Well, hey everyone great to see you all this morning if you got a Bible Would you grab that and turn with me to John chapter 2 John chapter 2 starting in verse 13? If you're using one of the Bibles in the room here at its page 1129 great to see you all. My name is John. I get to serve as executive pastor of teaching here at peace Welcome, whether you're in the worship center over in the chapel downstairs in the family venue or joining us online Great to be together.

We are only one week away. Next Sunday, our lead pastor has been on sabbatical for eight weeks. He's back, Pastor Ryan is back next week. Excited to see him? Oh man, it's okay, you can be more excited than that. Next week when he's here, okay, maybe show him a little love when he gets back.

We're excited to have him back. He's had a good time to get to rest, to get to steady, to get to spend time in prayer. Getting ready for the next season, the next year, and many years of teaching and preaching here at PEACE. Well, hey, we're continuing our series called It Had to be Said, Quotes of Christ that Changed the World, and we're excited this morning to look at this passage in John chapter 2. I'm going to read it, then we'll pray, and then we'll dig in. So here we go, John chapter 2, I'm going to start.

John 2:13-22

13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple,[a] and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

This is God's word. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we are so thankful for your word.

God, we're thankful for its truth. We're thankful for the story that gives us a picture of Jesus. Jesus, pray that you would help us to hear it, to be amazed by him, to grow in our likeness to him. Father, I pray that you would be with me, fill me with your spirit. Use me a broken instrument, bring your perfect word to your people, and God, I pray that all of us would have changed hearts as a result. Thank you, Father, I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, I can't say that I've ever flipped over tables to fight injustice the way that Jesus did in the temple, but I thought this week of a time that I came close to flipping over a table to fight injustice. I remember one time sitting at a table with my younger brother and a few other people playing the card game Euchar. And I almost flipped over the table to fight injustice. Actually, my younger brother and I don't remember exactly how we started fighting, but somehow we ended up actually on the floor wrestling, punching each other, things like that. I think we were teenagers, high school, something like that. And before the fight started, my girlfriend, who's now my wife, but at the time my girlfriend, she was there. And then when I came up from this little spat, she was not there. So I had to call her and ask what happened. And she said she was pretty embarrassed by what I was doing. She ended up marrying me anyway, so that's good. But she didn't see what I was doing as a fight against injustice like Jesus had in this passage. That's what we're gonna look at this morning is this demonstration.

That Jesus gives of his power of his authority of his zeal for the honor of his father And so we're gonna just ask a couple of basic questions of the Texas farm. We're gonna ask who is Jesus What does this tell us about who he is? And then what does this tell us about how we can be more like him and we're gonna see is that Jesus is the lion, he's the lamb, and he's the temple. So we're going to walk through all three of those this morning. As we look, let's take a jump into that first one and find that Jesus is the lion.

1. Jesus is the Lion

Take a look with me at the beginning of the passage, verses 13 and 14. It says the Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeon and the money changers. All right, so the text sets the setting for us. It's Passover time, a religious holiday, a huge time for the Jewish people. We're in Jerusalem, the very center city, the holy city of the people of Israel, and we're in the temple, the very center of that city.

This is a sacred and special time when Jerusalem would grow four or five times in population size as people made their way to get to come and to worship and to pray and to come to the temple and to be with God. From our knowledge of the Old Testament, we can imagine what the scene should have looked like. The temple should have been a place of prayer, of worship, of earnestly people coming to be with God. I think of what the passage says in 1 Kings chapter 8 when Solomon builds the temple and they first open it. Here's a picture of what it was like. 1 Kings chapter 8, it says, When the priests came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud. For the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. Isn't that an amazing picture of the temple? That God's presence comes down, it's tangible, it's thick, it's a cloud so thick that people can't even stand there in the midst of it. Solomon goes on and he gives a prayer kind of a dedication as they open the temple. He says, will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built. He says, this is amazing.

