This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to day four of our look at John chapter two. We're
going to be looking together today at verses 12 to 16. John chapter two is an
interesting chapter.

It really has two stories in it. Jesus goes to a party where he works a miracle,
and then Jesus goes to a temple where he cleans up. It's pretty simple things
that have very, very deep meanings.

In fact, as we look at verses 12 all the way through 25, start our two day look
at these verses, I invite you to slow down in your mind, even though we're just
talking about them for a few minutes and picture what happened in these verses.
Because we're going to see that Jesus's cleansing, his cleaning of the temple is a
clear picture to you of the great power that he has to make a difference in your
life. If you get the picture of what Jesus Christ does here in the second
chapter of the book of John when he enters the temple, if you cement it in your
mind, it has incredible power to change your life.

It's not just a story about what Jesus Christ, the son of God did 2000 years ago
at a temple in Jerusalem. The powerful truth in this experience from the life of
Jesus will help you to see how God can work in your life to help you become the
kind of person that God wants you to be. What happened?

Well, it's set up for us in verses 12 and 13. After this, he went down to
Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples and they stayed there
for a few days. And when it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went
to Jerusalem.

Now this sort of sets things up, it helps us to get things in mind. First of
all, just notice it says Jesus went to Capernaum with his mother and his
brothers. Why is verse 12 here?

I mean, we know he's going to go from the north of Israel down to the south of
Israel, but here it says he went to Capernaum, which was also in the north and
he stayed there for a few days before going south. Why is that in the Bible? Why
would God let us know that?

Well, it's a reminder to me that Jesus knew how to pace his life. He knew he was
going to go into a time of some great interaction with the crowds and some great
controversy and even some confrontations. He knew he was going to need some energy
when he went down to Jerusalem.

So he took a few days away with his mother and his brothers. Some of you are
thinking, wait, Jesus had brothers? We're going to talk about that more as we go
through the Gospel of John.

Yes, he did, he was with his family. He's showing us here that he knows how to
pace his life. When I think of timetables, Jesus always knew God's timetable for
his life.

And when I think of timetables, I think of rushing and hurrying and worrying and
getting there. Jesus Christ was on God's timetable every moment of his ministry,
but you don't see him rushing. You don't see him hurrying or worrying.

There's some conviction in that for me. Jesus knew how to pace his life. He goes
a few days with his family, and then he goes down because it's almost time for
the Jewish Passover.

This is important, the Jewish Passover. It's extremely important. You gotta get
oriented to that if you're going to understand what happens in the Gospel of John.

You probably remember that the Jewish Passover was the yearly celebration of the
Jews that commemorated the fact, that remembered the fact that God's death angel
had passed over the houses of the Jews while they were in Egypt. They'd put
blood on their doorposts. And the angel had passed over and saved the children
in every one of those homes because they trusted God.

We know from Luke chapter two, that Jesus' family, at least from time to time,
went to Jerusalem for the Passover. If there were like many of the families in
that day, they would have gone every year. In fact, by Jewish law, every male
within 15 miles of Jerusalem was required to come to the city for the Passover.

And however far away a Jewish man or family was, they wanted to be in Jerusalem
for this celebration. And the result of that was that during this celebration,
this city of 200,000 sometimes swelled to two and a quarter million people. Just
think of the crowds.

Think of the excitement. Think of the celebration. And Jesus goes down for this
celebration.

It's interesting that in the Gospel of John, all three Passover celebrations
during the ministry of Jesus are mentioned. Here, John chapter two, verse 13,
and then later we're going to see John chapter six, verse four, just after the
feeding of the 5,000. And then in John chapter 12, verse one, just before
Jesus's death.

The Passover celebration is very important in this Gospel. And here's Jesus
going down for the Passover celebration and something very important is going to
happen. In verse 14, in the temple courts, he found men selling cattle, sheep,
and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.

Now, when you see the words temple courts, you need a map of the temple in your
mind. Remember that the temple itself, the building sat in the middle of some
courts, some courtyards that were built around it, some outer courts and some
inner courts, some that certain people could go into and others couldn't go
into. And Jesus found in these courts outside the temple, some people selling
animals and some people exchanging money.

Now, in a minute, we're going to see, he gets very angry at this. Why? What's the
deal that's going on here?

People selling animals. When you came to offer a sacrifice during the Passover
celebration, during any sacrifice at the temple, you had to give a perfect
sacrifice. And you had to have your animal examined by the priest in order to
give a perfect sacrifice.

And when that animal was examined, it would almost certainly be rejected. Even
if you brought a perfect animal, they would reject the animal that you brought
so they could sell you an animal. You had to buy a pre-approved animal from the
temple herd.

As a, for instance, in this of what it cost people, a bird outside the temple
cost about 15 of our cents. A bird inside the temple, maybe the same bird, you'd
pay as high as $15. That's the extortion that was going on here.

People were selling animals. People were exchanging money. Every Jew over 19 was
required to pay a temple tax.

