MY FATHER’S HOUSE
#609 MY FATHER’S HOUSE
Scripture John 2:13-25, NIV Orig. 10/20/1989
Passage: 13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”[a] 18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.[b] 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. 25 He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.
Purpose: Leading a sermon from John’s gospel here pointing out variances in understanding relative to worship
Keywords: Christ as Teacher Worship
Timeline/Series: John, Series
Introduction
It is relatively easy to form opinions in regard to worship. We know what it takes to formulate the worship experience. We know that preaching is involved, and music. We share in spoken prayers, and a minimal measure of ritual. We accept a certain amount of form in the order of service (i.e. the morning offering is scheduled before the choir anthem.) When the service is over, we leave with a sense of emptiness or of fullness as to the way we think things have gone.
The sermon may have been second rate. There may have been problems with the music. The praying may have been too long or too short. There may have been some distraction or the other with the flow of the service. We go home disgruntled because some external circumstance denied us the real worship experience. We blame someone or something for the failure.
Does my spirit of worship wait upon what others do? Or is it a quietly personal matter, affected by nothing outside of myself? My dictionary defines worship “An act or feeling of adoration or homage.” The Bible seems to agree with this.
“God is spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23
“Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Ephesians 5:19
That tends to leave out other factors than ourselves. Worship is from within, determined in its entirety by our own attitude.
I. Jesus Does Describe the Temple of Worship. V15 “He drove them all out of the temple . . . and said unto them . . . ‘take these things hence and make not my house a house of merchandise.’”
It emphasizes commitment over convenience. Accessibility has a way of rationalizing need. Other things are more demanding. Other things are more pleasure-prone. Compromise lessens requirements. Jews compromise requirements of law. A) “without” B) 2 dozen verses. We compromise, not the requirement of Law, but the expectation of grace. Why do you worship the way you do? Is it rationalizing of convenience? Or the realizing of commitment?
It emphasizes self-sacrifice instead of self-seeking. As their spiritual awareness deteriorated, they sought short-cuts to form. They wanted to spend less time. They insisted upon fewer demands upon themselves. A market for sacrificial animals in the temple enclosure was a god-send.
Remember how it went in the old days? Sermons went on and on, sometimes there was more than one. Sunday School changed it some, then BYPU was added, and evening service. We chose TV over Church Time. Decided in favor of Turner Broadcasting over the local church. The good thing about tv preaching is we can end it to suit us.
How much real self-sacrifice is there when you come to church on Sunday a.m.?
The third thing suggested by Jesus here is the emphasis on inclusion rather than exclusion. The temple area was the Jews’ Holy Place. Jewish men only involved in temple exercises. But there were courts (women, gentile) within the enclosure. The Court of Gentiles was the area being used as a market.
God’s original intent for Israel was to these people. Exodus 19:4f “. . . all the earth is mine and you shall be a kingdom of priests.” Isaiah 42:6 “I the Lord . . . will . . . give thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the gentiles.”
The intent of the Holy Spirit of God wherever we find it is to bring a needy world to God. I was interested in the article last week defining the Westminster congregation. “The main purpose is inclusion rather than exclusion.”—Craig Henry.
And Jesus appeals for relationship over ritual. Ritual is not ruled out here. The practice of religious organization without relationship to God is an abomination. Many of the ills that have beset a dissolute society over the centuries has been in the name of a godless religion.
II. Jesus Goes One Step Further to Describe the Temple of His Own Body. V19 “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” If your Bible is red-lettered you will note there are thirteen verses here. In only two does Christ speak: To describe the temple of worship and to describe the temple of His body, which, by the way, defines the nature of your body also. I Corinthians 6:19: “What! Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”
The Jews raise the question by asking Jesus what His authority is. By what sign? It’s the same word John uses to describe Jesus’ works. (2:11) They want to know what His authority is. He defines it in terms of resurrection. They presumed His allusion was to the temple for it stood in God’s place. It had taken 46 years to build, how could He replace it in 3 days? If you understand it, you do so from a favored advantage. “When He was risen (v 22) His disciples remembered.”
We need to be aware that there are two words for temple, both used here. Jesus: naos (Holy of Holies, sacred center); Jews: hieron (entirety). V 15. They stood in the place defying God’s presence with them, but could not recognize the divine Word Himself. We come to church because it marks God’s place in our lives. We understand as little of His real presence as Jews, disciples. We exit the place content to leave God where He was not found.
The important lesson relates to this understanding of Jesus, and of ourselves. II Corinthians 6:16 “. . . for ye are the temple of the living God; . . . (I) will be a Father to you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters.” Do you leave this place each Sunday with that sense of WHO you are? You can’t know that answer until you know WHO HE IS. If you leave empty, it may be because you came to leave empty? You blame it on what the preacher or Sunday School teacher said. Or didn’t say. Or the way it was said.
Or, bless God, you came to experience God’s presence, and, praise His name, every word spoken here touched a vital chord in your soul. In the temple, His temple addressed your temple, and you are the better for it. You make it a regular part of your life because you need it. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. Revival speakers. Because I have friends, relatives, neighbors who are lost. Because I want to learn commitment over convenience, self-sacrifice over self-seeking, inclusion rather than exclusion, and relationship over ritual.
Conclusion
F.B. Meyer said it well: “Jesus spoke of the TEMPLE of His Body and if He was so zealous for His FATHER'S HOUSE that He drove out the unholy traffickers, and refused to allow a vessel to be carried through the courts, should we not be equally careful, we who are His FATHER'S HOUSE? We are the custodians of the DIVINE RESIDENCE, so let us be very careful that there be nothing to offend or trouble the Celestial Guest."
Long ago, England had a great, good Queen by the name of Victoria. The royal chaplain was preaching on duty on the “Coming of Jesus.” Those present saw their earthly Sovereign moved that day as they had never seen her before. Later the Chaplain asked this gracious Christian lady what in particular had moved her. She answered, “Because the Lord of Lords is coming, and I wish I could be here when Jesus comes, so that I might remove my crown and lay it at His feet.”