John 2.17
August 4th 2013
Communion Sunday
Welcome.
Let’s pray. (PRAYER)
On these tables (to the sides of me) we have wine – fermented and non – and unleavened bread.
Prior to going to the cross, Jesus sat with his eleven disciples disciple’s and instituted communion – a sacrament to remember Him by when believers get together.
In our afternoon Meat gatherings (through Hebrews) we have been talking a lot about the “suffering savior” and according to Hebrews He designed Himself (before taking on flesh) to be the “captain of our salvation” through what the writer of Hebrews calls “the perfection of suffering.”
I do not think it is an accident that the elements Jesus chose to remember Him by are what they are – unleavened bread and wine.
Just as Jesus came down from His throne on High as God and took on a body of flesh – of dust taken right out of the earth – these elements come to us the very same way.
Wheat, sprouting from the earth.
Grapes, sprouting from the earth.
Both products of the dust of the ground.
And what do men do to these products of terra firma?
We take the wheat and grind it down to powder as a means to make bread.
And we take the grape – droplets of earth’s blood – and stomp them into a spilt red liquid. (Same thing we did to the Lamb of God, in essence).
So there, in the upper room, Jesus took these elements and broke them (and told them and us) to take, eat – this is His body. And then he took the cup and told them to drink it all down, that this was His blood.
As followers of the King, let’s do the very same thing in remembrance of Him . . . as a memorial to Him and His sacrifice on our behalf.
His sacrifice of love by condescending below all things and taking on flesh and blood, and His selfless sacrifice of the life and flesh He embodied – for us.
The elements HE instituted are here for the taking – if you believe on Him.
Come forward as you will – freely and of your own volition – in faith, gratitude, and remembrance of our Lord, and Savior, and King.
Music
Prayer and reflection
Alright, last week we experienced Jesus first miracle – changing water into wine.
And we talked about it at length.
Let’s now pick up our verse by verse study in chapter 2 beginning at verse 12 and we’ll read to the end.
John 2:12 After this (changing water into wine) he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days.
13 And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem,
14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:
15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables;
16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.
17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
Alright, back to verse 12.
John 2:12 After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days.
Capernaum is a Galilean city that is frequently mentioned in the history of Jesus and His ministry.
We never read about it in the Old Testament but according to Matthew and Luke chapters 4, the Lord went to Nazareth where He grew up and after being kicked out of that place He established Capernaum kind of as His own became his “own city.”
Because of this it became the scene of many acts and incidents of his life but it was not a city that responded well to Jesus and His message.
In fact they were so hardened toward His many acts done within the walls of the city, Jesus said in Matthew 11:23:
“And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.”
What this means (apparently) is Capernaum was a blessed placed – in many ways.
The city rested on the Sea of Galilee and was supposed to have been beautiful. There is something wonderful that God has given us when the salt air of a roaring ocean mixes with a hot sun – a unique blessing many coastal towns experience.
Additionally, Capernaum was a town of means and material comforts.
Add in the fact that Jesus performed many wonderful things within here vicinity – and we have what Jesus summarized by saying “Capernaum was exalted in the heavens,” a Hebraism that means richly blessed.
But due to the hardness of the hearts of the inhabitants Jesus also said that she would be “brought down to hell.”
Again, this is another Hebrew idiom. I do not think the Lord was saying the whole town was going to hell but that the whole place was going to fall from its position of splendor.
Why?
He makes a comparison to explain why, adding:
“. . . for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.”
You know . . . we really don’t know anything. We think we do and we maintain opinions (I especially do) but we have no idea what is what when it comes to men and God.
Here Jesus (our Judge) makes an observation, and says that if the mighty works He has done in Capernaum had been done in Sodom then Sodom would never have been destroyed!
In Luke 12:48 Jesus shares what seems to be almost a universal law, saying:
“. . . for unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.”
Having squandered much of my early life on wine, women and song, I take these words of our Lord seriously.
From Him I have received much – propensities and talents and gifts which I did not earn nor merited.
