Luke 19:45-48 - A House of Prayer

If you have your bibles with you today, we will be in Luke 19:45-48.

After David died and Solomon began to reign as king, Joab, David’s military commander, with innocent blood on his hands, knew judgment was coming. So he fled to the tabernacle and clung to the horns of the altar, thinking that holding onto something sacred would keep him safe. He used the altar to protect himself from the justice his guilt deserved instead of turning to God in true communion.

In Luke 19:45–48, Jesus has just entered Jerusalem and spoken of its coming destruction, including the temple, because the people did not recognize their King, who came to bring peace through His death and resurrection. Now He enters the temple and finds it being used for profit instead of prayer, for gain instead of communion, and so He drives out those who are misusing what is sacred.

We aren’t that much different. We treat our relationship with God like a transaction, showing up when it serves us, using what is sacred to feel better, while our hearts remain far from Him. We’re missing the whole point.

You see, it isn’t about us using God, but about us as God’s dwelling place. And this is what Jesus wants to do in us and our church.

Instead of using God, he wants us to actually dwell with Him. And so, the opportunity before us today is that we, as His people, can become a house of prayer, living in communion with Him and together reflecting His heart for the nations.

Let’s listen with expectation to Luke 19:45-48.

Luke 19:45–48 ESV

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.

This passage primarily shows us that…

God's dwelling place is for communion (vv. 46-47a, 48b; Is. 56:7)

Joab, a man of war shed innocent blood, went into the tabernacle not to worship, but to save his own skin, grabbing hold of the altar for his own ends, not worship. This is not what God’s dwelling place was designed for. In fact…

• We were designed to dwell with God (Gen. 3:8; Rev. 21:3): From Genesis where God walked with us, to Revelation, where God dwells with us, the purpose of humanity is that God would dwell with us in communion. The reason that Revelation ends with God dwelling with us is because that is the point of humanity, that we would be God’s people and he would be our God.
• Dwelling with God is expressed in prayer (v. 46a; Gen. 4:26): Living in communion with God is expressed through calling upon His name in dependence. After the fall, God’s people began to call upon His name, to pray. This prayerful communion continued throughout history, and is still ongoing. In fact, the whole bible, and most clearly in the book of Acts we see that God’s people are a praying people.
• Dwelling with God is expressed in being taught by Him (v. 47a): Communion with God is not one-way; God communes with us through His Word as He teaches us by His Spirit. We don’t simply have a one-way line to God, the Spirit lives in us and reveals God’s heart and love to us through being taught by Christ in the Spirit. And so, as we read and pray, God reveals himself to us.

Yet, the harsh reality is that instead of being God’s dwelling place for prayerful communion…

We exploit God's dwelling place for ourselves (vv. 45, 46b, 47b-48a)

Joab, whose hands were dripping with blood, having killed at least two men in the pretense of welcoming them, when faced with justice, exploited God’s dwelling place for himself.

When Jesus cited Jeremiah 7:11 in the last half of verse 46, saying that the temple had been made into a den of robbers, he was saying that the wicked had made it into a place of safety, a den or hideout. The context of Jeremiah 7 is that wicked idolaters who shed innocent blood and oppressed the sojourners, fatherless, and the widow, were trusting in God’s temple for their safety from judgment.

We are the same. We use God for gain, corrupt what is sacred, and resist Him when He disrupts us.

• We naturally use God and others for our gain (v. 45): Like the sellers, we use God and others for profit rather than for communion. Many people associate with a church and God’s people for the social benefits rather than to live in prayerful communion with God and his people. There are even some pastors who preach and teach for worldly gain.
• We naturally corrupt what is meant for communion (v. 46b; Jer. 7:11): Like the sellers (and Joab), we turn what is sacred into a means of gain or personal advantage, robbing God of worship and others of access to Him and hide away feeling safe in our religious dens. Many try to make the church and God’s people into something they want and they think it should look like, something that pleases them.
• We naturally resist God when He disrupts our desires (vv. 47b–48a): Like the leaders, we oppose communion with God when it threatens our control, comfort, or gain. While the people were desperately seeking Jesus, and heeding his words, the religious leaders were seeking to find a way to trap Jesus in order to destroy him. He had wrecked their racket, and so they wanted to wreck him.

