Episode 205: The Temple | Tim Henderson+

Introduction

So I bring you greetings from a whole bunch of people that love you. Quig and Annette, you probably know their son Fleet is in the Navy, and he's been deployed on, like, the other side of the planet for months and months. And so they're on their way home now from a trip to visit Fleet. And Barbara also sends greetings. She is in Atlanta because her daughter just gave birth to her latest grandson. So, on this Mother's Day, all kinds of people loving their kids and running around. But they'll be back next week and look forward to being with us again.

If you were with us last week, you might recall that Landon walked us through the first half of John chapter two, which is that whole scene where Jesus turns water into wine. And I will warn you, that passage had a very different vibe than our passage this morning as we turn to the second half of that chapter.

Last week, there was a wedding feast, and it was on the verge of ruin and embarrassment, and Jesus saved the day by making like a few hundred gallons of wine. It was apparently not a Baptist wedding and it was rather an act of lavish generosity, right? There’s kindness that produced mirth and joy and astonishment.

Right? At Jesus’ power and his liberality. But it also meant something, which Landon did a magnificent job unpacking for us. John, have you noticed this? John is always very careful to call Jesus’ miracles by a different name. You notice this? What does John call a miracle in his gospel? Signs. It's always a sign.

It’s because signs signify, they convey meaning. And what Landon helped us see last week is that that wasn’t just an event that happened, but it was a revelation. He wasn't just being kind. He was showing something. And this week, while the revelation is going to continue, I will warn you that joy turns to judgment, dancing is exchanged for ducking, and the wine is replaced with a whip.

Alright? So we're gonna take a look at what he does, but mostly I want you to see what it means.

The Cleansing of the Temple

We're in verse 13, John chapter two, verse 13, and it says, the Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Know, simple enough. It’s Passover, Jews go to Jerusalem, but when he gets there, he's gonna find people selling animals, exchanging foreign currency for the local currency, and he just completely flips.

Take a look at this in verse 14. It says, in the temple, Jesus found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money changers were sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he 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.

This is a very strong response. So we wanna think about what's going on here. First thing you gotta know is there's like massive crowds. Hundreds of thousands of people are coming to Jerusalem and the city is mobbed.

What I’ve read historically is that it’s just an absolute madhouse. I lived in State College, Pennsylvania, where Penn State is located, and on the weekends of home football games, the population of the town would literally double. Twice as many people were there during a home game. It was just always just a madhouse. You can't go to the grocery store, you can't go to restaurants, every hotel is booked for miles and miles around.

And Jerusalem is something like that, although probably worse. And coming, people are traveling long distances to get there. And when they get there, they need to offer sacrifice. And it’s really hard to travel with your sheep, you know? And so they didn't bring their sacrificial animals. They would purchase sacrificial animals once they got there.

So they need to buy their animals. And you gotta bet that they're jacking up the prices, and they gotta turn their foreign currency into local currency, and I'm sure the exchange rate is very unfavorable there. It will be a little bit like, you go to Disneyland, and they’re gonna charge you like $4 for a bottle of water.

Right? You know that phenomenon? That’s what's going on. Like, I would die of thirst before I paid $4 for a bottle of water, right? But they have them over a barrel, and so Jesus sees that they're just disadvantaged, they're coming to worship, and everybody's being held in disadvantage, and Jesus just loses it, right? He goes off on them, and he clears everything out. The whole thing just, you know, just infuriates them.

And that much at least makes sense to me. I know it's weird that gentle Jesus, meek and mild, is chasing people around with a whip. I know that feels very odd.

But I don’t want you to be so tangled up in what he does. I want you to I wanna turn your attention to what he says and what it means because that is where the treasure in this passage lies.

So after Jesus drives everybody out and it makes all these religious profiteers angry, they confront him. And the essence of their message is, who do you think you are? I mean, like seriously, what gives you the gall to do this and to flip our whole thing over and blow up our economy?

And Jesus gives this super weird answer. Okay? Now, to be sure, people are surprised by the whip and the paradigm shift of Jesus running around like this. But I'm telling you, the whip is not the most surprising thing in this story. Far more surprising is his answer to their question. So let's unpack that.