The God of the universe who created everything is going to come and dwell in a structure and he's going to dwell with people. It's amazing. He goes on, yet have regard for the prayer of your servant and to his plea and listen to the plea of your servant and your People when they pray toward this place listen in heaven and hear and forgive So the temple is supposed to be a place where people could come and experience the presence of the Lord Where they could pray where they could worship where they can make sacrifices where they could ask for forgiveness and receive forgiveness for sins.

But when Jesus walks in, verse 14 tells us what he finds. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeon and the money changers. So instead of finding a place of prayer and worship, Jesus walks in and he essentially finds Wall Street with livestock. Right, if you've ever seen on the news the pictures of like the closing bell on Wall Street, all these guys with slips of paper in their hand yelling numbers at each other and just all that frantic buying and selling

going on. If you can imagine that happening, but with cattle, I can only imagine the chaos that would have ensued. The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that during his lifetime, in one week, the week of Passover, 255,000 lambs were bought, sold, and sacrificed. And that's just the lambs, right?

There was other animals that were bought and sold too. 255,000 lambs in one week. We're talking about something enormous. I mean, if you can imagine even just the Barry County Fair coming and hanging out in our worship center, right? Probably not a whole lot of prayer and worship and time with the Lord is going to happen in the midst of that, right? So this is unfortunately what Jesus finds when he comes in. How does he respond? Verses 15 and 16 tell us, making a whip of cords, he drove all out of the temple with the sheep and oxen, and he poured out the coins to the money changers and overturned their tables. He told them, take these things away, do not make my father's house a house of trade. Jesus flips over the table, he finds some rope or something, he cords it together, he starts cracking a whip.

He goes around, he slaps some animals on the rear and gets them running, he gets a little stampede going on. Jesus turns this into a scene of chaos. He makes some noise. And the text tells us that what we see is Jesus full of zeal. The disciples remember what Psalm 69 says, zeal for your house will consume me. It's a passage about King David and about King David's heirs, those who would come in his line afterwards, and they recognize that Jesus is King David's heir who has zeal for the house of the Lord, passion for the house of the Lord. It makes me think of that line in the Chronicles of Narnia. If you remember, the kids ask the beavers about Aslan, the king, the lion, and they

say, is he safe? And the response is, no, he isn't safe, but he is good. I think that's what we see of Jesus at this moment, isn't it? Jesus is good, he's righteous, but he's also dangerous.

He's also very serious, he's got passion, he's got zeal, especially when the honor of his father comes under threat. I think it leads us to ask the question, in our Christ-likeness as Christians, yes, we are supposed to be humble, lowly, meek like Jesus, but do we also reflect the passion, the zeal, the ferocity, the lion that Jesus is in this passage. Do we reflect that? We see of Jesus that he is called meek, but at the same time we also hear passages like Revelation chapter 19 Describing Jesus listen to this then I saw heaven open and behold a white horse The one sitting on it is called faithful and true and in righteousness He judges and makes war his eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems. And he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and by the name he is called the Word of God. The armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.

He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords." Our Jesus on the one hand is gone humble and born in a manger, on the other hand he's the ultimate warrior that Revelation 19 paints him as, with King of Kings tattooed on his thigh, with a sword coming out of his mouth, with fire in his eyes, riding a white horse, leading the armies of God.

So Christians in our Christ likeness, do we mirror both sides of Jesus? Now I know some of you are thinking, all right, some of you are like, all right, let's go. I want some zeal. I want to flip over some tables. Let's do it. So there you go.

