Believe the Word

William H. Banegas August 8, 2013

Scripture Passage: John 2:13-22

Scripture Reading:

John 2:18-22 “Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.”

Theme: Believe the Word of God.

Introduction: There are certain people in our lives that we are responsible to, or they have authority over us - our parents, teachers, police, the president, etc. When I was in college, the college gave me a certain amount of authority to enforce rules that they had put in place. One of those rules was that guys and girls were not allowed to walk together in certain areas around the campus after 7pm, it may sound kind of weird but right now that’s besides the point. This one night as I approached the library on campus, I noticed this guy and girl walking together and as a fully-deputized enforcer of school policy concerning guy/girl relations after 7pm I approached them. I politely reminded them about the school’s policy and to this they raised their left hands together and in unison irritatedly exclaimed, “WE’RE MARRIED!” That was embarrassing. Today we’re going to talk about a Man who committed kind of a strange act and was questioned about what authority He had to do such things. He gave an amazing response that still impacts us today. Today I want for you to Believe the Word!

Transition: Before we dive into the chapter I want us to get an understanding of what the Book of John, or Gospel of John is about.

Book Background: John the Apostle wrote this biography (a book about someone’s life) of Jesus.

Read I John 1:1 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;”

John himself testified that he’d personally seen Him, and heard Him, and touched Him - we’re reading an account of the life of Jesus from a true eyewitness. John writes this book as a personal testimony, there’s feeling and personal comments that he includes - he writes like someone who was on the inside. John wrote this Gospel, or Good News about Jesus, around AD 80-90. Though Mark, Matthew, and Luke had written their Gospel by that time, John takes a unique approach and gives us more information, in fact 90% of John is unique, but not incompatible with Matthew, Mark or Luke. He tells us that he wrote this book in order that “we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, we might have life through His Name - this is a relationship with God wherein the penalty for our sins is paid for by Jesus and we are made fit for heaven.

Transition: Now that we’ve talked about what the book of John is about let’s look at some of the events leading up to where we’re at in the Scripture.

Passage Context: Jesus has begun His public ministry by going around and teaching about God out in the open: from boats, in the synagogue (the place of reading the Scripture and discussing It), from houses, and also start performing miracles right in front of people (Like healing some who were completely paralyzed, giving sight to those who were blind, or even bringing people back from the dead.). Jesus is about to take a journey to celebrate the “Passover of the Jews”. The Old Testament tells us about a time when the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites, but God stepped in and through some miraculous events set the Israelites free. According to Easton’s Bible Dictionary the Passover “was kept in remembrance of the Lord’s passing over the houses of the Israelites, when the first born of all the Egyptians were destroyed.” After this great destruction, God was going to remove the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. This celebration was set up like a reminder for the Israelites of the Good that God has done for them. This concept isn’t foreign to us because we set aside certain holidays to remember what others have done for us as a nation. (What are some holidays that we celebrate where we look back and think about what other people have done for us? - Memorial Day, Veterans‘ Day, Independence Day) In order to be able to get to Jerusalem for this important celebration both from a national and religious standpoint, Jesus had to walk about 120 mi. from Capernaum to Jerusalem - that’s about a 6 day journey, now we get in our car and zoom we’re there in no time.

Transition: Now that we’ve got a good background on the whole book and the events leading up to our passage let’s look at verses 13-17 and we’re going to consider how ...

Beware of selfish worship practices because worship is all about God. (John 2:13-17)

Jesus drove out worship abusers.

These people abused worship of God by taking advantage of the Jews while inside of the Temple.

The sellers of the different animals for the sacrifices

The money exchangers charged a high fee for their services

Jews living in other countries with other kinds of money would travel to Jerusalem for this important celebration.

These money exchangers set up their business to exchange the foreign money with the kind of money they used in Jerusalem.

In this case, these businesses in the Temple would not accept the foreign currency as it had pagan symbols and images of emperors on it that the Jews considered offensive to use.

Jesus made a whip, and authoritatively rather than violently, drove out the livestock and the people.

Jesus used the whip, not as a tool of violence, but as a way to drive out the livestock

Jesus corrected their abusive worship practice.

Sometimes Carrie and I ask you to do things because we want you to worship God.

Like opening your Bible

Silencing your talking

Sometimes even waking you up

Jesus poured out the money of the money exchangers on the ground - for Him it wasn’t about the money!

We need to understand that ... Worship is the act of demonstrating the worth of something.

We worship God because He is worth worshipping!

Read Colossians 1:16-17 “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”

Read 1 Corinthians 8:6 “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.”

Read Philippians 2:9-11 “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Read John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

What are some ways that we can worship God?

We worship God by singing songs that demonstrate His great character and His great power.

We worship God by paying close attention to the Word of God (Triple P-Public reading, Preaching, and Personal Reading).

We worship God by obeying what His Word says (Right application of what the Word says).

Our wrong practice leads to ... Worship becomes(-ing) all about us.

When worship is all about us, we tend to make it all about stuff.

The money exchangers didn’t care about respecting the place they were in, they cared about getting as much money as they could from people who came from out of town for the celebration.

Many commit a similar type of error by going to church just so that they can get stuff out of it.

If you come for the food or snacks or anything else that you could get, you’re missing the point of coming to church and falling into the error of the money exchangers.

Candy bar

Cupcake

Fun Activity

I hope that those of you who ride the bus with Mr. Wally are thankful for what Mr. Wally gives you in juice and snack both to church and from church.

I hope that if you haven’t you’ll thank Mr. Wally for what he does to give you juice and snack.

