And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words. (Luke 19:45-48)

In this powerful scene from the Gospels, Jesus enters the temple and takes direct action against the corruption He sees there. The temple was meant to be the place where God’s people could come together in worship, prayer, and communion with the Lord. But what Jesus found was a place of commerce, exploitation, and distraction from the true purpose of the temple.

He declares that the temple, God’s house, “shall be a house of prayer,” but instead, the religious leaders and merchants had turned it into a “den of robbers.” They had focused on profit, tradition, and outward appearances, ignoring the heart of God’s intention for the temple: a place of reverent communion with God.

We, as followers of Jesus of whom the Spirit indwells, are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Jesus’ words were not only applicable for the physical temple in Jerusalem during that time, but they’re also a reminder to us about where the purity and focus of our hearts and worship should be. God calls us to be a place where prayer, worship, and His glory are central. But so often we allow the distractions of the world—the culture, our personal ambitions, entertainment, or even traditions—to distract us from the call.

Jesus' cleansing of the temple is not just a historical event, it’s a call to personal and corporate repentance. Have we allowed our hearts or churches to be filled with things that distract from the purity of worship? Have we, in our modern culture, turned the Church into something that serves our preferences, comfort, or desires, rather than being a place that humbly seeks God’s will and draws near to Him in prayer?

It’s important for us to remember that the Church exists for one primary purpose: to bring glory to God, through worship, prayer, fellowship, and the preaching of His Word (Acts 2:42). Every action we take as the body of Christ should aim to glorify Him, not to cater to the expectations or distractions of the culture around us.

In a world that often misunderstands and misrepresents the Church, we must remain steadfast in keeping the focus on what God intended. The culture may try to redefine the Church, but we must hold firm and live out the truth that it is a place where God’s people gather to seek Him in prayer, in the reading of His Word, and in the fellowship of believers.

The Church is not a place to gain social status, not a building for personal advancement, and not a platform for self-promotion or the promotion of cultural ideals. The Church is solely God’s house, which He has set apart for His glory as a place of prayer, worship, and deep, authentic relationship with Him. Let us be faithful to keep the focus on God’s purpose for the Church, not on what culture or consumerism might want to make it.

To be faithful in keeping that focus, we have to be willing to do regular heart checks and ask ourselves the hard questions, and even further being willing to be honest with ourselves in the answers, letting God mold and shape what’s out of place. Ask yourself these questions:

• Am I making space for prayer and is it central in my life?
• Am I seeking God’s heart above all else?
• Am I making room for the Holy Spirit to work in my life and in the life of my community?

I encourage you, take time to reflect on your personal worship this week. May we not allow the enemy who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy us turn any part of the God’s Church into a den of robbers. But may it always be our goal to seek God’s heart in prayer with purity, humility, and devotion, making His house a house of prayer.

And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:41-44)

From first look, Jesus had just been praised by multitudes of people and yet now we see Jesus weeping over the city. The people had rejoiced at His arrival on that colt, but their expectations and the box they had put the long-awaited Messiah into skewed their perspective and they missed the reality of His coming and the things that make for peace. They wanted peace in defeating the Romans in the physical realm and Jesus came to give them peace with God in the spiritual realm. And in doing so they didn’t know on that specific day the things that make for peace.

The prophecy of that specific day and the Messiah’s arrival had been prophesied long ago (Daniel 9). Daniel’s vision in Daniel 9 was written around 538 B.C., long before Jesus ever came, and the date of what we call the Triumphal Entry was precisely prophesied down to the day. God had made it known to the people over half a millennium in advance and had given detailed prophecies about Jesus as Messiah, of which Jesus fulfilled, and they missed it.

Jesus then prophesied the consequence of not knowing their time of visitation and His prophecy that the enemies would barricade around Jerusalem and destroy everything, happened only 38 years later in the year 70 A.D. when secular history documented that Titus, a Roman army general who later became emperor, surrounded Jerusalem and cut off their food supply and eventually stormed in and destroyed everything, completely burning the temple to the ground.

Now I don’t know about you, but initially the fact that they missed their day of visitation and the horrible consequences they’d receive because of it, kind of makes me shake my head and think, “How on earth could you have missed it? God made it so clear”, but when I look at how Jesus responded, I’m quickly humbled. Jesus knew the upcoming prophesy in light of the people not knowing the day of their visitation, and He gave them the prophecy long ago about their day of visitation, AND He ensured it was recorded and preserved for them; but He didn’t shake His fist or head and become indignant at the lack of knowledge; instead, He wept.