There it is. See, so some of you are already pumped. And I think some of us need to hear, all right, what's the definition of zeal? All right, what do we do with all that passion? What does that exactly look like? And some of us need to hear that we do, we need to have some of that heart burning passion. So I want to talk to both of those groups this morning. Let me talk to the first one first. If you have zeal this morning, I want to make sure to consider a definition of what Christian zeal might look like. This is from J.C. Ryle, a great preacher from the 1800s. J.C. Ryle says, zeal in Christianity is a burning desire to please God, to do his will, and to advance his glory in the world in every possible way. I think that's a great summary definition of zeal. He goes on to say, this desire is so strong when it really reigns in a person that it impels them to make any sacrifice, to go through any trouble, to deny themselves anything, to suffer, to work, to labor, to toil, to spend themselves and be spent, and even to die, if only they can please God and honor Christ. There's what it means to be a zealous, a radical follower of Jesus. That's what it looks like. One of the things I think we have to notice about the story is the location of Jesus zeal Where is Jesus Jesus is in the temple all forms of sin make Jesus angry.

But the story isn't of Jesus going into Caesars household and flipping over the tables the story isn't of Jesus going into a Roman tavern and flipping over the tables It's not of Jesus going into a Macedonian red light district and flipping over the tables. It's of Jesus coming to the Jewish temple. He comes to the people who call themselves God's people.

He comes to the place that is known as God's house. Christians, we ought to reject sin wherever we find it. God is not soft on sin, but Christians should be most appalled at sin among ourselves, within the church, within our own hearts. Brothers and sisters, if you have zeal for God, what does it do? Does it make you hate your own sin? Does it make you zealous for the faithfulness and the holiness of your local church, of your brothers and sisters, of your family, of your friends?

Christians, when you engage in public discourse, when you post on social media, are you blasting the world? Or are you sharing winsomely the wisdom of God's Word God's beautiful design for this universe that he has for us. Are you most appalled?

At when we the people who call ourselves God's people are running astray We can't focus all of our zeal outwards. We got to focus first and foremost on our selves. Some of you this morning need to instead hear not just about what direction your zeal goes. You need to hear that we need to have some zeal. We need to have some passion.

One of the things that I have heard said is that one of the biggest problems that we have in the world is religious extremism. Let me tell you something. I do not think that one of the biggest problems in the world is that too many Christians take their faith too seriously. Unfortunately, I don't think that is one of the problems that we face in the world. Religious people should be radical. It's a measure of the religion itself what that radicalism leads you to do. I remember when I was in high school youth group we used to sing a very simple song that has always stuck with me. I won't sing it because I'm a terrible singer but I'll tell you the lyrics. It went, I don't want to be, I don't want to be a casual Christian. I don't want to live, I don't want to live a lukewarm life. I want to light up the night with an everlasting light. I remember as a high schooler that that caused my heart to burn. That arose in me a zeal, a passion, that I didn't want to live a life that was seen as wasteful for eternity. I wanted to live a life for the honor and the glory of God.

When we talk about sharing our faith, one of the things that we talk about is that if we care about our friends, if we care about our family, we want to share Jesus with them so they don't go to hell, so they can have eternal life. And that is all true. We love our neighbor. We love our friends.

We want them to meet Jesus so they can have eternal life. But we also need to talk about another motivation for sharing about Jesus. And that motivation is simply that we love Him. Before we talk about just sharing Him because we love our neighbor, let's talk about sharing Him simply because we love God.

You get so excited about God that you just gotta tell people. I recently took up an interesting fun habit that's kind of a trend. I usually take up like fad trends, but this is one I jumped into.

I thought it sounded fun. So I do every single morning an ice bath. It's a good time. I don't know if any of you guys partake and enjoy that activity, but you fill a tub with 80 gallons of water

and you jump in and you set that timer and you go as long as you can grit your teeth and bear it.

I love it.

