continue in John's Gospel and
the second chapter John's Gospel and the second chapter and I
want to look particularly at verses 12 to 25 we saw last week
the miracle the first recorded miracle of Jesus in his ministry
making water into wine we saw that last week and then I want
to go on this is this is some days later just a few days not
many days later and we have this gospel narrative this gospel
narrative this this story of Jesus and it's an interesting
story it really is it's a fascinating story but it's important to realize
why did Jesus come you see it's not just a story with interesting
lessons about a man who by any comparison was a remarkable man. It's not just that. The truth
of why did Jesus come is vital truth for our souls. For anybody
listening, this is a vital truth for your soul. Why did Jesus
come? He was the Christ. He was the
Christ promised in the Old Testament. The Messiah. Christ is the Greek
term, Messiah is the Hebrew term. He was the Anointed One. The
Anointed One of God that the Old Testament scriptures spoke
of. again and again. And when he came, as Paul said
to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3.16, he was God manifest in the flesh. That's very, very clear. Who
was Jesus Christ? He was God manifest in the flesh. God made clear. God pointed out
vividly. This was God in the flesh. And
so, the prophet Isaiah said, speaking of his coming in Isaiah
40, to the cities of Judah, say to the cities of Judah, Behold
your God! Your God is coming! Behold your
God! They beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
And that verse that we looked at in Habakkuk, the prophet Habakkuk,
in chapter 3 and verse 13, remarkable verse of scripture, but all in
the sovereign will of God to reveal His truth by His Spirit,
He says this, you went forth Speaking of God, you went forth
for the salvation of your people, even for salvation with your
Anointed, with your Redeemer, with your Christ, with your Messiah.
You went forth. This is why He came. If you miss
this, you absolutely miss every single detail of it. It doesn't
matter all of the lessons that we learn. It doesn't matter all
of the moral good that there is. If you miss that, you miss
absolutely everything. Jesus Christ walked this earth
He went to Cana of Galilee. He went to these places because
he went forth as God for the salvation of his people. And
he went with a single-minded determination to save his people. It says of him going up to Jerusalem
in the last days of his ministry for the crucifixion, he set his
face as a flint. You can imagine that, can't you?
It's graphic language. Determine. Nothing was going
to chisel that determination from him. absolute determination
to save his people, to save his people from condemnation. Why? Because his people are sinners
and God is holy and there's a gulf and there's a gap, a chasm that
is enormous, a chasm that the good works of man can never bridge,
for a man can never be good enough for God and the justice of God
condemns sin. The justice of God says the soul
that sins it shall die. And there is a condemnation,
and there is hell, and there is separation from God. But He
came to save His people from that condemnation. He came that
He might be merciful. Peter says this, He came and
died the just for the unjust. The just in the place of the
unjust. We are the unjust, His people.
He died in the place of the unjust that He might bring us to God.
that he might reconcile God and sinners that he might make reconciliation
that he might establish the righteousness without which no man shall see
the Lord and be accepted by him you must have a perfect righteousness
to be accepted by God and he came to establish that for every
single one of his people and he came to pay the sin debt so
he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be
the righteousness of God in him Here was the infinite God. He
must be infinite God if He's to save His people from their
sins, that great multitude. Here is the infinite God, clothed
in flesh. The Word became flesh and dwelt
among us. Here is the infinite God, without
sin of His own, that He might be a qualified Savior of His
people, that He might be qualified to stand as the surety, the guarantor,
the one on whom, if the person signing the contract defaults
on the contract, it's the guarantor that pays the bill. It's the
guarantor that steps in and takes responsibility. He came to be
that surety, to be that substitute, to be that federal head for each
and every one of his elect people. Each and every one of them. That's
what he was doing. That's what he was doing. See
everything in the light of that. Everything in the life and ministry
of the Lord Jesus Christ see it in the light of that that
here was God in flesh determined to save his people from their
sins he looked like an ordinary man there was nothing about him
that would make us think you can imagine as he walked as he
sat at that wedding at Cana of Galilee there was no halo around
him he looked like an ordinary man his mother had to say to
the servants because they didn't. If there'd been something special
about him, she wouldn't have needed to say to them, whatever
he says to you, do it. They would have known there was
something special. But no, he just looked like an ordinary
man. But though he looked like an ordinary man, he would use
all of his divine power to succeed in his mission. He came with
a mission, a purpose, to save his people from their sins. You
can imagine, we hear It's a long time ago is this one, it's just
come to my mind. But do you remember when there
was the capture in an aeroplane of some Israeli citizens at Entebbe
Airport in, where is it, Uganda, somewhere in Africa. And remember
that the special forces went in and they rescued them all.
