Happy Easter to all of you, and we are so glad you are here this morning.
Ever since Watergate that took down the 37th President of the United States, scandal and corruption stories often end with the word” gate” as a result. There was Nannygate, Deflategate, Grannygate, and Spygate. I invite you to find John 2 with me this Easter Sunday morning as we focus on Jesus’ actions at TempleGate.
A Nebraska woman was arrested just one month ago because she used a gas pump glitch to get over $27,000 in free gas. A 45-year-old woman discovered that if she swiped her rewards card twice, the gas pump went into demo mode and gave out free gas. Not only did this lady use it herself, but she also had another woman pay her $500 for 10 fill-ups. In all, 510 times in six months, with multiple swipes on the same day. It’s also estimated that 7,413.59 gallons of gas were pumped, bringing total losses to $27,860.27.1 From gas pumps to payoffs of police officers, corruption has always been an insidious problem.
And lest you think corruption is isolated to pay-offs in remote towns in Nebraska, Eric was only 13 years old when he delivered a plain white envelope containing a $50 bill to the chief of police in Paterson, New Jersey. While the chief wasn’t there to accept the “gift,” it was only a couple of hours later that Eric’s father and his business received an order for 50 staplers. 50 staplers were more than enough for the 20 employees at the police station. Eric tells the story better than I could, “The money wasn’t a ‘bribe.’ It was a ‘Christmas gift’ (which, under city law, was also illegal). Most public officials liked my father. They realized that he could not afford to give as much in ‘gifts’ as our major competitor, who owned a much larger store and was wealthier than my father. A sign of good faith, a little spending money, was all he needed to get far more city business than the competition. Yet he knew that if he forgot the holiday, business would not flow our way.”2
I want to tell you a story about corruption that ends with a resurrection. Corruption has always been a problem. Our story is three years before the first Easter, and it is a story of religious corruption. It involves power and corruption, and at the center of it is Jesus Himself. While corruption concerns us, I want you to watch for a powerful prediction and a promise where Jesus tells us, “I will rise,” that not only solves corruption but gives us tremendous hope.
Today’s Scripture
“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 nd needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man” (John 2:12-25).
Jesus makes a specific prediction of His death and resurrection on Friday, April 7, 30 AD. He would be crucified around three years later on Friday, April 3, 33.3
Today, we are going to look at probably the most angry that Jesus ever got. This is probably the most shocking picture of Jesus in the New Testament when He literally cleaned house. In the middle of Jesus’ anger, He shows the purpose of Easter.
1. I Will Not Have It
“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.’” (John 2:14-15).
1.1 Anger
You have to get pretty mad to manually make a whip of cords spontaneously. The thunder in His voice and the lightning in His eyes must have been terrible. This gentle, meek, lowly, turn-the-other-cheek Lamb of God is driving everybody out from the temple with anger and fury. This is next level anger. But that’s exactly where Jesus was.
Religious corruption made Jesus see red, and His veins popped out on His neck. His eyes were dilated, and His blood pressure was raised.
1.2 Passover
The Passover was the spiritual Mardi Gras for the Jewish people. Once a year, no matter where you lived, if you were Jewish, you had to go to Passover in Jerusalem. When Jesus walked in, He would immediately have seen thousands of people buying and selling animals at dozens of locations and dozens of foreign currency money changers. Some people estimate the permanent resident population of Jerusalem was only 80,000 people, but during the major feast days, Jews came from all over the world. The population during those feast times is estimated to be around 300,000 to 500,000 people.
Jesus stands in silence, just watching what is going on for a moment or two. The Disciples may not have seen it, but Jesus is a ticking timebomb. In a moment, tables are overturned, coins are flying everywhere, and animals are running wild.
1.3 The Temple
A word about the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple was considered to be the very dwelling place of God Himself.
1.3.1 The Size of the Temple
It’s difficult to overestimate the importance of the Temple in Jesus’ day. Work on rebuilding the Temple began a half-century before our story, just as His critics respond in verse 20.4 Around 11,000 workers worked on the Temple at the time of Herod’s construction.5 The rebuilding process was not complete in Jesus’ day, for it would go on another 3 decades before it was finished.6 To get a size of the Temple and its surrounding complex, consider this… The Temple complex would have roughly been the equivalent of 35 football fields.7 No expense was spared.
1.3.2 The Purpose of the Temple
This was the place where God himself came down every year on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. When the high priest went into the Most Holy Place, carrying the blood of animals, and made atonement for the sins of the people, they expected God to come down. Every day, there was a morning sacrifice and an evening sacrifice.
The temple had come to represent for the Jews far more than any church building could mean for us today.
