Week that Changed the World: The Day Jesus Cleaned House 

Matthew 21:1-17, Mark 11:1-17, Luke 19:28-48, John 2:13-22, John 12:12-19, Psalm 118:26, Isaiah 56:7

Summary: The Lord Jesus arrived in Jerusalem hailed by the Jews as the Davidic king who would restore Israel. He arrived not for that purpose but to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy of the Suffering Servant who restored all of His people back to God. The first step was to restore His house.

The final week of Jesus’ public ministry had started with His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, being hailed as the rightful heir of David and the One who would finally drive out the hated Roman Gentile oppressors and restore the nation of Israel back to its former glory — or so the people thought.

Their preconceived notion was based on the past glory of the nation. They seemed to have forgotten that God’s relationship with Israel was more important. They also conveniently left out the periods in their history where they abandoned God’s rule and protection in order to go after the foreign idols of the neighboring nations, which included the barbaric and forbidden practice of sacrificing their children to the bloodthirsty “god” Moloch (Leviticus 18:21, 20:3; 1 Kings 11:7; 2 Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 32:35).

They also seemed to have forgotten the years of pleading with the kings and people by the prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel to repent of these and other sins and debauchery that brought down their nation, placing them under the rule of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and now the iron hand of Rome.

The High Priests and other religious officials did not mind Rome being over them as long as their rituals and practices were left alone. They based their own preconceived notion on their roles as “the representatives of God’s holiness” and “keepers of the Law.” The Pharisees and Sadducees believed that these observations of the Law and traditions were sufficient enough to please God, but they had abandoned the true worship of God long ago. The rituals for atonement of the people’s sins had become a rote, emotionless, and dead series of practices, yet were seen by these groups as a means of income not just for the alleged “upkeep of God’s Temple” but to line their own pockets with illicit gain.

The High Priests had established a type of “racket.” They would “inspect” a lamb or other animal that a Jewish pilgrim would bring with them for the annual Passover sacrifice and feast (Exodus 12) and declare that the animal was ‘unclean” or somehow “blemished” and rejected. For a “nominal fee,” the Temple authorities would have on hand an “unblemished” animal that one could use for the sacrifices. The “fee” was much more expensive, naturally, and so were the rates of money exchange. Greek drachmas and Roman coins were not acceptable as donations for Temple upkeep. They had to be shekels, the Jewish coins only. The rate of exchange fee? More than likely a huge sum that few could afford. All of these schemes in the name of faith were nothing more than “cash cows” for the religious elite.

The fig tree (Mark 11:12-14), although it had leaves and bore the signs of preparation to produce fruit, had nothing. Mark wrote that it was not yet the season for figs, yet this tree looked “right” and “ready” to produce its fruit early. It was symbolically all a “show” and a representation of the apostate worship and lives of the people of Israel. On the outside, the Jewish leadership and many of the citizens looked pious, holy, reverent, and ready to please the LORD, but it was nothing but a farce, and Jesus knew it.

While Israel has been and always will be His chosen nation to give the world the Word of God and to obey Him, they have been disobedient, rebellious, idolatrous, and often played the game of devotion and religion to make themselves look good before God. They also had times of deep and earnest repentance for their sins and turned to God after periods of chastisement. We read about these times within the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures, or what is referred to by some as the Old Testament. We are no better, and many of you reading this message know it.

So, as Jesus prepares for what will be His last week of public ministry and final instructions to His disciples before he goes to the cross and completes His mission of atonement for the sins of humanity, He sees three problems for Israel. He needs to confront them, rebuke them, and open the eyes of the remnant of true believers that what they tend to expect from the LORD is all too often the exact opposite, and either a riot or revival occurs.

