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00:06 Just now my wife uh went to buy 10 concert tickets because we had bookings
00:11 uh from friends through us. So make sure you you go and buy your tickets quickly
00:16 before they are sold out. Once again, it's my joy and privilege to
00:21 be standing here sharing with you from the word of God. Uh technically we are still in the Chinese New Year season
00:28 which explains the shirt I'm wearing. This is the closest to red I can find. I
00:33 don't have a bright red shirt. Last night uh my SS19 live group had our
00:40 Chinese New Year dinner and it was a wonderful uh time of fellowship and they
00:46 say in the Chinese fellowship.
00:51 uh if I think if you belong to a live group, I trust that uh your group
00:56 already had your Chinese New Year gathering. Uh we are in the midst of a
01:02 series on the book of John and uh this is the third installment in the series
01:07 and today we are at John uh chapter 2. The other week when Peter called me to
01:12 ask if I could preach on the entire second chapter of John, I expressed
01:18 reluctance initially because this chapter contains uh two distinct uh
01:24 seemingly unrelated accounts. The first is the the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine while the second is the
01:31 cleansing of the temple. These are two separate sermons and was afraid I'll be biting more than I could chew if I try
01:38 to squeeze them into one sermon. But on second thoughts, it appealed to me uh to
01:44 find to try and find a connection between the two halves of the chapter. I thought that it would be an interesting
01:49 challenge to try to present the whole of John chapter 2 as one single sermon. And
01:55 hence today we shall uh cover all 25 verses of the chapter under a long title
02:02 the lord the feast and the cleansing of the temple. I I'll explain later uh the
02:08 choice of the image in this opening slide. Now this is what we will do uh
02:13 since many of you are already familiar uh with what happened at the wedding in Kaa and also the incident at the temple
02:19 in Jerusalem. I shall try to uh present you more uh historical backgrounds uh uh
02:28 spiritual insights that are not so obvious from the text. And later at the end of the sermon I shall juapose both
02:36 accounts side by side to see what the whole chapter is trying to teach us uh to aid us in the conduct of our faith.
02:44 Shall we commit this time to the Lord in prayer? Our father in heaven we address you as
02:49 father because in your grace you have adopted us into your family. In your grace you
02:56 have brought us out from bondage to sin into a relationship with you.
03:01 How do we live our lives in a manner pleasing to you? May the verses in the text cause us to examine ourselves.
03:09 May your spirit search our hearts as we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
03:17 When I last stood here last December, uh I remember showing you some pictures
03:23 from our Israel trip uh which were related to the sermon that day uh which
03:28 was on Isaiah 11. And today again as an introduction to John chapter 2, let me
03:34 show you a few more pictures from that trip uh which took place uh from 22nd November to uh 4th December last year
03:42 for a group of about 30 mostly FBC members. Partly it's also for me to
03:49 encourage you to consider a trip to the to the holy land someday.
03:54 So on this trip on the eighth day uh we were at uh in the town of Kaa uh in
04:01 northern Israel uh in the church that stood on the spot where Jesus turned
04:06 water into wine. This is called the wedding church in Kaa. And for me it was
04:13 like the first half of John chapter 2 coming alive as I stood on the very ground where Jesus performed this
04:20 miracle. Now for anyone going to the Holy Land for the first time, a visit to this church is a must in your itinerary.
04:29 And while in this church, our local guide managed to get us a nice room so that we could have a private session uh
04:36 together as a group. And what happened then is that the six couples in the group, we had six couples in the group.
04:42 They came up pair by pair uh husband and wife to the front and I led them in a
04:49 renewal of their marriage vows and many of them had been married 30 40 years and
04:55 it was very it was a very emotional moment for them. Uh here is Mintian and
05:01 Elaine uh holding hands very tightly you know refreshing their marital
05:06 relationship with an exchange of vows before God and they are in London now
05:12 and so I think it's quite okay to show you this this photo because later Mia may text me you know why of all the six
05:19 couples did you choose and show to show our photo you know now the reason I'm showing you this is because many of us
05:27 have been Christians for a long time more than 30 40 years and I think I
05:32 think the time may be ripe for us to refresh our relationship with God which
05:38 I think uh is my purpose uh for this sermon and 4 days before this uh let me move on
05:45 four days before this uh we were uh in Jerusalem and our guide uh took us to
05:52 this archaeological site from from from Kaa up north we came down to Jerusalem
05:59 Uh uh uh uh and this uh was at the southwestern
06:05 corner of the temple platform also known as the temple mount. And our guide is
06:10 the gentleman wearing sunglasses and very wellversed in Bible history. And
06:17 this photo was taken by Philip Yong. Uh he briefly climbed up a huge piece of
06:22 stone. Now to but this is doesn't mean much but to give you a perspect perspective of
06:29 where we were in this photo. This is an illustration of what Jerusalem might have looked like in the time of Jesus.
06:36 Most of the residents of the city lived in the southwestern side of the temple
06:42 in two areas known as the upper city uh more for the rich and the lower city for
06:48 the poor. And hence you could see that a very convenient access to the temple for
06:53 them would be from the southwestern corner of the temple mount which I mark
06:60 with a red star which was where we were in the earlier uh photo.
