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JESUS cleanses the Temple
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 forty-six 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.
Prayer:
Jesus is cleansing what was/is known as Herod’s Temple. Let me give you a little backstory to the Temple.
Remember the Dome of the Rock, the Muslim Mosque in Jerusalem? This is where the temple was.
David bought this piece of land from Araunah the Jebusite (2 Samuel 24:18-25). This is the site where Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice in Gen. 22.
Solomon then built the temple on this site around 950BC. Solomons Temple was destroyed in 587BC by the Babylonians, under Nebuchadnezzar. This is where he took thousands of the Jews as exiles to Babylon. It lasted 363 years.
After the Babylonian Empire fell in 539BC, Cyrus the Great of Persia allowed the Jews to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. It was completed around 518 BC (21 years to build)
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:
“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem.
Now, Herod the Great began renovating this temple around 20BC and these renovations were completed somewhere in the early 60’s AD.
It took nearly 80 years JUST to “renovate” this temple.
And as we were reading our passage you saw in verse 20 that it said “it had taken 46 years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days?”
46 years…But it took them around 80 years to complete it.
As they were standing there with Jesus it had taken them 46 years to build that temple up to that point but it had not been completed at the time Jesus was standing there. This conversation that we are seeing here in these verses are happening around 27-28AD.
Also, a quick side note…this temple was completed around 63AD and it was destroyed by Rome in 70AD…they were able to enjoy what they had built to impress God and everyone else for a few years at least. Took them all that time to build and impress everyone and it was gone just like that, destroyed. Think about that.
So when you read the Gospels you notice that Matthew, Mark, and Luke record Jesus cleansing the temple at the END of his ministry. And John has it at the beginning...
Look up here:
And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”
And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”
The question is WHY does John record Jesus cleansing the temple at the BEGINNING of his ministry?
There are 3 options:
Jesus cleansed the temple twice and John records the first one and Matthew, Mark and Luke record the second one.
John is correct in his telling and the others are wrong. Or vise versa.
John has put it at the beginning of his gospel because his gospel is for theological purposes.
These are the only three logical questions.
The majority of Biblical Scholars believe that John placed the one event at the beginning of his Gospel for theological purposes.
John wrote his gospel post resurrection…he wrote it around 85AD, 15 years after this Temple was destroyed. And, remember WHY he wrote this gospel?
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this 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 Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
The Passover
Remember the Exodus when they had to put the blood of the lamb that they sacrificed the night before over their doorposts. The angel of death passed over all the houses that had the blood on the doorposts, killing the firstborn of everyone in Egypt that didn’t.
Imagine Jesus, growing up…and through his ministry... going to Jerusalem to worship the Passover. The whole time looking around at everyone worshiping God knowing the whole time they had NO CLUE what it truly pointed to…which was Him.
So…here, Jesus went “UP” although we would say HE went “DOWN” to Jerusalem because it is SOUTH of Capernaum. Remember the map from last week?
Look at verse 14
In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.
People traveling from all over came to Jerusalem for the Passover to make sacrifices and pay the temple tax. It was convenient for them to purchase their sacrifice there. They use to do this outside the Temple in the valley to the East called the Kidron Valley.
Now they are selling the oxen, the sheep, and pigeons in the Temple. Now they are exchanging their money and charging a percentage inside the Temple Court where the Gentiles could gather. It was called the Court of the Gentiles... the outer court.
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.”
Well that just heated up pretty quickly didn’t it?
Seems pretty shocking that the Lamb of God would react this way to some people trying to make a buck all in the name of “helping them out”. But never forget that the Lamb is a Lion! He chose to be a Lamb…but deep down He is a LION!
Imagine this scene...
Jesus was all excited to go to the Passover…he leaves Capernaum and finally gets to the Temple...
Jesus walks into the Temple and the first Court you come to when you walk into the Temple is the Court of the Gentiles. He walks in and sees animals everywhere and people bartering and trading inside the Temple…arguing over how much this is…how much that is. He hears someone screaming at a guy over here because he says that his coins do not weigh enough and he owes him more....
