07/07/26

John 2:12-25

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Last week we finished verse one. The week before that, Brother Andy jumped into verse in chapter two and knocked out the first part of chapter two. So we're going to be in chapter two now, verse number 12. 212 is where we'll be tonight. We're just going to see where the Lord leads with this thing, man. I've been excited about this study. I've been excited about this text right here tonight. And uh just pray that the Lord will lead us. I pray that my prayer here is before anybody got here, it was just me and the Lord, just praying that God prepared each and every man in this room tonight, before you even got here, that God was preparing your heart and your ears. And not only you, more importantly, me, that I'll hear what he's got to say. And that that God will speak and we'll be careful, careful to listen. Um let's pray right quick and we'll dig right in. Thank you, Lord God, for this day. I thank you, Lord, for each and every man that's here tonight to represent himself, to represent you, to represent his family. Lord God, I pray that you help us to put everything away. Any struggles, any sickness, any trials. And God, I just pray that you'll you'll preach tonight. And we'll be careful to listen. God, let us hear you tonight. I pray, Lord God, that I decrease and you increase. And Lord, the words out of my mouth will be of you, not of me. Holy Spirit, I pray you rule and reign in this place tonight. Because the devil and eating us in hell are not welcome. But you are, Lord. I pray you'll you'll just open us up tonight, dear God, and fill us up with what we need in Jesus' name. Amen. In verse number 12, it said, and after this, he being Jesus went down to Capernaum. So understand, he just left Cana. He just left the top part of Galilee. He's just leaving, and it says he went down. And it says right here that he went down to Capernaum. And it's not by coincidence. He mentions these people right here. And it says, it says, he and his mother and his brethren and his disciples, they continued there not many days. You've got to, we've got to understand that Capernaum wasn't very far from Nazareth. We've got to understand that he wasn't very far from his hometown. We've got to understand that this man, this man's got people following him. His mother, his brethren, these disciples, they're following this man. And as they're following him, man, they're leaving their hometown. They're leaving what they did. I want you to think about, man, you might be ticked off because listen, you was buying fish from those dudes, man. They was bringing fish and shrimp and everything off their boat, and all of a sudden they ain't there. They ain't there no more. Your comfort and security isn't there anymore. The things that you enjoy, it's gone. I got to thinking about that today, man. They ain't there to buy the good fish that they have because them good jokers, hey, they forsook all and they followed Jesus. And man, that was just good for me understanding that, you know, we ain't hung up on what we want. We hung up on what we need. That's what these disciples were doing. They were hung up on what they needed, and they needed Jesus, and they stopped everything they had and followed him. And man, that was important to me. And I hope it's important to you. But you you notice in Matthew, I think it's Matthew 13, 55. I'm gonna turn there right quick. Matthew 13, 55, it says, Is not this not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary and his brother, James and Hose, and Simon and Judas, and his sisters, and they all with us whence they had this man, all these things, and they were offended, and they were offended in him. But Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country and in his own house. He was around the things, and they I believe that he couldn't hang there because man, listen, sometimes, sometimes God will move you from the comfortable so he can use you. So sometimes the place where you really want to be, God will pull you out so he can use you where he wants you to be. See, God moved Jesus and He said, Listen, I got I got to take you to another place. I got some some work for you to do. Sometimes we don't always like the work he's got for us. But listen, if you want to be in God's will, you've got to go where he says. And you've got to be obedient to what he tells us to do. And that's what he's got to do right here. And it says, and the Jews Passover, verse 13, and the Jews' Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. I'm gonna jump into the I'm gonna jump into uh Exodus chapter 12 for a minute. You know, God spoke something to me this this week as I've been studying this. Don't don't always take for granted that everybody knows everything about the Bible. Don't always take for granted that everybody knows what the Passover is, everybody knows what the cross is. We've got to understand that they some people that just don't dig. And I'm just being honest, they some people that just told a Bible. And we need to understand what the Passover meant and what it was meaning. So I'm gonna read in Exodus 12, 21. Then Moses called for all them. Because so what happened is if you remember Pharaoh, so in the old test, Pharaoh wouldn't let the people go. You've heard it. Pharaoh let the people go. And all these plagues came over, and here come this next plague, and this plague that the Lord was gonna come in, and he was gonna he was gonna destroy the Egyptians, he was gonna destroy the people. But but the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, and he said, Tell the people this, and I'm gonna read it in verse 21. Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said unto them, Draw out and take a lamb according to your families and kill the Passover. And you shall take a bunch of hips and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lennel, and the two sideposts of the blood that is in the basin, and none of you shall go out of that door his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians, and when he seeth the blood upon the linnel and on the two sideposts, the door will pass pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your house to smite you, and you shall observe this thing for the ordinance to thee and thy sons forever. And it shall come to pass when you become to the land which the Lord give you according to all his promise, that he shall keep this service. And it came to pass, and when the children said unto you, What mean you by this service? Then you shall say it's a sacrifice of the Lord's Passover. Remember that word in verse number 27, and we'll go back to it in just a minute. The Lord's Passover, who passed over all the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he had smote the Egyptians and delivered out the houses, and the people bowed their head and worshiped, and the children of Israel went away and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. And it came to pass that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne until the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the cow cattle. And look what Pharaoh did in verse thirty. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron that night and said, Rise up and get you forth from among my people, both you and your children of Israel, and go serve the Lord as you have said. Also take your flocks and your herds as you as you have said, and be gone and bless me also. That's what the Passover was. The Passover is something that should mean something to you and I. That blood covered you that you haven't got to face death because you get to face eternity with Jesus Christ one day. And man, that ought to get you excited. It ought to get you excited to know that the blood, this blood for them, man, it kept them from dying. That blood that Jesus Christ shed on that cross kept you and I from dying. So why did Jesus go? There were three times a year that a Jew had to had to had to go to Jerusalem. Three different kinds of feasts of the feast of the Passover, the feast of the Pentecost, and the feast of the tabernacles. And he's here for the feast of the Passover. So Jesus is being obedient. He's going and doing what he's supposed to do. And Jesus shows up into this place at the Lord's Passover. You remember? Exodus 12, 27, it's the Lord's Passover. Alright? Let's jump back to John. John chapter 13. John chapter 2, verse number 13. And the Jews' Passover. It ain't the Lord's Passover anymore. You get that? It's a Passover that the Jews observe, but listen, there's a Passover that just showed up in his name's Jesus. We just talked about it. He's going to be our Passover. He's going to be the one that stands in the gap demands. They ain't got a lamb die anymore. They ain't got a goat die anymore. Because listen, he died for it all. Each and every one of us. He died for that. So he is our Passover. In verse 14. And he found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of money sitting. And don't you understand where they were sitting? They were sitting in the outer courts of the Gentiles. They got into a spot. The Jews got into a spot that was meant for the Gentiles because the Jews thought that the Gentiles weren't worthy. They thought they couldn't, that's us, the Gentiles. They thought that we couldn't come. See, the Jews was caught up and taken over and thinking that they were greater than anyone else. That's who they were. They thought that some people just weren't fit. If we're honest, how many of you sitting here tonight have looked at somebody and said, They're not fit? How many have put our judgment right there and said, you know what? That person can't be saved. That person doesn't need to be in our church. That person doesn't need to be home Tuesday night. Do you remember how bad that person was? Do you remember? I remember what that person was in high school. Man, they can never serve Christ. They can never be a leader. I remember who they were, and you've got them tagged in your mind who they were. And some people's got you tagged in their mind who you was when you were in high school. Huh? Yeah, well, let's go have testified time now. Amen. Huh? If emblems people testify, we're all going to hell, but thank God for grace. So, just a little bit of what's going on in verse 14. And they found them and they were selling auction and sheep and money. Let's talk about the money for a minute. So the money, these people come and they had to pay a temple tax. It was like two days' wages. They had to pay this temple tax. And you've got to understand, man, there was like two million people coming to this Passover. I mean, you can do the math pretty quick. It's a lot of money. But they just