The True Temple

Good morning, church. Our sermon text today is John, chapter 2, verses 12 through 22.

John 2:12–22

Let me invite you to turn there with me. John, chapter 2, verses 12 through 22.

John 2:12–22

Let me pray for us, and then I'll read the text. Let's pray together.

Father, our Father in heaven, we pray that your name would be hallowed, that your kingdom would come, and that your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.

God, we ask that in this time as we turn to your word, that your Holy Spirit would come and give us the grace of illumination so that we might understand the things that you have recorded for us.

Lord, not just so that we might gather new information, but so that we might see Christ more fully and be more transfigured and transformed into his image, conformed to his likeness.

We pray this in his name. Amen.

John 2, verse 12.

John 2:12

After this, he, that is Jesus, went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

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

And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and oxen.

And he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

And he told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away.

Do not make my father's house a house of trade.

His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me.

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 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?

But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this,

and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Well, one of the wonders of living in the time that we do is that so many of the things that a generation or two ago would have been almost unthinkable

have now become incredibly convenient.

For example, if I want a new book, a simple online order will drop it at my door in a day or two.

If I need a bag of groceries, I can do curbside pickup, and the store will put it right in the trunk of my car.

I don't even have to get out of my car to do grocery shopping.

If I want to talk to my extended family, a simple tap of a button on my phone, and I can see and hear their faces from hundreds of miles away.

It's all so massively convenient.

And that, in many ways, is a good thing.

But convenience can sometimes come with a price.

Social media makes sharing ideas and photos with my friends very convenient,

but it also creates, at times, a social echo chamber where I never really meaningfully engage with people outside of my tribe.

Ordering a book through Amazon puts it conveniently at my doorstep, maybe even the next day,

but it also forces many local bookstores to dwindle and perhaps close,

and neighborhoods lose places where new ideas can be shared and real relationships formed.

Convenience comes with a price.

Now, what our passage today puts before us is a very bracing question.

Am I, are we, allowing our worship of God to be marred or even lost?

In the name of convenience.

Let me show you from our text what I mean.

This event in Jesus' life is often called the cleansing of the temple.

And here, in this episode, we see two things.

First, we see Jesus confront convenient worship.

And then second, we're going to see Jesus cure convenient worship.

So first, we see Jesus confront convenient worship in verses 12 through 17.

Let's look at those verses again.

Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for the Passover feast.

Now, John mentions the Passover a number of times in his gospel.

And Jesus, in obedience to the law, participates in this annual worship gathering in the capital of Jerusalem.

Now, the Passover feast commemorated what?

It commemorated Israel's liberation from slavery in Egypt.

The Exodus, the great act of rescue in the Old Testament,

where God, remember, judged the Egyptians in a series of judgments called plagues.

And the sort of climactic judgment of all was putting to death all of the firstborn in the entirety of Egypt.

And that was a judgment that would have come to the Israelites as well

had not God provided a way for that judgment to pass over them.

And that way that God provided for his judgment to pass over was for a lamb to be sacrificed.

And in every household, as a substitute for the firstborn,

the lamb would die instead and God's judgment would pass over that house.

So this was what the nation remembered year after year after year.

And so Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for the annual feast.

And the center of worship in Jerusalem, the heart of the festival, was the temple.

Now, the temple in the Old Testament was the place where God met and dwelt with his people.

You know, this longing, this urge to commune with God,

you see it in almost every human culture, don't you?

And so in most human cultures, we see temples of some kind.

A place where finite humans can try to meet what is infinite and what is transcendent.

A place where finite humans can get in touch with ultimate reality with God.

But those temples that are strewn across the ancient world were but shadows and distortions of the real thing.

Do you remember when Paul walked into Athens and Acts and he saw the massive number of idols and altars there

and how it broke and upset his heart?

But he noticed there that there was one altar dedicated to an unknown God.

And so Paul says, men of Athens, I see that you're religious in every way.

But what you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

People hunger for ultimate reality, for communion with God, but we don't really know how to get it.

But the true God, the God of the Bible, has made a way for us to do that.

And in the Old Testament, when his people were living in tents in the wilderness after the Exodus,

God said, I'll come and I'll live in a tent right there in your midst.

So he commanded Moses to build a tabernacle, which was a tent,

where he would dwell in the midst of his tent-dwelling people.

And when his people lived in houses in the promised land,

after they had settled in the promised land,

God said, I'll live in a house right there in your midst.

And so he commanded David and Solomon to build the temple, the house,

where God would dwell in the midst of his house-dwelling people.

