Dear Christian friends:

When we think about enemies of the Church we think about persons outside the Church, who are not members. But the Church also has enemies inside itself, who are members.

In our text we see how Jesus met and did with two evil things which He found in the Church of His day. These two evils can be found in the Church today. We need to become aware of these two evils and then learn from Jesus how to deal with them. You, yourself, may be joined in these evils and perhaps you are not aware of it.


The first evil is commercialism, buying and selling in the Church, thinking of the Church as a profit making organization.

Jesus became very angry when He saw the sellers and the bankers in the Temple. "He made a whip of ropes and then drove the sheep and the cattle with the sellers and bankers out of the Temple. He turned over the tables of the bankers, scattering the money coins all over the floor." (verse 15) "Take these away!" He told those that sold pigeons, "Don't make My Father's house a place for business." (verse 16)

How about the Church today? Do we have commercialism in our churches today? Many churches have bazaars, bake sales, pancake suppers and even bingo to earn money profit for the support of their churches. Also some churches operate huge businesses. The Mormons and the Roman Catholics own and operate large companies for profit. Even we have dinners here at Pilgrim and earn profit for the Fellowship Fund.

Jesus does not agree with these things for the Church. He says, "Don't make My Father's house a place for business." (verse 16) Three years later when He cleansed the Temple the second time Jesus told the Temple rulers, "My house is a house for prayer, but you have made it become a den of thieves." (Luke 19:46)

The church is God's house. It is Jesus' house and it is a "house for prayer." God's people should gather in His house to pray and worship Him. The Church's work (business) is to preach the Good News about Jesus' death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins. The Church must proclaim God's wonderful love for sinners and that God forgive sins in Jesus' name. To do that work the church has public services. It baptizes and gives the Lord's supper. (The Church should be more excited to have the Lord's Supper here than to have a beef supper in the Hall.) The Church also should have Sunday Schools, Bible Schools, evangelism training. The Church should support colleges and seminaries, and home and world missions. The Church should also support welfare work such as that done by Lutheran Social Services and Lutheran World Relief. The Church has no other business or purpose.

We should be busy doing the true work of the Church and support that work with our love-offerings. Jesus does not want selling for earning money profit in His Church. That is commercialism. It is the first evil in the Church.

The second evil is related to the first evil. The second evil in the Church is unbelief.

The chief reason why we have selling for earning a profit in the Church is because many members have weak faith or no faith. They do not believe Jesus' Word and promises about love-offerings, tithing or percentage giving for the support of the Church. They give little or nothing in the worship service and so the Church is always short. Then they begin to have the dinners for earning the profit.

When Jesus drove out the animals and the sellers out of the Temple and corrected the people they refused to accept His correction. They were not sorry about their wrong doing, and they did not ask Jesus to forgive their sins. They challenged His authority. They asked Him, "What right have you to order them out? If you have authority from God, show us a miracle to prove it." (verse 18) Unbelievers refuse to accept and believe God's Word in the Bible. They always want to see a miracle for proof. But after they see the miracle they still do not repent and believe. Jesus gave them a miracle, His death and resurrection: Jesus said to them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days." (verse 19) Jesus meant, "Kill Me, and on the third day I will arise from death." (verses 20-22) They understood what Jesus meant although they acted dumb. Later, when Jesus arose from death on Easter morning, they still refused to believe Him.

What about our church, Pilgrim Lutheran Church? Do we find unbelief here? Yes, I am ashamed and sorry to confess that. We do not believe God and trust God as we should. We members are not giving for the support of our church as God has blessed us. We still mooch on mother District after 52 years. We still have not learned to do the real work of the Church: Christian education, evangelism, missions and charity. We now have these committee chairmen, but the committees do not have enough members and are not active. They are not having regular meetings to discuss their work and to plan programs and projects for our church. I think we, the members of Pilgrim need to confess our sins and repent also.

Let us not be hard-hearted and stubborn like these Jewish people here in our text. Let us confess our past sins and failures, our weak faith and doubts. Then let us accept Jesus' authority and forgiveness, and love Him. We have the proof of Jesus' authority, His death and resurrection, which we will celebrate again this Lenten - Easter season.

Let us remember that our church is God's house, a house for prayer and worship, a place to receive spiritual power so we can go out into the world and tell everyone in every place the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Amen.