8-26-18 Grace-Benson/Vail Sermon

John 2:13-25 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke

“A Special Temple”

Build on the Rock Summer Series 13 August 26, 2018

The temple was a very important building to a faithful Jew living at the time of Jesus, and really throughout their people’s history. Great King Solomon, son of Great King David, built the ornate and impressive and symbolic and beautiful temple using the best craftsmen and materials. For many years that temple was the gathering place of God’s people and the location for sacrifices and offerings. After the first temple was destroyed, a second temple was built. It couldn’t be as amazing as the first temple, but it was still a place for worshiping God and offering sacrifices. It was still a place where the people met with the priests who stood between them and God to offer their sacrifices to God and to share God’s Word with his people.

And then, over the course of many years the second temple fell into some level of disrepair. Not long before Jesus came there, the temple had been rebuilt and fortified, and the whole area where the temple stood had been enlarged, using massive stone retaining walls in some areas and building grand courtyards around the temple. Of all people, this was done by Herod the Great. And interestingly enough, you can still see some of the massive stones that he had put in place in Jerusalem today, even though the temple has since been destroyed and a Muslim mosque stands in its place.

But, back to the time of Jesus, obviously, this temple with its incredible history was a very significant and special place for the Jewish people. So the idea of tearing down the temple, the idea of it being destroyed again, would be terrible and unthinkable. And the idea of rebuilding it in a matter of days would be laughable and ridiculous. But that’s what Jesus said. That’s what he predicted.

As they often did, the people with Jesus, to whom he spoke, missed the point of his words. They missed the point because they did not fully appreciate either the temple they were visiting or the temple about which Jesus was actually speaking.

Jesus was at the temple along with many others who had come for the Jewish Passover celebration. It was a time when men were required to visit the temple, and the temple was to be for them a place of worship and teaching. The Passover itself celebrated God’s historic rescue of his people along with his promises to bless and save them. That was the message that should have resounded around the temple.

But it did not. What Jesus found in the temple was all sorts of sellers and money changers. People who were coming to the temple needed the proper coins and the proper animals for sacrifice. And the people of Jerusalem looked at this as an opportunity to make some money. They could sell the animals and exchange money and of course keep some profits. The big problem, though, was that the temple as a place of worship and of learning about God’s grace, became a place where those things were obscured by greed and by distractions.

Sinful people then were doing what sinful people will always be tempted to do: to turn God’s house into something else, something that serves their own opinions or greedy desires. Sinners are content to allow other factors to distract from the main message, the message of their sin and God’s goodness.

As for the Jerusalem temple, then, its champion sprang to action. Jesus drove out the distractions, the money changers and sellers who had set up shop. He had a passion and a zeal for the truth of God’s Word and the true worship of God. This isn’t the calm and gentle Jesus so many people picture in their minds.

This is the Jesus whose righteous anger over sin boils over into action. This is the Jesus who hates sin and drives it out. But this is also the same Jesus who does so much more. He came to die for sin. He came not just to drive it away, but to remove it forever. He came to suffer the punishment that every single sin deserved so that all those who believe in him could avoid that punishment forever. And so at that very moment he predicted his suffering and death as well as his rising from the dead.

The leaders of the Jews, those who saw what Jesus did in the temple tried to stop him. “Who told you that you could do this?” They asked. “Why do you think you have authority for this? And if you think you do, then prove it to us by giving us a sign.” And this was the sign that Jesus produced for them: he said, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” And by this he meant that his enemies

could kill him, which they would do, and he would rise again just three days later. Jesus was predicting his suffering, death, and resurrection. As John notes, “the temple he had spoken of was his body.” Even his closest disciples, though, didn’t understand this until much later. They only understood after they witnessed his prediction come true, after Jesus died on the cross and rose again days later. Jesus was speaking about a special temple that he would build, or better rebuild, his very own body. It was a very special temple indeed.

But think again about how the people understood what Jesus said. He did give them a sign, a promise.

Dying and rising again would absolutely prove his authority to drive out the merchants from the temple.

But they didn’t understand it. They assumed that he was talking about the Jerusalem temple, the temple that Herod had helped build. They knew that it had been a process over many years to build that temple.

There was no way that it could be torn down or rebuilt in a short time.

But it is interesting that Jesus refers to his body in this way, and that he calls it a temple. It fits his teaching and the role of the temple as well. The temple stood among God’s people as a place where they could see that God was with them. There was a place that they could go to be reminded of this. Certainly there were limitations. There was the thick curtain that kept people, even the priests most of the time, out of the most holy place in the temple. But they could go to the temple to offer their praises and offerings and sacrifices and to see that God was present with them. The temple was the place where God determined to live on earth.

And that is Jesus as well. He is true God and has been from all eternity. And for our sakes, for our salvation, he became a true human being. In other words, in the person of Jesus, God came to earth to be with his people. He is the fulfillment of the temple.

So as terrible as the concept was to the Jews that someone would destroy the temple, that is exactly what happened. Sinful people took Jesus to the cross and drove nails in his hands and feet to fasten him there.

And he suffered. And he died. The temple was destroyed. Jesus’ lifeless body was laid in a tomb.

And it is so easy from our perspective today to shake our heads and to think about how awful those people were who did such a thing to Jesus. In the same way, we might shake our heads at the merchants who disgraced the earthly temple and at the people who simply didn’t understand what Jesus said. But to simply do that, to simply shake our heads at them would be to completely miss the point.

Instead, we need to see ourselves in those who nailed Jesus to the cross and disrespected both the earthly temple and the true temple. We need to recognize that we are the reason that Jesus came. We are the reason he needed to go through so much. We are the reason because of all the times that we have failed to respect God’s house and honor his Word and for all the times that in our sinfulness we did not understand or appreciate what Jesus came to do for us. Tearing down this special temple is exactly what we have done by our sins.

But the tearing down was only part of the story. Because Jesus’ promise was that he would build it up again. What he did on the cross he did willingly out of love for you and for me. What he accomplished on the cross he accomplished for the whole world. He didn’t stay in the tomb. He came out alive. He lives forever and he promises to all his believers that they, too, will live forever.

As we have seen in our lessons today, that is exactly what God promised even in the Old Testament: that he would send a Savior who would suffer and die and rise again. Jesus’ bodily temple being destroyed and rebuilt is the very basis for our faith and for what it means to be a Christian. And he didn’t just say it, Jesus carried out this promise. He gave the people the sign they were looking for. He rebuilt his temple in just three days. We celebrate that fact yearly on Easter Sunday, and we celebrate it each week when we worship our Savior together.

The very thing that the Jews found so outrageous, that anyone would destroy their temple or that anyone could rebuild it in short order was exactly what Jesus did for them and for you and for me. The special temple that is his body was destroyed by suffering and death and was rebuilt in his resurrection from the dead. May we never let distractions or greed cloud our worship at this special temple.

The Text: John 2:13–25 (NIV) 13 When

it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

18 The

Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

19 Jesus

answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

20 They

replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

23 Now

while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. 25 He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.