Come along with me as I read from John chapter 2 verses 1 to
25 to see how Jesus is the new temple.
On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee and
the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus was also invited to the
wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the
mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine.
And Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with
me? My hour has not yet come.
His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you.
Now there were 6 stone jar water jars there for the Jewish rites
of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons.
Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water, and they
filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, Now draw
some out and take it to the master of the feast.
So they took it when the master of the feast tasted the water
now become wine, and did not know where it came from, though
the servants who had drawn the water knew.
The Master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him,
Everyone serves a good wine 1st, and when people have drunk
freely, then the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine
until now. This, the first of his signs
Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory, and the
disciples believed in Him. After this he went down to
Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples,
and he stayed there for a few days.
The Passover of the Jews was at a hand, and Jesus went up to
Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who
were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers
sitting there and making a whip of cords he drove them all out
of the temple with a sheep and an oxen.
And he poured out the coins of the money changers and
overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the
pigeons, take these things away. Do not make my Father's house a
House of trade. His disciples remember that it
was written, Zeal for your house will consume me.
So the Jews said to him, What sign do you show us for doing
these things? Jesus answered them, Destroy
this temple and in three days I will raise it up.
The Jews then said, It has taken 46 years to build this temple,
and will you raise it up in three days?
But He was speaking about the temple of His body.
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.
Now, when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many
believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing.
But Jesus on His part, did not entrust Himself to them, because
He knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man,
for He Himself knew what was in man.
It's the Word of God, Amen. We'll be Speaking of signs and
their purpose today. What are the purpose and meaning
of signs? And for me this is This applies
to real life because signs are never the destination signs,
especially on. We make frequent Rd. trips to
Surabaya as my wife's family is from there and I'm constantly
looking out for signs. You know once you pass Jakarta
you'll begin to see signs for Chitabon.
Once you pass Chitabon, you start to see signs for Samarang.
Once you pass Samarang you start to see signs for solo and only
then do you start seeing signs that say Surabaya.
But obviously I don't stop at that sign, just passing solo and
say we made it. This is where we want to be.
No signs only point to the destination, to the main event.
And it builds our anticipation in a way, because whatever that
sign is pointing to, it says it's near, it's not far, it's
close signs. That's the very purpose of signs
that we see in Scripture, specifically in the miracles of
Jesus. It's common even in Christian
spirituality today to stop at the signs and say the signs is
what it's all about. I want more of the signs.
I want more of the miracles, which is then to completely miss
out on who Jesus is, the person that the signs point to.
Signs point to the revealing of who Jesus is.
So we'll look at today's passage in two parts.
If you're taking notes, you can write them down.
We'll see. The first sign is of glory of
Jesus Christ in verses 1 to 12, and then the promise sign that
is to come, promised sign of authority in verses 13 to 25.
So let's get right into God's word, the first sign of glory.
John starts chapter 2 with counting of days that he has
been doing in chapter 1. He covered four days at the end
of chapter 1. So the third day after that
brings us to the end of Jesus's first week of ministry.
Now this isn't random counting. This isn't random storytelling.
John has a purpose of noting the third day and what Jesus does on
that third day at a wedding in order to reveal who Jesus really
is. The significance of emphasizing
the third day will become clearer for us later in what
Jesus says in verse 9. Says in verse even when our
weddings today are just last for one day.
Back then, weddings during 1st century Palestine lasted several
days and running out of wine was like a social disaster.
Maybe it's like running out of rice at an Indonesian reading.
Maybe it's running out of parking spots.
But still it's much worse because there was disgrace and
humiliation upon the new family and even dishonour and insult to
the extended families, especially on part of the
bridegroom who was not able to provide for such a feast, such a
celebration marking his his willingness to provide for
others to celebrate with him and his new bride.