And when in judgment Solomon's temple was destroyed by the Babylonians,

and then when in grace God brought them back to the land after the exile,

nearly the first thing that God tells the people to do is what?

Build the temple.

Build the place that will signify my dwelling right in your midst,

your creator and your redeemer.

Because that's why I've made you, God says.

That's why I've rescued you.

I've made you and I've rescued you to dwell with me.

And in dwelling with me to bear my image.

And in bearing my image to spread joy and glory through the whole creation.

So Jesus, on the Passover, goes up to the temple.

Now the temple complex in Jesus' day had been greatly expanded.

There's mention of that in verse 20 of our passage,

when the Jewish authorities say,

it's taken 46 years to build this temple.

Now what's being referred to there is the sort of constant construction in Jesus' day

that had built and rebuilt the courts and greatly sort of repaired the temple proper.

So the temple was really not just sort of one sort of temple proper,

but a whole complex of courts and courtyards and colonnades.

So when it says in verse 14 that Jesus entered the temple,

it means sort of the temple area or the temple complex.

The massive courts that surrounded the actual sort of temple building itself.

And when Jesus enters the temple area,

he finds something there that greatly disturbs him.

In the outer court, there are animals being sold.

And there are money changers exchanging currency.

Now why was that going on?

Well, think about it.

People had to travel, sometimes multiple days,

to get to Jerusalem for the annual feasts.

So rather than sort of take your sacrifice with you on that long journey,

this is sort of how I imagine them taking their sheep with them.

It's probably not how they would have done it.

And you have to feed it, and you have to water it,

and you have to clean up after it.

Instead of doing all that, you could just arrive in Jerusalem.

You just buy your sacrifice when you got there.

And the money changers were also providing,

I think, what we would have thought of as a helpful service.

Again, people were coming from all over for the annual feasts.

And all these different locations where people were coming from,

it wasn't like today where there were like one or two currencies

that kind of enveloped whole continents.

No, all these different locations had their own forms of little local currencies.

So the money changers would allow you to kind of take your petty little local currency

and exchange it into the local money.

So you could do all your transactions.

So you could pay your taxes and do all that good stuff.

So think about it.

It was a pretty good setup.

People are coming from far away.

Don't bother them with bringing their own animals

or searching all over to find a currency exchange.

Let's set it up right here.

You come to the temple.

You buy your sacrifice.

You exchange your money.

You're good to go.

And bonus, rather than any of the kind of modest profit that's made

going to benefit someone else, it goes to the temple.

It's a win-win.

You get your cows.

You get your coins.

And the temple is supported.

What could be better than that?

Why wander the streets of Jerusalem looking for what you need?

Just put it right here in the temple courts.

It is the ultimate inconvenience.

But Jesus will have none of it.

None of it.

He makes a little whip of reeds or cords,

and he uses it to start driving the animals out.

And if you've ever tried to get an ox to move,

you know why Jesus had to build a little whip

to get the animals to leave.

And he walks up to the money table,

and he flips it over.

And he goes to the pigeon sellers,

and he says,

pick up your cages and get out of here.

What others saw as this beautiful convenience,

Jesus sees as a complete tragedy.

Why?

Didn't Jesus want the pilgrims in Jerusalem

to be able to offer sacrifices according to the law?

Didn't Jesus want people to have the right currency

to pay their taxes and get their sacrifices and all that?

Well, Jesus didn't have a problem with any of that, actually.

It wasn't the activity that he had a problem with.

It was the location.

You've made my father's house a house of trade.

The courts are supposed to be places of prayer,

of reverence.

These courts are meant to be set apart,

a place that's set apart for worship.

And instead, you've made it a barnyard and a bank.

Just imagine what this would have been like.

Now, I know a lot of us like to grab a cup of coffee

or a quick breakfast before coming to church.

You'll often see the Lauer family at Brueger's

around 845 when we're on our way, right?

But, you know, we could make it really easy for people

if we just set up right in the back of the church,

right behind the soundboard, a coffee shop.

You know, right next to Jess, right next to Kevin,

maybe where that book's little pamphlets are.

We'll just stick a coffee shop, bam, right there.

We'll put an espresso machine back there.

We'll put a barista there.

We'll put some breakfast sandwiches there.

And then after you check in with the ushers,

you can just walk right over there whenever you want.

Get a coffee, get an egg and cheese sandwich.

How sweet would that be?

You get your coffee, you get your breakfast sandwich.

Maybe the church gets a little proceeds.

Win-win.

The sermon starts to bore you.

It goes a little long.

You can get up and get an espresso

and make it through points five and six of the sermon.

