A Purging and a Prophecy

elcome

Happy Thanksgiving

Sermon Tile

Read Text

John 2:13–24 “The Jewish Passover was near, and so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and he also found the money changers sitting there. After making a whip out of cords, he drove everyone out of the temple with their sheep and oxen. He also poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned the tables. He told those who were selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” And his disciples remembered that it is written: Zeal for your house will consume me. So the Jews replied to him, “What sign will you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.” Therefore the Jews said, “This temple took forty-six years to build, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the st…”

Sermon Illustration

Missing the Point

Intro to the text

Last week we learned of Jesus’ first miracle

Where he turned water into wine

We learned that Christ decided to perform his first public display of Glory in front of a relatively small crowd consisting of his few disciples and his mother.

I don’t believe anyone else at the wedding knew how the best wine ended up being served last

Jesus and his disciples then parted ways, Im sure staying in contact

Now we have several months later, as we enter into another cycle of Jewish festivals

These Jewish festivals specifically the passover help with our timeline of John

With this being our launching point we will see 2 more passovers with the final one occuring at the time of his crucifixion

We see each passover here, in John 6:4 “Now the Passover, a Jewish festival, was near.” and John 11:55 “Now the Jewish Passover was near, and many went up to Jerusalem from the country to purify themselves before the Passover.”

One other thing I would like to point out is about the temple clearing itself

see If we look at the synoptic gospels, they only report 1 temple cleansing which is located later in Jesus’ ministry

however, here in Johns Gospel he places it early in his account

2 possibilities here, either Jesus only cleared the temple once and it is just recorded at different times due to the different way the writers structured their gospels

Or, Jesus did this twice. Which is the direction that I lean due to the subtle differences in the accounts.

Our 3 points this morning consist of

The Purging (2:13-17)

The Prophecy (2:18-22)

The Proof (2:23-25)

The Purging

John 2:13 “The Jewish Passover was near, and so Jesus went up to Jerusalem.”

Its passover

And passover is a big deal

The passover celebrates their exodus from pharoah

Exodus 12:25–27 “When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, you are to observe this ceremony. When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians, and he spared our homes.’ ” So the people knelt low and worshiped.”

Its essentially their 4th of July

Except theirs lasts for 7 days

and when it says he went up to Jerusalem, its literally up because of the elevation change

So Jesus would have regularly attended these festivals, and we know that from the Gospel of Luke 2:41 “Every year his parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival.”

Every male within 15 miles is required to attend

And, if he is over the age of 19, then he has to pay a temple tax

There were a lot of people there

Folks would come from all around

So as custom, Jesus would have entered with his disciples through one of the gates

** What Temple looked like **

Court of the gentiles

Women’s court

Holy Place

Holy of Holies

A lot of people there

John 2:14 “In the temple he found people selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and he also found the money changers sitting there.”

Now typically this wouldn't be a bad idea

Journey caused folks to purchase animals there

and when you start your journey what was a perfect unblemished lamb now would probably be scratched up, mottled that sort of thing

so having animals there for the pilgrims to purchase for the sacrifice wasn't a bad idea

However, those in charge had found a way to manipulate the system

They had moved the the animals etc from where they historically were on the mount of olives over into the actual temple complex itself, into the court of the gentiles

Essentially exchanging their worship for a profit

See this beautiful place of worship, was turned into a place of business

Those in charge had brought their own motives, their own greed into the area reserved for the reverence of God

see to pay the temple tax, you had to exchange your current currency, which was done at an exorbitant mark up

and the animals, the mark up on those were ridiculous as well

They had essentially made worship man focused, and not God focused

They had substituted convenience for compassion and sacrifice for submission

And when Jesus saw this taking place in the one place where the gentiles were able to worship he had enough

So lets see what Jesus thinks about that in V - 15 and 16

John 2:15–16 “After making a whip out of cords, he drove everyone out of the temple with their sheep and oxen. He also poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned the tables. He told those who were selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!””

Well, its safe to say that Jesus wasn’t too happy with this… would you agree?

After walking into this circus and mockery of His fathers house he was outraged

Jesus, displayed a righteous anger for his fathers home made a whip and ran everyone out! even the animals

Now, one could ask, how could Jesus get angry, well as I mentioned this is righteous anger, anger based out of genuine love!