And this is all taking place in The Temple…in the Court of the Gentiles. This is the place where all people can come to worship God the Father, to pray, to make sacrifices to the Father and they have turned it into “THIS”?
Verse 17
His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
Does “Zeal” consume us when we come to worship? Do we come to worship focussed on God or is our hearts and minds on other things…wordly things?
Let me read you this…actually, read it with me as I read it out loud to you:
What we do in worship reveals what we think about God. A church that worships through dry and joyless ritual shows that it believes in an absent God. A church that stirs up emotional enthusiasm and fills the worship service with entertainment believes in a weak God who needs our spiritual help. A church focused on money reveals a God who is unable to meet our needs, whereas a church that exalts its own celebrities shows its blindness to the glory of God.1
But what does it say when people reverently lift their hearts in praise? It says that they think God is worthy and great. What do Christians show when they humbly confess their sins? They show that they believe in a holy and forgiving God. What does it say when we commit ourselves to prayer? It says that we believe in a God of power and love. What does it say when Christians are devoted to the reading and teaching of God’s Word? It shows our belief that God has revealed himself, that his Word is truth, with power to save. What does a church say by worshiping according to the Bible instead of the latest worldly fad and fancy? It says that God matters more than worldly approval and that his ways are trustworthy and right.
Lets be a church like that!
Back to our text:
Before we read this next verse I want to say something…full disclosure.
Something is happening Tuesday. We are going to vote for President. Now, we have one guy who has been a politician for 47 years and he sounds like a politician. There is this other dude that has been a politician for only 4 years.
I heard him say the other day “If i don’t sound like a politician its because Im not a politician”
I say that to say this. There are some who have been preaching for 47 years and you know what they sound like…a preacher. I think they think like a preacher.
And then there is me. I’ve been a preacher for almost 2 years and if I don’t sound like a preacher its because Im not a preacher…I mean, I am…but I don’t feel like it sometimes when Im studying for my sermons because I come up on verses like this and Im like…C’mon man! Seriously? Why?
Look at verse 18:
So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”
If you or I was one of these Jews in the Temple when he came in there with a whip…throwing stuff, kicking over stuff, screaming at everybody....I wouldn’t have been one of the Jews that said this. I JUST WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN! I would have been like, “What the MESS is going on?” I would have been hiding from that dude…thinking he was crazy!
But you know why these Jews asked Him this? Because they knew their Bible! They knew the Scriptures like the back of their hand. Now, they didn’t understand it but they knew the words.
They saw this a a sign of the coming Messiah…so…if he WAS the Messiah...”show us a sign”!
This is what they were thinking:
look at what Zechariah says in chapter 14…this chapter is talking about “The Coming Day of the Lord”
And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the Lord of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day.
And after Zechariah said that at the end of his book. Malachi says this in chapter 3.
“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.
They knew their Bibles....well, they knew what it said, but they didn’t understand it...
So they ask, “what sign do you show us for doing these things?”
Look at Jesus’ response in 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.”
How do you picture him saying this? As a Lamb or as a Lion?
I think he said it like a LION!
He just ransacked the whole place 2 or 3 verses ago!
They ask him to show them a sign and he is thinking, “I JUST DID!”
THIS ANSWER THAT JESUS GAVE MADE ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE TO THESE JEWS…
Look at verse 20:
The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”
Hind-site is a good thing isn’t it.
Don’t laugh because there is no telling WAHT “we” would have thought Jesus was talking about if we were thrown in there. You throw one of us “good ole American Christians in this scene” and we would be like, “what Temple? What is “He” talking about…what are “YOU” talking about??”
The Jews were obviously thinking that Jesus was talking about the Temple that he was standing in. They were thinking that he was claiming to be able to rebuild that temple in 3 days if it were destroyed.
i went over this at the beginning this morning...
But Herod the Great, according to Josephus, began the rebuilding of the Temple in his 18th year of his reign. So…if he started his reign in 37BC…the RECONSTRUCTION STARTED around 20-19BC.
