We turn in God's holy word this evening to John chapter two, second chapter of John's gospel account, which opens with the miracle Jesus performed at Cana of Galilee, at the wedding feast of Cana. But we're going to take up the reading at verse 12. And our text this evening is verses 14 through 22. John 2, verse 12. After this, he went down to Capernaum, he and his mother and his brethren and his disciples. And they continued there not many days, and the Jews' Passover was at hand. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of money sitting. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changers' money and overthrew the tables and said unto them that sold doves, take these things hence. Make not my father's house an house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Then answered the Jews and said unto him, what sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, 40 and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. When he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast day, Many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the text that we consider this evening records Peculiar event at the very beginning of Jesus ministry You remember that Jesus public ministry began with that Miracle that he performed at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee But immediately after that we read that the Jews Passover was at hand and Jesus went to Jerusalem And there, Jesus performed this work of the cleansing of the temple. And by this cleansing of the temple, he fully entered into the work which his father had given him to do. This incident reveals the heart of Jesus' work. The context reveals that he had gone to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. He went as one under the law. He went as one in accordance with the Old Testament law to celebrate that feast and ceremony in which everything pointed to him. Along with a few disciples that he had gathered at this time, Jesus went to Jerusalem, the city of God, and to the temple, the dwelling place of the Most High. He went because there he was to reveal himself as the Messiah, come to establish the true temple of God by fulfilling all the types and shadows of the Old Testament laws and ceremonies and feasts, but as we shall see, His first revelation of himself as the Messiah certainly did not come in a way that we would expect, and certainly not in a way that the Jews expected. It is, however, God's way, perfect, the way of perfect holiness, the way of maintaining the holiness and majesty and authority of God. So with that introduction, I call your attention to the cleansing of the temple. Notice with me, first of all, the astounding act. Secondly, the amazing sign. And finally, the blessed reality. The text records an astounding act on the part of our Savior and shows what a terrible misconception many have of Jesus today. But if we are to understand what occurs here, we have to consider carefully the setting. The event takes place at the temple. And the temple, as you remember, was God's house, not in the sense in which God was confined within those walls. You remember when Solomon built the temple and dedicated the temple He led the congregation in an inspired prayer in which he said, behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have built. That's recorded for us in 1 Kings 8. But the essential idea of God's house is that That is the place where God gathers in fellowship with his people. The covenant is typically represented in that temple. It was there that God, the friend sovereign of his people, lived under the same roof, as it were, with his people, his friend servants in the Messiah, the Christ who was yet to come. God would take his people into the fellowship of his own life and love. You can't explain Christ's reaction to what goes on here in any other way. He saw more there at that temple than just a beautiful building, more than just a gathering place for worship. He saw the very dwelling place of God The revelation of his loving embrace with his covenant people It's somewhat difficult for us to understand this because today if we think of the expression the house of God We we tend to think of a church building Which is non-essential If you don't have an edifice you can meet in a gym in a storefront There's That might not be the most comfortable situation, but there's nothing wrong with it. But the house of God in the Old Testament was fundamental to the life of the people of God. The house of God as represented in that temple was central to the very typical existence of Israel as the kingdom of God. It represented the fact that God dwelt there, in that land. And now, as Jesus enters the courtyard of the temple, he finds a deplorable sight. To get the correct picture in your mind, you have to remember that the temple was not merely a good-sized building, such as we have here, Think of the temple rather as a temple complex or compound. Some of us in our travels have seen some of the old forts, for example, in which, within the walls are found various buildings and courtyards. If you get that picture in your mind, you have a better idea of the temple as pictured here, within the walls of the temple, there was the sacred edifice, which itself was almost a compound within the compound. Think of a mall within the court, within the fort. To the west end stood the sanctuary, which anchored the building, and going from East to west, the porch, the holy place, and the most holy place. But all around those buildings and within the main walls of the temple compound, there stood a large courtyard, which was the courtyard of the Gentiles. That courtyard of the Gentiles was open to anyone, provided they followed the set rules of decorum and reverence. But as one approached the sacred edifice, again, think of a mall within the fort, if you will, there was this beautifully ornamented marble screen, four and a half feet high, which in both the Latin and Greek language warned the Gentiles