03 10 2024 - Jesus Passion to Save You

 

John 2:12-25 · Jesus Clears the Temple

 

“This Is A CONTRAVERSIAL SCRIPTURE”

 

 

You Know, Many and Maybe Even Most People

Tend to Truly Like this Scripture –

BUT FOR THE WRONG REASONS!

 

It Is Because it seems to give them permission –

To Get Upset,

To Fight Others in Trying to Prove a Point

And Because They Just LOVE to Take Aggressive Action.

 

 

The FIRST THING IS A PHYSICAL THING

 

WHY Does “Jesus’ Act of Ripping Apart the Temple”

Come So Much Earlier within the Book of John

And in the Books of Matthew, Mark, And Luke,

Where It is Almost Towards the End of Their Books.

 

 

John Chapter 2 out of 21 Chapters.

 

And then You Can See the Rest.

Matthew Chapter 21

out of 28 Chapters.

Mark Chapter 11

out of 16 Chapters.

And in Luke Chapter 19

out of 24 Chapters.

 

 

 

AND Wait Just One Moment,

BEFORE We Use This Scripture

To Justify Our Anger and Our Aggression,

 

 

Maybe it would be GOOD IDEA

for us to Truly Understand

Exactly What is Going On.

 

 

Don’t you agree?

 

 

So, the Very First Step in UNDERSTANDING ALL of THIS –

Is For Us To Know - Who We Are,

And, of course, We Also Need to Know Who Jesus IS!!!

OFTEN, I feel, We Lose this Perspective –

KNOWING That There Is Actually a Difference

Between US and GOD

And IF We Are Not Careful

This Can Become a Very Slippery and Risky Road for Us.

 

 

And to help us out In All Of This, Let’s Listen to the Very ‘LAST’ Two Verses Of Our Scripture for Today.

^{John 2:24}                 “But Jesus Didn’t Trust Them,

Because He Knew All About People.

 

²⁵       No One Needed to Tell Him About Human Nature,

For He Knew What Was in Each Person’s Heart.”

 

So – Do You Have a “Heart of GOD?”

Or “A Heart of Man?”

 

 

 

 

Let’s Briefly Take a Look

Into Another Point of Time.

 

This One is within the Life of Samuel.

 

And We Are Talking About When GOD

Instructed Samuel to Do Something Very Special!

 

 

GOD Told Samuel to -

Go to the House of Jesse.

You See, Jesse had a Bunch of Sons -

And God Was Going To

Pick One to Be Proclaimed

And then Samuel was Supposed to

Then Anoint him With Oil

As To Be the Next King of Israel.

 

So, WHAT Do You Expect Happened?

 

One By One, They Formed a Line

With the Oldest and Grandest Son First.

 

Samuel Looked Him Over,

He Saw How Big & Muscular his Arms and Legs Were

And Samual Thought,

Well – He Already Looks Like a King!

He is Tall and Dashing

And He Even Looks - Very Royal!!!

YES – YES -- He Looks Very KINGLY!

 

But Right Then, God Spoke and Said Something Like This:

‘NO – I have Not Selected him Because -

Mankind Looks at the Outward Appearances -

BUT THE LORD LOOKS INTO THE HEART!’

 

 

And Time After Time,

They Seemed to All Come Forward.

 

 

Then Samuel Looked Around and Asked

‘Is there No One More?’

 

Well, they Said, there is always David!

 

So, Jesse, David’s Dad - Called Him to Come Forward.

 

And GOD Immediately SAID:

 

‘DAVID IS THE ONE’

Samual, ANOINT David to be KING!

 

 

You See,

Mankind Always Looks at the Outward Appearances

But the ‘Lord, HE Looks into Our Hearts!

 

 

So, I Believe the BIG Question is:

“What Does God See

When HE Looks

into Your Heart?”

 

 

NOW - I Do Not Know IF

You Have Ever Asked Yourself That Question –

BUT, It Is A Good Question.

 

 

“So, Judging Only Upon Your Heart,

What Type of Person

Do You Think God

Sees Within You?”

 

 

Take Myself for Example,

It Truly Doesn’t Matter

IF You Rate MY OUTSIDE APPEARANCE

As Being: ‘Dashing Dan!’

Or ‘Hobo Dan!’

Or as ‘Falling Apart Dan!’

 

 

THE OUTSIDE PART DOESN’T AT ALL REALLY MATTER

 

So, This Means:

It Doesn’t Matter:            

How We Look -

Where We Have Come From –

What SINS We Have Already Committed –

Or Whether We Were Born

With A Silver Spoon Or Plastic One

 

 

IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER!

 

 

This Is Because

God Looks into YOUR VERY OWN HEART

And

HE KNOWS WHO You Truly Are!