07:06 Now to zoom in uh this shows uh in those days the southwestern
07:13 entrance to the temple mount uh via this huge overhead arch uh known today as the
07:20 Robinson's arch. And again the red star marks the spot where we were in the
07:26 earlier photo. The reason I show you this because it's possible that Jesus might have entered
07:31 the temple area in John chapter 2 via this arch. or of course through any of the other
07:39 five entrances. But let's assume that Jesus entered uh the temple area via
07:44 this arch. Now, more interestingly, notice a long line of shops hugging the western wall
07:52 which I mark with a green line. Uh this is known as the Terapone street where
07:59 the bulk of the selling of the sacrificial animals and the money changing took place.
08:05 This is how uh the street might have looked like in those days and all well and good a lot of commerce until the
08:13 temple priest uh started to get involved in making money. They say that politics
08:18 and business shouldn't mix and similarly religion and business uh shouldn't mix
08:24 as well. And this was how the trouble in the second half of John chapter 2 started because the priests up in the
08:31 temple started to collude uh with the merchants and money changers down in the street.
08:39 And so with the consent of the of the priests, the commercial activities below
08:44 started to spill onto the temple grounds above. What was below started to
08:50 contaminate what was above. And most likely uh back to the early picture they
08:55 brought their commerce from the street level to the southern parimeter of the temple grounds uh known as the royal
09:03 portico. A Portico is a covered walkway and in those days it was very prominent
09:08 because of its orange brown roof and uh and the buying and selling uh not
09:15 only took place in this royal portico but also spilled into the open uh area
09:20 in front uh known as the court of the Gentiles. And all this set the stage for the
09:27 dramatic event uh in of at the temple in John chapter 2.
09:33 And so our guide explained that 2,000 years ago along the western wall where we were standing, there was a long row
09:41 of busy shops that did roaring business during the Passover feast. Much like Sunday pyramid
09:48 or Wanutama doing roaring business in the weeks leading to Chinese New Year.
09:54 But the shops have long vanished into the pages of history and what remain now
10:01 as we saw are just disarrayed uh piles
10:06 of broken stones. Now I'm showing all this as introduction to to John uh chapter 2 because when I
10:13 reflected on this and compared this with what I saw in Kaa the difference between the two scenes is so striking. In Kaa, I
10:21 saw that the mood was that of celebration and cheers as as visitors renewed their marriage vows. Wedding
10:27 wine was sold in the adjacent street and and some people even got married in the in the wedding church. In sharp
10:33 contrast, the picture here is one of chaos and confusion. The mangled stones were scattered all over and they must be
10:40 the remnants of the overhead uh uh uh Robinson's arch that has already
10:45 collapsed when the Romans destroyed the temple in 70 AD. They could or they could be the remnants of the the walls
10:52 and the pillars pushed over from the temple platform above. It's now a
10:58 picture of destruction. Now point my point is there is also this
11:03 sharp contrast between the two halves of John chapter 2. A contrast between celebration on one hand and chaos on the
11:10 other hand. Is as if John has put these two accounts side by side on purpose. At
11:16 the wedding in Kaa, Jesus must have been happy and full of joy for the newly wet couple. But on the temple grounds in
11:22 Jerusalem shortly after, we see Jesus visibly angry and upset with the
11:28 merchants and money changers. What a contrast. And it's with this background background
11:34 in mind that we dive into the text. First, let's take a look at John 12 uh
11:40 John 2:es 1-12 on the account of Jesus turning water into wine. Now we don't
11:45 have time of course to examine each verse in detail. As I said earlier, many of you are already familiar with this
11:51 account and so I'll dwell more on what's not so apparent uh from these verses. Uh
11:57 more importantly, I will expand those points that will contribute uh to the overall message of this sermon. Now it
12:04 says here in verses 1 and 11, this took place at Canaa in Galilee. And then in
12:10 verse 12 it says that at the end of this episode Jesus and his ento went to Capernum for a few days. Kaa then
12:18 Capernum. Let's look this up on a map. Uh the village of Kaa uh the middle red
12:23 arrow. It was located about 7 kilometers to the northeast from Nazareth where
12:29 Jesus grew up as a boy and lived about until about this time in uh John chapter
12:36 2. The capernum also important was further to the northeast from Nazareth
12:41 about 35 kilometers away situated on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
12:47 Important because Capernum would soon become the HQ or the base of Jesus'
12:53 ministry. And also take note of the city of Ty up north which I have circled
12:58 because I'll be mentioning it later. of all the miracles that Jesus performed in his three years of ministry, John says
13:06 here uh in verse 11 that this was his first miracle. Now instead of using the
13:12 word miracle, John uses the word sign. A sign normally points to something. So to
13:18 John, each of Jesus' miracles points to something which he explains later in
13:23 John 20. Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book. But
13:30 these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the
13:35 son of God. In other words, to John, each miracle uh that he records points
13:41 to the deity of Jesus. John wants his readers to be so convinced that Jesus is
13:48 indeed the son of God. In fact, to drive home this point, John decides to select
