Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Dial In - John 2:13-25 (Ep. 05)

Episode Date: April 3, 2020

Dial In is a devotional series with the intention of helping followers of Christ understand God’s word and love Him more. Jonny seeks to communicate the profound depth of scripture in a digestible and condensed format each weekday. The goal of the podcast is that our “minds would be renewed” as we behold who God is in His word. In this series, Jonny is walking sequentially through the Gospel of John.In this episode, Jonny covers John 2:13-25 and highlights two things.Jesus is zealous for His Father’s houseJesus, through His resurrection is the new temple, where sinners meet GodWatch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hi, my name is Johnny Artavanis, and this is Dial In. In our last episode, we saw that Jesus turned water into wine, and John, the gospel writer, refers to it as a sign. And the purpose of that sign is to cultivate belief in Jesus' followers, but also for them to be able to see the glory of God. We're going to see that same idea represented in our text today. It's John 2, verses 13-25. Let's dial in.

John 2, verses 13-25. 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 out 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 for doing these things? Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. So 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. Okay, so a couple things about the Passover. Number one, this is an event that Jesus would have attended every single year of his life. And our only glimpse of that prior to this passage in John chapter 2 is actually

in Luke chapter 2 when we read the account of a 12-year-old Jesus there during the time of the Passover. Secondly, this was a time of worship, remembrance, and reverence, and honoring God. For the Jews, this was the biggest celebration of the year to celebrate a God who had continually cared for and provided and loved his people. Specifically, this was a time to celebrate a God who had continually cared for and provided and loved his people. Specifically, this was a time to celebrate and remember what God had done as he brought his people out of the land of Egypt and to even remember that 10th and final plague as the angel of death passed over the houses that have been covered in the blood of an unblemished sacrifice. This is the biggest celebration of the year.

And one interesting thing to note, if we harmonize the Gospels, Jesus begins his public ministry by cleansing the temple. But he also does so three years later as he concludes his public ministry right before he's executed. And we can read that account in Matthew 21. So Jesus comes into the temple, and there are thousands of people there. And not only people, there are pigeons and cows and goats.

And this place that he comes into is designed for worship. And instead of hearing people singing or praying or solitude, he hears instead the bleeding of sheep, the lowing of oxen, the flapping of wings, and the exchanging of currency. The way that we would typically interpret this passage in our imagination is that Jesus walks into a temple. There's like a few people in there. There's maybe a cow, a couple goats, and maybe a little lamb over there, and then a guy with a pop-up foldable table exchanging some money. But that's not the scene at all.

You see, during the Passover, this was the biggest event of the year, hundreds of thousands of Jews already live in Jerusalem, but during the Passover feast, an additional million would flock to the city, and all of them had to make a sacrifice, which means that the animals present around the temple where the sacrifices are made would have exceeded into the hundreds of thousands. And the monopoly on the sale of animals was being run by the temple officials, those whom were chosen to oversee the temple maintains a posture

of worship. This is not how things should be. And here's what Jesus does. In verse 15, he made a scourge of cords and drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. So Jesus goes and does this. He takes a nearby leather strand that's holding together

part of the chicken coop, a couple of leashes that are holding some cows. He weaves them together. And then, I love the nonchalant part of the chicken coop, a couple of leashes that are holding some cows. He weaves them together. And then, I love the nonchalant nature of the scripture, he then proceeds from there to drive out hundreds of thousands of animals by himself with a whip the size of a waist belt. This is miraculous.

And it's one of the things that's very nonchalant. And we see other things like this in the scripture, even in Luke chapter four, where people take Jesus and go to throw him over a cliff. But all that's included in Luke four is that he just disappeared from amongst them. Tens of thousand people are evacuated quickly by divine force. And here's why Jesus does so. We read it in verse 16. Take these things away. Stop making my father's house a place of business. Jesus says, this is a place of worship. This is my father's house. My father is being dishonored by what you're doing. The typical and predominant demeanor of Jesus Christ in the gospospels is one of compassion and mercy and love,

but here it is divine and righteous anger. This is why understanding the full spectrum of the character of God is so important. He is a God of mercy and a God of compassion and a God of love, but he cannot stand hypocritical or dishonoring worship. He shows up here and begins to call out the Pharisees and he unmasks their self-righteousness, their hypocrisy and their greed. And he does so during the Passover,

the high point of their honor and responsibility. And in verse 17, his disciples remember that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me. The disciples, and we talked about this a couple episodes ago, were Old Testament believers, so they instantly remember Psalm 69 verse 9 where David is writing and he says, zeal for your house will consume me. David is urging those around him to live in faithfulness to God and the response to David as he urges people to live in faithfulness is hatred towards him.

