Jesus is ___, Part. 3: “The New Temple”

Come along with me as I read from John chapter 2 verses 1 to

John 2 · chapter mention

25 to see how Jesus is the new temple.

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee and

the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus was also invited to the

wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the

mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine.

And Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with

me? My hour has not yet come.

His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you.

Now there were 6 stone jar water jars there for the Jewish rites

of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water, and they

filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, Now draw

some out and take it to the master of the feast.

So they took it when the master of the feast tasted the water

now become wine, and did not know where it came from, though

the servants who had drawn the water knew.

The Master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him,

Everyone serves a good wine 1st, and when people have drunk

freely, then the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine

until now. This, the first of his signs

Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory, and the

disciples believed in Him. After this he went down to

Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples,

and he stayed there for a few days.

The Passover of the Jews was at a 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 a sheep and an 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 remember 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.

Now, when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many

believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing.

But Jesus on His part, did not entrust Himself to them, because

He knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man,

for He Himself knew what was in man.

It's the Word of God, Amen. We'll be Speaking of signs and

their purpose today. What are the purpose and meaning

of signs? And for me this is This applies

to real life because signs are never the destination signs,

especially on. We make frequent Rd. trips to

Surabaya as my wife's family is from there and I'm constantly

looking out for signs. You know once you pass Jakarta

you'll begin to see signs for Chitabon.

Once you pass Chitabon, you start to see signs for Samarang.

Once you pass Samarang you start to see signs for solo and only

then do you start seeing signs that say Surabaya.

But obviously I don't stop at that sign, just passing solo and

say we made it. This is where we want to be.

No signs only point to the destination, to the main event.

And it builds our anticipation in a way, because whatever that

sign is pointing to, it says it's near, it's not far, it's

close signs. That's the very purpose of signs

that we see in Scripture, specifically in the miracles of

Jesus. It's common even in Christian

spirituality today to stop at the signs and say the signs is

what it's all about. I want more of the signs.

I want more of the miracles, which is then to completely miss

out on who Jesus is, the person that the signs point to.

Signs point to the revealing of who Jesus is.

So we'll look at today's passage in two parts.

If you're taking notes, you can write them down.

We'll see. The first sign is of glory of

Jesus Christ in verses 1 to 12, and then the promise sign that

is to come, promised sign of authority in verses 13 to 25.

So let's get right into God's word, the first sign of glory.

John starts chapter 2 with counting of days that he has

been doing in chapter 1. He covered four days at the end

of chapter 1. So the third day after that

brings us to the end of Jesus's first week of ministry.

Now this isn't random counting. This isn't random storytelling.

John has a purpose of noting the third day and what Jesus does on

that third day at a wedding in order to reveal who Jesus really

is. The significance of emphasizing

the third day will become clearer for us later in what

Jesus says in verse 9. Says in verse even when our

weddings today are just last for one day.

Back then, weddings during 1st century Palestine lasted several

days and running out of wine was like a social disaster.

Maybe it's like running out of rice at an Indonesian reading.

Maybe it's running out of parking spots.

But still it's much worse because there was disgrace and

humiliation upon the new family and even dishonour and insult to

the extended families, especially on part of the

bridegroom who was not able to provide for such a feast, such a

celebration marking his his willingness to provide for

others to celebrate with him and his new bride.

It may be hard for us to realize how bad the situation was, but

it was serious enough, we see for Jesus mother to tell Jesus

they have no wine. That's what she simply says in

in verse 3. It's interesting that she does

not make a specific request, but she only informs Jesus about the

need. And it's clear that she does

indeed have an expectation for Jesus to do something about this

problem. She was not merely telling him

information. She came with an expectation for

Jesus to be somehow the solution, even though she may

not have known how she as the mother of Mary, as the mother of

Jesus, knew of the prophecies made over her child and and the

miracle of how she what gave birth that was given to her by

the Holy Spirit. So she knew obviously of the

uniqueness of her son, but she would not know all the details.