How sweet would that be?

Not that sweet, right?

Not that sweet.

Because while we're trying to worship,

we'd be constantly interrupted by the whirl of the coffee machine,

by the casual conversation of the clients,

the rattle of the coffee mugs going into the dishwasher.

It would be a mess.

But think of how much worse it would have been

for the worshipers in Jesus' day,

worshiping not just next to the aroma of a coffee machine,

but next to the aroma of a cattle stall.

Most of us who live in the city

don't really know what that's like, do we?

But here's the real hitch.

This only impacted some of the worshipers.

If you were a Jew,

you didn't have to stay in those outer courts

with the clinking coins and the bleeding sheep.

You were actually allowed to go into the next courtyard

and get away from all that stuff.

But if you were a Gentile,

if you were an outsider,

you had to stay outside in the outer court.

You had to pray next to the banks in the barnyard.

So do you see what was happening?

Not just had a place reserved,

set apart by God,

a place set apart by God for prayer and awe,

not just had that been turned into a noisy marketplace,

but the place where outsiders

could actually connect with the true God

in a world of idols,

the place where outsiders could connect with the true God

had been overrun

for the sake of the convenience of the insiders.

The religious folk,

the insiders,

the haves,

had done all sorts of things

to make their worship experience easier.

But who paid the cost?

The irreligious folk,

the outsiders,

the have-nots.

And that gets right down to the heart of the matter.

However,

the impulse to put cows and coins

in the courtyard of the temple

is driven by a heart

that wants to make worship

a convenient religion for some

instead of a gospel message for all.

So we need to check ourselves.

I'm sure that the first person

who had the idea

of putting a money-changing table

in the temple courts

was not thinking,

you know what will really dishonor God

and exclude the very people

we're supposed to be evangelizing?

Let's put a money-changing table right here.

Let's do it.

That's not what they were thinking.

They were thinking,

what will make it easier for us

to worship?

And what can be wrong with that, right?

But it's the wrong question.

The question cannot be

what will make it easier for us

to worship?

The question has to be

what will honor God

and make it possible

for them to worship?

Worship isn't about serving my needs,

but exalting God

and drawing all peoples to Him.

And that's what gets Jesus fired up

in our passage.

His disciples then and now

need to remember

that it was written,

zeal for your house

will consume me.

Jesus is passionate

about the honor

of the Father's name

and the gathering

of all nations

to worship Him.

And if our convenience

gets in the way of that,

we need to be ready

for Jesus to flip some tables.

are we in danger of this today?

What things do we do

while maybe making it easier for us

might inadvertently be making it harder

for others to worship?

You know, it's easier at times

to use kind of insider language

or Christian-y jargon

rather than attempting

to explain things clearly.

You know, it's a comfort.

It can be a comfort

to insiders

to hear certain phrases

thrown around.

But that can be kind of confusing

for the outsider

or the newcomer

who has no idea

what a hedge of protection is

or whatever.

You know, these kind of phrases

that we grow up using

as Christians.

And God certainly isn't honored

by empty, jargony phrases.

Or it can be easier at times

to harp on the shortcomings

or the failures

of the prevailing culture around us.

It can be easier

to just sort of harp

on the shortcomings

that we see around us

rather than at the same time

attempting to reform

and renew

and critique

the church's shortcomings.

In other words,

it can be comforting

for the insider

to hear a bold critique

of this or that,

but it can be confusing

for the outsider

when it seems like

the only social issues

that are being critiqued

are some and not others.

We condemn this or that.

Why aren't we talking

about our own shortcomings?

It's easier to stick

to familiar patterns

or rhythms in worship.

It's more convenient

to sing the same familiar songs

that's more comfortable

to dress in a certain way,

to sit in the same spot.

It's so easy to slide

or drift into doing

all the things

that will make it easy

and convenient

for the already religious folks

to practice their religion

and go home affirmed

in their performance.

It's so easy to do that.

But throughout the Gospels,

Jesus saves his most

stringent critiques,

not for the wayward pagan,

but for the self-satisfied churchgoer.

I think this might be one reason

why John puts his account

of Jesus cleansing the temple

at the beginning of his Gospel

rather than at the end.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke

recount Jesus cleansing the temple

at the end of Jesus' ministry.

But John, perhaps for some thematic reasons,

or perhaps because Jesus

actually just did it twice,

wants to mention it here

at the beginning,

right here,

after the wedding of Cana.

Remember the wedding of Cana

that we talked about last week

where Jesus,

in a very sort of secular setting,

rescues a wedding feast.