With each of the comes an expectation from God on how I use them, to whom I use them, and for what purpose.
But I am convinced all things – every last factor relative to each of our individual lives will be weighed and calculated and taken into consideration when we stand before the judge .
I do not think anyone possesses the ability to condemn anyone on how they live their lives today, how they spend their time, or money or how they dress or relate to others.
But God can . . . and He will. Perfectly.
If we think about it what Jesus says here about Capernaum is terrifying – because He was able to discern its physical fate.
It would absolutely destroy me entire person and existence if He were to look at me and say:
“And thou, Shawn McCraney, who has been blessed mightily by heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.”
Well it appears that on this visit to Capernaum was short because (verse 13)
13 And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem,
The festival of the “passover” was and is celebrated by the Jews to help keep the memory of their bondage and liberation from Egypt alive and the fact that on the night the firstborn Egyptians all died that their firstborns were preserved (or passed over) by the Lord or plague of death.
The word is used by Moses in Exodus 12:11. In the Hebrew it is “pay- sahk” translated Passover.
It was celebrated for seven days – from the 15th to the 21st of the month of our April.
It was sometimes referred to as the Feast of the Unleavened Bread because . . .the people ate unleavened bread! Why?
The day before the festival began all the leaven or yeast in the family was (and is) removed with great care.
In 1st Corinthians Paul is speaking to the church at Corinth. Within their members was a person who was having sex with his father’s wife and from what I can tell the believers were accepting of this behavior, probably under the auspices of being “saved by grace,” and/or being “loving.”
Paul tells them to turn the culprit over to Satan and adds in 1st Corinthians 5:6-8:
6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Obviously from this we learn a number of things from Paul’s reaction and words but primarily we see that leaven (or yeast) was a picture of sin and its effects on others.
Yeast or leaven feeds on sugars in dough and this consumption creates gasses which make bread puffy, lighter, and full of holes.
You will notice that the unleavened bread we eat in communion is flat and condensed – because it is without leaven – therefore no puffy lifting.
Looking at yeast used in bread, it’s properties are symbolic in the leavening of bread.
It invades the whole loaf, actually putrifying it.
In the process of purtrification, gasses are emitted and the bread gets lifted (symbolic of pride) and separated by the gasses (symbolic of the effects of the fermented gasses.
What is really interesting is according to the Torah and Talmudic writings, leaven in and of itself is not prohibited because in and of itself it has no prohibitive properties.
But it’s when it is added to the flour (and to be more exact) it is when leavened starters are taken and introduced to another loaf that leavening is especially prohibited.
Now, one more thing on this. Yeast occurs naturally and in the production of wine it resides on the skin of the grape, which, when crushed, will ferment because of its presence.
Obviously the Jews drink fermented wine at the Passover Sader – four cups of it to be exact – but again, not wine that has BEEN fermented by added yeast but by fermented wine that was leavened by the natural yeast present on the grapes before crushing.
In the same process as bread, the yeast eats the sugar and creates alcohol.
The reason bread does not ferment to the point of becoming alcoholic bread is because the fermentation process in bread is done in the presence of oxygen – which greatly limits the production of alcohol.
But when sugar is fermented in the absence of oxygen (anaerobically), the fermentation tends to create much more alcohol which is how they produce wine.
So, when squeezing grapes, the yeasts found naturally on the surface of the fruit react with the juice, converts the grape sugar into alcohol and produces kosher wine.
So back to the celebration of Passover.
Remember is begins on the 15th of the Month of April. On the 10th day of the month the head of the family separates a lamb or a goat of a year old from the flock (according to the directives of Exodus 12:1-6,) which they slew on the 14th day at about 3pm in the afternoon.
Then the blood of the paschal lamb was, in Egypt, sprinkled on the doorposts of the houses; afterwards it was poured by the priests at the foot of the altar.
The lamb was then taken and roasted whole with two spits thrust through it —one lengthwise, and one transversely–crossing each other near the forelegs.