So she comes with the problem. Now, if you could just pause

here for a moment. In this brief interaction, I

think we can observe one model of prayer by simply coming to

Jesus, informing him of our needs and our problems.

It's not as if we're giving Jesus information that he

doesn't already know. He knows.

He knows our needs better than we do before it even comes off

of our lips. He knows, He knows, and he knows

how to provide. But in prayer, but in prayer we

we, we come communicating our needs to Jesus with an

expectation that he will do what is right.

In verse 5, we see Mary's open handed trust as she tells the

servants to do whatever Jesus tells you.

Now if you're honest with ourselves, we are lacking in our

prayer lives. We usually pray though when

there is a big enough problem that we feel like we cannot

solve on our own. So then we finally pray, which

is better than not praying at all, don't get me wrong.

But we all have a tendency to use prayer to demand God to

carry out our desires for God to do what we want done.

But God gave us the grace of prayer not to dictate to God

what we want done. He gave us the gift of prayer to

learn how to depend on Him. Who knows what is best?

So we come, come to lay down our cares and concerns and we trust

Him to act according to his good and perfect will.

Prayer without a willingness to trust God is nothing more than

selfish requests, manipulative demands.

No, we must learn to pray with open handed trust to say Lord,

not my will, but yours be done. As we gather on Sundays and we

lift up our prayer of petition, yes, we do pray for our needs.

Yes, we lay our cares down before the Lord and say, Lord,

have your way. We, we, we come to you for a

resolution for these problems, for our needs.

But I also hope you hear how we express our trust that even if

he doesn't provide in the ways that we desire, that we will

still trust that God is doing a good work even in our lacking in

our in our problems. We understand that the very

reason for those problems may be so that we as God's people learn

how to trust in him, learn how to come to him.

God getting our attention through our brokenness, through

our unsolved problems, through our limited abilities.

Let's read Jesus response to his mother's statement.

Now verse 4 says this. And Jesus said to her, woman,

what does this have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come. Now Jesus's words would be

surprising to us. First he doesn't call Mary

mother, but instead he calls her woman.

And now we can't bring into the text our own cultural

experiences. Perhaps we've tried to

disrespect our mother and that didn't turn out well for us

growing up. But here Jesus is not meaning to

be dishonouring or offensive. We know this because Jesus uses

the same word to call his mother in a deeply touching moment as

he hung on the cross. If you remember that scene in

John chapter 19, he's caring for his mother even in his suffering

John 19 · chapter mention

and pain, telling to his beloved disciple, Woman, here is your

son. So it is a respectful way.

It's a respectful way to ask his mother, what does this problem

have to do with me? Why are you involving me?

It's a statement that calls Mary to consider what she expects of

him, what she desires of him, knowing who Jesus is as her

mother, as his mother, to consider who Jesus is still.

Secondly, Jesus's word surprise us because it seems like Jesus

doesn't care about this wedding. Maybe it sounds like he doesn't

care about people's problems. I don't care that the wine ran

out. Why are you kind of bringing

this problem on me has nothing to do with me?

But that's not the case either. Note the reason for his response

at the end of verse 4. My hour or my time has not yet

come. Though Mary knew her Son to be

no ordinary person, she did not know of the divine schedule that

the Son of God had from God the Father.

She had an expectation of Jesus to solve this serious problem,

wedding problem, but it would still be a small problem

compared to the one Jesus really came to solve.

Perhaps a problem of wine running out could be resolved in

other ways, Friends gathering money going to purchase wine,

and the celebration could continue.

But Jesus would come to solve a problem.

None of us have a solution for that problem.

Was our problem of sin a problem of eternal death that we will

face forever, separated from God in hell for our sins?

That was the problem Jesus came to solve, and it was not time

for that problem. Yet.

Later, as Jesus approached the time of his death on the cross,

only then Jesus would pray. Father, the time has come, the

hour has come. So even though his hour had not

yet come, that hour, that time, Jesus would take this

opportunity still to show people a sign of what Jesus really came

to do and who Jesus really is. He knows that by doing so, he

would be taking another step toward that hour when he would

suffer on the cross for the sins of his people.