He turns water into wine.

And in so doing,

He rescues the reputation

of a young groom.

A young groom who is on the verge

of total social shame,

who gets all the credit

for what Jesus did.

Remember?

The master of the feast

comes to this young groom.

What does he say?

Did you hear what Jesus did?

No, he looks at the young groom

and says,

you did something great.

You saved the best wine until now.

And there's the young groom.

I'm thinking,

what did I do?

He did nothing.

And Jesus did everything.

And the young man

got all the credit.

And that's how Jesus treats those

who know that they've blown it.

He rescues us from shame

and gives us joy

without our desert,

without doing anything

to deserve it.

But here in the second half

of John 2,

we see how Jesus treats those

who think they've got it all together.

Who think they can use

a religious system

for their own convenience.

And to the self-satisfied

religious folk,

Jesus gives them judgment.

So which one are you?

Are you the groom

who knows that unless someone else

comes to the rescue,

you're done for?

Or are you trying to find

an easy, convenient religion

that will tick the boxes?

Do you want to just do

the right thing,

go through the motions,

preferably without too much

inconvenience or cost

so you can get back

to your life?

And if we're honest,

I think we all,

at one point or another,

fall into that latter category.

So what do we do?

Where do we go?

Well, thankfully,

Jesus doesn't just confront

convenient worship

in this passage, right?

He also,

in a little bit of a cryptic way,

points us to the cure.

In verses 18 through 22,

Jesus points us to the cure

for convenient worship.

Now let's look at those verses again,

18 through 22.

And the first thing that happens here

is that the Jews,

now in John's gospel,

the phrase the Jews

is going to come up

again and again and again.

And that almost always means

the religious authorities

in Jerusalem,

not every single Jewish person.

After all,

Jesus was a Jew.

So when John says the Jews,

he's talking about sort of

the religious authorities

in Jerusalem.

So these religious authorities

come up to Jesus

and they basically say,

what gives you the right

to tell us

how to do things here?

Show us some sign

that you have the right

to do this.

In other words,

you better have a miracle

up your sleeve

if you're going to start

telling us how to do things

in this house.

And Jesus says,

okay,

I'll give you a sign.

Destroy this temple

and in three days

I'll raise it up.

And of course,

they have no idea

what Jesus is talking about.

And the disciples

didn't get it either.

It's taken 46 years

to rebuild this place,

Jesus.

We can do it in three days.

But Jesus wasn't talking

about the stone temple

that was around them.

Jesus was talking about

the flesh and blood temple

standing right in front of them.

His own body.

What gave Jesus the right

to exercise authority

over the temple in Jerusalem?

The same thing

that gave Jesus the right

to stand up

in the synagogue

and read Old Testament texts

from Isaiah

or Jeremiah

or Moses

and say,

today,

these things are fulfilled

in your hearing.

You search the scriptures

thinking that in them

you're going to find

eternal life.

But it's they

that witness about me,

he'll say later

in John's gospel.

And just as the texts

of the prophets

are fulfilled

in Jesus,

so the temple itself

and all that it stood for

is fulfilled

in Jesus.

The temple

was the place

where God

and humans

could meet.

where God says,

I will dwell

in your midst

and you'll commune

with me.

Remember?

God says,

you live in a tent,

I'll live in a tent.

You live in a house,

okay,

I'll live in a house.

But when the fullness

of time came,

the word became flesh

and literally tabernacled

among us.

God's desire

to commune

with his people

reached its climax

in the incarnation

of Jesus Christ.

Here,

in the body

of Jesus,

God and humanity

meet once for all.

You live in the flesh,

I'll come and live

in the flesh.

So the Old Testament temple,

the Old Testament temple

was like a shadow

cast backwards in time

and the one

casting the shadow

was the Lord Jesus Christ.

What gave Jesus

the authority

over the Jerusalem temple?

The temple was about Jesus

the whole time.

It was his.

And when he rose

from the dead,

his disciples got it.

They understood.

The penny dropped.

In the resurrection

of Jesus from the dead,

all the things

that Jesus said

finally had proven

to be true.

And all the scriptures,

all the things

that the scriptures

had said about the Messiah,

well,

they proved true as well

in him.

And because Jesus

is the true temple,

the true place

where God and humanity

meet,

it means the cure

of our convenient religion.

Why?

Well, think about it.

The reason

why

we want to put

coins and cows

in the temple courts

is because we're

trying to make it

easier for the insiders

to fulfill

our religious obligations.

We've got to try

to lower the bar

and help each other

out here, right?

Let's make it easier

to keep the rules.