Here's what it says. The Jews said to Jesus, what sign, there it is again, what sign do you show us for doing these things?

Do you know there's no center stage in this church? You can't tell where you're supposed to be here. It's the aisle and there's the stage and you're like, which is it? Okay. So, I'll go over a little bit. Split the difference. So what sign do you give us?

And Jesus answers them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

What? Did you hear the question? What does that have to do with what are you talking about, Jesus?

And not only do they not know what he's talking about, they literally misunderstand what he means.

In verse 20, the Jews said, it’s taken 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?

So when he says, destroy this temple and three days I will raise it up, what do they think he means? The building. Obviously. What any normal person would think he means is this building.

But he doesn’t. Instead, he means something else. And if we're gonna understand really what's going on with the something else, we gotta leave this passage and go on a brief history of the temple.

And so though you think we're studying John two today, we're actually gonna do an Old Testament survey. Okay? So come with me on a journey.

In your Bible, scroll back throughout the Old Testament. What is the first temple in the Bible? Say it again? Desert.

In the desert? Okay. Are you thinking perhaps? You're thinking of the tabernacle, they’re dragging around with them?

That’s not a bad answer but it’s also not a right answer. So good. Okay. It’s okay. We always get stuff wrong on the way to getting it right.

First temple? Solomon.

Say it again louder? Okay. That’s after the tabernacle. So yes, we're going we're gonna go back the other direction but I heard it over here. What was it?

It is the Garden Of Eden.

Okay? The first temple in the Bible is the Garden Of Eden. And that may not be obvious to you but I promise it’s true. I’m gonna try to prove it to you quickly, okay? I'm not just trying to be cute here. This is not some silly, no, this is like actually so, okay?

The Garden Of Eden is the place where God walked with man. Where God walks with Adam and Eve. And that in the absolute central core of the temple, that’s what the temple is. The temple is the place where heaven meets earth. It’s the place where the boundaries draw thin.

And the Garden Of Eden is unmistakably pictured as a temple throughout the scriptures. Okay? Couple, there’s a whole bunch of clues, I’ll just give you a few of them.

Adam’s job, you might recall, in the garden, was to cultivate and to keep the land. To cultivate and keep. Now none of us speak Hebrew, but the verbs there are abad and samar. And those two verbs, abad and samar, are exactly what is used to describe the role of priests.

It's very hard to notice it because you translate them differently, which is very unhelpful. Generally, it’s called to serve and to guard, to serve and to guard.

But when the Old Testament writers are reaching for the language to describe the role of the priest, they do so in the exact language that was given to Adam, to Abad and to Samar. Okay? That language is all drawn from Genesis two.

Later on in Ezekiel 28, there’s this really weird, like, this incredible scene that describes someone in the garden, in the Garden of Eden. But he's wearing a garment that is like, you know, just covered with these gems, these 12 precious gems, which you might recognize.

Who wears the—who wears the thing with all the gems on it? Do you know?

It’s the priest. The priest wears these these jewels. And so this one who is seen as wearing the garment of the priest is placed in the Garden of Eden.

And if you’ve ever thought that the Jewish lampstand, kinda think Hanukkah in your mind with all these kind of branches coming up. If you’ve ever thought that that thing looks like a tree, that’s because it’s supposed to look like a tree.

And not just any tree. But that is not a reenactment. That is a model of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It’s a tree or maybe the tree of life. Right? And that thing is meant to look like that.

And in fact, in Ezekiel 47, the prophet sees a river flowing out of the temple.

PS, do you know where else a river flowed out of? Eden, alright.

So this river comes out, and it’s a weird river because it gets deeper as it goes. It doesn’t happen. If you get it, it starts with a little trickle and then it gets deeper and deeper and deeper. It’s like physically this isn’t a thing, this can’t happen.

And I’m gonna read you a part of it, best part of it. In Ezekiel 47, you can follow along, I have it on screen probably.

Very good. Thank you.

It says this in verse six: Then this angel who’s shown Ezekiel this temple, this angel led me back to the bank of the river. And as I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other.

Verse 9: Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live and there will be many, very many fish. For this water goes there that the waters of the sea may become fresh. So everything will live where this river goes.

