The Power of the Son

“The Power of the Son”

John 2:18-25

Introduction:

One of the statements that I have said before that I will continually say throughout the course of this study is that the purpose in John writing His Gospel is to prove the deity of Jesus Christ. Therefore, with that in mind, everywhere we go in this book, our minds should go back to that fact. Every parable that the Lord tells, John records to point to the fact that the one speaking, Jesus Christ, is in fact God of very God’s. Every miracle that He performs, John records it to build the case for the deity of Jesus Christ.

Thus far, everything that John has recorded about the Lord points to this. This goes back also to the ancient discussion on the fact of whether or not the Holy Spirit begat the Son. Let me just tell you the conclusion of the discussion so as not to bore you with the entire discussion. The conclusion is that the Holy Spirit begat the Son in the womb of Mary, but the Holy Spirit did not begat the son in eternity. Now, it is very important that we make that distinction because there are those that will tell you that the Holy Spirit begat the son, period. Such is just not the case. The Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and begat the son in His earthly form, but did not begat the Son in His eternal existence. One of the champion verses for this view is John 1:18:

John 1:18 (KJV)
(μονογενὴς θεὸς)

18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. [1]

Pay close attention to the detail that John is painting for us in John 1:18. We have two Greek words of importance to this discussion in that verse. First of all, “μονογενής” which comes from two Greek forms: 1) μόνος, which is a feminine Greek form which means “one, only, without others”, 2) γένος, which means “unique, one of a kind, one and only”. So when John wrote μονογενής, what he intended was not “begotten” but what he intended was to say literally, “the one and the only” because that is literally what μονογενής means. Second, “θεός” which, of course, is the Greek word for “God”. So what does John literally say about Jesus Christ: He says that Jesus is the μονογενὴς θεὸς, the one and the only God. That is literally what John the Apostle calls Jesus Christ, the one and the only God. So everywhere we look in the Gospel of John, is a view to the deity of Jesus Christ.

In our study of the second chapter of John, we once again see His deity. We see His power in turning the water into wine and we see it in His discourse at the temple during Passion Week. We see His deity unfolded in three ways during this week. First of all, we saw last time, it was unfolded in His Passion of Reverence. As he entered the temple and saw the sellers selling sacrificial animals at an inflated amount in order to steal from focus entering the temple. He sees the money-changers charging an inflated amount in order to exchange currency. He sees booth after booth after booth selling things for profit all the way into the temple right up to the entrance of the Holy of Holy. He saw a religion that had been turned into a way to make money, and the still exist today.

Many times they do it today by making Church more comfortable for the unbelievers. They build an empire of “greatness” on the backs of people giving to their ministry all the while, at best, minimizing sin and at worst, not preaching on it at all. So we saw His Passion for Reverence.

II. Presumption of the Religious (vs. 18)

Notice these Jews now, now this is undoubtedly the Sanhedrin and the temple police, perhaps the Sadducees. And they come to Him after all this stuff has been going on, and undoubtedly it stirred some kind of problems. "Then answered the Jews and said unto Him, `What sign showest Thou unto us seeing that Thou doest these things?'" Now watch that statement. You know what they said to Him? "Now what gave You the right to do this?" Now it's interesting to me that they didn't say, "Go get that guy and let's kill him. What is he doing?" Not at all. Listen, Jesus did that with such unbelievable majestic authority that they were dumbfounded. They knew He had authority to do it. That's why they said, "Show us a sign that proves to us that You had the right to do that." Boy, they were really stuck against the wall.

It was obvious from the power and authority that He carried when He did it that it was something more than human. And so they said show us a sign that You had the right to do this. They might have suspected maybe this is some prophet of God. Undoubtedly they thought that. This man did that with such boldness and authority. I mean, show us a sign, maybe this is a prophet of God. You've done this now show us what right you had to do it.

A. It was a Stupid Question

Here they are asking for a sign when they've just had a monumental sign, right? I mean, what kind of sign do you want? Read Malachi, there it is. What are other majesty do you want than to have one man clean out a whole mob? What kind of tricks do you expect? Typical unbelief.

You know who it is who asks for miracles? It's not belief, what is it? It's unbelief. Unbelief wants miracles all the time...do a trick, do a trick, do a trick. And they saw them all. Jesus did them for three years, He did miracles, right? At the end of three years in Matthew 12 they came to Him and said, "We've seen all Your miracles and we have a conclusion to make, You did it by Satan." See.

So, it was a stupid question in the first place. They had just seen a sign.