There never has been any neutrality when it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is either love or hate. With this in mind, His actions are going to stir up hatred from the majority of Israel. He will destroy any concept of the restoration of the country. He will destroy the false and vain religious systems that have replaced the love of God into the hearts of Israel, and He cursed the symbolic holiness and righteousness that Israel claimed to possess. Like the leafy fig tree, it was nothing but empty formalism and ritual that appeared to be the fruit of genuine devotion to God.

We cheer Jesus on from a vantage point of two thousand years as He turned over the tables of the greedy moneychangers and drove out those who bought and sold in the Temple for gain and material prosperity (sound familiar?). We say “Amen, Brother” as He condemned the Pharisees for their rank hypocrisy and adherence to rituals, traditions, and interpretations of God’s laws that oppressed the average citizen instead of being a source of instruction and enjoyment of the Word of God in their lives. We praise the LORD when He quotes the Word to justify what He did in the Temple, which for the first time in years was cleansed of its wickedness and empty formalism that did nothing but send people to hell in the name of piety and goodness.

For a brief moment, the house of God was restored to its original purpose, and the genuine worshippers breathed a sigh of relief from the sounds, smells, and outright debauchery that had invaded what should have been a place of holy reverence and an area to bow before the Sovereign LORD and give Him thanks and praise for His grace, mercy, and salvation.

I am not a betting man, but I would venture to say that if the Lord Jesus entered some of our own houses of “worship” and did things such as overturn the Bingo tables, tear down the coffee bars and bistros, and eliminate the laser shows and worldly music that substitute for “praise and worship,” it would cause shock, awe, and rage.

He would rebuke “pastors” who preach the false doctrines of “prosperity,” “self-esteem,” “you’re a champion,” or “you are a little god,” or “making a deal with God for your best life now” instead of the Holy Scriptures. He would condemn “services” that are nothing more than amusements thrown in to keep the crowds coming, or denying the truth of the Word and the person of Christ, or “buddying up” with causes and groups who demand that we acknowledge them without demanding repentance and a change of heart to the things of God. He would come in with whips ready and a curse on such practices that are allegedly done in “His name.”

He would refer to many “worshippers” as nothing more than those who will be in the group He warned of in Matthew 7:21-23. He would quote the Scriptures (Isaiah 1:11-17, 41:24, 29, 45:20, 57:6; Jeremiah 10:5, 51:17) as He condemns the “false shepherds” who have done nothing but “tickle ears” (Acts 20:31-33; 2 Tim. 4:1-5, 2 Peter 2:1-3) and made their congregations sons and daughters of hell as much as they are now (Matthew 23:15, 33).

Watch the attitudes change from adulation to anger and from worship to rage as their preconceived ideas of Jesus “restoring America” or being only a “God of love who would never send anyone to hell,” or blessing the work of “our little church” comes crashing down around them, and they are faced with the real Lord Jesus Christ of the Scriptures. Their “faith” would dissolve into rank apostasy because what they “thought” about Him is not in any way, shape or form with what they placed on an altar of their own design of Jesus on it and were content with it.

Perhaps part of the great “falling away” of 2 Thessalonians 2 will be those who were faced with the demands of the Lord Jesus and decided that their brand of “Christianity” was better, and they will deliberately walk away from the reality of Christ to embrace the coming deception and blindness that God will put on them and all who reject the Gospel message.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the rightful King of Israel and the coming world ruler who will govern His creation with justice and a “rod of iron” in the approaching Millennial reign and eternal state. He is the rightful and just judge who will expose the sins of everyone who has rejected Him for one reason or another and condemn them to the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:11-15). He will judge the work of His children (2 Corinthians 5:10) and reward them for the great or small things they did for Him in His name. He will cast the devil, demons, and the coming Antichrist and his brood into hell, and evil will be at an end forever (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 19:20-21).

He knows who is genuine in their faith and who is just playing some kind of religious game (John 2:23-25). He is returning to this world to clean house and be done with the sins, debauchery, wickedness, and reprobate acts of the wicked who will still be cursing Him and trying in vain to be rid of Him as He appears in the clouds with His saints at the end of the Tribulation period (Revelation 4-19).

