Praying for protection

On many occasions, I have prayed that God would protect my family.  This request is usually made when they are leaving the house to go anywhere, whether it’s a quick trip to the grocery store or somewhere further out, like the next town over.  The distance doesn’t really matter; it’s the fact that I’m not physically with them (and therefore I can’t protect them) that bothers me enough that I ask God to watch over them.

But that’s about as far as any of our prayers for protection typically go, isn’t it?  When we ask God to protect someone, we’re typically looking for “traveling mercies”, or perhaps we’re asking God to keep a child from doing something irrevocably stupid.  Honestly though, the motive of these requests has a lot more to do with avoiding hardships…like car accidents and negative life-altering choices.  When we get right down to it, in our requests for protection we’re looking out more for our own comfort than for God’s glory and reputation.

During His ‘High Priestly Prayer’, the disciples continued to listen to Jesus pray to the Father about them.  As you read this section of Jesus’ prayer, look for how He requested that the Father protect them.

John 17:11-15 I am no longer in the world,
but they are in the world, and I am coming to You.
Holy Father, protect them by Your name that You have given Me,
so that they may be one as We are one.
While I was with them, I was protecting them by Your name that You have given Me.
I guarded them and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction,
so that the Scripture may be fulfilled.

Now I am coming to You, and I speak these things in the world
so that they may have My joy completed in them. I have given them Your word.
The world hated them because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world.
I am not praying that You take them out of the world
but that You protect them from the evil one.

So what kind of protection is Jesus asking the Father for here? 

Since we know the rest of the disciples’ stories from here on out, we know that they did not have a comfortable life.  They faced even more trials and persecutions after the cross than they did before the cross.  So Jesus isn’t praying for their comfort…then what kind of “protection” is Jesus seeking from the Father?

Jesus was asking for the Father’s protection so that they may be one as We are one and also to be protected from the evil one.

It was Jesus’ relationship with the Father that kept Him on mission.  His “oneness” with the Father was why He was able to complete the work the Father gave Him, even when other people or Satan himself tried to derail His purpose. 

For the previous three years, the disciples had Jesus as the example of remaining connected to the Father.  But now that example, that protection by proximity, was going to be removed.  Jesus knew that for the disciples to be effective in spreading the gospel message, they would need to be unified – in purpose and relationship, both with the Father and with each other.  Their “oneness” with the Father was a greater need than their own comfort, and their unity with each other would need the Father’s protection. 

The same rings true for us modern-day believers.  For us to complete the mission that God has given us, our “oneness” with the Father needs to be a greater priority than our comforts or preferences.  So let’s begin to pray like Jesus did and ask the Father to protect those closest to us – so that they may be one with the Father, just like Jesus was.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Completing the Father's work

During His ‘High Priestly Prayer’, Jesus said to the Father:

John 17:4 I have glorified You on the earth by completing the work You gave Me to do.

A few verses later, specifically states what part of that work entailed:

John 17:6-8 I have revealed Your name to the men You gave Me from the world.
They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
Now they know that all things You have given to Me are from You,
Because the words that You gave Me, I have given them.
They have received them and have known for certain that I came from You.
They have believed that You sent Me.

Part of His mission was to purposely develop disciples to carry on the Father’s work after Jesus’ departure.  He didn’t just pick a few of His favorites from those who were following Him around.  They weren’t just hang-out buddies or there to be “Yes-Men” while Jesus conducted His ministry.

The Father specifically chose the disciples out of all the Israelites who were looking forward to the coming Messiah.  The Father gave these men to Jesus, for Him to invest in and develop.

Over the course of three years, Jesus revealed the truths of God to the disciples.  He taught them truths and He lived out those truths.  And now it was time for them to live out the truths they believed.

John 17:9-10 I pray for them.
I am not praying for the world but for those You have given Me,
because they are Yours.
All My things are Yours, and Yours are Mine,
and I have been glorified in them.

