The Lord God Almighty and The Lamb are its Temple.

A new order that’s filled with joy and gladness in the new creation, and now, a new order in our approach to God. Our dwelling with God. The place where God is to be found is now in His Son. No longer a local place, but many and inclusive of gentiles.

Verse 12

Verse 13

“The Passover of the Jews”

Why does John use this language? It’s consistent with the negative connotations that come with it as the religious leaders of the day who had corrupted the religious practice and expectation of the day. John wants us to see that here. It wasn’t the Lords Passover that they were celebrating, it was their own.

Verse 14

Verse 15

Verse 16

“Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise”

Mark 11:17 “Then He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ””

Now Jesus is certainly indignant with a righteous indignation here. And it is for the sake of his Father’s glory and house that Jesus acts the way he does. But there is more here. Jesus is not only acting out and fulfilling Messaianic prophecy, he is acting as YHWH of the Old Testament, he is exercising divine prerogatives. Who has the right, the power and authority to clear the house of God. Consider the texts we’ve looked at….none other than the LORD. Jesus is none other than YHWH come in the flesh. They won’t say it yet, but we know they’re thinking it in their hearts…..this man makes himself equal with God

He is acting with divine authority and he is cleansing a temple that is part of the old order, and he is bringing in the new order. Every people will come and worship the Father where? Not here or on that mountain, but in Spirit and truth.

And this totally fits with the theme of the Cana cycle of new creation and new life coming in Jesus the Messaiah, God’s natural eternal Son.

Verse 17

“Zeal for your house”

one is said to have zeal for God who cannot patiently endure anything contrary to the honor of God, whoin he loves above all else: “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts” (1 Kgs 19:10). Now we should love the house of the Lord: “O Lord, I have loved the beauty of

your house” (Ps 25:8). Indeed, we should love it so much that our zeal consumes us, so that if we notice anything amiss being done, we should try to eliminate it, no matter how dear to us are those who are doing it; nor should we fear any evils that we might have to endure as a result. So the Gloss says: good zeal is a fervor of spirit, by which, scorning the fear of death, one is on fire for the defense of the truth. He is consumed by it who takes steps to correct any perversity he sees; and if he cannot, he tolerates it with sadness.

~Thomas Aquinas

It is Jesus great zeal for his Father’s glory that will drive him- ultimately- to his sacrificial death. His zeal for his Father’s house will literally eat up his life unto death. I am going to pursue the cleansing of false religion so much so that you are going to destroy me.

Verse 18

and they ask for a sign…….. here is your sign……

Verse 19

Jesus is saying, Here is the only sign you’ll get…..you do what you will, persecute me for this zeal for my Father all the way to death….do what you will, but after you have destroyed me by putting me to death, I will raise this temple, my body, up from the grave. By my own power and authority, I will raise it up again. This temple will become obsolete because it is in my very own body where God’s presence will be found.

And it’s on this very sign, the sign of Jonah, the resurrection, this foundation and cornerstone that the New testament church is built, Jesus is the head and cornerstone which is the New Temple, which is us, here today, right now, waiting for the blessed consummation where we will experience the Lord God almighty and the Lamb as the Temple. What glorious realities are ours now, and await us in their fulness in the future?

Verse 21

His physical resurrection is the beginning, but his body is the church, which he is building right now. Jesus is building up his own body right now, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

Verse 22

“They believed the Scripture”

Probably Psalm 69:9. But I wouldn’t necessarily limit it to that. But they put it together. Zeal for God’s house consumed him.

“The word which Jesus had spoken”

Jesus acts with divine authority and power and he speaks as such. When Jesus speaks it is the Lord himself speaking! Therefore his words are to be heeded as God’s words

Verse 19-21

“I will raise it up”

Jesus is speaking about his own physical resurrection, but he is not merely passive in the resurrection, he participates in it. He is the divine agent responsible. Every external act of the trinity is undivided. The resurrection is a Trinitarian act on behalf of sinners.

The irony is that he will destroy

Verse 22

Verse 23

Verse 24

Verse 25

Application

Where can people come to experience God’s presence? You are the temple of God. Of the Spirit of God. Your body individually-but primarily- corporately is the body of Christ, which is God’s new dwelling place on earth. It’s such a wonderfully strange experience when you go and worship with another congregation of brothers and sisters and you feel so at home, you feel like you already know them…..its because we’re the same body, share in the same adoption, the same Spirit, and anticipate the same glorious temple in heaven.

Let us be those who are zealous for our Fathers house. Let us never fear man, but continue to fear God as we desire to worship in Spirit and truth. Let us be a place where a sojourner or visitor is in no way hindered from being refreshed, or from coming in and experiencing the presence of God in the resurrected body of Christ. Either for sanctification or salvation.

Please pray with me.