In the sermon 'The Zeal of Jesus for His Father’s House,' Jason Dohm examines John 2:13-25, where Jesus clears the temple of merchants and money changers during Passover. This act showcases Jesus' fervent commitment to holy worship and challenges the modern perception of Him as merely meek and mild. Dohm contrasts the Gospel of John with the synoptic gospels, highlighting John's focus on Jesus' ministry in Jerusalem and multiple Passovers, unlike the synoptics' focus on Galilee and a single Passover. The sermon emphasizes the importance of differentiating between common and holy aspects of worship, with Jesus' actions illustrating His zeal for reverence in His Father's house. Dohm also discusses the significance of Jesus' statement about raising the temple in three days, interpreting it as a reference to His resurrection. The sermon concludes by emphasizing the importance of cultivating zeal for holy worship and the transformative power of Jesus' resurrection as the cornerstone of Christian belief.

Our text this morning is John chapter 2, 13-25. Please follow along. Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And he found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves and the money changers doing business. When he had made a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.

And he said to those who sold doves, take these things away! Do not make my father's house a house of merchandise!" Then his disciples remembered that it was written, "'Zeal for your house has eaten me up.' So the Jews answered and said to him, "'What sign do you show us since you do these things?" Jesus answered and said to them, "'Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.'" The Jews said, "'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days?' But he was speaking of the temple of his body. Therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all men and had no need that Anyone should testify of man, for he knew what was in man.

O Father, prepare our hearts for the Word, the message, and the applications that we should receive from this text. In Jesus' name, Amen. We finished chapter 2 today. I think we were 11 weeks in chapter 1, now 2 weeks in chapter 2. And next week, Mala Chindongo is going to come and preach to us about the role of the Holy Spirit in missions.

I wish you could have been there yesterday to hear him preach. He had a keynote session. He was preaching to probably over a thousand people. And Every eye was on Him. God gave Him the ability to preach with power.

I presume we'll get that next week too. I'm excited about that. The week after, the Chindongos and a few of the domes will be down in Pensacola, Florida, with at Chapel Library visiting Jeff Pollard, and James will be preaching on Nicodemus and starting John chapter 3. That's a roadmap of where we're heading. And I'm bitter that he gets that text.

And I might never recover. And I think somehow he planned that on purpose. The title of the sermon this week is very simple. It's the zeal of Jesus for his Father's house. He's eaten up by it.

He's absolutely consumed by the burning in his heart for holy worship. Last week was the wedding in Cana of Galilee. And the significance of it, there was a lot to say about it obviously, but the significance of it is that we're needy. We run out, we run short. And Jesus has.

He's where we go to get what we need. And not only does He have, He has a flood of it. He created a flood of wine. And not only does he have a flood of it, it's the best. It's the best.

He made wine that surprised the master of the wedding feast. This week we have a text that thankfully blows up the modern conception of meek and mild Jesus. Jesus is not a tame Jesus. Jesus is not your house pet. He is God.

He is Lord. And so we're conditioned through the modern conception to sort of take the claws off and the fangs out. But that is not the real Jesus. The real Jesus is Lord of all and is angry at unholy worship and acts. So we have a Jesus who is acting decisively in our text.

Let's go to the text in prayer. Father, I thank You for the perfection of Your Son Jesus Christ, which often looks so different than our expectations. So I thank you for a shocking text. A text that shocks our system. We expected to see one thing.

We're brought face to face with another kind of perfection of your Son than we thought we would see. Change our minds, Lord. Your Word is right and our conceptions have always been so wrong. Help us change us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

I'm going to break up the text into three portions. So we'll begin with 13-17. So follow along as I read John chapter 2 verses 13-17. Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And he found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.

When he had made a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen and poured out the money changers money and overturned the tables. And he said to those who sold doves, Take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of merchandise. Then his disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for your house has eaten me up. So the Jews answered and said to him, what sign do you show us since you do these things?

Jesus answered and said to them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Then the Jews said, it has taken forty-six years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days? But he was speaking of the temple of his body. Therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this to them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said." I've gone way past, haven't I? Alright, the first section.

Pretend I cut off at the right point. It's just wonderful reading. I don't want to stop. This is Jesus at the Passover. So if you're filling in blanks, the blank is Passover.

