The Authority Of Christ

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Father in heaven, we thank you again for this morning for the word preached for For the great
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Savior that that is Christ Jesus that He is a Savior that he reaches to the to the lowest
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Center to the the most vile sinner father and saves them completely and we just thank you for that We just would pray that you would bless the remainder of our day bless the
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Sunday school now And may you focus our minds and our hearts on Christ and on his word here in Jesus name.
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We pray. Amen So Pastor Dave last week.
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He taught from John chapter 2 and Interestingly enough. I'd prepared some material before that for the very next passage.
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So it's a John chapter 2 verse 13 The first part of the chapter
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Jesus was at the wedding of Cana and very his first miracle turning the water into wine and And Now we're moving to the very next scene in the book and if I can get two readers with strong voices will break this up and Bruce if you can do 13 through 17 nice and loud second reader
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Mark Westcott if you can do 18 through 22. All right.
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Thank you So hopefully no one's sick of John. We have pastor Steve Preaching John pastor
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Dave last week did John and I'm gonna do John again here in chapter 2, so We're getting our fill of that and that's a good thing.
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It's a it's a great book. So This scene here it takes place right at the beginning of Jesus's earthly ministry
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There's some other the other gospel writers Matthew Mark and Luke had presented a temple cleansing as well.
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But many Scholars and many of the commentaries I read feel that these are completely separate John many times.
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He didn't write in chronological order, but In in this case, there's good reason to believe that this probably came right after or shortly after the miracle at the wedding
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It says in verse 12 after this he went down to cap Capernaum and his mother and his brothers and disciples.
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They stayed there for a few days and again, the chapter divisions weren't there in the original and it says the pastor of the
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Jews is at hand it seems to flow right in and it seems that I was probably shortly after that so So there's a good reason to believe that this is a separate temple cleansing different context than what happened at the end of Jesus's ministry
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And Matthew Mark and Luke right before the crucifixion So here it is Jesus coming right off this great miracle at Cana Kind of off -broadway if you will and now he's on the big stage.
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He goes he's down to Jerusalem and and He's right in the temple and this this temple cleansing happens and And in this passage,
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I think some good things to highlight I'd like to highlight it number one We see the obedience of Christ the obedience of our
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Savior His zeal for the things of God and also the authority That he demonstrates as the
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Messiah so gonna look to highlight those three three things The first number one the obedience of Christ.
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It says the Passover the Jews is at hand in verse 13 and Jesus went up to Jerusalem So Passover time, what is
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Passover? What is Passover? Russ all right, so Passover There was what?
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Correct. And so it kind of represents God he had delivered the people to the it was the tenth plague the angel of death that God sent upon Egypt to To set his people free to loosen
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Pharaoh's hold on them and let them go to worship their God and so After the nine plagues the water turned the blood the frogs the gnats the flies all that God sent his angel of death and he provided deliverance to his people
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He made a distinction between his people those who had the blood of the Lamb over the door who obeyed God He saved them.
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And so it was a great deliverance that they were to celebrate it was kind of a
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They were to celebrate in perpetuity. They were to continue to celebrate this as long as There was a
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Jewish nation they remember the deliverance that God had given them and so Passover was also a picture of the perfect land that was to come the perfect Savior that was to come and So, yes, that's what it represented and it's a it's a high holy day was it not for the
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Jewish religion and it continues to be for the Jewish religion and they were celebrating that and Jesus was
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Well I'll ask you. How do we see Christ's obedience here in this passage says he's going up to Jerusalem celebrate the
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Passover How do we seem obeying West? Yeah, so God had commanded this what
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I said they had to go up they were Mandated in Scripture to go up to the Jerusalem celebrate the
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Passover every male over the age of 12. It's I read had to go up and Go to the
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Passover feast in Jerusalem offer their sacrifices pay their temple tax do their duty in Christ Was not exempt.