It may be hard for us to realize how bad the situation was, but
it was serious enough, we see for Jesus mother to tell Jesus
they have no wine. That's what she simply says in
in verse 3. It's interesting that she does
not make a specific request, but she only informs Jesus about the
need. And it's clear that she does
indeed have an expectation for Jesus to do something about this
problem. She was not merely telling him
information. She came with an expectation for
Jesus to be somehow the solution, even though she may
not have known how she as the mother of Mary, as the mother of
Jesus, knew of the prophecies made over her child and and the
miracle of how she what gave birth that was given to her by
the Holy Spirit. So she knew obviously of the
uniqueness of her son, but she would not know all the details.
So she comes with the problem. Now, if you could just pause
here for a moment. In this brief interaction, I
think we can observe one model of prayer by simply coming to
Jesus, informing him of our needs and our problems.
It's not as if we're giving Jesus information that he
doesn't already know. He knows.
He knows our needs better than we do before it even comes off
of our lips. He knows, He knows, and he knows
how to provide. But in prayer, but in prayer we
we, we come communicating our needs to Jesus with an
expectation that he will do what is right.
In verse 5, we see Mary's open handed trust as she tells the
servants to do whatever Jesus tells you.
Now if you're honest with ourselves, we are lacking in our
prayer lives. We usually pray though when
there is a big enough problem that we feel like we cannot
solve on our own. So then we finally pray, which
is better than not praying at all, don't get me wrong.
But we all have a tendency to use prayer to demand God to
carry out our desires for God to do what we want done.
But God gave us the grace of prayer not to dictate to God
what we want done. He gave us the gift of prayer to
learn how to depend on Him. Who knows what is best?
So we come, come to lay down our cares and concerns and we trust
Him to act according to his good and perfect will.
Prayer without a willingness to trust God is nothing more than
selfish requests, manipulative demands.
No, we must learn to pray with open handed trust to say Lord,
not my will, but yours be done. As we gather on Sundays and we
lift up our prayer of petition, yes, we do pray for our needs.
Yes, we lay our cares down before the Lord and say, Lord,
have your way. We, we, we come to you for a
resolution for these problems, for our needs.
But I also hope you hear how we express our trust that even if
he doesn't provide in the ways that we desire, that we will
still trust that God is doing a good work even in our lacking in
our in our problems. We understand that the very
reason for those problems may be so that we as God's people learn
how to trust in him, learn how to come to him.
God getting our attention through our brokenness, through
our unsolved problems, through our limited abilities.
Let's read Jesus response to his mother's statement.
Now verse 4 says this. And Jesus said to her, woman,
what does this have to do with me?
My hour has not yet come. Now Jesus's words would be
surprising to us. First he doesn't call Mary
mother, but instead he calls her woman.
And now we can't bring into the text our own cultural
experiences. Perhaps we've tried to
disrespect our mother and that didn't turn out well for us
growing up. But here Jesus is not meaning to
be dishonouring or offensive. We know this because Jesus uses
the same word to call his mother in a deeply touching moment as
he hung on the cross. If you remember that scene in
John chapter 19, he's caring for his mother even in his suffering
and pain, telling to his beloved disciple, Woman, here is your
son. So it is a respectful way.
It's a respectful way to ask his mother, what does this problem
have to do with me? Why are you involving me?
It's a statement that calls Mary to consider what she expects of
him, what she desires of him, knowing who Jesus is as her
mother, as his mother, to consider who Jesus is still.
Secondly, Jesus's word surprise us because it seems like Jesus
doesn't care about this wedding. Maybe it sounds like he doesn't
care about people's problems. I don't care that the wine ran
out. Why are you kind of bringing
this problem on me has nothing to do with me?
But that's not the case either. Note the reason for his response
at the end of verse 4. My hour or my time has not yet
come. Though Mary knew her Son to be
no ordinary person, she did not know of the divine schedule that
the Son of God had from God the Father.
She had an expectation of Jesus to solve this serious problem,
wedding problem, but it would still be a small problem
compared to the one Jesus really came to solve.
Perhaps a problem of wine running out could be resolved in
other ways, Friends gathering money going to purchase wine,
and the celebration could continue.
But Jesus would come to solve a problem.
None of us have a solution for that problem.
Was our problem of sin a problem of eternal death that we will
face forever, separated from God in hell for our sins?