Just as the Father was glorified by Jesus as He completed the work the Father sent Him to do…Jesus will be glorified by the disciples as they complete the work that Jesus is sending them out to do.

Two main applications come from our observations here:

·        Are we glorifying Jesus by completing the work He has given us to do?
·        Are we purposely developing others to carry on God’s work after our own departure?

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Praying for glory

After completing His last teachings on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus informed His disciples:

John 16:33-17:1 I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace.  You will have suffering in this world.  Be courageous!  I have conquered the world.

Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said:

Father, the hour has come.

What Jesus prayed next is commonly referred to as His ‘High Priestly Prayer’.  Since Jesus prayed this in front of His disciples, they would have heard Jesus’ exact desires and petitions to the Father.

Jesus knew what was going to happen that night in the garden.  He knew that His entire life, and especially the last three years, had led up to this night.  The hour of sacrifice had finally come.

In this prayer, Jesus prayed for Himself, the disciples, and all future believers.  He also made some significant statements and requests during this prayer.  The first part of His prayer is for Himself, but His words are not selfish…rather, they are focused on His relationship with the Father:

John 17: 1-3 Glorify Your Son so that the Son may glorify You,
for You gave Him authority over all flesh;
so He may give eternal life to all You have given Him.
This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God,
And the One You have sent – Jesus Christ.

Eternal life – which is both forever-lasting and of excellent quality – is only found in knowing God the Father, through Jesus Christ.  We were created to be in eternal relationship with God.  Jesus affirmed this to the disciples earlier in the night, when He said:

John 13:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.

While Jesus prayed that the Father would glorify Him, Jesus’ aim was to use any honor the Father gave Him as an opportunity to reflect it back.  Glorifying the Father – enriching His reputation and advancing His agenda – was Jesus’ purpose in His life and ministry, and it continued to be his focus as He would head to the cross.

John 17:4-5 I have glorified You on the earth
by completing the work You gave Me to do.
Now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence
With the glory I had with You before the world existed.

Jesus begins His ‘High Priestly Prayer’ in the same manner He had previously instructed the disciples to pray:

Matthew 6:9 Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy.

Above all else, Jesus was concerned with the Father’s reputation and agenda.  This aim dominated His life and His prayers.  As such, Jesus’ prayer practice matched His prayer teachings, and His example instructs us to focus on God’s glory in the same ways.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

In Jesus' name (part 3)

To do anything “in someone’s name” is to represent that person to another.  Not only did Jesus instruct His disciples to pray to the Father “in His name”, but He also warned them about representing Him to others:

John 15:20-21 Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you…they will do all these things to you on account of My name

As Jesus continued to warn them of His impending death, He said:

John 16:20-22 “I assure you: You will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice.  You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy.  When a woman is in labor she has pain because her time has come.  But when she has given birth to a child she no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world.  So you also have sorrow now.  But I will see you again.  Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will rob you of your joy.

Although they wouldn’t fully understand Jesus’ metaphor when He said this, they would certainly recognize the joy they would feel when the saw Him again after He rose from the grave.  Their rejoicing wouldn’t end, either.  Their newfound joy would resonate within them for the rest of their lives.

Then for the third time in final teachings after the Last Supper, Jesus returns to the topic of praying to the Father “in His name”:

John 16:23-24 In that day you will not ask Me anything.  I assure you: Anything you ask the Father in My name He will give you.  Until now you have asked for nothing in My name.  Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be complete.

Shortly after His resurrection, Jesus would ascend back to Heaven to be with the Father.  Although the joy of seeing Him alive would remain with them for the rest of their lives, Jesus would no longer be physically present for them to ask questions and make requests…their Rabbi of the last three years was going to leave them.

However, Jesus is giving the disciples permission to make requests of the Father – as if they were representing Jesus Himself.  No observant Jew would make any request of the Father without going through the High Priest and having the proper sacrifice…but now Jesus instructs His followers to interact with the Father directly, just like He does.  To make sure the disciples completely understand how they are going to pray, Jesus tells them:

John 16:26-27 In that day you will ask in My name.  I am not telling you that I will make requests to the Father on your behalf.  For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God.

