Story of the Whip (John 2:13-22)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.680 --> 00:00:03.799 Well, let's turn our attention now to John, Chapter two, on the 2 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:10.710 second half of this chapter. So after Jesus displayed his divine authority over nature, 3 00:00:10.750 --> 00:00:15.189 as we read last week, in his turning water into wine, we 4 00:00:15.310 --> 00:00:23.300 see another demonstration of his Divine Authority today in an act of Judgment on the 5 00:00:23.420 --> 00:00:29.460 temple and the people doing business there. And he also prophesies about his resurrection. 6 00:00:29.500 --> 00:00:35.340 Let's hear God's Word Now and learn what we can of him and the 7 00:00:35.380 --> 00:00:43.210 Kingdom of God. John to thirteen through twenty five, I'm sorry, through 8 00:00:43.289 --> 00:00:48.210 twenty two. The Passover the of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went 9 00:00:48.250 --> 00:00:53.880 up to Jerusalem. In the temple, he found those who were selling oxen 10 00:00:54.439 --> 00:01:00.119 and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there and making a whip of 11 00:01:00.280 --> 00:01:03.679 cords. He drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the 12 00:01:03.799 --> 00:01:07.870 oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their 13 00:01:07.950 --> 00:01:12.670 tables and he told those who sold the pigeons take these things away, do 14 00:01:12.870 --> 00:01:19.500 not make my father's house a house of trade. His disciples remembered that it 15 00:01:19.620 --> 00:01:25.700 was written zeal for Your House will consume me. So the Jews said to 16 00:01:25.700 --> 00:01:30.939 him, what sign do you show us for doing these things? Jesus answered 17 00:01:30.099 --> 00:01:36.530 them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. 18 00:01:37.569 --> 00:01:42.409 The Jews then said, it is taken forty six years to build this temple 19 00:01:42.730 --> 00:01:46.769 and you will raise it up in three days. But he was speaking about 20 00:01:46.810 --> 00:01:51.120 the temple of his body. When, therefore, he was raised from the 21 00:01:51.159 --> 00:01:56.280 dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this and they believed the scripture 22 00:01:56.799 --> 00:02:01.829 and the word that Jesus had spoken. I'm an God, bless his word 23 00:02:01.909 --> 00:02:24.539 to us. Please be seated. We can see from the end of this 24 00:02:24.979 --> 00:02:30.490 little section that I read in John Chapter Two that it's written from the perspective 25 00:02:30.610 --> 00:02:36.129 or the assumption that you you know the end of the story already right. 26 00:02:36.210 --> 00:02:39.289 It's written from this perspective that you already have a sense of what's going to 27 00:02:39.409 --> 00:02:44.319 happen and in fact, what does happen. So in verse twenty two, 28 00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:49.400 it says when, therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered 29 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:52.560 that he had said this and they believe leave to the Scripture and the word 30 00:02:52.680 --> 00:02:57.919 that Jesus had spoken. John writes this whole book, in fact, for 31 00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:02.430 this same purpose, not just for himself and his belief, but also for 32 00:03:02.590 --> 00:03:07.990 yours. He writes these events, he records these things by the inspiration of 33 00:03:08.069 --> 00:03:13.139 the Holy Spirit, so that, along with the disciples, you might also 34 00:03:13.300 --> 00:03:19.740 remember what he said here in chapter two. Believe the scripture and the word 35 00:03:19.860 --> 00:03:23.300 that Jesus had spoken and, as John will say later at the end of 36 00:03:23.340 --> 00:03:30.250 the Gospel, and by believing, have eternal life in his name. This 37 00:03:30.370 --> 00:03:37.169 is an amazing thing, and it is the central message of scripture that this 38 00:03:37.490 --> 00:03:43.439 resurrection that Jesus Talks about here, this thing and which we believe and we 39 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:49.199 depend, changes us and affects us in such a way that we also then 40 00:03:49.319 --> 00:03:57.110 participate in this resurrection, an astounding thing. By believing in him and what 41 00:03:57.310 --> 00:04:01.469 he did, we come to share in it. I'm not sure how, 42 00:04:02.669 --> 00:04:05.990 what more I can say to impress on you, then, the importance of 43 00:04:06.389 --> 00:04:12.219 hearing God's word in this passage. It has to do with your own eternal 44 00:04:12.419 --> 00:04:18.819 life, it has to do with the things of eternity. With that said, 45 00:04:18.819 --> 00:04:27.689 and hopefully your ears pricked a little bit plucked up, consider this striking 46 00:04:27.850 --> 00:04:30.329 contrast, in a way, with the last story we heard about Jesus. 