(John 2:21)
�But he spake of the temple of his body.�
The religious leaders had asked Jesus by what authority He had cleansed the Temple. His answer was that it was on His Own authority as the Lord of the Temple. They did not understand the answer because they did not understand just Who He was, and is!
There are those who oppose the truth that Jesus is very God. Their stock question, it seems, is, �Just show me one place in the Scripture where Jesus ever claimed to be God.�
Here is just one answer to their demand. There is no other reason that Jesus could have given the answer which He did if He were not claiming full deity. Without this consideration His answer is nonsensical. With this consideration His answer is simple, direct, and in complete harmony with the asked question.
Why? Because. The format is that simple. One what authority? On My authority as the God of the Temple.
When John, writing Words inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote the Words of our text verse, he explained what seemed a mystery to these religious leaders. The answer of Jesus was a witnessing Word. �But he spake��
As Jesus witnessed to His Own authority and divinity, so are we called to witness of Him in the world of our own day. We should see that His spoken Words were inciting.
The brought a division.
We see this same thing in our day. People do not readily respond to the things of Christ. The interesting thing about this is that they are more likely to respond to Jesus than they are to the trappings of Christianity. These things that are about Christ, such as church doctrines and life style messages, are actually for the saint. We who have accepted Jesus as Savior had an inward predisposition toward these things supplied by the Holy Spirit working within.
Those who have not yet been saved are not disposed to track toward the trappings of Christianity. These people are still in their sins. They are lost and bound under the dominion of Satan. Since Satan hates the things of Christ, so do those who are bound to him in their sins.
A simple profession of church doctrine will not defeat Satan. Church doctrine, and leadings, are that which we know because of our fellowship with the Savior. These mean less than nothing to the unsaved because they do not have the advantage of that fellowship.
Some may develop a seeming interest; they may even feel an interest in these things. This is not because they are attuned to the things of the Spirit. This has more to do with the deceiver engaging them to experience �religion.� In this they begin to feel that they are coming closer to God.
They are not. �There is none that understand, there is none that seeketh after God.� (Romans 3:11) This verse is quite succinct. No person will seek God on their own. They may seek to appease what they see as a God of wrath. They may seek to follow the God of their friends. They may seek to follow a religious system which promises peace with God. But, they will not seek God on their own.
John 6:44 tells us something very important. �No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.�
Why do you suppose this is so? It is so because the human race, in the historical person of Adam, chose to renounce the leading of God and to follow Satan. This was the beginning of sin in the world. Since that time sin has captivated and controlled each and every human born of man and woman.
Jesus, Who came physically into this world via the Virgin Birth, is the Lone Exception. Born, physically, without human father, Jesus did not have the seed of Adam, the seed of sin and rebellion, as part of His physical makeup. This is why He could fully relate with us as a member of the human race, and still be effective to die for us as a substitutionary atonement.
It is our duty, as Christians, to pray for individuals, by name, and ask the Spirit of God to send conviction upon their hearts so that they might be receptive to the Gospel message. It is, then, our duty as Christians to witness.
We want to see them leave the control of Satan and accept the freedom of life in Christ.
The spoken words of Jesus to His questioners, was an inviting word. They were asked to accept the fact that He is the Lord of Glory with full authority to cleanse the Temple. They chose to reject this invitation. They were unable to accept that Jesus was the promised Messiah for Whom they had longed and waited.
Our spoken word of witness should also be inviting.
Suppose that you were trying to get someone to vote for a certain candidate. Suppose you said, �I don�t like him much. He�s a lot of bother and his politics are all wrong. He just wants to vote for bills that make life harder for all of us. But, I have met him and I�d like you to vote for him.�
How many people do you think that you�d get to vote for this candidate? Not too many, I�m guessing.
Do we ever do the same thing in our witnessing for the Lord? �Now, I love Jesus. He�s really stern with me. He asks me to do all sorts of things that just don�t fit in with my life as it was before I met Him. He really just wants all of us to live contrary to normal human life. Won�t you become a follower of Him?�
Nowhere is the fact that Jesus loves the individual mentioned. Nowhere is the fact that Jesus so changes our lives that we want to live anew. Nowhere is the fact that the �new life� He calls us to is one of glory and triumph. It is a better life, more fulfilling and joyful, than we now live.
