A New Temple
Audio Recording
We apologize for our technical difficulties in the first part of the recording. The audio clears up around the 15:30 mark.
Sermon Outline
Speaker: Rev. Scott Strickman
Sermon Series: John 1-12: Come, See, Live!
John 2:12-25 (ESV)
12 After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
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, 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.
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
Sermon Outline
Jesus comes to the temple as the one who will build God’s house – John shows this so we can have life.
1. How do we understand what God is showing us?
v22 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.
v18 “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”
v17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
2. What is it God would have us see?
v20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”
v16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”
3. Why can we live differently now?
v19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
v21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
1 Peter 2:45 “As you come to him… you… are being built up as a spiritual house… to offer spiritual sacrifices”
Prayer of Confession
Almighty and most merciful Father; we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have left undone those things that we ought to have done; and we have done those things that we ought not to have done; and there is no health in us. O Lord, have mercy upon us. And grant, O most merciful Father, for your Son Jesus Christ’s sake, that we may hereafter live a godly and righteous life, to the glory of your holy name. Amen.
Questions for Reflection
What is your reaction to Jesus claiming that he can uniquely connect you to God? What thoughts arise in response?
Why is the resurrection of Jesus a paradigm shifting event? How does it change how we read the whole Bible? How does it help us connect the old and New Testaments? How does it change how we view and understand the world?
What does it mean that Jesus had “zeal for Gods house”? If you can read Psalm 69, how does that expand how you understand what it means?
What can the modern church learn from Jesus driving out those selling in God’s house? Where do we need to reform?
How is your understanding of Jesus shaped by his strong authoritative actions in the temple? How does this fit within the rest of his character?
Where do we access God now? How is Jesus like the tabernacle/temple? What is different?
What does it mean for Christians to be part of a living house of God?
What does it look like for you to worship God in how you live? How can you be a “living sacrifice”?
How does the church help bring people to God? How should the church participate in building up our world?