John 2:13-25 “Holy to the Lord

Pray

Irene Garcia & Machu

Intro

You probably know the story. In all 4 Gospels. Jesus becomes zealous for his people…and he begins flipping over tables…Driving out animals…

It is one of the most famous stories of Jesus

Jesus goes rogue in the temple!

But there is one major difference…In every other gospel this story happens at the end of the gospel and it leads to Jesus being crucified.

But John John Puts this story, in chapter 2

There is a huge debate on this but I believe there was only one temple cleansing event, some say 2…But we are not going to get stuck in the weeds there

I think the reason why John puts it in chapter 2 is theological… the more likely answer is that John has a huge theological point to make that he is going to build on in the following chapters

Any student of John and the way he writes almost immediately sees that John writes in a way that builds. He builds his literature up…And I think he saw the point that Jesus was making and decided to move that point earlier in his gospel…

And one of them is the cleansing of the temple…

Today we are getting into a text that is just so Genius…That I need you to stick with me because a lot is going on Before we get into the gospel of John today I want to take you on a journey today that is a little complex…

Honestly its a little work to get to where we are going today, but if you stick with me, I guarantee the payoff is HUGE

So let’s read it

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.”

When it was time for the Jewish passover! We will hit that point in a second but first I want to talk about the temple itself…

So I think the most impotrant thing here is to look at Geography

Jesus was in Cana of Galilee in the story before…Turning water into wine

We talked about this was a symbolic critique on the Jewish religion… It had become all rules and no relationship…

Last week we talked about the 6 empty jars at the wedding in Cana as being empty man made religion in Israel…

Now at the most holy time of the year, the passover Jesus travels to Jerusalem to the temple

And now we see Jesus flipping over tables and driving the animals out…

this is taking place in the temple

so what is happening here?

The first thing we have to recognize is that Holiness is Geographic

In the old testament days, holiness is entirely related to how close you were to God!

Where are you in relation to the temple?

The temple is even laid out this way

The temple is where heaven and earth meet

So when the first temple was made we know that Israel has been following God’s glory cloud around the wilderness and then God had been dwelling in the ark of the covenant…it was the most holy place of the Lord

So once the temple was dedicated we see this verse

1 Kings 8:10–11 NIV

When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.

So that same Glory cloud that Israel had been following when they were in the dessert for 40 years

Now God’s presence filled the temple….In other words, that is where God lived in the center of community

Everything in the temple is laid out to communicate God’s holiness

Its almost like gradients of holiness

From the outside in your have the outer court: The outer court represented the garden of Eden…And everyone could go there…This was common place for all people…What the outer court represented was the boundary between the sacred and the common

There were four courtyards in the temple that showed you how far you could go based on how pure you were

The court of gentiles: This was the place that was intended for all people to gather for prayer regardless of whether you are a jew or a gentile

Isaiah 56:7

Isaiah 56:7 NIV

for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

The outer courts is where Jesus’ cleansing of the temple would have taken place

The Court of Women: This was a place for Jewish men or women…It is named the court of women because it was the furthest place that Jewish women could go to inside the temple complex. This is where Jesus would have observed a woman giving the last of her money to the Lord…And jesus said that she had given more than anyone!

The Court of Israel: This was just for Jewish men

Then there was the court of priests: This is where the priest carried out their duties of ceremonial washing and sacrifice…

Then there was a holy place where the priests would take the offerings

There was the holy of holies. And the holy of holies was the place where the high priest would go one day a year on the day of atonement in order for all of Israel to be forgiven one time a year

So the closer you got to the holy of holies then the more you experienced God’s holiness…And the more that you had to become ritually pure

This is what I mean when I say Holiness was centered in Geography…Where God was is where Holiness is!

And this is where Jesus shows up. He is coming on passover

There are three passovers in the book of John, it is how we have figured that Jesus’ ministry was three years

So John 2 Records that Jesus shows up on passover..>Which is one of three Jewish pilgrimage holidays…Which means…If you’re a Jew you need to travel to Jerusalem either for passover, tabernacles or Pentecost.

This means that Jerusalem massively swelled in size…

There would be huge animal markets so you could make a sacrifice, traveling with an animal was a very slow proposition

Josephus in the year 66 ad recorded that there were 255,600 lambs needed for passover

if you think about one family has one lamb then this could be up to a million to 1.5million people in Jerusalem

So they moved the animal farms from the mount of olives to the temple courts…

Now if you have ever driven down the 5 freeway to LA, you pass about 3 cattle farms….What do you notice about those farms?