There is also the problem that if we preach, �Do. Act. Behave. Change. And so on,� that we are in danger of giving the picture of salvation by works. Works do not, can not, save a single soul. It is the indwelling Christ which makes us able to produce works. The horse goes at the front of the cart. Jesus comes into a life, in a saving manner, before a person can produce any works or changed life. Even the desire to do these things is contingent upon the saving grace of the Lord.
We must realize that our spoken words are important. The words of Jesus were certainly important. Here, in our text verse, He gave a prophecy to these religious leaders. If they couldn�t accept Him before His death, surely they would do so after this prophecy was fulfilled.
Yet, so content were they with their own understanding and bias that they were unable to even understand when His Words came to pass.
We, also, shall meet some who will disregard, or even hate, our telling of the story of sin and salvation. What shall we do? Shall we just dismiss them and say that they�ve had their chance? Shall we attack them as the enemy? Shall we hate them for shunning our counsel?
I want you to reread the previous paragraph. Count the personal pronouns and references to one�s own self in those five sentences. Then consider this: We are only the package which God has used to warn those people of the need for salvation. Not a single thing they said was really directed toward us. In point of fact, each rejection was not of us; it was a rejection of Jesus.
Now comes the more important question: How do you suppose that Jesus would react to those same people? If you said that He would continue to offer salvation, you�d be right. Jesus is longsuffering. We are to just continue to give forth the message that Jesus died in time so that others might live in eternity.
Some will accept His salvation. Some will reject over and over until the Spirit finally does convince them of their need. Some will never accept. Nonetheless, we are compelled to witness for the Savior. That command to witness, from the Great Commission, was given by Jesus. No person should be so much more important than Him that we would deny His Commission because of their rejection.
It is a matter of just Who, or who, is our Lord.
Not, also, that this was a worthy Word of which He spoke. ��of the temple��
God used a progressive teaching technique in relaying His message to man. Part of this was the Temple. Inside the Temple were the scrolls with the Scripture, the Mercy Seat, and the apparatus for offering sacrifice. The faithful understood the Temple to be the �special� residence of God.
God is not bound by space or time. As the Creator, He stands above, and apart from, all creation. Yet, He does inhabit His creation.
�Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.� (Psalm 139:7-12)
The ancients understood the concept of the omnipresence of God. They knew that a building of stone and mortar could not contain Him. Yet, the significance of the Temple was that this was the special place of His abode.
It was to the Temple, with all those holy symbolic ingredients therein, to which the people would travel to meet with God in a special and meaningful way.
Now, standing before these religious leaders was the Messiah, Jesus the Christ. He was now teaching man the message of God as had the scrolls of Scripture. He was now the Seat of Mercy of the Loving God. He was soon to be the Perfect Sacrifice as had the Old Testament sacrificial system pointed to Him. His earthly body was the abode of the Living God. Jesus stood before these men as the God they professed to serve.
Jesus was then, and remains to this day, and will remain throughout the ageless ages of eternity, the Living Word of God.
We should also consider the Written Word of God. This, the Bible, is much more than even we consider it to be. It is the Word of God. As such it is the full expression of His message to humanity.
This Word, these Words, is a Living Conversation. The Spirit with us illumines the Words therein. God speaks to us even in this day through His Words.
When we say that the Bible is the Word of God, we mean that the Bible shares the attributes of God. It is perfect as He is perfect. It is powerful as He is powerful. And, lest we forget amid all the clatter today about �new� discoveries of �new� texts, it is eternal as He is eternal. God�s Word has never been lost, or withheld, from His churches or His people.
His Words are eternal; they are of eternity as is He. His Words are not subject to the decay of time for they are of the Lord of Eternity. His Words are based on His love to the creation; for those Words to fail would mean that His love has failed.
