What is going on in Church? John 2:13-22
That is probably the question Jesus asked himself when going to the Temple and seeing the things that were going on. What is going on in the church? Jesus doesn’t see what should be going on but he sees what should not be going on. He sees injustices such as no praise, no souls saved, wrong inhabitants, no real mission.
1. Jesus enters the Temple
• Even at the age of 12 Jesus knew the necessity of being in church.
• John 7:14 gospel shares, "Then, midway through the festival, Jesus went up to the Temple and began to teach"
• Even today Jesus shares how much he loves the Fathers House
2. Jesus once he entered the temple, he acknowledges the injustices going on the temple
• This church temple was not giving God worthy praise. Jesus wants our praise listen:
• Luke 19:37-40 As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting: BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest! Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, Teacher, rebuke Your disciples. But Jesus answered, I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!
• Another injustice was the Temple is supposed to be a soul saving station. The temple was doing injustices to lost souls
• John 2…18The Jews then said to Him, "What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?" 19Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 20The Jews then said, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"…he was talking about his body to be the sacrifice for sin, he would become the soul saving station.
3. Once Jesus acknowledge the injustices he "drives out"
• He drives out Those that sold sheep, oxen, doves, and the money changers.
• Jesus want drive out sin in our lives so we can be dead to sin but alive to God.
• Paul writes …11Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.…
• Jesus also wants to drive out the inhabitants consider what God desired of Israel. "'But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live.
• What inhabitants are in us that need removed or driven out Hatred,
4. After Jesus sees the injustices, he drives out, and then overturns tables.
I think Jesus want us to turn over everything to him
I think Jesus wants us to turn over our church our lives to him.
• If we would turn our church over to Jesus here would be our mission.
• The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Local churches provide the most significant arena through which disciple-making occurs.
• Why do we believe in The mission of the UMC because it is Scriptural "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you" (28:19-20), and "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. . . . And you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (22:37, 39).
• When we turn our lives and church over to Jesus the following mission happens
• John Wesley, Phillip Otterbein, Jacob Albright, and our other spiritual forebears understood the mission in this way. Whenever United Methodism has had a clear sense of mission,
• God has used our Church to save persons, heal relationships, transform social structures, and spread scriptural holiness, thereby changing the world. In order to be truly alive, we embrace Jesus' mandate to love God and to love our neighbor and to make disciples of all peoples.
