Raised

Once again and turn to John’s
Gospel. We find ourself in John Chapter
2. Continuing in the passage that
we had begun last Lord’s Day. John Chapter 2. It was a profound scene. and a remarkable way to start
his ministry, that of cleansing the temple. Going in uninvited,
going in without formal approval from those in charge of the temple,
discovering a wrong and righting that wrong, making a significant statement
about the practices that were going on, making an impression on his own
disciples, and also capturing the attention of the religious
elite. It was a significant moment. We began last Lord’s Day and
looking at the cleansing of the temple. I called it the first
cleansing of the temple. I believe that there were two.
We looked at the second last week. Later on in Jesus’ ministry,
there’s one temple cleansing at the start of His ministry
and there’s one at the end. I found that very easy, an easy
position to adopt because it’s very likely that no sooner had
Jesus done this and righted the wrong, probably the following
week, if not weeks later, this practice resumed. After all,
there was money involved. And so when Jesus comes back
two years later, He finds things just as they were, and He goes
through the same procedure all over again. But this is the first
temple cleansing. And we pick up in verse 12 by
way of review. After this, he went down to Capernaum,
he and his mother and his brothers and his disciples and they stayed
there a few days. And Jesus, pardon me, the Passover
of the Jews was near and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And he
found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and
doves and the money changers seated at their tables. And he
made a scourge of cords and drove them all out of the temple with
the sheep and the oxen. And he poured out the coins of
the money changers and overturned their tables. And to those who
were selling the doves, he said, take these things away. Stop
making my father’s house a place of business. His disciples remembered
that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me. The
Jews then said to him, what sign do you show us as your authority
for doing these things? Jesus answered them, destroy
this temple and in three days I will raise it up. The Jew said,
it took 46 years to build this temple and would you raise it
up in three days? But he was speaking of the temple
of his body. So when he was raised from the
dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this. And they
believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.”
It’s a profound scene. All this noise, we looked at
it last week, the animals, the filth that was produced, the
noise, all this taking place in the court of the Gentiles,
and this convenient provision by the religious elite, not only
of all of these sacrificial animals, but also of the money changers
who would turn any nation’s money into the nation, the Jewish coin,
so that it could be accepted. Jesus found all of this going
on and he takes control. made a scourge of cords, and
we’re not told how he used this whip or whether he used the whip,
but he had a whip in his hands and he drove out all of it. The money changers, the sheep,
the oxen, and those who were selling them, he drove them all
out of the temple. This was no simple process. This would have lasted a lengthy
period of time. 20 to 40 minutes, I would surmise,
given all of the animals that were there, and it would likely
have turned into a near stampede on the way out of the temple.
This was a scene. And Jesus made this scene. And it captured the mind of his
disciples. And we saw that they noted When
they looked at it, they saw it for what it was. They remembered
the scriptures, and they remembered that this forecasted the Messiah,
zeal for your house will consume me. We took this last week to heart,
that there’s much of the world that we import into the church,
not merely titles, but habits, practices. We must have our coffee. Even in the years that I’ve been
a shepherd, I’ve seen this tendency more and more where people have
to have their double latte thing with them all the time. But we bring our conversations,
we bring our to-do list, we bring our to-done list, we bring all
of our stuff, and then we unfold it here allegedly in preparation
for worship. And we challenged the saints
last Lord’s Day in looking at this, that as we come to worship,
we should have one thing on our mind. God and what God has done
for us, and not all this extra stuff. We should come into his
presence focused upon him. The disciples remembered, the
disciples focused, But Jesus drew the attention of others.
And we begin to pick that up in verse 18. The Jewish religious
officials observed what went on. It caught their attention.