No bone of it could be broken.
All of this of course picturing the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus.
Roasted over the fire the lamb was served up with wild and bitter herbs.
So Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
The Law of Moses required that every male among the Jews was required to appear at this feast.
This was the first Passover on which he attended after he entered on the work of the ministry.
It is the common belief that Jesus observed four Passover festivals – this one, one recorded Luke 6:1, another John 6:4, and the last one on the night before he was crucified which we will read about in John 11:55.
With His baptism initiating His entrance into ministry taking place before this — it is also believed that His ministry was around three and a half years in length, which agrees with a prophecy in Daniel 9 relative to timelines.
Now, the Passover was a wild time in Jerusalem being full of people – I mean jam packed with Jews who had come from all over. So Jesus comes to the temple – a place of utmost importance to a devout Jew (verse 14-16)
14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:
15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables;
16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.
Because some of the Jews visiting Jerusalem had come long distances they typically could not bring with them animals required for sacrifice at the temple.
Neither did they all share in the common currency of the day and so they needed a place to exchange their foreign currencies for temple currency.
What we are reading about here appears to have occurred twice over the course of the Lord’s ministry.
Here – at the beginning of His ministry and then again after His triumphal entry before being crucified.
Jesus was zealous for God on high. He had an extremely high regard for people worshipping His Father in Spirit and in Truth.
It didn’t seem that He suffered religious phonies for too long but instead called them on their hypocrisy.
One reason He seems to have come to earth was to reform the abuses which had crept into worshipping the Father in Spirit and Truth and to bring all people into a proper regard for God and the honor He deserves.
Imagine the scene. Goats and sheep bleeting. Doves cooing, men dragging the animals over the floor, feathers and dust floating in an absolute cacophony of shouting, bargaining, language interpretation.
I’ve often wondered how Jesus – physically unappealing and meek Jesus was able to capture the attention of the vendors and actually get them to act.
I would suggest a number of possibly reasons.
First, their consciences probably had convicted them.
Authority and acts of authority – especially in the presence of historically very religions people – can have a profound effect on gatherings.
A gathering or group, according to studies will often respond and behave as a single individual, feeding off and responding to signals and leads of the group as a whole.
Unless the crowd possessed an air of rebelliousness it would have in all likelihood responded with compliance, especially if Jesus assumed an overriding role of authority.
Like his control over the elements, animals, and weather, Jesus would naturally have a wonderful control over men. None could resist Him.
There are instances in scripture where Jesus alludes to having power to influence others to act against how they would otherwise act, and He refrains so as to allow all men to have the free will and choice.
I think we would not be in error to suppose He could awe men if he so chose – we remember that when the soldiers came to take Him outside the Garden of Gethsemane they fell back to the ground when He merely admitted to them His identity.
All of this could have contributed to His ability to clear the temple of these thieves.
The question arises – was Jesus angry?
I think so.
Anger is not a sin – so long as we do not allow it to be sinful.
There are times for anger – we ought to be angry when crimes are perpetrated on innocents, when women and children suffer and are preyed upon, or when people are taken advantage of.
I’m not so sure it is in a believers prevue to get angry at people FOR God. I’m not so sure God needs our protection.
Something to bring up in our Q and A time if you think otherwise as I could be wrong.
In his instructions to the church at Ephesus, Paul said:
Ephesians 4:26 “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”
We must remember that Paul, while a Jew, was raised amidst the Greeks for part of his life. In light of this there is a suspicion that he drew from the Pythagoreans, who had a rule or law amongst themselves that said if there were any differences among them reconciliation had to be achieved before the sun set.
Does this make the teaching any less inspired?
Not at all. Remember, God works in and through mortal men and their experiences and minds through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to bring about His truth.
Illustrations and teachings and insights may lie dormant in the minds and hearts of a man and when the Holy Spirit falls that same man might pull from them in an effort to teach a principle.
There is a great deal of cynicism orbiting around some of the content of the Bible because it was discovered to exist in earlier cultures in various forms.
