Three Days to Raise (John 2.13-22)

Sermon by: Robert Austell; April 8, 2018 - John 2:13-22

:: Sermon Audio (link) :: Click link to open and play in browser; right-click to save. Sermon audio is also accessible as a free podcast in iTunes. Search for "Good Shepherd Sermons" or "Robert Austell." 



::: Scripture and Music ::
See What a Morning (Resurrection Song) (Getty/Townend)
The Father's Love (This is Your House) (Austell/Dawson)
SOLO: The Temple Song (Austell, Dawson) - see audio and lyrics below
CHOIR: Peace I Give to You (feat. Chris Orr, violin) (Davis)
How Firm a Foundation (FOUNDATION)

This is a guitar version of the piano song I sang in church.

And the piano version from church.

The Temple Song

By Robert Austell and Gerrit Dawson, Easter 2000.

Taking up a robe of flesh, to the far country he came.
The Son made his way among the lost; He traveled to his Father's house.
Yet the song of home was drowned by the din of coarse trade and coin.

"Out, out!" he commanded; Tables overturned, coins scattered.
"Out, out!" he commanded, "I am the Temple now!"
"Tear it down and I will raise it!"

Standing in the cluttered court among the baffled and enraged
Jesus lifted up his hands to sing, "Father Here I am!"
Here I am with the children you gave me. We sing your praise. (Chorus)

Zeal for his Father's house, the house of many mansions,
Filled his heart and swelled his voice.

I came to give you life, not dwell in a den of thieves.
Come, come in to my Father's house; I am the Place of Meeting now
So where I am, you may be with me today and always (Chorus)

:: Sermon Manuscript (pdf) ::
This "manuscript" represents an early draft of the sermon. Some weeks the spoken version varies more than others from the early manuscript. Nevertheless, if you'd prefer to read than to listen, this is provided  for that purpose.

I hope you all had a good Easter Sunday and weekend last week. Today and in the weeks to come we are going to build on the news of resurrection and look at a number of scriptures describing God’s purpose for us in the salvation and resurrection offered to us in Jesus Christ. I’m calling this series, “Raised for a Reason,” and today we will look at an event early in Jesus’ ministry when he looked ahead to this Resurrection work that he would do. Today we’ll look at the so-called “Clearing of the Temple” and then what Jesus had to say about it afterwards.

I’ll confess this up front: this story has fascinated me since I was a little kid. It’s the one time we get to see Jesus really losing his cool. It was intriguing to read about my Savior – the perfect man – becoming so angry that he literally tore down people’s display tables and booths and drove them away with a whip. Wow! No gentle Jesus that day. And here’s the fascinating part – this WAS the Savior, the Son of God, the perfect One. There was something right, something righteous, about his anger.

And so, it is important for us to understand this story – for two reasons. One is to know what so angered Jesus in order that we not so displease God that we stir up His righteous anger against us. The other reason is that if we want to know God and experience God in relation to us and our lives, we need to love the things God loves and attune our hearts and spirits to his. We need to know what stirred up Jesus so passionately, in order to have the mind and heart of Christ, the way to the Father.

Since Jesus speaks of tearing down the Temple, I’d like to divide the sermon into three phases of a building project to help it stick in our minds more easily. For those of you in the middle of renovations, perhaps this scripture will come to mind as you move slowly through the work of renovation.

Phase One: Clear Out the Temple

The bulk of this story deals with phase one – with clearing out the Temple. What Jesus saw in the Temple was not unusual or out of the ordinary. It was Passover time, which meant people were traveling to Jerusalem to the Temple to make sacrifices of various kinds to God. It was impractical to carry large animals, and certainly inconvenient to carry the small ones. Some industrious and helpful people had worked with the Temple priests to sell animals approved for sacrifice right outside the worship area in the Temple courts. And then there were moneychangers there for those who had foreign coin or needed change.

The sale of animals and the changing of money were really just side-industries that had developed over the years to accommodate those trying to practice their religion. The businessmen weren’t out to blaspheme God or undermine the Temple practices. It all seemed straightforward enough. We do similar things in churches in the United States. It’s not unlike making sure there are pens in every church pew so people can write their checks for the offering. There may be some who have gone too far – there are some churches that have put debit and credit card swipers in the back of the church for the same purpose! Or some big churches offer valet parking or golf cart rides from your remote parking spot. It can be hard to find the line between helpful and going overboard.