Those of us who have genuinely turned our hearts to Christ and given Him our lives will one day be taken off of this wicked world (John 14:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 3:10). I am afraid that it will not be as large a crowd as some of us expect, because like the crowd who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem, cheering Him one day and later crying for His death, there will be many who gave the LORD “lip service cheers,” but not their hearts. They will turn their affections to the coming Antichrist and his deceptions that will sound so good and noble but lead straight to hell (Revelation 14:11).

Please listen to me. This present world is coming to an end, and the days will get more evil and wicked. It is NOT going to get better, and all the “flag waving,” “prepping,” “patriotism,” and hopes for a better nation will not come, period. More and more people are turning to evil and calling it good (Isaiah 5:20-21).

Give your life to Jesus Christ NOW (2 Corinthians 6:2). You have no guarantee of tomorrow (James 4:17). If this were my last sermon, let it end with a plea for you to repent of your sins, surrender your life to Jesus Christ, and then cheer Him as the righteous King of Kings as we enter the portals of glory and then to a new heaven and earth.

Come to Him today. If not now, friend, when?

donaldwhitchard@gmail.com

www.realitycityreverend.com

Join me for “The Reality City Daily Review” weekday mornings at 10:00 CST on YouTube (USA). It will then be posted on Facebook and on my website. My main area of discussion will be on the basics of the Christian faith but will also deal with prophetic issues and other topics as the Lord impresses upon me to handle.

 

“Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:29-32).

The Democrats have talked about a “New World Order” for two decades, and they started implementing it under Barack Obama. He let the world know that America was ready to join the globalist agenda.

Since J6, the perfect coup was pulled off. The finishing touches on a globalist NWO are being put into place right now.

Three hundred million guns owned by millions of American patriots, who could make up a small army, is all that stops them from a full tyrannical takeover. It’s all that’s stopping America from becoming a communist nation.

It’s still coming, but right now, they are still in the phase of trying to see what they can get away with. I’d say using children as science experiments is pushing the limit, and they know it. They are poking at you with a stick now, treating you as a caged animal, seeing what you’re willing to let slide and what you’re willing to fight for. Fighting for your child’s life is something most will fight for. This is the hill parents will choose to die on….and they know it.

The “Biden” administration actually wants to have 28,000,000 children between the ages of 5-11 vaccinated by Christmas. That sounds like every child in the nation between those ages.

They don’t want to talk about the broken border, high gas prices, Americans stuck in Afghanistan, thirteen dead US servicemen, a president with dementia, or freefalling poll numbers. They don’t want to talk about the supply chain breakdown, soaring inflation, and cargo ships continuing to back up.

People are walking off of jobs all over the nation, from EMS, police, nurses, and everything between.

NYC saw 10,000 people take to the streets. Black and white together. The Left is losing the black community. They actually thought it was a good idea to tell black men that they HAVE to get vaccinated.

Every vaccine up until now has worked. Until COVID. The COVID vaccination you get only works if your neighbor or coworker gets vaccinated. Yet, who seems to be getting COVID and sicker when they do get it? The vaccinated!! They are the real super spreaders. We, the unvaccinated, need to be protected from them, not the other way around. It’s the vaccinated whose skin cells are literally shedding the virus, whose immune systems are under attack. Not mine.

Biden’s poll numbers are in a freefall. So why would the Democrat Party want an old man with dementia as the president? BECAUSE HE’S NOT THE REAL PRESIDENT. He’s a puppet.

Obama is doing much more behind the scenes than we think. He never left Washington. The first president to ever do that. He’s now starting to do interviews again and outright lying during them. We had him for eight years; I forgot with how much ease he could lie. A charismatic person who loves to use flattery to get what he wants.

Someone told me that Obama can’t become VP because if the president dies in office, then he would become president, but he’s already served two full terms, which excludes him.