And in verse 18, they challenged Jesus by asking him, what sign
do you show us as your authority for doing these things? As we
begin, please note that there is this confrontation They come
to Jesus, they find Him, they know that He’s the one who does
it, and they want Him to give an account. It’s a confrontation. No matter what it seems like
in that opening question, they have come for the purpose of
confronting Jesus Christ. The religious authorities, who
some identified even as the temple police, This group of individuals
likely sent by the Pharisees to investigate have come to question
Jesus about what just transpired. But look at this. Look at the
question. What sign do you show us as your
authority for doing these things? They don’t even question Jesus
about the validity of what He’s done. Because they know in their
hearts that what they’re doing is wrong. They know in their
hearts that what they’re doing is unethical,
but they don’t challenge the propriety of his cleansing of
the temple. They don’t challenge the propriety
of turning over the money changers tables, probably still scrambling
to gather up their coinage. They don’t challenge the propriety
of driving all of these animals out of the court of the Gentiles. They knew in their hearts it
was wrong. What Jesus had done was legally, morally, and ethically
correct, and they knew it. This man, Jesus, literally took
things into his own hands and overruled the overseers of the
temple itself. The priests, the scribes, the
Pharisees, all of them. And all they want to know as
they come to Him is, what sign do you give us? What kind of
mark of authentication? Where’s your certification for
doing this? Where’s your resume? As we discussed last week, John’s
account is what we refer to as the first temple cleansing. There
was a second, as I pointed out, and in that second incident,
Jesus faces a very similar response. It’s recorded in Matthew 21.
When he entered the temple, the chief priest, the elders of the
people came to him while he was teaching and said, by what authority
are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority?
Again, it wasn’t a question of right and wrong. It was a question
of authority. On whose authority was Jesus
acting? Who told him he could do this? Who gave you this authority?
Who commissioned you? To say it quite simply, who gave
you the right to act the way that you did? The problem is that as one faithful
pastor said, a sign can only be evidence to the mind open
to read the underlying truth. There is a mental condition which
no evidence can convince, for it always demands more. The sign
is in its nature an enigma, meaningless to him who does not understand
it, but full of meaning for him who earnestly examines.” And
in the case of the Pharisees, they didn’t want to know the
truth. They weren’t really after the truth. It’s interesting. that even though they had just
seen a sign, a clear indication of the deity of Christ that he
was the Messiah and functioning as such, purging the rabble from
his father’s household, they asked him to prove the sign by
a sign. He had just exhibited a great
measure of authority. Surely he can work some miracle
to prove that he has the warrant to do so. What these religious
authorities refuse to acknowledge is that what Jesus has just done
was in itself a sign, an indication of His credentials. The things
that Jesus did, the things that Jesus said were authoritative
in and of themselves. But these leaders, these leaders
were simply blinded by their own sin to see His authority
for what it was. The bottom line is that while
their request for a miracle, on top of a miracle, it was likely
that it would not have been effective even if Jesus did the most amazing
miracle. Later on in Jesus’ ministry,
Luke would address that very situation. Later on in Jesus’
ministry, Luke records 1631, That if they do not listen to
Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded even if
someone rises from the dead. It doesn’t matter what the miracle
is. It doesn’t matter what else I do. They’re not going to believe. The honest truth is, though they
seem to politely request this sign, their true colors will
show through momentarily. They would not have believed
any sign that Jesus would have worked. They did not really believe
that he could do a sign, nor did he have the authority to
do such. They viewed him as no more than a wayward troublemaker,
a rebellious loner who had just made trouble not only for them,
but for himself. And so they demand a sign. And
Jesus’ response here would become one of the hallmarks of his ministry.
When signs were demanded, he refused. Where there was doubt,
doubt was allowed to prevail. In Mark chapter 8, he records
a scene, the Pharisees came out and began to argue with him,
seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. Sighing deeply
in his spirit, he said, why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign
will be given to this generation. But the wonderful truth is that
wherever there was a glimmer of faith, profound miracles would
be done in order to cultivate that faith. And this situation
foretells that. Jesus receives this challenge
and he makes this declaration. Look at verse 19. Jesus answered
them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it
up. So all they ask for is a sign.
All they want for Jesus to do is prove himself and again he
refuses. He refuses to acquiesce to their demands, instead choosing
to bait them with this near riddle. Here they are, literally standing
in the court of the Gentiles on the very grounds of the temple
where this significant action has just taken place, and instead
of giving into their request, Jesus makes this shocking statement.