Jesus at the Passover. It was time for the Passover and Jesus went to it. And Jesus always went to it. Listen to Luke chapter 2 verse 41. Luke 2, 41 says, his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover.

So this is actually the record of Jesus, the 12 year old boy Jesus in the temple. Just amazing the teachers there with his answers and the questions that he was asking. But anyway, the point is that Jesus was part of a serious Jewish family, which meant that at least the males, and maybe the whole family, would go up three times a year to the three major feasts, one of which being Passover. This is a distinctive feature of John. Are you tired of hearing me say that yet?

That John is really different from Matthew, Mark, Luke. They are known as the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. I'm going to keep saying that because the synoptics or the synoptic gospels is a frequently used word and we just need to know what it means. It just means those three gospels that are really alike and they're different than John And here again it's different than John. This is a distinctive feature.

In the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, they're centered on Galilee. Does that mean they have nothing about Jerusalem? No. It just means that most of the content in Matthew, Mark, and Luke are things that occurred, preaching that was done in Galilee. It's centered in Galilee, but not so in John.

In John, the preaching and the happenings are centered on Jerusalem. So that in the synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, there's one Passover. It's Passion Week. It's the last week of Jesus' life. There's no mention of any other Passover's in the synoptic gospels.

But there are at least three and maybe four in John. Almost all of what we're going to be studying will happen within the boundaries of Jerusalem. And there will be at least three Passover feasts that will be a part of John's account. It might be four. If John 5.1, which says they went up to a feast, is a Passover, then it would be a fourth Passover.

You can't be sure. It's either three or four. In Deuteronomy chapter 16, verse 16, It gives us a summary of the three major feasts in a year. And all three were week-long feasts. So God knows how to feast and celebrate.

But three weeks out of 52 were given over to rejoice before the Lord in Jerusalem. That should tell us something about His worship. It's supposed to be full of joy and feasting. Amen. I'll do it for myself if you won't do it.

And these three feasts were the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or Passover, also known as Passover, The Feast of Pentecost, also known as the Feast of Weeks, or the Feast of Tabernacles. And so this is the Passover feast. We find it instituted in Exodus chapter 12, Right as the people are being liberated from their bondage in Egypt, and in Exodus chapter 12 it is to be a perpetual remembrance, meaning Jews are never to stop doing it. And it is to celebrate and to Remember being set free from bondage under Pharaoh. All these things are deeply typical.

Pharaoh is like the devil. The Israelites are like the people of God washed by the blood of God. Even going through the Red Sea, Paul says that's like being baptized. They were baptized in passing through the Red Sea. And it is about passing over.

That's why it's called Passover. Because the angel of the Lord came through the land of Egypt and he killed a member in every household. But the Jews were given a way of escape. The only way of escape, which was to take a lamb without blemish, and to kill it, and to take the blood, and sprinkle blood on the doorposts, so that the angel of the Lord would know, this is a household that belongs to God, This is a household under the blood and the angel of the Lord would pass over and not kill someone in your household that night. Clearly this is Jesus.

Clearly this is Jesus. At this point we just say Stop. Consider all of chapter 2 now. The first part of it is the wedding at Cana. Jesus, the bridegroom of the wedding, is showing up and attending a wedding.

John never even says anything about it. He relates the account but never connects the dots. In hindsight, looking back through the lens of the New Testament, How can you not connect the dots? And marvel that Jesus, the ultimate bridegroom that every other bridegroom in the history of mankind has ever pointed to, is going to a wedding. Now, it's happening again.

Again, John says, not a word to connect the dots, but Jesus is attending the Passover. Jesus is the Lamb of the Passover. Paul says it explicitly in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 7, Indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. So John doesn't stop to notice. I don't really know why he doesn't.

But we should stop and notice and say that Jesus is the bridegroom. He's going to a wedding that points to him. Jesus is the lamb, the Passover lamb who was sacrificed for us. He's going up to the Passover. It was all about him.

Jesus arrives, he goes to the temple, he finds animals being sold, sheep and oxen and doves and money being exchanged. Now what is this about? Well, people would come from all over the world to Jerusalem. Especially from Israel, but also in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost, people are from all over the world speaking all different languages. That's what makes the day of Pentecost so wonderful is that everyone can hear God being praised in his own tongue.

