Worship the Lamb in Spirit and in Truth - John 2:12-22

 Worship the Lamb in Spirit and in Truth! 

John 2:12-22

Introduction: We started our look at John’s Gospel the beginning of December, it’s been a minute, so let’s review. The Gospel opens in eternity past, the Creator, the Eternal Word, in fellowship with the Father: In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Then we are told in 1:14 that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us… We beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of Grace and truth. God became a man. Between those verses we are told that “He came unto his own, but His own people did not receive Him” (v. 11). Finally in v. 18, at the end of the Prologue, John writes that, “No one has seen God at any time, the only God, who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known.” 

       As the narrative continues in chapter one, John the Baptist sees him and throws us into confusion when he announces: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” The first disciples follow Him, recognizing him as the one spoken of by Moses and the Prophets, “We have found the Messiah!” At the end of chapter one, Nathanael confesses, “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Messiah, the hope of the ages, God’s Lamb who takes away sin, and also Son of God and King? How can those truths fit together in one person?  John is writing his Gospel as an answer to that question. Later, He’ll say in 20:31, “…these [things] 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 group travels to Cana for a wedding, where Jesus does a miracle, a sign that reveals his glory, and his disciples “believe.” They are beginning to understand more of who he is.  His glory is being revealed to those who have eyes to see. Some, perhaps, saw past that wedding and got a glimpse of a future messianic banquet! And now, at the time of Passover, they go to Jerusalem, to the Temple, to worship. We’ll see here confrontation and conflict, and revelation of the Truth…

The Big Idea:  Jesus is the True Temple, the only Way to know and worship God. We’ll look at that from three perspectives: 1) The Lamb of God, at Passover, in Jerusalem (12-13); 2) The House of God: the heart of true worship (14-17); 3) The Sign of God: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Passover King (18-22).

I. The Lamb of God: at Passover, in Jerusalem (2:12-13, cf. v.23).  Twice in John 1 Jesus was called the Lamb of God. Now we see the approach of Passover.

12 After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers1 and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.  13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

       We saw in our series on the Gospel of Mark that the Gospel writers, under the inspiration of God, don’t give us a collection of disjointed truths about theology and the Christian life. They purposefully tell the story of Jesus, and in the context of the narrative they are inviting the reader to see the truth of who Jesus is and what He did for us. John begins this scene by giving us the setting of when and where it will unfold (2:13). At Passover, and in Jerusalem… The mention of Passover, coming after John’s enigmatic pronouncement concerning Jesus as a Lamb who takes away sin, demands our attention and consideration. Passover was one of the three “pilgrim feasts” of Israel in which a Jewish man who was able would be expected to go to Jerusalem for worship and sacrifice. John begins in v.13 with the setting, then again, in v. 23, he says…

23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.

The place and time are important, and John will remind us through the Gospel until the final Passover. As the Gospel unfolds the tension will mount as the identity of Jesus, as both Messiah King, and the Lamb who takes away sin, are set forth side by side (cf. John 6:4/6:15; 12:1/12:13; 13:1/13:13; 18:28/18:33; 19:14). Then finally we see in John 19:14, 

14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour.  He said to the Jews, "Behold your King!  

       Just before our scene in Chapter 2 a “royal miracle” had just been done, anticipating the kingdom of Messiah and abundance and blessing in Him. And the conversation with Nicodemus in John 3 will mention seeing the “Kingdom of God.”  At Jerusalem, at the time of the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb, the Son, the King, would lay down his life. John 2:13 and 2:23, bracketing this story, are anticipating this, the setting is in Jerusalem, the time of Passover.  

    13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

   23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw     the signs that he was doing.

The reader would be considering how this might “fit together” with Jesus being the Lamb who takes away sin. In Jesus God dwelt for a while among us. He came to give His life so that we could know and worship God. The Big Idea here is that *Jesus is the True Temple, the only Way to know and worship God.

II. The House of God: The heart of true worship (2:14-17).

14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.  15 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.  16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade."  17 His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me."

