A Radical Day in the Temple

Intro:

John 2:13-15

Today, I want to look at the first time Jesus cleansed the Temple in Jerusalem. The title of my message is, [A Radical Day in the Temple].

As a child, we were at church all the time. We attended a church across Oklahoma City. It took us twenty to twenty-five minutes to get there, which means we were in the car nearly an hour and a half every Sunday.

My parents were actively involved, which meant us kids were there often. We quickly learned some rules. We could play and have fun the Fellowship Hall and even in the the classes. But when we passed the threshold into the sanctuary, everything had to change.

We could not run, rough house, raise our voice at our siblings, or act up in the sanctuary. These unspoken rules consumed us kids. We were.

However, allowed to sit with our friends, AS LONG as we didn’t act up, which would result in dad get really spiritual through the laying on of hands on us after church, if you know what I mean.

Us kids would take turns telling each other the rules. Once, my brother’s friend Cogan, wrote the rules and passed it down the pew so we all knew.

Rules for the Sanctuary

No running

No rough housing

No chewing gum

No cursing

No talking during the worship or preaching

When I was nine, we started attending Pastor Tucker’s church, which was less than a mile from home. I noticed there were similar unspoken, and sometimes spoken rules. Pastor Tucker didn’t mind letting us know:

No kids on the platform

Do not run or rough house

NEVER put our feet on the pews

And DO NOT waste offering envelopes

These were stringent rules for a sanctuary that had mauve carpet, burgundy pews, and sea foam green drapes. We were to respect the sanctuary, and you could always tell if someone didn’t know the rules and caused a raucous.

Think about this and now let’s imagine what it was like in John 2. Jesus didn’t come into a sanctuary with pews and carpet, He entered the Temple in Jerusalem.

The beauty and wonder of the Temple was unlike anything our minds can truly comprehend. Before we look at what Jesus did, let’s explain the Temple.

Once the Israelites went into the wilderness en route to the Promised Land, God instructed Moses to make provisions for a Tent of Meeting or the Tabernacle.

It was there, God would come down and reveal His glory to His people. By the time of David, the Tabernacle was in Jerusalem. However, He wanted to build God a Temple, a permanent structure.

God did not allow David to do this, but gave the assignment to his son Solomon. It took many years, but finally, God used him to complete Jerusalem’s first temple.

Solomon’s Temple—beautiful and magnificent. Covered with gold, bronze, silver, and the best wood around. But beyond its elegance, was what resided in the Temple.

The Ark of the Covenant was there, complete with the presence and glory of God. However, Israel neglected God for centuries and eventually the Ark was stolen and the Temple destroyed by the Babylonians.

After seventy years in exile, many Jewish people returned to Jerusalem to find the Temple in ruins. However, God instructed some men to rebuild.

Zerubabbel’s Temple— the second temple in Jerusalem. It was about as big as Solomon’s Temple, but not near as nice. The biggest difference was the ABSENCE of the Ark of the Covenant.

They had the Most Holy Place, but it was empty. After 500 years, this Temple needed repairs, which leads to

Herod’s Temple— as a Roman official, he had to keep peace in Jerusalem. Therefore, he restored and renovated the Temple in Jerusalem.

He had little interest in worshipping God, but he was an astute politician and knew this would keep the Jewish people happy. This is the Temple Jesus went to in John 2.

On that day, around Passover when Jesus went with His disciples, something radical happened. There was a loud commotion that got everyone’s attention.

We will look at what happened later, but I want us to keep something in mind through this message.

God desperately wants to get His church’s attention! 2020 has been a year where it is as though God has shouted at us through a megaphone from heaven.

The world as we know it looks very different today than it did a year ago. We can speculate on the reasons why our society is the way it is right now. One party blames the other and the other party quickly returns the blame.

But as followers of Christ, we do not look at the things which are seen for the are temporary. Instead, we pray and ask God to speak to us.

