And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him. Luke 19:45-48

Multiple times throughout Jesus’ ministry he “cleansed the temple”, Now again this is an event that has fulfillments of the past, present, and future. Again to understand the significance of this event, you need to understand the importance of the Temple. Before Christ, the Temple was the only place on Earth where God resided. It was a Holy Space filled with the Holy of Holies, it was the only place you could confess and sacrifice for your sin, because it was the only place that God dwelled with the people

However, much like today, the religious establishment corrupted the Temple. As Jesus said “You have made the Temple into a Den of Thieves” they corrupted this Holy Space and made it a marketplace to sell merchandise and make money. This is why during the “cleansing” Jesus flipped over the money tables and chased out all the merchants (John 2:14-17) Jesus wasn’t being rude, He was cleansing The Temple, he was removing sin from the Holy Space. And this is exactly Christ accomplished on the cross, paying the debt for our sins and purifying our temples

This event was prophesied by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:11) so again, Jesus was fulfilling more prophecy , but also Jesus prophesied “I will destroy this temple in 3 days and raise it up” (John 2:19) Now Jesus was actually prophesying about his death on the cross and his resurrection, however the religious leaders believed he was talking about destroying the physical Temple. However Jesus did prophecy about the physical temple being destroyed also, (Matthew 24:2) Jesus said “Not one stone will be left” and when Christ fulfilled his work on the cross, the Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. and was never rebuilt, even to this day as Jesus predicted.

The Apostle Paul then went on to teach us “You are the Temple of God and the Holy Spirit lives inside of You” (1 Corinthians 3:16-18) If you are Born Again in Christ and baptized by the Holy Spirit, God lives inside of You, and your body is now the Temple of God. It’s important to keep your body cleansed and purified of sin. Don’t allow your temple to become a “Den of Thieves” For through Christ we are a New Creation, Amen!