That was the problem Jesus came to solve, and it was not time
for that problem. Yet.
Later, as Jesus approached the time of his death on the cross,
only then Jesus would pray. Father, the time has come, the
hour has come. So even though his hour had not
yet come, that hour, that time, Jesus would take this
opportunity still to show people a sign of what Jesus really came
to do and who Jesus really is. He knows that by doing so, he
would be taking another step toward that hour when he would
suffer on the cross for the sins of his people.
And so that's why Jesus responds that way.
This leads us to verses 6 and 8A.
Familiar story. If you've grown up going to
church or heard various pastors or even attended Christian
weddings, you've heard this passage preached.
But let's dive into it again, carefully reading verses 6 to 8.
Now there were 6 stone water jars there for their Jewish
rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons.
Jesus said to the servants fill the jars with water and they
fill them up to the brim and he said to them, now draw some out
and take it to the master of the feast.
So they took it. So there happened to be there 6
stone jars of Jewish for Jewish rites of purification.
By Jewish law it required people to be ceremony ceremonially
cleansed with water, to wash before eating, to wash before
washing, all the tools washing before worship.
So each jar was huge. It says each jar could hold 20
to 30 gallons of water. OK, just to be sure, this is not
gallon Aqua, right, that you have at home, OK.
Each jar held about 70 to 100 liters per jar.
Multiply that by 6, anywhere from 300 to 600 liters of water.
Jesus told the servants to fill them, and the servants listen to
his instruction and fill them to the brim to the very top.
Verse 8, Jesus says take some to the master of the feast.
They did without knowing the point of what's happening.
What's the point of bringing water for purification to the
master of the feast? They obeyed.
The drama builds in verse 9 as the master of the feast drinks
some of the wine, he has no idea where it came from and he calls
the bridegroom who also has no idea where it came from.
And he said to him in verse 10, everyone serves a good wine 1st
and when people have drunk freely then the poor wine.
But you have kept the good wine until now.
What John is doing here as he writes these events, he writes
the details of these making sure first that we understand that a
real miracle took place. Jesus solution was not, oh, take
whatever remaining wine and then dilute it with water and then
bring it to the master of the feast.
No, it's not. Go to another place and find
more wine and fill it to the brim and then and then bring it
to the master of the feast. No, John wants to make sure that
we understand that water really turned into wine.
The servants who did the work of filling up all six stone jars
knew they were filling it up with water.
But now somehow when water was taken out of that jar, it was
wine. If One Cup was 200 millilitres,
then you have about 3000 servings of wine, probably
enough to last the next several days until the end of the
wedding party. It was a generous gift from
Jesus to the bride and the groom.
But this clearly was about more, much more than just having
enough wine at a wedding. We get the hint of what the
master of the feast. We get the hint from what the
master of feasts says about the quality of wine.
We're called to attention the quality of the wine, because
usually people will serve the good wine.
And only once people began drinking, then they would serve
the poor wine, the cheaper stuff.
But this time it was different. No one did it like this.
The master of feasts noted the good wine came after and it was
only when Jesus was there. This brings us to the meaning of
the sign. Again, the whole purpose of
signs is to point. Signs themselves are not the
main event. They point our eyes to what we
need to focus on. If we just get stuck on this
miracle, then we will miss the point and make a completely
different conclusion than what John intends and wants us to
come away with from this, from this narrative, He wants us to
look at the sign, and then he wants us to move on from the
sign to Jesus. The danger is if we get stuck on
the sign, we'll think Jesus is simply our miracle worker.
It's easy to think like this, especially in our context where
there is a heightened spiritual awareness of spiritual things.
There was times even in our outreach where we
necessarily expecting it. Maybe that's a lack of faith on
my part for God to hear our prayer, for we did indeed pray
for healing in Jesus name. But what was devastating
afterwards was that girl would not be open to hear more about
who this Jesus is. She wanted to hear, she wanted
to for us to write down the words of the prayer that we
prayed so that whenever she felt pain, she could then just simply
recite that prayer and then she'll be healed.
