¹³The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. ¹⁵And 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; ¹⁶and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” ¹⁷His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.” ¹⁸The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?” ¹⁹Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” ²¹But He was speaking of the temple of His body. ²²So 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.

John 2:13-22

John, to my dear friends in Christ; I do not know about you but I've been there. I've seen, I've desired, I've wanted as much of the hype as I could get in. You know what I'm talking about, Christmas, New Years, 4th of July. Just as our own holidays have lead to great commercialism the same was happening in Jesus' time. From verses 13-16, imagine if you will, God has allowed us to have THE central place of worship, prayer and sacrifice to Him. Then imagine we pollute the place only so we can make money (money is something that has forever been separating men from God). That's what was happening when Jesus entered and cleaned out the temple. I can only imagine how heart broken Jesus was at the sight to be driven with fervor to beat out the sin that was happening in the outer court of the temple. Some of you may not know that the outer court was the only place on the temple grounds where Gentiles were allowed. With this kind of commercialism going on, it must have been hard for the Gentiles to pray and worship God. From verse 17 we read John's comments about how the disciples will remember this event and Psalm 69:9 , "For zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me."

In verse 18 the Jews ask Jesus for a sign of His authority. Two things are wrong with this picture, first the Jews sat on the sidelines. They should have seen the sin and joined Jesus in helping Him clean out the temple. It is so natural for us to sit on the sidelines and let someone else take care of problems, let's not do that but join with Jesus. Their asking for a sign is the second thing that is wrong, they are blind to their own sin and ungodliness. Their desire to see some miraculous sign of the authority of Jesus has blinded them to their own sin. Instead of seeing the godliness of Jesus and being shamed to look inwardly at themselves and seeing how sinful they have become, they ask for a miracle. In many of today's churches we look for miracles and spiritual highs. Let us not do that, but let us look inwardly to the miracle of the cleansing God can do in our life, and the closeness we can have with Jesus. In verse 19, unknown to the Jews, Jesus gives them a prophetic sign, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” In verses 20-21 the Jews do not realize Jesus is talking about His body, which they will destroy and God will raise up in three days. However, later on Jesus' disciples will remember what He said after His resurrection from the dead, and they will believe what scripture says about the Messiah, Jesus' words, and Jesus' mission on earth. Did you see the Deity in the scripture above, that's right, only God can raise the dead and only God can raise Himself from the dead. Awesome isn't it! And the Jews never even saw it! Oh, let us be like the Bereans and test everything according to scripture, if the Jewish leaders had searched for God's agenda instead of their own, things for them would have been much different.

Dear Heavenly Father, I pray and thank you for the Gospel of John and Jesus' desire to show us in everything He did, that His mission was specifically to be a sacrifice for our sin, help us to remember this always, in Jesus name I Pray, Amen.

God's Many Blessings to You,
john
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Scripture references (unless noted otherwise): New American Standard
copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995
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