Sermon
Jesus And The Cleaning Of The Temple
May 27-28, 2000
Pastor Donald Sheley

Would you take your Bibles, and if you're new with us today we're delighted that you're here. We for a number of months have been studying together the gospel of John, and we just kind of take a portion at a time, sometimes it's a small number of verses, other times larger portions. We have arrived in chapter 2 today, and the event is the cleansing of the temple. And in your pew Bible if you'd like to reference it, it's probably on page 714-715 and you can follow along in your pew Bible there as we discuss this passage.

Jesus comes to the conclusion of His first public demonstration of His power as He turns the water into wine there at the marriage at Cana. And now in verse 13 it says: "Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and He poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!" Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up." So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things." Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and You will raise it up in three days?" But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them: and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

Let's stop there, shall we? And I'm going to ask you to take your notes today. For you that gather with us, it's my joy during the week to study and so I give you my study notes each Lord's Day. We don't reference all the material in them, but it gives you a lot of background concerning the passage that we study. And eventually these will be made into a commentary, but I note here first of all that it is necessary first of all to appreciate the fact that there are two accounts of the cleansing of the temple. Now this has led to the most lively discussion in theological circles. The synoptic writers place the incident at the end of the Lord's public ministry. You say, who are the Synoptic writers? Well, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the synoptic writers because they write their gospels in the form of a chronological, historical setting of the life and the ministry of Jesus. They take the events and spread them out over a chronological spread. Now John is different. John is an aged man when he writes his gospel, nearing 100 years of age. Sixty years have gone by since Jesus has ascended back to heaven, and through the work of the Holy Spirit in the memory of John, John goes back and he picks out certain incidences. He calls them signs. There are eight of them - great events in the ministry of Jesus, and some of His discourses, and John pieces them all together. And the then he says I write these so that you will believe that Jesus is the Son of God. So his is known as the gospel of belief. The three gospels that precede that are known as the synoptic, that is, they present in chronological form the life of Jesus.

So I note here in our notes that the writers, the synoptic writers, place the incident of the cleansing of the temple at the end of the Lord's ministry, and in contrast to this, John places the incident at the beginning of Christ's ministry. Now obviously a question is sure to arise. Were there one or two cleansings of the temple? And great theologians have argued the question and the shelves of every theological bookshop and the studies of every minister contain many volumes which set forth both sides to the argument. In my joy of presenting to you the message Sunday after Sunday, I have selected a large number of manuscripts and writings from some of the greatest theologians of history, and I work through those so I get a consensus of the positions of the theologians, and I try to take that consensus and present it to you. One of the great writers that I enjoy very much is a man by the name of A. W. Pink. Dr. Pink was a great reform theologian and had a deep insight into the knowledge of God's word, and a great theologian. Now Dr. Pink holds to the fact, and he spends about three pages in his 1,200-page document proving the fact that Jesus only cleansed the temple once. And then I go to the next book on my bookshelf and there's a book by Dr. James Montgomery Boyce who is the pastor of the 10th Avenue Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, I think it is, and a great mind, a godly man, a great theologian, and Dr. Boyce says, no, there were two cleansings. So here's my point. You can see that it's been a point of theological discussion. Did Jesus cleanse the temple once or did He cleanse it twice?

Let's go on with our notes. Well verse 12 of the chapter we are now studying says: "After this He went down to Capernaum, He Himself and His Mother and His brothers and His disciples, and He stayed there for a few days." Now the event recorded in the preceding paragraph probably occurred in late February or early March of the year 27 A.D. Accordingly, when now we read, after this, that is after the marriage at Cana, the first thought which occurs to us is that what is about to the recorded took place shortly after the wedding of Cana. This would seem to follow from the very expression that is used, for elsewhere in the Fourth Gospel it indicates an event which followed soon after. In other words, I used this logic, if John has a way of writing and he gives us one event and then he says, after this, this took place I just simply assume that what John is saying is this took place, then after this, this took place. And so in that this incident or this record of the cleansing of the temple takes place immediately following the marriage at Cana, we can only conclude that it very possibly is just that way.