They've come from everywhere and the same would be true at the Passover. Josephus, when he's talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, said that normally the population of Jerusalem would swell from about 200, 000. All year long you'd have about 200, 000 people living or being in Jerusalem at one time. But at the Passover, it would swell to 3 million. Imagine the influx of people, the flood of people coming into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover Feast.

So this is what's happening here. People from all nations are coming. You might have come from a great distance expecting to be able to offer a sacrifice in Jerusalem, and not wanting to take animals with you on that journey. And so there was a way. There was a way.

You could come and you could buy animals in Jerusalem. You could travel light. Anybody like to pack light? And buy the animals that you would be offering in Jerusalem? But probably your money wouldn't be welcome for that.

Especially not inside the temple. Those coins that you would have would have an inscription of a person, often a person that was honored as God, and that money wasn't welcome in the temple. And also that money wasn't very pure oftentimes. They would want money that was metallically more pure than what you would bring from the outside. So you trade, you would exchange money.

You would trade money for what would be acceptable currency in the temple. That's what's happening. All that used to happen outside the temple. And fair enough. You needed animals.

You could buy animals. You needed to exchange money. You could exchange money. It used to happen outside the temple, but now over time it had come inside the temple. You'd be coming.

You might need to pay a temple tax. That's going to show up in our study of the Gospels as well. You need to exchange your money. The Greek word used here in these early verses for temple really would be more accurately rendered temple complex. Big temple.

The grounds associated with the temple. When we get to verse 19 and Jesus is going to call his body the temple, it's actually a different Greek word. So the English doesn't pick up on the nuance. Jesus calls his body a temple, a different Greek word that actually means the temple that you and I would think of, that you go into, it's got the altar and the animals are being sacrificed there at the altar. This is not the word used in the early verses.

The Greek word used in the early verses is the temple complex. The big broad use of the term that would cover anything inside the temple complex which had grown to be quite large. And probably, almost certainly, the money is being changed and the animals are being sold in the court of the Gentiles. So the Gentiles can't go into the temple that we're thinking of with the altar and the sacrifices happening there. They're not welcome there.

The law of God forbids them coming into there. But they can come inside the temple complex. In fact, there's even a court for them, the court of the Gentiles. This is where Gentiles can come and pray, but now it's a barnyard. Gentiles, you come pray in the barnyard at the Passover at the time of Jesus.

The text says that they are doing business. Jesus clearly is filled with righteous indignation, righteous anger at the defilement of this holy place. Israel is the holy land. We call it the holy land today. Within Israel is Jerusalem, which was known and is known as the holy city.

So the holy city within the holy land. And the temple is the holy place within the holy city within the holy land, sort of three times holy. The holy within the holy within the holy. In fact, you can go further and say inside the temple is the holy of holies. The holy within the holy within the holy within the holy.

There you go. The point is this is holy ground. God has not left prescribing worship up to our own desires, but has told us how He is to be worshiped and this is to be a holy place within a holy city within a holy nation. And now it's a barnyard where the Gentiles can come and pray. This is what we have in our text.

Jesus makes a whip of cords and he drives them all out. All the people, all the animals, out! I'm so glad for the way you read it. You scared us half to death. That's exactly how that should be read.

If you hear the red words in your Bible any other way than something that would startle you, then you're not thinking right about how Jesus is approaching this. It's righteous anger. Not the kind of anger we so often experience. Don't try to put that on Jesus. That's not possible.

He's sinless and undefiled. Then he says, do not make my father's house a house of merchandise. Now, is there anything inherently wrong with a house of merchandise? Oh, you should hope not. You spend a lot of time in them.

If Harris Teeter is inherently evil, like we've all got a big problem, there's nothing inherently wrong with the house of merchandise but not on this holy ground. God has said how he wants to be worshiped and that there are common things and that there are holy things and you Never mix them you never mix the common with the holy because the the holy by definition is to be set apart For God and only God You don't bring the common things into the holy. They don't belong. This is the problem. The temple was holy, and they're mixing the holy and the common.

Nothing inherently wrong in selling animals to people who are coming from far away in order that they can offer. Nothing even inherently wrong in changing the money, although I wonder what the rate was, and I wonder who was benefiting. The priests and the Levites are in control of what's happening in the temple complex. The leaders of the Jews are in control. Are they profiting?

The text doesn't say. Anybody got a guess? So the holy and the common are being mixed, and that declares to the Lord's people, this place is not special. The temple is not special. Or maybe the inner temple is special.