Destroy this temple. And in three days I will raise
it up. To even hear the words, destroy the temple, would have
been utterly shocking. This building, this place was
everything to them. Please realize that Jesus wasn’t
here commanding them to destroy the temple. He isn’t suggesting
that it’s merely a future reality as some people tried to position
it. He presents it as a hypothetical. But it’s a hypothetical that
is forecasted ultimately as the truth of His resurrection. If
this temple were to be destroyed, I will raise it up. This word
destruction here, it’s a graphic one. It was used of the breaking
apart of a ship foundering on the rocks. It was used of destruction
that was literally a coming apart of the elements that hold things
together. Second Peter, Peter uses it there. The day of the Lord will come
like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and
the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth
and its works will be burned up. Acts uses it, as I indicated
a moment ago, the destruction of the ship that Paul was riding
on. No wonder Paul seizes on the word in Ephesians 2.14, he
himself is our peace who made both groups, Jew and Gentile,
into one and broke down, destroyed the barrier of the dividing wall.
It’s a graphic word. But it’s almost as if they hear
nothing else. They’re fixated on this statement. They don’t
want to hear anything else. They’re long since given up on
the idea of a miracle. an additional sign. All they’re
fixated on now is destroy this temple. Destroy this temple! Destroy this temple! They hear nothing else, or at
least they’re not prepared to hear anything else. They seize upon
this statement and they will carry this forward all the way
to Jesus’ death. This was a profound statement
to them. They were so shocked and taken
aback by Jesus’ statement that they would never let him forgive
it, forget it. They wanted nothing more than
to make him live to regret these words. And ultimately they would
twist his words into the very charge against him. Matthew records
it. In Matthew chapter 26, chief
priest and the whole council kept trying to obtain false testimony
against Jesus so that they might put him to death. He’s already
under arrest. All they need is some kind of
charge to pin on him to send him to the cross. They did not
find any, even though many false witnesses came forward. But later
on, two came forward and said, this man stated, I am able to
destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days.
That’s not what he said. They completely misrepresent,
manipulate His words into an indictment against Him that He
desired and intended to destroy the temple. He would go on at
a much later date to prophesy about the temple’s destruction.
The temple was destroyed in 70 AD. That was God’s doing. Jesus
even foretold it, but that’s not what He’s talking about here.
And we’ll come back to that in a moment. Jesus foretold in Matthew
24, do you see all these things? He pointed around at the same
temple. Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon
another which is not torn down. Jesus prophesied of the destruction
of the temple, but that’s not his point here. He says nothing of the kind,
but so vicious is their hatred of Christ that they even use
this exchange to mock Him while He’s on the cross. Matthew records
that as well. In 2740, you who are going to
destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. They mock Him. They would go on to make the
same false accusations against Christ at Stephen’s trial. In
Acts chapter 6, says that they stirred up the people they put
forward two false witnesses who said this man incessantly speaks
against this holy place and the law for we have heard him say
that this Nazarene Jesus will destroy this place and alter
our customs which Moses handed down to us now they trump up
the charges because they want to gather up the whole lot of
them Jesus says destroy this temple
and in three days I will raise it up. Now we should observe
here in verse 19 that these accusers of our Lord even manipulate these
simple words. Jesus says I will raise it up
but they go on to suggest as we just read that that he would
rebuild a temple. They miss it entirely. Jesus
could have done it. Jesus could have built it in
three days. Jesus could have done it in a lot quicker than
three days, right? If he so desired, instantly, in the blink of an
eye, boof, temple. He didn’t need three days. He
didn’t need a construction crew like Herod did for 46 years. The word that Jesus uses here
is raise, not build. And that word raised could be
used of many things, not only of a building, but also of a
body. And that becomes crucial in a moment. Note the reaction based on a
misunderstanding of Jesus’ statement. Look at verse 20. The Jews then
said, it took 46 years to build this temple and you will raise
it up in three days? There’s no doubt in their minds.
as to what Jesus is referring to there. There’s no ambiguity,
there’s no confusion in their minds. They know, they fully
believe that he’s talking about the literal temple. And that’s
what they react to. They believe that he’s talking
about the literal temple where they were standing at that very
moment. And we have to put ourselves
in their shoes at least for a moment. I know they’re smelly shoes.