47 00:04:31.569 --> 00:04:36.810 This last story that John recorded was about Jesus making wine. In the previous 48 00:04:36.850 --> 00:04:42.920 story, Jesus Saves a party and then all of a sudden, Jesus Ruins 49 00:04:43.079 --> 00:04:47.560 one, not a party, of course, but business trade that was going 50 00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:54.750 on in the temple. Nevertheless, despite these sort of striking contrast, Jesus 51 00:04:54.870 --> 00:04:59.949 does reveal something to us about himself, about his mission, I'm something that 52 00:05:00.149 --> 00:05:06.579 we can and ought to believe in. So consider what Jesus says here. 53 00:05:06.620 --> 00:05:13.660 Let's make sure that we understand what's going on. It might help to begin 54 00:05:13.819 --> 00:05:17.139 by explaining a few examples about this or explaining a few things about the setting. 55 00:05:17.180 --> 00:05:24.810 John tells us that this event happened just before the Passover. The Passover 56 00:05:24.970 --> 00:05:30.329 was a major Jewish feast that happened once a year. John Mentions Three Passovers 57 00:05:30.449 --> 00:05:32.490 in his Gospel, which is, by the way, one reason we believe 58 00:05:32.610 --> 00:05:40.199 that Jesus as ministry lasted about three years long. The Passover was a significant 59 00:05:40.199 --> 00:05:46.759 festival that celebrate did how God rescued his people out of Egyptian slavery. Those 60 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:51.550 events are recorded in a book called Exodus, a word that means a going 61 00:05:51.709 --> 00:05:59.509 out or a leaving from somewhere. The people left Egypt, but it wasn't 62 00:05:59.550 --> 00:06:02.389 just sort of going on a trip or moving on to a new place. 63 00:06:02.470 --> 00:06:08.899 They were leaving because God had rescued them out of Egypt. God's people had 64 00:06:08.939 --> 00:06:14.420 been bound in slavery and the King of Egypt, Pharaoh as he was known, 65 00:06:14.420 --> 00:06:18.730 would not let those people go. God put on Pharaoh and on the 66 00:06:18.810 --> 00:06:23.329 people of Egypt plague after plague after plague, ten of them at all, 67 00:06:23.850 --> 00:06:28.730 the final one being this plague in which the angel, the Angel of the 68 00:06:28.810 --> 00:06:33.839 Lord, would pass over these over all the houses of Egypt, and anyone 69 00:06:33.959 --> 00:06:39.959 that did not have the blood of a lamb spread on that house would lose 70 00:06:40.519 --> 00:06:45.759 the life of the firstborn son in that house. And so in Egypt that 71 00:06:45.879 --> 00:06:50.829 night there was great wailing and crying as many, many, many homes lost 72 00:06:53.029 --> 00:06:57.470 their family members, their sons, except, of course, the people of 73 00:06:57.629 --> 00:07:01.379 Israel that had the blood spread over so that the angel of the Lord passed 74 00:07:01.620 --> 00:07:10.139 over those homes and they were rescued, they were saved from judgment. That's 75 00:07:10.220 --> 00:07:15.620 what they're celebrating here. They're celebrating this festival in which God has saved them, 76 00:07:15.660 --> 00:07:19.209 has brought them out of slavery. And you remember, as I often 77 00:07:19.250 --> 00:07:24.050 say that when God rescues his people, he doesn't merely rescue them out of 78 00:07:24.209 --> 00:07:29.410 something, he rescues them to something. He's brings them out of slavery of 79 00:07:29.569 --> 00:07:33.120 Egypt so that he can bring them into a promised land, so that he 80 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:40.920 can establish true worship with them, with him as their God. The Passover 81 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:44.509 celebrated these things, but it was even more than that, you know. 82 00:07:45.430 --> 00:07:49.829 The Passover also looked forward to a new exodus as well, a greater exodus 83 00:07:50.389 --> 00:07:56.230 in which, through someone who was greater than Moses, who would establish a 84 00:07:56.389 --> 00:08:01.300 covenant that was better than Moses, would lead people out of the slavery of 85 00:08:01.500 --> 00:08:09.540 Sin Itself, the tyranny of death itself, would bring them into a land, 86 00:08:09.060 --> 00:08:13.970 a kingdom that could never be shaken ever again, that would be free 87 