Well, open your Bibles if you would to the book of Luke chapter 19, still in chapter 19, got one more week to go in Luke chapter 19. We're going to be in verse 44. 45. A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine called me and asked me to come meet him for lunch, and we sat at the Chinese buffet with our chopsticks and talked about his life and about his plans and his thoughts for the future. And he was presented with two job opportunities simultaneously, both of which were good, one of which is sort of a dream job that he's always wanted that's paying less, and one of which is not the job that he expected to be offered that's paying quite a bit more and we're talking through this conversation. He's doing most of the talking and I'm doing most of the eating. And we're going on and we're going on and he's giving me all of this extraordinarily elegant, intricate decision chart that he's mapped out, right? If this happens, then this, then that, then this. If this, then that, then this, then that. And he goes through this whole process and then it's his turn to eat and my turn to talk. And I knew, I knew this was a crummy thing to do, but I just said, that is an impressive decision tree, but it doesn't sound to me like you are resting in the Lord's sovereignty. And I said, that's just what I hear. May not be true, but that's what I hear. And he responded, after a moment of silence and shaking his head, honestly, Chris, I don't know whether to hug you or to punch you in the face. And I think that's how most people feel that know me. And that I do ministry to and with. I don't think that's an unusual response. It didn't take me off guard at all.
But today as we look in our text, we see Jesus doing something that I think was simultaneously encouraging and exhilarating and deeply offensive. And I want to talk about that this morning.
So look at me if you would in Luke 19, verse 45. 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. My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.
In this simple statement, Jesus gives us insights into some of the most foundational pieces of the Christian life. Because of the context and because what He'd just done, because of the timing of where we are in biblical history, this is Passover week, because of all of these things, this simple statement about the temple offers us incredible insight into some kind of basic things to what it means to be a Christian. At a very broad level, Jesus is actually commenting on the gospel itself.
You have to remember that in this particular setting during the Passover, the people of God were essentially going through the ancient rehearsal for the cross. The Passover is a rehearsal of the cross. The sacrificial system is a rehearsal of the cross. It is a preparation for the coming Messiah and the coming sacrifice which would end the sacrificial system. So as the people of God are gathering in the temple to offer a sacrifice for Passover, as they are remembering this moment in their history when God invited them to raise up a lamb and to care for this lamb and to make it a pet and to love this lamb and then to sacrifice this lamb and place the blood of this lamb over the doorway of their household to be redeemed from death and bondage. Well guys, that's the gospel. That's exactly why Jesus came. That's exactly who Jesus is. Jesus is the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world. Jesus is the one whom we see as lovely, we look at Him and say He is something special, and we also have to acknowledge that it is our very sins which caused Him to die a brutal death, whose blood is spilled, and so we have this relationship with Jesus as He is beautiful and glorious and good and true, and we killed Him. And that had to happen for us to be released from the bondage of sin and death.
So when Jesus is talking about this practice that's happening in the temple at the time, at one level He's making a comment on how the gospel can be twisted, perverted, misused, and so on and so forth. We're going to get to that in a moment. But at another level, Jesus is commenting on something that's actually really, really important to the Christian life and something that we almost never hear anyone talking about directly, and that is the worship service.
6 · Establishes the historical and covenantal significance of the Sunday worship gathering as a continuation of Israel's covenant-affirming assemblies, giving theological weight to the corporate gathering
In a way, what Jesus is commenting on here is the way that the people of God gathered. I want you to think about something. You very often, I very rarely, you probably very rarely as well, think about what like, okay, what exactly is supposed to happen here? Why are we here? What exactly are we doing? So on and so forth. We know that we're supposed to do it, but we don't always understand why we do it or what's supposed to happen when we gather on a Sunday morning. Well, the short story is this: we are participating in, in a modified ritual that has gone on for thousands of years in which the people that God has chosen gather together to affirm his covenant and to affirm our love for him and our willingness to obey him and follow him. This Sunday gathering is a modified version of something that's been happening for thousands of years.
