November 17th, 2024
From The Series: John-
So That You May Believe
Part 10 Clean Worship
The Gospel of John John
2:12-22
Mountain View
Evangelical Missionary Church
Well, here we are continuing
through the Gospel of John. This morning we will examine the passage where
Jesus clears the temple in Jerusalem. Some people think that this event only
occurred once. A careful reading of all four gospel accounts reveals that Jesus
did this twice during His earthly ministry. John records this event happening at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and the other three gospels record a
clearing of the temple by Jesus near the end of His Earthly ministry. This
clearing occurred at the beginning of Holy Week when Jesus first arrived in
Jerusalem just days before His crucifixion.
Skeptics will claim, that Jesus
only cleared the Temple once, and these two different versions are clear
evidence of a contradiction in the Bible. This opinion shows their bias against
the trustworthiness of the Bible. When these critics see two different accounts
recorded in the Bible, their first instinct is to jump to “mistake” rather than
being open to an alternative explanation.
In reality, what happened was
that Jesus actually cleared the Temple twice. These clearings became like
bookends on His earthly ministry and they were condemnations against the
religious practices at the time. There is a lesson here for us today in this
condemnation. We need to ensure that the church today is not guilty of the same
errors of the religious leaders at the time of Jesus.
You’re probably thinking, “How
can we be guilty of this Pastor, when Jesus did away with the need for us to
make sacrifices to God? You tell us that each week when we have
corporate prayer time.” We could be guilty of the same practices today in
our habits of worship. Our worship of Jesus Christ involves so
much more than just singing a few songs on Sunday morning during the service.
But, more on that in a few minutes.
This passage that we will be
studying this morning challenges Christians to reflect on their own lives and
communities, identifying areas where worship may have become routine or
commercialized. These areas may be with the individual and it may also occur collectively
as a congregation. This passage calls for a renewal of reverence and a
commitment to authentic worship in spirit and truth, highlighting the
importance of keeping the place of worship, this church, focused on honouring
God.
With that introduction to set the
scene for this morning, I will ask you to open your Bibles or turn on your
devices to the second chapter of the Gospel of John and we will begin at verse
12.
If you did not bring your Bible
this morning, you should find one underneath one of the chairs in the row in
front of you. John chapter 2 will be found on page 861 of the pew bible. If you
do not have a bible at home, please take that bible with you as a gift from
Mountain View Church. We feel that it is vitally important that you have easy
access to God’s Word. And God’s Word says…
READ John 2:12-22
“12 After this he
went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There
they stayed for a few days.
13 When it was almost time
for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the
temple courts he found people 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 courts, both sheep and cattle; he
scattered the money changers' coins and overturned their tables. 16 To
those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s
house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is
written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” o
18 The Jews then responded to
him, “What 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 They 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.”
Before we move into the points of
the sermon, I want to take a few moments to set the historical/cultural context
of what we just read. After the wedding, Jesus and His small group along with
His mother and brothers travelled to Capernaum, about a day’s journey away and
settled there for a few days. According to Matthew 9:1, Capernaum was “his own
town” meaning that Jesus used Capernaum as a home base for His ministry when He
was in the region of Galilee. It was at this time, that He probably collected
James, the brother of John, and Simon-Peter the brother of Andrew to His
growing crowd of followers. Capernaum was also where Matthew lived and worked
as a tax collector, before being called by Jesus. John records that after a few
days, they “went up to Jerusalem”.
The group actually headed south
towards Jerusalem, but they climbed over three thousand feet in elevation. I
want you to picture this, in Isreal, the town of Capernaum on the shore of the
Sea of Galilee is located in a large depression which sits 600 feet below sea
level. The city of Jerusalem sits atop three mountain peaks that have an
elevation of nearly 2,600 feet above Sea level. That is why they “went up
to Jerusalem”.
Remember last week I indicated
that weddings were important to Jesus because He was willing to travel three
days to attend one, well the distance between Capernaum and Jerusalem was at
least 30 hours of walking.