The place where the Gentiles can come and pray, that's not special. This great display of consuming zeal for his father's house made the disciples think of a scripture, Psalm 69.9. Zeal for your house has eaten me up. That Greek word means to consume by eating. It is consuming him.

It is eating him up. What a wonderful rendering of that. Right on. Psalm 69 is quoted seven times in the New Testament. This is the first half of that verse.

Paul quotes the second half of that verse, and I won't even talk about it further, but the second half of that verse in Romans chapter 15, and then it's quoted on five other occasions in the New Testament. Psalm 69 gets a lot of quotation in the New Testament. Oh, this would have been a problem for the Jews. Zeal for my house? Zeal for my Father's house?

Do not make my Father's house a house of merchandise. Jesus claims that the temple is his Father's house. Now listen where I'm just going to fast forward to John 5 verse 18. In John chapter 5 verse 18 says, Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only broke the Sabbath but also said that God was his father making himself equal with God. You and I might not draw that conclusion, but every Jew who heard Jesus said that knew what he was saying.

Because of all the background that they would have had that we don't. It would not have been unclear what kind of claim Jesus was making when he said, take these things away, do not make my Father's house a house of merchandise. He is making himself equal with God. By the way, this is Jesus' public introduction to Israel. Not a sign.

In fact, Jesus last week at the wedding of Cana says, my hour has not yet come. He's somewhat reluctant to change the water into wine. His public introduction to Israel is not a miracle It is making a cord of whips and driving the merchants out of the temple courts How is it that Jesus one man drove out many merchants, all their cattle, They could have physically stopped him from doing this, assuming he's not asserting his godhood. Well, it was God. This is in the providence of God.

So one can put a thousand to flight. One can put a thousand to flight in the providence of God. This is how it works. God's part of the scale is always tips. No matter how many you put on the other part of the scale, God's part tips.

One in 1, 000, God's part tips. One in 10, 000, his part tips. One in 100, 000, a million, it doesn't matter. His part always tips. Secondly, These are men with disturbed consciences.

They don't have the heart to resist a jealous, and jealous, jealous for his father, zealous for his father's house. They don't have the heart to resist him because they know this isn't right. At this point in the text we have to ask ourselves, Where have I brought the common into what God has designed to be holy? Where have I brought the common into what God has designed to be holy. Where is my zeal?

Where is my zeal? Jesus' zeal was for his Father's name and his Father's house. He was jealous for his Father's name and he was zealous for his Father's house. Where is your zeal? What is your zeal reserved for?

You know, you can't be zealous about everything all the time. You reserve your zeal. What is it reserved for? Jesus was reserved for this moment. Jealous for his father's name, zealous for his father's house.

I've seen many, many, many images supposed to be Jesus in my 47 years. Not once was it this scene. Not once. It was Jesus on a hillside with a few. You can imagine whispering in hushed tones, teaching in a subdued voice.

I've seen images of what was supposed to be Jesus holding the little children. I've seen images of what was supposed to be Jesus at the Lord's Supper with his disciples. I have seen images of what was supposed to be Jesus hanging on the cross. Never one time have I seen him driving out people of the temple who were defiling the worship of God. Why is that?

Why is that? Revelation 6 verse 16 has a striking phrase. Don't ever forget this phrase. Revelation 6 verse 16 has this phrase, I don't think it's anywhere else in the Bible, the wrath of the lamb. It's talking about the judgment day and about how the enemies of God would want the mountains to fall upon them so they wouldn't have to face Jesus and it speaks of the wrath of the Lamb.

Is there a place in your theology for that? There had better be. There had better be a place in your theology for an angry lamb. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. But never, never, never think that that means that He is just the image of the one seated with a few on the hillside, or just the one who is holding the little children, or just the one who is giving out the bread and the wine at the Lord's Supper, or that He is just even the one hanging on the cross.

By the way, this is why there should be no images of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a violation of the second commandment. Hardly anybody believes that anymore. People that we respect and love and are real Christians don't believe that anymore, but I believe that with all my heart To have Jesus on a crucifix is wrong because it leaves Him forever on the cross. He is not on the cross.

He is raised from the dead. And it would be wrong to have Jesus immortalized in an image of him driving out the temple. That's not him. We only have the account of this early in the gospel and then late in the synoptics. There are two instances where he cleanses the temple.