She was stuck on the sign. She was stuck and the miracles,
no matter how much we try to move her on to the one that sign
pointed to, she was stuck on the sign.
It's easy for us, even for Christians, to think like this
because we all selfishly want someone greater than us to do
things for us. It's tempting to look at this
passage and say, see. Jesus wants to do something new
in your life. He wants to take the ordinary
water of your life and turn it into good wine.
Please. That is not what this sign is
about. You can erase that.
I even said that from your memory.
The purpose of Jesus miracle is here in verse 11.
This the first of his signs Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and
manifested his glory. The first sign was to manifest
or to reveal the glory of God. That's the purpose of his
miracles. The signs that revealed that
Jesus is no ordinary man. Yes, the son of a Carpenter, but
not only that, yes, a good teacher, but not only that
either. Jesus, fully man and fully God.
The point of the miracles is to make people carefully think
about who Jesus is. Remember back in Exodus chapter
33 where Moses had his encounter with God on Mount Sinai.
He asked God to show His glory and God said only he would show
him a glimpse because no one could see God and, and and
continue to live. And So what God started there
giving a glimpse of His glory, He completes here in the person
of Jesus Christ to fully show His glory to undeserving
sinners. Here Jesus is Jesus revealed His
glory by turning water into good wine.
It showed first that Jesus is Lord over this material world.
As God, who was before all things, who created all things,
he is in control over all things.
Jesus is the one who is able to provide for our every need,
which is why Jesus taught us to pray, to depend on God even for
Our Daily Bread. The breakfast you had this
morning, the dinner you had last night, Yes, you may have paid
for it, you may have got out, you may have cooked it, but it
was God who was the one who provided it for you.
Consider for a moment that God is the one in control over every
aspect of our lives. Nothing happens outside of His
sovereign control. If for whatever reason, God did
not want you to eat, you wouldn't have eaten anything.
Consider for a moment if God wanted to give you every
exquisite and exotic delicacy and luxury in the world, you
would have it. Jesus reveals himself as God who
was able to supernaturally provide for any human need.
But the point of this is not so that we think Jesus as some kind
of supernatural vending machine where we just put a coin or a
few coins of prayer and outcomes everything that we ever wanted.
We should seriously repent if this is how we treated, viewed,
and approached Jesus. What is our proper response to
such revelation of glory? The rest of verse 11 tells us
and his disciples believed in him.
That's it. The sign was for faith in Jesus.
The Word does not say, and his disciples expected Jesus to
provide free flow wine at each one of their weddings.
It simply says his disciples believed in Him.
Friends, I know I'm taking some time on this, but it's because I
want you to be guarded from the wrong expectations of Jesus that
many Christians have, that many Christians might even claim or
explain from passages in Scripture like this.
We all have a tendency to cheat Jesus as if He were just a
miracle worker and nothing more. We are driven.
It's because we're driven more by our sinful desires for quick
and easy fixes rather than persevering faith in God.
And so practically, if you think about it for your needs and the
problems that you have, what is the first thing that you that we
asked for beside asking for God's provision, which we can
do, obviously. Do you ask God for faith to
trust Him even when your needs are still there tomorrow, even
when your problems are left unsolved next week, next month?
I encourage you for the ongoing needs and problems, even for the
next need and problems that you will have, bring it to God in
prayer, Yes. And as you do, also ask for
deeper trust and faith in Jesus, for that is what the sign points
to, even in the signs of provision.
We can trust in Jesus Christ even if there's no miracle
today. We can keep trusting in Jesus
even if there are no dramatic supernatural changes in our
lives tomorrow, because Jesus came not to make our current
lives easier and more comfortable.
He came to reveal His glory so that we believe in Him.
Believe not only what He says about Himself, but believe what
the Old Testament Scriptures prophesied about Him and what
will happen when He comes. We read Isaiah chapter 25 verse
6 to 9 earlier in corporate scripture reading of that great
banquet to come. The Lord Almighty will prepare a
rich a feast of rich food and good wine.