7 · Establishes that Jesus' critique is not about the fact of gathering but about the heart and manner of gathering—both the worship gathering itself and their understanding of redemption are corrupted
So when Jesus is commenting on this particular moment, when the people of God are gathering from all sorts of different places in the world, right? For you, it's a 15-minute car drive. For them, it was a 15-day journey. But the point is they all gathered together to this one place to affirm God's covenant, to worship God, to seek His face. Jesus is saying that they've got that wrong. They've got the heart behind it wrong. They're doing something wrong. And we're going to talk about what He's getting at, what criticism He's actually offering against the way that they're gathering, and then to some extension, the way they're viewing the work of God in redemption.
8 · Identifies the Old Testament source of Jesus' "house of prayer" language and unpacks its meaning: the messianic worship gathering is designed to include outsiders being gathered in—both believers and those becoming believers
So when Jesus says, "My house is supposed to be a house of prayer," what does He mean? What does He mean when He says that? Well, there are a couple of ways you can go with this. If you go really, really specific, you can see that Jesus is referencing a passage in Isaiah 56, and that passage in Isaiah 56 is talking explicitly about a moment when God's Messiah will come, and the worship service, the gathering of God's people, will be filled with both believers and unbelievers. That's the promise that Jesus is looking back to in Isaiah 56, a moment in time when God's people gather to seek His face, and people who are not God's people are gathered in to become God's people. So let me read the verse to you, just a couple verses in Isaiah 56. And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be His servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast My covenant, these I will bring to My holy mountain and will make them joyful in the house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar, for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. The Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel declares, I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.
9 · Articulates Jesus' first criticism—the worship gathering had become an ethnically closed system instead of a house of prayer for all peoples
So Jesus is offering a critique against the gathering that he finds himself in, the Passover gathering, God's people collectively gathering. He says they're missing one key element. My house, this house, this gathering is supposed to be a gathering called the house of prayer for all peoples. That's the shorthand. He says house of prayer. House of prayer for all peoples is the reference in the Old Testament. In other words, at one level, the criticism Jesus seems to be offering against their gathering was that it had become this sort of ethnic feedback loop. It was a closed system. It wasn't open like it was supposed to be. And one of the things I want to do in a moment is make the argument— well, let me just do it now. I need to kind of cut some stuff because we want to get to the lunch meat. The argument that I want to put forward to you this morning, because I want us to begin seeing this worship service as a huge asset to the life of this church. This is one of the biggest gifts God's given us, and if we approach it every week with intentionality, God will bless it in cool ways that we may not have even thought that God would use this simple gathering of worship. We often think— I'm supposed to be shortening this— we often think, you know, we've got to figure out like all these programs, we've got to do this or that thing. It's like, the truth is God gave us this, and this is chock-packed full of pointers to Him. And if we understand God's gathering purpose for this time, He's going to use this time in a special way.
10 · Builds a comprehensive canonical case that worship has always been both upward and outward, tracing the pattern from creation through the temple system, the Great Commandment, Revelation's eternal worship, and Acts 2
So let me make the case biblically that that's always been true. That God has always said that in the midst of upward worship, there should be an outward emphasis. Okay, so that's my— I'm going to take you through biblical history really quick and show you that there is always this connection between upward worship, looking upward to God, and also an outward element. So I would take you to the very beginning, right? And I would say, here's a moment in perfection. Adam and Eve in the garden. Everything's great. There's literally no one to redeem. Everybody's been redeemed. Adam and Eve are walking with God in the cool of the day, and God says to them, What? Bring more people. Be fruitful and multiply. So here you see God's people worshiping God while also God expressing to them this sentiment of, and we need more, right? So as you continue, you see, for instance, in the temple, Israel meets with God and God says, I'm glad you're here. Now gather in the nations. The passage we just read in Isaiah. In eternity, over and over again in the book of Revelation, you see two things. You see worship happening, right, consistently, but the worship is always accented and flavored with this idea that the nations have been gathered in, that people from every tribe and every tongue have been gathered in. So there's something about biblical worship where there's an upward, in, and outward at the same time. Now I would tell you that that makes a lot of sense when you think about what the Great Commandment says. Remember, somebody asked Jesus, "Name the most important law," and Jesus says, "I have to give you two: to love the Lord with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself." You see how that happens? There's an upward and then an outward. Over and over again in Scripture, when we see true worship happening, there's an outward element to it. One of the best examples is in Acts. Acts 2:42, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day attending the temple together, breaking bread in their homes. They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. See, there's an upward gathering where the people of God gather to seek God's face, and God uses that upward gathering to bring in those that are yet ungathered. That's one of the basic things Jesus is saying is wrong. With these people's worship gathering. It is intended to be a house of prayer for all peoples. The upward element is supposed to be connected and expressed with an outward element, a concern for the ungathered, as Jesus would say, the sheep that are not of this fold.