00:08:15.089 --> 00:08:20.290 of all enemies and all tyranny, a place that would be a comfortable and 88 00:08:20.529 --> 00:08:28.000 happy and blessed forever. But we often call heaven or describe of as the 89 00:08:28.199 --> 00:08:33.080 new creation, remade, glorified one that Jesus. His promise is to be 90 00:08:33.639 --> 00:08:43.389 revealed fully before our eyes on the last day. The temporal oppression that Israel 91 00:08:43.509 --> 00:08:52.470 faced under Egypt was was an example and and showed us or symbol in some 92 00:08:52.629 --> 00:08:58.740 ways, of the internal oppression and the spiritual oppression that we face under the 93 00:08:58.860 --> 00:09:05.659 tyranny of the evil one, tyranny that Jesus rescues us from. So all 94 00:09:05.779 --> 00:09:09.899 this is tied up in this word, pass over. They're celebrating the Passover, 95 00:09:09.940 --> 00:09:13.409 they're celebrating this past event, but also with a sense that God has 96 00:09:13.529 --> 00:09:20.610 promised a new event. And here comes Jesus on the Passover into the temple, 97 00:09:22.970 --> 00:09:26.759 this new Moses, this one that is greater than John The baptist, 98 00:09:26.840 --> 00:09:31.440 this one who has been sent from heaven and self the Messiah, has come. 99 00:09:33.879 --> 00:09:37.519 And what does he find in the Temple of God? What does he 100 00:09:37.750 --> 00:09:46.990 find in the House of God? Ungodly things. He finds people, taking 101 00:09:48.350 --> 00:09:50.909 this place that was supposed to be holy, a place that was supposed to 102 00:09:50.909 --> 00:09:54.860 be a place of worship, and turning it into a place of business, 103 00:09:56.179 --> 00:10:03.299 a place where Mun me and temporal things are being focused on. We're adding 104 00:10:03.500 --> 00:10:09.250 to one's own personal wealth and power and authority was the focus, instead of 105 00:10:09.289 --> 00:10:16.210 worshiping the one who is all powerful. It's similar actually, in some ways 106 00:10:16.289 --> 00:10:20.970 to Moses. He brings his people out of out into the desert. You 107 00:10:20.049 --> 00:10:24.960 remember, he goes up on Mount Sinai receives the law, comes down and 108 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:30.200 what does he find? The People Worshiping the God who just rescued them. 109 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:35.750 Know they had made a golden calf and we're saying these are your gods who 110 00:10:35.789 --> 00:10:43.029 brought you out of Egypt. Moses was pretty upset about that. If you 111 00:10:43.110 --> 00:10:48.909 go and you read those stories, you will you'll remember that Jesus does something 112 00:10:48.950 --> 00:10:54.500 similar here too. Zeal for the Lord's House and the things of the Lord 113 00:10:54.659 --> 00:11:01.779 consumes him, something that's testified to in the prophets concerning the Messiah. This 114 00:11:03.220 --> 00:11:07.529 zeal just demonstrates all the more that he is the one, he is the 115 00:11:07.730 --> 00:11:16.009 Lord of this temple himself. This is not just God's house, as God 116 00:11:16.210 --> 00:11:24.600 himself, it is his house, his house that was meant to be a 117 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:28.440 place in which God and his people would come together, in which there would 118 00:11:28.440 --> 00:11:33.750 be the forgiveness of sins, in which there would be communion and worship and 119 00:11:33.950 --> 00:11:37.070 closeness. God says, I will be your God and you will be my 120 00:11:37.190 --> 00:11:41.789 people, established this temple and I will be with you and I will dwell 121 00:11:41.950 --> 00:11:46.659 with you this place where there was supposed to be a communion and connection and 122 00:11:46.820 --> 00:11:52.860 intimacy and forgiveness. All of these things, things symbolized in the building itself, 123 00:11:52.220 --> 00:11:56.700 in the priests who are there and the sacrifices they were offered. All 124 00:11:56.740 --> 00:12:01.649 of it was thrown out the window and transformed into this show, a money 125 00:12:01.690 --> 00:12:07.330 making event. The eternal things, the glorious things, the things of the 126 00:12:07.409 --> 00:12:11.889 immortal God, were being rejected for temporal things, the glory of Man and 127 00:12:13.210 --> 00:12:20.600 his money. Idolatry, you have to see, is really just a new 128 00:12:20.759 --> 00:12:26.720 form of slavery. When we were rescued out of our slavery of Sin, 129 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:33.669 unto the false worship of of God or the or the false worship of another 130 00:12:33.789 --> 00:12:39.309 