13:54 and record only seven miracles or signs in his book. only seven he chose the
13:60 record. And here's the list of all the seven signs of Jesus in the book of John. I'm showing you this to give you
14:07 kind of a preview of what to expect uh as our series on John unfolds over the
14:13 next few months. We have of course the miracle of number one water turning Jesus turning water into wine here in
14:20 John chapter 2 number two healing of the official son John four number three healing of the paralytic John five
14:27 number four feed feeding of the 5000 John 6 number five walking on water also in John 6 number six healing of the
14:34 blind man John nine and finally number seven raising of Lazarus in John 11
14:42 now so far we only touched on the peripheral facts. Let's see what happens
14:48 uh in this first miracle happens in a in a wedding. And you need to know that um
14:56 since you're talking about a wedding, a typical wedding in those days can stretch up to seven days. It's a seven
15:04 seven day bash. But in our culture, you know, the wedding is done in in in one day and the
15:11 makan in one evening. You don't expect me to to send you seven imitation cards, do you? You know, coming every night for
15:17 dinner, I'll go bankrupt. So, it's hard for us to imagine seven
15:22 days of celebration. But they, this is what they did in those days. It's interesting to note that in
15:28 Judges chapter 14, which describes the wedding between Samson and his Philistine bride, we can read that the
15:34 celebration lasted a whole week. And so, it's a long celebration with guests uh
15:40 streaming in and out of the venue. It is feasting and drinking over the entire period with the food and wine provided
15:47 by the host family. And when everyone is in such a celebrative mood, the last
15:52 thing you want is something to spoil that mood. But something happened
15:59 uh that day that threatened to spoil uh the mood they were in.
16:05 You see, they ran out of wine.
16:11 No more wine as evident from verse three. Maybe the host family miscalculated.
16:18 Maybe many many more guests came than they expected. But to run out of wine is
16:24 a definite no no uh at a Jewish wedding because to the Hebrews uh the wine is a
16:32 symbol of joy. The wedding is a joyous occasion. And so there has to be this continuous supply of wine. A disruption
16:40 to this free flow of wine is unthinkable. It's like when you know you're watching a super exciting
16:46 football on TV and suddenly there's a there's a power failure. If you were the groom in a wedding in biblical times,
16:53 you will want to make doubly sure that there is an ample supply of wine because
16:58 to run out of wine will bring great embarrassment and shame and disgrace to
17:03 you and your family. Also, according to Bible scholar DA Carson, there is evidence to suggest
17:12 that the groom may even be subjected to lawsuits from the agreed family of the
17:17 bride because the groom supposed to provide the wine.
17:23 I married Lean in 1994. But imagine on the wedding uh dinner, at the wedding
17:29 dinner, we run out of brandy. Imagine the following week my father receiving a lawyer's letter from my mother-in-law
17:35 threatening to sue us. But that's that's what they did in those days.
17:40 So by by by by performing this miracle, Jesus was obviously obviously saved the
17:46 groom and his family from a terribly awkward social situation.
17:52 But that's just the surface reason why Jesus performed the miracle.
17:57 There is more than meets the eye. Now to know what it is, we need to go
18:03 deeper. And let me direct your attention uh to
18:09 to uh the six stone jars uh mentioned in verse six. Now each of them supposedly
18:16 holds 20 to 30 gallons of water or if
18:21 you're not familiar with gallons, 75 to 110 liters. And that's a volume of about
18:28 60 of those 1.5 liter mineral water bottle.
18:33 Now while in while we were in Kaa at a wedding church, we saw this uh this
18:39 actual, you know, stone water jar displayed at the basement of the church.
18:45 This they say that this could be similar to one of to one of those mentioned in chap in verse six. I'm not sure whether
18:51 it's actual one that couldn't be, you know, but something similar to what's mentioned in the in verse six, but more
18:57 significantly, John describes the vessels as the kind used by the Jews for
19:03 ceremonial washing. In other words, what we have here isn't drinking water, but
19:09 rather water for ceremonial washing or ritual purification.
19:14 But why does John bother to make reference to Jewish ceremonial washing?
19:20 This is a wedding. What's it got to do with ceremonial washing? But here lies
19:25 the key to help us dig deeper. Now all kinds of uh ceremonial washing
19:31 using water are mandated by various laws in the Old Testament especially in
19:36 Leviticus. They are mandated for all kinds of situations and it's a very very
19:42 complex subject. Each time a person becomes ritually unclean, he has to go
19:47 through a specified ceremonial washing before he's deemed to be ritually clean again.
19:54 And one must also be ritually clean through ceremonial washing before he can enter the temple area. And that's why
20:02 archaeologists uh archaeologists have found many uh ritual baths such as this one near where
20:10 we stood uh at the southwestern corner of the temple mount. So near the near
20:15 the photo that I showed just now, they found many they dug up many of these ancient ritual baths so that worshippers
20:22 could purify themselves before uh purify themselves ritually of course before
20:27 stepping onto the temple grounds. much like our Muslim friends washing
20:34 themselves before they step into the mosque. And this practice has its roots
20:39 in the Old Testament. It's based on the idea that nobody with
20:45 sin can stand before a holy God or commune with a holy God. And this is
20:51 reflected uh in all the laws in the Old Testament concerning ceremonial washing.