They plucked them out of that situation. I think maybe one
person died. But they rescued them all from
a dreadful situation. Well, I know no simile. No metaphor of this comes close
to the truth, but this is the fact. Jesus Christ came with
a mission to rescue his people from their situation of sin and
separation from God. And as he walked this life, as
he lived his life, as he carried out his ministry, he performed
miracles. And the miracles, what are miracles?
Miracles are where the normal laws of nature and of science
are suspended. for the purpose of demonstrating
who he is, of accomplishing his purpose, of things not going
the normal way that the natural laws of this world make them
go. And so he turned water into wine in a moment by the exercise
of his will and nothing other than that, showing his creative
power, showing his omnipotence over all things, illustrating
this, that he turned ordinary water, ordinary water for cleansing,
He turned it into the joyful wine of a marriage feast. And
so it is. It's a picture of salvation.
He turns the water of mere existence into the joyous wine of His salvation
as a foretaste of that marriage supper of the Lamb when He'll
come again for His people and take them to be with Him in glory
forever. And then soon after that event
at Cana of Galilee was the Passover, the Feast of the Passover. We
read in the Gospel of John, and it's only in the Gospel of John,
we read of four distinct Passovers. And that's how we know that the
ministry of Jesus, the earthly ministry, must have been about
three and a half years in length, because it compassed four Passovers. But this was the first one. Now,
he had to go up to the Passover. He went to every one of the Passovers.
The Jews' Passover was at hand in verse 13, and Jesus went up
to Jerusalem. Now, why did he go? he went there
because of all the feasts and every single one of them and
every single aspect has great significance but of all of them
the feast of the Passover was the one that he came to fulfill
for Paul writes to the Corinthians Christ our Passover is sacrificed
for us Christ our Passover is sacrificed he must go to this
celebration this annual celebration of the freedom from Egypt. The
freedom from bondage in Egypt, which is what the Passover speaks
of. And in Egypt, the edict went out that the angel of death was
coming through the land and the firstborn of every family would
die. Of all the animals, of all the
people, the firstborn would die. But in the houses of the children
of Israel, there was to be a lamb that was to be slain. A perfect
lamb. A lamb of the first year in its
prime. it was to be kept and examined
to make sure it was perfect in every respect and then on the
night of the Passover this first Passover that lamb symbolically
was the substitute for the firstborn of the children of Israel and
they killed it in the place of what the angel of death would
come and do throughout Egypt and they took the blood of that
sacrifice and they painted it over the doorposts and over the
lentil of their houses and when the angel of death came through
that land that night wreaking such destruction amongst the
Egyptians that there was such a wailing and a sorrow for all
the firstborn that were lost when the angel of death saw the
blood on the doorposts and on the lintel he passed over he
passed by he didn't go in the lamb was a substitute symbolically
for the firstborn of the children of Israel and so Christ who is
the Lamb of God John the Baptist said behold the Lamb of God Christ
is not a symbolical substitute. He's the actual substitute for
his elect. So that when the angel of death,
the judgment of God comes, he looks upon the shed blood of
Christ and he sees the debt has been paid. Justice has been enacted. Sin has been cleansed. And so
he goes up to the Passover for he must go to the Passover for
it's the feast above all others that he came to fulfill when
Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us and he got to the temple
and in verse 14 he found in the temple those that sold oxen and
sheep and doves and the changes of money sitting he found a scene
that enraged him he found a scene that made him furious with righteous
indignation there's such a picture which is a sloppy sentimental
picture that the Son of God was nothing other than soft gentleness
and never had a cross word. He had cross words. He told the
Scribes and Pharisees what he thought of them in no uncertain
terms. He pronounced seven woes on the
Scribes and Pharisees. He was highly critical of the
Scribes and Pharisees and here he was furious with righteous
indignation. He was furious. He saw a scene
at the Temple of God in Jerusalem. He saw a scene where there were
animals and traders and there was the stench of the animals,
there was the noise of the situation, there was tremendous irreverence,
there was trading corruption going on, those that traded exploited
the fact that the people were turning up for worship inadequately
prepared because the book of the law told them exactly how
they should come and how they should be prepared and they were
coming unprepared and so almost like when you visit somebody
in hospital and you've forgotten to get the flowers and there's
the flower sellers down at the door, I don't know if they still
do that these days but you know they're there and you buy your
flowers to take up quickly because you didn't go adequately prepared
well in the same way they came for worship not adequately prepared
and there were the traders exploiting that situation and they had made
what was representative of the truth of God into just a marketplace
it was just a corrupt trading marketplace And what he did was
this. He made a scourge of small cords. He made a small whip. And he
drove them all out. And he turned over the tables.
