Because Jesus Makes a Way for Pure Worship

Over the years being a youth pastor – I would constantly be asked to buy things from kids at church on Sunday mornings. Kids would sell candy bars for their baseball team, they would sell popcorn for boy scouts, and every year – I could count on some girls trying to sell me girl scout cookies – This is where you know you either have a conviction or you don’t. I really like the thin mints, but I held my ground and had to tell these sweet little girls to stop making my father’s house a place of business…. No – I told them that I am interested in those amazing thin mints, but can you come visit me during the week? This always bothered me. On one hand I understood why the kids would come to church to sell – because a lot of people at one time – it was easier than going door to door. It was safe. How can a Christian say “no” to a sweet little kid at church?

Why do we come to church? So that we can purchase things from people? So that we can talk about things that we have purchased? No. We come to church so that we can worship God in the purest way. We come to church to rub shoulders with other believers in our worship of the Lord.

The passage that we are looking at today always came to my mind when kids would try to sell me things in church. I don’t believe that God’s house is a place where we should conduct business. I don’t expect adults to sell me insurance plans at church or a car salesman to sell me a car out in the parking lot. If we are teaching kids at an early age that it is OK to sell things to people when they go to church what are we teaching them about church?

So, people learned that Pastor Bob didn’t buy things from kids at church.

Today we are going to be talking about purity of worship. Enjoying Life in His Name comes through pure worship. 3 ways to cultivate genuine/pure worship

I. Understand that worshipping God requires purity (vv.13–17)

What if we began to teach our kids – that on Saturday night – you shouldn’t stay out that late the night before church or stay up that late so that you get a good night sleep – so that you were prepared to worship God on Sunday morning. So that you don’t show up for church so tired that you are just a body sitting in a chair – one who didn’t show up to give God the worship that he deserves. What if as a family you decided to pray before you got out of the car to prepare your hearts for worship. I know that is silly talk – praying in the car with kids before church…

How do you prepare yourself for worship?

I often pray that God would allow the distractions of life to be put on pause while we worship together. If we can put the stress from work, the family arguments, the worry about finances, etc. aside so that we can concentrate on what God would have for us this morning. – I pray this so that we are prepared for worship. This shouldn’t only be done on Sundays before church – but anytime we open God’s word, pray, have bible study together – because when we gather to worship we want to have the most pure form of worship that we can. God deserves this from us. God deserves this effort to prepare our hearts for worship.

I remember a song by Matt Redman that came out in 1999 called Heart of worship. The idea was that people were making worship about the song about the who was leading about the cool band set about the lights – the idea was that worship was not what it was supposed to be – so Matt Redman wrote The Heart of worship

The song dates back to the late 1990s, born from a period of apathy within Matt’s home church, in England. Redman’s congregation was struggling to find meaning in its musical outpouring at the time.

“There was a dynamic missing, so the pastor did a pretty brave thing,” he recalls. “He decided to get rid of the sound system and band for a season, and we gathered together with just our voices. His point was that we’d lost our way in worship, and the way to get back to the heart would be to strip everything away.” Reminding his church family to be producers in worship, not just consumers. ‘The Heart of Worship’ simply describes what occurred.”

When the music fades, all is stripped away, and I simply come / Longing just to bring something that’s of worth that will bless your heart… / I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about You, Jesus.

In our text today – John 2 we are given…

A. The context of Passover in Jerusalem (v.13)

John 2:13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

The cleansing of the temple happened at the time of the Passover feast.

The Passover feast was instituted by God for the Israelites back when they were in slavery in Egypt before God miraculously freed them through the 10 plagues.

- The Passover specifically was on the night that God killed all the first-born sons of the Egyptians and passed over the first-born sons of the Israelites.

- Hence the Passover – Feast - And God says they are to keep this feast forever as a memorial! So this is the most important feast for the Jews!

Let’s look at the next couple of verses

John 2:14–16 And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. ¹⁵ And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; ¹⁶ and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.”

B. Jesus’ anger in the temple points us to the priority of pure worship (vv.14–16)

The court where they were selling sacrificial animals and changing money was the outer court of the temple, otherwise known as the Court of the Gentiles. This was the only place in the temple non-Jews were allowed to come and pray or offer sacrifices.