20:56 Although it's not as simple as the way I put it. And all their lives the Jews had
21:02 to go through ceremonial washing repeatedly because they couldn't keep themselves ritually clean 24/7.
21:10 Well, you may ask what's good then about God's laws. Now here I'm talking about his moral laws. What's good about his
21:18 laws? If people keep on sinning and sinning and they have to go through ceremonial washing repeatedly,
21:26 you see God's moral laws as laid out in the Old Testament, they set the high spiritual standard
21:33 demanded by a holy God. It is his spiritual
21:38 benchmark. He is a holy God and this is what he stands for. And if you can obey
21:44 all the laws in the into the last letter, then you'll be of course deemed righteous before him. But there isn't
21:50 anyone in all of human history who who can be justified by the law before God.
21:55 It is because of our sinful nature is because we keep sinning. Romans 3:20
22:01 puts this across explicitly. It says, "No one will be put right with God because he has tried to obey the law."
22:08 The law only makes people know that they have done wrong. The law makes us even
22:14 more aware of our sins. As if to amplify this point in verse 7,
22:21 Jesus tells the servants to pour water into the jars until they are full. He says, you know, to the brim as if to
22:28 tell us, now here's all the water you want. 600 L of water, but no amount of
22:34 washing can make you clean enough in the sight of God. No amount of religious
22:40 rituals can make you right in the eyes of God. Because as I said, we keep on
22:47 sinning. But still God mandated ceremonial washing in those days because he wanted
22:53 to remind his people that he was a holy God and they were with sin.
22:59 Now let me ask you, do you think that they were really cleansed of their sin by dipping into one of those ritual
23:06 baths? Do you think by going to the water, you know, they cleansed of their sins? Of course not. How can sin be
23:13 removed by mere washing water? You see, they were merely ritually
23:19 cleansed or symbolically cleansed, not uh spiritually cleansed.
23:26 I'm sorry if all this is a bit confusing for you. Actually, it's part of the gospel message. Because if if we boil it
23:33 down, it's like this. God is holy. We are sinful. He cannot stand even the
23:40 slightest slightest sin. So, how are we ever going to get close to him? How how are we ever going to have a relationship
23:46 with him? That's the start of the gospel message. The answer to this amazingly is in verse
23:54 9 when Jesus turns the water into wine. There is a wealth of symbolism
24:01 surrounding this. Water is bland and and tasteless
24:08 while wine has organic origins and represents the elements of life.
24:14 And earlier we saw how wine also serves as a symbol of joy.
24:20 And furthermore from the Lord's supper that we observe every month,
24:25 wine also is the emblem of the blood of Jesus.
24:31 Now Jeff gave us an instructive sermon on the blood of Jesus last Sunday. So
24:36 when we put all these three symbols together, wine as the blood, then joy and life, the deeper layer of meaning
24:44 behind this miracle now becomes apparent because no amount of washing will make
24:51 you righteous before God because no one will be declared righteous by the law. Jesus is in fact saying I'm going to do
24:58 for you what you cannot achieve through the law which is symbolized by the water. And here is righteousness that
25:04 come by my blood symbolized by the wine. My blood has the power to put you right
25:10 be with God. I'm going to die in your place. I'm going to shed my blood for you so that you may have life
25:17 which is also symbolized by the wine so that you may have it joyfully and
25:24 abundantly. And Romans 10:4 says Christ has has made an end to the
25:30 law as a way of getting right with God. Everyone who believes in him is put right with God.
25:38 So in short on one level on the surface level the miracle of turning water into
25:43 wine might have saved the groom and and his family from social disgrace. But on a deeper level
25:50 this miracle is a sign to a a greater miracle at a place called Calvary where our savior shed his blood so that we can
25:58 have life eternal and the joy of salvation. The miracle of turning water into wine
26:04 hands is an elaborate an elaborate metaphor for our redemption
26:10 taking us from law to grace from water to wine.
26:17 Now let's uh proceed to discuss the account of the cleansing of the temple uh from the second half of John chapter
26:24 2 verses 13-2. Again, I will skip the obvious parts and
26:29 I'll dwell more on what's not so apparent in these verses. Now, earlier we saw that after Kaa,
26:36 Jesus spent a few days in Capernum. Uh as mentioned in verse 13,
26:42 it's now almost time for the Passover feast. And so Jesus made his way to Jerusalem as he had done uh almost every
26:51 year. In fact, every year since he was 12 years old. You were talking about the month of
26:56 April. uh Passover is around April, give or take a few weeks.
27:02 John 2 verse 13 here can be taken as the as the start of Jesus' public ministry.
