My Father’s House

John 2:12-25

John 2:16

To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”

Intro:

Last week we studied about Jesus’ first miraculous sign, which he performed at a wedding at Cana in Galilee.  Jesus changed water to wine and revealed his glory.  We leaned that through his grace we can also be changed. Can he change us?  Yes he can!  And he wants to change us.  But the question remains, how committed are we to this change?  Through today’s passage, we can learn that Jesus is fully committed to changing us and changing us completely.  As challenging as it may sound, he wants each of us to be just as committed to this change as he is.      

Let’s pray…

Part I.  “Zeal for Your House Will Consume Me” (12-17)

After the wedding in Cana, Jesus went down to Capernaum and stayed a few days with his mother and brothers and his disciples.  When it was almost time for the Passover, he went up to Jerusalem.  

The Jews celebrated the Passover to commemorate Israel’s deliverance out of slavery in Egypt.  At that time, the Lord commanded each Israelite family to slaughter a lamb and place its blood on the doorframes of their houses.  During the night, the Lord put to death every firstborn son of the Egyptians, but when he saw the blood, he did not put to death the firstborn sons of the Israelites.  In this way, the Lord God brought judgment on all the gods of Egypt, and delivered the Israelites from their hands.       

In Jesus day, the Jews came from all over Israel and the surrounding nations to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem.  And Jesus also came.  But when he arrived at the temple, he saw something unusual.  Look at verse 14.  ”In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.”

At first glace, it seemed these men provided an important service.  The people coming to the temple needed animals to sacrifice and many needed to exchange foreign currency to purchase an animal.  It was pragmatic and convenient to have everything available in one place right in the temple courts.                    

But how did Jesus respond to what they were doing.  Look at verses 15-16.  Jesus,“made a whip…and drove all from the temple area…he scatted the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.  He said, “Get these out of here!  How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” 

Jesus’ responded with holy anger.  In verse 17, “His disciples remembered that it is written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”  From these things we can learn that Jesus is fully committed to change us into holy children of God.  God is holy.  He cannot bear even a hint of sin.  When these men brought their love of money into the temple courts and turned God’s house into a market, Jesus drove them out with great zeal and holy anger.  Jesus made sure that God alone was worshiped in God’s house.  

Living in a capitalistic society, the love of money and materialism are big problems.  As consumers, we are bombarded by so many good looking things-endless technological advances, constant changes in style and fashion—all to keep us consuming more and more.  And, not only is there the problem of materialism, but also hedonism, so that many are consumed by lustful desires day and night.  In such an environment who can be holy?  We need to remember that in Jesus we are God’s holy temple, and that Jesus is fighting for us with a holy anger to remove every hint of sin so that God alone would be worshiped in God’s house.  One way for Jesus to cleanse our temple is to write a deep and repentant Bible testimony and to keep writing a Bible testimony each week.  Another way is to deeply study the word of God and write a message.  When Jesus cleanses or temple we can enjoy deep meaningful fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit.       

Part II.  “Destroy This Temple, and I will Raise it in Three Days” (19-25)

When the Jewish religious saw how Jesus cleared that temple they demanded, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”     

They were obviously not committed to change as much as Jesus was.  They probably received a cut of the prophets from the temple business and were feeling threatened.  How did Jesus answer them?  Look at verses 19-21.  “Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?"  But the temple he had spoken of was his body.”  Jesus gave them the sign of his death and resurrection.  From this sign we can learn that Jesus is committed to changing us, even to the point that he was willing to die for us to be changed.  The religious leaders would reject Jesus and hand him over to be crucified.  But God rejected their rejection by raising Jesus from the dead.

Verse 22 states that “After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”   

 

When Jesus’ disciples believed Jesus death and resurrection according to the scriptures they were changed and became holy servants of God.  

When we have this resurrection faith, we can die to our sinful nature and live for God through the help of the Holy Spirit.  Recently, I witnessed Jesus’ resurrection power through two experiences—the first with my father and the second with my bible student.  

My father had always excused himself from believing in Jesus because he is Jewish.  But around a year ago he began attending a Bible study. Then one evening on the way home from Bible study he confessed that he used to believe that Jesus was only a man, but not anymore.  He decided that he was going to meet with the Bible teacher that following week and receive Jesus as his Lord and Savior.  Then a mysterious thing happened.  That very night, he had a toxic reaction in his brain and remained completely unresponsive for three whole days.  But when he came to, he was completely changed.  He confessed to me that he had done so many terrible things in his lifetime, but that there was one thing that he had done that was good: he believed in Jesus.  

     

My Bible student is the only son of single mom.  He is just 20 years old.  But just after our Christmas worship service he was arrested for the third time as an adult.  He was looking at a minimum of 36 months in prison.  When I went to the jail to have bible study with him, he looked terrible.  But we studied Jesus crucified between two criminals—one who believed and one who did not believe.  Three days later was his court date and he prayed to God “Lord Jesus, just as your remembered that criminal, also remember this criminal.”  Then again a mysterious thing happened.  The judge somehow had great mercy on him and he received only 3 months in jail; not prison, and six months drug rehab.  Since then he is completely changed.  Each time we study, he deeply drinks in the words of God, and he is sharing about Jesus with other inmates through the heater vents.  

Surely Jesus is fully committed to changing us and wants us to be as committed to this change as he is.  

Finally, let, look at verses 23-25, “Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people believed in his name.  But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men.  He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in man.”

Others may not know our sin or our level of commitment to being changed, but Jesus’ knows.  If our commitment is true; not based on miraculous signs but on God’s words, Jesus will certainly entrust himself to us, and we can enjoy fellowship with the living God.  I pray that each of us may be fully committed to the new life Jesus has for us, through living a holy lives and lives of resurrection faith.  One word: get these out of here.  How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market.     

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