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He went up as a good Jew. He went and he obeyed Christ or obeyed God perfectly He always loved his neighbor as himself always loved
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God with his heart soul mind and strength and he always obeyed him in what? He said in Scripture and Jesus Growing up under the law and being under the law at that time
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Obeyed he went up. He celebrated the Passover So even the the sinless
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Son of God he perfectly obeyed in all things And that's why he could be our perfect Savior a perfect substitute
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So we see in that Jesus going up to Jerusalem Obeying God obeying
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God and in all things and again Being our perfect Savior so He gets to Jerusalem takes the journey probably from Capernaum up in in Galilee He had made the trip down and now he's getting to Jerusalem.
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And what does he find there? And in this section we see kind of the zeal of Christ he says in the temple in verse 14
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He found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there So some people might read this say, okay, so there's money changers.
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There's people selling Lambs and sheep and that sort of thing. What's the big deal? But what the thing that you have to note is what was really happening in the temple?
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What was going on there? Was it just selling and buying that? That infuriate on them that got
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Christ anger that made him a court of whip out of ropes It wasn't just the selling and buying it wasn't just what he saw there
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But the profaning of the temple the profaning of a place of worship again, every every faithful Jew over the age of 12 was supposed to go down and and Celebrate the
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Passover. So people were coming from all over the Roman Empire and wouldn't it make sense? you know to if you're going to offer a sacrifice and you were a sheep herder and You had obeyed what it says in Exodus chapter 12
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It talks about how you're supposed to celebrate the Passover and you're supposed to keep that lamb You're supposed to select the perfect lamb from your flock.
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They live with you for four days in the house If you're a good Jew and you obeyed that and you brought this perfect lamb that you would examine and you brought your best
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Wouldn't make sense if you're a shepherd or a lamb Sheep herder to bring your lamb down to Jerusalem that Make a lot of sense you saving money, right?
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You're not to buy a lamb But what would happen when they would get there? Go ahead
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Wes. What would happen to be inspected? They would fail they would fail for whatever reason, you know
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They would bring them to the priest the priest had to inspect the lambs and sure enough that perfect land that you picked your best you wanted to worship
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God with your best you walk all the way to Jerusalem from some far reach of Israel or other parts of the
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Roman Empire you get there you make this pilgrimage and you have your best lamb You bring it to the priest and the priest says, sorry no good
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Well, what do you mean? You know, there's no arguing at that point, you know, you can't offer your sacrifice to God You brought the lamb.
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It's no good. It's blemished. Well, what's the matter with it? It doesn't matter Blemish, sorry, you got to get another lamb.
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So then what would they have to do? What would they have to do That time to get another lamb
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So there's there's people buying and selling and so you have the first level of corruption in these the priests they they get the lambs they inspect and they say
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Sorry, no good. And so then they got to go. Hey, you know Yeah, certified temple lambs over here on the left, you know, and so you'd have to go and of course, of course these
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Merchants understanding that people they were faithful worshipers. They were tired from a long journey They were gonna offer a service to their brothers, right?
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They're gonna sell them a lamb at a good price, right? They were here to serve their brothers and give them a lamb so they could offer their sacrifice, right?
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They're ready to help them out Excuse me Price gouging it's like when you go to the movie theater, you know, you you you go
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You got to get a you want to buy popcorn? You want to have a soda? All right, you're gonna pay $8 for a popcorn $4 for the soda because you can't bring your own
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All right, but you have a choice. You don't have to get the popcorn You have to get the soda, but they didn't have a choice. They had to get a lamb
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They had to offer their sacrifice. And so first level of corruption pre saying no lamb No good second level, you know, you have to go buy one and they gouge you they stab you at the price and again
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You have no choice. You're tired. You're weary. You've traveled a long way You just want to worship God and do what you're supposed to do and honor
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God with your sacrifice And so you buy it, but that's that's not where it ends.
