God's Heart for the Nations
It is so good to be with you for Home Church. Welcome to those of you joining us from various contexts. I know we have people not just from The Well Community Church, but from other communities joining us, even people from all over the country, if not the world. We are so glad you are with us.
We are coming off an Easter gathering that was incredible. More people joined us streaming online last week than the previous two years of Easter gatherings combined. It was insane! We are just so encouraged to see so many people tune in and hear the gospel. For those who have been around the church for a while, what you heard was solid gospel: Jesus died for us, and here is why. For those who are newer to the Lord or to church, I hope it stirred a thought that maybe you need to explore a little more of who this Jesus is.
The Days in Between
As we continue to move forward, we are going to unpack more of that story. Two weeks ago, we covered the first of two bookends: the Triumphal Entry. Jesus enters Jerusalem, riding on a donkey from Bethany into the city, presenting Himself as King while the crowds cry out, “Hosanna!” The other bookend we covered last week with the Easter story—the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. In between the Triumphal Entry and the death of Jesus is a several-day period that the Bible gives several chapters to. So, we are going to take those two bookends and start right after the Triumphal Entry to ask: What happened then? And what happened next?
If you have your Bible, turn to Matthew chapter 21, and we will look at verses 12 through 22. As we look at what happens in between, it really starts with the Triumphal Entry. In Luke’s account, as Jesus approaches Jerusalem, He sees the city and weeps over it.
Luke 19:41-42 (NASB)
When He approached [Jerusalem], He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ’If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.
Jesus rode into Jerusalem weeping over the city because, in some ways, they understood a little, but not the full picture of who He was. Right after He rides in and the people are crying out, “Hosanna!” which means “God save us,” the question we have to ask is: Save us from what? Or save us from whom?
Some assumed that Jesus the Messiah was a political or military ruler. If that were the case, Jesus would have gone straight to the Antonia Fortress on the northern end of the Temple Mount. He would have brought an army with Him and waged war against Roman oppression. But what is fascinating is that Jesus declared war not against Roman oppression, but against religious oppression. He did not go as a military ruler to the Roman stronghold; instead, He went to the temple of God and did something very unexpected.
Matthew 21:12-17 (NASB)
And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He said to them, ’It is written, ‘MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER’; but you are making it a ROBBERS’ DEN.’ And [the] blind and [the] lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ they became indignant and said to Him, ‘Do You hear what these [children] are saying?’ And Jesus said to them, ’Yes; have you never read, ‘OUT OF THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABIES YOU HAVE PREPARED PRAISE FOR YOURSELF’?’ And He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.
A Tale of Two Cleansings
Before we dig into what is happening here, we need to address an issue across the Gospel accounts. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all record what is called the cleansing of the temple. The question arises because Matthew records it in chapter 21, Mark in chapter 11, Luke in chapter 19—all late in their Gospels—while John records it in chapter 2. Are these the same account recorded at different points, or are they two distinct cleansings?
Matthew, Mark, and Luke seem to have a different focus than John. The Gospel of John is explicitly theological in nature. John tells us his purpose near the end of his book.
John 20:30-31 (NASB)
Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.
John writes with a theological intent, recording a cleansing of the temple early in his Gospel to affirm Jesus’ deity and authority. Matthew, Mark, and Luke capture more of the chronological progression of Jesus’ final week. Furthermore, when you look at John 2, Jesus takes the time to make a whip of cords before driving them out.
John 2:15 (NASB)
And He made a scourge of cords, and drove [them] all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables;
That detail is not included in Matthew, Mark, or Luke. Because of the different purposes of the Gospels—John being thematic and theological, and the Synoptics being more chronological—these appear to be two separate cleansings at different points in Jesus’ ministry.
The Commerce in the Courts
In Matthew’s account, Jesus enters the temple during the week of the Jewish Passover. When Jesus presented Himself during the Triumphal Entry on Monday, that was Lamb Selection Day. That very day, when Jewish pilgrims arrived at the temple to present or purchase their lamb, Jesus walked in and overturned the tables.