Look down at the last paragraph. Now, all this is very logical: Jesus in February or early March changes the water into wine; from Cana's wedding He proceeds to Capernaum where He stays a few days; there follows the Passover festival, which was held in early Spring in April. So the datings if we go back into the Jewish calendar are very, very close, and it seems obvious that in John's memory soon after the wedding Jesus with His family and His disciples went to Jerusalem, and when He walked into Jerusalem He was disturbed that what He saw at the temple. Now when you analyze the record we know this, John wrote his gospel probably in the year 90 or 96 A.D. so he wrote his gospel about sixty years after Christ had ascended back into heaven. He has sixty years to think through all of the events of which he experienced with Christ. And Mark has already written his gospel, and John knows that Mark has written his gospel, and most likely he had copies of that gospel when John writes his gospel. So John is fully aware where Mark places the cleansing of the temple, and that's after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem in the closing hours of Christ's public ministry. John knows that, but under the anointing of the Holy Spirit John places his event in the early moments of Christ's public ministry.

Then the thing to do would be to lay both records side-by-side and see if there is a variation sufficiently enough that would justify two events. And here's what happens when you lay the two records side-by-side. First of all, all of them tell of the upsetting of the tables of the money changers. That's in the stories, so that's common to each presentation.

Secondly, John omits, as does Matthew and Luke, a point preserved by Mark that Jesus forbade the carrying of goods or the implements through the temple court. In other words, Mark is the only one who, telling the story, puts that little incident in. Why? Well, Mark remembers that what upset Jesus was the fact that the temple was being used as a shortcut. You see, here was the temple plateau and here is the city of Jerusalem back here, and then the valley comes down here - it's the Kedron Valley - and then you start up the slopes and here's the garden of Gethsemane, and then you're going up Mount Olivette, and it's just a short time walk, but what had happened is the folks in Jerusalem instead of going around the temple precincts and then down to the valley; they'd cut right through the church, and the temple became the shortcut for the trip to Mount Olivette. And Mark sees Jesus as finding that unacceptable, and He says you'll do that no more. You'll not carry your things through the temple. You'll go around the temple area if you're going over to Mount Olivette, but don't use the church for a shortcut. Now Mark records that, but John doesn't.

Thirdly, John alone states that sheep and oxen were being sold in the precincts, the sale of pigeons only being mentioned by Mark. So here's my observation. Always when you read the Gospels you must remember they were written by four different people. And if there were four different people, and we all went to the same event, not all of us would see the same thing. Some of us would have some interest and we would see the event differently. Remember, Luke is a doctor and he is a historian, so he is going to think in terms of, when it's a matter that relates to people's needs, Luke's going to tell the story differently as a physician than old Mark is going to do it. And Matthew had a deep concern that Jewish people would put their trust in Christ, so everything that Matthew writes he's going to write it in a way that impresses Jewish people. You remember over and over again Matthew says, as it is written, as it is written, always referring Jewish people back to the ancient Scriptures. So Matthew's going to write it differently than the historian and the physician of Luke and Mark. And John, an old man, remembers things just a little differently, so I maintain that because there are small differences it's just simply because they come from four different observers.

And I've written here in my notes, those who defend the position of just one cleansing of the temple, must make a human judgment on the correctness of John or the Synoptics, and that I will not do. I say the Holy Spirit of God inspired the writings of all Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and what is written has been written under the anointing and the direction of the Holy Spirit of God. And instead of making the judgment whether Luke was right or John was right, I say look at, it's easier to believe and accept the scriptures as they are. John says, Jesus started His ministry and one of the first things He did was to walk into the temple and found it desecrated by thieves and merchandisers. Now we know this, some theologians say that Jesus couldn't have gotten away with that so early in the ministry. They would have had Him hanging high and dry real quick. Well we must remember He was never liked by the religious leaders, never please them. He was always the object of their scorn and their hatred. So He starts a ministry separating Himself from the religion of His day.

Now when you take the Scriptures that way, I feel more comfortable with just simply saying, I'll accept the fact that John says start He had one cleansing at the beginning, and Luke says that at the end. These are the views of different writers under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. They're very likely were two cleansings of the temple. Okay? Let's go to the next page. Now before we begin a systematic study of the verses describing this event, there is one prerequisite: It's necessary to gain a mental picture of the scene which Christ saw everyday as He entered the temple courtyards. In writing of this, Godet, one of the great French theologians, said, "The temple had three particularly holy courts: there was the court for the priests, there was the court for men, and then there was the court for women. And around these courts a vast open space had been arranged which was enclosed on four sides by colonnades, which was called the Court of the Gentiles.

