On occasion people ask me my thoughts on political/cultural issues and I sometimes tell them.
I say sometimes…but It’s not that I don’t have opinions…like most of you, I have opinions on almost everything…even things I probably shouldn’t have opinions on.
It’s not that I am afraid of being controversial…I’m not…I probably should be less afraid of that at times than I am.
My hesitation would be related to:
-Does this person really want to know that I think, or are they looking for an argument?
-Do I really need me to express my opinion right now; would that be helpful?
-Eph 4:29…don’t let any unwholesome words…but only say what is helpful for others to build them up according to their needs.
-Do I have a conviction or just an opinion?
-Is my conviction Biblical or personal? (Romans 14)
What I am interested in talking about…Are the foundational issues that transcend times and places:
These are things that people in a first century Roman coffee shop would be discussing, and they are the same things were discussed this week across the street at the WSU Starbucks.
Things like: Who or what are humans, what is our purpose, what is valuable, how do we know, what is wrong with the world, what is the solution.
“Terry, no one is talking about that stuff in Starbucks.”
Oh, they absolutely are… no matter what the topic…at its core it is always going to be a question of:
Metaphysics=who are we, what is ultimately real.
Epistemology=how do we know
Ethics=what is right to do, how do we live.
“I don’t have these questions, for sure…I don’t ever think about those things.”
You actually do, everyone does.
These big topics apply to every single cultural and personal question or issue that has ever or will ever arise.
Things like: Sexuality, war, crime and punishment, politics, parenting, technology, race, and on and on.
What the church is uniquely equipped and called to do is to teach timeless truth to our own time and place
To be equipped to deal with these foundational issues and every other issue that flows from them…you must be equipped in theology…you must know what God has told us in his word.
Biblical theology: the flow or story of the Bible
Systematic theology: the application of the Bible to our lives.
You don’t have to be an expert…you just need, growing, practical, applied knowledge
When you understand how vital all this is to human thriving…then you will grow in your deep appreciation that the God who is there, has spoken, he is not silent.
His word is a gift, an unspeakable gift.
And as a consequence…you will avail yourself of the many tools to know what God has said in his word.
Christy and I are watching two streaming series right now:
-One is based around the time of the Russian revolution…and all the brutal, murderous destruction that followed the rise of Lenin, and then Stalin.
-The other is a drama built around the rise of Hitler and the Nazis and that impact on a single Jewish family.
As I watch I see:
Metaphysics=who are we as humans, what is ultimately real.
Epistemology=how do we know. How do we get answers.
Ethics=what is right to do…how do we live?
And I see, in these shows…what happens when we get these things wrong…tens of millions die.
But that number is so big it doesn’t register…so in these shows the focus is on individual lives…and then you really can get your mind around the tragedy of getting the most important things wrong.
I don’t personally need the shows to be aware of the tragedy of getting these things wrong…I see it in living color all the time.
Not in a holocaust…or a Stalinist Terror Famine…but in the lives of real people who are trying to live lives on their own terms…and they are guessing wrong…and the consequences for that play out in real life.
So, in here…we work hard to understand God’s word and to apply it to our lives.
We do not want to mishandle it or misapply it…there is too much at stake.
Stephen Wellum wrote:
God’s word applies to every area of life, just as Christ’s Lordship is over everything. Abraham Kuyper captured this point well with his famous words: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign overall, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”
Now, let’s go back to John’s gospel.
Chapter two, starting in verse 13.
We are going to work through this verse by verse…I will read as we go.
Remember our Two Lenses:
-John said that he is writing so people would believe and be saved
-John said that is very selective in what he chooses to write about
- The Jewish Passover was near, and so Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
The Jewish Passover commemorated the night when the angel of death “passed over” the homes with the blood of a lamb applied in the prescribed manner, killing the firstborn in all other homes.
It was the final straw for Pharoah, and he allowed the people to leave their slavery in Egypt.
It was/is a very important Jewish festival but more importantly, it pointed forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus.
In chapter 1, John the Baptist saw Jesus walking his way and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
Paul, in 1 Cor. 5 says, that Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
Jesus will be crucified during the time of the Passover celebration.
John who just wrote about Jesus as the Lamb of God…now points out that Jesus went to the Temple…during the Passover.
Spiderman has his spidey senses that tingle to warn him.
Our gospel senses should be tingling right now…warning us to pay careful attention.
There are no wasted words here.
Jesus, the passover lamb is going to the Temple for passover…what’s going to happen?
- In the temple he found people selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and he also found the money changers sitting there.
The selling of animals and the changing of money was a necessary service for the Passover festival.
People from all over the Roman empire gathered in Jerusalem.
They couldn’t bring their own animals for a sacrifice; some came from great distances, and they used different currency depending on where they lived.
The temple tax had to be paid in a certain accepted coinage.
The problem was not the commercial activity…it served a necessary purpose.
So, what was the problem?
The problem was the location of all this activity…and also, the motivation for some of the people who were running the enterprise.