You can smell them from a mile away! So you understand what we are all smelling right….Now there is an obvious problem…You can not move these animals into the outer courts…Because then you are taking something that is unclean and bringing it into the holy…

DO you get it? In order to make some extra cash they had to defile the temple a little

They turned worship into big business

You are actually showing contempt for the temple by doing this

Turning worship into business changes the object of worship…

Instead of saying how can we bring Glory to the Lord they came with the the idea of how can I get the most out of this!

It showed Contempt for God’s holiness

BUT…From a business perspective…Sales matter and do does price and what can you argue if you have an animal market in the temple grounds?

These animals are more holy!

And guess what…The Price goes up for animals that are closer to the holy of holies

Its a way to manipulate people into paying more…

And think about symbolically what is happening here…This is the festival of the passover. They would be celebrating that the blood of the lamb covered them from death!

And Jesus is filled with zeal! (we will get to that in a minute)

So Jesus goes to the traders and the money changers and he begins flipping over tables and driving animals out.

What we have to understand is that this was not a small thing. This would have been a massive upset in the economy of that time. The economy is absolutely driven by these festivals

The temple complex was able to bring in more money…The religious establishment was in on allowing the markets to come into the temple grounds…Everyone was benefiting financially

So basically you are seeing a critique again of the religion…two critiques in a row

So then we get to two old testament references which are right in the middle of this story: And in order to understand what is going on here we need to talk about the book of Zechariah:

So lets dive into this

Zechariah & John

We know that John loves the book of Zechariah. In fact if you read the book of Revelation, which is written by John you will versions of Zechariah’s visions all in the book of Revelation…

The four horsemen come out of Zechariah

The vision of measuring the city comes from Zechariah

The idea of the lampstands that is used from Zechariah

and then in the book of John we see even more of Zechariah

Jesus comes riding to Jerusalem on a donkey…This is a Messianic vision of Zechariah

and then there is this concluding chapter of Zechariah chapter 14

And what is happening there is that Zechariah is envisioning a day where the holiness of the Lord flows out of the temple like a river….for the healing of the nations…

Again…It is the imagery John uses for Revelation 21

So what is happening at the end of this amazing Messianic vision in Zechariah 14 …Zechariah has so influenced the new testament and barley anyone reads it or understands it…so one of these days I will have to teach though it…

But it is a very difficult book to really understand…But kind of the final point of the book is that a time is coming when God’s holiness will not be limited to a geographic location, but will be spread everywhere…

So let me read the two verses that are alluded to in John 2 and keep in mind here. I am reading it out of the ESV version because, they more correctly translate a couple of words…

Zechariah 14:20–21 (ESV) And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “Holy to the Lord.” And the pots in the house of the Lord shall be as the bowls before the altar. And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the Lord of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day.

What Zechariah 14 is looking forward to is a day when the holiness of God pours fourth from the temple.

When God’s holiness isn’t just attained by one person but a time in which the bells that are on horses and the common pots that are in peoples houses are just as holy as the ones in the temple.

Check this out its so cool.

Zechariah is saying…There will be a day when God’s holiness is no longer bound by this building and it will spread out to all that is common…

His holiness will be available to all…The bowls that women cook in at home will be just as holy as the sacrificial pots in the temple where they boil meat…

Even the phrase “Holy to the Lord” will be on the common bells of horses…

Do you know where the phrase “Holy to the Lord” is first found in the bible?

Exodus 28:36–37 NIV

“Make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it as on a seal: holy to the Lord. Fasten a blue cord to it to attach it to the turban; it is to be on the front of the turban.

The Phrase “Holy to the Lord” is on a headband that the high priest wears when doing his priestly duties

And when does Zechariah say this will be?

Oh…It is when there is no longer a “trader” in the house of the Lord of hosts!

Just so you know the Hebrew word there is basically the same thing as Canaanite and some translations just use that word, but the most faithful I think to the original Hebrew is the word Trader or merchant

So Jesus comes in and drives out the traders…The traders of money and of animals

He does this In fulfillment of Zechariah 14 to show them, look a day is coming when the holiness of the Lord will pour out on all of you. God’s spirit, his presence… will not be limited to this building

This is the thrust of the entire message of all the Old Testemanet prophets…God will pour his spirit out!