I thoroughly believe God wants today to be a radical day in “this” temple. The Holy Spirit wants to revolutionize our lives to prepare us for a great revival before Jesus’ return.

Therefore, lets look at three events that took place when Jesus cleansed the Temple, [A Radical Action], [A Radical Accusation], and [A Radical Answer].

Let’s begin

1. A Radical Action

John 2:13-15

Let’s notice a few important details:

Passover

Jerusalem

Jesus had just turned water into wine in the city of Capernaum. However, He had to go to Jerusalem. The journey was nearly eight miles and would have taken Jesus about four days.

What was so pressing that He had to go to Jerusalem, it was Passover. Each year, Jewish men would go Jerusalem to celebrate when God spared their ancestors in Egypt.

The feast of Passover was the most important feast and it was expected every Jewish male would go to visit the Temple. They had two responsibilities at the Temple:

Pay a temple tax as required by the Law of Moses

Sacrifice and animal to cover their sin

This was not Jesus’ first time to the Temple. He had been there a minimum of thirty times if He went once a year. However, He always went as a worshipper in His Father’s house.

Now, that He performed His first miracle and begin His public ministry, it was time to go to the Temple, not as a worshipper, but as the Messiah.

Upon arrival, He was livid. In righteous indignation He tossed furniture, He slung coins around, and He found rope to create a whip to force those who sold animals and exchanged money were forced to leave.

Why was Jesus so upset?

What was the reason for His radical action?

The leaders of the Temple had corrupted Passover. During the feast, an estimated 250,000 males came to Jerusalem. With their wives and children, close to three million came to the Holy City.

The religious leaders knew this, however, they didn’t see the crowd as potential worshippers, but as potential profit.

They would do the crowds a “favor.” Because they needed an animal to sacrifice they would sell them to the men so they didn’t have to travel with a decaying animal.

However, their innocent act was impure in that they overpriced the animals. If someone wanted to bring their own, they had inspectors who would charge the men to make sure their enemy was perfect.

Then, people came with money to pay their tax. The problem was money had the picture of Caesar, who the priests considered unclean.

Therefore, they wouldn’t accept Roman money, so they would “help” out and exchange the Roman coin for a shekel. However, they charged an exchange rate, which was nearly half a day’s wage.

When Jesus arrived to worship His Father, He found a house, riddled with sin and selfishness. Their radical greed, led Jesus to take radical actions. Then He made...

2. A Radical Accusation

John 2:16-18

With stunned silence, the crowd watched and Jesus began to speak. He was forthright in His accusation, they had turned God’s house from a center of worship to a shopping center.

They were no longer interested in the purpose of the Temple. What was the reason for the Temple? Remember, though we’re reading of Jesus, God’s people are still stuck in the Old Covenant.

Because Jesus had not yet died on the cross and rose from the grave, He had not taken on the sins of humanity. Therefore, God did not dwell in the hearts of people. Instead, He revealed Himself at the Temple.

Passover was a weeklong celebration of God removing Israel from bondage in Egypt. God instructed them to celebrate Passover every year.

It is important to notice that the Jesus’ accusation was not against the worshippers, but against the leaders and the ones who sold in the Temple.

He knew they purposefully took advantage of those who were sincere in their desire to show God their appreciation. Therefore, Jesus accused them of committing crimes against God through their treatment of the Temple.

Imagine being the disciples. They had recently left everything to follow Jesus and now they saw a side of Him they did not know existed.

However, they remembered the Psalmist’s prophecy:

Psalm 69:9 NKJV

9 Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.

Jesus was consumed with a fiery passion for God’s house to remain pure. Therefore, He went through great lengths to make this happen.

Something we must realize is the division in the Temple. There were different courts, we might call them foyers, except they were open. One court was for the Gentiles, another for women, another for Israelite Men, and one for priests, who would handle the sacrifices.