He loved all people then, He loves all people now, and He wants us to understand the revealed mystery that He is our Prince of Peace who came to bridge the chasm our sin created and allow us to make peace with God through His sacrifice on the cross. And now, thousands of years later, we have a complete canon of Scripture that clearly lays out all the Law and Prophets of old and how Jesus clearly fulfilled all the prophecies about Messiah and has more than proven to be God in the flesh who came and dwelt among us, our Savior. As we just celebrated the birth of Jesus, may we never forget nor take for granted the thing Jesus did to make for our peace with God.

As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” (Luke 19:37-40)

As Jesus was preparing to enter Jerusalem, a whole multitude of His disciples begins to rejoice. This was a crowd of people who had seen the mighty works Jesus had done, had been following Him, and were rejoicing and praising God for all those mighty works they witnessed.

It’s interesting that the Pharisees who had seen much of the same mighty works as the crowd has seen, did not rejoice but instead admonished Jesus to rebuke His disciples. A Psalm of king David says that God is enthroned on the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3). The Pharisees’ admonishment was a blatant disbelief in Jesus as Messiah and in reality, put them in a place of telling God to rebuke the praises of His people.

Psalm 19:1 tells us, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” And here we see Jesus’ answer in kind when He said, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” Could you imagine stones crying out with praise to God?? The very thought is beyond our imagination, yet the truth of it remains.

In our daily lives God is working and doing mighty works in our midst. Do we cry out, rejoicing and praising God for it? Or do we refrain from praising Him for one reason or another? Are there ever times that proverbial rocks are crying out in your silence?

I don’t know about you, but I never want to be put to shame by rocks over my silence and lack of praise to God for His goodness. Even if God never did any mighty works, He is still worthy of all praise. God is worthy of my praise and God is worthy of your praise.

I encourage you to take a moment and without any regard for what others think, meditate on Who God is and the mighty works He has done, and freely rejoice and praise Him aloud now.

And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’” So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. (Luke 19:28-35)

Jesus was about to make His triumphal entry and even still, He took the opportunity to allow His disciples to be taught and used for His glory and demonstrating the sovereignty of God.

Jesus didn’t tell His disciples to go find a colt for Him, He told them where to go, when to go, and even gave them instructions on how to respond to questions that would arise from them obeying Him. And this one verse, verse 32, shows us yet another example of God’s Word never failing to come to pass: So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. (Luke 19:32)

Jesus called two of His disciples to do something, guided and equipped them in it, it came to pass just as Jesus said it would, and they were effective in serving Jesus.

Imagine being in the shoes of those two disciples. Jesus has just told them where to go find a colt, to untie it, and bring it to Him. That very well may have brought up a fear, anxiety, or an uncomfortable feeling in the disciples at the thought of the colt owner confronting them. They may have even questioned to themselves, “What if I give the answer Jesus tells me and there’s still an issue?” All valid thoughts, but the reality of it is this: if any thoughts had crippled those disciples from walking in the work Jesus had sent them to do, they would have simply been disobedient.

We can get sometimes get stuck in our minds playing all the “what if” scenarios and assuming how things may turn out, but in reality we don’t know the future, only God does. If God is calling us to do something, we should choose not to overthink things and simply obey. That’s obviously easier said than done, but when we make it a practice and habit to not spend large amounts of time thinking on the same things over and over, basically ruminating on the things we can’t control or change, then we can better operate in choosing to set those thoughts down and let them go and simply operate in what we do know and trust: God and His word.

We read time and time again in Scripture how God’s Word never fails and about the incredible sovereignty of our great and mighty God, and we undoubtedly experience this in our personal lives too. So why ever fear, doubt, and waste any time thinking about “what if” possibilities when God tells us to do something?

God is good, faithful, sovereign, and true, and we can have complete faith and security in Him. If God calls us to do something, it’s up to Him to guide and provide that way and it’s up to us to trust Him and walk in obedience. Be encouraged, my friend - when God tells you to do something, walk confidently in obedience, watch Him work, be amazed by Him, and give Him the glory and praise for it.