My answer to that is, HAS THE DEM PARTY HONORED OUR CONSTITUTION IN THE LAST DECADE? NO! Have they completely trampled it this last year and a half? YES! If they think they can get Obama back in there, they will, despite the fact that the 22nd amendment says, “No person shall be ELECTED to the office more than twice.”

This is where it gets very interesting.

If Obama were chosen as VP and something happened to the current president, Obama would become president WITHOUT BEING ELECTED! Democrats love playing on words, and the key word here is ELECTED.

America has fully accepted the spirit of Babylon. God warned us to come out of her. Come out of the beast system that is being implemented right before our eyes.

In Revelation, we read of the seven Kingdoms with the Babylon spirit. But we then read of seven end-time KING of Babylon.

“The beast that was, and is not, and yet is” (Revelation 17:8).

Obama WAS President, IS NOT right now, but yet still holds all of the power, and so IS!

He will return by flattery. Mr. Charisma himself.

The book of Daniel said that in the last days, things that didn’t make sense before would begin to. The book was sealed up until the last days.

In chapter 10, Daniel is told these are END-TIME VISIONS!

“Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come” (Daniel 10:14).

The book of Daniel mentions everyone from Alexander the Great to who I’m starting to believe is Obama. The 8th and dreadful final king of Babylon.

“He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom and upright ones with him; thus shall he do. And he shall give him the daughter of women to destroy it; but she shall not stand with him, or be for him. After this he shall turn his face to the coastlands, and shall take many” (Daniel 11:17-18a).

In the Bible, a woman always means the church. Jesus is called Son of man, and in Daniel, we have “Daughter of women.” This is the church, but it’s a corrupted church. Obama’s introduction of socialism completely eroded the vast majority of churches in this nation. We now have pastors too afraid to say there are two genders. We can thank Obama for that.

Not to mention churches eagerly closing their doors all over the world this last year. This led to compliance, which led to more regulation. Who was the king of regulations? Obama.

Obama attacked Christians while swearing he himself was a Christian. Through him, we have an entire generation of commies running around with a ridiculous understanding of who America is and who hate Christians while having no idea why. They were raised on Obama in the classroom for eight years!

Obama wanted to destroy America and then rebuild globally.

“But a ruler shall bring the reproach against them to an end; and with the reproach removed, he shall turn back on him. Then he shall turn his face toward the fortress of his own land; but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found” (Daniel 11:18b-19).

I believe this is talking of Trump. He stumbled and fell when he didn’t clean house in Washington. He knew the Democrats were attempting to cheat by mail, but he did nothing to secure our elections. He didn’t think they could get away with what they ended up getting away with. He stumbled and fell.

“There shall arise in his place one who imposes taxes on the glorious kingdom; but within a few days he shall be destroyed, but not in anger or in battle” (Daniel 11:20).

Biden raised taxes on day one, and they’ve continued to rise since. From inflation to gas to payroll taxes. Remember, scripture says LATTER days, so this cannot be Caeser, as some have suggested. It also says he will die in office after a short time. His death seems to be natural.

“And in his place shall arise a vile person, to whom they will not give the honor of royalty; but he shall come in peaceably, and seize the kingdom by intrigue” (Daniel 11:20-21).

So let’s recap this, starting with the fifth King.

The fifth king is a contemptible person who goes to war with the King of the South, which many believe to be Muslim countries in the Middle East. Obama, anyone? He bombed Muslim nations for eight years. He caused uprisings and created ISIS who, in turn, began crucifying Christians and hunting them down. Obama did that. He droned civilians, including children, for years. He toppled governments and had a personal hand in the Egyptian Arab spring and ousting of Mubarak.

Obama stirred the Egyptian people and kept talking of CHANGE. He brought that revolution out, and the media helped.

Middle Eastern countries had no strength to match this King of Babylon and his destruction. Obama did as he pleased in the Middle East. Even standing by while our own citizens were murdered in Benghazi.

