“Destroy This Temple”
[John 2:13-22]
March 15, 2009 Second Reformed Church
Does it matter how we worship? Do the things we do and the way we do them in this sanctuary matter? Is there a point to what we do and how we do it? Is there any freedom to do things differently? How do we know?
Our liturgy could be called “traditional.” There are other churches who have replaced the organ and piano with bands and “praise choruses.” Is one right and the other wrong? Some churches have done away with the sacraments and have plays and dancers instead. Is one right and the other wrong?
Our denomination, the Reformed Church in America, has recently been focused on the ends: that is, the worship material and guidance coming out of the denomination is geared to increase numbers – numbers in the pews and numbers in the offering plate. Ought we “adjust” our worship to increase numbers? Does it matter how we worship?
In this morning’s Scripture, we find that Jesus says there are things that are acceptable in worship and things that are not. Let us look at our text:
We ought to be struck by the opening words, “The Passover of the Jews was at hand.” What is wrong with that? The problem is that the Passover is the Lord’s Passover, so, for John to record it as the Jews’ Passover is a clue to us that something has gone wrong – something was being done that no longer made this a holy day to the Lord – it had degenerated into something else – something God did not approve of.
A. W. Pink, in his commentary on John, makes a very interesting connection from these opening words: We may remember that the Passover was instituted as God delivered the people of Israel from Egypt. God gave instructions to all people that, if they wanted to save their first-born son, they were to place blood on their door and make other preparations. When the Angel of the Lord saw the blood, He would pass over that house and its animals; He would only strike the first-born of the houses without blood.
One of the other things that needed to be done during the Passover was the removal of leaven from the house and all things that contained leaven. Leaven is that stuff that makes bread rise. “Then Moses said to the people, ‘Remember this day in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by strength of the hand the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out. And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in the month. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no unleavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in your territory. You shall tell your son on that day, “It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.” And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall therefore keep the statute at its appointed time from year to year’” (Exodus 13:3-10, ESV).
The keeping of the Passover of the Lord continued in the New Testament until the Last Supper, where Jesus modified it into the Lord’s Supper, which is what we are now to keep until Jesus returns. And Jesus also uses the word “leaven” in a symbolic way: We may remember that after Jesus fed the four thousand, Jesus and the disciples sailed across the sea, and when they had reached the other side, Jesus said, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6b, ESV). And the disciples moaned among themselves, “Jesus is angry with us because we didn’t bring any bread with us ” So, Jesus rebuked them and told them that they all had plenty to eat on the other side of the sea – that was not what Jesus was talking about. “Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:12, ESV).
Pink, in his commentary, directs the reader to Paul, who wrote: “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you are really unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (I Corinthians 5:6-10, ESV).
So we see that leaven is not merely the rising agent in bread that was to be removed during the Passover of the Lord, but it is symbolic of all types of sin, disobedience, and false teaching. When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem for the Passover of the Jews, they had removed the physical leaven from their pantries, but the spiritual leaven was rising in the temple.
When people came to worship and bring offerings in the temple, they would often need to bring an animal for sacrifice. They would also need to give temple currency to the priest – the temple had its own money, and the money of the land was not acceptable. Since these two things were true, and some people would be coming from a long distance or didn’t own the right animal for the sacrifice, animals were made available for purchase, and there was an exchange to turn national money into temple money. This was not against God’s Law.
Jesus went into the temple and He found those selling animals for sacrifice and those exchanging money, and Jesus flew into a rage, and He made a whip, and He drove the people who were selling the animals, along with the sheep and the oxen and the pigeons, and those exchanging money, out of the temple, and the overthrew the moneychangers tables. Why?
Jesus said, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” And, as Matthew tells us, “‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer,” but you have made it a den of robbers’” (Matthew 21:13b, ESV). Why?
First, Jesus says that things should not be sold in the temple. The first problem was not that these things were being sold and provided, but that they were being sold and provided in the temple. The temple had a massive courtyard, and that was the appropriate place to sell the animals and exchange the money, not in the place of worship. Similarly, it would be wrong for us to set up tables with Flea Market stuff for sale here in the sanctuary, but it is alright that we have it in Freeman Hall. We are not to make the worship space a marketplace.
Second, Jesus says that the people selling and exchanging the money were being dishonest – they were selling substandard animals and fudging the weights and measures for the exchange of money. So, they were not only selling things in the temple – in the place of worship – but they were stealing from the worshipers.
Jesus also answer the question that arises immediately after He drives everyone out, before He is even asked – “By what authority do You do this?” Well, what did Jesus say, this is “My Father’s House.” And Jesus was not just calling God His Father as we do today – the implication that should have been perfectly clear by what He said is, “I am God the Son, and this is God the Father’s House, My Father’s House, so I have the authority to drive out the leaven.”
