Kneel at the Cross

We are in John 2:12-22 and studying Jesus clearing the temple. I think we need to first look at the difference here in John’s account and the account in the synoptic gospels. (Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46) The synoptics record all of this taking place at the end of Jesus ministry and John records it at the beginning. I’m going to take this as it’s written, which means it happened at the beginning of Jesus’  teaching ministry and at the end of his teaching ministry.

So now let’s look at the beginning of Jesus’ teaching ministry. In verse 12 we find out that after the wedding they spent a few days at Capernaum before heading to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem it is almost time for the passover. The priest knowing that the Jewish people must have an unblemished sacrifice have placed merchants in the courts around the temple. (Click on picture to see a large picture of the temple from ESV study bible)  They also have tables set up where money from the foreign villages can be exchanged for the half shekel coin used as the currency of the temple.

Jesus enters and sees how the temple where everyone goes to worship has been turned into a place to cheat worshipers out of their money. Just picture Jesus standing there and watching everything going on. He came to worship the father at the temple and as he looks around, worship is the farthest thing from anyone’s mind here.

I can picture Jesus standing there and praying, Father forgive them for their greed but teach them of their sin. As he prays he picks up a couple of straps of leather and starts to weave them together. He slowly and prayerful braids the strips together and then with a zealous holy anger he starts to yell sending the animals and people on a stampede through the gates outside the temple.

As they run from Him He turns and looks into the eyes of the men selling doves. “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a marketplace!” As the dove sellers are packing up to leave, the chief priest come running to see what is the cause of this commotion, the disciples reflect on the Psalm saying,”Zeal for your house will consume me”(Psalm 69.9).

Right here, I believe can be applied to our church worship services. The temple was designed to be a place to go and worship God, over time it changed into something different. When the priest first started allowing the merchants in, it was probably a good thing that helped everyone worship but over time it started to prevent worship. I believe there is a warning for us here to make sure we are not allowing things to enter the church that prevent worship.

The priest approach Jesus and ask, “show us proof that God has given you the authority to clear this temple.” Notice what is going on here. They never accuse Jesus of doing wrong they Just want proof that He is a prophet of God. Its been over 400 years since a prophet has spoken so if He is a prophet they want proof.

In John 2:19 Jesus simply states, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it in three days.” The Jews do not realize that he has answered their question. They just remark that it has taken forty-six years to build the temple there is no way he can rebuild it in three days.

Lets look at Deuteronomy 18:21-22. It is the instruction Moses gave to the Israelites on how to know if a prophet was sent by God. Simply put the God ordained test of a prophet is to see if what he proclaims in the name of the Lord comes true. If it does, God is telling us that the man is truly a prophet sent by God and the message he proclaims is true.

This statement by Jesus in response to the prophets is amazing and wonderful for us. First Jesus did not do like the other prophets and say something about the Lord saying. (2 Samuel 12:7, 1 Kings 13:2, Isaiah 1:2, Jeremiah 1:19, Ezekiel 3:27, etc)All the prophets proclaimed that their message was from the Lord. Jesus did not, because He is the Lord. Second they asked Jesus for proof that He was under the authority of God. He used Moses’ test to prove that He was and therefore showing us that everything He said is the word of God. This means that everything the bible records Jesus saying came directly from God and God put His stamp of approval on it.

That’s why this section ends with the disciples saying they remembered this and then believed the scripture.

Today we we will study John 2:1-11, the wedding at Cana. This first section in the second chapter of John is such a treasure of teaching. There are so many things God is showing us in this passage. I am not going to try and go into all of them, but I will try to point them out for further reflection.

We start off in verses 1 and 2 seeing that Mary, Jesus and the disciples are at a wedding in Cana. It says on the third day, which would be from when Phillip introduced Nathanael to Jesus(John1:43-51). Verse 1 states that Mary was there and then as an afterthought it says Jesus and His disciples had also been invited. We can gather from this that while we don’t know who the wedding was for, it apparently was someone close to Mary. Also in verse 3 when Mary tells Jesus that the wine is gone,  we can see she cares for these people.

We first must understand that a wedding in Israel at this time was a big event and the celebration could last for a week. It also was a matter of honor to be able to provide for the guest. If this wedding party would have had to end because of no wine the entire family would be shamed for the rest of their lives.

At this point in the Gospel of John Jesus has John, Phillip and Peter as disciples. Jesus takes Phillip and they go to Galilee. Phillip sees his brother Nathanael and tells him that, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Phillip is saying so much in this sentence.