The sixth king decides to turn his attention to and strengthen his own land. Just as Trump did. Scripture says he will stumble and fall and not be found. Trump never took the Democrats’ willingness to destroy him as seriously as he should have while in office.

He should have come down with the hammer to stop the riots. He should have fired Fauci. He should have fired so many more within his cabinet long before he did, if he ever did. He fired Comey; he should have kept it going. I still do not think Trump is done, but as far as being president of a UNITED STATES? 2024? Come on.

I do believe he is coming back in some form or another, but it won’t be as president of a UNITED STATES. He won’t be putting the nation back together. He was used by God to fulfill a purpose. Jeremiah tells us he would bring about an appointed time. I believe he’s the appointed Shepard of Babylon that God chose. Even putting an end to the insolence of the previous king, Obama.

In Jeremiah, we read of two rulers in Babylon. That didn’t happen in ancient Babylon. It says Ruler against Ruler, which will bring violence in the land.

Then the seventh king is one who raises taxes substantially. Within a very short time, he will be broken or die, but it won’t be in anger nor in battle. Sounds like an old man with dementia and other ailments due to age and who dies in office. Biden.

Then an eighth and final king comes in. Scripture calls him contemptible and says he does not become King by the usual way of election. Rather, he will come in without warning and OBTAIN the Kingdom by flattery. Obama, the charisma-filled talker.

“And the king shall do according to his will; and He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god and shall speak astonishing things against the God of gods and shall prosper till the indignation is accomplished; for what is decreed shall be done” (Daniel 11:36).

Again, Daniel specifically tells us these are END-TIME, OR LATTER-DAY PROPHECIES.

Scripture says he will not be like his fathers were, honoring God. He went against what our forefathers laid out for us in the Constitution. He was not like his fathers. Nothing like George Washington.

He will not honor the desire of women. Not that he won’t like women, but that he doesn’t care what they want or what hurts them. Trans men in the bathroom, anyone? Stripping away what it means to be a woman?

A young girl was recently sodomized in a Loudoun school bathroom by a boy in a dress. What did Obama have to say about it? He said it was a “phony, trumped-up, cultural war” and “fake outrage.”

He’s dismissing the rape of a child. Remember that.

Daniel says he will honor a god of war, a god his fathers did not know. Our founding fathers worshipped the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Who exactly does Obama worship? Remember when he “accidentally” called himself a Muslim? A Christian doesn’t accidentally mislabel his religion.

Remember when he declared that America is not a Christian nation? Then he proceeded to assault Christian organizations and churches.

Scripture also warns that he will sit at the same table with the king from the South, both lying to one another at the same table.

Daniel 9 has many people giving many different interpretations. I do not think Daniel 9 to be speaking about NOW. All of it fits Antiochus, who defiled the temple in 168 BC, around 400 years or so after Daniel gave the prophecy. Scripture makes it clear when it speaks of the end times. Usually, it’s latter days. Daniel 9 doesn’t mention the latter years. That’s not until Daniel 10.

The Maccabees’ said Antiochus was responsible for the abomination of desolation. It was in response to a Jewish riot during his second campaign in Egypt. After Antiochus rushed back to Jerusalem, he prevented the surviving Jews under penalty of death from practicing their religion.

He placed multiple altars specifically for sacrificing pigs and other unclean animals. He began destroying copies of the books of law and even began killing circumcised babies. This is all in the book of Maccabees for reference.

Josephus, a Jewish historian, said Antiochus built “an idol altar on God’s altar… and slew swine on it.” Antiochus also dedicated the Jerusalem temple to Zeus. We all know who Zeus is!

Obama has been the mastermind running the Democrat Party the entire time. Now he’s back in the oval office, unofficially, of course. Obama was more aware of the election fraud going on than anyone.

