I don't know if you might turn
back in your Bibles with me to John chapter 2. Sometimes I've
seen in the scriptures, and particularly seen this to do with the Lord
Jesus Christ become so embedded in my mind and I just go over
and over and over them and of all the times I've wished to
have been in your presence and talk to you about these things
face to face. It's never been more agonizing
than these last few days. The Lord's kept me awake thinking
about all of this and this remarkable scene at the beginning of the
Lord's ministry as he comes to that temple and speaks to these
religious people and confronts them. I'll just read those few
verses. It was the zeal of his house,
the zeal of thine house has eaten me up. He said to them, you've,
you don't make my father's house a house of merchandise. In verse
18, they answered the Jews and said unto him, what sign showest
thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered
and said unto them, destroy this temple, and in three days, This comes at a remarkable point
in this story, for me anyway. You might recall that this scene
is reminiscent of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane
when a great crowd of possibly 700 or more soldiers with spears
and lanterns and Judas showing them the way, he came to arrest
the Lord Jesus Christ and he went out to them. He went to
them and he said, whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And he just said those words,
he says, I am. He says, I am God. And that great crowd fell to
the ground. The Lord was showing them, as
I trust he might show us, that when we are those that think
upon his name, we think upon his name as him being absolutely
sovereign over all things. He didn't go to the trials, and
he didn't go to Calvary as a victim. He went there as a reigning,
conquering king, and he comes. In this particular instance,
it's his first meeting with the Jews who would put him to death.
And if you go to Matthew 23, not now, but later on, you'll
see that they never forgot these words and they never forgot this.
In fact, that was the accusation they make against him. They lie
about what he said, but they make this accusation against
him. What a remarkable scene it must have been for the Lord
Jesus Christ, a man who looked so ordinary that he could walk
through a crowd of other Jews and no one would take a single
notice of him, one little tiny bit. And there he is, alone,
comes into this court that's meant to be a place of prayer
for the nations. It's meant to be the temple that
glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ and speaks of Him and Him crucified. It's the place where God comes
and meets with men. And that place is turned into
a place of merchandise in the Lord Jesus Christ. with omnipotent
power and absolute sovereignty, just marches in there and takes
control of all of it, and it's emptied. The empties are all,
the animals are gone, the doves in their cages are taken out,
and that crowd of buyers and sellers and trades people in
there are all gone. And I want us to think that as
talks about him purifying this temple, There was, for a brief
time before we come to the questions we look at this morning, that
the Lord Jesus Christ was there in that court, that court of
the Gentiles, the court for all the nations, the court that showed
that the Lord had come with a particular purpose for him. For his chosen
bride, that place that was supposed to reflect his name and his glory,
he was there alone. And if we see him alone in this
temple, we will see what this temple is all about. All the
merchandise is gone. There is, in this confrontation,
a confrontation between the religion of God and the religion of man.
The religion of man is all about what man does to get to God. But this is a remarkable picture
of what God does as he comes to man. In merchandise, people are always
worried and concerned about numbers and activities and entertainment.
And the merchandise of men's souls is the merchandise of wills
and works and worth. People trade their doing for
approval and esteem and affirmation of other people in religion.
But here is the Lord Jesus Christ, and there's not a merchant in
sight. There's not a thing of trade in sight. As I said, this
temple portrayed God coming to man, not man working his way
up to God. When he first spoke of this place
that he was going to meet with people, in Exodus 20, the very
next thing he says, after giving the Ten Commandments, Thus to
speak, an author in Exodus 20, 24, and all the reverse, shalt
thou make unto me, and thou shalt sacrifice thereon my burnt offerings,
and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen, in all
the places where I record my name, I will come unto thee,
and I will bless thee. And if thou wilt make me an altar
of stone, thou shalt not build upon it, Build it of hewn stone,
for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that might thy
nakedness be not discovered thereon. The temple pictures God. It's a picture. It's meant to
be a picture of the name of God and the character of God. It's
supposed to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified in all
his glory. It is the place where God meets
with man. It's the place where God meets
with man on the basis of a blood sacrifice. It's the place where,
when the high priest came out, he could bless those people.
According to those famous words in Numbers, the Lord bless thee
and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee. The life of the Lord lift up
his countenance upon thee and give you peace. This glorious
picture of our Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified was just turned
by these religious people into a marketplace. The place of all of that blood sacrifice. It's all about Him, isn't it?