Direct access to the Father…and assurance that the Father loves them.  Simply because they have loved Jesus and believe that He is who He claims to be – the Son of God, and God the Son.

It’s from within that relationship the disciples would find their joy, and their joy would overrun their lives.  So much so that they would emulate Jesus and then confidently make requests of the Father “in Jesus’ name”.

We can also participate in the same relationship with Jesus and the Father, since we love Jesus and believe that He is who He claims to be.  In Him we find our complete joy and our model to emulate…we also find direct access to the Father to make our requests “in Jesus’ name”.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

In Jesus' name (part 2)

After Jesus and the disciples finished the Last Supper, they walked from the Upper Room to the Garden of Gethsemane.  They would have passed by vineyards, along with the temple and its golden carving of a vine on it; either of which could have inspired Jesus’ next illustration:

John 15:1-2 I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper.  Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.

Producing fruit is the Father’s goal as He interacts with a believer’s life.  Jesus went on to tell the disciples just how this fruit was going to grow:

John 15:4-5 Remain in Me, and I in you.  Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.  I am the vine; you are the branches.  The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.

To remain means to “stay connected with” – other translations render the Greek word as abide.  The idea Jesus is trying to impress on the disciples is that the fruitfulness, the success of their future ministries, is dependent upon their individual connected-ness with Him.

Next, Jesus restates His great promise for their prayer requests. 

John 15:7-8 If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.  My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples.

Remaining connected to Jesus will shape how we see the world and the people in it.  As such, seeing the needs of those around us will reshape our prayer requests to the Father.  Jesus also mentions that our goal is to bring glory to the Father, which means we point ourselves and others toward Him with praise, by honoring Him, or by celebrating Him.  We see this in Jesus’ own actions, because He continually pointed to God in His rightful place in the Universe.

Truthfully, however, the term remaining in Jesus feels a little vague.  Personally, I need something a little more hands-on…so I wonder, exactly what does that look like?  How does remaining connected to Jesus lead to much fruit and demonstrate that we’re followers of Jesus?

As always, Jesus shows us the way:

John 15:12,16-17 This is My command: love one another as I have loved you…I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.  This is what I command you: love one another.

We are right to make requests “in Jesus’ name” when we represent Him in the way He prescribed.  We represent Him best when we love one another as Jesus has loved us.  When we choose to do so, we remain in Christ, we produce fruit…which brings glory to the Father.  And the Father happily says yes to the requests of those who imitate His Son and His Son’s love for others.

So we see now that praying “in Jesus name” isn’t a special phrase that convinces the Father to grant our requests.  Instead, it is a reflection of our relationships:

With the Father – because we are claiming to represent Christ
With others – because we are to love them like Christ has loved us

There are several self-checks that come out of understanding what Jesus meant for us when we pray in His name.  But that is exactly what Jesus was trying to communicate to His disciples as they walked to the garden.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

In Jesus' name (part 1)

Praying “in Jesus’ name” is probably the most common, and yet least understood, phrase in modern Christian prayers.  We close nearly every prayer – both public and private – with the phrase.  We’ve heard others emphatically add “in Jesus’ name” to their individual prayer requests, almost as if they expected to channel an extra portion of God’s power just by saying those three words. 

Jesus instructed His disciples several times to “ask the Father in my name”.  But what, exactly, did Jesus mean by that?  And are we asking in the manner that Jesus prescribes, or are we just adding a tag-line of Christian-ese at the end of our prayers?

To come in the “name” of someone is to represent them, their decisions, desires, and nature.  We do this in many areas of our lives.  Sending an employee to represent you at a meeting, voting for a Congressional representative, or authorizing another person to have power-of-attorney are all examples of sending someone else to do a task “in your name”.  The significance of choosing the right person cannot be understated, since, as your representative, you have pledged to fulfill whatever obligation they agree to “in your name”.

