- Sermon Notes
- Scripture
When Jesus Turns the Tables
John 2:13-25
Illus. Before you begin…
In John 2:13-25, Jesus, in some of the earliest days of His public ministry, heads to the temple in Jerusalem for the Passover. When Jesus arrived at the temple, He found things had become far different in the temple than He desired. It was then that He turned over the tables of those who had turned the temple into a marketplace, and the story has implications for you and me today.
Read: John 2:13-22
In verses 13 to 22, the word “temple” is used five times. It gives us the focus of Jesus’ attention in this section of Scripture, and when we see Jesus go into the temple and turn over tables, we see that the methods being practiced in the temple had moved away from God’s vision and mission. The word “ temple” is used in different ways in this text. First, it is used to describe a structure, a building, which was the central place of worship in Jerusalem.
It was the central location for people to encounter God’s presence through worship, prayer, and sacrifice. This was the purpose, but based upon the practices, there was a problem: it had turned into big business. Tables had been set up in the temple that were in the way of the people’s ability to worship the Lord freely. What they were doing was not debatable; it was detestable. Jesus immediately decided to do something about it.
The other use of the word temple is Jesus speaking of His body. Though they did not know it at the time, Jesus’ temple, His body, would be crucified on a cross, but would be “raised up.” Jesus is giving revelation to them, but what we also must understand when it comes to the body of Christ is that we are called the “body of Christ,” in 1 Corinthians 12:27. In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, we are told our bodies are a temple where the Holy Spirit lives.
That said, we are going to look at this story with all of these truths in view. We will consider the tables set up in the temple that were in the way of God’s will in Jesus’ day, and consider the things that are in the way of the Lord’s will in our lives today. We will look specifically at His inspection, His directions, the zeal that consumes Him, and our opportunity to respond to Him.
- His Inspection
John 2:13-14, The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And within the temple grounds He found those who were selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.
- Before turning over tables in the temple, Jesus’ focus is on what He found there.
- From verse 12 we know that Jesus had traveled to Jerusalem from Capernaum which at the time was about 90 miles away and He was in Jerusalem for the Passover.
- The Passover commemorated Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. The Passover was the tenth plague in Egypt, when the first-born sons of those who followed God’s instruction and marked their doorposts with the blood of a spotless lamb would be spared from the plague.
- There were to celebrate the Passover with a feast annually. Lambs would be sacrificed and the Passover meal would be eaten. The Feast of Unleavened bread would follow for the next seven days. They were to remove an dough with yeast from their houses and eat only unleavened bread that week (Exodus 12:14-15).
- For The Passover, all adult male Jews were required to come to Jerusalem for Passover and were to bring sacrifices from their own flocks (Dt. 12:6).
- For many, the journey would have been quite long and perhaps even grueling.
- With people coming from all over the known world, the roads would have been packed, and so would the city.
- The population of Jerusalem at the time was likely around 70,000 and city would swell into the estimated millions for Passover.
- Jewish historian Flavius Josephus estimated 2.5 million based upon the count of sacrificial lambs. His estimation was ten people to one lamb, so the ratio could have been less, however, even a conservative estimation would put the city at over 1 million in that day.
- Due to long travel and trouble with find a place to lodge once people arrived to the city, the religious leadership saw it as an opportunity, to put four markets on the mount of Olives nearby Jerusalem where animals could be purchased.
- With that in place, some began to journey to Jerusalem without animals and would buy one upon arrival.
- Others continued to bring their own, however, when they did, the priests would find a way to render them unacceptable since it had to be an animal without defect (Lev. 1:2-3).
- That said, in order to make a proper sacrifice, the worshippers were forced to buy another.
- Upon the success of the outside markets, the religious leaders decided to place the markets on the temple grounds. They specifically placed them in the court of Gentiles.
- The court of Gentiles was the huge outer court of the temple. Gentile converts could only go into this outer court and no further since they were not pure Jews.
- It was in that court that the merchants would set up shop. Those selling animals would charge as much as 10 times what an animal cost on the outside.
- In addition to this, there were moneychangers on site. There was a temple tax that had to be paid which was the equivalent of two days wages.
- All international currency had to be exchanged for special temple coins with an exchange rate of 12.5 percent or more.
Illus. That Much?
- This is at the beginning of His ministry, and in the book of Matthew we will see a similar scene at the end of Jesus’ final week on earth. His words there also apply here, however.
Matthew 21:12-13, Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a robbers’ den.”
- “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a robbers’ den.”
- Jesus quoted from Isaiah 56:7, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”
- But those in leadership were using it for all the wrong purposes, specifically for their own profit.
- Jesus declared that they are not more honorable than robbers.
Jeremiah 7:11, Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” declares the Lord.
- Jesus saw it all, He saw all the tables set up. He saw the corruption and He decided to do something about it.
- His Directions
John 2:15, He made a whip of cords, and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away from here; stop making My Father’s house a place of business!”
- After inspection, Jesus gives direction the those at the tables in the way of His way.
