Get Your House Ready

Holiday House

Halloween was Monday. It’ November. Time to get the house ready.

For Xmas! Okay, Thanksgiving.

All of our kids are going to be here for Thanksgiving this year. Our son and his family from AR are coming out. 2 grandkids, 7 and 3.

Our 2 who live in Glendale will be up, with their 2 dogs.

We will have a house full.

It’s time to get the house ready.

Sara and I talked about getting it cleaned. As a guy, I’m not sure why. Think about how it will look after. 2 grandkids and 3 dogs later what’s the point of cleaning the house now?

Okay. Fine. It will look nice for a minute.

We have to get bedrooms ready, bathrooms, beds. Sheets washed. Beds made. Toilets cleaned. Showers ready. Furniture moved. We’ve got stuff stored in these rooms to keep it out of our way. But it will all be in the way when everyone arrives.

Sara has already ordered food. Turkeys might be an issue this year. Our friends who own restaurants are telling us they still have some trouble getting their orders filled. So, we better get our turkeys, potatoes, beans, and pies ordered now.

I need to get my firewood stocked up and ready. Some may not be used to the chilly weather. Our chimney was cleaned last week. I think it’s ready.

Our deck? Well, don’t ask. Sore subject. Will it be ready? I’ll keep you posted. Part of that is a bigger dog pen. Whoever built the little area for dogs only had a little yap yap lapdog. We’ve got a 65-pounder. And the 2 coming for the holiday are just as big as Jack and need room to do their business.

We have to get our house ready for what and who are coming.

Have you started cleaning and decorating, yet?

What was the first public thing Jesus did when He showed up on the scene? After He was baptized. After the wedding where he privately made wine out of the water? What did He do?

He cleaned up His Father’s house. It was a mess.

It was a physical and spiritual mess that needed attention to be prepared for what was coming. There were animals and stuff in places that should have been clear. The ground was nasty. Animal output and human traffic tracking the stuff all over.

The sites and smells of a place that was supposed to represent God was about as ungodly as it could have been.

So, the first thing Jesus did when He showed up was clean up the house and get it ready for what, and Who, was coming.

That’s Who He is and what he does.

When Jesus shows up, He cleans up, and gets us ready for what’s coming.

He cleaned out the temple twice. This time, it was the first thing He did. He’ll do it again right after His triumphal entry on Palm Sunday and just about the last thing He did before he was crux’d.

To get things ready for what He was about to do, He cleaned house.

Cleaned House

John 2:13–17 NIV

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Shortly after the wedding in Cana, it was Passover. Passover was huge celebration time. Everyone who could, traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate and worship. It was the annual time when every family would slaughter and sacrifice a lamb b/c they were sinners in need of God’s redemption.

So, it was time for everyone to either bring a lamb, or buy a lamb for their part in the celebration.

So, it was also time for the Lamb to travel to the temple in Jerusalem. He’d done it all his life, every year, w/ His mom and dad.

This wasn’t the first time he encountered the mess. This was the first time He did something about it.

There were some restrictions on what lambs could be sacrificed. They had to be spotless and clean. Many traveled great distances to come and worship. For those who could bring their own lamb, they stopped at the sheep pool, the sheep spring, washed the dust and dirt off the animal that would have accumulated over the trip. Then, they would have presented the clean lamb to the priest for his approval. Once approved, straight to the temple butcher shop.

Bulls were also sac’d. Young calves that were perfect in appearance would have been offered during this time, too.

The birds were for the poor. Some could not afford a lamb or calf. Doves were made available.

Jesus and his family, no doubt, regularly brought birds or bought birds for the sacrifice of redemption. Jesus would have experienced first hand the humiliation and being taken advantage of by those who were supposed to make things easier for the poor of the ppl.

But for many, it would have been too much to travel w/ an animal. So, for convenience, the temple priests raised lambs, calves, and doves; and offered them for sale. These pre-approved animals were available for whoever needed one. But there were a couple of catches.

Those who brought a foreign currency would have to exchange is for the local shekels. Only shekels were approved to be received by the temple. And the exchange rate was exorbitant. It was a money-maker for the temple.

Then, the lambs went for a premium price, too. Raised for this purpose, pre-approved, and costly. Another money-maker for the temple.

What started out as a convenience, became a corrupt con-job. It was a racket. They took unfair advantage. Every family had to have an animal. Had to have the right animal. Had to have the animal inspected. And the inspectors happened to have plenty of pre-approved animals for sale for the right price.

