The Irreverent Reverence

“The Irreverent Reverence”

John 2:12-17

Introduction:

                One of the things that I can remember from my childhood when we were attending a liberal Church before we were saved is that all around the Church were pictures of Jesus Christ. And without fail most of the pictures that were in the Church made Jesus Christ out to be a feminine looking, long haired fairy. Yet as you study the Word of God one of the things that becomes very evident is the fact that Jesus Christ is anything but a fairy. Listen, there is one thing that I want to mention to you tonight that Jesus Christ does not tolerate and that is dishonoring God. Jesus Christ does not tolerate irreverent reverence.

                When we come and enter the Church house, we say that we are coming to worship. However, the Church has largely forgotten what it really means to worship God, as they did in the time of Jesus Christ. One of the major elements of worship that has been completely misunderstood is that worship has been viewed as something that we as human do or offer to God. When in fact Bibllical worship has to do with God has done for His people. Let me see if I can explain a little better. Singing should not be the act of worship, we sing to give thanks for what God has done for us, which is the act of worship. Tithing should not be the act of worship, we tithe to give thanks for what God has done for us, that is the act of worship. Church attendance should not be the act of worship. We go to Church in thankfulness for what God has done for us, which is the act of worship. You see, true worship is not the acts that we do, but true worship is the thankfulness that brings about those acts.

                The problem with the wrong thinking on worship is that when I believe that worship is my giving or offering to the Lord, then the worship is short lived. Because we get tired of the mundane and that is why some people are full-force in their “worship” for the Lord at the beginning and then they tend to get slack in it because their “worship” is not from a heart that, probably wants to please God, but it is from a heart that thinks that they worship God as they do things for God. And when the Devil beats on you and things do not seem to be going well for you, then the “worship” stops, because you saw worship as you doing for God instead of thankfulness for what God has already done.

                If we get that reversed then worship tends to be a trade off. We begin to feel like that God owes us something because of all the great things that we have done in “worship” to Him. And when God does “produce” like we think that He should, the form of worship stops, because God did not keep His end of the bargain.

                Yet what worship is, is a thankfulness of what God has already done. Therefore, if that is my focus, if God never did anything else, I will still worship because I am thankful for what he has already done.

                Let me also say that God is angry with “worship” that is used to attract the lost. Worship is for believes and not for the unsaved to feel comfortable in Church, so everything else is going to have preeminence except for preaching because preaching is dry and not conducive to making unbelievers feel “at home”. When the opposite should be the case. Paul says in 2 Cor. 14 that, paraphrase now, if an unbeliever just happens to stop by”. Now that is a strange way to say that. But what does that tell us. It tells that they main focus of the Church is for the believers and not the unbelievers and that Churches miss God’s best when they try and build an organization being the biggest and best and therefore make the Church comfortable to the lost.

One more thing, by way of introduction, is that you must prepare for worship. What is that preparation? It is the same preparation that Isaiah spoke about. "Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." (Isaiah 6:5, KJV). True worship is not done spontaneously by a dirty heart. It is truly done as we see God’s Glory and confess our sin, only then are we prepared to worship.

                That is focus of the account in the life of our Lord that we see in this passage. It makes judges the irreverent reverence.

I.                    The Place (vs.1)

Jesus and the disciples enter Jerusalem during passion week, and John tells us that the time was the Passover of Jews. You remember the Passover. The Passover was instituted by our Lord to the people of Israel through Moses while they were living in bondage in Egypt. God told the people of Israel to kill a spotless, male lamb and take the blood and sprinkle the blood on the door posts of the House. By the way, it is interesting to note the way in which they were suppose to sprinkle that blood. At the top and on either side of the door, picturing the cross. When Israel was obedient to do that when the Lord walked through Egypt that night, when He saw the blood He passed by that house. But when He did not see the blood, the first born in the house died that night. That marked at time for all Jews, to this day, to remember what was done for them that night. Not only deliverance from death but also deliverance from Egypt. What is ironic is that the one who saved them that night is the one that they have rejected as their Messiah.

Jews selected the lamb on the tenth of the month, and celebrated Passover on the 14th day of the lunar month of Nisan (full moon at the end of Mar. or beginning of Apr.). They slaughtered the lamb between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. on the night of the feast. [1] Jesus Christ’s journey to Jerusalem was an annual trip made by every Jewish male over the age of 12.

Now, we must keep in mind here that because of the event there would have been literally thousands of people in Jerusalem and around the temple. In fact, some commentators have said that at the time of the Passover there could have been something around 2.75 million Jews in Jerusalem. So that is the place, that is where Jesus is and why He is there and how many there are there. And this leads of to the next observation.

