And we turn now to hearing from his word, and I'll invite you to turn in your Bibles to John's gospel, and again, the second chapter. John chapter two, begin reading at verse 13. I'll read through the end of the chapter. John chapter two, beginning of verse 13. Brothers and sisters, this is the word of God. The Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple, he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of trade. His disciples remembered that it was written zeal for your house will consume me. So the Jews said to him what sign do you show us for doing these things. Jesus answered them destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up? Three days? But he was speaking about the temple of his body. And therefore he was raised from the dead. His disciples remembered that he had said this. They believed the scripture, the word that Jesus had spoken. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. Jesus, on his part, did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. Amen. Let's ask the Lord's blessing on his word preached. Our Father, we have this gift from you of a capacity to understand the truth. And we have a second gift given by you to embrace what is right. We pray that you would be at work in our hearts making us not only to understand but to do your word. We pray that this might be the result of the spirit of the risen Christ being at work here so that we are indeed confronted in love by the Savior. We pray this in his name, amen. It's interesting to think how this scene that I've just read would have played out if it had happened in the modern day. This scene of Jesus of Nazareth in the temple in Jerusalem turning all of the business upside down and causing the men and beasts alike to go fleeing from his whip. I suspect there would have been at least a dozen iPhones out recording the whole event. Had it happened in a modern era, those videos would have been shared. They probably would have gone viral. Everyone would be talking about perhaps the madman from Nazareth. I do suspect that even without the benefit of iPhones, this did go. viral, as we say. What happened that day? Jesus went up to the Passover and entered the temple. Oh, that would have been the talk all across We're taking this extraordinary story up as part of a larger series from the Gospel of John, because this episode is traditionally included among the seven signs of the Savior. that John tells us about in his gospel. Remember from last week, other gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they speak of miracles of Jesus, but John speaks of signs. And what he means by using that word signs is that Jesus didn't only say things, he also did things that revealed who he was and what he was there to do. So we're going to see what Jesus said and did in the temple that day. And brothers and sisters, the next few minutes we want to see that he gave a sign of at least three things. He gave a sign of his divine authority. He gave a sign of his own personal passion. And he gave a sign of an ultimate sign. Forgive me, I'll explain. He gave a sign of the ultimate sign. of his true identity. We'll look at those three things in the next few minutes as we unpack this extraordinary story. Divine authority. Now, if you're remembering what I said last week about this series, you may be wondering, why would this story be included among the seven signs of the Savior? Because we are expecting the signs to each be, in an obvious way, supernatural. They're events that God does, or that Jesus does with divine power. And that is gonna be the pattern. We have miracles ahead as we continue in this series, and true enough, there's nothing obviously supernatural. about what Jesus does here. But I think it's included by various students of the book of John among the signs because of what's said in verse 23 as a conclusion of the story. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. John seems to include this episode among the signs that he did as he went to Jerusalem for Passover. Indeed, what Jesus does here would meet the criteria of a sign in as much as it testifies to who He was and what He was doing there. But brothers and sisters, as we reflect on it just a little bit, I can't not say this. What happened in the temple that day might cause us to reconsider the conclusion that nothing supernatural happened. Let's review what we know. So it's the Passover in Jerusalem. It's the highest and the holiest of all the Jewish feasts held once a year. Faithful Israelites would have traveled far and wide to be there in Jerusalem. And they would have come chiefly to offer animal sacrifices in the temple, a symbol of the substitute that God requires in order for sinners to have a relationship with him. Now, traveling was It's still an ordeal, but believe me, it was more of an ordeal in those days. Even more so if you were bringing a live animal with you for many miles. was what led to an alternative that was provided by the helpful merchants in Jerusalem. Those who wish to come and observe Passover and offer an appropriate sacrifice didn't need to bring the live animal, they just needed to bring the purchase price of a live animal and they would be able to choose from multiple, we would call them vendors. They're in Jerusalem. They would have animals for every budget. If you were a rich man, they would sell you an ox. If you were middle class, they would sell you a lamb. If you were poor, they would sell you a pigeon. Each of them appropriate to bring by way of sacrifice. And because some of you would come from so far away, and the coinage that you had didn't match what was used in Jerusalem, there would even