27:09 Now what what what just happened at in Kaa cannot be considered public ministry
27:15 because the wedding was a private function and besides it appears that only the servants knew about the
27:20 miracle. So it's worthy of note that Jesus public ministry began with the
27:25 Passover and it ended three years later again with the Passover. And not only
27:32 that, his public ministry began with the cleansing of the temple and ended three
27:37 years later with another cleansing of the temple. Oh you ask what another cleansing of the temple? Yes, there is a
27:43 second cleansing of the temple not recorded in John but recorded in Matthew 21, Mark 11 and Luke 19 in Jesus last
27:52 week before he was crucified. Now I just want you to be aware of this that there are actually two cleansing of the
27:58 temple. Now earlier we saw how Jesus might have uh uh entered the temple grounds from
28:05 the southwestern corner which again I mark with a red star. I also talk about
28:10 how the commercial activities from the street below spill into the into the temple grounds uh uh into the royal
28:16 portico uh you know the the the the one with the the area with the red orange
28:22 brown roof and also spilling into the temple grounds uh open temple courtyard
28:27 uh in the court of the Gentiles. And when Jesus saw all the business
28:32 dealings taking place here he reacted angrily.
28:38 He was furious at two groups of people. One, the animal uh merchants, those
28:44 selling cattle, sheep and doves. And two, the money changers. But before we look at this in detail, there are two
28:51 pieces of information you need to know. First, what were the money changers
28:57 doing on the temple grounds? You find money changers in Summit or some of the shopping malls, but you don't expect to
29:04 find money changers on the temple grounds. Well, it's because the temple authorities collected a temple tax of uh
29:13 of half a shekele per person which was mandated in uh Exodus 30. And this is a
29:21 one shekele coin used in those days. It's a it's a silver coin. Uh uh there's
29:27 also a half shekele coin similar in design but half the size. And they were
29:32 minted in the city of Ty up north shown on the map. Yes. Now, and the temple
29:38 authorities chose them because of their high purity of silver and they wouldn't
29:45 accept any other currencies which explains the presence of the money
29:51 changers because if you if if you only have the the Roman uh dinarius coins or
29:57 the Greek dragma coins, you need the services of these money changers change
30:03 them into shekels. The half shekele text that they collected uh was used uh for the upkeep,
30:11 the maintenance of the temple a little like why we collected why we
30:17 collected uh tithes and offerings that's now to help run the church
30:23 except that we are not so uh what do you call inflexible as them because let me
30:28 tell you we collect also uh we also accept foreign currencies especially US dollars and euros Better
30:35 still. Only thing try not to put in uh Indonesian rupas. Okay.
30:42 Now for a bit of knowledge before you move on. The two terms on the screen
30:47 dinarius and dramas you often find them in the gospels. You need to know one dinarius equal to
30:54 one dramma. Okay. This is one Singapore dollar equal to one brunai dollar.
30:59 But one shekele equals to four dinari or four drugmas. That was the exchange
31:05 rate. As for their value, one dinarius or one drama about one day's wage. Okay,
31:13 one day's wage. Now before I move on, some of you may be
31:19 itching to ask who is this guy who appears on one side of the coin?
31:25 Any guess? No, it's not the picture of the Caesar in Rome.
31:32 Shockingly, it is the pagan god Hercules, a name that you're all familiar with.
31:39 How can a coin bearing a pagan god be chosen by the temple authorities and used on the temple grounds? Now, they
31:46 chose it because of it silver content, but it is in direct contravention of one of the ten commandments. You shall have
31:53 no other gods before me. It only goes to show the level of hypocrisy of the
31:59 religious authorities at the temple. Now moving on, the second thing you need
32:04 to know concerns the animals. They included cattle, sheep and doves.
32:10 Now just as the laws concerning ceremonial washing are so complicated as I just mentioned. Similarly, the laws
32:17 pertaining to cere to to animal sacrifice are also very complicated. The
32:23 book of Leviticus outlines a very complex sacrificial system including
32:28 burnt offering, sin offering, peace offering etc. We don't have time to go
32:34 through them but just know that during the past Passover what they conducted
32:41 was the burn offering which involves uh which involved the sacrifice of young
32:46 male animals. His purpose is that the animal was to be killed to symbolically
32:53 atone for the person's sins because God wanted to remind the Israelites of the
32:58 seriousness of sin. See this young this poor animal had to die on your behalf because of your sin. The the animal
33:05 could be a bull. A bull is a male cow, right? Or or or it
33:10 could be a male sheep which we call a ram or a male goat. Choice of animal
33:16 depends on your social status. And if you are pokai type, you know, you're very poor, you could not afford a a
33:23 sheep or a goat, then you could offer a a dove or a pigeon. And all this
33:28 prescribed in detail in detail in Leviticus chapter one.
33:33 Now you can you can appreciate that it wouldn't be practical to bring your own animal to the temple. uh especially if
33:40 you're coming from afar you drag your bull you know from Galilee to to Jerusalem you know it's not practical
33:46 not even a pigeon because the bird may die during the journey which may take two or three days hence it's more
33:51 convenient to buy the animal after you have arrived at Jerusalem and that explains the presence of the animal
33:58 merchants and besides if you if you bring your own animal if you insist on bringing your
34:04 own animal it may be rejected by the temple priest why because Leviticus
34:09 specified that the animal must must be without blemish without defect must be
34:15 perfect animal. So when your when the priest examines your goat for example, he may complain, hey look like one of
34:22 the legs a bit shorter. How can you bring this such an animal? Oh look, there's a scar here. How can
34:28 how I can I cannot accept this? And so you're forced to buy a replacement animal from the merchants. One that that
34:35 they have already pre-approved. One that comes with a CF certificate of fitness. Yeah. Animal with CF.