God, to give our highest love to something that is undeserving of that love 131 00:12:39.429 --> 00:12:43.230 is just to fall right back into slavery again. It's to leave one cage 132 00:12:43.299 --> 00:12:50.139 and move into another, and that's not God's intention for his people. God 133 00:12:50.220 --> 00:12:54.259 gave himself in these ways. God rescues us in these ways so that we 134 00:12:54.340 --> 00:13:01.370 can be close to him, not a supreme power of our imagination, not 135 00:13:01.610 --> 00:13:07.169 some other God, but him and Jesus, as we read in the trevious 136 00:13:07.169 --> 00:13:11.490 story and the story about Jesus turning water into wine. Manifested his glory. 137 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:20.159 He is showing us God himself and all of God. Jesus didn't come to 138 00:13:20.279 --> 00:13:26.120 play the part of pretend religiosity, to puff up people in their ambitions that 139 00:13:26.230 --> 00:13:31.350 have nothing to do with God. Why did Jesus Come? Jesus came to 140 00:13:31.470 --> 00:13:37.990 bringing true, lasting personal connection between God and Man. That's what true worship 141 00:13:39.110 --> 00:13:43.899 is all about. It's not about coming and putting on a show, it's 142 00:13:43.940 --> 00:13:50.100 about communing with God. That's what the temple was about, and that's why 143 00:13:50.340 --> 00:13:58.409 Jesus was so upset. Man had come into this relationship between the Lord and 144 00:13:58.570 --> 00:14:03.809 his people and was mucking it all up, defiling it, ignoring it, 145 00:14:03.970 --> 00:14:11.000 even destroying those things which were bringing salvation. And so Jesus Acts as God 146 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:18.919 always acts. He saves. He saves and with the Authority of one who 147 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:24.470 belongs there, whose belongs to the House, who owns the house, he 148 00:14:24.669 --> 00:14:31.389 judges those and brings wrath on those who would not honor God. When you 149 00:14:31.470 --> 00:14:35.870 think about it that way, Jesus, his actions don't seem so harsh anymore. 150 00:14:37.269 --> 00:14:43.700 He's saving his people, he's protecting his people, he's driving out the 151 00:14:43.980 --> 00:14:50.659 wedge which would come between him and those whom he loves. It would seem 152 00:14:50.740 --> 00:14:56.129 them in that the only way to impute bad things to Jesus, we hear, 153 00:14:56.250 --> 00:15:01.169 is if you have a very low conception of God and his love. 154 00:15:03.649 --> 00:15:07.639 But when we think of God and his purposes and his power, what Jesus 155 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:13.960 does here is he is protecting, he is guarding, he is holding fast 156 00:15:13.159 --> 00:15:22.350 his people. Imagine someone broke into the home of a family and the father 157 00:15:22.549 --> 00:15:26.429 of the household got up and he sees the thief standing there and he says, 158 00:15:26.029 --> 00:15:30.470 just take whatever he want. You know, I really don't love these 159 00:15:30.509 --> 00:15:35.779 people that much. What would you think of that father? Would you think 160 00:15:35.899 --> 00:15:39.980 that he was a good husband, a good father, that he loved of 161 00:15:41.019 --> 00:15:46.620 those who belong to him? You remember the story of of Lot, when 162 00:15:48.379 --> 00:15:52.330 these angels come to Sodom and go mora and lat says here, take my 163 00:15:52.409 --> 00:15:58.250 daughter. It's hard to think of a lot is acting. Well, they're 164 00:15:58.370 --> 00:16:04.360 right, what are you doing? Jesus isn't doing that here. He sees 165 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:12.440 this threat and he faces it. Jesus is going to do the same thing 166 00:16:14.759 --> 00:16:19.909 when he goes to the Cross and he faces it, except there, instead 167 00:16:19.950 --> 00:16:26.870 of the way that he deals with the tyranny of sin and the evil one 168 00:16:26.950 --> 00:16:30.629 that drives a wedge between us and God. He deals with it permanently. 