It must have felt like Jesus was entering a flea market or a 4H fair auction. All of a sudden, he enters the court of the Gentiles and everything looked and felt different. It didn’t look like a place of worship – it didn’t feel like a place of worship – it didn’t sound like a place of worship – it didn’t smell like a place of worship. People buying animals, money trading hands, animals go potty, etc.

Aren’t you glad that we don’t have a rummage sale set up on the other side of the curtain and people are shopping before worship, during worship? That would be very distracting – it would be hard to have the purest form of worship.

HOW DO YOU PICTURE JESUS?

Did this story surprise you a little bit? We don’t often imagine Jesus as the lash-out-in-anger type of a guy, do we? We don’t like to think of God being angry, do we?

We don’t really like that God. We like the God we saw last week at the wedding who gives us the really good wine in abundance. We like the God of grace, and love, and forgiveness.

The image of Jesus that many of have grown up with is of a gentle man. He is usually very well-groomed, with neat wavy hair and impractically clean clothes. In this passage, however, we see a Jesus that doesn’t fit in with that image. Here Jesus is clearly fired up. He is angry with the people who are desecrating the temple.

The “meek and mild” image of Jesus often portrayed in traditional, religious art, or often taught about in Sunday school, is a caricature which exaggerates two of Jesus qualities while ignoring many others. Jesus was on a divine, world-changing mission of global redemption. He was zealous and dedicated to his task. He was tough. He endured humiliation, rejection, misunderstandings, insults, suffering and pain for the sake of his mission.

Jesus was tremendously kind and gracious to most people, especially the oppressed, but he scathingly denounced the hypocritical religious leaders who stubbornly refused to believe Jesus’ true identity as Messiah.

While we are called to be loving, kind and gentle, we are also called to be strong and courageous. Allowing unbelief, ignorance, injustice, and evil to go unchecked, where we can make a difference, is not love.

The anger of Jesus in this scene has been so misunderstood.

-Some of you may be wondering - Why would there be people selling oxen, sheep and doves, and why would there be money changer’s in the temple?This is a place to worship God – why would they be doing this – that is exactly what Jesus is thinking. But…

o Think about the context of the Passover. Why would the selling of sheep be a logical sale? Everyone needed their Passover lamb for the Passover celebration.

§ Have you ever traveled with a pet before?

§ Have you ever traveled with a pet lamb before? (that would be Baaaaad)

§ Now just imagine that you’re a first century Jew…no car…traveling by foot to Jerusalem with your whole family. That’s going to be hard enough to travel with all the kids who are constantly asking how much farther? It would make sense that traveling with your Passover Lamb might be a little too much. So, instead of traveling with your sacrifice you can just bring money to buy it at one of the baby lamb/goat vending machines when you get to Jerusalem.

§ there would have been a huge need for providing lambs. Doves, and oxen.

o So, the service that they are providing to the worshipers traveling from other cities was a helpful and convenient service.

Another very important issue had to do with where they would have been set-up for selling and money changing? Not only was it in the court of the Gentiles – they had so much stuff in that area that the gentiles couldn’t get in to worship.

§ In Matthew, Mark and Luke - ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.” And you can surmise from this that not only should they not be in this place – but they were robbing people – making profit in the place of worship.

- Jesus’ anger and cleansing of the temple makes it very clear, pure worship is important to God.

o There is a lot of wickedness going on in our country, but I really don’t believe that Jesus would be cleansing the white house, or the court house, or Google or Facebook or whoever else you think needs to be cleansed if Jesus came to America today…where we need cleansing is for those of us who claim to follow God and worship God.

o We need to make sure that we are prioritizing pure worship of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ above everything.

Pure worship – was not a new idea.

C. The OT emphasized and anticipated a future purification by the Messiah (v.17)

That’s the point the OT quotation in John 2:17.

John 2:17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.”

So, the first part of Jesus cleansing the temple, helps us understand that worshipping God REQUIRES purity…it’s serious business and needs to be done with purity!

II. Embrace Jesus as the true temple for pure worship (vv.18–22)

The Jewish authorities refused to—embrace Jesus as the true temple for pure worship. From the what/the place/temple to the who – Jesus.

What Jesus does by cleansing the temple points to and anticipates a new temple—namely himself.

Remember in John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt (tented—the word for the OT tabernacle) among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

This verse hints to what Jesus is showing us here in John 2.