And on the banks, on both sides of the river, they will grow all kinds of trees for food. And their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail. But they will bear fresh fruit every month because the water for them flows from the sanctuary—that is, from the temple.

Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.

You guys, Ezekiel saw that there will be a temple whose river turns salt water fresh. It is able to bring life and healing to the dead.

The crowds will gather, living things will thrive there, and the very leaves along its banks will bring healing.

Problem was, this was all just vision, and it hadn’t happened yet. And so do you know what they decided to do? Can you guess? They build a new temple.

Do you remember who builds this one? Who builds the replacement temple to， to kind of replace the one that Solomon had built but was destroyed?

Do you remember this?

He’s got a funny name. Zerubbabel. Right? He’s the guy.

So Zerubbabel builds a new temple. And this is a little bit obscure, but do you know what the old men did when they saw the new temple? They weep.

They do, in fact. This is in Ezra 3, verse 12, but many of the older priests and the Levites and family heads who had seen the former temple wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy.

And no one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.

This is admittedly a little bit of a confusing scene, it’s just a cacophony of sound. But essentially what’s happening is the younger guys that didn’t know any better, they’re happy. Hey, we got a temple again, isn’t that great?

But the old guys that remember the previous one, they’re reduced to tears. Because this is not very glorious. This is not as good as Solomon’s temple, and it sure as heck is not as good as the temple that Ezekiel saw.

In fact, it was just a little bit meh.

Haggai 2, verses 3 and 3, says, “Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?” And they’re disappointed. Things have not gone the way they hoped it would go.

It was disappointing. And I don’t know where Ezekiel’s temple is, but they know this ain’t it. This can’t be it.

Jesus as the True Temple

Now, with all that in your brain, your little history lesson of the temple, now let’s go back to John chapter two.

Ezekiel’s glorious temple had not been built when Jesus had this conversation. And in fact, it still hasn’t been built. Do you know why it hasn’t been built? Because the temple ain’t a building no more.

Alright? The temple is the place where God and man meet. The temple is the place where heaven touches earth. The temple is the place where sin is atoned for by death.

And what Jesus is saying is, the temple is me.

He’s the temple. He is the glorious one. He is the temple to which all the temples point.

He is the fulfillment of the garden with its life-giving joy. He is the fulfillment of the tabernacle.

In fact, in John chapter one, you may know this line, it says that Jesus came and he dwelt among us. Literally, the word that John uses there for dwelt is it literally says that he came and tabernacled among us.

Right? He went on a trip to be with us.

Jesus is the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s great temple. It is in him that the waters grow fresh. It’s in him that the crowds come to gather, and it is from him that the Spirit flows who brings healing and life.

You guys, Jesus cleared the temple so he could reveal the temple because the temple is him.

He is the place where God and man meet. He is the place where heaven touches earth, where sin is atoned and where glory dwells. And Jesus is saying, it’s me, I am the temple.

The Significance of the Cleansing

Okay, now there’s a whole lot more. We’re just doing such a blitz through this massive theme of temple. But just review where we’ve been.

Okay. So we’ve seen, there’s a couple more spots on this kind of journey. We've seen the temple story begins in the garden. Right? Moves on through the tabernacle. Then it gets picked up in Solomon’s temple. Right?

And then it gets it gets figured in Ezekiel’s temple, never gets built. In Zerubbabel’s temple, which is kind of a disappointment, and then in Jesus himself. Right? He is the fulfillment of the temple.

But there are two more quick stops before we’re done. Because do you know what you become if you are united to him?

You are temple.

In 2 Corinthians 6, Paul says, "For we are the temple of the living God." If you are united to him, he’s building us together to join him in this place.

We are where God lives. He walks with us. It’s fulfilled, further fulfilled in us.

And then finally, I want you to skip ahead to the very end of the story. Okay?

This theme that we started in the garden and we’re gonna end. Everything starts in the first three chapters of the Bible and everything ends in the last three chapters.

It’s amazing how many things get tied up here at the very, very end of the story. Okay. So, the thing you need to know about the Old Testament, I mean about Revelation, is that everything is non-literal but it’s real and it’s true.

He’s using images and metaphors and pictures and symbols to convey things that are true.