34:44 The relevant question here to ask is why did Jesus become so angry when he see
34:49 all this taking place on the temple grounds.
34:55 But before that uh let me briefly address a side point.
34:60 Now some people feel uncomfortable when they read this passage in John chapter 2
35:06 because they see a side of Jesus that they are not familiar with. They see an
35:11 angry Jesus because the only Jesus that they know
35:17 is gentle Jesus Mick and Mau from a famous hymn by Charles Wesley.
35:25 Is this the Jesus you are familiar with? But let it be known that Jesus can get
35:32 very very angry. Although the gospel the gospels paint him mostly as a pacifist.
35:40 If you want to see Jesus displaying fury, read revelation instead. when he
35:46 confronts sin and rebellion and evil in the end times, you will see a Jesus with
35:51 a rage that consumes to the extent that in Revelation 6,
35:57 those who wage war against him have to call to the mountains and the rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him
36:04 who sits on the throne and from the wroth of the lamb.
36:10 For the great day of his wroth has come, and who can withstand it?
36:16 Indeed, across the the pages of scripture, we sometimes see God pouring out his wroth against obstinate sinners.
36:24 Recall the flood. Recall Sodom and Gomorrah. And other times, he also acted in anger
36:32 against his own people who persisted in their sins. Recall the destruction of
36:37 Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC. You may call this holy anger.
36:46 Now although never to the degree of holy anger, we too occasionally react with anger. For example, when we see evil
36:53 perpetrated on the innocent or for example, when we witness rampant corruptions uh uh by the by those in
37:01 authorities causing the rakyat to to suffer and hence anger isn't necessarily a bad
37:08 thing. But we must be careful because Ephesians 4:26 told us not to sin in our
37:13 anger. For example, when your anger is selfish anger, then your position will
37:19 be precarious. Selfish anger is when you want something for yourself, you know, but you cannot you cannot get it. So,
37:24 you get very angry. Now, coming back to the question, what made Jesus so furious when he stepped
37:31 onto the temple grounds and he saw all the buying and selling? Why was he so incense at the at the animal merchants
37:38 and the at the money changers? After all, they they were providing a a
37:43 useful service for the worshippers. Was his anger justified or was it a holy
37:50 anger? Now let's take a look from verses uh 15
37:55 and 16. We imagine Jesus gathering some quarts uh that are lying around on the
38:02 ground. CS they used to tie the animals and the cages and then he he fashions
38:08 them into a like a whip and he drives them all out.
38:16 We should note uh the symbolism here also in that three Passovers from now,
38:22 Jesus will take the place of these merchants and money changers and he will be at the receiving end of an even more
38:30 terrible whip. But I'll put aside that.
38:35 Next, he overturns the the the money changers tables and scattered scatters
38:40 their coins and orders them to get out such authority,
38:46 such intensity. And this is what the scene might have
38:51 looked like. Notice the the the pillars of the royal
38:57 portico. Now, some of you may ask strangely, why
39:03 don't the possibly hundreds of merchants and and and money changers together with
39:09 possibly hundreds of temple priests and and temple police, they all gang up and drive out Jesus instead?
39:17 How can one man stand against so many? The answer is simple. Remember
39:22 Revelation 6. Hide us from the wroth of the lamb. Who can withstand it? When God
39:29 becomes angry, you better not be in the way. Now moving on, I shall offer you two
39:36 possible reasons. Two possible reason and a third actual reason to explain
39:41 Jesus' anger. Now the first possible reason is this. because of uh as a
39:46 result of the frenzit commerce the noise the the the racket you know
39:52 from the merchants and money lenders money money money money changers they are compromising the sacred atmosphere
39:60 in the temple those who were not there for worship they are wheeling and dealing is
40:07 disturbing and disrupting even violating the sacred space in the
40:13 temple Could it be this reason? Because earlier in Kaa, Jesus acted out of concern for the
40:19 groom and his family, saving them from public embarrassment. Is Jesus also
40:24 acting out of concern here for the true worshippers who have come for private prayers and repentance? Is he angry
40:32 because uh uh it is not it was not possible to do solemn worship or or
40:37 prayer because of all the chaos and commotion around. Well, it's possible.
40:44 The second possible reason is derived from the second uh cleansing of the temple which I mentioned just now when
40:50 Jesus says to them in now this is Matthew 21 now the second cleansing Jesus says to them in Matthew 21:13 my
40:56 house will be called a house house of prayer but you're making it a den of robbers.