Everything in Jewish worship at this time revolved around the temple. The city’s population swelled by hundreds of thousands of people for Passover week. Envision Black Friday with Target, Best Buy, and Walmart all combined into one place where massive crowds assemble.
To picture the Temple Mount: on the northern side was the Antonia Fortress, where Roman garrisons were kept. On the eastern side was the Mount of Olives and the Sheep Gate, where sacrificial animals were brought into the city. On the western side was what we know today as the Western Wall. On the southwestern side down below were outdoor market shops—places to exchange money, buy lambs, and purchase spices.
On the south side was the primary entrance onto the Temple Mount. Think of the temple courts like concentric rings in a bullseye. The outermost ring was the Court of the Gentiles. That was as far as a Gentile could go. Next was the Court of the Women, then the Court of Israel for Jewish men, and finally the Court of the Priests surrounding the sanctuary.
Over time, as the crowds grew, the market down below expanded. The high priest at the time was effectively the landlord of this entire operation, and it was an extraordinarily lucrative business. To pay the mandatory temple tax, you had to use a specific temple shekel. If you came with foreign currency, historians suggest money changers charged up to a 25 percent exchange fee. If you have ever bought a sandwich at an airport, you know the feeling: why does it cost so much? Because they have a captive audience.
Furthermore, if you brought your own lamb from home, any minor blemish would disqualify it from sacrifice. So people bought pre-approved, certified lambs at the temple—often at ten times the standard price. The shop owners paid a percentage of their income to the high priest. Eventually, to maximize profits and foot traffic, the high priest expanded these shops directly onto the Temple Mount into an area that became known as the “Bazaar of Annas,” located right in the Court of the Gentiles.
A House of Prayer for All Nations
Notice where verse 12 says the buying and selling took place: inside the temple courts. When Jesus enters, He quotes Scripture against them.
Matthew 21:12-13 (NASB)
And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He said to them, ’It is written, ‘MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER’; but you are making it a ROBBERS’ DEN.’
Jesus combines passages from Psalm 8, Isaiah 56, and Jeremiah 7. Out of Jesus oozes Scripture. Look closely at what Isaiah says:
Isaiah 56:7 (NASB)
Even those I will bring to My holy mountain And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.’
Mark captures this same moment in his Gospel account:
Mark 11:17 (NASB)
And He [began] to teach and say to them, ’Is it not written, ’MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL THE NATIONS ‘? But you have made it a ROBBERS’ DEN.’
What outraged Jesus was not merely that merchants were price-gouging people; it was that they had set up their flea market inside the Court of the Gentiles. A Gentile who traveled hundreds of miles to worship the living God could not pray because they were standing in the middle of a noisy, smelly livestock market. You are trying to pray, and someone is haggling over a dove, sheep are bleating, and people are being cheated. The commerce completely crowded out the worship of the nations. Jesus had had enough, and He overturned the tables.
Why was this such an offense to Jesus? Because from the very beginning, God’s heart has been for the nations—plural. God never intended to bless only one ethnic group in isolation; He chose one people group to make His name known to the entire world as an expression of His grace. In Genesis 1, all of humanity is made in His image. In Genesis 10, the nations arise. In Genesis 12, God promises Abraham that through his offspring, all the families of the earth will be blessed.
Psalms 67:1-3 (NASB)
For the choir director; with stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song. God be gracious to us and bless us, [And] cause His face to shine upon us– Selah. That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You.
God’s heart has always been for the nations. Jesus, though born Jewish, is the Savior of the entire world. He came to seek and save the lost. Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, it is often the Gentiles who lead the way in faith. In the birth narrative, it is the Gentile Magi who come to worship Him. In chapter 8, a Roman centurion shows faith unlike any in Israel. In chapter 9 and chapter 20, blind men cry out for mercy. In chapter 15, a Canaanite woman demonstrates persistent faith. And here, in verse 14, Jesus heals the blind and the lame right in the Court of the Gentiles.
Matthew 21:14 (NASB)
And [the] blind and [the] lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.
When the chief priests and scribes see these miracles and hear the children shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they become indignant.