Also in Isaiah chapter 62 verse 5, as the bridegroom rejoices
over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
So Jesus here was fulfilling what Scriptures prophesied about
Him by supernaturally turning the water of Jewish rites of
purification into good wine for wedding celebration.
Jesus was giving a preview of the greater wedding banquet to
come. We see in Revelation chapter 19,
verses 7 to 9 of the great marriage supper of the Lamb of
God. If I were to read it for you,
verse 7, let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made
herself ready. It was granted her to clothe
herself with fine linen, bright and pure.
For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the Saints.
That's what Jesus came to do. Jesus came to give himself up,
to die on the cross for his bride, to purify the Church and
prepare his bride to be without blemish, to be without the
filth, filth and stain of sin. Jesus would take away our sins
in ways we could never do on our own.
It doesn't matter how many stone jars we prepare for ourselves,
could never wash away our sins. Repeated rituals of cleansing
was not the solution, was not the main event.
Even those things, those actions were pointing to the one who
would come to wash away their sins.
It was a reminder of guilt and how sinners need to be purified
in order to be with God. It is only through Jesus
sacrifice who died once for all sins and who is able to save
completely to the uttermost, those who draw near to God
through faith in Jesus Christ. Through Christ, God has richly
poured out the washing of regeneration and renewal of the
Holy Spirit, purifying His Bride Jesus Christ.
The point of this all was to point to Jesus our Bridegroom,
who supernaturally provides the good wine of joy of never ending
joy for His people. He invites us into that
celebration to as we repent of our sins and believe in Him, in
all the ongoing struggles of faith, in all the present pains
of of this world and the problems of our lives.
Christ invites us to celebrate with Him now because there will
just be a glimpse of that great celebration to come.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are to be marked by such a
wedding joy through all seasons of our lives because we know the
bridegroom who has come and who will come again.
It's a joy that doesn't just last a week, but a joy that
lasts forever into eternity because we have received the
grace of God, the love of God, the mercy of God, all through
Jesus Christ who came to us, came for us to die in our place
for our sins. So as we live our lives, as we
go to work tomorrow, as we spend time with awkward family members
and friends, we should be marked by this wedding hope.
Because we know by faith there is a greater joy to come.
This text challenges us to look to what the signs point to, to
Christ our Savior. Because even when more miracles
don't happen today, we can say they don't need to because we
know that our bridegroom is coming again.
Believe in Him as you see the signs of Christ in Scripture.
And if you do not believe, look to how Jesus revealed His glory.
Join us as you. Tiles a space where God fearing
people but non Jewish people could come from around the
world, especially on these special occasions to worship God
and bring their sacrifices for their sins.
It was an opportunity for them to interact and see the people
of God who were called by his name, see how they were shaped
by God's law and how they were shaped by God's love and mercy
for them. But again, they were just
limited to that space in the outer courts.
But as Jesus entered, he found a marketplace.
Now it's not wrong to sell animals, as there were
travellers and pilgrims coming from long distances so that they
could come and buy an animal that they can make, that they
can offer as sacrifice. The problem was not what they
were doing. The problem was where it was
happening. The Jews had converted a worship
space into a marketplace. And remember that for the Jews,
the temple was a divinely ordained meeting place with God.
There was no other place they could worship God with the
promise of God's presence other than at the temple and through
the sacrificial system. It's not like today where
churches rent meeting halls and in the same meeting hall we can
eat lunch, have weddings, hold other meetings.
No, for the Jews, the temple was a sacred space designated for
worship and sacrifices. The temple was the place, the
place for people to be in God's presence.
So all the more, this situation was seriously wrong and
offensive to God's honor. So Jesus was justified.
He was right in his actions. His actions are not out of
place. It's the Jews here that are out
of place, one commentator notes. Instead of solemn dignity and
the murmurs of prayer, there is the bellowing of cattle and
bleeding of sheep. Instead of brokenness and
contrition, holy adoration and prolonged petition, there is
noisy commerce. So Jesus in his judgement he
rebukes and he corrects the wrong behavior by driving them
out. It was premeditated,
intentional. He made a whip of cords.