couldn't come and pay with like Caesar's Caesar's uh coins with Caesar's face on them because he was considered like a pagan. And and and not only was they were they not wanting a specific coin like the Tyran coin, they wanted it. You know why they wanted it? Because it weighed more and it was worth more. They wanted those things. It's kind of like if you leave here today and you stop by Circle K and you get you a drink for two bucks. You bought your coke for two bucks, okay? All right, go to the Braves game and get that same Coke and it's $12. Okay. That's what was happening. That's what was happening as they come to this Passover, man. They were they were taking this, what was $2, and they would they was making a bunch of money. They were taking the thing that should have been something uh just to help with stuff. And as the Lord said down in verse number 16, make my father's house a spot of merchandise. And then you look at while they were talking about um, while they were talking about the oxen and the sheep and the bells, why were they selling those things? Well, you've got to remember, all right, let's just say two million people's coming. They're coming to this this Passover in Jerusalem. They didn't all live in Jerusalem. So so there was people that lived around Jerusalem. Listen, they'd raise a bunch of flock. They would raise all these different animals, and when these people come journeying from, let's just say, two weeks away, walking to this very time, they come in, and as they come in, man, they didn't drag their sheep and all the way. They didn't all do that. Some people just waited in the guy that they had money and they bought. And they they bought, they'd buy a dove, or they'd buy a sheep, or they'd buy those things. But yet they would mess them up, man. They would change out their money. They would listen, they would take advantage of these people because they knew they had to come. They come from a long ways away. They come from a long ways away, and they just had to have it. You ever been to the airport and you discover you didn't have something and you have to go in there and you have to buy something from the store and in the airport, anybody? You just had to have it? Okay, now you know what happened. You got took advantage of. That's just what happened. They took advantage of the situation. They took advantage of it. I want you to look at it, look at um a few. Let's see. I'm gonna move on for a minute. I'll come back to that. Verse 15. And when he had made a scourge of small accords, he drove them out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen, they poured out the changer's money and uh and overthrew the table. He was ticked. He was ticked off. That displaced of his father's house, as he said in verse 16, he was ticked off that that they had done this. But I want you to notice something. As I was studying back through this thing today, the Lord showed me something. Don't you notice what happened? All the bad stuff that was sitting in this temple, I want you to know what happened when Jesus showed up. Look right here. And when he had made a score of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen poured out the changers and poured out the changers' money and overthrew the tables. Can I tell you, when Jesus Christ shows up, he'll take all the sin out of your life. He can take all the bad out of your life. He can take that. Am I saying that, am I trying to preach a prosperity gospel that nothing bad ever happens? No, bad things happen. That's just what happens. But I'm telling you, when Jesus Christ shows up and you finally allow Jesus Christ to come in, you've got to understand something. He will first save you, then he'll cleanse you. If you'll realize what happened right here in chapter two, listen what happened, what Brother Andy preached the other night. First, Jesus made a conversion. Jesus made a conversion. He converted, he converted the water into wine. And always after Jesus converts, then he cleanses. He cleansed after he had converted. It's the same thing in our own life. There's so many people that sit around and they think, you know what? I got to get cleaned up to come to Jesus. No, Jesus said, Come to me. I'll take care of you. I'll clean you up. And that's what he's trying to teach us right here. But there's a righteous anger going on. There's a righteous anger. And listen, there's a time to get angry. There's a time for us as Christians to get mad. There's a time for us to stand up and say, you know what? Enough is enough. There's a time, and I wrote some down, like human trafficking, trafficking of kids, and raping kids, and taking kids and women getting beat, taking advantage of by men and their husbands. That thing ought to get you mad, man. That thing ought to upset you. Corrupt business, they ought to upset you. The power poppers in the church, that ought to upset you. You know the deacons and preachers that think that, you know, they in control and they got it all. Listen, that ought to upset you. It ought to upset you when somebody comes in and they don't act like they ought to act. That ought to upset you. It's time for us to stand and say, you know what? This is the house of the Lord. This is the place that we come and we serve Jesus Christ and we lift his name on high. And if you show up to this place with anything else, you need to get out