All of our salvation is tied up in Him, in the sin atoning
death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's about
His blood and His sacrifice. It must be perfect to be accepted,
says Leviticus. It's about His sin bearing and
His propitiation. Everything about that temple,
the labour of washing. He was the labour of washing.
He's the one that washes his people. He is the door. He's
the candlestick. He's the showbread. He's the
altar. He's the sacrifice upon the altar.
His father's holy fire fell on him alone. He alone bore that
wrath. to the satisfaction of the justice
of God. He alone is that mercy seat.
He alone kept the law. His blood alone is looked on
by angels. That wonderful verse in Exodus
12, isn't it? When I see the blood. God says,
when I see the blood. See, that's all the merchandise
does, doesn't it? The first thing the Lord Jesus
Christ does in being challenged is he takes them back to his
blood. That's what the Malachi says, the messenger of the covenant
will come. The messenger of the covenant
is the messenger of the covenant in his blood. The Lord Jesus
Christ is asked for evidence. He's asked for a sign, and he
gives them the only sign. that we'll ever be given. It's
the sign of Jonah. It's the sign of his death and
his resurrection. That's the message of the couple,
isn't it? I love Hebrews 13.20, isn't it? Now, the God of peace
that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd
of the sheep through the And I love the fact that it's
an active covenant, isn't it? Make ye perfect, he goes on to
say, in every good work to do his will, working in you that
which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to
whom be glory for ever and ever. I don't want us to diminish the
anger of the Lord at this time. the hatred the Lord has for all
false worship. Because all false worship says
something about the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified, says
something about his name, and it clouds him. And here he is,
gloriously revealed. Everything in that temple, he's
a mercy seeker. His blood alone is looked on
by the angels. He opens the way. into the holy
of holies in heaven through the veil of his flesh. He alone is
the priest. He alone carries the names of
his elect on his breastplate and carries them on his shoulder.
He alone honors his father's house. He must, he's saying to
these people, he must shed his life's blood and he must rise
again. in which a holy God demands both
his death and his resurrection. See, the Lord was purging that
temple for that time, and as we know, what happens with man-made
religion, when it's purged, they start all over again. We keep
wanting to speak to you in our fellowship
about the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. There is just
one great issue, isn't it? There is one reason for this
universe's existence. There is one reason for the sun
shining outside at the moment. There is a simplicity and a singleness
in Christ. And all of salvation is tied
up and brought the sharpest focus in just one time in history,
one three-day time in history, one place in this world, one
person humiliated and shamed and reproached, mutilated beyond
recognition, tortured mercilessly, and at the depths of his despair
and at the height faith. And here I ask one question. There is just one question, isn't
it? Why? Why? Why? My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? And there is just one answer
to that question given in Psalm 22 verse 3, but thou art holy. It's about the name of God. This
temple's about the name of God. This event, this remarkable event
is about the name of God. One question, why? One answer,
holy. Thou that inhabitest the praises
of Israel. And there's one sign given. So let's go back to our text
in John chapter two, verse 18. Then answered the Jews and said
unto him, what sign showest thou unto us, seeing thou doest these
things? And I think it's remarkable that
having driven them out, and I think if we had seen the anger of the
Lord and if we'd seen the power of the Lord, I doubt that this
question is from the merchants who were driven out and sent
packing with their animals. I think they all had to gather
themselves, and I think this is a question that they no doubt
had in their mind, but it's a question of the Jewish religious leaders
who had organized this. In a sense, they're saying, aren't
they, who gave you this authority? Where did you get this authority
from? They questioned John the Baptist,
didn't they? In John chapter one, why do you
baptize? You're not the Christ, you're
not Elijah, you're not the prophet. Why are you baptizing? It's a question that three years
of the most extraordinary evidence and witness that this world has
ever seen of the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I say it again in Matthew 21. By what authority do you
do these things? You see, he'd already given them
his authority. He'd already told them, haven't
they? All questions, aren't they? There are so many questions that
people have and all the questions are answered in the Scriptures.
And the questions are laid out before people. People are asking
for questions and asking for signs so often as an excuse for
unbelief. Look back in verse 16, he says,
my father's house. He is saying to these people,
I am God. Don't you love saying that? I
love thinking about it. Jesus Christ. acting. This is God coming to
God's temple and God acting as God. No one in all the Old Testament
ever claimed God as their father. They called him Lord. They gave
him all sorts of remarkable names, names that he'd given them, that he alone can call God. and he alone by his work and
his death and resurrection makes all of his people to cry out
Abba Father. That's what he said to Mary on
that glorious day of the resurrection. I'm going back to my God and
your God and my Father and your Father. Where do you get your
authority from? These people had before them
1,500 years of religious tradition.