Let's get a picture. When Jesus walked into the temple area that day He knows that here's the Holy Place, and here's the court of the priests, and the court of men, and the court of women, and then he sees all of these colonnades. And outside the colonnades is the court of the Gentiles. You see, if you were a gentile, even though you were a proselyte, and a proselyte is a convert to Judaism. Even though you were a proselyte, you couldn't go beyond those colonnades. In fact, on those colonnades were written, to pass beyond here as a gentile means death. You couldn't go any further. That was it. And as a result, outside that colonnade, let's go back to our notes, in this outmost court there was established, with tacit consent of the temple authorities, a market and an exchange. We've learned that in the days of Jesus religion was a business. It hasn't changed much, has it? And those priests, those leaders of the temple, of course, they had all the regulations for the sacrifices, but you couldn't bring the lamb out of your little flock. You had to come to the temple and you had to buy a lamb that had the stamp of the priest on it. And he got a cut on that. Those religious leaders were exceedingly wealthy in Jesus' day.

And besides that, when you came to the temple the law are required that everyone over 20 years of age, 19 says Barclay, everyone over 20 years of age had to pay a Temple tax which was in the amount of a half-shekel. Now when Jesus was here 2000 years ago your average pay was four pennies a day. So the shekel was worth about six cents, so every male over 20 years of age had to pay a half-shekel tax to the temple. But, down in our notes here I note William Barclay writes concerning this Temple tax. He says there was a tax that every Jew over 19 years of age had to pay. That was the Temple tax. And it was necessary that all should pay that tax so that the Temple sacrifices and the Temple ritual may be carried out day by day. And this tax was one half-shekel. We must remember that we are thinking in sums of money, and at this time a working man's wage was about less than four pennies a day. And the value of a half-shekel was six cents; the equivalent of almost two days work.

Now for all ordinary purposes in Palestine, all kinds of currency were valid. But the Temple tax had to be paid with either Galilean shekels or in shekels of the sanctuary, and these were Jewish coins and so could be used as a gift to the Temple. The other currencies were foreign and so were considered unclean. They might be used to pay ordinary debts, but you couldn't use your Roman currency to put an offering in the temple. You had to go to a money changer and change your money, and he'd give you temple coins in exchange for the coinage you gave him. And you folks that travel know that going to that currency desk is one of the most frustrating things. That's one of the hardest things when you travel, because I give them $20 and I don't know whether he gives me 10 cents or $10. I mean, it's just a bunch of foreign objects to me, and I don't know the difference, and so it's very easy to cheat your clients. And that's what Jesus saw there in the temple, these cheats, these swindlers. People who had come to worship, these swindlers were making exchanges and pocketing a lot of money, and just stealing the people blind. That's why Jesus got angry. That's why He called it a house of merchandises, and a den of thieves. Not a very good rating, is it? That's what broke the heart of Jesus of the religious people of His day.

Now just quickly, we have to hurry along, go down to the bottom of page 2 and I wanted just to make a passing observation here. In our passage under consideration, we note that at the conclusion of the wedding celebration, the Lord and His party went down to Capernaum, and in spite of the comments made by certain early church leaders, the term "brethren" refers to His brothers and not to His cousins. You say, Pastor, why do you put that in there? Let me explain. This one passage is a very critical passage for some Christians, some in the segment of our Christian faith, who seek to defend Mary, and say that after Jesus was born the Virgin Mary didn't have any other children. And that's a position held by a large segment of Christians. You say, why do they hold that? Well they prefer elevating Mary to a place equal to God, which they do. And I, again, give great reverence to Mary as an instrument used by God to bring Jesus to this world, but really when you follow the text of Scripture it's obvious that after Mary bore Jesus, that Joseph and Mary had a normal marital relationship, and children were born to their union.

Now I put in here that some church writers have done everything they can to defend against that thought. Jerome was a great church father and here's the way that Jerome in his ancient writings, this is what he says: he held that the brethren that's referenced here, where it says Jesus and his brethren went down to Jerusalem, that the word brethren were the sons of the Cleopas. Now Cleopas was the sister of Mary, and so most likely they are at the wedding in Cana, Mary and her sister Cleopas, and her children, were there. That's very normal. And as a result, when they make their decision to make their journey to Jerusalem, it would be very normal for Cleopas' children - which would be cousins to Jesus - to join in the entourage. That's one explanation.

There's another ancient church writer, his name was at Epiphanius, and Epiphanius says, no, here is the way it was; Joseph was a very elderly man when he married the Virgin Mary, and most likely he had been married before, and from a previous marriage he had other children, and thus, these would be the stepchildren to Mary who joined them on their journey. You see my point is that when you go back into the ancient writings there are various explanations as to who these brethren might be.

