Chapter # 2 Paragraph # 2 Study # 2
July 9, 2023
Broadlands, Louisiana
(Download Audio)
Thesis: The failure to maintain the proper regard for "The Father's House" resulted in its destruction and its resurrection to the indestructible foundations of Eternal Life.
Introduction: There are many statements in the whole of the Bible, each one of which ought to be given careful thought, but it is those declarations of the final, and indestructible, establishment of "Truth" that make all of those other statements worthy of our consideration.
In our study last week, we looked into Author-John's record of Jesus' violent "exorcism" of "the Jews" from the Temple because they had completely twisted its identity and practices from its divinely given reason for existing to simply another way to use "religion" for personal profit at the expense of the people of God.
As a follow-up to that study, this morning we are going to consider "The Jews' Contempt For The Temple Of God".
- I. At Issue: The Corruption Of The Jews.
- A. The actions of Jesus are declared to be the outcome of "zeal" regarding the Father's house.
- 1. These actions were taken.
- 2. Then, the disciples remembered the text of Psalm 69:9.
- a. The issue here is the way the people had turned the Temple away from its purpose as "a house of prayer" (1 Kings 8:38 is a part of Solomon's dedicatory prayer and Isaiah 56:7 is referred to by Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; and Luke 19:46) to make it a house of commerce in which greed and corruption reigned as "normal".
- b. When gross wickedness is turned into the "norm", not even the most sacred of God's gifts escape the twistedness.
- c. At the root was a "zeal" that should have permeated the hearts and minds of all who entered into "The Father's House".
- 3. This entire scenario threw the temple into chaos and "the Jews" came demanding a "sign" from Jesus to justify His behavior.
- B. The "Sign".
- 1. Demanded by "the Jews".
- a. This group of people are referenced by John in 72 places in this Gospel, and in 85 places John reveals Jesus calling for "believing exactly the opposite of their teachings".
- b. The very first reference is 1:19 where it was "the Jews" who questioned Witness-John as to his identity and he denied being "the Christ", "Elijah", "The Prophet", but told them that he was Isaiah's "voice in the wilderness" from Isaiah 40:1-3.
- c. The next reference is 2:6 where the water pots are said to be "for the Jewish custom of purification", and Jesus had them filled to the brim and converted the "waters of purification" into wine for the guests at the feast.
- d. Then, in 2:13 (the Passover of the Jews); 18 (the Jews demanding a sign); and 20 (the Jews not understanding the "sign" Jesus gave them to anticipate -- i.e., their destruction of His body) Author-John keeps these "Jews" in focus in regard to their lack of respect for "the Father's house".
- 2. Given by Jesus.
- a. Against the backdrop of "the Passover" as it is set into the context of Jesus' turning the waters for purification into wine for joy at the wedding.
- 1) The imagery here is profound: "purification" was for the purpose of personal cleansing when a person entered into a house after a walk through the dust of the streets so that "God" would accept them as "clean".
- 2) The "wine" was a testimony to the "outcome" of such "acceptance" (joy from the favor of God upon the wedding).
- 3) The "Passover" was the remarkable event of "acceptance by God on the basis of the blood of the Lamb of God" and was to be celebrated annually in remembrance of this enormously crucial truth.
- 4) "The Jews" had twisted the entire issue into a Gordian knot so that "Passover" was no longer a celebration of deliverance by God, but was, rather, just another way to make a financial profit off of the people of God.
- b. Specifically, "the Jews'" destruction of "this temple" ("the Jews'" destruction of God's actual "temple": the body of His Son) so that God followed up on their action by the destruction of the physical buildings of the Temple by the Roman armies in A.D. 70).
- c. Rooted in the demand of Him to justify His "authority" for His violent purging of those who had turned the Father's House into a "house of trade".
- d. Consisted of His declaration that once their extreme disregard for God's Temple, the very body of Jesus as the manifestation of the glory of God, had run its course (destroying that body by crucifixion), He would raise that very body up from the dead.
- 1) John's remark regarding their "believing" both the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken is instructive: their "faith" did not "jell" until "The True Temple" was raised indestructible.
- 2) In multiple places (there are 85 references in John alone to "believing") throughout the records of the New Testament, the "resurrection" of "this Temple" is made the chief corner stone of all of the doctrines taught in the New Testament.