In Genesis 3:15 we see that Jesus will attack Satan. In Genesis 22:18 God tells Abraham that all nations will be blessed by the name of his descendants. In Deuteronomy 18:18-22 God tells the Israelites that he will raise up a prophet like Moses and will punish anyone that does not listen to him. We also learn how to tell if a prophet is true in these verses. Moving on to Isaiah 7:14  Phillip mentions the son of Joseph which would have been doubted by everyone and by mentioning prophets Phillips is saying Jesus is the virgin born. Or even Isaiah 9:6 where it says the child will be called everlasting God and mighty father. Phillips statement is loaded to someone who has a great knowledge of the Tanakh or Jewish Old Testament.

Nathanael responds like any of us would when someone tells us they just saw God in human form. He mocks can anything good come from Nazareth. Phillip simply responds come and see. Phillip then takes Nathanael to introduce Him to Jesus. I’m goin to take a minute here for application. When we meet Jesus and understand the wonderful thing of who He is we should want to go to our family and introduce them to Jesus. It is not our responsibility to convince them that Jesus is who we say He is, the Holy Spirit will do that as we will see in a minute. We just need to make sure we show that we believe who He is and that we want them to meet Him and see for themselves.

Today we are studying John 1:35-40. This is three days after the priest have questioned John about why he baptizes and two days after announcing to the crowd that Jesus is the Lamb of God. John and two of his disciples are standing around together. We know that one of the disciples was Andrew (John 1:40) and it has been traditionally assumed the other was John the author of this gospel. The three of them see Jesus walking by and John the Baptist tells them again that Jesus is the Lamb of God.

John is trying to tell his disciples to go and see this teacher. John is humbling himself and letting his truest followers go and follow Jesus. I think the church today needs to pay close attention to what is going on in this verse. Our churches should be actively seeking those who are the most dedicated followers and then sending them out to multiply and build. Instead of relying on organizations to find and send people to plant churches or to go on foreign missions, we need to be seeking from within and sending out.

Andrew and John follow Jesus and in verse 38 Jesus looks at them and asks, “what are you seeking?” This question What are you seeking, what are you wanting is asked with Jesus knowing they followed Him after being told that Jesus is the Lamb of God. We also must remember that These two men have been following the Baptist. They have lived with him, heard his sermons over and over, and more than likely had private conversations with him about who and what is this Messiah that is coming. We may not have a record of John’s sermons, but we do know he was teaching repentance and that a messiah was coming to take the sins of man and grant forgiveness.

These two men understood who Jesus was and Jesus knew that they had that understanding of Him. So this question what do you seek is saying, How far are you willing to go for me? Are you seeking something that doesn’t require sacrifice? Are you seeking something that doesn’t change your life? Or are you seeking something that is so amazing that you will never be the same again. Something so amazing that you will sacrifice everything to gain it, not because you have to but because it means that much to you.

Their response was, “Teacher, where are you staying?” With the knowledge that they had this is saying we want it all. We are going to follow you anywhere and all we want is to learn from you.
Jesus says, “come and you will see”. When we ask Jesus into our life with a true and repentant heart, He will not refuse us.

The last part of this section talks about Andrew going and finding his brother Simon and announcing he has found the Messiah. This should be us going and telling those closest to us about Jesus. Simon Follows Jesus and is given the name Peter or Cephas.

Today we will be studying John 29-34. This is the day after men were sent from the pharisees to find out who John was and exactly what was he doing. John is standing in the Jordan preaching and baptizing Jewish people. He looks up and sees Jesus walking by. Jesus has already been baptized by John at this time (Matthew 3:13-17) and when John sees Him he stops and looks towards Him.

“Look,, It is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
This verse is so beautiful as it is reminiscent of Genesis 22:8. Remember the story of Abraham. He had always wanted a son. God granted him one in his old age and then asked him to sacrifice him. As they were heading up the mountain Issac asked Abraham, “Where is our sacrifice?”
Abraham said in verse 8, “God will provide the lamb.” God did provide the lamb in that case and here John is showing his disciples that God has provided a lamb for them and for us.

Back to John 1:30 and he is reminding them of what he said the day before about one greater than him. He says, “This is Him.” Then John goes on to tell them that this is what God sent him for. His purpose in life was to announce the coming of the Messiah. In Luke 1 the priest Zacharias goes into the Holy of Holies to burn incense and a angel appears to him telling him that he will have a son and this son will go to announce the Messiah. That son was John. John tells them that as he was baptizing Jesus, God’s Spirit came upon Jesus and told John that this is the one that baptizes with the holy spirit. John concludes this section stating that he has seen and is witness that Jesus is the Chosen One of God.