This is another place where John is different than the synoptics. In John, it's right here at the beginning of his ministry. He's never preached a sermon. And he's done it. In Matthew, Mark, Luke, it's Passion Week.

So you either have to reconcile how these can be one event, but really, when you set them side by side to me they are impossible to reconcile. And the only conclusion is that it was at the very beginning and the very end, and it's just an indication that he was never received as the authority, and they just kept right on with this. And it needed to be cleansed again in three years at the end of his ministry. One last thought. J.C.

Ryle says this, it would have been well for the church if all church reformers had blended like wisdom with the like zeal in their proceedings. In the present instance all were rebuked and instructed, but no one was really injured and nothing was lost." I would have never thought of that if it wasn't for the commentary, but I think it's really valuable. Like, We have zeal, we want to reform, but see how Jesus does it. He is forceful and He instructs and He rebukes, but no one is really injured and nothing was lost. He may have struck people with that whip of cords.

He's God. If he did it, it was right for him to do it. But it's not in the text that he did it. We don't know. There were a lot of animals that got out of that temple.

It's possible it was just for the animals. We don't know. Verses 18-22. I probably read it, but let's read it again. Yes, I did read it.

Follow along. Follow along. So the Jews answered and said to him, What sign do you show to us since you do these things? Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Then the Jews said, it has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days? But he was speaking of the temple of his body.

Therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this to them, and they believe the scripture and the word which Jesus had said." In these verses we have the demand of the Jews. If you're filling in blanks, it's demand. The demand of the Jews. They demand a sign. Almost certainly it's those who are in authority who are demanding the sign.

It doesn't say, it just says the Jews. The Sanhedrin, which we know of from Jesus' trial and execution, the Sanhedrin or the highest court in the land actually met in the temple complex they would have been on site Passover week for sure. So there never would have been more Jewish leaders in the temple complex than during Passover week and it would not have taken long for them to hear that a man was driving out merchants and money changers. I bet it wasn't minutes. They demand that Jesus prove himself to be sent from God since he presumes to come in not a priest, not a Levite, not a leader, and he's taking authority over the temple complex.

This is Classic. There is not one word about the substance of the matter. It's only about point of order. You're out of order, Jesus. We're priests, we're Levites, we're leaders, you're none, you're out of order.

Nothing about the substance. Should we be selling animals where the Gentiles come to pray within the temple complex? Should we be changing money at a profit? Then overseas enough to know that you lose money when you change money. Always.

They're not there for no reason changing money. Should we be doing this? The substance, nothing about the substance, it's all point of order. For us, I'd say this, beware of focusing on the critic to the exclusion of the criticism. Apply this to your life.

Beware. When criticism comes, the most natural thing to our nature is to think of the ten reasons why the critic is invalid. You can think of them. It's not their business. You're not the person to say these things.

Who do they think they are? And it's a way to ignore the criticism. Point of order. You're out of order criticizing me this way. You're not the right one to say these things.

For us, beware of focusing on the critic to the exclusion of the criticism. There might be a place to consider the credentials of the critic, but you better focus on the substance of the criticism. Or you might find yourself being like these Jewish leaders. Jesus, son of God, you're out of order. What kind of insanity?

What kind of insanity? They demand a sign, Jesus gives them a sign. Look again at verse 19. Jesus answered and said to them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. There's your sign.

You ask for a sign? I give you a sign. This is very obscure at best. We only know because we've got it all and it's been explained to us. You wouldn't have one chance in a hundred of getting it if you didn't have a Bible in hand.

Very obscure at best. I want to take us to another very similar instance. It's in Matthew chapter 12. So turn to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew 12.

Almost exactly like this. Matthew 12, I'll read 38 through 42. Matthew chapter 12 beginning in verse 38. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered saying, Teacher, we want to see a sign from you. Here we go again.

But he answered and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and indeed a greater than Solomon is here. It's almost exactly like the circumstance we have in John chapter 2.

Show us a sign. Okay, here's a sign. The sign of Jonah. You don't have a Bible in hand. You don't have one chance in a hundred of what, of understanding what Jesus is really saying.

