John 2: The Proof of Jesus' Authority

Intro

Series Intro

Objective: To see how Jesus framed His death and resurrection. What did it mean? How did it change everything? And how does it change us?

Last year: “Atonement: Your King Victorious” - looked at passages from Old and New Testaments to see how God reconciles sinners to himself in the cross.

This year, looking at four places, all in the Gospel of John, where Jesus tells us about the purpose and result of His death and resurrection.

The first one is here, in John 2.

John 2 intro

In our Advent and Christmas series for 2020, The Light Breaks Through, we looked carefully at John chapter 1. John’s Gospel opens with those famous words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God."

John tells us that Jesus Christ did not begin His existence in the womb of Mary. In eternity past, before the creation of anything at all, the One God was Father, Son, and Spirit, and John introduces the Son as the Word. Everything - every created thing - was made by God through the Word. And so, for our salvation, verse 14 says, the Word became flesh and dwelled among us in the person of Jesus. He made the Father known to us, and He brought eternal life to us through His substitutionary death on the cross. Understanding Jesus as the Word, the Life, the Truth, and the Son here in the Gospel of John have helped us immensely in our study of the letter of 1 John.

And here in chapter 1, we read that John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus to be the Lamb of God, and

John 1:29-34 - baptism of Jesus, John declares

John 1:34 ESV

34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

Next day, JtB calls him “the Lamb of God” for second time. Andrew and his brother Simon Peter leave JtB to follow Jesus

Next day, Philip, Nathanael - Philip declares that he is the One whom God promised to send in the OT; Nathanael calls Him the Son of God, the King of Israel

Third day, chapter 2 opens up with a wedding in the town of Cana of Galilee - water into wine - “the first of his signs” by which Jesus manifested His glory, and his disciples “believed in him” (v11)

Returns to Capernaum for a few days, Galilean town where Mary his mother lived.

Then, as today’s text begins in v13 - goes up to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. Matter of obedience to the Law - everyone required to be there - John’s Gospel mentions three Passovers by name, which is one reason we know that Jesus’s public ministry lasted for at least parts of 3 years

This Passover: Jesus goes into the Temple and finds something that should not have been.

I. Jesus claims the temple (13-17)

Look at verses 13-17.

Jesus’s actions are often called “the cleansing of the Temple.”

The other Gospel writers relay a similar event at the end of Jesus’s ministry, just a few days before his crucifixion. Many writers believe that the Gospel writers are all talking about one, single cleansing of the Temple. They say that the Gospel writers feel freedom to arrange material topically instead of chronologically. And that’s true to a point - only Luke tells us that he’s giving us a somewhat-strictly chronological account. But there’s a difference between feeling a certain amount of freedom to group things together topically and moving something to the complete other end of the history. None of the Gospel writers would have told us that Jesus was raised before he was crucified, for example.

And the details and conversations and results are quite different. It’s better to see this as the starting point of Jesus’s confrontation with the unbelieving Jewish leaders that reaches a crisis point when Jesus returns to cleanse the Temple again. In today’s text, the leaders completely dismiss Jesus, thinking they’re heaping shame on him. When Jesus returns to Jerusalem the final time, and all of Jerusalem knows that He has raised Lazarus from the dead and it seems the whole world is going after Him, they can no longer treat Him as an annoyance, but instead they deal with Him as a threat.

So what was going on in the Temple on that day?

In order to fulfill the Old Testament’s commands concerning the worship of the LORD, Israelites had to provide specific animals for sacrifice. Oxen, sheep, and pigeons are named here, the animals used for burnt offerings, peace offerings, and sin offerings. But the Law also recognized that not everyone could bring their livestock all the way from home, so it was permissible to sell a sheep at home, and buy one in Jerusalem to offer.

Look in verse 14 and the word “money-changers.” According to the book of Exodus, every Israelite over 20 years of age had to pay what was called the Temple Tax, which was a small amount - just half a shekel - to support the regular ministry at the Temple. But you couldn’t just bring whatever coinage you had and give it. The Law specified the weight of the half-shekel, and it had to be pure silver.

So it was a matter of necessity that Israelites coming into Jerusalem have a way to buy acceptable sacrificial animals and acceptable half-shekels.

So Jesus comes into the Temple and sees these things, and verse 15 tells us that he took some ropes or rushes and improvises a whip. Now, I was a normal boy growing up in Texas, so I naturally had more than one bull whip. If you asked me what’s crackin’, I could show you. Jesus almost certainly didn’t make a whip he could crack - he made a whip he could smack animals with. To get ‘em moving. And you know as well as I do, animals know what to do when you treat them the way they’re used to. Oxen and sheep follow clear direction and strong leadership, to an extent, and so pretty soon the livestock are gone.

Jesus is just getting started. He dumps the money-changers’ coins on the floor and turns over their tables.