A. The Jews missed what the physical temple pointed to (v.18)

After the commotion dies down to some degree, and the sellers and money changers and all the animals are out of the temple, the “Jews” as the text says come to question Jesus about what has just happened.

I mean Jesus just went Bruce Lee on the money changers and animals in the court of the Gentiles. They had some questions.

Their question as recorded in John 2:18 The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?”

- Jesus isn’t just some new guy in town. He isn’t a rebel coming to town to cause trouble. If that were the case – he would have been arrested.

o Just imagine that someone walks into this auditorium and they start turning over chairs and shoving people out of their seats and demanding that all the instruments get taken out of the auditorium…do you think that the pastors are going to gather around after it’s all complete and ask questions? Or do you think we would just call the police as soon as it starts and have him arrested immediately.

o Jesus must have been in a way that was at least causing them to be suspicious that perhaps they are dealing with someone important. I mean they ask him for a sign – a miracle – this indicates that they are somewhat open to him perhaps being a prophet, but they are asking him to prove it.

- Then they question his authority. Who do you think you are? Or who are you? Like for real – who are you?

o They don’t seem to care about the issue that Jesus is bringing up – or the reason he is angry. They only want to know about his authority.

§ The Jews seemed to be more concerned about the physical temple then on worshipping God. And that’s what Jesus’ temple cleansing communicates. He is the Messiah that cares deeply about genuine pure worship of God.

…they ask for a “sign” from Jesus.

-Jesus cleansing the temple is already a sign and they totally miss it!

B. Jesus shows us that his death and resurrection is ultimately what we need for full access to worship God (vv.19–22)

John 2:19–22 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰ The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But He was speaking of the temple of His body. ²² So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.

This is the ultimate sign…the ultimate miracle, and when this miracle happens, the Jews still don’t believe.

- consider the irony.

o The Jews ask for a sign or a miracle.

o Jesus tells them a miracle that he will do…of course they don’t interpret what that miracle is accurately…but their reply to Jesus is, no one could destroy the physical temple and rebuild it in 3 days, that’s IMPOSSIBLE!!!

§ Do you see the humor?

§ A miracle is something that is impossible according to natural laws and normal working order of science…

§ but when Jesus gives them something that would clearly defy natural laws and the normal working of science they mock at him and say no way, it’s impossible!

Jesus is not only the greater temple, because in him the full presence of God, but he is also the greater sacrifice that lays down his life as the Passover Lamb to take away the sins of the world. That’s why John the Baptist said of him,

John 1:29 …“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Friends, have you trusted in the sign that Jesus gave to the Jews?

- His temple, Christ’s body was destroyed and three days later his body, physically was raised again.

o The sign of Jesus cleansing the physical temple was pointing to the sign of the greater cleansing that was going to come through Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. It was the perfect sacrifice.

o Because of our sin, we cannot access God apart from Christ’s sacrifice.

o Jesus is that temple and that sacrifice.

o What does it take for Christ’s sacrifice to save you? It takes exactly what the disciples do in v.22.

John 2:22 So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.

- Do you believe the Scripture?

- Do you believe the eyewitness accounts that we are studying?

- Do you believe what Jesus has said about who his is and what his sacrifice has accomplished for all who believe.

If you haven’t, I would really invite you to make that choice to trust in Jesus Christ today.

For those of you who have claim to be a follower of Jesus…

III. Evaluate the nature of your faith (vv.23–25)

A. Acknowledging miracles isn’t enough for saving faith (v.23)

John 2:23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing.

- The purpose of John’s gospel is so that we might believe he is the Son of God and have life in his name.

You might be tricking the person sitting next to you in church but remember…

B. Jesus knows whether your faith is genuine or not (vv.24–25)

Jesus knows whether your faith is genuine or not.

John 2:24–25 But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, ²⁵ and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.

o there is a kind of faith that Jesus can see through that isn’t really genuine.

What kind of faith do you have?

- If you have believed in Christ, then this section is here to to evaluate to make sure our faith is genuine…and a genuine faith in Christ won’t be a perfect faith, but it will be a growing faith like the disciple’s faith. And it will lead towards pure worship.

o What are you believing in?

- What you genuinely believe is going to make all the difference…not just in this world, but in eternity.

o God so loved the World, and Jesus so zealously loved the father, that the father was willing to give up the Son and the Son was willing to be consumed so that we might have eternal life in his name. I’d invite you to trust in Jesus today…don’t wait any longer.