Sunday Gathering - John 2 : 13-22 - Nick Lugg - Sermon Only

Thank you, Mike.

Oh, at least one slide.

Oh, okay.

Hello again.

Let me just sort all my bits of stuff out.

All right.

Well, just reflecting there, listening to Sheila,

how many hours and meetings we've had

talking about vision and strategy

and then our big mistake was, of course,

not asking Sheila to come

because there's the apple and the orange.

It's just amazing.

But I do think that that tracks into what I want to say as well this morning.

So just bear that in mind.

We're in John chapter 2, verse 13 to 22.

Last week, Karen spoke to us about Jesus being at the wedding in Cana and turning water into wine.

And then in verse 13, we go to quite a different account.

Jesus clears the temple.

it was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration

so Jesus went to Jerusalem

in the temple area he saw merchants

selling cattle, sheep and doves for sacrifices

he also saw dealers at tables

exchanging foreign money

Jesus made a whip

from some ropes

and chased them all out of the temple

he drove out the sheep and cattle

scattered the money changers coins over the floor

and turned over their tables

then going over to the people who sold doves

he told them

get these things out of here

Stop turning my father's house into a marketplace.

Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures.

Passion for God's house will consume me.

But the Jewish leaders demanded, what are you doing?

If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.

All right, Jesus replied, destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up.

What, they exclaimed, it's taken 46 years to build this temple

and you can rebuild it in three days.

But when Jesus said this temple, he meant his own body.

After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this,

and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.

I find it fascinating.

Karen said last week about how we need to scratch below the surface

to get the meaning behind relatively simple stories

or relatively simple presentations of the Gospel.

And I've just noticed that in one chapter,

you've got two very different portrayals of Jesus.

You've got Jesus at the wedding, just a guest at the wedding,

just being part of the party,

and then suddenly the problem comes up,

oh, they've run out of wine.

And so his mother appeals to him in a subtle way

and says, you know, we need to do something.

And so he does it.

And for no other reason that he can and that he blesses.

And Karen emphasised about the generosity and the kindness

and the blessing of Jesus, of just having Jesus amongst us,

how he takes care of the simplest things.

And then immediately from there,

John has chosen to put this story in,

Jesus clearing the temple.

And there's a real jolt because we have temple Jesus

and we have wedding Jesus in the same passage.

And how do we make sense of that?

Last week he was turning water into wine,

keeping the party going.

This week he's whipping people out of the temple.

And it's not even last week and this week.

It's in the same passage.

So what changed?

What changed?

How do we reconcile these two sides of the same person?

And the truth is, nothing has changed.

This is Jesus.

There are, not irreconcilable things,

but there are completely different aspects

that we have to grapple with.

We can't have one without the other,

and that probably sums up one of the biggest challenges we face

in understanding Jesus for ourselves

and bringing the truth of Jesus to people,

that we have a tendency to divide him up

or to take the aspects of Jesus

that we think we would prefer or we would like

and leave the other ones to the side.

We're naturally prone to portray one or the other

depending on what makes us most comfortable.

So wedding Jesus is kind Jesus, generous Jesus,

the life and soul of any party.

His presence ensures that our problems are solved when they come up.

That's the sort of Jesus that we like.

That's a genuine portrayal of Jesus.

That's an aspect of his character.

But then we have table-turning Jesus, temple Jesus, confronting Jesus,

disruptive Jesus, annoying Jesus, disturbing Jesus.

And John puts the two side by side, unrelated stories placed together

to grow and enhance our understanding of who this Jesus is.

We cannot divide him.

We have to take the whole together.

The same grace that blesses the wedding party

burns against corruption in the temple.

The same grace expressed in an angry episode.

So what was Jesus angry about?

This was the time for the Passover celebration,

the Bible tells us.

It was a time to remember the miraculous deliverance

of the people of Israel from Egypt,

where God had spared the firstborn of his people

by instructing them to place the blood of sacrificed lambs on their doorposts.

And when God passed through, he would see the blood and pass over them.

It was sort of a prediction of what Jesus' ministry would be in shedding his blood,

as we've remembered through the communion today,

and the freedom that we would find through receiving the blood of Jesus.

So it was a landmark event in Israel's history.

It was a time for them to remember, a time for them to reflect,

a time for them to renew their faith.

It was part of the annual rhythm of national life.

Probably like, you know, we've got in our traditions,

we've got Christmas, we've got Easter,

we've got those landmark things that come around year after year after year,

and there are certain things that we do at that time of year

that mark it in our memory and in our psyche.

And so what had happened here is that people needed to make sacrifices at the temple.

They needed to pay their temple tax as well.

And so what might look like practical measures were introduced.

So animals for sacrifice could be bought in the temple.

Not only could you go to the temple to make your sacrifice,

there was a shop there.

It's like the gift shop.

You go to these beautiful landmarks and things like that

and you can't get out until you've gone through the gift shop

and bought a rubber or a pencil sharpener or something.

