You Better Believe It: This is for Everyone Who believes.

Jesus Cleans Up

ANCHOR VERSE

John 20:30–31 ESV

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Reading Portion

John 2:13–25 ESV

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 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. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 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. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

Other Gospels

Matthew 21:12–13 ESV

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

Mark 11:15–17 ESV

And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”

Context: We are in a continuation of the second chapter of John depicting Jesus’ arrvial into Jerusalem. This moment is recorded in all 4 gospels, however the writer of John positions this in the beginning of his gospel, whereas every other gospel positions it at the end of their writitngs. There are two main thoughts, 1, John wrote this in the begginning for thematic and cinematic purpose. 2, there were actually 2 occasions where Jesus walked into the temple to flip tables, LOL.

Setting: This was all happening during the Passover. Passoever is in reference in Exodus 12:26-27 where God instructs the people of Israel to keep the service of passover in rememeberance of God’s faithfulness to Israel. Exodus literally instructs the Jews to observe this and to pass this down into their kids.

This means there are a lot of people when Jesus rolls up to the temple. To give you an idea, all the men in the area attended 3 major ceremonies Pentecost, Feast of Booths/Tabarnacles, and Passover. So many were gathered at the gates.

This is the time in which Jesus enters the tabarnacle to flip things. Literally and metaphorically.

Jesus fights for us.

Jeus was sent to save us from our condition of sin. John references it as darkness and the right to become children of God.

John 1: 9

Jesus came with a purpose to redeem us to God, but this meant a reordering of the house of God.

Jesus walked into the temple and was angry. He saw the injustice of buying and selling. He witnesses extortion of the weak and poor.

He took action by flipping over the tables. However we may think he did this in a fit of anger, but Jesus premedidated this. v.

He fights for the gentiles

2. Jesus is the Passover Lamb.

-The time is important to note.

-He is talking about destroying the temple and raising it up in three days.

-It was during the passover of the Jews that Jesus walks into the temple. A time where the Jews were observing God’s salvation of the people of Israel.

-Jesus is the blood of the lamnb that saves Israel, and now he has come to be that blood that covers all people that come to Him.

-Not only that but he points to a sign of the resurrection. That is the sign to believe.

3. This is for you and I but also for the people that we don’t consider.

-to consider the stranger as your family.

-This is for the clean and the unclean.

-This is for all who believe.

Romans 10:9 For if you delvare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and blieve in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

-There is a story that Jesus tells

Luke 16:19–31 ESV

“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”

-to consider those that we don’t consider.

The perspective of the one we find to be strangers.