"Do You Know This Jesus?" |
| Written by Craig Wilson |
“YOU MAY NOT KNOW THIS JESUS BUT THIS JESUS KNOWS YOU”John 2:13-25 I’m not a big fan of pictures of Jesus. Our “view” our perception of Jesus is to be formed by the Scriptures. The verbal portrait of Christ painted for us by the Scriptures is vastly different than the visual portraits of Christ that so many artists tend to create of Christ. Think about most of the pictures you have seen of Jesus. He probably looked more like and interior designer off of TLC than he did Mike Holmes from Holmes on Homes. This morning we are going to look at the last half of chapter two from John’s gospel, which gives us another verbal portrait of who Jesus is and what he is like. John’s entire gospel is written to show us who Jesus Christ is, and what Jesus Christ is like. John established this pattern right from the opening verse of the book and the pattern continues till the very end of the book. The gospel opens with John’s description of Jesus as the Eternal, Creator Logos who became a man and lived among us. John the Baptist arrives next on the scene and points us to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus at this point begins to call his disciples and to perform his first public miracle the turning of water into wine. All of these vignettes from the life of Christ reveal something about Christ to us. Against that backdrop we approach the last half of John 2 with an expectation of learning something else about Christ. What we learn about Christ may be surprising. Let’s begin with… 1. THE PLACE Verse 13 tells us that Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In verse 12 we learned that Jesus had gone down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers and his disciples. After he had spent some time there he leaves and makes his way to Jerusalem. It was in Jerusalem that the temple was located; the temple was the center of worship for the nation of Israel. Jesus purposefully chose this time to go to Jerusalem because it was time for the Passover feast. The Passover Feast commemorated the Lord’s deliverance of his people out from the slavery and the bondage that they had been suffering under in the Land of Egypt. The first Passover meal took place on the night that the Lord sent the angel of death throughout the land of Egypt to take the life of the firstborn in every house. God had instructed his people to kill a lamb and take the blood of the lamb and put it on the doorframe of their house. Wherever the angel found the blood, he would then pass over that house. It was the blood of the Lamb that saved all those lives on that night. And it is the blood of the Lamb of God that today still continues to save. As Jesus went to the Passover feast in Jerusalem surely he was mindful that in a few short years that another Lamb would be slain and the blood of that lamb would provide salvation for all those who would come to this lamb by faith. Of course Jesus knew that he would be that Lamb that would be slain, it would be his blood that would be shed, and it would be his blood that would be applied to the sins of all who would come to Christ by faith. This once again presents me another opportunity to ask you, have you come to the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world? Has the blood of the Lamb of Christ been applied to your sins? Have you come to Christ by faith? Jesus respected and he took part in these special days in the life of the nation of Israel. He knew, he realized that the feasts and the special days signified what God had done for the people as well as reminding them what he has promised to do for his people. Once Jesus arrived in Jerusalem he would have found the city crowded with people who had come from all around to celebrate the Passover. But when he arrived at that place he immediately discovered a… 2. THE PROBLEM “In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.” (John 2:14 ESV) The temple was more of a complex, than just a single building. Part of the temple complex would have been the court of the Gentiles. A Gentile was not allowed to go any further into the temple, they had to stay in this one area. In other words this was their place to worship God. It was probably in this area, in this court that Jesus found not a place of worship for the Gentiles, rather he discovered that a place that had been designed for worship had been turned into a farmers market. In other words people who wanted to come and worship God couldn’t because their place of worship had been commandeered for commerce! When Jesus saw this, it would be an understatement to say that he was less than pleased. Please understand what Jesus did next, were not the actions of an out of control man. Jesus didn’t come upon this sight and fly off the handle. Jesus had very good reasons for doing what he did. What did Jesus do? He made a whip of cords, probably the cords that were used to tie the animals up and lead the animals around. He then took that whip and he used it to drive out all of those who were selling the sheep and the oxen. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and he ordered those who were selling the pigeons to take them away. Please note that there is no indication that Jesus actually struck any person or any animal. In fact we know that Jesus respected the property of others by telling those who were selling the pigeons to take them out of there. He didn’t open up the cages and let the birds go. Is this the image you have of Jesus? Does this fit with your perception of Christ? At the very least we see the passion that Christ had. We see that Jesus was deeply concerned about the abuse of the temple, he was deeply concerned that those who had come to the temple to worship would not be able to do so properly. Why did Jesus react the way that he did? Jesus was not upset over the selling of the animals or the changing of money. Both of these services were offered as a convenience to those who had perhaps traveled some distance to come to the temple. It would have been much easier to buy the animal that one was going to offer as a sacrifice in Jerusalem than it would have been to try and bring it with you. The money changers provided a needed service as well. All Jewish males over the age of twenty were expected to yearly pay the temple tax. Again because people came from all over there was a need to exchange the various currencies into a common currency that then could be used to pay the temple tax. More than likely there were some abuses taking place, perhaps people were being over charged for the animals, and the money changers some times took advantage of the worshippers by charging as much as a 12% surcharge for exchanging the currency. But it this was not the primary concern of the Lord. What then was the Jesus upset about? Jesus doesn’t leave us hanging, he spells out why he has taken the action that he has. Look at verse 16 “And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”” (John 2:16 ESV) Jesus was upset