And I'm sure an artist has painted a picture showing him indignantly
turning over the tables and scattering the money on the floor and driving
out those that sold the doves and the sheep and the animals.
That's what he did. And what he said was this. Desist. Stop. making my father's house
into a marketplace. This must stop. You're making
my father's house into a marketplace." And he drove them out. Now have
you ever thought, how on earth did he do that? Imagine the situation. Imagine that, have you been in
the Howard Center, the shopping mall, for anybody listening to
this, the shopping mall not far from us. And amongst all of the
shops down the central aisle, there are those who trade off
of open stalls and barrows and things like that. Now imagine
that I get really quite indignant that I think that there's some
fiddling going on in there and it's not being quite right. And
so on a Saturday morning when it's absolutely crowded, I go
in there with a strop on and I start turning over those stalls
and I start driving them all out. Can you imagine how far
I would get? Perhaps if I had a very powerful
machine gun in my hands and I was firing it off, some people might
take some notice of me. But if I went in there with just
a small whip, do you think they'd take the slightest notice of
me? How long do you think it would take them to overpower
me and resist me and pin me to the floor and call the police
and get it all stopped and I'd be arrested? This was a miracle. This was miraculous. He was an
ordinary looking man with a small whip in his hand. But something
about him made it so that they just couldn't resist. He came
with the zeal of the Lord, with the zeal of his mission. He came
and he drove them out. He said, my father's house, no
prophet before him had ever dared to call God his father in that
sense. No one. And God had never called
any prophet, for Christ was a prophet. But no, God had never called
any prophet his son, for he said, this is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. There was something terrifying
about this ordinary looking man with his whip in his hands. They
just fell before him. They just fled before him. They
just got out and did what he said. Something of divine power
must have been about his countenance, about his appearance. How else
could one ordinary-looking man do something like this without
any resistance, without being overpowered, without being arrested,
without being disarmed? No. Something miraculous happened. It's very much like at the end
of his ministry, in the Garden of Gethsemane, John 18 and verse
6, and a troop of Roman soldiers, now nobody messed with a troop
of Roman soldiers, they were well armed, they had armor on,
they got their man, they did the thing, they were powerful,
they were that iron fist that came along to arrest the Son
of God. And he said, who are you looking
for? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, I am. And I don't know how he said
it, But that's the name of God that God gave to Moses from the
burning bush. I am. And those Roman soldiers,
whatever happened, I don't know, but they fell back terrified.
Because there, the Son of God, something of divine power had
shone through. And so it was here. So why was
he so enraged? What was this zeal that had overtaken
him? Why was he so enraged? What about
gentleness? This isn't very much like Jesus
of the Scriptures, is it? What about gentleness? He was
enraged. His disciples saw it and they
remembered this. Look at verse 17. His disciples,
when they saw him do this, remembered that it was written, The zeal
of thine house hath eaten me up. That's quoting Psalm 69 and
verse 9. The zeal of thine house hath
eaten me up. He was zealous for the temple.