I think it's awesome. The weather hasn't gotten cold yet, so we'll see what it's like when I, I'll let you know what it's like when I get there, but when it's really hot out, it feels awesome. I come into work in the morning. I still got goose bumps on my arm from the cold. I'm like, yes Why I got goose bumps. I took an ice bath. It was awesome. I love it I'm not going around telling people about the ice bath because I think it's got all these health benefit You know, it probably does they tell us it does but I don't go around telling people you should do an ice bath because it'll Save your soul. I go around telling people about the ice bath because I love it. I just think it's a blast I think it feels so good. So I just want to talk about it? That you just want to tell people? You've been spending time reading your Bible, you've been spending time praying, and you're like, man, I just got to talk to somebody about how good God is, about how great He is, about what he's done. Does your heart burn with a passionate zeal for the Lord? Jesus is a lion, the lion of the tribe of Judah. And brothers and sisters, we are called to imitate some of those lion-like qualities.

2. Jesus is the Temple

Number two, text tells us that Jesus is also the temple. The temple. Take a look with me at verse 18. So after the episode here of what Jesus does, the Jews ask for an explanation. Here we go.

The Jews said to him, what sign do you show us for doing these things? All right, so religious leaders ask Jesus, prove your authority.

What right do you have to do these crazy things in the temple? What right do you have to tell us what to do or not do in the temple? All right, and this is this happens throughout the the history of Israel with the prophets when a prophet comes and proclaims the word of The Lord they usually do a sign also to prove this isn't just my word I didn't just make this up as a word from the Lord

You think of like Moses right when Moses shows up and says let my people go. He's got that staff that turns into a snake You think of Elijah? He's up on the mountain Mount Carmel and he's standing there and he's before this rain-soaked altar, right? You got next to him 400 false prophets of the false God Bale and they're all dancing around and asking for their God to rain down fire and of course what happens. Is the God rains down fire on Elijah's altar? God sends fire from the sky to prove. This is my prophet. He is my messenger You think of Ezekiel the prophet who had to lay on his side for a year and cook his food over feces. He got the raw deal out of the three of those people. But God sends a sign to prove and sometimes even to demonstrate the word that he gives through the prophet.

I think one of the ironies of the Gospel of John is that despite the number of miracles that Jesus does, people still don't believe him and they continue to ask for more signs. But this is what the Jews are asking for. They're asking for this sign. And so Jesus says, well, I'll give you a sign. And here comes our favorite, our famous quote of the morning, verse 19, destroy this temple. And in three days I will raise it up. Of course, the Jewish leaders think this is pretty crazy, right? The temple is massive. There's a model of the second temple. The first one was destroyed.

The second one was rebuilt. It had taken 46 years to get to the point that it was at the moment that we're talking about here in Jesus' time. 46 years of construction, and it's not actually done. In Jesus' time, the temple was not complete. It was another 30 plus years before the temple got completed, and then 7 years later, it was destroyed. The Jews rebelled against the Romans, the Romans came back in and they burned all of Jerusalem, including the whole temple. But 46 years of construction, still 30 years away from being done, and Jesus says, destroy this temple and in three days, just three days, I will rebuild it. They must have thought he was crazy. And yet, for the God of the universe, piece of cake, right? Rebuild that temple, piece of cake. But in fact, the text tells us that Jesus is actually talking about something more difficult. He's not talking about a temple of brick and stone, he's talking about a temple of flesh and blood.

He's talking about raising from the dead. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about how is it that Jesus' body is the temple. Well, we heard a minute ago that the purpose of the temple is for God to dwell with people, right? We heard about the cloud coming down and being in the temple, that God's presence was there. That was the point of the temple. In the very beginning of all things, God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the day, the Bible tells us.

Then sin came into the world and God and human beings got separated. But then God in his grace, he comes back in the tabernacle, a big tent, then he comes back in the temple, and then finally in Jesus we have the perfect temple we have God's Son the God of the universe takes on a human body comes to earth and dwells among people.

Jesus is the perfect temple the Bible tells us this in a couple of different places I think of John chapter 1 verse 14 it says the word became flesh and dwelt among us that word dwelt is actually the same word as tabernacle tabernacle among us He dwelt among us. I think Colossians 2 9 that says in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily God the God of the universe came and dwelt among people.