It was a tax of a half a shekel. It had to be paid in a special temple coin. The
only place that you could get that temple coin was at the temple.

And sometimes if you didn't have one of those coins, it was the only place you
could get one, they would charge twice the amount they should. One commentator
has figured that the Sadducees who were doing this selling were clearing over
$200,000 in this business each year just by basically extortion. They had a
monopoly.

Jesus saw this happening. Here's what he did. Verse 15 and 16.

And so he made a whip out of cords and he drove all from the temple area, both
sheep and cattle, and he scattered the coins and the money changers and he
overturned their tables. And to those who sold doves, he said, get these out of
here. How dare you?

How dare you turn my father's house into a market? Now don't miss the drama of
this moment. Here's the people shouting, buy my money here, buy my money here,
better deal here.

Get your shekels here, the clinking of coins. Here are the animals, the lambs
and the cows and the doves, the baws and the moos and the coos, all the noise
that's going on in this huge crowd that's there in the middle of all of this.
Jesus says, stop.

You've turned my father's house into a swap meet. What caused this great anger
in Jesus? And besides the obvious that's here, during the Passover time, in
Deuteronomy chapter 16, verse four, the people were told that during the seven
days of this celebration, no trace of yeast was to be found in their home.

Just like they'd eaten unleavened, un-yeasted bread during the Passover, they
were not to have any yeast in their home. It was a sign of being unclean. And so
as a part of this celebration, every family would go through their home and they
would clean out every bit of yeast.

It would be painstaking, but it was the law because you couldn't have one bit of
uncleanliness in that house. At a time when every other house in Jerusalem was
painstakingly being cleansed, Jesus walks in and says, my father's house is
unclean. How could you do this?

And the anger, the rage, it overwhelmed him and he drove them all out. But Jesus
was angry. But what do we learn about that?

What do we learn from the anger of Jesus? Jesus never sinned, so we know he's
not sinning here. Well, I learned three things.

What do I learn from Jesus' anger? I learned that there are times when it is
right to be angry. There are some things that demand a response.

Not just all right to be angry, there are times when it is right to be angry.
What are those times? Not the times when I usually want to be angry, the times
when it is right to be angry are not the things that are important to you
selfishly, they're the things that are important to God eternally.

I have to admit, I get angry about selfish things, not eternal things. If only I
could have the heart of Jesus. There are times when it is right to be angry and
Jesus shows us one of those rare times.

Second thing to learn from Jesus' anger, just because something is accepted by
society does not mean it is acceptable to God. Now that sounds simple, that
sounds obvious, but it is also vital. We always tend to mirror in our society
what we see rather than reflect Christ's love in our lives.

It's just a temptation. And people, when they were selling these animals, when
they were buying these shekels, they'd probably gotten to the point where they
didn't even think of it as being wrong. There are just some things that had
crept in over the years.

Does that sound familiar? There are things we allow to creep into our lives,
into our society, into our families. We're going to talk about that some more
tomorrow.

And there's a third truth from the anger of Jesus here. Third truth I learned is
that it's more important to be spiritually correct than to be politically
correct. And that you can't always be diplomatic about the truth.

There'd been another way to get this message across, Jesus would have expressed
it another way. He was teaching the people. I like to be diplomatic, maybe you
do.

I like everybody to agree. I like people to walk out of a room feeling good
about the decision that they've made, feeling good about themselves, positive
about life. But there are times in life when you just have to say, there's no
easy way to say this.

Here's the truth, and it may hurt, it may stink, it may make you feel bad about
yourself, but here's the truth, because it's the only way to get you to the good
that God wants to do in your life. Jesus, in this case, said it in anger.
Sometimes we have to say it in sadness.

Sometimes we have to say it just in a matter of fact and clear way to people.
You can't always be diplomatic to the point of people not understanding this is
the truth. As a believer in Christ, you cannot always speak around the truth.

Jesus couldn't, he walked in and he drove them out and he cleansed the temple.
Now tomorrow, we're going to look at the reason why this happened and the
difference that it makes in our lives today. But today, as we pray, I'd like to
pray about what we learned from the anger of Jesus.

And as you pray, would you just pray two simple prayers? First, pray, Lord, is
there something I need to stop being angry about? Just say to Jesus, as I look
at your righteous anger, I see the shallowness of my selfish anger.

Is there something I need to stop being angry about? And then pray, Lord, is
there something I need to start being angry about? Something that's important to
you, not the kind of anger that comes from my selfish pride, but the kind of
anger that comes from a need for change, the kind of change that only you can
work.

Jesus, I'm afraid even to pray this 'cause I may not even understand what that
would be, but I know you can show me. Is there some way that your glory is being
trampled underfoot? Help me not just to put up with that.

Lord, help me to stop being angry about selfish things. And Lord, lead me,
instead of being politically correct and diplomatic all the time, to willingly
express my disappointment, my hurt, and even my anger when your name is trampled
underfoot. I worship you as my father.

Thank you for your love for me. In your name, amen.