Truth is truth. Men are men. Clay is clay. Through the Holy Spirit God works THROUGH men and their specific make-ups to bring us to glory.
The writings of Paul are very different from the writings of John and Peter – but God does not have them all communicate outside of their person, but THROUGH their specific person.
Regarding the advice, the implication of not letting the sun set on our anger is
(1.) there CAN be anger without sin; but
(2.) there is, in all cases where there is anger exists, a potential for it to move into the realm of sin, or missing the mark of God.
Anger is interesting because when we really break it down it is a passionate response on our part to what we feel is some sort of an injustice.
Even if we become frustrated as parents and snap angrily at the requests of a persistent child, we feel they are unjustly infringing upon our time, sanity and space, right?
We are commanded to love justice so in the face of true injustice anger is an appropriate response.
The problem is when we become angry when no real injustice has occurred.
If we find ourselves getting angry over something that is just, even if it hurts, there’s a problem with our pride.
For example, I would think that if we were to witness a person or animal being beaten we are justified to rise up in anger in our heart.
This would be an injustice that serves as an affront to our sensitivities of justice.
But if we are doing the beating and we get angry that others who try and interfere by trying to stop us, that’s problematic.
The Holy Spirit guides. In fact, I have discovered the Holy Spirit works very quickly on us when our anger has gone too far.
I think, generally speaking, anger is improper in these types of circumstances:
(1.) When it is present without any truly sufficient cause, like when we get all outwardly angry and upset over an accident, like spilled milk.
(2.) When it transcends a justified cause. Like when a teen is not spoken to for weeks because they broke curfew.
(3.) Anger is probably wrong when we direct it against a person rather than the offence the person commits. Admittedly this is a fine line.
I’ve always had a problem with reconciling the line “hate the sin love the sinner,” because I have trouble teasing them apart. But righteous anger can. Remember, we do not fight or war against flesh and blood but against the principalities of darkness and evil that motivate flesh and blood to act unjustly.
The older I get the more perplexed I find myself when meeting grown adults who hate other people. I would suggest that while it goes against the bromide that familiarity breeds contempt it is our unfamiliarity with others that causes us to hate them.
Wanna get over disliking or being angry at others? I would suggest that we take the time to get to know them. Spend time with them.
Rarely will we find an individual who at the core, are completely rotten.
(4.) Then, we know from the Bible that anger is never appropriate when it is aimed at getting revenge. Romans 12:17,19 says:
Romans 12:17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
It’s a tough one.
The Lord has graciously helped me grow in this area over the years but when challenged with just the right circumstance, I can quickly find myself back in the old revenge mode driven by anger.
A few weeks back we received an email.
It was one line that said:
“F-off, you dirt bag.”
Mary took the opportunity to delete it before I could see it (because after you get so many of these you can get a bit despondent.)
But for some reason this writer decided to send a follow-up insult and this one I received and was able to then read the first.
I find these insults particularly paradoxical because while I am being criticized by these types for being a Christian it is the fact that I am a Christian that keeps me from seeking relentless revenge upon their very existence – and sometimes I want them to understand this.
This particular email was pretty dumb because from the email I was able to locate the city from where he hails and even his phone number.
So I called him.
He answered the phone by saying:
“What?” A real gem.
I didn’t let him know my identity but I did harass him. He hung up on me. And I was ready to call him back when the Holy Spirit spoke clearly:
“This is not you.”
And I was ashamed at returning to my flesh and returning evil for evil instead of good.
Anyone at anytime can seek revenge, get angry for unwarranted reasons but Christianity teaches us that while anger is acceptable when truly justified, we cannot let it become sin.
Anger is also problematic for the Christian when we cherished is and or when we heighten or enhance it through reflection.
All I had to do was rethink on that guy and his vulgar email and after putting enough kindling of that flame I was ready to redial the phone.