Throughout His ministry, Jesus stated that He acted as instructed by the Father, as His Father’s representative, and in place of the Father.  In all these ways, Jesus was claiming to represent God “in His name” to anyone and everyone.

During His last night before going to the cross, Jesus gave His disciples many instructions, including:

John 14:6,11-12 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me…Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?  The words I speak to you I do not speak on My own.  The Father who lives in Me does His works. 

Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.  Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.  I assure you: The one who believes in Me will also do the works that I do.  And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”

Jesus tells the disciples that as they have witnessed Him imitate the Father…they will also have the opportunity to imitate Him.  It would be mind-blowing to think that they were going to the works of Father, AND do them with a greater impact than what they witnessed Jesus doing.  Their future ministries would reach far more people with the gospel than Jesus encountered during His three year ministry.  Although incredible, Jesus follows up this promise with an additional greater promise – but with a clarifying condition.

John 14:13-14 Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

“Anything” means anything, right?

Although we would like to have an automatic “yes” to all our requests, we know from experience that prayers aren’t answered like that.  Jesus states that whatever we ask – as if we were representing Him in our requests – will be done so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 

Glorifying the Father – enriching His reputation and advancing His agenda – was Jesus’ purpose in His life and ministry.  Therefore, anything we pray “in Jesus’ name” should line up with the goal of increasing the Father’s glory…and not our own.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Interceding on our behalf

Most Christians are familiar with the story of Peter denying Christ three times.  This event happened at arguably the worst possible time – after Jesus had been arrested and then brought before the Jewish religious leaders at a secretive, illegal nighttime tribunal.  Even though Jesus being deserted by all of His disciples was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, none of them saw it coming.

During the Last Supper, Jesus had given this warning:

Luke 22:31-32 “Simon, Simon, look out!  Satan has asked to sift you like wheat.  But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.  And you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

The “you” in Satan has asked to shift you like wheat is plural.  Sifting wheat was a filtering process that removed dirt, rocks, and chaff from the valuable wheat kernels.  Satan certainly wasn’t advocating that the disciples be purified and have the chaff of their lives removed – rather, Satan was accusing the disciples of being useless chaff, and he wanted the opportunity to prove it. 

The “you” in the rest of Jesus’ words are singular.  The upcoming denial of knowing Jesus is going to severely shake the guy who has been known among the disciples as “the rock”.  Jesus is specifically telling Peter that He has interceded for him, not to the exclusion of the other disciples, but because he will need to know this information.  Later on, Peter will be able to look back and remember Jesus’ encouraging words.

When speaking of God’s unfailing love toward those who believe, Paul also mentioned a similar situation to the believers in Rome:

Romans 8:34 Christ Jesus is the One who died, but even more, has been raised; He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.

Christ’s prayerful intercession between Peter and God the Father wasn’t a one-time thing.  He now acts on behalf of all believers.  Jesus hears the accusations of Satan, knows our weaknesses, and then intercedes on our behalf to God the Father.

How incredible is that?

There are troubles on the horizon that we don’t see coming.  When our failures in those situations shake our faith, we need to remember that we have an advocate.  We haven’t been abandoned due to our mistakes.  We can take a lot of encouragement from remembering that Jesus is on our side…just like Peter did.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Public prayer

Jesus and His disciples returned to Jerusalem the next day after clearing the money changers from the temple complex and severely rebuking the hypocrisy of Israel’s spiritual leaders.  Unsurprisingly, Israel's spiritual leaders wanted some answers and were eager to confront Jesus:

Mark 11:27-28 They came again to Jerusalem.  As He was walking in the temple complex, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came and asked Him, “By what authority are You doing these things?  Who gave You this authority to do these things?

Jesus then used a parable to convey God’s displeasure with their administration of the nation’s relationship with God the Father.  The religious leaders clearly got Jesus’ point…and begin to plan Jesus’ demise.

Mark 12:12 Because they knew He had said this parable against them, they were looking for a ways to arrest Him, but they were afraid of the crowd.  So they left Him and went away.