In former days, the animal merchants had set up their stalls a short walk away from the Temple…at the base of the Mount of Olives.
Now, as John writes, they had moved the commercial enterprise into what was called the Court of the Gentles (the outermost part of the temple complex)
Gentiles (non-Jews) could not enter the inner courts, the only place they could come and pray had been turned into this noisy market.
So, Jesus is not upset with the business per se, but rather with the location of it…and I’m sure the motivation behind it…but that bad motivation was what drove the location.
15,16 After making a whip out of cords, he drove everyone out of the temple with their sheep and oxen. He also poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned the tables. He told those who were selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”,
Instead of worship, and repentance, and respect for God and others…it is literally a zoo and if you have ever been to that part of the world…you know that there was loud bartering going on.
You don’t just look at the price tag and pay it in Jerusalem then or now…you barter.
I hate that personally…but it’s their way of life…and it can be very noisy.
Jesus took forceful action…but he wasn’t cruel.
You don’t move cattle and sheep out of a confined without an aid, in this case a whip made of cords.
He didn’t set the doves free; they were someone’s property…so he commanded the owners to get them out of there.
This may sound like a kind of movie bar fight…a bruhaha, but it wasn’t that.
Roman troops were permanently positioned in barracks overlooking the temple complex.
If it had been some kind of huge uproar…they would have shown up and shut it down.
Again, Jesus is forceful and intentional…but he is not out of control.
Imagine a dad, who has not lost his cool, but very intentionally delivers a holy holler to get his kids attention.
The kids quickly pay attention…especially if this is not his normal tone of speech and since the dad has authority.
John’s primary point here is that this is a display of Jesus’ authority.
18 So the Jews replied to him, “What sign will you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple,, and I will raise it up in three days.” 20 Therefore the Jews said, “This temple took forty-six years to build, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the statement Jesus had made.
These Jews that John mentions were temple authorities, and they had every right to question Jesus as to what authority he had to regulate the temple and its activity.
If you had responsibilities for a facility and some guy came in and started running people off and giving orders…you would want to know if this guy was from higher headquarters…or just some random guy.
But the credentials they ask for are a sign. A miracle.
Never mind that what Jesus was doing was just and they should have run the merchants out of the temple courts themselves.
But they were less concerned with pure worship than with their authority…and probably the money this brought in.
But the fact that they asked Jesus for credentials shows that they knew he was more than just some random person causing a commotion.
They didn’t just run him off or call for the Roman guards…they asked him for his credentials to take this action.
Again, the credential they wanted was a sign, this happened on numerous occasions in the gospels.
People would demand that Jesus give them a miracle…”Show us”
But Jesus never does miracles on demand…the kind of “belief” that follows a mere show of power never lasts.
You see this born out over and over in the gospels as well.
What he tells them is misunderstood by everyone present at the time.
Even his disciples didn’t understand until after his resurrection, then while reflecting back on this event they were able to put two and two together.
It was brilliant…here’s my sign, “Destroy this temple and I’ll rebuild it in three days.”
They missed that he was referring to his body…but on a literal level, they were not going to be able to test his credentials…they would have to destroy the temple, to see if he could prove his authority.
It seemed absurd to them…the temple took 46 years to build.
But somehow, though they were confused, as was often the case with Jesus, they knew this was no mere bluff.
They knew that he had authority…no one could be in Jesus’ presence and not recognize his authority…they couldn’t necessarily understand it…but they were aware of it.
Rich, poor, soldiers, leaders, sinners…everyone he encountered…knew that he had authority.
These people could sense it…but they wanted a show of proof…”Why do you think you can assume command here in the temple?”
After his resurrection…when his followers understood what he meant by this statement, about the destruction and rebuilding of the temple…they came to understand his ultimate credentials.
He is truly the Lord.
In Matthew 12 Jesus says that something greater than the temple is here.
This is a statement that is hard for us to understand in its magnitude.
When you realize the place the temple had in their minds and lives and history…to say, something greater than the temple is here…well it is saying a lot.
It’s not a perfect analogy…but in military funerals a key and moving component is when the American flag is folded and presented to the loved one of the deceased….I saw this a week ago Saturday
-I tear up, 100% of the time.
The flag is a symbol of 250 years of sacrifice and a symbol of freedom…it is a symbol that this person who is dead lived for something bigger than self…maybe died for something bigger than self.
Imagine someone saying…you see that flag, that stands for so much and means so much, for so long?
Well, I am greater than it and all that it stands for.
What would you think of that person? You would think they are crazy, or incredible arrogant.
Jesus is saying more than that.
Jesus is replacing the temple with his own body.
This is John’s point in this passage.
The temple is where God and men and women meet and can be forgiven.
The coming of Jesus was predicted not just with words, but through events, people (Adam, David) and institutions (law, temple, tabernacle)
God is Lord of History and has shown us in his Word…how all this in the past pointed forward to Jesus.
The sacrifices of the Mosaic law had some built-in features that pointed to a sacrifice beyond themselves.
