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.
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