- With the amount of people onsite and the resistance He would have been up against, it is amazing that the people would respond to His directions.
- It seems the people would have been scrambling, the animals would have likely been running in all directions, coins were pouring out, perhaps even flying in the air, and they fact that it all took place, gives us the picture that He was in control there.
- Jesus had the authority to clean house because it was His house.
Illus. Not in my house!
Illus. Psalm 139; Searched, known, and shown.
- When Jesus moves the tables away, He will make clear the “why” and point them another way.
- This is not the place, He said to those selling and changing out money.
- This is My Father’s house, not a place of business.
- When Jesus said “stop making My Father’s house a place of business,” the word for “place” is “house.”
- It was God’s house, but they were trying to turn it into a different kind of house.
- Jesus was giving direction on the way the house should be set up, and was directing them accordingly.
Illus. Inspection.
Isaiah 41:13, I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand, who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’
Psalm 32:8, I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will advise you with My eye upon you.
- After Jesus drove the sellers and moneychangers out directing them to stop turning His Father’s house into a business house, His disciples remembered a Scripture prophesied about Him.
III. The Zeal that Consumes Him
John 2:17 His disciples remembered that it was written: “Zeal for Your house will consume me.”
- Zeal is a word that expresses intense desire, passion, or fervor.
- Jesus’ disciples remembered Psalm 69, a Psalm that spoke of the coming Savior who would be filled with zeal and passion, but would endure rejection and suffer persecution.
- Specifically, they would remember verse 9, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
- The word for consume is to be eaten up, consumed, overtaken.
- God’s house was on His mind and heart. He wanted to make sure that was right.
- These were some of the earliest days in Jesus’ ministry. He goes straight to the Father’s house, where worship is to be happening.
- In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus heads to the temple to overturn tables again three years later, at the last Passover of His earthly ministry. In John, at the first.
Illus. Again.
- Jesus had zeal for the temple, He wanted to make His desire for the place of worship known. He was mindful of it, aware of it, passionate about it and placed priority on it.
Illus. Getting it right.
- Jesus zeal for God’s physical house was revealed when Jesus cleansed the temple and His disciples remembered that this was true of Him…They could see clearly that it consumed Him.
- The word for “house” is the same word used for temple. It depicts a dwelling place, or the house of God.
1 Corinthians 3:16, Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 6:19, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
- Just as Jesus was concerned about the tables that were in the way of His people connecting and worshipping Him in the physical temple, He is also zealous about this regarding His spiritual temple – us.
1 Peter 2:24, He Himself brought our sins in His body up on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; by His wounds you were healed…
Hebrews 9:11-12, When Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things having come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made by hands, that is, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all time, having obtained eternal redemption.
- In His Zeal for us, Jesus was crucified on a cross to make the way for us.
Illus. Tables.
Colossian 2:18, When you were dead in your wrongdoings and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our wrongdoings, having canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
- In verses 18 to 20, that is where Jesus ends up pointing.
John 2:18 The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as Your authority for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and yet You will raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking about the temple of His body.
- The people who had charge over what was happening, ask Jesus for a sign of authority to overturn the tables in the temple.
Illus. Where is your badge?
- Jesus points them to His resurrection. They did not know what he meant, they heard the words “This temple,” and they thought He was speaking of the physical temple structure where it all was happening.
- But Jesus was drilling deeper, not to the physical, but the spiritual reality.
John 2:22, So 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.
- Jesus disciples remembered this scene, and when He was resurrected, they understood fully the sign to which Jesus was pointing.
- They wouldn’t have fully understood then, but they would one day see.
Illus. Authority.
- Our Opportunity to Respond to Him
John 2:22-25, So 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. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name as they observed His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, because He knew all people, and because He did not need anyone to testify about mankind, for He Himself knew what was in mankind.
- In verse 22 to 25 we see two different responses to Jesus.
- First His disciples, who remembered what Jesus said, believed the Scripture and the Word Jesus had spoken.
- And the other group, who saw the signs Jesus had done and believed in His name, but they do not have saving faith.
- It is one thing to see the signs and be amazed, it another to see the Savior, surrender your life and let Him guide your way.
- As I read this and studied it out, I was looking for a different word for believe between the disciples’ belief and that of the many who saw the signs.
- It is the same word used. It means to thinks to be true, or to be persuaded of, or to credit.
- Both groups thought something true of Jesus, but their belief was in different categories.
- The reality is that in response to Jesus, there are differently types of belief.
- In James chapter 2, we are told that we do well to believe God is one, but the demons also believe and shudder…There is a demonic belief. Then, James talks about a dead belief, an acknowledgement, but no response. But there is an authentic and dynamic faith as well…and that is what is depicted by the disciples. They remembered, believed, and are seen following Jesus.
- The other had superficial belief, and Jesus saw those things…But note this, this was only the beginning of the story.
Illus. The set up.
Matthew 21:14-16
Romans 10:9-10, If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
John 2:13-25