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So we also have the money changer sitting there, correct? Well, you know, it wasn't enough
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To just take out your money right you traveled from Maybe you're from Asia minor you'd come that far, you know
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Paul saw was of Tarsus which was up in the kind of the eastern part of Asia minor so he could bring his
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Tarsus money right and buy the lamb right? No problem. He had brought his lamb rejected fine
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I'll go buy that one an exorbitant price By the way, I was reading Pigeons they gave the example one of the commentaries
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That would sell usually two pigeons would sell for five cents They were being sold in the temple for what would be the equivalent of four dollars
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So I did the math that's a seven thousand nine hundred percent Markup just to give you an idea of what they were doing to these people how they're exploiting them and taking their money 7 ,900 percent markup on Two pigeons so imagine what they were doing on lambs and in the cost of those to these people that were traveling
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So again, you have somebody coming like a Saul of Tarsus he would come and celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem, he's a faithful Jew and so you'd come down and pull out his wallet and he would pay for the lamb in his money from Tarsus, correct
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Can only use temple money. So not only could they they have to buy this they'd have to buy this lamb
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But they couldn't even use their money it's not like they could break out their wallet and pay with whatever they have that money usually was
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Roman money and had a Caesar or Some kind of image on it, which would be idolatrous to the
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Jews. And so they couldn't even use that money within the temple grounds and So they had to change their money so there's money changes there they're providing a service there
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They're willing to serve their brothers as well right it bad enough. They're gonna get gouged in the price I'll just change their money for him.
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No, no questions asked no problems, right? No, they would exploit them as well. They would charge a fee.
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They would charge their own tax on top of Changing the money. All right, so they're being exploited at every level, you know, they had to buy this
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Jewish currency That was it was a very refined Silver it was made for only business in the temple, you know buying and selling and paying your temple tax you had to use this special money and so Just being exploited on every level by people just with bad intentions.
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They had no intention of helping their brother they had no intention of assisting them
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After their long journey to come to worship They were there to exploit them. They were there to make their own money.
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This this had become a corrupt system and Kind of out of my notes, but There's a great message by MacArthur where he talks about the woman with the two mites
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And if you ever if you can look that up on Google somehow forget the name of the message But he talks about what they were doing many people look at the woman with the two mites and say oh
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She gave all she had well, the verse says she gave all she had to go home and die They were exploiting the old women the widows
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It says right there in the passage how they would exploit the widows and they were exploiting her They didn't care that she was gonna go home and die.
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This the system had come become completely Corrupted and they're exploiting them at every level whether it was to change the money or to buy the the lambs and the the sacrifices there or to pay the temple tax they were going to Exploit them and just Ring every bit of money out of them that they could
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And again, so this has become Just a completely corrupt system Judaism, and this is what
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Jesus encounters. He goes to the temple He thinks he's going to worship He had made the trip as well, and he wanted to go and he wanted to worship his father worship the
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God of the universe just like everyone else and Do it faithfully and do it from a pure heart and sincere heart and to see others doing the same and what does he come upon?
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You know put your put yourself in his shoes Instead of entering the temple and see people worshiping
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God with holy reverence and just being in awe of this God You walk into a barnyard You walk into a place you hear the bleeding of sheep the lowing of cows.
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You just see animals everywhere He's for sure. There was a stench, you know animals do what animals do and it probably stunk
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You know instead of smelling the aroma of incense and burnt sacrifices that you're supposed to smell
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It had become it was a barnyard it was a farm they had moved the
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What probably should have been taking place outside this marketplace this kind of bizarre? They had moved it right in to the temple into the court of the
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Gentiles You see the money changes exploiting people Probably heard haggling over money said come on.
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What do you? Seriously, they would you would do that you you would say Come on you're exploiting me.
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You're stealing my money. Surely there was there was argument. Surely there was contention right there and in in the temple so instead of reverent worship, you're you're observing all of this and so What did gentle Jesus meek and mild
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Decide to do how did he react? You know seeing this in righteous anger, you know you and I we talk about righteous anger
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But it's usually not very righteous is it it's tainted with sin. It's tainted with You know, he's preconceived notion that sort of thing
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But Jesus the the Savior the Messiah God incarnate when he had righteous anger.