I know they don’t fit, but just let’s put ourselves in their
shoes for a moment. This was the temple. This was the sanctuary of God. This is the temple that was originally
conceived by David, planned and built by Solomon, rebuilt by
Zerubbabel, and built again by Herod the Great. It was their pride and joy. It
was visible to all, for all the world to see as they approached
Jerusalem. And it was the third temple. The building of the temple had
been started years before and it would proceed long after.
It wasn’t even completed until AD 64. But this was their pride
and joy. For Jesus to say, destroy this
temple and I’ll raise it up in three days. They had watched
the work. They had dealt with the dust.
They had dealt with the noise and the construction. They had
watched it unfold. They knew what was involved.
They knew all the money that had to go into this project.
And for Jesus to say that he would rebuild it was almost as
shocking to them as the statement that it would be destroyed. They
were all too willing to overlook the fact that a heathen sinner
like Herod had funded and overseen the latest rebuilding. This magnificent
complex was theirs. It represented their religious
life. It was everything to them. This earthly structure was a
representative of God to them. And so passion, you can step
out of their shoes now, passion leads them. to misunderstand
and misinterpret and misapply Jesus’ words. But ultimately,
as we’ve seen, they distort them and they use these very words
to falsely accuse Christ. And it wouldn’t be the only time.
It wouldn’t be the only time that Jesus was misunderstood.
As John’s Gospel unfolds, there are just these rapid fire, one
after the other, misunderstandings of these sometimes enigmatic,
sometimes cryptic statements that Jesus makes. Think of Nicodemus. How can a man be born when he’s
old? He can’t enter into his mother’s womb. The woman at the well, sir, you
have nothing with which to draw. Where will you get this living
water? And over and over again through
John’s gospel, these bewildering statements are just missed. And here Jesus offers to them
what was arguably the greatest sign and miracle that would ever
be offered to humanity. And they wouldn’t even pause
to consider it. Look at John’s clarification.
We’ve seen the challenge and the declaration and the reaction
based on their misunderstanding. Look at John’s clarification.
They don’t get it. And John, as he writes his gospel,
wants to clarify for all time exactly what Jesus meant. But
he was speaking of the temple of his body. They’re all in a
dither about a building. They’re all in a dither about
this edifice that King Herod had built for them. where God
lived. In the Holy of Holies, God’s
presence was there. But that’s not what Jesus was
talking about. The temple, the word temple,
can be used of a physical body. It’s used by Paul in that way.
It’s used of Christians in that way. And there were a number of different
views, some really difficult to even consider. One view said it this way, that
Jesus used the word temple in this super spiritual sense. That
even though John says he was talking here about the temple
of his body, what he really meant, he meant for them to understand
it as the temple, but really there was this dynamic thing
involved. One described it in these terms,
he said, it’s possible to understand his body, quote unquote, of the
church. That’s true, the scripture uses
that illustration. It doesn’t use it here, but it
is an illustration that scripture uses. Another one said it this
way, Christ’s reference to this temple was capable of a double
meaning. and turned upon the fact that
the physical structure symbolized the divine presence. Christ the
Logos was the actual presence of God. All of those things are
true. All of those things are true. But it isn’t what John
said here. It’s not what Jesus was referring
to. Another view had it this way.
Another view said that Jesus used the temple in this kind
of metaphorical sense. that when Jesus referred to the
destruction of the temple as a living force, what he was really
talking about was all of Judaism, the whole Judaistic way. One individual put it in these
terms, it may well be that they point us to the ultimate abolition
of the temple and of the end of temple sacrifices. The words
about rebuilding in that case refer to their replacement by
the spiritual temple and the new covenant affected by the
death and resurrection of Christ. Now, all of those things are
true. It just isn’t what John is talking
about here. It’s not what Jesus said. Another used the word temple
in a literal sense. And all they were saying was
that Jesus was forecasting that in 70 AD this building is going
to be destroyed. It’s a simple argument. It’s
true. It’s absolutely true. Jesus did
forecast that in 70 AD the temple was destroyed. It’s not John’s
point here. It isn’t what Jesus said. and perhaps the most absurd of
all. Three sentences, bear with me.