And so that's why Jesus responds that way.

This leads us to verses 6 and 8A.

Familiar story. If you've grown up going to

church or heard various pastors or even attended Christian

weddings, you've heard this passage preached.

But let's dive into it again, carefully reading verses 6 to 8.

Now there were 6 stone water jars there for their Jewish

rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons.

Jesus said to the servants fill the jars with water and they

fill them up to the brim and he said to them, now draw some out

and take it to the master of the feast.

So they took it. So there happened to be there 6

stone jars of Jewish for Jewish rites of purification.

By Jewish law it required people to be ceremony ceremonially

cleansed with water, to wash before eating, to wash before

washing, all the tools washing before worship.

So each jar was huge. It says each jar could hold 20

to 30 gallons of water. OK, just to be sure, this is not

gallon Aqua, right, that you have at home, OK.

Each jar held about 70 to 100 liters per jar.

Multiply that by 6, anywhere from 300 to 600 liters of water.

Jesus told the servants to fill them, and the servants listen to

his instruction and fill them to the brim to the very top.

Verse 8, Jesus says take some to the master of the feast.

They did without knowing the point of what's happening.

What's the point of bringing water for purification to the

master of the feast? They obeyed.

The drama builds in verse 9 as the master of the feast drinks

some of the wine, he has no idea where it came from and he calls

the bridegroom who also has no idea where it came from.

And he said to him in verse 10, everyone serves a good wine 1st

and when people have drunk freely then the poor wine.

But you have kept the good wine until now.

What John is doing here as he writes these events, he writes

the details of these making sure first that we understand that a

real miracle took place. Jesus solution was not, oh, take

whatever remaining wine and then dilute it with water and then

bring it to the master of the feast.

No, it's not. Go to another place and find

more wine and fill it to the brim and then and then bring it

to the master of the feast. No, John wants to make sure that

we understand that water really turned into wine.

The servants who did the work of filling up all six stone jars

knew they were filling it up with water.

But now somehow when water was taken out of that jar, it was

wine. If One Cup was 200 millilitres,

then you have about 3000 servings of wine, probably

enough to last the next several days until the end of the

wedding party. It was a generous gift from

Jesus to the bride and the groom.

But this clearly was about more, much more than just having

enough wine at a wedding. We get the hint of what the

master of the feast. We get the hint from what the

master of feasts says about the quality of wine.

We're called to attention the quality of the wine, because

usually people will serve the good wine.

And only once people began drinking, then they would serve

the poor wine, the cheaper stuff.

But this time it was different. No one did it like this.

The master of feasts noted the good wine came after and it was

only when Jesus was there. This brings us to the meaning of

the sign. Again, the whole purpose of

signs is to point. Signs themselves are not the

main event. They point our eyes to what we

need to focus on. If we just get stuck on this

miracle, then we will miss the point and make a completely

different conclusion than what John intends and wants us to

come away with from this, from this narrative, He wants us to

look at the sign, and then he wants us to move on from the

sign to Jesus. The danger is if we get stuck on

the sign, we'll think Jesus is simply our miracle worker.

It's easy to think like this, especially in our context where

there is a heightened spiritual awareness of spiritual things.

There was times even in our outreach where we

necessarily expecting it. Maybe that's a lack of faith on

my part for God to hear our prayer, for we did indeed pray

for healing in Jesus name. But what was devastating

afterwards was that girl would not be open to hear more about

who this Jesus is. She wanted to hear, she wanted

to for us to write down the words of the prayer that we

prayed so that whenever she felt pain, she could then just simply

recite that prayer and then she'll be healed.

She was stuck on the sign. She was stuck and the miracles,

no matter how much we try to move her on to the one that sign

pointed to, she was stuck on the sign.

It's easy for us, even for Christians, to think like this

because we all selfishly want someone greater than us to do

things for us. It's tempting to look at this

passage and say, see. Jesus wants to do something new

in your life. He wants to take the ordinary

water of your life and turn it into good wine.