At this point, the Holy Spirit caused the disciples to remember Psalm 69:9, “Zeal for your house will consume me” (ESV). The Holy Spirit allowed the disciples to understand that Jesus fulfilled this prophetic verse – Jesus was filled with zeal for the purity of the Temple – the Church – and the worship that occurred in it. Jesus leaves not doubt that there are things that ought not occur in the sanctuary and in the worship of God.
In the Reformed tradition, we talk about the “regulative principle.” What the “regulative principle” says is that we are only to do those things that God has commanded us to do in worship, and we are not to do anything that God has not commanded us to do in worship. Let me say that again: What the “regulative principle” says is that we are only to do those things that God has commanded us to do in worship, and we are not to do anything that God has not commanded us to do in worship. To understand what that means, we must look to and know our Bibles.
But how did the Jews respond to Jesus throwing them out of the temple? “So the Jews said to him, ‘What sign do you show us for doing these things?’” (ESV) They completely ignore the fact that Jesus has told them that He is God and that is why He has the authority to do these things. Instead, they demand a sign – a miracle. “If you want us to believe You, do a trick.”
What does Jesus do? He ignores their question. Demanding a sign is not an acceptable response to what occurred. There is no precedent in Scripture for demanding of a prophet, much less God, to do a sign. Besides, Jesus had already explained Himself before they asked by telling them that He is God – but they didn’t want to address that. So Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Now, they were standing in the temple, and Jesus spoke about the temple, so what did they understand Him to be talking about? The temple they were standing in. Jesus purposefully spoke in a way that they would not understand what He was talking about. But that was Jesus’ Way, wasn’t it? Jesus spoke to the people primarily in parables. Why? The disciples asked Jesus and He said, “‘This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand’” (Matthew 13:13, ESV). Jesus said, “I purposefully speak in parables so they won’t understand what I am saying.”
What kind of sense does that make? This kind: it proves that a person cannot save himself. You and I cannot save ourselves. Or anybody else for that matter. Unless the Holy Spirit causes a person to believe in the Good News of Salvation through Jesus Alone, no matter how well or how poorly we speak, not matter how clearly or cryptically we speak, no one will believe. That is not to say that what we say and how we say it doesn’t matter – we are to preach the Gospel – to tell everyone about Jesus – in clear and understandable language. But we need to understand, Salvation is not about us, we can’t cause it, only God can save a soul. God uses us through our witness in word and action, but God Alone grants salvation.
Well, the Jews naturally thought Jesus was talking about the temple they were standing in, and they thought He was out of His Mind: “‘It has taken thirty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’” But Jesus wasn’t answering their question. Jesus was not giving them a sign to prove His Authority. What Jesus was doing was telling them that He has authority, both over the temple in Jerusalem and the temple of His Body, and for Him to have authority over either one makes Him God.
Paul explains that our bodies do not belong to us – we have no right to say, “this is my body, I can do what I want with it” – “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (I Corinthians 6:19b-20a, ESV). And Nebuchanezzar rightly confessed that God has authority to do whatever He wishes with everything He has created, “his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all of the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:34b-35, ESV).
Jesus was unwilling to play games with them in the temple. They had blinded themselves to the truth of how God is to be worshiped. They had allowed things to occur in the sanctuary that ought never to have been allowed. They had wanted a sign from Jesus, but He gave them a confirmation of His Office instead – He gave them proof that He is God the Son.
The disciples didn’t understand what Jesus meant at the time, but John tells us, “But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.”
Have we blinded ourselves? Have we thought that so long as we have large numbers, it doesn’t matter what we do in the sanctuary of God? Understand, I pray that God will build up this congregation in numbers and deepen our faith and understanding, no matter how many of us there are, but there are things that are appropriate and there things that are not appropriate to do in the worship of our God and in His Sanctuary.
Jesus shows us that this morning in our text. Jesus is our God and Savior and He has the right and the authority to say that we are to do “this” and we are not to do “that.”
Pray that we will stand fast on what God has told us to do in worship and that we will only do those things which are pleasing to Him. Pray that we will not succumb to merchandising and thievery in the House of God. Pray that we will seek to know God’s Word and follow it wholeheartedly – zealously – to His Glory. And let our hope rest on the proof of Jesus’ Divinity – in His Resurrection – and in the promise that He will raise us to be with Him on the last day.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You that You have not left us to our own devices, but You have told us how You want us to worship You. Cause us to search Your Scriptures to prove what is pleasing to You. Help us to understand what You have said. And let the fact of Jesus’ Resurrection be a preserving force as we face those who say we are fools to follow You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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