Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon TEMPLATE

Sermon TEMPLATE

Introduction God Wants to Meet You Illustration Friends converge at Franks: recount the story of meeting all the time.

It seems that human beings who like each other, look for centralized, familiar surroundings in which to meet at personal levels.

People who love one another, usually love to meet together.

Meeting God in the Old Testament: God wants to meet with you.

Since Exodus, and the establishment of the tabernacle, God has established a place to meet with his people.

In , Go tells Moses to build a sanctuary so that he may dwell among his people.

(v.8-“And make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.”).

God has always been present in worship.

Later, King David gathers the materials for something more permanent, a temple, “a house to dwell in” ()… David not got his chance to build it, that honour would go to his son Solomon.

The temple, like the tabernacles before it, was regarded as the meeting point between heaven and earth… where God was happy to manifest His glory.

In our reading from John this morning, God is introducing an whole new way of meeting God.

A whole new way of worship; initiated by Jesus sacrifice and his death and resurrection.

GOD IS GETTING RELATIONAL IN A NEW, DIFFERENT AND DEEPER WAY.

HE DOESN’T JUST WANT US TO KNOW HIM.

HE DOESN’T JUST WANT US TO LOVE HIM.

HE DOESN’T JUST WANT US TO OBEY HIM.

HE WANTS US TO be WITH HIM.

Introduction The Lens of the Gospel - “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” the purpose of John’s gospel is to persuade you “to believe” in Jesus.

The central theme in the Synoptic Gospels - Matthew, Mark and Luke - is the coming of the kingdom of God.

But John’s central theme is the divine “Logos”… the Word that was with God and that was God () all of John’s Gospel points to who Jesus is; to help us identify the characteristics of Jesus in order that we will believe that He is the Christ and trust that He is who he says he is.

If your the type: go back to the beginning of John and write that address down: as a reminder of what lens you are looking through.

So, in today’s reading, ; Jesus is doing something that TELLS us something about Him - to tell us something about him that makes him the anointed Son of God This is the famous “clearing of the temple” that is recorded in all the gospels.

But what exactly IS Jesus doing?

What precisely is he saying about himself.

Short Answer: drawing the world back to God through Himself.

CONTEXT: JOHN The purpose of John’s Gospel is not a secret.

He makes it know,n especially nearing the end of the book: - “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

The central theme in the Synoptic Gospels is the coming of the kingdom of God.

But John’s central theme is the divine “Logos”… the Word that was with God and that was God () When we look at the passage through the same lens as John intended; we can better understand the meaning of the event.

Meeting God in Jesus - A relationship with God requires God’s laws and God’s presence.

This is the new order of things.

God is getting relational in a new and different way.

A change in the “meeting place” It is the spring-time festival of Passover, when the Jews gather from all around to remember their freedom from captivity.

Their rescue from death at the hands of the Egyptians.

they gather at the temple: the holy place of prayer and worship; the place where heaven meets earth in worship, remembrance and reverent celebration.

But Jesus discovers that the rulers of the temple have turned the Court of the Gentiles into a shopping plaza.

This was the outer court within the temple - the only area where the Gentiles were allowed and the reason for it’s being can be traced to : “this I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” the one place where people of all nations could come and pray had been turned into a raucous commercial outlet mall.

In John, this is what was upsetting Jesus.

the marketplace for exchanging animals was a known practice: and the market used to be located across the Kidron Valley on the side of the Mount of Olives.

The image here betrays just how highly important the Jewish leaders saw themselves (and their affiliation with God), over how inconsequential they saw Gentiles and Gentile converts.

What reasoning was used to move the marketplace from outside and into the court where the Gentiles can pray to God?

This is a big question.

But just as questionable is the thought processes that led the leaders to conclude that the court of the the Gentiles was the best place for it?

this is the beginning of the tension throughout all of John’s gospel.

The division an conflict between Jesus, the Christ, and the leaders of the Jews is marked first here; in the temple… where heaven meets earth.