Please. That is not what this sign is

about. You can erase that.

I even said that from your memory.

The purpose of Jesus miracle is here in verse 11.

This the first of his signs Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and

manifested his glory. The first sign was to manifest

or to reveal the glory of God. That's the purpose of his

miracles. The signs that revealed that

Jesus is no ordinary man. Yes, the son of a Carpenter, but

not only that, yes, a good teacher, but not only that

either. Jesus, fully man and fully God.

The point of the miracles is to make people carefully think

about who Jesus is. Remember back in Exodus chapter

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

33 where Moses had his encounter with God on Mount Sinai.

He asked God to show His glory and God said only he would show

him a glimpse because no one could see God and, and and

continue to live. And So what God started there

giving a glimpse of His glory, He completes here in the person

of Jesus Christ to fully show His glory to undeserving

sinners. Here Jesus is Jesus revealed His

glory by turning water into good wine.

It showed first that Jesus is Lord over this material world.

As God, who was before all things, who created all things,

he is in control over all things.

Jesus is the one who is able to provide for our every need,

which is why Jesus taught us to pray, to depend on God even for

Our Daily Bread. The breakfast you had this

morning, the dinner you had last night, Yes, you may have paid

for it, you may have got out, you may have cooked it, but it

was God who was the one who provided it for you.

Consider for a moment that God is the one in control over every

aspect of our lives. Nothing happens outside of His

sovereign control. If for whatever reason, God did

not want you to eat, you wouldn't have eaten anything.

Consider for a moment if God wanted to give you every

exquisite and exotic delicacy and luxury in the world, you

would have it. Jesus reveals himself as God who

was able to supernaturally provide for any human need.

But the point of this is not so that we think Jesus as some kind

of supernatural vending machine where we just put a coin or a

few coins of prayer and outcomes everything that we ever wanted.

We should seriously repent if this is how we treated, viewed,

and approached Jesus. What is our proper response to

such revelation of glory? The rest of verse 11 tells us

and his disciples believed in him.

That's it. The sign was for faith in Jesus.

The Word does not say, and his disciples expected Jesus to

provide free flow wine at each one of their weddings.

It simply says his disciples believed in Him.

Friends, I know I'm taking some time on this, but it's because I

want you to be guarded from the wrong expectations of Jesus that

many Christians have, that many Christians might even claim or

explain from passages in Scripture like this.

We all have a tendency to cheat Jesus as if He were just a

miracle worker and nothing more. We are driven.

It's because we're driven more by our sinful desires for quick

and easy fixes rather than persevering faith in God.

And so practically, if you think about it for your needs and the

problems that you have, what is the first thing that you that we

asked for beside asking for God's provision, which we can

do, obviously. Do you ask God for faith to

trust Him even when your needs are still there tomorrow, even

when your problems are left unsolved next week, next month?

I encourage you for the ongoing needs and problems, even for the

next need and problems that you will have, bring it to God in

prayer, Yes. And as you do, also ask for

deeper trust and faith in Jesus, for that is what the sign points

to, even in the signs of provision.

We can trust in Jesus Christ even if there's no miracle

today. We can keep trusting in Jesus

even if there are no dramatic supernatural changes in our

lives tomorrow, because Jesus came not to make our current

lives easier and more comfortable.

He came to reveal His glory so that we believe in Him.

Believe not only what He says about Himself, but believe what

the Old Testament Scriptures prophesied about Him and what

will happen when He comes. We read Isaiah chapter 25 verse

Isaiah 25:6–9

6 to 9 earlier in corporate scripture reading of that great

banquet to come. The Lord Almighty will prepare a

rich a feast of rich food and good wine.

Also in Isaiah chapter 62 verse 5, as the bridegroom rejoices

Isaiah 62:5

over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

So Jesus here was fulfilling what Scriptures prophesied about

Him by supernaturally turning the water of Jewish rites of

purification into good wine for wedding celebration.