They had this remarkable building that Herod had made. This extraordinary
building that had been 46 years in the building and that was
going to be continued to be built for another 30 odd years. And
they finally finished it just before it was destroyed by God. They thought they had authority. Saul of Tarsus have authority
from the Sanhedrin, this same Sanhedrin that's asking these
questions. Paul, the apostle, got his authority directly from
God. See, God's authority needs no
assent from man. We just have some simple word,
don't we? This, thus saith the Lord, this
is what God says. To hear him, to hear God, is to hear from God and to hear
from the Lord Jesus Christ, to hear from his servants. As Luke
10 says, to not heed, to not hear, is to despise him. So, the question is, he is God,
and he does exercise his authority on my love in the covenant of
grace, that he comes to his chosen, and he reveals himself And he
draws his people to himself and he draws his people to have a
zeal for him, to have a love for his name, to have a love
for his character. He compels them and he draws
them. And then he causes his people
to say, draw me and we'll run after you. Turn me and I'll be
turned. God's children delight in the
authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. What extraordinary authority
he exercises over all things. I pray that it's your heart's
desire that he would exercise authority over you. and causes just to gaze upon
him. There's a hymn that I love reading. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me, a sinner
condemned, unclean. He took my sins and my sorrows
He made them his very own, he bore the burden to Calvary, and
suffered and died for me. When with the ransomed in glory
his face at last I shall see, it will be my joy through the
ages to sing of his love for me. What a husband, what a friend, John has answered the question
of the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ earlier in his gospel,
hasn't he? He has. He has all authority
as God. He is the creator. He is the
sustainer of this universe. He has authority as the Word
of God. He moves all and He's unmoved
by the things of this world. I love the verse in Malachi 3,
6 that Ben reads, isn't it? I change not. He's the same,
says John. He is life. You're not your own. You're being bought with a price.
He is light. Without Him, there is only darkness. He's the one that comes into
this world. And He comes to His own. And he comes, he says in John
1.12, isn't it, with power giving. He has the right or authority
to birth the children of God. He is the Lamb of God that takes
away the sin of the world. He has authority to command men
to follow him. He says, come and see. And they
come and see. He goes to Philip and says, Philip,
follow me. He goes to that wedding feast. wine. He has authority over creation. He has authority over devils.
He has authority over all things. He has authority over this temple.
He has authority over this church. I love what he said to Peter
when he recommissioned Peter. He says you feed my sheep. The
church belongs to the blood of Jesus Christ. It's not my church. It's his church. They're not
my sheep. They're his But here in John chapter 2, they
question him, having just previously revealed his deity. See, his deity was vile in such
ordinary humanity. If I could ask, who is this?
You can imagine it's being a very natural question. But for the
merchants who were thrown out of that house, I think there
would have been some fear and trepidation with them. He has
all authority. He has authority to reveal and
to hide. Verse 18. Then answered the Jews
under him, what sign shallest thou do? What sign? See, their request
was dishonest and deceitful. An act of wicked unbelief. They already had a sign. See,
Satan first sought and tempted the Lord to give a sign, if you'd
be the Son of God. Satan knew he was the Son of
God. God the Father had spoken of that. He had no doubt about
this being the Son of God, but he tempted him. Why do men seek
signs? To excuse unbelief. To revel in their righteousness
and their religious activities. They seek a sign. There are throughout
this world countless, countless, countless millions were following
after those who seek a sign. And what did the Lord Jesus Christ
say of those who seek a sign? One of the worst false teachers
I've ever had any knowledge of was a man who came and, like
a ravening wolf, came into the the flock of students that I
had cared for for five years at Hebron. He'd been in Thailand,
had a ministry over there, and he was trying to work out why
his ministry was so unsuccessful. He went back to England and got
caught up in some Pentecostal things, and he realized that
the reason his ministry wasn't successful was he wasn't doing
signs and wonders, so he learned how to do signs and wonders.