It is important to realize that
even though Jesus was recently baptized, He was still behaving as an observant
Jew. Every year since He was twelve years old, Jesus had gone to Jerusalem to
observe the Passover Festival and rituals travelling this distance of 30 hours
each way. Jesus was still setting an example of strict observance of divine
institutions, and diligent attendance on religious assemblies. John records
Jesus observing four Passover Feasts in his Gospel, the four that would have
happened during the timeline of His ministry.
Jesus was setting the example of following
the Laws instituted by His Father. That is a distinguishing point here: the
Laws instituted by His Father. If you remember from your readings of the Bible,
Jesus was often in conflict with the Pharisees when they accused Jesus of
breaking Sabbath Laws. The Laws that Jesus supposedly “broke” were all
traditions that the Pharisees had added to the Laws given to the Jews by God
and His prophets. The Pharisees were notorious for examining the Law of God and
teaching it in such a way that they invariably added to the interpretation.
Often adding much more than was originally intended.
This is the very process that
Jesus was referring to when He condemned the Pharisees with these words
recorded in Matthew 23:15, “15 “Woe to you, teachers of
the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a
single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a
child of hell as you are.” Jesus was warning the Pharisees, and by extension, He warns us against
adding to what the Father’s instructions are for our lives.
I just wanted to add that bit of
context and colour to help bring this account to life in your mind.
If I have done my preparation
correctly, by the end of this message we should be thinking of the following
points:
Pastor Paul’s Points:
1) Purity Over Profit. Is MVEMC being pure?
2) Prioritize
Over Profit. What are you allowing to be first in your life before Jesus?
3) Promise
of Restoration. Spiritual restoration vs. physical restoration.
The “Big Idea” contained in this
passage is that true worship must be prioritized over worldly distractions.
Distractions such as putting profit over purity in the church. We can see this
in the many examples of Mega-church Pastors being allowed to stay in their
positions of authority even when there are obvious signs of the man’s unfitness
for the pulpit. I won’t name names, but numerous examples can be found easily
if you Google “Disgraced Pastors”. Don’t get me wrong here; there are no
perfect pastors, but there are times when bigger church boards will turn a
blind eye to the actions of some pastors because they are concerned about
attendance dropping, giving dropping, or church splits happening.
If there is no pastoral scandal,
another area of compromise can be with the music and singing worship. One of
the first signs of a weakened church is including secular music in the worship
service. Another area is the addition of smoke machines or fancy lighting
set-ups. Choreographed dance routines are another early warning sign that a
church may have lost its way. All of these things are unnecessary and are
designed to attract nominal Christians or those worldly people who are seeking
Jesus, or their idea of Jesus. These additions are all driven by the
entertainment factor, not a true worship experience.
All these additions become a trap,
a type of quicksand that ensnares the church leadership. In his book, “Not a
Fan”, Kyle Idleman wrote, “What you win them with, is what you win them to”.
What Kyle was trying to warn the church about was this very thing. If the
singing worship of your service looks like a modified Broadway musical production,
then that is what the new converts will worship instead of Jesus. In his book,
Idleman is calling people to become followers of Jesus, not merely fans
of Jesus.
Let me ask you this, is that what
Jesus wants? All these fancy additions to the worship service? Aren’t those
things in the same category as what Jesus cleared out from the Temple? Jesus
drove out a group of individuals who had turned the Temple into a market. Are
you aware of what was behind the actions of Jesus that day? An entire
“industry” had developed around the sacrifices being offered at the Temple.
According to the Law in
Deuteronomy, any animal that was offered as a sacrifice to Yahweh had to be
free from blemish or defect. The priests would examine the animals that you
would have brought and due to corruption in the process, invariably a defect
would be found and the sacrifice that you would have raised and brought with
you on your pilgrimage to the Temple would be deemed unfit, but don’t worry,
the priests just happened to have a supply of pre-approved sacrificial animals
available for purchase.
There was corruption with the
money-changes as well. Your temple tax could only be paid with Temple silver.
The priests refused to accept Roman coins in the offering, despite these coins
being legal tender in the entire Empire. You would have to exchange your “filthy”
Roman coins for “clean” Temple coins to be offered to God. Of course, there
would be an exchange fee and once again, the Pharisees were adding to the
burdens of God’s people.
I want you to notice one thing:
here in John the word to describe the emotion of the event is “Zeal” not anger.