So I want you to look at this; if you’re gonna understand the meaning of all those metaphors, all those images, the answer key inevitably is the Old Testament. Whatever image he’s using, they exist. It’s just all a giant grab bag from the Old Testament. Right?

He’s gonna borrow things from there.

So does anybody remember the dimensions of the new Jerusalem?

As John sees the city coming down from heaven to earth, dressed like a bride, beautifully prepared for her husband. What are the dimensions of the city?

Anybody remember?

It’s like a—it is like a cube. What’s the size?

1,500—yeah.

So, yeah. And in biblical language, it’s about 1,200 stadia, which is about 1,400, 1,500 miles wide, and about 14 or 1,500 miles deep.

That is a big city.

First of all, like, so it’s like half the United States. You could drop this thing like, bam, like Mississippi East, know, it’s like, there it is. This is this whole massive thing. And that much we can get, so it’s huge, John, we get it.

But it’s also 1,400 miles tall.

What on earth does it mean for a city to be 1,400 miles tall? Like what, how, what does that even look like?

Can you imagine a city, and the tallest skyscraper in Dubai is not a quarter of a mile tall, right?

So it’s 1,400 wide, 1,400 deep, 1,400 tall. Well, if the Old Testament is our key, there’s one. It’s a cube, right?

There’s exactly one cube in the entire Old Testament. What is it?

Do you know?

The Holy of Holies.

Okay. It is the Holy of Holies, the center of the temple, the place where the thing is. And so why does John say, hey, when the city comes down, it’s gonna be a giant cube?

What he’s saying is, there’s not gonna be a temple because everything is going to be temple for we will be with him at last.

Listen to this. In Revelation 21, we’ll start at verse 22.

And John says, I saw no temple in this city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb.

And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.

And then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, down the middle of the great street of the city.

And on each side of the river stood the tree of life bearing 12 crops of fruit and yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

You hear it, don’t you? What is that river, you guys?

That is Ezekiel’s river. It is also the Spirit of God. But the temple from which this river flows is not a building. It is the Lord and the Lamb.

It’s all him, and we will be all his.

The one to whom the temple points has come to be the temple. And he has come to unite us to himself such that we become temple.

For the day is coming when all will be temple. And this is what he’s been doing from the dawn of creation.

Friends, we will walk with God when heaven meets earth to his glory and our joy. And that, y’all, is why Jesus cleared the temple.

And it’s why he had the authority to clear the temple.

In fact, do you remember the question that the Jews asked him that set us on this little journey? It was, why do you have the authority to clear the temple?

And his answer was, because I am the temple.

In his zeal for the Father, he got their attention so he could reveal to them and pronounce to them that it is all fulfilled in him.

All of it. Everything he’s doing from the beginning of time to this very moment, until the very end of the game, is fulfilled in him. He’s the reason for it all.

Sacrifice. He’s the place where we meet him. He is the source of joy. He is the source of beauty. It is all in him.

And you are invited into the temple so much that you get to be temple.

The book of Revelation ends with this dreadful picture of what would it be to be excluded from this, to be outside.

Y’all life is about getting into this temple, being united to him. All that he is doing in human history is about this.

And so when he says, you guys have ruined the temple because you’ve made it something that blocks you from seeing that it is all fulfilled in me, today, right now, if you’ve never understood this and you want to be united to him where life is rich and your ultimate purpose comes to be fulfilled, come.

Come. Why perish? Why stand off far away when joy could be yours?

These curved rails are just a place for you all by yourself to meet with him. The straight rails, you can come, someone can meet you there, and you can talk, and we invite you to come.

The spirit and the Lamb say, come. Come. Don’t stand far off. All that he is is available for you.

It’s why he made you.

Conclusion

Lord Jesus, who is like you? Who would have the audacity, just the gall to clear the temple? Only you. Only you.

For it is all fulfilled in you. We bow before you. We worship you. We exalt you.

And Lord, we pray for all those in this room and outside of this room who don’t yet know you. Would you move in their hearts and draw them to yourself?

That they would delight in you, to be united to you for all the time. We long for your coming. Come soon. Bring the temple. Be the temple. Be with us. We love you. We miss you. Come soon. Amen.