be those little booths that you see in international airports to this day. Money changers. You could go and exchange your money. for that which would be received there. For example, for the temple tax. So that was the circumstances that Jesus is seeing as he comes to Jerusalem. And Passover would have been a good business venture for various local traders. Think of how a city is impacted by a Super Bowl being held. or some kind of political convention. It's good for business. And principles of supply and demand being what they are, you can bet a lot of money was made. The price of cattle was a little higher than what you would have paid out in the country. The exchange rate, not quite as favorable, but folks, that's business. You pay for the convenience of it all. You don't expect to get a bargain when you get lunch at the airport, do you? So Jesus, encounters all of this, but verse 14 is quite significant. We're told there he encounters it as he enters the temple. Now we understand that this is a reference not to people selling cattle in the holy place, but rather the courtyard, a walled courtyard outside of the holy temple of God would have probably been the Gentile court. If you were a Gentile, but you wanted to offer worship to the God, Yahweh of Israel, then you were only allowed as far as the Gentile court. And so that large area within the temple precincts was devoted in the day of Jesus to all of this helpful worship facilitating trade, haggling over prices, deals being struck, the sound of animals penned up and being taken away. It was all just part of another Passover season in Jerusalem, and it was not to the liking one particular worshiper, Jesus of Nazareth. He didn't like what he saw. Now, before we look at what he did, let's just think for a minute about what he could have done. Encountering all of this, not liking what he saw, he could have filed a complaint with the authorities. Sure there was a way to do that. He could have made an earnest appeal to each of the vendors. He could have just begun to preach and tried to shame them through the power of his preaching and continuing to do what they were doing. He could have done those things, but the response, we can well imagine, of each of those, or in each of those situations by the people who have been Who are you? Who are you? And so, brothers and sisters, what Jesus does instead, He puts on display who He was by enforcing His will. Let this all afresh, as familiar as this story may be to you, let it all afresh sink in what we're being told. He drives them, man and beast, with a whip. He treats them all like the animals that they were selling. A little pain will motivate an animal. If you've grown up in a farm, you know that sometimes that's what you have to do. But he inflicts pain on both sellers and buyers and money changers and sheep and oxen. And they all flee from his wrath. The scene is really quite astonishing. Our Lord must have looked like a madman. He must have raised a sweat. He must have been running back and forth. He must have been quite a spectacle. The courtyard would have at least temporarily been reduced to utter chaos, the scrambling and the dodging. There must have been shocked spectators. Too bad they didn't have iPhones to record it all. Now, folks, what I'm... What I have in mind when I call this a display of authority, rather than, for example, sheer force, is this simple observation. Something more than a whip and an angry face compelled these men to do his bidding, something more. I submit that to you because of the sheer odds. being entirely stacked against one man, taking on such a crowd of men and beasts. Even if Jesus was a man of uniquely commanding presence, I think we could grant that. Even if he was a man, unlike many artistic representations, who had strength and virility, he was utterly outnumbered. Not to mention the fact that there would have been Guards appointed by the Jews that would have been stationed there in the temple itself for just such disturbances. Anything that would disturb the work of the temple, those guards appointed again by the Jews would have responded to. There was a whole garrison of Roman soldiers actually posted just outside the temple. Now what explains the utter submission of all these people. Well, it must have been something they saw in Jesus. It must have been a glimpse that they received in those moments of nothing less than divine authority. They obeyed because he told them to. I say we shouldn't rule out the supernatural in this moment. because we have a couple of other moments that sure sound supernatural of this kind. John himself will tell of one that had come to my mind this week, where God gives his enemies a glimpse of his authority. Remember, he gives his disciples a glimpse of his glory. We call that the transfiguration. Here's a glimpse that John wants you to know about. It's at the very end of his ministry. It's in the night that he's being are betrayed and arrested in John chapter 18. We read, then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, that's the guards, the Jews with the soldiers who've come to arrest him, whom do you seek? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them, I am he. Judas, who betrayed Him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, I am He, they drew back and fell to the ground. Wait, wait, wait, what just happened? I don't know what happened. I don't know how to explain that. Except when He, responding, spoke like Yahweh, I. They got a glimpse, a glimpse of his authority. In this case, Jesus asserts his authority by saying, take these things away, and they obey. And he claims the temple as, quote, his father's house. Before we go further in looking at this sign, let's just meditate for a moment longer on the sign of divine authority of Jesus. This kind of behavior in Jesus forces us to reckon with the ultimate question that's behind all of Christianity as a religion. Who is He? Who is this Jesus? That's the first and most basic question to know about him. He sure acted like he was someone with authority. He acted like he was in charge. He acted as if he had an authority equal in fact to God. And brothers and sisters, this is early in his ministry as John records it. This will become the pattern all through his ministry. Jesus will speak and act like God. in the way that he exercises authority over men. John will record to us a little bit later in John chapter five, Jesus saying these words, the father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the son that all may honor the son as they honor the father. I have authority to judge. That's a divine prerogative in the scriptures, Jesus claims it. Also in chapter five, He has the authority, Jesus claims the authority to determine who will be saved. For as the father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the son gives life to whom he will. I could multiply these examples, I do in one of my classes at Gray Friars, showing that Jesus claimed nothing less than divine authority, all the things he says throughout the four gospels. that every Jew would know are claiming prerogatives that are uniquely God's. So when you see Jesus all in a lather in your mind's eye, in that temple courtyard, you're left with, it's actually not a choice in this context of three, but two, really two choices. And the answer, who is this man? He's either a lunatic, absolutely out of his mind, needs to be straightjacketed, or he is God. He's no mere man. When he says, I'm the son of God, when John says he existed from the beginning, he has possession of full divine nature. The church could sum up the gospel in the words, Jesus is Lord. That word Lord is an expression of authority. It's often used to translate the Old Testament word Yahweh. So can I say before we move on, if you're not a Christian, but you're open to considering the Bible, Claims of Christianity, first of all, so glad you're here. And second of all, here's my word of advice. Start here. Start with this question. Who is Jesus? He claims to be God himself, with the authority to tell men exactly what to do. Jesus in our day is many things other than that. He's a life coach, help you get through hard times. He's a therapist, sort of unravel all the knots and thinkings and emotions. He's many people's personal assistant, at least in their own mind. Brothers and sisters, friends, he's the Lord. That's the first thing he's giving evidence of. in this moment, a sign of the divine authority of Jesus. Here's the second thing. I've called it a sign of a personal passion of Jesus. You could be turning in your Bibles to Psalm 69. We sang from it a moment ago, but you can be turning in advance to Psalm 69. I've entitled this sermon, Fury in the Temple, for that's Surely what was seen in Jesus' face and heard in his voice, this man was furious at what he'd encountered in the house of God. But it is so important for us to see where this fury came from. This fury came from the desecration of something that Jesus was personally passionate about. The whole purpose of the temple that he enters and sees all of this in, the whole purpose of the temple and of the holy things that were to be done there, this is something that Jesus of Nazareth was personally passionate about. And we're told that the disciples, even as they witnessed this, put that together. 17 is where we see that, I'll read again from verse 15. Making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and oxen. He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of trade. Verse 17, his disciples remembered that it was written Zeal, I'm using the word passion, zeal for your house will consume me. Where was that written? Well, it's a quote from Psalm. If you have that open, you can see in that psalm, it's the psalm of David. David is speaking of, he's in deep trouble because of the hatred of his enemies. Verse 4 says, But then David goes on to say, I'm hated by my enemies for God's sake. Verse 7. It is for your sake that I've borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face. So I'm surrounded by enemies, they hate me because of my zeal for you. And then the quote the disciples have coming back to them, because they knew their Bibles well, is in verse 9. For zeal for your house has consumed me. Some of you might have the translation. Zeal for your house has eaten me up. Could be translated that way. You see why that passage might come to their minds? Guys, Jesus' behavior that day in the temple was sure to make some enemies for himself. I suspect that what he did there earned the hatred of a whole guild of businessmen in Jerusalem. They would likely have resented him for years to come. But the disciples realized Jesus is willing to bear their reproach for the sake of God the Father. Indeed, as a result of his personal passion for God's house. In one of the other gospel accounts, Jesus In an incident like this, quotes another Old Testament passage, it's from Isaiah. He says, while he's swinging the whip, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers. So what was so bad about what was being done? Was it buying animals for sacrifice rather than bringing them many miles? Was it selling those animals? Was it selling those animals at a profit? Was it facilitating all this by all the exchange of one kind of coin for another? Probably