Now the guys with the pigeons are still standing there, and Jesus turns to them and says, <<READ v16>>

Notice how Jesus overturns more than the tables. He overturns human assumptions in that one sentence. “Who does this guy think he is? He can’t just go and drive my oxen out! He can’t just come along and act like my sheep are his! That’s my money he just dumped on the floor. “

And Jesus says, “yeah, but it’s my Temple. Because it’s my Father’s house.”

Before they moved into the Temple, they used to sell their animals just a short distance further away. And Jesus is not objecting to commerce across the street.

If you came home to find me holding a garage sale in your driveway, you’d have every right to toss my old Counting Crows CDs and Hawaiian shirts out on the street.

Jesus says, “Do not come into my Father’s house and act like you own the place.”

And in verse 18, we’re told that this reminded them of Psalm 69:9 - a Psalm that David wrote. In its original context, “Zeal for your house has consumed me” pointed to the fact that David’s love for God and for God’s priorities led God’s enemies to hate and persecute David.

But when Jesus claimed the Temple and asserted His Father’s priorities, it earned him the shame and hatred of those who opposed God’s Kingdom. The sad irony is that the enemies turn out to be the ones who should have been most zealous for the purity of the Temple.

Apply:

I want to raise a question right now that we’ll come back to shortly: What ceases to be true if the Father’s house becomes a house of trade?

What do the moos and bleats of animals and the clinking of coins drown out? <<PAUSE>>

Look in verses 18-22, our second point

II. Jesus gives the only possible authorizing sign (18-22)

Explain:

As you can imagine, there was a difference of opinion on the subject at hand.

Verse 18 tells us that Jesus’s actions are challenged by “the Jews,” which is John’s general reference to Jewish leaders - probably some of the chief priests and scribes. And they ask him a bit of an odd question <<READ v18>>

If they just tried to kick him out, or demanded an explanation, that’d be one thing; that’s what we’d expect. But the demand for a sign indicates that they already know that Jesus is doing signs.

But if their question is odd, Jesus’s answer is a little surprising, too.

Because what kind of sign could prove that a Galilean from the tribe of Judah has a right to disrupt what’s going on in the Temple in Jerusalem?

<<READ v19>>

This is actually the only sign that could authenticate Jesus’s claim.

No one - not even the disciples - understands at the moment, though. The Jews’ reply in verse 20 is a stinging dismissal. The original temple was built in Solomon’s day, and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. The second temple took years to build after the Jews returned from exile. Then about 20BC, Herod the Great began a massive renovation project that was still going on long after his death, and here we are, 46 years into that project - around 26 or 27 AD. And so, they scoff. They heap shame on him.

It really would be an impressive sign. To reproduce a decades-long, government-sponsored building project in less time than it takes to build a tree house. And Jesus could have done it. After all, as the Word Made Flesh, He was the one who spoke the universe into being. He upholds the universe by the working of His power. He invented the astonishingly complicated molecular machinery of protein synthesis that happens in every single living cell non-stop. He could rebuild a building with a word.

But even that impressive sign isn’t what Jesus is offering. Instead, this is Jesus’s first prediction of His death and resurrection.

Nobody understood that at the time, not even his disciples. <<READ vv21-22>>

So, why does Jesus refer to His body as the temple, and how does his death and resurrection prove that he has authority to kick the livestock and moneychangers out?

The answer to the first question gives the answer to the second.

The temple is the place where God promised to meet with His people. It was His house in the midst of their houses. It was the stationary replacement of the Tabernacle, the portable tent sanctuary that the LORD had commanded Israel to build for their wilderness journey in Exodus.

When Solomon built the first temple, the LORD said to him,

1 Kings 6:12–13 ESV

12 “Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. 13 And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.”

But the Temple was not a church. There weren’t temples in every town, or even every country. There was only one authorized place in the entire world where anyone could come to worship God in a way that was acceptable to Him.

The Temple taught Israel that if a sinner is going to approach the holy God, then they must do so according to his holiness. And that meant that the worshiper’s sin must be atoned for, and atonement required a spotless sacrifice.

And imagine the affront to the holiness of God, that instead of walking into His house leading your sacrifice, the oxen and sheep are lined up there in the courtyard, mooing and bleating, and you’ve come in with your money, you’ve passed that first threshold and walked into HIS COURTS with no sacrifice as if you can buy forgiveness.

But the Temple itself was a shadow. A picture in Jerusalem. John 1:14 says,

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” - the Greek word for dwelt literally means “tabernacled” - The Word became flesh in order to be the true tabernacle, where God dwells in our midst. Jesus is the true Temple.

John 1:14 ESV

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus is God the Son dwelling with His people. And as John the Baptist said, Jesus is also the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

The true Temple and the true atoning sacrifice, the true light was standing there in the midst of the shadows that day.

