John 2:13-22 - Why Do You Believe?

As we open God's word tonight I want us to remember why John has written this gospel to us. We want to keep this theme as our overall back drop of what John is communicating to us. As we progress through this Gospel we are going to see this theme occur over and over again and tonight will be no different. Let us turn in our Bibles to remember what this central theme is:

Please open your Bibles to John 20:30-31. 

30  Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 

31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. 

So that we may believe that Jesus Christ is God and we may have life only through Him because there is no other way then through Him.

But why do we believe in Jesus Christ? Have you ever really thought about it, what is it about Jesus that made us believe in Him? Is there good evidence in what He says and what He has done? Do I believe because my parents made me go to church, do I believe because I think it is better than other religions? Why do we believe in Jesus, instead of Muhammad, Buda, Joseph Smith or any other religious leader? Are they all valid choices, just different ways to get to God? 

What authority does Jesus have that I should believe anything He says? Why should I put my faith and trust in Him alone over any of those other religious leaders?

The last few weeks we have seen men who dropped everything in their lives to follow after Him. We saw Jesus calling each of His disciples and each of them responding in different ways. Some of them needed a little more convincing than others but Christ sought after each of them and they believed. 

And last week we saw Jesus giving His very first sign that He is who He says He is, and that was at the wedding in Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine. He demonstrated to His disciples that He is God and He has super natural power. John 2:11 tells us why He turned water into wine, it was to demonstrate His glory, that He is the true Messiah and the result was this, His disciples would believe in Him. This is it God demonstrates His glory and our faith is confirmed by what He has done. If Jesus only said He was the Messiah but His life didn't demonstrate it His followers probably would have fallen away. But as we see through His miracles His disciples are convinced and they believe. 

We don't get to see these exact same miracles that Jesus performed but we get to read about them and we get to see other miracles that are just as amazing. All we have to do is look at our own lives and see the miracle that Jesus has done in our hearts. [Sarah Ortel, witness on Facebook]

Lets open our Bibles and turn to John 2:13 and read to verse 2:22.

John 2:13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 

John 2:14 And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.

John 2:15 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; 

John 2:16 and to those who were selling the doves He said, "Take these things away; stop making My Father's house a place of business."

John 2:17 His disciples remembered that it was written, "ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME." 

John 2:18 The Jews then said to Him, "What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?" 

John 2:19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

John 2:20 The Jews then said, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" 

John 2:21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 

John 2:22 So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. 

In Verse 2:13 we see Jesus heading up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. The Passover was celebration in remembrance of the Jews being freed by their bondage of slavery to the Egyptians. When the Jews were in bondage to Egypt God told them to sacrifice a lamb and place the blood on the door frame of their homes and when the Lord came to strike down the first born of every house it would pass by those who had the lambs blood on their door frames. This was the final plague/judgement on the Egyptians. After Pharaoh's son died he released the Jews from their bondage. Every year the Jews would celebrate their freedom by making a sacrifice at the temple and have a great feast to acknowledge how God had freed them from the slavery of the Egyptians by the blood of lambs.

Here is the irony of this situation. 

And who is going up to Jerusalem to celebrate this feast, as we have learned Jesus is THE Lamb of God who is going to take away the sins of the world. Here we have the final sacrifice, Jesus Christ Himself going to the city to celebrate the Passover. The Passover is just a mere shadow of the things to come. We have Jesus who is going to free people from the bondage of their sins. Just like the Jews in Egypt were in bondage. We have the advantage of looking back through corridor of time and know that Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice. He is the Lamb who is going to shed His blood for all those who believe. 

As Jesus makes His way to the temple what does He find? Does he find people preparing for this feast? Are they giving worship and reverence to God for what He did for them in the past? Unfortunately not, what did he find but them doing big business. He found a place of business not a place of worship and giving God glory. The house of the Lord was being abused by its leaders and Jesus is going to address this issue. There were no God honoring acts of worship going on but  what is happening...?

Verse 2:14 tells us

John 2:14 And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.

Well why would this anger Jesus? Jews had to travel great distances to get to the temple and it was impractical for most to travel with their animal sacrifices or maybe they were people who dwelt in the city who didn't raise animals. They needed to buy their sacrifices which would be fine but we get to the root of the problem. People were selling animals at exuberant prices. Have you ever been anywhere when you have no choice but if you want a bottle of water that should cost a buck and they are charging five for it. You know you are being ripped off you just have no choice in the matter. 