God required a lamb for redemption. The priest req’d their own lambs for their service and their own currency for the transaction.

The convenience of the market made some sense. But, not in the temple courtyard. There would have been plenty of room for this market outside the temple walls.

While we were there we saw many examples of mosaic tiled floors that would have decorated the grounds in the temple courtyard. At that time, those beautiful floors would have been covered in animal output and tracked all over by the ppl doing bsns there.

It would have been a nasty place. The stirred up dust from the food-fodder for the animals. The blown aromas of the animal waste. The noise. It would have been like visiting the animal buildings at the county fair.

No way a suitable environment where the ppl came to encounter God.

The Passover was a celebration of freedom. God delivered Israel out of bondage in Egypt and into the blessings of the PL.

The priests had turned the celebration of freedom back into a burden on the ppl.

And the temple was the place where ppl came to meet with God. Back in the day, before Israel grew horribly disobedient, God actually inhabited the temple. He had a presence there.

The ppl would come and deal w/ the corruption and contamination of their sin. Once cleansed, they could pray and have a life-changing encounter w/ God.

God had long-since left the building.

How ironic, God returned. They weren’t ready for Him. And they ran him off.

Jesus introduced Himself. He said that was His Father’s house. He is the Son of God, making Him God.

God showed up to meet with the ppl, first time in centuries, the One they’d been waiting for, and they missed Him.

They messed up his house, and missed Who He is.

John included this little bit, years later they remembered Jesus’s connection to Ps. 69:9 where David wrote about Jesus’s zeal for the temple.

And there is a verse in Zech., 14:21, where Zechariah is writing prophecy about the coming Messiah. He wrote, in that day, when the Messiah shows up, there will be no merchants in house of the Lord.

At the time, all this sailed over their heads. But later, for those who bel’d and were looking, they remembered and recognized the signs.

For the religious leaders who should have at the time, they challenged Jesus’s authority asked for another sign.

Jesus came in and stirred things up, literally and spiritually. He stirred up the animals, stirred up the tables and the coins when flying, he stirred up the priests by claiming that the temple was His Father’s House.

Rather than welcome God back to the temple. They challenged his authority to say and do what He did.

What Authority?

John 2:18–21 NIV

The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body.

This was there ‘go-to’ response when anyone came along and claimed to be the One. Prove it. Show us something that proves you’re the one. The OT is full of predictions of what will happen to accompany the Messiah and the power He will wield. So, show us proof.

No one else would have or could have up to that point.

They were making a lot of money and Jesus made a lot of them unhappy.

They wanted a sign. Jesus said, all right, I’ll give you a sign. Looking back, we know what He meant. We know in another 3 years what was going to happen. They had no clue.

“Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in 3 days.” What?

The authority by which He can accurately claim to be the Son of God and clean up God’s house during this Passover will be proven by His death as the Lamb of God during the last Passover in another 3 years they will ever need to recognize.

And, by His resurrection as their Risen Savior who will provide the way for them, and everybody else, to get into heaven.

That will be the sign. When you see this sign, you will know I have the authority to say what I said and do what I did this day.

He’s going to say a lot more in the years to come. He’s going to do a lot more. They didn’t know. They didn’t get it. Again, they missed it.

At the time, the temple was undergoing a massive reconstruction project. Solomon built the original temple and it was magnificent.

The Babylonians tore that one down. Zerubabbel rebuilt it. The ppl wept openly when they saw this one b/c they remembered the old one and this one was little like it.

The temple was being rebuilt again, this time by Herod the Great. He had master architects, construction crews and a massive ego. We saw the ruins of several of his big projects and they were amazing given the time they were built.

In an effort to strengthen his alliance w/ the Jews and further demonstrate his own ego and abilities, he rebuilt the temple to its original magnificence. But, at the same time, built the Praetorium on the same grounds opposite the temple making sure the Jews saw his own magnificence in comparison to his opinion of God’s magnificence. The Praetorium is the place the Romans would worship Caesar.

While the planning for this 3rd rebuild of the temple had begun about 25 BC. It was now 30 ad and it wasn’t completed. It won’t be completed until around 63. Then, it gets destroyed in 70. Now there is a Mosque on the Dome of the Rock which likely is the place on Mt. Moriah where the temple had been.

It had been 46 years and the temple was still under reconstruction.

So, when Jesus said He’ rebuilt the temple in 3 days. They’re like, “you’d have to be God to do that and obviously you’re not.”

