Challenges To/For Public Worship-4 Series

CHALLENGES To/For PUBLIC WORSHIP-IV—John 2:12-25

Attention:

The Church can be tempted toward many directions regarding the manner & message of its Public Worship. There are real Challenges to bringing about Public Worship!...There are dynamics which, if we deny, will keep our church & the public from being able to fully worship in s(S)pirit & truth!

Jesus made it plain that the temple worship had become tainted with improprieties.

Public Worship is to be free from impropriety.

OR

There is to be consonance(harmony/agreeability with God) in public worship.

When is public worship consonant(harmonious/agreeable)?

Some Challenges to (harmonious)public worship.

Previously we have found some Challenges to (harmonious)public worship are its...

1. OCCASION(:13)

2. INVITATION(:13-14)

3. PROTECTION(:15)

4. RESONATION(:16-17)

5—A challenge to (harmonious)public worship is its...

AUTHORIZATION(:18-19)

Explanation:(:18-19)

:18—“So the Jews answered & said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?”

“The Jews” were in opposition to Jesus. Thus they had become a ‘religious entity’ to themselves, birthed thru their willing deafness toward the very God who wrought them. They effectively held to their own set of rules & held to their own version of ‘God’ making Him not God but ‘a god.’

“The Jews”—Used negatively or in an uncomplimentary fashion!—John’s description of those who follow a religion of their own founded upon God’s truth yet the outworkings of which deny God’s truth(Jn. 7:13). Paul calls them “the Circumcision.” cf.—Rom. 3:29-30; Rom. 4:1-13; Rom. 15:7-9; Tit. 1:7-11; Col. 4:10-11

Jesus openly messed with their religious establishment as the maintainers of truth, & to them, the only one allowed to do such would be someone able to prove their credentials, by means of a “sign.” Were they expecting “signs” to be performed by the one who was prophesied as coming like Moses?(Deut. 18:13-22)

Deut. 18:13-22—“You shall be blameless before the LORD your God. For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers & diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not appointed such for you. The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, according to all you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’ “And the LORD said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good. ‘I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, & will put My words in His mouth, & He shall speak to them all that I command Him. ‘And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ “And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’--when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”

These “Jews” answered Jesus’ statement(:16) with a question as to where He had received the authority to drive the people & animals out of the temple(“do these things”). The Jews rightly based the authority to drive them out, as only being derived from God. They therefore, demanded proof of His direction from God, which they would/could not accept, given that Jesus openly & implied His Divinity.

The very sad thing about this situation is that the Jews had to have known their own actions were an affront to God. Thus they were obviously driven by empty tradition, money, & political give & take. Had the operations in the temple been legitimately ordained of God, i.e., if Jesus sought to overturn the pure & actual work of God in reality, He would have been arrested on the spot for being a blasphemer.

“Sign”—shmeion—1) A sign, mark, token—1a) That by which a person or a thing is distinguished from others & is known, 1b) A sign, prodigy, portent, i.e. An unusual occurrence, transcending the common course of nature—1b1) Of signs portending remarkable events soon to happen, 1b2) Of miracles & wonders by which God authenticates the men sent by him, or by which men prove that the cause they are pleading is God’s.” Strong—An indication, especially ceremonially or supernaturally.

“Show”—deiknuw—1) To show, expose to the eyes; 2) metaph.—2a) To give evidence or proof of a thing, 2b) To show by words or teach. Strong—To show(literally or figuratively).