin of the sanctuary and the sin of the priesthood.

5. And the house of your father (Levi) with you, would bear the sin of the sanctuary; and you and your children with you would bear the sin of your priesthood.

6. By bearing sin, they were responsible for carelessness or for failing to fulfill "holy care."

7. The Levites were helpers of the priests, but they could not enter the tabernacle in priesthood service because they would die.

8. They must watch very carefully so that sacred things are not desecrated.

9. John 2:17: The zeal of your house consumes me. Psalm 69:9: for I was consumed by the zeal of your house.

10. (Hebrews 13:17) These men act as God's representatives in the assembly. They have been given authority and believers should submit to this authority.

11. As sub-shepherds (Jesus is the good Shepherd, the first), the elders "watch" over the souls of the flock.

12. They will have to give an account to God in the coming day.

13. They will do so either "with joy" or "complaining," depending on the spiritual growth "of those who have been entrusted to them.

14. If they have to do it with sadness, this will mean a loss of reward for the saints involved.

15. So, it is for everyone's benefit to respect the lines over, under, under authority that God has established.