Then there were the money changers, every Jewish male over the age of 20 had to pay their annual temple tax. The temple would only take Jewish or Tyrian coins. So foreigners would bring their currency and the money changers would charge them as much as a 12.5 % fee so people could make their annual temple tax payment. 

Those in charge of the temple where ripping the people off. These are the men who are holly above reproach, who are to be representatives of God and they were taking advantage of the people. Jesus was angered and it a was righteous anger. 

How does Jesus respond? It is so different than how we perceive Jesus in the New Testament. Isn't Jesus full of love and forgiveness? I say yes of course. But isn't He the just Judge as well. Yes of course and we see this righteous Judge bring judgement to the people of the temple. I think of all the images that have been painted of Jesus and it seems most the time they show Him as this frail kind of wimpy guy. But I don't think Jesus looked that way at all. I mean He was a carpenter by trade, I think that He was strong and probably had calluses on His hands and He was not meek or wimpy but strong and bold. So what did He do? Look at verse 2:15

John 2:15 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; 

John 2:16 and to those who were selling the doves He said, "Take these things away; stop making My Father's house a place of business."

He clears the temple of unrighteousness and we have two groups of people who are watching all this go on. Let's talk about the first groups response. Watching in amazement are the new followers of Christ, His disciples. They saw His passion and his righteous indignation of God's Holy Temple being used as a market instead of place of worship. Here in verse 2:17 His disciples remembered that it was written, "ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME." 

This is a direct quote from Psalms 69 which is full of messianic prophecy about Jesus. Jesus was concerned for God's house and wanted no unholy activities to be taking place in it. He wanted it cleansed of all unrighteousness. The disciples were able to connect with what they saw with what was written about the coming Messiah. They see the connection they are being further convinced this is the Messiah, we believe!

The second group responds with a challenge. I can just hear the contempt in their voices for Him. The second group are the religious leaders, those who were overseeing the temple activities. Verse 2:18 tells how they respond. "who do you think you are?" John 2:18 The Jews then said to Him, "What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?" 

What is interesting to note here is that the Jews didn't have Him arrested immediately but they are looking for a sign from Him, maybe they saw the authority of what He was doing and they were wondering who on earth this guy is. 

Jesus responds with what must have seemed like a crazy response. NO one in that temple either the Jewish leaders or His disciples understood his enigmatic response. 

He declares destroy this temple and in 3 days I will raise it up!

What a response. It confounded the Jews it. It was a response to veil His statement of truth to unbelievers. It is the same way Jesus communicated truth in the parables He taught. The statement wasn't for the Jewish unbelievers but it was for His disciples and us as well. How glorious we get to understand this truth that they never understood. How did they respond?

John 2:20 The Jews then said, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" 

Woosh that went right over their heads. They have absolutely no idea what He was saying nor why. Even years later after Jesus was crucified and raised 3 days later they completely missed the point of Jesus' statement. It went right over their heads. 

John 2:21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 

No longer was anyone going to need this physical temple to perform animal sacrifices. Among them was the one who was the perfect sacrifice who would take away the sins of the world, Jesus Christ. This was a prophetic message that Jesus proclaimed His death and sacrifice were going to take place and in 3 days of His death He would be raised again. He promised and He fulfilled. 

This was the sign that He promised.

John 2:22 So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. 

Two groups were given a sign. One group never even saw it. The other group recognized the sign. 

They believed and in Him they found eternal life. 

John 1:1-5 Unveiling Jesus Christ

Well this morning I want to start things off a little different then we normally do. I want us to take some time right now and brainstorm and write down a list of items that we cannot control. What are the things in this world or things in our life that we cannot control?

Diseases
Natural Disasters
Death
Life
Results of my witness encounters
Health
My Genes
War
Famine
Weather
Evil People
Persecution
If my boss likes me
Plane Crashes
Nuclear Disasters
Terrorist
False Accusations
Racism
Hatred
People making fun of another person


Here we have this huge list of things we say we don’t have control over, things that are out of our hand, and things that we cannot change. But there is one who is able to control these things. There is one who has such amazing power that he can even use these things for good. There is One who never changes and we can always trust. The Gospel of John presents us with Jesus, the Man, who is God. This is the God who was and is and is to come. He is living today, and able to bring us new life as well as to exercise His own control over those things that are beyond us. There is nothing that surprises Him there is nothing that He cannot overcome. He is God. Jesus Christ is the God of all. This is who John is introducing us too, the God who is in control, the God who is Light, the God who gives Life. Do you believe this is true?

