{"id":310,"date":"2012-03-11T09:00:05","date_gmt":"2012-03-11T17:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/?p=310"},"modified":"2012-03-31T08:50:04","modified_gmt":"2012-03-31T16:50:04","slug":"jesus-is-in-charge-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/11\/jesus-is-in-charge-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus Is in Charge Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

Text: John 2:13-22
\n<\/strong>13<\/sup><\/em> When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14<\/sup> In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15<\/sup> 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<\/sup> To those who sold doves he said, \u201cGet these out of here! How dare you turn my Father\u2019s house into a market!\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

17<\/sup> His disciples remembered that it is written: \u201cZeal for your house will consume me.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

18<\/sup> Then the Jews demanded of him, \u201cWhat miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

19<\/sup> Jesus answered them, \u201cDestroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

20<\/sup> The Jews replied, \u201cIt has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?\u201d 21<\/sup> But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22<\/sup> 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. <\/em><\/p>\n

Jesus Is in Charge Here<\/strong>
\n<\/em>I. He is our focus
\nII. He is our Hope<\/p>\n

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ,<\/p>\n

Introduction: <\/strong>\u201cWho\u2019s in charge here?\u201d That\u2019s 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\u2019s why, when we have a question, we often ask if we can please speak with a manager.<\/p>\n

In our text today, we see that Jesus is in charge here. <\/em><\/strong>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\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

I. [He is our focus.] <\/strong>The first thing we see in our text is Jesus going up to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. This was at the start<\/em> 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<\/em> of His ministry.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 worship of their Lord. As Christians, we don\u2019t 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. <\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

However\u2026 if you\u2019ve travelled abroad and exchanged money, you know there is an exchange rate. That\u2019s how moneychangers earn their wage is by charging a little something extra. This means that in the Lord\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

And along with them were the sellers of sacrifice animals. That\u2019s 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\u2019s<\/em> business conducted in the Lord\u2019s<\/em> house. They could have done it outside the Temple, but instead they did it here, in the outer court\u2026 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.<\/p>\n

You might be thinking, \u201cHow does this scene from the Jewish Temple 2000 years ago apply to me?\u201d Well I\u2019ll tell you. The Temple was the place where people came to worship God, right? In many ways, it\u2019s similar to one of our church buildings. It was a good thing for the Jews to come to the Temple to worship and it\u2019s good for us to come to church to worship.<\/p>\n

But we see, with the moneychangers and market salesmen, that their focus was not where it should be. And for us, that\u2019s sometimes the case too, isn\u2019t it? We don\u2019t have any exchange booths or animal stalls out in the entryway. We come here and sit in the pews like we\u2019re supposed to. But even as we \u201cdo the right things,\u201d is our focus in the right place? Or are we sometimes more focused on the people <\/em>we\u2019ll 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 \u201cto do\u201d list for the rest of the day? And not only are we distracted ourselves, but are we sometimes distracting others? This is God\u2019s House; Jesus rules here. But we don\u2019t always act like it.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m not just preaching to you. There is an important lesson here for Pastor Smith and myself as well. Please don\u2019t let us <\/em>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.<\/p>\n

The opportunity to hear God\u2019s Word and praise Him for His love and mercy is an incredible blessing! And so we want to focus on Him when we\u2019re here. I want to point out just one tool that most people don\u2019t 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\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s go back to our account. Jesus is at His Father\u2019s house here, and He is doing His Father\u2019s 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\u2019t just an angry rant. The gospel writer John here points out Psalm 69:9. \u201cZeal for His Father\u2019s house\u201d 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\u2019s House. It\u2019s the same love and zeal we <\/em>should have for our Father\u2019s House, and our time worshipping Him. He wants full and sincere worship\u2026 not just half-hearted worship, not just going through the motions. He wants to be our focus.<\/p>\n

Transition: <\/strong>Because He, Jesus, is in charge here. And He\u2019s not some sort of dictator who has just seized power in the church and demands our respect. \u00a0All 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\u2019s 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\u2019s what the second half of our text points forward to.<\/p>\n

II. [He is our Hope.] <\/strong>The Jewish leaders ask for a sign to prove the authority by which Christ has done these things. We notice that they don\u2019t actually object to what He has done, and that makes sense. This whole \u201cmarket circus\u201d was actually quite unpopular among the people. So they just ask for a sign of His authority. And in many ways, that\u2019s a reasonable question, right? <\/strong>If you or I are going to submit to someone, we want to know what authority that person has, too.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well Jesus gives them a response, and we couldn\u2019t ask for more. He says, \u201cDestroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.\u201d <\/em>At first glance, that doesn\u2019t make very much sense, does it? It certainly didn\u2019t 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\u2019t even completed yet at this point. The construction had started <\/em>46 years earlier. That doesn\u2019t 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\u2019 disciples were baffled at this time.<\/p>\n

But then John also tells us what Jesus actually meant. He wasn\u2019t 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\u2026 the true fulfillment of the Passover that the nation was celebrating. As Jesus prophesies here, His body was<\/em> \u201cdestroyed\u201d and \u201cbroken apart,\u201d two years after this. That\u2019s 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 <\/em>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\u2019s kingdom.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Conclusion: <\/strong>So who\u2019s in charge here at church? It\u2019s Jesus. He rules our worship here. And who\u2019s in charge of us at home? It\u2019s Jesus. And it\u2019s 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\u2019s the only Hope for our lives. May the Holy Spirit help us to focus on Him\u2026 in all of our lives, but especially here at His House. Amen.<\/p>\n

[1] 1 Corinthians 1:23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":311,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions\/311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}