John 2:12-17
To Protect and Defend
If that small phrase means something to you, I am not surprised. It
is part of the oath taken by the presidents of the United States.
"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the
Office of President of the United States, and will to
the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the
Constitution of the United States.”
While our Lord is not bound by any oath to another, that is exactly
what we see Him doing in the account before us. In the last message,
we saw Jesus declare the importance of the family. In this message,
we see Him declare the importance of worship and His house.
Background:
1. \\#12\\ Notice their journey.
a. They were in Cana of Galilee then went to Capernaum.
(1) That will become Jesus’ headquarters.
(2) It looks like it will be where Jesus’ family will
settle too.
(3) One source said that was about a 18 mile journey.
b. \\#13\\ They Jesus and His disciples went on to Jerusalem.
That was 90 miles if through Samaria or 120 miles across
the Jordan.
2. \\#13\\ Time of the Journey - Passover
a. John will record four Passovers. Their mention is how we
come up with the length of Jesus’ ministry, i.e. 3+ years.
(1) \\#John 2:13\\
(2) \\#John 5:1\\
(3) \\#John 6:4\\
(4) \\#John 12:1, 19:14\\
b. The Passover was one of the holy days that all men were
required to attend.
(1) Passover
(2) Pentecost - Feast of Weeks, harvest, Shavuot
(3) Feast of Tabernacles - Booths, Sukkoth
c. That meant:
(1) It was going to be really crowded,
(2) and both Jews and Gentiles, would be coming to
worship God. (i.e. Ethiopian eunuch Acts 8)
(3) The temple had several courts, each separated by
gates and/or stairs.
(a) Court of the priests
(b) Court of the men
(c) Court of the women
(d) Court of the Gentiles
3. \\#14\\ The problem - When Jesus arrived, the Court of the
Gentiles was filled with money changers.
a. It was allowed that Jews travelling from a long distance
could convert their sacrifice into money at home and
back into a sacrifice at Jerusalem.
b. But it was never sanctioned that the exchange should take
place INSIDE the temple courts.
c. In doing so, the place where the Gentiles were to worship
God had been turned into a filthy barn! (smells,
feathers, poop, cages, and apparently crooks!
\\#Mt 21:13\\)
d. Anything that hinders the worship of God is BAD!
4. \\#15-16\\ The solution - Jesus made a scourge and ran them
out of the temple.
5. \\#17\\ The disciples’ minds - The Bible passage that came to
the disciples’ minds was \\#Psalm 69:9\\. As the disciples
saw what Jesus did, the word ZEALOUS came to their minds.
I. \\#14-17\\ Look at the Lord’s Zeal.
A. They saw the Lord’s zeal. What is that?
1. The word means envy or jealousy.
a. Each time it is used, it seems to be mixed with a high
level of passion and determination.
b. With a base meaning of envy or jealousy, it seems
obvious that this emotion cannot be righteously used
for ourselves.
c. If you are jealous for yourself and very emotional
about it, you are just angry.
d. For zeal to be used in a righteous connotation, you
would have to be zealous over something of the
Lord’s.
2. This can be seen in the Scripture.
a. \\#Num 25:11, 13\\ Phinehas shortened the judgment
of God against Israel when he killed both a Jewish
man with his Moabites woman.
(1) That was good.
(2) There, the Bible says that he was zealous for
the Lord’s sake.
b. \\#Gal 1:14\\ Paul speaks of it being his zeal for
the traditions of the law that caused him to be
promoted.
(1) Not his zeal to the Law of God but to the
"traditions" of the law.
(2) That turned out bad as he it also moved him to
kill Christians before his salvation.
3. It is that potential for bad that has killed the zeal of
many good Christians.
a. We are simply too concerned about being a Pharisee to
to allow ourselves to become zealous.
b. Perhaps instead of worrying about being a Pharisee
with too much zeal we should start to worry about
becoming a heathen with too little zeal.
c. We do not seem to be emotionally jealous for the
things of God.
B. What could we be zealous about?
1. Jesus was zealous over the Lord’s house.
a. He was emotionally determined to defend and preserve
the Lord’s house and the worship that was to be
done there.
b. That means that worship and the place where the
worship was conducted were important to God.
(1) Jesus supported individual and church worship.
(2) Most don’t have a problem with individual
worship. It is that "church" worship they have
trouble with.
c. Reasons for "church" worship.
(1) Jesus is PRO-church.
(a) Jesus was the first to use the word church
\\#Matt 16:18, 18:17\\.
(b) \\#Eph 5:25\\ Jesus gave His life for the
church.
(c) Is the local "church" still important today?
i. Yes. It is.
ii. Some want to diminish the importance of
the local church for a world-side
spiritual church.
iii. My thought is that while we may all be
apart of the body of Jesus, the church
is the local called out assembly.