B. It was a Wicked Question

Do you know why? Because they knew good and well that that temple needed to be cleansed, didn't they? But they weren't willing to face their sin. They knew they were rotten. They knew that they were hypocrites. They knew that the whole operation was a merchandising on the name of God, they knew that. But they weren't willing to face their sin. Men who would degenerate to the desecration of the temple of God were utterly devoid of any sense of God and were blinded. And so Christ treats them in blindness. They've been veiled by Satan. Christ keeps them veiled by talking to them in veiled language. Do you know that He said so many things to them He must have left them spinning around for all the three years of His ministry. They never understood anything He was talking about. That's why He says in Matthew 13, "I spoke to them seeing who see not, hearing who hear not and don't understand." That's why He said, "I revealed these things to the babes and hidden from the wise and the prudent." He confounded them almost every time He confronted them. He answers them in a veiled statement.

III. The Power of the Resurrection

Now look at the veiled statement and it's very interesting in verse 19, and, of course, they took it wrong, as usual, "Jesus answered and said unto them, `Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.'" And they said, misinterpreting obviously, "Forty-six years was this temple in the building, are you going to raise it in three days? But He spoke of the temple of His body...John adds."

Now what's going on here, what is this all about? This is not an easy passage to interpret because there's depth of meaning in the statement of Christ in verse 19. Now notice it. "Jesus answered and said unto them, `Destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up.'" What temple? Here is what we have, what we call in hermeneutics or interpretation a paradox. Christ is undoubtedly gesturing to the temple existing but yet in a greater way referring to His body so that this statement, this temple here in verse 19 refers both to the temple and to His body. In terms of His body He was saying this, "You may destroy Me, this temple, you may destroy it. Three days later it will come right out of that grave." And is that what happened? Exactly what happened, exactly.

You know what? If they wanted a sign in verse 18, brother, they got one, didn't they? The greatest sign Christ ever gave was His resurrection. Did they believe? No. Did Israel believe? No. It's unbelief that wants a sign.

And so, Christ says, "I'll give you a sign, kill me and I'll come alive in three days." Only He puts it in language that confused them. But there's a deeper meaning to this, now watch this one. He must have also been referring to the temple cause that's the context. You know what He was saying to them? You destroy that temple there and in three days I'll raise a new temple. What do you mean by that? Listen to this, when Christ was killed on the cross, did you know that the temple worship was destroyed at His death? Why? Because the veil was ripped right from the top to the bottom. For all intents and purposes the temple worship was destroyed right then, wasn't it? And it was only a time later till the whole temple was destroyed.

So when they destroyed the temple of Christ's body, at the same instant they were destroying temple worship, weren't they? Because they were sacrificing the final lamb and there never would be another one of consequence. So He says to them you kill this temple and you're destroying that one.

But He adds to that this fantastic thought, "I'll raise it up." You say, "Wait a minute, three days later He didn't rebuild the temple." No, but you know what He did? By His resurrection power He built new temples didn't He? And who are those new temples? His church...His church. You see that deep, deep meaning in that statement. Jesus Christ doesn't make surface statements. And I know myself, I study these things and I think to myself, "If that's what I got out of it, what is really there? What kind of profound content must be in a statement like that?" God doesn't just say off-the-cuff things, Christ doesn't. He was saying you destroy Me you'll destroy your temple, but that's okay I'll not only raise Me, I'll raise another temple, believers, the church. And our life is the resurrection life of Christ, isn't it?

The disciples didn't really know anymore than anybody else did. Their mind was all fogged up. And the reason wasn't that they couldn't believe it, the reason was they didn't want to believe that Jesus would go away. You remember that. And they didn't believe in the resurrection. What happened when Jesus got crucified? Did they all wait around the tomb? They were gone, man, they had got out of there, they didn't believe it. They didn't believe it. In fact, when He was finally raised they didn't believe it, walking along the road He's walking, talking to them, they didn't even know Him.

But finally after His resurrection they woke up to what He was talking about three years before right here in Jerusalem. So John says, "By the resurrection of Jesus Christ God vindicates Him as Messiah." So we see two things. First of all, the passion for reverence that Jesus had shows us He's God. Secondly, the power of resurrection, only God goes into death and comes out the other side by His own power. By conquering death He proved His deity and established the new temple...the believer, the believer. That's why when often we refer to the church we call it the house of the Lord. This is not the house of the Lord. You are the house of the Lord. This is not God's house. God doesn't live here. God forbid. He lives in us. In the Old Testament He lived in a building. No, no more, He lives in a sanctuary not made with hands, believers.