He was zealous for what went on there. And he saw them corrupting
it. And he drove them out, miraculously
drove them out. Was this just like, you know,
you say, well, why? Why was he so concerned for this
building? Why was he so concerned for it? He's the god of the universe,
and he's coming clothed in human flesh. Why was he so concerned?
Is it just like, no disrespect to you ladies, but like a fastidious
woman who's zealous for the tidiness of her front parlor? You know,
there's some places where I've been, there's some houses I've
visited, and you hardly sit down in the living room for fear of
sort of ruffling a cushion here or there, or putting something
not quite in its proper place, you know, that kind of... Was
it just this irrational, sort of obsessive insistence on things
being a certain way? Do you know there's a lot of
people look at the temple and the things to do with it and
they haven't got a clue what it was all for, but they take
this religious obedience view of it, that, well, I don't understand
a word of it, but God says it, therefore I must do it, without
questioning it or trying to find out what it's all about. No,
we must try and find out what it's all about. The Gospel is
rational. It's rational. We must try and
find out why. Why was he concerned for this
temple, this building? This wasn't the original temple.
The original Temple of Solomon had been a magnificent building.
And it had been built very quickly. But then of course in the days
of Nebuchadnezzar it was destroyed largely. And then in the days
of Nehemiah and Ezra, It was rebuilt. The walls of the city
were rebuilt, the temple was rebuilt first, and some years
later the walls of the city in the
days of Nehemiah were rebuilt. But that temple took a long time
in the building, and then there'd been lots of works that were
done on it by Herod in his day. And that's what they referred
to when they talked about it being 46 years. It was a sort
of a makeover job for it. It had taken 46 years. Was he
concerned for this heap of stones, however beautiful it was? I don't
believe so. He wasn't concerned for the building
just because it was a building, just because it was a famous
piece or a significant piece of architecture. No, no. Why do I say that? Well, in A.D. 70, he, the god of the universe,
ordained the destruction of that building, the permanent destruction
of that building. and it's never been rebuilt since
by the Romans in A.D. 70. That was prophesied by Daniel. It was put to an end and it was
destroyed. It can't have been a passion
for that piece of architecture. You know like you get the friends
of such and such a cathedral in this country and their life's
obsession is the maintenance and the upkeep of this building.
I'm not making any comment of of a negative nature about that.
It's good to preserve good architecture, but that wasn't his concern.
His zeal was not zeal for a pile of stones, not at all. It's what
the temple represented. His zeal was a zeal for the temple
which is symbolical of the true people of God. Now I want you
to turn to Ephesians chapter 2, because it's important that
you see this. Ephesians and the second chapter,
towards the end of it, verse 19 Paul is writing about the salvation
of sinners. He's saying you were sinners,
you were dead in trespasses and sins but now he's made you alive
and then in verse 19 he says now therefore you are no more
strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens. You're no more
alien to the to the kingdom of God, to the the citizenship of
the true Israel of God, but your fellow citizens with the Saints
and of the household of God and are built, now look this, you're
built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, the
Old Testament Scriptures, the New Testament Scriptures, Jesus
Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, he's the foundation,
he's the keystone that holds it all together, in whom all
the building fitly framed. You see, the people of God, the
Church of God, is a living temple. It's a building of God, fitly
framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. The Church
of God, the people of God, are a holy temple in the Lord, in
whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through
the Spirit. The Church of God, which is His
true people, His true believing people, are that temple of the
living God, the place where the Spirit of God dwells, an habitation
of God through the Spirit. He dwells amongst his people.
The temple was not down. Very early on, after his resurrection,
when they were waiting for Pentecost, there were a hundred and twenty
living stones assembled in that upper room, waiting for the Spirit
to come and inhabit his temple. For that was the temple now.
That pile of stones where Jesus performed this miracle of driving
out the traders, that pile of stones would soon be gone. The
only pile of stones that mattered was the living stones, which
were his people, bought with a price, bought with the blood
of the Son of God. So Paul writes to the Corinthians,
know ye not, talking to them about how they should behave
in this world, talking to them about the need for good works,
that ye are the temple of God. and that the Spirit of God dwells
in you. How can you abuse that temple
of the living God? You are the temple of the living
God. This is Christ's church. This is what the temple symbolized.