or get right. I think it's time for us to stand up and say, you know what? Enough is enough. That's what we got to do as men. We can't let it in our house. We can't let it in our in our relationship between us and God. We gotta keep this stuff out. We definitely gotta keep it out of the church. He said in verse 16, take these things hence, make not my father's house a house of merchandise. Man, he said, Take my house and make it a place that it was designed to be. It was a place to get on your knees and praise the holy God and praise him and lift him up on high because who he was. It's a place that we get to sing praises to a holy God that sent his son to die on a cross for our sins. That's what it should be. It shouldn't be a place of a den. It shouldn't be a den of thieves. It shouldn't be a place of merchandise. It shouldn't be a place that, man, we get to come for refuge. It should be a place to just lift him up, man, and get excited. And when if we come into the place with anything else, man, we need to get on our knees and say, God, will you forgive me? Because you got to remember why all these people showed up. Remember why all these people showed up to Jerusalem. It was for a cleansing. It was for a cleansing. That's what the whole reason they showed up, for a cleansing of their sins. I can't help it, y'all. I just get fired up tonight. And his disciples that and the disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal of thine houses hath eaten thee up. Then answered the Jews and said to him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? I believe the Jews just showed up and said, Man, why'd you call us out? We had it all going right. Can I tell you, man, we gotta get things back in order? And you might say, Well, what are you talking about, Brother Mac? What are you saying? We gotta get things in order. Man, it's gotta start with you. You gotta get yourself back in order. I've got to get myself back in order. There's gotta be order. There's gotta be in order the way you live your life, the way the way that you direct your life, the way that you're an example to everyone around you. You've got to get yourself in order. And if you haven't got yourself in order, don't expect God to bless you. Get yourself in order. But they were they were exposed and they didn't like it. They didn't like it at all. I'm gonna give you a little bit of Greek. I ain't very smart. Okay, Brother Tom, you ain't got a comment right there, but you got this. But it says in verse number 19, Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Alright, they ask him, Who are you? He said, Destroy this temple and in three days I'll I'll raise it up. So in verse 14, the word temple, I'm telling you this for a reason. This this is good to me. The word temple is in the Greek is Huron. It's the temple as a whole. So so just imagine this temple as a whole, the whole church. All right? In verse 19 and 20, the temple is a word called Naos. It's the inner sanctuary. And what it's talking about is the inner. And what and Jesus, what Jesus is talking about about the temple right here, he said, destroy this body. He's talking about the body. He's saying, destroy this right here and in me. Not the outward temple. He said, destroy this in me. And he said, What did he say? He said, I'll build it back in three days. But they couldn't see past their self. They couldn't see past their own things. And then they said unto the Jews, 46 years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. I want you to go back to verse 14. I want you to see verse 21 and I want you to go back to verse 14. Verse 21 says, But he spake of the temple of his body. Now I want you to think about your body, and I want you to look at verse 14. And he found in the temple. I want you to change that word temple in verse 14 to the temple I was just speaking about in verse 21. Verse 19 and 20, I'm sorry. The different temple. See what he says right here? He found a bunch of junk in the temple. Is there stuff in the temple? Is there stuff in the temple that needs to be cleaned out? Is there stuff in the temple that needs to be washed away? Is there stuff in the temple that you need? The sin's gone away. That's what I'm Asking you, and that's what the Lord's saying tonight is is there stuff that needs to be cleansed out so you can be what God's called you to be? Because listen, this life ain't about you and it ain't about me, it's about him and lifting him up on high and being that example for others. That's what it's about, and that's what he's teaching us and telling us right here. And he says in verse 19, when you go back and he said, and I will raise it up. I looked up one more Greek just for y'all. Raise it up is a word called Igero. To wake up or awakening. And you you get you get to reading this word and studying about this word. And every time this word was used, it was the same word that was used when Jesus told Lazarus to get up. It's the same word as an awakening. What Jesus Christ is saying, if you put me down, hey, I'll get up in three days. That's what he's saying. Guess what? He fulfilled what he said right here in this word. He fulfilled it. He got up, and because of that, man, we can celebrate him today. We can live for him today. We can bank on him today. Because of that. So now when he was in Jerusalem at Passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name. When