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It was righteous anger He was coming from his father and he saw this and it says in verse 15
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Making a whip of cords He drove them out of the temple with with the sheep and oxen and he poured out the coins of the money changes 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 so With animals tied up all over probably wasn't hard to find some cords
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And so he found some and it probably must have been interesting seeing him there making his little whip people probably wondered what he was doing, but Again, it's probably very calculated.
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You know, he wasn't Flying into a rage, but it was very calculated. It was it was a righteous anger
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And again, just picture him grabbing a few ropes. Maybe he was like, hey, do you need that?
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I don't know what he did, but he found some rope and he weaved a whip. I guess
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So the whole time he sees observing this he's he gets he's making his whip he's observing all of this and this rights righteous anger
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Rising up inside of him and he just Acts He acts he starts to drive out those sheep and With it the money changes the tables get flipped over It must have been quite the scene
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What are some of the reasons? Okay, we've already touched on it But let's let's outline it again.
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What are some of the reasons Christ was so angry what drove him to do what he did? It's a great point.
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So Christ knew it was in the heart of man. So it wasn't just that he saw The buying the selling the barnyard.
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It wasn't that he just saw he knew it was in man and And people were there to offer a sacrifice for the remission of sins
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Very serious time of the year the time on their calendar and this is what it had turned into exploitation
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Bruce Yeah, so they were ripping people off in the name of God what about again where they had set up The marketplace where were they set up in the in the temple?
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We're set up in the court of the Gentiles the large court that surrounded, you know, the the place of worship for the
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Jews So they were supposed to be
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Kind of a beacon, you know, the Jewish religion was never supposed to be insular We're never supposed to be we have our
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God all to ourselves. It was they were to be a beacon They were to be a light Just as were to be lights and people were to see that they were different and they were supposed to and God made
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Provision for the foreigner God made provision for the Gentile to believe What's the phrase use an axe where The people that believe but we're not
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Jewish God fears They made provision for God fears people that knew this was the true
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God Who saw in the example and the purity and the holiness that of the things that he had instituted?
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He had made provision them to go and worship and here were the Jews setting up shop Shutting them out closing the kingdom of God as you heard
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Jesus say later on in his ministry and at various times you close off the kingdom of God He's people coming to worship people that that fear me
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You're supposed to be an example to them. You're supposed to welcome the foreigner in your midst. You're supposed to not exploit them
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And that's exactly what you're doing. Not only that you're pushing them out. They came in worship And I think just in general just to Anger the entire system the entire system had been corrupted and again, he
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Had had enough Any questions thus far anything anyone wants to add or Charlie?
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Right and isn't that At the end in Matthew Mark and Luke when you read about the other temple cleansing wasn't it more of a kind of a judgment?
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On the nation saying this is coming to an end. I'm gonna put this to an end But at the beginning of his ministry, it's more of a wake -up call saying wake up This is not how you worship
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God again He went from kind of off -broadway in Canaan He goes right down and now he's he's on the big stage and he's saying wake up wake up people this is not how to worship
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God and So yeah a different context than than a later cleansing temple but yeah an act of mercy to say wake up people this this is what
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God demands and So, let me get caught up in my notes here so Jesus he cleanses the temple again any more comments,
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I'm sorry Good So he cleanses the temple he makes his whip he drives everyone up it must have been quite the scene, you know to see
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Jesus turning over tables driving out those animals merchants yelling probably trying to pick their money up off the ground scrambling to get their merchandise dust being kicked up and in just Complete chaos in the passage says that he drove out all
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He drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen He spared no one every money changer every merchant
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Every animal that was there that was the filing and just making this place a marketplace instead of what it's supposed to be
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Jesus cleans house. He drives them out and What does this demonstrate?
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About what are these actions demonstrate about Christ? What do they show us about him and about? His character.
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He has the authority exactly. He demonstrates authority of who he is and I think it demonstrates his zeal his love for God.