But Jesus

drives them all away.

Don't make it easier,

he says.

Don't turn my

father's house

into a place

where you can

simply execute

an easy transaction

and go home.

If you approach

worship like that,

you've missed the point

altogether.

Why?

Because the point

of the temple

wasn't to lower the bar

and make it easier

for us to reach the mark.

The point of the temple

was to show us

that we needed

someone else

to meet the mark

and pay the price.

Because when you

went to the temple,

what did you see?

You saw a glorious

building that represented

God's presence

in your midst,

and then you saw

a closed door

and a thick curtain

that said,

you can't get in here.

And then you would

look around

and you would see

sacrifices taking place

morning and evening

and monthly

and at festivals.

But friends,

consider

what Jesus has done.

Look at the inconvenience

of our Savior.

Yeah?

Leaving the riches

of heaven,

Jesus takes on flesh

and becomes poor.

Living a life

of perfect love

and obedience

to the law,

amidst constant scorn

and misunderstanding,

Jesus lays down

his own life

as a sacrifice for sin

and rises again

to bring life

to all who believe.

You see,

Christianity

isn't some convenient

religion that we have

to perform.

It's news

about the one

who went to the depths

of inconvenience

and shame

because he loved

sinners like you

and me

and wanted us

to have fellowship

with God.

At the center

of our worship

is no longer

a temple

and a sacrificial system,

but the Lord Jesus

who is the true temple

and the true Passover Lamb

who takes away

the sin of the world.

You see, friends,

you don't have to search

the world over

to find a temple

where maybe you can

get in touch with God.

The temple came to you.

And you don't have to find

elaborate rules

and rituals

and sacrifices

to somehow get inside

that temple, right?

Because that was the trick

with temples

in the ancient world.

Once you got there,

you had to get in.

But the temple

didn't just come to you.

Sacrifice

came to you too.

Behold the Lamb of God

who takes away

the sin of the world,

John the Baptist said.

And right there

on Passover,

Jesus drives out

the sacrifices

and says,

don't make my father's house

a house of trade.

Don't make this easier

because I'm the one

who's going to pay

the price for you.

We don't meet with God

in a place

but in the face

of a person,

the person of Jesus.

And friends,

if he is the center

of our worship,

then the question

can never become,

how can I make this

more convenient

for me

and for those like me?

If the Lord Jesus Christ

is the center

of our worship,

then the question

will never be,

how can I make

worship of Jesus

more convenient

for me

and those like me?

He died for me.

The only question now

is how can I take up

my cross

and follow him?

He laid down

his life for me.

So the question now

is how can I lay down

my life for others?

Am I willing

to be a little

inconvenienced

so the name of Christ

can be honored

and so the nations

can know the joy

of entering

the kingdom of God?

Am I willing

to be a little

inconvenienced

for that?

Huh!

What seemed

like an inconvenience

before

now becomes

no inconvenience

at all.

Like the apostles

in Acts 5

who rejoiced

that they were

counted worthy

even to suffer

for Jesus' name.

It wasn't

an inconvenience

anymore.

It was a privilege.

The apostles

were glad

to be counted

worthy

even to suffer

for his name

for the name

of the one

who loved us

and died for us

and rose again

in victory.

What are we not

willing to do

for him?

What are we not

willing to do

so that others

might know him?

If the church

gets a little full

are you willing

to sit in the overflow?

Willing to be

a little inconvenient

so that others

can know

the name of Jesus?

If the service

starts to fill up

would you be willing

to be inconvenienced

to go plant a church

so that others

can know

the name of Jesus?

But I like it here.

I like the stained

glass windows.

It's so great.

Well yeah

it's pretty convenient

to just walk across town

and come to church

isn't it?

But would you be willing

to be inconvenienced

so that other people

can come and have a seat

and hear about

the name of Jesus?

Friends, if the Lord Jesus

incarnate, crucified,

and risen

is the true temple,

the true place

where God and sinners

meet,

then we have found

the cure

of convenient

self-serving worship.

And we can be a church

that honors the name

of God

and that exists

not for itself

or our own comfort

but for the good

of our neighbors

so that they might know

God and Christ as well.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus,

it's right

to give you praise.

So we praise you

this morning.

We thank you

that we don't have

to travel

miles and miles,

days and days

to find the place

where we can meet

with you

but you've poured

out your spirit

so that we can

meet with you

wherever.

You are indeed

the place

where God and sinners

meet, Jesus,

and we praise you.

Help us

to have a growing

zeal

to see your name

exalted

and spread.

We ask this

in your name.

Amen.

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