I'm sure that whip was used for the animals and not the people.
Knowing Jesus, it's for the to drive out the the big animals,
the oxen and the sheep. But for the people, he was
pouring out their coins, flipping over their tables, and
Jesus tells them in verse 16, take these things away.
Do not make my father's house a House of trade.
Jesus is justified in his righteous anger against his own
people. Note how he says my father's
house, not our father, my father's house.
He's making a unique claim of special relationship with God
the Father as God the Son, because Jesus is God Incarnate
in the flesh, fully God, fully man.
So he takes any offences against the Father.
He takes them personally because he is one with the Father.
Just like how a son would defend his Father's reputation when
people are out to slander against his Father.
So as a even better son, Jesus Christ stands defending the
honor of God the Father in Jesus judgement.
Driving them out is the same as God's judgement.
Here Jesus actions are also justified because he is
fulfilling scripture. You notice in verse 17 it says
his disciples remembered that it was written.
Looking at the scene, looking at Jesus anger, they remember that
it was written zeal for your house will consume me your your
your Bible probably has a footnote mentioning that this
quote is taken from Psalm 69. Now whenever there's a quotation
and reference to an Old Testament verse in the New
Testament like this, it is good practice if you want to be good
students of the Bible to read the context of the reference as
well. So the disciples were probably
remembering in this case, not just Psalm 69, verse 9 where it
was mentioned, this this quote is mentioned, but they're all
probably remembering the context of that song, remembering how
Jesus fulfilled that portion of Scripture, not just that one
verse. So turn to Psalm 69.
Let's do that. And I'll read for us just a few
verses from 7:00 to 9:00 so that we get a context of what Jesus
is fulfilling here in Scripture. Psalm 69, verse 7 to 9.
For it is your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor
has covered my face. I've become a stranger to my
brothers, an alien to my mother's sons.
For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches
of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
Jesus was fulfilling Psalm 69 here in the temple, but he would
fulfill it in greater ways that the disciples did not even
understand at this point in Luke chapter in John chapter 2.
Yes, zeal for zeal is is passion for His Father's honor.
It consumed Jesus. But according to Psalm 69, it is
also that same zeal, that same passion that caused Jesus to
take upon the reproach, the insults that were made against
God. He took it upon himself.
This zeal is what led Jesus to his knees in prayer, in
agonizing prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he prayed.
Father, if you're willing, remove this cup from me, this
cup of suffering, this cup of death, this cup of taking upon
the sins of the world and experiencing shame and
separation for the Father. Nevertheless, he prayed, not my
will, but yours be done. It was zeal for his Father, zeal
for God's honour, for God's worship that led Jesus to take
upon his Father's insults and to die a criminal death on the
cross in our place. Oh, what zeal, what passion of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that has secured for us
our salvation and forgiveness of sins.
We can be assured of this because Jesus is zealous for His
Father. Zeal here is a burning desire to
please God, to do His will, and to advance His glory in the
world in every possible way. Friends, what are you zealous
for today? What fills you with such passion
and determination? What is the one thing that you
burn for? Is it riches?
Is it fame? Is it acceptance?
Is it recognition? Is it comfort?
Is it satisfaction? Or do you love the things that
God loves? Are you passionate about the
things God is passionate about? He is passionate about making
His glory known. Are we zealous about making
God's glory known that He may be worshipped and honored by the
others in our lives? Are we passionate about
worshipping God? That it's marked in how we
anticipate what will happen every Sunday?
It's marked in how we gather. I'm not talking about just empty
hype and excitement, but this deep passion and longing and
determination that burns for God and for God to be glorified.
Is your zeal expressed in your prayers, where we don't spend
the whole time in prayer asking and asking for things, but we
spend considerable amounts of time simply praising God,
adoring Him for who He is and thanking Him for what he's done?