that his Father’s house, the purpose of his Father’s house was being distorted, it was being used for the wrong purpose. The temple was a place of worship. The temple was a place for reverence, silent prayer, and deep worship. How could any of that take place with the bellowing of oxen, the bleating of sheep, the hawking of the vendors? How could the Father be properly honored in that kind of atmosphere? How could his Father be glorified in that atmosphere? How could the worshippers fix their minds on the Father? How could the worshippers gain any benefit from their remembering of what the Father had done for the nation? How could the Father be exalted in the hearts and the minds of the worshippers with the bellowing, the bleating and the cooing echoing in their ears? The fact of the matter is that the Father couldn’t be properly glorified in that atmosphere, the worshippers could not benefit in that atmosphere. The poor Gentiles were kept away from worship. This was completely unacceptable to the Lord and this was a great injustice to the people and Jesus was going to take action! And so he did. The actions of Jesus teach us how Jesus feels about worship. Here is our first point of application this morning. This passage, the actions of Jesus should cause us to pause and reflect on our own attitudes toward worship. Do we first of all recognize the importance to worship? The Bible has much to say about worship. First of all we need to recognize that each one of us were created for worship, we were created to worship. The Catechism states “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” John Stott says “Christians believe that true worship is the highest and noblest activity of which man, by the grace of God is capable.” To not worship God is to miss the very purpose for which we were created. To not worship God properly is to miss carrying out the “highest and noblest activity of man.” Worship is clearly defined and clear guidelines are provided throughout the Scriptures to help us worship properly. Worship is a critical component of our relationship with the Lord. The worship of God is a serious matter. Jesus actions demonstrate that worship is to be more than just a ritual, a formality or merely a duty. We all need to ask ourselves, do we come to corporate worship with a cold heart or a heart already inflamed with a passion for Christ? Do we come to worship with a distracted or disinterested heart or with a devoted heart? Do we understand the benefits and the privileges of worship? Do we take full advantage of those benefits and purposes? The actions of Jesus stuck in the minds of the disciples, his actions brought to mind the words of Psalm 69; “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Literally Jesus was “eaten up” with zeal for the Father’s house. The Lord’s zeal for his Father’s house consumed him; literally it consumed his life to the point of death. There is a second thing that the actions of Jesus teach us. Christ’s actions teach us that he was willing to take a stand against anything that comes between God and the people. Jesus was not willing to settle for the status quo. Jesus was not willing to back down in the face of opposition. In fact his actions in the temple began to bring out the opposition against him. We see the beginning of this opposition in verse 18 “So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”” (John 2:18 ESV) The Jews here are probably a reference to the “temple police”. They wanted to know who he thought he was challenging their authority. On whose authority was he doing these things? In other words he better have a higher authority than the religious leaders in order to do these things. I find it interesting that they weren’t concerned about the abuse and the disruption of worship; they were more interested in why the disruption of their money making was taking place. 3. THE PROMISE Jesus responds to them in a rather cryptic way. He responds to their question by saying “Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”” (John 2:19 ESV) The way the Jews reacted to what Jesus said showed that they didn’t have a clue about what he meant. They thought that they temple that he was referring to was the physical temple. They thought that he was talking about the temple that had been undergoing construction for the past 46 years, and in fact it wouldn’t be fully completed until 63 AD. Hey Jesus, this temple took 46 years to get to this point, and you think that if it is destroyed you can build it back up in three days? The reality is, if Jesus meant the physical temple he could indeed have built it back in three days, in fact he could have simply spoken the word and it would have been built back in an instant. But because John explains to us what he meant we know that Jesus wasn’t referring to the stone and mortar temple, he was referring to the temple of his body that would be put to death on the cross and Jesus himself would bring it back to life after three days. That was the “sign” that Jesus was going to give to them, and that is the “sign” that he gave to us as well. The authority of Jesus was his own authority. He could drive those who didn’t belong in the temple out of the temple because he had the authority. He could do whatever he chose to do. 4. THE PERCEPTION Chapter two closes with a very important couple of verses. These verses can seem to be very confusing. Let’s read them again. “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.” (John 2:23-25 ESV) The cleansing of the temple was not the only significant thing that Jesus did while he as in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. John relates that Jesus did continued to do miraculous things among the people and it seemed as if many of those who witnessed the miracles, these signs that Jesus was performing believed in him. John says that many believed in his name. Then John adds the comment that Jesus did not entrust himself to them. In other words these people had some kind of faith in Christ, but it was not saving faith, it was not faith that created a two way relationship between the ones who believed and Jesus Christ. Let me quote from John MacArthur here; “But such faith was shallow, superficial, and disingenuous. It was not true saving faith, as John’s play on words indicates. Believed in verse 23 and entrusting in verse 24 both come from the save Greek verb. Though they believed in Jesus, Jesus did not believe in them. He had no faith in their faith. Jesus regarded “all belief in him as superficial which does not have as its most essential elements that consciousness of the need for forgiveness and the conviction that He alone is the Mediator of that forgiveness.” What kind of faith did they have? They simply had a head faith, they had an intellectual faith. But the Bible teaches us that simple head faith, intellectual faith is not a faith that saves. This is illustrated in the book of James when he writes “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” (James 2:19 ESV) |