Jesus was giving a preview of the greater wedding banquet to

come. We see in Revelation chapter 19,

Revelation 19:7–9

verses 7 to 9 of the great marriage supper of the Lamb of

God. If I were to read it for you,

verse 7, let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory,

for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made

herself ready. It was granted her to clothe

herself with fine linen, bright and pure.

For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the Saints.

That's what Jesus came to do. Jesus came to give himself up,

to die on the cross for his bride, to purify the Church and

prepare his bride to be without blemish, to be without the

filth, filth and stain of sin. Jesus would take away our sins

in ways we could never do on our own.

It doesn't matter how many stone jars we prepare for ourselves,

could never wash away our sins. Repeated rituals of cleansing

was not the solution, was not the main event.

Even those things, those actions were pointing to the one who

would come to wash away their sins.

It was a reminder of guilt and how sinners need to be purified

in order to be with God. It is only through Jesus

sacrifice who died once for all sins and who is able to save

completely to the uttermost, those who draw near to God

through faith in Jesus Christ. Through Christ, God has richly

poured out the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

Holy Spirit, purifying His Bride Jesus Christ.

The point of this all was to point to Jesus our Bridegroom,

who supernaturally provides the good wine of joy of never ending

joy for His people. He invites us into that

celebration to as we repent of our sins and believe in Him, in

all the ongoing struggles of faith, in all the present pains

of of this world and the problems of our lives.

Christ invites us to celebrate with Him now because there will

just be a glimpse of that great celebration to come.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are to be marked by such a

wedding joy through all seasons of our lives because we know the

bridegroom who has come and who will come again.

It's a joy that doesn't just last a week, but a joy that

lasts forever into eternity because we have received the

grace of God, the love of God, the mercy of God, all through

Jesus Christ who came to us, came for us to die in our place

for our sins. So as we live our lives, as we

go to work tomorrow, as we spend time with awkward family members

and friends, we should be marked by this wedding hope.

Because we know by faith there is a greater joy to come.

This text challenges us to look to what the signs point to, to

Christ our Savior. Because even when more miracles

don't happen today, we can say they don't need to because we

know that our bridegroom is coming again.

Believe in Him as you see the signs of Christ in Scripture.

And if you do not believe, look to how Jesus revealed His glory.

Join us as you. Tiles a space where God fearing

people but non Jewish people could come from around the

world, especially on these special occasions to worship God

and bring their sacrifices for their sins.

It was an opportunity for them to interact and see the people

of God who were called by his name, see how they were shaped

by God's law and how they were shaped by God's love and mercy

for them. But again, they were just

limited to that space in the outer courts.

But as Jesus entered, he found a marketplace.

Now it's not wrong to sell animals, as there were

travellers and pilgrims coming from long distances so that they

could come and buy an animal that they can make, that they

can offer as sacrifice. The problem was not what they

were doing. The problem was where it was

happening. The Jews had converted a worship

space into a marketplace. And remember that for the Jews,

the temple was a divinely ordained meeting place with God.

There was no other place they could worship God with the

promise of God's presence other than at the temple and through

the sacrificial system. It's not like today where

churches rent meeting halls and in the same meeting hall we can

eat lunch, have weddings, hold other meetings.

No, for the Jews, the temple was a sacred space designated for

worship and sacrifices. The temple was the place, the

place for people to be in God's presence.

So all the more, this situation was seriously wrong and

offensive to God's honor. So Jesus was justified.

He was right in his actions. His actions are not out of

place. It's the Jews here that are out

of place, one commentator notes. Instead of solemn dignity and

the murmurs of prayer, there is the bellowing of cattle and

bleeding of sheep. Instead of brokenness and

contrition, holy adoration and prolonged petition, there is

noisy commerce. So Jesus in his judgement he

rebukes and he corrects the wrong behavior by driving them

out. It was premeditated,

intentional. He made a whip of cords.

I'm sure that whip was used for the animals and not the people.