Let's go to the bottom of our page here and in Matthew 13:54 here's what we read: "And when He was come into His own country, speaking of Jesus, He comes back to visit at Nazareth, He taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? In other words, Jesus comes home and He amazes the community by His wisdom and mighty deeds, and they start asking questions. Isn't Joseph, who has his carpenter shop down on Main Street, isn't that his boy? Isn't Mary his mother? And what about his brothers, there's Jim, and Joe, and Peter, and Judas? (It's James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas) and then it says, and His sisters, are they not also with us? In other words, Jesus we're amazed that You have this wisdom. I did You get it all? You're the son of that carpenter. You're Mary's son, you've got brothers. Where did You get that wisdom? And it says, Whence then, hath this man all these things? So we can only concluded that after Mary had bore Jesus, Joseph and Mary had other children. You say, it's important? No, we're not going to argue the point. Let the theologians do that. Someone said that here's where a lot of theologians, clerical people, and get their garments torn. There are just some things we don't argue about, worry about, just but and observation from a study of Scripture.

So here's the scene, Jesus leaves the marriage, He's got His entourage, He's got His family, His mother, and they head down to Jerusalem for the Passover. Now at the Passover, I'm on page four now, here's what takes place. It's an exciting time because it's a festival that is still today celebrated by Jewish people up. It's a very wonderful occasion, and remember it's a celebration when the Jewish people were released from their bondage centuries ago from the land of Egypt. And before they left that night they killed a lamb, took the blood of the lamb and put it across the lintels and the doorposts of their homes, and because of that marking when the death angel passed over nobody died in that house. So that's why it's called the Passover, the angel of death passed over and all the children of Israel were saved from that plague that hit the homes of all the Egyptians. So to this day they celebrate that marvelous event, and it was a very high holy day even in Jesus' time, so that's why they went down to Jerusalem.

Now go with me, let's take our notes and go to page 5 in our notes. There is a lot of material there, but we just want to take...because here's the heartbeat of what I want to say today. Let's take a moment and try to look into the heart of Jesus, I'm clear down at the bottom of page 5, and see why He acted as He did and why the anger over the defiled Temple. Page 6, He acted as He did because God's house was being desecrated. In the Temple there was worship without reverence, and reverence is an instinctive thing. Worship without reverence is a terrible thing. It's mockery, and it may be worship which is formalized or pushed through. The most dignified prayers on earth can be read like a passage from an auctioneer's catalog. It may be worship which does not realize the holiness of God. It may be the use of the House of God for purposes in a way where reverence and the true function of God's house are forgotten. Now let me stop here.

When we came to the communion time today, we talked about the spiritual temple. The Bible says you are the temple of God. When we open our heart and say, Jesus, You come and dwell, a wonderful thing takes place: the spirit of God comes to dwell, and so this is why this is called the temple of God. Now at our communion time we said, God, if there's anything in this spiritual temple that offends You, that's wrong, please cleanse us, please forgive us. So we've talked about the spiritual temple. Now for the next few moments I want to talk about this temple, the physical temple, because that's what Jesus was deeply concerned about. We who have been here for many years know that this building here was an old supermarket. When I walked in here in 1970, bread tables and carousels and counters were all over the place. It was a shopping center, but when I walked in here this morning at 5:00 my feeling about this place was different than it was when I first walked in, because something has happened, because we come here for worship, because to us this becomes the House of God even though it's made of brick and mortar and steel and glass. Yet there's something about being here that makes this different than any other place in town. This is the House of God. And because it's the place where we meet God, to me, it's a very sacred place. And my feeling as your pastor has always been this, dear God, may it be that we always keep this place sacred for You.

Often my prayer is dear Jesus, I never want You to be ashamed of what takes place here at this church. I want this place to always be a delight to Your heart, that You take pleasure in what we do here in this church. That to us there is a genuine passion for what is sacred. Now you say, but it's just a building? But that temple was just a building, but it had been set aside, it had been...the word sanctified means to be set aside. It was a building set aside for God, and when Jesus walked in and He smelt those stinking animals and He listened to those money changers swindling people of their offerings, what to Him was sacred had been desecrated and it had lost its purity, and Jesus took a whip. You know, as I study this I said, Jesus, help me to somehow feel what You must have felt when You walked into the temple that day. I remember back many years ago: I have a study way back up here in one of the catwalks, and there I spend my Saturdays, and have for the last 30 years, praying and preparing to be with you folks for today. And I like to come down on Saturday evening before we start having our evening service, and just walk around and pray and walked up and down the aisles, and across the pews just asking God to fill this house with His presence. Because I want it to be a place different than any other place in town, and I remember coming down and I heard this raucous, ugly music coming out of the sanctuary, and I stood at that door over there in the corner for a few minutes and the longer I stood there the angrier I got. And finally I walked out to those musicians and said, stop it! This is the House of God! And don't contaminate it with your ugly music. Get your instruments and go. You say, did you say that? I did, and I've never regretted it because I remember feeling I'm sure what Jesus felt. I wanted this to be a place where we could meet with God, and I was disturbed by that raucous, ugly music.