JC Rile continues to explain, describing the zeal that
consumes a Christian. He says the desire is so strong
when it really rains in a man. It impels him to make any
sacrifice, to go through any trouble, to deny himself to any
amount, to suffer, to work, to labour, to toil, to spend
himself and be spent, and even to die, if only he can please
God and honour Christ. Whether he lives, whether he
dies, whether he has health, whether he has sickness, whether
he is rich or poor, whether he pleases man, whether he gives
offence, whether he is thought to be wise or thought to be
foolish, whether he gets blame, whether he gets praise, whether
he gets honour, whether he gets shame.
For all this the zealous man cares nothing at all.
He burns for one thing, and that one thing is to please God and
to advance his glory. And if he is consumed in the
very burning, he cares not for it.
He is content. He feels that like a lamp, he is
made to burn, and if consumed in burning, he has but done the
work for which God appointed him.
End Quote Church, let's pray that this will be true of us,
that we would be such zealous, passionate lights in this world,
in this Dark World, burning bright for Jesus who is the
light of the world, pointing to him that all may come to believe
in His name and to be saved so that God will receive all the
more glory, honour and praise from the lips and hearts of
people from all nations. May God's glory be our
motivation and driving force to do all that we do to approach
our work for His glory. I know Christians often say
that, but this here's what it means.
That you see that in your occupation, in your vocation,
that God, you see it as God giving it to you.
And you're seeking out ways where you can give God glory,
make his glory known. Exalt Him as you work, as you
meet with the people at work, even the most mundane aspects or
activities of work become glorious moments to make God
known. Same thing in our homes, in the
mundane task of homes, morning to evening and then the next
day. And it just repeats over and
over again. See it as a place where Gods has
placed you to make His glory known.
And after all that we do, may we be able to look back and say,
still, Lord, make me all the more passionate, all the more
zealous for your glory. For what other purpose do I have
to live? Let's make this our prayer.
Pray this for one another. And I encourage you to talk
about this even with each other over over lunch of this week.
How can we make God's glory known in my places of work in
your home? Let's discuss and encourage one
another because this is our very purpose.
We hope that many will come to respond as God has revealed his
glory through Jesus the Son and that would come to faith and we
know down in verse 20 verse later down in in in the final
verses that many did believe, but he in verse 25 many did
believe. But here is another response
that we see among the Jews, God's Jesus's own people in
verse 18. Here's this response.
The Jews said to him, what sign do you show us for doing these
things? What the what the Jews were
doing here is that we're simply questioning his authority.
They might have agreed with the people, they might have agreed
that yeah, people should not turn a part of the temple into a
marketplace, but that wasn't their main problem because they
did never did anything about it. The main problem was Jesus.
Who are you, Jesus, to do such a thing?
They're asking for a sign, proof, evidence that Jesus has
authority regarding matters of worship in the temple.
Verse 19. Jesus answered them in an
enigmatic way. In a parable he says destroy
this temple and in three days I will raise it up.
They obviously didn't understand what Jesus was saying.
And throughout Jesus ministry, he would speak in such ways in,
in speaking forth of parables so that people would either desire
to learn more of what his parables mean or to stay in
their ways, stuck in their ways in challenging Jesus.
What authority do you have to speak into my life?
What authority do you have to tell me what I can do and what I
cannot do? What authority do you have,
Jesus to claim yourself to be king and Lord?
That's what happens here. Verse 20 The Jews said it has
taken 46 years to build this temple and you will raise it up
in three days. Even the disciples would only
later understand what this all meant.
The temple was a place to meet with God for centuries.
The temple was where God specially manifested His
presence in the Most Holy Place where only the whole high priest
could enter to make sacrifices for sin, for the forgiveness of
sin, and there God's promised presence his people would enjoy.
But even all of that, the grandness of the temple of all
it's it's glory was to point to the true temple, to the true
place of worship. When Jesus says destroy this
temple and raise it up in three days, we see in verse 21 he's
talking about the temple of his body.
And So what Jesus is saying here is profound.
The disciples didn't get it yet, but only after they witnessed
Jesus death and resurrection, where they come to realize and
remember Jesus words saying the temple is no longer the physical
temple is no longer the place of worship, but Jesus himself, the
embodied presence of God, the fullness of God dwelling in the
person of Jesus Christ would be where people come to worship,
where they come into the presence of God.