Matthew 21:15-16 (NASB)
But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ they became indignant and said to Him, ‘Do You hear what these [children] are saying?’ And Jesus said to them, ’Yes; have you never read, ‘OUT OF THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABIES YOU HAVE PREPARED PRAISE FOR YOURSELF’?’
Jesus quotes Psalm 8:2, showing that God prepares praise from the mouths of children when religious leaders refuse to give it. By healing the broken and welcoming the outsider, Jesus was fulfilling the messianic mandate of Isaiah 61.
Isaiah 61:1-2 (NASB)
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,
Luke 4:18-19 (NASB)
‘THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.’
Having cleansed the temple and healed the sick, Jesus leaves Jerusalem and goes to Bethany to spend the night. Bethany was practical: the city was overflowing with Passover crowds, and His dear friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived there.
The Withered Fig Tree
On Tuesday morning, Jesus returns to Jerusalem. Matthew records an encounter that serves as a living object lesson.
Matthew 21:18-19 (NASB)
Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, ‘No longer shall there ever be [any] fruit from you.’ And at once the fig tree withered.
Jesus approaches a fig tree with leaves but no fruit and pronounces a judgment: “No longer shall there be any fruit from you.” Who does the fig tree represent? It is not a blanket rejection of all Jewish people, because many Jewish people believed in Jesus, and the early church was entirely Jewish. Paul addresses this directly in the book of Romans.
Romans 11:1 (NASB)
I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
Romans 11:11 (NASB)
I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation [has come] to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.
God has not cast away His people. Rather, the withered fig tree symbolized the religious leadership of that generation—full of leaves, appearance, and religious ritual, but devoid of actual spiritual fruit and rejecting the Messiah. The disciples are amazed at how quickly the tree withers.
Matthew 21:20-22 (NASB)
Seeing [this], the disciples were amazed and asked, ‘How did the fig tree wither [all] at once?’ And Jesus answered and said to them, ’Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. ‘And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.’
Jesus tells them that if they have faith and do not doubt, they will see God do what seems impossible. In Jewish idiom, “moving a mountain” meant overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles through the power of God. Jesus was preparing them for what was ahead. If they were amazed by a withered fig tree, how much more would their faith be stretched when He conquered the grave? God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly beyond all we ask or imagine when we trust Him.
Two Lasting Truths
As we look at this text, there are two primary realities to take to heart.
First, God has a relentless heart for the nations. The gospel is for the entire world. In the Great Commission, Jesus sends His church with this very heartbeat.
Matthew 28:19 (NASB)
’Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Unless you are of Middle Eastern Jewish descent, you are an ethnic outsider—a Gentile. We are the “nations.” By God’s grace, the gospel moved from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. Someone crossed an ocean, someone shared Christ in our communities, and someone told you the good news. We are recipients of God’s global heart.
We need to remember that heaven is not homogeneous. John describes the culmination of history in Revelation:
Revelation 7:9-10 (NASB)
After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and [all] tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches [were] in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’
Jesus is not the savior of one race or culture; He is the Savior of the world. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.
John 3:16 (NASB)
’For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Second, Jesus confronts empty religion to restore genuine reverence. The religious leaders had become so comfortable in their routine that the sacred became commonplace. They took what belonged to God and turned it into an enterprise for personal convenience and financial gain.
While we may not be selling animals in our church buildings, we must ask ourselves: Has our reverence for God slipped? Has our worship become an unthinking routine? In this season where our normal patterns are disrupted and we cannot gather in our usual buildings, maybe God is giving us an opportunity to reset. When we cannot park in our usual spot or sit in our usual seat, we can rediscover what truly matters.
Let us hunger again for the presence and holiness of God. Let us lift holy hands with pure hearts, filled with awe, joy, and reverence for who He is.
Closing Prayer
Father, as we look at Your Word, we are challenged and stirred. We see the passionate heart of Jesus for the nations, and we ask that our hearts would beat with Yours. Forgive us for the times when our faith has become routine or when reverence has been replaced by complacency.
Lord, in this season of uncertainty, we rest in what is certain: You are good, You love us, and You are drawing people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to Yourself. Restore to us a deep awe of Your holiness and an urgent passion for Your mission. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.