Knowing Jesus, it's for the to drive out the the big animals,

the oxen and the sheep. But for the people, he was

pouring out their coins, flipping over their tables, and

Jesus tells them in verse 16, take these things away.

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

Jesus is justified in his righteous anger against his own

people. Note how he says my father's

house, not our father, my father's house.

He's making a unique claim of special relationship with God

the Father as God the Son, because Jesus is God Incarnate

in the flesh, fully God, fully man.

So he takes any offences against the Father.

He takes them personally because he is one with the Father.

Just like how a son would defend his Father's reputation when

people are out to slander against his Father.

So as a even better son, Jesus Christ stands defending the

honor of God the Father in Jesus judgement.

Driving them out is the same as God's judgement.

Here Jesus actions are also justified because he is

fulfilling scripture. You notice in verse 17 it says

his disciples remembered that it was written.

Looking at the scene, looking at Jesus anger, they remember that

it was written zeal for your house will consume me your your

your Bible probably has a footnote mentioning that this

quote is taken from Psalm 69. Now whenever there's a quotation

and reference to an Old Testament verse in the New

Testament like this, it is good practice if you want to be good

students of the Bible to read the context of the reference as

well. So the disciples were probably

remembering in this case, not just Psalm 69, verse 9 where it

Psalms 69:9

was mentioned, this this quote is mentioned, but they're all

probably remembering the context of that song, remembering how

Jesus fulfilled that portion of Scripture, not just that one

verse. So turn to Psalm 69.

Let's do that. And I'll read for us just a few

verses from 7:00 to 9:00 so that we get a context of what Jesus

is fulfilling here in Scripture. Psalm 69, verse 7 to 9.

Psalms 69:7–9

For it is your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor

has covered my face. I've become a stranger to my

brothers, an alien to my mother's sons.

For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches

of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

Jesus was fulfilling Psalm 69 here in the temple, but he would

fulfill it in greater ways that the disciples did not even

understand at this point in Luke chapter in John chapter 2.

John 2 · chapter mention

Yes, zeal for zeal is is passion for His Father's honor.

It consumed Jesus. But according to Psalm 69, it is

also that same zeal, that same passion that caused Jesus to

take upon the reproach, the insults that were made against

God. He took it upon himself.

This zeal is what led Jesus to his knees in prayer, in

agonizing prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he prayed.

Father, if you're willing, remove this cup from me, this

cup of suffering, this cup of death, this cup of taking upon

the sins of the world and experiencing shame and

separation for the Father. Nevertheless, he prayed, not my

will, but yours be done. It was zeal for his Father, zeal

for God's honour, for God's worship that led Jesus to take

upon his Father's insults and to die a criminal death on the

cross in our place. Oh, what zeal, what passion of

our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that has secured for us

our salvation and forgiveness of sins.

We can be assured of this because Jesus is zealous for His

Father. Zeal here is a burning desire to

please God, to do His will, and to advance His glory in the

world in every possible way. Friends, what are you zealous

for today? What fills you with such passion

and determination? What is the one thing that you

burn for? Is it riches?

Is it fame? Is it acceptance?

Is it recognition? Is it comfort?

Is it satisfaction? Or do you love the things that

God loves? Are you passionate about the

things God is passionate about? He is passionate about making

His glory known. Are we zealous about making

God's glory known that He may be worshipped and honored by the

others in our lives? Are we passionate about

worshipping God? That it's marked in how we

anticipate what will happen every Sunday?

It's marked in how we gather. I'm not talking about just empty

hype and excitement, but this deep passion and longing and

determination that burns for God and for God to be glorified.

Is your zeal expressed in your prayers, where we don't spend

the whole time in prayer asking and asking for things, but we

spend considerable amounts of time simply praising God,

adoring Him for who He is and thanking Him for what he's done?