Many years ago the Apostle John took up his pen to write to us about Jesus Christ and he wrote the things he saw, the things he witnessed and the things he knew as truth. And when the Apostle John was coming to a close in his letter he wrote the following to us:

John 20:30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;
John 20:31 but these have been written (Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit I write these things to you) (For what purpose?) so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. John wrote this Gospel so we may have life in Jesus Christ.

John’s written Gospel is unique from the other 3 synoptic Gospels that were written to specific audiences in Jesus’ time. Matthew was written to the Jews and he wanted them to see Jesus as the King, behold our King. Mark was written to the Romans and he wanted them to see Jesus as the willing Servant, behold the suffering Servant. This is why Mark’s Gospel contains no genealogy because no servant had a genealogy that mattered. Luke was written to the Greeks and he wanted them to see the humanity of Christ, behold the man. Finally, John’s Gospel was written as a universal Gospel to present the deity of Christ, behold your God. John’s purpose is to unveil the Man, Jesus Christ, and to reveal Him as God! He is not half man and half God but He is fully man and fully God. He is the light unto this world and He is the author of life, not just physical life, as we will learn but that of spiritual life as well.

John unveils that Jesus Christ is God.

Like any great author, John is going to introduce us to the main protagonist of his book. However, this is not a book of fiction this is not some make believe story but this is the account of the God Man, Jesus Christ!

John is going to unveil one incredible fact about Jesus Christ. It is a simple truth that all of us have heard, Jesus Christ is God, all of us know this fact but the real question is do all of us believe? Does my life really demonstrate that I believe Jesus Christ is God? (Go BACK to the Whiteboard Do I believe God is in control of) Have I put my faith in trust into this God Man? Or are you like me and you question whether you believe, am I really sold out for Jesus Christ?

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2 He was in the beginning with God.
John 1:3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
John 1:5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John begins his Gospel so different than Matthew or Luke who introduce us to the genealogy of Jesus. But John begins his Gospel unveiling Jesus Christ as God, the everlasting eternal God and He explains that he has always existed. In verse 1 we see Jesus called the Word and have you ever thought to yourself why does John call Jesus the Word. He is the only author who uses this term for Jesus.

Well there is a good reason and it has a two-fold meaning. First to the Greeks the term “Word” referred to the rational principle that supervised or governed the universe. The idea to them that there was some sort super power that controlled all things and they would philosophize that this being had a mind, had reason and had power.

To the Jew the term “Word” was a reference to God. We see this in the very beginning of Genesis that God created the universe by His Word, He spoke everything we see into existence by His Word. We see His power, His will, His mind directed towards men through His Word. John was communicating to his contemporaries that Jesus Christ is in control of everything and He is God. It is brilliant!

In the beginning was the Word and John is telling the Greeks you know that power you talk about, that thing that controls the universe, it is Jesus Christ and He is God. And to the Jews John is telling them you have been looking for this Word, the Messiah, and here He is Jesus Christ, He is God.

John continues in verse 1… that Jesus was with God in the beginning. They have eternally coexisted with one another for all of eternity. There was never a time when Jesus Christ did not exist. The Father, the Son and the Spirit have always existed together for all of eternity. There was no beginning for them but there was a beginning for us and they existed before that beginning.

We call this the doctrine of the Trinity, 3 distinct persons who make up the Godhead. I know trying to wrap our head around that fact can be really difficult and we are not going to dive into this doctrine but here is a perfect place were we see the distinct personhood of the Father and the Son.

John has told us that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and he concludes in verse 1 that the Word was God. They are one in the same. They are different persons but they makeup the One True and eternal God. The Word is literally God; Jesus Christ is God in body form. He is the perfect revelation of God. Jesus tells us Himself; if you have seen Me you have seen the Father, I and the Father are one.

Then in the 2nd verse, John reiterates so simply what he has already told us. He wants to make sure we understand this really incredible fact in such simplistic terms. Jesus Christ was in the beginning with God.

John unveils Jesus Christ is God. Do you believe?