(2) The definition of the word "church" argues for
a local assembly.
(a) The word church means "called-out assembly."
(b) As a world-wide body, God’s people have
never been assembled. We will when the
rapture comes but we have not been thus
far.
(d) Hence, the only church that counts as far
as worshipping and serving God is the one
that can be assembled now.
(3) So agrees the Scripture. The only way these
commands can be obeyed is in a local, called-out
assembly.
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of
ourselves together, as the manner of some is;
but exhorting one another: and so much the
more, as ye see the day approaching.
1Co 16:2 Upon the first day of the week let
every one of you lay by him in store, as God
hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings
when I come.
(4) Most of the references to the word "church" could
not mean any other thing than the local, called
out assembly.
(5) There is not one Scripture in the Bible that
would diminish the local church.
d. The church is important today.
(1) My problem is not with those who believe in the
world-wide body of believers. I believe in it
too.
(2) My problem is with those who would diminish the
importance of the local church.
(3) Some want to say the church today is not a New
Testament church.
(a) New Testament church met in homes and they
did not have three services a week.
(b) They are right about the three services a
week.
i. They meet daily.
ii. And they sold their possessions and
gave them to the church for the spread
of the gospel.
iii. And they went door to door preaching
the gospel.
iv. Strange how the same folk who want to
meet in a house after the example of
a New Testament church aren’t willing
to follow any of the other examples.
(c) As to the fact that they meet in a house,
they were forced to meet in small mobile
groups because of the persecution; but
when that ended, it was not long before
they were meeting in more stable places.
(d) The fact that God had and supported the
notion of a house for worship in both the
Old and the New Testaments indicates to me
that God is not opposed to a church
building dedicated to His worship.
(e) Once the persecutions start again, the
church will again meet in homes and be
mobile.
e. Until that time, stand up for God’s house.
(1) Keep it open by being there!
(2) Keep it holy by sticking to the Bible.
The church is a place for worship not
entertainment;
truth not error;
love not malice;
help not hurt;
the gospel not gossip;
and God’s pleasure not man’s.
(3) Keep it growing by serving and witnessing,
2. We could also be zealous over the Lord’s day.
a. Most everything that I have said about the Lord’s
house is true of the Lord’s day.
b. If there is going to be building to worship within,
it makes sense that there will have to be a day to
worship upon.
(1) There is NO set day for Christians to worship on
in the Bible.
Romans 14:5 One man esteemeth one day above
another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let
every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto
the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to
the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth,
eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks;
and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth
not, and giveth God thanks.
(2) Those verses have never been used to say that
a day of worship is NOT important all until
recent years.
(3) From the day of Jesus’ resurrection until this
present day, every Sunday, someone somewhere
meet to worship God.
(4) Now, in these modern times, people think they
have discovered grace and that they don’t need
to worship on the Lord’s day.
(a) In the old days, when women wore dresses,
they usually also wore a slip and if the
slip was every exposed, you might hear someone
say, "Pardon me but your slip is showing."
(b) I think we need to start saying to the
modern-day church, "Pardon me but your
arrogance is showing."
(5) It was one thing for the world to decide that
they were going to start doing business on the
Lord’s Day. It is another for the believers to
skip worship and spend that day frolicking in
the world’s pleasures.
3. We might also be zealous over the Lord’s name.
a. Not even grace can excuse blasphemy.
b. To use God’s name as it is commonly used today is
worse than to use it in vain. It is to blaspheme.
c. A little bit of passionate defense from God’s people
couldn’t hurt.
4. We should be zealous for the Lord’s Word.
a. Thank God there are still some who are passionately
jealous for God’s Word, but our numbers are
shrinking.
b. Continue to be zealous for the Word!
II. \\#18-22\\ Hear of the Lord’s Sign
A. \\#18\\ The religious leaders ask by whose authority Jesus
ran out the money changers.
1. This was an odd experience for them.
2. They were used to being the protectors of the holy—even
when what they were protecting was NOT holy.
3. Here, an Unknown had stood up to defend God’s temple and
worship.
4. They wanted to know who He was and who gave Him that
authority.
B. The religious leaders understood that Jesus had displayed
authority in His actions.
1. I don’t doubt that was part of Jesus’ intentions.
2. This is at the beginning of His ministry.
3. (He will do it again at the end of His ministry in
Matthew 21.)
4. This was Jesus saying, "You are doing things right and I
am here to fix it."
C. Even so, Jesus does not tell them directly WHO authorized His
actions but He does tell them WHAT He will do that will
prove He had authority.
1. He will rise from the grace!
2. That is the one proof of all that Jesus said and claimed.
3. It is the reason why we should be zealous in our faith.
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