1.3.3 The Outer Court
Now, if you entered the temple through the first door of a series of doors, the first area you reached was the Court of the Gentiles or Court of the Nations. It was the only place where the non-Jews could go. It was the biggest of the divisions of the temple. This was the place where all the business operations of the temple were set up. Oh, my goodness. What an operation it was! The historian Josephus tells us in one Passover week one year, 25,000 lambs were bought, sold, and sacrificed in the temple courts. If you’ve seen photos of our financial trading floors, then you know how tumultuous and loud this might have been.
1.3.3 The Convenience of Buying Local
Yet, you can imagine the convenience of buying your animal to sacrifice near the Temple. Imagine if you loaded up your family to walk or ride on the backs of animals days all the while you are lugging sheep or oxen under your arm all this time! So, believers waited until they arrived in Jerusalem to purchase their sacrifices. Now, a cottage industry grew around the Temple, where they would take your currency and convert it to the currency accepted by the Temple.
1.4 Jesus’ Problem
As Jesus is forming His homemade whip, you may be thinking, “What’s the problem?” The problem wasn’t the currency or the purchase of the animals but where it was taking place. They were doing business in a place where prayer and worship should take place. This was the place where the Gentiles were supposed to find God. This is where they’re supposed to be praying. This is the place where worship and biblical teaching were supposed to take place. Again, Jesus’ problem was that the Temple had become the equivalent of the New York City Trading Floor. No one could worship with the equivalent of a marching band playing in the middle of the Temple.
1.4.1 Second Temple Cleansing
You know that Jesus cleansed the Temple twice, don’t you? He cleansed here on Friday, April 7, 30 AD, and He would tackle the problem again on Monday, March 30, 33 AD. He did it twice. He cleansed the Temple twice. The corruption was deep and entrenched.
It’s fascinating and sad to observe in the Gospel of Mark that when Jesus ran the moneychangers out of the Temple the second time, it was right then and there that His enemies resolved to kill Him:
“And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching” (Mark 11:18).
1.4.2 Worship Resumes
I love what happens immediately after Jesus runs the moneychangers out of the Temple 3 years later. Immediately upon clearing the Temple the second time, the Bible says, “And he was teaching daily in the temple” (Luke 19:47). Problem solved, and worship had resumed.
Matthew records that Jesus ran the money changers out in order that the people’s needs were cared for: “And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them” (Matthew 21:14). So Jesus was not just cleaning house, He was clearing the house so that those outside the house could get inside the house. It angered Jesus that now God’s temple was being used for mercenary business, rather than a missionary business.
1.5 What If Christ Came to Your Temple?
Let me pause and ask you a serious question: what if Jesus were to come to your heart right here, right now?8 What would He find?
Pause.
It’s easy to sit in church and have our minds and hearts filled with shopping, playing, and daydreaming rather than praying, worshipping, and Bible study. Our hearts can be just as corrupted as the Temple was so many years ago. Corruption and cleaning up corruption are at the heart of Easter. God gave us Easter to restore worship, and to free us up from religious corruption.
1. I Will Not Have It
2. I Will Rise Again
“Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’” (John 2:19).
Jesus makes this powerful prediction. Jesus is speaking of His body here and His eventual resurrection. Jesus makes this provocative statement that people will twist against Him.
2.1 Who Do You Think You Are?
At the moment Jesus cleanses the Temple, He’s asked, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” in verse 18. They said, in effect, “Prove to us you have the authority to do this.” This is a “Who do you think you are?” kind of question. At one level, these Jews, temple authorities, had the right, indeed the obligation, to challenge the credentials of someone who would act like this. “You say your God’s Son, then show us a supernatural sign to prove it.” They are still picking up coins off the floor and rounding up animals when Jesus says, “You want a sign. Here’s your sign. When my body is destroyed, and I will rise again. That’s your sign.”
2.2 Did You Hear What I Said?
At this time, no one really understood what Jesus was saying. The rulers never understood it, and the Disciples only began to understand it after the resurrection (John 2:22).
I wonder how many times you have misunderstood Jesus because you are privately angry with Him for not conforming to your plans. If our minds and hearts are corrupt, it’s easy to get angry at Jesus for NOT giving us the life we wanted.
2.3 Misquoting Jesus
At Jesus’ mockery of a trial, they will quote and misquote Jesus’ words to condemn Him. Remember, friends, that it was on Good Friday where they were searching around for anyone who lied about Him in court. Finally, 2 guys came forward who heard Jesus say, “I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands” (Matt. 26:60–61; Mark 14:57–59). Sure, they misquote Him, and they misunderstand Him. But it’s these very words that drive the spikes in His hands.
2.3 An Invitation to Find Out
Many of you know the New Testament was written in another language and translated into English. The original construction of Jesus’ words in verse 19 here was like He was daring them. 9 Jesus is inviting them in verse 19, “Destroy me, and you’ll see your sign.