So it's like there was that commercialization of things.

An opportunity also,

they couldn't pay their temple tax in ordinary money.

It was deemed sort of unclean or unsuitable.

to use Roman money to pay a temple tax.

So you had to pay with what was called a shekel or a Tyrian shekel.

And so you need, but people didn't usually carry that around in their wallets.

And so at this time they had to come to the temple and change their money.

And so that became an opportunity for money changers to make a profit.

So it was a real commercial venture that was going on here.

And somehow, slowly, just like our Christmas and Easter

and everything else has got hijacked and commercialized

and turned into something that suits us,

So even the Passover celebration had been turned into something

that was less than what it was intended to be

and was actually about making money for people.

And so it had become commercialized, controlled, profitable, exploitative.

And so Jesus, who we last saw at a wedding party,

enjoying the celebrations and helping people not to run out of wine,

is suddenly provoked to extreme anger.

Stop turning my father's house into a marketplace.

He didn't say stop turning the temple into a marketplace.

He said my father's house.

He personalized it.

He took it personally.

It wasn't about a system.

It wasn't about fighting for the religious status quo.

He wasn't interested in all that.

He loved his father and he loved his house.

And these people were corrupting it.

Not surprisingly, this version of Jesus caused a reaction.

And he does cause reactions, doesn't he?

Sometimes, you know, we're so used to softening everything

that we just want Jesus to reinforce everything that we do.

Have you ever used chat GPT, the AI thing?

It's really helpful and really useful,

but also it gets a little bit worrying

in the sense that everything you put in,

it's just like, yeah, you're doing really well.

This is fantastic.

You put in a little bit, you think,

what do you think of this?

Oh, that's amazing.

I just might tweak it slightly.

It never says that's rubbish.

It doesn't confront.

Sometimes you can ask it to.

Be a bit more brutal, please.

Help me here.

Because I don't think everything that I do is that brilliant.

But most of it, but not all of it.

And so Jesus did disturb and he did provoke.

And his actions caused a reaction.

And so the temple leaders, those who had power and control,

those who the system suited them,

because no doubt they were also making money from it

and it was establishing their power,

they came and they said to him,

who do you think you are?

by what authority are you

acting? Jesus

coming into the world always

provokes that sort of reaction from those who are

powerful and those who are in control

they challenged him if God

has given you authority to do this then

prove it by giving us a miraculous

sign

Jesus always seems to be one

step ahead of people and he doesn't

answer questions directly or do what people

demand of him but he always shows

his hand in a different way and so he says one of

his curious statements when he said, all right, destroy this temple and in three days I will

raise it up. Deliberately provoking them with stuff they can't understand because they think

stone and he's talking about flesh. They think building and he means his body. They think in

institution and he's thinking about incarnation. So he's not talking about improving the temple

or cleansing the temple or refining what goes on in the temple. He's talking about replacing it.

it's his temple, his values, his worship

that's paramount

we can't shape things just the way we want it

we have to be aware

what does Jesus want for his temple

otherwise we're on a collision course

and so he associated the temple with his body

he said destroy it and I'll raise it in three days

they realised this after his resurrection

it was a fundamental shift in what was going on

Worship and presence was now centred on a person.

We often say, don't we, that the church is not a building, it's a community.

The church is what is left when the building burns down.

Say that quietly around the 146, because we don't want anything like that to happen.

But, you know, it's people, it's not a building.

It's a community centred and focused on Jesus.

We are not, this is not the church.

We are the church, focused and centred on Jesus, shaped by Jesus,

governed by Jesus, not by anybody else's interests.

So we don't make the church what we want it to be to suit us.

And we're so prone to that, aren't we?

Just like we can look at these people and say,

oh, what terrible things they did, making money in the temple and whatever.

But we can shape and control the church so that it suits our purposes,

it suits our wants and our desires.

And if we don't like it, then we think, oh, well,

we'll either cause a stink or we'll change things

or we'll break things open or whatever.

And we have to come to understand

that the church needs to be what Jesus intends it to be

and to understand what our part to play in it all is.

Because if Jesus is the true temple

and the New Testament teaches that we are his body,

then we have to come to terms with this.

Because the zeal that he showed in the temple

when he made that whip and he drove people out

and he said, why are you corrupting my father's house?

The zeal for that temple is the same zeal that he has for his temple now,

his body, the church.

What he's building, what he's building here locally at MCF,

what he's building across the globe in terms of his church,

it has to reflect his passion and his purity.

It has to reflect his values and his priorities.

Otherwise, we're on a collision course.

Passion for purity, resistance to corruption,

and a demand for our worship to be focused and clear.

And so we have to hold the whole of Jesus together,

so not just taking the Jesus that suits us.

It's quite encouraging, actually.

It's a little thing.

Somebody gave me a little plastic Jesus to stick on somewhere

just to remind me that Jesus loves me, which is very nice.

