Jesus Takes Charge - Cleanses the Temple

For the redeemed in Christ Jesus. This morning, we are going to be in John chapter two. John chapter two, and we'll begin reading in verse verse yeah. Just a moment. In verse 12.

John chapter two. We have been studying a gap. What does that mean? Studying a gap? A gap in the synoptic gospels.

What is contained in John chapters two, three, and four is not recorded in Matthew, Mark, or Luke. It contains ministry in both Judea and in Capernaum and in Galilee up north. We met his first disciples here at the end of John one and John two, Andrew, Simon, Peter, Philip, Nathaniel, also called Bartholomew, and John himself. Last two weeks ago, we took a trip with him up to Cana in Galilee where he performed his first miracle turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. Today, we'll see in verse 12 when we read it in just a moment that he stayed in Cana in Galilee for a time, particularly in the city of Capernaum before he then had to travel back down to Judea for the Passover.

So, look if you would in verse 12. After this, he went down to Capernaum. He and his mother and his brother and his disciples and they continued there not many days. So a few days, a week or two, I do not have the exact time frame in Capernaum. This is a little town we'll talk more about later on the shores of the Sea Of Galilee in the North.

Verse 13, and the Jews' Passover was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. If you know a map, Jerusalem is South of Capernaum, but in the Bible, it always speaks of going to Jerusalem. It always speaks of going up. Okay? Up not being a matter of north or south.

And The US were commonly say, well, I'm I'm going up to Virginia. You're going back down to Florida or something to that thing. But in Israel, you always go up to Jerusalem for two reasons. One, because well, it's on top of a mountain and so it is it is somewhat up to the city of Jerusalem but mainly because the temple was there. It's the place, God's holy city, the place he had chosen for his temple to be built and so you went up to worship who?

You went up to worship the Lord. So, they always go up to Jerusalem. Back to the passage, verse 11, and found in the temple as he went to Jerusalem, Jesus found in the temple those that sold sheep, oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting. The changers of money, those were the exchange money exchangers, foreign exchange. You if you came to Jerusalem from other places, you may not have had the money that was required to be used on the temple, mainly shekels and other things.

And so you had to exchange your money. And so there were money exchangers sitting there, and you came and you exchanged whatever currency you had, and then you could purchase what you needed there to be used in sacrifice for the Passover. Verse 15, and when he had made a scourge of small courts, he drove them all out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changers' money and overthrew the tables. And he said unto them that sold doves, take these things hence. Make not my father's house an house of merchandise.

And his disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Then answered the Jews and said unto him, what sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.

When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them. And they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for your word today. Thank you for what you did in this passage to remind us of who you are, of your authority, of your holiness, and the one which we worship and serve today.

Lord, we pray that you would work in our hearts that your word would not return void. And if there be any here today that have yet to receive the risen savior, Jesus Christ, as their savior and Lord, we pray that today indeed might be their day of salvation. In Jesus' name, we do pray. Amen. So three things from the passage this morning.

We have Christ's brief sojourn in Capernaum, followed by the cleansing of the temple, followed by his prophecy concerning his death and resurrection on the third day. So let's go back to his brief move to Capernaum. As we mentioned, Capernaum was a city on the shores of Galilee where Christ would eventually make which Christ would eventually make his headquarters in Galilee. It was convenient for a number of reasons, commerce. There was a lot of commerce on the Sea Of Galilee and with nations to the north.

And so it was a place of commerce. There were much people, and the people somewhat moved in and out, and it gave you opportunity to reach people you wouldn't otherwise reach. It was the home of a number of his disciples. Several of them were fishermen from on the Sea Of Galilee. It was near Nazareth where he grew up, just a few miles to the west in the middle of the Jezreel Valley.

West of the Sea Of Galilee was where the town of Nazareth was, maybe about a day's journey from Capernaum. As Christ's ministry comes back to Galilee, many things will happen there. And so we'll come back to Galilee a little later, and we'll learn more about Christ's ministry in Galilee, the northern part of Israel. But now, we're going to move back down to Judea where the city of Jerusalem is, where the temple is in verse 13. Again, we read the Jews' Passover was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Christ left Galilee for Jerusalem to attend the Passover. As commanded, instructed in the law, which Christ did first at age 12 as recorded in Luke two, and for the first time here during his ministry, though he certainly did so in between in obedience to the law. All males were to come from age 12 and up to the place that God signified. Here, it is the Lord made it clear since the days of Solomon, that place was Jerusalem where Solomon's temple was built. Later, a temple was where the temple was rebuilt when they returned from exile with Zerubbabel and Joshua and and Ezra.