Well, Obviously, He is. And, He wasn’t talking about the building. He was talking about His body.

Once again, John included a note that those who bel’d and were looking back, remembered what He said and realized He was right.

Those who didn’t believe didn’t get it. They messed up his house and missed his introduction.

As Jesus continued to teach them and show them, some got it, others continued to miss it.

Signs Continue

John 2:23–25 NIV

Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.

Last week, I quoted a verse from near the end of John’s gospel that said Jesus did many other things. Luke also referred to these.

Here, it’s ref’d. We don’t know exactly what the signs were, but they led them to believe.

Belief, faith is a process. We see it in the lives of the disciples. They bel’d enough to leave their families and careers and follow Jesus. But it took time for them to believe in all of Who Jesus is.

There was an excitement about Jesus as a miracle worker. But he didn’t come just for that. He was more. He came to be our Messiah. His miracles helped prove He could be our Messiah.

So early on, he didn’t ask his followers for help in understanding everyone else and what they bel’d about Him. He already knew. He knows our hearts and why we do what we do.

The question is, do we know His and why He does what He does?

What signs would He have shown them?

Isaiah wrote about what signs would accompany the Messiah when He showed up.

Isaiah 35:5–6 NIV

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

We know these things all happened later during Jesus’s ministry. They probably started right away after he introduced himself at the temple as the Son of God who would be our Risen Savior.

What signs do we get that offer us proof that He is Who He introduced Himself to be? He cleans up our house, too, in preparation for what’s coming.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Just like old temples were torn down and rebuilt, Jesus tore down our old house and built us a new one.

Everyone who comes to faith feels it, knows it. We are alive like we never were before. Together, we make up the body of Christ, we are the temple He now resides w/in.

And there’s more than just what happens the moment we come to faith, we learn to live by faith as Paul wrote:

Galatians 2:20 NIV

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

He is the Lamb of God who died to redeem us. And He is our Risen Savior Who lives to save us.

The moment we come to faith we’re given life. The moment we die we go to heaven. Every moment between we live by the same faith in the same One who makes it all possible.

The Passover was a celebration of freedom. God delivered Israel out of slavery in Egypt and into the blessing of the PL. The Passover celebrations ended when Easter celebrations began. B/C of Good Friday and Easter Sunday we can stand strong and walk w/ a sense of purpose that Jesus provides us.

We are no longer slaves, but free to live our lives as Jesus guides us.

Romans 6:5–7 NIV

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

At the crux Jesus broke the bond and freed us once and for all from the habits and burdens that break us down. We ID w/ Jesus at his death and ID w/ Him at his res so we can live a new life, completely free from sins that so easily entangle us.

Hebrews 12:1–3 NIV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Included in the many signs we have today are the ppl who go w/ us and have gone before us who lived their lives faithfully to the end.

We can persevere. They did. We all do the same way. Fix our eyes on Jesus who gave us our faith in the first place and is in the process of strengthening it for us thru the exercises He gives us.

When Jesus shows up, He cleans up, and prepares us for what’s coming.

We’ve got everything we need to succeed in life b/c Jesus did everything He needed to do to get us ready.

All we have to do is live in the house He cleaned up and prep’d for us.

Applications

Mess

Jesus cleaned up your mess when you invited Him into your house. He tore down your old one and built you a new one.

Don’t rebuild the mess.

He’ll clean it up again. He’s gracious that way. But you don’t have to live in the sty you had before He gave you your mansion.

Avoid the messes.

Is there an aisle that needs cleaning again?

Don’t rebuild the messes.

Signs

They are in you and all around you. Don’t miss them.

You are new and alive. So are the believers around you. Don’t let discouragement overwhelm you and don’t think you don’t have the strength to stay faithful and stay at it. You do.

Perspective. Are you looking for reasons to stay faithful or looking for reasons to quit?

You’ll see whatever you’re looking for.

Eyes on Jesus. He will strengthen and perfect you faith so you can persevere.

Authority

Jesus has the authority and ability to save you and serve you. He will continue to provide for you and protect you.

Lean into your relationship w/ Him.

Do things that feed your relationship and make it stronger.

He will show up to meet w/ you just like he did that day in the temple. He makes himself available, cleans up the mess, and meets w/ us there.

So, the first thing Jesus did when He showed up was clean up the house and get it ready for what, and Who, was coming.

That’s Who He is and what he does.

And, that’s what He does for us when shows up to meet us.