This short section is beautiful because it bares the inspired testimony that Jesus is the sacrifice for our sins. Every sin that I have or ever will commit is forgiven by God because Jesus took my place. Jesus accepted the wrath of God for me. We also see that God has a purpose for our lives. There is something he has planned for us. All we have to do is humble ourselves and accept the fact that we are servants of God. Then we will have our eyes opened to how Jesus is using us to increase His kingdom.
I love how John steps aside when he sees Jesus. In Matthew he actually says,” I shouldn’t be baptizing you. You should be baptizing me.” John is a very popular preacher. People have left everything to come to the wilderness and follow him. His followers are faithful and love him. Yet John knows that he is just a messenger. Jesus is the Way to forgiveness and salvation. May we all humble ourselves as John did.

Today I’m looking at John the Baptist’s testimony about Jesus. We will be in John 1:19-28. John has been next to the Jordan river and he is baptizing Jewish people. Baptism is not odd for the Jews they have used it for a long time to baptize people who are being brought out of paganism. Jews were not baptized though. John comes along and starts baptizing Jews without checking with the religious powers that be. So in verse 19 The Jewish leaders have sent people to find out exactly what he is doing.

Remember from Matthew 3:4 that John wore camel skins and ate locust. He was a rough looking individual and when they ask him who are you. He says quickly, I am not the messiah. It’s interesting that the pharisees did not have a problem assuming this wild and rough looking man in the wilderness was the promised messiah, but refused to accept Jesus, who could come into the synagogues and teach better than any of them as the messiah.

They go through the typical assumptions that show up when they see a prophet. Are you Elijah? Are you the Prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15) John quotes from Isaiah 40:3 saying that he is the one sent to announce the coming of the Lord. Well that can’t go back and tell their leaders this man never really told us anything. So they ask Why do you baptize? This is when John tells them that there is one among them that they don’t recognize. Jesus has been teaching in the synagogues and these pharisees are out in the wilderness looking for him.

Now notice his response. He says he baptizes with water but that isn’t nothing compared to the one I am proclaiming. I’m not even worthy to untie his sandal. A disciple of a teacher would do many things for his teacher but he would not untie his shoes that would be a servants job. What John is stating is even though he has a large group of followers and they respect and listen to his teaching, He is not even worthy to be a slave of Jesus. We should all learn from John. We are not worthy of anything Jesus gives us, but He loves us so much He asks the Father to accept us as adopted sons through his death.

I’m going to look at verses 4 and 5 today. I’ll skip down to verse 19 in my next section since 6-18 just give us the relationship of John and the evidence that the Word is Jesus as we talked about last time.

In Him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

In Him was life is talking about the eternal life we can only receive by accepting Jesus as our Lord and savior. John 14:6 tells us that Jesus is the way the truth and the life. He is the only way to the Father It is in Jesus that all of our hope lies. Through His death and resurrection we are able to receive this eternal life.

A man lost will look for light to see where he needs to go as we wander through our life as fallen creatures we are searching for that light and it is in Jesus. The Pharisees and Sadducees could not see that light. Despite there looking, waiting and studying they did not understand that Jesus was the light they were looking for.

So many in this day and time have that same problem. Young people claim to be spiritual and searching for the answer to life. They don’t see that it is there shining in the name of Jesus. They walk through the darkness seeing the light but unable and not willing to embrace it.

The opening prologue to the Gospel of John are some of the most beautiful and inspiring words in scripture to me. Some believe this was a Hymn added later to the Gospel, but it is so similar to the beginning of 1 John (That which was from the beginning) that it makes sense that the opening prologue was written by John to introduce his subject.

In the begining was the Word and the Word was with God and the word was God. How beautiful that sounds and how reassuring. So much is introduced to us in that on sentence. The first statement, in the begining takes us back to Genesis and reminds us that God had all this planned and that the old covenant was just there to prepare the way for the new covenant.

We quickly can see that the word is Jesus because in John 1:14 it states that the Word came in human flesh and was the son of God. We also see that Jesus was with God in the beginning. Look at Genesis 1:26 “Let Us make man in our Image.” We can now see that Jesus was there when God created everything. Then we see that the Word was God. There is no way a person can read the Gospel of John and deny the doctrine of the trinity. John states it matter of factly right here in his opening and goes on to back it up in several other places. (see John 6:46, John 20:28, John 14:9, 1 John 5:20)

So in the first sentence we have seen that Jesus was in the beginning with God and was God but in verse 2 John wants to make sure we realize that while Jesus is fully God he is also separate. He states this in reminding us He was with God. In verse three we see that everything was made through Jesus. If you are reading a KJV it says by; but the word dia (dee-ah’) here means through and is just there to help us try and grasp how Jesus is God yet also a separate presence of God.

So in simplified terms the first three verses of John are there to help us realize that Jesus has been around with God since the begining and to get us started on understanding the first two persons of the trinity.