Text: John 2:13-22
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 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. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”
17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18 Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20 The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 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.
Jesus Is in Charge Here
I. He is our focus
II. He is our Hope
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ,
Introduction: “Who’s in charge here?” That’s a question that we might ask at the customer service desk at Wal-Mart or another department store. We want to know who really makes the rules and who can really help us. That’s why, when we have a question, we often ask if we can please speak with a manager.
In our text today, we see that Jesus is in charge here. He is our Hope in life. And so He is our focus in worship throughout life, but especially when we gather here at the Lord’s house.
I. [He is our focus.] The first thing we see in our text is Jesus going up to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. This was at the start of His three-year ministry. The other gospels record an incident that is similar to this one, but that was merely a similar event that occurred at the end of His ministry.
Every year, every Jew was to go to Jerusalem for this festival, if at all possible. We know that Jesus attended at age 12, but He probably went every year. This was the Jews’ worship of their Lord. As Christians, we don’t celebrate the Passover Festival in the same way that the Jews do. But we still gather together every week to thank and worship the Lord.
And what does Jesus find at the Temple? Moneychangers and sellers of animals. Now the moneychangers are there because everyone had to pay an annual Temple tax, and the only acceptable currency was the Jewish half-shekel. People were coming to the Temple this week from all over the Roman Empire, and so they would be bringing all sorts of different currency. So these moneychangers served a good purpose; people needed their money changed.
However… if you’ve travelled abroad and exchanged money, you know there is an exchange rate. That’s how moneychangers earn their wage is by charging a little something extra. This means that in the Lord’s house, men were doing their own business. Their focus was not on praising the Lord, but on haggling. They were more focused on striking a good deal.
And along with them were the sellers of sacrifice animals. That’s why cattle, sheep, and doves were being sold. It was not possible for all the people to drag their animals all the way to Jerusalem for Passover. And if they did drag it all the way from, say, Nazareth, the animal would not be a very high quality sacrifice by the time he got there. So many would purchase their animals here. Again, it was a service that was needed. But again, it was man’s business conducted in the Lord’s house. They could have done it outside the Temple, but instead they did it here, in the outer court… which, by the way, was the only place the Gentiles could come and pray. And now these Gentiles had to deal with moneychangers and the filthy animal market.
You might be thinking, “How does this scene from the Jewish Temple 2000 years ago apply to me?” Well I’ll tell you. The Temple was the place where people came to worship God, right? In many ways, it’s similar to one of our church buildings. It was a good thing for the Jews to come to the Temple to worship and it’s good for us to come to church to worship.
But we see, with the moneychangers and market salesmen, that their focus was not where it should be. And for us, that’s sometimes the case too, isn’t it? We don’t have any exchange booths or animal stalls out in the entryway. We come here and sit in the pews like we’re supposed to. But even as we “do the right things,” is our focus in the right place? Or are we sometimes more focused on the people we’ll see at church than on the Lord Himself? And are we focused on the Word, or do we get distracted and start thinking about my “to do” list for the rest of the day? And not only are we distracted ourselves, but are we sometimes distracting others? This is God’s House; Jesus rules here. But we don’t always act like it.
And I’m not just preaching to you. There is an important lesson here for Pastor Smith and myself as well. Please don’t let us deviate from the purpose of this church, which is to proclaim Christ crucified.[1] Please let us know if we are doing anything that is distracting or taking away from your opportunity to hear the sweet Gospel message. The lesson here is definitely for us as well.
The opportunity to hear God’s Word and praise Him for His love and mercy is an incredible blessing! And so we want to focus on Him when we’re here. I want to point out just one tool that most people don’t know about that can help us focus for the whole morning. Take out your hymnals and turn to page (10/40). There we have prayers for worship, for before and after the service. They’re there so we can use them. To help us focus on the Lord for this beautiful morning we get to spend with Him in His House.
But let’s go back to our account. Jesus is at His Father’s house here, and He is doing His Father’s business. He drives out the animals with a whip, overturns the tables, and scatters the money. He made quite a scene. And yet it wasn’t just an angry rant. The gospel writer John here points out Psalm 69:9. “Zeal for His Father’s house” is what consumed Jesus. As Martin Luther says, this is not hatred or just a fit of rage. This is Jesus showing His love for His Father and for His Father’s House. It’s the same love and zeal we should have for our Father’s House, and our time worshipping Him. He wants full and sincere worship… not just half-hearted worship, not just going through the motions. He wants to be our focus.
Transition: Because He, Jesus, is in charge here. And He’s not some sort of dictator who has just seized power in the church and demands our respect. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus because He showed us the ultimate love. He gave us the ultimate sacrifice. That’s what we focus on here in the season of Lent. He conquered sin and the devil with His death on the cross. And then three days later He conquered death by His resurrection. And that’s what the second half of our text points forward to.
II. [He is our Hope.] The Jewish leaders ask for a sign to prove the authority by which Christ has done these things. We notice that they don’t actually object to what He has done, and that makes sense. This whole “market circus” was actually quite unpopular among the people. So they just ask for a sign of His authority. And in many ways, that’s a reasonable question, right? If you or I are going to submit to someone, we want to know what authority that person has, too.
Well Jesus gives them a response, and we couldn’t ask for more. He says, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” At first glance, that doesn’t make very much sense, does it? It certainly didn’t make much sense to the Jews there. They scoffed at Him. They said it had taken 46 years to build that Temple. And the truth of the matter was that the Temple wasn’t even completed yet at this point. The construction had started 46 years earlier. That doesn’t mean they were barely started. That means that the Temple was an extremely large, magnificent building project. The Jews were baffled and John tells us that even Jesus’ disciples were baffled at this time.
But then John also tells us what Jesus actually meant. He wasn’t talking about the physical building they were standing in. He was speaking of the temple of His Body. He was pointing ahead to His sacrifice… the true fulfillment of the Passover that the nation was celebrating. As Jesus prophesies here, His body was “destroyed” and “broken apart,” two years after this. That’s what we remember in the season of Lent. And as He was being destroyed and broken apart, He was being the sacrifice for our sins. He was dying for all the times that we have been distracted or been distracting while in church. All the times our focus was in the wrong place. And as the perfect sacrifice, He was breaking apart and destroying Satan’s kingdom.
Three days after that sacrifice, the Temple which was His body was indeed raised up again in victory. And this is the reason for His authority in the church, both on that day 2000 years ago, and today! He conquered sin, death, and the devil. And He proved it by doing what no other person in the history of this earth has been able to do. He actually rose from the dead.
And because He did rise and conquer death, we know that we no longer have to fear it. Death is merely the gate to eternity for us. Here in this life, we sing praises to the Lord and to those around us, for the Victory He won for us. And when this life reaches its end, we know that we go someplace better. We go to God’s House in heaven! We go to the mansions Christ has secured for us there. What a beautiful Hope we have! And what a great reason to keep our eyes on Him, and Him alone, when we have the chance to gather in His House.
Conclusion: So who’s in charge here at church? It’s Jesus. He rules our worship here. And who’s in charge of us at home? It’s Jesus. And it’s not some sort of slavery or even obligation. Christ has shown His loving authority by conquering our demons, dying for our sins, and defeating death by His resurrection. We want and need Him to be in charge because He’s the only Hope for our lives. May the Holy Spirit help us to focus on Him… in all of our lives, but especially here at His House. Amen.
[1] 1 Corinthians 1:23.