JC Rile continues to explain, describing the zeal that

consumes a Christian. He says the desire is so strong

when it really rains in a man. It impels him to make any

sacrifice, to go through any trouble, to deny himself to any

amount, to suffer, to work, to labour, to toil, to spend

himself and be spent, and even to die, if only he can please

God and honour Christ. Whether he lives, whether he

dies, whether he has health, whether he has sickness, whether

he is rich or poor, whether he pleases man, whether he gives

offence, whether he is thought to be wise or thought to be

foolish, whether he gets blame, whether he gets praise, whether

he gets honour, whether he gets shame.

For all this the zealous man cares nothing at all.

He burns for one thing, and that one thing is to please God and

to advance his glory. And if he is consumed in the

very burning, he cares not for it.

He is content. He feels that like a lamp, he is

made to burn, and if consumed in burning, he has but done the

work for which God appointed him.

End Quote Church, let's pray that this will be true of us,

that we would be such zealous, passionate lights in this world,

in this Dark World, burning bright for Jesus who is the

light of the world, pointing to him that all may come to believe

in His name and to be saved so that God will receive all the

more glory, honour and praise from the lips and hearts of

people from all nations. May God's glory be our

motivation and driving force to do all that we do to approach

our work for His glory. I know Christians often say

that, but this here's what it means.

That you see that in your occupation, in your vocation,

that God, you see it as God giving it to you.

And you're seeking out ways where you can give God glory,

make his glory known. Exalt Him as you work, as you

meet with the people at work, even the most mundane aspects or

activities of work become glorious moments to make God

known. Same thing in our homes, in the

mundane task of homes, morning to evening and then the next

day. And it just repeats over and

over again. See it as a place where Gods has

placed you to make His glory known.

And after all that we do, may we be able to look back and say,

still, Lord, make me all the more passionate, all the more

zealous for your glory. For what other purpose do I have

to live? Let's make this our prayer.

Pray this for one another. And I encourage you to talk

about this even with each other over over lunch of this week.

How can we make God's glory known in my places of work in

your home? Let's discuss and encourage one

another because this is our very purpose.

We hope that many will come to respond as God has revealed his

glory through Jesus the Son and that would come to faith and we

know down in verse 20 verse later down in in in the final

verses that many did believe, but he in verse 25 many did

believe. But here is another response

that we see among the Jews, God's Jesus's own people in

verse 18. Here's this response.

The Jews said to him, what sign do you show us for doing these

things? What the what the Jews were

doing here is that we're simply questioning his authority.

They might have agreed with the people, they might have agreed

that yeah, people should not turn a part of the temple into a

marketplace, but that wasn't their main problem because they

did never did anything about it. The main problem was Jesus.

Who are you, Jesus, to do such a thing?

They're asking for a sign, proof, evidence that Jesus has

authority regarding matters of worship in the temple.

Verse 19. Jesus answered them in an

enigmatic way. In a parable he says destroy

this temple and in three days I will raise it up.

They obviously didn't understand what Jesus was saying.

And throughout Jesus ministry, he would speak in such ways in,

in speaking forth of parables so that people would either desire

to learn more of what his parables mean or to stay in

their ways, stuck in their ways in challenging Jesus.

What authority do you have to speak into my life?

What authority do you have to tell me what I can do and what I

cannot do? What authority do you have,

Jesus to claim yourself to be king and Lord?

That's what happens here. Verse 20 The Jews said it has

taken 46 years to build this temple and you will raise it up

in three days. Even the disciples would only

later understand what this all meant.

The temple was a place to meet with God for centuries.

The temple was where God specially manifested His

presence in the Most Holy Place where only the whole high priest

could enter to make sacrifices for sin, for the forgiveness of

sin, and there God's promised presence his people would enjoy.

But even all of that, the grandness of the temple of all

it's it's glory was to point to the true temple, to the true

place of worship. When Jesus says destroy this

temple and raise it up in three days, we see in verse 21 he's

talking about the temple of his body.

And So what Jesus is saying here is profound.

The disciples didn't get it yet, but only after they witnessed

Jesus death and resurrection, where they come to realize and

remember Jesus words saying the temple is no longer the physical

temple is no longer the place of worship, but Jesus himself, the

embodied presence of God, the fullness of God dwelling in the

person of Jesus Christ would be where people come to worship,

where they come into the presence of God.