not any of those things in and of themselves, brothers and sisters. If, in other words, all of that had been happening down the street, downtown Jerusalem, sort of right there in the house of God, with the exception of the price gouging, which apparently was taking place. Jesus wouldn't have had an objection. Listen carefully. It seems that what all this business in the temple was doing, was interfering with, even displacing what the temple was for, it was for God and sinners to have a meeting for sinners to worship and to pray and to do so only in and through the blood that would be shed and offered on the altar there at the temple. And Jesus sees it can't be both. It can't be an airport concourse and a place of worship. He's discerning that in all that bustle and all that noise of religiosity, there's no true religion. or too little of it. There's a lot of worshipers, there's a lot of worship facilitation, but there's not enough true worship. They hear, or they see, the disciples see what Jesus does, and the words, zeal for your house has consumed me. Can I remind you what this house of God was for, the one that Jesus calls my father's house. Some of you here may not have clarity about what was the big deal about this temple of Israel. It represented God's desire to have a relationship with sinful people. The temple wouldn't exist if God didn't care to have a relationship with people that he had made. So he has ordained in these days to provide a place where he and they would be able to meet and have fellowship. And at the same time, the same temple that showed God wanted to have this relationship showed the problem, the really big problem. The problem is that the holy God can't have fellowship with sinners in their sin. The temple showed that problem, also showed the solution from the days of Abel in the Old Testament. Sacrifice was offered. God was pleased to accept the life of an animal as a kind of substitute. the one who'd actually committed the offenses. And all of this, since the days of Abraham and Moses and King David in the Psalms, this was at the heart of the faith of God's people. Now I ask you, can you see why this would have been a particular passion? Jesus. He was rightly called by John the Baptist, the Lamb of God. He is the one who had come from God. to provide a way for sinners to have fellowship with God. He came to face squarely, and I will add permanently, the problem with that fellowship. Holy God, sinful people. He came to offer Himself as the true and ultimate and permanent sacrifice. The innocent in the place of the guilty. This was His mission. His death on the cross is what would make all those oxen and sheep and pigeons needless. His blood was going to make their blood unnecessary. So you can understand why it would be His passion that the people will take very seriously the issues that lie behind the temple and the holy things that would be taking place within it. You might say the sight of the people of God. Making the worship of God something cheap, routine, even commercial, hit a nerve. It lost sight of what reality was behind this temple and the worship God had ordained in it. Do we all here today understand quite clearly why? The cross is the center of the Christian faith. Do we all understand why? A man hanging on a cross is at the center of the Christian faith. It is the sole solution to the problem of a holy God. and sinful people having fellowship with one another. The cross did what centuries of worship in the temple couldn't ever do. Let me put it this way. There's a lot in this world that infuriates God in heaven. We're looking at a moment where the Son of God in his humanity is infuriated by what he sees, but this world is full of that which infuriates the God who made it, who made it perfect and now has seen it ruined by the rebellion of mankind. And every single one of you have made a unique contribution to the evil of this world. Apart from some solution to that problem, you will never have fellowship with God. The old days, in anticipation of what was to come, if you wanted to avail yourself of the solution that God himself had provided, you would place your hands on the head of a lamb and you'd confess your sins. And what you were doing was you were symbolically transferring your sin to that innocent substitute. And then his throat was slit and he was consumed on the altar. Ever since Jesus has died on the cross, there's no lamb and no hand on the head. There's a hand reaching out to Christ, we call that faith, by which our sins are placed upon Him there on the cross. Jesus' fury in the temple shows, my friends, it's not enough to just be spiritual. It's not enough to be religious even. It's not even enough to be a regular church goer at resurrection, Presbyterian church. So much easier to do the stuff that New Testament worship entails. So much easier to do what we've done already this morning. So much easier to do it than to be in the grip of the reality behind it, to be recognizing All afresh, every week, the only hope we have of not ourselves being consumed by God's wrath is the blood of His Son. You might say in our modern parlance, those in the temple courtyard, they didn't get it. God offers to me fellowship, relationship. There's no way I can do that apart from blood. They got the rituals. didn't have the reality. This is my prayer, all of you, that at least today, you'll get it. So we've seen a sign of divine authority in Jesus, a sign of his personal passion. I'll conclude with the third, a sign of the ultimate sign. Jesus' true identity. So Jesus has found something badly wrong with the heart of the religion of Israel, something