II.                  The Problem (vs. 14)

Keep in mind here that they actions of Christ are in direct fulfillment of the Prophet Malachi. "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts." (Malachi 3:1, KJV) And later on in that passage it speaks about Messiah purifying the temple. Now, they didn’t know it what Christ was the one that Malachi was speaking. During the celebration of Passover, worshipers came from all over Israel and the Roman Empire to Jerusalem. Because many traveled large distances, it was inconvenient to bring their sacrificial animals with them. Opportunistic merchants, seeing a chance to provide a service and probably eyeing considerable profit during this time, set up areas in the outer courts of the temple in order for travelers to buy animals. The money changers were needed because the temple tax, paid annually by every conscientious Jewish male 20 years of age or older (Ex. 30:13, 14; Matt. 17:24–27), had to be in Jewish or Tyrian coinage (because of its high purity of silver). Those coming from foreign lands would need to exchange their money into the proper coinage for the tax. The money changers charged a high fee for the exchange. With such a large group of travelers and because of the seasonal nature of the celebration, both the animal dealers and money exchangers exploited the situation for monetary gain ("den of thieves"; Matt. 21:13). Religion had become crass and materialistic.[2]

The temple, needless to say, was a mess.  With over two million people there, large crowds were everywhere.  And, of course, they would all be pushing at the temple because that's where the worship would go on.  Now when they use the word "temple," it came to mean the whole complex of building and courts and everything.  The real temple, the temple itself was just one little area divided into two parts, one third and two thirds, which was the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place, and only the priests could go there and only the high priests once a year could enter the Holy of Holies.

      But around that was the inner courtyard, the outer courtyard, the court of the Gentiles, the buildings of the palace and all the other kinds of things.  It was one complex.  And all the population was pushing at the temple.  In order to commodate everybody who wanted to make a sacrifice, they had set all kinds of shops in the Court of the Gentiles and they were selling things there.  One writer, interestingly enough, says it is very likely that because business, you know, was competitive that they began to push closer and closer to the temple until perhaps the temple itself, the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place was surrounded with people with their little wares set up with just behind them would be the temple and the Holy Place.  And they were all bickering for the sale of these animals to people who wanted to purchase them and it was kind of a monopoly.  It's like when you go to the resort for your vacation, if you don't want to pay the prices you don't eat.  And, of course, they were charging exorbitant prices.   

     One of the ancient commentators says, transliterating it today that nickel doves were going for $4.00 apiece.  So you can see, there's something of the usuary that was going on. There was no spirit of worship and there was no reverence and Christ was angry.  He demands reverence for God.  This irreverent blasphemy brought out a righteous indignation in Christ like we see nowhere else in the New Testament, unless it be in the wrath that He brings when He comes in His Second Coming and treads out the winepress of the wrath of God.  He demanded reverence for the majesty and the wonder of God.  He would not tolerate this blasphemy.

III.               The Prescription (vs. 15-16)

      Now He was some kind of a man, a monstrous mob in that temple, on man with one scourge cleared that place.  He was a man's man.  You don't take the scourge like He took it, then pick up a cross that probably weighed 250 pounds and march up a hill with it unless you're some kind of a man.  And you don't walk into a temple and scatter a mob by saying, "Everybody out."  There was a dynamic.  The Son was cleansing the Father's house with a lash.  There weren't any half-way measures.  There weren't any delays in His action.  This was Messiah at work.  And listen, when Messiah goes to work, people move and they moved.  With fire indignation He applied that whip right and left to those men and those animals, and then He walked over to those tables and undoubtedly kicked them over.  And then in verse 16 He told the people with the doves to pick up their crates and take them out of there, "Take these things from here."  They kept the doves in crates and He said, "Pick them up and get them out."  Christ does not tolerate irreverence toward God.  God demands glory.

      Now, watch this, this is another indication of His Deity. “Do not make MY FATHER”S HOUSE, another indication of the Deity of Christ that must infuriated  the Jewish leaders that were around, and we know from verse 18 that they were there. The force of the Greek imperative ποιέω translated says, “Stop making my Father’ house a place of merchandise”.   

IV.               The Passion (vs. 17)

            Quoted from Ps. 69:9 to indicate that Jesus would not tolerate irreverence toward God. When David wrote this psalm, he was being persecuted because of his zeal toward God’s house and his defense of God’s honor. The disciples were afraid that Jesus’ actions would precipitate the same type of persecution.[3]

            Jesus did not tolerate irreverent worship then and He does not now. I wonder how many of God’s people would be run out of Church if Christ judged now the way he did then. When you approach the worship of God, make sure it is pure and free from self. So, Christ cleansed the temple.  He cleansed it.  And later on He cleansed it again.  And then He destroyed its worship at His death because He ripped the veil from top to bottom.  And then He destroyed it all together in 70 A.D. when it was flattened and wiped out and never been rebuilt. 

      You say, "Well, is there a temple of God today?"  Yeah.  You say, "Where is it?"  Right here.  You're the temple of God.  Isn't that what Paul says?  Don't you know you're the temple of the Holy Spirit?  You're the sanctuary not made with hands.  God's built a new temple.  That's the believer.

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[1]MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Jn 2:13). Nashville: Word Pub.

[2]MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Jn 2:14). Nashville: Word Pub.

[3]MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Jn 2:17). Nashville: Word Pub.