This is what Jesus does Another thing that the Bible tells us is that not only is Jesus God's temple, also we, we are God's temple. I think of passages like 2nd Corinthians 6 verse 16, what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As individuals and as a church we are God's temple. So here's the question I have for you. If Jesus came to our temple, if Jesus came to the temple of your mind, if Jesus came to the temple of your mind this week, what would he find? Would he find a place of worship, a place of prayer, a place that is consumed by the greatness of God, or would he find something else? If he came to the temple of your heart this week? What do you find? Desires for the Lord. Or what do you find? Desires for something else. If Jesus came to Peace Church, what would He find? You would find lots of stuff religious type stuff but the heart was wrong if Jesus came to Peace Church would he find he would find lots of activity lots of people doing stuff but what he find you and I would he find us with hearts full of worship would he find us wanting to grow deeper as disciples of Jesus Would he find us reaching our community with the gospel? I Certainly hope that's what he would find Friends.

3. Jesus is the Lamb

Jesus is the temple and Jesus finally is also the lamb Let me take you back to our main quote for this morning from verse 19 destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." Contrary to what you might first think when you read it, he doesn't say, he will destroy the temple. He actually says, destroy the temple, like you destroy the temple.

At the end of Jesus' life before he's crucified, people falsely accused him of trying to destroy the temple. They said, well, Jesus said he was going to tear down the temple and that's blasphemy, but he didn't say that. He actually said, you destroy the temple and I will raise it up. Jesus' words are way more prophetic than we would think. He's talking about something that really is going to happen. On the one hand it seems strange that Jesus would make a prophecy, a sign about something that's not going to take place until the end of his life, but on the other hand it seems like the greatest sign he could possibly give, right? How would Jesus prove that he is sent from God, that he is God's son, that everything that he said was true, he would prove it by doing what he said he was going to do, dying and raising again. Friends, Jesus is not just the temple, he's also the sacrifice. 255,000 lambs sacrificed in a single week.

But the Jewish leaders, the Jewish people, they missed the point. Because the whole point was to point them to just one lamb. John the Baptist, when he saw Jesus passing by, he said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The whole book of Leviticus is an account of how do you do sacrifices, and when do you do sacrifices, and which animals, and which ones do you donate, and what tools do you use. It was blood in the morning. It was blood in the evening. If you sinned, you've got to shed more blood. If you sinned again, you've got to shed more blood.

The whole Old Testament is a story of shedding blood for sin. But the whole point is that one would come and there would be no more need for the shedding of blood. That one lamb, the lamb who is also a lion. I think of passages like Revelation chapter 5 that paints the picture of both. The Apostle John sees a vision and he hears the words, behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David is conquered.

But when he looks up, what does he see? He says, Between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain. He's the Lion of the tribe of Judah, but how does he appear? As a lamb who had died. And everybody in heaven is singing a song.

Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God. From every tribe and language and people and nation and you have made them a kingdom and priests. They will reign on the earth. Jesus is the lamb who takes away our sin.

When he came and said, destroy this temple and I'll raise it again in three days, the people who heard them, heard those words, they missed the sign they didn't get it they didn't receive them friends you're hearing about this sign will you receive it will you believe it will you believe that Jesus is the Lamb of God the temple of God the line of the tribe of Judah who died for your sin, who paid the price that you and I should have paid and conquered the grave so that you could have life again.

If you don't yet believe that this morning, I would love to talk with you after the service. We've got lots more people who would love to talk to you after the service as well, but I'd love to talk with you. If you do believe this, friends, we're about to take the Lord's Supper. We're about to see. We're about to touch. We're about to taste in our mouths. Jesus' body broken. Jesus' blood poured out for us. I want to encourage you to take this sign, to receive it, to know just as surely as you hold it in your hands that Jesus died to take away your sins. Praise God. Let me pray for us. take away your sins. Praise God. Let me pray for us.