His Zeal For His House
Notes
Transcript
13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.
15 And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables;
16 and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.”
17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.”
18 The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?”
Overview of passage
Overview of passage
Passover was the biggest feast in Jewish calendar.
Was the day the Israelites remembered Lord’s redeeming grace during their slavery in Egypt.
Every family will sacrifice a lamb in remembrance of the last judgement of God on the Egyptians.
The God who saved the Israelites went up to the temple in flesh and saw the Temple bustling with noise like a wet market. Noises of animals, people doing business.
Jesus, consumed with passion, over throws tables, and drives the animals out.
Why was business happening in the temple?
Why was business happening in the temple?
Passover was not only a time when the Israelites came to offer a sacrifice, it was the time when every male over the age of 20 paid the temple tax.
You were only allowed to pay the Temple Tax in a currency called Tyrian.
Tyrian, currency from Tyre had much higher silver content than the common Roman Coin.
So the people who were travelling from far away countries such as Asia Minor or Western Roman world, were arriving with Roman coinage. Thus, they were exchanging their Roman coinage into Tyrian to pay the tax.
Not only the tax, but some families were travelling for so long, it’s logistically impossible to bring a lamb.
10 days walk from Asia Minor
Sailing across the Mediterranean
So the selling of sacrificial lamb in the temple was provided.
So what was Jesus mad about?
So what was Jesus mad about?
The merchants were providing service for the people to be able to observe the Passover. So what is the problem here?
There is nothing in the scripture that points to malicious business practice either. Though I don’t doubt there were cheaters and liars.
The Temple was a place of encounter.
Designated location where His people would come, be still and know that He is God
Psalm 46:10
10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
The Israelites missed the point
The sacrificing of the Lamb was important as it was handed down by Moses.
Exodus 12:21-26
The tax needed to be collected for the temple to be maintained.
However, the central focus, if missed, nothing else mattered, was the solemness, the quietness of the soul, and the encountering of the creator God.
Replacement of the physical temple
Replacement of the physical temple
Today, there is no physical temple. Maybe we can consider this church building as the temple.
But the true temple of God is not us.
1 Cor. 3:16
16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
We being the temple means
The Primary focus of us should be the solemness, quietness, to be still and know that He is God.
As the Israelites missed the point and resulted in everything else not mattering, if we miss the point, nothing else matters.
Attending service every week / sacrificial lamb
Giving offering / temple tax
Status of our temple/He is still zealous
Status of our temple/He is still zealous
We live in possibly one of the busiest city in the world
We live in possibly one of the most godless city in the world
We are living through possibly one of the greatest economic and health crisis in our life time.
In a time and place like this, what is the status of your temple?
Is it bustling with noise? Worries?
Or is the primary function solemness, and quietness filled with encounter and awe for our eternal one true god?
Jesus is still consumed with zeal for the House of the Father
Hebrews 13:8
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
In the most noisy and godless city of the world, during one of the most trying time of our lives, the Lord is longing for His Temple.
To become a solemn place where He can meet with us daily.
Exodus 20:5
5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
James 4:5
5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?
He is longing for us, consumed with zeal, jealous for us. How will we respond today?