The point of the connection lies in the conception of the temple
as the seat of God’s presence among his people. So far the
temple was a figure of the body of Christ. The rejection and
death of Christ in whom dwelt the fullness of God brought with
it necessarily the destruction of the temple. He goes on and
he says, first spiritually, then materially, and the resurrection
of Christ was the raising again of the temple, the complete restoration
of the tabernacle of God’s presence to men. Well, the only problem
with that is that Jesus Christ is already present. Jesus Christ’s
presence is already there. Let’s do this. Let’s let John
explain what Jesus meant. Under the power and the direction
of the Holy Spirit, John used the word temple in this very
clear sense. Note scripture’s precise words. He was speaking about the temple
of his body. What Jesus does here simply forecast
for them, predict, prophesy the resurrection. He tells them that
you are going to destroy this temple, the temple of my body,
and it will be raised. It will be raised again to new
life. It’s the prophecy of his resurrection.
It’s not the prophecy of the doom of the temple it’s not the
prophecy of the doom of the religious or the Jewish religion it’s not
the prophecy of that at all several suggested that in order
to avoid all of this confusion Jesus literally pointed to himself
when he said destroy this temple or maybe used his thumb like
we have a tendency to do destroy this temple or maybe used his
hand like we do with the kindergartners Destroy this temple. I don’t believe that’s the case.
I think Jesus was purposely vague. I think
Jesus used this statement intentionally to allow those who desired to
wrestle with it, and some did, as we’ll see. and to allow others
to completely stumble over this illustration. It was the resurrection. It’s the key element of the Christian
faith. And Jesus, for the first time
now, is introducing this idea of the resurrection, that He
was going to be crucified, dead, and buried. And that on the third
day, He would be raised again. Remarkable, absolutely remarkable,
and John says that’s what he was pointing to. John says, under
the power and influence of the Holy Spirit, that he knew what
Jesus was referring to when he said, destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up. The resurrection is a
crucial element of our faith J.C. Ryle said it this way, we
need not wonder that so much importance is attached to our
Lord’s resurrection. It is the seal and headstone
of the great work of redemption, which he came to do. It is the
crowning proof that he has paid the debt which he undertook to
pay on our behalf. He won the battle which he fought
to deliver us from hell and is accepted as our guarantee and
substitute by our Father in heaven. It’s the resurrection. Jesus
says, do you want a sign? I’ll give you a sign. Let me
forecast a sign for you. Watch and wait. And I’m going
to be crucified, killed, buried in the ground, and raised from the dead. Over
and over again, the Scriptures point to that three-day motif. The one that God raises from
the dead, Matthew 16, 21. On the third day, Matthew 20,
19. Then on the third day, he will
be raised up. Luke 18, 33. The third day, he
will rise again. Over and over again in the scriptures.
And all they had to do is back up and listen and wait and watch.
And they would see a sign. And in that sense, Jesus isn’t
refusing them a sign. He’s just deferring it. You’re
going to have to be patient. One pastor said, however dark
However dark our Lord’s saying seemed, when it was spoken, it
did, in effect, tell the Jews of the greatest and most important
sign which could be given them as proof of His Messiahship.
It told them of His future resurrection. In effect, our Lord staked the
truth of His mission on His resurrection. The great sign they must look
to was His own rising again from the dead. We don’t know what all of the
Jews did with this. We were reminded last Lord’s
Day in Sunday school that as as the news of Christ’s resurrection
and as the application of it through Peter and Stephen and
others unfolded, their eyes were open and they saw the resurrection.
