John 2:13-22- Jesus- The Temple

John 2:13-22

Hebrews 10:1-10

Jesus: the temple

There have been some memorable speeches over the years!

Like Neil Armstrong when he landed on the moon for the first time- and as he took that first human step on the moon, he said

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

Or when Martin Luther king made his famous speech in 1963 in Washington, as he fought against the racism that was rife in America.

“I have a dream……”

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

Or when Maximus faced the emperor in the great Colosseum and the emperor asked who he was, and he replied:

My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the TRUE emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife.

And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.

And yet despite all those great speeches, there is none that match this short speech that Jesus gave at the temple court in Jerusalem about 2,000 years ago, which the apostle John wrote down for us right here in John 2 verse 19.

It was a speech that consisted of 12 words and yet had been thousands of years in the making.

“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up”

“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up”

Jesus had just stormed the outer courts of the temple, he had turned over the tables of the money changers, he had made a whip out of chords and drove all the animals out of the temple….money was flung all over the floor and then he turned to the Jews who questioned his authority to do such a thing and he said

“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up”

There is no meek and mild Jesus that we encounter here!

Jesus was righteously angry at what the people where turning his father’s house into- the temple, and instead of the meek and mild approach that Jesus often used with widows and those less fortunate,  Jesus goes for the all-out action approach with these brood of vipers.

And it is vital for us to remember as 1 Peter 2 tells us, that Jesus never ever sinned, he never even told a lie, and so as Jesus overturned tables, as he drove out the animals and starred down his opponents- he never sinned- he never over stepped the mark.

He continued to do what was right in his Father’s eyes.

Yes Jesus was angry with those Jews, but in his anger- He never sinned!

As God’s people, we must remember- there is a place for righteous anger.

There is a place to stand up and get angry at the evil around us.

In the book of James in tells us that there is a place for anger and yet and here is the big challenge for us sinners…… we must not sin in our anger.

And most importantly, we should be angry for the right reasons, not angry because we don’t get our own way- but angry because we see injustice, we see the evils of this world, angry because people are blatantly rebelling against God.

As Christians, we perhaps easily get angry at the wrong things and don’t get angry about which things, we should get angry about.

We often tolerate sin, in the name of “tolerance” and in the name of “Love” whereas sometimes we should be more angry at our sinful actions, more desperate to get the whip out to ourselves and drive those sinful habits away.

And then, sometimes we get angry about the wrong things- like the colour of the carpet or whether a person is wearing a tie or not- or whether the tea is too weak of too strong.

Friends let us get angry about the things that make God angry!

So what caused Jesus- God in the flesh, to be angry at the temple- that day?

What caused Jesus to storm that magnificent temple in Jerusalem?

Well the answer is found in verse 14- Look at verse 14 with me:

In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money-changers sitting there.

And what were these business people doing that made Jesus so angry?

The answer is found in verse 16

Jesus said to them “Do not make my Father’s house, a house of trade”

Jesus was angry with the people in the temple because they had made God’s temple into something it was not. Jesus was angry because the very place that people went to meet with God, a place for prayer, a place where God’s presence dwelt, was being turned into a market place, where people made a quick convenient buck.

Jesus wasn’t angry because the people in the temple were being dishonest with their money dealings- since they probably weren’t, but Jesus was angry because the people had turned the outer court into a market place rather than a place of prayer.

These money- changers and animal sellers, where not at the temple to worship God, but they were there to make money- and this made Jesus angry.

Friends, when we gather together to worship God, we are not here to make money.

The outer court was the place designated for the gentiles to pray. Remember the gentiles could not enter the inner court. But instead of gentiles praying, some Jews had set up a stall where they sold animals to Jews or gentiles which they could use as their sacrifice in the temple. This was convenient for the pilgrim who came from afar. They didn’t need to carry their animal with them on their long journey, they could just purchase their ready-made sacrifice at the temple.

The people who came to the temple, to pay their temple tax needed to make their payment in Tyrian Coinage, since it had the most value, and so these money exchange people, set up their tables in the outer court, so people could exchange their coins for the right currency and of course at the same time, charge them an “admin” fee.

These animal sellers and money-exchangers had turned the outer court into something it was not.

The outer court was a place where the gentiles could pray to God- God’s temple was a place of prayer. It was a place where people went to do business with God- not to do business with their wallets.

It was first and foremost a place of prayer.

And at the heart of prayer is a humbling before God- as we come to God and ask him to do what we can’t! At the heart of prayer is an acknowledgment that we can do nothing without God.

By turning the outer court into a market place, the focus was taken off God and on to man-made stuff!

God forgive us here at Wingham Presbyterian Church, if we make this place something other than Jesus.God forgive us, if we stop humbling ourselves before God and asking Him to work.

We are not a social club

We are not a community hub

We are not a historical society

We are not a war memorial hall

No, we are a church- we are God’s people who gather here to worship God together. We gather and humble ourselves before Him, pleading Him to do what we can’t.