       There are some details here we need to mention. In the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus cleanses the temple after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem the final week of life. It is the event that precipitates His final rejection and the Cross. Here in John, a similar story occurs at the outset of his public ministry. There is really no problem with accepting two similar incidents, maybe three years apart or so. John is writing years later, to supplement the other Gospels. One writer said: 

“In the beginning… as the newly authorized Messiah King, he moves energetically to confront Israel’s apostasy and recall it to a new submission to God. At the end… Jesus comes, in the shadow of his looming self-sacrifice, to declare the final bankruptcy of a religion that has turned its back on authentic worship and embraced empty legalism."

       The money changers and those selling animals for sacrifice did provide a service. Those coming to the feast could travel with a small amount of cash and then purchase an animal for sacrifice once they arrived in Jerusalem.  The problem that angers Jesus here was not exactly what we see in the synoptic gospels three years later when he charges the venders and money changers with making the Temple a “den of robbers” (see Mt 21:13; Mk 11:17; Lk 19:46). The problem here was that this “business” being conducted on the Temple grounds was the issue. The House of God, the Temple, was a place for reverence, prayer, and worship, not for trade! For many years the booths of the money changers and vendors had been set up outside the city, but they crept closer, and now they had spread to the temple grounds, likely into the outer court. They had drifted from a heart of true worship.

The Temple represented the presence of God. That is why He rebuked them for making it a marketplace. He called it, “My Father’s house.” Jesus is saying, “This house is about knowing and loving and treasuring a person, my Father. In this temple, my Father has the supreme place. He is the supreme treasure here.” That attitude toward the Temple as the place of God’s presence, a place of worship, is expressed in the Hebrew Scriptures. “A day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere” (Ps 84:10). “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (Ps 73:25). Jesus is the True Temple, and we are the body of Christ. Paul said, “Do you not know that you are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (I Cor 3:16). We gather as God’s people to meet with God,  to express our love to Him in worship. Is all about JESUS!” 

But that focus had been replaced by a focus on trade. And there is no reference here to the people who needed the animals—the pilgrims who were buying the sheep and pigeons. The anger is all directed at those who were selling and doing business on the temple grounds. Jesus could see their hearts. They were not facilitating worship, they were in it for profit. In fact, we’ll see next week in verse 25 John says, “He himself knew what was in man” (John 2:25).

       What did he see? He saw that this “marketplace” was not advancing communion with his heavenly Father. It was not flowing from the love of God. It was flowing from the love of money. What should have been a time for reflection and preparation for worship, had become a cover for greed. That never happens today right? People using religion, taking advantage of people for financial gain? Right. That’s what Jesus saw—hypocrisy. Greed. Activity in the name of religion being fueled not by love of God, but by love of money!

       Jesus had quite a bit to say about our attitude toward money. He made it very clear that underneath the religious legalism of the Pharisees, he saw the love of money. Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees in Luke 16:13 , “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Then Luke comments, “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him” (Luke 16:14).  You can hear the zeal of Jesus in Matthew 23:25, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed...” You put up a fine display of religious helpfulness in the temple bazaar. Are we driven by the love of money, or the love of God? Think about it: In Jesus God dwelt for a while among us. God the Son came to give His life so that we could know and worship God. 

       In the context of this Gospel we see that zeal for true worship will lead to the cross (2:17). “Then the disciples remembered the Scripture…” The disciples saw the conflict, they remembered the words of the psalmist. Remember that John is an eyewitness. He is retelling the story and able to recall what he and his colleagues were thinking as they saw the actions of Jesus. It is probable that they came together sometimes afterward, maybe that very night, and discussed what they were thinking as they saw their Rabbi confront the money changers in the temple. The Psalmist said, “…zeal for your house will eat me up…”  (this is the correct reading, as noted in the margin of your NKJV).  Actually, the verb tense of the text of Psalm 69 has been changed by John from the past to the future. Warren Wiersbe said of Israel’s leaders at the time that,

“…most religious leaders were false shepherds who exploited the people.  When Jesus cleansed the temple he “declared war” on the hypocritical religious leaders (Matt 23), and this ultimately led to His death.  Indeed, His zeal for God’s house did ‘eat Him up!’ in the sense that it led to his rejection, suffering, and death."