As a matter of fact, if you read the synoptic accounts of when Jesus cleared
the Temple for the second time, the word “anger” or “angry” never appears in
the accounts. In the passage we are studying this morning, John quotes Psalm
69:9 and in the original Hebrew, the word translated here as “zeal” also means
jealous. Jesus was clearing the Temple Courts of these men and their business
tables because He had zeal and He was jealous of the way things should have
been conducted. Scripture never describes Jesus as being angry while He was
cleaning the Temple. Read the Synoptic accounts for yourself and see if “anger”
or “angry” is used. For Jesus came to restore our relationship with God and
our approach to worship.
Another area where the church can
get lost and lose itself is when we have people in leadership positions who are
not living a Christ-honoring life. I’m not saying they have to be perfect, but
are they living a life that is obviously Christian to the rest of the world?
Too many times, churches are understaffed and they promote, or allow people to
step into positions of leadership or public ministry who are not living a life
that is God-honoring.
A worship team member who is
living a life of sin, a deacon who abuses his wife, or a board member who does
not meet the qualifications from 1 Timothy 3:1-13, or Titus 1:5-9 are not
beneficial to the church and they can hurt the witness of the church to the
community. It is better and healthier for the church to leave those offices or
ministries vacant for a season than to have a disqualified person fill the
role. Jesus is concerned with the purity of the leadership of His
church.
Jesus is concerned with the
purity of our worship, not how profitable it is. It is true that the Bible
talks a lot about money and giving and tithing. Our giving is also a form of
worship towards God. It is to be a sign of our faithfulness towards God as
well. That is why He asks for giving from our first fruits and not our leftovers.
It is a matter of priorities in our lives. This leads us to our second point
this morning.
Prioritize Over Profit.
What are you allowing to be first in your life before Jesus?
Look with me at verse 16 from
this morning’s passage. “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” This was a powerful
declaration to the merchants from Jesus. This should call us to identify
anything in our lives that distracts from true worship. What are we putting
first before Jesus?
I had an interesting discussion
with the young car salesman when we purchased the “new-to-us” vehicle we have.
Once he found out that I was a pastor he asked me, “Can I be a “Good Christian”
without attending church every Sunday?
I pointed out that in the Book of
Hebrews 10:24-25 warns us, “24 And let us consider how we
may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not
giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging
one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” I talked about how Sundays were
important to gather and worship together, to learn together, and to fellowship
together. Is Sunday attendance mandatory? I asked him how much time he was
spending reading the Bible on his own. How much time do you spend worshipping
God during the week? What are you putting first in your life before Jesus?
These are questions for you as well. What is
the higher priority in your life over Jesus? I am always amazed at how many
parents claim to be Christian, yet they enroll their kids in hockey and take
them to tournaments on weekends instead of to church. Then they wonder why
their kids leave the church the first chance they get. We have taught them that
there are other things more important than their relationship with Jesus.
Hockey was more important than Jesus. Hockey, any sport, rodeo, racing, or any
activity that the world schedules on Sundays can be something that we
prioritize over Jesus.
We all have to work and earn a living, we all
need recreation in our lives, but are you still making Christ a priority? When
you are on holiday, are you still attending a local church where you are? If
not, why not? It can be a tremendous blessing to attend a church that is not
your regular body. We belong to the world’s largest family. As Christians, we
have brothers and sisters in practically every village, town, or city around
the world. Go hang out with them sometime. Technology makes it really convenient
to rearrange Christ in our lives. We can catch a sermon any time we feel like
it and convince ourselves that we are “doing church”. But are we? Where is the
fellowship with the people on YouTube?
The lack of fellowship applies when we dash out
right after the service rather than spending time with fellow Christians.
Technology and social media make it so easy to isolate ourselves and still feel
like we are part of a community. I told the young salesman that an important
reason to attend church, small groups and doing fellowship with other
Christians are the growth and accountability aspects we need in our Christian
walks.
This is what is meant in Proverbs 27:17, “17 As iron sharpens iron, so one person
sharpens another.” One of our biggest flaws as human beings is our
ability to rationalize our behaviours. When we are in isolation, we can
convince ourselves that what we are doing really isn’t that bad, it’s not a
sin, it’s just a flaw that we have and Jesus still loves us.