And he became extraordinarily deceived. the devil gives signs
and wonders. And he came to those students
of mine that had heard the gospel, heard about the Lord Jesus Christ
and him crucified again and again and again. And he came to them
after I'd left, just within a few months of me leaving. And he
came and he claimed that he could see And he claimed to have the gift
of being able to give people the gift of speaking in tongues.
And no doubt he was an impressive person. I went back there six
months after he had been, and the whole place was still stirred
up about his deceit. And if people said to him, well,
you already speak in tongues, he said, well, I have the power
to give you another set of tongues. And of course, they had these
experiences. They had these signs. of them all was shattered beyond
recognition because all they were talking about were signs
and wonders. The Lord in Matthew chapter 12 says, verse 28 he
says, verse 39 sorry, Let's go back to verse 38 in
Matthew chapter 12. Then certain of the scribes in
Paris he answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto
them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign,
and there shall be no sign given to it but the sign of the prophet
Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and
three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three
days and three nights in the heart. of the earth. The sign
of Jonah, which we might get to look at later on, is a sign
of Jonah is remarkable, isn't it? The sign of Jonah happened
when Jonah was out in the middle of the ocean. The sign of Jonah
happened in the depths of the ocean. The sign of Jonah is a
glorious, glorious type of the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified
to be cast overboard, bearing sin and bearing reproach and
going to the depths and being in those That's the sign, isn't it? But
the sign wasn't in nation Israel. The sign was out in the ocean.
They just had to believe the word. An evil and adulterous
generation seeks after a sign. Why? Let's go to verse 19. Jesus gives
them this sign, doesn't He? It's a remarkable answer, isn't
it? He's obviously, as the Scriptures
go on to tell us, He's talking about, as verse 21 says, the
temple of His body. But as those religious authorities
there, questioning the authority of God, He gave them an answer
which they wouldn't have had a clue about. He gave them an
answer which was all about Himself and His glory. I think it's really, really significant
to note, isn't it, that the very first time he confronts these
religious people, don't forget they'd already been down to examine
John the Baptist and found him wanting, and they found the Lamb
of God that John the Baptist was proclaiming wanting, and
they'd gone back all the way to Jerusalem justifying themselves
in their religious activities, and this is what the Lord confronts
there. He's just reiterating what John
the Baptist had said beside the Jordan. It is so fundamentally
important to us and to our salvation and to our proclamation of him
that we go to where he goes all the time when we are dealing
with those who stand opposed to us, whether they're inside
religion or outside of religion. We do, I pray, follow Paul's
persuasion, isn't it? Paul's determination that he
wanted to know nothing among them but Jesus Christ and him
crucified. His first words to these people
having shown his authority to talk about his death and his
resurrection, at their hands, was ever before him. He is. not by command, but by permission
and by prediction. He's telling them what his enemies
will do in three years' time, these very same people. And they
will be entirely responsible for their wickedness and their
unbelief. As Paul Peter says to them in
Acts chapter two, he says, you with wicked hands, in conspiracy,
you with wicked hands, you have blood on your hands. You see,
the Lord didn't give them and an answer to inform them. He was speaking for his people,
he was speaking on behalf of his disciples who heard him say
these things. He didn't come to enlighten or It's given unto you, it's given
unto you to know the secrets of the kingdom of God. It is
God has a right, isn't it? He says, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these sins from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. For even so, Father, so it seemed
good in thy sight. didn't come to enlighten all
men. He came to shine as a light in
the darkness, and His people will have the light of Him shining
in their hearts. He says in John chapter 12, that
though He had done so many miracles before Him, yet they believed
not on Him. The saying of Isaiah, the prophet
might be fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who hath believed
our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Therefore they could not believe, because, that Elias said again,
he hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they
should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart,
and be converted. And I'm not shy. the words and the actions of
the Lord Jesus Christ, if all his religious enemies are for
us, brothers and sisters in Christ. Malachi chapter three was fulfilled
before their eyes. He spoke a word of command and
it was done. He drove them out, he exhibited
his power, he called God's house his house, he'd given them all
the signs and then he says, you destroy this house. You see,
the wicked religious hypocrites will never see their acts as
sinful. Even when they're openly confronted,
what should have been their response? What should have been their response
to turning the temple They reveal to us again that
repentance and faith are gifts of God. Turning and acknowledging
sin is a gift of God. Their hearts were darkened by
their sin, and their hearts were judicially darkened by God. And over three more years, the
more evidence they have, the less they are inclined to believe,