And it's about his resurrection. You see the similarities between the two. In both cases they demand a sign, in both cases he says something they don't have one chance of understanding, in both cases the sign is His resurrection. That's on purpose. The idea is that the earthly ministry of Jesus was full of signs, but when someone in their pride demands a sign, Jesus as God demonstrates their stupidity by giving an answer that perfectly answers the question, but they don't understand.

This perfectly answers the question. Jesus, since you know so much, since You are so wise, since you're in control of the temple, here is the answer. We don't understand. Job, even though he was righteous, so much more righteous than these Jewish leaders, got the same treatment from God. The end of Job, God shows up.

Job, where were you when I laid the foundations of the world? The end has Job clapping his hands over his mouth saying, God, I don't know anything. I'm so sorry for my presumption. It's what these Jewish leaders should have done. What does this obscure sign mean?

My resurrection will prove that I'm the Messiah. When I rise from the dead, you will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that I am God's anointed prophet, priest, and king. First Corinthians chapter 15, the apostle Paul says that if Christ is not risen all our preaching is in vain. It rises or falls on the resurrection. If the tomb has a body in it we're wasting our time and we're wasting our lives.

If the tomb is empty, Jesus is Christ, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is God, you must bow your knee and worship Him. The whole Bible comes down to this single point. Is there a body in the tomb or isn't there? Jesus staked all of his ministry on it. When John says in chapter 1 verse 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, he tabernacles among us.

He is the place where we meet with God. Jesus goes to the wedding. He's the bridegroom. Jesus goes to Passover. He's the Lamb.

Jesus speaks of the temple. He's the temple. He's the place where you go to worship God. There is no worship of God unless there's a mediator between God and man. He is the temple.

Of course, the Jews don't understand. They're not nearly as smart as they think they are or thought they were. They say it's taken 40 years to build this building. 46 years to build this building. And in 20 BC, 20 years before Jesus' birth, Herod the Great started working on the temple.

46 years before this moment in time, Herod the Great started working on the temple. In 66 AD, more than 30 years after Jesus' death, they finished. John MacArthur says they actually were putting the finishing touches on it when The Romans breached the gates. In 20 BC, when Herod the Great, so it starts with Herod the Great, it ends with Herod Agrippa, a descendant. Decades and decades of working on the temple.

It was repairs and it was renovations, but then it was massive expansion. When I'm talking temple complex, most of that temple complex was part of this repair renovation expansion that began under Herod the Great. And Josephus says that in some periods of this, as many as 18, 000 workers would be on site working on this. At the time when the Romans sacked Jerusalem in 70 AD, the temple was considered a wonder of the world. There was nothing like it.

That's what they're talking about. It's taken us 46 years to build the temple. The first temple was built by Solomon, destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. Then the people come back from captivity, and under Zerubbabel, and then under Ezra, they build the temple. But Again, this is the temple that we think of as the altar, the temple complex started really being fully developed under Herod the Great in 20 BC.

Consider chapter 1 verse 3. We memorized it. All things were made through him. And without him, nothing was made that was made. Raising up the temple in one nanosecond was nothing to Jesus.

He wasn't talking about the building. He was talking about the resurrection of his body. That's why he doesn't say, I will build it in three days. He says, I'll raise it in three days. Look at verse 22.

Oh, yeah, verse 22. Therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them. And they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. There were many, many things that the disciples didn't really grasp until later and often until after Jesus was resurrected. So this is just one of many things that he said or that happened and they didn't really understand until they looked back.

Then they understood. Listen to Isaiah 55 verse 11. So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. Match those two things up.

Jesus says it, they don't understand it at all. Jews didn't understand it, his disciples didn't understand it. Three years later they say, he was talking about his resurrection. God sent forth his word through his son Jesus. It sits there dormant for more than three years.

And then, there's the fruit that He sent it forth for. After the resurrection they remembered, they believed both what Jesus said and the scripture. What scripture? I don't think we have to tie this to any particular scripture. There are Old Testament scriptures about the resurrection of Jesus, but I think it's simply meaning that they believed all the scriptures that say that Jesus is the Messiah.

His Resurrection is the proof that he is God's anointed Messiah. So when he was raised from the dead, that was it. That was the end of the matter. It was proved. Jesus is the Messiah.

All those scriptures are true. Listen to what J.C. Ryle says. This is so interesting and so encouraging for parents. So parents, especially mothers, listen closely.