And then I remember back a number of years ago; the mall when it was a shopping center was a beautiful place. I remember as the years grow more and more things we put out, I mean, they're selling tickets for picnics. And one Sunday morning I walked in here and there had to be at least 15 tables all around that mall, and the first thing that hit me (hits podium) my God, we've turned this place into a house of merchandise! And I could hardly wait till the next day at staff meeting, and I said brethren, this will never happen again. We shamed the House of God yesterday, because anybody who walked through those doors would have wondered what they walked into. And we set down policy then years ago, I said, never will that be allowed again. You say, why pastor? Because there has to be a place where God is honored, where His presence is felt, where what we do brings delight and joy to His heart, and I want this to be a place where God always feels at home.

Merchandising in the House of God. Some would like to merchandise their political opinions, never allowed here. And I deeply resent religious organizations, even of national level, who seek to turn the Christians' attitude and concerns and thinking in political directions to the point where they really forget their spiritual purposes, and the church becomes the merchandising place for politics. That's ugly. I believe in morality, but I don't believe when people come here they need to be taught who's the best candidate. That is nonsense. My Bible tells me in Romans chapter 13 that God sets up the rulers of the nations, and I'm going to leave history to God. When we come here to this house, we come here to worship God not to hear politics. And yet it's an amazing thing to me how much politics is merchandised under religion, and it's wrong. It must hurt the heart of God.

And there's another one, the merchandising of pop psychology, and that is today the human being is everything. He doesn't realize how valuable he is. You've got to tell him. One preacher in Southern California says, we have crossed out the word sin. We don't use it anymore in our church. The sin isn't what separates he says between us and God, it's the jaundiced view that we have of ourselves. We don't build ourselves up enough! Merchandising pop psychology and calling it religion, and there's nothing to it folks. I think Jesus looks on and would like to take His whip out again on the church.

We've come to a very crucial time. If you go to bookstores today there're some very interesting titles you'll find on the bookshelves: The Search for Truth. David Wells wrote a book entitled What Ever Happened To Evangelical Theology? And there is a deep concern by thinking godly men as to the rapid disintegration of evangelical theology. Now I know I bring this to a very solemn point, but can you feel Jesus walking into the House of God and He's got to put up with merchandisers and thieves, and they call themselves religious. And so I come back to the bottom line, God wants His house to be a place where He is reverenced.

And I want you folks, along with me, always to be very sensitive. When you're driving your way to church, why don't you pray God, when we go to church today I want Your presence to be so real. I want You to manifest Your glory. I want people who come that search for You, may they find You. You see my prayer is this, Jesus, may You so fill this house with Your presence, may You so be honored here that people who come searching for truth will find You. People whose heart hurts, people whose lives are empty of meaning, Jesus make Yourself so real, Your presence so real, in our church that when people come their attention will be drawn to You not to us. And I'll tell you there's nothing more precious than the presence of God. Nothing more precious. And there's nothing more desolate than a church where the spirit of God has departed, and that's what Jesus had to walk into that day. May we never have to walk into it here. Sometimes I hear people say, you know pastor, when I come to your church I can't stop crying. Why? Because they feel God's presence here. There's something, this place has to be different than any other place in town. It's where I come to meet my God. Amen? You want that, I want that, Jesus wanted that and He cleansed the temple so He could have it.

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, it's hard for us to feel the pain that You must have felt when You walked into church that day. You, the sacred Lamb of God, being exposed to a hideous house of merchandise. Would You, dear God, give us a sincere passion for what is sacred and for what is holy and for what is godly? And I know dear Jesus that this is just a building, but in ancient past You selected the temple to be a place wherein You chose to place Your name there. That is, You chose to display Your glory there. May you choose, Lord Jesus, to display Your glory here and may we reverence Your presence, may we find great joy in knowing that You're here to meet us as we worship You in spirit and in truth. I thank you for our wonderful congregation, and I thank you for our musicians, and I thank you for all who make our church family what it is. May there always be a passion for the sacred. Thank you dear Jesus very much, and everybody said? Amen. God bless you.