The coup that the Democrats pulled off was orchestrated long before November 2020. It began before Obama even left office. The Obama administration was having emergency meetings after Trump won. They did not expect him to win. They thought Hillary would come in and Obama could finish what he started.

Now that the four-year hiccup is out of the way, it’s back to business. Destroy everything America stands for.

Obama is the most corrupt and LAWLESS president in our history. Trump uncovered the most corrupt and lawless political party whose sole mission is to restructure, reshape and rebuild America. There’s your “Build Back Better.”

The spirit world is in overdrive right now, and the closer we get to the return of Christ, the more active it will get.

Obama is a type of Antiochus. God repeats things. What has been will be. He has a deep hatred for God’s people, and he hates the idea of Jews running Jerusalem. Obama tried to undermine Israeli elections to try and get rid of Netanyahu. He has never stopped trying to undermine America or Israel.

Lawlessness, corruption and sin…. who does this sound like? Obama.

There’s not one moment in our history that ever jeopardized who we are as a country. Until Obama. He was the great “divider in chief.” He raised up the promised citizen soldiers. The moment he stepped into the oval office, America was forever changed.

Remember these words Obama spoke days before the 2008 election. “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”

And HE DID! For eight years, he destroyed us and weakened us but had to sneak and lie to do it. Since Covid, Democrats don’t care if you consider them communists. They are out and proud.

Obama singlehandedly destroyed race relations in this nation. Remember when he said, “WHITE AMERICANS HAVE RACISM IN THEIR DNA?” How about the way he treated law enforcement? More importantly, how he treated the constitutionally elected president, Donald J. Trump. Obama SPIED on his successor. Think about that. Then ask yourself, is he like his fathers? No. He’s of his father, the devil.

America is starting to feel the boot on her neck. The water is boiling, and we let it happen. Don’t try to jump out now; we should have done that a long time ago.

Babylon is under judgment, but so is the West as a whole.

We have spread our corruption throughout the rest of the world for two decades. GWB went looking for WMDs that never existed thousands of miles away from America, and what did America get out of it? Scorn and hatred. From the king of the South.

Revelation says that the world will grow to hate Babylon. They grow tired of her and burn her with fire.

Why would God continue to bless a nation that has other gods scattered about anyway?

We used to be one nation under God. Now we are many nations under many gods. He will not bless a nation like that. He will not defend and protect a nation like that. The spirit of Babylon has eroded our foundations. It has grabbed onto the spirit of America and is choking the life out of her. We are gasping on life support.

Who’s going to protect our resources with a split military and empty police stations?

Do you have food put aside to weather the coming storm, and do you have a way to protect it? Don’t expect every Trump supporter or prepper to be like you, ready to help a fellow patriot.

I’ve spoken to military and police who say they have no problem just coming to take your food, fellow patriot or not.

Those that are preparing, or have been building an ark for tougher times, are preparing for famine, but are they prepared to see starving children at their door? Starving elderly? You may have enough for you, but will you be able to turn away a hungry child? If something catastrophic happened in this nation like an EMP, there would be millions of dead within weeks. Starving children crying in the streets, maybe over a dead mother or father. Your pantry is stocked, but are you ready to feed children that aren’t yours? What about if it’s not a child, someone your own age, hungry and begging for food? Think it can’t happen here? Why?

If we are Babylon, as I believe, then it’s coming. God says we sit as a Queen and feel no sorrow. We watch other nations fall. We watch bombs being dropped from the comfort of our living rooms. Are you ready to hear bombs drop here? Because it’s coming, and God says our enemies will hit us with precision. None shall return in vain, He says. In one hour, we face some sort of tragedy. In one hour, we become weakened like other nations of the world. And they say to us, “Have you become like us? Are you weak like us?”

America and weak didn’t go together. Before Obama.

So while everyone is busy singing, ‘LET’S GO BRANDON,’ Obama is headed to Glasgow.

Vanessa P

Womanofchrist@yahoo.com

Twitter @NessaRedKingdom