       If we are zealous to truly worship our God and King, we have nowhere to go, but to the cross. “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to his cross I cling.”  There will be enmity between us and this world system, Jesus said if anyone would be his disciple we must “…deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him.” He is worthy of our true worship because *He is the True Temple, the only Way to know and worship God. 

III.  The Sign of God: Jesus’ death and resurrection. He would make the Temple in Jerusalem obsolete. Jesus is God in our midst (2:18-22)! 

18 So the Jews said to him, "What sign do you show us for doing these things?"  19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  20 The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?"  21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 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.

      In John’s Gospel we’ll see people frequently misunderstanding when Jesus uses physical things to symbolize the spiritual— In John 3 Jesus is talking about spiritual birth, and Nicodemus thinks physical birth. In John 4 the woman at the well is talking about water and Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit. Here Jesus uses “temple language” to speak prophetically of his own death and resurrection—of course his hearers are clueless as to his meaning.

First, they ask for a sign—John is repeatedly showing how signs are not enough—only a right heart would allow them to correctly interpret even the most convincing sign. Seeing is not necessarily believing! Faith means taking God at His word, trusting what He says is true. We get an illustration of that in the story of the Rich man and Lazarus… Luke 16:27-31  

"And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father's house--  28 for I have five brothers-- in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'  29 "But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.'  30 "But he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!'  31 "But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'"

       So, Jesus is talking not about the physical building, but about His body as the True Temple of God, the place where God dwells in the midst of His people. He is Emmanuel, “God with us”! We’ve seen this theme of the “house of God” alluded to twice already in this Gospel. First, we were told in the prologue that “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us…” (1:14). The verb “dwelt” is based on the word used for the tabernacle. It is used only in John 1:14 in the Gospel and by its rarity it calls attention to itself. Then at the end of John 1 Jesus tells Nathanael that he will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man. A clear reference to Jacob’s ladder in Genesis 28:12 f. Jacob called that place “Bethel,” i.e., “House of God.” Jesus, the Son of Man, is the true Beth-El foreshadowed in Jacob’s vision. He is the only ladder to heaven, to true life, and to fellowship with the Father. The temple as God’s dwelling would soon be obsolete, “For in Him [in Jesus] all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Col 2:9). He is Emmanuel, “God with us.” He came to give His life so that we could know and worship God. 

We have an allusion to another “sign” here that will be a major theme in John, a sign of true life. We got a hint of it first in the parallel statements in John 1:12, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Believing God, taking Him at His Word, reveals our heart, it is a sign of life. We are told in 2:22,

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.

Here, John the writer and narrator, looks ahead to the end of the story, the resurrection of the Lord: “When he had risen from the dead…” The story had to unfold as God had planned it before the disciples would understand. He tells us two things the disciples “believed.” First, “…the disciples believed the Scripture…” After their minds were opened they understood that the Old Testament pointed ahead to Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection…  Because of the resurrection we no longer need signs – He lives, so we can take Him at his word! He’ll tell Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen yet believe.” John puts believing Jesus right alongside of believing the Scripture… “…and the word which Jesus had said…” The words of Christ made sense afterward. Do you believe Him? His Word is truth!

What is God saying to me in this passage? In Jesus God dwelt for a while among us. He came to give His life so that we could know and worship God. That’s the Big idea: *Jesus is the True Temple, the only Way to know and worship God.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? 

1) Because Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us, we who believe are  reconciled to God. He is here as we gather in His name. God, our Creator and Savior is in our midst! We should be grateful, conscious of His presence, worshipful.

2) God, whose glory filled the Temple, is with us always – how then should we live? 

3) We are not only the church when we gather, but also when we go. The invitation to the nations was come and see, our mission is go and tell. Let’s embrace that mission, and as we go, let’s hold forth the Word of Life!  AMEN.