Paul writes something interesting in 2nd Corinthians when he says:
2nd Corinthians 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
The undisciplined mind will harbor all forms of malice but Paul says “Cast down these imaginations, and every lofty thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
It takes time, discipline in and through exposure to the Word and in applying it to real life situations to learn to do this.
But the Holy Spirit is yearning to teach us how to succeed in these directives.
Finally, anger has really turned to sin when there is an unforgiving spirit associated with it.
For some reason an unforgiving attitude allows us to justify almost any attitude or action toward those we are angry with.
Had I had the capacity to forgive the emailer the moment I read his words my anger would have dissipated and my actions would not have sought revenge of any sort.
In the first chapter of James we read something interesting about how sin sort-of reaches maturity. He says in James 1 beginning at verse 13
Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted of God:” for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: (listen now)
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
That’s a whole sermon in and of itself but some food for thought if you are interested in studying it out.
But here, in the temple, we have Jesus, who was God in the flesh, who was love, who turned the other cheek and forgave all men of all things, expressing anger – I mean, actually physically tossing things over.
But notice the process. He gets to the temple, sees the scene.
And then it says, and Jesus freaked out and started screaming, and hitting individuals across the face, and threatening them with death???
No?
No. Verse 15 tells us He had control of his reaction. So much so He took the time to actually weave a “scourge of small cords,” (from reeds the ancient mss. suggest) which He used to drive them out.
Now, we might get the idea that He used the whip He made to whip the people – I don’t think so. He might have scared them with it, but in my opinion the whip was used to drive the larger animals out.
And if the animals are running out the people who owned them would go running out after them.
Then verse fifteen tells us that he “poured out the changers money (which too would have caused them to scatter and scurry after it) and then He overturned their tables, making it difficult for them to quickly re-establish shop.
Because his whip wouldn’t drive doves away, verse 16 says:
16 And (He) said unto them that sold doves, “Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.”
Human beings are really amazing creatures. Sure, there are those who have larceny in their hearts from the get go of things but I tend to think most people are initially well meaning but in short order we have an ability to really let things get out of control.
Sometimes it seems like we are just programmed this way.
People want to help. They want to be creative. They want to express their heart for the cause. I totally get this – I do the very same things.
But there is no end to the machinations of the human mind.
What starts out as a t-shirt for Jesus becomes a line of Jesus wear.
What begins out of need seems to continue out of greed.
So it was with the temple. Yes, there was a need for animals and yes, there was a need for some sort of money exchange to exist.
But by the time Jesus comes to the temple in His ministry the need for these things was driven by greed.
When he tells those selling doves
“make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise,” the Greek word translated to merchandise is only used here in the entire New Testament and it is “emporio” – a word from where we get the English term, Emporium.
In other words, they had turned His Father’s house into a shopping center – a mart – which stood for the primary purpose of making money.
Merchandise is okay.
Selling things is part of this world.
But when the things of God are used primarily to move and market and make money, it’s time to clean house.
Which is exactly what Jesus did in rightfully possessed (and rightfully expressed) anger.
In witnessing these actions John writes (in our last verse for the day)
17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
This prophetic passage is found in Psalm 69:9 and its meaning is that He was passionate over the pure worship of God.
When it reads, “The zeal of thine house has eaten me up,” zeal is best understood as jealousy and envy.
What I mean by this is Jesus was jealous and envious of His Father’s house to be treated well.
He was zealous to defend it like a loving husband would be zealous to defend his wife. It’s an “extraordinary and impassioned concern.”
Zeal is often mocked today, but there is a place for it and it is often interpreted as anger. Zeal may or may not contain anger but righteous anger always has some foundation in zeal.
In the prophecy of Psalms is describes the zeal Jesus has for His Father’s house as “eating Him up,” IT absorbed Him, drove Him, and lead Him to drive them out.
I think there is a place for zeal in believers today, though it is really a delicate balance when it comes to expressing it.
In this story of Jesus we have what I believe is a perfect example of heavenly zeal.
Q and A
PRAYER LIST
SONG