When worship is all about us we tend to refuse to participate or participate as we should

Refuse to sing

Refuse to open the Bible and following along

Insist on talking to friends

Insist on playing with our cell phones

Insist on some other distracting thing that takes our attention form God’s Word.

You see ... Without a genuine change of heart, people will go back to their old ways.

About 3 years later Jesus enters the Temple again and finds the same scene (Matt. 21).

Sometimes we can have an experience like camp, where we get away from a lot of the world, and get drenched in God’s Word, and God does a work in our heart, like Jesus with the whip, He drives out the sins that we’ve been holding onto.

For a while we’re good to go, but if we forget the work that Jesus has done, we can and will soon go back to our old ways.

Really what we need is ... We need for Jesus to do a cleansing of our temple through the Word of God. - How is Jesus going to do this? Is He going to beat us out of church? - no, He uses the Word of God.

We need to listen to the Word of God.

We need to believe the Word of God.

We need to obey the Word of God.

Transition: This leads us to the question, how do we know that we can trust God’s Word? How do we know that God’s Word is true?

Believe the Word of God because Jesus lives. (John 2:18-22a)

The Jews ask for a sign of Jesus’ authority and He gives it to them.

Jesus has just thrown all the the people out with animals rushing out of the Temple.

The Jews, probably the Temple Guard, comes and asks Jesus what authority does He have to do these things.

These individuals understand that someone only with the authority of God backing them can do a thing like what Jesus just did.

Really they’re asking for something miraculous to prove that He has God’s authority to do such a thing.

Jesus responds - Destroy this Temple and in 3 days I’ll raise it up.

Jesus was actually talking about His own body - v. 19, not a foreign concept to us either because people today use similar words to describe their body.

The response of the Jews indicates that they didn’t understand what He was really saying.

They didn’t understand what He was saying because they weren’t spiritual.

The Bible further indicates that the real reason why most people don’t understand the Bible is because they’re still in their sin, or they are described as the natural man.

Read 1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”

Read 1 Corinthians 2:14 “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Jesus is making a prophetic(?) statement about His death on the cross but also His Resurrection from the dead.

When we talk about the Word of God we’re talking about everything that’s contained in the Scriptures including the Words of Jesus Himself.

The Bible teaches that in order for anyone’s sins to be forgiven, a payment had to be made because sin has a penalty.

The Bible teaches, according to I John 3:4, that sin is the breaking of God’s Law.

God’s Law includes instruction against Murder.

God’s Law includes instruction against Immorality.

God’s Law includes instruction against Stealing.

God’s Law includes instruction about how we are to treat our parents.

The Bible teaches that if anyone commits sin they will receive the judgment of death - meaning a real physical death but also eternal separation from God in hell.

The Bible further teaches that Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience - to God the Father, His earthly parents (step-father and mother), and His authorities.

Wrongly accused because of jealousy, Jesus was sentenced to die a cross-kind of death, by being nailed to a wooden cross, where He would not only suffer an excruciating death but through His death pay for our sins.

3 days later, because God accepted Jesus’ payment for sins on the cross, Jesus was raised from the dead, never to die again.

Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead is the foundation for belief in the Bible.

Jesus is banking everything on His Resurrection from the dead.

If we don’t have that right, we don’t have anything

Transition: This leads us to a final question that we’re going to consider this morning, How do we know that the Resurrection is true?

Believe that Jesus lives because of those who testify. (John 2:22b; I Corinthians 15:5-11)

John personally testifies that Jesus arose. v. 22

Paul seeks in this passage to correct and clarify the teaching of Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead. (I Corinthians 15)

Paul presents to us the abundant testimony to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This list includes doubters

Before Jesus arose, His apostles went into hiding!

After the Apostles saw Jesus, they began to boldly proclaim that Jesus rose from the dead.

This list includes skeptics

Jesus’ brother James initially was skeptical

James eventually became a leader in the church

This list includes persecutors

Paul originally sought permission to have Christians arrested

After Paul met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, he was a changed man who began to preach about Christ

This list includes martyrs

A martyr is Christian who is put death because they believe in Jesus.

Peter, James, and Paul are among those who were killed for their faith

They were told that because they believe in Jesus they were to die, and they never stopped believing in Jesus

Conclusion: We began with a story about Jesus cleansing the Temple of offensive persons who were abusing worship of God. When confronted about His bold actions, Jesus offers a unique sign for His authority. In V. 22, John takes a broader application in that 3+ years later after remembering this event and Jesus’ Words, John and the Apostles believed the Scriptures and everything Jesus said. This morning this room is filled with those who either believe the Word of God or have chosen not to. To believe the Word of God, as John wants to make clear to us by writing this Gospel, is to have life, but not believing is death. Also, there are those in here this morning who have abused the worship of God and turned it into a time of selfishness, distracting others either with your actions or words away from the Word of God. I hope that if God has show you this morning how you have wronged Him in this way that you’ll confess your sins to Him and He will forgive you. If throughout the message this morning, God has shown you that you been offensive towards Him in your worship, you don’t have to continue in those actions. This revolves around what your relationship is with Him, if He’s your Savior, He gives you the ability to change, but if He’s not your Savior, you have a bigger problem than just talking during the service - because of your sins you will go to hell, eternally separated from God. Today, you have the choice to worship Jesus in the right ways, or not to. Some also need to make the choice to receive Jesus as their Savior. Carrie and I are willing to talk to you from God’s Word about what you need - please talk to us and get right with God.