41:01 Why does Jesus call them robbers here? Well, if if a when a vendor freezes his
41:09 customers, he's like robbing them and hence it's likely that the exchange
41:14 rates have been inflated. The sacrif the c the sacrificial animals
41:21 way overpriced. As I mentioned earlier, the temple priests are in cahoots with
41:27 the with the merchants and and the money lenders and money changers. And so you can expect some of the illegal proceeds
41:33 to find their way into the priest's pockets.
41:39 And so is Jesus angry uh because he sees he sees the masses being swindled and exploited? Is it a case of indignation
41:46 when he sees poor people being robbed in broad daylight? Well, it's possible. But let me give you the third actual reason
41:53 behind his anger. If you recall earlier I remarked that our holy God cannot stand even the
41:60 slightest sin. Jesus reacts with anger here because
42:05 they have defiled the temple which is the dwelling place of the God of holiness. They show no regards
42:13 whatsoever for the sanctity of the temple. Not only have they brought in
42:18 physical filth, imagine all kinds of animal feces here and there. not only
42:24 physical filth. They have also come with their spiritual filth with their greed and sleas and and and corruption.
42:31 And so the space for for consecration is now a place of desecration. They're
42:36 making a mockery of what the st what the temple stands for. And that is why Jesus got fuming mad because they have profane
42:44 what what is sacred. They have polluted what is holy.
42:53 The immediate lesson for us is that we we too must be careful less we are also
42:59 guilty of defiling the temple. We also must be careful less we are
43:06 guilty also of defiling the temple. I'm not talking about the church building.
43:12 I'm talking about your body as the temple of the Holy Spirit. Because Paul
43:17 writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19, "Do you not know that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit?"
43:24 Where's the temple now? The temple is no more on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Go to Jerusalem. Go to Temple Mount. No
43:31 more temple there. Destroyed in AD70. Where's the temple now?
43:37 In here. In there and there and there and there. In each of us who is called
43:44 by his holy name.
43:49 So you are the temple now. Be careful not to defile the temple
43:56 because God has harsh words for those who persist in defiling his temple. And
44:01 he says in in Isaiah chapter 1, and I want you and I want you to pay close attention to these verses.
44:09 What makes you think I want all your sacrifices? Says the Lord. I'm sick of your burnt offerings. I get no pleasure
44:17 from the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to worship me, who asked you to parade through my courts
44:24 with all your ceremony? Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts. The incense of
44:30 your offerings disgust me. They are all sinful and false. When you lift up your
44:36 hands in prayer, I will not look. Though you offer many prayers, I will
44:43 not listen. God speaking here to those who defile his temple. So be careful not to defile
44:51 God's temple. And to use a local slang, don't play play
44:56 comes from the Malay phrase jang. And it will serve you well to take sin
45:02 seriously when you deal with the holy God. Now I have just one more point to
45:07 address from this account of the cleansing of the temple and then I'll move on to the concluding part of the sermon.
45:12 In verse 18, the Jews confront Jesus and ask him, "What sign can you show us to
45:18 prove your authority to do all this?" Now these are the religious leaders who now challenge Jesus over his actions.
45:27 Now notice that they are not accusing of Jesus of disrupting business activities
45:32 on the temple grounds. They're not saying, "Hey, what do you think you're doing?"
45:37 Now, there's a background to this. There is a prophecy in Malachi 3 which
45:44 foretold that the Messiah will come to the temple one day. And there's another prophecy in Zechariah 14 which foretold
45:51 that on that day when he comes, he will stop all the traings going on in the temple.
45:58 Now, the religious leaders, they know their Bible well. They are aware of these prophecies and that's why instead
46:04 of asking what do you think you're doing, they're asking Jesus for a sign
46:09 to prove that he's the Messiah for told in Malachi 3 and Zechariah 14. Show us a
46:14 miracle to prove your credentials. If only they were in Kaa one or two weeks before this, they would have seen
46:21 Jesus turning water into wine, perhaps they might be convinced. But Jesus refuses their request and instead he
46:28 gives them a future sign. Not immediate sign or future sign. Verse 19, destroy
46:34 this temple and I will raise it again in three days. But as we see in verses 20 and 21, they missed the point completely
46:41 like they misunderstood completely because Jesus is talking about his own crucifixion and resurrection.
46:48 Now the relevant question to ask here is why is why do you think Jesus uh uses a
46:54 temple metaphor to describe his own death which will happen of course three years from this point in time. Why not
46:60 when they ask you know uh uh why did not why not give them a a straight uh reply?
47:06 No, no. The obvious answer is well since Jesus was in the temple so he used a
47:12 temple metaphor you know you destroy his temple you know so he uses a temple metaphor but I think there's a deeper
47:18 answer I think Jesus is also speaking to us he's saying to us
47:26 you see me clean it cleaning out the temple but they will be back
47:34 I can cleanse the temple once once or twice, many times, but he will keep coming back.
47:40 And this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to be crucified. I'm going to be resurrected. And then you will see real
47:48 cleansing, a real cleansing of your soul. Doesn't that sound familiar? Because
47:54 earlier we also uh came to a similar deeper conclusion from the account in Kaa. And this is where the second half
48:01 of John chapter 2 is linked to the first half. Both halves point to the cross.
