Many of us in the Church in America have become very familiar with Jesus the Lamb. But what do we know of Jesus the Lion? Do you know Jesus as a lion, with all that strength and fierceness? Well this morning we are going Jesus the Lion. In fact that is the title of my sermon this morning “Jesus the Lion”.
Read Jn 2:13-22/Pray
My sermon this morning is sectioned of into four categories. We will first look at what Jesus saw. Then we will quickly see what Jesus did. From there the text will lead us to the answer of why He did what he did. And last of all I will try to bring us into a clear understanding to what this means for us today.
The story starts very simply. We see that Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for the Passover. It does need to be kept in mind that later Jesus will tell his disciples that He is our passover Lamb. So I do not think this is a coincidence that Jesus would go to Passover and reveal the broken practices that surrounded it. So He went. When he got to the temple he found people selling oven, sheep and pigeons, and money-changers near by. Jesus saw this and had to do something about it.
So Jesus the Lamb starts to pray for those who are doing this action. He looks for quiet ways of non-confrontation deliberation. After all, he does not want to be seen as bull in a China shop, and certainly does not want to offend those that are clearly interested God. Wait……. Is that what Jesus does? Many would have us believe that is what He would do. But not this Jesus, not the Jesus of the bible. The Jesus of the bible is radically different than modern notions of Him and I would add radically better. So what does Jesus do? He shows us the Lion. Jesus clears house! Notice how the word ALL is included in vs 15. Jesus has so much authority, invoked so much fear that everyone left. These people were making money and probably good money but apparently their fear of Jesus was greater than their desire to make a buck. This is quite a ferocious Lion.
Notice also that this was not a moment in which Jesus snapped and flew of the handle bars. This could so could easily look as if Jesus is revealing inappropriate youthful zeal. But notice the first part of verse 15. Jesus made a whip. So whatever Jesus was going to do with this whip we know that He had time to think it through. This would be an intentional and mature response to something that enraged Him. This was no in the heat of the moment blow up but calculated fierceness. Jesus shows His righteous wrath with pin point precision.
Then after Jesus makes the whip He attacks. It is interesting that Jesus does not ask the people to leave. He drives them out forcefully. Jesus kicks them out and possible uses physical force. Keep in mind what has already been stated. People will do almost anything to make a buck but apparently not a single one of these people considered Jesus a man to be messed with. So they left. They did not debate, they did not talk back. Jesus threw them out. This is Jesus the Lion. Is this a part of Jesus that you like? Honestly, if you were there would you be thinking “What is the big deal?”. Would you be thinking “Gosh Jesus, there are better ways to handle this.” Or how about “Jesus, just tell them how they are wrong, don’t kick them out”. So why did Jesus do what He did? Just so you know, Jesus was right.
Let’s look again to our bibles and read verse 16. Jesus kicks these people out for making the House of God (Where God dwelled) a house of trade. A house of trade, really! That makes Jesus react the way He does? Think about all the things the sacrifice providers and money changers got right. They got the right God. They got the right place. They were providing ways for the people to sacrifice to God. Yeah they were making money doing it but what is the big deal really? Well the big deal was that they were leading people into false worship of the True God. The desire of these people was a desire a personal gain at the expense of the proper worship of God. Ultimately this group was a group of false teachers. They diminished the Law of God by presenting way of unacceptable sacrifice. Nothing made the Lion come out of Jesus more than false teaching and false teachers. He will have nothing of it. We see in Luke 11 and the parallel account in Mat 23 that he does not tolerate false teaching.
Friends, false teaching destroys people. In our day false teaching does not seem to bother us. It bothered Jesus. In fact, it bothered Jesus more than a drunken wedding party did. Is it not interesting and quite backwards that we get all worked up over things that Jesus did not get worked up over and we could care less about the things that Jesus hated. Jesus gets angry when those in authority lead God’s people astray or into anything that is false. This is why God has established Elders who will teach the flock and defend the flock from false teachers and teaching.
So we see clearly that Jesus was mad. But is there any other clue as to why? In verse 17 we see it was because Zeal for his Father’s house consumed Him. Jesus was committed to the purity of the House of God. Jesus did not want impurity to be associated with the house of God. So He cleansed it. So now we have to answer the question “What does this mean for us?” What is the house of God? Where is the place in which the presence of God dwells? Well verse 22 is going to help us out quite a bit.
Verse 22 shows us that the disciples did not rightly understand this situation until after the resurrection. When Jesus rose from the grave the light bulbs came on and they understood. With our passage today we too are going to have to keep some things in mind to understand this narrative correctly. You see after Jesus rose from the dead he ascended into heaven. Jesus promised however that some time after his ascension there would be a declension. It would be the Holy Spirit that would come and indwell the church. The Spirit of God would not dwell in a place but in them. So for us to rightly understand the zeal of Jesus for the House of God we have to keep in mind that God’s presence does not dwell in temples built by human hands. We have to understand this story in light of Acts 2. If this is correct then we should see bible passages that call the people of God the House of God. Consider these three passages.
1 Cor 3:16-17
1 Cor 6:19
2 Cor 6:16
These passages are profound, simple, and clear. It is the church of God that is the Temple. The church of God is the is the House of God. This is why btw Jesus is not upset with bookstores in church buildings. Church building are not His house.
So if the people of God are the house of God then it should be right to say that zeal for the purity of the people of God consumes him. Now as we look at this next and final passage let us pay attention to the zeal and love of Jesus toward the house of God. He is in fact committed to cleansing the house.
Read Eph 5:25-27
Jesus loves his church! We see in verse 25 that Jesus died for His church. Jesus was the true sacrifice. For all the ways we screw up and for all the ways the sacrificial system failed in John 2, Jesus comes and gets it right. His is the sacrifice for us. Jesus then does more than that. He calls Elders to fight false teachers for us and then he turns over tables in our lives. Jesus cleanses us. This is what verse 26 says. He died for us that He may sanctify us. As surely as He died for you He will sanctify you. There was no other way that He might sanctify us but through death. So he died for us so that he might sanctify us. He did not die for you to leave you on your own. He washes us with the word. Jesus will then present us to himself in splendor. We will be holy and without spot or blemish. Jesus will have perfectly cleansed his Fathers house. Not one false teacher will be left. He will weed out and throw out all who don’t belong and gather in all His church by His sovereign grace and present us to Himself.
This is our King. This is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. This is our Jesus. He will make us perfect worshipers enjoying His glory forever.
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