See when Jesus became angry he didn’t sin, but, he loved so much that the very idea of this mockery occuring in his fathers home was too much

And cant we all agree,

Men, what if someone attacked or insulted your wife

as men! what are to do, defend them, protect them

why? love

Same can for the mothers and ladies in the room

what would happen if someone did that to your child

what kind of anger would you display, anger that comes from a passionate love for your child

and this is the type of anger we are talking about here

This is the type of passionate, righteous anger Jesus displayed here in order to sanctify the worship and respect for his fathers home AND

For those who were NOT able to worship freely and whole heartedly for their God

Now no one was injured, there is no record of anyone getting hurt

This is miraculous in and all of itself

thousands of people

roman guards overlooking

temple guards

he got all out of there, including the animals

and no one revolted against him

I mean easily couldn't a crowd and mob of thousands have stopped one man

Couldn't those temple guards and the large groups of those in authority have stopped Jesus when he did this.

I mean they were about to lose a lot of money

but none of them did

because, this was a miracle, and this miracle was performed in front of thousands

Christ drove out the sellers, he drove out the hypocrites, he drove out the greedy because He wanted HIS house to be a holy place. A place of worship

His disciples, after seeing this,

now remember they knew their bible

remembered Psalm 69:9 “because zeal for your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”

It is this love for God’s house, and his people, that Jesus did this

And it was this love and this zeal for His father and for us...that would soon, in 2 years, send him to the cross as he is about to elude to..

Our second point of the morning is

The Prophecy

so the Jews, after seeing this asked Jesus

John 2:18 “So the Jews replied to him, “What sign will you show us for doing these things?””

see the “Jews” were more worried about under who’s authority he had to do these things

and they completely missed the point on the fact that they had desecrated the place of worship by instilling a form of self worship and greed

I mean if we were in charge of the temple, wouldn’t you wand him arrested?

Wouldn't you want him prosecuted? Something..

That is unless during this display you recognized there was something different about Jesus

Something that separated him from the other crazy radicals

But, instead of getting down to the motive of what Jesus just did

The essentially ask or say “If you have the power to drive us our of the temple, and if you are God’s Son, show us a miracle (because this one wasn't good enough right?)

Jesus responds with “you want a miracle, Ill show you a miracle”

John 2:19 “Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.””

The temple they are standing in took 46 years to rebuild and to bring it back to the glory that the original temple built by King Solomon had

In fact Herod the Great rebuilt it most likely because he saw what kind of money making machine it could become

So Jesus says you want a miracle, tear this thing town and I will rebuild it in 3 days

no doubt Jesus could have have done this but that wasn’t the point

and this is the second time the Jews (those in charge) missed the point

As we all know Christ is referring to his body

That at the hand of the Jews, would be torn down, only to be raised again in 3 days

In fact John adds this editorial piece in verse 20 and 21 that tells us just that

John 2:20–22 “Therefore the Jews said, “This temple took forty-six years to build, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the statement Jesus had made.”

This leads us to our final point this morning

The Proof

John 2:23–25 “While he was in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. Jesus, however, would not entrust himself to them, since he knew them all and because he did not need anyone to testify about man; for he himself knew what was in man.”

The proof is in the fact that Jesus was able to perform these miracles

These miracles testified to the fact that he was and is the messiah

So many watched this sign, and we know there we most likely more than this

And it says that many came to believe when they saw the signs

But why wouldn't Jesus entrust himself to them,

See he knew what was in the heart of man

And he knew that those who believe only because of the signs also miss the point

They believed in him not because he is the son of God, the savior

but because they thought he could be their genie on a bottle,

See they only accepted him with their mind, they saw and therefore they believed

But, that was just an emotional response to the miracles

Or a better way of saying it is a superficial response belief to Jesus

Much like how many in the seeker sensitive movement today, many seeks emotional responses to God. They believe with their mind because church made them feel good or because the worship song with the repeating Chorus made them feel butterflies

But it is a whole different thing to accept him spiritually,

Its a whole different kind of worship to come to him broken, to come to him in reverence, to come to him for who he is, not who we want him to be

because this is how your life will be changed

So as we prepare for next week, lets contrast these superficial believers for the man we will meet next week named Nicodemus.

Whom truly came to Jesus to know him, not superficially, but spiritually

See the temple we just talked about was the place where God would meet man. A geographical place where men and women would have to go in order to truly worship God (which is why many would make the pilgrimage each year)

But now we have Jesus, and Jesus is God,

and through him

we have a new means in which we can reach God

And the temple was also used a place of sacrifice, a place where sacrifices were made to atone or make right for the sins of people

But now, we have the ultimate sacrifice

The sacrifice offered once and for all

Jesus has come to replace the temple we just talked about, where once we had to go to the temple to worship God, now that has been replaced by Jesus. We are able to worship God anywhere through the son. God is with us!