And the sign that proves it is that the Jews will destroy the true temple and slaughter the true Passover Lamb when they crucify Jesus, and on the third day, He will step out of the grave.

His death and resurrection prove that Jesus is who He says He is. That He is the Son of Man, sent by the Ancient of Days to rule and reign. The Son of God, with whom the Father is well-pleased. The only-begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. The promised one, the Messiah.

His resurrection proves that His death was the true Passover, the true substitutionary death, the true atoning sacrifice, that can reconcile sinners to God, just as the LORD had promised in the prophets. As the prophet Isaiah had promised, the Lamb of God was our atoning sacrifice:

Isaiah 53:6 ESV

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Two weeks ago, I said that both the Old and New Testaments declare that the Messiah, the Christ, is the eternal God who took on human nature, and that the answer to sin is His substitutionary death and resurrection.

Here in Isaiah 53, more than six hundred years before Jesus walked into the Temple, we read that the LORD’s plan for our salvation was the substitutionary death and resurrection of the Messiah. The Messiah, the Christ would bear his people’s sins, so that they would be counted righteous because of his righteousness.

Isaiah 53:10–11 ESV

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

The Father’s words at Jesus’ baptism were, “This is my beloved Son; with Him I am well-pleased.” Those words are powerfully enacted when the stone is rolled away from the tomb. It proves that Jesus was charged with a mission by the Father, that Jesus was sent to die for us, that Jesus had authority over His own life - to lay it down and take it back up, as He says in John 10:14-18, which we’ll see next week.

As Paul says in

Romans 1:1–4 ESV

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

The resurrection is the sign that proves that He is the Son. And that means the Temple is His Father’s house.

Is there any other sign that could have demonstrated that He had the right to kick out the traders?

Every other human who ever walked into those courts came in as a guest, only welcome because God invited them in. The men who demanded a sign thought that they had more right to stand there than this man, the Son of Man. But He alone, in all of history, in all of history, walked into that Temple not as a guest, but as the Lord of the House.

All the Jews could have called the Temple “OUR Heavenly Father’s house,” but only Jesus could call it “MY Father’s House.”

Even Moses, who went in and out of the Tent of Meeting at God’s regular invitation, went in as a servant. But

Hebrews 3:1–5 ESV

1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later,

And verse 6 begins, “But Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son.”

That was a lengthy exposition, but it sets the stage for us to think about some far-reaching implications - we’re going to close with some applications, because:

III. Application: Jesus Is Lord of more than the Temple

Begins with a question: What else does Jesus have authority over?

WORSHIP: Look at Jesus’s words again in verse 16: <<READ 16>>

What ceases to be true if the Father’s house becomes a house of trade?

If you bring the Father’s priorities into your business, then your business is serving the King. But if you bring your business into the Father’s house, then you’re polluting his house.

In John 4, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well, <<READ John 4:21-24>>

And Jesus, the True Temple and the Lamb of God, tells us in John 14 <<John 14:6>> - The only worship that is acceptable to God is to come to the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

Christ has authority over the CHURCH: And this means that we must worship Him in the way that He has commanded - in holiness, in Spirit, and in truth.

Christ has authority over ALL CREATION: If the Temple is His, then His Name is above every name, above every power. Go anywhere in heaven, hell, or the cosmos, and He is Lord there.

He has all authority over JUDGMENT: Righteousness, justice, goodness, and love - His Name and nature define them all. And that means that what He declares to be good we must never call evil, and what He calls evil we must never call good.

He has authority over LIFE and DEATH and FORGIVENESS:

He is the only one who can give life, and He numbers our days.

Acts 10:40–43 ESV

40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Because Jesus has authority to lay down His life and to take it back up again, He is able to give eternal life to you, too.

He has authority over your HEART:

1 Pet 3:15 tells us, “In your hearts, honor Christ the LORD as holy.”

Look back at verses 17 and 22 with me as we answer another question: How does Jesus’s death and resurrection transform how we read the Bible?

Various points in life where God connects dots for the believer and opens up Biblical understanding in dramatic new ways.

But the first one, the one that starts the whole process of coming to understand the Scriptures, is coming to know Jesus, the Resurrection and Life. Believing in the Resurrection is the single most important key to understanding all of Scripture. That doesn’t mean it makes the Bible simple.

It’s like the door to the Secret Garden.

The Scriptures are closed to us until the Holy Spirit breathes new life into us. But once we enter by faith, we find a new world of discovery.

The apostles remembered Jesus’s words, and after His Resurrection, they believed both His word and the Scriptures.

The question is: Do you?

The Temple in Jerusalem was the place where the LORD, the God of all the universe, had chosen to set His Name. If Jesus is LORD of the Temple, then He is Lord over all.

John 1:10–13 ESV

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Jesus’s words ring out clear in verse 19: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”