Jn 2:13-22 "ReThink Church"

Introduction

Last weekend our High School produced the musical Annie. One scene portrayed the Fireside Chats when families would gather around a radio to learn what was happening around the world.

CNN changed all that when the first Iraq War was brought into our living rooms as it was happening. Now the internet brings information not just into our homes, but into the palms of our hands.

This abundance of information sometimes leads to envy and greed as we want what others have. We’re told that Jacuzzi can remodel a bathroom in just one day.

Speaking of bathroom remodels, have you seen the remodel of the bathroom in the Lincoln bedroom in the White House? Last July the Lincoln bathroom looked like this...

Now the Lincoln bathroom looks like this...

Quite a change from the original Abraham Lincoln bathroom...

Just as function gives way to personal preferences and comfort, the Bible explains how the dwelling place of God, originally a portable tent or tabernacle, became a fixture that people used for personal gain.

Our churches have gone through similar changes to become more inviting.

When services got long because several brother each brought a message, our Amish, Mennonite and Quaker friends actually brought planks and bucket into church to sit down.

Overtime benches gained backs and families would purchase a pew, put on a plaque then add upholstery and cushions.

While the commoners were forced into the balconies to sit on long benches, established families could purchase a family box where they would be guaranteed of privacy and elbow room.

These box seats were not the end, as some wealthy families felt the need to lavishly decorate their box pew so that everybody could witness their wealth and influence.

TRANSITION: While Jesus did not have to deal with upholstered pews, he DID have to intervene when some thought the gathered people of God were and opportunity for personal gain.

A Misused Temple (John 2:13-17)

A Place for personal gain (Jn 2:14-16)

Not here at FHCC, but I’ve heard that some people actually attend church just to make sure the thermostat is right, the music meets their approval, and the preacher is pointing out all the errors of other people.

The gathered people of God is a wonderful opportunity to corporately exalt God together and to be used of him to live as community as we minister to each other.

Instead of helping each other by freely exchanging the currency of travelers into something that could be received by the priests, or providing unblemished animals that could be purchased for sacrifice, Jesus encounters those who were running a profitable currency exchange and offering sacrificial animals at convenience pricing.

What is convenience pricing? It is the amount you pay for a snack at the movies, or a pop at the stadium. It is the price you pay for gasoline when it is the last station for 300 miles.

But convenience does not guarantee it will be acceptable.

I learned this week of an incident on an Alaska Airlines flight last July. A man purchased a neck pillow in the airport, then he affixed the pillow to his seat. The attendants told him he could not attach anything to the seats during take-off or landing. He insisted that since it had velcro straps and was sold in the airport, that it was legal to be used on the plane.

The flight staff won and the man was forced to deboard for causing a commotion and he was not permitted to use that purchase on that plane.

A problem with personal preferences is that our preferences may not be acceptable to management or ownership. The currency exchange and convenience pricing of animals was NOT pleasing to the God who dwelt in the Temple.

A Prophecy of the Misuse (Jn 2:17; Malachi 3:1-6)

Malachi wrote some 400 years before Christ that the Temple would become some place in need of restoration.

The original Tabernacle was built after the Israelites left Egypt.

Years later king David realized that he had a nice palace, but God only had a tent. David wanted to build a Temple, but God disqualified him because he was a man of war. So David’s son king Solomon built the first Temple.

After the Exile Priest Ezra and Governor Nehemiah would rebuild the Temple.

In about 20 BC King Herod noticed the rebuilt Temple was not as majestic as his own palace so he attempted to earn the respect of the Jewish people by building a newer and better Temple. It was this 3rd temple in place here in John 2. This Temple would continue to serve the Jewish people until AD 70 when the Romans flattened Jerusalem.

Jewish people have had no place to offer burnt offerings ever since that destruction after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

TRANSITION: While the Jews in Jesus’ interaction could only see the Temple of stone in their presence, Jesus turns the conversation to another Temple.

An Abused Temple (John 2:18-22)

A physical dwelling (John 1:14, Col 2:9)

Colossians 2:9 ESV:2016

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

If the Jews understood the claim Jesus was making (Jn 2.21) they would stone him right there. Before the Crucifixion the High Priest will tear his robe over the claim, but this time it goes right over their heads.

Cults (e.g. Jehovah’s Witnesses & Latter Day Saints) claim that Jesus never claimed to be God. I don’t see how Jn 2.21 could be anything less than a claim to deity; He claims His own body as the dwelling place of the Holy One.

A progressing understanding

Jesus doesn’t claim He would destroy the temple, he claims that they would destroy his body. Destroy in Lk 2.19 is 2nd Person plural. They Jews skip right over the question of who does the destroying and go straight to the impossibility of raising in 3 days.

