FROM THE TEMPLE TO THE TOMB
Notes
Transcript
FROM THE TEMPLE TO THE TOMB
FROM THE TEMPLE TO THE TOMB
HERE WE ARE AT EASTER CELEBRATING THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS THE KING. BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
WE'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THE REALITY THAT GOD'S PURPOSE IN CREATION WAS TO DWELL WITH HIS PEOPLE.
HIS INTENTION WITH HUMANITY WAS THAT WE WOULD PARTNER WITH HIM, AS HIS IMAGERS, IN EXTENDING HIS RULE AND REIGN THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.
GOD MADE EDEN HIS DWELLING PLACE, HIS TEMPLE, AND PLACED ADAM AND EVE THERE AS PRIEST KINGS WHO WOULD LEAD MANKIND IN WORSHIP OF GOD AND THE WORK OF GOD.
WHEN THEY "FELL" THEY WERE REMOVED FROM GOD'S PRESENCE BUT GOD DID NOT GIVE UP ON THEM.
THERE IS ONE BEAUTIFUL OFTEN OVERLOOKED DETAIL IN GEN 3:
21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
THINK ABOUT THIS:
GOD COVERS THEIR SHAME. TO DO SO, AN ANIMAL MUST BE KILLED, BLOOD MUST BE SHED. A LIFE IS GIVEN FOR THEIR LIVES.
THEY ARE CLOTHED IN FLESH.
NOW LISTEN AGAIN TO JOHN 1:14:
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 COMES "IN FLESH" AND REVEALS THE GLORY OF GOD. THE GLORY THAT HAD BEEN IN EDEN.
THE GLORY THAT HAD COME TO THE TENT/TABERNACLE.
THE GLORY THAT HAD DWELLED IN THE FIRST TEMPLE (SOLOMON'S).
THE GLORY THAT HAD NOT RETURNED TO THE LATTER TEMPLES HAS NOT APPEARED "IN FLESH".
JOHN IS PRESENTING JESUS AS THE NEW TEMPLE.
13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.
15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.
16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”
17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”
21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
AS WE SAW LAST WEEK JESUS CLEANSED THE TEMPLE BECAUSE IT WAS NO LONGER FUNCTIONING AS A TEMPLE.
IF WE HAD TIME TO WALK THROUGH THE ENTIRETY OF JOHN WE WOULD SEE THAT HE SHOWS JESUS DOING EVERYTHING THE TEMPLE WAS MEANT TO DO. GOT TIME FOR ONE QUICK EXAMPLE:
REMEMBER THE WOMAN AT THE WELL IN JOHN 4?
HERE'S THE CONTEXT: JESUS IS PASSING THROUGH SAMARIA. GETS HUNGRY. SENDS DISCIPLES INTO TOWN. WOMAN COMES OUT TO DRAW WATER. JESUS TALKS TO HER. SCANDALOUS. JESUS SAYS HE IS THE LIVING WATER. SHE WANTS SOME. JESUS REVEALS HER NEED BY REVEALING HER STORY.
19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
THE SAMARITANS WORSHIPED ON MT. GERIZIM. THE JEWS IN JERUSALEM.
“Our ancestors” refers back to Abraham (Gen. 12:7) and Jacob (Gen. 33:20), who built altars in this region. Mount Gerizim was the site where the Israelites were blessed by Moses (Deut. 11:29; 27:12). The Samaritans held that many other significant events during the patriarchal period were associated with Mount Gerizim.
JESUS' ANSWER IS THAT WORSHIP WILL NOT LONGER BE GEOGRAPHICALLY BASED.
INSTEAD OF GOING TO THE TEMPLE TO MEET WITH GOD YOU CAN GO TO JESUS.
1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
3 So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb.
4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.
6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there,
7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.
8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;
9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
10 Then the disciples went back to their homes.
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb.
12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.
13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”
14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).
17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.
FROM BROKEN SIGNPOSTS BY N.T. WRIGHT:
In John’s prologue, remember, the Word became flesh and tabernacled in our midst. That is the point to which John now returns. In the wilderness Tent, the very center, the holiest spot of all, was in the innermost part, the Holy of Holies. And there, instead of an “image” of God, was the “covenant box,” the ark of the covenant, a chest containing the tablets of the Torah. The lid of the ark was the “mercy seat,” the place where God had promised to come, to meet with his people. This was the space that, once a year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest entered to be in the presence of Israel’s covenant God. This is what John now appears to have in mind. At either end of the mercy seat, carved gloriously out of the same gold as the covering itself, were two cherubs (Exod. 37:6–9)...Now John takes that image—the angels at either end of the mercy seat, the place where God would meet his people in beauty and grace—and tells us that now Israel’s God has, in Jesus, met with his people once and for all. He has set up his Tabernacle once and for all and has launched the new creation for which the wonderful Tabernacle itself was simply an advance sign:
This is all about new creation. It is the “first day of the week”; not all translations put those as the first words of the chapter, but that’s how John wrote it. And he repeats them when describing the evening in v. 19. The work of the previous “week” has been completed, and now new creation can and will begin.
There are echoes of the prologue—the early light, the new life, the invitation to be “children of God,” and above all the “tabernacling” presence of the incarnate Son. And, with that, there are the strong echoes of Genesis. In the scene of Jesus and Mary in the garden, this “daughter of Eve” is supposing that this “son of Adam” is the gardener, as indeed he is. He is now making all things new. He is doing so in himself, as the first fruits of new creation. Through his new authority, he is bringing new creation to life all around him.
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—
2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—
3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.