Being in a loving Christ-centered community
with each other is a safeguard against the rationalizations and excuses we make
for ourselves. When Jesus cleans the Temple He asserts His messianic
authority, predicting His death and resurrection as the foundation for restored
worship. This section challenges us to prioritize our relationship with God
over worldly pursuits, aligning our lives with His purpose.
The final point I want to touch
on this morning is the Promise of Restoration that we see here in this verse.
In verse 22 John gives us this little insight, “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.” When Jesus is speaking in this passage, He is
speaking in the future tense. The Temple that Jesus was referring to was His
body.
Jesus’s body is not only the new resurrected
Temple, but Jesus is also our Passover. His once-for-all sacrifice was all that
was needed to satisfy the wrath of the Father, and it allowed His children to
be reconciled back to the Father. No further sacrifices are required to appease
the Father. Our rebellious sin debt has been paid by the Son on our behalf.
That is why we can approach the throne of God
with our prayers and in full confidence we can know that our prayers are heard
by God. Notice I said heard and not answered. Only the Father knows what is
best for us, so we trust His perfect judgment to determine what we need
over what we want. Jesus and the Father meet our every need
through their provisions.
Sometimes we need correction in our lives, but we surely don’t want that. Correction is love, and there is no
greater evidence of the love that the Father has for us than the sacrifice of
the Son. The Father sent the Son to bear our punishment so that we could be
reconciled from our rebellious state, back to the adoptive family of God. We
were bought at a price.
Knowing the cost that Jesus paid on your
behalf, why would you want to allow anything to have priority over Jesus in
your life? If you truly grasped what Jesus did for you and what it cost for
Jesus to pay it, how can you not remain humble and desire others to know this
gift? We do these things for God, not from a sense of obligation but from a
sense of privilege that He has allowed us to join Him in this most precious of
duties: to rescue others from the lake of fire.
We must Christ as the cornerstone
of our faith and worship. With the realization of His resurrection, believers
are encouraged to reflect on the transformative power of Christ in their daily
lives. When we acknowledge the renewing that Christ is doing in us, it should
renew our commitment to worship in spirit and truth.
Scripture tells us that the
Church is the Bride of Christ. Why wouldn’t we want to present the most pure
form of His Bride that we can on His return? Shouldn’t we be a building full of
pure worshippers, pure of heart and love for Jesus, led by pure leaders, who
lovingly and obediently guide us in our daily walks to be more like our Saviour
each day? Not perfect people, or self-righteous leaders, but humble and aware of
their own shortcomings so that we can love each other in a non-judgmental way.
Guiding people to follow the Perfect Shepherd back into a restored relationship
with the Father.
We should be a building full of
His humble people avoiding all the traps and temptations of the world.
Remaining modest and not causing others to trip fall back into the ways of the
world. The church should be leading the world, not the world leading the
church. Jesus is our head and we should never forget that.
One way we can keep these facts
top of mind is through the regular observances that Jesus handed down to us.
One such observance is the Lord’s Supper.
CONCLUSION
Jesus' actions challenge us to
evaluate our own lives and places of worship. Jesus’ action of cleansing the
temple points to His authority as the Messiah and highlights His mission to
restore true worship. This lesson teaches about the significance of reverence
in worship and the dangers of allowing worldly practices to overshadow divine
purpose. Here in this passage, Jesus disrupts the complacency and corruption in
the temple, highlighting the need for purity and sincerity in our
worship. This should remind us of Jesus’ zeal for His Father’s house and prompt
us to reflect on what should be driven out of our own lives to honour God
truly. True worship is not about external appearances or rituals but about a
heart aligned with God.
Jesus’ authority in cleansing the
temple underscores His role as the purifying force in our spiritual walk. This
act is a foreshadowing of the ultimate atonement He would accomplish through
His death and resurrection, making a way for believers to approach God freely.
When we approach God in worship, in prayer, in the study of His Word, we should
be doing it with sincere and pure motives and with a heart that is aligned with
God’s goals and desires for our lives.
Doxology:
Let me close with this doxology:
24 “The Lord
bless you and keep you;
25 may the Lord
make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
26 May the
Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."
Go in peace, you are dismissed.
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