to go no further on pain of death. So you have in your mind this general layout of the temple compound. Entering the gate, you would find yourself in that massive court of the Gentiles, and that's the area into which Jesus entered. And mind you, it wasn't just the sanctuary that constituted God's house, but the whole complex, everything within the outer walls. It was the time of the Passover celebration, when Jews came from throughout the kingdom to Jerusalem to present their offerings and to celebrate their deliverance from the bondage of death. And while the Passover was also intended to point God's people to the coming Messiah who would fulfill the picture of the Passover lamb, that aspect of the Passover had been lost almost entirely. Jesus entered a temple compound only to find a scene resembling a combination feedlot and sale barn and an open marketplace. That huge courtyard was filled with bellowing cattle, bleeding sheep, buyers and sellers hollering to be heard over all the noise. In fact, I don't know how much worship could have gone on even inside the sacred dwelling place for all the noise in the outer courtyard. After all, it wasn't that those buildings were well insulated. Not only did the noise have to be horribly distracting, but can you imagine the stink? If you were a Jew and wanted to make your way into the sanctuary to worship God, you had to fight your way through all the cattle and the buyers and sellers who were running around stopping people as they were trying to get through, all the while trying to catch your breath in the oppressive heat and stink of all the creatures. How was this? Well, the origin in one sense was quite natural. At all the great festivals, but especially the Passover, an almost inconceivable number of animals were offered as sacrifices. All the animals presented for the sacrifices had to be free of any blemish. And by this time, the Jewish rabbis had listed no less than 73 blemishes of which the animals had to be free. Now that takes more than a superficial inspection, you understand. And so the priests, and undoubtedly some of the Jewish leaders in cahoots with them, saw a great business opportunity. They simply told the people, no more bringing your own animals to the temple. We don't have time to inspect them. The only animals to be sacrificed here now are those that have been pre-inspected, that are for sale here on the site of the temple. And so they brought in these cattlemen selling their cattle in the courtyard of the Gentiles, passing a percentage of the sales on to the priests. And the manner of money changing was conducted in a similar way. Custom had it that nothing but the regular half shekel of the sanctuary could be received at the temple treasury. And when the people came to the temple, every male Israelite, had to pay the temple tribute, the ancient half shekel. Well, for you and for me, that would be like the church council demanding that your offerings be paid in Chinese coins of the 11th century. And bear in mind, if you didn't pay that temple tax, you would be excommunicated. So all these Jews came from all over the kingdom with their Roman coins and different coins for different parts of the empire. They had to exchange their money at the temple. They had to take their current coins and exchange them for those ancient half shekels. And again, to avoid the appearance of usury, a grievous sin according to the Old Testament law. The law strictly governed the amount that those money changers were allowed to charge, but the fact was the amount was exorbitant. Nearly a half day's wage for every half shekel. Of course, the Jews merely recycled those half shekels. It wasn't as if there was a huge market among coin collectors in those days. Those half shekels might just as well have been wooden tokens. But in order to obtain one for the required temple tax, you had to give up a half day's wage. Every time you entered the temple. Now you can imagine how that affected those who came to worship at the temple. They came to worship and had immediately to cough up significant money to the money changers, then stop partly through the combination feedlot, sale barn, and merchandise exchange in order to enter the sanctuary and to do so through all the manure, and then they were supposed to have their minds fixed on the great deliverance that God had given them through the promised Messiah. As Jesus came into this scene, his heart burned within him. And as there were all kinds of short ropes lying around, which had been used to lead the animals and tie up the crates of doves, Jesus reached down and began picking them up. And he tied several together in a group until he had fashioned a whip. And then from the back of the courtyard, working his way toward the gates, he entered the heart of that tumultuous crowd swinging that whip, driving the whole business out of the temple. It was an astounding act. Cows bellowing as they moved toward the gates, their rough cattle drivers unable to do anything about it, the sheep moving the same way, while this young man in peasant garb from Galilee was kicking over the tables of the money changers, coins rolling every which way, and above all the noise, his voice was heard, speaking in authority to those who had been selling doves, take these things hence, make not my father's house and house of merchandise. It was an unbelievably chaotic sight. Jesus' disciples stood there astounded as they watched this unfold. They understood they were witnessing a wonder. How else could this be explained? There's no explanation. Apart from the fact that in the blazing fury of his eyes and the inexplicable authority in his voice and action, the divine power and authority that lay hidden in Jesus' human nature suddenly came to expression. And those human beings who stood before him were powerless. They didn't know why. And when it was all over, in a matter of minutes, the entire courtyard was empty of all but Jesus' disciples, and the Jews