He continues in Verse 3
John 1:3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

John tells us all things came into existence through Jesus and nothing apart from Him came into being. Everything we see the entire creation around us, even the things we don’t see like, love, gravity, thoughts, and feelings were all created by Jesus Christ, apart from Him nothing came into being.

Jesus Christ is the uncreated, who created all things. We know there is a God because all I have to do is walk outside and see creation around me. There is no denying this simple fact because God says His creative power demonstrates His existence. However, many people have denied God’s existence.

Listen to what Paul writes in Romans 1 about the creation and no man has excuse to deny John1:3.

Rom. 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

Rom. 1:21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Rom. 1:22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,

I was listening to a Podcast the other day by Greg Koukle, a Christian apologist, and he was having a discussion with a Biochemist Dr. Fuz Rana who has written a new book Creating Life in the Lab. And essentially Fuz Rana said that within a few years man would create life in a test tube. When you hear man has created a brand new life form does that create a problem for us? Is that going to shake the core of your faith? When you read in the newspaper one day and across the headline it says man creates life, there is NO God. Does everything we believe in crumble? Has man created something from nothing? We tell our kids God has made everything and my son looks over at a car and says He didn’t create that did He? And I tell him He did, not directly but He created our minds and provided the raw materials for it so in essence He did. But what about man creating a new species of bacteria, does that disprove a creator?

Absolutely not all it does is confirm what John is telling us in this gospel.

John unveils Jesus Christ is God. He is creator of all! Do you believe?

How does man creating a living organism demonstrate there is a creator? Because these men who have been working on this project for 12 years plus PROVE that you can only create life with intelligence. Life did not happen randomly like an evolutionists claim but to create life it takes a DESIGNER! These men have spent hundreds of thousands of hours to create the basic cell structure it takes very specific ways of aligning the DNA, proteins and molecules to create the basic structure. Its like the fictional challenge the Scientist make to God. We can make life just like you. They take a bucket of dirt and gather their materials to make life and God says what a second you don’t get to start with dirt you need to start like I did with nothing!

John unveils Jesus Christ is God! Do you believe?

And we come to verses 4 and 5 let me read them again to you, because it is so rich.

John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

John 1:5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

These two verses really articulate John’s entire message in his Gospel. Jesus Christ is life, and if we were to look up the Greek word here we would see that John is talking about spiritual life, He is telling us God is self-existing He is the Life, there is no life without Him neither physical nor spiritual. It is through His life that we may obtain spiritual life, that we can spend an eternity giving glory to our God.

The life was the Light of Men, here we see that Jesus Christ and His Gospel message is the truth and knowledge for all mankind. It is a common metaphor that John uses to demonstrate the truth and knowledge of God. This is why God came down to earth to give us the knowledge and truth of who He is.

This Light, Jesus, shines in the darkness. The God of everything was willing to enter His creation and continues to be actively involved in demonstrating His truth and His Holiness to this dark world, and the darkness did not comprehend it. Or a better translation would be and the darkness did not overcome it. Jesus Christ has conquered this dark world He has shed Light for all men to see, for all men to comprehend it, for all men to believe in Him.

Jesus brings light into this dark world; He brings His Truth and His Life. We go back to our whiteboard and we see these things that we have no control over. We see tragedy, we see despair, we see evil people; we see the darkness of this world. But there is a light, there is truth, there is someone who is Holy, and He has come to give you life, what an amazing God we have who was willing to give us His Light and His Life and darkness can never overcome it.

John unveils Jesus Christ is God! Do you believe?

John knew He was God, John walked with Him, John saw His miracles, John saw Him crucified and John saw Him resurrected. John unveils Christ is God.

There is only one question left for you today. Do YOU believe this fact? Not in some theoretical knowledge but do you believe with everything you are, that Jesus Christ is God? How does this work out in your life? Are you willing to give up everything for Him? Are you willing to do anything and everything He asks of you? If He is God and we believe this fact and we place our trust in Christ then we will answer with a resounding YES! We are on a mission to discover this Truth through the book of John in the coming months!

See, we live in a world full of darkness, full of things we have no control over, but there is One who has come to show you the light, the truth, and to give you life, do you believe?

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 3:19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
John 3:20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
John 3:21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

John unveils Jesus Christ is God! Do you believe?

If you say yes does your life demonstrate that fact?