they saw the miracles, which he did. I want you to go back to that one. Right in the middle of that text. Lord pull this out for me. Now when he was in Jerusalem at Passover in the feast day, many believed in his name. They believed in his name. Because they had seen miracles. Because they had seen miracles. They believed in who he was. Does anybody remember? Does anybody remember when when you were young and you just got home on a Monday night, you heard a knock at the door, and somebody knocks on the door and you open the door, and the guy selling curvy vacuum cleaners come to your door. Anybody? And he came in and he showed you how much dirt and everything that was on your bed and and and all the dirt that was in your floor, and before you knew it, you'd bought a curvy vacuum. Anybody guilty? Amen. Rest of y'all are liars. You know you did too. But you believed in what he was selling. Can I tell you, Jesus Christ did many miracles right there? They believed in the miracles, but they didn't believe in the miracle maker. Because you'll see right here what Jesus says right here. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men. And he needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. I got a question for you. He said, but Jesus did not commit himself unto them. So you what are you saying that Jesus wouldn't let them get saved? No, I'm saying that Jesus knew that they didn't truly ask Jesus Christ to come into life and save him. That's what I'm saying. So the question for you and I tonight. I want you to think about something, man. This is real to me. Your salvation is the most important thing you'll ever do in your entire life. I don't care how I don't care how great you think your wife is, I don't care how great you think your career is, this very moment that I'm talking about right now is the greatest moment in your whole entire life. And some people have been sold a bad bag of goods. And I want you to think about this. Man, if you don't hear nothing else tonight, if you never hear anything I say ever again, I want you to hear what I say tonight. There's people that have seen Jesus Christ work. There's people that, man, you were caught up in the experience. There's people that you might be sitting here tonight and saying, Well, Mac, I know I walked down an aisle. I know I took that preacher by the hand, and I know he said a prayer with me, and and I know he did it, and he said I was saved afterwards. I mean, he even took me down to the river and he put me in a baptismal pool, man, and he dunked me. I know I'm saved. Can I tell you there's nothing that the preacher will do? There's nothing that that water will do. The only thing that can that that can join you with Jesus Christ is you accepting him as your personal Lord and Savior. I didn't say, I didn't say do a prayer. I didn't say get dunked in water. I said have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Believe he is who he says he is. Ask him to come into your life. Man, don't hang on to something that happened when you were eight. Don't hang on to something that happened just because you were caught up in the experience. The only thing that you can hang on to is knowing that Jesus Christ is who he says he is. You ask him to come in your life and save you. And I'm passionate about it tonight because I just I just feel it in my spirit. Somebody just needs to give up, man. Just give up and give in to Jesus Christ and ask him to come in. Quit hanging on to something that happened years ago, but yet nothing ever changed in your life. There's got to be a relationship between you and God. And if you've never had that relationship, man, I just urge you tonight. Don't leave this place till you talk to someone. Don't scoot out of this place because the devil's going to whisper to you in just a moment. Man, just scoot on out, man. You'll be okay. You'll be okay. He's telling you that right now. Tell him to go to hell, man. And accept him. So you can see the freedom in Jesus Christ. So you can see the freedom to get to serve him. I'm passionate about it tonight because somebody needs Jesus. Tonight. Tonight. Listen, if I can talk you into it, the devil will talk you out of it. I can't make the decision for you. I can stop right now and ask you to raise hands, but listen, your hand ain't gonna save you. Your hand in the air is not gonna save you. You asking Jesus Christ to come into your life and to save you is gonna save you. Don't leave this place without him tonight. As I pray, y'all pray with me. Dear God, I just pray for these people, dear God. Lord, I pray that, Lord, you'll touch someone tonight. You'll minister to someone tonight. God, if there's someone here that's lost and undone, that's been hanging on to something, God, I just pray for them right now. Lord, draw them. Draw them to you, dear God. And Lord, as you draw, I pray they listen. God, don't let them leave this place tonight. God, thank you for your word tonight. Lord, I pray for each and every man in this place tonight. And I ask you, Lord God, to bless them. I ask you to encourage them. I ask you to drive them to you, God. I love you, Lord. I thank you for who you are. And I ask you, Lord God, to do a work that only you can do and only you can be lifted up above for. It's in your precious holy name I pray. In Jesus' holy name. Amen. Amen.