John 2:13-17

We need to remember that our Churches are God’s house and not a meeting place to barter and sell the merchandise of the world. 

The Church, the Body of Christ, needs to be a place of worship, prayer and learning the Word.

The expression My Father’s house was a distinct claim to messiahship. At the wedding in Cana, Jesus demonstrated His deity and power; here He showed His authority.

 The Law of Moses required that any animal offered in sacrifice be unblemished, and that every Jewish male over 19 years of age pay a temple tax. As a result, tax collectors and inspectors of sacrificial animals were present at the temple. However, these officials would not accept secular coins because they had an image of the Roman emperor, whom the pagans worshiped as a god. To put such coins into the temple treasury was thought to be an offense. So in order to accommodate visitors in need of animals and the right kinds of coins, animal merchants and money changers set up shop in the outer court of the temple.

John 2:13-17

¹³ Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. ¹⁵ When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. ¹⁶ And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” ¹⁷ Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”

¹² Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 

Matthew 21:12

¹⁵ So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 

Mark 11:15

¹⁷ Then He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” 

Mark 11:17

⁴⁵ Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, 

Luke 19:45