From Polluted Worship to a New Temple

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Text Idea: At Passover, Jesus overcome with zeal for proper worship cleansed the temple, and pointed forward to His death and resurrection where a perfect and ultimate sacrifice would be offered through the temple of His body.

Sermon Idea: Christ’s body serves as the temple where the perfect sacrifice is offered, restoring people to God and enabling them to worship Him properly.

Interrogative: How does the passage accomplish this?

Transition: There are three major points within the text that show this.

John 2:13-22

V. 13-14: Sinful hearts result in polluted worship

It was the time of Passover, a feast in memory of God’s final act resulting in Israel’s deliverance out of Egypt. Jews were required to go to Jerusalem during this feast.

The temple was the center of religious life for the Jews. At that time, in accordance to the OT they were required to offer sacrifices.

Instead of bringing their livestock with them, they would often purchase them nearer Jerusalem.

In order to make things more convenient and to turn a quicker profit, the merchants and money exchangers set up shop within the temple.

The temple was supposed to be a place devoted to worship, solemn prayer, and complete focus on God, but instead it had been corrupted into a chaotic one stop religious shop.

Despite being given clear instructions on what worship for God in this place was supposed to look like, the people treated it like a dead-religious and rote activity to just check the box.

The hearts of the people had corrupted their place of worship and any person who would enter that place was likely not going to be able to deeply reflect on God.

Illustration: Often times we see this very same thing happen in churches now. Things become about having an elaborate show, and whichever place is the most entertaining or challenges me the least is the place I want to be.

It doesn’t even have to be churches. At the end of the day people in their natural state find the true God of the Bible offensive, so they fall into a different form of spirituality, or they develop their own ideas about God and worship someone who doesn’t actually exist.

Argumentation: We are prone to this because in our hearts we are sinful. None of us on our own seek after God, therefore a list of rules to obey will always result in polluted worship.

Application: As we will see there needs to be a reset on our heart, but the first question we have to ask is am I worshipping God properly? When I come to church, what are my motivations?

Transition: God understands this about us, and seeks to correct it.

V. 15-17: The Zeal of Christ is aimed at restoring worship

Jesus when He sees what is going on, fashions a whip to drive out the animals, causing their owners to follow, and turns over the tables of the money changers.

The problem was not necessarily what these men were doing but instead where they were doing it.

Jesus was passionate about God being worshipped in a way that reflects His holiness and the honor which He deserves.

The temple was supposed to be the place where God most intentionally interacted with His people, and where they offered up sacrifices either for forgiveness or thankfulness to Him.

Instead the hearts of worshipers were far, and out of zeal for God’s glory, Christ acted to purify this place of worship.

Remembering this, His disciples reflected on a Psalm 69:9 where David speaks about how his zeal for God’s temple (for he is the one who wanted to build it) led him to be mocked and a reproach to many.

In the same way Christ was judged for His desire to worship God faithfully.

Illustration: Worship is central to the Christian life, and in the Protestant Reformation, not only was the reformation about doctrinal truth, but it was also about reclaiming worship for all of God’s people.

Argumentation: Jesus being the Son of God, it was only natural that He cared about proper worship.

Lev. 10:1-3 tells the story of Nadab and Abihu and shows how much God cared about proper worship.

Application: We cannot be lackadaisical in how we approach God. If I belong to Christ as we will see my hope is secure, but to be an obedient follower of Jesus, worship flows out of a heart set toward God.

Transition: What we also see in the wording is that Jesus’s zeal will consume Him, and it is this reality that Jesus speaks of next.

V. 18-22: Jesus is the New Temple through which we approach God

After Jesus cleansed the temple, the religious officials basically asked for some sort of credentials as to why He did what He did.

This shows that the people around them knew it was wrong.

It also shows their hardened heart, because instead of reflecting and repenting they immediately went on attack.

Finally, it shows that they were belittling God, expecting Jesus to perform a sign to prove He was allowed.

Jesus then described Himself as the temple, saying that they the religious leaders would destroy Him, and He would be rebuilt three days later.

So often with Jesus teachings He spoke in ways that the people did not understand, and only those whom truly loved Him and that He allowed to understand would see the truth.

The leaders asked for a sign, and Jesus pointed forward to the ultimate sign that He was the Son of God, where he would take on the curse of Sin, die in the place of sinners, and be resurrected three days later.

Jesus was using the Word temple deliberately, for it was in the temple that sacrifices would be offered, and through the temple of His body, He would offer the perfect and final sacrifice that would forever cleanse His people and enable them to approach God in worship.

In the Old covenant an imperfect man would offer up a temporary sacrifice in an earthly temple. These things were shadows point forward to Christ who was our greater High Priest, who offered up a perfect, once-for-all sacrifice, through His body where both true humanity and God dwelled.

Application: There is only one way to have a proper relationship restored. You were made to worship God, and it is only through faith in Christ that this is possible. Have you put your hope in Him and confessed Him as Lord.

Conclusion:

Worship is not to be taken lightly in the Christian life.

Through Christ we have been restored and enabled to worship God

We as believers need to ask ourselves if we are worshipping God in a way that honors Him. If not correction comes from:

Growing in our knowledge about who He is

Seeing what the Bible says about how we worship Him

Reflecting on what Jesus has done to bring us near, for true worship flows out of love

Discussion Questions:

Have you ever thought about if God cares about how we worship? What is the most important part of worshipping God appropriately?

Doing so by what we see in scripture (Prayer, Singing Songs that accurately reflect who God is, Devotions to the Word, faithfully being with and loving His people, etc.)

Actually worshipping from the heart and not to check a box.

Have you ever thought about the sacrifices, priest, and temple as being pictures of what Jesus was going to do? How does this help us tie the whole story of the Bible together?

This is called typology. The OT is filled with fuzzy images that point to the greater reality of Jesus.

In what ways do you think you are worshipping God inappropriately? How can you change?