Luke 19:45-48
Jesus at the Temple
45Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. 46"It is written," he said to them, " 'My house will be a house of prayer'; but you have made it 'a den of robbers.'"
47Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. 48Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.
John 4:21-24
Where We Pray
21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
The temple is where the people came to be with God...The temple area is a holy place...God's people prayed at the temple...The people in the temple area were trading sacrificial items for money to get into the sacrificial area of the temple...They needed something to sacrifice to God, so there were merchants selling these items that people could sacrifice to Him...Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling merchandise...He drove out those who were trading things to people, before they could get to God...
Jesus is teaching us it is wrong to make sacred areas, a merchandise and sales area...We also, do not have to go through others and have to buy something and make deals with others, to pray and to have a connection to God... Where we pray is not a place we have to make deals with others to get to God...
The people buying the goods were trying to buy something to sacrifice to God...Jesus teaches us, God desires mercy, not sacrifice (Matthew 9:13)...
The people He ran out of the temple area along with the chief priests, the teachers of the law, the leaders were among the people who were trying to kill Him...This group could find not any way to kill Him...It was not His time to die...God would not let His opposition find a way to kill Him at this time...All the people listened to Him and hung on His words...Prayer is not a place we are making deals with someone...Prayer is not merchandise...
Jesus changes the way we look at prayer...We should pray because we need it, not because God needs prayer...Before Jesus came to earth the temple was where one would prayer to find and seek God's presence...Jesus replaces the temple and we pray to Him...The time has come, when He arrived on earth, lived, died, and was resurrected...True worshipers now will worship Him in spirit and in truth...The temple is not the only place we can pray now...St. Paul furthers this when he was preaching to the Greeks on Areopagus, where he told them God created the heavens and the earth and everything in it, and is LORD of heaven and earth, and does not live in temples made by human hands (Acts 17:24)...
Jesus prayed in many places throughout the gospels...He teaches us that praying is important, and no matter where we pray, God will still hear us...It does not have to be on a sacred mountain or in a great temple...Prayer is personal...Prayer is for us...We need prayer...Prayer is our connection with God...Prayer is holy...Prayer is sacred...It is not where we pray that is important, that we do pray is...Jesus is our new temple...
Jesus was and is the One who was to come...God has appointed Him the Messiah, our Christ...God will judge the world with justice by this Man, His Son, who He has appointed (Acts 17:31)...