Zion, the building, the habitation where God dwells by the Spirit
and everything there in that physical temple signified, it
pictured, it symbolized how God would reconcile his sinful people
in Christ and thereby remain just and yet justify sinners
that's what he says Isaiah 45 21 he is a just God and a Savior
he's a just God means he must punish sin but he's a Savior
how does he do it? in a Messiah in a Redeemer in
a substitute Romans 3 26 that he might be just and the justifier
of him whose faith is in Christ just and the justifier you see
in Psalm 69 and verse 9 it talks about the zeal for thine house
has consumed him this is the Redeemer this is Christ speaking
through the words of David and you'll notice if you read that
Psalm all of the messages of Christ bearing the sins of his
people bearing the wrath of God for the sins of his people he
bore those sins in his own body on the tree of Calvary and God
poured out his wrath on his dearly beloved son that his people might
go free that the sin debt might be paid it was in the midst of
those sufferings that Christ said the zeal of thine house
hath consumed me the zeal of his house is the zeal of his
object and his object was the salvation of his people which
was represented by the temple For the temple was the representation
of his people, and everything that went on there was illustrative
of the way he would save his people. The altar was illustrative
of the way that Christ would come. And now, the writer to
the Hebrews, towards the end of it, chapter 13, says, we have
an altar. We don't have a table on which
we sacrifice animals. We have an altar, which is a
spiritual altar, which is our Lord Jesus Christ, which is death,
which is his death on the cross of Calvary. the animal sacrifices
all spoke of the need for blood atonement and of a substitute
the blood of atonement whereby the high priest once a year had
access through the veil into the holy of holies and only by
blood for he couldn't go any other way it all spoke of what
Christ would accomplish so that when Christ died on the cross
of Calvary what do we read at that moment when he died the
veil of the temple was torn in two because now peace with God
for his people had been accomplished. And He, Christ, not the high
priest with the blood of an animal, but He, Christ, had gone into
the Holy of Holies with His own blood as the sacrifice for His
people. He'd gone in there, into that
Holy of Holies. The Ark of the Covenant, it all
spoke of the Gospel of Grace. The mercy seat, where God would
speak with sinners as the blood was sprinkled on that gold mercy
seat. The showbread, all of those things, the candlesticks, they
all symbolized Christ. and his work. The temple was
the perpetual, eloquent sermon preaching the gospel of substitutionary
satisfaction. If you see anything other in
that temple, those Old Testament rites around the temple, you
completely miss the point of the scriptures. These are they,
said Christ, which speak of me. They speak of the gospel of his
grace. They don't teach us to obey. They teach us to believe
the gospel of his grace. They're not about law and works.
They're about the gospel of his grace, a perpetual eloquent sermon
preached in all the rites and ceremonies of the temple and
Christ came and he saw it all totally corrupted and distorted
and he was indignant he was furious the zeal of his house had consumed
him and he drove them out and like Paul as Paul writes to the
Galatians in chapter 1 about the purity of the gospel and
the absolute need for intolerance not good words are they in our
society today Paul was intolerant of anything which was a deviation
from the truth of the gospel of grace. He said this, if I,
me, Paul, if I or an angel from heaven come and preach any other
gospel to you than that which you have heard, let him be accursed. You maybe didn't hear me the
first time. If I or an angel from heaven come and preach any
other gospel to you than that which I have preached, let him
be accursed. Absolutely vital. absolutely
vital. You know, we get zealous about
things in our society, and rightly so. We get zealous about the
gas and electricity safety rules, about it being done properly.
We get zealous about medical procedures being done properly.
Why do we do that? Because the consequences of not
doing it are fatal. They're just too dangerous to
play with. You just cannot have people wiring things up who haven't
got a clue what they're doing, because people will be electrocuted
and die as a result of it. We're zealous about those things. But when it comes to the gospel,
if you're zealous for gospel truth, oh, you're judged a bigot.
You're judged as narrow. You're judged as unloving. You're
judged as unnecessarily pedantic. You're even judged as dangerous.