IV. The Perception into Reality (vs.23-25)

Listen, you couldn't fool Jesus, He could read your heart like a billboard. And watch what He says right here, verse 23, "Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover," same time, same station, "in the feast day," this would be the day finally of the feast and the Passover lasted seven days, so this would be the last day, "many believed in His name when they saw the miracles which He did." You say, "Oh revival." No, no. Verse 24 tells us it wasn't. "Jesus didn't commit Himself unto them because He knew all men and needed not that any should testify of man for He knew what was in man."

Listen, He knew true faith and He knew false faith. You say, "But they believed." Yeah, what did they believe? What did they believe? What was it they were believing in? Evidently He had been doing many, many miracles, sufficient signs for those people who were looking for them in verse 18 but they didn't believe Him anyway. As I said, faith doesn't...disbelief looks for miracles, not faith.

What kind of faith is indicated there in verse 23, what kind of believing was it? Well believing isn't enough in that sense. It's one thing to believe, it's another thing to know Christ. For example, you have in John 1:12 where it says, "But as many as...what?...received." You see, it's more to it than just believing. More to it than just believing. There may have been people who actually believed that He was Messiah. But whether or not they commit themselves to Him is another story.

You know, Jesus didn't have any faith in their faith. It wasn't saving faith. He looked into their hearts and He could discern whether it was divinely granted saving faith. Listen, Jesus isn't dazzled by apparent successes. He knows what's genuine. And many people were willing to follow Jesus for His miracles. All those people got fed on the hillside. When Jesus went to the other side of the sea, they went too. You say, "Oh, isn't that wonderful, following Jesus." Right, they were going over there because it was dinner time. They had gotten a free lunch, they figured they could also get a free dinner.

You know what kind of faith that is? That's stony-ground faith, that's what it is. The first time a little trouble comes along, it's gone. It dies. Listen, if Jesus had stopped with all those that had believed on His name, as it says here, quote, and started to talk about self-sacrifice, surrender, repentance, a cross, death, bearing a cross...they would have been gone, fair-weather followers. So Jesus didn't even commit Himself to them.

You see, Jesus refuses to cash in on a moment's popularity. He knew human nature. He knew the fickleness and the instability and the selfishness of men's hearts. You know how to test a true disciple? Put him through a fire, see how he responds. You've got a lot of people following Jesus today, a lot of people jumping on the Jesus bandwagon. They like the identification. I'm not too sure they love the Savior but they like the identification. I don't know what's going to happen when trial comes in each case but I know that will be the proof of the pudding. For Peter says, "For hereunto were you called," to do what? "To suffer." Test of discipleship. He could read their hearts. This was God...this was God. Nobody came to Him with artificial faith and got away with it, nor do they come to Him today that way.

So, John says, "See, He's God. Look at the perception of reality, He could read a man's heart." You say, "Well, what is this saying to me?" All right, these three points are a beautiful salvation outline. Now watch, the first little story about the temple tells us that God hates sin, doesn't it? God hates sin and what's He going to do to sin? Punish it. God hates it and He will punish anything that doesn't give Him glory. But then the second illustration tells us that there's a way to escape that punishment because while God may destroy the system that doesn't give Him glory, He's provided a resurrection for those that want Him, hasn't He? See, the second one is power of resurrection, shows us that while He hates sin and will destroy it, there's still a way because He said, "Because I live, ye shall live also." So Christ is going to judge sin, but secondly, by His resurrection He's provided new life and forgiveness of sin.

You say, "So what do I do about it?" That's the third account, verses 23 to 25 tells you, what do you do about it? You come to Christ with what kind of faith? Genuine honest faith. You see salvation in those three stories? Number one, God hates sin, that's the basis of salvation. You're a sinner, God hates it. Number two, God provides new life in the resurrection of Christ and forgiveness for sin. But the issue comes down to number three, verses 23 to 25, are you genuinely desirous of knowing Christ and surrendering your life to Him? Not just believing, devils believe, it doesn't do them any good.

Listen, Jesus Christ can see every heart, He can detect every indifference. He can see every hostility. He knows every superficial confession. And when you meet Jesus Christ, you meet Him honestly or you don't meet Him at all. Jesus isn't looking for a crowd of people cheering His miracles. He's looking for a little group of people who will die for Him...if that's the price He demands.

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[1] The Holy Bible : King James Version. 1995 (electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version.). Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.