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We see right in the passage that zeal for his house It would it would consume and would eat away at him
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He demonstrates that proper worship of God and proper treatment of the things of God is important and he demonstrates the need for treating the things of God in a in a holy manner in a separate manner and that God will not just accept any worship as Charlie mentioned in the
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Old Testament you would be consumed immediately Nadab and Abihu offering strange fire consumed immediately
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For for strange fire for worship that defamed and profaned
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God's house and so Christ demonstrated zeal is authority and then verse 16 said he said it and He told those who sold the pigeons take these things away.
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Do not make my father's house a house of trade What do you think we can glean from this passage where he says do not make my father's house a house of trade
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Mm -hmm. What about his use of the word father?
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To choose call their God father. They refer to him as father.
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What was he saying with that? Mm -hmm
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The son of God so he's making a proclamation there he's saying If he's my father,
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I'm his son I have a relationship with this this one he has sent me and Not only does he identify him as God's son
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But he shows that it like Peggy was saying that he has full authority to do what he's doing He was showing himself to be the
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Messiah God's Chosen One the one that was to come the one they were supposedly waiting for probably should have recognized and Of course they didn't
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He was restoring purity to the temple He was restoring the temple place as a place of worship to be used for spiritual purposes
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He was doing all those things and again, I think the most important thing my father's house This is my father's house
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And so he was identifying himself as a son as the one that was to come and I think that's the most important thing we can glean from that and Moving on in verse 17.
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He says his disciples remembered that it was written zeal for your house For anyone let me let me stop
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So he had driven everybody out right and we mentioned his authority one thing
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That not only that he did it that he was setting some kind of precedent not only he did it who rose up against him
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How many hundreds of people must have been in there how many hundreds of merchants and money changers were there
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By hundreds and hundreds. Nobody stopped him Just like when Jesus would escape through the crowds just said it and it wasn't his time
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He goes in and he drives out everyone. He ruins their business some big burly farmer
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Who's trying to sell? Exorbitant prices his sheep and stuff like that. He drives him out and no one stands up no one stands up, can you imagine the
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The the the fury that was poured out of that point Can you imagine what they observed in Christ as he was doing that and the authority that was demonstrated?
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not that he was necessarily stronger than all of them, but that they Were too awestruck to do anything.
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They were too Taken aback to even Comment no, they were too awestruck to even do anything.
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And so that's it's one thing I wanted to point out before moving on is that no one stood up Mm -hmm
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Yeah, no Roman soldiers did not react The Jewish leadership that had Roman soldiers, but also the temple guard probably at their disposal did not do anything
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Didn't do anything and again, it's it's almost like one of those things Jesus escaping through the crowd. It wasn't his time
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Jesus demonstrating this authority and everybody just standing back, you know What did one of the gospel writers say that when the guards came out to get him?
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I believe was John and and when he said who where is this? Where is Jesus? He says
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I am him and they fell back You know and just these demonstrations of authority and right here at the beginning of his ministry
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Identifying himself as God's Son, but also demonstrating the authority to go along with it And again, nobody being able to stand up and and do anything about it
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It should have been clear To them who he was and what he was there to do
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So verse 17, it says his disciples. Remember that it was written zeal for your house will consume me.
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I Doubt the disciples remembered right then in the in the confusion and tables flying everywhere. I'm doubt
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Peter probably stopped John remember it said zeal for his house
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Will consume him you remember that look at this. It's crazy. I Doubt that happened, but probably later on And where's he quoting from?
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Does anyone know where he's quoting from? I'm just gonna study Bible. So I know he knows Psalm 69
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Psalm 69 in Verse 9 if anyone wants to open there quickly
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Psalm 69 verse 9. This is not Traditionally at that time wasn't thought of as a messianic
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Psalm so to speak but in the New Testament It was quoted no less than 15 times 15 times in the writings of the
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New Testament, they would quote Psalm 69 in relation to Christ in relation to the Messiah so at that time Probably not thought of as a messianic song.
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They probably didn't remember that one. It was more of a relating very much to David and But later on they recognized the significance of That Psalm and it was written about no again mentioned no less than 15 times
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Does anyone have that want to read it out quickly mark, right?