Other portions of the religious establishment were then sent to challenge Jesus:

Mark 12:13 Then they sent some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to Him to trap Him by what He said.

And again:

Mark 12:18 Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and questioned Him

After rebuffing all their questions with wise answers that both amazed and delighted the crowd gathered to watch the dialogue, Jesus stopped to give them all a warning.

Mark 12:38-40 He also said in His teaching, “Beware of the scribes, who want to go around in long robes, and who want greetings in the market-places, the front seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets.  They devour widows’ houses and say long prayers just for show.  These will receive harsher punishment.”

The scribes were members of the learned class, with responsibilities for studying the Hebrew Scriptures.  They also served as copyists, editors, teachers, and jurists.  They were held in high regard, and as such, they were also prone to holding themselves in high regard.

Jesus gave a specific list of actions that would help the crowd identify scribes to be wary of.  Their actions betrayed the heart’s true desire – to be given honor, rather than giving honor to God.

It’s the last identifier that I find rather interesting – the scribes would say long prayers just for show.  Their words were for those around them, in order that they would be noticed and highly regarded.  They would go on and on in great spiritual-sounding dialogue…and yet their target audience was only those physically around them.

We would be wise to consider the prayers of the spiritual leaders around us.  When you hear them pray, see if you can identify whom they are talking to…are they talking to God, or are they talking to you?  Are they praying for God’s will or just communicating information with their eyes closed?

Don’t forget to do a self-evaluation as well.  If my prayer habits and phrases are different when I pray by myself vs. when I pray around others, then it would be a good idea to speak to God privately about the matter.  Ask His forgiveness and for instruction on how to pray to Him when other people are around.

The last thing we want is to end up like the self-seeking scribes, because after all, their choices eventually led them to receive harsher punishment.  God has a long track record of severely correcting those who misrepresent Him in the manner which the scribes were doing.

Let’s beware leaders who act like that, and also make sure that we don’t act like that either.  As Jesus pointed out, a good litmus test to evaluate the purpose of our hearts is to listen to what is said in public prayers.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Moving mountains

While on His way to the temple complex, where he would clear out the money changers and reprimand Israel’s spiritual leaders for their hypocrisy, Jesus came across a fig tree with leaves.  Fig trees of the area would produce early fruit, then leaves, and then fig season would come in full swing.  Since Jesus was hungry, He walked up to the leaved tree and expected to eat one of its early fruit.  However the tree was barren, it did not produce any early fruit…and trees that did not produce early fruit were also known to not produce during the proper season, either.  Due to the tree’s hypocrisy of being fully leafed, yet without fruit – Jesus cursed the tree:

Mark 11:14 He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples heard it.

After witnessing this scene, Jesus’ disciples watched Him strongly rebuke Israel’s leaders for their own hypocrisy.  The similarity of these two events was not lost on the disciples.  The next day, they went back to Jerusalem along the same path as they had the day before.

Mark 11:20-21 Early in the morning, as they were passing by, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up.  Then Peter remembered and said to Him, “Rabbi, look!  The fig tree that You cursed is withered.”

Imagine what the disciples were thinking – If Jesus curses a plant for its hypocrisy, and the next day it is dead from the roots up…what will happen to Israel because of His rebuke to the priests and scribes the day before???

The first thing Jesus will reply with is a reassurance of where their faith belongs, in God and not in the appearance of spirituality.  Jesus then speaks to them in hyperbole, in large unqualified examples used only to make a larger point.  This wasn’t the only time Jesus spoke like this in His teaching.  For example, He had previously warned his disciples:

Mark 9:43-45 And if your hand causes your downfall, cut it off.  It is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and go to hell…And if your foot causes your downfall, cut it off.  It is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell

Within the context of His teaching at that moment, the disciples understood the point Jesus was making – they didn’t seriously believe that Jesus was teaching them that there are eternal benefits to physical self-mutilation.  In fact, this kind of exaggerated talk was quite common in Jesus’ day…and although not to the same extent, we use similar ridiculous phrases to express ideas, like “It’s raining cats and dogs” or “he bit off more than he could chew”.  The point made by the saying isn’t found in the saying itself. 