Jesus is laying the foundation that the worship of God in the future will not be about Geographic location but somehow the holiness of the Lord will be everywhere

God was preparing a day when His Holiness would no longer be geographically limited

And here you have to understand that this is all laying the ground work for a conversation that Jesus will have with the women at the well

chapter 4 Jesus will have an intensely theological conversation with a women at a well…And the punchline of it all is this

John 4:23–24 NIV

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

The point is that a time is coming when God’s holiness will be pervasive! It is available to everyone who worships the Lord!

God’s presence will not be limited to a building!

The point of what Jesus will say to the woman at the well is

God is not looking for perfect ritual, but a sincere heart

Because God wants to come and dwell with you, right where you are at

Then remember what the text says after this

John 2:17 NIV

His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

This is a line straight out of Psalm 69:8-12

It is clear that this psalm is a lament

the Psalmist is saying that he is being persecuted

But at the same time the fire of Jealousy is burning within him

And this is what zeal means..>We will cover that in a minute

Psalm 69:8–12 NIV

I am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother’s children; for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me. When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn; when I put on sackcloth, people make sport of me. Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards.

So this zeal in the midst of persecution is on display in this psalm

First When John writes: the disciples remembered this line…and then quotes Psalm 69….He is giving us the reader a little hint…Hey this Psalm is about Jesus…It is about Jesus being crushed…Its about Jesus being killed on the cross…

And why is he being crushed?

Because of his zeal!

What is Christian Zeal:

In its fundamental nature it is what God is. He is Jealous for us…

Not like a jealous boyfriend or girlfriend…But It is a deep abiding love. It is the passionate love that God has for his creation…

Zeal is that first feeling you get when you see your little kids getting bullied on the playground…

Zeal is the reason why you will suffer for your children so that they can be taken care of..>So that they will be safe

Zeal is this intense earnestness: I know the truth and I have to live by that truth…The love of God compels me.

So why is Jesus Zealous: because he is God and he is here to set things right!

Removing the merchants from the temple is out of his deep love for all of his people and the traders!

I think Jesus is concerned for them! They don’t get the spiritual reality of what they are doing, they are defrauding people!

And by the way I love how Jesus walks right up to the people selling Doves….In the economy of the book of John…There is a lot happening here

1. On a practical level: Doves are the sacrifice of the poor…And by being on the temple grounds making their merchandise more expensive they are keeping the poor from atonement!

2. Remember what John the baptist saw…A dove descending on Jesus…It was the holy spirit…Its almost a little mini commentary right in the middle of all of this…You’re trying to buy and sell a relationship with God!

See the temple is supposed to be the place where heaven and earth connect.

But what john is trying to tell us and what we will see in a moment, is that what is happening to God’s house, the temple is just a foreshadowing of what will happen to Jesus’ body

The text in John says that Jesus’ disciples thought of Psalm 69 sort of after the fact

So lets read the end of this text

John 2:18–25 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. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. 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.

This talk of destroying the temple will come up all over the crucifixion narrative of Jesus

It’s obvious in John and every other gospel that when Jesus says “Destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days” ….that everyone heard him and it had been a joke…

Lets just look at two verses of Jesus on the cross:

Matthew 27:40 (NIV) and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!”

Mark 15:29 NIV

Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days,

And jesus in his perfect zeal went to the cross…To be destroyed….Because he knows that when he does this the old order of things will pass away and a new creation will birth.

He knew that when he died the curtain in the temple would rip in half and that the holiness of the lord would be available to everyone

That the bells on the horses would be just as holy as the bells in the temple

See your last fill in is this

The presence of God moved from place to a person

He knows that when he is crushed his holiness will no longer be limited to a geographic location but will be available to everyone who puts their trust in him.

Invite the band up

Challenge:

Jesus did not give His life so that we could simply visit God once a week.

He gave His life so that God could live in us every day.

The temple is no longer a building you walk into.

It is a life you walk out.

So this week, don’t just ask,

“Did I go to church?”

Ask, “Did I carry God’s presence into my home, my work, my conversations, and my decisions?”

Maybe you're here and you are thinking: How do I do that…It starts with entrusting yourself to Jesus

The text ends with Jesus didn’t entrust himself to anyone because he knew what was in each person…

He doesn't entrust himself to others we have to entrust ourselves to him!

See when you entrust your life to him and you are washed by the blood of Jesus I believe the words inscribed on your life are “HOLY to the LORD” You are God’s treasure

Jesus was consumed with zeal so that you could be filled with His presence.

So live like it.

God wants your life to be the place where heaven and earth meet.