This is an easy place to stop for a sermon. There are all kinds of ways that we as American Christians have turned God’s house into a place of business. That’s an easy sermon to preach – and an important message to consider. But it’s not the main point of this story. I do hope that we will think twice about marketing stuff out in the gathering area or using church as a place to conduct our own businesses, or anything else that diverts our attention from worshiping God and it’s something that, historically, the elders at Good Shepherd have taken very, very seriously.

But what really angered Jesus that day was that the worship of God was no longer the primary function of the Temple. And that is the main message we need to look at – what it means to worship God. Do you want to know God or know God better? Our chief mission, our purpose, as described by God is to worship Him – that means honoring Him with our thoughts, words, and lives, and it means serving Him in all we do.

Jesus, as we shall see, was angered by the shift in focus away from the worship of God because he WAS God and also because he was to become the new Temple – that is, the new way for people to reach God. That’s why this story is so important in our consideration of knowing God – because Jesus goes on to demonstrate that he will become the way to know God.

It was at the point of driving the animal and money merchants out of the Temple that people asked Jesus how he had the authority to do this. His answer was surprising to everyone that heard it: “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it.”

Phase Two: Tear Down the Temple

In house renovations, after clearing away furniture and other items in the appropriate rooms it is time for ‘demo’ work. It is time to tear down or tear out what isn’t going to be used any more in order to put something new in its place.

When Jesus’ authority was questioned, he gave that intriguing answer about tearing down the Temple. And John tells us that those who heard his words that day thought he just wasn’t making sense. It sounds absurd to us at face value, but to Jewish people who believed the Temple was THE place where God dwelled in order to be worshiped, talk of tearing it down would have sounded crazy and even blasphemous. But his followers later remembered the words and linked his death and resurrection to these words.

And John, the writer of this Gospel, saw the actual destruction of that Temple in his lifetime, making Jesus’ words not only symbolically real, but literally real as well.

As with home renovations, before something new is built, space must be cleared out, and the old structures torn down. And that is the “sign and miracle” Jesus accomplished that day. Jesus turned the event into a living parable – a teachable moment in which the miracle of one angry man driving a whole group of merchants out of the Temple courts pointed heavenward to the great act of God in making all things new through his Son, Jesus Christ.

After a few short years, Jesus would die on the cross and rise from the dead in three days to establish a new way to God and our means of truly worshiping and loving God. Phase three of renovations is raising the new structure.

Phase Three: Raise the New Temple of God

Here we move beyond the scope of this story, except that John does note the later realization of Jesus’ followers that his death and resurrection tied in to that momentous day in the Temple courts.

The Temple represented an old and indirect way of approaching God and knowing God. And the business practices and activities of the various merchants only further hampered the effectiveness of the Temple. Jesus came that we might have a new and living way to reach God, and in his death and resurrection, he effectively cleaned house and tore down the old way and raised up a new one in its place.

In terms of religion and history, Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, the one the old laws and prophecies and religious system were looking forward to. In the clearing of the Temple and later with his death and resurrection, Jesus was saying, “Loving, knowing, and worshiping God is the great purpose of your life; I am the way to God and to fulfill that purpose… I AM the Temple now!” That has great implication for our personal lives and spirituality!

Renovation: Jesus and New Life

Jesus is the great Renovator – not of houses, but of humanity. “Renovate” means “to make new again” – and that’s exactly what Jesus offers us. When we first moved into our house, workmen made a new laundry room on the main floor out of what used to be a bathroom. To an infinitely more significant degree, Jesus makes new what was old and dying.

Where false gods, misplaced allegiances, upside-down priorities, and blurry focus keep us far from God, Jesus says “come and see; come and believe; come and follow.” When we trust in Jesus Christ as the only Son of God and as Savior, he renovates our lives. Often, there is trash and clutter, or misplaced “worship,” which needs clearing out. This is sin, which under God’s conviction, we confess and turn away from. Often there are structures like addiction, behaviors, and mindsets that must be torn down.

And it can feel like our peaceful lives are being stood on end. House renovations are anything but peaceful when they are going on. And Jesus indeed can be the disturber of our earthly peace. But he is also the Prince of Peace and brings with his life-renovation a peace that is beyond understanding or description. It is a heavenly peace and it is the peace of knowing God and being ‘right’ before God.

The invitation to come and see Jesus is to come and meet one who will change your life significantly for the good. May God continue to draw you closer to the one who makes all things new. Amen.