11 · Extends the canonical case to individual worship moments across biblical history, demonstrating that even personal worship encounters consistently include a sending or gathering commission
That's the biblical view of worship. The biblical view of worship is simultaneously upward and outward. Even in biblical cases of remarkable individual worship, we always see an outward-facing element. Well, I say always, I don't know always. Usually see an outward-facing element. Let me take you through a handful of examples in the Old Testament and the New Testament where people are experiencing a moment of extreme worship, right, in the presence of God, and show you this upward-outward connection there. So Abraham is worshiping God, the covenant is happening before his eyes, and what does God say at the end of that? The nations will be blessed through you. Moses worships God at the burning bush. It's a moment of extreme reverence and awe, and what does God say? Now go and gather my people. David repents in Psalm 51, and while we don't usually think of this as a moment of worship, it is indeed a profound moment of David reconciling with the Lord. And as he's praying all of this, he says, "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation." That's what he's asking. "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit." And then the very next thing he says is, "Then I will teach transgressors Your ways." You see that weird connection between those two things? Isaiah sees the glory of the Lord fill the temple. The doorposts shake, the thing is filled with smoke, he sees angels. He experiences personal cleansing. "Woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips." Then the Lord sends an angel with a coal, cleanses him. This amazing moment of worship ends where? God saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' In a few weeks, we will read about the women who just discovered the empty tomb. And there's a moment where they see Jesus and they fall down and grab His feet. And He says, 'You have to go and tell My brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.' Paul worships Christ on the Damascus Road. And Jesus says what? He makes him an apostle to the Gentiles. John in the book of Revelation sees Jesus in all of His glory and John's on his face and Jesus says what? Grab a pen, son. I want you to tell these 7 churches something. Isn't that interesting? That repeatedly the upward focus on God leads to an outward outward expression of reaching out and bringing in the ungathered.
12 · Offers theological reasoning for why worship must be both upward and outward: the very content of gospel worship is celebrating God's gathering activity, so outward concern for the ungathered is intrinsic to worship itself
This makes sense on a number of fronts. When you think about worship, what worship is, on one hand, worship, this gospel-centered worship that we engage in every week, is the exaltation and delight in God over this simple fact: we were outside and we were brought in. We were strangers to the promises of God, and now we are family. We were enemies, and now we are children. The whole heart of worship is rooted in God's missional activity whereby he reaches into the lonely and into the broken and makes us whole and puts us into families. The whole act of worship is an expression, a recitation of God's faithfulness to reach out to us when we weren't gathered and bring us in and gather us together. So the very heart of worship is a recitation, a remembrance of God's act of bringing us in. So it makes sense that the expression of worship shouldn't be simply upward but also outward.
13 · Offers a second theological rationale rooted in God's nature: the Trinity's perfect joy overflowed into creation and redemption, so worship that reflects God's heart will likewise overflow outward
It also makes sense when we just think about the nature of God himself. Here's the idea: God in His triunity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, had a great time before any of us were ever around. There was mutual love, appreciation, respect, care. There was the happy association of Jonathan, as Jonathan Edwards refers to it, the happy association of the three. It was great. Everything was fine. But what does God do in this perfect, glorious, mutual exaltation? Well, somehow that joy overflows into creating a people for himself.
14 · Offers a third theological rationale: when worshipers genuinely seek God's heart, they will discover His love for the ungathered, making outward mission an inevitable result of authentic worship
And it also makes sense because the truth is worship is about seeking the heart of God. And I just want to tell you that when you actually find it, what you're going to see in there is love for the world. What you're going to see once you get to God's heart is, "I have sheep that are not of this fold." What you're going to see when you get to God's heart is you have brothers and sisters you haven't met. And one day we're going to live forever in eternity.