And here's what David says. Zeal for your house consumes me. I feel pain when God is dishonored. When someone dishonors God, they dishonor me. And the son of David here says the same idea. That stop making my father's house a place of business. And the disciples look at him and say, this is the son of David. He feels pain when God is dishonored.

Typically today, we would view an action like this as divisive and disunifying. But Jesus is zealous for his father to be honored and worshiped appropriately. I could talk about this for hours, but two things that we need to note about this passage, and we just mentioned one of them. Number one, Jesus is zealous for his father's house. It consumes him. The idea here is that it literally eats him up inside. He is zealous for God. And if you're a Christ follower, Ephesians 5.1, we are called to be an imitator of God in Jesus Christ. This same zeal should consume us. And we see this zeal of Jesus additionally in Matthew 23, verse 25. It says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside you're full of greed and self-indulgence.

You posture religion, he's saying, to your own advantage and to elevate your own position and popularity. You love stuff more than you love God. Now, they come to him in verse 18 and they say, what sign do you show us of your authority for doing these things? Jesus answered them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. He's claiming here to be the agent of God and the Pharisees ask for a sign, but Jesus says, a sign's already been given to you. John the Baptist, the first prophet in 400 years, has already declared Jesus to be the Lamb of God, but they don't believe John the Baptist, the first prophet in 400 years, has already declared Jesus to be the Lamb of God.

But they don't believe John the Baptist. In fact, the Pharisees have never believed any of the prophets. Jesus already refers to that in Luke 11, verse 47. He says, you claim to love the scripture, but you don't obey it. You twist it according to your own agenda, and you kill those who affirm it and proclaim it. And then in Matthew 15, eight, he says, you honor me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. Jesus is zealous for his father's house. And what he is zealous for is not just postured religion, but hearts that actually love and want to honor God. This is what Jesus is after, and this is what he is zealous for, those who honor and

worship him with hearts of reverence. Secondly, Jesus, through the resurrection, is the new temple where sinners meet God. He said, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it took 46 years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? But he was speaking of the temple of his body. So they're looking at him and saying, are you kidding me? Are you joking me? This thing took 46 years to build. And do you know who built this temple, Jesus?

The greatest builder, potentially, in the history of the world, Herod himself, who had reconstructed this temple, and it was still in the process of being reconstructed. But what was Jesus talking about? We read it in verse 21. He was speaking of the temple of his body. Remember what Jesus says in John chapter 10, verse 17 and 18. He says, I lay down my life that I might take it up again. He says, I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. He's talking about his body. He says in Matthew 12, verse six, he says, I tell you something greater

than the temple is here. What's he talking about? He's saying, I am here. I am the temple. And if you're familiar with the passage in John four, Jesus is talking to a woman at a well and he tells her, woman, believe me, an hour is coming where you won't have to worship God on this mountain or only in Jerusalem or only at the temple, but you will be able to worship God

in spirit and truth. He's saying that the worship of God won't be simply confined to a building or a city, but because God is with us wherever we are, we will be able to worship wherever we are. No pilgrimage will be necessary. You and I won't have to change zip codes to go and worship and meet with God. We just need our hearts to be changed by God and we can worship him wherever we are. I love that. So what did we cover today? Number one, that Jesus is zealous for his father's house. Ephesians 5.1 says we're called to be imitators of Jesus Christ. So that means if you follow Jesus, you are called to be zealous for his house as well. And secondly, we saw that Jesus, through his resurrection, is the new temple where sinners meet God. And one of the interesting things to note on that is Romans 6 says that we've been united with Christ through the power of his resurrection.

So that means that not only is Jesus the new temple, 1 Corinthians 6 clarifies something amazing for us. That if Jesus is the new temple and we've been united with Jesus Christ, then you and I, if we are in Christ, are temples of the Holy Spirit. It's amazing and it's profound. I hope that you are encouraged and challenged by God's word and you guys stay dialed in. We'll see you later. Thank you.