48:07 And with that uh we are ready to join the two halves of the chapter to draw out an important lesson um so that we
48:16 can take home something to help us to be better Christians.
48:21 Now we look at it as a whole. As we learned earlier, the account of Jesus turning water into wine is really a
48:27 elaborate metaphor for redemption. It's about our our conversion.
48:33 After conversion comes cleansing. After conversion comes cleansing. And
48:39 that's why John puts both accounts side by side in John chapter 2. Conversion then cleansing and not the other way
48:45 around. In all other religions all your life you try to clean up your act and
48:51 then maybe just maybe you'll be found uh right with God.
48:58 That won't work. Christianity is the other way around. First we are put right with God and then we get clean up.
49:08 But the trouble with many Christians is that including many of us is that we want the
49:15 conversion but not the cleansing. We want the conversion but not the
49:22 cleansing.
49:27 In other words, give me the wine, but spare me the whip.
49:33 I want my passport to heaven, of course, but please don't tell me to give up my lifestyle and indulgences. I kind of
49:39 like my life the way it is, you know. So, please don't ask me uh to to change my priorities too much. Now if that is
49:46 our attitude then we are like bringing uh animal merchants and money changers
49:52 into the temple into this temple and just like how they allowed a pagan
49:59 god into the temple remember the coin in the same way we also allow little gods
50:05 into our lives now bearing in mind how Jesus can get
50:11 very angry when God's temple is defiled the most critical question today is how
50:16 do we get cleansed after conversion? Conversion then cleansing. How do we get
50:22 cleansed after conversion? In other words, how do we live a life pleasing to God and not a life still in bondage to
50:28 sin? Interestingly, I chance upon the answer
50:33 to this question during the second day of our Israel trip. We were at uh Yat
50:40 Vashim, which is the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. And uh there was this huge front
50:48 courtyard and uh on one side I saw a row of pillars
50:53 on top of which was inscribed uh the verse from Ezekiel 37:14
50:60 inscribed clearly in Hebrew and English uh you can see on the on on on in the photo. I will put my breath into you and
51:07 you shall live again and I will set and I will set you upon your own soil. Now, I don't know what version they used, but
51:14 my NIV says, "I will put my spirit in you, and you will live."
51:20 Now, I don't know why the museum authorities chose to put up this verse. Actually, I can guess why, but I found
51:26 here's the answer to the cleansing question. You see, God promised to put his spirit in us. And that's how
51:33 according to Paul, our body becomes the temple. And and then I found another verse, one chapter before this in
51:40 Ezekiel 36:27. I will put my spirit in you and move
51:45 you. Put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep
51:52 my my laws. In other words, God knows that the task of cleansing after our
51:57 conversion is very difficult. It's very difficult. Try not to sin for a day. Very difficult. It's not easy to to
52:04 fight our sinful nature or our inclination to sin. We cannot do it on our own strength, not by ourselves. So
52:10 he puts his spirit in us to move us to move us to help us overcome our sinful
52:19 nature or our propensity to sin. So at our conversion, Jesus took away
52:26 the penalty of sin and put it on Jesus so that we're qualified to go to heaven. And then comes the cleansing when he
52:32 puts his spirit in us to help us break the power of sin. See how he works. First he removes the penalty of sin.
52:39 Then he breaks down the power of sin in your life.
52:44 So that sin will have no more hold on us. I've always said without cleansing
52:51 we may not be ready for heaven. Without cleansing, we may not be ready
52:56 for heaven because heaven has no place for animal merchants and uh and money
53:05 changers. I'm I'm not saying that money changers cannot go to heaven. Now, don't misquote
53:10 me. I'm only saying metaphorically that heaven is no place for animal merchants
53:16 and money changers because they defile the temple. But with the
53:23 with the spirit's cleansing, one by one, the merchants and the money changers are chased out of our lives. One by one, the
53:30 little gods get kicked out of our lives. But it takes a whole lifetime. And
53:36 that's why it's often said that becoming a Christian is easy, but being a Christian is tough.
53:42 And that's why in my opening slide, I showed this lump of molten glass
53:49 enveloped by fire. We were once pieces of broken glass, but
53:57 now the fire of the Holy Spirit is shaping us into a beautiful vessel,
54:03 a wine glass if you like, which is far better than a stone jar.
54:10 And so the the critical question becomes are we cooperating with the Holy Spirit day by day who is at work in us trying
54:18 to cleanse us to refine us or are we resisting his work. In closing our
54:25 prayers, our prayers should be the prayer of David in the Psalm 51.
54:31 Cleanse me with high soap and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Create in me a pure heart, oh God,
54:38 and renew a steadfast spirit within me. And if you pray this prayer, God will
54:44 reply in Isaiah 1:18, "Though your sins are like scarlet, I
54:50 will make them as white as snow. Though they are like they are red like crimson,
54:55 I will make them as white as wool." Shall we close in prayer?
55:01 Our Father in heaven, we beseech you to search us and to know our hearts today.
55:10 Try us and know our thoughts, we pray. See if there are some wicked ways in us.
55:16 Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. And we ask this in Jesus name.
55:23 Amen.