The problem with all this is that judgment was coming. While the wicked leaders were trying to destroy Jesus, God would destroy them as they would be cast away forever from God’s presence, which is a tragic and eternal reality. And this is the same for everyone who does not have God dwelling in them….we deserve the judgment that Joab and the religious leaders faced. Yet it is not the end of the story…

Jesus was destroyed to make us God's dwelling place (v. 47; John 2:19-22)

While Joab, the guilty one, whose hands had taken innocent blood tried to cling to the altar to save himself, Jesus, the innocent One, whose hands had healed and brought about justice, willingly clung to the altar of the cross to die, being slaughtered so we might be saved.

• Jesus is the perfect dwelling place of God (Luke 3:21–22; Luke 9:35–36): Jesus was truly the innocent One whose hands not only did not shed innocent blood, but healed and brought about justice. This is proved by the fact that the Spirit rests upon Him, and He is declared to be the beloved Son of the Father in whom God’s presence fully dwells.
• Jesus was destroyed so that we wouldn’t be (v. 47): While Joab sought to keep his life by clinging to the altar, Jesus willingly clung to the cross being pinned with nails, losing his life to save ours. His body was destroyed on the cross, bearing the wrath of God that we deserved for our using, corrupting, and resisting Him, so that we might be declared innocent and be built up together as God’s dwelling place.
• Jesus was raised on the third day to make us God’s dwelling place (John 2:19–22): Though the religious leaders would destroy his body, it was built back up on the third day, being raised up, and now He sends the Spirit to build us into God’s dwelling place.

Now, we don’t have to grab hold of an altar and cry out for mercy to be rescued, we are called to call on the name of the Lord Jesus, and he will come and make his home in us, and make us a dwelling place of the living God by the Holy Spirit.

Will you stop clinging to your own altars and rest in Him today? If you haven’t, today is the day where instead of receiving God’s judgment for your sins, you can receive his forgiveness and his presence, and when you do, together…

We live as God’s dwelling place in prayerful communion (v. 46; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; Eph. 2:19-22)

Jesus’ completed work on the cross and his resurrection from the dead has changed everything. No longer do we try to hide in fear like Joab, knowing that our judgment is coming, instead, because the Spirit of Christ has made his home in us, we live in joy and continual prayerful communion both personally as  praying temples and together as a house of prayer for the nations.

• We are temples of the living God (1 Cor. 6:19–20): 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 is not hyperbole. God truly dwells in us by His Spirit; we are His dwelling place. We are in Christ and Christ lives in us.
• Individually, God’s dwelling place is a praying temple (v. 46): And if it is true, which it is, that we are temples of the living God, then it is natural that we do live what happened in the temple. As those in whom God dwells, we live in prayerful communion with Him.
• Together, we are being built into a spiritual house (Eph. 2:19–22): But this is not just an individual thing for us, for we are united to Christ. In fact, since we are united to Christ, the Spirit is building us together into God’s dwelling place, a house of prayer for the nations. We are disciples who make disciples and call others into this amazing communion with God.

And so, what this might look like in our day-to-day lives is this:

When I am feeling lonely and tempted to use the church or relationships to fill that need without true communion, the Spirit reminds me that Jesus gave His life so that He could dwell with me and commune with me. I remember that God is with me, so I stop, pray, and seek His fellowship before trying to fill my emotional need elsewhere.

But on the flip side, when I am tempted to skip worship or prayer because I feel like I already have what I need with God, the Spirit convicts my desire for isolation and reminds me that I am united to Christ with His people. Jesus, the perfect praying temple, taught us to pray “our Father,” so I gather with God’s people as a spiritual house, a house of prayer for the nations.

Finally, when my plans are disrupted and I am tempted to resist God’s will, the Spirit reminds me that Christ is my life, and that to live is Christ and die is gain. He shows me that even suffering is used to put my flesh to death and conform me to Christ, so I yield to His work and pray, “Abba, Father. Not what I want, but what You want.”

Because the Spirit has made His home in us, our worship isn't a transaction we perform to keep God happy with us. We don't come to church to pay religious dues or be protected from cosmic lightning bolts. We gather as God’s covenant family dependent upon God alone because we are already accepted in Christ.

Remember. We don't skip corporate worship to enjoy God’s creation, an appetizer, because God the Creator is so much better. He made these things to draw us into worship Him, the feast, together. And it is in this weekly worship where we as individual praying temples come together as a house of prayer for the nations. And all of this is not because we have to, but because we get to dwell with the one who died so he could make us his home. You see, we don't cling to the altar in fear; we feast at the table in freedom.