And and now where Herod had extensively completely rebuilt and added on to the temple there in Jerusalem. That's the the forty six years that they refer to there in the passage. In Deuteronomy six one through 16, we read about the command that was given for them to go up and to observe the Passover at this place. Observe the month of Habib and keep the Passover unto the Lord thy God for in the month of Habib, the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. Three times in a year shall all the males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose in the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, the feast of tabernacles, and they shall not appear before the Lord empty.

The feast of unleavened bread is the same as the what? As the Passover. It's extended actually several days, a week that surrounded the Passover feast there, which not only as you go back in Exodus twelve thirteen and fourteen was the tenth plague that delivered Israel out of Egypt, but also it is typical symbolic of the sacrifice of Christ and his salvation of all who put their faith and trust in him who shed his blood on the cross of Calvary. In order to not in order to save, to deliver the firstborn of Israel from the judgment, the tenth plague on the firstborn, Each Israelite had to take a a lamb, had to kill the lamb, shed its blood, put it on the doorpost of their home, and then eat the lamb as a a part of the Passover feast. And this, the Jews were called to do year after year after year in remembrance of God's delivering them out of Egypt, but also foretelling, foreshadowing the coming of the lamb of God, as John put it, who would take away the sin of the world by his death on the cross to deliver us all from the judgment.

That is the the judgment passed over the firstborn of Israel in Egypt that night. God's judgment passes over all those who have put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to save them from their sins. And so this Jesus did according to the law and he traveled back down to Judea and to the temple. The priest and others, when he got there, he saw were taking advantage of the sacrificial needs of the people. They had moved sales of animals for sacrifice onto the temple grounds and they were making an ungodly profit in more ways than one.

So, when people came to celebrate the Passover, families needed a lamb or an alternative if you were to pour a dove in order to make the sacrifice there to celebrate the Passover. And so a lot of them did not travel with animals in tow. And so when they got to Jerusalem, what did they need to do? Well, they needed to purchase a lamb in order to fulfill their obligations for the Passover. That in itself was not wrong, was not evil, and the sacrifice did cost them something.

And as David put it in at the end of second Samuel, I will not offer to God that which cost me what? Nothing. I will not do that. Indeed, a sacrifice is only a sacrifice if it cost you something. Obviously, Jesus' sacrifice cost him everything that we might be saved and redeemed.

It was not that they sold animals. It's where they sold animals. It's how they sold animals. That is the issue here that angered Christ when he saw it. And so he gathered some loose straps, may have been used for bringing in the animals, and he made a scourge and took several straps, ropes together.

And with it, he chased out the sheep and the oxen. He overturned the money changers tables, cast their money across the Temple Mount floor, and he told the owners of the doves to get out. You see, it was not just that they were selling, it was a, where they were selling. They had moved their sails into the courtyard on the Temple Mount. They had moved it into what's called the Court Of The The Gentiles.

This is not the inner court. They wouldn't have anywhere near enough room to be selling this stuff in the inner court where the sacrifice was actually made. They were in what's called the outer court or court of the Gentiles, and there, they had turned it into a busy marketplace. And so even on the temple bound itself, things had become more about the marketplace atmosphere than it had about who? About God, about Christ, about the sacrifice that was to be made.

It had been commercialized. Ever heard that term before? Maybe in reference to something like Christmas in particular or the bunny rabbit for Easter. And it had been become commercialized and in particular, in the on the mount of the temple, it was taking place. And and Jesus said, my father's house is not to be a place of merchandise.

Not only that, but those who were selling, particularly the money changers, were making a killing on the money exchange. See, you can you can give what is actually honest and equal in currency or you can, you know, give a little less than the money you get and make people in the end pay what? Pay pay more. And so not only were all the merchandise up there in the the courtyard of the temple where they didn't belong, but also they were fleecing their own people. They were charging more by use of the money exchangers than they needed to be, and everybody was making a lot of money and everybody was happy, but who?