The law pointed forward to a time when holiness would be from the heart…inside out, not outside in.
The system of priests looked forward to a perfect mediator, one who would offer a once for all, perfect sacrifice.
The temple itself pointed towards a better and ultimate meeting point between God and humans.
John is showing us that Jesus had the authority to cleanse the temple because he was what the temple was ultimately about…and he would replace it with his own body.
Carson, D. A.. The Gospel according to John (The Pillar New Testament Commentary (PNTC)) (p. 182). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.
Let’s finish this chapter.
23 While he was in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. 24 Jesus, however, would not entrust himself to them, since he knew them all 25 and because he did not need anyone to testify about man; for he himself knew what was in man.
We get a reminder from John that he is giving us select stories for his gospel.
He didn’t do a miracle on demand for the temple priests…but he did a lot of signs in Jerusalem, that John doesn’t recount for us.
Jesus did these, because they fit his purpose…so that people would believe but again, belief based on having seen signs is a precarious faith.
Jesus is unlike mere human leaders and historical figures…he isn’t impressed with flattery, and he is not naive about the hearts of men…he knows praise is fickle.
He knows the human heart all too well.
John uses a kind of play on words here, he uses the same word twice but with a slightly different meaning.
“The people trusted in his name, but he did not entrust himself to them.”
Later he will say that those who truly trust him, he will entrust himself to.
I have known people who have tried to make bargains with God.
“If you do this, I will trust you.”
I suppose there have been those who have had their prayers answered and have made good on their promise.
But more often than not, those who had tried to make this bargain…have been unable to get God to negotiate.
I mean if his own mom couldn’t get him to operate on any agenda other than his own, good look trying yourself.
But even those who have had prayers answered in the affirmative…will be in the same situation we all find ourselves in every single day…”Will I follow him or go my own way?”
An answered prayer, even some miracle…doesn’t create enough momentum to take a person all the way through life.
If you doubt this…look at the lives of the disciples…what did they see with their own eyes?
How much good did it do them when they were tested and were unprepared?
If you think that if only Jesus would show you some miracle…some convincing proof…then you would permanently believe and not doubt or disobey…think again.
This is simply not true.
What is true is that God has given ample proof of his existence and goodness in what he has made, in his Word, in your own conscience (heart)…the life, death, resurrection of Jesus.
Learning to trust and obey is a component of training in godliness not in some unique experience.
Historically, people who have chased miracles (experiences) have most often ended up being slaves to their own emotions and desires.
People who have trained to trust Jesus through faithfulness in the Word, and Community and in a mess up/fess up/move on life of obedience have become…over time, what Paul called, “Slaves to righteousness.”
I want to conclude by going back to a verse I skipped, verse 17.
“And his disciples remembered that it is written Zeal for your house will consume me.”
This quote comes from Psalm 69:9, where David is crying out to God because he is suffering opposition because of his commitment to the Temple (God’s honor manifest there).
Jesus is the promised greater son of David…the true King.
Jesus was concerned for pure worship…for all people, Jews, and Gentiles alike.
His zeal was for his own glory…he is the focal point of relationship between God and man.
Let’s go briefly to Acts 5:41,42
After the resurrection, the followers of Jesus understood with clarity what had not been clear to them during the time John wrote about.
Now were sharing the gospel with boldness and here, as happened often, they were beaten and threatened if they did not stop sharing the gospel.
Listen to their response.
Then they went out from the presence of the Sanhedrin (Jewish leadership group), rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be treated shamefully on behalf of the Name., Every day in the temple, and in various homes, they continued teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.
I began this morning by talking about cultural issues, or rather, why I am slow to talk about them.
Because if we understand the gospel, with increasing clarity…head and heart…we will be positioned to understand how to respond to all of the issues of our lives and culture.
We will be positioned to respond with informed and appropriate boldness.
My challenge this week as I studied this passage was NOT to ask myself…am I ready to speak on courageously cultural issues?
Yeah, of course…that’s not that hard.
But am I ready to speak clearly and boldly about the gospel of Jesus?
Every issue personally and culturally hinges on the truth of the gospel.
Am I willing to be treated shamefully on behalf of Jesus?
Some are willing to do battle over cultural wars, or come to digital blows online in regard to politics…often they get pats on the back from those who agree with them.
But the real question is are we willing to form trust relationships with people who are far from God…and maybe far from us on many issues…and boldly share the good news of Jesus with them?
To be more concerned with their good and God’s glory than what others…in our camp or out of it…think of us.
Am I consumed with zeal for the glory of God in my life?
Or I consumed with zeal for other far lesser things?
I can answer this for me…too often, for lesser things.
But we are not here in gathered community…on the Lord’s day…to confess our perfection but to correct our misdirection once again.
Thanks be to God for his correction and direction…and for his continual forgiveness and restoration.
May zeal for his greater glory consume us…May God rescue us from lives wasted, on lesser things.
“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign overall, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”
This includes our own lives.
What will we do about this truth?