It’s an invitation, really.10 Jesus dared them to find out what would happen if they destroyed Him: “Destroy this temple [and when/if you do], and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19b).
Do you remember the Mexican government sent a request for their canon to be returned at the Battle of Gonzales in 1835? Do you Texans remember what the response was? “Come and Take it” is still plastered everywhere. They were daring them to take the canon back.
Jesus dares them to destroy Him. He dares them to enact their evil plans because His plan to redeem the church is predicated on their evil plan. He’s playing chess when they are playing checkers!
2.4 Jesus Repeatedly Predicts His Resurrection
Marvel with me that Jesus repeatedly predicts His own resurrection. Just 48 hours before the crucifixion, Jesus said, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified” (Matthew 26:2). Less than 24 hours before His crucifixion, Jesus said, “But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee” (Mark 14:28). I counted around 20 predictions of His death and resurrection when I combed through the gospels this week.
Jesus predicted His death and resurrection so many times that there’s even a Wikipedia page dedicated just to the topic.
Does it enhance your Easter to know Jesus repeatedly predicted His death and resurrection? Does it make you pause and consider the enormity of Jesus’ claims that He repeatedly predicted His death and resurrection? Each time, Jesus is saying, “Tear it down, and I will raise it up.” “Tear it down, and I will raise it up.”
2.5 He’s Playing Chess When Everyone Else Is Playing Checkers
You know, when He dared them, you can see that He knew what they were planning to do before they knew. You know, when He invited them in verse 19, you can tell He had planned for their betrayal. Jesus was playing chess, and everyone else was playing not checkers but an evil version of Candy Land! He was so far out in front of everyone! He had all this planned before the first people walked this earth.
2.6 His Enemies Heard These
It was all His plan all along. Recall that even those who mocked Him used His predictions against Him while He was on the cross:
“And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, ‘Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!’” (Mark 15:29-30).
Jesus repeated these predictions so many times, that even His enemies heard Him: “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise’” (Matthew 27:63).
Had His enemies now heard His repeated predictions, the tomb would not been secure. Had the tomb now been secure, then the claims of a stolen body would rob us of the joy of Jesus’ resurrection today. He is alive because He planned it!
1. I Will Not Have It
2. I Will Rise Again
3. I Can See Through You
“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” (John 2:24-25).
3.1 Jesus Knows There’s Corruption in You
But Jesus doesn’t just see corruption in the Temple on this day. He could see in the people as well. And He can still see it in us all these years later. The Bible says that many were willing to believe in Him because of His signs, or His miracles. Still, Jesus can see through such false “belief.” If belief were a pool of water, then their belief would have been a puddle. If belief were patriotism, then they would have Benedict Arnold. Jesus scans the crowds, and He knows what is inside humans. Jesus can still scan the crowd. He read them, and He can read us. And He sees the corruption in us. Let me show the skeptics.
3.2 Corruption Perception Index
When we discuss corruption, one of the most interesting things I have found is the Corruption Perceptions Index. This is an interactive map, so when your mouse hovers over a nation, you see their corruption score. Denmark is ranked the highest with the least corruption. With Somalia is ranked the most corrupt. America is ranked as the 24th least corrupt nation out of the 180 nations of the world. Corruption is everywhere.
3.3 “Firing” God
Here’s corruption, if you call on God for a sign, the miracle of extending your life or giving you a new job. Let’s say the job fizzles out, and you’re not happy with your extended life. Do you demand God for a new sign from God? A better sign? A young lady told me that one of her parents was murdered, and she finally forgave God. Now, it may have been a slip of the tongue. But she struggled with God because of the death of her father. Would you still follow Christ even if you most loved family member passed away “early”? Following God only because of signs is like having God as your employee. You say, “I used to believe in God, or maybe I still believe in God, and this happened to me, and that happened to me, so I have little use for a God who just won’t even listen to my prayers.” You have God on retainer when you follow God only for signs. When God fails you, you effectively fired God for a bad performance. Some of you have quit on God because you don’t like His agenda. Let me confront you with a truth: if you fired Him, then you had God on retainer; you weren’t seeking God. He didn’t come through for you because you hired God to accomplish YOUR agenda rather than HIS agenda.