All of Jesus’ actions and accusations took place in the Gentile court. So the guards rushed to the priests to let the know what happened.

They came out and questioned Jesus, who gave you this authority to speak this way? If you have the power to do such things, prove it through a miraculous sign.

Jesus made an honest accusation against them, and they questioned Him, which leads to...

3. A Radical Answer

John 2:19-21

The Jewish leaders wanted a sign. They wanted to see someone raised from the dead, blind eyes opened, or something supernatural to prove Jesus’ position.

What is left unsaid, but was glaringly obvious to the crowd in the Temple, is Jesus took authority that was only reserved for the Messiah or Savior.

From the outside looking in, Jesus was a carpenters Son, from a poor region. Furthermore, He probably looked a little disheveled after traveling for four days to get there.

He didn’t look how they thought the Messiah would look. But what they chose to ignore was Jesus’ actions and the authority He displayed was enough of a sign.

Malachi 3:1 NKJV

1 “Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the Lord of hosts.

John the Baptist served as the messenger. Then suddenly, out of nowhere Jesus comes to the Temple to show what God wants in the New Covenant He will make with His people through Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection.

Then Jesus gave a confusing answer. He looked at the religious leaders and pointed destroy this Temple and I will raise it up in THREE days.

True to Pharisee’s form, they took Jesus literally, while He wanted to show them something spiritual. They scoffed in frustration, it took forty-six years to build the temple and you think you can do it three?

But notice what John included, Jesus was not speaking of the building, but of His body. Jesus looked to the day when HIS earthly Temple, His body would die because of the sins of humanity.

Close:

On that day, Jesus performed a radical action, He made a radical accusation, but He gave a radical answer.

John explained what His answer meant about the temple being raised in three days meant.

John 2:21-22

Then Jesus will do what NO ONE could do, He will overcome death and rise from the grave. Let’s read what happened when Jesus’ prophecy came to pass.

Matthew 27:51 NKJV

51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,

Mark 15:38 NKJV

38 Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

The veil that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place tore in two. The veil was important for only once a year did anyone go beyond the veil, and that took place on the Day of Atonement, where a sacrifice was made in the place of people’s sins.

Jesus looked to the day when His body would become the sacrifice to forgive the sins of humanity. On that day, the veil will tear in two, releasing the presence of God.

No longer will His presence remain shut off from people behind a curtain. No, He will take residence in EVERY person who asks God to come into their hearts and forgive their sins.

What happens when we do that?

The Holy Spirit comes into us, and we become a TEMPLE of the Holy Spirit!

When Jesus told all of this the Temple, it didn’t make sense. But once He died, rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, and sent the Holy Spirit upon His church, they realized what He meant!

Jesus’ physical act of cleansing the Temple was a representation to His spiritual act of cleansing our temples.

When the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write to the church in Corinth, he explained,

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 NKJV

19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

2 Corinthians 6:16–18 NKJV

16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” 17 Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” 18 “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

Our earthly bodies are Temples. They way we live, what we invite, and how we act determines if it is a Temple of the Holy Spirit or a temple to idols.

But when we come to Christ, we become TEMPLES of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because Jesus lives in us THROUGH the Holy Spirit.

It cost Jesus everything. The Jewish leaders conspired with the Roman Empire and manipulated common people to kill Jesus. When He died and they buried Him in a tomb, they won.

But Jesus arose over death and rose again after three days. And now, WE CAN COME BEFORE GOD, receive salvation and allow the Holy Spirit to take residence.

He dwells with us, but now He is IN us!

He walks with us, but lives IN us!

We ARE the temple of God

HIS SPIRIT lives within us!

So here is the question, isn’t it time for a RADICAL day in THIS temple?

Isn’t it time to let God radically change us?

Isn’t it time come out of the dark and live a life of holiness and separation?

Listen to me, HE is with us EVERYWHERE! Nothing escapes His notice, so today is the day to let God radically change us.