and the more they set in their hearts to do as he told them,
you'll destroy this temple, you'll destroy this temple. See, even
the witness of the terror of God dissipates so quickly. These men would have been terrified
as he took that whip to them and their animals and drove them
out of the temple. And in no time at all, it's evaporated. There they are, sitting in the
house of God, defending themselves by being critical of the one
who challenged their idolatry. What begins as the Lord's ministry
remains the ministry of He and His people throughout this gospel
age. I love what He says. He says, you destroy this temple
in three days, I will raise it up. I will raise it up. He's speaking of course of the
resurrection, that's what that phrase, those words are used
throughout the rest of the New Testament. They speak of rising
from the dead or resuscitating from illness, but in this case
it's about resurrection. You destroy this temple and I
will raise it up. Not God the Father, even though
God the Father did raise it up. Not God the Holy Spirit, even
though the Holy Spirit did raise it up, but I'll raise it up myself. After your destruction, I'll
raise it up. He is saying to these people,
I am God, in terms that are so plain and clear, that his people will rejoice
in it. and his families will never understand. And I want you to note that after
the resurrection, the only people the Lord Jesus Christ ever appeared
to in his resurrected glory were his people. Not once does he
go to these Pharisees, not once does he go to Herod or Pilate
or any of the others. His resurrection, just like these
words here in this confrontation, as a victim. He came as a saviour. He came as a substitutionary
saviour. We believe in the resurrection. We preach the resurrection. We preach him who has authority. It is, according to Paul in Ephesians
1, the greatest Let me read these words to you. He's praying for these Ephesians.
He's praying for these people for whom the Lord Jesus Christ
died and rose. He says, He ceases not to give
thanks for you, Ephesians 1, 16, making mention of you in
my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened that you might know What is the hope of His calling
and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the
saints? And what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to us-ward? See, the power is to us-ward,
brothers and sisters, who believe. We believe because of the power
of God in our hearts. The new creation believes. We
believe according to the working of His mighty power. which he brought in Christ when
he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand
in heavenly places. He's saying, my resurrection
is the sign. It's the vindication of all who
I am and what I have done. We believe the resurrection to
the saving of our souls Christ. The Word, Romans 10.8. The Word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth and in thine heart. That is the word of faith which
we preach. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart
that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. That's why God, if you read on,
that's why God sends his preachers and they send them with his same
message. The Lord Jesus Christ began his testimony to these
Jews. and to have enlightened eyes
to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Verse 20, let's move on. Then said the Jews, forty and
six years was this temple in building, and now we'll rear
it up in three days. Well, He's God. He can create
a universe by speaking a word. He could raise it up in three
milliseconds if He wished to. He could raise it up in no time
at all. There is, again, a great lesson
for us here, that this book that we have before us is a spiritual
book, and it's not understood with man's fleshly eyes. No matter how religious they
are, no matter how much wisdom and knowledge they appear to
have, it is God. who enlightens the eyes of his
people that they will see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's only seen through God-given eyes of faith. Christ and his words and Christ
and his power are not to be measured by carnal reason. They're not
to be measured by the things that we see with our eyes. has spoken. He has spoken. He gave them an answer which
infuriated them and confused them. But he was speaking to
his people, brothers and sisters. He was speaking to us. Verse
21. But he spoke of the temple of
his body. He spoke of the temple of his
body, verse 22. When therefore he was risen from
the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said unto them, and
they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. There's great comfort in the
fact that these disciples throughout the rest again and again and again, I
didn't have a clue what he was saying. I love the fact that
the Word of God is living and active and the Word of God is
sung and the Word of God germinates and takes root at a time of God's
own choosing. What an encouragement, brothers
and sisters, to be studying the Word of God and committing it
to memory and asking the Lord to bless it to you and asking
the Lord to again and again show you the Lord Jesus Christ and
him crucified and resurrected and reigning in glory in his
book. What a glorious encouragement. Encouragement is to think that
when we have the opportunity, when God opens the door of utterance,
we can speak to people and that seed might germinate a long time
and it might even germinate after we've died. Three years, they believed the
scripture. They believed the scripture. How much do we believe? All of
it. How much do we understand? So
very, very little of it. But we believe it. We believe
it to the comfort of our souls. We believe is satisfied with Him and all
in Him. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is
life and He says, because I live, you also shall live. He lives
now. He lives to reign and rule over
His people and reign and rule I'm