Corruption is in all of us. And religion alone will not remove it. Most of you know this because young people's faith in institutions of all kinds is at an all-time low. According to Gallup Polls, around 2 of every 3rd person trusted in the church when I was born. Now, trust in the church hovers around 1 of every 3rd person.11
3.4 Stained Glass Windows
Years ago, I was pastor of a sizable church, and I was dealing with a large purchase. It was a replacement of some stained-glass windows. As we brought the decision of how to fix these damaged windows before the elders, I remember thinking the decision would take no more than a minute. I was wrong. Oh, was I wrong. What I thought was a quick decision became a long discussion of why we would take our business to another nearby city when a local vendor was close by. I was discussing the whole thing a few months later as we rebid the job with a local vendor. That’s when a friend told me, “Scott, don’t you see what is going on? This one guy is bringing the church’s business to the local vendor, one of his best friends?” I was about 31 at the time, and I said, “No big deal.” My friend said, “Scott, making it local added about $100,000 to the price of fixing these windows.” Again, young naïve Scott said, “No big deal. Insurance is paying for this.” My friend said, “Scott, where do you think insurance gets their money for such an increase?” I thought for a long moment. I finally said, “Well, when the church pays the premiums.” Then it dawned on me that eventually, the insurance company was going to pass along the $100,000 increase to the church, the people who paid the bills when the plate was passed. Still, I thought, “OK, I’m not from this local town, and if they want the local vendor to get the money, I am sympathetic to that, even though I think it’s a waste of money.” That’s when my older, more experienced friend lowered the boom, “Scott, you know that local vendor has already told us that he’s going to have the work done by the original vendor outside of his own. They very one we priced for $100,000 less.” As shocked as I was by all of this, my friend continued, “I bet the local vendor and the elder will split the profit.” You could have picked me up off the floor, “I said no way! There’s no way an elder of a church would act like that.” But as soon as I said it, I knew I was wrong. I knew I was naïve, and I’ve never forgotten the lesson of how evil even people inside the church could be.
3.4 A Corruption Eliminator
The corruption isn’t just in the Temple. The corruption is every single one of us. Religion WILL NOT rid you of the kind of corruption that Jesus sees in us. Only the cross and the resurrection will remove corruption. The cross of Jesus is the ultimate corruption eliminator.
3.6 The Curtain Temple Was Torn
Jesus’ actions may have stopped the sacrifices for 30 minutes or maybe an hour. But the Bible records Jesus went back home after cleansing the Temple a second time. And no doubt, the moneychangers set up shop back in the Temple again the next day. No matter how long it stopped, it was a preview of things to come. But I love this part. Jesus put a stop to corruption on the cross.
“Because the Bible says when Jesus breathed His last, “It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two” (Luke 23:44-45).
Jesus told the whole world right then and there, the Temple was no longer needed. He’s now the place and the person we worship. Jesus is the full replacement of the Temple. The death and resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate Temple cleansing.
So many people worship in a building, but worship is really worshipping a Person. The cross of Jesus is the ultimate corruption eliminator. I’ve got good news for you today, Jesus rose again from the grave. YOU CAN PLACE YOUR FULL TRUST IN JESUS CHRIST; HE WILL NEVER, EVER LET YOU DOWN.
3.7 Do You Believe?
You aren’t ready to live until you are ready to die. You are not ready to die until you are ready to meet God. You are not ready to meet God until you know Him as your Father. You do not know Him as your Father until you become His child. You do not become His child until you are born again into His family. You are not born again into His family until you receive His Son, Jesus Christ, by faith. Simply, God becomes your Father when you become His child, but you only become His child when you receive His Son.12
EndNotes
1 https://www.kktv.com/2024/03/08/woman-uses-pump-glitch-her-advantage-stealing-over-27000-free-gas-police-say/; accessed March 31, 2024.
2 Eric M. Uslaner, Corruption: inequality, and the Rule of Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 1-2.
3 Harold W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ (Grand Rapids: Zondervan 1977), Kindle edition.
4 Herod’s work begin in 20/19 B.C. “Temple,” Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, ed Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight, I. Howard Marshall (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 812.
5 Joachim Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus: An Investigation into Economic and Social Conditions during the New Testament Period (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969), 22.
6 Ibid.
7 “According to the Ritmyers’ recent study of the archeological remains, the Temple Mount retaining wall measured 1,590 feet on the west, 1,035 feet on the north, 1,536 feet on the east and 912 feet on the south; it thus approximated a rhomboid equivalent in area to thirty-five football fields.” M. O. Wise, “Temple,” in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, edited by Joel B. Green and Scot McKnight. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992.
8 R. Kent Hughes, John: That You May Believe, Preaching the Word. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1999), 69.
9 Leon Morris, The Gospel according to John, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 175.
0 Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of John: A Commentary & 2. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2012), 529.
1 https://research.lifeway.com/2023/07/13/americans-trust-in-the-church-remains-near-historic-low/; accessed March 31, 2024.
2 This entire section is from Pastor James Merritt: https://www.sermonsearch.com/sermon-outlines/124320/in-gods-hands-7-of-7/#; accessed April 6, 2022.
