What Burns You Up?
(John 2:13-22)
Introduction
1. Imagine attending a church service in 50A.D.. The small congregation of Jewish believers has opened up the meeting for sharing, and one a man about 60 stands up to share….
2. I came to believe in Yeshua last year, though I met him in the Temple where I was selling doves. He whipped me and gave me a welt.
3. I don’t know whether such a testimony occurred in a church meeting, but it could have.
4. Today’s message contemplates Jesus’ first cleansing of the Temple courts.
5. Christ throw over tables and whipped the merchants on two occasions: very early in His ministry (today’s lesson) and during his last week of pre-resurrection ministry.
6. Philip Yancey, “The Jesus I Never Knew”—talks about how the real Jesus of Scripture is so different from the flannelgraph Jesus he learned of in S.S.
PROP: We have a choice: we can either learn from the real Jesus of Scripture, or the Jesus we’d prefer to believe in. Learning to understand the real Jesus will change our lives in the real world; trusting in the pretend Jesus will give us goose bumps but do little to help us grow in spiritual maturity.
TS------------ Let’s look at the real Jesus in action and draw some principles for our own lives.
I. Questions This Incident Raises
1. What is the difference between the Temple, tabernacle, and church?
2. Why was Jesus so furious?
(1) Psalm 69:9
(2) Hillel
(3) The level of corruption
(4) The court of the gentiles
3. What was He trying to accomplish?
(1) Demanding change/national repentance
(2) only a minor distrubance (a few or would have been arrested)
(3) perhaps others had done the same (lots of disgust—curse in Talmud)
4. What gave Him a Right to do what He did?
(1) How is God Jesus’ Father in a way He is not ours?
(2) The Messiah had rights to altar the law¸ command, etc..
5.Why did He get away with it?
---everyone knew He was right---
6. How did He assert His authority (18-24)
----body resurrected----resurrected Himself
II. The Real Issue: Who Is the Boss?
1. The Temple was His Father’s House---Jesus had full authority---not merely a guest there like the rest
2. If Christ were not God, He could still have spoken out against the corruption…
----Jesus brother James did so….(read)
III. What Can We Apply to Ourselves?
1. Jesus has the right to rule our lives/hearts
(1) the AUTHORITY thing
(2) MESSIAH—only ultimate authority is God (source of absolutes)
2. The gentle Savior was comfortable with anger….
(1) planned anger—made whip—not Temple tantrum
(2) purpose to His anger: first time (I want change if the Kingdom is to be brought in); second time: God will destroy this Temple….(prophetic, coupled with the cursing of the Fig Tree)….
3. You can tell a lot about a person by WHAT gets them angry; shallow people get angry over shallow things; deep people, over important things….
CONCLUSION