All of the old temple and all of its sacrificial system and all
of the tools for sacrifice and the place of of worship there
pointed was pointing to Jesus, the new temple of God, the new
place of worship through the evil intentions of the religious
leaders. Later on, he would ordain his
own body to be destroyed as he gave up his life.
He gave up his life to the cross and he would gave up his life
over to death. But in three days by the power
of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, he indeed did raise it
up. And this is the good news of for
that Christians declare every Easter that Jesus did not remain
dead, that his grave is still empty, that he is alive and
reigning in bodily form now, and he will return the same way he
was ascended into heaven. Jesus is the new temple.
He entered into the holy place once for all, not by the means
of blood of goats and calves like it says in Hebrews Chapter
9 verse 12, but by means of his own blood, by his own perfect
blood that he spilled. He secures an eternal redemption
for people. The point of this all here of
that promised sign of his authority was to declare that
Jesus is the way of worship. He is the way to God, to be in
his presence. We no longer are restricted or
confined to worship or or to God's presence in a specific
place, but we have access to God the Father in Christ all the
more. This moves us and inspires us as
His people today to come to worship God and treasure the
times we can gather in His name knowing that he he is here with
us. Even though this room doesn't
look so grandiose, it's got problems.
Can't really control the AC units.
It's either too hot or it's too cold every week.
But still when God's people gather because of Jesus Christ,
his death and resurrection, we come into the very presence of
God in verse 23 when he was in it says when he was in Jerusalem
at the pastor fees. Many believed in His name when
they saw the signs that He was doing.
But here is the final take away for us in verses 2425.
But Jesus on His part did not entrust Himself to them because
He knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man,
for He Himself knew what was in man.
What's happening here? There were many who saw the
signs that were He was doing and they believed in His name, but
Jesus did not trust Himself. He did not believe himself.
To them it's the same word there because He knew what was in the
hearts of people. He knew.
When we see, we will see throughout Jesus ministry how
the crowds would come just because they wanted another
miracle, just because they wanted their problem to be
fixed. They have yet to learn to come
what it means to follow Jesus, where he would later explain to
his disciples that you would need to hate your own father and
mother, your brother and sister, that in that by saying your love
for Jesus must be greater than all other loves in this world.
That's what it means to follow Jesus.
He would later explain to his disciples that you must deny
yourself and carry your cross daily in order to be his
disciple. He would continue to use
parables to begin to bring division among this great crowd
who initially would believe him, but believe them because they
got some bread to eat, who believed them because they got
some healing done for them. No, they would need to believe
Jesus at his word. And Jesus knows what's in a man,
what's what's in man's hearts for us.
As you take away from this passage, we see that the
disciples believed and they they believed by remembering the
words of Jesus. But the religious leaders and
the Jews demanded a sign and they would demand many more
signs. What about us?
Do we want more signs? Do we think signs are the main
event, just more miracles? Or do we want Jesus because our
hearts are burning for him, for who he is, and that all that
he's done, the changing of water to wine at Cana and the
cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem.
At the very beginning of Jesus's ministry, they established the
terms that Jesus would come to purify the sins of people and he
alone would be the place of true worship for all those who repent
of their sins and follow him. This is exactly what Jesus will
be doing when he comes again. He would come once and for all
to purify His bride and to hold a great marriage supper, a feast
with overflowing joy as we feast upon Him forever, for all
eternity. This was the first acts of His
ministry. That's will be the first acts
when He he does when he comes again.
So may we look forward to that day with joy, with hope that he
is coming as we desire for more of him and make his glory know.
Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for your word that challenges us to desire Christ more than
anything in this world, for He alone is worthy of our praise.
Lord, we pray that You will drive this truth deep into our
hearts and may it bring forth gratitude, obedience, and joy to
follow Jesus forever as His people have your way in US.
Lord, in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Let's take a moment to consider God's Word for ourselves before
we continue in a time of corporate response and singing
together.