They were reminded perhaps even of this moment because it said
even the priests were coming to faith. We don’t know what
this particular group did with it. We don’t know if they exercised
any patience with regards to Jesus’ promise, His forecast
of the resurrection here. We do know what His disciples
did with it. Not immediately. But looking back, prospectively,
look at verse 22. So, when He was raised from the
dead, this is years later, We don’t even know how many years
later. That means that the disciples
sat on verses 18 through 21 completely baffled until Jesus was raised
from the dead. And at that moment, this whole
scene came flooding back and they remembered. that he talked
about, remember he talked about the temple being destroyed, the
temple of his body, and him rising from the dead. They remembered
it. Look at verse 22, when he was
raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this,
and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had
spoken. This was a mark of great faith
for them. This engendered faith. This cultivated their faith. When it was given, it was absolutely
baffling. They had no clue. They were perhaps
a little better off. They perhaps granted Jesus a
little more grace than the Pharisees did, than the temple guards did,
but they didn’t understand it any more than they did. It was the resurrection. The
resurrection was crucial. And when they remembered the
resurrection, all this truth came flooding into their minds.
Spurgeon said of the resurrection, the resurrection of our Lord
from the dead is the cornerstone of Christian doctrine. We can’t
let it go. We can’t treat it as optional.
We can’t treat it as unimportant. We can’t subvert it to other
opinions about what this passage might have meant When John tells
us precisely what it meant, Spurgeon goes on and says, perhaps
I might more accurately call it the keystone of the arch of
Christianity. For if that fact could be disproved,
then the whole fabric of the gospel would fall to the ground.
You know what Jesus does? He begins to lay the foundation
of the entire gospel ministry. He says, look, the resurrection
is key. An understanding of the resurrection is absolutely crucial. And it says that they not only
believe Jesus’ words, but they believe the scripture, singular. Now, through a series of mathematical
equations, I’m kidding you. There are a couple of passages
that it could be. There’s just one, really, points to definitively Acts 2.22-32,
Acts 13.16-37. On the one occasion Peter, on
the other occasion Paul. Both point to Psalm 16.10. Psalm 16.10
was known to be a messianic passage. You
will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will you allow your Holy
One to undergo decay. It was the very fact of the resurrection,
it was the heart of it. Remember, this was the very element,
in the case of the Jews, that was so stunning, that they realized
the application of that psalm to Christ, and they realized
that the resurrection was true, that God had not allowed him
to remain in the tomb, but He had raised Him from the dead.
It was crucial. You see, the Old Testament contained
many of these prophecies about the resurrection, but this one
was key. This one was known to all. And so we land where we often
do. What does this mean to me? Okay,
so Jesus wanted to give them a sign and they were going to
have to wait for this sign. And when they saw this sign,
you know, they should believe his disciples did. What does
this mean to us? This very truth, Christ’s resurrection
is our resurrection. The importance of Christ’s resurrection
is important to us because it is the hallmark of Christianity. One of my heroes of the faith,
Isaac Watts, said this of the resurrection. How divinely full
of glory and pleasure shall be that hour when all the millions
of mankind that have ever been redeemed by the blood of the
lamb shall meet together and stand around him. with every
tongue and every heart full of joy and praise, how astonishing
will be the glory and joy of that day when all the saints
shall join together in one common song of gratitude and love and
of everlasting thankfulness to this Redeemer. With that unknown
delight and inexpressible satisfaction shall all that are saved from
the ruins of sin and hell address the Lamb that was slain and rejoice
in His presence. The resurrection is important.
Let’s pray. Our merciful King, we humble
ourselves before you and thank you for the reminder of this
passage that outside of any religious system, outside of a visible
representation of where God was said to dwell, outside of a temple,
outside of a building. Setting all of that aside, you
had a purpose in these words. And the purpose was the temple
of the Lord Jesus Christ and His body. That it would be killed. that it would be crucified cruelly
on a cross and buried dead. Yet by your grace and power,
you would raise him on that third day. Lord God, we rejoice in
the resurrection. For Christ’s resurrection for
every believer is their resurrection. Lord God, we plead with you for
any in this room who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, for whom
His resurrection is not their resurrection. They have placed
no faith in Him. They do not believe Him. They
still would hold Him to the same account that these Pharisees
would. Show me a sign. Lord, there is no greater sign
than the sign of your resurrection. And if we do not believe that
sign, there is none other. God, we plead with you. For any
who do not know Christ, do a work in their heart today. Bring them
to repentance for their sin. Open their eyes that they might
see Christ for who He is. that they might place their faith
in Him alone for salvation. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.