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So Psalm 69 zeal for your house is consuming and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me
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So Jesus Cleansed the temple and they probably didn't have that understanding at that time
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But maybe later on as they were writing scripture as the disciples reflected they remembered they said yes
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Zeal for his house and look at the zeal demonstrated in the authority demonstrated That being said maybe that that verse didn't come to mind but What do we know about the spiritual the kind of the cultural religious climate of of Israel at that time of Palestine that he was stepping into were they
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Waiting for a Messiah were they Expecting that something are eagerly looking towards.
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Yes. They were waiting for the Messiah and they had the scribes those who studied the scriptures they had cataloged the scriptures of his coming they
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They knew where he would come from. They knew all these different tidbits about him from the scriptures and they were eagerly awaiting it
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John 5 39 through 40 says Jesus tells them you search the scriptures. They scoured the scriptures
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They they were trying to see the Messiah in them. He and he all but told him you totally missed the boat you search the scriptures
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Because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is they that bear witness about me Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life
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And so again rabbis scholars They were all studying the scriptures scouring the scriptures trying to get little tidbits of who the
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Messiah was where he would come from His lineage the types of work he would do and of course, they badly missed
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Christ in all of it. They badly missed what he had actually come to do but my point is that they knew the scriptures they that spoke plainly about the
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Messiah and who this figure would be what he would look like and maybe Psalm 69 doesn't come to their mind, but As I was going through study
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Bibles and commentaries, they mentioned two passages and I think we should be good to read them Who wants to find
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Malachi 3? verse 1 through 3 Somebody else if you could find Zechariah 14 20 and 21
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Which one you want Bruce Malachi 3 good. All right, he'll come suddenly to his temple there.
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He was out of nowhere. Who is this guy? From Galilee probably had an accent.
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He probably sounded like like we sound when we travel the country from Galilee. He's there He's in the temple appears suddenly.
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I mean, what is he doing? appears suddenly Who can endure the day of his coming?
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No one no one stood up to him No one and he would be a refiner and purifier silver.
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He will purify the sons of Levi or the sons of Levi the priests in the temple you'd purify those so there's one verse that maybe came to mind a
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Verse about the the Messiah to come Zechariah 14 who has that? Mark Westcott no longer a traitor in the house of the
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Lord of hosts He's there to purify the temple and he drove them all out He drove out all the traitors all the merchants all the people there to do business
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He drove him out So maybe Psalm 69 didn't come immediately to mind But maybe those who are watching that Would think of these these well -known passages that they were probably scouring the scriptures to find out who the
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Messiah would be Maybe those things came to mind and they should have recognized They should have said here is someone who's coming to Cleanse the temple.
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He's coming to purify our worship once again and Well again, it seems they missed it.
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But to this point we've seen the obedience of Christ He's there to celebrate the Passover. He's there to obey his father and in all things we see his zeal for the things of God for the house of God for the worship of God and then finally we see the authority that he demonstrates and basically his
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Again, he's stepping onto the big scene. He's He's showing himself for who he is and he's right there in Jerusalem right in the temple and we see the revelation of him
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Through this authority through this demonstration Verse 18. So the Jews said to him what sign do you show us for doing these things?
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What do you guys think of that question what sign do you what sign do you show us for doing these things? What comes to mind?
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What do you what do you think about? Steve What yeah, they always wanted signs
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Erickson Yep Erickson you're the only one who's heard this message before her
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Wesley Yep.
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What? Yeah, I want to sign what sign are you gonna give you maybe the sign of Jonah?
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That'll be a sign You know about that. You're gonna see me Dead and resurrected in three days
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One commentator I read when they said what sign do you show us for doing these things like Erickson said he calls this a stupid question
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Flat -out stupid question the very act of cleansing the temple was a sign in itself again, how many
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Not only did he drive out all these people not only did he do this did something unprecedented before their eyes Cleanse the temple drove all the money changers all the merchants all these people out
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No one stood up to him. No one could do anything. They were just so in awe of what he was doing Andrew They should have known
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Yeah, right.