It will be a conflict wrought in a human blindness caused by an overzealous hunger for power and control.

Whereas Jesus was zealous for the temple as it pertained to the Father; the religious leaders were zealous for the temple as it pertained to their power.

We’re seeing God say something spectacular.

Jesus is upset because the temple is being made impure by a market place.

This is the angriest we’ve ever seen Jesus.

He’s overturning tables and shooing animals.

he’s upsetting the apple cart, if you will, and the leaders of the temple are upset.

They question Jesus, “What gives you the authority to do this?

Give us some sort of sign”

Illustration: Meeting together Friends converge at Franks: recount the story of meeting all the time.

It seems that human beings who like each other, look for centralized, familiar surroundings in which to meet at personal levels.

People who love one another, usually love to meet together.

Meeting God in the Old Testament: God wants to meet with you.

Since Exodus, and the establishment of the tabernacle, God has established a place to meet with his people.

In , Go tells Moses to build a sanctuary so that he may dwell among his people.

(v.8-“And make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.”).

God has always been present in worship.

Later, King David gathers the materials for something more permanent, a temple, “a house to dwell in” ()… David not got his chance to build it, that honour would go to his son Solomon.

The temple, like the tabernacles before it, was regarded as the meeting point between heaven and earth… where God was happy to manifest His glory.

When Jesus cleans out the temple in John, GOD IS GETTING RELATIONAL IN A NEW, DIFFERENT AND DEEPER WAY.

Setting the Stage To this point: It is the spring-time festival of Passover, when the Jews gather from all around to remember their freedom from captivity.

Their rescue from death at the hands of the Egyptians.

they gather at the temple: the holy place of prayer and worship; the place where heaven meets earth in worship, remembrance and reverent celebration.

But Jesus discovers that the rulers of the temple have turned the Court of the Gentiles into a shopping plaza.

This was the outer court within the temple - the only area where the Gentiles converts were allowed to meet and pray with God: the one place where people of all nations could come and pray had been turned into a raucous commercial outlet mall.

any other time of the year, this court would be a quiet place for prayer and reflection.

but now, on one of the highest festivals of the Jewish faith, instead of a quite place, Gentile converts were greeted with the loud baying of farm animals, the stench of the excriment, the shouts of the sellers….

In John, this is what was upsetting Jesus.

notice, that unlike the other gospels, John doesn’t mention that anything nefarious is going on… no “den of robbers”.

the marketplace for exchanging animals was a known practice: and the market used to be located across the Kidron Valley on the side of the Mount of Olives.

what bothered Jesus is that the commerce was happening where prayer should be.

so the temple was impure.

This is the angriest we’ve ever seen Jesus.

He’s overturning tables, throwing money all over the floor and mixing up peoples money… he is snapping a whip to shoo the animals out…and shooing animals.

The leaders of the temple are upset They question Jesus, “What gives you the authority to do this?

Give us some sort of sign” They thought that if anyone were to have more authority in the temple than they do, it required some sort of extraordinary proof.

In other word, “You gotta be pretty special to go over our heads!”

Jesus promises that they will get their sign… “destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days” John explains to the reader that Jesus meant that He was talking about His own body.

His own body as the temple.

But nobody in the room got it.

: He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

Now I want you to get this scene: Four hundred years Israel has waited for a sign from God.

Four hundred long years they have become complacent in their waiting.

But, the religious leaders in the temple could not see Jesus for who he is.

Here we have God … actually GOD… manifest in Jesus… IN THE TEMPLE.

God’s presence is there.

At that moment, yet they could not see it.

!

What does it tell us?

This is a remarkable moment in the history of God’s interaction with His people.

Because Jesus is about to open up and whole new way of meeting God… a whole new way through which God comes to meet with his people.

What Jesus is saying is that this whole system of meeting God in this physical place, with repeated sacrifices, will no longer be necessary; In terms of our sacrifice to appease God, Jesus has made that sacrifice.

So we don’t have to run up to Jerusalem every spring to meet with God and celebrate our freedom from the captivity of sin.