NOW - If You Would Join Me, Let’s Read Our Scripture for Today.

 

 

THE READING OF THE SCRIPTURE

 

^{John 2:12-25}

“¹² After the Wedding, He (Jesus),

Went to Capernaum For A Few Days

With His Mother, His Brothers, And His Disciples.

 

 

¹³ It Was Nearly Time for The Jewish Passover Celebration,

So, Jesus Went to Jerusalem. 

 

 

¹⁴ In the Temple Area, He Saw Merchants Selling Cattle, Sheep,

And Doves for Sacrifices.

He Also Saw Dealers at Tables

Exchanging Foreign Money. 

¹⁵ Jesus Made a Whip from Some Ropes and Chased Them

All Out of the Temple.

He Drove Out the Sheep and Cattle,

Scattered The Money Changers’ Coins Over the Floor,

And Turned Over Their Tables. 

 

 

¹⁶ Then, Going Over to The People Who Sold Doves,

He Told Them: 

“GET THESE THINGS OUT OF HERE.”

“STOP TURNING MY FATHER’S HOUSE

INTO A MARKETPLACE!”

 

 

¹⁷ Then His Disciples Remembered

This Prophecy from The Scriptures:

“Passion For God’s House Will Consume Me.”

And in Taking a short Sidestep,  

In Psalm 69:9 NLT – We Find

“Passion For Your House Has Consumed Me,

And the Insults of Those Who Insult You Have Fallen on Me.”

 

 

¹⁸ But the Jewish Leaders Demanded,

“What Are You Doing?”

“If God Gave You Authority to Do This,

Show Us a Miraculous Sign to Prove It.”

 

 

¹⁹ “All Right,” Jesus Replied. 

“Destroy This Temple,

And in Three Days I Will Raise It Up.”

 

²⁰ “What!” They Exclaimed.

“It Has Taken 46 Years to Build this Temple,

And You Can Rebuild it in Three Days?” 

 

 

²¹ But When Jesus Said,

“This Temple,” He Meant - His Own Body. 

 

 

²² After He Was Raised from The Dead,

His Disciples Remembered He Had Said This,

And They Believed Both the Scriptures

And What Jesus Had Said.

 

²³ Because Of The Miraculous Signs Jesus Did in Jerusalem

At The Passover Celebration,

Many Began to Trust in Him. 

[And then once again, Verses 24 & 25]

 

²⁴ But Jesus Didn’t Trust Them,

Because He Knew All About People. 

 

 

²⁵ No One Needed to Tell Him About Human Nature,

For He Knew What Was in Each Person’s Heart.”

 

 

 

As A Base Line, Our Studies Tell Us That:

On the First Day,

When Jesus Arrived in Jerusalem, (Palm Sunday)

They All Went to the Temple on that Day

But it was Closed. [The reversed church/steeple]

 

Then on the Second Day, Man O’ Man,

Did Jesus Put ALL of Those Businesses in Their Place!

 

 

 

It Is Easy to Form Our Opinions of HOW They

Desecrating the Temple Grounds

With Their Little Beedy Eyes

And Rubbing Their Grubby Little Hands Together

As They Counted Their Earnings

With Their Money-Grabbing Little Businesses?

 

 

GET Out! Out! Out!

 

‘O Yes,

Jesus Cleared Them All Out!

BUT – Was That What REALLY

Upset Jesus?

 

 

Now if that’s Your Feeling,

You Among the Many!

 

 

THAT IS HOW We Tend to Focus Upon things:

BUT WHAT IS The Corruption at the Temple!

 

 

Don’t Give Up –

Because We Have Just Begun to Uncover Real Truth.

 

BUT Lets Reason This Out Some.

 

IF it Was Their Money-Grabbing

Little Businesses

Then What Should We Be Doing

With That Same Type of Corruption

Which Just Fills

Our Lives These Days?

 

 

Example One:

You Pay a Good Price These Days

Hoping for a Meal

Which It Isn’t Something

That You Won’t Write Home About

However, It Should At Least BE - OK To Eat.

 

What About This One?

You Hire Someone and Pay Again,

You Pay Them a good Wage -

However, there is NO QUALITY

To Their Work at All!

 

 

And Here Is Just One More –

You Purchase Something

And Later, You Find Out

It Wasn’t Worth ½

Of What You Had Paid.

 

 

Do You Think Jesus Would Say:

“Passion For Your House Has Consumed Me,

And the Insults of Those Who Insult You

Have Fallen on Me.” ?

 

 

Oh, Maybe We Wish HE Would –

BUT – the answer is NO!

 

 

No Matter How Strongly

We Feel About this

God The Father

Will Not Send His Son

To Correct This!