But Jesus was not. Jesus was not happy. And I expect a lot of people that showed up to celebrate the Passover were not happy because they weren't getting honest dealings on the sacrifices. And so this is what Christ became incensed about and decided that he was going to do something about it. He was going to drive out those who were defiling the worship of God and the house of God with their filthy lucre as it is called later in in the New Testament.

What is significant about Jesus' actions here? Two things in particular come to mind. Number one, it is significant because Christ took authority over the sacred use of the temple, identifying himself as the son of God and the Messiah of Israel. Jesus took authority over the sacred use of the temple. Now, who in particular probably was considered the authority when it came to the use of the temple?

That will probably be the high priests, the high priest and the priests under the high priest. They were responsible to see that the worship was carried out appropriately honoring the Lord. Were they doing that? Apparently not. They were not doing that.

And so Jesus took charge. Jesus projected authority over even the what? The high priest on the temple as he did that which the high priest was unwilling to do. He said, it is my what? My father's house.

In doing so, he is identifying himself as the son of God, as God the father in heaven, also conveyed at his baptism when he said, this is my beloved son in who I am well pleased. The problem was it was how they treated and used the temple of God, their manner of worship refer which reflected on the name and the character of God himself. It was his house. His name was on that house. It was his place in Israel.

It was the place where he dwelled among the people, where he was to be honored and exalted for who he was and is. And they were not treating it with the respect and honor that the Lord was due. Because mainly, they were only concerned about their what? Their wallets and not concerned about the God that they worshipped. God, as we discussed in Sunday school this morning, is very concerned about the way his name and reputation are regarded in the world.

Matthew five sixteen, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and, what, glorify your father which is in heaven. Said this before, if the only reason God saved you was to take you to heaven, where would you be? You'd be in heaven. But you're not in heaven. God's got a purpose for you where?

Here. What is your purpose? That you might shine your light that others may see your good works and do what? And glorify your father, which is in heaven. The Jews, Israel, had that responsibility, particularly in the Old Testament and leading up to the sacrifice of Christ, and they did not do a very good job.

Time and time again, God had to rebuke them. God had to chastise them because they were not bringing glory to the God whose name they claimed. And God was very unhappy and Christ was very unhappy. The Messiah was very unhappy because the house that was supposed to be there to honor and worship him was being used for other purposes. Christ could not just stand by while the sacred house of worship consecrated to the purpose and the name of God was being defiled by those who claim to represent him.

John refers here back to Psalm to a Psalm in which God said, for the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. We call this a messianic reference in the Psalms. There are several of those. It's Psalm sixty nine nine. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me.

It was fallen upon Jesus to do something about what was going on in the house of God and the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who is alluded to here in this passage was actually declaring who he was by taking charge of his house, his father's his father's house. A zeal which Christ did now demonstrate in his actions, verifying him to be the Messiah and the son of God and taking upon himself the authority to do so. In a manner of speaking, he cleansed the temple. We sometimes call this the cleansing of the temple. It happened twice.

It happened here at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, and he did it again near the end of his ministry after his triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. In Malachi three verses two and three, it says this concerning the Messiah. It says, but who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap.

And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Jesus is demonstrating in a small way here in John what he will do when he returns one day at his second coming, when he will be the refiner of Israel and of all the world. He's he divides the sheep from the the goats. And only the sheep enter into the what?

Only the sheep enter into the kingdom of heaven. Only those who have put their trust in Christ as demonstrated by their love and care for one another. Jesus is going to return one day, and he is going to harvest the wheat and burn up the tares. It is his prerogative. It is not ours.

No. What is our prerogative? To go into all the world and what? And preach the gospel. That others might be saved, that they might become the children of God.

That on that day they might shine in the glory of the Lord as they enter into his care and into his kingdom. That is our responsibility. The judging is his. Praise the Lord. I don't have to be the judge.

I get to be the messenger and not the judge. I'm thankful that the judge is one who is merciful and loving and kind, who gave his life for the sheep. And he won't get it wrong. He won't get it wrong. But one day he will return, and he will drive out all that defiles from his kingdom as he drove out the defilers on the temple grounds that day.

We see a similar zeal for God in the words of David who could no longer stand by while God was being blasphemed from the mouth of Goliath in first Samuel 17. As Goliath came down in the valley every day and blasphemed God day after day after day. Nobody did anything, but finally David heard it. And David said, isn't anybody gonna do anything? God's name is being blasphemed and ridiculed.