There is often a resurrection of sermons. And texts. And instruction. After an interval of many years, the good seed sometimes springs up after he that sowed it has long been dead and gone. Let preachers go on preaching, and teachers go on teaching, and parents go on training up children in the way they should go.

They won't listen! They don't get it! Don't be discouraged. Keep teaching. Keep instructing.

It might be when we're dead and gone that suddenly the seed springs up and bears fruit. You don't know. You just know that when God sends forth His Word, it accomplishes what He desires. Sometimes many years later, many sermons are resurrected after the preacher is dead. Keep teaching.

Be encouraged. The last thing to say is, though they didn't understand, they didn't forget that Jesus said this in Matthew 26. This is a key accusation that they used to condemn Him to die. You said you would destroy the temple. That's not what he said.

You said you would destroy the temple and raise it up in three days. A key accusation. In Matthew 27, one chapter later, it's a source of mockery. Those who pass by Jesus as He's hanging on the cross say, you who destroyed the temple and built it in three days, come down, save yourself. They didn't understand, but they didn't forget.

Finally, verses 23-25. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he did. But Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all men and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. In this section we have the response of people to his signs. If you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's people.

The response of the people to his signs. This is really surprising. During this same week in Jerusalem, He does multiple signs. They demand a sign, he says something obscure that they can't possibly understand. But that is the perfect answer to the question.

Demonstrating their stupidity. And in their presumption they weren't nearly as smart as they thought they were. He does multiple signs within days of this. He's not at all reluctant to prove beyond doubt his identity as the anointed of God, and to validate his doctrine through signs, through putting the glory of God on display, the glory as of the only begotten of the Son. No one else could do the things that Jesus did.

If it weren't God, He proved His identity. He validated His teaching. He just wouldn't do it on demand. He just wouldn't do it on demand. Jesus sets the pace.

Jesus dictates the if, the when, the where. You do not demand a sign from Him. He sets the pace. He dictates the if, when, where. Jesus is God.

He answers our questions at His pleasure or not at all. Now there's a play on words that's missed in English. The many believed in verse 23 and the commit himself in verse 24 are the exact same Greek word. Are you with me? Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name when they saw the sign.

So that's a Greek word rendered believed. Then in the next verse, But Jesus did not commit himself to them. That's the exact same Greek word. So it's a play on words. They believed in Jesus, Jesus didn't believe on them.

They committed themselves to Jesus, Jesus didn't commit himself to them. They entrusted themselves to Jesus, Jesus didn't entrust himself to them. It's missed in English All of the resources that I read There were a few less this week, but all of the resources that I read, there were still a good many, all of the resources I read this week said that this is alluding to false converts. There were people who believed, They loved the signs, they were impressed by the signs, and so it was a belief based on the signs. But they were false converts, so Jesus didn't entrust himself to them.

It could be that. It could be that. That certainly is the majority report among the commentators. I don't think it's that. This is unusual.

I like their safety in numbers. I like it when what I think, what I read in the commentators say, yeah that makes sense. I don't think this is it. So I'm going to contradict them. Say I don't share that view.

Here's my question. Would Jesus entrust himself to us? Would he commit himself to us? Would he believe in us? I hope there are many born again in the room, many who have walked with the Lord for decades in the room, would he commit himself to us?

Based on even that, not even new converts, but seasoned converts, would he entrust himself to us? Text said he knows what is in man. Is that unregenerate man or regenerate man? The text doesn't say. Does it matter?

If you've been regenerate for a couple of decades and he knows what's in you, would he entrust himself to you? I know, that's what I said. Gaffaw. He knows what's in a man. And we commit ourselves to Him, He doesn't commit Himself to us.

We follow Him, He doesn't follow us. I think that fits right with this. They demand a sign, He says, No! I set the pace. I dictate the if, when, and where.

Even among the Lord's people, He leads, we follow. We entrust ourselves to Him, He doesn't entrust Himself to us. Thank God. John chapter 6, He's going to have fed the multitudes miraculously and he knows they want to take him by force and make him king. He exits.

I will conclude with this. Turn to Malachi 3. Malachi 3 to me is a jaw dropper when you set it side by side with our text. Malachi 3 begins with what we've already seen, a declaration about John the Baptist and his identity and job. And then it proceeds to the one he would point to, the Lord's Christ.

Now think about our text as we read Malachi chapter 3 verses 1 through 3. God says, Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming?