 

Scripture Can Get

A Little Puzzling, - Can’t It?

So, What Exactly

Is So Bad within the Temple?

 

 

For Jesus To SAY:

“Take These Things Out of Here!

Stop Making

My Father’s House

A Marketplace!”

 

 

ARE YOU FRUSTRATED?

Can’t Jesus Lead Us in Clear Directions

So, We Can Understand Him Better?

Here Is Just One More Confusion of THAT DAY!

 

Jesus Says Destroy This Temple

And He Would Raise it back Up in 3-Days.

 

 

But YOU SAY: What is Confusing About this?

 

BUT – You Have the Whole Book –

So, You Know the Answer to this One.

 

 

But – Back Then,

Was It ALL That Clear to Them,

On that Particular Day Of Just

What Jesus Was talking About?

 

 

 

But – IF We Were Them,

Tell Me

Would We Also Be Standing There

With Our Mouths Wide Open

And Having Our Tempers a Blazing

Simply Because We Too, Can’t Get Past

This Stone Structure!

 

 

 

 

But There Are Some STRONG TRUTHS

Which We NEED to Truly Look at!

 

And Then, Just See Were They Leads Us.

 

1^st Truth – Is

People Were for SURE DOING

Or Maybe We Can Say “BEING”

Something

That Totally Insulted the Father

And these Insults – FALL Upon

Our Lord to Deal With.

 

RIGHT?

 

Psalm 69:9

“Passion For Your House Has Consumed Me,

And the Insults of Those Who Insult You

Have Fallen on Me.”

 

 

2nd Truth – Is

Jesus Reffered to HIS BODY as Being ‘THE TEMPLE’

 

^{John 2:18-21} 

But the Jewish Leaders Demanded,

“What Are You Doing?”

“If God Gave You Authority to Do This,

Show Us a Miraculous Sign to Prove It.”

 

 

¹⁹ “All Right,” Jesus Replied. 

“Destroy This Temple,

And in Three Days - I Will Raise It Up.”

 

Jesus’ TEMPLE Was His Very Own Body!!!’

 

But there is Another Scripture

Which Also Talks About

Bodies

As BEING TEMPLES!!

 

 

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NLT

¹⁹ Don’t you realize that YOUR BODY

Is the TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT,

Who lives in you

And was given to you by God?

 

You Do Not Belong To Yourself,

²⁰ For God Bought You With A High Price.

So - You Must Honor God With Your Body.

 

NOW - Here is the Thing – It Says That:

YOU MUST HONOR

 

It Doesn’t Say,

Maybe

or ‘ONLY IF You Want to’

 

But GOD Says:

You Do Not Belong To Yourself!

You Must Honor God With Your Body!

YOUR BODY Is the TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!

 

 

Do you think there may be a Relation Between

Jesus’ PASSION

Jesus Cleaning God’s House- HIS Temple

“Take These Things Out of Here!

Stop Making My Father’s House

A Marketplace!”

 

 

 

 

3^rd Truth – Is

 

Let’s Take a Look at One More Relating Scripture.

 

What We Will Find Is -

GOD Is Telling Us What Is Wrong

GOD Gives Us Instructions on

How We Should Be Acting

How To Correct Our Wrongs

And In this, He Even Instructs Us

To Actually TEST HIM IN THIS?

 

Malachi 3:8-12

“Should people cheat God?

Yet you have cheated Me!

 

“But you ask, ‘What do you mean?

When did we ever cheat You?’

 

“You have cheated Me

Of the tithes and offerings due to Me.

You are under a curse,

For your whole nation has been cheating Me.

 

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse!

So, there will be enough food in My Temple.

IF you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,

“I will open the windows of heaven for you.

 

I will pour out a blessing so great

You won’t have enough room to take it in!

TRY IT!

PUT ME TO THE TEST!”

 

Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease.

 

Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

 

“Then All Nations Will Call You Blessed,

For Your Land Will Be Such A Delight,”

Says The Lord Of Heaven’s Armies.”

 

 

 

 

Through All Of This,

I Believe No One Can

Dispute or

Miss Seeing GOD’s Passion!

 

 

And I Believe We All Can See Just How This Motivated Jesus Into Acting!

 

That Is How Much You Mean To Him!

So Here Is The Thing:

When We Give Our Tithes - As We Should,

With the Spirit

Of Actually Giving it to GOD,

While That May Be Legitimate

To A Certain Extent,

The Giving Of Money Alone

Is Most Substitute

For Giving of Our Very Selves

Within Our Own Faithfulness To God.

 

 

We Know This Is True.

 

Do You REMEMBER The Event Of the Poor Widow Lady?

You See - It’s Never About the Outward Appearance.

 

So - What Does GOD See

When He Looks into You Heart?