So David did something about it as Jesus did. Verse 45 then said David to the Philistine, thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom thou hast defied. This day, will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand? I will smite thee and take thine head from thee, and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day until the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth that all the earth may know that there is a god in Israel. David wasn't willing to just sit back and do nothing as his God was being blasphemed.

He said, I have to do something. And in a matter of speaking, God was also being blasphemed by the commercialism, by the dishonesty, by the fleecing of his people, by those who were supposed to be caring for them and leading them that day. And so he did something about it. If in anything we should become angry and take a stand, it should be the name and reputation of our God, our Father in heaven, our risen savior, as Jesus showed us here. Sometimes we need to do something about it.

Years past, fundamental, evangelical, bible believing Christians in regards to particular politics were called the silent majority, and they should have never been the silent majority. We should have been we should have been taking a stand. We should have been speaking out. We should have been defending the Lord and his word. It doesn't require us to to to make a scourge and go after people.

It's simply by by raising our voice and saying, no, that's not right. No. That's not right. No. The Bible says this.

No. God is like that. Let me tell you about Jesus and what Jesus would think about that. But, no, too often we were the silent majority, and we weren't the light that we should have been. And we see the results in our society today in part due to that.

Jesus was not going to be silent. No. And as it is, him being the Messiah and the son of God, he had every right to do what he did. Number two, he exposed the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of the day and set a precedent regarding religious worship that does, to some degree, apply, I think, to the church. The religious leaders who should have been overseeing the righteous use of the temple and observance of the Passover were either disinterested in doing so or were directly involved in defiling the temple to pad their own pockets.

Ezekiel and Jeremiah warned that this would come to be the case. Here we read in Ezekiel, as I live, saith the Lord God, surely because my flock became a prey and my flock became meat to every beast of the field because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherd search for my flock. But the shepherds fed themselves and fed not my flock. Therefore, all ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Ezekiel foretold the shepherds, the leaders, the priests of Israel would fail, the people.

They would be concerned mainly about themselves and not the flock. And this indeed is seen here in what was going on in the temple grounds. Praise God. There is a great shepherd. There is the true shepherd, Jesus Christ the Lord.

And when others fail, he will not. Sad to say, there are so many believers out of church today because their pastor, their deacon, their teacher failed them. And that's sad because Jesus did not fail them. They need to be in church. They need to find a place of service with an assembly of believers.

They need the fellowship. Yes, humans will fail, but Jesus deserves better because he never fails. He is the good shepherd, the true shepherd, and the head of the church. Furthermore, Peter and Paul warned the early church not to appoint or follow leaders in the church who were obviously fond of money and self serving. The church is not a business, it is a ministry.

And while money is necessary, it is not the point nor it should be the driving motivation behind church ministry. Yes, we need money to keep the lights on and and for other obvious reasons. But the church isn't a business. It's not about gaining profit. It's about saving souls.

And so Paul warned Timothy and so did Peter about leaders, pastors in particular, who were more concerned about their own gain and profit than they were the flock that they served. First Timothy three three, I'm just gonna read them quickly here. I don't have them on the screen. First Timothy three three, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre. The word lucre means money.

But patient, not a brawler nor covetous. That is qualification for a pastor in first Timothy three eight concerning deacons. Likewise, must the deacons be grave, not tumble tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre. In Titus one seven, Paul writes, for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre. First Peter five two, feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint but willingly, not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind.

The church is about the business of winning souls, not the business of hoarding and gaining profit. Now, we need money. Yes. But we get that money through the free will offerings of God's people, not through selling things from the church for profit. We do not have church yard sales or rummage sales or pancake dinners or fish fries for the public to fund the church.

If we have a fish fry or a dinner, it will be what? Free. Because it will be for the purpose of ministering to our community, not what? Making money off of our our community. If you would like to have a yard sale and contribute money to the church, that's wonderful, but we're not doing it in the parking lot out here because I just don't wanna send the wrong the wrong message.

Nor do we sell church calendars, directories, or raffles, or caffeinated beverages in the foyer. Now if if you wanna set up a coffee pot and come and put coffee in it on Sunday morning so you can have some in the fellowship hall, more power to you. That is great. But we're not selling it. We're not selling it because it isn't about.