And who can stand when he appears for he is like a refiner's fire and like a laundry soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver. He will purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer to the Lord. An offering of righteousness. Isn't that what is happening in our text?

The Lord that they've been waiting for suddenly comes to His temple. Hooray! Make Israel great again! The whip is for us? The whip is for us?

They thought they knew what they needed in a Messiah. The Messiah was interested in purifying worship above all those other expectations. He met all the expectations of the Messiah. He began with purifying Worship. That's so instructive.

It's not a sign that introduces Jesus to Israel. It's Him with a whip in His hand purifying worship. I love that. But who can endure the day of His coming? We've been waiting.

We've been waiting. We've been waiting. We can't endure the day of your coming. Careful what you wish for. Jesus has his own agenda and he is Lord.

Your agenda is not his agenda. He doesn't entrust himself to you. You have to entrust yourself to him. Applications 3. 1.

Christlikeness is to have the same heart. Jealous for your Father's name, zealous for his temple. The temple is just a representation of the worship that he has ordained, or the worship that he desires. We can't do what Jesus did. Don't you get swollen up with zeal and start making whips.

Jesus does this as the great head of the church, as God. You can't do that. I read a commentator, I don't remember which one it was, that said, the only whip permitted to a minister is his tongue. If you minister, you can have at it Standing against corruptions and worship with your tongue. Don't you dare make a physical whip.

That is reserved for Jesus. So you can't do that, but we can cultivate hearts that are zealous for our Father's house. And it should start in our own hearts. If you want to take a whip to something, you take a whip to the corruptions in your own worship. Then we can help each other.

If Christ's likeness is to have the same heart. You can't do the outward things, but you sure better do the inward things. Zeal. What have you reserved your zeal for? I've said it before, I'll say it again.

You can't be zealous about everything. You burn out in a day. So you're saving your zeal. What are you saving it for? Worldly things that you love?

I described our time at the conference earlier today as a refreshing beat down. You know what that means? It was a beat down. It's a conference on repentance. You're being brought face to face with all the ugliness of the sinfulness of your heart that you've become comfortable with and convinced yourself is not really that big of a deal and then up comes the mirror, the word of God shows you.

You look like this. That's refreshing actually. You should run away from that. We should run towards it. Desiring to be refreshed by repenting, turning to God.

Number two, here's the easy one. How are you selling sheep in the temple on the Lord's Day. We've been selling a lot of sheep on the Lord's Day. God has given us a day as a gift, but he's called it a holy day. It's to be reserved for him.

And it is to be filled with rest, but it's to be filled with holy rest. How holy is your rest? Got any sheep and ox and doves and money changing going on? Drive it out with a whip. And if you're thinking, man I'm glad that guy's hearing this, help you.

Man, I'm glad that guy is hearing this. Help you. Number three. Here's the harder one. Where are the holy things where you are present in body only?

Isn't just your body at the prayer meeting? Bring your soul with you next Wednesday. Is it just your body here this morning? I'm acknowledging There's so much human frailty. I get it.

My mind wanders. My attention span is pathetic. I'm not even talking about that. I'm talking about having no sense that we ought to try to cultivate a sense of intensity that We are coming to a holy time and I at least need to wage a war. At least need to wage a war so that I'm not just there in body and a thousand miles away, my soul.

Start with this, okay? Please, please, please start with this. The King is worthy. Don't start down a list. God save us from starting down a list.

And never connecting that it's only because the king is worthy. I've done that so many times. I repent of that. The King is worthy. The King is worthy.

The King is worthy to receive your soul coming on Sundays. The king is worthy of your soul being present on Wednesday Wednesdays with the holy times the king is worthy We're not doing him favors. He's worthy He's good Even if it wasn't our duty we should be glad to give it. We should be rushing to give it. That's the point.

It is our duty. But say it wasn't. Say it wasn't. Say God never told you. We should be rushing.

What has He done for us in His Son Jesus? What has He done for us? What has He withheld from us? Father, help us. Help us Lord.

Send your Spirit to help us. We're so weak, we're so prone to hear a sermon, come under the conviction of the preaching of the Word of God and be no different two days later. This is me a thousand times over, forgive me Lord. But don't just forgive me, change me. Change me.

We know you can make us clean now, make us different Lord. Don't leave us where we are, we beg you Lord.