So let’s keep that in mind while we look at Jesus’ response to the disciples’ fears:

Mark 11:22-24 Jesus replied to them, “Have faith in God.  I assure you: If anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.  Therefore I tell you, all the things you pray and ask for – believe that you have received them, and you will have them.

Jesus isn’t giving His disciples a blank check to start rearranging the landscapes as they see fit.  There is no mention in the rest of the New Testament of the disciples praying and then physically moving a mountain.  Instead, they understood Jesus’ point – that as they placed their faith in God, they would see things accomplished that no man could do.  The disciples spent the rest of their lives participating in God’s fantastic story of redemption, and they witnessed the supernatural removal of many obstacles along the way.

So what figurative “mountains” do you face?  When praying about them, do we trust that God is bigger and greater than the obstacle in front of us?  Believing that He can handle it is the first step toward seeing that mountain moved.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

House of prayer (part 3)

A few days before His final Passover meal, Jesus cleared the temple in a symbolic gesture which represented the reform needed within the Jewish religious practices.

Mark 11:15-17 They came to Jerusalem, and He went into the temple complex and began to throw out those buying and selling in the temple.  He overturned the money changers’ tables and the chairs of those selling doves, and would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple complex.

Then He began to teach them: “Is it not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?  But you have made it a den of thieves!”

Growing up in Israel, children were educated and taught to read using the Old Testament Scriptures.  Constant repetition was considered an essential part of their learning process.  As such, all Israelites would memorize large portions of the Old Testament.  The priests and scribes of Jesus’ day would have the entire Old Testament, as well as the Jewish traditions, perfectly memorized.  So when Jesus quoted Isaiah with His question “Is it not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?”, everyone knew what He was quoting.

While Jesus quoted Isaiah with His question, His audience would have also recognized that He quoted Jeremiah in His emphatic statement “But you have made it a den of thieves!”.  The Isaiah passage was an encouraging invitation to foreigners, but the Jeremiah passage is one where God rebukes Israel for living for their own desires while showing up on the Sabbath and verbally praising God.  The Israelites at that time also believed that the physical presence of the temple was proof enough that God was satisfied with how the nation treated Him.  Jeremiah was warning the nation that if they did not change their hypocrisy, judgment would come:

Jeremiah 7:3-11 “This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Correct your ways and your deeds, and I will allow you to live in this place.  Do not trust deceitful words, chanting: This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.

Instead, if you really change your ways and your actions, if you act justly toward one another, if you no longer oppress the alien, the fatherless, and the widow and no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods, bringing harm on yourselves, I will allow you to live in this place, the land I gave to your ancestors forever and ever.  But look, you keep trusting in deceitful words that cannot help.

“Do you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known?  Then do you come and stand before Me in this house called by My name and insist: We are safe?  As a result, you are free to continue doing all these detestable acts!  Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your view?

For their hypocrisy, judgment and exile came on those in Jeremiah’s time.  By referring back to the Jeremiah passage, Jesus was indicating that the priests and scribes of Jesus’ day also acted this way.  Of course, they did not take kindly to Jesus’ teaching.  

Mark 11:18 Then the chief priests and the scribes heard it and started looking for a way to destroy Him.  For they were afraid of Him, because the whole crowd was astonished by His teaching.

As a result of their hypocrisy, the priests and scribes missed the fact that Jesus was the Messiah…and Jerusalem was soon after destroyed.  We would be foolish to think that we modern believers would never see judgment like they did.  Do we live hypocritical lives and then show up for an hour on Sunday to offer verbal praise to God?  Do we acknowledge Jesus with our lips, but walk out the door and deny Him by our lifestyle?

Will we persist in making God’s house a den of robbers, or will we take the necessary – even painful – steps to ensure that God’s house is as it should be, a house of prayer for all nations?

Keep Pressing,
Ken