If you walk into a lumberyard, what would you expect to find there? Probably boards of various sizes, tools, and other things associated with building construction. But what if you walked into this lumberyard and next to the drywall and fiberglass insulation you found raw hamburger meat and pork chops on a shelf? It would seem very out of place, wouldn’t it? That is because it is a lumberyard, not a grocery store.
Well, when people come to church, what should be the reason for gathering together? The church is a place to come to learn about the teachings of Christ, and to worship Him. But in Mark 11, some people where using the temple not for worship, but to make money.
Mark 11:15-17 “And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;
And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.
And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.”
The church is a place to come to worship the Lord, not an opportunity to make money or a place to base your business out of, but that is what some of these people were doing in the temple, and it upset the Lord greatly. So great was His anger that He took those who were buying and selling and threw them out of the temple.
In a way it is somewhat similar to when, back in the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church would sell “indulgences” which were monetary payments which, supposedly, would absolve a person of their past sins, and/or could release someone from purgatory after death. That obviously is a practice found no where in the Bible, and forgiveness of sins is a free gift from Christ, but the point that I am trying to make is that the church is not a “money-making” venture, nor should it ever be.
But this is what some “churches” have done. Not all, of course, but some of these “churches” have turned their church buildings into a sales barn, selling everything from clothing and knick nacks in their gift shops, to selling tickets for a seat in the audience. This is not supposed to be.
If the people of the church congregation decided that they wanted to give some money or other things to Paul for his time spent helping them to grow in the word, then he would accept it, but he wasn’t holding out his hand demanding payment, or out selling T-shirts or books from the pulpit.
To sell things in a church building is like being invited over to a friend’s house for dinner, but when you get there, there is some random person standing right outside the door demanding to be paid first. It’s not right.
The Lord’s house is a house of prayer, built on the teachings of Christ. Not money.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 