15 · Summarizes Jesus' first critique and transitions to the second part of His statement about the den of robbers
So Jesus' criticism of their gathering is that it had become this closed loop, that the horizontal expression of their worship had ceased to occur.
16 · Introduces the second part of Jesus' critique by asking what 'den of robbers' means, dismissing the surface-level economic interpretation and pointing to the Old Testament source
But then he says, "Instead of a house of prayer, you have made this a den of robbers." What does that mean? What is a den of robbers? Does this mean, by the fact that He chased out the peddlers, does this mean that we shouldn't sell stuff at church? Is Jesus' criticism here about the encroachment of capitalism on the church? Not really. The phrase "den of robbers" is also rooted in the Old Testament, and it's rooted in a passage, a very short passage in Jeremiah 7. Let me just read that to you real quickly.
17 · Reads the Jeremiah passage aloud to establish the Old Testament context for 'den of robbers'—a place where people retreat to feel religiously safe after engaging in evil
Jeremiah 7:9-10 says, "Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, 'We are delivered,' only to go on doing all these abominations?"
18 · Defines 'den of robbers' clearly: not a place where robbery happens, but a safe hideout where robbers retreat after doing evil
A den of robbers is the place robbers go to find safety after a day of pillaging. Okay, so a den of robbers isn't a place where all the robbers go and rob. Jesus isn't criticizing the exorbitant— probably truly exorbitant— exchange rates that the currency converters— he's not criticizing that. He's talking about the temple, the worship gathering, being a place where people could go out and do all sorts of evil things and then come back in and feel safe. Like, that's convicting. He's talking about a place that people run to, that retreat to, to avoid justice.
19 · Illustrates the 'den of robbers' concept with a local historical example—Jesse James' hideouts—to make the concept concrete and memorable
About 130 years ago— I'm brushing up on my Kansas City history— about 130 years ago, there was a guy who roamed these parts, Jesse James. Now, just as an aside, did you know that Jesse James' father actually helped found William Jewell College? Did not know that. Fun fact for you. Well, but when Jesse and his brother Frank would rob a bank, they retreated to one of several hideouts. That's what a den of robbers is. A den of robbers is the place you go to feel safe after doing all your evil deeds.
20 · Articulates the core critique: Jesus is not against commerce but against transactional worship—a ritualistic approach that leaves people unchanged, offering false assurance to those living in moral bankruptcy
See, Jesus isn't criticizing money currencies, or money exchangers, or animal salesmen. He's criticizing a way of worship that has developed in which people can live lives of complete moral bankruptcy, of disregard for the Lord, and then come in and do a few fancy rituals and then say, I'm okay. He's criticizing an approach to worship that somehow allows the people who engage in that worship to walk away feeling less convicted, but also walk away feeling completely unchanged. He's criticizing a transactional approach to worship.
21 · Identifies legalism as the obvious form of transactional worship—checking boxes without heart examination, offering false assurance through performance
And I just want to let you know that the easiest way that Obviously, most of us think of when we think of this is legalism, right? Legalism is this way where you can just check off a bunch of boxes and say, "There we go. I've done what I'm supposed to do," and not actually ask any questions about your heart, not ask any questions about where you actually stand with God, never be suspicious of your own motives, never wonder if maybe you did that nice thing the other day so people would think that you're a nice guy when you're not, and so on and so forth. Never going that deep. Legalism offers a perfect opportunity for us to just check off a bunch of boxes and feel like we've done enough and now we can move on.
22 · Delivers the prophetic punch: Reformed Christians can use the gospel itself transactionally, just as the Pharisees used the law
But I have a hug you or punch you in the face moment. The truth is that the flesh can use anything to accomplish that. Right? The flesh can use anything to give us this false sense of freedom that allows us to go out and do whatever we want. Later on, Paul tells the Galatians, "For you are called to freedom, brothers, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." In other words, friends, you can use the gospel the very same way that these people were using the law. You and I are susceptible to this transactional approach in this worship time where we have not sought the Lord all week and we enter into this time and of course rightly engage the gospel that declares clearly, "If you are mine, I love you," but use those statements as a means of assuaging or moving on from or not thinking about the things that we need to do in our lives to walk uprightly with Him. I mean, I have a feeling we've probably all been there.