169 00:16:32.590 --> 00:16:41.740 He deals with it finally by taking that judgment that is deserved against sin on 170 00:16:41.860 --> 00:16:48.210 himself. The Lord is zealous over his temple, and it is right for 171 00:16:48.250 --> 00:16:52.889 us to remember that. The scriptures testify to us that we are his temple, 172 00:16:53.250 --> 00:16:59.169 that this Old Testament temple would one day be destroyed, and it would, 173 00:16:59.330 --> 00:17:03.279 and what would raise up in his place would be the body of Christ, 174 00:17:03.519 --> 00:17:08.680 both his physical body and all are who are united to that body through 175 00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:14.880 the spirit which is you. Peter testifies to this and he says that we 176 00:17:14.960 --> 00:17:18.349 are the temple of the Living God. We are like living stones being built 177 00:17:18.390 --> 00:17:26.710 up in which the Holy Spirit himself dwells. That's an amazing thing. When 178 00:17:26.750 --> 00:17:30.140 Jesus comes into this temple and Cleans House, he does a similar thing on 179 00:17:30.220 --> 00:17:36.940 the cross. He Cleans House, he removes sin, he takes away the 180 00:17:37.059 --> 00:17:42.740 things that would keep us not only from worshiping God in his temple but being 181 00:17:44.259 --> 00:17:48.650 the temple himself in which the Holy Spirit, in which the Holy Spirit, 182 00:17:48.730 --> 00:17:55.890 dwells. And so this is what is going on here. The Jews, 183 00:17:55.970 --> 00:18:00.519 of course, are very upset about this and they say what sign do you 184 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:04.759 show us for doing these things? It's another way of saying what gives you 185 00:18:04.920 --> 00:18:11.440 the right? By what authority? Prove it? Prove what you will do. 186 00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:18.430 And what's Jesus's response? He says, destroy this temple and in three 187 00:18:18.470 --> 00:18:23.230 days I will raise it up. They're incredulous. Verse Twenty. It is 188 00:18:23.309 --> 00:18:30.220 taken forty six years to build this temple. Another detail, by the way, 189 00:18:30.220 --> 00:18:34.140 which helps us with dating issues. But they say it's taken forty six 190 00:18:34.220 --> 00:18:37.500 years to build this temple and you will raise it up in three days. 191 00:18:37.539 --> 00:18:45.210 Absolutely because we read that he was speaking about the temple of his body. 192 00:18:48.569 --> 00:18:52.369 It might be tempting to think that Jesus is being overly coy here, or 193 00:18:52.490 --> 00:18:56.839 maybe that he's not even telling the truth, but it's not the case, 194 00:18:59.240 --> 00:19:04.000 because what we read is that the temple was always connected with him and his 195 00:19:04.200 --> 00:19:11.230 people, him and his body. He comes to establish the new worship of 196 00:19:11.430 --> 00:19:18.789 God, to establish something that the temple was always pointing forward to, and 197 00:19:18.950 --> 00:19:25.220 that's exactly what he does. When Jesus dies on the cross, when Jesus 198 00:19:25.339 --> 00:19:32.819 takes on all the sins of those whom he was dying for and he forgives 199 00:19:32.859 --> 00:19:37.299 them all they are and his blood atones for them all. He does it 200 00:19:37.420 --> 00:19:42.009 in a way that is perfect and final, and we know that by his 201 00:19:42.170 --> 00:19:51.009 resurrection, in which he raises himself from the dead. An amazing thing, 202 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:56.319 and the scriptures testify to us that this resurrection of Jesus from the dead is 203 00:19:56.599 --> 00:20:03.680 just a foretaste of our own resurrection when we believe in Him. Paul talks 204 00:20:03.720 --> 00:20:07.910 about it as the first fruits of the resurrection of the dead. When you 205 00:20:07.990 --> 00:20:12.029 go out and you look at your your let's say your grapefruit tree, and 206 00:20:12.150 --> 00:20:18.710 you see the first fruit hanging there, it reminds you that all the rest 207 00:20:18.750 --> 00:20:23.460 is coming. We're to think about the resurrection of Jesus like that. Jesus 208 00:20:23.500 --> 00:20:29.339 is resurrection from the dead. Was Not just this one remarkable thing in history. 209 00:20:29.420 --> 00:20:33.779 It was that first thing that happened, which shows that all the rest 210 00:20:33.819 --> 00:20:41.210 is coming. Your own resurrection from the dead is spoken about here. You 211 00:20:41.490 --> 00:20:49.720 belong to him, his body, his temple, his life. All of 212 00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:56.279 this happening here, as I said, on the Passover, this great moment 213 00:20:56.359 --> 00:21:03.119 when God rescues himself or rescues his people out of slavery, and it happens 214 00:21:03.720 --> 00:21:08.029 through the blood of the lamb. It pointed to Jesus on the cross, 215 00:21:08.029 --> 00:21:14.789 our Passover lamb, who takes on the judgment of God for sins so that 216 00:21:14.910 --> 00:21:22.019 we might be saved from them. Let's praise and thank God for our salvation 217 00:21:22.099 --> 00:21:22.539 and him