were now coming from their own courtyard to see this that had taken place. Yes, there remained the remnants of all that wretchedness, the piles of manure, the coins scattered around in the courtyard, the overturned tables, the rest of the trash. And then the text tells us in verse 17, and his disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. In other words, they saw in Jesus the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy of Psalm 69. Psalm 69, you do well to read that tonight, is one of those Psalms that's clearly messianic. Although written by David and applicable to his particular historical situation, it's a Psalm that clearly prophesies of the coming Messiah and of the sufferings of that Messiah. So you find different portions of the Psalm quoted in the New Testament with reference to Christ, and so it is here As the psalm describes the sufferings of our Lord, suddenly there appears this verse, verse nine, for the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Now it's evident from the psalm that Christ's sufferings, which he suffered all his life long, were sufferings that found their culmination at the cross. And in fact, it was especially at the cross that Christ gave clearest evidence of the fact that he was consumed by zeal for his Father's house, for the realization of covenant fellowship with his people. So the question is, why did the Spirit see fit to apply that text already here? Why is this astounding act of Christ pointing to the fulfillment of Psalm 69? And that brings me to my second main point. This astounding act of our Lord was also an amazing sign. The Jews had no explanation, of course, for what had happened. On Jesus' part, This was a public proclamation of his divine power and authority, a revelation of himself as the son of the living God. And because of that relationship in which he stands to God, he would also rise up in protest against this desecration of his father's house. And this was meant especially for the priests and the rulers of the Jews. They were not ignorant after all. of the ministry of John the Baptist, who purportedly had been sent to announce the immediate coming of the Messiah. After all, we learn in John 1 that they had sent some of their own number, priests and Levites from Jerusalem, to ask John who he was and what he was about. And John proclaimed, there stood one before him, the latching of whose shoes he was not worthy to unloose. That was the day before John baptized Jesus. So I say the Jews were not ignorant of John's announcement of the imminent appearance of the Messiah. Jesus cleansing the temple was meant especially for their instruction and rebuke, but the Jews could only ask the question, how could this man possibly have done this? They well understood that by this astounding act, he had claimed an authority in the temple greater than theirs. What else could they understand when they heard the words or had them told to them Make not my father's house an house of merchandise. He was claiming a relationship to God as son to his father. And so we read in verse 18, Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Notice they didn't ask him to explain his authority. They said, give us a sign. Show us you have the right to do what you've done. Rather peculiar it is that they approach him this way. To me it shows that they suspected that he was claiming to be the promised Messiah. But they asked for a sign. Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. That's a dark saying. And one that the Jews not only could not understand at this time, but were almost sure to misinterpret. But that's the sign. And an amazing sign it is. You see, Jesus had already given them a sign. The wonder that he had performed in clearing out the temple as he had done was itself a sign, a clear sign at that. It demonstrated that his was no human power. And they saw that clearly. But they would not have it. They wanted something more specific, a sign acceptable to them. And so Jesus spoke these words. Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. It set forth a claim that his was a power that no man could exercise. But when I say that they were almost sure to misunderstand him, That's exactly what happened. Then said the Jews, 40 and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? They did what most people do today when they read scripture and come across the word world, for example. They want to interpret it their own way, not let scripture interpret scripture. And as you would expect, the Jews in hearing the word temple immediately thought in terms of this temple compound in which they stood. And Jesus made no attempt to correct them. He left that mysterious saying to be misinterpreted and applied against himself. But it becomes evident that this saying took deep hold upon the Jews. It was talked about. It became fixed in the minds of many. It troubled them. And so some three years later, When they had Jesus bound and brought before the Sanhedrin and were trying to find a charge on the basis of which they could condemn him to death, there came certain men who reminded them of this saying. They twisted it. They used it against the Christ. Mark records their testimony in Mark 14, verse 58. Listen to how They paraphrase and twist what Jesus said, not unlike what the NIV and other Bible translations do to the word of God today, twist his words. We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hand And in three days, I will build another temple made without hands. And when they finally had him nailed to the cross, they passed by shouting, temple destroyer. You see, they couldn't shake free from this sign that Christ had given them. But the text tells us Jesus was not speaking of the earthly temple, but of the fulfillment of that temple. He spoke of the temple of his body. Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The temple was a picture of the body of Christ. How is that? just as in that earthly temple was seen God's dwelling place. So in the body of Jesus, God dwelt. The temple was only a picture. The body of Christ is the reality. Go back one chapter and read what John wrote in John 1 verse 14. and see how Jesus revealed the glory of God in a way that the temple could not even begin to reveal that glory. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That was the power revealed in the cleansing of the temple. So true was it that Christ's body was the expression of the fullness of that temple that The type was inseparably connected with the reality. They would see that that would become clear three years later when they crucified Jesus. And that's why when Jesus died, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. That was the end of the temple. The earthly temple was destroyed. God no longer dwelt there. And so Jesus said, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. You notice that wasn't just a proposition. That wasn't an if. That was a command. Destroy this temple. And they did it. Not then. because his time had not yet come, but they did it some three years later. And that very act of destroying the temple of Jesus' body was the means that Christ used to cleanse the house of God. That's why, in a remarkable way, this temple cleansing was a summary of all Christ's work, an amazing sign. He became the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, but that temple of his body was, even as the temple compound into which Jesus entered, polluted. It was polluted not because of anything in him, not because he had any sin or guilt, no more than the temple buildings themselves could be said to bear corruption, guilt was imputed to him and that was the source of the deepest grief that Jesus bore when he witnessed the corruption of the temple and I might add when he when he looks upon our worship and sees us carrying into his sanctuary all the thoughts of our earthly business and earthly worries, failing to worship God with spotless holiness and purity, he saw and sees that corruption. as a picture of the fact that his own body had to be corrupted by bearing the guilt and sins of his people. The zeal of mine house hath eaten me up. You see? He says, I will do what is necessary to cleanse thy house, my father. I will be consumed even by thy wrath. That's the only way God's house can be cleansed. That's the only way you and I can be saved. And that points us to the blessed reality of the cleansing of the temple. The disciples saw this as the fulfillment of Psalm 69 verse nine, the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up. But this word wasn't fulfilled in Christ. until he was literally consumed in death, all for the purpose of building and establishing God's house. Jesus did not intend nor expect in this way to put an end to the desecration of the holy place. But this was prophetic of the real spiritual cleansing and sanctifying of the house of God as would be accomplished in his cross and resurrection. Jesus said, mine is the authority to destroy the works of the devil and to build the everlasting house of God's covenant. For the zeal of my father's house hath eaten me up. That was his only purpose in life. Jesus had no side issues. We do, don't we? Take no thought for your life, what she shall eat, what she shall drink, what she shall put on. Jesus has to remind us, doesn't he? Because we're so easily distracted from what, from that which is essential, spiritual. Jesus had no side issues. No wonder his people didn't understand him. Could you? He was consumed not by the enemy, but by zeal. For the zeal of his father's house, he had to die. He willed to die. In that zeal, he was nailed to the accursed tree. Get out, sin. Get out, devil. Get out, darkness. Get out, powers of hell. And no man can understand. Jesus says, except a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God. But Jesus was consumed with zeal for his father's house that we might live as members of that house. And he had the victory. That Old Testament was a pretty sorry picture. of what we enjoy today because of Christ. It is true the temple was one compound in which God and his people dwelled together in covenant fellowship in one house. But in the Old Testament, God lived over there in one corner, as it were, while his people lived on the other side. And you remember there was a veil separating the two. And not only that, but between the most holy place and the gathering of the people was not only the veil, but the altar of burnt offering and the altar of incense and the priesthood. The covenant fellowship that the temple portrayed was but a faint reality. The birds, the sparrows and swallows were able to get closer to God than his own people. We sang it earlier from Psalm 84. In his longing for the courts of the Lord, David expresses his envy of the swallows and sparrows. While he can only come into the outer court, He sees those birds flying into the very sanctuary of God, but he cannot, because the blood of atonement had not yet been shed. Now the reality has come. The true temple of God, even the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, And by way of the cross and through his resurrection from the dead on the third day, our Lord Christ has glorified the temple and removed the veil and ushered us into the very presence of God in the fellowship of his love. Christ has cleansed the temple. Isn't that amazing, beloved? What a blessed reality. So great is the blessedness that is ours, we can't even begin to comprehend the glory of it all. Someday we shall see. And what a day of rejoicing that will be. Amen. Our Father who art in heaven, we thank thee for this day in thy sanctuary, where we could taste of thy fellowship in Christ Jesus our Lord. How rich are the blessings of dwelling in thy love. Fill our hearts with thy praise, also as we go forth from here, that we may walk as thy people in the midst of this world. Keep us from sin, and bless us in the week ahead Forgive our sins for Christ's sake, amen.