And I'm not mocking it at all.

It's encouraging to know we have to remind ourselves that Jesus loves us.

I've seen all sorts of things in my time.

I've seen hot water bottle Jesus where you can fill a Jesus with hot water and you can cuddle

him at night and it's you know it makes you you know it's there's all sorts of things you can do

there's a place for that but it's not all not the whole story is it there's wedding Jesus it's full

of kindness temple Jesus that is all about holiness and purity resurrection Jesus is about

the presence of God with us and we can't just choose one version we can't just choose the the

meek and mild baby in the manger

and ignore the king that

is coming at the end of all time

to bring justice

and wrap everything up. So we can't

we have to hold

the two together and as we

consider Jesus in our lives and we consider

Jesus in our community, yes

we want to be a welcoming community, yes we want

to be full of grace and kindness

we want to be a place where people find

rest and they find relief

and they find deliverance but at a certain

time there is also a type of

a version of Jesus that we have to come to terms with, who comes to us, not like chat GPT to say,

you're just doing fantastically, but say, actually, I'm going to change that. I'm going to change you

from the inside out. And I'm going to challenge some of the deepest things. And some of the things

that you think are normal, like changing money in the temple and all of those things, I'm going to

turn those tables over. And when Jesus, you know, we say, come Lord Jesus, fill your church with your

presence. Well, when he comes into his temple, sometimes he turns tables. Sometimes he makes a

Sometimes he speaks harshly, not because he wants to confront us or fight us or whatever,

but because he wants us to be and he wants us to understand what his vision for his father's house is.

And so if we only want the kindness and the softness of Jesus,

we reject the cleansing, we reject the transformation,

we reject the engagement that is necessary in order to discover what Jesus wants us to be.

And if we only emphasize the cleansing and the holiness,

we can forget the generosity and the kindness of Jesus

and the two come together in a package

grace and truth are not rivals

they are two aspects of the same person

Jesus was full of grace and truth

Jesus is full of kindness

and Jesus is also passionate for his father's house

and he's passionate for holiness

and those things affect us at one time or another

as we come to know Jesus

and so the question for us

is are we inviting Jesus to bless

what we want the church to be

and what we want our lives to be?

Or will we allow him, truly allow him in

to cleanse us, truly allow him in

to turn over tables and to shape us?

Will we ask us, Lord, what is it you want of us?

As a church, individuals, yes, certainly.

But as a church, what is it that you want of us, Lord,

in order that we might reflect your Father's holiness

in this community and in this time

in order that we might reflect the fullness of Jesus,

the kindness, the generosity, the welcome, the beauty of Jesus,

and also that hard word that he could speak into our lives

that actually changes us and brings us freedom.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free, Jesus said.

And some clever person added, but first it will make you miserable.

Truth is difficult to swallow sometimes.

we have to be ready to accept

what Jesus coming to us will bring

what his presence will truly mean

in our lives

however challenging

and sometimes that can be painful as well

and whatever aspect of Jesus we encounter

at any one point

it is always good news

that's the thing

good news isn't always about the soft word

the kind word

sometimes good news is about Jesus saying

come on

you can do better than this

you can be better than this

you can be different to this

you can make that stand

you can make that sacrifice, you can make that change

in order to find life

and so as we draw to a close

I want to give us a little bit of space to think

and to respond, maybe the team can come back and help us

there's wedding Jesus as I've said

who's generous, kind, restoring what has run dry

temple Jesus, zealous

cleansing, calling us to worship

and there's resurrection Jesus, present

and alive at the centre of everything we are

and everything that we do.

And the question we have to ask ourselves

is not really which one do we prefer,

which one do we want to pick today,

but what is he wanting to do in us today?

And it may be that you need his kindness.

Like I said, I'm not sidelining that.

It's all aspects of the same Jesus who comes to us.

Something in you feels empty

and maybe you need his grace poured in today.

And it may be, and don't think that this is not God

if it's happening now, he's putting his finger on something

because the Holy Spirit comes to convict us

of sin and righteousness and judgment.

Not shaming you, but he's clearing space in your heart

to realign you and to purify you

and to challenge that which will keep you away from him.

And sometimes there's a harsh word that comes

and we can feel uncomfortable, I've felt that myself,

where you know that God is putting his finger on something

and you need to respond

even though it makes your heart pound.

Or it may be that you're just hungry

for more of his presence,

for your life to be more clearly centered on him.

And so as we worship now,

we're going to worship Jesus

in whatever manifestation he brings himself to us.

Don't be afraid and don't be one-dimensional

in our understanding of what he wants to do

because as we embrace the whole Jesus,

then we'll have an opportunity

to be transformed into his likeness

as we take all that comes

with all that it means to know him.

If you'd want somebody to pray with you about anything,

then please do come here.

We will stand with you.

We will pray with you and pray for you

whatever God is doing in your life this morning.

Thank you.