The Jews here said that it had taken them 46 years to get to this point in the RECONSTRUCTION so that puts the date of this event in history around 27-28AD!
And the RECONSTRUCTION was finished around 63AD and it was completely destroyed, not one stone on top of the other in the temple in 70AD.
So they thought he was talking about rebuilding THAT Temple in 3 days but what was he really talking about?
Look at verse 21 to find out:
But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Guess what?
His disciples at that time had NO CLUE what he was talking about either!
John wrote this Gospel post resurrection…he wrote this about 10 years after this Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD.
Look at verse 22:
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.
I’ll come back to this verse in just a minute but look at the last 3 verses real quick and I’ll close…but listen up....
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.
Listen to me carefully here:
Just because someone says they “believe” does not mean, AT ALL, that they have saving faith, genuine faith in Jesus Christ.
“the demons believe” James says. So simply “believing”, as RC Sproul would say, only qualifies you to be a demon.
Why did these in Jerusalem believe? Because “they saw the signs that he was doing”. So what happened to their “believing” when they didn’t see signs?
These people CLAIMED to BELIEVE in Jesus but guess what.....
JESUS DID NOT BELIEVE THEIR BELIEF! HE KNEW THEIR HEARTS!
Here is what we need to learn from this text this morning:
The Jews new what the Scriptures said…that is why they asked him the questions they asked him.
His answers didn’t make sense to their questions.
His answers didn’t make sense to his disciples either though.
So what was the difference between the two groups? What is the difference between the RELIGIOUS and the TRUE BELIEVERS?
THE DIFFERENCE IS that the True Believer tried to UNDERSTAND THE SCRIPTURE IN LIGHT OF CHIRST!
Look at verse 17 with me:
His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
And NOW LOOK AT VERSE 22 with me:
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.
At the time…they didn’t know what was being said…they didn’t understand! But as time went on…they remembered the Scriptures and they saw how it was ALL ABOUT CHRIST.
Many today think the Scripture is about us! But, when you realize it is ALL ABOUT CHRIST…it changes everything!
I use to think that way…many of you use to think that way...
And here is something to think about here…NEVER GIVE UP ON ANYONE! They might not see it now but continue to speak the TRUTH in LOVE and maybe one day....THEY WILL REMEMBER what you said, what you told them and come to truly BELIEVE IN CHRIST ALONE.
Christ would have that temple destroyed and He would rebuild it in THREE DAYS!
Just like turning water into wine…getting rid of the old and bringing in the New....doing away with the Old Covenant and bringing in the New Covenant ....
The TEMPLE was the place God symbolically dwelt for the people to come and worship him...
But JESUS…the Word that became Flesh and TABERNACLED among us (CHAPTER 1)...
Jesus is the PERSON in whom God TRULY DWELT IN THE FLESH!
The Temple is where went to HEAR the Truth about God…to LEARN about God...
JESUS is God in the Flesh....only in HIM can we truly understand the Truths of God.
The Temple is where SACRIFICES WERE MADE for sin…and BLOOD was poured out on the MERCY seat inside the Temple…This is where their SINS WERE FORGIVEN....
BUT JESUS....His BODY WAS THE TEMPLE…When HE died on the cross HIS BLOOD was shed because HE was the Sacrifice…and ONLY BY COMING TO HIM AT THE CROSS CAN YOUR SINS TRULY BE FORGIVEN!
The Jewish people had to come to the Temple in Jerusalem at that time…but NOW…Now you have to come to the CROSS.
Only there can you receive the forgiveness for your sins…Only there can you receive grace and mercy.
You see How CHRIST WAS THE TEMPLE…THE TRUE TEMPLE?
But now…as believers…we are the Temple. God NOW DWELLS IN US by HIS Spirit!
The Temple pointed people forward to the coming Lamb of God…now we, who are the Temple, the body of Christ, point people BACK to the Lamb of God....And we DO NOT GIVE UP....WE CONTINUE TO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST....
If you haven’t TRUSTED HIM....I pray today you do.
If you don’t…I pray that some day you Remember what you have heard and LOOK TO CHRIST.