It isn't a store. This isn't a mall. It's a place where God's people gather to worship the Lord. We support this ministry through freewill offerings as Paul instructed in first Corinthians six two. Upon the first day of the week, let everyone of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.

In the first day of the week, that would be Sunday, let everyone of you lay by him in store as God hath what? Prospered him. Let there be no gatherings when I come. And that's how the Lord supports his men. And by the way, the Lord supports his ministry quite well.

I've been here twenty years. I've never worried about being able to pay my mortgage payment. I've never had to worry about whether I was gonna have food on my table. The Lord has taken good care of me and by the way, the Lord's good taken good care of this property and of this church. And he's done it through the hard work and giving of his people, not through sales.

So that it can be clear that we are here to win souls to the savior, to baptize them in the name of the father and the son and the holy ghost, and to teach them all things whatsoever God hath commanded us to do. The great commission, Matthew 28. We must be about our father's business and not the business of some out there who claim to be serving the Lord as they live in their three mansions and their yacht and fly around in their two planes and whatever else they may have. And then finally, Christ finished this passage making a reference to his death and his and his resurrection. If you see in verse 18, it says, then answered the Jews and said unto him, what sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?

In other words, they're saying to him, by what authority are you running these people out? By what authority are you turning over the the money changers? Who gives you the right to do that? Show us a sign. Because obviously, he's claiming to have authority even over the high priest, which would therefore question, is he the Messiah?

Is he the son of God? You show us a sign. You you tell us by whose authority you do this. Verse 19, Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple and in three days, I will raise it up. Then said the Jews forty and six years was this temple and building.

Wilt thou rear it up in three days? And he spake, but he spake of the temple of his body. So they said, by whose authority you do this? And he referenced what? He referenced his resurrection.

His resurrection would be the final and ultimate proof of who he is, the son of God, who will foretell of his death, his three days in the grave, his resurrection from the grave on the third day as he declared ahead of time. In John chapter three, as we'll see later, he said he he references Jonah, the sign of Jonah. As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. No. He wasn't talking about the temple, though.

I do believe he left it ambiguous on purpose to keep them guessing as to what he meant. But later on, the disciples would remember, oh, yes, he said. Because he wasn't talking about the temple grounds. He was talking about himself, that temple. And by the way, if you're here today, you are not the son of God as Jesus was, but you are a child of God if the Holy Spirit lives within you.

If you've been born again, you are also the temple of God. You don't have to come to this building to worship God because God is with you wherever wherever you go. You can be a testimony for Jesus Christ. The key, the final sign would be Jesus' resurrection from the grave because only God can do that, And no one could deny that. Now the Jews would try to buy off the guards to go and say that the disciples had stole his body as many sadly still believe to this day.

But we serve a risen a risen savior who, by the way, is fully capable of rebuilding the temple in three days if he so desired to do it. But what he wants to rebuild today is you. He wants you to become his temple. He wants you as a believer, a born again believer to shine your light that others may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. It's not just about this property.

It's about the people that come to this property. This is not the temple you are. And God wants us to be magnified in this place, but God wants to be magnified wherever we go for we always do represent him. And we're also reminded in Romans ten nine and thirteen that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in thine heart that God hath what? Raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Only a risen savior can save your soul. Have you come to him in faith? Have you been born again? Have you received therefore his spirit?

Are you a child of God and his temple today? If not, you can become all those things if you'll just respond to his call. We'll sing a hymn of invitation in just a moment. If the Lord has spoke to your heart, please come. I'll meet you right down here.

Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you. The reminders in your word today that you are the son of God, that you do have the authority to judge the temple, the church, and one day the world. And we thank you, Lord, that you will judge in righteousness and holiness. And we thank you for your sacrifice and our opportunity to be saved and to know you.

We thank you, Lord, for this place that you've given us, for these people, for this flock, Lord, of the redeemed in Christ Jesus that gather here. And I pray that in this place together, we might glorify your name. And I pray as we leave this place and go out into the world, we who are the temple of the Holy Spirit as we're told in first Corinthians chapter six, purchased with a price, the blood of Jesus Christ would be a testimony to the world of your love and grace, your holiness and righteousness and mercy. And we pray most of all, if there's one here today that's yet to receive Christ as savior, that they might come as we sing this hymn of invitation today and receive forgiveness and eternal life. And the only one, the lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who can take away the sin of the world.

In Jesus' name, do pray. Amen.