You're even equated with those like, for example, Islam, who
have a zeal who are zealous for their thing but you know here's
the truth the true gospel the followers of Christ according
to the scriptures are to be zealous zealous for the truth but you
know what else Paul says to Titus a people who are zealous for
good works zealous for good works that's where this zeal has its
object so the Jews then go on verse 18 he does these things
and the Jews then go on and they say give us a sign You see, I
can imagine them, can you? They're in shocked submission. Not one of them could raise a
finger against him. They've seen what they know. It must be echoing and troubling
them deeply. Were the signs of the Messiah
coming from what he did? The zeal of thine house hath
consumed me. Then answered the Jews and said
unto him, What sign are you going to show us, seeing that you do
the things which are the signs of the Messiah? As if he hadn't
already done enough what sign you going to show us and Jesus
answered and said unto them verse 19 destroy this temple and in
three days I will raise it up of course they completely misunderstood
those Jews and by that it means the rulers the religious rulers
the scribes the Pharisees the priests all they could see was
a pile of stones all they could see was a piece of architecture
and they said 46 years was this temple in the building and you're
going to build it in three days? Come off it. Don't be talking
such rubbish. Forty-six years this took, but
he spake of the temple of his body. He wasn't talking about
that building. He was talking about the tabernacle,
the tent of his body. The tabernacle in which God became
flesh. It's like the answer that he
gave to another set of sign seekers, those who seek nothing other
than a sign. in Matthew 12 38 to 40 they asked
him for a sign and he said an evil and adulterous generation
seeks after a sign and there shall no sign be 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 that's the
sign his death and his resurrection in three days that's the sign
That's the only sign that really matters. That's the only sign
you're going to get, is that he, in the temple of his body,
that body that was prepared for him, would die and rise in three
days. And in the process, he would
satisfy justice, divine justice, for all his people. He would
accomplish that which his zeal was driving him towards. He'd
gone out for the salvation of his people, and that's what it
would accomplish, the salvation of his people. His resurrection. I will raise it up, He says in
verse 19. His resurrection would declare
Him, as Romans says, Romans 1 and verse 4, the resurrection declared
Him to be the Son of God. God in human flesh with power. The Son of God in human flesh
with power. In Romans 4.25 we're told that
He was delivered up for our transgressions and raised for our justification. He was raised as the seal, as
the proof of the justification, that the penalty had been paid,
that the price had been accepted, that the sins of His people had
been blotted out, that they could only see the physical building.
But look, when He was risen from the dead, His disciples remembered
and they believed the Scriptures. But at that time in verse 23,
look at these final verses just as we close. Now when He was
in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed
in his name when they saw the miracles which he did they did
see and many believed many believed I wonder how many were sincere
true believers or just notional external easy believers they'd
seen something that appealed to the eyes and they followed
because Jesus didn't commit himself to them because he knew all men
he knows the heart he knows What Jeremiah says, the heart of man
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? I, the Lord, know the heart. He knows the heart. He
knows all men. He knows what's inside each of
us, in our deepest thoughts, in their deepest thoughts. He
knows all of that. He, the man, Christ Jesus, knew
all of that, for he was the God-man. He knew what was in the hearts
of men. He needed not that any man should testify, that any
should testify of man. He didn't need to go saying,
oh, what a good thing they'd done in believing and following,
for he knew how shallow was the belief of so many. He knew how
so many were just those that had fallen amongst stony ground
and amongst the thorns and thistles. He knew what was in man. But
there were those who believed. His disciples believed. He does
call his people to believe. I would say to anybody listening,
you children, what about you? Are you hearing the truth about
eternity? About God who is holy? About
eternal life? About sin? About justice? About judgment? About the Son
of God going out with zeal to save his people from their sins? About God in Christ reconciling
his people who are sinners to himself and making peace? Well,
if you're hearing it, If you're hearing it, oh, sit up and take
notice. If you're hearing it, why will
you not then come to him in repentance and faith? For he said this,
come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, for my
yoke is easy and my burden is light. All who come to him, he
will in no wise cast out any of them. Amen.