His Words are, indeed, Living Words. His Words are ever available because His love is ever available. His Words are ever ready because His companionship with His churches and His people is ever ready. His Words are lamp unto our feet, as said the Psalmist said in Psalm 119:105; He will never leave us without this Light of the World.
The Living Word is Jesus Christ. The Written Word is the inspired and preserved Scripture. The recited Word into the world is our charge.
�Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.� (Matthew 5:16)
We are aware that the Lord lives within us in salvation. Since He is the true Light of the Word, and He is partnered with us, we must let this Light, the message of Jesus, be shone forth into the darkness of the world around us.
We are aware that we have no good works of our own. God has saved us so that we can live in good works. There is no work better than the work which gives forth the message that Jesus Christ died in time so that others could live in eternity.
It is through sharing the Gospel that people are influenced, as they are convicted by the Spirit and saved by the Son, to give true Glory to God.
We are not called to change lifestyles, culture, or politics. We are called to spread the good news of the Gospel. We are called to pray, by name, for the lost that they might come to the Savior. We are called to live a life of Christian values and concern before others. And, folks, if we do not display the true love which God has for lost humankind, none of the other is likely to produce the fruit of salvation in the souls of those to whom we are called to be witnesses.
Let us also consider the Wonderful Word. ��of his body.�
When we consider the wonderful works which Jesus did in His human body we are amazed.
Jesus died to defeat the work of Satan. Satan, since his time of victory in the Garden, has sought ill for humanity.
Men sometimes ask why there are so many religions in the world. The truth is that there are only two religions in the world. There is the religion of Satan as he seeks to garner praise and worship to himself. This is a religion of death and destruction.
Whereas Jesus leads us to a home in Heaven, Satan leads to an eternity in Hell.
Whereas Jesus leads us to a fellowship with God, Satan leads to an eternity apart from God.
Whereas Jesus leads to a life of fulfillment and work in concert with God, Satan leads to a life of lost opportunity and opposition to God.
Whereas Jesus leads us to a life of winning the lost, Satan leads us to a life which disregards the eternal destiny of friend, foe, and self.
Jesus died on the cross as The Perfect Sacrifice for sin. He is the Way to a restoration of all things as God intended.
Jesus also rose again to defeat the win of death. Death held all the cards before Calvary. Mankind was doomed to die. Jesus came to get us out of this corrupt game of cards. The Christian need not die; he can go to sleep in the Lord. We live forever in Heaven because Jesus defeated death.
To the person who has not accepted Jesus as Savior, there is, first, death of the body. Then there is the second death of body and soul in an eternal place of torment. This is a hard topic to speak of because it is so eternally horrid. But, it is a topic we dare not ignore. When my wife was diagnosed with cancer, the doctor did not paint her a rosy picture. He told her the truth even though it hurt. Had he not done so he would have been derelict in his duty towards her.
May we not be derelict in our duty toward the world at large.
Jesus also lives in this very day. He lives in eternity. But, He still works in this world.
Jesus works to woo the sinner. Jesus really does love the world. That is why He came to die that horrible death on the cross. Since He cared that much about giving the world an escape from the clutches of sin, it is only reasonable to realize that He still cares today and that He still seeks those that are lost.
We, however, are commissioned to be His hands, eyes, mouth, and foot into the world of the lost. We work because He loves. We need to feel His Own compassion for the lost as we work.
Jesus lives to witness love to the saint. He is our constant companion. He is there with us through the good and bad. It is wonderful that Jesus lives as my Friend. What a wonderful concept; Jesus loves even me.
In like manner, we ought to love the sinner. Sometimes we just can�t seem to love those who need salvation. If we get close enough to Jesus He will help us.
Right now I have a bit of a cold. My grandson was sick. He�s been taught to share. I am often in contact with the little bundle of energy. Ergo, I have a cold.
May we live close enough to Jesus that we will �catch� His compassion!
This is why Jesus also lives to work with the saint to win the sinner. Our job, as Christians, is to send forth the message that Jesus Christ died in time so that others could live in eternity.
What about you? Have you ever accepted Jesus as your own Savior? Now is a good time to do just that.
Accept Him today.