The Jews didn’t understand, they would gain a level of understanding between the Crucifixion and Resurrection. The reason a guard was placed. (Jn 2.20)

The disciples didn’t understand, they would gain a level of understanding after the Resurrection. (Jn 2.22)

Mark 14:58 ESV:2016

“We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’ ”

Acts 17:24–25 ESV:2016

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

TRANSITION: Just as the Jews unrolled an understanding, and the disciples unrolled an understanding, OUR understanding also flows out of and builds upon prophecy and teaching.

A Dispersed Temple

While each believer is indwelt by the Spirit of God (Rom 8:9) individually, there is a fuller expression as God’s Spirit flows through other believers in all places at all times.

Collective (Eph 2:21-22)

whole structure

built together

Distributed (1 Cor 3:16 & 1 Cor 6:19)

Since our family celebrated Thanksgiving a week ago, I’ve spent much of this week listening to Christmas Music. A CD that we’ve owned for nearly 30 years contains a song with lyrics that have never caught my attention. This song on a Point of Grace Christmas Album says...

She lit a candle in a downtown cathedral Quietly confessing, counting on a blessing She looked as if she had nowhere to go I could see her weeping Hands together hoping you would hear...

I moved in closer just so I could see her face Maybe she was a mother, Someone's only daughter Her silver hair shimmered like the snow Christmas bells were ringing, Now beside her kneeling I asked her name (And she said) This was the time of year I had my family near But they've all gone and I have been so lonely

This is the time of year We hold our families near But God let us be a friend to the hurting Oh Emmanuel, God with us, Spirit revealed in us

That we may be your hope to the world Oh Emmanuel, God with us With a light to break the darkness That we may show your hope to the world Emmanuel, God with us, Be God in us

The whole idea of a Tabernacle or a Temple was to bring the presence of God near to the lives of real people. While the Jews had turned the Temple into a shrine, Jesus refocuses attention on the dwelling with reality.

His body was the exact representation of the Glory of God and in this age the Body of Christ is the expression of God’s power and presence among humanity.

TRANSITION: While some genuinely born-again, mature Christians disagree with me, my understanding of Scripture is that the next thing on God’s calendar is Christ Appearing when the Body of Christ is taken out of this world as the first phase of His Second coming. So with no Temple, No Physical Body of Christ and no Bride of Christ on Earth, What does God’s dwelling look like?

A Temple without Walls (Rev 21:22)

A temporary, pseudo altar (Daniel 9:27)

I believe the “temple” as a dwelling place does not, and may not exist until Christ returns physically all the way to earth to take is seat upon David’s throne at the beginning of the Millennium.

But Daniel mentions a treaty to permit sacrifices during the “70th week” aka the Great Tribulation. How do I reconcile Daniel 9:27 with the absence of God’s continual dwelling after the rapture?

I believe the Anti-Christ will permit Jews to begin again to offer sacrifices as an act of their religion. But the God of the Bible will not be pleased by these sacrifices because they fall short of all that the sacrificial system pointed toward—Jesus!

J. Dwight Pentecost, former professor at Dallas Theological Seminary wrote...

This (unnamed, world) ruler will end … sacrifice and offering. This expression refers to the entire Levitical system, which suggests that Israel will have restored that system in the first half of the 70th “seven.” After this ruler gains worldwide political power, he will assume power in the religious realm as well and will cause the world to worship him (2 Thes. 2:4; Rev. 13:8). To receive such worship, he will terminate all organized religions. Posing as the world’s rightful king and god and as Israel’s prince of peace, he will then turn against Israel and become her destroyer and defiler.

Animals will be killed and burned, but God will not be present.

TRANSITION: After the Tribulation, and after the Millennium, the eternal state will enter.

An eternal, permeating presence (Rev 21:22)

Everything that the Tabernacle and Temple pointed toward, will be realized as it was in the Garden of Eden before the rebellion entered humanity and the fruit was eaten.

This state of intimate presence of God is described as a garden stroll in Gen 3:8

Genesis 3:8 ESV:2016

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

In the future there will be a return to innocence and the dwelling of God will again be like the hymn that gives comfort to so many...

{In the Garden} He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me I am His own, and the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known.”

Conclusion

Mankind turned a good thing into a personal benefit thing and God was displeased. God in the flesh says, in so many words, because you have messed up this way of encountering God’s presence, I am providing a different, and better, way. You will abuse my body, but the wrath of God will be appeased through that abuse so that a better and permanent dwelling can be your reality.

Last week we saw the first sign that leads to belief was acknowledging that the timeless one entered into our timebound experience.

This second sign described that the resurrection would prove God’s dwelling and companionship would revealed and experience ONLY through Christ’s sacrifice.

Light for my Path

Jesus challenges the commercialization of faith and proclaims the only true route to God.

Lamps for my Steps

Head – learn the difference between religious practices and relational presence

Heart – choose a place away from church property and thank God for His presence with you in that place.

Hands – choose a place away from church property (wherever you celebrate Thanksgiving?) and declare/pray “Holy Spirit, you are welcome in this place.”

Pentecost, J. Dwight. 1985. “Daniel.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, 1:1365. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.