All of the old temple and all of its sacrificial system and all

of the tools for sacrifice and the place of of worship there

pointed was pointing to Jesus, the new temple of God, the new

place of worship through the evil intentions of the religious

leaders. Later on, he would ordain his

own body to be destroyed as he gave up his life.

He gave up his life to the cross and he would gave up his life

over to death. But in three days by the power

of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, he indeed did raise it

up. And this is the good news of for

that Christians declare every Easter that Jesus did not remain

dead, that his grave is still empty, that he is alive and

reigning in bodily form now, and he will return the same way he

was ascended into heaven. Jesus is the new temple.

He entered into the holy place once for all, not by the means

of blood of goats and calves like it says in Hebrews Chapter

Hebrews 9:12

9 verse 12, but by means of his own blood, by his own perfect

blood that he spilled. He secures an eternal redemption

for people. The point of this all here of

that promised sign of his authority was to declare that

Jesus is the way of worship. He is the way to God, to be in

his presence. We no longer are restricted or

confined to worship or or to God's presence in a specific

place, but we have access to God the Father in Christ all the

more. This moves us and inspires us as

His people today to come to worship God and treasure the

times we can gather in His name knowing that he he is here with

us. Even though this room doesn't

look so grandiose, it's got problems.

Can't really control the AC units.

It's either too hot or it's too cold every week.

But still when God's people gather because of Jesus Christ,

his death and resurrection, we come into the very presence of

God in verse 23 when he was in it says when he was in Jerusalem

at the pastor fees. Many believed in His name when

they saw the signs that He was doing.

But here is the final take away for us in verses 2425.

But Jesus on His part did not entrust Himself to them because

He knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man,

for He Himself knew what was in man.

What's happening here? There were many who saw the

signs that were He was doing and they believed in His name, but

Jesus did not trust Himself. He did not believe himself.

To them it's the same word there because He knew what was in the

hearts of people. He knew.

When we see, we will see throughout Jesus ministry how

the crowds would come just because they wanted another

miracle, just because they wanted their problem to be

fixed. They have yet to learn to come

what it means to follow Jesus, where he would later explain to

his disciples that you would need to hate your own father and

mother, your brother and sister, that in that by saying your love

for Jesus must be greater than all other loves in this world.

That's what it means to follow Jesus.

He would later explain to his disciples that you must deny

yourself and carry your cross daily in order to be his

disciple. He would continue to use

parables to begin to bring division among this great crowd

who initially would believe him, but believe them because they

got some bread to eat, who believed them because they got

some healing done for them. No, they would need to believe

Jesus at his word. And Jesus knows what's in a man,

what's what's in man's hearts for us.

As you take away from this passage, we see that the

disciples believed and they they believed by remembering the

words of Jesus. But the religious leaders and

the Jews demanded a sign and they would demand many more

signs. What about us?

Do we want more signs? Do we think signs are the main

event, just more miracles? Or do we want Jesus because our

hearts are burning for him, for who he is, and that all that

he's done, the changing of water to wine at Cana and the

cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem.

At the very beginning of Jesus's ministry, they established the

terms that Jesus would come to purify the sins of people and he

alone would be the place of true worship for all those who repent

of their sins and follow him. This is exactly what Jesus will

be doing when he comes again. He would come once and for all

to purify His bride and to hold a great marriage supper, a feast

with overflowing joy as we feast upon Him forever, for all

eternity. This was the first acts of His

ministry. That's will be the first acts

when He he does when he comes again.

So may we look forward to that day with joy, with hope that he

is coming as we desire for more of him and make his glory know.

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you

for your word that challenges us to desire Christ more than

anything in this world, for He alone is worthy of our praise.

Lord, we pray that You will drive this truth deep into our

hearts and may it bring forth gratitude, obedience, and joy to

follow Jesus forever as His people have your way in US.

Lord, in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Let's take a moment to consider God's Word for ourselves before

we continue in a time of corporate response and singing

together.