Dakota Community Church
March 15, 2009
Cleaning House
John 2:13-22
When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!"
His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."
Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"
Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
“In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.”
This was not the first time Jesus had been to the temple in Jerusalem.
Luke 2:21-22
On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.
When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.
Luke 2:411-42
Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom.
Jesus was an observant Jew keeping the Law perfectly on our behalf.
He is now 30 years old and he goes to the temple for the feast as he has done every year of His life until now.
This time though He goes in as a man.
This time He has reached maturity and has the right to speak.
This time we see a side of Jesus the church wants to pretend does not exist; especially when dealing with unbelievers.
1. Jesus reveals His righteous anger.
John 2:15-16
So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!"
We don’t like to think of this side of Jesus.
Last week we saw him rebuke Peter calling him “Satan” and now we see him literally going postal on these temple workers.
Whether we like it or not God is God and He will judge all men according to His righteous standard without conferring with us for approval.
What about peace though? What happened to:
Luke 2:13-14
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
Isaiah 9:6
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
What about His own teaching?
Matthew 5:9
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
There is a difference between making peace and avoiding conflict.
My natural tendency is toward “playing nice” over enduring strife.
The avoidance of conflict, the ignoring of divisive issues; these do not result in peace.
A cold war stand-off is not peace.
Real peacemakers have to stir up trouble sometimes before peace can be reached.
I am not saying the other end of the spectrum is right either, some people are not looking for peace they just want a fight, but consider this:
Even in our own salvation before we have peace with God we have conviction of sin, repentance, and bowing to Lordship at the cross of Christ.
Galatians 2:11-21
When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
"We who are Jews by birth and not ’Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
"If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"
If we were there in the temple that day would we think this behavior was befitting the Son of God?
Jesus is showing us here His passion for all things sacred, he is showing us his justice on behalf of the victims of this world especially victims of religious systems, and he is showing His ability to carry out judgment and penalty for sin.
What did these temple service providers do to so enrage the passion of Jesus?
a) They took sacred things and treated them as common.
It wasn’t that they were selling animals for the sacrifice, those services were needed, it wasn’t that they were exchanging money, money had to be exchanged, the problem Jesus had with it was that they were doing it inside the temple. Think about animals indoors.
2 Chronicles 7:1-3, 12-16
When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled it. When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying,
"He is good; his love endures forever."
"I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.
"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.
Do we do this?
Our bodies, our words, our treatment of each other, marriage, worship, sacraments – Just asking
We, the church, are now the temple of the Lord, but I think we have lost something of value in not having some degree of sacredness attached to the place of worship, the place the saints gather.
b) They caused the people to despise the temple sacrifice.
They charged a temple tax that was the equivalent of 2 days pay.
The tax had to be paid in “shekels of the sanctuary” because Jewish coins were acceptable to God, foreign coins were not acceptable. The exchange rate was about 1 days pay.
The animals were for sale for temple sacrifices to the Lord.
The animals offered to the Lord are required by law to be without spot or blemish. A fee was charged to have a temple official inspect your animal.
Animals brought from outside the temple were almost always rejected as unfit for the Lord.
If the cost of 2 doves was $4 outside the temple the cost inside was $75.
Have you ever tried to work with government bureaucracy? You know the frustration, the powerless feeling that it generates.
During Passover at this time the population of Jerusalem would swell from approximately 50,000 to more than 180,000.
When Crassus captured Jerusalem and raided the temple treasury in 54 BC he carried off the equivalent of 5 million dollars without coming anywhere near to exhausting the supply.
Can you see how this would cause the people to begin to despise sacrifice?
The thing set up by God to make closeness to Him possible is turned into a source of resentment toward God because of the actions of His ministers.
Do we do this?
Membership, covenants, legalism, performance based approval – Just asking
c) They were motivated by profit and not service to God or the people.
Jesus made this point clearly to the disciples as we later learn in Peter’s writing.
1 Peter 5:1-3
To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
Do we do this?
Mansions, private jets, entourages, limos, multi site campuses – Just asking
(Video preachers are to pastoring what pornography is to sex, you feel like you’re getting it - but you aren’t.)
2. Jesus reveals the sign of His authority.
John 2:18-21
Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"
Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" But the temple he had spoken of was his body.
They were indignant but they didn’t just toss Him out. He was behaving in a manner that was very messianic. He was calling it His “Father’s house” and they wanted Him to prove His claim.
The rumors about Him would have reached them by now. So they ask Him essentially:
“What will you do to prove you are the Messiah?”
He answers without explanation and even the disciples don’t get it until years later.
His answer reveals the proof of His authority; then and still.
1 Corinthians 15:1-14
Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
The resurrection is the proof of Jesus’ claims and He lays it out there hidden in plain sight!
3. Jesus reveals the role of scripture.
John 2:17, 22
His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."
After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
Psalm 69:7-9
For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face. I am a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother’s sons; for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.
Here and throughout His ministry Jesus leaves us signs about how He is revealed.
Not by feelings.
Not by human logic.
Not by traditions of man.
Not even by the Spirit alone.
The scriptures are not a guide to life.
The scriptures are God’s method of revealing Himself to man.
Luke 24:25-27
He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ[b] have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Luke 24:30-32
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"
Conclusion:
What are we to do in response to the discovery that like the money changers we are guilty of treating the sacred as common?
What are we to do in response to any conviction that has come upon us as a result of God’s word?
1 John 1:8-10
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
Anyone want prayer?
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