God alone in his word has the words of eternal life- anything else is just cheap entertainment.

I pray that we will be a place of prayer- a place where people can meet the one and only living God- and that is Jesus.

Now after Jesus had made a whip out of chords and drove all the sheep and cattle out of the temple, scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned the tables, and basically turned the temple upside down, the Jews then asked Jesus this almost laughable question:

Look at the question they ask Him in verse 18

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things”

They hadn’t took the hint of his authority when he has just called the temple, his Father’s house. Jesus had just over run the temple- His father’s house, and yet the Jews still wanted to be in control. They wanted Jesus to prove to them with a miraculous sign that he had the authority to do what he did.

Jesus had just destroyed their ability to make money, he had hit them were it hurt, in the wallet- and so now the Jews fired back. He had also challenged their authority and their procedures for doing things.

The Jews always wanted Jesus to perform a miraculous sign just for them to prove that he had authority- even when Jesus was dying on the cross, they demanded that Jesus came down off the cross, just to prove to them that he was the Son of God.

It was like the Jews thought that Jesus was at their beckoning call and that he had to perform miracle after miracle to prove Himself to them.

Just think of the irony of this:

Jesus who had created the world and everything in it, gave breath to the Jews who were talking to him, and now they demanded Jesus, to prove Himself to them.

Friends if you are looking for a sign this morning to prove that Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and earth- to prove that he really is the Son of God-then we can stop looking- Jesus has already demonstrated his love for you when he died on the cross for you to take away your sins.

And this is the sign which Jesus pointed the Jews in the temple towards too.

Look at verses 19-21

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.

Did Jesus point to his body when he said those words- “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up”? It is a strong possibility. The Jews were so blinded by their man-made temple- that even if Jesus walked around with a sign saying “temple” on it- they still wouldn’t recognise the true temple- and that was Jesus’ body himself.

These Jews, who knew the Old Testament scriptures inside and out, knew how important the temple was to God. They knew that God gave Moses very careful instructions on what exactly should go in the temple, in the Holy of holies and so on. They would have known that the temple was a place where the very presence of God dwelt. From the very first

tabernacle in the wilderness where Moses met with God, to the magnificent temple in Solomon’s day- the Jews knew that the temple was the place where the presence of God dwelt. It was a place where a holy God met with sinful man.

They would have known the temple was a place where God and man had a right relationship with God, they knew it was a place where there was pure worship.

Even when the Jews were forced into exile in Babylon, they remembered the temple which had been destroyed as a place where God dwelt. Even in exile they remembered the temple and had hope that they were still God’s people.

If you read through the psalms, the Israelites often remembered Zion, the place in Jerusalem where the temple was.

And yet, and here is the most important thing I want us all to get this morning, the tabernacles and the temples were but shadows of the real temple that was yet to come- and that real temple was and is the Lord Jesus himself.

Those temples were just signs pointing towards the great reality of Jesus Himself.

John hints at this back in chapter 1 verse 14, when he wrote, the word (Jesus) became flesh and tabernacled (dwelt) amongst us. In other words, the very presence of God dwelt on earth in the person of Jesus.

And so when Jesus referred to himself as the temple- he was ultimately saying this.

It is only through Jesus that man and God can meet- it is only through Jesus that we can approach the throne of grace- it is only through Jesus that men and women can have a relationship with God- it is only through Jesus that we can meet with God.

It is only through Jesus that our sins have been forgiven, and we sinners can have that perfect relationship with a Holy God. It is only through Jesus that we can meet with God, by His Holy spirit indwelling in us.

In John 14:6 Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life”- no-one comes to the father except through me”

When Jesus died on the cross, he rose back to life after 3 days- never to be destroyed again.

And so what does that mean for us today?

First of all- we don’t seek God through any other channels- we don’t seek God through spirits or mediums, or buddah, or Mohammed- no we seek God only through Jesus- he is the only way, the only truth, the only life.

Secondly, we don’t have to meet at a certain temple any more to meet with God, we don’t have to go to a certain mountain or certain place, but we can meet with God anywhere, at any time, as we are now a people who worship God in spirit and truth. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we have God’s spirit in our hearts, we have direct access to God. We don’t have to make any pilgrimage, we don’t have to go through a priest, no we have God’s spirit living within us- always.

Yes we should continue to meet together regularly, but we can meet at any time in any place.

And here is the wonderful news about Jesus being the temple- we too are now temples of his Holy spirit.

In 1 Corinthians 6:19, it tells us that our bodies are temples of the Holy spirit, we have God’s spirit within us, which means we are always meeting with God, each and every hour of each day.

Jesus became the temple so that we too could be temples!

We are joined together with the father, son and Holy spirit.

Let me encourage you, to make the most of this gift that God has given us- let us be a people who are constantly praying, constantly seeking God’s presence.

We don’t have to wait for that one hour on a Sunday to be in God’s presence- no, we can be in his presence at any time because His Son Jesus became the temple for us.

Let us pray!