offensive even about their temple worship, and this is only the beginning. In Jesus' ministry, he is going to consistently express that judgment begins with the household of God. And folks, you need to know, it's a good time, I think, to point it out, what John records for us as taking place at the beginning of our Lord's ministry, Matthew, Mark, and Luke record as something that also takes place at the very end of his ministry. Some of you will know this. Matthew, Mark, and Luke talk about what's called the cleansing of the temple. That's the name for this incident. They talk about it happening just after Palm Sunday, that Sunday, that first, last day of the week. First day of the week, as the Israelites number it, as Jesus comes in, in preparation for his own betrayal and arrest and execution. He goes into the temple, and this happens. Some have said, well, wait, which was it? Was it the beginning or was it the end? And we are left with a conclusion. It was both. Fury in the temple bookends his whole ministry. But Luke tells us, chapter 19, when he does it a second time, Quote, the chief priests and scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him. Keep that word in your mind. They were seeking to destroy him. In other words, this kind of behavior would eventually get Jesus killed. And folks, Jesus, here at the outset of his ministry in John 2, He knows that. That's why when the onlookers put the question to him in verse 18, what sign do you show us for doing these things? His response is to give them a little riddle that points ahead to something to come. Jesus answered them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Now as it continues you'll know They're on totally different wavelengths. in this little exchange. Jesus has his mind full of the sense of what his mission will be to fulfill all that would have for centuries been happening in the temple. He will become the point of contact between God and sinners. His own flesh and blood will be the sacrifice that is required. And some of these very men will orchestrate his death. They will seek to destroy him as Luke goes on to say that they did. Jesus has His mind full of that. Jesus' hearers can only hear Him making reference to the magnificent building near which they stand. Jesus has spoken this riddle so that those who believe, at least eventually, will be able to see it as the sign of signs. Verse 21, He was speaking about the temple of His body. 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. Folks, that might actually be the most remarkable thing that happens that day. Jesus, at the very outset of his ministry, looking ahead to his death at the hands of these, his enemies, and saying to friends and enemies alike, when I have risen from the dead, That's your sign. Sign of signs. You could hear Jesus is putting everyone on notice. I'm going to have a lot of signs. We're going to be studying more of them in this series, by the way. But the sign of signs, the sign without which you don't need to pay any attention to any of the other signs, is that I will die, and then in fulfillment of my own word, I will rise again from the dead. You don't have to believe me. It's as if Jesus says, you do not have to believe me or take me to be who I say I am unless this comes true. Folks. This is the only reasonable explanation for this phenomenon we call Christianity, this explosive growing religion we call Christianity. It's because Jesus' words came true. He gave us this ultimate sign that he would rise from the dead, and he did. Don't think, by the way, the ancient Romans, those influenced still by Greek thought, were more open-minded to such supernatural occurrences than we are today. They weren't. They were just as thick a skeptic as anyone else in the modern day. But Christianity, the pages of the New Testament and ever since, is fueled by what many experienced firsthand and as faithfully recorded in the New Testament. Jesus rose from the dead in fulfillment of His own words. That's the ultimate reason that we need to reckon with who he is and what he's done. If he was just another maybe colorful, slightly eccentric preacher of ancient times, we could take him or leave him, your call. But if he had power to rebuild, But his enemy is destroyed, that is his own life and flesh. And friends, he's who he said he was, and we have to reckon with that. This is quite a launch, isn't it, into the earthly ministry of Jesus. Now, not exactly what you'd expect his publicist to recommend, kicking over countertops and bloodying the backs of businessmen, but you know what? It seems to have been well received by at least some. We're told many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. Apparently, there were some hungry to see this kind of authority, this kind of passion to be given, this kind of sign. And all of this in anticipation of the day when all men will stand before this one Jesus of Nazareth, risen at the right hand of the Father in all the glory of that. He offers to us today the chance to bow before him in advance of that day when all will bow and to seek refuge in his blood that he shed, that we might have a place in the very presence God. Amen. Let's pray together. Oh, Lord Jesus, we're tempted to say if we could only have been there to see this, we too would have in all awe, strickenness, maybe even some horror, believed. You yourself said, blessed are those who do not hear yet, do not see yet believe the word that's given. Give us this gift of faith under the salvation of our souls. We love you for being the holy one. We praise that you will receive us in light of all you've done for us. In Jesus' name we pray it. Amen.