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And in this case, I think it's just willful Unbelief So we're not gonna believe in them.
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We're not gonna trust in this guy. No way what he did Look what he did to our system. Look what he did to our money -making scheme You know, and so they're gonna throw up any roadblock, but Jesus not only was it a stupid question
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It was a wicked question because there was a question that demonstrated again They're willful unbelief and their unwillingness to admit any guilt in what they were doing instead of being woken up.
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Yes, sir Mm -hmm.
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It was 40. All right I Remember the the old Jesus movies was the first thing that came to my mind when he passes through the crowd everybody kind of freeze
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Freeze ray and he just kind of sneaks away, you know, and that's exactly you'd think that somebody would probably
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I bet you there were people sitting there saying Anyone gonna do anything is anyone mad at you seen this and and no one did anything
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Right. Yep. Yes.
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So again stupid question and a question this demonstrates just willful unbelief
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They refused to admit their guilt. And again, it's Charlie's saying they were probably Supernaturally floored at that moment didn't know what to do
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I got a wrap -up quick Jesus answered them destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up The Jews then said is taking 46 years to build a temple and when rate will you raise it up in three days?
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Andrew said Yes, they should have known they should have recognized they should have seen they had studied the scripture
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They'd scoured them and yet they didn't Recognize Jesus and who he was they demand another sign even though what they saw before them was unprecedented and Unbelievable and it took place and he demonstrated the authority of the
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Messiah. He was purifying the temple as the Messiah would and They demand another sign
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And then they totally missed the boat on what he's saying. He says destroy this temple in three days. I will raise it up This was a teaching technique used at that time.
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It was kind of he was using kind of double language The the language that he used for temple sanctuary could be used for the temple of the temple or the temple of the body it could mean, you know, the sanctuary of the body where the dwelling place of God in his
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Holy Spirit it could be destroy breakdown was another word he used it could be destruction of a structure or the destruction or the death of a body and Then raise up it could be the reconstruction of a building or it could also mean the resuscitation of a human being he used very
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Strange language that didn't convey a clear meeting, but this was a teaching technique that was supposed to Jog their minds that was supposed to cause them to reflect and say what does he mean here?
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The rabbis would do this let's let's make them meditate upon what I'm saying think about what I'm saying and They didn't do that.
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They they had no inclination of listening to him Think through what he was saying But what
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Jesus said there this kind of riddle this kind of I think they're called me shall Is the teaching technique is kind of a riddle a statement that is very pointed but you're supposed to meditate on it and they didn't do that they took it very literally and We see that for those who would believe
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In verse 21 it says but when he was 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
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They remembered and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. It's stuck in their minds. They meditated on it they thought about it when
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Christ was raised they remember that he had said that and They reflected on it they said yes
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Remember, he said that member the authority he demonstrated member Christ Showing who he was right there in the temple remember that and they remembered that he had said that and they believed it
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It's strengthened their faith They believe more In their Savior, they were more strengthened in their faith.
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So Again last week. We saw Jesus in Cana this week. We see him right in the temple in Jerusalem and Kind of a coming out
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Showing everybody right there on the big stage who he was and in that he demonstrated perfect obedience to God He demonstrated fervent zeal as the
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Messiah would do and he demonstrated the authority that would typify The Messiah and so just as the disciples were strengthened in their faith
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We too should be strengthened when we look at this when we read these things Don't read this and be
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I think pastor day mentioned last week as well. Don't read it and Kind of glaze over it
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Think about the wonder that you would have if you saw the water turn into wine Think about the awestruck wonder of of seeing
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Jesus do what he did in the temple. Don't glaze over this be amazed To read about what Christ did who he was.
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I mean Read an article is about a different culture getting the Bible for the first time and reading
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About the works that Jesus did and just being amazed at this man who could do such things and Do we have that amazement when we read it?
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We're so used to the stories. They're so Familiar to us, but let's not allow our hearts to become familiar and cold to that.
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Let's be strengthened in our faith to see to read these things once again to see an amazing